"I see. I understand what's going on now," said the woman before taking a sip from her glass and licking off the milk left on her lips.
The woman, who went by the name Elsa, gave off an air of eroticism in every move she made. While Felt was explaining the current situation to Elsa, she turned her glance several times toward Subaru, which made him so flustered he could hardly handle it.
"That's the way it is, so now we'll start the bidding. I don't really care who walks away with this badge, so it'll go to the one who can offer me the best deal."
"That's a nice attitude you have there. I can't say I dislike it. …So, how much did that boy over there say he would pay for it?"
Elsa originally said that she would pay ten blessed gold coins.
If Subaru was going to compete with her offer, she must have thought that he had offered more money. Thinking that it would be better to not take a "wait and see" approach, he took out his cell phone for the third time and demonstrated its use. A flash lit up the inside of the cellar and Elsa's image was captured by the device.
Elsa raised her eyebrows in response to Subaru's sudden actions, but Subaru immediately showed her the screen.
"What I have to offer is this metia. It's a rare item, and it's probably the only one in the entire world. According to this muscular man, it should sell for over twenty blessed gold coins."
"A metia…" Elsa said, staring at herself on the screen and slowly nodding. With this, Elsa should have realized that Subaru was looking to barter for the badge, not pay outright, and that his offer was not a bluff.
Elsa took a small leather bag out of her pocket and placed it on the table. In the bag was probably the payment she had prepared for the badge— Subaru could hear the sound of heavy metal objects clanging together as she set it down.
Felt fixed on the bag with her eyes like a curious cat, as Rom wordlessly reprimanded her. Elsa placed her white fingers on top of the bag she had placed on the table.
"The truth is, I was given a little extra by my employer, in case you happened to have second thoughts about the price, so I do have a little more to offer."
"Your employer…? So you're just following someone's directions to pick up the badge?" asked Subaru.
"That's correct. The one who wants the badge is not me, but my employer. …Are you by chance involved in the same sort of work as I am?"
"If that were the case, then that would mean you'd have to be unemployed!"
"So, this unemployed kid over here is saying he'll pay a much higher price than you offered. Just how much is your master willing to pay?" asked Felt, challenging Elsa.
Elsa silently opened the mouth of the bag, and turned it over. What came tumbling out were several shining blessed gold coins. Felt's eyes sparkled as she saw the coins layer on top of one another, and even Rom made a sound in his throat.
Subaru was more concerned with the number than the coins themselves.
If he counted correctly…
"Twenty coins, exactly," said Elsa.
"This is all that my employer has given to me. This is what they decided would be enough to pay for the badge, but…am I correct in thinking their estimates may have been a little off?" asked Elsa, directing her question at Rom, rather than Felt.
After counting the coins, Rom gazed down at a nervous-looking Subaru, and then smiled.
"There's no reason for you to act like such a baby. You should be embarrassed. Aren't you a man? …It's true that twenty blessed gold coins is an outrageous amount. However, I remember saying that in the worst case, your metia should sell for twenty gold coins. In other words, it's worth more than that."
Rom took his giant callused hand and roughly patted Subaru on the head.
"The way I see it, the negotiations lean in favor of the kid. No offense to your employer, but it looks like you're going to have to bring them their money back," Rom said, shoving the coins back toward Elsa.
Subaru let out a cry of excitement. Felt threw her hands up in the air to signal that she didn't have a problem with the decision, and Elsa shrugged but did not look all that displeased herself. Subaru followed up with a triumphant pose, but that exaggerated action just made him stand out from the crowd.
"W-what? I'm happy, all right? Let me be! This is the first time I've actually accomplished something here! What's wrong with a little celebration?!" said Subaru, embarrassed.
"I didn't say anything. If you want to celebrate, then celebrate. As long as I get my money, I'm happy," said Felt.
"My employer doesn't actually need that badge, so I don't have any reason to beg you to reconsider," added Elsa.
Both Felt and Elsa seemed uninterested in Subaru's antics.
However, while Subaru wasn't so mean-spirited that he was hoping for Elsa to beg and plead, he found it strange how disinterested she seemed, despite the negotiations not going her way.
"Well, I'm sorry, Elsa. I imagine your employer's going to be angry at you."
"There's no helping it. It would be different if I failed because I was the one who made a mistake, but in this case, it's my employer's fault for thinking that they would be able to get away with paying so little for the badge."
"But when you plan for as much as twenty blessed gold coins and that turns out to be not enough, that's got to be tough," remarked Rom.
"Well, I guess it just means that my luck is in full swing! Does this mean that my era of greatness has finally come?" Felt laughed, oblivious to the mood, in contrast to the two males who were showing sympathy for Elsa.
Either way, Subaru had managed to complete one of the goals he had in coming here. Without having to fall back on a plan B, it looked as though there was a glimmer of hope that he would be able to pay Satella back.
Normally, it would be best to report to Satella that Felt and Elsa were the ones responsible for the theft, but Subaru didn't have it in him to do anything that might result in either of them getting locked up.
