Arc 1: A Parallel Paradise!

Chapter 7: Extinguish Thy Flame.

Subaru found herself back in the familiar alley. Currently she is resting on the stair, her body shakes as she takes in a deep breath of air trying to regain her bearing.

―I don't understand, what's going on?

Her breath begins to slow down as she slowly regains her composure, her white hair was a mess after she ran away from the shopping district.

In hindsight, she shouldn't run away without at least asking some questions, but the way the shop owner looks at her, as well as the way everyone in the crowds treats her, brings back painful memories that she rather left buried.

Subaru sighs as she gazes up at the blue sky, her mind trying to catch up and make sense of what happened so far.

First, she was sure that less than 30 minutes ago the moon was in the sky, shrouded by darkness of the night instead of the blazing sun and the blue sky of the day.

Similar situation had happened the first time she arrived in Lugnica after being transported from her home. She left the convenience store during the night and arrived at Lugnica in an instant on a sunny day. It left her mind in confusion. Come to think of it, if what happened back then with Satella was just a dream, it means it hasn't even been a day since then, right?

Second, she swears that she'd died, she could still feel the phantom pain of her stomach being sliced open by something sharp, her lifeforce slowly drains from her body, and the cold death slowly embrace its gentle arms around her, not to mention the feeling of how her organ spills out from her body-

Subaru suddenly stops the line of thought as she quickly hugs her shaking body, her wide black eyes trembling with fear as tears begin to form and her breath quickens. The feeling of phantom burns begins to appear again on her abdomen, she shut her eyes as her tear's spill. Trying to forget the horrible feeling that's accompanied with the natural fear of death.

It took a solid 3 minutes for her to regain her senses again. She wipes her tears away as her mind assures her that she is safe.

―The fact that I felt that… it might be real.

Subaru releases a shaky breath as her eyes narrow at an object, a certain White Book that can show her the truth, which she sure hopes is not broken.

Hesitantly, she reaches out inside her plastic bag, searching for the hardcover of the book before pulling it out and dusting the cover of. The blank white hardcover now feels ominous than before.

The book in her hand now feels heavier than before, as doubt and anxiety filled her beating heart, as if she's afraid to find out the truth and perhaps relive the nightmare yet again. Her mind denies her to open the book, yet something unexplained inside her urges her to open it, teasing her curiosity.

Subaru grips on the book tighten as her hand begins to shake slightly. She takes a deep breath as she braces herself, this is it, truth, or false.

She opened the first page and was greeted with her name written in perfect Kanji against the white paper, NATSUKI SUBARU.

And the next page that greets her is…blank page. The page is blank unlike last time where it warns her against the bandit and her…demise.

Subaru confusion however was short lived as inks suddenly appear on the blank paper and moves like a tiny snake forming words in Japanese character.

[SYNCHRONIZATION COMPLETE] [MATCHING FOUND] [COMPATIBLE] [ERROR: AUTHORITY OF GREED NOT FOUND]

It stays for a good ten second before it slowly vanishes, leaving the page blank.

Subaru was left in confusion, and no matter how many pages she turns to, it's blank, as if whatever that happened just now never happened in the first place.

Subaru gritted her teeth as she glared heatedly at the empty pages of the book in her hand, her breath shaking as she tried to contain her anger.

"That's it? Is this thing broken?! All that build up just for this?! Is this thing even useful?!"

Subaru's head droops as she lets out a sigh of frustration, the book dangles uselessly on her hand, her eyes filled with distress, disappointment, and confusion.

―Is it actually broken? What is the "Authority of Greed" anyway?

Unaware by Subaru, the blank page begins to form inks yet again as words start to form.

[GRANTED ACCESS TO BASICS FUNCTION OF THE AUTHORITY]

"I just…wanted to know if the event actually happened or not."

As soon as those words left Subaru's pinkish mouth, a sudden clear image, or memories of what happened force itself onto her mind, worming its way deep into her brain as it forcibly makes Subaru experience the awful death once again.

Subaru clutches her head tightly as her eyes opens wide, her black pupil shrunk as tears trickled down her eyes, her face twisted in agony as if she is in painful trance.


The vision show how Subaru died the exact way she remember, however, it also show in detail how, after she enter the loot house, the unknown assailant now reveal to be a black-haired woman was waiting for her beside the door to ambush her, and after Subaru was about to exit the loot house, the woman leap at her with speed so fast that Subaru is confident the woman break the sound barrier as she couldn't even see the woman. No doubt this woman can also dodge bullets if she wanted to.

What took technology in Subaru world to achieve this kind of feat, the woman was able to do it without any aids from technology. She doubted that even her old body could take on this woman.

Satella, after hearing Subaru struggles, entered the building, and was shocked to see Subaru dying on the ground. The woman was about to strike Satella too, however, she stops and there was fear in her eyes for a split second when Subaru somehow manages to conjure a small ball made of fire, but she easily sidesteps Subaru pathetic attempts at magic.

Satella, after regaining her senses, quickly use her magic to attack and froze the woman before rushing to Subaru, tearing dripping from her eyes as she tries to heal Subaru and call Subaru name in vain attempt.


Subaru's body jerks backward as she drops the book from her grasp and falls on her back, clutching her nonexistent wound and head as her breathing becomes rapid.

Blood slowly trickles down her nose as the last bit of memory of the world forces itself onto her frail mind.

To bystander, Subaru looks like she's having a lethal seizure as she twitches violently on the ground with blood dripping down her nose. But in reality, Subaru's mind was overloaded with a simple, small memory that lasted only about 5 minutes while in real-time, the memory was processed in under a second.

And suddenly, it stops, Subaru's ample chest rises and falls weakly as her body lies still on the ground, unmoving as she slowly tries to recover herself.

