After the new warden suggested or rather ordered for the cast to take a break, most of the cast gathered up in the kitchen while a few others, which were Priscilla, Al, Roswaal Wilhelm, and Otto wanted to be in their own rooms to take a breath from the taxing watch.
"Beako-chan?" Emilia tried to get Beatrice's attention, who was currently only looking at the floor in her thoughts.
"Yes, what is it, I suppose?" Beatrice's attention diverted to Emilia, who looked worried.
"Are you sure you're okay?"
Beatrice wasn't sure of that, even herself. After greed, she didn't know what to think. Was she mad at her creator? Was she mad at herself? Was she mad at Subaru?
"I don't… I'm…" Beatrice found herself looking at the floor again.
"I don't know what to think… I just don't want Subaru to leave me, I suppose..." Beatrice's lip began quivering.
"Hey… I get it." Emilia put her hand on Beatrice's back to assure her. "Our Subaru isn't like that. He would never leave us, especially not you."
Beatrice slightly nodded her head. She wanted to believe that, she thought she believed it. But there was always a possibility for anything, and she did not want that possibility to come true.
In the background, Garfiel was in a corner watching as everyone talked to each other. His best friend Otto needed some time alone to think in his own room and Frederica was with the other maids, so Garfiel was left alone, which was, of course, no trouble for Garfiel. But everything just felt… wrong.
"Whac'ya just standing there looking all depressed?" Anastasia suddenly said while having crept up to him with Julius behind her.
"Grgh- What d' you want?" Garfiel asked the merchant with annoyance in his voice. Garfiel was already pissed off at himself, or rather everything, so he couldn't be bothered with the cocky merchant. He also remembered how badly Anastasia treated Subaru back when he had problems with the whale, and he couldn't just forget that.
"Hummmm. Why so negative out of a sudden?" Anastasia playfully asked to further annoy the beast boy even more.
"Don't try to act all happy an' innocent. Every single one of ya' candidates are pieces of shit in my view. Ya' do nothin' bu' use others to gain even a smidge of extra power." Garfiel looked quite unhappy with the candidate.
Julius was too distraught to intervene in the brewing argument. He didn't want to agree with what he was saying, but he couldn't help it.
But on the other hand, Anastasia only looked on sympathetically, as if she was agreeing with the boy.
"True… I might've looked like a selfish, money-hungry merchant. But you can't blame me for the things an alternate me did, as she didn't have enough information about anything. I didn't want anything bad to happen to Natsuki-kun then, and I do not, in any way, want anything bad to happen to Natsuki-kun now."
"Tsk- Ya' still used captain for ya' own benefit and left him without anythin'"
"Once again, it wasn't me, well technically it was but… But, I didn't leave him without anything, I left him with advice, that actually came in handy for him, especially with Crusch." Anastasia explained.
Garfiel didn't say anything back, because it was true. She did actually help, in her own way mind that. And without her advice to Subaru, he possibly wouldn't be here.
"This still hasn't changed anything on my views of ya' candidates" He said as he walked away from the conversation admitting defeat.
"Yes yes, I understand…" She silently said.
"Hmm, don't you think he would be a good sparring opponent for you?" She said to Julius.
"Excuse me?" He said confused.
"I mean, he's objectively smart, a complete battle junkie, but he does have a quick temper." She listed.
"Right…" Julius silently murmured. He thought that Garfiel wouldn't in any way like him especially after the viewing where he quite literally beat the hell out of Subaru.
...
In one table, the maids were grouped up together.
"Nee-sama, why was Subaru-sama like that?" Petra asked Frederica.
"Haah… I really wish I knew."
"His mind must have been broken so much that he thought he was doing the right thing." Frederica shared her thoughts.
"His mindset is naturally about saving everyone, and with the witch's toxic way of thinking, she must have somehow convinced him that there was no other way. I'm just glad that he'll try to better himself." Frederica continued.
"Yes, but… don't you think Subaru-kun changed his mind a little fast? After so many deaths, do you really think he could just change so suddenly?" Rem said, a little worried about the worst-case scenario.
"Y- You don't think he was lying to us, do you?" Petra questioned.
"He could've… but I was surprised that he didn't try to kill himself any other way. You'd think you have millions of ways to kill yourself, especially after experiencing Echidna's greed?" Frederica noted.
"That is weird, in fact." Rem responded.
"I can only guess, but he might have just accepted that he couldn't… do anything to himself after the new warden intervened." Ram stopped herself as she became uncomfortable talking about Subaru's suicide attempt.
"Barusu's mind in that reality is corrupted. No one knows what he is thinking, just look at our Barusu, and what his… deaths have done to him." Ram slightly grit her teeth as she blamed herself for partly being the reason he has such low self-confidence.
"Also, It might've been nice of Emilia-sama to try and help him, but she really has to realize the bigger picture here, as we ultimately have our own stuff to worry about. I'll talk to her about it before we are about to start anything." Ram finished.
"Right… But we can't j-" Rem tried to continue.
"No buts Sister. It's not our job to try and fix what some other Barusu has broken because of his own idiocy.." Ram diverted her gaze from Rem.