It had been simple opportunism.
"Well, as the negotiations did not go in my favor, I think I'll take my leave now."
Elsa stood up and gulped down the last of her milk. Again, she used her tongue in an erotic way to lick up the last few drops of milk, before looking at Subaru. As she stared at him, it felt as though her eyes were binding him in place. "By the way, what is it that you were planning on doing with that badge?" Elsa asked in a somewhat deep, frozen sort of voice.
The sweet ring of her voice threatened Subaru's eardrums and made him feel, by some delusion, as though he couldn't lie.
"…Oh, I was planning on returning it to its owner." As soon as he said it he knew he had made a terrible mistake.
He had just declared, in front of both the girl who had stolen it and the woman who had ordered the theft, that he was going to return the stolen item to its owner.
"I see. So you're with them." Subaru's words were enough to set Elsa's cold murderous intent into motion.
"Wha—?!" Subaru felt a sudden impact from his side. The impact was enough to force him to the side, and unable to catch himself, he tumbled to the ground. From Subaru's perspective there was first pain and shock, his vision spinning as he hit the ground. When he looked up he saw that Felt was clinging to his side.
"What do you—"
"Are you an idiot? Pay attention and get out of the way! You want to die?!" Felt yelled.
"—think you are doing?!" The last part of Subaru's shout was drowned out by Felt's.
Subaru was in shock. From his low vantage point he saw Elsa facing toward him.
"Oh, it looks like you managed to dodge that one," she said, her head tilted in surprise.
Elsa held in her hand a weapon that glimmered with a dull light. The weapon was, according to Subaru's knowledge, a kukri blade, and it clashed with the rest of Elsa's image. It was easily a foot long, with the body of the blade bent inward as it extended from the handle. Due to the weight of the tip it was a weapon that was often used similarly to an ax to decapitate enemies or prey, and just by looking at it, it was not hard to imagine the weapon's vicious brutality.
Despite wielding the blade, Elsa's serene smile was unchanged. From her stance, it was clear that she had already swung the weapon once. Which meant the only reason Subaru was safe was that Felt had leapt up and tackled him out of the path of the weapon.
Fear, late in coming, made Subaru's hands and feet shake, and he felt nauseated. However, the situation wasn't going to stop just for him.
"Rrrragh!" Old Man Rom let out a roar as he rushed toward Elsa, swinging the club that had never left his grasp since the negotiations had begun. The spiked part of the club came barreling down toward her head. Despite the club weighing at least twenty pounds, Rom swung it as if he were swinging a twig, and it cut through the air before slamming against the floor of the cellar.
As the club sprang off the floor it felt as though the entire building had shook. Several stolen articles flew from the shock of the impacts, which continued as Rom and Elsa traded blows in front of Subaru.
"This is my first time in mortal combat with a giant," said Elsa.
"Go ahead and keep talking, little girl. I'll turn you into mincemeat and feed you to the giant rats!" As Rom threw his insults he swung his club even faster. Before the power of that swing, any untrained attempt to block would be no more effective than a sheet of paper.
Inside the cellar, there was very little room to move around, and allowing the swings of that club to corner you could easily be a fatal mistake.
However, Elsa's skill was of such a high level it could only be called freakish.
While still wielding her kukri, dangling from one hand, Elsa, herself like a black shadow, was able to slip around each of Rom's surely fatal swings. Her movements were precarious, walking a thin line, just barely away from life-threatening danger, and still it was she who was in control of the fight, not Rom.
This can't be good, thought Subaru instinctively. Something in his head was setting off an alarm. "This is bad…" muttered Subaru, his lips shaking.
"Don't worry. There's no way Old Man Rom can lose! Ever since I can remember, I've never seen Rom lose a fight!" Felt yelled back, putting her trust for Rom in words as if to dispel her own doubts.
In Felt's words were experiences built up over long years; experiences that formed her unshakable trust. But even without Felt telling Subaru outright, he could see their trust in how close they were when they interacted with each other.
Despite Felt's confidence, Subaru was preparing for the worst. But he couldn't figure out why.
"Take that!"
Before Subaru could pin down his anxiety, there was a change in the flow of the fight.
Rom yelled and kicked over the table, the same small wooden table they had been negotiating around. The table split and splintered from the force of the kick, and for an instant Elsa, who was up against a wall, was hidden behind its fragments, her line of sight cut off.
Rom swung his club down with all his might. If the hit landed, it was sure to be an instant kill. However…
"Rom!" Felt's distraught scream shook the air inside the loot cellar.
Subaru then saw the result that scream had sought to prevent.
Something was flying, spinning in the air.
It was Rom's right arm, still tightly gripping his club.
The arm, which had been severed at the shoulder, flew through the air, spraying blood everywhere before it landed against the wall.
The whole room had been showered with blood. Subaru and Felt were no exception.
Felt screamed again.
