Natsuki Subaru opened his eyes, feeling fully rested and comfortable. "I don't know that ceiling." He commented as he sat up on the rather fluffy bed and stretched. "I guess, I survived judging from where I am." Subaru looked around the luxurious room, feeling out of place.
"Omnitrix Calibration completed." A voice that sounded a lot like his caught his attention.
Subaru glanced down at this left wrist to find the watch but it was different from before.
The green was replaced with a pulsing orange similar to the orange on his tracksuit. The before slightly gray color was replaced with black. He recalled what it had just said. "So, this thing is an Omnitrix? What did it mean by calibration?" Subaru shrugged. "I'll deal with that later."
Getting out of bed he realized he was no longer wearing his tracksuit, instead wearing a blue robe. He couldn't find his tracksuit so he decided to continue without it. Opening the door, Subaru found himself in a long corridor with multiple doors on each side. He took note of a painting near his door before closing the door and walking down the corridor.
A few seconds passed but he didn't come across any other corridors.
Few minutes…
Subaru stopped. The painting from before was here. "There's no way this place has a corridor that stretches on forever." Feeling a pull from the door next to the painting, he opened the door and found a massive library, rows and rows of shelves housing books with varying number of pages, sizes and colors filled his vision.
"How annoying I suppose." Sitting in the middle of the library on a stool was a little girl wearing a pink frilly dress, pink and purple striped tights and a crown atop her blonde hair which was fashioned into twin drills on either side of her head. Subaru stared into her blue eyes which held pink butterfly pupils that regarded him with simple boredom and a hint of annoyance.
"First NPC found! You shouldn't frown like that at a young age. Come on, smile, smile!" Subaru prodded, a smile visible on his own face as he emphasized his point.
"All Betty can give to the likes of you is a derisive sneer I suppose." She grimaced, expressing her distaste clearly.
And clearly Subaru did not care as he stepped into the room, looking around at the rows of books before looking at her once more. "So what's a little girl like you doing in a place like this?"
"Betty is not a little girl I suppose, and this place is the Forbidden Library which Betty was tasked to look after in fact." Subaru hummed in response. There was a moment of silence as neither party said anything.
The girl seemed to have gotten fed up as she stood from her chair, walking towards him. Subaru couldn't guess what she was about to do but he can tell her intentions weren't exactly something that was going to benefit him, rather it seemed like something that was going to hinder him.
"Uh can we talk about this?" Subaru attempted to calm her down. I am not scared of this loli, I'm just being cautious is all.
Man I sound pathetic.
"Hold still I suppose." The girl touched his chest with her small hand. "Any last words?"
Subaru chuckled nervously. "Damn you drill loli." Then he was screaming as an absolutely painful sensation flooded his nervous system. It felt like he was on fire while also being electrocuted. He couldn't move his limbs to get away either, he was forced to endure.
Suddenly, the sensation came to an abrupt halt. Subaru collapsed to his knees, inhaling sharply. The girl studied him with a look of surprise. "Impossible, in fact. How-how do you have so much mana I suppose?"
She waited for Subaru to recover, which didn't take long.
"What did you do to me?" Subaru eyed her with a mixture of annoyance and confusion. "Betty was going to drain you of your mana, but it seems like your mana pool is too large for Betty to even hope to finish absorbing today, no, Betty is not sure if she can even absorb the full extent of your mana…truly peculiar in fact. Who are you, I suppose?"
Subaru struggled to get to his feet, the pain had gone but his muscles weren't aware of that yet. Adopting his signature pose, he once again proudly declared: "My name is Natsuki Subaru! I woke up from almost dying to a guts loving sadist a few minutes ago and almost died once again to a drill loli! Nice to meet you."
"Almost died is too extreme I suppose, Betty was only going to knock out the pest so that she can return to the tranquility that was stolen from her I suppose. Hmph." She ended the sentence with a cute hmph while turning her head away, an adorable pout gracing her features.
"If you wanted me to leave that badly you could've just said so!" Subaru pointed at her in accusation, "And branding me as a pest already? Do I not have any value around here?!"
