The Most Beautiful Shinigami

Zero days since the Last Death (Nine Deaths)

"Shit! Damn it!" Subaru bellowed out, pounding on the wall beside him, leaving behind a stain of blood in the shape of his fist. Ignoring the pain that was coursing through both his knuckles and fingers, Subaru looked at the entrance to the building opposite the wall and started running towards it.

Plop, plop, plop. Leaving a trail of crimson drops behind him, Subaru cursed his luck as he pulled the Conversing Mirror out of his pants' bag with his healthy hand. Without hesitating for a second, Subaru contacted Mimi and explained the situation as briefly as possible. After agreeing with her that he would meet her on the side-street adjacent to the main avenue, instead of "a place where she would notice a stir or any sign of battle", and asking her for a small... favor, Subaru ended the call and focused on getting to the rooftop of the building.

Plop, plop, plop, plop… With his heart rate completely off the rails, Subaru ignored the pain in his hand and legs, and jumped up three steps at a time, endeavoring to cut his way to the rooftop where he would meet the last actor, the last piece of the game. That would be the second attempt, and while he knew that convincing him would not be too difficult, he had truly hoped he wouldn't have to repeat it.

Plop, plop, plop, plop, plop, plop, plop... Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit! With wrath flooding his heart more and more, Subaru cursed inwardly as he climbed the stairs on the fourth floor of the building. How long had it been since he returned by death? A minute? Maybe less... Subaru was still in a state of shock, and the only thing that kept him going was the toxic smoke from the flame that burned wildly in his chest.

It was the wrath. Pure anger that threatened to set his spirit ablaze. It was hate. Corrosive hatred that threatened to corrupt his spirit until nothing remained but a black fog of unceasing death. Subaru was mad, furious, enraged. During the previous loop he had done nothing but watch and hinder, his information had been of little use and that had led to the damn entity escaping.

Subaru was aware of the danger of the entity, he was aware that, for some reason, it always found him very quickly. This was something that he had proven throughout his three deaths during the cycle of death in which he was trapped. There was no doubt that this lethal female was capable of finding him within the metropolitan area no matter where he went. Why had he ignored the possibility of the same thing happening outside this area?

Due to his naivety, stupidity and lack of foresight, Subaru had died again, and with it, he had probably also condemned the lives of Tivey and Mimi. His lack of character had led him to feel dejected by his minimal collaboration during the fight against the female entity, and therefore he had not even considered the possibility that reaching the mansion would not be enough to consider that they had managed to escape from the entity.

His lack of wit and poor attitude had doomed yet another loop, that was the harsh reality. If he had considered the situation better, perhaps he might have made sure that all of the guards in the mansion were much more aware of a possible threat. Perhaps if it had not been so useless, Tivey would not have focused on him and his breakdown, and would have managed to react in time to prevent the entity's attack. Perhaps if he hadn't been so pathetic, he would have convinced Halibel to accompany them for a while longer, as a preventive measure against a possible return of the entity.

But Subaru had shut down his thinking, focusing only on getting Mimi to the mansion while neglecting everything else. The clues were there, all he had to do was pick them up, but Subaru had refused to do so, and thus had lost everything he fought for throughout the loop. In the end, the last thing his pathetic being could do, was receive the attack with his neck without even resisting; just like at the beginning of the cycle of death, so nothing had really changed; he had learned nothing in the end, he had not taken a single step towards the overcoming his weaknesses...

The self-loathing he had been feeling before he died from the entity's surprise strike only increased after he returned from dead. Ironically enough, this time that self-loathing was directed at the same self-contempt he had felt before he died. For, if he had had time to curse his own ineptitude, he had had time to consider all the possibilities arising from the information he had gathered.

Subaru hated himself because, despite everything he had struggled and suffered, he still lacked the character and wit to better cope with the situations in which the damned providence kept placing him. His resounding failure during the previous loop was proof that he was still far from taking the next step to overcome his weaknesses, but he could not repeat that same mistake and fall apart due to self-loathing.

No, he had to learn from his mistakes, caused by that lack of attitude, and focus on finally making full use of all the information he had collected. Only then would he stop dying. Only then would he stop dragging, with his death, everyone around him into the eternal abyss. The latest victims had been several of the mansion's guards, possibly Tivey and… Mimi. He had failed her once again, had allowed the girl who had been there for him to die again; that's what infuriated him the most.

