Editing CubexCursedxCurious:Volume13 Chapter1

The customers proceeded to offer their full cooperation, just like bank employees commanded by bank robbers to open up the vault.

Fear's group checked everyone's personal belongings in succession. First they checked the females. The high school girl, the two university girls and the middle-aged woman. But no evidence could be uncovered in their belongings. "Hmm~" Fear inclined her head and looked at the remaining customers.

"Uh, me too?"

"Yeah, because accomplices are possible... Like a man ordering a woman to go steal panties. It's possible that the loot has been handed over already, so let us check."

"I don't mind... Please go ahead."

After asking the young man to open his bag, Haruaki and Fear peered into it at the same time. A single glance was enough to clear him of suspicion. The bag only contained a portable music player and a paperback book. Nothing else.

"What, you're only carrying this bit of stuff? Your pockets would have been enough... Where are your change of clothes?"

"I used to keep my music player in my pocket but ended up losing it. Since I'm also scared of dropping and breaking it, I've been keeping it in my bag recently. As for a change of clothes... I only decided on a whim to come in for a bath when passing by, that's why I didn't bring any."

"Then that's similar to us. Okay, next, that mister over there!"

The man with the scary face kept glancing at Un Izoey frequently while opening his Boston bag. Mixed in his change of clothes was cryptic information related to realtors and an envelope of cash.

"So shady, what is it for?"

"Work-related funds. There's nothing shady about it."

"My doubt: I ask if you are telling truth? If you dare lie..."

"—It's the truth!"

Un Izoey leaned forward and questioned, causing the man to straighten his back for some reason, answering respectfully. Apparently, the intimidating effects from the threat of bloodletting earlier still lingered.

"Hmm... So troubling, we failed to find anything! Where did the stuff go!?"

"Maybe the thief hid them. Let's try searching places like under the vending machine."

"Or—the thief might have hid them in a pocket, or even wearing it. Okay, Cow Tits, you'll be in charge of searching the lobby. Country girl and I will do body searches."

"Understood. So, Sovereignty-san, could you help out? Let's split up to search... Sovereignty-san?"

"Hueh? Oh... Uh... We need to search this place? Okay okay~ You can count on me~! Yes~ I will try my best in searching~ Something like that!"

Looking a bit distracted and worried, Sovereignty responded to Konoha with inexplicable excitement and began to look for the underwear. Since Haruaki could not help in the body searches, he joined the lobby search team.

As much as Fear and the girls frowned at the disgusting image of "the male accomplice putting on a pair of stolen panties," they still went as far as to pull open the top of their pants or to reach their hands to search the pockets of the young man and the scary-faced man. The young man simply smiled in embarrassment while the scary-faced man remained frozen towards Un Izoey's checking, like a frog under a snake's sights. Although it was none of his business, Haruaki could not help but worry, hoping that the middle-aged woman, unknown whether she was the man's wife or mistress, would not start despising the man as a result of this.

Next came the body searches for the ladies. Probably deciding that it would be inappropriate to conduct out in public view, Fear and Konoha took them to the female changing room while Haruaki, Sovereignty and Un Izoey basically finished checking the lobby. Fear and Konoha returned with sulking faces.

"How is it? We couldn't find anything."

"Nothing on our side either. We also took the opportunity to make a search of the female changing room but still found nothing... Where the heck did the stuff go? It's not like someone could have eaten it."

"Please don't say something so terrifying. But then again, I'd be really impressed if the culprit would go so far in such totally perverse behavior just to eliminate evidence..."

"Anyway, it's really nowhere to be found. Where on earth did it go?"

Although the culprit's identity remained elusive, Fear and the other girls' panties were undoubtedly missing. Since the culprit had not left, those objects must exist physically somewhere and could not have vanished like a puff of smoke. For an instant, Haruaki considered the possibility of the culprit throwing the loot outside, but there were no windows in the lobby and even the female changing room. Hence, the panties definitely still remained somewhere in the bath house.

"Muumuumuu... No, it's too soon for this to turn into an unsolved case. There are still places to check. Like the male changing room, for example."