The girl visibly grew frustrated at his yelling as she opened her palm towards him. "Betty will get her answers another time I suppose. Right now she wants the pest out of her library in fact." Before Subaru could respond he was sent flying out of the library by an invisible blast.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA" He screamed as he was not only thrown out of the library, but out of an open window as well, landing unceremoniously on the bushes below.
"Damn that drill loli, I swear when I get my hands on her I'll-," He stopped his scheming when he caught sight of a certain half-elf staring at him.
"Good morning, Subaru, although I don't encourage jumping out of windows; it's reaaaally dangerous, I hope you're alright." She said to him with a slight smile adorning her face.
"Seeing Emilia-tan's smile has healed me back to full capacity! I feel like I'm ready to face 10 Bowel Hunters!" Subaru jumped up from the floor, posing a fighting stance before doing a few light jabs. "Tan?" Emilia cocked her head to the side cutely, but before Subaru could respond- "Although your enthusiasm is commendable, you're really stupid if you attempt to even try that." Puck joined the conversation as he appeared out of nowhere with a small explosion of green light.
"Oh hey-," Subaru was going to call him by his name but stopped himself, remembering that Puck didn't know Subaru in this life. "-a floating cat, that's something you don't see everyday."
Puck yawned as he settled himself on top of Emilia's head, "Hmph of course, I'm one of a kind." The cat said smugly before gaining a serious look. "Subaru, if it hadn't been for you saving Lia yesterday, she might not be here with me, for that I want to repay you as thanks."
The cat floated in front of Subaru and continued, "Name anything you want, within reason of course and I swear it upon my status as Great Spirit to provide it to you."
Subaru opened his mouth to impulsively say something stupid once more but he stopped, recalling his conversation with Beatrice from before.
"Then, in that case, can you teach me how to do magic?" Puck seemed a little surprised by this but regained his composure and grinned, "Of course!"
"Alright how do I start? Sure I have the Omnitrix, if that's what its called, but having magic in my arsenal doesn't sound half bad." Subaru said enthusiastically.
"Oh yeah, Lia mentioned something about you having turned into a green crystal monster, what was that by the way?" Puck asked, hiding his intentions.
Puck wasn't sure if he could trust this boy just yet.
"Oh that, it's because of this," Subaru showed them his left wrist, where the Omnitrix pulsated with its orange glow. "Don't ask me what it is exactly, I don't know either. All I know is it enhances my reflexes, speed, strength, mind and has a protective barrier. Though the last one isn't that reliable when it comes to powerful opponents. It's main feature is the ability to transform me into different forms. I've only transformed into two forms so far so I don't know how many there are." Subaru explained, idly playing with the watchface but making sure to not press the button to make it pop out.
Puck didn't sense any malicious intent from the boy, so he decided to relax a little. He wasn't going to fully lower his guard though, and something about that watch piqued his curiosity.
"Mind if I look at it?" Puck asked. Subaru shrugged, "Go for it."
The spirit looked at the hourglass before touching it with his tail.
Immediately he drew back, his face contorted in discomfort.
"Puck?" Emilia asked in worry, having been watching all of this quietly. "It's nothing Lia, it's just…" Puck glanced back at the watch, narrowing his eyes. "That, watch…it's powerful."
The cat regained his composure and turned towards a slightly confused Subaru. "Let's continue with your magic training. First, Subaru, do you know your affinity?"
Subaru cocked his head to the side, "Affinity?" Puck nodded in response. "Affinity. It's the magic that your body is most comfortable with casting. You can cast other type of magic too, but with higher mana consumption. Of course, casting magic that's the same as your affinity is much easier and costs less mana." Puck whipped out his tail and poked Subaru's head with it before humming. "That's totally legit sound effects." Subaru chuckled as he waited for Puck to finish doing…whatever it was he was doing.
Puck finished soon and looked at Subaru with an unreadable expression. "Your affinity is Yin, but Subaru, how do you have such a vast mana pool? No, vast doesn't even cover it, it's almost endless. This shouldn't be possible; you should be suffering from mana poisoning right now."
