Distorted Relationships

Zero Days since the Last Death (Thirteen Deaths)

Once again, the shadows receded, and his body regained the warmth of life. A new life was beginning, once again, his corroded spirit was returning to life. His body remained intact, no damage had been inflicted on its surface. However, the same could not be said of its essence, of the spirit it contained, of the soul it encapsulated. The scars of the harsh passage of time remained. While the body had not aged, the soul had.

A soul that retained deep within it the memory of thirteen deaths, thirteen agonizing deaths, thirteen painful deaths, thirteen cold deaths, thirteen scorching deaths, thirteen lonely deaths, thirteen heartbreaking deaths, thirteen devastating deaths, thirteen traumatizing deaths, thirteen deaths that had been reversed. Again and again, his soul was torn from his body, only to be forced back into it at a point prior to the moment of his death.

His body remained the same. In the eyes of others, of those around him, Subaru was the same. Nothing had changed; however, everything had changed. The pain, the freezing cold, the burning heat, the terrifying loneliness of the deathbed. Death, death, death, death, death. Death of his own, death of others; the smell of death had permeated his spirit. Scars unseen by those around him had been etched into his heart.

Terrible scenarios that only remained in his mind, had accumulated with the passage of time. And Subaru, unable to speak about it, unable to share his pain, carried the weight of the memories in silence. Death after death, Subaru did nothing but vainly advance towards his longed-for destiny. In silence, he bore the burden of his sins, with the phantom pain left over from each death, with the suffering born of scars that would never be erased... Alone, with no one who could hear him, Subaru moved forward.

Yet how much could a human mind endure under such tremendous physical and emotional strain? His mind had already begun to fragment into thousands of pieces, his spirit had already been corrupted by the black of death, and his heart had already hardened like a rock, so as to better withstand the brutality of those endless misfortunes. And still the pain did not subside. Coping silently with the memories of his deaths and the deaths of those around him, Subaru struggled to ignore the pain, agony, and despair...

"Arrggggggghhhh!" Still... a panic attack was bound to happen sooner or later. "Get the fuck away from me, get the fuck AWAY!"

Pain, pain, pain, pain, pain, pain, pain, pain, pain, pain, pain, pain, pain, pain, pain, pain, pain, pain, pain, pain, pain, pain, pain, pain, pain, pain, pain, pain, pain, pain, pain, pain, pain, pain, pain, pain, pain, pain, pain, pain, pain, pain, pain, pain, pain, pain, pain, pain, pain, pain, pain, pain, pain, pain, pain, pain, pain, pain, pain...

Pain was the only thing on Subaru's mind. His body was in perfect condition, there was not a single scratch on his skin; save for his bandaged arms. However, Subaru was the only remaining witness of hells that stretched as far as the eye could see. Fire, Ice, Blood, Steel, Mabeasts, Sins, Cries, Tortures and Mutilations, Endless Punishments; worlds of Gore. Subaru was the last survivor of each of those worlds, where his failures had led to the worst outcomes. Memories of those worlds lingered only in his mind.

In the manga and light novels he used to read when he was a pathetic hikikomori, the heroines often talked about sharing the burden; in those fantasy worlds, the beautiful heroines claimed that they would help the tragic hero bear his pain. In those fantasy worlds, the hero did not have to bear the weight of his failures in silence; in those worlds, the hero had a warm shoulder to lean on.

So... why is no one supporting me? I want to share my burden... I want others to be able to empathize with my pain. I don't want to be the only one scarred by my terrible sins. Have I been the only one who has been wrong? Am I the only one responsible for the terrible fate of every loop? No, that was never my responsibility... I am not a hero, there is no reason why I should bear the blame all by myself.

Subaru writhed as he screamed, tears running down his pale cheeks. In his mind, he could only complain about the injustice of Return by Death, his blessing and his curse. Subaru simply could not consider himself the sole culprit of all the failed worlds... He was not a guard, nor a mercenary, nor a knight, much less a hero; he was an inventor, a pathetic, fake inventor. His job was not to save other people...

Still, possessing an ability like Return by Death morally compelled him to use it to prevent the suffering of others. If it was in his power to spare the tears of the innocent, then was it not the right thing to do as much as he could? However, there was a flaw in that logic; in the end, he was the one who bore all that pain; a pain that was not his concern. In exchange for helping others, he was destroying himself, emotionally and physically.

