The Missing Piece
Barely keeping up with Ram's pace, Subaru's vision was starting to blur, but he still kept pushing himself onward until he collapsed again.
Subaru let out a pained groan: "Uugh"
Ram turned to Subaru, her eyes were filled with genuine pity.
Ram: "Rest here Barusu. I'll find the thief far quicker with you not holding me back. I shall return soon."
Somewhat taken aback by Ram's sudden change of heart made Subaru more inclined to accept her offer. Even if he were to refuse, he would not be able to move much regardless.
Subaru nodded and Ram rushed off.
Subaru talked to himself quietly while squeezing his leg muscles: "Looks like another dead end loop, I exhausted myself way too much and now im wasting time sitting here doing nothing.
With a deep breath Subaru jumped back to his feet, barely maintaining balance.
Subaru: "I better move and do something, beats just sitting here and wasting time, this exhaustion will be gone by the next loop either way".
As Subaru took his first step, his calves hurt way too much, they were strained and involuntarily constricted from the sudden stress they went through.
Each consecutive step after the first felt like a thousands needles being thrust through his soles.
Subaru: "It hurts… But I've had worse".
Subaru grinned trying to fight off the pain, however he quickly lost focus after being distracted by someone's footsteps behind him.
The footsteps had stopped, Subaru realized whoever it was, they had business with him. He turned around reluctantly, only to see Julius.
Subaru: "Hello Julius, any luck with the thief?"
"Let me guess this idiot realized he has no clue where to look for her" Subaru thought to himself.
Julius smiled, Subaru returned a confused look.
Julius: "Yes Natsuki-san, I have captured the thief!"
Subaru: "Well I'll be damned, great job knight Julius! Have you also recovered the stolen item?"
Julius nodded and passed over the Insignia somewhat reluctantly.
Felt: "Hey don't butt in kid, you probably don't know what this item is! And I clearly don't remember stealing it from you."
Subaru: "Yes, you did not steal it from me, directly, but you stole it from my patron!"
Julius face started to grow more concerned.
Felt: "Then how did you know that I was the one who stole it?"
Subaru realized his error, but soon came up with a work around.
Subaru: "I found my patron running around in a panic, I asked what happened and she gave me your description."
Julius hearing this was somewhat relieved, but he still looked concerned as he slightly pulled on the chain around Felts arms.
Felt was annoyed but stopped.
Julius reluctantly asked: "Natsuki-san would you be okay with leaving the punishment of this thief in my own hands? That would be the only compensation I ask for."
Subaru and Felt replied simultaneously: "Pervert."
Julius was somewhat flustered and tried rephrasing his statement: "No I did not mean tha..."
Subaru cut off Julius: "Punish her as you see fit Julius, but please don't be too rough on her, I don't care about what she did, its in the past now, as long as I have my item back I'm satisfied."
Julius smiled: "Thank you for understanding Natsuki-san. I would like to talk more, but I'm in a rush, please forgive me for my haste."
Subaru: "Go ahead its alright, you did more than enough for me Julius, but before you go, take the reward."
Subaru pushed his phone into Julius hand, but Julius did not accept it.
Julius: "I already asked for more than enough, you can keep it."
Subaru: "Are you sure? You did help me quite a lot".
Julius nodded.
Subaru then bowed down his head and thanked Julius which also returned the courtesy. Then he proceeded to hurry off.
As Julius left Subaru's shoulder started to feel warm, then again, after all that running it was not surprising that most of his muscles would be burning up.
Only after Subaru could no longer hear Julius's footsteps did he jump up and scream out "Victory!" in his usual manner.
Subaru: "I cant believe how this loop ended up working out in the end. Fuck me it took me 100...no...200 tries at this point? I guess Julius was the key character I was missing after all. However I do wonder, was punishing Felt such a big deal for him, to the point where he would refuse a metia? But I mean he is a knight, maybe it chivalry or something?"
Subaru shook his head to rid of pointless thoughts, then started walking the opposite direction Ram took. He assumed Ram would have taken the opposite path of Satella to cover more ground.
