Editing CubexCursedxCurious:Volume3 Chapter3 (section)

===Part 4===

By the time Haruaki hurried out of the classroom, there were no more signs of Fear and chasing after her would be too difficult. Left with no recourse, he could only entrust the search to Konoha. As much as he wanted to search personally, there was no way he could leave Kirika unattended.

Although he had offered many times to send her to the infirmary, Kirika always rejected with a simple "I am fine." In the end, Haruaki and Kirika went over to the usual arch building site together. In that case, there was no choice but to hurry and get the work done. Hence they began hammering nails, but&mdash;

Kirika's breathing remained irregular and her face looked quite red. Rather than a flu, she seemed to be suffering from heat stroke, looking as though she would collapse in the middle of each motion. Simply watching was nerve wracking.

"Class Rep."

"Hmm... Huff... I said I'm fine... Okay, hurry and get to work."

One more time&mdash;Haruaki secretly made up a rule on his own. If he were to conclude "this can't continue" one more time, he was going to drag her to the infirmary, even by force if necessary.

Who knew if Kirika had read Haruaki's mind, but she stared at the top of a nail and said:

"...Sorry."

"Eh, what?"

"You... and Fear... have something... important to do, right?"

"Yeah... That's right but even if I'm there, I might not be of too much use. Besides, I can't leave you alone like this."

"No... I know. Compared to me or the sports festival, what you're facing is more important. It's fine if you go. Rather, you really should go..."

Panting, Kirika continued in a dazed tone of voice:

"...Yesterday I heard... a rumor... that the sports festival might be cancelled."

"Eh?"

"Because of the current homicide cases. Apparently there's an influential member of the parents association who lives near one of the locations where a victim was discovered. An excessive overreaction... Basically, the argument is: if there is a psychopathic serial killer on the loose in the city, picking random targets aimlessly, how could a sports festival be held where any number of people could attend?"

Picking random targets aimlessly. Indeed, they still had no idea what Alice meant by what the victims had in common. How did she choose her victims? Did they really have something in common? What did she intend by having them figure out what was in common? Haruaki had spent the day contemplating this unanswerable question as he sat beside the listless Fear.

"...Absolutely ridiculous. If that really were a concern, couldn't they simply place the city under martial law first? Nevertheless, calls for security in education circles seem to have grown popular in recent times, beyond a necessary level. Although there are only these sorts of arguments at the current stage, if homicide cases continue to happen, it's going to get much more real."

"R-Really?"

No matter what, Haruaki never expected the incident to be making waves in this area as well. He had no idea at all. Feeling that it would be unfair to reveal to Kirika that they were currently pursuing the culprit, Haruaki's face was filled with mixed emotions. However&mdash;

"Then is it related to your situation?"

"Uh..."

"If you are acting to prevent it, I should let you go instead. I don't want the sports festival to be cancelled either. But&mdash;Oh no, what is this...? I'm putting the cart before the horse."

"Putting the cart before the horse?"

"...No, how should I describe this? Does this count as reversed priorities? I don't want the sports festival to be cancelled because I enjoy it. I enjoy working with you like this, which is why I don't want to lose this opportunity, neither do I wish to waste it; however, if I let you leave, this opportunity would be lost... The result seems to be the same regardless of my choice, yet different...? I really don't get it... Absolutely ridiculous..."

Kirika's murmurings to herself had gone from meaninglessness to approach ravings of madness. Simply moving her lips, she was swinging the hammer with mechanical movements.

"Even I don't understand what I'm doing... Or what I want to do. To this date, I simply act according to need, with acts truly performed by my own freewill one could easily count them... Hence... I am like a tool, a gear being used. A gear that always happens to be present, to be inserted by someone... Not only a class representative, but also a researcher... Owww!"

"Cl-Class Rep!"

Kirika's accident was only natural given her current state. Having smashed the hammer on her own finger, her fingernail had split open, spilling blood. Haruaki hastily surveyed the surroundings but fortunately, no one seemed to be taking notice.

This can't continue. "One more time" had finally arrived. Haruaki felt compelled to take Kirika to the infirmary no matter what. Although her finger injury would heal in an instant, Kirika was definitely not in her normal state.

Just as Haruaki grabbed Kirika's hand, intending to drag her to the infirmary by force&mdash;

She smiled helplessly as she watched her bleeding fingertip&mdash;the way it was healing gradually, and said:

"Oh... How truly disgusting I am."

Murmuring exceptionally blankly, she then lost consciousness.



