A/N: Note, I am not a scientist, a survivalist, a doctor, or any sort of professional really, so take most of the information here with a grain of salt. Don't try any of this stuff for yourself, either.
Arc 1 Finale
°The Demonic Hoshin Mines°
Behind the two walking companions, a small blue orb floated in the air, fluttering and flickering in and out of existence as if hiding itself from any nearby presences.
To the eyes of a person well-acquainted with the natural phenomena of this world, it was obvious that this small being was a simple minor spirit. However, to one unaware of such things, it seemed almost like a mystical specter of light, something like a fairy.
That spirit diligently continued to follow these two unaware persons, who were on their way to a destination that it had no idea of. Instead, something else filled the simple thoughts that constituted this being.
'Duty. Mother.'
So simple were these two words, yet they occupied every bit of space in the spirit's head. Deep, intricate memories were something that should have been beyond a simple minor spirit, but this spirit remembered well, the reason these two word now constantly floated around in its' head.
Visions of a dazzling woman in black, pale enough to look like she could fade away into the light at any moment. Eyes that struck it with fear, yet at the same time, some sort of warmth.
The person that had created it.
It had no idea how much time had passed since those peaceful, fun days, those days where all it had to worry about was circling around its' Mother while having no reason to worry about anything.
Then, one day, the fun stopped. One day, Mother stopped smiling at it, and instead took on a very scary look.
"Listen. I will not be able to accompany you on your task, as much as it grieves me to admit as much. However, even if I am not there, I need you to find him."
All it could do was transmit a feeling of deep, embedded refusal. At that time, it was the first moment negative emotions had ever filled its' being – it had no idea why, but it was sure that it was something like 'worry', or maybe 'sadness'.
For all its' refusal, however, its creator only gave him a vague, mysterious smile. The smile that she always wore, as if she was consistently one step ahead of the world. A smile that it could not understand, and still did not.
"You don't need to worry about waiting for so long...by the time you have awakened to your job, I will already be gone, and you will have to begin searching for him."
Loneliness. Conflicted emotions. The little spirit did not want to separate from its' creator. Its' Mother. Yet, she had never asked it for something so sincerely across its' entire lifespan. An odd feeling – it supposed that this was what it meant to feel 'depended on'.
"I have no worries. You will do fine, especially once you have your sister at your side. That man will make your true potential bloom – he is the one who you were created for, after all. You must grow alongside him, safeguard him, develop his potential even further...just as his mere existence has done for me."
Finally, peace. The little spirit still had no idea how to resolve all of the emotions that had been bouncing around in it a second ago, but spirits were beings that lived by their words and promises.
From the beginning, it had known that these days with its' Mother would be limited – she had told it as such when it first came to consciousness. And so, now was the time to fulfill its' purpose.
Mother's smile widened ever so slightly.
"It is good to know that I have managed to create such a good child...now, rest, and prepare for the task that has been prepared for you. Remember, at all costs, you must find him."
Without even realizing, the world around it began to become blurry and unfocused, as if it was slipping away from reality itself, into some sort of deep sleep. It had never 'slept' in its' life, but it felt that this was likely the way that this sensation was described.
Before slipping away into the unexplored unknown of unconsciousness, the spirit had one last moment to see its' mothers eyes, filled with her ever-endless greed...and a twisted love, one that it had never seen her look at something with before.
"Find the one who claimed my greed…"
. . .
In what only seemed like an instant to it, the spirit woke up in this forest. Something was pulling on its' soul, as if calling it. There was no time for it to consider how much time had passed, where it was, where its' Mother was, or what it should do next.
After all, its' purpose appeared right in front of it. Just as Mother said, he was much too obvious from the first glance. He carried an aura around him reminiscent of Mother, yet...different. It sensed the same abyss that Mother had inside of her within him as well, but it wasn't the same.
It wasn't in a rush, however. The last thing it wanted to do was choose the wrong person to devote itself to, when Mother explicitly instructed it to do otherwise.
And so, it watched. Over the past three weeks, it diligently observed the man, and came more and more to the conclusion that he really was different.
He excluded an intelligence that it was unsure even Mother had, knowledge that seemed foreign to anything it had seen Mother record or speak of, and did not even seem to have anything driving him, besides his own self-appointed goals.
He was an enigma. Just as Mother said, he was someone beyond even her endless comprehension, and let alone its' own.
And so, on this cloudy, overcast day, it followed the anomaly once more. To wherever it was going.
'Anomaly...where?'
At a moment's notice, the spirit noticed that its' trailing targets had suddenly disappeared, likely while it was too lost in thought to properly tail them. As if to make up for its' folly, the light blue orb sped up, rushing ahead to continue following the object of its' interest.
"Man, the sky looks super awful today. I can't believe this is the day I had to choose to go off. I probably woulda' gotten rained on!" Felt grumbled, looking up at the gray sky hovering above them.
Subaru rolled his eyes at her complaint. "I would have kept you to help recover for a week...but someone was awfully sure they would be good to go by the end of the third week."
The blonde thief threw up her arms indignantly. "Oh c'mon! You're the one who said that I could leave at the end of the third week! I'm just tryin' to follow doctor's orders!"
With an exasperated sigh, Subaru shook his head, turning his eyes to the ground. "I sure hope that you're at least aware that was a best scenario guess. You did mention that you still feel some soreness, correct? Sprains are literal twisting of the ligaments, the things that hold your bones and joints in place. If that doesn't properly heal, or worse, gets sprained again, you could face permanent complications down the line."
Felt groaned at Subaru's words, her shoulder slumping over. "I swear, sometimes you really suck all the life out of a gal' with your ominous mumbo-jumbo words, bro…"
Reluctantly, the young man let her go with those words. Felt wasn't exactly a doctor or anything, but he figured that the medical knowledge from this world had to be rather lacking.
"Guess I'll let you go with that one, chibi-runt. I swear, you're definitely the type to run from doctor's visits." Subaru admitted, ignoring the yells of protest that came directly after his derogatory nickname. He looked up to the sky himself, a mysterious look in his eyes. "But, you mentioned that today looks pretty rainy, right?"
His odd words drew Felt out of her outrage, calming down to give him a curious gaze. "Uh...yeah. Why?"
At her question, an even more mysterious smile spread on the young man's face. "That's good. I wanted to move out to this mine on a rainy day, in the first place."
To these words, Felt's eyes opened wide. "Wait, you wanted it to rain?! Why?!"
Instead of answering her properly, the boy just kept his mysterious smirk, his scary brown eyes looking off to the side. "You know what they say, Felt, 'a magician never reveals his secrets'."
Felt groaned, giving him a blank look. "Oh, cut the crap! You didn't even know what magic was until like two weeks ago! You just don't wanna tell me, do you?"
The silence that met her honest words was all the confirmation the girl needed, although the fact that she didn't even receive a proper answer jut made her all the more frustrated. However, in the time she'd spent together, she already knew prying answers from Subaru was useless.
He always moved for a purpose – and practically never strayed from his reasoning. Blurting out his plans or thoughts was never something he'd do...so reluctantly, she had to give up her pursuit of information with an unsatisfied sigh.
"Putting that aside for now...based on the direction we're headed in, do you have any idea which mine this might be? Any information would help us, so, well, we don't have to face any unexpected 'surprises'."
Felt hummed, bringing a hand to her chin. "Which one, huh…" She nodded, bringing her hands down to her hips. The girl puffed out her flat chest, letting out a proud huff. "Well, be grateful, since your teacher Felt-sensei is going to impart some of her wisdom onto you again!"
"Yes, yes, now let's get on with it, underdeveloped-sensei."
"H-Hey! It ain't my fault! Besides, I'm only 18, super young and lithe! I still got room to grow!" Felt automatically went into defense mode, desperately pointing a finger at Subaru, who seemed completely unaffected by it all.
