CubexCursedxCurious:Volume10 Chapter4

Chapter 4 - The Pendulum After Four Minutes / "A hand stops, but never reverses"

Part 1

Hinai Elsie.

The Frontline Gathering Knights' Dominion—«Four Minutes».

Haruaki's group swiftly entered defensive positions against her. Staying on high alert, Haruaki stared at her while she approached leisurely, took out his cellphone and was just thinking he should call when—

"...I have already called Kirika just now to wake her. She should be hurrying over soon."

"Himura-sensei."

Hiding somewhere until now, staying on guard for Elsie's arrival, Himura appeared next to Haruaki's group without them noticing. Holding a cellphone in hand, he was watching Elsie cautiously like Haruaki and the others. Just as he claimed, soon after—

"Sorry I'm late!"

Kirika rushed out of the stairwell. She had already extended the «Tragic Black River» from her sleeve, readying herself for battle. Having confirmed her arrival, Haruaki operated his cellphone again—To call someone else rather than Kirika. After a brief report, he hung up.

Elsie did not look like she was in a hurry, walking as though taking a casual stroll, taking large strides towards them. She was still quite far away. Fear glanced to the side.

"No matter what, I really hope to move Amanda far away from here... Hey Himura, your mask can eliminate presences, right? If you push the wheelchair while wearing the mask, what's the result?"

"Regrettably, the won't be much effect. For things I'm holding or transportation I'm traveling on, the only effect is reducing the attention they attract from people. Clothing is fine but even if I wear «Il est dans Bastille» while sitting in a car, it won't cause normal drivers to crash violently from being unable to see the car. The same goes for Amanda's wheelchair. Particularly in these circumstances, the enemy will be staring intently at her wheelchair—"

"In other words, you cannot erase your presence together with the wheelchair. What a useless man. Is there anything else you can do?"

"If I had to say more, «Il est dans Bastille» here is unable to completely mask the wearer's hostility and killing intent. When the wearer actively thinks about harming someone, the enemy will see through where he or she is hiding."

"It can't even be used for a sneak attack? What a completely useless man... Then why don't you just wear that mask and stay far away from getting involved!?"

"...Is this an order?"

"Of course it's an order. Otherwise, you're in the way too much. In an emergency, we have no effort to spare for protecting you!"

"I understand. Then I'll retreat for now. But if something arises that I could help with, I will surely help."

Himura took out the evil-looking and familiar mask from the bag by his feet. His presence was extremely weak to begin with. Now that he put this on, he vanished all at once—By the time they noticed, there was completely no trace of him. In actual fact, this was probably just their impression.

Kirika watched with eyes filled with complicated emotions, glaring at the spot where Himura had disappeared. But she immediately shook her head as though casting away those thoughts.

"Well then—We'll just have to use the same tactics as last time. With relatively lower combat strength, Yachi and I will be in charge of Amanda while using this opportunity to move her to a safe location... Any problems?"

"A huge~ problem. I advise you guys to give up. Because it's a waste of effort. Say, while you guys have your backs turned to me, it's already a great crisis, you're giving me a massive opening~"

Elsie commented nonchalantly while pulling out from her collar the «Clockwork Life» pocket watch and swinging it back and forth.

This is just a bluff—Haruaki thought.

"What bold words... We already know everything about how you fight, your weaknesses and what you've been doing."

"Eh, really?"

Haruaki glanced upwards. Next to the school building's external wall where the large clock was embedded, on a neighboring rooftop, a figure could be seen. This was the person whom Haruaki had just phoned to inform of Elsie's arrival.

"Zenon-san!"

After Haruaki yelled out, the figure nodded lightly and with a flick of her arm, a glimmer of silver light, even fainter than the stars in the far distance, flew towards the clock face. In the next instant, the sound of the protective glass could be heard shattering. Both the long hand and the short hand stopped due to the thrown knife. This was followed by a series of silver flashes as steel knives were repeated thrown to attack the clock's hands, finally—

Accompanied by a crisp cracking sound...

The two hands were severed and their remains fell down in front of the school building. Taking a bow, the figure on the rooftop immediately vanished.

"Ohoh~ I was wondering why all the clocks I found were broken. I see what happened now. Elsie finally UNDERSTAND~"

"That's right. In order to prevent you from breaking clocks, in order to prevent the pocket watch in your possession from storing time—"

"Oh my oh my, oh my oh my, what's this~? You guys really don't understand."

Elsie laughed in derision. This reaction sent chills down Haruaki's spine. What was going on? When she broke large clocks, was she not trying to accumulate more time for her pocket watch to use? Could it be that they had... misunderstood something...?

"What~ a~ shame~ I'm sorry to say this, but Elsie has already stored up the full four minutes already!"

"What—No way, so the three you broke in the beginning, were enough for you to already...?"

Fear groaned, causing Elsie to laugh with abundant mirth.

"So I'll explain, that's not how it works~ The act of breaking clocks is simply a necessary step in prior preparations to allow this «Clockwork Life» to store up time, but it's not the actual process for storing time itself. This tool was created by a certain watch maker who wanted everyone to understand that 'time and life are equally important.' Hence, 'I never noticed usually but time and clocks turn out to be so important after all' is the kind of feeling this pocket watch gathers from the surrounding people to use as energy. Everyone usually don't notice but once a clock they're used to reading is broken, they will think: 'Oh no, this clock was actually so convenient' before taking out a cellphone from their pocket. In other words, this type of feeling that people develop towards clocks is what I'm gathering. Although a single person's feelings are weak, large clocks are all located where crowds gather, so naturally, it's possible to gather feelings from many people. Like slowly accumulating a tenth of a second, a tenth of a second repeatedly... In this manner, this pocket watch finally begins to define the time known as life."

In that case—

In that case, in other words, what they had been doing all along—

"That's right, you guys ended up helping Elsie. All Elsie only needed to do was run over to stand under a disabled clock in order to collect the feelings from all the surrounding people with inconvenience written on their faces. So I guess I should still thank you all—You saved me a lot of effort, thanks!"

Right before their eyes as they watched in shock—

Elsie slowly reached towards the her pocket watch's stem—

As though showing off to them, the spring of the cursed watch creaked while it was being wound.

Part 2

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Part 3

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Part 4

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Part 5

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Part 6

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Part 7

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Part 8

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Part 9

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Part 10

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Part 11

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Part 10

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Part 11

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Part 12

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Part 13

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Part 14

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Part 15

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