"If I'm going down, I'm taking you with me!" Having lost his right arm, Rom was spraying blood out of his shoulder like a hose. Without even trying to stop the flow of blood, Rom leapt forward toward Elsa, to attack her with his one remaining arm.
As the splintered wooden table fell to the ground, Elsa stood behind it, still holding the position of the follow-through of her swing.
Before Elsa could flip the kukri back around, Rom's giant body would crush her. But in that fleeting moment of Rom's last stand…
"I forgot to tell you before, but thank you for the milk."
…he was cut short. With her other hand Elsa struck with a broken shard from the very glass she had been drinking from. On the sharp tip of the shard were droplets of blood—blood that had come from Rom's slit throat.
His arm severed and his throat cut, blood frothed from the old man's mouth, and as the light from his eyes vanished, he collapsed on the ground. Though his body convulsed there was no strength left in it, as Rom's life was dragged away even as it clung to his body.
Elsa bowed once gracefully toward the body, as if paying her respects.
While Rom's body continued to twitch, Elsa gently placed the remains of the glass down by his feet. "I'll give this back. I don't need it anymore," she said coldly, before twirling her kukri around in her hand and pointing its red-stained tip toward Subaru and Felt. However, Subaru, still collapsed the floor, was unable to say anything.
All of Subaru's thought processes had been arrested by the slaughter that had taken place before his eyes.
Someone that he had been talking to just a few minutes ago was now dead. Dead not by sickness or an accent, but killed by the actions of another, plain and simple.
"Ah, I see that you're the one with the courage," Elsa said, impressed, and Subaru, still unable to move, looked up.
While Subaru was still in a state of shock, Felt had stood up and was slapping her legs to keep her knees from shaking. She then pushed back her blood-soaked hair.
"How… How dare you…"
Subaru was behind Felt, so he could not see her expression. However, it was clear from her voice that she was not choking back tears.
"If you put up too much of a struggle, you will only end up hurting more," said Elsa.
"I bet you'd still plan on killing us even if we didn't fight back, you psycho…!"
"If you move too much I won't be able to make a clean cut. …I'm not all that skilled with a blade." As Elsa said this, she twirled the kukri around and pretended as if she were practicing the proper cuts to butcher Felt.
But Felt was empty-handed. There was no way that she could win.
In his mind, Subaru had reached the conclusion that he should cry out. He needed to distract Elsa, even if only a little bit, to allow time for Felt to escape.
If he could just give her time to call for help, or even just escape on her own… But even though Subaru had made his decision, he couldn't stop his body from shaking.
"…I'm sorry for getting you wrapped up in all of this," Felt said to Subaru in an apology little above a whisper.
"I-I…" In response, Subaru's face jolted up toward Felt, and forgetting the words he should have said to her, he could only manage a choked mutter as though pleading for her forgiveness.
But Felt left Subaru's sentiments forever behind her as she dashed forward. There was a loud sound as she kicked off from the ground, and it was as though a gale had suddenly blown through the cellar. Just when Subaru thought that Felt had vanished from his sight, he saw Elsa's body twist.
A high-pitched sound rang out, and Felt clicked her tongue from Elsa's side. In Felt's hand was a small knife, and with Elsa's overwhelmingly fast reaction she was able to dodge Felt's attack.
Felt leapt back, riding the gust of air she made as she flew. With Felt's irregular movements, even the walls of the cellar became like ground to her. Even Elsa seemed to be surprised by Felt's acrobatic feats.
"So you have the protection of the wind. Oh, how wonderful. The world must adore you…I envy that." Elsa's ecstatic smile suddenly turned, and her eyes were filled with hatred as her arm bent back.
"Wha—" Felt was cut down in midair by a slice that extended across from her shoulder, and unable to catch herself, she hit the ground and entered a roll.
The opening of the wound cut across her chest, from the left shoulder to her right underarm, and it was so deep it cut through bone and into her organs.
Ending her roll faceup, with every beat of her heart Felt spewed blood like a fountain, and it was clear that she had already lost consciousness from the pain and shock of the cut. She didn't move an inch. In just a few seconds the flow of her blood lost its pressure, silently signaling the end of her life.
Subaru could not move.
He wanted to go to Felt's side and try to stop the bleeding. If it was too late for that, then he at least wanted to close her eyelids. But Subaru's arms and legs rejected his plea, and he could do nothing but shiver, shamelessly.
"The old man and the girl are both down, but you won't move. Have you already given up?" Elsa said in a tone as though she pitied him, with eyes that looked bored.
All she had to do was walk a little closer and strike a single time with her knife. That much was obvious to her, hence her bored look. In Elsa's movements was not even the slightest hint of hesitation. It even seemed as though she was trying to hold back a yawn.
In response to Elsa's attitude, Subaru felt an uncontrollable anger welling up inside him. The two people fallen in front of him were people he had met just under an hour ago. But they had not only talked, they had bared emotions to one another. To take those two people and kill them, and feel no guilt whatsoever, was to Subaru absolutely unforgivable.
