Sorry about the delay. It's been tough lately. Also, the last chapter is next.

The boys tried to understand, but it was difficult. By the severity of the situation, and the fact that Yuuka did technically go back in time just to save them, how exactly bad was their pasts?

What kind of emotional scarring did Ami mean?

But Subaru couldn't find an ounce of hesitation in him. He realized the pounding in his chest and twists in the stomach was from being anxious rather than doubt.

He felt anxious. He wanted to save her now.

And no, it wasn't repayment for all she's done for them, no. It wasn't close to being enough. Saving Yuuka was a duty to them. It was just doing what they're supposed to do. Nothing in the world would be enough to repay Yuuka for her kindness.

"How do we go into the routes?" Shuu says confidently. "We don't have a lot of time to waste."

Ami smiled and clapped. "I love your enthusiasm! You boys are sweet." Ami smiles.

"Wait! We're going to, right?!" Kou exclaimed.

"Yeah! Yuuka's our mom, too! We have every right to go!" Yuma chimed in.

"Of course! You, and the Tsukinamis go, but the route will steer you off track a little because you appear later in the story. I'll leave that to you." Ami explains.

Shin and Carla can't help but flinch at how Ami referred to them by their last name together. But they decided that they shouldn't focus on that now.

"Um, excuse me, but this.. Yuuka.. Yui person.. Have I met her before? I'm not sure what everyone is talking about." Shin confesses. "I'm sorry."

Ami readjusts her position on the stool. "Oh, right. Yui didn't take you in as children because your parents were First Bloods. But she did impact your lives greatly."

"What do you mean?" Carla asked.

"Yui messed up the timeline greatly by finding the Sakamakis and Mukamis and taking them in. She wanted to save you too, but it was nearly impossible, because your parents are much different as to the Sakamakis. But she made a plan on how the broken timeline would rip your parents apart, because that was the root of the problem." Ami shrugs. "Your mother became the owner of the toy shop, and your father created that grocery store."

"What would have happened if my parents didn't divorce?" Carla asks.

Ami shakes her head. "Bad things. I'm not sure of details, because I died in the routes long before you two came in, so that's all I know."

"Enough chatting! Can we please go save her now? How do we get in the route she's in?" Ayato asks impatiently.

Ami nods. "Good question. It's kind of complicated. To exit a route, and come to the selections, you have to die."

That was definitely the catch in all this.

"We have to die? Isn't that a bit risky?" Subaru mentions nervously.

"It's not really a big deal. I do it all the time." Ami says. "You just appear in what looks like Limbo for a few moments, and a selection of routes appear. It's similar to a game."

Now, hearing someone dies all the time and hearing it so casually is not exactly a reassuring thing to hear.

But sure enough, the boys complied.

"One last warning; you can't come back to this route." Ami says. It's pretty much closed off.

"We knew that. If the route didn't close, why wouldn't Yuuka come back?" Shuu says.

Ami was quiet.


It happened really quick. Ruki woke up; the only thing he could see for miles besides darkness was himself.

The deafening sound of white noise filled his ears.

"Where am I?" He assumed he was in limbo. He remembered his purpose, but he could quote remember his death.

"The route system should activate soon.. I'll become one person with the route's current Ruki.." He murmured aloud to no one.

He could hear his own voice faintly, and it ceased the white noise a bit. Ruki wasn't one to just talk aloud, so even with no one around, he felt awkward to just do so.

"I wonder.. How much pain the person I'm meshing with has underwent?"

A light appeared. It made the darkness seem like a long and winding tunnel. Ruki stood there idly.


A raging headache entered Subaru's head. It pounded angrily; making him feel like he was going to vomit. His vision was blurry, and as he rushed to get up, he felt his forehead collide roughly with something solid.

Subaru internally groaned. This only made the aching worse.

He blinked a couple times, and his vision became a bit better.

Subaru realized he was in a cramped space by the seeps of light through small cracks. He placed his palms against the ceiling and pushed.

It swung open like a door, and Subaru sat up.

"A coffin?"

And then, the blood rush returned, causing him to wince. It felt like his brain and slamming against the edges of his skull.

And then, horrible thoughts began to spiral in the midst of it all.

Pictures of a maniacal woman filled his head. She had beautiful ivory hair and was dressed lavishly. But she would alternate between screaming and bawling and smiling and trying to choke herself and a silhouette of a child that Subaru couldn't see clearly.

