"So, uh, who are you again?" Subaru asked me, still unsure of what he just saw.
"My name's Y/N L/N. I told you that." I told him again, but his eyes drifted to my makeshift cape, which was my old lab coat.
"Ya, but who were you, before all of... this?" He gestured to the world, as if it was an event that was supposed to pass.
"I was a student in Japan. But it seems that our universes were somewhat parallel." I told him based on my speculations, and he seemed to believe it. After a while, he stood up and faced me.
"Anyways, have you seen a silver-haired girl recently? I need to tell her something." Subaru asked me.
"Silver-haired?" I said, trying to act confused. I knew he was talking about Emilia, but if I screw up the fourth loop, it might cause some troubles for both me and the world itself. "I don't think I've seen anyone like that recently."
"Well, if you do see her, please tell her this." I listened to his message as I noticed a balloon in the sky, with a girl attached to it. Felt? Maybe my Hydrogen balloon prototype worked, after all. Wait... does that mean she already has Emilia's insignia? Hmmm... what to do...
"Well, I gotta go find someone now. Guess I'll see you later?" Subaru asked. I decided that maybe it would be best to go with him, so I proposed an idea.
"Hey, I think we should go together? Besides, I know the people around here pretty well anyways, so why not let me help a little?"
"Definitely! You would be a great help. By the way, I keep on forgetting that you're also a summoned like me here. People of the same world stick together, hm?" Subaru laughed heartily, and for the first time, I feel like I might've gained an actual friend.
Timeskip*
And on our way to Subaru's destination, we chatted about various games in our separate worlds and also compared some news and events to know more about each other's world. For some reasons, the time in our world seems to be the same, and Subaru did arrive in this world 10 days after I did, which miraculously matches up with Earth's time.
"So, who are you looking for in the slums?" I asked him as we entered the deserted area, where poor people lived and the weak scavenged.
"I'm looking for a little short girl, blonde-haired, and her name is Felt, I think?"
"Oh, you're looking for Felt? You should've said so earlier!" I played my 'friend of the girl' card, and led Subaru towards Felt's makeshift house. "This way, come on!"
"You know her?" Subaru asked as we walked in the direction of Felt's den.
"Of course! She was like my partner for like a few days and she kinda taught me the ropes around here."
"Partner?" Subaru said, a bit confused yet somewhat also getting what I meant.
"Well, it kinda went like this..." I began revealing my story and the basic outline of my survival days for the past ten days. I talked about my partnership with Felt, and how I learned a little fire magic.
"You can do magic?" Subaru screeched, and I hurriedly covered his mouth as I looked around.
"Yes, but can you be a little quieter about it? I'll show you later, but not here." I led him to my trash pile, and gestured to him to brace himself.
"So, apparently there's a thing called an affinity in this world, and you can only use magic that is related to your affinity. Mine's fire, so I'm going to show you the two spells I know. The first is Goa." I pointed my finger and aimed it at the pile, and chanted the incantation. The small bullet of fire came out and hit the pile, setting a wooden stick aflame. Subaru gave me a surprised face, and I proceeded to show him the stronger version of the previous spell.
"El Goa." The three fireballs manifested, and threw themselves towards the pile.
"Woah, bro, that's so cool!" Subaru exclaimed.
"Well, I can't determine what your affinity is, so that'll have to wait later. But just so you know, there are six magic types. Fire element that covers temperature, Water element that covers life and healing, Wind element that functions outside of the bodies of living things, and Earth element that functions inside of the bodies of living things. Yin and Yang are rare ones and they're like light and dark magic. Yin does debuffs and other cool things while Yang strengthens people and does um blinding light things? I'm not exactly sure." I did my best to explain, and Subaru nodded towards me, and I took that as a good sign before we moved on.
"Hey, did you know?" Subaru suddenly came up to me and stopped in front of me. "I have a cool ability as well, you know? I think I can go back to a certain place whenever I die! I call this Return by Death!"
"Oh, so that's why I've been getting Blackouts lately. You were dying?"
"You can go back in time too? Did you die?"
"No, I was minding my own business before I was like, uh, teleported back to where I was several hours ago."
"Hmmm... but nobody else seemed to notice..."
"Dying to return to a checkpoint place, hm?" I asked him, trying to change the topic a little. "Isn't that a little too painful if you want to truly do something though?"
"Well, at least I could go back and fix things if things go terribly wrong, right? Hey, I bet you also have a cool power too, right? Come on, tell me, I told you mine!"
"Wait, uh, but..." I told him that a certain feeling has been with me lately, so my ability has yet to awaken, probably. Took me a while to curb his curiosity before we decided to move on.
It took a few minutes to reach Felt's den, and when we reached it, I knocked on the door three times, as per her instruction. There was no response, so I opened the door and peeked inside. However, she was not there. I thought she finished her job... hmm...