Subaru put a hand to his chin as he looked up. "Come to think of it, that pink loli mentioned the same thing before blasting me out of a window. What's the big deal about it anyway?"
Puck looked at him with a face that read you cant be serious before resigning himself. "Mana is something that all living beings have. Different people have different amount of mana. If they exceed the amount of mana their body can take, they die from mana poisoning. You can use mana to do magic, provided you have a functioning gate."
"Gate?"
"A gate is like, hm, imagine its like a circular door. You push mana through it, and depending on the amount you want to expel, you open the door and let the required mana out. Simple."
"So, if someone doesn't have a working gate?"
"Then they can contract spirits, like myself to cast magic for them."
"What are spirits?"
It took a whole 30 minutes but now Subaru was up to speed on the basics of magic, magic casting, spirits and whatnot.
"So Subaru, you ready to do your first Shamak?"
Puck had already explained to him what each affinity specializes in, and though Subaru was initially saddened to know that his affinity was only capable of debuffing (oh how wrong he was) the ecstasy of meeting the requirements to do magic (even if he can transform into different beings) erased his sadness from his mind.
"I'm all fired up Puck! Let's do this, but first, why is Emilia so far away?"
"Since it seems like to be your first-time doing magic, I can't afford my beautiful daughter to be tainted by your mess."
"Fair enough."
With that Subaru took in a deep breath and shouted: "SHAMAK!"
A cloud of black smoke erupted from him, covering everything in a few meters. If anyone that wasn't the spellcaster been inside the smoke, they would've found themselves robbed of their senses, not being able to tell what was up and what was down, what was left and what was right.
This was the power of Shamak, a spell that takes away the senses of the victim and leaves them unable to see, smell, hear, feel or even taste.
Emilia watched from afar, waiting for the spell to end.
It didn't.
The smoke just kept growing larger and larger. And for a scary second, Emilia thought that Subaru was unable to stop the flow of mana exiting his gate until, finally, the spell dissipated, and Subaru lay on the grass, smiling sheepishly as Puck berated him.
"You overworked your gate, I told you to be careful with the amount of mana you released but you went and opened your gate without any care at all! At this rate you're going to be unable to cast magic on your own." Puck facepalmed.
"Sorry, but I think…I'll sleep now."
With that the black-haired boy closed his eyes, unconscious.
"Honestly Subaru is such a troublesome boy." Emilia sighed. Puck couldn't agree more. The boy was troublesome. But Puck hoped that's all he'll be. Troublesome, not murderous or bloodthirsty.
Because with all that power on his wrist, it's not hard for someone to become exactly that. And Puck wasn't sure if he could defeat the boy.
"Just what are you, Natsuki Subaru?"
Subaru opened his eyes. "I know that ceiling."
"Rem, Rem, it appears the guest has woken up."
"Sister, sister, the guest seems to be really lazy."
"Man I woke up bright and early and slept again till noon, reminds me of the days of being a shut-in." Subaru sighed.
"Sister, it appears as if the guest is indeed a lazy person."
"Rem, Rem, the guest appears to love leeching off of other's hard work so that he may rest easy."
"Alright, who's tarnishing my name?!" Subaru threw back the covers and looked in the direction of the voices. "My eyes have been blessed." He exclaimed.
He saw the personification of beauty itself, second only to Emilia of course. Twins from the looks of them, one with a mop of blue hair and the other with pink. The blue haired one had blue eyes to match, while the pink haired one had cold looking red eyes. The two were wearing maid clothing and had intertwined their fingers while embracing each other, staring at him; one with disgust and the other with indifference.
The one looking at him with disgust, the pink haired one, shuddered in visible discomfort as Subaru's eyes fixed her in its sharp gaze. "Rem, Rem, I'm being violated with those lecherous eyes."
Rem, the blue haired one, shuddered as well. "Please take my sister instead, and spare me from your lustful gaze."
