A/N: Second chapter up and ready so here it is.

Chapter 2 Day 1 Loops 2 and 3

There was total darkness, then blinding light.

"Are you guys okay?" Came a voice in front of me.

"Huh?" I heard someone, Subaru, say. I shook my head, seeing the shop owner that Subaru and I had stopped in front of before, staring at us. My body felt weak like I was going to fall over at the slightest touch.

"Are you guys gonna buy an abble or what?" He asked, annoyed. "You were looking down at them, then suddenly were staring off into space. You gonna buy one or what?"

I subconsciously reached into a pouch, that I hadn't even noticed before, at my side. I pulled out some coins and passed them to him, in which he handed us both an abble. "Now get out of here, you're scaring off all of my customers!"

"I think that's your face," Subaru said before walking off. I quickly followed him. The guy yelled something at us, but we weren't paying him any attention anymore.

"Hey, James…did you have a weird daydream too?" Subaru asked me as we continued walking.

"Yea, I did," I kinda lied. I mean I remembered what had just happened to us, but it definitely wasn't a dream. I reached up to my neck. I could still feel the pain where I'd had my head chopped off. It was dull now, but still there.

"Did you di-" Subaru started, before clutching to his chest with a pained expression on his face. The Abble that he was carrying dropped to the ground. I put my arm around him, helping him stay up.

"Are you okay?" I questioned him. His face paled, but his breathing got better.

"I…think so," He said, as he stood up straight by himself. I bent down and picked up his abble and handed it back to him. He looked me in the eyes. I nodded to him and moved my hand to my throat. I hope he understood what I meant. In return, he did a line across his gut. "We have to find Satella and Puck!" He exclaimed as if he had just suddenly remembered about them.

"Who are they?" I asked. I don't think they told me their "names" in the previous route. I thought to myself. I was doing my best to forget about the death I'd had. At least Julius didn't make me suffer, but why had he killed me in the first place? And who was Michael? Is he a character I don't know about from his backstory?

"The wonderful elf girl and the floating cat," Subaru explained to me. "The ones that saved me when you conveniently vanished."

"You mean when I lost you," I started. "Besides, if that was a vision of some kind, I've not done that to you."

Subaru looked like he wanted to argue the point, but stared off for a second before continuing to walk. I looked to where he had been looking, seeing three people staring at us. I knew who they were instantly, the three people who kept trying to rob Subaru. Though this time, as they looked at the both of us, they didn't make any kind of moves. I rested my hand on the sword, and they quickly looked away. Even if one of them was armed, they seemed to be scared of an actual fight.

"Looks like they're not gonna attack me this time," Subaru said, as he glanced at me. "Why didn't you come with me last time?"

"Like I said, I lost you. Besides, if I had, would you have met that wonderful elf, Emi…" I started. "I mean Satella." Got to be sure to get the name right. Or at least what he thinks is right.

He looked thoughtful for a second. "You're right. We should go to the Slums, that's the last place we were together."

"I'll be sure to follow you closely," I said. "This time don't try to lose me."

"I didn't try to."

We were in the slums, and the deeper we went, the tighter my grip on the sword got. I could feel all the eyes on us, and I didn't like it at all. They looked like at the slightest hint of weakness they would try and take us for all we had.

"Finally," Subaru cried out, as we stopped in front of a building. "I thought we'd get here much quicker since I'd already been here once…but man this place is hard to find. Next time I should focus more on where we're going and not on Satella."

"Would be a good idea," I said to him. "Is this where…" I trailed off. I knew the answer of course.

He nodded. "Yeah, this is where it happened, in that vision at least. Subaru closed his eyes and mumbled to himself. "Come on, you can do it." I took the initiative to help him out. I knocked hard on the door.

"Anyone in there?" I called out. Subaru jumped. Silence rang out though. Subaru started pounding on the door.

"Come on, I know there's someone in there, please!" He was smashing on the door with his full force. Honestly, I was surprised he wasn't hurting his hand with that. In fact, against all odds, the hinges were bending and the door creaking. If he'd kept this up, the door would break in no time. I didn't realize he was actually strong enough for something like that. I'd thought he was supposed to be weak.

"Cut it out already! What are you doing, trying to break my door down just because you don't know the password!" The door suddenly flew open. Subaru who was practically on the door flew backwards a bit due to the sheer force of it. I looked at the man who was a mere doors length away from me. He was an older red-faced bald man. He was also quite huge, not just in height, but also in muscles. He looked like he could snap me like a twig.