Rem was left practically speechless. She wanted everything for Subaru, she wanted to help him, cherish him, and most of all, she wanted to prevent him from suffering constantly. And now she was told that she shouldn't do anything, especially when she had even the tiniest chance...
Suddenly, a voice reverberated throughout the theater..
Uhm. If everyone would kindly return to the theater, so you could meet the next Subaru.
"Ughhh-" Felt announced her annoyance, but even so stood up.
Everyone went back to the theater and sat in their respective chairs without saying a single word to each other. Otto was the last to come to the theater while he was hiding his face in his hat.
"Oi bro, cheer up. The captain wouldn't want to see y' like this, aight?" Garfiel noticed Otto's "depression" and tried to cheer him up by putting a firm hand on Otto's back.
"Alright… I'll try." Otto said, putting his hat back on his head. He still had his self-doubts, but he couldn't afford to be weak right now.
Emilia didn't know what she should do. She didn't want to become "obsessive" like the other Emilia had supposedly become. She didn't know if she was allowed to touch Subaru, even though she wanted to. She didn't know if she was allowed to look at Subaru, even though she felt good and warm when she did. She didn't even know if she should be allowed to sit close to Subaru.
"Crusch-san… You… You can sit in my place…" Emilia told Crusch with her gaze down.
"Eh? But why?" Crusch was confused. Was it about Subaru? She was obviously interested in the boy, even more so after the viewings. But he's Emilia's knight, not Crusch's. So she had no right to steal him from Emilia.
"It's just that… I need to give Subaru some space. He… he deserves it.." That was the best explanation, or rather excuse Emilia could come up with.
"Please, Emilia-sama. I believe Subaru wouldn't mind." Crusch smiled warmly and continued. "If this was about the previous Subaru's situation, then you should remember that our Subaru isn't even close to being the same as him."
"I know that but… I'm just scared that I might do something wrong."
"Emilia-sama, there is nothing to be afraid of. Everyone makes mistakes. All that matters is how we adapt to those mistakes… Now. go be with your knight." Crusch softly smiled at Emilia.
"A- Alright." Emilia formed a small smile on her face as well as she turned to look at Subaru.
"Oi voice! When are we goin' t' see th' next Subaru?" Garfiel asked, who was laid back on his seat next to Otto.
Well, before you meet him, you must know who you are meeting.
"Ugh- Just tell us then and stop wasting mine precious time." Priscilla said and for the first and in a long time, the cast agreed with what she said.
Oh, alright then. You all are going to meet…
Gluttony.
"G- Gluttony?" Julius stuttered as he remembered his prediction.
"Hmm, so gluttony isn't the worst one then?" Anastasia said.
"Wasn't the introduction to Gluttony something about killing becoming a habit?" Rem asked, while holding Subaru's arm tighter.
"No! Subaru isn't evil! He could never harm someone who didn't deserve it! He's a hero!" Petra said, scared. Subaru wasn't an evil person. After the last Subaru, he might kill himself, but he would never willingly take an innocent life.
I remember Frederica asking why I said Gluttony in a future tense. But I had to wait for the moment he would be here.
Frederica didn't react in any way, only waiting for the answer.
It's quite easy to guess this but... Gluttony, for you guys, is in the future.
"Hm, honestly, that was so pointless." Ram said to herself.
Roswaal slightly smiled. His nasty habits were mostly gone after the viewings, and everyone's… beatings. But he couldn't help being amused at meeting an out-of-control Subaru.
"Well, this could turn out to be interesting." Anastasia muttered quietly while holding her fist to her mouth to think to herself.
"Excuse me, but how far into the future?" Reinhard asked.
From where you guys are now… About 1 month to when his path diverted from the right one.
"That's really close... " Otto said to himself while trying to already make plans on how to absolutely prevent him from diverting to the so-called wrong path.
"I honestly don't know if that's good or bad." Julius commented.
"Wait, I don't get it… So you're bringing Subaru-kun here right as his i- ideals changed?" Rem asked.
I'm picking him up at about 5 months more or less after his path changed.
"But how do ya' choose when to pick him up from his time?" Anastasia asked curiously.
The other cast also wanted to know, as they were honestly confused as fuck.
Alright, there seems to be some confusion about this, so let me explain. I'm mainly choosing them when they are at their "highest point" in their life.
"Highest point?"
Basically, they are still motivated by their own ideologies, and they've already done whatever they are known for in their timeline.
Simply said, I'm bringing them here from when they seem the most interesting, which is all you need to know... at least for now.
"Well, that doesn't sound mischievous at all…" Rem said.
"Right…" Emilia silently responded to Rem's comment.
Seems like there isn't anything left to be said. Now... shall we patch together?
"What? Patch toge- Grgh!" Crusch tried to ask what he meant by that, but couldn't get the chance because of the sudden blinding light.
Gluttony if reality
It has now been a couple of months since the original story of gluttony ended. Subaru and Shaula are traveling around the world while trying to figure out how to kill Superman, or rather Reinhard.
...
…
...
"-ter!"
