Chapter 1 - Introduction
The cast had finally finished watching arc 4 after what seemed like an eternity, watching Subaru's journey, death after death, failure after failure, finally succeeding and becoming Emilia's knight. It had left a mark on the cast as they couldn't understand how this ordinary boy from a weird futuristic world in comparison to theirs had somehow been summoned to Lugunica and faced countless horrors and deaths. His spirit and sanity were broken multiple times, but he still got up and succeeded in his goal.
As the screen turned black with Emilia's smiling face the cast was all silent, no one dared to disturb the happy moment. As a few seconds went by with the cast only smiling for Subaru and his achievements, a loud and proud voice screamed out of nowhere.
"THAT WAS SO COOL!" Everyone faced the voice with surprise as it had been so silent a few seconds ago but of course, a young Garfiel had trouble containing his excitement for his captain and just decided to scream it out.
"Garf, lower your voice!" Garfiel's sister Frederica slapped the back of her brother's head with Garfield holding the back of his head and leaning forwards to avoid any further hits from his sister. As the scene played out, almost everyone just watched in amusement and giggled.
"To be quite honest that was really amazing," Julius said his honest thoughts. He had the utmost respect for Subaru, It was like the pathetic disrespectful boy that he had seen in the Capital and fought against was completely gone. He was quite happy that he had the chance to humble Subaru, even though he regrets the fight.
"It sure was!" Mimi responded to Julius with a wide grin
"Yeah!" Tivey responded as well.
In the front seats next to Subaru were Emilia and Rem, and Beatrice on Subaru's lap.
Emilia was trying to hide her fully red face in Subaru's sleeve as she was too embarrassed to look at Subaru's sleeping face, as she was feeling one thing and one big thing only, love. She was quite confused as she obviously had never felt this kind of love. She didn't know what to do, she wanted to be as close to Subaru as she could but at the same time was too embarrassed to do so, as she touched him her wrist and chest has a weird tingly feeling almost like they were burning. She also felt like she had butterflies in her stomach. Even though it all felt so weird and like she was burning, why did it feel so good?
Subaru's contracted spirit, Beatrice, was full of pride for her contractor. She had never felt so proud of someone. Even though she felt proud there was still a disappointing feeling towards herself. For being so useless, all of her hiding in the library, having a chance to help Subaru but not doing so, leaving him to die alone. She truly felt disappointed in herself. But not anymore, she will make sure that Subaru is happy from here on out, no more nightmares, no more self-harm, she would stay by his side forever and make sure that even the tiniest hint of him feeling down was executed.
The now fully awake Rem was slightly pouting to see her hero with another girl, even though she felt happy that Subaru finally had gotten a break and was no longer in trouble, she still wanted to be with Subaru. After seeing how Subaru had killed himself for her, it broke her heart, seeing someone so amazing as Subaru do something like that for HER? She couldn't understand it.
The cast chatted away discussing Subaru and the latest arc, As they discussed they all began to have the same question. What now? Subaru was supposed to wake up after arc 4 so could they finally have a chance to hug an awake Subaru? How would Subaru react? What would he do?
A gray-haired merchant nervously voiced out.
"Uhm- ummmmmm. Screen-san?"
Nothing. Absolute silence was the response.
As Otto couldn't get any response he decided to try again.
"Scr- Screen-san?"
Again absolutely nothing.
"What... Did he go somewhere?"
As he said that a little tap was heard and everyone's attention was focused on the screen.
Oh shit, wait Ummm. There we go. Yo! Oh, I see you've finally finished watching arc 4.
Everyone was confused about the different voice compared to what they heard a while ago. They figured that the person who was their original warden was not the one that they heard.
"Who are you, and what have you done to the original warden!" A quite feminine voice screamed at the screen. Felix was quite scared of the new voice as he didn't know if he could trust it or not.
Calm the fuck down, damn. I'm only a replacement for now because your original warden deserves a rest okay?
The whole cast was quite skeptical about the situation but had to accept it because they didn't have any other choice, and they didn't even know if this replacement was stronger than the original one, so they had to be careful for now.
So any questions for now?
Otto decided to ask the question that he tried to even ask at first.
"What happens now?"
What now? Well, my job is to introduce you all to the different IF versions of Subaru.
"IF versions of Subaru?!" Almost everyone voiced out differently at the same time.
"Wait what does that mean? IF versions? Of Subaru? Different Subaru's?" Emilia didn't like the idea of different Subaru's as she was quite in love with the Subaru that she's holding right now.
Everyone was absolutely confused about what the new voice was talking about so the screen started explaining.
It's exactly as you heard. Basically, there are the "IF" stories. The "IF" stories are different realities showing a different present for Subaru.
As soon as he was summoned here, Subaru has had moments where his path could have easily diverted onto a completely different path. And these moments are indicated by Subaru's ideologies being tested. Good thing is that all the decisions that he has taken up until now have been correct.
Everyone was surprised about this information but was glad that their Subaru picked the right options.
"Of course, That's Betty's Subaru in fact!"
