Chapter 3:

"That's it." Subaru had just tasted the white concoction he had been working on for about a week now. It was mayonnaise. He hadn't really known the recipe, but he knew the general ingredients. He had begun working on it a week after he arrived in this world. Subaru sighed in relief. He had been craving the condiment for a while now.

Clement walked over, "You finished it?"

Subaru nodded. "Yeah." He ran through the steps he took to make it in his mind. "Could you get me some paper?" Clement nodded and brought a sheet over to the kitchen. Subaru grabbed a pen and wrote down the recipe in Japanese. While his language studies had been going well, they were also going slow.

"One day I'll translate this into the language here."

Clement nodded and grabbed a spoon from a drawer. He slipped it into the mayonnaise and tasted it. "Mm. So this is how it's meant to taste."

The next day the two began selling mayonnaise at their stand. It sold pretty slowly, as it was a strange condiment, however after a few days people realized just how good it was, and people flocked over toward their stand. Subaru was forced to make liters of mayonnaise every night to keep up with the demand.

Subaru flopped down onto the couch after he finished bottling the last bottle of mayonnaise of the night. He let out a long breath. "I really wasn't expecting this stuff to sell so well."

Clement smiled, "Yeah… it's a lot to keep up with. We're making really good money, though. You're doing well keeping up with this demand."

Subaru nodded. He felt sleep start to dawn on him. He yawned and got up. "I'm going to head to bed now."

"Alright, goodnight."

Subaru walked into his room. He changed into his nightwear and laid down. He fell asleep after only a little while.

Subaru walked through the shopping district. Clement had sent him out to buy some ingredients for dinner. It had been another two weeks since they had begun selling his mayonnaise, meaning he had been in this world for a month now. He was pretty acclimated to the environment and culture. He walked around the foods area, quietly mumbling, "Tatoes… Tatoes…" As he looked around.

His eyes landed on a woman facing away from him. He stopped walking. Subaru recognized her from someplace. She had blonde hair that reached just below her shoulders. He narrowed his eyes as he tried to remember her. It wasn't until she looked over her shoulder and looked at him that he remembered her. He had seen her his second day in this world.

Her cold eyes were set on him. A chill ran up Subaru's spine. She turned around and stepped over towards him. He took a step back, but she walked faster than him. She stopped just in front of him, she stared into his eyes. He tried to look away, but a strange terror stopped him.

Her eyes widened for a moment, before returning to their normal narrowed form. Her lips parted and she spoke. Her voice was quiet and empty. "Stay safe tonight. I'll find you again tomorrow."

With that, she turned around and walked away. Subaru let out a pent-up breath and hesitated, before running after her. "W-wait!" She stopped and turned around. Her face bore a scowl. "Wait," she said quietly, "Until tomorrow."

The two stared at each other until Subaru was forced to close his eyes and blink. When his eyes opened again, she was gone. "W...what…?" A confused murmur escaped his lips as he looked around for her.

Clement and Subaru were out taking a walk just before the sun was to go down. They were walking through a park and talking. Subaru remembered the strange woman and decided to bring it up.

Clement replied, "Strange… she just vanished?"

"Yeah… She said she would come and find me again tomorrow."

"That's odd…"

Subaru nodded. Then, before he could continue the conversation, a small blue orb floated out from the forest to his right and seemed to nervously float around Subaru. These were something he had read about, they were called minor spirits. Then, it projected a feeling towards Subaru, it was happiness.

The blue light reflected in Subaru's mind. Spirits were common here in Gusteko, but this was the closest one had ever gotten to him.

Subaru stopped walking and turned towards it. He slowly reached over and touched it. It was warm and rubbed against his finger.

Clement's eyes fell upon the spirit, "Hm? A minor spirit?"

He asked, "You can touch spirits that easily?"

"Huh? Is it usually hard to?"

"Spirits tend to stay away from humans. They usually hate being touched. I guess you have a good spiritual affinity…"

"What's that?" Subaru was looking down at the spirit, which had come closer to him now.

"It pretty much means spirits really like you. It's a lot easier to form contracts with them if you have a good affinity."

"Contracts?"

"Yeah. They're promises imbued on two or more souls. Spiritualists contract with spirits and have them help them in fights or with using magic."

"Huh… so I could contract with spirits…"

"If you want I could introduce you to a good spiritualist in this city sometime soon. He gives lessons to those who can pay and have a good affinity."

"Oh," Subaru looked down at the small blue spirit, "Yeah, sure."

Clement nodded and said, "We'll do that soon, then."

Subaru nodded. The two began walking again. The blue spirit followed after them. It followed them the whole way home. Though it vanished shortly after.

Huh… A good affinity with spirits… could be helpful.

Subaru walked into his room and laid down on his bed.

His tired body tried to sleep but that strange woman kept popping up in his mind. Primarily how she had told him to "Stay safe tonight." It made him feel like something bad was going to happen. He shoved it down and closed his eyes, not trusting her strange words.

A small blue glow awoke him. He slowly opened his eyes and found the spirit from earlier floating in front of him. It projected a thought towards him, [Person.]

He was confused. Why had this spirit woken him just to tell him that? He shook his head and decided to ignore it. Subaru closed his eyes and tried to sleep. Another thought was projected from the spirit, [Bad… person.]

Subaru's foggy mind remembered what the woman said again.

His heart rate accelerated, his sleepiness left, and he swallowed hard.

He got out of bed. He slowly left his room and looked around. The cold air bit at his skin as he stepped into the living room. The spirit floated over towards the door. [Through… here.] It told him. Subaru took a deep breath. He crept over towards the door.

Suddenly someone began pounding on it. Subaru literally jumped and had to stifle a yelp. He took a deep breath to calm himself and quietly walked to the kitchen. The pounding still rang out from the door, which flexed under the blows. He grabbed a large knife and walked back towards the door. He readied himself, shoving his fear down, and said, "Who is it!?"

The pounding stopped. Subaru held his breath. He yelled again, "Who is it!?"

[Run!] The spirit screamed at him. "Huh-" The door exploded into splinters of wood. Subaru closed his eyes and stumbled backward, shock and fear exploded within him. The spirit flew in front of Subaru, a shield of ice began forming in front of the small orb. However the shield formed too slow, and a figure lept past it. The figure swung a sword towards the black-haired man.

Duck! The spirit commanded towards Subaru, whose eyes were still closed. Subaru obeyed. He ducked down and opened his eyes. He looked up, but only saw a dark figure. Fear was the only emotion he felt. It was too dark to make out any features of the person. His eyes fell past them and landed on the spirit. He could sense its fear, its helplessness. Less than a second later a hard thump hit the back of his skull. The knife he held hit the floor. The intense pain only registered for a moment as a sword cracked through the back of his skull. Subaru's head was thrown forward as the sword sliced through his brain and slowed to a stop midway through his head. Blood splattered onto the floor.

Subaru was barely even able to comprehend what had happened before his body went limp, falling back and hitting the floor with a splash from the pool of blood below him. His soul left his body and was taken by a pale woman surrounded by shadows.

Blood poured out of the large wound as the small blue spirit watched in horror. A brown-haired salesman threw open his bedroom door and ran out at the commotion. A scream escaped his lips as his eyes fell upon the scene.

Thus, Natsuki Subaru's second loop begins.