Editing CubexCursedxCurious:Volume3 Chapter3 (section)

===Part 8===

The next morning, Kirika went to school alone. Disregarding Konoha who was tasked with heavy responsibilities, Haruaki was not happy-go-lucky enough to to head off to school in this kind of situation. Before Kirika went home last night, she shrugged and told Haruaki: "I am already accustomed to being busy. Once ''that'' is treated, I am fine dealing with all the work by myself." Nevertheless, Haruaki still felt rather guilty.

Naturally, Kuroe was currently under house arrest in a room of the accessory dwelling. Konoha had spent the night in the same room as her, and the two had not separated ever since. Haruaki peeked at the situation when he brought breakfast and lunch to them. The two girls were using the television in the room to play competitive videogames at times, playing boardgames on other occasions&mdash;To be honest, it was no different from a sleepover party. Nevertheless, Konoha remained vigilant in her monitoring duties, reporting to Haruaki with a complicated expression: "The phone did not ring. She really is not in contact with Alice. This was all expected, of course."

Meanwhile, Fear was glued to the living room television, hugging her knees, confirming whether the homicides had really subsided. If a new victim surfaced, then the 'point of commonality' identified was wrong, but so far there were no related reports.

Not long after the sun had set, the doorbell rang. Haruaki welcomed Kirika at the entrance to find her dressed in her uniform.

"Anything happened?"

"No... Absolutely nothing."

In any case, Haruaki brought her to the living room first. Then he told her he was just about to deliver dinner to the accessory dwelling&mdash;

"Is that so? Since I'm here already, I might as well go over and say hi. What about you, Fear-kun?"

Fear had her back towards Kirika when the question was asked. Kirika's voice sounded naturally gentle, vaguely reminiscent of a class representative showing care towards <!--浮いた存在: a floating presence?-->an unengaged member of the class.

"Hmm..."

"Let's go check out their situation? After all, the news isn't going to report anything new so soon."

"...Well... I guess I'll go..."

Fear stood up slowly. She clearly wouldn't move no matter what I said&mdash;Haruaki explained to Kirika in gratitude. I guess it's because you're more used to these things, Kirika&mdash;Or perhaps through the passage of time, Fear had calmed down to some extent? Maybe another attempt at communication could be considered.

Fear trailed listlessly at the back as they made their way towards the accessory dwelling outside. Kuroe's bedroom was room number one on the second floor.

"Hey, I've brought dinner~"

"Yes, wait a minute. All I need is a 7 to move the thief and I'll be set for victory..."

Inside the room, Kuroe was looking down at a board game while she answered inattentively. Still acting in her same old way, completely lacking in tension... Left with no choice, Haruaki entered the room and put down the dinner tray. Standing alone near the room entrance, Fear seemed to be drawing the same conclusions. One could hear her clicking her tongue in disapproval.

"Tsk... This is way too casual. Do you understand the situation at all?"

"Because having a staring competition with Kono-san here would be very boring... Besides, it'd feel weird otherwise. Or rather, since it's Kono-san here, I don't mind offering my body."

A statement delivered blankly as usual. Fear narrowed her eyes further:

"Give me a break...! I don't have time to joke around with you. This concerns people's lives, so just confess if you've given up!"

"What giving up? I haven't done anything that requires confessing."

"You're still playing dumb&mdash;"

"Fear! That's enough, calm down!"

Haruaki grabbed her by the shoulder. Fear looked as though she was about to charge over and beat up Kuroe directly. Glaring strongly, Fear's gaze wavered slightly before fleeing off somewhere.

"...I'm very calm."

"No, you're not calm at all."

Haruaki had endured for a day already. Seeing her current attitude, which seemed as though she might be open to reason, Haruaki decided to make another attempt at clearing up Fear's misunderstanding.

"It's obvious that you are just taking out your anger on others. It's easy to focus your doubt on the most obvious points of suspicion. Fear, listen to me. In what ways do you find Kuroe suspicious?"

