Hello everyone! We're glad that you all really enjoyed the first chapter of this! It makes us happy to see! We hope you all have fun and enjoy the first of three one-on-one interactions!
The works that these Subarus originate from are as follows:
- Sage Subaru - The Otherworldly Sage (Ernalore)
- Sealed/Eternal Subaru - Sealed (Im The Person)
- Warlock Subaru - The Warlock's Punishment (Infinite the Celestian)
The screen died down once again. Everyone wasted no time in starting to recompose themselves.
"Well, tha' was certainly interestin'..." sighed Anastasia, rubbing her eyes.
"Right you are, m'lady."
Julius himself couldn't really find the right words. Three different Subarus, all of them with different histories and personalities… and yet… they all felt like his friend.
"I still don't like that one of them married Pandora…" muttered Emilia, arms crossed while her eyes flared off to the side.
"Don't worry, Emilia-sama, it's understandable," mused Rem to the brooding Emilia, sympathizing with her. The Oni didn't quite like it, either.
"Welp, now that that's over, we should get out of hereeee- eh?!"
Before Felt could continue a bright light enveloped the theater, causing everyone to shield their eyes. When the light began fading away, they all hesitantly began to lower their arms and look around. They were still in the theater, however…
"Nya?"
"What the heck?"
"What is he doing here?"
…they were now sharing this space with another Subaru.
Specifically, a Subaru wearing traveling clothes and wielding a staff.
"What the heck?"
Looking around, this version of Subaru Natsuki immediately noticed that everyone he knew was here. His heightened intelligence made him reason that he, once again, was not back home; plus, there was the added variable of a sleeping version of himself next to Emilia. So the only logical conclusion was…
"...Satella goofed up the transportation spell, didn't she?" he uttered, half-chuckling in some amusement at the new situation he found himself in.
The rest of the theater stayed quiet, watching him analyze things, not knowing what to do.
So, the Sage took the initiative. If he was going to be in this situation for a bit, why not make the most of it? "Yooo, what timeline is this?!"
"Excuse me?" immediately sneered Priscilla, disgusted and surprised at that man's rude bluntness.
"I mean, what cool things did your Subaru do?" the Sage attempted to clarify.
Someone in the cast uttered a simple, yet very confused, "…Huh?"
"Okay, let's try this again," the black-haired boy muttered, sighing to himself. "I am your Natsuki Subaru, but I am not your Natsuki Subaru. I am one that…"
"... comes from an alternate universe. Yeah, we know," sighed Otto, rubbing his head tiredly. He seriously didn't deserve this headache.
The Sage tilted his head, confused but intrigued, "You do?"
"Yeah, we jus' watched ya an' th' others on th' screen," explained Garfiel, thumb gesturing back toward the screen.
Looking back, the Subaru did see a movie theater screen. In a way, he felt sort of violated. Turning around he asked, "Okay, well… I guess that makes some things easier. But since you know everything about me, what about you guys?"
Everyone stammered to respond, unsure of what to say in particular. Luckily, one person was able to step up, "Oh, uh, well, I guess you could say our timeline 'branched off' when we were transported to this theater against our will," summarized Crusch, waving her hand around the room in reference to it.
The Sage hummed curiously, looking around the room once more, "Okay, what's so special about this place, then?"
"Well… what we saw was…" spoke the half-elf, "your, or our, Subaru's adventures… We know that he can Return by Death… and that Satella loves him."
"Oh."
"OH?!" cried Beatrice. "THAT IS ALL YOU CAN SAY, IN FACT?!"
"Whoa, whoa, calm down, Beako…" he put up his arms, as if to say he didn't mean any harm.
Beatrice, however, still didn't take too kindly to things, "No! Do not call Betty that! You are not Betty's Subaru! You are an impostor, in fact!"
He was tempted to grab his heart for a second there. Ouch, that stung a little. "Alright… well, from where I'm standing, I can see how you came to that conclusion…"
"Stop that," deadpanned Al.
"Stop what?" Subaru looked over at him confusingly, unsure of what the one-armed Knight was talking about.
