The simplest upper layer Subaru could pull without actually looking in the closet was a simple white tee. He guided a short sleeve around his stump as the Witch of Gluttony flipped from Emilia to the windowsill. She didn't stir the air, nor leave a depression on the bed to spring back up.
These Witches were a bottomless well of impossibilities. "How'd you even get here?" Subaru whispered, tiptoeing his feet into slippers.
"We're gonna bolt as fast as possible across the capital rooftops," she replied as though serious. "Minerva will heal your mangled body before your consciousness dies, don't worry. I'm really super fast, Subarun." Daphne yawned a great yawn, her grin following his direction.
Tight in the chest, Subaru was ready for her to snap as he leaned towards the capital's twinkling expanse. A warm breeze stirred his bangs, cooled his forehead, earthy with hot, wet pavement. A literal breath of fresh aire from the stuffiness of the royal couple's previous activities.
Directly below was the courtyard, its darker stone laid in swirl-like patterns surely dozens of meters away. Maybe a hundred. There were towers along the way down, sure, but…
"Y-you say that," Subaru breathed, "that you're f-fast… But, not fast enough to catch up to Petra and I, apparently." And he nearly accepted this plan without a second thought; more and more it was looking like a cruel trick just to destroy his trust. "What's your angle? Did you actually plan on getting captured this morning?"
"Oh, that? Has that been bothering you all day? Didja want me to be fed that badly? You're so nice , Subarun."
"You know what I mean," he mumbled.
"And I mean that there's nothing to it. My… heart wasn't really in it, that's all."
Subaru nearly scoffed at the absurdity. This whole angle relied purely on their word. "Your stomach definitely was."
Daphne tittered, echoing in his ear like a mischievous ghost. "Yeah," she drawled, grin broadening and little else. "But that's all."
"That's all?" She had her limbs back; was here, present. Without raising an alarm? "I still got several questions, missy." Plus Daphne was smaller than the castle's youngest maid, even before she grew up. Being fast has its limits. "My trust in you is in the pits. I dunno how you expect me to believe that I'll survive this fall."
"You can believe it because killing you is the most pointless thing we could do." Daphne hummed. "Regardless, your trust is not so low that you cannot hold a calm conversation with us."
Subaru could only gulp, unable to excuse this fact. "'Calm' is the last thing I feel. Towards any of you guys."
"And yet, you're dressed and ready to go see my sisters. Those slippers will be useless, by the way."
"Uh, 'kay?"
In truth, this random encounter was the kind of miracle Subaru had been praying for. "I imagine that's part of why my sisters wanna chat, now that I think about it."
"How do you even know—?"
Daphne threw her head down, scratching like it itched. "Y-yes, yes… Yes— Minny, I'll be there in a Minny-minute, don't be rushy! Gosh!"
…Huh. Okay. The Witches were mentally linked, denoting the 'how' to their uncanny coordination. Really added to their 'unstoppable zombie' vibe, Subaru had to say.
He really had to.
While their threat level hadn't lessened with this reveal, the Witches became a little less scary all of a sudden. Emphasis on the "a little."
It was enough for Subaru to bravely prioritize his will over theirs. "What happened to the guards watching you? Or my friends?" he asked, chest tight in anticipation.
Daphne's jaw lashed as Subaru swallowed a yelp for Emilia's sake, the sleeve his stump didn't completely fill snatched in her jaws. "My arms and legs killed them, obviously," she said, guiding Subaru's head out the window. "Not your friends, of course; eating them would make you sad, after all!~ Plus, as the saying goes, 'we have bigger fish to fry.'"
Her fucking arms and legs? "Then, h-how did you get past my friends after shedding all that blo—?"
"Making a hurried return from the scene of my speedy getaway. Goodness," she sighed, cupping her cheek—stretched the sleeve between her teeth. "Those demi-servants' lust for bloodshed was positively scrumptious to be on the receiving end for once! Truly, I never felt like such a cornered hare bef—!" Daphne's orb-like, star-filled eyes popped open as she snorted the air soundlessly—her nostrils flaring wide. "Subarun, we have seconds now before they arrive."