Subaru shakily sits up, her hand clutching her head tightly as if to soothe her headache, her grey and orange tracksuit was covered in dirt and grime as well as blood. The blood drips down from her nose onto the pavement below, staining the pavement with a splotch of dark red.

Subaru groans in pain as she rubs her temples, she grits her teeth tightly, if she were to add any more pressure, her teeth would certainly shatter from the sheer force of Subaru trying to contain her pain.

"W-what the hell was that?"

Subaru moans as she looks at the book lying by her feet in fear.

"It feels like someone tried to fry my brain. I seriously thought I'd die again." Subaru muttered as she wiped her nose with her sleeve.

Subaru have accepted that she died, that she returns back in time, the book has shown and engraved it in her mind how it happened, so it isn't that she died and respawn or that it was just an illusion like she thought, she actually dies and restart at a checkpoint, and the checkpoint being the shop owner. Even so, thinking about her death is…terrifying.

Subaru shivers as she hugs her body.

"The condition of that ability was so pitiful." Subaru let out a sigh.

"I've decided, I'll name that ability as [Return by Death], it sounds morbid, but I feel glad."

Various thought went through her head, was that ability a single time use? Was the ability work like in a certain Otome manga, where the villainess travel through time only once to redeem themselves? What happened if… if she dies again?

Subaru let out a sad smile, the perk of the ability was that she will have a second chance at life for now, but the people won't remember her. She was literally traveling in time, to the time before she and Satella even met. Which means, all her progress, all her attempts at making people such as the shop owner family to like her, now gone.

But still, seeing the shop owner that she gets to know being hostile to her, not to mention being on the verge of puking by just being near her really hurt Subaru. And it is not just the shop owner, everyone on the street looks physically ill around her presence and they avoid her like she's some sort of monster. Is this perhaps just a coincident or is it somehow relates to Return by Death? What sort of reaction will Satella have then?

―Am I… am I really that horrible?

Subaru glances at the book as take a deep breath, her mind weakened from being assaulted by literal memories of the world, urging her to not get any closer toward the book, but instead store it somewhere unreachable by anyone.

But her curiosity beckons her ever so sweetly, promising her more if she is willing to take another look at the book, she might be able to find more clues or see even the future, judging by how the book shows her future before her first death.

Subaru decided to follow her curiosity. She wants to save not just Satella, but the old man inside the loot house and anyone that might be killed by the black-haired woman. She knows she being greedy right now, she already fail to help one person which is Satella, then what chances does she have to save others too? the book is the only thing she can turns to right now for answer, it entices her to pick the book yet again.

Slowly she opens the book again, however, instead of being greeted by a blank page and her mind being assaulted, the first page of the book now contains words in Japanese characters. It details the story of how she died in third person, as if her life were a mere story inside the book.

She let out a breath she has been holding in relief. Relieve that she doesn't have to experience being assaulted by knowledge again. Relieve that she doesn't have to experience death again.

"So… after I "read" a page, will that page turn into a written form then?"

Subaru is glad, she's rather read than being forcefully shown by the book.

―So, the question now is, who is that old man? And how should I approach him?

And again, just by thinking about it, another memory assaulted her. Subaru was caught off guard yet again, but this time, the memory doesn't just brute force its way into her brain, instead, it flows gently, like a leaf that was floating in a river stream.

It as if whatever wall that was protecting her mind has been torn open by the book assault, making blood dripped down her nose as if the wall were a physical thing that protected her brain, and now that the wall have been torn, the information flow ever so gently and instead of feeling pain from being thrust by the memories from the world, she feels something else, something gentle, the pain was still there but the pain is now dull compared to before.

The memory show, the dark skinned giant old man living with a blond hair little girl, teaching her how to live in the slump, bonding with her, and helping her by selling stolen items that the little girl stole, the blond hair little girl was no doubt Felt, the memory then shows her the future, where felt was handing him the insignia, then it shown Subaru speak with the them as she shown him her cellphone-

Subaru quickly releases the book yet again as the pain slowly overpower the gentle feeling.

Subaru breathes deeply as she clutches her head, her eyes appear dizzy from seeing the memory, her brain trembling from the raw information from the world.

As for the experience of "reading" the book, she can say that it wasn't a pleasant experience at all. It's like watching from third-person perspective from the world instead of first-person perspective, trying to comprehend that hurt her already fragile mind.

"So… He seems to be close to Felt. Practically a family to her." Subaru mutters under her breath as she rubs her temples trying to lessen the pain.

"So… This book… It works whenever I want to know something… It feels like it's a medieval fantasy version of Google Search." Subaru huffed in pain as she held the book in her hand.

"At least, the second time it doesn't feel as painful as before, and it does feel… gentle but the longer I hold and watch the memory the more painful it becomes." Subaru pauses trying to regain her bearing.

"Heh, it feels wrong saying that in this body." Subaru chuckles before continuing. "I've decided, I call this book [Book of Wisdom] since it has so many wisdoms to offer."

Subaru smiles as she gazes at the sky above her, the sun shone in the alleyway as if to show that she has a bright future in her life. She couldn't wait to show this along with the insignia to Satella, that will surely make a better first impression. Subaru stores The Book of Wisdom back inside the plastic bag.

Subaru slowly gets up from her resting place and dust off her cloth. She still fears death, but the feeling of wanting to save everyone involves overpower the feeling of dread. She hopes after all of this have pass, she can live happily, that's her happy ending.

Satella, Old Man Rom, and the little girl Felt, they have their own story, and Subaru will make sure that the black-haired woman won't cut their story short.


AN: Since I have no idea what real Echidna authority was like, so think of this as Subaru version of Echidna potential authority. Also Subaru got mind rape by the book, the following attempt on using the book wont have that severe reaction anymore compare to the first time.