…
...
"Maaaaaaaasteeeer…"
…
...
"MMMmhp- Master!"
"Wha- What?" A figure quickly raised himself from his sleeping position so that he was sitting to find a brown-haired ponytail girl right next to him.
She was pouting and had her face a couple of inches away from his.
"W- What's wrong?"
She slowly closed their distance a tiny bit more
"Eh don't get too close to me." [NATSUKI SUBARU] said while pulling his head quickly away from hers.
"Awwww, master's so mean…" Shaula said with a sad expression.
Subaru twisted his head, and he had a "really" face.
"So why did you wake me up?" Subaru rubbed his eye.
"Master wouldn't wake up on his own, so I had to do something, yup!"
Subaru's eyes grew annoyed as he realized he was woken up only because the scorpion girl was 'lonely'
"Aha… Can't you just let me sleep longer?" He tried to lean back to the ground but was instantly grabbed back with force.
"Nope! Master is gonna get up and start getting productive, yup!" Shaula had a determined face.
"Eeeeeeeeh." Subaru didn't care to react in any way, as Shaula kept shaking him to fully wake up while he was just pretending to be a ragdoll.
"Geeeeeet up! Or otherwise..." Shaula had a smug face as she pulled even harder.
"Alright alright, I'm getting up!" Subaru announced as he immediately stood up.
…
…
…
A little small talk, and one dreadfully boring conversation later, Subaru decided on something.
"I'm gonna go on a walk."
"Then I'll come with you, yup!" Shaula cutely smiled, while trying to stand up from her sitting position.
"Nah, you stay here." Subaru said with his hand facing Shaula to stop her.
"Eeeh. But I'll get all lonely." Shaula said sadly, not wishing to be alone again, especially after 300 years of loneliness.
"I'm sorry Shaula. I won't take long." Subaru responded.
Natsuki Subaru walked off without glancing back.
As Subaru was following the little road, he suddenly found a Silver-haired half-elf sitting calmly on a tree stump all alone. Her silver hair beautifully reacted with the calm wind which Subaru found amusing.
"Heeeey Emilia-tan!" Subaru calmly walked towards her with his arm raised to greet her.
"Hey, Subaru!" Emilia raised her gaze and smiled as she saw Subaru.
"So what is my beautiful ~E.M.T~ doing here?"
"Geez Subaru, stop complimenting me out of the blue like that." Emilia slightly blushed and faced away from Subaru, but she could not stop herself from slightly glancing at him.
"Eeeh? And why shouldn't I compliment the cutest woman I've ever seen?" Subaru slightly twisted his head in confusion.
"Stop... you, dunderhead… I don't want someone to accidentally hear that." Emilia's face blushed even brighter.
"I doubt that anyone, for example, Garfiel would care. Besides, who still says, 'dunderhead'?" Subaru looked to the side to look for anyone else, so that Emilia was out of his field of vision. He expected the same reaction that Emilia always gave when he teased her about her old fashion of words.
...
…
...
"You killed Garfiel." Emilia said with a dead voice.
Subaru's eyes widened while his gaze was still focused to the side.
"Emilia-tan?" Subaru looked back to where Emilia was and saw how lifeless she now looked. Everything about her was corpse-like. Her eyes were completely white and there were scars completely open, blood leaking freely down her face.
"Subaru should really hurry up and save everyone." IT said with its dead voice. It seemed like everyone whose book Subaru had read was in that single body, announcing their single desire.
Subaru stepped back out of sheer terror. His nightmares and hallucinations became worse every month, but this wasn't ordinary at all. It seemed like, however long Subaru went without reading someone's book or even killing anyone, which meant his "friends" wouldn't be saved, so they'd get a little unhappy...
"Please Subaru." All of a sudden, the regular, normal, alive, Emilia came back, pleading with Subaru to save them all.
Now Emilia was slowly fading away like leaves being blown away by the wind.
"D- Don't" Subaru tried to prevent her from leaving again but couldn't do anything once again. He grew despondent. He didn't want to be alone again.
"I will get you and Subaru back..." [Subaru] continued his walk with a determined look while he tried to shake the still lingering terror off of his mind, taking a different route this time to the deeper forest.
Out of a sudden, a painful headache pained his forehead. He began rubbing his forehead to try to ease the pain.
"Tsk-" He found himself at another corner while the pain grew even worse so he grit his teeth out of impulse.
Turning around the corner with his hand on his face and his eyes tightly closed from the pain, he stepped on something even harder. The pain suddenly passed, and he opened his eyes.
Subaru twisted his face slightly sideways while he analyzed where he was.
The theater
In front of everyone stood Natsuki Subaru, but not exactly…
"White hair?" Crusch noted which, of course, the rest of the cast did too.
Emilia kept looking back and forth from his Subaru to the new Subaru. She thought that he actually looked quite good with white hair.
"Why does he have white hair?" Rem questioned.
"Maybe he dyed it?" Otto guessed.
Reinhard looked closely and noticed that his previous brown eyes were orange now.
"Not only that, but… his eye color has changed."