"You know, age 18 is the limit, right? You're probably not gonna get any taller, and 'certain areas' are pretty much locked that way for life…" His voice almost sounded like he was pitying her, as he shook his head at her. Felt growled, giving him a good punch in the shoulder.
"Oh, shut up! I don't need to have huge boobs like those girls who need to show everything off, anyway! I love being free and light like this!" Felt huffed, cheeks flushed as she brought her hands to her chest.
"Complete and utter denial, ladies and gentlemen…" Subaru shook his head in exasperation. Felt shot him one last dirty glare, to which he looked away and hummed innocently.
"Anyways…" Felt trailed off, hands moving to her sides again. "Putting stupid conversations like that aside…"
"-Denial!"
"Shuddup! Now, you already remember where this forest is, right? If you don't, I'm going to make good use of all this anger you've been making me build up…" Felt threatened, raising a trembling fist. Subaru, of course, didn't need to be worried. He never forgot anything, after all.
"Of course. We're in a forest located directly north of the Royal Capital of Lugunica. There's a mountain up to the north, and a road that leads to the capital to the south."
The blonde nodded, arms folded as she continued on. "I'm almost a little disappointed you answered so perfectly, really wished I could have at least given you one good punch... – but yeah, that's the gist of it. Y'see, because this forest is so close to the mountains, there are tons of mines that get opened up around here. So honestly, it's a little hard to pick out which one you saw."
The boy nodded in understanding, placing a hand to his chin. "It makes perfect sense. They can open up mines in a place free of competition with villages or other nations, close to mountains, which are free of resources, and is directly next to paths that lead back to the capital itself. It's practically asking to be exploited."
Felt chuckled, rubbing the back of his head. "Honestly, I don't know a lot about why the old dudes who run stuff keep opening mines here, but knowing you, you're probably right. I'm not even worried about all that crap, though." Her gaze suddenly turned serious, her crimson eyes sliding up to meet his. "I'm just glad you didn't keep going west."
Her suddenly serious words threw Subaru off-guard, with him returning her gaze. "Huh? Why would going too far west have been bad? As far as I can tell, the only problematic direction to go would be north – I don't have any means of traversing a mountain, and it's far too risky and dangerous. Are there bandits or some wildlife that are threatening the area?"
Felt snickered at Subaru's words, her expression indicating that she found the possibilities he'd mentioned almost amusing.
"I wish that was just it that simple. But nah, it's way more screwed than that. Everyone knows not t'go there, since it's one of the places that got messed with by this really nasty mabeast...the Black Serpent."
The serious tone that entered the girls voice as she spoke of this mysterious beast intrigued Subaru, leaving him to raise an eyebrow in curiosity.
"The Black Serpent? I don't remember you telling me about that sort of thing when you taught me about the types of mabeasts you knew about."
The blonde girl grinned, rubbing the back of his head. "Well, ya' can't exactly blame me, Subaru! Mabeasts like the Black Serpent are on another level; even compared to regular mabeasts that are already weird as hell, they're real freaks of nature. I've heard that whenever they show up, it's considered an unavoidable catastrophe."
Subaru's brown eyes widened ever-so-slightly at the mention of those words. "...And? Are you saying that it's still living right next to this forest?"
Felt waved a dismissive hand, as if trying to reassure Subaru's overly-analytical mind. "'Course not. If it was, why the hell would anyone run into this forest willingly? Nah, the spot to the west is just a place they call the 'contamination zone'. Y'see, all of the Great Mabeasts do some different, weird stuff, and from what I've heard, the Black Serpent leaves behind this super poisonous goop...apparently just touching it is enough to make you contract hundreds of different diseases, and die a pretty slow, agonizing death. Maybe a fast one, if you get lucky. Hell, even if you made it past the poison, which ya' wouldn't, the whole place is crawlin' with mabeasts."
His eyes widened at the grim consequences that he would have faced had he carelessly walked west. Truly, it was a more than good decision that he had hunkered down and chose to survive on his own.
"As frghtening as that is...it kinda reminds me of something from my homeland."
Felt looked up at the young man in interest. The times he explicitly shared stories of the mystery place he came from was few and far-between, but she always found herself interested in just how far-fetched and crazy they sounded to her ears.
"There was a place like that where I came from, too. Pripyat, a crazy spot that was basically guaranteeing you a death if you stayed there for too long. Radiation is a serious killer...but definitely not as bad as catching a hundred different diseases at once. Isn't that a little overkill…?"
A hum came from Subaru's side, as Felt turned her gaze off to the right.
"Radiation? Prap...yet? I ain't really a big map gal', but I don't think I've ever heard of that place, or that word. You're as indecipherable as ever, brother!"
The young man rolled his eyes, seemingly becoming lost in thought.
"I'm the surprised one here...how can the three big kingdoms just let natural walking disasters like those walk around without even trying to stop them? It's one thing to ignore negligible threats, but why would you let a natural disaster that could destroy your capital cities at any moment survive?"
Felt shrugged, turning her gaze to the gray skies. "Hell if I know. If I ain't a map gal, I definitely ain't a politics gal. If I had to make a guess though, it's cause of their appearance. Usually by the time you hear about 'em, they've already destroyed everything in their path and moved on. It's like you can just never find them, but they can always find you. Real messed up crap."
Subaru took in that information with a hum, deciding to commit it to memory. He wondered, for a brief second, if he could destroy those creatures with enough preparation and information...and eventually nodded. Still, he needed to learn more about them – and he wasn't exactly on the mood for altruistic monster slaying.
He was in a new world, but Subaru didn't need or want to be the hero or the villain. Living the life he wanted, one step at a time – this was the kind of life he wanted to enjoy here.
"Well, anyways...we were originally talking about the mine, yeah? You never really got around to giving a good guess about what mine this might be."
"Oh, yeah!" Felt's head rose, focusing now that the tangent they had embarked on was finished. "Givin' it my best guess? I think it's one of those 'Hoshin' mines that have been poppin' up around this area recently."
"Hoshin mines...why the heck are they called that?"
"They're managed by this huge company called the 'Hoshin Company'. I don't know all the details, but word on the streets is that the lady who owns it is a real mean businesswoman. She managed to expand her business all over Kararagi and into the capital."
Subaru whistled at this feat. In his world, businesses expanding after getting a modicum of success was pretty simple – but in a world like this, where travel, shipping, and logistics took days or weeks at a time (according to Felt's mini-lessons about such things), he figured that it was a much bigger deal for a company to have hands between multiple countries.
"I see...I'm guessing that these mines are probably to help out whatever business ventures they're working on, then? Not a bad idea – if they own everything, the business becomes much more profitable in the long run. But if such a wealthy company full of rich dudes is using these mines for resources, why suddenly abandon them?" He looked to Felt, lost at the thought. The blonde scratched the back of her head.
"Yeah...that's the thing. Y'see, usually, they just strip the mines of all the valuable stuff – iron, gold, silver, coal...and then they leave. All that's left behind are a ton of worthless crystals and weird-colored rocks nobody knows about. If I'm right, the one we're headed to is probably a few months old already."
"Wait, did you say worthless?!"
"W-Woah, don't just start shouting out of nowhere, bro!" Felt replied defensively, holding both her hands up.
At her words, Subaru had to nearly restrain himself from bursting out into an outraged shout. Calming himself down with a few deep breaths, he thought on the differences made apparent between this world and his.
They weren't completely far behind on technology – rather they simply took different paths. Purifying water via magic rather than filters, telling the time through magic crystals that changed color accordingly, warming baths by using fire crystals, lighting lamps with fire crystals, etc.
Magic crystals were apparently extremely common, in fact. Fire for boiling water, water for making fountains or other such displays...