As he climbed the last stairs leading up to the rooftop's terrace, Subaru forced himself to sort through all the data that he had gathered during the four loops he experienced throughout the current cycle of death. The first thing he was absolutely sure of was that the attacker would find him no matter where he went; the last death was proof of that. Also, she would not allow him to escape even if he survived his encounter with her.

In this regard, Subaru recalled what she had said during the second loop. The memory was extremely fuzzy, but Subaru was sure that the entity had said that she had waited a long time. Did she mean that she was waiting for the opportunity to attack him? That made sense, considering that this was the first day he had left Anastasia's mansion unaccompanied.

She had waited days, maybe weeks, or even months, for the opportunity to kill Subaru. And that opportunity came after his meeting with the design department of the Hoshin Company, when she was sure that Subaru was alone and therefore no one could stand in her way. Perhaps that is why she was so desperate to kill him, to the point where on more than one occasion she ignored Halibel and Mimi to try to kill him, as if just being around him was enough to drive her mad.

Even so, if during the previous loop she had attacked him at the mansion, why hadn't she done so before? Also, now that he thought about it, the entity had become increasingly desperate to attack him after each of the loops; a change that had been subtle, but he could not rule out that it was there. Moreover, it reached the point where, in the last loop, the attacker went completely berserk and, against her apparent caution, she finally attacked him in the mansion. What caused that change?

As far as Subaru was aware, every time he returned by death, his physical state was exactly the same as at the precise moment when the save point was situated. In that case, had his mental change influenced the entity's attitude? Subaru could only theorize, for he had no way of verifying anything he was pondering.

Discarding that train of thought, Subaru focused on another clue: alcoholic beverages. The first time the entity reacted strangely to these was during the third loop, when a liquor stand was hit by a Mimi attack and the hostile entity was partially paralyzed.

Something he wouldn't have paid much attention to, if it hadn't happened a second time in the course of the last fight. And on that occasion the change of attitude in the entity was very evident. Halibel dropped his liquor bottle and, unlike the previous occasion, it broke near the lethal female. The liquor stand had been several yards away from her the first time, and maybe that is why the impact on her wasn't so big.

But when Halibel dropped his bottle, it broke just inches from her, making the effect very noticeable. On both occasions, she was paralyzed, as if afraid of alcohol, but the second time, fear led her to abandon, albeit temporarily, her desperate hunt for Subaru; something extremely surprising, considering that moments before she had found herself in a state of madness in which she seemed particularly desperate to murder him.

Of everything he had noticed, Subaru was convinced that this was the most useful. Though he must use it wisely, or it would only cause the attacker to flee again; and now he knew that this would also count as failure. Furthermore, he was now aware of the entity's most dangerous attack pattern, and this was the wind dome she used to shield herself after taking damage. Subaru would definitely have to warn Halibel about this.

Finally, the last piece of information he had on hand was the possible identity of the entity. So he could finally give her an alternative, though possibly temporary, name; Zarestia. The Great Spirit of the Wind, Zarestia, the Most Beautiful Shinigami; this is what Tivey had said about her. And Halibel seemed quite convinced that the entity that had attacked him out of nowhere was Zarestia. Subaru was willing to believe him, especially after seeing how trustworthy he could be, despite his shabby appearance and carefree demeanor.

Unfortunately, Subaru was still unaware the reason behind Zarestia's attack. Why would a Great Spirit be interested in killing him? Halibel had mentioned something about an expedition to the Zarestia's Bed, the supposed abode of the spirit. Although nothing that could have happened on that expedition could be related to him, indeed some of what Halibel said had seemed interesting to him. A nobleman from Lugunica had paid a large sum of money to advance the expedition.

Could it be the "Client"? The truth is that the idea seemed extremely farfetched to him. How did all this relate to him? Subaru did not know, but hearing that a nobleman from Lugunica was behind the advancement of the expedition to the supposed abode of the spirit that now wished to end his life, seemed too convoluted to be a simple coincidence.

Subaru stood by his hypothesis that the client who hired the assassins, did so because of the signing of his contract with the Hoshin Company. Someone who, due to a conflict of interest, was negatively affected by his dealings with Anastasia. If they were a direct competitor of Anastasia, it made sense that they would be a quite wealthy person; someone of the nobility.