Everyone who was close enough tried to look but was unlucky to see what the color was, due to Reinhard just having way too good eyesight.
"Ummm what color exactly?" Otto questioned Reinhard.
"Oh yes, I'm sorry- agh" Reinhard was kicked in the leg by Felt, who was sick and tired of Reinhard constantly apologizing for no reason at all.
"Right… They are orange."
"What difference does it make, what color his eyes are or not? The world has a night and a day. Who th' hell cares!" Garfiel said with annoyance in his voice.
"R- Right, I suppose it doesn't matter."
"Nee-sama, why is his eye like that?" Petra questioned Frederica.
"What do you mean?" Frederica inspected Subaru and saw how his left eye was a bit… hazy.
"I- I don't know…" Frederica answered back to Petra, who was holding onto her hand even tighter.
…
"Well that's quite rude. Talking about me as if I'm not standing right in front of you. Usually, you guys have halfway decent manners.." Natsuki Subaru spoke. His hands were spread wide, like he was presenting himself.
Many of the cast were surprised by his outburst. The last two times, the Subarus seemed, well… surprised. But this one seemed more… open? No… more casual than the other's. Also, the fact that he was probably a murderer kept them all on alert.
"I have a bad feeling about this…" Al muttered , to which Otto nodded to.
Roswaal couldn't help the small smile that broke out on his face. He couldn't help but be intrigued by what was happening.
Subaru analyzed everyone. He was confused as to why everyone was here grouped up out of a sudden.
"Garfiel, Otto, Julius, Felix, Priscilla, Al, Crusch, Ram, Roswaal, Emilia-tan, Beatrice, Subaru, Felt… And Reinhard?" Subaru uttered, staring inquisitively at Reinhard.
"So, Reinhard. How have you been doing since we met, after the little… flood." Subaru had a confident smile while he tried to piss off the god in the room. He had already made up plans on how to kill him off, all that was left was to execute them.
"Wh- what do you mean Subaru?" Reinhard was confused
"Aah how dreadful. Don't worry, I'll get you one day." Subaru tilted his head slightly.
*click*
As something very important that Subaru missed clicked in his mind, his whole body froze.
"S- Subaru?" Reinhard asked again, while Subaru slowly drifted his eyes towards the sleeping man.
"Is that-" A small smile appeared on Subaru's face.
Beatrice was confused, but when she examined where he was looking, she realized.
"Oh, yes that is Subaru, in fact." Beatrice poked Subaru's cheek with her finger. She thought that it would be a bit weird to see yourself in front of you, so his reaction should be perfectly reasonable.
...
"IS THAT NATSUKI SUBARU!?" Subaru yelled with glee in his eyes.
"Huh?" Beatrice casually took a harder grasp of her Subaru as she got spooked by Subaru's little "scream"
Subaru was breathing heavily and slowly took a step forward, then another… and another. Sound and everything else was mumbled to Subaru as his full attention was focused on the sleeping knight.
"Subaru?"
"…"
As Subaru was close enough, he out of a sudden took a big leap towards the seat with his hands reaching for Subaru.
"GAAAWK!" Beatrice's eyes widened in fear and she just about dodged the flying man without being squeezed between them.
Subaru instantly pulled him towards himself and leaped back to where he previously was with the sleeping prize.
Emilia, who was too concerned about how she was holding Subaru, instantly noticed how he was literally and forcefully yanked from her. She was confused as to how fast it all happened.
The rest of the cast was also confused, and some amused. It looked like he literally teleported to Subaru and back according to how fast he went. But truth be told, it looked a bit funny.
"T- This face! These ears! These eyes! This hair…" Subaru could be seen playing with his hair.
"What… th' fuck." Garfiel said to himself. This wasn't the captain that he knew.
"Is- Is he just in love with himself or what the fuck is wrong with this guy?" Al had a face of pure revulsion behind his helmet.
There was truly something fucked up about this guy.
"H- Hero. Hero. Hero. Hero!" Subaru kept repeating the same thing over and over again. He was the sole reason for why he did everything that he did. It was all for him. So that he could save everyone.
"Finally! He'll fix everything!" Subaru chuckled as he was glad and hopeful, like he was being saved from a burning house.
"What does he mean?" Rem leaned towards Emilia and silently asked.
"I- I don't know…" Emilia responded. She was still bewildered by the sudden disappearance of her Subaru.
"S- Subaru, um, can you give me back… my Subaru?" Emilia felt weird saying that but even so kindly asked while reaching with both of her hands.
"No!"
"W- What? Why not?" Emilia looked surprised and pulled her hands back to her chest.
"This is the first and probably the only chance I have to fix everything!" Subaru said while holding his counterpart even closer.
"What do you mean? What do you need to fix?" Crusch asked.
"Y- You wouldn't understand…" Subaru's gaze diverted as he remembered all the death he caused to his supposed friends, but no matter… Natsuki Subaru will fix everything.
Subaru looked at the sleeping Subaru and noticed how he was unresponsive. Even after basically throwing him, shaking him, and speaking right next to him, he was still in his sleeping state.
"Wait… Why isn't he waking up?"