Was that fair? Perhaps a saint would have agreed, a saint willing to offer his welfare in exchange for the welfare of others. However, Subaru was no such thing; Subaru would never qualify as a saint. A good person? Depending on who you asked, the answer would be yes; but no one would dare call Subaru a saint or a hero. So under no circumstances could Subaru eternally repeat loops to save those around him.

His generosity had a limit, it had an expiration date. Little by little, Subaru discarded more and more people... It was not an abrupt change or decision. However, it all started when he turned his back on Emilia, Felt and Old Man Rom. That was the trigger. After that, he chose to neglect the lost lives of the employees and customers of the inn in Priestella, in addition to the lives of those mercenaries who fell in battle against the mabeasts.

He was then able to use dozens of people in Kyo as a human shield; an event that was fortuitously erased by his death, but that never really faded from his mind. He decided, for selfish reasons, to disregard the vanishing of Crusch Karsten and the death of her subordinates; a faction that had once supported Anastasia's. Finally, completely crushed by the weight of death, he turned his back on those companions with whom he had begun the path he was currently traversing.

The pain of witnessing their deaths indefinitely, the helplessness of being unable to prevent them, the scar left on his psyche after each gruesome death... Repeating it over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. Subaru was destined to suffer that agonizing torture endlessly.

Perhaps in another timeline, if there truly was such a thing, in one in which he had not been used to neglect the lives of others, to disregard them, to turn his back on them and move on... In another world perhaps he would never have given up on saving them. However, Subaru, completely worn out, did not find himself capable of enduring the torment that awaited him if he repeatedly witnessed the death of his allies, over and over and over again. Since he was unable to save them, he would simply push them away from him; he would accept his helplessness and abandon them.

His ability had a peculiarity, and this was that other people's futures could be altered by him. If someone died, Subaru could sacrifice one of his lives to go back in time and save that person... Or perhaps he would simply leave a world where that person died and go to one where that person had not yet died. Whatever the case, there was no doubt that the destinies of those around him were under his control.

A strong person, with a steely spirit and powerful arms with which he could be able to embrace all the lives he wished to protect, could be the hero of thousands of people. However, Subaru was weak, the scope of his grip was paltry, pathetic. The destinies he could protect were few, and in the end this forced him to decide. Therefore, as time went by, he increasingly discarded more and more people; he let go of more and more destinies, leaving them to their own devices.

He could seize them, protect them, save them, prevent the clutches of death from prematurely terminating their ephemeral existences. But that was not his responsibility; it was the responsibility of someone like Reinhard Van Astrea, a genuine hero. Subaru had already made up his mind, he would protect only those destinies that were a priority for him; the destinies of those most valuable to him and his goals.

Only in this way would he be able to lessen the burden he bore on his weakened shoulders. The less destinies he protected, the lesser his burden would be... Even so, the burden was still too heavy for him. Subaru was too weak, his own destiny alone was already too arduous to alter. No matter how many people he abandoned along the way, the weight had not lessened... He was already utterly exhausted.

I'm no fantasy hero! I've even forsaken the very heroine of my fairy tale! But, please, someone help me bear this heavy burden, someone lend me your shoulder! Subaru shouted in his mind. Perhaps he was not the hero summoned to save that world, nevertheless, he was indeed in a place of fantasy... Was it too much to ask for a maiden to appear capable of lending him support, of helping him carry the overwhelming burden of Return by Death? Even a kindly gentleman would do, after all, he was in no condition to be fussy.

He had turned his back on the heroine... However, the sweet maiden and the kindly gentleman might listen to him. Anastasia had already shown a willingness to do so, Otto the same. However, his cursed blessing prevented him from revealing what had happened in those worlds that had ended in failure. His burden was his and no one else's, and that would never change; it was futile to beg for help. Silently, he would have to bear the weight of his failures, the pain born of his sins, the suffering born of his mistakes, the agony born of his weakness.

Therefore, the only thing left for him to do was to scream, while internally he broke down. He had betrayed his friends, and as a result, his bodyguard had betrayed him. No matter what he did, all paths would result in suffering and despair. Even more, Utada had blocked the few paths he had left. With his imposing arms, with his crushing fangs, with his sharp claws; Utada tore away his remaining hopes.

If he listened to his allies, all would end in suffering brought about by the Cult. If he abandoned them, Utada's betrayal would lead to Subaru's inevitable death. He could only scream out of despair, he could only bellow out of suffering, he could only howl out of pain caused by his forbidden memories. In his flesh he still felt the rending of Utada's betrayal. The beast-man who with a look of contempt watched him as he wallowed in his own misery. Subaru could feel it, the murderous betrayal would once again pounce on him.

