Editing CubexCursedxCurious:Volume11 Chapter3 (section)

===Part 10===

"Ahhh... Owwwwww... Ahhh..."

Konoha stumbled her way, returning from the side of the stage, her eyes looking a bit glazed over. Seeing Konoha glance at him in a pleading manner, Haruaki frantically said:

"W-Welcome back! I-I think it was great... Yeah!"

"...Honestly?"

"Y-Yeah, I saw a very new and refreshing side to you. The dancing was great too. Also, uh&mdash;"

"Am I cute?"

"S-Sure."

However, Konoha did not accept it. Exuding a demonic aura that normally never appeared, she asked in a deep voice:

"Please say clearly with your mouth. Say: Konoha is so cute."

"K-Konoha is so cute..."

"Again."

Konoha approached Haruaki with zombie-like pressure, causing Haruaki to yell almost like a scream:

"Konoha is so cute!"

"U-fufu... Fufu... Ufufufu! Excellent~ I have to calm down now. Using that sentence to anchor my heart and soul, to return my mind to normal levels. The scene just now can be forgotten. Nothing happened at all. I did not do anything embarrassing. In the end, you simply praised me for being very cute. That's all that happened..."

Konoha was murmuring to convince herself when Fear patted her on the shoulder. Without any sense of derision or laughter, simply with eyes filled with sympathy from the bottom of her heart, Fear said:

"Yeah. You did very well. Seriously very well... Hurry and take a break. Take care as well on the other side."

"Hold on! Where are you assuming I'll be going!?"

"Y-You won't realize until I say it out? This illness is serious... It's perfectly clear if you look at yourself objectively! Hey Kuroe, show her the photos you just took!"

"Oh no! Ficchi..."

"PHO.TOS?"

Konoha's face spun around to confront Kuroe. Although Haruaki could not see the expression Konoha was making, he could see the despair on Kuroe's face as she cowered and took a step back. Konoha reached towards her.

"Please hand the memory card over."

"No, Ficchi made a mistake. I didn't record any of Kono-san's rare appearance just now&mdash;"

"So what you mean is I am allowed to destroy the card along with the entire camera?"

"It's this one, sorry, please forgive me!"

Trembling nonstop, Kuroe took out the digital camera's memory card and handed it to Konoha. Instantly, the card was silently shredded while resting on Konoha's palm. Although just a little bit, Haruaki could not help but think "what a shame," only to hear Shiraho murmur with exasperation from the bottom of her heart:

"Hmph. Had I known, I should have brought my camera as well. With this as blackmail material, perhaps I could reach an agreement with you people, never to get involved with Sovereignty and me ever again."

After Fear, Kirika and Konoha finished their performances, the school beauty pageant was still continuing. There were many opponents. The contestants brought out everything at their disposal to rouse the atmosphere on scene. The girl who seemed to be Yume's friend also imitated an idol singer's song, obtaining much cheering and applause. To be honest, at the current stage, apart from a couple contestants who clearly suffered cold receptions, Haruaki felt that anyone could win. Was the infiltrator from the Knights Dominion one of the students who had already performed, or was she among the ones who were about to enter the stage?

That said, there were only two or three people left to perform. Once all of them finished, next was the speech segment where all contestants had to stand on stage together. But at this moment&mdash;

"Please allow me to speak in fear and trepidation."

Isuzu spoke up without warning, staring straight at Haruaki's group with a very solemn expression. Only after confirming that the uninvolved Yume was standing some distance away to watch the performances did she continue:

"I have received a report from Toonisuzu and others on the roof. Visitors are coming from four directions."

"Visitors...? Shameless Shrine Maiden Number Two, what are you talking about?"

"Bluntly stated&mdash;Invaders have appeared in this school."

"What did you say!?"

Hearing what Isuzu said, everyone's expressions froze instantly.

"As janitors, maintaining order and security in school seems to be part of the job~ Especially when today is a special festival occasion. So as a precaution, we decided to use our special traits to take on the responsibility of keeping watch~"

Haruaki finally understood why Isuzu was present despite being completely uninvolved with the school beauty pageant&mdash;because if anything happened, she could instantly contact them. On further thought, the kagura bells' telepathic communication was instantaneous and quite outstanding in functioning as a contact network.

"Yes. Thanks for your girls helping to keep watch. I'd really like to give you a rice cracker as a reward, but now's not the time. The invaders are from the Knights Dominion? Why? What are they doing here?"

"I had been thinking all along that they might take action... But I didn't expect them to actually do it."

"Yeah. Isuzu-kun, you said that visitors are coming from four directions. What do you mean by that?"

"Literally what the words say~ There are four teams of four each, roughly, each coming from a different direction. Oh dear, they are currently destroying the school gates and climbing over the walls, the invasion has started beyond doubt~"

"The other side mentioned once that they had ten-odd people. So in other words, all of them are here...!?"

"By the way, judging from where they're headed, the destination appears to be the gym here."

"Wait... They're coming here? It's fine if you guys want to fight, but don't get us involved!"

Chihaya exclaimed with surprise. She was right. Unrelated students definitely could not be allowed to get caught up.

"W-What should we do? You girls still need to give your speeches on stage. On the other hand, Kuroe and I can still take action..."

"Absolutely ridiculous. How could the two of you possibly handle enemies coming from four sides?"

A crisis&mdash;Haruaki thought. The Knights Dominion had arrived. Although it was unclear what their goal was, the entire school's students were gathered in the gym. They definitely must not get their way. Due to the size of the gym, blocking enemies coming from the north side would mean leaving the other three sides undefended. Haruaki really wanted to pin down the enemies on every side.

