Chapter 13:

"Subaru."

Subaru fell to the ground, a small sob escaping his lips.

So fast. His death had been incredibly fast.

Despite the fact that he had already come to terms with the fact that he had to die, whether by his own hand or by one of the people out to kill him, the speed at which he had died was terrifying.

-Less than a second after that girl had formed that fireball Subaru's life had ended.

Tears formed in Subaru's eyes.

"Eh? Are you okay, Subaru?"

Clement kneeled down next to Subaru.

"Why…?"

Why had she even killed him? She had killed Zei and had probably also killed Aura. She had saved him from those two, so why kill him?

Subaru already knew the answer, though. She was an all-around threat. A threat to Zei and Aura, along with Subaru. She was a threat to any living thing nearby her.

But who was she? How was she so strong at such a presumably young age?

How? Who?

These were the two questions Subaru had in his mind.

How was she so strong? Who was she?

The first question didn't matter so he cast it aside for the time being, focusing on the second question.

He had a nagging feeling that he had seen her somewhere before. That they had met before at some time or someplace.

Who?

Subaru opened his mouth, intending to ask Clement about the girl, but paused as he remembered where he was.

Panic suddenly filled him as he realized just how much time he had wasted.

He stifled his fear and stood up, Clement looked up at him, confusion filling his eyes.

"Clement, we have to-"

Subaru stopped speaking as the all-too-familiar sound of glass shattering filled the house. His head snapped towards the window, his eyes landing on Zei.

"W-who are you…?" Clement began to stand as he asked this question.

Zei leapt forward, swinging his sword in an arc towards Clement.

Without any hesitation, Subaru threw himself towards Clement, pushing him out of the sword's path, and taking the blow himself instead. The sword cut through his arm, stopping as it hit his bone and shattered it.

Subaru fell to the ground, barely stopping a scream from exploding out of him, and writhed in pain, clutching his arm, blood poured out of the wound.

Subaru turned his head and looked towards Clement, opening his mouth to yell at his friend to get away.

However-

Clement yelled at his friend, "Suba- ghk!" But froze as Zei leapt at him again.

Zei swung his sword at the man, who was paralyzed with fear. It cut through Clement's abdomen, splitting the man in two and spilling his organs onto the floor. The two halves of his body hit the ground with a thump while Subaru stared towards his friend, his eyes wide with shock, grief, and anger.

However, the emotion in his eyes faded as his will to keep going in this loop left him. Keeping Clement alive was just as important as keeping himself alive. After all, if he was fine with Clement dying he wouldn't have killed himself in that alleyway and would have just kept living in his loop earlier in the night.

Zei looked down at Subaru, noticing the changes in his demeanor.

"Ah… did this man really mean that much to you?"

Subaru stared up at Zei, his eyes full of hate. "I hate you."

"Aha, I get that a lot."

Subaru pushed away his fear of dying again and said, "Just get it over with already… please."

Zei frowned, "You're no fun now…"

Subaru closed his eyes and braced himself for the pain of death.

Zei turned his blade around and pointed it down at Subaru. He thrust it down. It pierced through the man's chest, cracking his ribs and stabbing through his heart.

"Ghaah!"

Subaru squirmed at the pain, a scream escaping his lips. No matter how prepared he was for his death the pain would never change.

Pain washed over him from his chest, warm blood spilling out of him now that Zei had pulled out his sword.

Clement…

Subaru felt his consciousness fading, blood pouring out of him from his heart, which had been torn in two.

...Sorry.

"Subaru."

Subaru stumbled forward and forced his shaking body to embrace Clement.

"Eh? Subaru?"

"Sorry… sorry…"

Subaru was fine with himself dying, but Clement dying was something he refused to let happen. He would do his absolute best to keep Clement alive.

Subaru pulled away from Clement and grabbed his hand. Subaru pulled him along as he moved down the hallway towards his room.

He opened the door and shut it. A moment later he heard glass shattering from the living room.

"Hey, Subaru, what's going on?"

"Hold on, we have to… get away first."

Subaru opened his window and let Clement jump down out of the window first, a moment later jumping out of it himself.

He landed safely on the snow and thought for a moment.

What if they just run away?

They could rent a carriage and rent a [find out what Gusteko uses in place of ground dragons]. From there they could just flee.

"Follow me, Clement."

As they ran, Subaru asked Clement a question, "How much money do you have right now?"

"I have quite a bit."

Subaru ran quietly for a moment, before saying, "Clement… we're going to leave this town."

"Huh? Wait, what?"

"We're leaving. It's too dangerous here right now."

"It's more dangerous out there! We should at least wait until it's daytime. Plus, why would we even leave?"

"Clement…" Subaru slowed his running. "Two or three people are chasing us down. We can't win against them…"

"But… still we can't just run. Let's go and hire a mercenary or something instead of just running."

Subaru shook his head and began running again. "It won't work… Let's just run away to where it's safe."