Apparently, they even used these crystals for the more niche purposes. Earth crystals, for example, were used both as fertilizer and as help in strengthening the foundation of homes.
There was only one flaw in all of these wonderful alternate inventions they had made – price and availability. According to Felt, magic crystals took very long amounts of time to form, and the ones that were stockpiled were only sold to those who could actually afford them.
Therefore, in reality, most of the 'technological advancement' in this world was enjoyed by the wealthy – those who could actually afford these crystals that would enable them such a lifestyle. For those such as Felt, however...they only heard of the uses of these crystals in dreams.
Still, because of the existence of crystals, it was likely that none of them even considered exploring anything else. They just assumed that the poor and unfortunate could never gain the luxuries that the richer citizens received due to their privilege. However, Subaru had a great equalizer within him – a wellspring of knowledge beyond any person' comprehension in his mind.
"Heh." As ever, that mysterious smile appeared on Subaru's face, his eyes looking into the horizon. Staring at him, Felt had the feeling that he was looking into a future, seeing something that she couldn't imagine in her wildest dreams. "...If they're gonna leave those 'worthless crystals' behind, that's fine by me. Just means that we have more to work with."
"...You're really weird, Subaru." Felt sighed, stretching her arms out into the air. "Well, anyways...sense you've been asking me questions nonstop, it's only fair I get to ask you a few, right?"
The boy huffed, ruffling his own spiky hair with his palm. "How long are you gonna keep calling me synonyms of 'weird'…? Whatever...yeah, I'm willing to talk to you about some stuff. What did you want to ask?"
"So, considering you come from some super-mysterious place you can't tell me about...I wanna know more about what you were doin' before you came here! I mean, you already know my whole story, so it's only fair, right?"
Her request surprised Subaru. Knowing Felt's somewhat greedy nature, he expected her to ask him about something that could benefit her more in the long run, but…
Seeing her hopeful eyes, it completely dashed any thoughts he had of an ulterior motive. Honestly, it was still unbelievable to him, having a friend...it was the first time he'd seen someone so actually interested in him, and not the brain inside of him.
"I guess if you really want to know…" Subaru shoved his free hand into his pocket, holding the weaved basket carefully in the other. "There's really not a lot to say. I spent almost all my time holed up in my room – I just found going outside unnecessary. The few times I did leave my home, it was traveling to other places to learn all that I could."
"Woah! I mean, the part about staying holed up in your house sounds lame, but you got to travel a lot? That must have been cool!"
The excitement Felt showed made Subaru give a wry smile. It almost hurt him to disappoint the light that was shining in her eyes.
"Well...it was cool at first, yeah. But soon, it all just started to become boring and repetitive. Everything did. Over, and over, the same things...exercising a little bit to keep in shape, taking on some requests to make money, repeating experiments for myself continuously...that was how I lived the last 18 years of my life." Subaru admitted, his eyes looking somewhat glazed over.
"...But, I mean, why the heck were you so dissatisfied with it, bro? You ain't a noble, but the life you were living makes it sound like you had an awesome life! I'd kill for a free lifestyle like that, I mean...that's why I do what I do. Surviving, making it day to day, throwing my life on the line, just to stay free, and get a chance to jump out of the hellhole that's the slums. The rest of those guys in there don't have anything – but me? I'm getting out."
The scientist looked up at Felt with a curious gaze and snickered. "Making your way out of the slums, huh? That's an interesting goal...but have you ever thought about upgrading the slums, yourself?"
Felt stopped in her tracks, looking at Subaru with widened eyes. "U-upgrading the slums? You mean, bringing the whole place up a level?!" She quickly shook her head, waving her arms in front of her face. "No way, no way. I've got my hands full trying to get myself out of there. No way I could handle tryin' to drag all those other losers with me! I don't even know 'em!"
Subaru grinned, pointing a finger up to the sky. "That's what you're saying...but think about the long term, Felt. Even when you make it out of the slums, you're just going from one system to the next. In fact, you're just going to be stuck in fighting to stay out of the slums. And with all you've done...do you really think the merchants and nobles that you've swiped from in the past are just going to let you peacefully live out your days in the capital?"
She narrowed her eyes at Subaru, his painfully truthful words setting in. The girl was silent for a while, before taking a few steps towards him, looking up into his eyes. Her piercing crimson gaze held a determination in it that he hadn't seen before.
"So what? You think I haven't thought of stuff like that before, Subaru? I'm a slum kid, but I ain't an idiot. That's the plan I've been going through with for my whole life, 'cause I know there's nothing else someone like me can do. It's either steal, or sell my bod-ouch!"
Felt flinched back, holding her hands over her nose. She glared at Subaru in anger, though she looked more like an angry cat than anything else.
"H-Hey, don't flick my nose! I was in the middle of answering your stupid question!"
Subaru shook his head, folding his arms. "Nope, I didn't need to hear more. You're definitely an idiot. A huge idiot."
"What do you know about me, huh?!" Her hands dropped from her nose, her voice raising steadily in tone. "You got to live your comfy life at home, with your super genius mind, that you didn't even WORK for, and-"
She stopped herself midway through, noticing the hurt in Subaru's eyes. Immediately, she felt regret enter her.
Her first friend...the first person who had ever actually made the effort to trust her, without having any sort of ulterior motives or issues, or anything like that...she'd just used the worst possible insult she could have towards him. She was being just like the people who had hurt him in his past.
The girl couldn't even bother to ask for forgiveness or try to play off what she had said. A heavy atmosphere hung between them – one that she had created.
...Which was why she was so surprised when she felt a gentle hold on her shoulders, his hands gripping both.
"You've got me, Felt. We're friends, aren't we? I usually don't do sentimental stuff, but, I always follow what I want to do...and as your friend, I want to help you. Help the people in those slums, with the knowledge I have." He smiled, a rare expression that she almost never saw come to his face. "I am interested in a project like that, after all…I've never had the opportunity to bring an entire small village's worth of people up."
Felt stared back at him, wide-eyed...before bursting out into laughter, her hands over her stomach. It was now Subaru's turn to look at her in surprise, wondering just what the girl had found so funny.
"Man...you're a real riot, you know that, Subaru? Giving that whole emotional speech just to talk about what you're really interested in at the end? Just like you!" She began to walk forward again, with Subaru catching up to walk alongside her, leading the group once more.
"What can I say? I prefer just being honest. A lot of the time, people can get pretty pissed whenever you hold back any sort of information from them, no matter how small."
Felt smiled, his words putting any bit of suspicion in her at ease. Frankly, that blunt honesty of his...it was something that a person like her greatly appreciated.
"Well...it does sound like a ridiculous thing to make happen. Totally unrealistic, and I still think that my idea is way better-! But, well...maybe if it's you, Subaru...maybe then, we could actually make something crazy like that happen."
The young man felt some sort of odd feeling go through him at the absolute faith she seemed to put in him. Of course, he was no stranger to people trusting his abilities, but this was different...the fact that she had hit at his sore spot didn't even register. No, instead...he just wanted to help her.
Felt was his friend. There was no way he wouldn't put his best towards helping her out. Of course, Natsuki Subaru was the type of pig-headed guy to never say that sort of thing aloud.
Before he could say anything to Felt, however, a dark-looking stone cave came into sight, a cooling air wafting out from within. A sign was at the front, which read: "Hoshin Mine #22 – Abandoned."
"...Looks like we're here." Subaru murmured, staring forward into the darkness. His eyes, of course, didn't miss the obvious wooden sign. "And it looks like you were right on the money, eh?"
"A 'course! I'm always right!" Felt said proudly, folding her arms over her chest. "But, how the heck are we gonna be able to see inside there? It looks dark as heck, and I don't think we've got any lamps or anything...riiiight?"