"DUMBASS!"
"Hey, that's not nice," she scolded playfully. "You didn't wanna trust me, so what was I supposed to do?"
And that was completely true, Subaru realized as Emilia stirred. " Let's just go already, " he hissed.
"But-but—!" sniffed Daph. "They smell salty and sweaty! If you don't wanna trust me, may I—?"
"Su- Subaru?! " Emilia was upright and facing them, embracing the blanket with a fistfull of frosty light clawing for Daphne. "Y-you let him go right now—!"
The door crashed open behind them, startling Emilia and giving Daphne the chance to leap, yanking Subaru. "Sor-ry! He's Chid-chid's, now!"
"Wh—y-you mean Mother?!"
The night opened up before Subaru, his legs smashing into the windowsill, shins, and finally his feet.
Behind him he heard, "THAT'S BETTY'S!"
"SUBARU!" Emilia's voice broke.
"BOSS!" and, "NO, BROTHER, SHE'LL SLAUGHTER YOU!"
"I'm shocked at how sorry I am about this." Daphne's layered, demonic voice rumbled with a lump in her disembodied voice. "I actually hesitated, too. Because I'm about to hurt you."
"Huh?!" That's not what made Subaru gasp as flecks of tears sprinkled from Daphne's eyes. "I realized, I didn't wanna hurt you… anymore… then I already have. After my hunger subsided, and thought about how you saved Petra—"
"S-stop screwing around with me." This was definitely an act, for sure. The wind roared in their ears, whipping Subaru's eyes cold.
"Subarun is a good person, and Petra is a good girl. They deserve to be spared a kindness every now and then. Even as I say that, and the others voice their disagreements… I've been giving them mine, Subarun." A pointed rooftop was racing to skewer them. "This is the result of your efforts, Subarun. Don't forget that moving forward."
The spiked roof was a meter away.
"Thanks for treating me like a person, you crazy boy~"
Subaru cried out. Daphne's little hands grazed the tower's conical peak, and Subaru's cry lurched in agony as she galloped, springing all but straight up, the wind blasting by warm-cold; her trajectory was perfect, for neither Subaru's head nor torso shattered against the roof. Only his legs exploded, and Subaru howled a scream that shook the night, lurching with every leap, every time the capital of Lugnica uppercutted him in the knees. The journey wailed on by, howling like the wind, his veins racing as though with the wind itself as he started flying horizontally, whipped and weed whacked by grass in a constant darkness—too fast to look up. And too scary. Subaru yowled, cried out, twisting from his sleeve. How it didn't tear wasn't a miracle—coppery droplets started pecking him on the cheek, his stump burning, scorching, agonizing. Screaming, Subaru started screaming louder the tighter Daphne's jaws chomped further down his bicep. Subaru yowled, skidding and burning and breaking all over; and gasping now, Subaru couldn't breathe either. Gasping wasn't breathing, it was trying to live. Subaru jerked left, right, a domed roof gutted him firing pale fluid from his mouth.
Why? Subaru's body pancaked and ejected and bounced again against stone, red ropes flopping several meters behind them. His nerves thundered with a dull agony, smothered in layers of cloth, it felt like. Why did I just agree to something like this…?
When we coulda taken her—? Daphne would've killed Emilia without a second thought. He wondered if his wife would call that an excuse; if she still would, while being devoured from the inside-out.
This was just a moment's pain.
Situations like this, having thoughts such as these—rarely did the two come together, but when they did, Subaru had to give himself credit for not going insane yet.
He probably was already. The mentally ill didn't want to think that they were. And sane people wouldn't make the mistakes as Subaru as often as he had. For twenty-one years straight on top of that. Basically.
Emilia would ultimately excuse his trauma—that's simply who she is. Perhaps it's what she felt Subaru was "owed" for everything he'd done.
A sickening possibility.
Because it was still Subaru's trauma.