Subaru chuckled as he wriggled his fingers. "Trust me, you're both prey in my delusions."
"Are you finally up Subaru?"
"Emilia-sama, Emilia-sama, this boy has undressed my sister with his lust-filled gaze."
"Emilia-sama, Emilia-sama, my purity has been tainted by this man."
"Oi! Don't go saying stuff that hadn't yet transpired!"
Emilia giggled, bell like laughter resonating in the room. "Rem, Ram, don't tease him so much. And Subaru, can't you wake up without causing a commotion? First it was the window, now this?" Emilia shook her head fondly.
"The first time was the loli's fault! I guess I may have had something to do with the situation right now but I swear I wasn't going to enact my fantasies in any way, shape or form." Subaru proclaimed his innocence.
"Alright, alright, Subaru. The owner of this mansion has invited you to lunch so please get ready." Emilia said before exiting the room. "Your clothes are folded on the table guest-sama." Rem bowed. Subaru waved his hand, "Drop the guest and sama, just call me Subaru."
"Okay Barusu, my sister and I will take our leave now." The pink haired one spoke and Subaru opened his mouth to question why his name was turned into a blinding curse, but they had already left the room.
He sighed then stood up, dressing himself in his now fixed tracksuit. He had to admit, the cut that had been there was now almost nonexistent. He had no clue how they had fixed his zipper but he didn't bother wasting any time thinking.
"Alright, here I come." He pep talked to himself as he opened the door and walked out into the hallway, joining Emilia who had been waiting outside. Subaru was led into a large dining room by Emilia who sat to the side. He was about to follow suit when a voice from behind him startled him. "Yooooooooouuuu must be Subaaaaaaaaruuu-kun." Subaru was face to face with a…clown?
He shuddered. "Rich people hire jesters to perform for them while they eat? I don't think I'll get used to this." He chuckled.
"E-eh?! S-subaru, that's…"
"I am the owner of this mansion, Roswaaaaal L Maathers. It's a pleasure to be of acquaaaintaince Subaru-kuuuuun."
Subaru realized how badly he had fucked up.
Subaru sat next to Emilia as across from him sat the loli from before. Roswaal sat at the head of the table with Rem and Ram stationed next to him. They served the food while Subaru glared at the blonde-haired girl. "I hope you can sleep easy knowing you could've had the blood of an innocent man on your hands." He prodded.
The girl merely hmphed. "Betty didn't consider you as a man even once since we had met, I suppose. If she were to be honest you're nothing but a cheap comedian in fact." The girl replied.
"Why you-," Subaru grit his teeth together in mock anger. "It appeaaars that you have already become acquainted with Beatrice-sama, Subaru-kuuun." Subaru looked at the clown, then back at the girl. "Wait so her name isn't Betty? Also is she even human?"
"Betty is Betty I suppose, Betty is also a Great Spirit if that satiates your curiosity." Beatrice's answer seemed to shock Subaru.
"So you really are a drill loli."
"Betty doesn't know what that means and it irks her, I suppose. Explain right now in fact!"
"I am not entitled to explain anything to you, drill loli."
Beatrice hmphed as she turned her head away in anger.
Roswaal chuckled from where he sat. "My, my Subaru-kuuun. You seem to be getting along rather splendidly with Beatrice-sama."
"I am? I don't really think so but if you're so sure about it then alright."
They started eating their meals and Subaru took a moment to process that his tastebuds were in heaven right now.
"What is this!? This is way too good! Who made this?" Subaru greedily consumed the food before him, only stopping to chew.
"This lovely meal was maaade by Reeeeem, she's an amazing cheeef, don't you agreeeee?" Roswaal smirked. "You don't need to tell me that, this food is enough evidence!" Subaru swallowed before looking at Rem. "So Rem, you're really good at cooking right? Is your sister good at it too?"
"No, Rem is better than her sister at cooking."
"So that means your sister is really good at cleaning, or something like that right?"
"Yes, Rem's sister is good at cleaning, but Rem is better."
"Then what the hell is your sister here for?!"