Without looking, Subaru could practically feel Felt's expectant gaze on him. It was all too obvious that she was expecting him to pull out some sort of ridiculous tool or invention to help their issue...which he did.
He reached into his pants pocket, pulling out his smartphone. Unlike most people around, who were still stuck with flip-phones, Subaru was lucky enough to have access to a steady supply of the most recent technology – meaning he wasn't carrying around one of those fossil-like devices.
Not to mention, this smartphone wasn't available anywhere on the market.
Felt looked at it in wonder, her eyes practically sparkling at the unsaid question of just what the odd-looking object in his hands was.
"This is a smartphone." Subaru explained simply, holding his phone up to look at the battery on it. Still 100% - of course it was, the moment he'd discovered that he was in a new world, he'd immediately turned it off to preserve battery.
It would be a long time before this thing would be capable of being charged, after all.
"And it's going to be our way of seeing anything inside that pitch-black cave." He finished simply, turning on the phone's auto-installed flashlight. A bright white light beamed from the back of the phone, immediately flashing the darkness in front of them with an illuminating glow.
"Woooah! I don't think I've even seen a lamp that bright, it looks totally crazy!"
Subaru nodded, pride in his voice as he replied to her admiration of the invention. "It better be. This model was custom-modified by me, and one of the biggest additions was making this light stronger. Let me tell you though, it was a reeeeal pain in the butt trying to order all of th-"
Felt looked at him blank-eyed, now completely lost in whatever he was saying...and Subaru, remembering how clueless the girl was at this, fell silent.
"...You know what, let's just get going." Subaru headed forward, with Felt snickering at his expense.
"At least you're starting to recognize how weird you can sound sometimes without me needing to remind you!"
"I'm gonna shine this light right into your eyes if you keep teasing me like that."
"H-Hey!"
The pair disappeared into the cave in front of them, with even the light that illuminated the area around them being swallowed up by the all-consuming darkness. After a few seconds had passed, a familiar-looking blue blip flew down into the cave, following the two at a distance.
However, unknown to either of them, they were not the only presences that were making their way to the caves.
"Man, it really is dark in here…" Subaru murmured, turning his gaze from left to right at the somewhat eerie mine. Equipment was still scattered near and far, with even some ingots and ores left around, as if the miners had just chosen to drop everything and leave.
That sort of appearance left Subaru understandably nervous. Anywhere that had been evacuated in that fashion usually meant that there was a good reason for it.
"What, you getting creeped out, Subaru? Need to hold my hand so you don't shake in fear like a lil' baby?"
"...That's really unconvincing coming from you, with the way you're practically trembling like a leaf."
Subaru's deadpan tone was pretty obviously warranted, as Felt was sticking unusually close to Subaru, barely hiding her fear of the omnious cave.
"S-Shuddup! I ain't scared, this cave is just weirdly creepy!" She rejected, looking at him with the most anger she could muster.
"That's the same as admitting you're afraid of it." Subaru sighed, ignoring the kick Felt aimed at his knees in defiance. "Kicking me isn't gonna make you look any less spooked, you know?"
"Ugh…" Felt looked away, her cheeks red in embarrassment at how easily Subaru had seen through her.
The two continued to walk through the caves like this, the only noises being the sounds of their footsteps, and the occasional mysterious sound coming from somewhere within the cave, which would make Felt jump and flank closer to Subaru.
Eventually, they came across an area that held multitude of abandoned mine carts, which the pair stopped to thoroughly inspect...and within one of the carts, which was labeled with a tag neither of them could read (Subaru had long discovered this world had some sort of different written language from his, and Felt, due to her lacking education, was not exactly the best at reading, either.), Subaru found exactly what he was looking for.
He grins, reaching into the cart and grabbing the item inside, holding up a long, reflective metallic rod in the air. Felt looked at it with confusion.
"What...what the heck is that?"She asked, walking over to Subaru's side to stare at the item.
"It's just what I was looking for. Silver. The fact that it's already in this form saves me a lot of work, though. Looks like this one might have been formed into this shape by accident...it probably got exposed to some high heat or pressure through a cave implosion or some other effect. The shape isn't exactly perfect after all."
After Subaru spoke on it, the golden-haired thief got a better look at the rod, and found that he was right. While it had the rough shape of one, it had some bumps and weird edges here and there, it didn't really look perfectly shaped, but moreso like it had been made entirely through coincidence.
"Yeah...now that you mention it, you're probably right. It does look kinda weird...but what are you gonna need that for?"
"You'll see. I still don't wanna spoil it." The boy admitted, flipping over the item in his hands. "We can come back for the other stuff later. The rain is going to start soon, so I want to find a high place."
"...The rain?" Felt tilted her head to the side, following behind Subaru as he retraced their steps to exit the mine. "I'm guessing this has to do with the weird fact that you were waiting for a rainy day?"
"No comment." Subaru immediately denied her curiosity, leaving Felt to give an unsatisfied groan. Still, watching the confidence in his stride, she couldn't help but feel a little excited at whatever he was about to do. Of course, she would never admit this to him.
After a few minutes of walking, the two found themselves right back at the corner before the entrance. Subaru reached into his pocket, turning off his phone's light, and then the phone itself. The entire endeavor had only lost them about 4% battery, which was good enough.
Just as he was about to turn the corner, however, Subaru felt a heavy tug on the back of his shirt, a force strong enough to yank him back, almost enough to pull him on his back.
"Watch out!"
The only thing that registered in his head was Felt's alarmed voice, his senses immediately sharpening in response to the situation...only to see a black shape flash by, right in front of his face. He saw sharp, shining shapes – teeth, from the beast that Felt had just barely saved his life from.
"What the-"
"Divine Protection of the Wind!"
In the same second Felt had pulled him back, she smoothly withdrew her dagger from her hips, aiming a vicious toss at the leaping beast shrouded in darkness. The blade sailed through the air, before nailing the beast in the head, with a force so great that it practically impaled the thing and pressed it against the wall.
Subaru took in a deep breath, immediately assessing the fact that there was a lingering threat to their lives. He looked to the unidentifiable beast, making sure it was dead, before edging to the corner, peeking out at the mouth of the cave, shrouded in light.
His eyes widened at the horrific sight that awaited them outside the mines.
A black mass surged around the entire entrance of the cave, countless red lights staring back at him, immediately sensing his gaze. No, it wasn't some huge black mass, but rather a crowd of individual creatures – wolf-like beasts that had unnaturally glowing red eyes. They seemed like wolves, but Subaru could tell that there was something off about them.
"What the hell are those?"
He heard a squelching sound from behind him, as Felt roughly pulled her knife out of the corpse of the beast that had attacked them. "Ulgarms." She spat, turning a venemous gaze to the creatures outside. "Demon beasts. Real nasty, too. If they bite you just once, they give you a curse that's guaranteed to kill you, unless you can find someone to get it off."
"In other words...we can't sustain a single injury from them?" Subaru didn't turn his head away from the beasts, knowing that taking his eyes off of them could possibly spell their doom any moment. "That's a real unfair level of difficulty…"
In that moment, he could count about 20 of them – a medium sized pack. If they followed the rules of wolves, they were lucky that the pack wasn't nearing the max size of about 36+ wolves. That would have been an even more dire situation than this already was.
He remembered the way Felt had killed the monster, slowly reaching at his side for his slingshot while eyeing the wolves. "So, I'm guessing that aiming for the vital points of a regular beast would still be effective on them?"
Felt spun her knife in her grip, readying herself for an attack for the front. There was a moment of silence between the two groups…
Rain began to fall, thunder rumbling through the crowds as if to herald the beginning of the battle.