Furthermore, he could not forgive himself. He had just watched as both of them were slaughtered by this vile woman.
"So you've finally gotten to your feet. It certainly took you a while. I doubt you'll entertain me much, but it could be worse."
The anger welling up inside Subaru, though far too late, finally gave him the power to move his arms and legs.
His limbs still shaking, Subaru slowly pushed against the ground and was somehow able to stand up, though his movements were almost animalistic.
Was his shaking due to fear, or anger? Or was it both? Subaru didn't care.
Facing Elsa and her kukri blade held at the ready, Subaru charged forward with all his strength and spirit, teeth bared.
He would fly at her and beat her down, pushing his own strength past its limits. But that mad rush of Subaru's was…
"Pathetic."
…brought to a swift end as Elsa elbowed him directly in the face. As she spun around, using the least amount of movement necessary, she had stuck Subaru with her elbow, and as he was reeling, Elsa, still in her spin, traced an arc with one of her long legs and landed a kick.
Subaru was thrown back into a shelf filled with porcelain and came crashing to the ground. In one single round of attack, Subaru had both his nose and front teeth broken. His side, which took the brunt of Elsa's kick, was in terrible pain, and he could feel that a number of his ribs had broken.
But still, Subaru shoved his fist against the ground and immediately stood back up. Subaru's brain had already started excreting endorphins and was rejecting the pain, which was greater than any Subaru had felt before.
In this aroused state, his breathing abnormal, Subaru launched another mindless attack…but he was again struck back.
Subaru's flailing arms could not reach Elsa, and with her flowing limbs she struck Subaru with the blunt side of her blade, breaking his left shoulder.
Then, as if she was annoyed by having to listen to his screams of pain, she threw in a kick straight up into his jaw, which immediately shut him up.
It also succeeded in knocking out the rest of Subaru's broken front teeth.
Elsa looked down at Subaru as he tumbled to the ground.
"You're no good at all. You're just as inexperienced as you look, and your movements are all over the place. You don't have any divine protection, or any special skills. I thought you might use your head and have some trick up your sleeve, but I see you have nothing. Just how did you ever think you could stand a chance against me?"
"Shuddup… It's called being stubborn… You dink I'll just dake dis lying down?" Subaru's nose was broken, so he couldn't even make a proper comeback.
Thanks to the last counterattack, Subaru couldn't use his arm anymore. Everything from his left shoulder down was dangling limply. He couldn't feel any pain, but the ringing in his ears was getting unbearable. He was intensely nauseated, and it felt as though his anger was seeping away out of his mouth.
Subaru was beaten. He could never win. His chances of even landing a hit were minuscule.
"Well, I'll admit that you've got at least an unusually high amount of determination. If you had gotten yourself up a little earlier, there might have been a different outcome for these two." With the tip of her knife, Elsa pointed to the two bodies lying abandoned on the floor. As Subaru followed Elsa's motion and looked at the corpses he suddenly felt a strange feeling come over him.
Why? Why did he feel that he had seen this all before?
The loot cellar, with its floor a sea of blood… The giant corpse with its missing arm… The dull glint of a reddish blade…
In the back of his mind, a thought shot through him like lightning.
"Let's put an end to all of this. I'll send you off to go meet the angels."
Elsa licked her red lips, and with a sensual smile vanished into the darkness. Whether or not it was by some trick, to Subaru it looked as though Elsa had sunk down into the shadows of the cellar.
Subaru looked left and right, unable to find Elsa. "Wh-where are you?!"
Subaru began to panic, looking this way and that, listening as hard as he could for any sound. He looked like the prey of a ferocious predator just waiting to be devoured. From Elsa's perspective, nothing could make her less excited, but that just made her want to get it over with even more quickly, so in a brilliantly direct slice…
"Wha—?!"
As soon as Subaru realized that the attack was coming for his abdomen, he managed to get clear, with not a hairbreadth to spare.
Subaru jumped back, pulling his stomach in, so that the horizontal slash only just grazed him. The skin of his abdomen was sliced open, but Subaru gritted his teeth and bore the sharp pain.
"Ughraaah!!"
Then with all of his might, Subaru was able to strike Elsa's upper body from the side with a spinning kick. As Subaru twisted himself and landed his critical hit, he was able to confirm that he had been able to retaliate at least once.
However…
"Ah… That one was very satisfying," Elsa said as, with a second kukri she had drawn from her waist, she sliced about 70 percent of the way through Subaru's abdomen with her other hand, spilling out his blood and guts.
"Huh…?" Subaru took one step, two steps back, and as his shoulder brushed up against the wall, he slid down against it and fell to the floor.
As Subaru looked down he could see the blood flowing out of his abdomen and staining the floor bright red. With a shaking arm he tried uselessly to return the blood, but the bloody clumps of tissue spilling out of his stomach pushed his hand away.
"Are you surprised? I opened up your stomach as you rushed me. It's my speciality, really," Elsa said with a smile, walking splish-splash across the sea of blood.