After finishing their meal, Roswaal regarded Subaru with a curious expression.
"If my suspicions are trueeeee, Subaru kuunn, do you know anything about the current situation of this kingdooom?"
"Huh? No, not really, should I be aware?"
"We currently lack a king-,"
After Roswaal had explained the current situation of the kingdom, Subaru realized how suspicious it was for him to suddenly appear without any explanation. It only made him look like a suspect.
"As thanks for helping Emilia-sama reclaim her insignia, I will grant you one wish. Money, land, status, anything you desire I can give." Roswaal said, raising his hands to emphasize his point.
"Why would the owner of the mansion call Emilia, sama?"
"Whyyyyyyyyyyyyy it's common courtesy to respect those that are above you in terms of political standingggggggg."
"W-wait, so that means…"
"Yes, I am one of the five candidates chosen to campaign to be the 42nd ruler of the Lugunica. It's not that I didn't want to tell you Subaru, I didn't find a good time to bring it up." Emilia said apologetically.
"Wait so you lost something that important?!"
"It was stolen! I didn't lose it!" Emilia corrected.
"Still, if I hadn't gotten it back, would they have just given you another one?"
"If a future ruuuuuuler cannot even keeeeep something like an insigniaaaaaa safe then they are deeeemed unfit to lead a naattion. Emilia-sama could very well haaaaave lost her candidacy." Roswaal answered for him.
Subaru stayed silent before looking at Roswaal. "About that one wish…hire me to work in this mansion as a guard!"
There was stunned silence, which Ram broke with a cute sneeze.
"That's the complete tour of the mansion. Now Ram must leave to attend to her duties, but if I catch you lazing around Barusu, I will make sure to dump my duties upon your freeloading shoulders." Ram said, having finished giving Subaru the tour.
"I'm going to ignore the fact that you turned my name into a blinding curse but rest assured, I, Natsuki Subaru will strive to be the best guard Roswaal will ever hire." Subaru declared, looking at her with a grin.
Ram snorted before walking away. "What's with that reaction!?"
As Ram left, he caught sight of Emilia sitting on the grass, conversing with spirits. He had seen the sight once before, but seeing it again still filled him with the same awe as before.
Shaking his head, he cleared himself of his stupor and walked to a relatively empty space (that was an understatement, the property surrounding the mansion was huge) before doing his radio calisthenics.
After working up a sweat, he brought the watch up and pressed the button. Figuring now that he had some time, he can experiment around with the Omnitrix.
What could possibly go wrong?
"EVERYTHING IS FUCKING BURNING OH MY GOD."
Subaru panicked as he attempted to clear the forest fire that was spreading rapidly across the forest.
After Subaru had gotten the okay from Ram, he had gone to the forest nearby to mess around with his powers and, having made the questionable decision to transform into a literal walking blaze, accidentally set the forest on fire.
"Okay Subaru, you can fix this. Think!"
He looked around at the blazing trees that were caught aflame and was struck with an idea.
"Fire can't burn if there's nothing left to burn." He ran out of the flaming trees and took stock of the situation.
The fire started relatively close to the outer layer of the forest, so all Subaru had to do was block the fire from reaching the middle of the forest. How so?
By burning the trees in a certain way so the fire won't be able to spread.
Not wasting time, he ran and stopped in front of the approaching flames, before turning around and looking at the trees behind him that weren't yet affected.
Okay he was trying to stop the fire from spreading, not try to spread it even more.
Carefully, he focused a ball of fire in his hands and thrust both arms forward, shooting a constant stream of concentrated flame at a tree, aiming at the burning the tree completely into nothing but ashes.
It worked, so he moved onto the next one.
Then the next.
Then the next.
Eventually the rapidly approaching flames had nothing left to burn. Hearing the silence, he sat down and let out a breath he didn't know he was holding.
"Next time, be careful what you choose Subaru." He slapped his forehead lightly.
Alright now how to explain this…
The sound of footsteps caught his attention as he looked behind him.
Rem was walking towards him, her face not expressing anything.