I was going to take a look at the things inside, but I heard Subaru yelp and I quickly yanked myself out of there.
"I said get out, thieves!" Felt, now brandishing her knife, swung at Subaru as he blocked it with a nearby bench. Felt knocked him back, but before she can swing at him again, I spread hydrogen and lit it with Goa, which led to her stepping back.
"Felt, please calm down." I stretched out a hand as the fire died down. "He's with me."
"Oh, Y/N nii-chan! What are you doing with a guy like this?"
The 'guy like this' part stung Subaru a little, but he quickly recovered. "He said he was looking for you, so I brought him here. I also happened to befriend him while in the capital, so uh I decided to help him out a little."
"...ok, fine. But what do you want with me?" She sheathed her blade, and Subaru turned to her and began explaining the situation.
"Listen, I want to trade for your insignia, and I have something that's worth at least 20 holy coins for it!" He then took out his phone(very outdated, mind you), and took a picture of Felt, before giving the phone to her and showing it to her.
"This is what you would call a metia. It freezes time in front of it, and can store that moment in itself." Subaru gave Felt the metia as she examined the picture taken, and gave us a weird look. "I'm way prettier than that, why do I look less pretty in that frozen time thing of yours?"
"Okay, okay, if you say so." Subaru gave me a look that said 'dude' which was directed at Felt, before retrieving his phone.
"Felt, I'm not joking, but you are flattering yourself a bit. A girl at 15 saying that she looks way prettier than her own picture, is probably not true. I mean, it's just the resolution's low. If your beauty standards are this low, I gotta go take you to a-"
I don't know if I said too much, or maybe because she's heard enough, but Felt was walking towards me with an unreadable expression. "Um, Felt, is something wrong?"
"Y/N nii-chan, that's just mean!" Felt yelled before I looked down at my arm as I felt pain and a sharp thing stabbing me before I realized Felt's teeth began clamping down on my arm.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!
Timeskip*
I suppose I will never get on the topic of beauty for the rest of my life. I have bite marks to prove it.
As we went to Old Man Rom to check the authenticity of Subaru's phone, we somehow came across the topic of living in slums. Subaru was talking to Felt, trying to get information out of her or something. I decided to listen in on their conversation to divert my attention from the sunset when Felt said, "Live strong?"
"That's what everyone in the slums say." Subaru replied, exasperated.
"Don't compare me to these losers! I will not live in this place forever! I will get out!"
"Aww..." Subaru smirked, suddenly seeing something about Felt as she pouted and yelled at him.
"Hey, what are you smirking at?"
"It'll be okay..." Subaru went ahead and patted her, and continued to do so until I saw her snap.
'Wait, Subaru, you should probably stop-"
"I told you to STOP!"
CHOMP
YYYYEEEEEEEEEEEOOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUCCCCCHHHHHHHHHHH!
Timeskip*
"Does Felt always act like this?" Subaru asked me, rubbing his sore arm with the bite mark on his tracksuit.
"Well, probably not all the time, but maybe sometimes-"
"I can hear you!" Felt snapped from up front, and we shut our mouths immediately.
As we entered the loot house, Old Man Rom welcomed me back as I finally handed him my barrel of milk that I bought from the first loop, and he took some of it as he gave a glass to Felt, who drank it quickly before gesturing to Subaru to give Rom the metia.
"Hmm..." Rom scrutinized the phone, before giving it back to Subaru. "I'd wager that if I were to sell this, it will be at least worth 15... no, 20 holy coins at minimum."
"Well then, we have a deal!" Subaru said happily, and was about to receive the insignia from Felt when suddenly a knock on the door sounded.
"That might be the other client." Felt went to open the door when Subaru gave me an alarmed look. I returned a look of reassurance since he thought is was going to be Elsa.
Felt saw Emilia at the door and immediately jumped back, hissing as she snapped at the half-elf. "You! I'm not returning that insignia to you!"
Emilia sighed as she closed the door and came in. With a chilling breeze, six ice shards shaped like pointy daggers formed out of nowhere, pointed at us. "I'm demanding that you return it to me. It's very important to me."
Felt took out the dagger before Rom and I gave her a warning look. "Look, Felt, I think we have to give it back. Lady, you're an elf, aren't you?"
"Actually, only half."
"Wait, could it be-" Felt suddenly exclaimed, and as Emilia was about to say something, I cut in.
"She's not Satella, Felt. The chills of shadows could be felt if you were in the Witch of Envy's presence." I clarified, and gave Subaru a look. He seemed to somewhat understand, but Emilia looked sceptical at my explanation.
"How do you know so much about-" Before Emilia could finish her sentence, a black kukri blade glinted in the background. Alerted, Subaru and I both yelled, "Puck! Shield Her!"