Elsa approached Subaru, who was unable to say anything but gurgle out cries of pain, and stared at his bloody, blackish innards with a look of ecstasy on her face.
"Ah…just as I hoped. Your intestines have such a beautiful color to them."
This woman was out of her mind.
At the pain that even his endorphins could not negate, Subaru's consciousness started to fade. He realized that he seemed to have fallen on his side. With shaking fingertips, he weakly touched Elsa's foot.
"Uu…ugh…"
"Are you in pain? Does it hurt? Are you sad? Do you want to die?"
With his hand still grabbing at her ankle, Elsa knelt down beside Subaru and looked him in the eyes. Elsa's eyes were filled with ecstasy. She had absolutely no qualms about taking another human life.
Instead…she seemed to be incredibly happy, filled with bliss.
"Slowly, slowly, slowly, ever so slowly your body will lose its heat and you will go cold."
Subaru could feel Elsa's voice vibrating his eardrums, torturing him, savoring him, pitying him, affectionate for him, loving him.
Before he knew it, Subaru couldn't see anymore. His loss of blood was too great, and bit by bit he was dying. Now, he couldn't hear anything. He couldn't smell anything. He couldn't see anything. He could only feel his body growing colder, his body dying, and the fear that came with it.
In this space, not knowing exactly when the light of his life would be extinguished, Subaru could not separate himself from the fear of death.
When will I die? When will I die? Am I still alive? Am I not already dead? How do you define life? Can you even say that I'm alive in this state, lesser than any insect? What is life? What is death? Why is dying so frightening? Is it really necessary to live? No?
I'm scared. I'm scared. I'm scared. I'm scared. I'm scared. I'm scared. I'm scared. I'm scared. I'm scared. I'm scared. I'm scared. I'm scared. I'm scared. I'm scared. I'm scared. I'm scared. I'm scared. I'm scared.
As an absolute and unconditional death grew ever closer, Subaru's mind instinctively rejected it. At the end, that rejection filled everything that
Subaru was, and as his vision whited out, he thought… Ah…I'm dead.
And with that very last thought, Subaru Natsuki's life flickered out.
CHAPTER 3
ENDING AND BEGINNING
1
"Hey, man, don't just stare off into space like that. You want an abble?"
As soon as Subaru's consciousness had returned to him, there was a ripe red fruit in front of his face.
It looked just like an apple, and as he stared at it, the phrase "fruit of knowledge" crossed the back of his mind.
It was that forbidden fruit that, when eaten, resulted in expulsion from paradise.
If Subaru ate that fruit now, would it save him from the inexplicable situation he found himself in?
"Hey, kiddo," said a middle-aged man as he furrowed his brow and called out to Subaru, who was being completely unresponsive.
Subaru slowly drifted from the vague edge of his consciousness back toward reality, and when he was back, he suddenly raised his head. He looked this way and that, his heart beating ferociously and his breathing ragged.
He was in front of the fruit store on the main street, just past noon. There were various colorful vegetables and fruits laid out, and the person standing in front of those goods was a stern-looking man, the shop owner with the white scar across his face.
This was the crowded street that Subaru had already seen several times before. He scratched his head.
"I just don't get it…" he muttered, and then overcome with dizziness and nausea, he collapsed on the spot.
2
As he felt a cold rush of water on his face, Subaru was somehow able to bring his muddied consciousness back to reality.
"…"
Subaru looked at the empty water jug the fruit shop owner had brought Subaru. After Subaru had collapsed in front of his shop, the owner had helped him get himself together.
Subaru was glad that the owner had the heart to worry about him, but the fact that he was so kind as not to ask where Satella had gone struck a deep wound in his heart.
As Subaru sat on the earthen floor, he wiped away the water from his bangs and clenched his teeth. The glint of that blade still haunted the back of his mind, along with that terrible smile as it danced through the stench of blood.
"Hhgh…"
The back of Subaru's throat twitched and as he sat hugging his knees, he couldn't keep his entire body from shaking.
He'd lived a completely normal life up until this point. He had never experienced so much fear, so much despair.
He didn't want to think anymore. He didn't want to remember anymore. He wanted to draw back inside his shell and forget everything.
The glimmer of the blade, the arm flying off, the scream, sinking in a sea of blood, that silver hair…
"…"
The less Subaru wanted to think about it, the more clearly his memories came back to him. Overcome by anguish, Subaru raised his face up to scream, but just as he was about to let everything out…
"Huh…?"
The voice that had risen up inside Subaru dribbled out full of doubt, and he just stared, dumbfounded.
In Subaru's range of vision, with his eyes open wide, he could see a tall figure with skin like a reptile…a beast-like humanoid that was only as tall as his waist…a young dancer with pink hair…a swordsman with six swords at his waist…
…and a young girl in a white robe with silver hair that swayed as she walked.
Those violet eyes of hers took one glance at Subaru as she walked by, but she looked away as though uninterested and walked on.