So it implied repeating the question: What would the Client gain by advancing an expedition that would eventually happen? Perhaps they had sent someone to negotiate with Zarestia, in order to get her support. Had Zarestia been hired as an assassin, after the failure of the previous ones? The idea of a Great Spirit, a transcendental entity, being hired for an assassination rang quite absurd.

However, the people of Kararagi knew her as the Most Beautiful Shinigami, so he couldn't completely rule out the idea either. After all, Shinigami is just another name for a god of death or the Reaper, a name originating from Japan… Noting once again the obvious connections between Kararagi and his country, Subaru gave the matter more thought while taking a breath. He had finally reached the door that led to the rooftop, but before opening it he wanted to have his mind cleared.

So… had Zarestia been hired to murder him? Subaru had already considered that possibility, before Halibel linked the hostile entity with the Most Beautiful Shinigami, and just like back then, Subaru did not believe that was really the case. Elsa and… the little girl, despite their eccentric behavior, had never implied that they were acting for personal reasons. And that was particularly not the case with the entity, with Zarestia.

On the contrary, she oozed a hatred capable of freezing his blood every time she saw him. Zarestia was really eager to kill him, to the point of, driven by desperation, attacking him in the mansion; a place she had refrained from approaching until now. Moreover, she always seemed to know where to find him... This, and the fact that she seemed to be moved by personal reasons, made him think that the Client was not directly related to the appearance of Zarestia.

Or was it he who had implanted in Zarestia the desire to murder him? If the Client was behind the emerald stone, capable of keeping, under any circumstance, the soul of the one who carries it with him united to the body, then perhaps this a mage of great power, capable of coercing a Great Spirit. Unfortunately, Subaru was not sure if the stone had come into Elsa's hands from her supposed mother, or from the Client. Subaru wanted to believe that from the Client, as it would serve as a clue, but as he had previously assumed, the stone was a very flimsy clue...

With so many loose ends, Subaru was unable to affirm or deny anything... And considering Zarestia's attitude throughout the previous four loops, getting information out of her would be impossible. The only thing he would get would be to hear "Die".. Frustrated, Subaru realized that once again he was prioritizing the search for the Client, when there were more important issues.

Damn it, I need to focus! Slapping his palms on his cheeks, Subaru forced himself to return to the initial focus; dealing with the entity, which was possibly Zarestia. Once he had dealt with her, he could ask Halibel what he knew about the expedition to Zarestia's Bed. So, ignoring the tiredness he felt, as well as he ignored the nausea and the unpleasant sensation in his whole body upon returning from death, he opened the door in front of him and stepped out onto the terrace.

He immediately looked for Halibel, hoping to see him in the same spot as during their previous encounter. However, betraying his expectations, the situation had changed slightly. Halibel was not staring at the metropolitan area on a corner of the roof terrace, he was just a few feet from the place's entrance and was staring at him, as if he had been waiting for him. Feeling that his nerves were beginning to cloud his judgment, Subaru started to sweat profusely; however, he shook his head and decided to get straight to the point. He had no time to waste anymore.

"Halibel-san, my name is Subaru Natsuki and I work at Anastasia Hoshin-sama's mansion; I heard about you from her. I will be brief about what I have to say; the Great Spirit Zarestia is about to attack the main avenue of the metropolitan area. I know this because I have a rare Divine Protection that allows me to glimpse the future. From what I saw, only you are able to help me avoid the catastrophe that's looming over Kyo. So I beg you, Halibel-san, lend me your strength. " Condensing everything he had said to Halibel during the previous loop, Subaru laid the information out to the Shinobi warrior.

"Ya know… Subaru…" Halibel replied, exhaling a dense cloud of smoke. "I was curious what you might say, but I must admit that I didn't expect that... It seems that my instincts weren't lyin', I just met a rather peculiar person." Showing his huge canines, Halibel smiled at him as he resumed smoking from his golden kiseru. "By the way, you don't have to treat me so formally..."

Both were leaving the alleyway that connected the main avenue with the side-street where the assault would take place. After Subaru revealed to him about the entity's attack on the metropolitan area and asked for his support, Halibel responded in much the same way as he had once Subaru won his attention during their previous rooftop encounter. If anything, he had even shown even more interest, possibly because Subaru, this time, was more confident of his claims.

