Subaru looked at Reinhard with worry painted on his face. The red head only smiled crazily in return. "It's okay Subaru, I can feel your fear, there's no need to feel fear. You're safe. I will protect you. You're safe. Don't be scared. If anyone scares you I will kill them. Don't worry. I'll tear them limb by limb until you can't be scared any more. Please don't be scared. I'll protect you." Reinhard tried to comfort Subaru and approached him.
Subaru only stepped back in return. He glanced at Felix and Julius whose shared his worried gaze. I know I told Satella I wouldn't kill myself, but this is something I must fix. If I don't, Reinhard will end up slaughtering the entire world.
Subaru stood up straight and cleared his throat. "We need to investigate these guys, they might plan another attack so it's best we get as much intel as possible to eradicate them."
Julius slowly nodded, agreeing with him. He was still concerned about Reinhard but they should take things one at a time. Doing too many things at once will only lead to making things worse.
Felix was terrified, he'd never seen Reinhard in such a state. Covered in blood from head to toe, smiling like a maniac. Insanity embedded in his gaze, it seemed he'd somehow turned completely crazy.
Subaru started walking down the hallway. "When we were running I saw an office of some sorts. We might be able to find something there." He stops at a door, and opens it. A knife flew at his face but Reinhard caught it with his hands, then he charged into the room.
There were two white uniformed members and one blue uniformed one. So white uniform must be a normal member, blue uniform must mean superior. By the time Subaru had deduced that, Reinhard had already slaughtered each one of them, turning to smile at the remaining knight trio.
Subaru swallowed his fear and walked over to the desk, opening the drawers and finding some files.
He sat himself down on the black leather chair, which he noted to be rather comfortable, and starting reading through the papers while Julius took guard.
The ninth tail. They seem to cooperate with the Witch Cult. I see. This paper which was written not long ago suggests that they're currently in some disagreement. That would explain why they wanted to extract information from me about the Witch Cult.
They also follow a Gospel huh? It appears the attack on the restaurant was a direct order from it. They report directly to... Pandora? Who's that I wonder. Reminds me of Pandora's box. Possibly some higher up. Ninth Tail could just be a piece of a larger puzzle. Either way, they messed with the wrong idiots.
Right. I guess I've researched as much as I can, they even wrote the address of this place. They must be dumber than I thought. Possibly relying only on brute force and dumb luck to stay alive. Then again, this world doesn't have detectives like Sherlock Holmes so it's fairly possible that they never got caught doing this.
Anyway, time to end this run. Sorry Satella, sorry Reinhard, sorry Julius, sorry Felix... But I have to do this. This is something only I can do. I'll see you back at the restaurant.
"Hey guys, can you go guard outside, I need to think for a moment. Oh Felix, it says here there's a slave cell ward at the end of the hallway, you could go free them."
Felix nodded and left with Julius, but Reinhard wouldn't budge. "Uh, Reinhard, I need to think."
"I'm not leaving Subaru, I need to protect you. I must protect you. I must make you feel safe, you won't ever be scared agai-"
"Can you just turn around then? I kinda need to pee and I doubt they'll be using that bucket for anything." Subaru didn't lie, he did actually need to pee. Reinhard nodded and turned around.
Subaru sighed. Him being here ruins my chances of using my dagger. Maybe I should bite my tongue instead.
I have no other choice.
He slid his tongue between his teeth, hesitated, and then bit down. Hard.
The tip of his tongue came off, and he could feel the blood spurting out. A few drops escaped his mouth but he had his back turned to Reinhard anyway so it shouldn't matter.
The pain was immense, and he struggled to not scream out and cry. But he has experienced worse than this. He hated pain. But this is something only he can do. He hated himself. But this is something only he can do.
After a minute he fell to the floor, his mouth opened and blood poured from his mouth. Reinhard turned around and saw him. Through Subaru's dying eyes, he saw him panic. He wasn't sure if he hallucinated it, but he could swear he saw Reinhard turn even crazier.
He drifted off into the darkness.
He opened his eyes, the light blinding his eyes. He fell to the floor and threw up. He felt three sets of hands patting his back, and drowned out voices asking if he's okay.
Subaru snapped back to reality. He doesn't have time to hesitate, or take a break. He has to save everyone. Everyone.
"Reinhard, Julius, in less than a minute the restaurant is going to be attacked. They're stronger than they look, prepare yourselves. Felix, get ready to heal as many people as you can. These guys are no joke." Subaru stated calmly.
Reinhard, Julius and Felix shared a look of concern. When the windows shattered and white uniformed men ran inside, they were ready. It was a long battle and Subaru was prepared this time. So prepared that he was hiding under a table hoping to not be spotted.
The fight finished rather quickly, Julius covered Felix as he healed the victims and Reinhard fought the attackers rather efficiently.
Subaru crawled out from under the table once the fight was over, and walked towards Julius and Reinhard. "Guys, well done, but we have to go."
"Where? Subaru, how did you know that this attack was going to happen?" Julius asked. He had questions, many of them.
"I promise I'll explain just please do this with me. These guys are part of a mafia called the Ninth Tail. They collaborate with the Witch Cult and their base of operations in on Celmunt Street. We have to head there now before they kill even more people." Subaru explained.
Julius sighed, then nodded. "Although my curiosity is killing me, I suppose we can deal with that problem first."
Subaru sighed in relief. "Excellent, lets go."