Those amethyst eyes, full of determination, just looked straight forward as she stared down the road.
In that gallant stance, that delicate beauty, in that girl that Subaru had been searching for, there was no change.
Unable to call out immediately, with rasping breath Subaru struggled to his feet and chased after her. "Wai—! W-wait! Wait up! Please, wait…"
For an instant, the girl reacted to his voice and looked back at Subaru with a cold gaze, as if she was looking at a stranger.
Subaru felt his heart gouged by the chill in her sharp gaze. He had not done what she had asked of him. He had hurt her. He hadn't apologized yet. There was no way that he could be forgiven, but even so Subaru chased after her.
He didn't know how she felt. At the very least he had to know what she was thinking.
If he was going to let what he imagined her to be thinking hurt him, he would rather be hurt by the real her, here in this reality where he could feel pain.
"Wait, please! Satella!"
He wasn't sure of what he wanted to say to her if he could catch her, but when the answer to that question became clear in his mind, Subaru called out Satella's name as if he had just remembered it.
Finally it seemed as if his voice had reached her, because just as she was starting to get away from him the girl stopped immediately in her tracks.
Subaru weaved through the crowd to catch up to her, and put his hand on her thin shoulder.
"Don't…ignore me. It's my fault that I went away and it's my fault for not listening to you, but I've been desperate. After what happened I went to the loot cellar, but I wasn't able to meet you there and…"
As Subaru grabbed her shoulder, Satella looked at him in surprise.
As she turned around and Subaru opened his mouth, what came out was a sort of self-defense that sounded full of excuses.
What made him realize that was Satella's clear eyes.
Her stare was emotionless, and as Subaru faced it, he still felt a sense of ease. As far as he could tell, Satella didn't appear to be wounded. Subaru experienced this as salvation.
"I'm sorry for going on about myself… I'm so glad to see you're okay."
The fact that they were able to meet again made Subaru feel simple happiness.
There were so many things they had to talk about, but before all of that Subaru felt as if nothing he had done was in vain. He was finally and profoundly relieved…
"…What do you think you're doing?"
But as Subaru found this sense of ease, Satella was incredibly angry. Her white cheeks had reddened, as she twisted her body to get Subaru's hand off her shoulder. After taking a step back and putting some space between her and Subaru, Satella's eyes were filled with hostility.
After this unexpectedly stern reaction, Subaru unconsciously gulped.
Still, this reaction made sense. From Satella's perspective, she should be shocked that Subaru would even show his face in front of her. There was no insult too great for her to lob at Subaru and—
"I don't know who you are, but what the hell are you thinking, calling someone the same name as that Witch of Jealousy?!"
After hearing that reaction, which was beyond anything that he could have imagined, everything that Subaru had built up to brace himself was smashed to pieces.
Faced with those unexpected words, Subaru felt as if time had stopped.
The sound of the crowd disappeared. All that Subaru could hear was the violent beating of his heart, and the rough breathing of the silver-haired girl in front of him, tense and defensive. He felt as if all of the other sounds had disappeared…but that was no illusion.
"…What?"
As Subaru looked around he realized that everyone, everyone all around this crowded shopping district, all the pedestrians on the road were staring at them. Everyone looked shaken, and no one would move a single muscle, stock-still and quiet.
It was as if the conversation between Satella and Subaru had taken control of the entire area.
With her severe stare, Satella was waiting for Subaru's answer. However, unsure of what he was guilty of, Subaru couldn't think of how to answer. The reason why Subaru thought Satella would be upset and the real reason she was upset were different.
"I'll ask you one more time. Why are you calling me by the Witch of
Jealousy's name?"
"What do you mean? That's what I was told to call you…"
"…I don't know who told you that, but whoever it was, that's in incredibly poor taste. Even if you're not the one who thought of it, it's bad enough that you agreed. This is the Witch of Jealousy we're talking about, the embodiment of all things taboo. Most people would hesitate to even
utter such a name, and you're using it to name me?"
With her anger displayed for all to see, Satella…the silver-haired girl threw Subaru into a storm of confusion. Everyone else around seemed to be nodding, agreeing with her, and that, more than anything else, proved that she was right. Subaru had absolutely no idea what was going on. He couldn't understand what she was saying. Subaru had only just called her by her name.
But Satella had rebuked him, and everyone around agreed that she was in the right.
"If that's all you wanted to say, then I'll be on my way. I don't have time to deal with you."
The girl looked on as Subaru simply stood where he was, hanging his head. She then turned and walked off, with her hair dancing behind her, having nothing more to do with him.
Subaru thought to call after her, and started to shout her name, but it got caught in his throat as if it had frozen shut.
If Subaru called her name again, he would simply be making the same mistake twice. But then, what should he call her?
He hesitated, unable to decide what to do.
"!"
