"What are you doing here, Echidna?!" Subaru asked with bitterness. After the events at the Sanctuary, Subaru had developed a distrust and hatred toward the Witch of Greed, as she attempted to make a contract with him in which he would die over and over just so she could satisfy her thirst for information.
The white-haired Witch looked at him with curiosity. "How pleasant... My book was correct. I really did find an interesting individual." It wasn't until she replied that it really hit Subaru that he was talking to a living Echidna, but this Echidna was slightly different from the one that he had met in her Castle of Dreams. She looked slightly older and less evil.
Subaru slowly stood up as his body was recovering from the intensive fear that the now dead mabeast had given him. But before he could say anything there was a rustling from the direction that Echidna had presumably come from.
From behind Echidna, another person came, but her presence surprised him even more than Echidna's. "Minerva?! What are two Witches doing here?!"
Minerva, the Witch of Wrath, looked at the dead mabeast with tears in her eyes. "Why did you kill it, Echidna?! That makes me so angry! You could have scared it off or something, but you killed it! We came here to find somebody, not kill animals!"
As Minerva began to stop the ground, making it look cleaner than before, Subaru observed her body. Just like Echidna, Minerva didn't appear to be the same age as she did in the Castle of Dreams, but her golden hair and generous curves weren't too different. She was slightly younger, but her overall appearance hadn't changed much.
When Minerva turned her attention to Subaru, she wiped her tears away. She pointed at him and asked Echidna, "Is this the boy that your book was telling you about?"
Echidna nodded her head. "Yes. He is definitely a Sage Candidate, as he can stand in our presence without any symptoms."
Subaru had enough of this. Enough of not knowing what was going on. "Hold it! I'm not a Sage, and the only 'Sage' that I met was a disappointment, if I'm being honest. But can someone explain what's happening?! I've been forced away from where I'm supposed to be, and now you two are standing in front of me, still alive!"
He knew that he was in the past, but part of Subaru couldn't accept that he was actually living about four hundred years before he came to this world, not the few decades that he had assumed himself to have crossed.
Echidna was more than happy to answer the curious boy. "Of course we are alive. We may be known as Witches, but Minerva and I are still living beings. You may know us from reputation, but we only know that you are supposed to be a Sage Candidate, which is self-explanatory. We are here to help you."
Minerva stepped forward as Echidna explained why they were there. Subaru stood wearily, but he knew that Minerva couldn't hurt him. The one he was worried about was Echidna. Was what her motive, and why did she bring Minerva?
The Witch of Wrath began to cry again as she noticed the dried tears on Subaru's face and the dirtiness of his tracksuit, which told her enough about his hardships to this point.
"Who hurt you? It makes me so angry to see someone in pain! Who was the one who took you away?!" Minerva suddenly punched Subaru in her rage, instantly healing the surprised boy's wounds and fatigue.
"Pandora," Subaru whispered.
Minerva's tears froze, and Echidna's eyes widened. The Witch of Vainglory was a very mysterious person, even in their time, so hearing her name was very rare.
Echidna's expression turned from shock to curiosity, and Minerva stepped back as her body shook. "Pandora! I will never forgive her!" Minerva shouted and began punching and stomping in a rage-fueled frenzy.
As Minerva healed the forest, Echidna came closer. "If Pandora has found it necessary to directly interfere with you, you are definitely important. Now, what is your name?"
Subaru was about to give this nicer Echidna his name, but he remembered what Pandora said. Even if he hated her, she still had a good point. He shouldn't use his real name here, or it might make things messy in the future.
He didn't have to search long for an alias. In fact, it had pretty much been picked out for him before he even came here. "Flugel. My name is Flugel."
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After Minerva calmed down enough to hold a conversation, she helped 'Flugel' up and began walking. "Here," she called out as she pulled something out of one of her pockets, "have an appa. I'm sure that you are hungry."
She threw an appa towards Flugel, and he gratefully took it. He had gone a whole day without eating, so he suppressed any animosity that he felt towards the Witches and ate it.
As Minerva watched Flugel devour the appa, she looked at him with pity. "Oh, you poor thing. You were starved! How dare Pandora make you come somewhere without food?!"
As tears began to swell in Minerva's eyes, Echidna put a hand on her shoulder. "Calm down, Minerva. Everything happens for a reason, and that means that Flugel ended up there for a reason too. If Pandora would not have interfered with him, my book would not have guided us toward him while we were having a rare meeting."
"B-but we wouldn't have needed to save him from getting hurt if she didn't!" Minerva couldn't hold her tears in, so a stream flowed from her eyes.
As Minerva cried, Echidna continued her conversation with Flugel. "Now, why don't we tell each other about ourselves? Let me begin. My name, as you know, is Echidna. I was born with a very high intelligence, but my inclination towards knowledge has led to others labeling me as having no emotions, and some call me a Witch. Others come to seek knowledge from me."
She then held out a large, black book that had been placed inside a black satchel on her waist. "This book is my most treasured possession. It feeds me with everything I can possibly wish to know. You can say that this book has and will continue to change the course of my life." Thinking, she continued. "Currently, I plan to shelter the entire world from harm. You see, I see everything as a little child, and I cannot help but worry myself over every occurrence. With my knowledge, I know that I can do it. Now, how about you? Who are you and what are your goals?"
Flugel opened and closed his mouth, but nothing came out. Why was she telling him this? The person he was talking to was nothing like the Echidna that he met at the Sanctuary. This person cared - or seemed to care - about people, and she wanted to use her knowledge to help them. The Echidna that he knew manipulated people so that she could gain more knowledge. That Echidna didn't care about people, so what happened that changed her so much?