The walk was fast, but Subaru's mind worked even faster. He had established some form of plan to take them down. But it mostly involved just sending Julius and Reinhard in to kill them all. He thought it was an effective plan.
Once they arrived at the building, a group of White Uniformed men stood at the entrance. They were obviously surprised at the knights' arrival and equipped their knives, getting in battle stance.
"Reinhard, I need you to take them out. And do it quickly and quietly, we can't alert the rest." Subaru said, if he felt nervous, he didn't show it.
Reinhard nodded and charged at the group, knocking all of them unconscious. Subaru sighed in relief that he chose not to kill them. It's best to keep the killing to a minimum, I don't want Reinhard going all yandere on us again.
They walked into the building slowly. There was a staircase which seemed to lead into nothing, but Subaru walked down them anyway. "It's illusion magic guys, just follow me."
The trio were once more confused at the extent of Subaru's knowledge.
Subaru led them through the hallways, and they ended up at a crossroad.
"Reinhard, you go right, there's a dining room full of the members there. I need you to just keep guard outside the door and attack anyone who comes through. Julius, go straight on. There should be an armoury. I want you to grab the explosives, we're blowing this place to bits. Felix, turn left, there's a slave cell block down there. It's currently unguarded as everyone is eating, so you should be able to evacuate them without risk."
…
Reinhard nodded and headed to the right, but not before questioning himself on how the hell Subaru knew all this. He seemed to plan it all out too. It reminded him of when Julius told him about the white whale hunt and the execution of the Sin Archbishop of Sloth. Subaru was always one step ahead, he had excellent timing and knew things he shouldn't... It was almost as if he's done this before.
Reinhard shook his head, that would be ridiculous.
...
Julius wondered his way down the hallway to the armoury. He had sent Ia with Felix to stop him from being injured. He reflected on Subaru's actions. They were eating, everything was going fine. Suddenly Subaru had throw up the contents of his stomach and screamed about some people attacking. Julius noticed when Subaru had hid under the table, and how he was shaking violently. He saw him scratching his arms until they bled. He saw the scars... Subaru worried him. Julius was prideful, and although Subaru hated him, he didn't care. He worried about Subaru. He also worried about the path he's taken, and how he was able to acquire his 'ability' of predicting the future.
"What happened to you Subaru."
…
Felix found the slaves, they were exactly where Subaru had said they'd be. It was suspicious to him that Subaru knew about all this, but then again he also knew about the White Whale's apparition. And also several things he shouldn't have known during the battle with the Witch Cult.
At first, Subaru said it was the metia, but he sold that away. Even so, it wouldn't explain Subaru just throwing up. He's seen on several occasions where Subaru would freeze up and his eyes would turn blank.
Just how much has this boy gone through?
...
Subaru stood outside the office door. He sighed to himself. There should be two white uniforms and one blue. I don't know if the blue one has any combat ability, but I'm currently by myself here. Let's plan this carefully.
He kicked the door in and barged into the room, taking the dagger from his right hip he threw it at the white uniform on the left of the room. In a split second, he scanned the rest of the room, there were two guards and one blue uniform, he had been correct.
The other guard had been caught off guard. Subaru thought it was funny in his head, but when he told the knights later on they didn't really laugh.
He took his whip from his left side and assaulted the remaining guard. One hit to his torso and one to his head knocked him to the ground, unconscious.
Subaru grinned, taking the dagger from the first guard. The blue one didn't make an effort to fight, he seemed to be pissing himself. "Wh-.. Who the hell are you?!" He yelled, his voice shaking.
Subaru looked at him and smiled. He charged forwards and rammed the knife through the heart of the defenceless man.
"My name is Natsuki Subaru, you messed with the wrong idiots. The thing is, when I'm included. You tend to lose the war before the battle begins."
…
….
Man I really need to work on my one liners.
The End...?
Nah, bonus scene.
Subaru, Reinhard, Julius and Felix all sat on a bench in the park. They had made a mutual agreement to never eat at a restaurant again, so instead Subaru led them to this stand of fried potato sticks with fish that had been dipped in some paste and fried in oil. Subaru had called it "fish and chips" and "takeaway". Explaining it was a delicacy from his homeland, and it was delicious.
Apparently there were quite a few stands popping up around the city with recipes from Subaru's home town. When asked about it, he simply said that he may or may not have cooked for a few select people at a restaurant and taught them some good recipes.
They definitely enjoyed the food, it was good. The "batter" around the fish tasted brilliant combined with the fish. The "chips" tasted quite nice with some mayonnaise.
The quartet ate in silence, the sun rising on the horizon. They stared at the beauty of the park, the birds singing their morning tunes.
Upon closer inspection, they were covered in ash and soot. Turns out you're meant to stay quite far away when exploding a building. The blood stains in their uniforms probably would need a few divine protections to get out.
"Well... This is better than that overpriced aristocrat crap in the restaurant." Felix smiled.
"Yeah... Damn.. What a night." Julius rubbed his eyes tiredly.
Reinhard chuckled. "At least we're unharmed."
Subaru grinned and turned to them. "I guess you could say, it was a Terrible Knight Out!" He grinned.
The other three stared at him with blank faces. Subaru frowned. "Guess not, sheesh. You can at least be thankful for me introducing you to this food."
The End
I tried my best to end it on a positive note. To be honest this is the third time I rewrote this chapter, I just couldn't get it right. I decided to just upload it, it's better than not having one at all. Now that this is out the way, I can go concentrate on the Spirit AU.