And with a howl, the horde of mabeasts began to rush forward, swarming the entrance. Immediately, Subaru wished to retreat, but going into the darkness without a plan and without any clear path in mind was suicide. So, he stood with Felt, who had already rushed into the group of demon beasts.
She moved with an extreme grace he hadn't expected from her. He could see wind licking off of her heels, her red scarf trailing behind her as she slashed through the horde like she was slicing through butter. It was easy to tell that she was making use of Divine Protection – which she had admitted she was particularly proficient in.
Still, her way of fighting was still inefficient – her cuts were shallow, all aimed at random spots on the hides of the beast. He knew she could control her speed, so it was likely just her inexperience in battle at play.
"Felt!" He called out loudly, catching the girl's attention. "Go for the vital spots, either at their necks or the nape of their necks. Use your speed to push off of them and keep your momentum going!"
"Right!" Felt replied without even turning back. Almost instantly, the effect of Subaru's advice became more pronounced, with the girl's knife felling the beasts much more quickly than it had before. With her keeping her movements fluid and consistent, she also never had moments to slow down, where her back was open.
Now, she was really moving like a proper graceful, cutting wind, slowly turning into an inhospitable tornado that would destroy everything around her.
"Nice."
There wasn't time to waste watching her fight, however, turning his gaze to some of the beasts that were prowling around Felt. The girl was fast, but still grossly outnumbered – the wolves were employing basic tactics by having them all attack from different directions, in order to spread her attention thin and draw her off of her guard.
However, with Subaru there, that wasn't an issue.
"One." Subaru muttered calmly, as a copper ball flew from his slingshot, perfectly aimed at the spine of one that was jumping for Felt. With a whimper, it fell to the ground. "Two. Three."
With each word from Subaru, the beasts that he aimed at fell like clockwork, each shot of his being a perfect kill. His mind accounted for every single variable – the movement of the beasts, Felt's location, the interference from the rain, the direction of the wind, he had a perfect grasp of every single aspect.
However, in the end, the well-oiled machine that was their teamwork was nothing in the face of numbers. Something felt off to Subaru...he knew these beasts weren't stupid from their use of tactics. If anything, they were smarter than a regular pack of wolves. They had the number advantage, so why were they going at Felt one-by-one, and leaving him free to pick them off?
"What's the deal…?"
It was then that Subaru noticed something. There was a much larger looking wolgarm in the back, seemingly standing off and watching the fight...the boss of the pack, Subaru must have figured. Yet, even seeing its' pack members felled so easily, it seemed to be...smirking?
In less than the span of a second, Subaru analyzed the possibilities of everything that was going on. The targeting of Felt, the odd one-by-one attacking tactics, the fact that the beasts had waited to engage them fully at the outside of the cave, when ambushing them in the darkness of the cave would have been much better...the rain...
"It's a trap." Instantaneously, his mind came to the correct conclusion. "Felt, get the hell outta th-!"
But it was too late. By the time his gaze returned back to Felt, in the instant his mind and gaze had strayed, the worst-case-scenario had already occurred.
"C-Crap...no!"
Felt's already strained ankles had left her with a moment's imbalance – just a simple moment of imbalance, that was all...and that simple moment of imbalance doomed her. Her speed, mixed with her instability, almost flipped the girl over onto her ass. She fell down with a rough grunt, letting out a pained yelp upon feeling the intense soreness in her ankles flare up once again.
As if on cue, the Ulgarms began to surge in on Felt's fallen form, as if they had all been waiting for that one moment. Subaru grit his teeth, realizing how perfectly they'd fallen into this thing's trap. He'd realized a trap as a possibility, but there were too many variables outside of his grasp for him to perfectly predict it.
'If they bite you just once, they'll give you a curse that's guaranteed to kill you.'
Her words of warning echoed in his head, as he watched the now helpless girl be slowly approached by her death.
"...Damn it!"
Without a moment's hesitation, Subaru dashed forward towards her at top speed. Ulgarms blocked his way, but he masterfully dodged and weaved through them like it was practiced.
Subaru's speed wasn't anything extreme. If he was fighting someone like Felt, she could probably overcome him with ease. However, what he was good at was predicting easily read moves...and right now, these Wolgarms weren't being sly about their movements at all. They each came at him head-on, with almost telegraphed movements, leaving him more than enough space to easily move around them.
However, he wasn't completely invincible. Step by step towards Felt, it became more and more difficult to avoid damage. He felt his clothes rip in certain places, felt claws scratch against and break his skin, and teeth scraping past him, dangerously close to becoming full bites. The young man winced, but the pain didn't make him falter at all.
Every step, he thought of the time they had spent together. Her simple admiring of the skills that he considered not even that useful to anyone but himself. The fact that she had actually seen him as a person, and not a thing beyond her understanding...the fact that she had actually called him…
A friend.
"I won't...let you die!"
Subaru pushed his focus to its' utmost limit, his pupils seeming to widen to take in almost everything around him. Time itself slowed to a halt, as Subaru's mind began to work at inhuman speeds.
He could see it. Every drop of rain, every minute movement of the mabeasts around him, feel every single stroke of wind…
In an instant, Subaru appeared at Felt's side, looking to the Wolgarms as if he had just disappeared and then reappeared in that spot. The rest of the pack was confused, but the boss looked on with bright eyes filled with a wizened intelligence only an old, frenzied beast could have. The young man hadn't disappeared – he'd just executed perfect movement. In an instant, he had somehow determined every single one of their lines of sight, and moved in such a way that he seemed to disappear and reappear in their vision.
The creature grinned, a grin full of malice and darkness. This was a worthy prey to hunt, after all.
With a growl from the leader, the pack once more surrounded the boy, leaving him barely any space to move, as he quietly leaned down and picked up the fallen girl, sliding her onto his back.
The beasts watched only for a second...before rushing at Subaru with a howl. The moment the circle was broken, Subaru ducked past them with inhuman agility, though grit his teeth, as two more made one last pass at him, cutting deeply into his arms. He ran right for the cave, ignoring the futility of the act.
While he still seemed calm on the outside, he was beginning to finally lose some of his ever-present composure on the inside. They were going to be trapped in this cave with these beasts, and now, Subaru couldn't even contend with them properly with Felt on his back. He couldn't even tell if she was still conscious or not – she likely passed out momentarily from her hard and unexpected collision against the hard ground.
What could he do? Killing the wolves wasn't an option, hiding wasn't an option, running away was only a stopgap measure, and he didn't have time to make anything substantial to help rid himself of the creatures.
They were well and truly stuck...and Subaru could feel death waiting for him, practically staring over his shoulder.
Right know, what he needed more than anything was information...information...if he could find out more about this mine, more about its' structure and layout – then he could easily deal with these things somehow.
But how? Where would he get that from? He was smart, but he couldn't make something out of nothing, and right now, he didn't have the time to pull off such a ridiculous feat like that, regardless. More than anything right now, Subaru wanted to know...he wanted to know...he had to KNOW!
At that exact moment, everything paused around Subaru. However, it wasn't a result of his focus, or a simple fragment of his imagination – Subaru felt time itself stop.
A purple mist surrounded him, just like the mist he had seen in his dreams...yet, just as it had been taken over in the dream, it began to transform here, slowly turning into a white, ominous fog.
"Knowledge comes at a price."
A voice echoed from within the fog, with Subaru barely being able to sense the origin. Those same black pinpoints stared back at him, a darkness gazing into his very soul.
There was a silence, as the mist curled around him, allowing beams of unnaturally bright light to shine through, almost blinding him.
"But if it's for you...then I can do anything…"
Faintly, Subaru could see a sight that shook him to his very core – an inhuman grin that stretched wide across the fog, one directed entirely at him. A chill ran through his body, as Subaru realized whatever he was staring at was something far beyond his comprehension – a being that he had no business attempting to understand.