"Stop this- all of this!" the helmeted knight pointed at the Sage Subaru. "Stop taking everything at face value, stop being so calm about this, stop being so… understanding!"
He tilted his head, "I don't follow."
"Great, he's socially inept. Just like all the other Barusus," cracked Ram.
The Sage snorted at the comment, "Oh yeah, that's actually kinda funny coming from the woman who got on her knees and begged to me."
Ram was silent for a moment, only blinking her eyes as she fully registered what he'd just said. Once she did, her face began a lot angrier as she basically screeched, "…WHAT?!"
"Oh, you don't remember?" The Sage questioned a bit mockingly, putting a hand to his chin. "Actually, since it's a different timeline, it probably never happened. Alright, here's the short version: you got on your knees and begged me to spare Roswaal, stating that you 'saw what I was capable of' and, so, you hoped to appeal to my better nature."
"I would never lower myself like that," she stubbornly denied, looking away and crossing her arms in dissatisfaction.
"Really? Because I still remember every word you said," smiled Subaru. Then, he began imitating Ram's voice, "'Please, have mercy! I know of what you're capable of, I've seen the power you possess myself, so please spare the man I love!'"
Most of the guys actually started chuckling, amused at the display they'd just seen, while some of the girls either admired Ram's actions or pitied them. Meanwhile, the maid's face turned a bright pink.
"SHUT. UP," she growled, on the verge of completely lashing out.
"Okay, okay, I'm done busting your chops," the Sage surprisingly complied, leaving the maid alone. Ram was silently thankful, taking the time to calm herself down.
She completely missed Roswaal's moderately amazed look, off to the side.
Immediately, Julius stood up and walked towards Subaru. The rest of the audience immediately became curious as to what he was going to do, unsure if his actions would wind up being good or bad in the grand scheme of things. In fact, some, like Anastasia and Reinhard, were tempted to stop him for just that reason.
Needless to say, it surprised everyone when he got down on his knees in a respectful, apologetic bow.
"Great Sage, please forgive me," he begged, head hung low. It surprised everyone. "I conducted myself in a manner that was unbecoming of a knight. Every action I did was for nothing but my own petty self-righteous feelings. I was wrapped in my own emotions, it was all my fault. So, please… forgive me."
Everyone was stunned by what he said. Sure, they knew that he was guilty for hurting Subaru, especially after learning about his many deaths, but this was… something else entirely.
The entire hall was silent. The black-haired boy looked down directly at the knight before him, his expression unreadable to most in the room. Slowly, he lifted up his hand, and with impressive speed –
SLAP!
"BARUSU, WHAT THE HELL–"
"Ram."
Turning around, the pink maid saw that her master was giving her a serious look. One he had never worn before, but given the process of elimination, she realized…
… it was a look of fear.
"Don't," he whispered.
Sitting down, she, and the rest of the room, went quiet. It states that way until…
"Stand up," Subaru essentially commanded.
Looking up, the purple-haired knight was confused. "Wh-What…?"
"I SAID STAND UP!" he yelled, his voice full of rage. "DO YOU VIEW YOURSELF AS A LESSER BEING?! STAND UP!"
Immediately, the Greatest Knight in Lugnica shot up from where he was groveling, looking directly into the Great Sage's fearsome eyes.
Everyone was quiet, afraid of what could happen to him. Knowing what Julius had done, this Subaru could do anything from something just as harsh… to worse.
But, surprisingly…
"All right, I'm done," said Subaru, acting casual and completely breaking his previous character.
"W-What?" Julius uttered, this time even more confused.
"It was just an act," Subaru explained, a partly amused smile visible on his face. "I assure you, that was not some petty revenge act for what you did to me that day. I'm not even mad at you. But I did need to slap some sense into you."
"But…"
"Look, you were right. I was acting like an entitled asshole. All you wanted to do was set me straight, and the only way you knew how was to act like the bad guy. You did nothing wrong."
"But I hurt you!" Julius exclaimed.