"Who are you, boys!? I've not seen you around here before! How did you know where to find this place? How did you get here? Who told you?" In an instant, I was lifted off the ground by the collar of my tunic. I looked him in the eyes. He was huge, much taller than I was. His muscles were gigantic, like bigger than my torso big.

"I'm James," I said plainly.

"And I'm Subaru Natsuki," Subaru introduced himself, sounding much more nervous than me. "Can you put my friend down, so we can all talk without feet on the ground?" Rom stared at him for a second, before setting me on the ground.

"Only you can come in." He pointed at Subaru. "Your friend with the sword stays out here." I looked at Subaru, who looked even more nervous.

"Don't worry, I'm sure I'll be okay," Subaru said, as he walked in.

"Is it good if I wait by the door?" I asked Rom. "I'd rather stay close by than have to walk off."

He looked at me for a moment. "As long as you keep in mind that your friend's life is in my hands, so don't try anything funny." He looked down at my sword. "As long as you don't do anything stupid we'll be fine."

I nodded. "Don't worry, I'll just be your security while Subaru's in there." Subaru looked at me. It looked to me like he wanted to say something along the lines of, "Why the hell could you abandon me in a time like this?!" I shrugged at him. No way I was gonna argue with the giant.

How long is this going to take? I asked myself in my head. I didn't know how long I'd been out here, but the sun was almost completely down by the time a little girl rushed towards me. She had pale skin and blonde hair. She drew her dagger as she dashed at me. "Get away from there!" She yelled at me.

I raised both my hands, showing her that I wasn't there to fight. "Don't worry, my friend's meeting with Rom, we're not here to bother you or him." He stopped a few feet away from me. She kept the dagger out but approached me slowly. I stepped sideways, away from her and the door.

"If you wanna keep your limbs, walk away from the door," Felt said, keeping the dagger ready. "Get out of earshot, then you can come back. Else I'm cutting something off." I nodded, obediently to her. Don't aggravate the one with the weapon anyway. Felt walked up to the door, said something and the door opened. She happily walked in. Rom poked his head out, looking both around before he spotted me.

"Forgot you were out there, you can come in," Old Man Rom said with a laugh. I walked in as well. The place looked a bit of a wreck, but there were at least a couple of tables and chairs.

"Why did you let him in!" Complained Felt with a pout. Her eyes moved to Subaru. "And who's he?"

"I'm Subaru Natsuki," Subaru answered her, though I was pretty sure she was asking Rom, not him.

"He's a potential client," Rom explained. "Wants to buy something that you've picked up today."

Her eyes lit up. "Oh, why didn't you say so!" She quickly rushed over to the bar sitting down beside Subaru. I stood near the door. I didn't want to be in the way of their negotiations. I felt I wouldn't be any help, whatsoever. I looked down at my sword, the only thing I might be useful for would be helping against the killer.

What was her name again anyway? I couldn't remember. I do remember she disembowels Subaru. I didn't think that I'd actually be of use during that, I had no actual swordsmanship training after all.

Does it even matter? I thought. If I change anything…what would happen? Say I do save Subaru, then what happens? What if that causes him to never go to the mansion? I touched my neck again. Is it worth dying though? For whatever reason, I seem to know about the loops as well. I don't think any character, at least in the first four volumes, knew about the looping. I didn't expect that I would. If anything I'd thought I'd be able to figure out which loop we were on by how Subaru acted, at least early on.

I looked at Subaru, excitedly waving his phone around. You know…if he dies and it loops again, I wouldn't have to go through the death, yeah? I could save myself from the pain. There was a knock on the door. Well, too late for that. I thought.

"Oh yeah, that's probably for me. I forgot to give her the password," Felt said as she hopped off of the stool. I stepped away from the door, to be closer to Subaru. Felt opened the door and a woman walked in. She shook her hips with every step that she took. She looked at Subaru and me.

"I can understand the old man being here, but why are these two?" She asked. She smiled slightly. I thought it looked unnerving, but maybe that was just because I knew who she was.

"He's your rival!" Felt motioned to Subaru. "And he's…Who's he again Rom?"

"He's Subaru's guard," Rom said. Did Subaru call me that? I wondered. Or did Rom just decide that since I was armed? Either way, I just nodded, going along with it. No harm in them thinking that.

"Interesting, so he's interested in the same item then?" The assassin questioned.

"Yup, so we decided to have an overall negotiation between all parties," Felt explained.

