Disclaimer: I neither own CubexCursedxCurious or the elements of Anti-Magic Academy: 35th Test Platoon that has or will pop up in this story.
"So we can do it."
"Ten seconds. If it's any longer -"
"How do I cancel it?"
"Remove your **** from the *****"
"Ten seconds. It's enough."
Consciousness returned sudden and unexpected, as Haruaki's eyes blinked open.
Blearily looking at his surroundings, the high school boy was greeted with a familiar sight. Never would he mistake the sight he was seeing now as something else.
"Gah!"
Pushing himself off of his futon, a sharp surge of pain assaulted his head and his right hand shot towards his forehead.
It was unnecessary, as the pain immediately disappeared in the same quickness it had arrived.
Now that he thought about it, his right hand, the very same hand he had forcefully used to slip through the hand cuffs was fully healed. Unblemished pink skin was present on his hand, that he thought – what happened after he had fallen unconscious?
A sudden surge of fear entered Haruaki's heart, and he quickly attempted to stand up.
Regardless of the adrenaline that pumped itself into Haruaki's bloodstream however, his body, upon standing up, immediately tripped on itself and he found himself making an awkward fall a step or two from his futon.
"My legs..."
Haruaki's legs felt weak. It was a type of weakness that wasn't different from trying to move a limb that hasn't seen any use for a long time.
"How long had I...?"
Haruaki's words died in his throat, the sound of rushing footsteps drowning his own thoughts. And before he knew it, the door that separated his room from the hall slid open with such intensity, that he wouldn't have been surprised if it flew off.
He hoped in his heart that it wasn't damaged.
Looking up from his prone position, Haruaki found himself looking at Konoha, her hand outstretched into her usual knife-hand form while beside her, was Fear looking left and right agitatedly. By the other side of Konoha, was Kuroe who was also similarly warily observing the inside of his room.
The fear that had gripped his heart died down then and there, and he gave an audible sigh of relief.
"Thank goodness..."
Despite his words, an unintended effect seemed to wash through the girls present.
"Haruaki-kun, you've finally-"
"H-Haruaki...!"
"Haru..."
Unsure of what was happening, Haruaki tried to give an awkward smile but that smile was wiped away by glistening eyes of Konoha and Fear.
"W-what's wrong?"
His throat was unusually parched. When had he last drank anything?
"You've finally woke up!"
The joined voices of the three girls knocked Haruaki out of his reverie.
Finally?
With a bit of assistance from Konoha, Haruaki was seated by the living room and had managed to drink a bit of tea to alleviate his parched throat. During that time period, Kuroe had called on Kirika and after hearing the words 'he has woken up', Kirika had immediately replied that she would be arriving as soon as possible.
Not even fifteen minutes after that announcement, Kirika had already arrived by the entrance of the Yachi household.
Once all of those involved with the previous incident had gathered, Haruaki listened to their accounts of the events that had occurred once he had lost consciousness.
It seemed that by the time he had lost it, Kirika had called additional reinforcements ahead of time in the form of Shiraho and Sovereignty. With Sovereignty's ability to control all forms of dolls, she had used said ability to momentarily control Kuroe to shatter the Suicidal Beautification-Reflector. The SBR gone, Kuroe was finally able to move and had similarly used her ability to trap all of the clones.
From there, the tides of battle had changed and Fear fought Alice Bivorio to a stalemate. That stalemate was broken when Kirika managed to perform a timely assistance and Fear took the opportunity to entrap Alice with one of her torture tools.
Thankfully, Fear held back but perhaps due to that, she managed to escape as the rest of the Bivorio family had arrived to rescue Alice. From what Haruaki could understand, the 'patriarch' of the Bivorio family was a cross cursed tool with an unknown ability.
From there, Kirika and Fear took his and Konoha's unconscious forms back home. Half-way home however, Konoha managed to regain her consciousness and it was only Haruaki who was still 'asleep' by that time.
It was only a day later that they found something odd with Haruaki's state.
"You're saying... that I have been unconscious for seven days?"
It had sounded unbelievable at first, but in the brief time that Haruaki had been alone in his room as his consciousness returned to him, he had been hit with a sense of unease.
A parched throat.
Muscle atrophy.
Fully healed injuries.