"That's because we've been-" Beatrice tried to explain but was immediately interrupted.
"Are you responsible for this?" Subaru interrupted with a cold voice.
"N- no! We're not!" Emilia was scared by his sudden tone. He sounded or felt like that everything important in his life was at stake right now.
"What? I'm not talking about you? It's not even possible for you to do anything." Subaru found himself confused as to why his hallucination was trying to defend them.
Emilia felt even worse about herself. She knew what a disappointment she was. But hearing that coming from Subaru, was even worse.
"I'm talking about them." Subaru turned his gaze to those who he knew were still alive.
Subaru let go of his other self and slowly stood up. He had death in his eyes like he wanted to punish every single one in the room, and probably even the world.
Every single knight stood up and prepared themselves. They all roughly thought together that no matter how amazing of a guy Subaru was, they couldn't trust this one, and even though, with none of their weapons or powers, they would do anything to protect their lady.
Alright, that's enough...
Out of nowhere, the most important person in the room vanished. Not gluttony in fact, but the sleeping boy instead. Subaru and the rest of the crew were... baffled by what just happened.
"What was that?" Subaru instantly questioned while looking at the crew like they were the blame. But to Subaru's surprise, the cast looked as confused as him.
Well, it seemed like you were having a hard time focusing with a certain someone in the room.
Subaru was dumbfounded. He hated being mocked like he was a child, but he couldn't focus on that right now.
As for the rest of the crew, every one of them was worried and scared.
"Where did you send Subaru-kun!?" Rem yelled to the voice, demanding an answer.
"W- where is S- Subaru?" Emilia couldn't believe her eyes. She promised everything to protect and save his knight, and not let him die no matter what, by staying by his side at all times. But now he was just sent away from her?
Chill out. I sent him to a spare room. I'll bring him back when everything's… calmed down.
"I- It's all over…" Subaru fell on his knees.
The cast looked at him with confusion. They didn't want to worsen the situation, but they also wanted to know what the hell was he on about.
"S- Subaru? Please?" Rem tried to calm him down/get his attention.
"It's all… fucking over." Subaru looked at the ground like he had nothing left.
"I'm done with this disgusting dog."
Everyone looked back where the sound came from to find a fiery-haired, scarlet-eyed lady walking towards the man who was on his knees.
Subaru looked up to find Priscilla standing right in front of him. Before he could react in any way, Priscilla had taken a hold of his collar and lifted him up with her strength so that Subaru was slightly in the air.
"Priscilla!" Rem yelled while she stood up in order to stop Priscilla from potentially killing Subaru.
"Enough! I'm done with this sniveling peasant!" Priscilla took an even tighter hold of Subaru.
"L- Let me go!" Subaru was struggling, trying everything to get away from her hold, but to no avail.
"The only thing you have done from the moment you arrived here is act like a deranged mutt, and waste mine precious time... Either explain yourself or I will make you eat my shoe." Priscilla had a face of pure anger. Her arms were turning red from the constant tension. Aside from her anger, while she was lifting him, she inspected his eyes and found how the left one was… different. She found it a little interesting.
Subaru finally calmed down and stopped struggling from Priscilla's grasp. He nodded and was about to ask for Priscilla to put him down, but before he could do that, he was suddenly thrown backward with force.
"Ita!" Subaru cried out from the pain of hitting the ground.
Priscilla quickly returned to her seat next to Al and said nothing. Al only chuckled a bit to see how everyone was so terrified of Priscilla's "abuse" when in truth he's felt a lot worse from her.
Everyone looked back at Subaru, who was still slightly hurting from the pain of being thrown like a toy. Subaru looked back at them and finally decided to ask how his hallucinations were still there with the alive ones.
"T- this is a bit too confusing even for me, especially after hitting my head a little too many times."
"Wha?! Just start explaining what tha' fuck's wron' with ya!" Garfiel fired back, not wanting to waste any time.
"Yeeeeah. Sure Gar. First, I need to know why are you all still here?" Subaru eyed all of his dead friends.
They all looked at each other, trying to figure out what he meant.
"I mean. You guys usually disappear as soon as someone who's alive interrupts me." Subaru's eyes squinted as he tried to figure out how and why this was happening.
"What do you mean? Who's not alive?" Emilia asked.
"Well… you? Almost everyone in this room, in a matter of fact. Shouldn't you know that, as you are literally in my head?" Subaru looked dumbfounded. Was this some sick joke of theirs for their own amusement?
Emilia's heart skipped a beat. Not because of love or anything of the same. But out of sheer fear. She doesn't want to die no matter what, she has to prove to Subaru her love and worthiness after everything he did for her.
"No one's dead here buddy." Suddenly, Al spoke from the back of the theater.
Subaru had a mix of confusion and shock on his face. He didn't know what to think. This must be his mind playing tricks on him.
His mind tried to lock itself up because of the panic. Subaru fell on his knees and he had his arms on his face. He had trouble breathing as it turned shaky. His mind tried to find things that could comfort him. But he didn't have anything. He has dedicated his whole life to bringing back Natsuki Subaru. He hardly had anything else to focus on. His friends couldn't comfort him, as he didn't deserve them, especially after what he did to them. He didn't know who his parents were, so they were also off the list.
