48 hours. He had only 48 hours to make his decision.

Subaru looked up at the faces of his parents and tightened his grip on the coffee cup in his hands.

Natsukis were sitting around the kitchen's table.

Two of them, Kenichi and Naoko, were patiently waiting for their son to talk.

After all he was the one who insisted on talking with them right away.

Subaru let out a loud sigh.

He needs to start, isn't he?

"Mom, Dad... I missed you. I missed you both so much... I... I..."

Subaru almost started sobbing again, but managed to collect himself.

"I thought that I would never be able to meet you again."

"Shh... It's okay, you are fine. You're here, with us."

Naoko said, gently taking his hand.

But somehow her attempt to reassure Subaru seemed to bring even more pain to her dear son.

Her heart ached from seeing her son in such state.

"It was so long... I was almost able to give up on meeting you again."

Kenichi frowned upon hearing this.

Month is sure not a short time period, but to be almost enough for his son to give up? That line of thought made them feel hurt.

"That can't be the case. There's should be something else." - Kenichi thought.

But before he was able to ask anything, Subaru said something shocking.

"Year and a half without even a tiny hint on how I can return. How I can get BACK!."

Subaru screamed the last word.

Both parents noticed clear signs of anger and frustration in Subaru's voice and on his face too.

"What... How is that..."

Naoko started to say with a confused tone, but it seemed that her son didn't notice that.

"But the worst part that I almost stopped to think about it! I'm so disgusting, so worthless! So ungrateful to my own parents! So slothful..."

He said it with a toxic, self-destructive tone.

"I was so overwhelmed by my new life, by my new friends, by my deaths after all, I..."

Suddenly Subaru's speech cut off. To sudden.

He feared that what he said was about to bring.

His eyes widened and breathing became heavy.

"But... It was only a month."

Naoko said with a confused tone, as she tried to understand the situation.

"And what does "your deaths" mean?"

Asked his father with a calm tone.

Kenichi wasn't able to understand what exactly was happening.

Sure, his son was in an unstable emotional state, but even then, his words still weren't making any sense.

But Subaru didn't answer them.

He looked like he was afraid of something.

But then, after a few seconds he calmed down.

"I can... "

He took a deep breath.

"Return"

Another pause.

"By... D.E.A.T.H."

There. He said it. And nothing had happened.

Tears started to flow freely from his eyes.

Subaru's parents were shocked by what he said. By how relieved he seemed after saying it.

"I can return by death! I can return by death! I can return..."

He cut himself off and shook his head.

"Sorry. It's just that I really wanted to say it to someone dear to me and was finally able to. That probably made you confused even more. I'm sorry for that. I think, after that, I finally pulled myself together and can properly talk and answer your questions."

Subaru sighed and played with his hair. Not that he really pulled himself together, but he indeed was feeling better.

"So let's start from the very beginning."

And as he said it, he decided to finally sip a bit of coffee.

"That day I went to the convenience store, I was transported to another world. And before you ask - it's not a joke! For a year and a half, I was living... Or rather surviving in another world."

"What..."

Kenichi asked, bewildered.

Naoko wasn't able to say even this.

They both thought that they should be feeling angry at those dumb claims, but they weren't able to.

They saw it as clear as the day, that their son wasn't lying to them. And that confused them even more. He even preemptively said that isn't some kind of joke.

"But that would mean..."

Said Kenichi, uncertainly.

"You was..."

Naoko said, struggling to breath.

"Yeah... I was isekaid. Although a bit different from usual ways, but I guess I'm not complaining. I didn't die before my transportation. Well, at least before my transportation to another world."

Subaru heavily emphasized on the "another world" part.

"Another world... Like in those popular stories?"

His father asked.

Subaru shrugged.

"Kind of. Fantasy world with magic and cute elfs. Correction, cute half-elf. And cute oni."

"And you lived in that world... For more than a year. Was it hard?"

Naoko asked, thinking about her son's words. She was finding it hard to believe, but if it's true...

Year is a lot. It's enough to drastically change people.

She looked at Subaru, trying to notice some differences in his appearance.

Obviously his clothing was quite different. His face seemed to sharpen a bit.

Subaru smiled, but with such sad smile that for a moment Naoko's heart ached even more.

"It was."

Subaru said quietly, looking at his hands and coffee cup between them. For a moment he wanted to lift his sleeve a little, but quickly threw away that thought. He didn't need to put his parents through this. He didn't want to lie, but it doesn't mean he cannot leave some useless information unsaid.