Subaru got to his feet and started to explain, "Rem it's me, Subaru, Emilia must've told you about my ability to transform-,"
His instincts told him to veer back and he did, just in time too.
He felt the air being parted forcefully in front of him as a metal ball with spikes sailed over his head, aimed at where his chest had been. Subaru began to panic as he thought Rem was attacking him thinking he was a monster or something. "Rem you don't understand it's me Subaru! The guy Roswaal hired to work as a guard! Shit I should've mentioned the watch before!" Subaru attempted to diffuse the situation but to his dismay it did nothing.
He dodged once more as the spiked ball came back for him once again.
"You, dare…"
As he regained his stance, he heard her speak.
Confused, he looked at her, only to be faced with intense killing intent.
Rem was looking at him with her face contorted in anger, bloodlust visible in her usually soft blue eyes. Subaru felt fear, as she took a step towards him, her footstep causing the ground to crack.
"You dare to come back to hurt Rem and her sister more? Now armed with even more absurd power, and lying out of your dirty mouth so that you can get close to Emilia, you witch cultists would stoop so low…just to cause unnecessary suffering for your own selfish desires of releasing the witch from her seal! You killed my clan, you took my sister's horn and now you come back to torture us more?!" She spat at him, her bloodlust and killing intent becoming stronger with every word.
"Rem refuses to let what happened years ago happen again! Rem cares not if you are an archbishop, Rem will protect her master, her sister, her new life from the likes of you!"
With a scream of anguish, she threw the Morningstar towards him with so much force that Subaru couldn't dodge it in time.
He raised both arms to block the attack and felt himself being sent flying at the sheer power of that blow.
He skid across the ground, creating a deep trench as he finally came to a stop.
He coughed a bit before getting back up. Man that fucking hurt.
He rubbed his arms which looked like they were bruised, he had no clue how this form's biology worked but the pain from touching his forearms told him enough.
Rem walked out of the woods and stopped in front of him, her arm raised to hurtle her weapon at him once more.
"Rem I swear I'm not a witch cultist! I don't even know who they are, please can we just tal-," Subaru grunted as he the morningstar started its course towards his face.
Fine, if that's how you want to play it, Rem…
Letting out a frustrated yell, he grabbed the spiked ball, almost dislocating his arm in the process. Without wasting time, he superheated the metal ball until it was nothing but sludge then grabbed the chain and pulled withall his might, making Rem fly towards him. He reared back his fist, ready to deal a blow and knock her unconscious.
Until he saw her face and he didn't see a murderer intent on taking his life for reasons he didn't fully understand.
He just saw Rem, the maid that had cooked for him, the maid that he was supposed to protect.
Gritting his teeth, he quickly changed his movement, not losing his momentum as he wove the chain around her body, restricting her movement until she couldn't move at all.
"Will you listen to me Rem?! I am not a witch cultist, nor was I to blame for anything that you accused me of! I just got here! It's my first damn day! Is this how little you trusted me? You see me start a fire as some creature and you think that's enough conclusive evidence to pin me a cultist, and write me off as someone who deserves to be killed. Don't fucking make me laugh!"
Subaru took in deep breaths as he calmed. Rem was oddly silent. It was bothering him, her reactionless body.
"Rem…?" He looked at her and his face fell.
"Rem…doesn't believe your…lies…Rem has to…kill you…for her sister…yes for sister…" Rem's mumblings told him all he needed to know.
"Ghk, so you can't…you won't believe me." Subaru had no idea what to do anymore.
He had pleaded his innocence but the maid wouldn't listen.
Why won't she just listen!?
There was the sound of chains breaking as a few seconds later, he felt himself being launched into the air by a punch so powerful he was left dazed.
He regained his senses in time to see Rem hold her hand out towards him, a glowing horn on her forehead and madness on her face, and a giant crystal of ice formed.
Subaru steeled himself. Even if it hurt him more than he wanted it to, he had no choice but to fight back. Maybe she'll listen to him after.
For now he had to give it his all.
