With a yelp, a thud sounded out as the white silhouette of a woman fell. Moonlight fell on her lone hand, outstretched aimlessly as if waiting for one to grab hold—a final comfort as the blood beneath her grew in size.
Anguished, a boy who lie next to her, having already been struck himself, cried out internally. A wish—a promise formed within his mind, his soul.
"Wait, for me.." he spat, the taste of iron tracing the innermost of his mouth.
His own hand stretched out, its bloody palm grasping the girl's and gripping it as tightly as his fading strength could muster.
"No matter what.."
Desperately holding onto his consciousness, the boy cried out to the world, to himself, and to the girl.
As if understanding his conviction, slight movement started to become apparent from the girl's hand, returning his gesture with a light squeeze of over own.
"I'm definitely… going to…"
—save you.
His vision darkened, his soul split from its vessel, and finally—a promise was engraved into the very life of the world.
Subaru Natsuki's consciousness sprung back to him harshly, the recoil from the deterioration making him nearly topple over. The man running the stand in front of him quickly caught the boy's body, concern spread over his face. Subaru looked at the man confusedly, as if he were caught in some trance.
"Hey kid, you alright?" The man said, turning and grabbing one of the red fruits packed up in his stand. "Here, don't worry about the appas, just take one, alright?"
Subaru looked at the apple and then the man, his brain unable to process. "I…"
However, before he could get out another word, loud screams suddenly filled the street. The man turned his attention to his right and Subaru followed his gaze shortly after to see the commotion.
At the end of the road was a large black substance. Subaru stared at it in disbelief, his body tripping over itself backwards, unable to properly connect his memories to his present time. What the hell was that… thing?!
A large, black substance covered a big part of the area at the end of the road—from the tops of buildings to the ground below. It was impossible to see how far it stretched, but from how the substance presented itself in such a large, imposing manner, Subaru knew it covered immense ground.
"What's going on..?" Subaru said, looking up at the merchant as if he had all the answers. But that man was confused as well, genuine fear washed over his expression like he was witnessing something impossible.
Subaru swallowed, looking back at the shadow. As people ran away from the substance—no, upon closer look, it was more like… a shadow—it simply stayed still. Although occasionally, objects that looked to be out of reach were still grabbed and consumed by stray… hands? It wasn't natural.
Slowly, he picked up his feet, turning to run. Before he could get very far in that plan of action though, when Subaru saw the rest of the street, although filled with screams and terror, flashes resonated through his head, and filled his thoughts.
A loot cellar… a dead body… Satella!
"Ah…"
Subaru looked back, the world's biggest epiphany rushing over him.
"That's right, I have to go back to Satella..! I don't know what's happened here, but if Satella's still… "
Subaru's legs shook as watched people run past him quickly, examining the shadows' consumption and watching for people.
—It was then, that he noticed.
In the heat of the chaos, a struggling silver-haired girl in white robes fought desperately. Shadow hand after shadow hand attacked her relentlessly, giving her no time to breathe let alone run away.
Without thinking, Subaru's legs moved forward and he called out desperately, "Satella! Are you oka-"
Before he could finish, his voice trailed off unexpectedly when the ground began to shake unnaturally, causing him and the people around to start falling over in timely fashions.
"This…"
Frantically waving about, the shadow's consumption started to grow in size. Before, having laid dormant, people were given opportunities to run, but now those who had been caught on something along the way were suddenly being "eaten" by this monster. Mass destruction was being brought forth by dark hands—following the trend of "shadow" going on here..
Subaru quickly turned his attention back to the silver-haired girl—whose name happens to be Satella—with tears welling up as the adrenaline in him started pumping. Normally, his fight or flight response would undoubtedly be "flight", but right now Subaru's entire focus was pinned on Satella.
"S-Sate-" Subaru tried again, but it seemed that was a mistake. As if on cue to his words, the shadows seemed to rage on even harsher, the consumption rate increased..
Subaru watched Satella begin to lose her footing, getting more desperate. "N-No!"