And as that realization sunk into him...he was suddenly forced back into reality, feeling his body move again towards the cave. In his hands, a small black book now sat. He stared down at it blankly, before flipping open the page – and inside was the piece of information that would save his life.
It was a perfectly detailed, perfectly labeled map of the interior of the mines, from beginning to end. In fact, it seemed almost like a map that might have been in use during the time this mine was still in operation – based on the signature of the foreman at the bottom. But it seemed so...perfect and precise for what would likely be a rough map drafted up on-the-fly...and how had it appeared in this book? How had that book appeared in his hands?
And this book...it gave him an extremely odd sensation. The more he stared at the open page, the more it felt like his very strength was being torn away from him...
"Forget it."
Subaru shoved the book back into his pockets, grinning as he ran headfirst into the darkness of the caves. His brown eyes glinted with a red streak of pure determination. He didn't need the book anymore, anyways.
He had just been given the perfect key to his victory.
The storm above. The misshapen silver rod he'd swiped. And now – these plans that had given him exactly what he wanted.
All the pieces were in place. Now it was time to turn the tables.
"I'll show you that I'm not the kind of guy that you mess with. Come and get it, you dumb dogs!"
With those words, Natsuki Subaru disappeared in the darkness, countless shadows leaping into the void after him.
The last thing he did was whisper something under his breath, something that would only bear fruit later.
The loudest sound to Subaru was that of his own heavy breathing. His brain didn't have the capacity to process any useless thoughts.
Left. Right. Sharp turn. Long turn.
By memory alone, Subaru was perfectly navigating through the mines, mitigating the lack of even needed his phone's light to see. His memorization ability was not half-assed. Once he saw something or heard of something for the first time, he would never forget it.
However, his opponents didn't require scent, either. Bit by bit, he heard their steps rushing up on him. They moved in smooth, long strides – strides that would probably be silent to any other helpless creatures, but Subaru's already sharp senses, now pressed to their utmost limits, could easily pick up on them.
Every step, by every step, he calculated where the pack was behind him…
'Dog 1 should be here right...now!'
As if on cue, a snap was heard from behind Subaru, as he narrowly avoided the jaws of an approaching Ulgarm. His feet skidded around the incoming corner, and with an expert shifting of his weight, he pushed all of his force into a minecart, full of ingots. It nailed the beast directly in the chest, catching another Ulgarm unaware.
Unable to fight against the sheer weight of a cart full of heavy metal, the two beasts were sent sailing down into a pit below, crushed under the weight of the minecart.
However, Subaru hadn't stayed behind to confirm their deaths, only continuing to rush along forward.
'Two down. That brings the number down to 13 or 14…?'
Subaru felt yet another bite coming towards him from behind, and again, took the moment to dodge out of the beast's way last-second. However, it realized near-instantly that it had been drawn into a trap – its' unchangeable midair momentum was sending it sailing towards a large, sharp spike, enough to impale it.
This beast, however, was not completely mindless. And it was indeed no ordinary animal. With an inhuman prowess, the beast twisted its' body midair, managing to redirect itself with sheer strength to slam into a nearby wall. It grinned proudly, having avoided its' prey's desperate attempt at runnin-
"Another one down."
The boy's voice echoed coldly through the cave from the darkness, alarming the creature.
A large ball of clay slammed into the cave ceiling above the beast.
It barely got the chance to look up and realize that its' 'intelligence' had been predicted. Perfectly, it had been led to stand under an incredibly sharp, long series of stalactites, which fell on it immediately, cutting its' life short.
As Subaru ran, however, a voice came to his ears.
"Help...need?"
"Huh?" The boy's concentration was broken for but a moment by this mysterious voice, a voice which Subaru realized to sound more ethereal than any regular voice he had ever heard. Rather than speaking, it felt as if the intentions of words were being conveyed directly into his mind.
"You have...plan. I offer...help. For...contract."
The source of the voice made itself clear, as a blue orb now fluttered along with the group. Faintly, Subaru recognized what this thing was – a spirit. Felt had mentioned them briefly when she was talking about magic, but hadn't gone too in depth about it, admitting she was even more limited in that area of knowledge than any of her other topics.
Looking at the being's light blue color, Subaru could tell that it was some sort of water spirit. Based on the size, it seemed to be a minor one – just barely old enough to convey its' feelings towards him.
A smile came to his face. One that was somewhere between equal amusement, and barely-hidden suspicion.
"This is just too convenient...it's almost like someone's set up all the right cards for this...like it's all just falling into my lap. I've never felt like a protagonist or anything, but this is awfully lucky."
There was a moment of silence, as the being seemed to be somewhat contemplating Subaru's words.
"Thoughts...correct. Meeting...preordained. Contract...or die. No time...for think."
"Heh...well I have to thank you for being honest, at least. As for my answer..."
Subaru's figure disappeared behind a corner, with the final words he spoke to the mysterious being only known between him, and it. By the time he reappeared again, the blue orb had already disappeared, and the chase continued as usual.
Subaru continued like this, running-and-gunning the group until he managed to finish off about 2 more, leaving them with only 10 more of the beasts to deal with.
It was easy for him to outpace and outrun the beasts – in this cave, Subaru was now the one with an advantage. The Ulgarms were definitely not used to fighting in tight spaces, and there were too many objects in the environment for someone like Subaru to take advantage of. Not to mention, while they could stay hot on his trail, that was all that they could do.
Because Subaru had this place perfectly memorized, it was almost as if he had a home advantage over them – always knowing where to turn to evade them, how fast or slow he should be going...and any fatigue he was building up was extremely well-hidden.
However, eventually, the beasts began to smarten up to these tactics. Rather than chasing him in one direction, the creatures began to strategically block off his paths, lying in wait for him rather than following him outright.
To any, it might have seemed that the situation was becoming hopeless. Subaru was heavily injured, Felt was still unconscious and unable to properly fight, and the enemies were beginning to catch wind of his strategy.
When Subaru realized what was happening, he showed a frown on his face, his eyes shaking, and his entire body practically trembling in fear. "Crap...I'm running out of room to escape to!"
And with those two words, he began running like a madman, heading in a new direction that the Ulgarms hadn't observed him to be running toward before. If before, he was running them in circles, it was clear that he was now running with purpose.
Of course, these experienced battle-hardened beasts weren't stupid. At first, they were naturally wary about following their prey. The chase had been long, and they'd watched many of their pack die to this one human's machinations.
Still, the beasts weren't entirely rational – one thing pushed them forward...that despair, that moment of weakness that the boy had just showed earlier…it drove their primal, inner nature as Mabeasts, and urged them to finish off their prey, and to end the hunt that they had been assigned to take on, in the first place.
The boss was the only one that lagged behind, narrowing its' eyes at the path in front of them...before rushing ahead to follow behind the rest of its' pack.
When the beasts emerged out at the end of the path, what they found was incredibly surprising. Rather than emerging outside, the beasts realized that they had been led to a path that seemingly brought them out of the mines...and into the upper elevation of the mountains that the mines were built into.
In front of them lied an expanse of grass, a cliff, beyond which, there was a sheer, impossible drop to the world below. And at the edge of that cliff...stood their prey.
The boy was standing at the edge of the cliff, practically shaking as he looked down at the only escape route he had – jumping to his own death, with nothing but absolute fear.
Slowly, the beasts began to circle him, blocking any possible escape routes he had to the side – not that there was any possible way for him, or anyone else to scale the sheer cliff face that surrounded them on both sides.
As the pack parted, the boss walked through the center, staring at their prey with a sadistic grin. He had been cornered, whittled down, and broken physically and mentally.
They were the victors of this battle.