As the crystal soared towards him, Subaru aimed both his hands below him and shot out a constant stream of flames, dodging the ice by a mere inch. He twisted his body in mid air with surprising agility as he threw a fireball at Rem making sure it wasn't powerful enough to burn her.
Rem blocked the attack, the clothing around her arms were burnt off but otherwise she seemed perfectly fine.
As Subaru landed, she ran towards him at breakneck speeds, leaving him little time to recover. "Shi-," Subaru caught a punch and ducked under the kick before round house kicking Rem far away from him. He charged up a ball of flame before throwing it at her. She blocked it easily but his plan worked.
That fireball was only a diversion.
Rem looked around for the flaming humanoid but didn't see him anywhere. The witch's scent didn't disappear, so she knew he was here
"Wipe that frown off your face and smile…Rem!" Rem looked up but was too late to react, as Subaru flaming fist made contact with her horn.
This fight was over.
Emilia and the rest of Roswaal mansion's residents could feel the shockwaves from the fighting even from all the way in the mansion, and to say they weren't confused would be a lie.
Ram, however, was terrified.
She had been made aware of Subaru's ability to transform, and the witch's scent that hung thickly to his being. Knowing Rem, she had asked her to not attempt anything.
She was aware it was a temporary solution until they had concrete evidence that Subaru was not a cultist, if she were to be honest the chances of him being a cultist was close to none. But she didn't expect Rem to disobey her on the first day.
And if what she was told about the boy was true, she feared Rem had made a grave mistake.
She was going to go stop the fight herself when she spotted a figure walking towards the gate.
Subaru, in human form, with Rem on his back. He was carrying her with a grimace, pain evident on his face. "Hey, nee-sama, a little help with her?" Subaru sheepishly asked.
He was surprised to see Ram bow to him, and was even more surprised when she started to apologize. "Please forgive my sister's foolish actions, Ram was not able to stop her from doing something that endangered your life and for that Ram deserves any punishment you deem fit but please, do not hurt Ram's sister. She was not the one at fault here. Ram will-," "Ram," Subaru's voice interrupted her. She straightened and gazed into his eyes. "It's alright, it was a misunderstanding. Besides no one was seriously hurt, other than me but nothing a little spit can't fix. Seeing you bow down and apologize just felt weird anyway. Just take Rem off my back please, my arms can't support her for long." Subaru chuckled weakly.
Ram hurried in taking Rem into her arms and watched as Subaru fell onto his back, sitting down and breathing heavily. "I'm not gonna lie, your sister messed me up really bad." He winced, looking at the bruises and small cuts on various parts of his body. "The fact that my injuries transfer over between forms isn't helping."
Ram couldn't find the words to describe what she felt. But she found a single word that did.
Grateful.
The entirety of the mansion had gathered at the dining room to discuss about the day's events.
"I am terriiiibly sorry for my staaaaafff's actions Suuuubaru-kun, had I been aware that one of my owwwwn was scheeeeming agaaainst you I suuurely wouldn't haaave let it happen." Roswaal gave his apology to the young boy. Ram stood by his side, not saying anything and remaining silent. "It's fine Ros-chi, no one other than me and my pride got hurt. I was almost bested by a girl, this world is scary." Subaru moaned about the damage to his pride. "Subaru! Please be serious, you could have gotten heavily injured or worse! Why are you pretending like nothing happened?" Emilia asked him, concerned written on her face.
"I already said it's fine Emilia-tan, it was all a big misunderstanding." Subaru tried waving off her concern but that only seemed to make it worse. "This all happened because I brought you here, maybe it would have been better if I let Reinhard take you…" She mumbled dejectedly. Subaru sighed. "Emilia-tan, look at me," He gestured at himself before continuing. "I'm fine, see? And besides Rem had every right to be suspicious. I mean think about it. I just appear out of nowhere with an overpowered watch and smelling like a witch cultist or whatever," Subaru noticed how Ram seemed to flinch at his words and noted that down, "and ask to be hired as a guard. When you look at it that way, doesn't that strike you as odd?"