And then, before anybody could even react, a large hand appeared from thin-air, its shadowy presence making itself known without mistake, and crashed into Satella. The girl's body flew at a dangerously high speed, and when her body hit the wall, Subaru subconsciously knew that was the end.
In shock, Subaru struggled to move closer as the girl's body fell from the side of a brick wall to the ground, blood dripping from all over her head. Her body slowly got absorbed by the shadows, and Subaru felt powerless in every moment. Even though they had just managed to escape the loot house, is fate really this cruel..?
As the shadows approached and begun to consume him too, Subaru's adrenaline began to wear off. His heartbeat began to slow, carefully, carefully, until beginning to hasten once again.
"I love you."
A dangerous voice called out to him from every end of the shadows. Completely encased in darkness now, it was difficult to even tell his ups and downs. An even more concerning issue… this feeling…
"I love you," a voice called out to him, ringing in his ears like silver bells. Every time that voice spoke, he wanted to hear it again. But this was wrong.
"Why am I feeling…" so much love, Subaru would've said. It felt perverse—disruptive, but he couldn't help but want to return this voice's feelings.
In this space of darkness he found himself in, he wanted to reply in earnest. But he lacked the mouth to do so… the rest of his limbs too, every part of himself felt like they were being ripped away… his humanity itself; all gone. Even if he wanted to reply his false love, he no longer had the means to do so.
"I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you."
As if delusional, the voice called endlessly, continuously, repulsively, adoringly its love for him.
"Subaru-kun."
His thoughts stopped, and slowly replaced with "—"..
Subaru Natsuki rubbed his eyes open, feeling distressed.
"I'm…" -back, is what he felt he wanted to say, but there was an issue here. Just how, exactly, was he "back". Just now, he had been absorbed by those shadows, like everyone else had been, so just what is going on here..?
Subaru looked to his left quickly, but he saw nothing. Now that he thinks about it, it seems like he had been daydreaming a very, very long daydream. From the loot house, to Satella, to the shadows… just what the hell has been wrong with him lately?
Subaru turned around from the man selling apples and looked around him. Moments ago, in his ahead at least, the road here had been split by shadows and he watched Satella die to the shadows. That's not the first time either…
"What is this? Something here… no, instead of strange, isn't there an explanation for this..?"
The loot house. He remembers walking in there by himself before being struck down. At first, he was unable to remember this because it was such a shocking daydream, but now that he recalls it, his memory isn't faulting him. This was a very recent occurrence. That's right—he's not daydreaming here, and he isn't going insane either… it could only mean one thing, right?
Screams began to echo to his right, and he heard the sound of falling apples as he turned to see the merchant nearly trip over himself, fear washing over his face.
"This is that kind of thing, right?" Subaru's brain started turning its gears. From the loot house, to the shadows, both times he had met a certain fate. And now, he was back..!
"Run!" people screamed all around him, footsteps chattering back and forth as the sounds and sights of collapsing buildings filled his head.
The mean-eyed boy quickly looked at the shadows and started a full sprint towards its enlarging presence, pushing past the people of Lugunica.
"Satella… this time, I'll definitely…!" the boy promised, tripping over his feet and landing on his nose. He wiped the blood seeping out of it and stood back up, finding the half-elf being consumed by the shadows.
"The fuck..? Why are they much larger than 'before'..?" Subaru looked up at the buildings, large hands made of darkness encroaching itself across the area.
Despite the drastic increase in danger levels, the one thing that didn't happen this time was the raging growth it suddenly showed. It was too difficult to find the connection, but Subaru didn't question it, thinking he was just having a lucky break.
Finally reaching the half-elf, he grabbed onto the fabric of her clothing abd started pulling her out of the grasp of the shadow slowly consuming her from the feet up. There, too, was a grey cat using magic to freeze the shadows as much as he could. With a small body, it's probably difficult for the poor spirit to help in any other way.
Thankfully, during his days as a hikikomori, Subaru trained relentlessly in the confines of his room using the excellently of calisthenics. There could be no other moment than now for his efforts to bear fruit..!