But did they have enough combat strength to handle four groups? Fear, Konoha and Kirika must win in the school beauty pageant. If the infiltrator was allowed to take first place, Nirushaaki, mixed in the students, would be in life-threatening danger. This risk could not be neglected.

What should they do? The school beauty pageant and the enemies outside. How to handle both these matters&mdash;

The members of Haruaki's group exchanged glances with one another. Fear was the first to speak up:

"In the end&mdash;I'm very willful. I wanna protect everything that can be protected. Whether Nirushaaki who wants to become an ordinary student or the normal students who might end up as her friends. Grouping things roughly, these are the two that we have to protect. I don't wanna sacrifice either side. I want to protect them both at the same time."

Haruaki understood why Fear was saying this. She had probably superimposed Nirushaaki with herself. Abandoning battle, hoping to exist as an ordinary human. She wanted to prove that this wish should be realized and it could actually be realized. Because she was walking along the same path right now.

"Winning the school beauty pageant will protect Nirushaaki while  defeating the invaders will protect the other normal students. In other words, my willfulness requires doing both of these. So I've come up with a solution simply by applying the right person to the right job. This will boil our options down to one. What are everyone's thoughts?"

"This feels like it's one of those choices where you'll regret the wrong choice.<!--consider working in reference to もったいないお化け--> If so, I'm in with you."

"Argh, damn it, to think I did so much... And even did that! Hoo~ No matter, since I did get praised 'so cute'&mdash;Apart from that, everything will be erased from memory, so be it!"

"The task that only we can accomplish while leaving the other task to a certain someone apart from us. A very well-defined boundary&mdash;So that leaves only one path to take."

Fear and the girls all nodded and started moving to exit the standby area, leaving Haruaki behind. But along the way, they all passed by a certain location. Every single one of them placed their hand on the shoulder of the girl who was simply resting her chin on her hand, listening as though nothing concerned her. The last to reach out was Fear who spoke on behalf of the group:

"Shiraho, we're depending on you."

"Wha&mdash;What? What nonsense are you talking about?"

Shiraho's elbow slid to the side. Fear's eyes were incomparably serious.

"If it's you, we can leave things to you without worry&mdash;Rather, you're the only one we can ask. We will handle the enemies outside. I hope to rely on you to handle the situation inside the gym. Please win first place and protect Nirushaaki."

"Wait, you can't just decide on your own! I'd rather die than participate&mdash;Besides, it's already too late!"

"If you mean the sign up deadline, there's still time. That's because the performance segment still hasn't ended. As long as you sign up right away, you should be able to enter at the last minute&mdash;We're running out of time. Sorry for asking this of you."

"Like I said, don't just decide on your own...!"

Shiraho was trembling from anger. But it was true that they were running out of time. The Knights Dominion had invaded the school already. After casting a glance of complete trust towards Shiraho, Fear's group exited the standby area.

"Shiraho..."

"I'm not going to enter, how could I possibly enter!? I can't believe she decided all on her own... This is no joke!"

After Sovereignty called out to her, Shiraho smashed her fist against the table. Haruaki could understand why she was so angry but at the same time, he could also understand how Fear and the girls felt, entrusting everything to her.

"...Sorry. But having gone through so much preparation, even suppressing their embarrassment and trying hard until now, Fear-chan and the others forfeited so readily. That's because they believe you'll surely win first place. Of course, I believe in you too. So please."

"I'm not going to listen to you people. My answer remains the same. I have neither reason nor wish for entering."

"Fear-chan also said that all the school's students, including Nirushaaki... Rather, yeah, overall, it's all the same. We want to protect everyone in this school without sacrificing any one of them, that's why this is the only way&mdash;Yes, in the end, that's what it's about. To protect everyone. If we don't rely on you, we are out of options. Although this is a very unfair way of putting it."

"Honestly&mdash;Too unfair...!"

Haruaki could see Shiraho gnashing her teeth. Sovereignty was making a pleading look while Chihaya's expression seemed to show anticipation. Next, Shiraho clicked her tongue with displeasure.

What they needed was some kind of impetus, thought Haruaki to himself. He could only think of one impetus that he was able to create. Hence, Haruaki nonchalantly leaned forward, entering her arm's reach. Instantly&mdash;

Smack! A slap to the face came flying through the air. Ouch. But as advance payment, this should be enough.

Feeling the gazes of the nearby crowd focusing on him, Haruaki shrugged and said:

"Then I'm going to help them out. I'm counting on you for the rest."

"&mdash;I will definitely kill you one day, human."

Maintaining her hand's pose after the swing of the slap, Shiraho spoke while glaring viciously. Haruaki shrugged again as though saying "please have mercy" then turned around. Quiet whispering could be heard from behind. "Eh? What what? What happened? Where did Fear-senpai run off to?" Included among them was Yume's confused question but that was no longer important. Haruaki felt quite apologetic to Yume because her ongoing cheering and support was in vain.

What was important was the conversation between the three girls apart from Yume.

"Hooh... Sovereignty, please head over to inform the executive committee member."

"Understood~! I will also try to negotiate with him to see if I can buy a bit of preparation time!"

"You there, do you have any makeup on hand? Just the basics will do. If not, just quietly steal some from someone."

"Oh, then I'll go steal some... But makeup?"

You don't really need makeup, right&mdash;Chihaya seemed to be implying that, but Shiraho answered in an indifferent tone of voice:

"On stage, the appearance of the face will change due to the lighting. Hence, adjustment using makeup is the best solution if one were to present a perfect look... Honestly, I never expected I would still need to do this again."

Haruaki knew very well what Shiraho used to be called&mdash;the theater prodigy.

Hence, she understood very well how to achieve what was known as "the center of attention."