He decided to take another sip and then continued.

"It was so hard... I almost give up a few times, but luckily I always had someone around, that was able to put me back on the right path."

Subaru's smile changed to the warm one.

"Subaru. I want to believe you, but you should understand that it's really hard."

Kenichi said, crossing his arms.

He wanted to believe his son. But what Subaru had said sounded like a pure nonsense.

Subaru's smile changed yet again, this time in a hopeless one.

He took yet another sip of coffee.

"I know that it will be hard to believe in what I said. I would've shown you magic, but because of some circumstances, I wasn't really able to train it. So even if I had experienced using various spells, I'm not going to show them to you, sorry. I'm afraid that my control is lacking, so my magic might be dangerous for you and even for myself. Instead, I have another thing I can show. It called authority and isn't so flashy as magic, but I think it might suffice."

Subaru put the coffee cup on the table and placed his hands behind his hand.

"This one I called Invisible providence!"

Subaru said almost proudly.

Suddenly the cup of coffee before Subaru flied up on its own and moved to his face.

Yet another sip of coffee was taken by Subaru. Except this time Subaru didn't use his hands.

Slowly, the cup was placed back on the table by the same invisible force.

Subaru closed his eyes and sighed in relief, which didn't go unnoticed by Kenichi.

Both - He and Naoko noticed a tiny drop of sweat on Subaru's forehead.

"Hah... Sorry, that ability is taxing as hell, so I'm not really used to it. It's cool, useful and all that, but it's still felt unpleasant to use it. And before you would say it, it was worth it. I can feel that it lighten your doubts, thanks to my other ability. It's nothing special though, just enables me to feel the emotions of those, who consider me an ally, or with whom I have a good relationship. And sorry, I didn't intend to use it secretly. All of this was, uh, let's call it a part of a demonstration."

Naoko wanted to say that if those abilities were hard or maybe even painful to use - it wasn't needed then, this demonstration. But she knew that it would be a lie. She and Kenichi both were holding a bit of doubt, so she decided to ask something else.

"Was it dangerous? If it's fantasy like world, there's probably scary races, gods, demons, undeads, bandits, warlocks, witches and who knows what else."

Subaru flinched at the mention of witches.

"Well... Nothing of the sort. Uh, I mean there are some bandits, demonic beasts and something like evil animals with horns but nothing more than that. And to say that some races are scary is a bit... Wrong. There are lizard like humanoids and different kinds of demi-humans, sure. Some look more intimidating than others. But it's wrong to call them scary just because of their races. I personally know a few really cool demi-humans! And even two cute oni sisters! Although one of them is a pure Angel, and the second one is sharp-tongued mean and sometimes quite a tsundere."

Subaru coughed and decided to take another sip.

"And witches?"

Kenichi asked with a smile.

"Uh... what?"

Subaru asked with a dumb smile.

Almost perfect smile.

Naoko frowned.

She barely noticed how unnatural it was. It was strange, considering how honest Subaru's emotions seemed until that point. And also she didn't like that her son learned how to 'put up a smile'. It's not that this skill wasn't useful, more like she didn't like that her son ended up in a situation where he was in need to learn and practice such ability.

"The witch. You reacted too hard when Naoko mentioned that word."

Naoko looked at Kenichi with surprised eyes.

She saw Subaru's eyes, but she didn't pick up that his reaction was at this exact word. Maybe her husband overthinking things?

Subaru sighed.

He did promise to himself that he would be honest, isn't he?

"Well... There are witches. Seven witches of sin. You know - pride, greed, sloth, lust, gluttony, wrath... Envy..."

At the mention of envy shadows around the room seemed to thicken.

"It isn't my imagination, is it? Yeah, she is probably still watching. But she didn't kill my parents because of my stupid mistake, so I guess it's fine. If you can hear my thoughts, then thank you, Satella. And just in case, thank you too, the witch of envy." - Subaru thought.

No one said anything, so Subaru sipped his coffee and continued.

"Although at the time of my arrival all the witches were long dead and legends about them long forgotten. There even weren't much people who remembered something about their existence, except that they were supposedly devoured by the witch on envy."

"Is it just me or you talking like you know more than an average person from that different world?"

Said Kenichi.

Subaru let out a smile. His dad was always quite perceptive.