But there was one person who was always by his side, loved him no matter what, supported him throughout everything, did whatever he asked, no matter how morally wrong it was.
"S- Shaula?"
Subaru looked around the room, trying to find the one and only thing that could at the moment bring him comfort. He had always ignored Shaula's feelings because he didn't deserve them. But she was still the most important person in his temporary life, and after this, he would respect her more, as she, on the other hand, deserved it.
"Where's Shaula?"
"Shaula?" Otto questioned the name. No, it couldn't be, it must be a coincidence.
Subaru looked dead seriously at Otto. He was already enough pissed off at Otto after all the trouble he went through to get to him.
"Shaula? As in the Sage Shaula?" Rem cried in disbelief.
Subaru didn't give out an answer as his mind was still in a confused haze.
"Subaru is acquainted with the Sage? Or is it just a person named after the Sage?" Julius asked.
"Hmm I wish I knew." Anastasia answered.
"Natsuki-san I'm not lying about this, we are not dead." Otto explained, trying to sound as truthful as possible.
"Wh- But you're just my hallucinations?" He bluntly said after getting a hold of his own mind.
"I don't know anything about any hallucinations, but I do know that you need to calm down!"
"You're... not in my head? Then what the fuck is this, another reality?" He guessed.
"Yup, that's right." Anastasia responded.
"That's- Then why have I been brought here?" Subaru asked. There was no point to this. Was this just someone's fucked up attempt at a joke?
"Well, we were first shown Subaru's 'adventure'. But now we are… I guess meeting Subarus from other realities." Otto explained, trying to sound as calm as he could.
"So I'm just some form of entertainment to you guys?" Subaru sounded annoyed like he wanted nothing to do with this.
"Heh, you might as well be." Priscilla chuckled while she hid her face with her red fan.
"What, no?" Emilia said right after Pris's comment.
"We are kinda being forced to do this as well." Otto scratched the back of his head.
"Either way, I'd suggest complying so we can all get home faster, Barusu." Ram said, which made Subaru nod in agreement. He was getting more nervous every second, and he had a job to do back in his reality.
"No wonder you guys seemed more stupid." Subaru silently commented.
…
"Sooooo… What now." Otto tried to break the awkward silence.
"I guess~ that there's nothing else to do than ask queeeestions~" Roswaal gleefully suggested.
"Yes. That's right, I need to ask about this one thing." Crusch said.
Subaru narrowed his eyes in wait for the question.
"We were told something about murder... becoming a habit?... Natsuki-san, could you please explain?" Crusch questioned.
Subaru's eyes slightly widened as he comprehended the question. He looked to the side because of the guilt. He never thought that it would be this bad.
"You said that everyone in this room is dead." Anastasia looked at Subaru with a criticizing look.
"Subaru, who… did you kill?" Rem questioned.
Everyone wished that what they thought wasn't true. That he didn't kill them. That wouldn't even be possible. Would it?
…
"Everyone."
"You fucking idiot." Ram whispered with anger in her voice. She was so going to kill him.
Petra immediately faced away and struck his face into Frederica's shirt.
"You're jokin' right?" Garfiel asked. He couldn't believe it.
Subaru looked at Garfiel, giving him a look that meant that he wasn't lying or joking around. Garfiel only sat down in disbelief.
"B- But why?" Emilia asked, with tears falling from her eyes.
"Explain yourself Barusu." Ram demanded, frustration and anger evident in her voice.
"It's the only way to bring him back. And with that, everyone back." Subaru immediately explained.
Most looked at Subaru with curiosity. Who was he trying to bring back?
Julius thought that his way of thinking was insane. How would he bring everyone back, after he's killed everyone?
...
The silence was broken as Subaru took a deep breath and continued. "Look, I... Am not Natsuki Subaru."
"Huh?"
"I- or rather Subaru lost his memories. And… I'm the aftermath." He explained.
Many of the cast turned to look at Crusch and how she was reacting to this turn of events. All you could say is that she radiated guilt. She was guilty that yet another person had to fall to possibly gluttony's authority.
"I'm… Just a complete and utter fraud." Subaru looked down with guilt. He practically stole his body and did the worst things imaginable.
"I'm nothing like the great hero that Subaru Natsuki is." Subaru's lip trembled as he said his name. He was feeling multiple feelings right now, and he didn't know what was stronger and what was weaker.
Hatred
Sadness
Jealousy
Self-hate
Embarrassment
Guilt
…
Emilia wanted to say something so badly. She wanted to help him, comfort him, anything. As at the moment, it was the best thing she could do to repay Subaru for all the things he's helped them with. But after Ram's little talk, with her final point being that it was pointless, she was scared and disappointed with herself to say anything.
"That still does little to explain why you've apparently gone on to murder everyone currently present." Priscilla announced. This truly wasn't like herself to "stick her back out for everyone", But alas she was a candidate to be the next queen. And as the next queen, she needs to protect everyone.