Reinvigorated by this victory, Subaru put more energy in each step he took, it felt as if all the pain in his body had become irrelevant. With such momentum it did not take him too long to find a crowd surrounding a girl in white.
?: "Get outta here ya silver haired bitch".
Subaru heard many profanities being hurled at this girl. The descriptions clearly matched that of Satella. Thus Subaru ran in the crowd, as he got close, he could not really recognize the girl, clearly it was Satella but something felt off, however this was not time for indecision.
Subaru reached out his hand to the girl and told her to follow him. The girl was hesitant at first, but sensing no force in the boy's grip, she decided to follow.
Multiple rocks hit Subaru's legs, clearly thrown by the angry crowd. It hurt quite a bit, but Subaru maintained his cool and kept running. After few minutes they finally managed to get away from the mob.
They finally stopped in a alleyway far away, Subaru slouched over and started to caressing his injured leg, the girl meanwhile took off her hood, and as she did he instantly recognized her as Satella.
Subaru: "Huh..?"
Satella: "What is it? Are you surprised by how I look?"
Subaru: "No, no, not that, it was like I could not recognize you..? Actually never mind, I'm probably seeing things from all the running."
Satella: "Okay..? What is it that you want mister?"
Subaru took a deep breath and started fabricating a convincing story in his head.
Subaru: "Not long ago I saw you running around in a hurry miss. You looked troubled, after a bit I realized you were robbed, so I decided to chase down the thief myself!"
Satella: "But why? Why would you help me?"
Subaru: "I would never leave a maiden in distress."
Satella: "Despite how I look?"
Subaru: "I think you look great"
Satella: "I'm befuddled, I never heard anyone tell me that."
Subaru gave her a smile, while also trying to suppress the urge to say his usual line.
Subaru: "Me and my err... friend? Caught the thief and got your insignia back"
Satella: "Did you hurt her?"
Subaru: "Of course not, this blood is my own, I happened to have tripped and struck my head against a wall. I can assure you that the thief is in safe hands."
Satella sighed out of relief: "Thank the heavens!"
Subaru: "Who says that line nowadays, so old fashioned"
Satella : "Eh?"
Subaru pinched himself, thinking "I still let it slip, fuck..."
Subaru: "Never mind… Well anyway here you go."
Subaru handed the insignia over to Satella.
Satellas gave Subaru a confused look at first but then her face instantly lit up with joy, her eyes got a bit watery and her voice became softer.
Satella: "Thank you soo much, i thought i had lost it for good." Proceeding to press the Insignia against her chest.
Subaru started scratching his head, while having a large dumb smile plastered across his face.
Subaru: "My name is Natsuki Subaru, No need to thank me, it was nothing."
Satella: "Is there anything I can do to repay the favor Subaru?"
Satella got close to Subaru and clutched his arm.
Subaru did not give it much thought and replied: "May I get to know your name please?"
Satella: "That's it? Just my name?"
Subaru: "Well first I need to know your name, no?"
Satella: "Alright then. My name is Emilia, just Emilia".
Subaru had finally figured out Satella's true name, he expected some spectacular feeling after this revelation, but this moment had lost its value, after all he had died more than couple of hundred times for it.
Subaru: "Nice to meet you Emilia-ta..san, I'm glad that I was able to help."
Subaru turned around nonchalantly and started to walk away. "What do I do now, maybe I'll sell my phone to old man Rom, get some food and water, but where do I stay?"
Emilia: "Wait, wait, wait! Where are you heading off to? What about the reward! Clearly just hearing my name is not a compensation for what you did."
Subaru at this point wanted to get away from Emilia, he had subconsciously associated all of his suffering to her at this point, and wanted to take his mind off things.
Subaru: "It is alright, you can repay me some other time."
Emilia: "But you are covered in blood and sweat, I cant simply let you go like that alone."
Subaru hesitated to accept, but he needed a place to stay, thus distancing himself from Emilia could wait for later date.
Subaru: "Fine then, I'll follow you?"