Many of these "moments" act as a test for Subaru, where he must soon choose between the path of sin or the path of virtue. The "IF" stories follow the paths of the 7 sins which are, of course, Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Wrath, Envy, and Pride.
"That sounds really scary…" Petra silently said with Frederica only patting her head.
Of course, we won't be watching them now, that's your original warden's thing to do, I'm only here to give you a slight "taste" on what's to come.
Most of the cast were nervous at the fact that they were going to meet different versions of their Subaru, some were just flat out bored as they didn't really care and then there was Anastasia looking like a kid on crack as she thought that she would gain so much information about this little occurrence.
Let me give you a little explanation of what they are about.
The whole cast straightened their back and listened carefully to the screen.
PRIDE IF: What would have happened if Subaru was too prideful to call for Reinhard's help to fight the three robbers and proceeded to do everything on his own.
Reinhard didn't like this reality at all. The occurrence where he met his only friend was removed? Was he too prideful? How, why?
"But Reinhard defeated Elsa? So if he wasn't there then how did Subaru defeat Elsa?"
No one could give out an answer to this question. Perhaps they would see how in the future.
WRATH IF: What would have happened if Subaru never jumped off the cliff when Rem died and also fought against Ram, and ran away from the mansion.
Rem and Ram were both surprised at this. Ram was more annoyed of course, but sad because if Subaru had just run away that day, Rem would have never again seen the light of day.
"He left? He just ran away? Hm, I reaaaaaally do wonder what I did after that." The clown said with full curiosity and a little annoyance that after everything he had accomplished the boy just ran so he didn't even have a chance to accomplish his goal.
"He left us, He left our camp? NO!" Emilia refused, she absolutely hated the fact that Subaru would leave her.
GLUTTONY IF: What would happen if murder became a habit.
"EH? Murder?" Petra was horrified. Did this mean that Subaru started murdering people?
"What? Subaru would never kill anyone, not even hurt anyone!" Rem screamed, her hero is not a murderer.
"Wait, why is this one future tense?" Frederica asked curiously at the screen but to no answer. Everyone else just decided to leave it aside for now and ask later
SLOTH IF: What would have happened if Rem took Subaru's hand and they both escaped to a different country.
Rem's eyes widened as soon as she heard that. She always wondered what kind of life they would have lived if she took his hand. It was like a dream come true that this opportunity would be presented to her.
Emilia and Ram both denied this reality in unison.
The rest of the cast realized that Subaru running away at that point would mean Crusch camp getting annihilated by the whale and the Emilia camp getting slaughtered by Sloth.
GREED IF: What would have happened if Subaru accepted Echidna's contract in the sanctuary.
Beatrice was turning greedful with her Subaru. The fact that someone, especially her mother out of everyone in the universe would form a contract with HER CONTRACTOR.
And finally, ENVY IF: What would have happened if you all never came here. But I can't really show him DUE TO OBVIOUS REASONS.
"So Envy is just what we watched right now?"
"Eh guess so."
"But what about Lust?" Crusch asked
Well um. Lust… Fuck that. The lust story is fucking weird.
"How is Lust weird?"
"Wait, what do you mean, just explain to us."
"Pleaaaaaaaaaase show us Lust" Petra said. Innocent motherfucker.
Hahaha NO.
"So what about Gluttony? Why did you imply that it was in the future?" Frederica asked again.
Because gluttony is literally in the future. Since it's in the future, you won't be seeing the if story about gluttony but I guess you can all meet him.
Anastasia was now rolling on the floor out of excitement because the future was mentioned but she failed to realize that they wouldn't be seeing it.
Everyone seemed to accept the situation.
"So how are we going to do this? Are you just going to send some different Subaru's here out of nowhere?" Otto asked once again.
You're all going to meet the different "IF" Subaru's one by one. Firstly the most, let's say "innocent" and then we proceed to the evilest Subaru's.
"I really don't like the sound of evil Subaru." Crusch said and the rest of the cast agreed by nodding their heads.
"So which Subaru are we going to see first, Nya?" Felix said with curiosity.
The first "IF" Subaru you are going to meet is…
Everyone's backs straightened even more than they previously were. They all gulped as they were speculating to themselves what could be the most "innocent" version of Subaru
Pride
Wrath
Gluttony
Sloth
Greed
Sloth
Rem looked like a puppy at the revelation with her tail wagging.
Emilia noticed this and felt something she has never felt, jealousy.
"Hehee… Can we skip this one out?"
As soon as Emilia said that, Rem screamed.
"NO!"
Emilia looked like a defeated and depressed half-elf only hugging Subaru.
Well, I guess we don't have anything else to address. Here is Sloth Subaru.
As the screen finished his sentence, a bright white form started appearing, almost blinding the whole cast. And from the white flash appeared a man appearing to be Subaru only with a black robe and longer black hair than the original Subaru.
Everyone looked in amazement and surprise at the supposed Subaru who looked at the whole cast in confusion and fear.
"What the hell?"