Editing CubexCursedxCurious:Volume6 Chapter5 (section)

===Part 2===

Blue-white ghostlights flew about, tracing out many trails in the air.

"«Geist». The strange fires swaggering about inside the witch's house. Your favorite time, that of disorder, has arrived&mdash;Let everything within reach fly. No need for mercy, I permit you to riot in this house! Come, «Geist», «Geist»! «Polter»&mdash;«Geist»!"

Timber, glass knives from broken windows, laundry poles, red bricks and countless other objects appeared from the ghostlights' trails. Next, as Fourteen extended her arm, those strange objects began to fly all at once&mdash;

"Who could have expected a cursed house. It's my first time to encounter such a large-scale member of our kind... But now is not the time to be amazed. And no matter how much I try, I won't be able to block everything. Try to dodge as appropriate!"

"Understood! Haruaki-kun, you guys retreat to the back!"

Kuroe's hair undulated up and down while Konoha and Kirika instantly jumped away from their previous position. Shortly after, a symphony of destruction rocked the swimming pool.

The battle started. Haruaki bit his lip and grabbed Fear's hand while she remained rooted to the spot. Then he dragged her away. After all, Kirika was right. This had girl wanted to fight barehanded, but with Satsuko and Fourteen as the opponents, coming out unscathed would be absolutely impossible.

"W-What are you doing? Haruaki! Let me go, I also have to... fight&mdash;"

"That's completely impossible for you right now. Let's go over to the teacher first. Since she's already hurt and also needs to find a place to hide, I can't do it alone. Come over and help me."

"Muu..."

Despite her reluctance, Fear kept her mouth shut and did not speak. The two of them circled around Konoha's group and made their way to the pool side. Having flown and crashed into the wall, the teacher was now using the wall to support her back while she forced herself to stand up on her trembling legs.

"Kaidou-sensei, are you okay!?"

Haruaki asked out of courtesy, but she did not look okay at all. Although she had not bled too much, she had been flung into a concrete wall by a large force after all, so there should be a few cracked bones at least, right? Furthermore, her eyes were staring emptily towards a certain place... Haruaki surmised that not only her physical but also her mental state must have suffered heavy trauma. As for whether it was critical, that would be unknown.

"Anyway, let's retreat to the next zone first."

"..."

Kaidou's gaze remained fixed. Hence, Haruaki sighed as he forced his way under her and propped her up by the shoulder. After he started walking forward, Kaidou finally started moving, dragging her feet. Haruaki could feel that instead of moving by her own volition, her body simply walked helplessly out of habit as a result of being pushed forward.

"Fear, if anything comes flying from behind, you must let me know."

"Y-Yeah..."

Just at this moment&mdash;

"Ah... P-Please wait! Don't run away! Satsuko's original goal is to fight Fear-san. If you do that, Satsuko will be very troubled&mdash;!"

"Y-You're very annoying!"

Fear looked back and scolded harshly.

Standing by Fourteen's side, Satsuko brandished the drill and the boxcutter in her hands as she spoke:

"If everyone does not fight with their full power, Satsuko will be very troubled&mdash;Isn't it fine even if you don't have a cube for a tool...? ''As long as you let Haruaki use your own body''."

"Tsk..."

Fear's face was twisted by anger. For Fear, that should be something she would rather die than allow to happen, because in a very true sense, letting someone use her would completely contravene her wish of "never harming anyone again."

"Don't listen to her, Fear, let's go!"

"Indeed, stop spacing out! I will handle this person!"

Konoha charged straight at Satsuko. Haruaki warned her not to force herself too much then began to move. On the other hand, Fear simply followed without saying a word.

They passed through a glass door and moved to another zone, the completely deserted and silent Slides Area.

"Kaidou-sensei, how are your injuries...?"

"..."

The two of them allowed the teacher to lean against the wall as they asked about her condition. However, Kaidou did not answer but simply stared emptily at her feet... Clearly she had suffered a great shock.

(How troubling~ I must at least confirm whether she's fine. Otherwise, there's no way I can go back to help the girls without worrying...)

Although Haruaki was unable help out much, he decided it would be better to keep more options open by being there to wield Konoha in case she needed to transform into a sword.

Just when Haruaki was sighing and wondering what he should do next, suddenly entering his view was&mdash;

Standing nearby, Fear was displaying an expression that indicated she had made some kind of decision. Then with heavy footsteps, she walked over to the teacher.



"Ah~ Satsuko believes that Fear and the others will return eventually, anyway... Having to fight the gentle Konoha-san who lent Satsuko her pajamas, Satsuko feels so conflicted... Oh how her heart breaks. But it'd be meaningless unless Satsuko does this, so Satsuko will try hard..."

"Actually, I'm not gentle at all, so don't feel brokenhearted. You'd better not expect me to show any mercy."

"Sob sob, Satsuko is very weak, please pay attention when the time comes..."

Hunching her shoulders while she spoke, Satsuko's shadow began to change. Of course, her petite body did not change, but the weapons in her hands were happily altering their form in response to her killing intent.

The drill in her right was spinning away noisily.

The boxcutter in her left was clicking away noisily.

The drill's slender bit and the boxcutter's blade made noises respectively as they extended forward. Originally long to begin with, the drill became even longer. Hidden inside the boxcutter, the blade formed by joining countless razor blades now extended to roughly a meter long. These two tools' lengths were both beyond the expectations of common sense and one could not possibly find the mechanism for containing them. But to Konoha, there was nothing to be surprised about, because they were both cursed.

"So..."

Seeing Satsuko's twin hair buns bob slightly, Konoha did not expect her to lean forward and rush over instantly. So fast.

"!"

