Subaru and Satella spent the next hour scouring the town for the insignia. They asked everyone around them, ducked into every alleyway, and had a quick conversation with the cashier when they stopped for a quick bite at another convenience store.
"Geez, who would've thought finding some thieving loli would be this hard!" Subaru exclaimed as he and Satella entered an unfamiliar part of town. It was full of old rickety houses and all sorts of fishy-looking establishments.
A pair of men and a young woman marched out of what looked to be some variety of cosplay brothel.
"Man, those catgirls are so hot!" said the first man. "A seven out of ten at least!"
"Are you nuts? They have a really freaky aura." the second man cringed in disgust. "I'd state no higher than six."
"I've done it. In every sense of the word I've done it," said the girl (At least they looked like a girl). They were blushing much harder than the men.
"Woah, I've never seen a brothel before," said Subaru.
"Actually, that's kind of normal compared to the other stuff I've seen around here," said Satella.
"What could possibly be weirder than that?"
"Hm… well to start, there are gangsters that want to prevent kids from using drugs."
"How does that even work?"
"It's more surprising than you think. Let's try looking here."
Satella knocked on the door of a building labeled The Dicey Cafe. To the right was a bulletin board covered in various parchments for obscure tasks such as killing giant toads to cleaning lakes. The two of them entered without a second thought.
The inside was an absolute mess. Tables scattered about, broken glass on the floor, drinks spilled onto the carpet.
"What happened here?" said Subaru. Satella went pale.
"Subaru," she murmured, just before she let out a scream.
There was the sound of ripping paper noise, a flash of a blade, and a squelch. Before he knew what was happening, Subaru saw Satella limp on the ground, and his stomach burst open. That was the last thing he saw before everything grew dark.
-AWWWWEEEEWWWWO-
Subaru's blinked his eyes open. Groceries in hand, he saw the bright illumination of the convenience store and the shadows on the empty parking lot.
"Huh?!" his eyes widened. "What the… where am I? Also, that hurt a lot..."
Subaru reached into his pocket and gasped.
"What the… my wallet's back?"
His wallet looked exactly the same and even had the same amount of money from before it was stolen. Meanwhile, the high school girl from before was walking in the exact same direction, as well as the young boy. And the exact same tractor was driving down the street.
"Huh?!" he checked himself again. The other boy promptly tore forwards and pushed the girl out of the way just as previously.
"Eh? What's going on here?" said the driver.
"Oh my gosh!" the girl said. Then she started to laugh. "Oh my gosh, did he think that was a truck?! And he wet himself! That's gotta be the funniest thing I've seen in years!"
What a weirdo. Subaru sighed.
Okay, let's think about this. I'm at the precise same point as before, and everything is playing out in the same way. So by that logic…
Subaru saw a yellow blur in the corner of his eye and grasped Felt from behind.
"Gah!" she yelled before he pinned her to the ground.
"A-hah!" Subaru gazed right down at her "I'm not quite sure how this works, but I'll get the hang of it!"
"What the heck are you talking about?"
Just then, the girl from before walked over.
"Hey! What are you doing to her?" she said.
"This is a thief! She stole my wallet!"
"But it's right there," she pointed to Subaru's wallet which had been flung a few feet away.
"Oh… well, she also stole Satella's insignia!"
"Do not speak the name of the witch of envy!" Felt suddenly exclaimed.
"If you're in an alliance with the Seven Deadly Sins, then I, Aqua, Goddess of Water, must vanquish you from the face of the earth!"
What is wrong with these people?
"God Blow!" Aqua delivered a straight punch to Subaru's face.
He felt his face crack and collapse inward before blacking out.
-AWWWWEEEEWWWWO-
"OUCH!" Subaru exclaimed. "Huh?"
He was once again standing in front of the convenience store. Aqua and the boy were walking down the street as usual.
"Again?" he rubbed his chin. "Then this must be some kind of usual ability I've developed. I'm not quite sure what the trigger is, but I've no time to lose!"
Subaru yelled out to the boy. "THAT'S A TRACTOR!"
"Huh?" the boy's eyes widened. He blinked. "Oh!" then he flushed a little bit from embarrassment. "Uh… thanks?"
"No problem!" Aqua gave him a weird look and continued walking. Then she turned around and faced him.
"Hey, you! Did you think that was a truck or something?"
"Uh…" the boy looked nervous and turned to leave as the girl started laughing again.
"OH MY GOSH! THAT'S GOTTA BE THE FUNNIEST THING I'VE SEEN IN YEARS!"
Subaru sighed. I guess some things never change.
Just then, Felt started idly walking past him.
A-hah! Since I was aware, Felt doesn't steal from me. Maybe I can use this new ability… no, there's no way I'm gonna be asking a crazy chuunibyou girl to punch me in the face to reset time.
Without thinking about where he was going, Subaru started wandering, his feet going whichever way they found, guided by the path of destiny that would bring him to the next part of his adventure.
Okay… the first time it happened, it was too fast to notice anything. And the second time, I got punched in the face by that Aqua girl. What's the connection? Did it have anything to do with that goddess thing she said? No way, there's no way she's actually a goddess.
Just then, much to his luck, he noticed Satella a few meters away.
"Hey! Satella!" he exclaimed excitedly running over.
Satella turned and glared at him.
"How dare you!"
"Huh?"
"The Witch of Envy does not take kindly to those who use her name randomly! To assign her name to someone else is a death wish."
"Huh?"
Satella heel turned and stomped off.
Aw, come on! Wait, her name isn't really Satella? Then again, that would make a lot of sense...
"Well, look what we have here."
Aw, darn it! I knew I was forgetting something!
The first thug cracked his knuckles as Subaru started backing out.
"Looks like there's only one thing I can do…" he grunted
"Oh, and what might that be?" the second thug gave a devilish grin.
Subaru took in a deep breath and screamed with every bit of air in his lungs.