"Natsuki! Calm down, Natsuki!" Otto, aghast, tried desperately to calm Subaru down. However, his words were failing to reach him. In a fit of madness, Subaru pushed Otto, who was insistently shaking him while grabbing him by the shoulders.

Subaru's brow furrowed sharply, a grimace of rage etched on his naturally evil looking face. "Why must I alone bear this curse?! Why?!" He cried out, finally getting to his feet. The panic attack had begun to rescind, however, Subaru was far from regaining his composure.

"N-Natsuki...?" Said Otto, perplexed. The aura Subaru was emanating was one of overwhelming hostility, a hostility so dense that it forced the merchant, through whose body an intense shiver ran, to retreat up to five steps.

"It's not fair that I'm the one who has to suffer!" Subaru exclaimed, balling his hands into fists. The muscles in his fingers were so tense, they began to throb violently, as blood dripped from between his palms.

Otto, Leith and Utada remembered nothing. Silently, he felt pity for a soul as pathetic as Leith's, who would break at the first piece of bad news and fall into a catatonic state. None would ever know of all the hell he had lived through with and without them. Unfairly, they could resume their lives with relative normalcy after each return, yet his mind would be increasingly fragmented, his spirit more and more worn down. No matter how many times he got up, fate would take it upon itself to bring him once again to his knees. No matter how many times he renewed his resolve and determination, death would take care of dismantling them.

Subaru was forced to suffer in silence, while those around him would remain oblivious to the hell that awaited them ahead. Only Subaru would be aware of the full extent of the unbearable suffering, while all others enjoyed blissful and indulgent ignorance. He alone would bear the brunt of the failures and suffering of each and every death, both his own and others'. His mind, even considerably desensitized, would continue to be exposed to increasingly grotesque, painful, agonizing, traumatizing deaths; hell is the limit to the degree of suffering a death can cause. To become completely accustomed to this would simply be impossible.

And, even if there were no taboo of the shadow, which prevented him from sharing the suffering buried in his memory, none of them would ever understand what all that agony felt like in the flesh. He was alone... It was extremely unfair, but undeniably he was alone... I want them to feel it too! I want them to share my pain! I want them all to understand, to really understand all that I have suffered! I want them to feel my agony on their own flesh!

Burning with envy for those ignorant and oblivious to the terrible extent of his emotional burden, Subaru wished for the first time that other people felt what he felt. Deep within him, at the root of all hatred and wrath, a toxic envy arose, which gave way to a twisted craving; that others would empathize with his hellish suffering. Yet, fulfilling that wish proved impossible, so frustration, anger and hatred flooded his mind, leaving him with the only option of attacking those who had indirectly and directly catalyzed those feelings.

"..." Stopping his internal monologue, Subaru stared at Otto and Utada with eyes devoid of rationality.

Certainly, Subaru was acting hypocritically. He wished that others would empathize with his pain, but he had been unable to empathize with theirs. He neglected the suffering of Leith, who lost his family, disregarded the fear of Otto, who was vainly trying to resolve conflicts that were vastly above him, just as he ignored the agony of Utada's traumatic past, which had given birth to his hatred of the Witch Cult. At the same time, he had completely dismissed the suffering of the girl and young woman he murdered in order to continue living...

He suffered watching the deaths of Leith, Otto and Utada, however, the only thing he could think of was to abandon them, so as to simply stop witnessing their deaths. Ultimately, Subaru was only able to think of his own suffering, while disregarding the suffering of others. A pathetic self-centeredness was what prevented him from noticing this, and it would remain so until the end of time; that was his unfounded pride... Believing that he was the only one who suffered was a selfish and self-serving thought, however, could he really be blamed for it? Undoubtedly, the magnitude of Subaru's suffering was on a different scale than that of those around him...

"N-Natsuki, what are you talking about? Suffering? You mean what happened at Priestella and Kyo?" Striving to establish line of communication with the enraged Subaru, Otto tried to reason as he questioned him about his heated claims. Otto genuinely wished to understand Subaru, who had abruptly lost control of his emotions and had suffered a violent panic attack. However, Subaru judged Otto's compassionate look as a look of condescension; which further increased his unbridled envious wrath.