Wanting to see if what Subaru had said was true, Halibel accompanied him out of the building even though he was in the middle of his day off. The two marched side by side, as they walked away the avenue and into the side-street. Subaru, who was still immersed in his musings about what would be the best action next, noticed that Halibel's gaze was fixed on his bloodied hand; which had finally stopped bleeding.

"Did you do it out of frustration at findin' out about the attack?" The demi-human questioned him, realizing that his gaze had caught Subaru's attention.

"Ehh?" Confused, Subaru could only bring out a sound of incomprehension.

"I saw you from above…" Halibel answered, letting out from his snout a long plume of smoke. "I was lookin' down the alleyway when you walked by… I'm sorry, it's just that my instincts, or sixth sense, if you will, indicated that somethin' interestin' was about to happen. And that's when I saw you. All of a sudden you stopped, your face paled and then you hit the wall out of nowhere… Was that when your blessin' was activated?"

"Ahmm…" Unsure how to reply, Subaru stared at Halibel with a blank mind.

"Sorry if I asked somethin' that made you uncomfortable, it's just that I was curious." Shrugging, as if to tell Subaru to forget the matter, Halibel apologized.

"I-It's not like that…" This was not something that Subaru did not know, after all, when he noticed Halibel's shadow during the previous loop, it was reflected on the surface of the alley; which implied that Halibel had been watching him when he returned from death. Even so, Subaru had been unable to answer Halibel's question the moment he asked it. Now, deciding to continue with the deception of his supposed Divine Protection, Subaru concluded that it would be best to agree with him. "Yeah, you're right. It's just that it's not every day that you get a vision as discouraging as today's."

"Makes sense…" Apparently convinced by his answer, Halibel took another puff of smoke. "I've also been meanin' to ask you this: If the attack's gonna happen on the main avenue, why're we movin' away from there?" That was the question Subaru had initially been waiting for, and he already knew how to answer it.

"Truth be told, the attack's going to happen wherever I am. It appears that I'm Zarestia's target." With an expression of genuine shame on his face, Subaru revealed what the previous loop had refrained from saying.

"Hmm… That explains much better why you're so interested in getting' my help." Blowing the smoke out of his lungs, Halibel responded causally. Apparently, Halibel hadn't cared much that he hadn't disclosed this information until he got him out of the building; a fact that calmed Subaru considerably. "And how is it that you gained the hatred of a Great Spirit? First of all, are you sure that it's Zarestia who'll attack you?"

"I ain't sure about either... I just know that what my blessing showed me, fits with what I know about Zarestia. Perhaps I'm mistaken, but to say it's Zarestia served to draw your attention more easily, did it not?" Covering his back in case Halibel's deduction had been wrong, Subaru told him a half-truth; taking into account that he had really considered that telling him that it was Zarestia would help to get Halibel's attention, besides achieving with that to help him indirectly to understand the hostile entity's fighting style.

"I guess you're right..." Halibel replied with a smile; with smoke seeping from between his teeth. "If it were Zarestia, though, that would make you a much more peculiar and interestin' fellow." After Halibel's nonchalant reply, silence reigned for a moment. Which Subaru decided to shatter by tackling another subject.

"By the way, regarding these instincts of yours… Is it some kind of Divine Protection or something?" On several occasions throughout the cycle of death he was in, Halibel had mentioned that he was interested in him due to his instincts, and Subaru wanted to know what he meant by that.

"No, no. Nothin' like that. It's a bit of the natural instinct with which we of my species are born, and a bit of my senses that have been honed over a long period of time... I'm one of the last of my kind, so I'm always proud to be able to talk about the attributes that we possess..." Exuding an aura of strange seriousness in him, Halibel explained to him about this instinct that he talked so much about; an attribute of his species. After saying that, Halibel's attitude showed him that he had nothing more to add, so Subaru accepted the silence and allowed himself to be immersed once more in his thoughts.

Now that they had said all they needed to say, Subaru felt ready to face the next event: surviving until Mimi's arrival. Subaru would have to stay out of the fight, while making sure not to become easy prey and to warn Halibel if he noticed any of Zarestia's attack patterns; he area attack, that is, the wind dome, being the one he would have to pay most attention to.