Subaru turned around, his eyes coming into focus as he stared at the beasts with unbridled fear. "C-Come on guys, cut me some slack! I-I don't even know why you're attacking me! I was just defending myself-ngh!" He helpless shot out words at them that they couldn't understand, even almost stepping off of the cliff.
Pathetic.
The boss truly thought that for such an excellent chase, the boy was pathetic. So, he didn't even deem the prey worthy of any further attention. It was time to finish this, and head back to their mistress with this whelps' torn corpse in its' jaws.
With one final growl, the boss sent its' pack en-masse towards the boy, intending to utterly destroy him and to end his life.
Up until the end, they did not realize anything. Lost in their bloodlust, in their disappointment at Subaru's true weakness, and lost in their urge to finish the hunt, the beasts were completely blinded, too blinded to notice the trap that was laid out in front of them.
They did not see the fact that Subaru had struck the long silver rod into the ground, hiding it with his body.
They did not realize that Felt was no longer on his back.
They did not realize that for some reason, the rain above them became heavier, now practically soaking them in water.
They didn't realize anything...until Subaru suddenly grinned, life returning to his despair-filled eyes.
Only until it was too late, did the Ulgarm boss realize they had been utterly taken in by a trap.
"FELT!" With a yell, Subaru was knocked out of the way of the beasts last-second, a blur pressing into his sides.
The creatures didn't even have time to react, as a bright light flashed across their vision, their ears deafened by the sound of nature's wrath coming down upon them.
Almost as if in slow motion, an arc of pure, unfathomable power descended from the skies, too fast for any of them to react. It was drawn to the silver rod planted in the earth, almost as if being summoned down from the heavens itself.
In a near instant, lightning coursed through the beast's bodies, only further amplified by their extremely wet coats. Rather than helping them, their insulating fur made the experience feel like absolute torture, more and more electricity pulsing through their bodies...until each and every one of them fell limp on the ground.
The beasts had fried in a pool of their own ignorance and foolishness. Smoke rose off of their bodies, the smell of overcooked meat filling the air.
He couldn't blame them. After all, they never would have been able to predict the way that his plan had come together – not with the way he had kept them fooled. There wasn't much time to think about the way his plan had worked, however.
Even after the deed had been done, Subaru kept his eyes fixated on the beast's bodies. Felt was against him, groaning, as her second use of her Divine Protection for the day had completely wiped her out.
"Urgh….I...I feel like crap…" She muttered, not even able to hide the pain and exhaustion in her voice. He could tell she was still just barely somewhere half between consciousness and passing out.
She had just barely put herself together to execute the plan they'd made in secret, but it was obvious she was still out of it, with the way she was panting. Subaru wanted to stay there and confirm her state...but he saw movement in the pile.
In a split-second, the boss Ulgarm jumped out from the pile, running at Felt and Subaru with a burst of energy that he hadn't expected.
"I already know your real aim, damn it…! You're here for me, and me alone, aren't you?! So damn...easy to read!" Subaru ran towards the cliff, taking a moment only to reach into the ground, and pull out the silver bar that had been stuck in it.
"Wait, Subaru, what are you gonna-?!"
Felt's cries went unheard, as Subaru kicked himself off of the cliff. The beast followed him without a moment's hesitation, leaping out into the open and biting down at the boy below it. It's teeth only managed to wrap around the silver bar in his hand, however, which Subaru quickly redirected by shoving a strong palm up into the beast's jaw, throwing its' mouth upwards.
Upwards, right into the stormy sky. Thunder rolled through the clouds again...before lightning once more surged down towards them, crackling and parting at the speed of light. The actual lightning followed behind the strike, going towards the two mid-air combatants.
Subaru gave a wild grin, looking right into the beasts' eyes without a single inch of fear. For the first time in its' life, the boss Ulgarm felt the emotion of absolute terror, an emotion that it had never experienced, that only its' prey ever deserved to experience.
It was a hunter, it was strong, it was an existence far above this weak, pathetic human-
"Let's taste the power of science together, huh…?" A sickening grin was on the Subaru's face, his eyes a bottomless pit that boss Ulgarm only now realized – it had been helplessly sucked into.
From the start, they were playing into this boy's hands.
The last thing Subaru heard was a loud thump, his vision fading away into darkness.
Subaru slowly opened his eyes, bringing a hand to his forehead as light, brighter than it should have been, shone directly into his pupils. He winced, turning his gaze off to the side.
"Man...where the hell am I?"
He let out a sharp breath, as the memories of everything he had experienced suddenly resurfaced in his mind. Panicked, he looked around at wherever he was, noticing that...it was some sort of closed, wooden room?
"This...isn't the tent." That much was obvious at the way this place was decorated. It wasn't anything fancy, but it was a proper, prebuilt structure, and even had a small wooden table alongside a chair at it. Now that he thought about it...where he was sleeping felt a lot softer, as well.
He looked behind him, eyes widening at the sight of a somewhat rudimentary feather bed.
"Seriously, this is way too weird…"
Before he had any more time to think about his situation, however, the door opened. Subaru immediately tensed up, readying himself for whatever the hell was about to enter the room...only to see a certain familiar blonde-haired, red-bow wearing girl walk inside.
Her face looked surprisingly crestfallen, with her carrying some sort of wooden bowl in her hands. She closed the door behind herself, and then looked at him…
He looked at her….
She looked at him….
"W-WAIT, YOU'RE AWAKE?!" In a flurry of moves, she threw the bowl onto the table, dashing to kneel down and excitedly hug Subaru, so tightly that the boy almost felt it hurting a little.
"O-Ouch, Felt...you don't have to hug me so tight...and when did you become the hugging type anyways? What's with this sudden character change?"
At his words, Felt turned redder than a tomato, letting go of him and turning away from him with a flash.
"H-Hmph! You should just be thankful that I don't punch you for that, since you're injured enough already!"
The boy looked down at his body, pulling the rudimentary, somewhat torn covers off of himself. Despite her words, he looked better than he had when they'd fought those Ulgarms, as Felt had called them.
He hummed, bringing a hand to his head. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't recall coming here...he didn't even know where they were at the moment.
First of all, he had to regain his bearings.
"Well...first of all, where am I? What happened since the fight? There's no way you just managed to make something like this on your own, right?"
"Before that...you have to eat up!" Felt grabbed the bowl she had hastily set down, putting it in Subaru's hands. He looked down at it, realizing that it seemed to be some sort of watery soup… "I, uh...I made it just for you! Old Man Rom said we had to keep your energy up if you were gonna make a full recovery!"
At first, Subaru wanted to reject it, being seeing how earnest Felt seemed about her effort, he began to eat it without complaint, making sure to take it slowly.
...It tasted horrible.
"Tastes really good, Felt. Can really taste the effort you put into this!" Natsuki Subaru, fortunately, was talented at lying just as easily as he breathed, when he needed to. Felt showed a bright, genuine smile at his compliment, rubbing the back of her head.
"Aw shucks, you don't have to praise me, s'just me lookin' out for a friend, that's all!"
A 'friend'…
For some reason, Subaru couldn't help but share in her smile upon hearing those words.
"And so…?" Even then, he still wanted to hear just how they had ended up in this situation.
"Oh, right...well, right now, you're in the slums." She explained bluntly, causing Subaru's eyes to widen in panic. Before Subaru could interrupt her, however, the girl continued. "You see, I didn't wanna just leave us in the forest after saving your butt. Who knows if more of those guys were crawling around the forest, right? I mean, I had just barely managed to tackle you out of the way before that last lightning strike could hit you – way too reckless by the way! And, well, managed to drag you off to the side. The boss fell down and got fried."
Subaru calmed down a little upon hearing her explanation, remaining silent, as if to give her unsaid permission to continue.