"Correction, as my other counterpart insisted before, you hurt your Subaru," he said, moderately surprising Julius. "And, besides, I just hurt you back so we'll just call it even. Now, you have a chance to start over."
"Start over? How?"
"Well, for one, be a better friend to your Subaru."
"…Huh?"
"Do you think I'm blind?" he asked. "If what you said is true, then you know what kind of hell he's been through. For his sake, please, be a better friend and help your Natsuki Subaru."
The audience was still stunned by this man. He seemed so smart. But, then again, he was supposedly the Great Sage, so they guessed it all made sense.
With tears threatening to come out of his eyes, Julius said, "I will do as you command."
The Sage sighed at that, "Don't talk like that, I don't like it."
Julius stiffend a little at that, simply nodding in reply. The Great Sage similarly nodded towards the Greatest Knight in return, turning his head to everyone else once that was done.
"Subaru-sama, why are you so mean?" scolded Petra, not happy at her hero's little prank.
"Petra? Oh, hi! Guess you're a maid in this timeline, as well," mused the Great Sage. "And to answer your question, I guess that's due to my heightened intelligence. I can sort of see through these emotional walls everyone puts up, so I deemed it logical to bring them down."
"Tha' jus' sounds like 'n excuse to be 'n ass," said Garfiel, deadpanning at the alternate version of his captain.
The Sage snorted in amusement, "Says the guy who lost the brawl he started against me."
"Subaru-sama, could you elaborate?" asked Fredercia.
"Okay, you all remember when Julius gave me that beat-down?"
The cast nodded, not exactly liking where this was going.
"Basically that. It was sheer luck that I didn't accidentally kill Garf. But, I gotta admit, the kid's resistant. Plus, he didn't hold a grudge, given how he asked to be my disciple."
"Wait, wha'?" stammered the Shield of the Sanctuary.
"Yeah, during Emilia-tan's Trials, you fell to one knee and basically begged me to teach you the super-secret technique I used to kick your ass. Spoiler alert, all I did was copy your moves, while making sure I was faster than you, dodging all of your attacks."
Everyone paled at what Subaru said. If he could do that with anyone, he could theoretically become the greatest martial artist in the world, possibly even stronger than Reinhard.
"Hey, speaking of which," the Sage asked, "how else is this timeline different from mine?"
"Well for one, our Syubaru never gyot powers, nya," hissed Felix.
"I'm gonna need more details than that," The Sage deadpanned.
"Baaaaasically, we are like the Seeeeealed Subaru-kun's timeline, except where 'thaaaaat' never happened," clarified Roswaal, earning glares from everyone else.
"Sealed? 'That'? … Oh, you mean my other counterpart! The one that banged the Pandora chick!" the Sage laughed a little, remembering the interaction he had with the other two.
Frederica gasped, covering Petra's ears while Ricardo did the same for Mimi and Tivey. Priscilla looked at him, disgusted, "How crude…"
Rem, along with a few others, was also thrown for a loop at the sheer bluntness of the exclamation. She recomposed herself, "To put it bluntly… yes, Subaru-kun. He's the one who… ugh… gave his purity to a Witch."
Felt rapidly blinked, shaking her head and crossing her arms dramatically, "Wait, wait, wait! How do we even know that actually happened? He never even said that on the screen, so you could be making things up!"
The Sage looked at Felt, head tilting in some form of confusion, but putting a hand to his chin in thought, "Huh… I guess we really don't know if he did that or not. He said that she was his wife, and when Warlock commented on the 'image' he never really denied it, so I guess we just assumed."
As he shrugged, brushing off the thought, many others sighed in some form of relief or hope. Maybe, just maybe, Subaru hadn't gone that far. But, maybe that was a stupid thought… if they were married… well, what kind of married couple didn't do that?
Sensing that everyone was disgusted by the thought, Subaru decided to change the subject, "So, uh.. Rem! I heard that in his timeline you were in a coma. Did that…?"
"Yes, Subaru-kun," her face fell, expression downcast. "It happened to this Rem, as well. Rem only woke up to watch our Subaru-kun's adventures, and his… deaths…" she started to tear up.