"Ah, it's quite hard to explain, but there are these books of the dead. By reading those books, I can experience anyone's life as long as I have some sort of connection to them."
"Do you by any chance mean the book of the dead?" Roswaal instantly asked. He had a small amount of knowledge of them, but nothing certain.
"Yes, that's right."
"Wait? Something like that exists?" Otto instantly asked.
"Suuuuure does. But forget it for now." He said.
"As I was saying, as long as I can read every single one of them for everyone who knows Subaru Natsuki, he can finally come back." Subaru spoke with confidence. It seemed like he didn't think there was anything wrong with his plan. Like it was literally the most perfect plan in the world.
"I- I don't know what to say." Otto responded. He or in a matter of fact, no one had any information on about this topic so they didn't know if it would have a good outcome or not.
"But how exactly did you kill us? You know you're much weaker than we are?" Anastasia joked.
"Wanna bet on that? No, it was actually quite easy, mainly because of Shaula's help."
"Stop joking around." Rem was disgusted by how he was advertising their deaths easiness like it was just another day.
"I'm not joking. Of course, it took some… thinking, but by far the hardest out of all of you were Otto and Garfiel. I had to flood Priestilla because of you guys." Subaru bluntly admitted.
"WHAT!? But the number of casualties could be close to 200 thousand residents!" Felix yelled.
"And?"
Finally, Otto was angry with this imposter. Ready to go and punch the shit out of him, no matter how strong he was compared to his weak self, but he was held back by Garfiel.
"As long as I can get Subaru Natsuki back, everything will be fixed." He continued.
"Do you mean Subaru's power? Do you even know about it?" Beatrice asked him.
"Of course I know about his ability to redo, Beako"
As he said that, most of the cast grew scared. Scared of the mistake he might've made. Others already knew that there wasn't any chance of bringing anyone back, with the uncertainty of his power, return by death, and its checkpoints.
"S- Subaru, how long has it been now… Since you first killed someone?" Julius asked with uncertainty in his voice.
"About 5 months? Why?" Subaru looked confused by the question.
"Oh, shit..." Garfiel whispered.
Subaru examined everyone and saw how they all had a face of plain displeasure, no one knew what to say.
"Now why is everyone looking at me like that?" Subaru asked.
"Yoooou~ really screwed up, huh." Anastasia admitted.
"Oh, please do tell me how." Subaru said, not believing her word at all.
"Do you know how his power works?" Emilia asked, hoping that he'd have some kind of plan.
"He… he can turn back time?" Subaru explained. He was confused as to why she was suddenly asking about this.
"His power is really unpredictable, and it's possibl-" Otto began explaining about his power but was quickly stopped.
"Right! That's what you're trying to do." Subaru finally deduced their plans. He was a little uncertain at first, but then he thought that they must be trying to prevent him from continuing on with his plan. Ah, that must be it, as expected from his dear friends.
"I know you're probably going to try to 'make me realize I'm doing this the wrong way, just like the other ones did. But let me make this clear, I. Am. Going. To finish this my way no matter what anyone says."
Emilia was even more guilt ridden than before. This was obviously wrong, and he needed help, but she couldn't help but remember Ram's talk about how they aren't supposed to help other Subarus that they wouldn't have anything to do with.
"Tsk- FUCK YOU!" Suddenly Ram screamed with rage like no other.
"Ram!" Roswaal spoke Ram's name, trying to prevent her from making a mistake, but to no avail as Ram didn't bother to react to Roswaal.
Subaru looked at her without changing his gaze or facial expression. He was absolutely calm.
"Did you also kill Rem in her sleep, huh!?" Ram yelled.
Subaru didn't give an answer, as he only kept looking at Ram.
"You're nothing but a monster." Ram was disgusted with this man.
"What I am doesn't matter. Frankly, I have to give my regards to you. You're the only one who actually expressed their anger towards me, which is understandable. But in the end, it'll have all been worth it. I know what I did was unthinkable to you. I know what I did was horrible. But this is necessary. I'll soon have the real Subaru Natsuki back either way."
"Necessary? No matter how necessary you think it is, how could you just kill us without trying anything else?" Anastasia said.
"What other choice did I have? Enlighten me on what I could've done differently since you seem to be so fucking knowledgeable on my situation." Subaru glared at the merchant princess..
"Do you honestly think I didn't try anything else before doing what I did? That this was my first plan of action?"
Anastasia didn't know what to say back. Subaru had never spoken back to her like this and it truly scared her, actually everything about him scared her. Everything he said felt like it was personal to her.
Just here to say that you guys don't have much longer. About 1 minute before I attract too much attention.
"This went faster than normally." Al said.
"Forgive me for my rudeness, but I must ask this. Subaru, when you said that you'll get me one day? Did you mean that you'll try to kill me?" Reinhard did know what he meant by it, but he couldn't believe it as it was coming from Subaru, his best friend.
"Yes, I did. You also have a connection to Subaru Natsuki, and that's why I must kill you." He responded.
"Heh, do ya' even know about his powers?" Anastasia was a little more confident because of the information that he would leave.