Clement grabbed Subaru's hand and stopped him.

"Hey, Subaru, remember how we first met?"

"Some of it, but not… exactly." A lot of his memories of that day were blurry from his trauma.

"You were running away from Hans. I stopped you and we talked about things."

"..."

"So let's slow down and talk about what's going on, okay?"

"We have talked about things… nothing we've come up with works."

Last time they talked and decided to go to Amai's tower. Another time they talked and decided to hire a mercenary, but they both were killed just after.

Subaru but down on his lip. His heart accelerated as he realized that they had wasted precious time standing around talking.

Subaru shook Clement's hand off of his own and began running again.

"Eh? Hey, Subaru!"

Clement ran after him.

Subaru squeezed his eyes shut and ran, ignoring Clement's yells for him to stop.

He was tired, so tired of all of this. His mind was sluggish and weak. He didn't want to die again. He didn't want Clement to die again. He just wanted to live. He just wanted to be able to live normally and have fun in this world with Clement.

Why does everyone hate me?

Hans killed him just because he had that witch's scent on him. Now Aura and Zei were both trying to kill him. Youra would rather let Zei kill Subaru than lose some money. That girl killed him just because she felt like it.

It was too much. Too, too much.

He just had to get away from it all. He and Clement just had to run away. There wasn't anything in this city for them other than pain.

Subaru's pitiful thoughts stopped as he bumped into someone. He felt their nose hit his chest hard, yet they didn't move at all.

Subaru opened his eyes, fear exploding within him as he stepped back, his eyes locked on a girl with shoulder-length blonde hair about half of his height standing before him.

"Hi!"

"A-a-ah."

Subaru's body began to shake in fear.

The girl cocked her head to the side. "You're scared? Of me? Why? Why?"

She took a few steps towards him, eliciting Subaru to take a few away from her.

"Have we met before? I don't remember you."

The girl narrowed her eyes as she tried to remember the terrified man in front of her.

Clement ran up to Subaru's side, slowing as he neared the two.

"Subaru?"

Clement looked at Subaru for a few moments before turning to the girl and bowing. "Sorry about any trouble he caused you. We'll be going now."

Clement grabbed Subaru's hand and pulled him along as he walked past the girl.

Clement thought nothing of the girl as he walked away from her, more concerned about Subaru. However, he paused as he heard the girl say, "Hey, mister, wanna play a game?"

Clement turned his head and looked at the seemingly young girl, saying, "No thanks, we're busy right now. We'll play if we run into you again sometime."

"Hmm… you're no fun."

Clement continued walking, but froze as the girl said, "El Huma."

"Eh?"

He turned around, freezing as he saw dozens of sharp shards of ice flying towards him.

His eyes widened.

And-

Subaru tightened his grasp on Clement's hand and pulled him to the side, ducking behind some nearby crates full of merchandise for a store on the other side of the alley.

The shards shattered as they flew past where the two had been standing and hit a wall far away.

Subaru sighed in relief, his hands still shook with fear, but he had managed to break free of the paralyzing fear that had filled him a few minutes ago.

However, Subaru was at a loss as to what to do now.

If they ran out from behind these crates the girl would kill them. If they stayed behind them the girl would kill them.

Subaru bit down on his lip and thought hard about any way to get out of their current situation.

He didn't want to die. Death was still terrifying despite how many times he had died.

Subaru's mind raced, desperately trying to think of a way to live.

However, his thoughts were interrupted by-

A woman leapt from rooftop to rooftop, her eyes scanning the empty streets and alleys below looking for just one man: the one who had killed her love.

She landed on yet another slanted rooftop, stopping momentarily, overcome by memories of her love.

She shook her head and tightened her grip on her bow.

She would kill that man, Natsuki Subaru,the one who killed Hans.

She swore that she would avenge Hans the day of his death.

She didn't care if she killed Subaru, or if that assassin she hired did, she just wanted him dead.

"AAAAAAAAHHHH!"

A scream tore through the night, and her head turned towards the sound.

That assassin must have gotten to him first.

Aura began moving again, hopping across rooftops. She neared where she had heard the scream and began searching the dark alleyways more carefully, taking more time to peer down in them, looking for blood or that man's corpse.

She was continually disappointed by what she found in the alleys.

She jumped across yet another disappointing alleyway and landed on yet another roof. She walked across it and peered down into the alley below.

Her eyes filled with confusion when she saw a short young girl standing below in it. Across from her was Subaru, laying on the ground, clutching what remained of one of his arms, which was cut off just above his elbow. An unconscious man lay nearby him, a small pool of blood forming around his head.

Her eyes returned to the girl.

Had she done all of this?

Aura felt a dangerous aura around the girl. She was strong, that was obvious from her posture and the two injured people in front of her.

Aura raised her bow and slipped an arrow onto its string. She pulled it back until it was taut and took aim at the girl.

