Editing CubexCursedxCurious:Volume8 Chapter5 (section)

===Part 2===

Haruaki stopped breathing. The shock was so immense that he even forgot to breathe.

The corpses were two young women in their underwear. Unblinking eyes. Their bodies were already discolored. Large wounds were found on their chests and abdomens respectively but they had stopped bleeding a long time ago. They were already dead beyond any doubt. Already dead, yet they stood inside the cage, swaying as though trying to seek balance. They were unlike those shown in movies. Neither did they make any moaning noises. Nevertheless, simply stated in the most common terms&mdash;They were essentially zombies.

Next, Haruaki noticed. Inside the cage, by the feet of the zombies, bulging from the floor of scrap metal, rounded shapes that differed from mechanical parts, lying there powerlessly&mdash;

An even greater sense of nausea was forcing its way up his throat. Four of them. There were four people. This number matched that of the missing persons case, which took place before the 'Santa Hunter' appeared, mentioned by the detective when he visited the cake shop to ask for clues. From the very start, Haruaki and his group were already too late to save them?

"Y-You... You bastard! How could you kill... completely uninvolved... h-humans...!"

"There's no need to get so worked up that you can't even speak, Fear-in-Cube. Haven't you killed hundreds, thousands of people in the past? In this regard, compared to me who only killed a necessary number of people, you're far more experienced, right?"

"S-Shut up, shut up...! What necessary number of people!? Are you saying that killing them is necessary!?"

"Yes, it counts as necessary... I guess? Although not to the point of being obligatory. This was simply insurance prepared in advance, also serving as a way to kill time. Too much preparation would make things very boring as well, so I was thinking roughly two people should be right. Then afterwards, all I did was restock red cloth. After discovering that it was actually the Christmas season right now, I quickly decided to target people in Santa suits... Since committing too many crimes would draw excessive attention, creating obstacles instead, so I decided to stop killing people. How about that, very humane, right?"

The case of people wearing red gone missing followed by the 'Santa Hunter' incident starting&mdash;Haruaki's group finally understood why the case had evolved like that. But right now, that was no longer important. Fear roared with greater anger:

"Stop screwing around, humane my ass! Also... You said two people? Stop lying! Over there... Over there... Aren't there four...!?"

"Oh~ You're quite right. Okay, lemme explain this a bit as well. Like I said before, this ceremonial sword's powers are related to "life." Just as the mad scientist wanted to resurrect his wife in a crazy manner, this sword can use other people's lives to bring someone back to life. One person's amount of life can be used to resurrect one person."

Haruaki desperately suppressed his urge to vomit. So that explained... this? There used to be four people but now there are two. Using two people's lives, two other people were resurrected. What an utterly deplorable curse.

"Kaha, so... Given the recent incessant conflicts in the Middle East, I was raising a ruckus over there before coming over. But those guerillas and proper armies made a big deal over it and started calling me «Fifty Percentage», how vexing. All I did was annihilate one unit of troops and used half the corpses to attack the commanding officer. Of course, the ones who died directly to serve as fuel, rather than getting turned into moving corpses, were the lucky fifty percent."

"Guh... The brain of someone able to brag in this manner is truly impossible to understand...! So that cursed sword's ability is creating zombies through this kind of method!?"

"It's not limited to zombies. There are all kinds settings like 'resurrection extent' for example. If I put in a bit effort, I can even create products that retain their will and memories, virtually indistinguishable from when they were alive, but that shortens the lifespan and requires new life to be refilled every few hours... So basically, I always adjust them to the level of these zombies, which allows them to stay fresh for a while."

Kokoro spoke while swinging her sword. After the cage was destroyed, the moving corpses shambled out.

"Also, in order to convert other people's life force&mdash;or rather, I should say blood&mdash;this component is required... I just have to pour fresh blood into here and stir the corpse, oh dear, how incredible&mdash;That's the kind of feeling. Luckily, I already created these things before the component was taken away, so I wasn't in any hurry to retrieve it. However, having it on hand is better than not&mdash;So there, it's time to let them fulfill their job of livening up the mood. Go!"

The corpses slowly approached Haruaki's group. Haruaki covered his mouth while Konoha and the others grabbed him and forced him to retreat. However, Fear remained motionless.

"Ooh... Damn it... This..."

Fear groaned and closed her eyes tight. The corpses approached her even more.

"Fear! What are you doing, hurry and back away&mdash;!"

As Haruaki yelled at Fear, a corpse's arm was reaching towards her. Shoulders trembling, Fear opened her eyes wide in that instant, turning the drill in her hand into a hatchet.