"Of course I do, you're literally the Superman of this world, I'll still find a way nonetheless." He said.
"S- Superman?" Emilia was confused by this weird name.
"Superman is a story from Subaru's world. Let's just say that Superman is the strongest hero there is, I suppose." Beatrice remembered all of the nights where Subaru would tell her fairy tales from his world.
"Well, that is a fitting word for him..." Emilia said back.
"You'll never kill Reinhard!" Felt out of the sudden yelled as she tried to protect her knight.
Subaru didn't respond, as there was no point.
"You'll never! You're not as awesome or powerful as Rein is! You're no one!" She yelled once again, with tears falling out of her eyes.
Reinhard didn't know what to say. He always protected her as soon as he became her knight and always advised her on what's best in his opinion. And as soon as he did what he thought was for the best, Felt would soon after berate him. Well, not all the time, but he had never heard her say something like this for him. It felt truly weird.
"Hm. I guess we'll see." Subaru said with a smile as he noticed how his whole form was turning white.
And with that, Subaru finally disappeared from everyone's eyes. Back to his possibly doomed future.
...
"That was…" Julius couldn't quite find the right words to finish his thoughts.
"Yes. That was quite upsetting." Reinhard finished for him. He still didn't want to believe that his best friend or another version of him would want to do something like that. This must be because of his useless self, because he wasn't there to help, like he never is.
Reinhard soon after found how he was being hugged by a small person who was also crying, Felt. Reinhard didn't know what to do, so he only put one arm on the back of her head and brushed her hair.
"N- Never leave... You're all I have." She admitted.
…
"I don't get it… Why did it all go by so fast? I mean we barely got the chance to learn anything." Otto questioned.
"Yeah man, I'm really starting to doubt the point of all of this." Al answered.
"There isn't necessarily-" Ram tried to speak but couldn't get the chance to.
"Don't talk to me." Al instantly spoke over her with disgust.
Keep in mind that these are practically only… sneak peeks, for when you actually get to watch their own stories.
I'm mostly trying to keep all of your knowledge as small as possible, for multiple reasons. (And bc I'm a lazy mf)
"Oh, and do tell us a reason, if you can." Anastasia playfully said.
So that most of you don't try something stupid to possibly yourself's or mainly Subaru, especially after the last ones that you will be shown.
"You act like we have no self-control." Crusch said.
Oh if only you knew what a little panic can do.
...
As soon as Emilia heard the warden mentioning Subaru's name she started glancing back and forth between Subaru's empty seat and the screen, waiting for the moment he was back.
What are you looking for, Emilia?
The warden had noticed Emilia's distress and had to ask her.
"S- Subaru…" Emilia whispered.
Oh shit! I totally forgot about him. Sorry, here ya go.
Subaru immediately appeared back in his seat in more than perfect condition. Emilia's cheeks instantly turned bright red after seeing her own Subaru's face. She hugged him because of missing him so much.
…
"That plan of his is one of the dumbest plans I have ever heard." Priscilla commented.
"Hah, once again, might you tell me what would you do in a situation like his?" Felt fired back. She did agree with Priscilla, but her constant nagging was annoying her more than enough.
"At least I wouldn't go on a murder rampage." Priscilla answered with a boring look.
"That's a fair point…" Felt silently said.
"Hmm. I do wonder, could it be gluttony that erased his mind?" Reinhard thought.
"That is the most likely one, in fact." Beatrice felt sad knowing that she once again couldn't protect her contractor.
"I do wonder what could have triggered his first kill…" Anastasia thought out loud.
Uhm excuse me.
The warden coughed to get everyone's attention.
Gluttony Subaru is actually really smart. But the reason why he reacted to… everything so badly and why he did what he did is that his mind simply hasn't developed enough.
As to the exact reason as to why he started his "murder rampage", as Priscilla put it, well, that's going to stay a secret for now.
"He didn't seem THAT smart…" Al said his own thoughts
"Trueee~, buuuuuut~ he did go to mention that he had to 'flood' Priestella to kill Otto-kun and Garfiel-kun." Roswaal said.
"Hmph, that dog is nothing but a liar. He did say that it was mostly because of this Shaula's help." Priscilla said with confidence.
IfI may, Priscilla. In his reality, Subaru was the planner or leader, in a sense. And this Shaula was the executor.
Priscilla said nothing back as there was nothing to be argued with against the warden's knowledge.
...
"Could we meet Lust?" Crusch blurted out suddenly.
…
"Please?"
Why?
"I mean, why not? What could be the harm? You are supposed to make us meet other Subaru's right?" Crusch explained.
Whatever. It could be a good change of pace before the 2 troubled kids.
The voice sounded like he was fed up with everything in the world, but he had a job to do either way.
"Thank you." Crusch sounded like she was proud of herself. Oh, how that proudness would turn to disgust quickly.
Alright. You guys have about 30 minutes to go and socialize or whatever the fuck you guys wanna do. But be here, when I say so.
"Yeah yeah, we get 't!" Garfiel yelled while walking out of the theater with Otto, the rest followed right after.