"Yes. It's true that I know more. After all I kind of met them in person."

"But I thought you said they were dead?"

Naoko asked, confused yet again by her son's words.

"Yes they were. I kind of... Uh, let's just say that they had some kind of afterlife tea party, to which I was invited. And that tea party place actually was an artificial afterlife dimension of sorts created by one of them for reasons unknown. Uh, I mean the one who created it wanted to achieve immorality, but I dunno why she collected other's parts with her there."

"What?" "What?"

Both parents asked at the same time, both with confused tone.

Subaru was throwing too much information on them in quite short time.

Subaru smiled wryly and laughed.

"Sorry, sorry... There's a lot that happened. Huh... Let's start again. From zero. I'll try to simplify everything as much as I can, and you'll ask your questions later. Would that be fine?"

Naoko and Kenichi looked at each other, then at Subaru and simultaneously nodded.

Subaru took a deep breath and started.

"So after I got everything from the convenience store, I started to walk home, but then I blinked..."

###

It was starting to get bright outside of the window.

Subaru threw a glance at the clock to check the time.

It was 04:52.

Surprisingly, he managed to tell his story in what... A tiny bit more than four hours?

"So... Return by Death, yes? That ability of yours sounds pretty powerful. Does it work here?"

Kenichi said.

Subaru smiled wryly.

"Kenichi!"

Naoko sounded angered.

Is her husband out of his mind? To ask something like this, basically the same asking if her son died there, in their world too.

"It's okay, mom. Yes it's pretty powerful. It should work, after all it's pretty close to authority, or more likely it is authority. But I'm not willing to test it. Doesn't matter if it works or not, dying still sucks."

"Ah, sorry, I let myself get carried away. It's just that your story sounds just as exciting as scary. You know, all these adventures, magic, giant monsters..."

Kenichi said with apologetic tone.

Subaru smirked.

He did leave out as much gore and despair as he could. His suicides... Except one out of desperation to save Rem after battle with Petelguese.

Overall he tried to tone down the negatives and seeing his dad's reaction, it seemed that he succeeded.

He liked to see his dad excited and almost joyful.

"It sounds great and all, but you said that you was presented with a choice. That you had some kind of deal with a witch."

Subaru closed his eyes.

"Too early... I wanted to postpone this question as much as I can. And in such time, when we finally all calmed down. Fine, maybe earlier they would know, easier it'll be for them. And for me." Subaru thought, building up his courage.

"Tsk. I wanted to put it on hold for a bit, but I guess it's can't be helped."

Subaru wasn't sure. Should he lie to them, that he would be taken away by that new world after his bonus time on earth ended? Or shall he say the cruel truth that he had chosen his friends, his allies, his new world over earth, were his parents were? That the only reason he is still here because of him clinging to them, not being able to fully turn his back on his parents. His dear, dear mom and great, best in the world - dad.

He took a deep breath.

Eyes still closed.

"I was presented with a choice. A choice that I need to make in 48 hours."

Subaru finished his coffee and opened his eyes.

Both of Subaru's parents were taken aback by steel in his eyes. By sheer willpower and determination that shined trough them.

"Either I'll stay in my old world, abandoning all my friends, cutting off all of our bonds, leaving some of them to death and some to even more cruel fates. Or, I'll get back. I'll get much further back. Who knows maybe even at my first save point. Or maybe somewhere at the middle of my journey. I don't know. The thing is that I can return back to them. Save them. I would've liked to think that they can be saved without me."

Subaru took a pause.

"But she showed me some alternatives. Most of them WILL die without my intervention. They will suffer. They're going to break. It's not just about believing in them. I saw it! And I knew that what I saw... Was possible."

Subaru hanged his head down.

Little sobs filled silent kitchen.

"Mom... Dad... I'm sorry. I can't choose you. I want. But I can't. Those people are dear to me too. I want to protect them. I want to see them smile. I want them to be happy..."

His voice became quiet by the end.

But then.

"I can't stand a thought that they can be suffering so much, that they can lose everything just because of how slothful I am. I can't. Not this time. One time I already was tempted to run away from everything. But one cute girl stopped me. She stopped me and helped me to became someone who I am now. One cute girl had shown me how she and others cared about me. My friends helped me to learn and became better."

He talked, and he talked, and he talked.