And when "trauma" was his only excuse for making these mistakes…
I hafta figure this out. It was getting hard to stay thinking.
To stay awake—in this loop, rather…
I hafta figure this out… and make them not hurt…
"Minny, we're almost there! Brace yourself, Subarun!" They leapt, glass bursting around them.
What? Daphne hit the brakes directly in his gut, or so it felt—Subaru gaped, gasped and puked, folding around the iron-stiff arm of a blonde woman glaring from beneath her hood.
"If it weren't for my Authority, you'd've exploded like a rotting gourd!" she snarled, a demon simultaneously mocking her, growling like she. "But I bet you never considered that, you reckless fool. Tch, you really haven't changed! Hardly, anyway—not much since Sanctuary as far as I can tell!" Her fist wrenched, keeping Subaru hoisted agape like a fish, twisting more as she said, "Yes, you're still the same at your core. Shoulda known better— than to have faith— in something as idyllic— as a single pep talk changing a person's entire foundations !" Her entire being yanked back, dropping Subaru with what felt like a hole burned into his gut. Groaning, he cradled it, unable to open his eyes as shifting cloth sounded before him.
"You can't expect too much of the boy," a pair of voices sighed as one. "Settle down, Minerva."
"I will not! You heard Daphne's thoughts—he didn't even think twice about himself, or how his friends felt! He just—!" A clap, and she mocked, "Said, 'A-okay, Daph! Drag me halfway across the capital like a ragdoll!' And right in front of Emilia! Doesn't that infuriate you?!"
"Yes," two sighs echoed. "Yes, yes it does. Though for entirely different reasons, I'm sure."
"For sure, for sure!" cooed a deranged-sounding child. "Which reminds me… hang on, everyone. Before we continue…" Something gave out, collapsing Subaru flat on his belly. "I gotta make sure, he's… huh! Lookie there, Baru's still a good person!"
"Typhon, put his arm down!"
"I was gonna give it back!" Her whine, layered with a garbled, masculine-sounding voice, raked across him with chills. "I just wanted to see if Baru was irredeemable, but it seems his penitence has never ended from that time at the Witch's Tea Party. I'm so relieved, Baru! You're as self-aware as ever. There's hope for us yet! We can all get out of this without anybody else getting hurt!"
How? What?
Subaru's shittiness could save everyone? Was that right?
Could the solution truly be so convenient? No. This's gonna wind up being messed-up and horrible. Subaru braced himself, for whatever may come of this—whatever happened, it was completely his choice. No one was to be blamed for what happened from here on but himself, the king.
" Give me that already." And then something punched Subaru in the side, after which he found he could move his arm again—his palm sliding up the cold, stony texture of the floor.
"Will you stand already, boy-king?" Something picked Subaru up by the scruff of his shirt before he could process that, set not on his feet but a chairless table. One of many, in a hall lit pale by shafts of moonlight via barred windows.
Five shadows awaited before him, the ones who massacre at the drop of a hat—only for Subaru to instead witness Emilia screaming without any arms or legs. He squeezed his eyes, gulping, forcing them open elsewhere in the room.
Hey, didn't a drunk Otto punch him in a place like this?
That corner over there, it was that very spot, in fact: "There's no way you've been hiding in the Southern Gatehouse."
"Of course." The tallest of the hooded was the only one sitting on a table like Subaru, across from him—laying on her stomach, specifically. "We move around, as needed. Your lockdown from earlier has made for a nice convenience, though. Especially now—you wouldn't have survived long enough to make it any further than the city perimeter."
"Y'know," Subaru growled, "there's a good several miles of open countryside encircling the castle!" It was hard to be too angry; that agony was so quick and nonexistent now that it felt like a horrible dream. "I'm just saying, you didn't need to drag me through absolute hell if you just wanted to have a civil chat."
"You're right. We could've had a civil chat through Daphne alone. However, that would've given you a chance to help your friends understand."