Emilia tilted her head and put a finger to her lips. "Now that you mention it, that does seem reaaaally suspicious."
"Exactly, and, before anyone else has any ideas I just want to say that I am not a witch cultist. I don't know who the witch is, I don't know what this cult is and I don't know why I have this scent. Actually, Ros-chi, where's Rem?" Subaru looked at the clown, demanding answers.
"Becaause of her rash decision that put youuuuu in danger Suuubaru-kun, I deemed it fitting for her to be sent to the caaapital for a few months. It's what her sister suggested. She is packing for her triiip as we speaaaak."
"What the hell? You can't send Rem away!" Subaru got up from his chair, looking at the clown in rage. "Aaaand why is that?" Roswaal closed his blue eye and looked at him with his yellow one, smirking. "I already forgave her, isn't that enough? She doesn't have to be sent away to the capital; she can stay here. It's not her fault." Subaru pointed at himself before continuing, "It's my fault that all this happened, I should've been more aware of how suspicious I was being."
Roswaal stared at him with his yellow eye for a few seconds. Subaru saw Ram look down at the floor, waiting for the answer with barely concealed anxiety.
"Alriiiiight, per your wish, Rem will not be going to the capital." Roswaal shrugged.
"That's it?"
"That's it."
"Oh okay, if you guys can excuse me, I'm going to go find Rem and make it up to her."
Subaru started out of the room before Ram called him. He turned around to see her looking at him with a complex look before shaking her head and saying "Thank you."
Subaru raised an eyebrow before letting a small smile on his face be seen. Then he walked out of the room, closing the door behind him. "Subaru is such a dunderhead, forgiving people so easily," Emilia pouted. "Not that I don't like it."
Ram stared at the door where Subaru had just been standing, a small smile gracing her features before she adopted her poker face once more.
"Subaru-kun?" Rem stopped as she saw Subaru in the hallway. "Oh hey Rem, I was looking for you. Good news, you're not being sent off to the capital you can stay." Subaru grinned at her.
"W-what? But Rem deserves this punishment, she was going to kill you!" Rem looked at him with disbelief. "And yet I still live. So it was an attempted murder, not an actual murder. I've said this so many times already and its going to lose its meaning soon enough but, It's alright I forgive you, it was all a misunderstanding. Both of us were at fault here, me with not knowing how suspicious I was, you with not bothering to listen." Subaru put a hand on her shoulder.
"You're a demon, aren't you? Back where I come from, gods really don't do anything, but demons, they'll laugh together with you as you talk about your future. So lets talk Rem, we'll talk and talk then laugh, until both of us are tired." Subaru pet her head gently as he whispered in soothing tone. "Show me how fanatical a demon can be."
Subaru didn't have to stay long at the mansion to know Rem had an inferiority complex to her sister. All he was doing right now was making amends with her and hopefully helping her get rid of her complex. A girl like Rem deserves more.
Rem's eyes filled with tears of shock, disbelief and then of joy. She tried to wipe them away as she sobbed, before looking at him and smiling with a million watt smile, "Yes, let's laugh together, Subaru-kun."
Subaru chuckled. "That's the spirit."
Behind them, Ram listened to all this while hiding in another corridor, smiling gently. "Honestly Barusu, you've caused so much chaos on the first day you came to this mansion but…Ram is grateful for the things you're doing for her sister." She walked away, leaving the two alone. The two that were as fanatical as demons.
I admit this chapter was a mess, writing Roswaal was...interesting, to say the least. The quality probably dropped here as I just wanted to get through the whole Rem trynna kill Subaru bit. Remember Subaru's powerful now, he won't die so many times, but he will die, eventually. As for why he has a seemingly endless supply of mana, I'll leave you to figure that out, its pretty simple really, and it'll be answered next chapter. As for the capture mode of the Omnitrix, well that's gonna happen for sure.
Next chapter should finish up Arc 2, I pretty much speedran the first half of this arc in a single chapter. Then again all these arcs would end much faster if Subaru hadn't died as many times as he did. That's all for now.