And he felt the sensation of someone wrapping their hands tightly around his neck and pulling and squeezing until he was gasping for air.

His heart stretched, and he knew that unstable woman was his biological mother.

The stinging feeling of salty, cold ocean water.

For some reason, the feeling was all too familiar.

Even as he stood up, the feeling wouldn't go away. It resides in his head only.

Because mental pain cannot be honestly replicated in another person, it was replaced by a physical pain.

It was probably the only way to give Subaru at least an image of what he should have gone through.

Still, as ignorant as he felt, he wished it would go away soon.

Then again, why should he feel ignorant? This wasn't another person's pain. It was supposedly his. Which gives him the right to want it to go away, right?

Subaru couldn't make a decision. And the horrendous headache didn't at all make it better.

He left his room, finally able to at least control the headache enough for him to walk and see correctly.

Subaru stepped into the hallway.

It was decorated lavishly, but was painted in dark and gloomy colors. But it was still lit with the correct amount of lamps.

Subaru strolled.

"It looks so familiar. Where exactly am I?"

Subaru reached the end of the hallway, and he saw a large staircase.

He wondered if his brothers also scattered around this place.

Subaru was about to head down the stairs when he saw a figure walking at the bottom.

It was a short girl with curly, light blonde hair. Flower hair clips held some of her hair back.

She looked timid and small.

"She looks like.. Mom. Is that…?"

The girl noticed Subaru staring at her, and she jumped.

"A-Ah, Subaru-kun!" She stood still, unsure what to do.

"That is Mom. No- that's Yui."

Subaru nods, as if it was a greeting.

And suddenly, he felt nervous. How did this world's Subaru act?

Subaru became aware of the slight scratching in his throat.

"Just ignore it, just ignore it."

He was physically sixteen in this universe, and according to what Shuu or Ami said, was the age where bloodlust began.

Subaru took note of how terrified Yui looked at the sight of him. It really made him wonder..

"Um, are you.. alright?" Subaru asks awkwardly.

This was weird, to put it simply. He was interacting with his mother's counterpart, who at the moment, was only a year older than him.

Yui blinked. "Eh…?"

Something inside Subaru made him almost yell at her irrationally for not answering his question immediately, but it didn't feel like Subaru mentally wanted to say that. It was someone else.

"You seem shaky." Subaru continues.

Yui was a little stunned.

Now, after the major change in the route of Yuuka, Yui barely remembered anything. Karlheinz had gone through the extra effort to wipe out her memories. All she knew was the Sakamaki brothers were cold and heartless and, nonetheless, not caring.

Of course, she dealt with this. The route began a month ago, so she had gone through the following events: a lot of forced blood-sucking, cruel treatment, etc.

Yui was terrified of Subaru. She knew that he was prone to becoming angry and hitting walls, though she considered him slightly less devious. Still, he was nothing more than a terror to her.

So.. what was wrong with him? She's never seen any of the brothers asking if she was alright.

"I-I'm fine.. A-Are you feeling okay, Subaru-kun?" She asks slowly.

Subaru walked down the stairs, walking past Yui, and he noticed that she very visibly flinched, as if afraid that he would jump her or grab her forcefully.

And looked incredibly confused when he didn't.

"Erm, I'll see you later, then. If you're not feeling well, tell Reiji.." Subaru says.

Yui was shaking as Subaru left.

She felt confused.


Yui continued her walk, unsure if she should return to her room.

Her head felt heavy.

"Maybe I am feeling a little sick. But still, Subaru-kun doesn't normally act like that.. But I shouldn't be.. complaining, right? Still, that's weird.."

Yui wasn't paying attention to where she was walking, and she realized this a second too late when she collided harshly against something.

Or rather, someone.

Yui looked up in a flurry of panic, and her heart stopped when she saw a familiar bear lying on the floor near her.

She turned her head slowly, only to see the purplette sitting on the floor, dazed.

She bumped into Kanato.

And worse, she knocked Teddy out of his hands.

Teddy was hanging loosely in Kanato's arms because he was holding a plate and fork, which explains why Kanato lost his grip so easily.

Yui opened her mouth, about to apologize, when Kanato screamed and dived forward, slapping her and trapping her beneath him.