Subaru felt like he was slapped with a rubber chicken. So they were trying to tear his relationships apart? "Pretty messed up plan, Witch of Sloth. Thanks for telling me. I'll be sure to not let it happen."
"You're a fool if you think slothfulness makes me idiotic like you, boy —my intentions be damned, you're doing a fine job of it yourself judging by what those demon twins were saying. And the green hat."
Otto was just, "green hat." Poor guy.
No, but in seriousness… They're probably worried about me is all. I can't stress over them right this second. And yet, Subaru's chest failed to loosen further.
"You seem to have had a r-rough journey so far," peeped the furthest shadows. "S-so, um, e-even if your Great Spirit was to immediately give chase… we should have a few minutes to… um…"
Subaru waited as the hunched robe of Carmilla curled on itself further, a strand of pink hair rolling out. "To… what?" he asked, glancing at the others, and away from Daphne's robeless state. "What? What're you tryna get at—?"
"S-sorry—"
"You're handing me a pillow to scream into? Really? You think I'm gonna talk to a Witch again after hearing how little of a shit Echidna actually gave?! To hell with that!" They weren't going to understand, no matter what Subaru said.
"O-okay," Carmilla's voices whispered. "Sorry. Sorry."
"That was pretty rude, Carmin," Typhon scolded.
Subaru exhaled, actively trying to forget that he was talking to the ones who'd tortured Petra like they did Emilia, twisted Otto in two and crushed Rem like she was a soda can. And slaughtered his Knights in minutes—somehow. "Feels to me like you all just love to screw around with us, Sekhmet."
"I genuinely don't know what you're talking about. Did you forget how Satella's gift works on top of everything else?"
Subaru blinked, not falling for the trip attempt. "Well, you guys consistently act like you're not into this, but you don't seem to be trying all that hard to prove it. If you really want this to be over quickly, like you keep complaining about over and over again, Sekhmet… then at least prove your lazy ass isn't as stupid as mine." He half expected Sekhmet to start "throwing hands" just to spite him.
"Hmph. An interesting proposition," she sighed like it wasn't. "Very well, boy-king. Let's prove how right I am, to dismiss this all a waste of time."
"Quit being a sore loser," tittered Daphne. "Ya lost in a landslide 'cuz you don't wanna be disappointed, that's the only reason you—!" Her tiny form blasted through the table in a sudden burst of splinters and stone. And gore—Daphne's round head was mushed in two, jaw widened all the way to her scalp.
"Shut. Up."
"You're so shy, Sekhy-sekh!" laughed Daphne's unmoving corpse.
"Actively pursuing what you know will only yield emptiness and pain," sighed Minerva, motionless, "is the epitome of gluttony."
"O-okay…" Subaru turned his head away from Daphne. Then his eyes, and only then could he stop thinking about the gore. "Um… so, Beatrice knows exactly where I am. They all think I've been kidnapped… or, maybe not?" Maybe Beatrice was going to trust his judgement, and realize he didn't cry out for help when they'd arrived.
Subaru felt hit in the gut when he realized how this looked to Emilia. "I'm starting to think you were onto something when I came in, Minerva."
"Tch. I always am," she scoffed. "It's called 'common sense.'"
"You've got an annoyingly self-righteous opinion of yourself," said Subaru. "But let's get a move on, huh? You wanna talk, and yet you guys are screwing around with the stupid comedy act. None of you are acting right this loop."
"Get your head out of your ass, boy," said Sekhmet. "And take a good look at reality. Since when have you been so distrusting of what your eyes could see?"
"Right?!" A child 'hupped' herself to sit on the next table, gowned legs swinging. "I thought Baru was gonna be all buddy-buddy again like he was with Daph! Did someone break your trust? Is that it, Baru? Huh?" Typhon's tan face grinned. "Or do ya just like- like Daph?!"
"That has to be one of the sickest jokes I ever heard. If you want me to be blunt, I was only playing nice to get information."