"Oh, I'm… so sorry to hear that," he nasty-eyed boy croaked out. "How did it happen?"
"Rem and Crusch-sama were transporting the corpse of the White Whale to the Capital, when…" Frederica sighed, "… when Greed and Gluttony attacked."
"Oh," said the boy, able to connect the dots on his own. "So, if I never got any powers in this timeline… how did I manage to save everyone?"
"With your own wit," smiled the Bloody Bride. "You used that curse of yours to create a rather flimsy, but liable, three-way alliance between the merchant's and the duchess' Camps, and used it to eliminate the Great Mabeast and the Archbishop."
"And how many loops did that take me?"
"After your faaaaailed attempts at negotiation, it took yooooou two loops," similarly smiled Roswaal, although his was different in a way nobody noticed.
"Oh~. So, you mean…?"
"When you acted like a madman in front of the three of us? Yes," spat the Vollachian Matriarch, disgusted at the memory of such a display.
"Right, that," he chucked in some form of amusement.
"Oi, Cap'n!" barked Garf. "How'd ya beat th' White Whale in yer time?!"
"Oh, well, I just yelled 'Reality Slash', swung my staff down in front of it, and the thing just split in two," he explained. "It was kind of a spur-of-the-moment type of thing, really."
"You mean…" gulped Reinhard. "You killed it with a single blow?"
"Uh… yes?"
At hearing this, Reinhard fell to his knees in joy. Finally, he wasn't the only monster out there.
He wasn't alone anymore.
"Dude, you good?"
"Oh, I'm fine, Subaru…" he answered, getting up right away and composing himself. Nervously, he looked at the Sage with an odd look, "However I do have a question of my own."
"Shoot."
"Subaru… What was the fight that you spoke of? The one that we… parted ways, with?"
"Oh… that," Subaru quickly realized what the redhead was speaking about. "Well, 'fight' might have been the wrong word for it. It was just our little disagreement on what happened with Julius, you know, the one after the Royal Selection began."
"Ah, yes… I recall that," Reinhard said, reluctantly recalling the memory.
"Yeah, if it was a real fight, I'm pretty sure the world would have ended."
Reinhard internally became relieved. He was happy that things were not as bad as it seemed. There was still hope to patch things up between Subaru and himself. He was happy about that, truly so.
Despite that, he couldn't help but ask about Subaru's previous statement. "Because I'm that powerful? In the viewing, we saw that all three of you were 'Level 100'. Might I ask, are you able to see our Levels whilst here with us? Here in this theater?"
"Yeah, sure, I don't mind checking," he said, pulling up his menu in order to start looking. "Do you want me to say all of yours, or just the top ones?"
"Let's go with the top ones," answered Julius. "I'm sure if we heard our Subaru's level, we'd feel bad for him, given how low it probably is…"
"All right, I get it," answered the Sage, reading everyone's Levels. After a moment, he laughed, "Okay, so the top two Levels are… Reinhard and your Subaru. Both of them are Level 100."
"WHAT?!"
"H-How?!"
"Yeah, it's weird," the Sage started, a bit intrigued about the matter himself. "The same thing happened when I checked the other two Subarus, as well. I guess it doesn't really matter which reality it is, Subarus are just that powerful."
"Who's 'n thri' place?" asked Ricardo.
"I thought you wanted to see who was the strongest, not to make it a competition."
"Come on, one more!" begged Anastasia.
"Fine, fine…" grumbled Subaru. "It's Ram… Level 91."
"RAM?!"
"SISTER?!"
"Huh," the pink haired Oni mumbled, honestly quite surprised. "I want to make a witty quip, but… this Ram honestly has nothing."
Garfiel was anything but surprised though, shouting and screaming his support, "Yeah! As expected of Ram!"
"Yeah, that was the main reason I had Ram fight against Roswaal in the Sanctuary," Subaru explained. "I also blackmailed Puck into helping her, for good measure."
"Wait, you did what?" asked the silver-haired half-elf, stiffening at the Sage's words.