Echidna stared at him, waiting for an answer, so Flugel gulped and decided to trust this Echidna. "My name is Flugel, and I come from a land called Japan. I've come a long away from it, and I've changed a lot since my journey started. But now, all of my friends are gone and I don't know how to get back. I-I'm alone again, and I just want to go back to everyone..."
The white-haired Witch looked at Flugel with worry. "Where were you before Pandora took you away? I am sure that I can assist you in finding your way back."
Flugel shook his head with sorrow, but he stopped halfway. If anybody knew how to take him back to the future, it would be Echidna. "Echidna, do you know how to time travel?"
"You're already acting as if you are familiar with me. Interesting," Echidna noted. "Why do you ask? Is your question relevant to mine?"
Flugel considered his decision one last time. He could tell Echidna (and Minerva, who could probably hear the conversation) that he came from the future and ask for help, or he could lie and have to constantly lie in front of the smartest person in the world.
He chose the former option. "Yeah. This might sound crazy, but I actually came from four hundred years in the future. Can you help me get back?"
As Flugel told the truth, Echidna stopped in her steps. Minerva bumped into her and began apologizing before realizing that it was Echidna's fault. Then, she began to punch Echidna, which didn't have any visible result.
Echidna took no notice of Minerva, and she smiled painfully, a hint of regret showing in her eyes. "You come from the future? How is that possible? How did Pandora manage to pull you back four hundred years? Is this a lie? If not, then how? On another note, no. If I knew the skill of traveling through time, my goal would already be completed. However, if you are serious about this, I can conduct experiments in order to achieve the ability to do so."
She looked Flugel in the eye, and he nodded his head. He was telling the truth, and he came from four hundred years in the future.
Something akin to hopelessness flashed in Echidna's eyes, but it was immediately replaced by curiosity. "Interesting... would you tell me about the future? Do the people still tell tales of our time now?"
Flugel didn't know if he should tell Echidna about the future, which used to be his present. Basic time travel rules from movies insist that telling the people of the past would change the future in an unpredictable way. This seems true, so is it the best idea to tell these Witches about the future?
"Argh! I'm too tired to think like this!" Flugel exclaimed. He grabbed his hair in frustration and pulled on it.
When Minerva saw this, she rushed toward the frustrated boy and grabbed his wrists. "Stop! Don't hurt yourself!"
As she forcibly separated Flugel's hands from his hair, he suddenly gave up on resisting. Minerva had told him something very similar back when he met her soul at the Sanctuary.
How did he forget that? He was supposed to love himself.
Oh yeah - it was because he was so pathetic. How can he really love himself if he couldn't accept his own helplessness? All of his stress and despair made it impossible for him to be content with himself.
Flugel sank lower into his negative emotions, and his legs became weak. It was fine if he showed weakness right here. He didn't have anybody to take care of, so he didn't need to keep up a strong act.
Minerva felt Flugel sink lower towards the ground, so she took hold of him in a firm hug. "Don't be sad," she whispered. "I hate it when people are sad, so hug me back and be happy."
Flugel felt his head getting wet, and when he looked up, he saw that the cause was Minerva's eyes. Once again, they were leaking tears.
She was crying because he let his despair show.
Once, he had read Minerva's Book of the Dead, and her story was tragic. She used to cry because of her own lack of strength, as she could do nothing as the world around her was being filled with violence.
Although she cried out, even begged, for it to end, her sorrow never ceased. After shedding an absurd number of tears, she finally realized that they were worthless.
Raw power was better than tears.
Of course, the power that Minerva wanted was not to harm people. It was the power to end violence. It was the power to end her tears.
So she set out to train. While watching people all around her suffer, Minerva trained, enduring horrifying pain to obtain an unbreakable will.
After the training, there was only one thing that went wrong. When Minerva became strong, she tried to pulverize those who caused harm to others, but she accomplished nothing but make them stronger.
She was now in an endless loop of violence, and her tears kept on flowing.
From those tears rose a powerful feeling. Frustration towards the cruel world. Anger at herself. This was Minerva's Wrath.
And now the Witch of Wrath was hugging him, angry that he couldn't accept himself.
Flugel smiled, scoffing at his own lameness. He was supposed to have gotten over feeling sorry for himself, so he couldn't break down just yet.
He hugged Minerva back and relished the warmth of the contact. For the first time in the past two days, he felt safe. He felt...
Releasing the hug, Minerva stepped back and wiped her tears away with her sleeve. "Good! Now you feel better, so don't feel sad anymore!"
Flugel sighed. "I guess that I don't have a choice in this." He backed away from Minerva, a meek smile on his face. "I'm better now. Thanks."
Minerva smiled back. "And thank you for getting better. Usually, when I try to make things better, I only make things worse, so I'm glad that I was able to help you!"
From the side, Flugel heard a voice. "I hate to interrupt this moment," Echidna interjected with a deadpan, "But I have been waiting for an answer to my question. What is the future like? How is the past remembered?"
Flugel turned to her with an apologetic expression. "Sorry, but I can't tell you much. I'm not into making time paradoxes and stuff like that. But I'll just tell you that the time that I came from doesn't remember much about the world right now."
The Witch of Greed looked disappointed but understanding at the same time. "I see..." She dropped her gaze to the ground, now lost in her thoughts.
Minerva noticed that Echidna was out of the conversation now, so she took the lead. "Let's get out of here before any more mabeasts come. I don't want Echidna to kill any more!"
She gently grabbed Flugel by the arm and pulled him along, leaving Echidna to follow slowly with her mind elsewhere.