In addition, he would have to make sure that Zarestia did not end up escaping. That was one of his priorities, second only to victory. Subaru considered telling Halibel about Zarestia's possible escape, but in the end he desisted from starting a conversation again; after all, it was clear that Halibel had no intention of letting Zarestia escape. Proof of this was his desire to continue looking for her after he accompanied him and the two triplets to the mansion.

Therefore, another of his goals was to find a way to help Halibel prevent Zarestia from escaping. And the biggest obstacle to that task was the wide-area wind attack that she used to stop them from chasing her. Another necessary condition to avoid her escape, would be that Mimi and Halibel were in good condition by the time Zarestia tried to escape; the reason Halibel had not been able to pursue her, besides the cyclone she launched, was Mimi's state.

Ensuring that Mimi did not overdo her use of mana and end up out of combat, was vital. Preventing Halibel from being hit by the spell that created an air dome around Zarestia, was equally important. With that defined, Subaru was convinced that his usefulness throughout the combat would consist in being attentive to Zarestia's behavior, in order to determine and warn, based on his previous experiences, when she would cast the most powerful spells.

Having found his usefulness, Subaru felt a huge weight was lifted from his shoulders. Clearly his job would not be easy, considering that he would also have to avoid receiving a blow that would leave him disabled, but it was definitely the least he could do. Not backing down from the challenge, Subaru savored the wrath that continued to burn fiercely within him.

Clenching his teeth and fists tightly, Subaru let the heat of determination envelop him. After that, he halted and looked over the canopy of the jungle of buildings that surrounded the street; none was higher than five stories, so observing their rooftops was not particularly difficult. After a few seconds, a chill ran through his body.

"H-Halibel…" Struggling to keep his body from giving in to fear, Subaru called out to his companion.

"I noticed it too." Like Subaru, Halibel's gaze was focused on the roof of one of the buildings.

It was not exactly the same as the one she appeared on, the previous loop. In fact, she had appeared a couple of minutes earlier than expected. However, Subaru surmised that something like this could happen, considering the subtle increase in the attacker's desperation to end his life, after each of the loops. There was Zarestia, her sharp gaze clashing with Subaru's.

"Die…" Subaru didn't hear her, but from the movement of the attacker's lips, he knew she had said the same thing;although there was really no need, since she didn't usually say anything else. Unwilling to wait another second, the entity, which was speculated to be the Great Spirit named Zarestia, leapt into the street and launched a swift wind attack in the direction of her hated target.

Without the slightest delay, Halibel repelled the wind attack using one of his kunais and moved into attack position. Subaru, without much thought, moved away from the combat area and placed himself behind one of the few stalls, especially in comparison to the number of stalls on the main avenue, which were on the side of the street; its owner had already fled in terror upon witnessing the exchange of attacks between Halibel and Zarestia.

With the few civilians on the street escaping in all directions, Halibel began to feel more and more comfortable fighting. Taking a leap sideways, Halibel disappeared completely, to then reappear behind Zarestia. Wielding a kunai in each hand, the demi-human attempted to stab the female figure's shoulder blade.

Zarestia, preventing the kunai from being nailed to her upper back, threw herself to the ground and fled to get into a better fighting position. With hatred, anger, thirst for revenge and the desire to kill beginning to overwhelm her, Zarestia launched an erratic attack in Halibel's direction and immediately afterwards rushed to the stall behind which Subaru was.

Subaru, noticing the behavior of the attacker, did not hesitate to change position, placing himself in the corner of the stall opposite to where she was coming from. Zarestia, enraged, approached the food stand and launched another wind attack. The stall, as expected, was cut into up to five pieces that fell to the ground, spreading its contents all over the street. However, Subaru's mutilated corpse was nowhere to be seen.

"Well done, kid. I didn't expect you to have such good reflexes." Halibel praised Subaru, while charging at Zarestia with one of his kunais clutched in front of him.

Subaru, who had taken advantage of the change in position to dodge the wind blades more easily, had once again moved away from Zarestia and into a position where he could retreat if she were to refocus on him. Silently, he watched intently as Zarestia avoided Halibel's attack and released several gusts of sharp wind.

"This time I'm not going to make the same mistakes as before… I'm gonna play the chips I've at hand carefully, taking into account all the information I collected. I won't fail again! I'll redo things correctly this time!" With determination, hatred and wrath burning within his heart, Subaru committed himself to solving the cycle of death he was trapped in, without dying once more.