"Oh, for sure! For sure!" Daphne's voice assured, motionless on the floor. "But your humanity and respect was more than we ever expected! And for that, my tummy feels just full and satisfied enough to resist taking a nibble outta Subarun. And the others feel the same way, hee-hee, more're less!"
Silence followed as Subaru awaited to be spoiled with… Something. Laughter, he realized. Some kind of cruel 'gotcha' moment. But Typhon hugged her legs, head cocking. "So? Anything else you wanna say?"
They were giving him this chance to scream his troubles? What the hell was going through their heads? "You really mean that…" He had no plans on taking up their offer, but… "This… isn't a bunch of crap. You guys're… actually well… you . Yourselves." And that was a fact, and that made this situation at once better and worse.
"Goodness," whispered Carmilla, hiding halfway behind Minerva. "I'm afraid to consider how we acted thus far, to warrant this kind of shock. I just didn't want to say anything— "
"You're like villains in a fantasy story," Subaru blurted out, at last—because this has been bothering him since Daphne first opened her mouth this loop. "Like, you say messed-up stuff in unison and mentally traumatize my friends, which goes beyond just killing them."
"I sincerely doubt that." And what made Sekhmet, of all Witches, so sure? "If anything, we only delivered the information you must know already. Nothing more. Until you spoke with Daphne, I had zero interest opening a dialogue with any of your unfortunate pals."
Subaru blinked, in that one instance being hit with a flood of all their deadpan one-liners, their inhumanity; "Spare ammunition, psychological warfare," and the complacency, if not pleasure, they took in torturing the others, making them scream and cry. "Um, sorry, but I don't believe you. I have the proof in my memory, so, maybe you changed your mind tomorrow?"
"Then we've hit an impasse over something trivial and irrelevant to the matter at hand, one you cannot prove regardless," said Sekhmet.
"Why're you getting so stuck on this?"
Sekhmet's lips twisted. "Aren't you the one trying to pry into our hearts?" she asked, then louder, "Who are you to criticize us to begin with?"
"'You're mistaken, Emilia Natsuki. Your only purpose is to die." Typhon's cheeks puffed at Subaru's deep, womanly voice. "'To die after your people, your friends, your husband… Something-something, Witch of Envy, you spread misery wherever you breath, so thanks, suffer this fate a hundred times over… something, this's all your fault, the Highest Authority's will and mine, no-more-no-less.' Yeah, th-that face! That's a face that knows exactly what I'm talking about!" Subaru cried, pointing at Sekhmet's pursed purple lips.
"I'm sad we'll forget about this when the loop resets!" giggled Typhon. "'Cuz that sounds like your rant from this morning, Sekhmet!"
"What utter nonsense."
Minerva's shoulders bounced, her face obscured by her hood. "I know what passion sounds like when I hear it, Sekhmet."
"I don't get it," Daphne whined. "That's just how Sekhy-sekh feels about Satella. What's so funny?"
Subaru felt more lost than before he flew in here. "So're you saying you guys've been… what, playing up the intimidation factor?" Fucking seriously?
"No, you're saying that Sekhmet wilfully came at you half-hearted out of cowardice," said Minerva. "Or perhaps things got so twisted and horrible that we had to lose ourselves in the role like her."
"Gosh, even me, Baru?" Typhon shook her head. "How far I've fallen!"
Typhon had been smiling the whole time, like she was possessed and thought nothing was unjust about their crimes. "You seemed like the most gleeful of the bunch, ya little gremlin!"
"Huh? That's weird, but I guess that makes sense." Typhon's hands folded behind her back, her booted foot twisting. "I mean, part of me's always wanted to judge the friends of Baru, too! After learning so much about them from Dona, I have to know if they're worthy of walking by his side!"
It was getting harder to deny that Echidna was doing this for a reason greater than the contract. But… "You make that sound so willing, Witch of Pride. So you, Typhon, you wanted to attack us?"
"What? No way! That's such a mean accusation!"