And finally, the way Fear, Konoha and Kuroe had reacted upon entering his room.
Those signs shouldn't be present for someone who had been unconscious for a short period of time.
"Yes. No matter, what we did, you did not wake." Kirika explained stiffly. "By the second day, I called in a few favors to have a local physician have a look at you in your home discretely... but all they could determine was that you were extremely exhausted. Almost as if you haven't eaten for days..."
"Days? T-that can't be right! Aside from the day of the incident, I ate as normal the day before and the day before that!"
"That's right." Konoha agreed, a bit somber. "We were with Haruaki-kun in the past few days, and he had eaten normally. Even before I had lost consciousness, Haruaki-kun still had the same vitality as before..."
"Be that as it may, it was the only conclusion that the doctor could make. That said, we were hoping you could shed some light on to it, Yachi."
"What do you mean?"
"Although the battle was intense, Kuroe-san determined that she had only managed to get a hold of 16 clones. Apart from the original, there should have been 17 clones in total."
Perhaps it was due to the lack of nutrition that had been pointed out moments earlier, that Haruaki, despite having all the clues laid out to him, was still unable to determine what Kirika was trying to drive at.
"In other words," Kirika continued, directing a stare his way. "Sometime before Kuroe-san was freed, yet after Konoha-kun had fallen unconscious, something happened that caused Alice Bivorio to look at you with fear."
"Look at me with fear...?"
That was absurd – if anything, Bivorio looked at him with utter contempt the last time he had seen her.
But what had occurred?
What had occurred the moment before he lost consciousness?
Haruaki knew something occurred – rather, something must have occurred. Even with such injuries, no one ended up with a diagnosis of 'extreme exhaustion'. Furthermore, what had happened to reduce the total number of clones?
"While we're uncertain if it's related, Fear and Kuroe-san had claimed that they saw a flash of blue-light right before Shiraho-san entered the fray. What was that blue light? Do you know anything about it, Yachi?"
"...blue light?"
Unwillingly, a memory rose to the surface of Haruaki's thoughts.
Malleus -
A twinge of pain surged through his skull once again, but it was much more weaker than the one that assaulted him before and far more swifter.
Haruaki managed to hide it simply by blinking.
"I..."
What was he supposed to say?
Haruaki wasn't entirely sure of what had occurred either. All he could remember apart from the flash of blue light, was the panic that engulfed his very being at that time. He knew that his body had been moving, but it was neither due to Konoha or his own conscious will.
So what was the source?
He could say it was himself, at least, that much he was certain.
But how did that come about?
Only one incident stood out. It was an incident that hadn't lasted long, rather it was so short that it could hardly be called an incident.
It was an event that might as well be similar to recalling handling a potato and then dropping it upon realizing it was far too hot to touch.
At least, that was from a witness's point of view.
His memory of the event was hazy at best, but he knew that something big had occurred at that moment.
"I think it has something to do with that cursed item."
"That?" Kirika echoed in confusion.
Haruaki turned his eyes towards Konoha.
"Remember that odd circular object that popped up in the mailbox three weeks before Fear was sent here?"
"Object...?" It took a moment before Konoha realized what Haruaki was talking about, but her eyes soon widened and she directed him with a worried look. "Don't tell me it's an effect of that cursed item?"
"What? Haruaki was cursed?!"
"I-it's not like that." Haruaki replied, trying to placate her. "Rather than cursed, it's more like it activated on its own."
"In other words, you had accidentally met the conditions of activation upon touching it?"
Kirika's astute observation was as sharp as always. It was to be expected of someone that had been part of the Lab Chief's organization who studies the unknown as its main form of past time.
"That's right. I can't remember the details of what I felt back then, but I think the source was that..."
"Why would you say so? Were you keeping it with you all this time?"
"Keeping it with me? No, even if I did, there's no use to that."
"What do you mean?"
Kirika showed confusion with Haruaki's assertion.
"Because... even without Konoha or I doing anything, it had broken apart on its own."
Author's Notes:
Hm... I have mixed feelings about the fact that no one has followed/favorited or reviewed in this story.
Meh, I don't really care. I'm just writing this because it won't get out of my head after binge reading CubexCursedxCurious.
Anyway, although elements of Anti-Magic Academy will be present in this story, it will not be a big part of it in the near future. Maybe much later on.