"YOU. INSOLENT. PATHETIC. HUMAN." Kanato yelled, enraged.

Yui felt herself cry in pain. "I'm sorry-"

Kanato slapped her. "IF YOU'RE SORRY, YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE DONE IT IN THE FIRST PLACE."

His voice calmed down, but his eyes still burned in fury.

"Such filth deserves punishment."

Still holding her down, Kanato picked up the fork.

It gleamed in the corridor light.

Yui didn't dare scream.

"It was your intention to knock Teddy away from me, right?! You wanted him on the ground! You wanted to TAKE HIM AWAY FROM ME." Kanato raised the fork high, prepared to impale Yui's palm.

Yui squeezed her eyes shut, and she couldn't help but scream at the top of her lungs.

..

But the pain never came.

Yui didn't want to even move. But it was silent for several moments.

Finally, she opened one eye.

Kanato still towered over her, yes.. but he looked dazed and.. confused.

"Huh?" Kanato murmured. He looked at the fork in his hand. Then he looked at Yui.

"Yui-san?" Kanato said, addressing her as normal, though he didn't intend to address her the same way as other world Kanato.

Yui felt the adrenaline run through her veins.

"What.. What is going on..?"

Kanato got off her, looking a little flustered.

"Oh, I dropped Yu-san." He said.

Yui stared at him, wide-eyed. "... Yu-san?"

Kanato looked at her and nodded. He picked up the bear. "Yeah, Yu-san, my bear."

He flashed her a curt but genuine smile, and hurried off.

Leaving Yui in utter disbelief.

Was she hallucinating? Was she going mad? Are the boys okay?

Kanato has never, ever referred to his teddy-bear as any name besides Teddy. Never has he been so nonchalant about her staring at him.

He was throwing a tantrum just a moment ago, and then..

Yui split into tears.

She was scared- so scared- and confused to her core.


The brothers all gathered in the kitchen, Reiji locking the door to make sure Yui wouldn't enter randomly.

"The plan is beginning." He says.

"This is weird.. I get these really stupid and insane thoughts." Ayato muttered. He had awoken next to the Iron Maiden, and when he went to investigate it, it scared the everliving shit out of him.

Laito stared at his hands. "I feel.. disgusting." Was all he said.

Reiji pushed up his glasses. "All I know is we all merged with our counterparts, or our other worlds. That's why you guys feel weird."

"I encountered Yui earlier." Subaru brought up suddenly. Kanato nodded.

"I did too.." He says quietly.

"Really? What was she like?" Shuu asks.

Subaru stills. "She was.. scared. Or sick, I don't know. All I know is she's really timid and pale.."

Reiji sighs and shakes his head. "She has every right to be. Stuff around this house gives me an idea of what.. exactly happens.."

Kanato hugs his bear tightly. "When I woke up, I was hovering her… you can imagine how surprised I was." He explains.

The brothers look at him. "Hovering her? What do you mean?"

Kanato shrugs. "I don't know. All I know is I was holding a fork while trapping her behind my arms and stuff.. Oh, and Yu-san was on the ground."

"So I'm assuming I saw her before you.." Subaru says.

"Did we wake up at different times?" Laito asks.

"Holy crap- that was her? Kanato, what were you doing?! I heard some girl scream at the top of her lungs!" Ayato remarks.

Kanato shifts. "I don't know.." He says, his eyes watery.

Reiji pats his shoulder. "Don't worry about it. She's fine, right?"

Kanato nods.

"So, what do we do? Our counterparts already were scaring her, but with our personalities suddenly changing, we'll only terrify her more." Subaru says. "I've never seen anyone looked at me with some terror and suspicion ever."

It was quiet.

"What would happen.." Shuu says slowly. "If we told her..?"

Reiji shakes his head. "That's too hard. From how she's acting, she doesn't remember her life as Yuuka at all. Whoever made these routes.. wiped her memory extra cleanly."

Ayato makes a fist. "So she's just a game piece? They can do things so easily to her like brainwash her? That's so stupid!"

Again, silence.

"We just have to convince her that we're different people. Not by telling her. Just treating her really genuinely. How we're supposed to be." Laito says.

"And be consistent maybe, so she won't think we're plotting something." Subaru adds.

Reiji smiles. "That'll be easy. That way, she won't have to decide a route."

The final chapter was beginning.