Chapter 4:

Subaru slowly and carefully went down the stairs. There wasn't a handrail or anything for him to hold on to, and he really didn't feel like falling again.

After a few minutes, he finally stepped onto the hard ground of the room he had previously died in.

"Really didn't think I'd be coming back here again."

He took a deep breath. He walked over towards the desk and once again glanced at the papers on it. As expected. He couldn't read any of them.

He picked one up nonetheless and quickly looked through it.

He shook his head and set the paper down.

He stepped over to the door. Fear gripped his heart as he stood in front of it. He reached for the door's handle, before remembering something from his first loop.

"Fufu, perhaps you should knock next time before trying to enter someone's house?"

He took a deep breath and knocked on the door a few times

He heard a click from behind the door.

"My, my, who's there?"

The door opened. A woman dressed in a long black and purple dress was revealed behind it. Her hair was dark green and her eyes were glowing blue. She had a sheathed sword at her waist.

She narrowed her eyes.

"Hmm~ What is it that you need? Visiting a secretive woman like me, and knowing how to contact me nonetheless."

Subaru was staring at the woman's eyes, as fear gripped his heart. The pain he had felt in his first loop was returning to him.

"Speak."

She placed her hand on the handle of her sheathed sword.

Subaru swallowed and opened his mouth.

"I-"

Just as he was about to speak, the woman leaped forwards, drawing her blade. She pushed Subaru to the side, he kept his footing and spun around as he heard a clang. He spun around and froze. Hans was just behind where he had been standing. He narrowed his eyes at the woman. Meanwhile, Hans' dagger and the woman's sword were locked together.

Hans spoke first. "Sister."

The woman said. "Don't call me that, you monster."

They both jumped back, and Hans unsheathed another dagger. Then, Hans lunged forward again. He swiped at his sister with one of the blades while keeping the other back. The woman dodged his swipe and lunged her own blade towards him. Hans deflected it with his dagger.

They both took a step back again.

The woman struck first this time, leaping forward with insane speed, and slashing. Hans jumped back but still received a cut across his cheek.

He grimaced, and struck back, throwing one of his knives towards his sister, before running at her.

His sister ducked under the first knife that was thrown and leaped towards her brother. She swung her sword at him, he ducked under it and stabbed at her with a dagger. The woman jumped back, stopping just before she would've hit the wall. She held her hand up towards Hans and said, "Minya." A purple slightly-transparent shard manifested in front of her. A moment later it shot towards Hans, who leaped to the side. The shard hit the opposite wall of the room. The same purple material spread out in a small circle around the spot the shard had hit.

Hans leaped over towards his sister, who aimed her palm at Hans and shouted, "Minya!" Hans slashed the shard with a dagger, which turned into the same material as the shard and broke apart a moment later. Hans threw the now purple handle of the blade to the side as he landed in front of his sister. He clenched his hand into a fist and swung it at the woman. It hit her cheek, her head was forced to the side at the impact.

A moment later the woman swung her sword at Hans. He pulled out another dagger and barely managed to parry it. He jumped back while his sister once again said Minya and formed those shards. She fired them off one at a time. Hans skillfully dodged each and every one.

They both stopped the fight to lock their eyes for a moment.

Both were breathing heavily, but Hans was panting and sweating much more than his sister.

Meanwhile, Subaru was in the corner of the room, by the door. He wanted to try and run to the stairs and get away, but Hans was the one closest to them. Subaru clenched his jaw and hoped that the woman would win the fight.

At that moment, Hans' sister jumped forward, and the exhausted man jumped to the side. The woman changed the angle of her strike, and sliced through Han's arm, cutting it off. It flew through the air, blood pouring out of the severed end, and hit the ground with a smack. Subaru gasped as he watched blood pour out of what was left of the man's arm. Hans stumbled, falling to the ground, and watched as his sister began to swing her sword at him again.

Hans suddenly yelled, "El Shamak!"

The woman immediately stopped her swing. In fact, she froze entirely. Her sword slipped out of her hand and hit the ground with a clang. Hans let out a breath and stood up again, his remaining hand cupping around his wound. He moved his hand from the wound and took out one of his daggers. Blood poured out of his arm. Then, he stabbed the dagger into his sister's throat, causing her paralyzed body to fall over.

He tore it out and turned towards Subaru, who was frozen in fear. Subaru gritted his teeth, causing one of his molars to crack.

I don't want to die again.

He yelled as he ran towards Hans. He lunged past the man and landed on the ground next to the woman.

"Sorry, but I need this-"

Subaru grabbed her blade from the ground. He wasn't expecting it to be quite as heavy as it was, but it didn't matter. Subaru quickly turned around, swinging the sword, while yelling, "Die!"

Pain exploded in his abdomen. Subaru forced it out of his mind and forced himself to just keep swinging the sword. However his slash missed Hans entirely, and the sword slipped out of his hands, flying across the room with a clatter. Subaru's legs gave out and he fell down.

I don't want to die. I don't want to die. I don't want to die.

Subaru forced his body to stand, even as it screamed at him from the wound on his abdomen. Blood poured from it, staining his tracksuit and dripping down onto the floor. Subaru spat out a little blood from his cracked molar. He faced Hans. "You… really are a monster."

The man who was once again cupping his hand around his wound stayed quiet. Then, in the blink of an eye, he jumped forward and kneed Subaru in the abdomen, right on his wound. Subaru yelled in pain and fell down, coughing.

Tears of pain and fear ran down his cheeks.

Subaru watched as Hans walked over to his sister's sword, and picked it up.

As Hans walked over to the young man on the ground, the young man steeled his determination and yelled, "I'll live! No, not just that… I swear on whatever god there is in this world that I will kill you!"

Hans scoffed and swung the sword down on the young man; it plunged deep into his lower back, severing his spine and splitting his organs in two.

Hans watched as the young man spasmed in pain and spat up blood.

Hans only then noticed his sister's glowing blue eyes slowly moving to look at him. Then, he heard her quietly whisper with the last bit of strength she had, "Minya." Hans began to jump away from the purple shard, but he was stopped by a hand tightly gripping his ankle. His eyes widened as the shard flew towards him.

The boy on the ground watched as a purple crystal pierced Hans and caused him to turn into a purple crystal, before cracking and falling apart, he still held the crystallized piece of the man in his hand that he had blindly grabbed through his pain only moments before Hans had died. The boy stared at the crystal pieces with wide eyes as his vision faded.

And thus, our protagonist's story begins.