Emilia: "Yes please, I shall take u back to the Mansion, Roswaal will be more than glad to accommodate you until you recover your strength, and also reward you for your good deed".
Subaru quietly spoke: "Where have I heard Roswaal before."
Emilia: "But we might have to take a slight detour before we get there, I apologize, you're already soo tired, but I must meet up with a maid, I cant leave her behind."
Subaru: "No probleimo, I'll help you find her, so lets split up to cover more gro…"
Emilia quickly interjected: "No! I cant let you walk alone at night, especially not in such shape. We will look for her together."
Subaru did not bother to argue, thus he let her take the lead. They searched for a bit, but no luck, thus Subaru decided to take the initiative.
Subaru: "Emilia, would Ram happened to be a maid with pink hair?"
Emilia with a puzzled look replied: "Yes? Would u have happened to met her before?"
Subaru: "We accidentally crossed paths not too long ago. We were both pursuing the same thief, but after some time we got separated. I think she might be waiting for me at the rendezvous spot we agreed on."
Emilia: "Sounds perfect, please lead the way then Subaru-kun."
*Few hours later*
Ram: "Idiot Barusu you're useless even as a tool."
Subaru: "Sorry for not keeping my word, but you will change your mind after you hear what I just did."
Ram: "Hah…."
Ram proceeded to return the usual disgusted gaze back to Subaru.
Subaru: "I have captured the thief and successfully recovered the Insignia you were looking for."
Ram: "Now is not time for jokes Barusu. Wait, how do you know what was sto.."
Emilia proceeded to remove her hood and Ram instantly recognized her.
Emilia: "It is the truth Ram. Subaru caught the thief and also returned my Insignia, but could you please refrain yourself from speaking so discourteously to Subaru?"
Ram bowed down and responded in a different tone: "My apologies Emilia-sama, it was very impolite of me".
Emilia puffed up her checks and pouted: "Don't apologize to me, apologize to Subaru-kun".
Subaru felt no reluctance from Ram as she turned towards him and said: "I apologize for my impoliteness Subaru, and thank you for your aid."
Ram then gave Subaru a cold stare, it was no longer of disgust and her usual shenanigans, but of distrust instead.
Emilia: "Now that everyone is here, lets head back to the mansion, Roswaal would be interested in todays events."
Thus the three slowly walked out of the slums until they were about to reach the main streets. Throughout the entire walk, Ram stayed on edge around Subaru, she was trying to keep distance between him and Emilia. Subaru would have not noticed this before, but thanks to his encounters with Elsa, he could somewhat notice peoples intent.
The sun was already set, the walk had been quite lengthy, the bustling streets of this city were now empty. The silence was almost deafening, but it was constantly being disturbed by monotone sounds of Emilia's and Ram's footsteps. It was a tranquil night Subaru was finally enjoying a bit of peace after so much chaos.
As Subaru let his guard down and somewhat got used to the footsteps, he suddenly heard someone walking in High heels.
Just as Subaru let his guard down he heard a different sound. He instantly snapped back to being alert, looking over to Ram who also was on edge.
The sound was clearly coming from behind them, yet there was no one to be seen. As if on que, the sound could be heard again, but it was clearer now, it was the sound of high heels striking against the stone pavement.
The sound was familiar to Subaru, he clearly remembered hearing it before, but where..?
Quietly he spoke to himself: "Wait a second... no fucking way... OH SHIT".
Subaru let out a guttural scream: "EMILIA WATCHOUT!"
He instantly without any hesitation slammed into Emilia.
Ram in an angry and confused voice: "What are you doing idiot Bar-?!"
Ram's sentence was interrupted by the blood curdling sound of a blade piercing through flesh. After Ram saw crimson liquid leaking from where Subaru and Emilia had landed, she promptly realized what had just happened. She instantly grabbed her wand and turned around.
Ram: "EL FULA!"
The sound of the wind and metal clashing echoed throughout the empty streets.
Sorry for the delay folks, had a rough week, however the next chapter is going to be out way sooner!
P.S. Thanks for sticking around, I cant wait to read the new reviews :)