"What am I talking about, you say? I'm talking about all the suffering I've endured because of you!" Subaru exclaimed, tears soaking his flushed face. "Again and again and again and again and again, non-stop... I have suffered in silence, while you went on quietly with your pathetic lives, unable to remember all those goddamn hells... As if nothing had really happened. As if you had never di-!"

While ranting against those who had received the blessing of ignorance, Subaru ended up shooting his mouth off. A clumsy tongue incapable of keeping secrets was punished by the merciless shadowy claw. Subaru knew this, which is why he had created an artifice to hide his true ability. For this reason he suffered in silence, while carrying the weight of his sins on his back. That is why his heart was covered with deep scars and his mind was fragmented.

Subaru could talk about the events that occurred during each of the loops, but he was strictly forbidden to reveal how he had acquired such information. He could not talk about his death, nor, accordingly, could he attempt to talk about his death. He could talk about what happened in each loop, but he could not give too many details, he could not shed light on the full truth of the terrible events.

How much he could or could not reveal really depended on the whims of the shadow. If the shadow considered that Subaru would break the taboo, the penance would fall on Subaru. And that cruel rule was what bound him to a life of endless and unbearable lonesome and reclusive suffering. If he talked too much, he would end up vomiting blood; that was general knowledge to him. However, in the state of extreme disturbance he was in, he completely forgot such a rule.

"Natsuki!" To Otto, Utada and the silent Leith, who was still in a catatonic state, it was only a thousandth of a second, maybe less. Time had frozen, from a black vortex a shadowy hand had emerged... No, it was the silhouette of a woman. Her features were not visible, but it was undoubtedly a woman. The shadowy hand was part of her, the punishment was equally enforced.

"Argkgghhh..." Blood drenched his face and clothes. Lethal hemorrhages had taken place in his nose, ears, eyes and mouth, painting his face a demonic red. Still, to the surprise of the witnesses to such a gruesome scene, Subaru got back to his feet, shoving away Otto, who had approached him again to check his condition. "... Y-Yo-ur fa… ult... It's… all y-your fault... Your fault! I've di- Arghhh! Blergh! A-Aga-in… and… a-again... again... o-over and over again! Always bearing alone the pain of each dea-! Agghhhhh! A-Always… by… my-self! I-It's not fair! I want to share my pain! I want to make my suffering yours too! Why must I be the only one who suffers?! Why must I bear this curse in silence?! I didn't ask for such a despicable curse! To di-! Arghhh! To d-! Arrgghahh! F-For y-ou... Again and again, for all of you, for all those I considered important. Why don't you reach out to me, as I've reached out to you? Why don't you help me to bear this pain! I can't do it anymore! I can't go on like this anymore! I need help! So please...! Remove this curse from me! If not possible, then share my suffering! Feel my pain! Empathize with my agony! Remember what I remember! Di-! Arrrhhhhhghhhk!... a-as I do! Feel in your flesh what I've felt since I came here!"

With a horrible, pathetic grimace painted on his face, Subaru continued to spout impossible, selfish demands, ignoring the constant punishments from the female shadow. Horrified, Otto watched as Subaru vomited more and more blood the harder he struggled to speak, crimson tears flowed steadily from his eyes, and streams of blood gurgled from his nose and ears. Enough blood to cause death by hemorrhage had been spilled from Subaru's body, yet he did not die. It was as if the blood was not coming from his body but from somewhere else entirely.

Whenever time halted, the shadow would crush Subaru's beating heart with its spiteful claws, with its jealous hands, with its envious grasp. And before the natural flow of time returned to normal, it restored his heart to a second before it was crushed. However, the agonizing pain of his heart being crushed remained there, for it was not just a physical pain; Subaru simply shrugged it off as he spewed out his frustrations. The shadow did not want him to speak, but he simply refused to accept not to do so...

"Natsuki..." Otto, aghast, approached Subaru for the third time; at a slow pace, so as to avoid being rejected again. "I really don't understand... It seems that without us noticing, you experienced a hell behind our backs. Does it have to do with your past? Or rather with what happened during the assaults that you suffered together with Anastasia and the others...? I'd already noticed that you're despondent; Leith and I noticed it. However, it's painfully obvious that we never tried hard enough to help you, to understand you. And for that I apologize." Bowing slightly, Otto stopped a meter away from Subaru, who was standing over a pool of his own blood, with an expression of terrible agony on his bloodied face. "So, I'm gonna insist on what we told you more than once. If you need to talk to us, do so. We will listen to you, and we will do our best to share your pain..."