It was better to get rid of that girl quickly before she became a threat to Aura's life.

As she had done thousands of times before, she let go of the string, and the arrow shot through the air. The arrow flew through the air and hit the girl, piercing through her upper back and stopping midway through her.

The girl turned around, no pain showing on her face. Her eyes quickly landed on Aura, a smile growing on her face. The girl vanished, shock filled Aura as her eyes darted around.

She froze as she heard a whisper in her ear.

"It isn't very nice to try to kill someone with a sneak attack like that."

Aura jumped to her side, her eyes snapping on the short young girl. She pulled out another arrow and quickly slipped it onto her bow's string.

"El Fula."

A second later Aura's bow dropped to the ground accompanied by her two hands.

Pain shot up Aura's arms as blood gushed out of where her hands used to be.

"You shouldn't try to kill someone while they're talking, either."

"Gha- You… who are you?"

"Me? My name doesn't matter to you, what use does a dead person have with a name?"

"Hk-"

Aura took a step back, her mind clouded by pain.

"Fula."

Aura's heart sped up as a translucent blade of wind formed in front of the girl. It shot forward towards her. Aura jumped to the side, managing to dodge it, and ran at the girl.

"El Shamaak."

Aura's vision went back as the spell blinded her. Fear filled her as she felt death approaching. Then, another blade of wind flew through her throat, cutting off her head. Even more fear filled her as she felt her consciousness leave as her head fell to the ground.

Subaru rose to his shaky legs, pain clouding his mind from what was left of his arm.

"Cle...ment…"

He looked down at his unconscious friend. He wasn't dead, but he had suffered a hit to the head.

He ended up thinking about what had happened.

While Subaru was thinking about how to get away from the girl while hiding behind those boxes, the girl attacked, sending a torrent of wind blades at them from the other side of the boxes. Subaru had pushed Clement away, he hit his head on the ground, and a stray blade chopped off most of Subaru's arm.

Subaru closed his eyes, pushing away some lightheadedness from blood loss. He knew he had to apply a tourniquet to his arm soon by tying something around it, but right now the most important thing was getting away alive. He wasn't too sure of what had happened, but the girl had vanished a few seconds earlier.

Subaru reached down with his remaining arm and grabbed Clement's arm. He began walking away, going as fast as he could with his mind foggy from pain.

His vision swayed as more lightheadedness overtook him. Blood was pouring out of his arm.

Subaru stumbled over his own feet and fell, his face hitting the ground hard. He groaned in pain and rolled over, blood running down his face from his nose.

Subaru rose to his feet again. He grabbed Clement's arm and began to walk, though after only a few dozen meters he stumbled and fall again.

His vision was blurry and his mind was cloudy. He cupped his remaining hand over his other arm to try to keep as much blood as he could inside of himself.

He rolled over yet again and groaned, blood pouring back into his throat from his broken nose as he looked up at the dark sky.

The pain was intense, but his cloudy mind had trouble recognizing it.

He slowly pushed himself up into a sitting position. He was going to die if he didn't move. Clement was going to die if he didn't move.

He slowly got to his feet, nearly falling over right away from his dizziness. He reached down to grab Clement and keep pulling him but froze as he heard, "El Fula," from nearby.

A moment later his remaining arm was cleaved off by a blade of wind. It fell and landed nearby Clement with a splat. Even more, blood poured out of Subaru.

A scream exploded from Subaru as he stumbled backward and fell down. Pure pain clouded his mind.

His eyes darted around, looking for any kind of salvation as he bled out.

His eyes landed on a girl, a short girl who was walking up to him.

Subaru did his best to get away from her, pushing himself away with his legs as he lay on the ground.

"Fufu~ ah… this has been fun."

A grin formed on the girl's face as she looked down at Subaru.

Fear filled Subaru, both of death as it neared and of the girl.

"Well… I don't like watching people slowly die, Soo… El Dona."

A brief moment of insane pain filled Subaru as a number of large spikes made of ground burst through him, splitting him in two and spraying blood around.

He tried to scream but no air was in his collapsed lungs.

Warmth quickly left him. A pool of blood surrounded him. He was dying. Dying. Dying.

Death approached Subaru as his blood poured out of his body.

I don't wanna die.

This was one of the few things Subaru's dying mind knew.

I don't wanna die.

He was dying. Fast.

Dying. Dying. Dying.

Dying. Dying. Dying. Dying. Dying. Dying.

Dying. Dying. Dying. Dying. Dying. Dying. Dying. Dying. Dying. Dying. Dying. Dying. Dying. Dying. Dying. Dying. Dying. Dying.

"This really was fun."

A short girl smiled as she looked down at a young man's corpse.

"I liked playing with you."

She looked down at an unconscious man lying on the ground nearby.

She stepped over towards him.

"Goa."

The alleyway was bathed in bright orange light as the unconscious man burst into flames.

"It's been cold recently."

She looked up at the dark sky, a content smile on her face.