I'm not gonna lie, I zoned out for most of it. I knew how it would go anyway, so what was the point? Hell, I wasn't even sure if I was going to try "win" this since I wasn't sure how things would change.

Is that cold of me?

I focused on the assassin when I saw Subaru get the badge. I stuck my hand to the hilt of my sword.

"What are you going to do with that anyway?" Asked the woman.

"Oh, I'll look for the original owner and give it back to her," Subaru explained. The Woman stared at him for a second. I drew my sword and blocked her first slash, protecting Subaru…Or at least I thought I did. The blade of my sword fell away, as blood started gushing out of my stomach. I let out a gurgling sound as I fell over.

"Oh my, you actually reacted in time," The woman said. "And without a Divine Protection at that."

I couldn't focus on her anymore. The pain was horrible, it felt like I was burning from my stomach towards the rest of my body.

Something approached me. "Are we really going to let it end this way?" It mocked me again. "We can make them pay, just say the word." The figure reached out a hand having it come to rest by mine. "Just take my hand, and she'll die." I didn't move, I wasn't even sure if I could move anymore. My vision darkened as the sounds of the fighting grew more and more distant.

-Loop 3-

Darkness greeted me. I could still feel the pain in my stomach as I was bathed in light. I squinted my eyes and staggered a bit as I realized I was standing in front of the merchant again. I looked to my right, my vision coming more into focus, and seeing Subaru staggering.

"Hey kiddo," I heard the salesman say. Subaru looked like he was going to puke, before collapsing.

"Subaru!" I cried out, feigning worry. I knew he was going to be okay after all. I crouched down beside him, lightly tapping his face. He didn't move. I looked at the middle-aged man with green hair. "I'm going to move him to the shade, and you get a bucket of water?" I asked him. He nodded and grabbed a bucket. He quickly ran to a fountain while I picked up Subaru and moved him onto nearby stairs, into the shade.

The green-haired man quickly came back and threw the water over Subaru. Subaru's eyes shot open and he leaned up a bit.

"You okay now?" Asked the merchant. He went back to his stand and grabbed an abble. "Here eat this." Subaru took it from him without saying anything. There was a distant look in his eyes.

Why is it affecting him worse than me? I wondered."Can I borrow a cup to fill with water and give it to him?" I asked the merchant. "Maybe he's dehydrated." The merchant nodded and quickly went back to his stall and grabbed a cup from under it. I went to the fountain and filled it up, but when I got back he wasn't around.

"Where did he go?" I asked the green-haired man. He shrugged.

"He yelled out to someone and staggered after her. I lost sight of him after that," He explained. I nodded.

"Sorry to be a bother to you," I apologized, though it honestly didn't sound like it. Honestly, now that I think about it, had I had any emotion in my voice from the time I got here? Did I have any in my voice before? I still couldn't remember. I instinctively reached into the bag on my side and pulled out some coins and handed it to him. "For the abble and the help." He looked at it for a second, I assume trying to decide if he should take it, before actually taking it.

"Last I saw he was moving that way, maybe you can find him." He pointed down the street. I nodded my thanks before going down that way. As I passed by the people, I didn't see any sign of Subaru. If I remember right, this is the short life, where he dies immediately, yeah? I thought to myself. Though it must not be as short as I thought since we're still in this loop.

I looked down at a very familiar-looking alley, right as three people, the muggers, rushed out of it, right past me. I saw Subaru lying on the ground, a pool of blood forming around him.

"Subaru?" I called out to him, as I walked towards him, confused. I knelt beside him, looking into his eyes. I couldn't see any life in them. Why am I still in this loop then? I looked at Subaru's body. I was sure that's what it was at this point, he didn't look alive.

Do I need to die too? Now that I thought about it, I'd died in each loop too, just like Subaru. I reached for the dagger at my side, drawing it out.

"See you soon Subaru," I said. I plunged the mercy blade into my own neck. I felt the blood rush down my body as I pulled the knife out. The pain was horrible, but not as bad as the previous two deaths. I felt my body fall to the ground beside Subaru's.

I saw a figure approaching me before I lost consciousness. "Why the hell did you do that?" He questioned. It was the same voice that tempted me before. He crouched down staring straight into my eyes. He looked exactly like I did when I looked into the fountain, with the only difference being blood-red eyes. I didn't respond, I tried, but no sound could come out of my throat. He reached his hand out. "If you want to live then take my hand." I didn't move. I let myself die there, ignoring the lookalike.