"And to abandon everything, everyone! To live with such knowledge... I can't choose you, mom, dad. I'm such an ungrateful son. I'm such a disgusting worthless creature, that brings pain to its parents, best people in the whole world, over and over and over and over and over and over... I can't choose you!"

Subaru hit a table with his forehead, luckily missing the empty cup.

"I can't. I'm sorry. I can't. I can't. I can't. I can't. I can't. I can't. I can't. I can't. Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sor..."

And suddenly he was hit.

Solid hook landed on his cheekbone.

He stopped repeating the same words. After a brief pause he lifted his head up, looking astonished.

Naoko caressed her reddened fist.

"Nice hit, Naoko."

Kenichi said, already staying behind Subaru.

"Wha..."

Subaru started to say something, but was cut he was cut off by the powerful slap on the back of his head, that almost forced him to kiss a table.

"And that one from me."

Kenichi said cheerfully, placing his hand on Subaru's shoulder.

Another one, more delicate hand was placed on his different shoulder.

Subaru looked to the left, on his mom's face, then to the right, on his father's.

"Subaru. You dumb little brat. Do you think about us so lowly? That we wouldn't understand?"

Kenichi asked with a stern voice.

"Wha...".

Subaru tried to ask again, as he couldn't understand what was happening. Or could. Maybe he just denied it. As he always did.

"Shush! Let your father talk. Maybe he'll finally manage to talk some sense into you."

Naoko said with the same stern tone.

"Subaru. We're not angry that you decided to choose your friends and dear ones over us. Well, maybe a bit jealous, but that's not the point. We actually are... Happy?"

Moment of silence.

"Kenichi, why that last part sounded like a question?"

Naoko asked, glaring at her husband.

Kenichi smiled wryly.

"Uh, oh, I... Maybe I underestimated the jealous part, haha. *Cough-cough* sorry. The thing is, that we are happy and proud of you. You became such a fine young man, you have so many great friends, hell, you even became a hero and a knight! That's quite a progress from being a shut-in, don't you think? And by the way - it's normal flow of life. When kids grow enough, they leave their parents to pursue their own life. In the purse of their own path, their own home and their own family."

Subaru was startled.

It's one thing to hear something like that from others. It was much more impactful to hear something similar from your copy, that lived through your life and your deaths. But to hear it from his parents? It isn't simply was reassuring him. It was bringing him true joy and happiness. That his parents said that they are proud of him. That they happy for him.

"Of course your circumstances are a bit... Very unusual, but at the core it's the same thing! So don't be afraid. We are happy for you, for the fact that you finally got out of your shell and now have those precious to you!"

Subaru suddenly hugged both of his parents.

"You are the best parents in the world! No! In all worlds! I love you! I love you both so much!"

Subaru didn't care if he felt too embarrassed to say this. He wouldn't get much more chances in the future, so there's nothing wrong in stopping holding onto that stupid pride of his. At least in that kind of situation. He just wanted to express his love for his parents.

"Oh Subaru."

Said Naoko and kissed her son in the cheek.

"Of course we are the best! We are your parents after all!"

Said Kenichi, catching both, his son and his wife in a bear hug.

They spend the whole five minutes like this.

Naoko noticed that they all were dizzy. A bit longer, and they might fall asleep here. All three of them.

"Okay, okay. It's good and all, but we all in dire need of sleep."

Naoko said, shaking the shoulders of her men, trying to wake them up from dizziness.

"But..."

Subaru's voice sounded afraid and Naoko understood the reason right away.

"It's fine, Subaru. It's not like you going to leave us right away, right? From your own words we still have more than forty hours. Or am I wrong?"

Subaru smiled.

"No... Sorry, you're right. We all need to sleep."

He said.

"Good. You can go to your room then."

Said Naoko and turned her gaze to Kenichi.

"And you should take a little vacation. At least for two days! And 'I can't' won't do!"

Naoko said, almost pouting.

"Sure, Naoko. I thought along the same lines."

Kenichi said as he was getting up from the surprisingly comfy kitchen's floor. Maybe he truly needed sleep after all.

At the same time Subaru approached the door of his old room.

He cautiously opened the door and walked inside.

At the sight, his eyes went wide.

Not a single trace of dust.

Everything was clean and fresh.

His eyes teared up for god knows which time in that night. Or is it morning already?

He wasn't sure. All he knew - is that his mother was right and that he needed sleep. He took his clothes off and laid on the bedspread. He was in his old home. Home that belongs to his parents.

And he was happy, that he was here.