Subaru swallowed a howl of confusion. And dismay. Nothing made sense. Nothing except the narrative they were spinning for him. "So who's 'the Highest Authority,' huh? I've never heard the term before, not once in the last three years, so…"
"Th-that's because… that part was an embellishment—"
"Carmilla." Sekhmet looked back, propping herself on her arms. Lust shied away apologetically. "You forget yourself. I'm not the one in control here, mind you."
They seemed pretty "in control" themselves right now. To what extent were they stringing Subaru along? "So… you lied? You tried misleading me with a red herring?"
"Clearly not," Sekhmet snapped—that's how it felt, anyway. "If we're denying this."
"Then what's the point?"
"There is no point," sighed Sekhmet aloud. "To any of it! Nothing any of us, you or me, nothing we do in this hellish situation has any rhyme or reason! It's all just a game! A moronic game set and controlled by that accursed Witch!"
One of the worst things Subaru had ever seen happen to Emilia was being reduced to a joke; a bit, one the Witches had been privy to at the time while dismembering her over and over again.
"You guys are insane if you expect me to sympathize here!" It was all a game to them. An act. "Why are you going about this so badly if you just want it all to end?!" Sekhmet had been half-assed the whole time? All his suffering until now was contrived, then? "I get that you have your mission, but you guys were the ones who attacked me first! How do you expect me to trust you, and feel okay with all these insults, when you're the ones who came in guns blaz—?!"
"Wait, wait, wait!" Minerva held up both hands at the same time Sekhmet pushed herself upright. Typhon frowned. From four hoods, four pairs of glowing circles peered directly at him: magenta, amber, red and blue. "There's no way you could say a lie with such conviction, but there's even less of a chance such utter nonsense could be true either!"
Subaru exhaled, processing that they were genuinely lost. Screaming at them just because they did horrible stuff the first loop wasn't going to solve anything. "Typhon attacked us while the rest of you slaughtered the castle staff in the shelter. You picked off my friends one by one before letting Emilia and I go, and Petra…" 'Out of pity,' he almost assumed. It didn't matter what those versions of these people thought two loops ago.
That's what Subaru tried telling himself anyway.
"Boy, listen well." Sekhmet folded her arms beneath her head. "We don't know what will happen to us once we deem contracting with you 'a failure,' and internalize it as such. We've no idea what will happen once we lose control, and are set on completing our designated task."
"A-and, just to make sure I have that right, when that happens, you guys—"
"Correction: these are goals we are actively working towards. We truly lose ourselves once we deem this loop impossible to resolve peacefully."
Peacefully. "You've never tried to be peaceful."
"But we must have. We have no desire to engage in conflict from the outset. That's my point," said Sekhmet. "We're to kill your friends, torture Emilia, and force you to contract. That is burned into our souls. How we go about doing this is up to our discretion, but we cannot override the desires instilled in us by this mission. Regardless of how we feel, especially when it's time to go all in. At best, we can resist—like an addiction you're trying to ignore."
"But you just said you don't know how it feels," he said to Sekhmet.
"Well, I can't speak for her," said Minerva. "But right now, I'm doing my best not to even mention the contract. And yet, I find myself vying to move in that direction all the same!" Minerva hugged herself, a second later her boot started drumming. She grit her teeth, and then: "Subaru, quit being a fool and just contract already! UGH! See what I mean?!"
Typhon giggled. "I think that's only your sense of justice, 'Nerva!"
"Daphne knows what you're talking about!" said Daphne, waving her hand. "It's already tough being here with Subarun, but the moment I laid eyes on his friend? I couldn't think of anything else but killing her to make him cry! Ooh, yeah, what a horrible, terrible thrill, it was! Her name was Petra. I like Petra! Petra smelled so yummy; I bet she would've tasted sexy."
That sent Subaru reeling more than anything had all day. "Don't say that about Petra."
"But it's true! She absolutely reeked of hormones; in fact, it was this exact smell that threw me for such a loop once you guys ran out the door, juuust enough to delay my chase, if only by a couple seconds."
"Wh-why're you telling me this?"