"Basically, while you were sleeping, I threatened to kill Puck if he didn't break his contract with you, or if he didn't help Ram," he answered, ignoring everyone's surprised stares. Some of them even held a bit of fear, or disgust.
Emilia was angry, though. That was wrong! Subaru is nice, he would never threaten anyone, and that's not what nice people do! How dare he do that to Puck, to her fa–
No, she reminded herself. Rem was right. Geuse was more of a father to me than Puck ever was… Geuse… Wait, didn't this Subaru say that he… used fire stones…?!
"Subaru, you're so mean!" scolded the half-elf. "First off, you threatened Puck, and second, you killed Geuse in such a horrendous fashion! What's wrong with you?!"
"Okay, first of all, the Geuse I know is a crazy Sin Archbishop that tortured Rem," he stated, "and second of all, he's still technically alive."
"Huh?"
"Wha…?"
"Hyow?"
"You heard me," said Subaru, clutching his staff. "After Beako and I blew up the Great Rabbit, we heard his voice in my staff. Turns out, he took refuge inside the green crystal at top here," he pointed at it for reference. "Told us to go to the Pleiades Watchtower, as well."
"And you trusted him?" sneered Priscilla.
"He didn't sound crazy. Plus, he called me 'Master Flugel'."
Upon hearing that, Emilia, Beatrice, and Roswaal all felt a little bit happy. Geuse was alive in another universe. While he may have been gone forever in their world, at least he was able to be saved in another one. Even if that world's Subaru was a bit mean.
"As for Puck… well, can't say he didn't deserve it. That bastard makes me mad."
While most in the room were surprised to hear such brash statements, they couldn't exactly disagree. Puck was, all around, a pretty terrible person and father. If Subaru hadn't forced him to help and do the right things, Puck could have potentially made things a lot worse in the long-run.
Al coughed into his fist, having decided to change the subject, "So, what exactly is happening in your timeline now?"
The Sage thought for a moment, humming as he did so, "Well, before I got abducted, I was about to head out with Beatrice and Meili to conquer the Pleiades Watchtower. We had already packed yesterday."
"Meili-chan?" asked Petra. "Why would you need her?"
"Well, her Divine Protection allows her to control Mabeasts, so we decided to bring her along to keep us safe during our journey. Don't worry, though, we got Elsa's permission."
"Ah, right," mumbled Reinhard. "I nearly forgot that you already mentioned the Bowel Hunter's survival, in your time.
"Uh… yeah?" The Sage tilted his head, slightly confused. "She surrendered after I fried all of the Mabeasts. I'm guessing she didn't surrender, for you?"
"Dude, I hadda kill 'er in our world!" Garfiel exclaimed.
"WHAT?!" screamed the Sage. "I only left her to you for however long it took to form a contract with Beako! How the hell did you manage that?!"
"Well, first off, your genius idea of burning one of the Mabeasts with my oil set the mansion aflame," Otto stated. "After that, I guess it must have turned into a fight to the death…"
"THE MANSION BURNED DOWN?!" he screeched. "But what about the–"
"The Forbidden Library is gone forever, in fact."
Upon hearing Beako's answer, Subaru slumped to where he stood. All that knowledge. All that power. Gone. Wasted! Shaking his head, he reprimanded himself.
No, don't think like that, he scolded himself. They're alive, that's all that matters.
He did his best to give them a weak smile, "Sorry, I didn't think that all hell would break loose like that."
"But you did bring up an interesting point," mused the beast-maid. "In our reality, our Subaru-sama contracted Beatrice-sama only because he rushed into the burning Forbidden Library, asking for her to save him. How did you manage the task?"
"I told her the truth," he answered, with a smile. "I told her how Echidna's last wish was merely a test to see if Beako had any free will of her own. She tried to throw me out, but I wouldn't let her. When she said that I would leave her behind, I told her that I would engrave every moment into her memory and that I would leave so many descendants behind so that she would never feel alone again… that she would always remember me."