The snowflake-shaped shield appeared on the last second, and deflected the blade. Elsa, now exposed, shifted out of the shadows as she glanced at us malevolently.
"That was closer than I liked, but you guys saved us!" Puck, now appearing from behind Emilia as he floated in front of her.
"I guess you haven't gone to sleep yet, since it is before sunset now." Subaru remarked as he returned the thumbs-up.
"Spirit... you are a spirit, aren't you?" Elsa's voice cut in to our conversation. "I've never hunted a spirit's bowels before."
"And you will never get near mine! I'm Puck! Remember my name after you die!" Puck shot several ice crystals at Elsa, but she swiftly dodges all of them. Good thing that Puck is keeping her on the defensive, though. It would be bad if she started aiming for us.
"Old Man Rom, who would win this fight?" Felt asked out of curiosity as we watched the battle unfold.
"Normally, spirit users will win until their mana or the mana in the air around them runs out."
Just as he said that, Puck did a yawn. "Sorry, Lia. I have to go now. If you need me, call on me. I'll act according to our contract if anything goes wrong." With that, he vanished into Emilia's necklace. Emilia then summoned two ice shields, and the Bowel Hunter began hacking away at the shields. It was at this moment that Elsa realized Emilia's defense was too strong, so she turned her gaze onto Felt.
"Oh no you don't!" Rom noticed Elsa's gaze, and picked up his club as he swung it towards Elsa. She swiftly blocked it as she swung her knife again, which slashed Rom as he fell to the ground, bleeding.
"Old Man Rom!" Felt dashed off in fury before I could stop her, and she disappeared from sight as she activated her ability.
"A Divine Protection of Wind, huh?" Elsa remarked as she dodged Felt's insanely fast slash, and I suddenly realized that Felt will get killed. Angry at Elsa, I immediately allowed the fireballs to manifest, and dashed forwards to protect the person who taught me how to survive, and the little sister figure who I felt obligated to protect.
"El Goa!" I yelled at the top of my lungs as the three fireballs shot towards Elsa at max speed, causing her to stop momentarily and block all three fireballs. When she wanted to dash at Felt again, I was in front of her, my hydrogen already in place, and I muttered Goa using a soft voice, before pointing my finger in the shape of a gun against Elsa. "Flame Warlock Original, Wall of Flames!"
The fuse was lit as the fires spread from a single ball of fire, and Elsa jumped back in alarm, while Felt, Emilia, and Subaru seemed surprised at my sudden spell power.
"Woah, Y/N! You've never showed me that before!" Subaru exclaimed as he picked up Rom's club, and I had an idea. I sprayed a bottle of oil over the club, and lit it with Goa.
"Now you have a flaming club!" I readied El Goa, and nodded at Subaru before we both charged at Elsa.
"Your movements might be as sluggish as a novice, but it seems that you have spirit. Commendable, but I will get your bowels," She yelled at Subaru as he blocked Elsa's slash, before aiming a kick at her. Elsa grabbed his foot, but I gave him a chance to escape as I shot El Goa at her. She charged at us again, but I lit another wall of flames to impede her movement. I was fearing for my life, since Subaru and Emilia looked a little tired, while Felt and Rom were out of commission as Felt protected her grandpa figure with her dagger.
Just as I was scanning through my remaining options, a message came up as I smirked, and let it's voice flow through me.
The requirements are fulfilled. Stage 1 Mastery has been unlocked. 5/1000 points collected. New element unlocked. Helium is now available. New compounds unlocked. New molecules unlocked...
"Hahahaha..." I laughed as I looked at Elsa, who gave me a confused look as well as the others. "You lost the moment when you dragged this fight out for too long, Elsa Granhiert. The Helium atoms, like beasts unleashed, swarmed into my hand as they combined with the hydrogen atoms that were already summoned. With a swirl in the palm, the elements fused into the universe's first compound, and one of the most deadly even today.
With a sphere a of helium hydride in my palm, glowing purple, I hurled the strongest acid known to mankind at the Bowel Hunter, determined to win the fight that was supposed to be lost.
Name: Y/N L/N
Authority(ies):
Authority of ? (Commonly known as Authority of Elements):
Hydrogen Mastery: Stage 1, 20/1000 complete. (Spells: Hydrogen Gas Formation, Hydrogen Gas Wall, Hydrogen Gas Mist)
Helium Mastery: Stage 0, 15/1000 complete. (Spells: Helium Gas Formation, Helium Hydride Acid Creation)
Spirits: Alchemis- spirit of fire (turquoise)
Magic Spells:
Goa- shoots a small ball of fire from the tip of the user's index finger when imbued with mana.
El Goa- manifests three fireballs around the user, and shoots them towards the opponent at high speeds