I will take her there, it'll definitely be okay! I will go alone, so you guys don't need to come along! &mdash;Haruaki vigorously pushed away the surrounding students and&mdash;

"Ganon-san, Ganon-san!"

"Oh~ I remember you are... The one whom the superintendent favors greatly... Yagi-kun?"

"It's Yachi, okay!?"

"Oh, is that it? Simply recalling the name takes so much effort... Would you like some Pocky?"

The master of the infirmary was lazy and drowsy as usual, which was quite irritating.

"No thanks! Don't you see what I'm carrying on my back?"

"Hmm~? How troubling, if you want to borrow the infirmary's bed for a lover's date, cleaning up afterwards might be... Anyway, looks like it's not the right time for kidding around. There are no other patients at the moment, so just lay her down on a bed first."

Haruaki gently let Kirika down from his back onto a bed.

"So, what's the matter with her? A heatstroke?"

"Umm... I have no idea. She seemed quite unwell since this morning..."

"Hmm... Then various checkups need to be done first..."

"Oh by the way! Umm&mdash;Due to various reasons, please don't take off too much of her clothes!"

Since Ganon was Zenon's older sister, it was possible that she knew about cursed tools. However... Since Kirika had not divulged her true identity to the superintendent, Haruaki decided to keep her cursed bondage suit a secret as much as possible.

"I can't perform any diagnosis without taking clothes off... Ah~ You're that type, right? 'My girlfriend's naked body belongs to my eyes only~' is what you're trying to say, right?"

"N-No, of course not! Argggh! You're driving me nuts!"

At this moment, Kirika's eyes happened to open.

"Y-Yachi."

"Class Rep! Are you okay? Anyway, this is the infirmary so it's fine for you to sleep here!"

Shaking her head lightly, Kirika stared straight into Haruaki's eyes and spoke as if pleading something&mdash;

"I want... to go home. I'll be fine... once I go home..."

"...You mean 'it can't be cured unless you go home'?"

Kirika nodded. Haruaki understood. Whatever Kirika was suffering from, it was probably not an illness but a condition born from "some supernatural cause."

"I-I'll get our schoolbags and come back immediately. Ganon-san, please just watch her."

"Mmmhmm&mdash;Is there some difficulty that cannot be shared?"

Ganon lazily returned to her seat, asking with a stick of Pocky in her mouth.

"Yes, sorry about that."

Haruaki first returned to the classroom to retrieve his schoolbag and swiftly changed back to his uniform. At that point, he was caught in a dilemma as he recalled Kirika's schoolbag should be in the girl's changing rooms. Fortunately, he met a girl from his class outside the changing rooms who knew about Kirika fainting and she helped retrieve Kirika's bag and uniform.

Returning to the infirmary, Haruaki found Kirika with her eyes closed again. Ganon meaninglessly adjusted her glasses with one hand while her other hand was occupied with a jigsaw puzzle, equally meaninglessly.

"Hey, boy with the secret difficulties, here's a Christmas present delivered right into your hands."

"Eh? Uh... An address written on a note, and ten thousand yen...?"

"After last time, I am leaking personal information again using the health survey forms. Before this child went to sleep, she mentioned that you probably don't know her address, but she nodded off before I could ask her. And then the money is the taxi fare... Man, explaining takes so much effort."

"Taxi fare...?"

"Just pay me back afterwards. Sigh~ Because the superintendent mentioned before, asking me to help Yachi as much as possible. So just now, if you actually said you were having a lover's date, I would have handed the key to you without a fuss and left."

Haruaki hesitated for a moment, but it was true that he did not have much cash on hand. Without knowing the cost for a ride to Kirika's home, he had no choice but to accept the money first.

"Sorry, then I humbly accept your loan."

"That's right, that's right, just accept it without a fuss. You need to let the adults act cool once in a while... By the way, I already called for a taxi just now, so it should be here soon."

Haruaki originally had her pegged as a lazy and delinquent school physician, never expecting her to take action when the situation called for it. Revising his assessment of Ganon, Haruaki bowed his head deeply.

Carrying Kirika on his back with two schoolbags in his arms, Haruaki left the infirmary. The taxi waiting before the school gates took him to a brand new apartment building near downtown. A quick glance determined its height to be over ten floors. The neat and tidy entrance was quite spacious. Clearly, the rent here was definitely not cheap.

"Okay, let's go... Oh no, it's an automatic lock? What should I do now..."