"Hm? I'm only how that smell tasted in my mouth, that's all." Daphne hummed, purple tongue twirling around her lips like a fat salamander. "But if you think I was suggesting something, I'm not. Petra's aroma all but outright states she was excited to be in that situation. What a deliciously deranged little lady!"
"W-well," laughed Subaru, "at least I know I can write this off as a mad Witch's ramblings. Because Petra has Meili now; and she's told me again and again that she's over me besides."
"Um, th-that just sounds like how it is with you and Rem! Um, Subaru…"
Minerva crossed her arms. "Way to make it awkward, Carmilla!"
"Sorry…"
Subaru shook his head. "Don't feel so bad, Carmilla. Daph said something way worse, s'gonna haunt me forever." He couldn't imagine opening such a can of worms with Petra, let alone mentioning its divulging from the Witch of Gluttony's salivating lips. "Okay, so I get it. You guys are yourselves, you have no freedom here, but you don't exactly 'snap' until it's time to scorch this loop. And get me to contract the hard way."
"Yep!" chirped Typhon. "But then we saw you and your knights leaving the castle and hid!"
Daphne fingers circles through the dirt. "That didn't align with Chid-Chid's Book of Wisdom."
"Nothing out-of-routine is supposed to happen outside the castle," said Minerva. "That's how we know it's the first loop, considering who you are. At least, that's how it should've been—either that or in submission to Echidna's wretched will, so that you may be delivered to her."
Subaru Natsuki wanted to puke. He couldn't even look at the Witches now, or his own lap. Everything horrible that's happened has been for one innocent, loving mistake on Emilia's part.
"Emilia neglected her duties as the Queen of Lugnica… and mine as its King. We refused an audience with you guys, and that's why… you attacked."
Nothing could be certain, and though dwelling on what-ifs like this only yielded pain, Subaru needed to acknowledge this new reality at least once:
"This could've been solved peacefully from the first loop. But because I was so selfish, Emilia… everyone…"
The ones who had done horrible things to his friends have, from the start, been trying to spare him from experiencing further, worse pain in their own horrible ways.
Not unlike how they were back at the Witches' Tea Party.
"Th-then… whadda we do? How the hell do we save ourselves and everyone else?" All of them were stuck, unless Subaru—
"We getcha to contract! Under the right conditions, of course." The upper half of Daphne's head flopped, squelching as she held it upright, aimed at Subaru. "Didn't I say that before? Maybe I didn't."
"No, ya did! Baru's just gotta calm down and think clearly. That's when he's at his amazingest!"
And with those encouraging words, the Witches of Sin divulged a way to get Subaru to be 'contractable' this loop.
The Witches of Sin
His bruised body flew and slammed into the door of an old tavern. "This is all part of the plan," Sekhmet murmured, echoing through the haze of Subaru's throbbing flesh. "All you have to do is walk alone for a day. So show us your resolve, and this horror will end for everyone."
Subaru's face was in the ground, unable to find the source of that fading, layered voice. Nor could he muster any strength as the door against his arm opened.
"A drunk at this hour?" grumbled a rough-sounding young lady. "N'this day-n-age? No, wait a minute…" She turned Subaru to the sky, where he was met with a small face, bright red eyes, and a messy blonde bun on top.
Around her small frame was a familiar white and black jacket Subaru hadn't seen in forever. Not since…
"Are you kiddin' me?" Why here? Because she was his nearest friend?
"Now that's one helluva 'good evening,' Bro-King!" Giving her wolfish grin, she flicked Subaru in the forehead—repeatedly.
"Felt, I lost an arm and I'm bruised all over. Have a little sympathy."
The flicking persisted. "You've been through worse, and you're like this for a reason." Felt scoffed, stuffing her hands in the jacket pockets as she stood. "You'll fish no sympathy outta me, Bro-King! Hmph. The Broken Bro-King."
"Can you please help me?"
"About time you asked, dude." Felt pulled him upright. "Thought the crown mighta cut the circulation off to your brain, after wearing it a year. Good to see you're still your idiot self!"