Konoha dodged the drill that was suddenly thrust over, meanwhile using a karate chop to receive the attacking boxcutter. Although she used a kick to counterattack, this was swiftly blocked by the drill that had been swiftly pulled back.

"Wah&mdash;Sorry, because you are fighting someone like Satsuko, you are holding back, right...? But if that's the case, it doesn't improve Satsuko's training, so please fight seriously&mdash;!"

Satusko bent forward as she swung the boxcutter up, aiming for Konoha's abdomen. Konoha attempted to sever it with a karate chop and the boxcutter blade did end up breaking. But no&mdash;that boxcutter's blade had scattered apart on its own where the individual razors connected. Konoha did not feel the expected resistance and slightly lost balance. At this moment, the boxcutter recovered the length of its blade with a series of clicking and came slicing from the opposite direction. Konoha frantically retreated backwards.

This was just as challenging to handle as Fourteen's wooden blocks. Furthermore, this boxcutter was apparently able to break its own blade according to the user's will. It looked like it could extend indefinitely for there was no guarantee that the blade was at its maximum length&mdash;To be honest, it was quite hard to judge the weapon's range.

"You... How on earth do you call this weak!?"

Satsuko's expression remained timid and cowardly, but her body's movements were outrageously fast. Her level of ability was clearly high enough that Konoha could not afford to hold back.

Hence, Konoha decided to stop believing whatever Satsuko said from this point onwards. Once again, her karate chop clashed with the electric drill's bit.



"Oh dear... Kono-san looks quite tied up."

"Yes, that doesn't look like an easy opponent at all... How many more lies did that girl actually tell?"

Kirika dodged the incoming timber as she replied to Kuroe, but just at this moment&mdash;

"...For the sake of Satsuko's honor, let me first correct you two here. Satsuko was not trying to deceive... Indeed, some call her the «Tailender Syndrome»."

"What?"

While stroking her veil, Fourteen explained as she stood on the opposite side of the swimming pool.

"...The truth is that Satsuko really believes she is very weak. She is convinced that it's impossible for her to be powerful. Simply stated, that is her personality... Then as a result of her utter lack of confidence, she ends up hoping desperately to make herself stronger in earnest. Exactly because of that&mdash;I acknowledged Satsuko as my owner."

Just as she finished talking, the ghostlights proceeded to draw circles. Clearly she did not wish to talk further.

"Mode: «Cushioning Munemori»!"

"...«Tragic Black River»!"

Blocked by the soft, spread out hair, the bricks lost momentum and fell down. Using her belt to grab bricks in midflight, Kirika twisted the belt and sent the bricks back at Fourteen like throwing stones. Although her projectile speed was inferior to Fourteen's, this merely served to hinder the enemy's movements. Just as Fourteen fluttered her cape while dodging the wave of attack&mdash;

"I see it again! New move: «Dinosaur Narimori»!"

Kuroe used her hair to pick up a nearby mechanical triceratops and threw it at Fourteen like a hammer. However, the enemy swiftly took out a round table from her body and used it as a shield against the dinosaur attack. This impact easily caused the triceratops' parts to scatter and fly. Although the table cracked as well, Fourteen simply murmured "Another mess again... How annoying" without suffering any damage herself.

"Hmm, too bad it's an improvised move that I can only use here."

"Kuroe-kun... Are you actually fighting seriously?"

Hearing Kuroe sound so leisurely, Kirika finally erupted in a scolding tone of voice, but Kuroe explained nonchalantly:

"Of course I'm serious. I will try out any method as long as it's within my ability. Even if it's lame or completely pointless, I'll try it out first before judging... This is all done for the sake of rescuing Sovey-chan and Shiraho-chan."

Kuroe's eyes were the same as usual, partially closed as though she were sleepy. But in spite of that, one could feel a sense of seriousness from her. No, rather than serious&mdash;It would be better to say she was filled with grim determination. Her eyes displayed resolve and great anxiety, as well as anger that was not overtly expressed.

"But let me clarify something. Specifically, I had no intention of judging your attack just now... I believe it's the best way to make up for a lack of destructive power. But what made me concerned, whether you were serious or not, was the name of the move."

"Very regrettably, that probably cannot be helped. Based on the iron principle that yelling out the names of super moves will make them more powerful, I must think up move names as much as possible."

"...R-Really? If that's what you insist, never mind... Hmm!"

Something flew over, causing them to dodge by jumping to the side. Although Kirika suffered a minor laceration on her arm, this did not pose any problems and she immediately stood up in response to Kuroe's gaze.

"Anyway, I agree with what you said about 'trying out any method as long as it's within my ability.' Whether my body, my brain or tools, I will use anything that comes in handy... Speaking of which, I discovered something that could prove advantageous to our side. Those giant&mdash;probably support pillars in the house&mdash;It's highly unlikely that she will throw any more of those."

"Oh~ How so?"

"If she had a way to fire those pillars en masse, she would have done so already. Decidedly, she can only attack using objects that definitely exist inside the house. In other words, from her standpoint, attacking means consuming herself at the same time. Things like bricks might be endlessly abundant, but that cannot be the case for the pillars of a house."

"I see. If she attacks too much, she could end up losing more than she bargained for... Ah!"

Kuroe's hair swiftly deflected an incoming block of wood and changed its trajectory. Flying into a pool, the wood made a huge splash.

"It's true that I don't want to fire any more pillars... But simply stated, if your plan is to exhaust my ammunition, that is futile. The space I can use is vast. The poltergeists have endless toys to play with."

"Don't look down on me who lives in a small room&mdash;Mode: «Killing Machine Masakado»!"

Kuroe complained strangely as she extended her hair. In order to perform a simultaneous attack, Kirika also swung the «Tragic Black River» as she glanced behind her.

However, there were still no signs of Haruaki and the others returning.