"Did you help me get my uniform...?"

"Oh, you're awake? I did get it for you, it's stuffed inside the bag."

"The purse in the skirt pocket, there's a keycard in it... Nnngg!"

Kirika swallowed painfully. Was she finding it hard to even speak? Then she immediately closed her eyes and all Haruaki could hear was the sound of her irregular breathing.

Opening the schoolbag according to her instructions, he took out the purse from the skirt pocket&mdash;It felt positively criminal to be furtively searching a girl's skirt, but Haruaki decided to ignore this feeling for this moment.

Using the key to enter the lobby, Haruaki entered the elevator. There was a room number in the address Ganon had written for him. As soon as the elevator started moving against gravity, the shaking caused Kirika to wake up again.

"Sorry for all this..."

"You should just sleep, it's okay. Seriously, I should have used forceful measures earlier... Perhaps you have been hiding it all this time, but there's no need to push yourself so much until you collapse, right? So that's why you couldn't help us."

"...That's not it."

Ding&mdash;The elevator arrived at the destination floor. Walking along the quiet hallway, Haruaki asked in return:

"What is not what?"

"I couldn't help... not because I'm unwell... Neither is it because I don't want to..."

"So what's the matter?"

Haruaki felt her arm on his neck tighten but she did not reply. Was she worrying over if she should say it or what she should do&mdash;or perhaps her words just now came out as a result of delirium?

Arriving at the door, he put down Kirika. She seemed to be contemplating something as she stood there unlocking the door. But finally&mdash;without looking back at Haruaki behind her, she simply opened the door wide enough for a single person to slip through.

"...Thank you, Yachi. I'll be fine after some sleep, so you can&mdash;"

"Yes yes, excuse me for the intrusion~"

"Wha... Y-Yachi!"

Haruaki forced his way into the flat, pushing Kirika from behind. He felt more and more like a criminal.

His back facing the closed door, Haruaki gazed back into Kirika's eyes that were staring at him.

"Reason number one, our conversation just now is not finished. I believe you are hiding something as well, Class Rep. Reason number two, just now you said you'll be fine once you return home, but is that really true? I can't leave until I confirm this fact. And then how should I put this... It's only my intuition, but&mdash;reason number three, I keep getting the feeling that the two reasons are related."

"...!"

"If there is any reason causing you to collapse on the ground and faint like earlier, tell me. Class Rep, you've helped us many times, so please, allow me to help you for once... Like a friend is what I'm thinking. Although I don't have any power, at the very least, I can listen."

Kirika's gaze wavered and she bowed her head as if trying to hide her expression. Her shoulders immediately began to quiver lightly.

"Fuhaha... You leave me speechless."

"That's right~ I am sometimes stubborn to a shocking degree. Have you given up resisting?"

"Yes... I give up. Hmm... Fufu, it feels happy actually. Friends huh... Not only 'someone belonging to the Lab Chief's Nation' and 'Year 1 Class 2's class representative,' but also 'Yachi Haruaki's friend'... Not bad. I like it. But exactly because of that&mdash;Indeed, I cannot hide this any longer. Nnng, guh!"

Still gazing downwards, Kirika took half a step forward as if deliberating over something. Her voice was mixed with painful moans while she breathed heavily as if she had just completed a marathon.

"I was threatened by someone, if I were to help you guys, then what I've been hiding&mdash;''that activity'' would be revealed to you."

"Th-Threatened?"

"That's right. Something I absolutely did not want you to know. Something very... very very&mdash;awkward and embarrassing, disgusting, an activity I engage in. I don't want you to dislike or feel disgusted of me. But... For you to treat me as a friend, even though I am a gear wheel belonging nowhere... Hiding things from you would be a breach of trust, so I must make my confession. If I will be disliked, so be it. I cannot bear it any longer&mdash;Because I tried to bear it, I ended up like this."

"W-Wait a minute, my comprehension speed can't keep up, uh..."

"No more waiting. I can't wait any longer. Only because I was feeling defiant about being blackmailed using that hated activity, I endured purely through rebellious impulse&mdash;Haha, looks like it didn't work after all. Oh yeah, rather than explaining, it'd be faster for you to watch. Ooh... S-So... So... Yachi?"

She took another half step forward. Due to the narrowness of the entryway, Kirika naturally leaned herself against Haruaki's body. Her tongue seemed a little hindered but she swiftly called out Haruaki's name and looked up.

Then she whispered in his ear:

"Watch... As I do unspeakable things."