"Basically&mdash;That woman went to the beauty parlor and give Kuroe hair that was cut from the corpses... And her wound was healed."

"Perhaps she possesses a special healing tool, who can know for sure? Besides, we were there during the reopening. Didn't that woman enter openly? It wouldn't be strange for her to make another visit&mdash;These do not constitute evidence of Kuroe assisting her."

"A-And... she absorbed the hair. I saw it unmistakably."

This was it. This was most likely the root of the misunderstanding.

"You misunderstood. Kuroe already explained that it's not a curse. She was simply absorbing the lingering life force in people's hair in order to replenish what she spent to heal me."

"That's right. I don't have to do it at all, but that'll prevent me from performing healing&mdash;I did it several times during my travels so the Bivorio Family might have witnessed it and reported to Alice. That's probably why she brought hair to me as a gift."

Kuroe supplemented the explanation. The silver hair shook.

"You're... lying..."

"Then why don't you investigate it? Simply by imprisoning her here for now, the answer will be obtained. So, assuming what you say is true and Kuroe's curse compels her to drain people's life force through their hair, then her desires should be exposed by now if her curse was not lifted, right? But she hasn't shown any such signs so far&mdash;The truth is what you wanted to believe, her curse is really lifted."

"Ah..."

"What concerns me is what you said last night. 'I already suspected this possibility from the start' or 'I still don't believe it completely' etc... You... Is that what you really believe? You think that curses can't actually be lifted?"

Haruaki peered into Fear's eyes, face to face. She lowered her head and kept trying to avoid eye contact.

After a long while, she finally whispered in a stutter:

"Not that I don't believe... However... But... Perhaps one out of ten or one out of a hundred&mdash;I can believe that at least. I do doubt... a little..."

Haruaki sighed heavily. His exasperation with Fear gradually exceeded his anger.

"Could you please not doubt that one point? Please believe it one hundred percent, okay..."

"B-But... But, I have... that kind of... curse..."

"No 'buts.' I believe it. I believe everyone's curse will be lifted&mdash;Yes, indeed. If you insist on this, then that means you distrust me, the one who believes in the lifting of curses. Think of this as I'm begging you. To be distrusted is too sad. Think of all the effort it took for us to be living together, okay? Henceforth, we'll be living together here, for years or even decades!"

Fear gasped in surprise.

"&mdash;Y-You really... believe? I... umm..."

She slowly looked up, her eyes appearing to be expecting something.

If Haruaki did not answer her immediately, he would consider himself disqualified as the master of the house.

"Of course. You can definitely become human."

More accurately, he should probably say a human-like existence. But Haruaki did not think there was anything wrong with saying it this way. Fear understood these matters. Her past and origins as a tool could not be forsaken. Nevertheless, once that kind of past became diluted, once she became an existence "approaching human" who happened to have residual abilities of a tool&mdash;

That was enough to be called human, right? Haruaki believed so. At least for a human who had been witnessing their arduous efforts by their side, this slight bias was not excessive, right? You girls have worked very hard&mdash;it would not be excessive for him to claim the right to joyfully declare this to them without pretension, right?

So that was why he said this.

Fear's gaze wavered again as she looked down. Haruaki could see her little hand clenching and opening repeatedly as if lost. He knew she was furtively glancing in Kuroe's direction. Konoha, Kuroe and Kirika all watched her intently.

"Umm... I-I..."

Fear slowly looked up. Stammering just as she was about to speak&mdash;

She involuntarily stopped moving her lips and closed her mouth. Staring wide-eyed, she gazed at a certain target.

Haruaki and the rest also followed her gaze&mdash;

"Ara ara, I'm discovered. I suppose this situation should be titled 'Strange! Flying Barbarian Woman's Head!' perhaps?"

Outside the window, a tactless female stalker's face was currently suspended upside down in midair.