"Aargh..!" Subaru pulled and pulled, and with the help of Puck's freezing the shadows, he managed to quickly grab the exhausted Satella.
"Wh..? Who are-" the half-elf tried speaking in breaths, only to be shushed by the raven-haired youth.
"No time! Run first!" Subaru yelled, seeing the shadows getting desperate and growing in size. Despite that, though, they didn't seem to present the same behavior as before: they were much more calm, and although growing in size is a new thing, it didn't seem like he had to worry about it.
Satella, Subaru, and Puck (the gray cat), whose name Subaru finally remembered, all started a full sprint. Satella froze the ground behind them, hoping to slow the growth of the shadow.
"Woah…" Subaru said in amazement, still in a full sprint, only to end up crashing into someone in front of him, toppling over and hitting his nose. Hey, isn't this a tad familiar?
"Crap, I'm sorry—" Subaru said quickly, getting up with a fresh nosebleed and looking at the person he crashed into. The person there was a youth with blonde hair and red eyes in strange clothing.
The girl looked at the boy irritatedly, having suffered a bad fall herself, hitting her forehead instead. "Watch where you're going..!"
All of a sudden, the two got lifted from the ground, creating immense confusion in both of them. Only when they looked at the cause, did it make a little more… no, this isn't logical at all?!
Subaru was bewildered at the idea that this girl was able to pick them both up with one hand each?! What the fuck?!
"Hold on tight you two. Those shadows seem to be growing quicker by the second, so I'm going to start running reeaaally fast now, okay?" the half-elf said.
…Subaru had nearly forgotten how beautiful her voice was. It reminded him of why he was doing this for her; he didn't want this girl to die more than she had to..
But, he wasn't allowed much time to relax at the thought, as the world around him sped up. "HOLY SHI-"
After about 15 seconds of sprinting, the blond-haired girl and Subaru were set down on the ground near an alley. The half-elf took a really deep breath and looked at the two. "There—I've repaid my debt to you."
"Huh? What are you.." Subaru said, confused by the sudden proclamation.
" —Don't mind her, she's quite stubborn about these things." A light voice sounded out, before a gray cat appeared from behind Satella's hair. Right, if Subaru recalls, Puck can disappear and reappear whenever it wants, so it didn't need to fly alongside Satella.
"Ahh… right, I'd forgotten," Subaru mumbled. "There was nothing to repay, but I'm glad I could help."
"But I wonder, how were you able to react so fast to those shadows?" Puck said, examining the boy. "They came so fast, catching both Lia and me off guard."
..? Lia..? That doesn't fit with Satella.. Subaru questioned internally. "Well, I-"
Behind Satella, Subaru noticed that the blond-haired girl from earlier was creeping behind her. When the two locked eyes with each other, she sped up and snatched an item from Satella's pocket, catching all three of them off-guard.
"Wh.. hey!" Satella yelled, watching the girl jump away onto the rooftops, sprinting away to an unknown direction.
That girl..! She just got saved, but still had the audacity?! the hikikomori thought angrily as he and Satella stared in shock.
"Come back!" Satella called, starting her own sprint toward the thief.
Subaru, caught off-guard, struggled to even start a proper pace.
Besides that, there was a concerning issue that outweighed any of his physical ineptitude. That said, it was the fact this situation was creating a realization in Subaru Natsuki.
Subaru recalls the feeling of his guts spilling on the ground, and the awful sound of that girl's final moments as they laid under that moonlight.
"So in the end, fate is a prevailing force, huh?!" Subaru grit his teeth, finally starting to run into a full sprint.
If things continue as is, Satella will go to that loot house. There, she'll undoubtedly meet her end for the third time. Subaru didn't want that to happen no matter what, especially when he can do what he can. With this power of his…
If what I'm thinking about this ability is correct, then it's quite fitting for a guy like me.
Return by Death. That's what I'll call this.
No matter what. I won't let her die again. Fate may be a prevailing force, but I'll defy it.
—That's what I promised at that time, after all.