"Ha!" A disdainful laugh involuntarily erupted from Subaru's mouth, whose gaze had regained much of its glint of life. However, it was a corrupted glint; a glint of madness, a glint of wrath. "You say you'll share my pain? That's nothing but condescending talk. koff!" Coughing up blood, Subaru used one of his bandaged arms to cover his mouth. After that, he turned his face away from the arm and paused to stare at the crimson stain that quickly blended in with the other, older ones. "How many times have you said that, Otto? Didn't you promise the same thing before? Wouldn't you share my pain and help me to carry on when I'd no longer? Didn't you promise that together we'd bear the suffering that was to come? You promised, but you forgot, Otto... That was nothing but a vain promise forgotten in time, it seems... In the end I was forced to bear, once again, all the suffering by myself." Subaru muttered, recalling the events following his first death. "If I could really share the cursed burden I bear... If I could share my pain, my suffering... I would have done it by now. Sadly, it's not possible. So I guess this was all but a pointless tantrum on my part. Ahhhh... Shit, looks like this loop won't be the right one." Covering his face with his other hand, Subaru sighed.

Subaru seemed to have regained his composure, but Otto could feel it, that was not quite the case... However, he was too confused by Subaru's words to dwell on it too much. "Promise? Loop...?"

"Please step aside, Suwen-san." While Otto, puzzled, asked about Subaru's strange remarks, he was politely pushed out of the way by Utada. The mercenary appeared to be calm, but his look conveyed quite the opposite; it was a facade. Everything was a facade. Life itself was a facade; that loop was a facade that was about to be unveiled, and inside it only contained death. "Are ya finally gonna show your true colors, Subaru-sama?" Utada questioned him, reaching for the axe that hung over his back.

"My true colors...?" Subaru asked genuinely bewildered, showing only one eye, the one that peeked out between his thumb and forefinger; he had shed tears of blood, so it had a very intense reddish crimson hue. That was not the face of a human... "Right." As if he had finally remembered something, Subaru smiled, but only a part of this smile was visible; that was not a genuine smile. "Nothing I say will really matter, will it? You've already made up your mind about who I really am..."

"Not that I've made up my mind 'bout anythin'. Ya're the one who has chosen to become who ya really are, Subaru-sama. Or should I say, witch cultist?"

"Cultist?!" Leith was still in a state of shock, so the only one who reacted surprised at the revelation was Otto, on whom an expression of complete perplexity was drawn.

"I thought so..." Subaru muttered, sighing. Had Utada noticed? The mercenary had sharper senses than him, so it was likely that he had indeed noticed. That unpleasant feeling that was running through his body, it was all too familiar... "In that case, why don't I play the role you cast me in? I'll once again play that damn role you and those lunatics imposed on me. Anyway, it's not like I can do anything to persuade you otherwise. I don't have the time either... It's too late now, so I'm just taking an all-or-nothing gamble. If I fail, I'll simply try again... The Archbishop of Pride, Natsuki Subaru, commands you, slay that traitorous mercenary brute!"

As if they were robots who had received an order from their creator, the hooded men hidden in the shadows drew their sharp cross-shaped daggers and lunged at Utada. Archbishop of Pride... Utada had not really expected to hear such a declaration coming from Subaru's mouth. The smell that Subaru was emanating was undoubtedly that of the witch, however, that stench had never been as intense as it was at that specific moment. What is going on? Utada had wondered.

Was Subaru a member of the Witch Cult? At one point he had believed such a thing, however, when the smell diminished, he had come to chalk it up to an illness or something similar. Subaru never showed any signs of being a double agent or an infiltrating cultist... Still, the doubt had remained. The violent increase in the odor he gave off took him by surprise, throwing his emotions out of control.

Even so, he had managed to keep his cool... Until he heard that all that time he had been living with an Archbishop of Sin. Not even with the worst scenario in mind, Utada came to believe that Subaru would indeed be a wretched Sin Archbishop. Alienated by anger, Utada was unable to react to the cultists' attack. A deep cut on one leg, one arm and three deep cuts on his back; that was the result of his carelessness. And yet, Utada failed to notice that he had been attacked. His gaze was completely fixed on Subaru's despicable face...