Silence overtook the room for a while, until everyone heard sniffling. It subtly started to become more and more apparent, becoming more frequent and loud.
It didn't take long for everyone to find the source, the Sage in particular looking down at her with a concerned look, "Beako?"
Everyone turned to see that the Great Spirit was now crying.
"What's wrong?" the Great Sage kept inquiring.
"That was it?" she asked, almost desperately. "That was all it took?"
"No," came the immediate reply.
"Huh?"
The Sage sighed, recalling the memories, "Even after that, my Beako still asked me… 'why'? Why did I even want her? I told her that I loved her and that I wanted to see her happy. She was the one that helped me during my first week in the mansion and, to be honest, I always wanted a little sister."
When he smiled, everyone felt a little tug at their heart. Beatrice in particular looked at him with sad, yet contemplative eyes, waiting for what else he had to say.
"Even when she tried to deny it — having used my love for Emilia as an example — I told her that my heart was big enough for other people. I told her that not all types of love were the same. I told her that one of these days, I would die for good, but until that day arrived… I would always be with her."
Everyone stayed silent, digesting those words. Beatrice lowered her gaze, intently thinking about them.
"After that, she asked me if I would always be there for her; to compliment her, to call her cute and to feed her tasty sweets," he smiled again, thinking back on the interaction and thinking that the requests were cute. Fitting for his Beako. "I promised her that I would do all of those things. If she did a good job, I would compliment her. I would tell her she was the cutest little sister in the world regardless and feed her the tasities sweets money could buy. I promised her… that the two of us would change the world together."
"And then…?" the blonde loli asked, raising her head as tears threatened to escape from her eyes.
"Then we did," he answered contently, nodding. "Together we captured the assassins, saved the people of the Sanctuary and destroyed the Great Rabbit. Now the two of us are planning to explore the world. Of all the things I've ever done, contracting you was the best decision I've made; hands down."
With tears now running down her cheek, the little girl ran towards the staff-wielding boy and hugged him as tightly as she could. "Thank you," she mumbled, her eyes watery. "Thank you for saving her."
"Of course," he smiled. "And I'm happy that your Subaru saved you, too."
"Hello? Hello? Is this reaching all of you?" They all were surprised to hear that sudden voice, one they were very familiar with. "Listen, I'm very sorry for the inconvenience, but the only way for the other Subarus to get home is by going through this point in reality. I'll be sending this one away pretty soon, so the next one can arrive. Again, I'm sorry for the inconvenience. Goodbye."
"Emilia-sama?" Petra questioned.
"That was not me."
"Of course it wasn't, half-wit," Priscilla jeered. "It was that Witch. Apparently, bringing this buffoon here was necessary for him to go home."
"Huh, so it's time for me to go," Subaru mused. "Better get this off my chest, then."
"Subaru-kun?"
"Listen up, all of you," announced Subaru, gaining everyone's attention. "I may not be your Subaru, but I'm fairly sure of what your Subaru is going through. Even if I've felt less death than him, I know that he's living through hell, putting up a face for all of you. Return by Death has consequences, but please… don't treat him like glass. Give him the room he needs to grow, while also making feel alive and, hopefully, happy once again."
"We will," vowed Crusch, a hand over her heart as she swore to honor the Sage's wishes.
"I'm counting on you," he said, turning towards the audience. "Emilia-tan, Rem, Beako."
The three girls all snapped to attention when they heard their names get called out.
"Remember, your Subaru cares about you. You two are the women he loves most of all, and you're his little sister," he said, looking at them. "No matter what your Subaru does, just remember that he does it because he loves you and wants you to be safe and happy. But, because of that, he has to hide behind a mask, he has to hide his pain. For my last request… please protect him. You three are his pillars of support. He'll be counting on you three the most."
"I promise, in fact."
"We will."
"We'll protect him."
As those words reached his ears, the light, same as before, began to envelop his entire body. He relaxed himself, a small and appreciative smile gracing upon his face. "Thank you," he said, the light consuming his body until that was all it was...
And with that, in the same flash of light he arrived in, the Great Sage was gone.