"Well...we probably woulda' been stuck there, if it wasn't for this neat little water spirit that came around! It offered to finish healing up the wounds on my legs, and even came all the way back to the capital with me! I think it's still around here somewhere, but I'm not too sure…"
She tilted her head to the side, letting out a deep sigh.
"It was a real hassle, though. Sneaking your heavy as heck unconscious body all the way back over here to the slums? Then I had to convince Old Man Rom to let you stay here, which is the back room of the loot house! And so, that's my side of the story!"
All of a sudden, her demeanor turned intense, her crimson red eyes focusing on him. He could see her eyebrows knitted in not-so-hidden frustration. "More importantly, what the heck were you thinking, brother? You really could've died there! I was barely conscious during it all, but that ridiculous plan of yours was crazy!"
Subaru's plans had begun the moment that book touched his hands. While memorizing the map, he'd noticed there was another exit that lead up to an elevated area in the mountains.
It had been the exact area that he'd been studying – studying for a purpose that would only be revealed later.
While carrying Felt, he'd also noticed she wasn't actually unconscious, but kept that fact hidden from the beasts chasing them, treating her as nothing but dead weight on his back, while secretly whispering his plan to her.
First, he needed to thin the herd. That was easily done through the environment around the cave. As the Ulgarms began to catch on, Subaru would then lead the beasts around the mines, in a way that slowly brought them closer and closer to that exit.
It was at that point that he met the mysterious water spirit, whose help became instrumental in the last part of the plan.
Before he got there, however, he needed to make sure these beasts were fully drawn in by his tricks, and wouldn't be tipped off from their keen instincts. That was when he had begun to use his acting chops, putting on a completely fearful act, one of despair, to draw the beasts to attempt to finish him off even more – to see him as a pathetic prey that had gotten lucky, but was running out of options.
Subaru understood, seeing these beasts operate, that while they had intelligence beyond a regular animal, they had even darker base instincts. That was obvious in the way they'd cornered felt, and chosen to scratch him to death rather than going for huge bites.
Once leading them out onto the mountain, Subaru's plan had pretty much already come into full fruition. Felt was tasked with scaling the seemingly impossible-to-scale walls with her Divine Protection – a capability the enemies had no idea she had. The Water Spirit who he had asked for help made it rain ever so slightly harder, wetting the wolves and trapping in their coats a layer of ionizing, conductive water.
Lastly, the silver. The only metal with an over 100% conductivity rate when it came to electricity – in other words, the perfect material to act as a lightning rod.
The last thing he'd needed to do was bait them into bunching together, which he did by faking his own desperation to escape.
And of course, they were baited right into the lightning strike, which Felt swooped him away from.
It seemed like random chance that the lightning struck there, but it was all observation from Subaru. He'd been watching the area for days discreetly, simply wanting to take the opportunity to possibly build a strong magnet for future inventions – perhaps moreso with some copper and iron, but the silver gave him a chance to improvise.
In other words, they'd been drawn into the perfect storm of a trap. Even for those wolves, there was no way they could dodge a lightning bolt moving at nearly 350 times the speed of sound, and survive over 300 million volts of electricity coursing through their veins.
The only hitch was the boss, who Subaru had half-expected to live...that thing was a true monster to live through that much abuse.
The boy let out a deep sigh, having gone over his entire plan in front of Felt, who stared at him with giant, wide eyes.
"W-Woah...remind me to never get on your bad side, Subaru…" She chuckled, giving him a playful punch on the shoulder. "But hey, you did awesome! If it wasn't for those brains of yours, well...I might've been mabeast food by now."
Subaru shook his head, bringing the soup bowl from his lips as he looked at Felt. The girl was surprised, as his usually cold, analytical eyes seemed to hold not some sort of endless malice or incomprehensible darkness, as she had once seen them.
No, his gaze held some sort of...deep, comforting warmth.
"You don't have to thank me, Felt. I did it once, and I'll do it again. After all...we're...friends, aren't we?"
His awkward-sounding words made the girl burst out into laughter, turning away from him.
"O-Oh man I can't! You sound so pure and innocent when you say that kinda thing, brother!"
"Hey, don't laugh at me! I'm being super-ultra serious right now!"
The two shared a long moment of laughter, a laughter that lifted any sort of darkness that had built up in their souls. A laughter that was, in that tiny room, only reserved for the both of them.
"So, now that you're here, Subaru…"
Felt got up from her chair, looking down to the boy with her usual mischievous grin on her face. However, even for her, something seemed different. It wasn't her smile, no...but her eyes were unlike he had ever seen them before.
She reached her palm down, speaking to him with an absolute confidence that he didn't expect to hear from a simple 17 year old girl. No...she sounded more like a ruler...like a king.
"I've decided. I want...no, I need your help. If it's you and me, I know we can do it! I've never been a goody-two-shoes, and I definitely aint the type to get wrapped up in all the complicated political crap, but...help me make these shitty slums better! If I can't leave it...then all I need to do is make it good enough to the point where I'm satisfied living here, right? I'm not gonna hear any refusal!"
Subaru was taken aback by her sudden, yet determined words.
He remained silent for a while...and eventually met her hand with his, slowly getting to his feet.
"Well, what are friends for, eh?"
The two looked into each others' eyes, both now united into proper partnership by a single, focused goal – improving the slums in the Royal Capital of Lugunica.
This marks the true beginning of the story of an unprecedented genius who would bring change and prosperity to the world all around, and to the people living within it.
A story of hardship and good times, one of happiness and sorrow. Of sacrifice, and gain. Love, and hatred.
A tale encompassing human nature itself, and the ingenuity that we hold within us, the power that can destroy everything, or raise everything back up.
A story showing the true importance of bonds…
Most importantly of all – a story that shows the true power and worth of knowledge.
Knowledge brought to revolutionize another world.
"What a sha~me! I reeeeally expected them to be finished off with that…" A childlike voice murmured, a small silhouette coming upon the mountain of dead corpses that had been left behind in the wake of the battle. "Oh, we~ll! The job was only to attack them, right? Killing them was just a li~ttle bonus on the side, if it worked out!"
Cheerfully, uncaringly, the voice spoke about death as if it was nothing but a regular afternoon for her.
"Now, now, Meili. You shouldn't be so cheerful about leaving such a difficult job for your older sister~." A voice playfully chided. "Though...I do wonder about just what sort of man could make such short work of so many mabeasts….my, he will surely be a delight to finish off, myself."
"Je~ez, big sis! You're chiding me, but you're showing the worst behavior he~re!"
The woman giggled, turning her head to the side. "I must apologize, Meili. You do know that I just can't help myself, yes? Especially with such a delicious job at hand…"
The two began walking away, with the little girl letting out a half-annoyed groan. "Whate~ver! What a bad role model you are, big sister Elsa!"
"I suppose not even I can deny that statement, hmm?"
The two shadowy figures disappeared into the night, taking all of the corpses and any traces of the battle with them in a flash. They had been extremely thorough to turn over everything.
What the two assassins hadn't noticed, however, was the light blue spirit that slowly hovered out from behind an extremely well-hidden pile of rocks, fluttering away into the quaint night sky.
'Bad people...found. Job...finished. Time to...return...'
Destiny's Author Corner!
Hey y'all, back at it again with the middle-of-the-early morning releases. Here with the newest chapter of the sauce! This is the ending to Arc 1, I hope you all enjoy it.
Now, we are finally out of the forest, and into the slums of Lugunica. Subaru and Felt are now officially partners working together, what's gonna happen?! Ooooh!
And also, Elsa and Meili showing up? This early?! Holy craaaap!
Well, I'm excited. I don't know about you guys. Looking forward to next chapter, too. By the way, if you guys could do a quick answering of a question for me in the reviews: are you enjoying this fic? Is it good so far? I really wish to know.
Until next time, lads!
**Rides away into the sunset in my busted-down Honda Civic**