"Slay him! Assassinate him! Murder him! Slaughter him! Fucking kill him! Kill him! Kill him! Kill him! Kill him, dammit! No matter he will not remember it, for a moment, for a small fraction of time, he will feel the same as I always feel! He will suffer a fate similar to m-! Arrghhhhag! F-Fuck-ing... shadow..." Completely disregarding the taboo that shackled him, Subaru continued to insist in vain on disclosing the hell that was silently tormenting him. "The Archbishop of Pride commands you, you damned lunatics! Make that wretched traitor suffer! Make him repent of his sins!" He commanded, pointing at the wrathful beast-man. "It's just like you once said, Utada! If Anastasia found out that you attempted on my life, she'd fire you at once! Not only that, but Ricardo also probably wouldn't hesitate to chop off your head! So pay for your sins! Expiate them just as I've been doing all this time without you being aware of it!"

However, Utada paid no heed to Subaru's unhinged bellowing. Like a wild beast, using his claws, using his teeth, using his muscles, he fought against the hordes of cultists. Heads, legs and arms were detached due to his violent onslaught. The cultists never showed any intention of surrendering; even when only shreds of flesh remained where some of their limbs should have been, they fought on.

Otto watched the terrible combat absolutely transfixed. At some point he had reacted on pure instinct, grabbed Leith and hid together with him under the conference table. Much of the old workshop had been demolished by the mercenary's aggressive attacks, and flames from the cultists' magical attacks had begun to consume the wooden ceiling.

The chairs, the wooden board, the pile of files on the Reinvention Project, everything was destroyed by the heated combat between the mercenary and the cultists. And in the center of it all, with a vacant stare, stood Subaru; a twisted smile plastered on his pale, bloodied face. It was a smile of madness, of satisfaction, of pain, of agony... Everything and nothing at the same time. Subaru was enjoying that moment as much as Otto himself. Both were suffering deeply for that terrible outcome, nonetheless, a devious part hidden deep in Subaru's soul was actually relishing that bloodbath.

Otto wanted to question Subaru. How long had he been a member of the Witch Cult? Since before they met? Had he always been a traitor hiding in the shadows? Had he always planned to assassinate them when the time came? Why had he joined them? The cult, and Leith and him... Had they treated Subaru differently, would that hell have been avoided...? Otto had many questions, many questions he knew would never be answered. That was the grim end...

Before Otto's terrified gaze, only Subaru and Utada remained. The only thing separating the mercenary and the inventor was a sea of corpses. Boss and employee at some point, the bodyguard and the one he protected... Now sworn enemies. All of Subaru's subordinate cultists had fallen, pieces of flesh and a sea of blood was all that remained of them. With crimson streams flowing from his jaw, Utada pointed his finger at Subaru.

"I'll deal with ya now, you archbishop son of a bitch." Before his eyes was not Subaru, but the Archbishop of Pride; Utada would not be restrained by his emotions or his conscience. Utada lunged at Subaru, his arms outstretched towards his face; however, the strike was never concreted. Stunned, Otto watched as Utada had stopped only inches away from Subaru; it was as if something invisible had stopped him.

"Now... What is supposed to be taking place here? My fingers informed me of the presence of a fellow believer in love, and when I come to meet him, all I find is that one of my fingers has been severed. How terrible! How tragic! How dreadful! What a dire fate! Has my finger failed to perform its duties?! Was it perhaps... sloth? No, no, no, no, no, no, no... That does not seem to be the case. Terribly, unjustly, ignominiously, my index finger has been murdered while striving diligently to carry out my orders. Who was the perpetrator of such a despicable deed?"

From a gaping hole left behind by the impact of one of the cultists, which Utada had savagely thrown against the wall, appeared a thin man dressed in a black robe. Brown hair, sickly pale skin and reddish eyes devoid of rationality; it was none other than Petelgeuse Romanée-Conti. Utada, sensing the enormous danger presented by the strange man, moved into an attack position, his gaze locked on him.

"Are ya one of the damned archbishops, too?!" Utada exclaimed, agitated. "Have ya come to aid yer partner?!" Subaru was being blocked by some sort of invisible barrier, and it had not been difficult for Utada to infer that the newcomer was to blame for this.

"Hmm... I see, so you were the believer in love that my fingers have told me about..." Completely ignoring the beast-man's aggressive questioning, Petelgeuse fixed his crazed gaze on Subaru, whom he analyzed carefully. After a couple of seconds, his gaze moved to Utada, who flinched involuntarily. As well as Subaru, Petelgeuse scrutinized Utada, and after a few short seconds, the archbishop spoke again. "My brain trembles... Now both of you will answer me this, who... are... YOU?!"