Subaru gasped. On the canvas top of a cart on the side of the street, from a position just a head taller than Subaru, something leaped. A small body was pulled by gravity toward the ground, and as soon as it landed it took off on the wind. That little gust of wind, with dirty clothes and blond hair trailing behind it, wove through the crowd with a godlike dexterity, and from it an outstretched arm slipped into a certain girl's hawk-embroidered white robe.
The two only touched for an instant, but to that little gust of wind, that moment was enough.
As the wind made the robe fly up and the girl with the robe twisted around, the wind took off flying again.
"It can't be!"
The silver-haired girl raised her voice in shock and stuck her hand into her robe. She couldn't find what she was looking for, and with eyes opened wide, she looked in the direction of the quickly fleeing wind.
Seeing the dragon-adorned badge in that wind's hand as it passed quickly by, Subaru yelled, "Felt?!"
With Subaru's call, the wind waved for a moment in hesitation, but without slowing down it quickly flew down a narrow alley. Everything happened so incredibly fast that Subaru could only see for an instant what happened, but that had to be—
"I've been had! Is that why you stopped me? Are you two working together?!" moaned the girl as she looked at Subaru standing still.
The girl quickly turned her palm toward Subaru, but apparently changing her mind, she ran off in the direction the wind had gone down the alley.
"Hey, wait! This is a misunderstanding! I…"
Subaru took off after them down the alley, hoping to sort things out. As he ran, his mind was filled with questions and doubts. There was too much information to process, and his panicked mind couldn't deal with it. Even without that, he had just gone through death twice, and everything in his mind was muddled.
"There's got to be someone out there who'll be nice to me! Why the hell was I even summoned here?!" Subaru yelled, having had enough with nothing making sense, as he kept running with unsure footing down the dark alley.
Subaru wasn't sure of his stamina, but at a short distance, he didn't think he would lose to those two girls. However…
"Damn! A wall?!" Subaru spat. Right in front of him was a dead end.
Neither of the two girls was there. Felt probably could easily climb over a wall like that, and he thought that Satella would have been able to do something about it with her magic.
I could try to climb over to the other side, but I don't think I'd be able to catch up to them.
Subaru couldn't afford to waste time here. He had no idea how to get around the capital, so if he lost them here, it would be impossible for him to catch up to them.
"Then should I head to the loot cellar? If Satella and Felt are alive, then
Rom must be…"
Even as Subaru said this, he felt that several things were wrong and contradicting themselves. Felt had been cut down. Rom's neck was slit. Satella fell in a pool of blood. Subaru had his abdomen cut open—twice. How was it that everyone was alive…?
"No. Now's not the time. I can't waste time thinking. Right now I've got to…"
Subaru would go on ahead and quickly meet up with Rom. That was what Subaru had to do. He could think later. The best thing for him to do right now was to leave this alley and head to the slums.
Subaru turned around.
"…You've got to be kidding me!"
Right in front of him, blocking the entrance to the alley, were three shadows, three people, with dirty clothes and a rough and barbaric appearance. Three thugs who used these alleys as their hunting grounds. It was Subaru's third time encountering them that day.
3
"Give it a rest already! Just what is it going to take for you punks to learn?!"
Tired of seeing those three thugs again, Subaru furiously stomped on the ground.
This was the third time they had met. Every time was in a back alley, three against one. Given how their first and second efforts were fruitless, Subaru was stunned that they were so determined to catch him that they'd try a third time.
"I don't have the time or the patience to deal with you fools. Out of my way, now!"
The current situation had really put Subaru out of sorts, but there was also the fact that, given what happened last time, he thought he should be able to scare them if he shouted. At least that's what he thought.
"'Get out of my way,' he says. Ha! I don't like your attitude. You don't get it, do you? You're not in a position to be ordering us around."
"It was three-on-one last time and you guys still lost like you were nothing! You think you can talk big like that? Even sore losers would show more shame when they wail!"
However, the thugs didn't seem to fear Subaru at all, and kept up their taunting. Subaru bit his lip at their unexpected reactions. Even small-time villains like this had a sense of pride, he thought.
He wanted to avoid wasting any more time and risk losing Felt and Satella. Also, given the risk that a fight would entail, Subaru decided that he should deal with this peacefully.
"Fine. Have it your way. I'll give you everything I've got. That's what you want from me, right?"
Subaru held back his irritation and raised both of his hands in the air, showing that he was giving up.
The thugs all looked at one another after Subaru changed his attitude, and then all burst into laughter.
"What's that?! If you were that scared, you should have just said so!"
"Ha! Look at this guy! Don't talk all big if you're just gonna bend over!"
"Whatever. If he's going to do as we say, that just makes it easier on us, right? But what a coward, huh?"
Subaru was irritated, but he just laughed it off. He decided to name the group of thugs "dumb, dumber, and dumbest" to make himself feel better, and muttered under his breath, so they wouldn't hear. "Once I meet back up with Satella, I'm going to borrow Puck and make them…pay?"
Just as Subaru was about to lay out all that he owned in front of him, he froze.
"Huh…?"