"Would the thief deliberately hide stuff in the male changing room...? But there's nowhere else to search, so we might as well try it."

Haruaki decided to head to the male changing room with Fear. Konoha stayed in the lobby, saying: "I'll check this area once more in case something was missed." Both Sovereignty, who was helping out clumsily, and Un Izoey, who was preventing the suspects from escaping, stayed in the lobby as well.

Haruaki entered the changing room and briefly glanced all over. Naturally, nothing seemed unusual at first glance.

"The layout is similar to the girl's side... Okay, let's do a carpet search. Haruaki, you must search seriously."

"Got it."

While casually checking the wicker baskets, Haruaki saw in the corner of his eye that Fear was examining the gaps in between the shelves. Nothing. Nothing in this basket either. Naturally, there was nothing. If hiding something, one would probably choose a hiding spot that was harder to discover, such as—Just as Haruaki was thinking this...

"Hmm?"

Weird. His hand touched something soft. Drawing it out from the basket to have a look—

(It's appeared—! W-Why?)

Due to the little effort it took, Haruaki's mind was sent into turmoil instead. Looking at his hand, there was a small piece of white fabric. Just one. It felt extremely high-class to touch, thin and soft in texture, decorated with lace and quite mature in style. Not only that, it was very narrow and small in area. Rather than maturity, one could say that it actually exuded an air of sexy purity, who on earth would wear this type of underwear... No wait, now was not the time to be examining a pair of panties intently! Just at the instant when Haruaki was about to gather his chaotic thoughts—

"Muu! Oh right, I forgot to remind you about the most important thing!"

Hearing Fear's sudden yell, Haruaki's heart nearly jumped out of his chest. Reflexively, he scrunched up the pair of panties and stuffed it into his pocket together with his fist. Even he had no idea why he did that.

"W-What's the important thing, Fear?"

"Basically, hand any evidence over to me as soon as you discover it! If you dare take this chance to play with it, sniff it, put it over your head or hide it in your pocket—I will gladly hand your decapitated head over to the country girl!"

"H-Hahaha. How could I possibly... do something like that... Right? Hahaha."

"That laughter is clearly unnatural... Too suspicious!"

As Fear stared at him, Haruaki cursed his behavior from several seconds earlier then proceeded to be overcome with regret.

(Urghhh, what am I doing...!? Wrong, I clearly made the wrong choice—!)

Even though he was startled, why had he stuffed it into his pocket? Did he instinctively choose evasive action due to the guilt of holding female clothing in his hand? How he hoped that all men would react identically when encountering the same situation.

In any case, Fear's suspicious gaze had already locked onto him. Trying to find a chance to hide the incriminating evidence again would be quite challenging. No, he should simply hold his head high in righteous confidence and take it out, declaring loudly: "Oh my~ Because you startled me, I couldn't help but put it into my pocket!" Was Fear going to believe him? Don't be stupid.

Haruaki's brain spun at full speed, trying to find a solution to escape his predicament.

"Uh... Actually, I've wanted to go to the toilet for a while now. I'll take this chance to check the toilet area as well, so I'm leaving you in charge of this side."

In any case, Haruaki decided that blocking Fear's line of sight was of paramount priority. Rushing into the toilet with reckless abandon, he exhaled in relief. So, what now? Pretend he found the pair of panties in the washroom? In order not to be suspected, it would be best to hide it somewhere, then pretend to find it by chance and call Fear to come over—Very well, let's do that.

(So, what could be considered a natural hiding spot... Found one.)

The washroom also had a small sink. Below it was a cupboard that Haruaki decided to make use of. Opening the cupboard's door, he moved aside the toilet paper that filled the interior. While making space, he thought: finding panties is very good and all, but it was only one out of many pairs missing. The mystery still remained. Where were the others? And who was the culprit—?

"Weird, there seems to be something inside... Oh, this is...!"

As it turned out, in the depths of the cupboard, behind the small mountain of toilet paper—

Haruaki found the answer to the whole mystery.