"Guh... Ahhhhhh!"

Raising the massive blade, she severed the corpse's outstretched arm at the shoulder. There was almost no bleeding. Thud, the corpse's arm fell to the ground directly as inanimate objects. Next, the other corpse also reached out. Cutting the arm off in the same manner, Fear panted and murmured:

"Damn it... This is so... sad. I've seen all sorts of corpses to this date. I've seen hundreds and thousands of corpses. But looking like this... Being forced to move even after death, I've never seen that kind of corpse before! They should be allowed... to rest in peace properly...!"

"Kaha. Then you should chop off their heads. Decapitate them viciously. Why don't you do that?"

"Th-That's... That's... because... Oooo... Oooooo.. Ooooooooooh...!"

Come back&mdash;Kokoro whispered. Having lost an arm each, the corpses slowly shuffled their way back to her side. Next, Kokoro saw Fear's pallid face.

"Oh...? You're really afraid, is that it? ''Even if your opponents are corpses, you don't want to recall the sensations of killing''? As much as I'd like to say you must be kidding, I've changed my mind slightly. In other words, you can't stand this because you're afraid of turning back into your old self once you recall those sensations, right? In that case, you should become even more afraid. Be more scared of the past, push yourself beyond your limits of toleration! Your attacks in the beginning, filled with rage, already displayed your natural abilities as a tool, making me feel so happy. ''If you can turn back into that genocidal tool completely, I'm sure I'll be treated to the greatest level of fun''?"

"What...!"

I absolutely cannot allow her to do that, Haruaki thought. Absolutely.

Hence, Haruaki tried his best to suppress his urge to vomit. There was no time for nausea right now, with many things he needed to do. In order to protect what was precious, there was still things he must do no matter what&mdash;

He confirmed the situation. Fear was shaking, trying to suppress something just like last time when Bivorio had forced her to taste the feeling of death. Un Izoey was still lying on the ground panting, her wrist still bleeding. Zenon and Ganon were observing expressionlessly without any signs of offering assistance.

Himself, Konoha, Kuroe and Kirika. They were the only four who could still move freely.

"Konoha...!"

"A cursed sword... Sending it on its way to the afterlife is my responsibility, I suppose..."

Konoha transformed into a Japanese sword as her whispers of suppressed rage were heard. The sword's weight brought Haruaki a sense of comfort.

"I... cannot leave that dark-skinned girl unattended. I must give her treatment."

"Then I'll leave that to you. Also, it'd be nice if you could give her a punch on my behalf."

"After all, that girl is the start of everything. I'll leave my share to you as well... So, let me take care of the poor corpses, okay? It's not like we can't let Fear-kun face them. Besides, all they can do now is bite, right? Immobilizing them should be fairly simple."

With a grave expression, Kirika slowly extended the «Tragic Black River». Perhaps due to hearing her words, Kokoro deliberately spread her arms in a pose of exasperation.

"Is that so? You guys should remember... This sword has other secondary powers you've seen before. Do note that a scientist came up with this thing. This could be thought up only because he was a scientist. From his standpoint, compared to raising the dead, reviving broken machinery would be even easier. Conversely speaking&mdash;since the sword can manipulate "human life," of course it can manipulate "mechanical life" as well! So this thing can also revive broken machinery. It's even easier than resurrecting a human, and of course, it doesn't require injecting a person's life through the refilling vessel."

While speaking, Kokoro slashed at the scrap metal at the corpses' feet. Just like the time when she crafted a sword using the vending machine, the numerous mechanical parts dismantled by the sword were reborn in a new form&mdash;

"«Ceremony Dedicated to Mary, Compound Trials No.2793 and No.2794»!"

After a series of unpleasant clattering, the mechanical parts gathered on the corpses where Fear had severed the arms. Slender, twisted, inauspicious.

Finally taking form were prosthetic arms made from abandoned scrap, with neither fists to hold things nor fingers to grip objects. Instead, the arms' front ends were made of sharp mechanical parts, resembling spears in shape. A melding of human death and mechanical death.

"How far are you... going to desecrate human... dignity...!"

"Stop sweating the small stuff. Since it makes them stronger, I'm sure they're very satisfied. Kaha, monsters born from the revival of corpses and the handling of machinery. Hence, this sword has another name&mdash;«Frankenstein's Heart». Okay, come, I want to make you understand that I'm a super monster with Frankenstein-level monsters as flunkies!"

The red scarf fluttering behind her, Kokoro rushed down the mountain of scrap metal.

Naturally, the two monsters followed closely behind her.