Out of everything that had happened since Subaru had arrived in this new world, this was the most unsettling.
"Why…?"
At Subaru's fingertips, inside his plastic convenience store bag, was a bag of crispy snacks. Corn-soup flavored, they were one of his favorites, and he had grabbed them on a whim at the store to eat in place of his dinner.
When Subaru was with Rom at the loot cellar, he had shown them off to him as a great late-night snack, an act that he had later regretted.
However, that bag was still there, as full and sealed as when he had bought it at the store.
"I shouldn't have these anymore… Rom ate them all, and I complained and…there weren't any left. I'm sure of it."
Why were the snacks back in the bag? There was no trace that it had been opened. It wasn't possible.
Subaru felt his thoughts blocked on all sides. However, in that locked state, Subaru still came to a conclusion about what was happening. Even though he had come to a conclusion, it wasn't doing him any good. As soon as it occurred to him, he rejected it as impossible. His sense of reason denied the possibility.
"Hey, what are you doing?!"
"…What?" Subaru suddenly heard a voice right next to him. Cut from his train of thought, that was the only way he could react.
It was one of the thugs. The smallest one. The one Subaru had just named "Dumbest." While Subaru was lost in thought, Dumbest had walked over and put his hand on Subaru's shoulder.
Subaru twisted and pushed his hand away. "Out of my way…"
"What'd you say?!"
"In every sense of the word, I've run out of time to deal with you guys. I've got to…check something."
"Are you kidding me?" As Subaru pushed Dumbest aside and moved to exit the alley, the other two stood angrily in his way.
"Get out of my way! I've got somewhere to be!" He had to rule out this unbelievably stupid, unthinkable theory…
Faced with Subaru's yell, the men hesitated a bit. If he could break through and get out onto the main street, he would probably be out of harm's way. After deciding that, Subaru stepped down to kick firmly off the ground.
However…
"…Wha?"
Just as Subaru put his foot down it twisted. The strength drained from his legs, and he fell to his knees. He put out his hands to catch his fall, and cursed his idiocy for stumbling at such a critical moment.
"Huh… That's strange…" Just as Subaru tried to push against the ground so he could stand back up again, his arms started shaking. He didn't think he could stand back up again. He didn't think he could even lift his body.
"Well, I've done it now, haven't I…?"
Subaru looked back as he heard that voice tinged with anxiety, and then he realized what had happened. A knife was sticking out of his back.
"Gah… Ah…" As soon as Subaru was conscious of it, an unbearable pain swept through him. He choked. It was a natural reaction to the searing agony.
…I've been stabbed! I've been stabbed! I've been stabbed! I've been stabbed! I've been stabbed! I've been stabbed! I've been stabbed!
Dumber, the one with the knife, had struck first. Subaru didn't notice as he drew his weapon, and just as Subaru was trying to push past him, he was stabbed in the back.
This pain was the same kind of torture that he had experienced in the past few hours, but no matter how many times he experienced it, he didn't think it was possible to ever get used to it.
"What? You really stabbed him?!"
"I didn't have no choice! What do you think would have happened if he had escaped out into the street? Just think of what we'd have to deal with if he did."
"Wait! Don't do that, you idiot! ….Ugh. Yeah, this is bad. His guts are damaged. He's gonna die."
The giant, Dumb, turned Subaru's body over, and as he did, the knife was pushed deeper into his back.
"Ughh…." Still greater suffering was piled on top of Subaru's existing pain and even Subaru's death throes were kept from leaving his throat.
Subaru couldn't call for help or scream out in anger. There was nothing left for him to do. He just repeated his irregular breaths, feeling as though he was going to drown in his own blood as it filled his throat.
The feeling in Subaru's hands and feet started to leave him, and his consciousness was flickering weakly like a light about to go out.
Again, his vision went dark. This was the end, just like last time.
What do you mean, "last time"…? Subaru thought to himself. The fact that he was now clinging to an idea that he had disregarded as stupid before just made him feel even more pitiful.
But if he was going to cling to it, he might as well go all the way.
Turn your thoughts away from dying. Before you die, figure out what's happening around you.
Your eyes are dead. Your arms and legs are gone, too. What you have left is your nose and your ears. Then you'd better use them both to death. It doesn't matter what lingering scent I smell. It doesn't matter if all I hear are insults. I smell the mud of the road. I smell the iron-like smell from the blood pouring from me. Now my nose is dead. It's dead. I doubt my ears will last much longer, either.
"…at…take the…valuables…"
"…ere! The guards! They…"
"…un! No! If we…caught, I'll…"
All I was able to pick up were those bits of conversation. That's great and all, but the part of my brain I need to figure out what that means is already dead. I'm dying so I just listened. I don't know if I'll remember. … What does it mean to remember? Why do I want to remember? What does it mean to want? Why…what?
As Subaru's brain died, his other functions followed soon after. At the very end, with a faint sound of something being pulled from him, something scraping…Subaru lost his life a third time.