watching Subaru lose his shit for 636 minutes straight

by mgman

Subaru is an enigma to everyone that has ever met him, many view him as an unstoppable juggernaut of a man, someone that can simply sidestep death at every turn, many have chalk this ability up to some kind of divine protection, or just plain luck, however Subaru's closest friends will finally witness, what lengths he has gone through to keep them safe from harm.

4. Ep-1 The end of the beginning part 2

it's been a while hasn't it to my readers, a lot of things have kept me from writing this story, I'm afraid with most of them real life problems. but that's all behind me now and hopefully I can presume a more regular work schedule for this fan fiction, you may have also noticed that this is only the first half of episode 1, I made the choice to break up episode 1 into two distinct segments, because of the fact that it's nearly an hour long meaning if I was to write it as one chapter, it could easily be 40,000 words. which would take me forever to write, as a result it's been broken into two distinct segments, when it comes to future episodes which are a normal 25 minutes, I won't break those chapters up into individual segments because of them having a much shorter run time, and as result meaning they are easier to translate into a narrative story format but I suppose I've talked enough, so without any further ado I present to you the second part of chapter 2 of Watching Subaru lose his shit for 636 minutes straight

:characters thinking:

:characters talking:

:CHARACTERS SHOUTING!:

(PS sorry if the characters act a bit out of character at some points, it's been a long while since I've really watched the anime, so I kind of forgot for a while how some of the characters are supposed to act)

(edit and change log: small grammar adjustments for overall better flow of the story, updated 22/ 12 2021 8:36 am)

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As the screen faded to black, everyone finally had enough time to process what they had seen, so far very little had actually been answered, in fact more questions had been raised then answers have been given, with the biggest one on everyone's mind being the fact that Subaru's memories did not match up with their own, or second-hand accounts of said events.

"I still don't understand, and these are Subaru's memories?" correct, Emilia says, confusion evidence in her eyes.

"Indeed, they are young Emilia, the only thing I can say for now, is that what Subaru experience, is different from everyone else's experience" the architect says, which ultimately just confuses everyone more, in what way did he mean experience is different from everyone else's?

"Mr architect, is there something you're not telling us?" Rem asked, pretty much summing up everyone's thoughts at that moment, as a long heavy silence overcame the room, with everyone looking at the architect, waiting and mentally begging for an answer to all of this.

"Young Rem, I'm afraid I can't say yet, all will be revealed to you via Subaru's memories, that is as much as I can say for now" the architect says, seemingly repeating what he had stated earlier, much to everyone's annoyance and concern

"Geez, Can you be more cryptic?" Puck said with a hefty amount of annoyance evident in his voice, as he continued to float lazily next to Emilia.

"I agree with Puck on this one, this little show of yours has hardly answered anything, and has raised more questions than answers" Ram added crossing her arms and letting out a hump in frustration.

"In fact I'm beginning to think that, you weren't being truthful with us" Puck says, his eyes taking on a slate menacing glow, as he continued to glare at the architect.

"I have been truthful with you from the very beginning, the amount of rules I have broken so this can happen is immeasurable, do not presume me to be some kind of charlatan, spirit!" architect says with a raised voice that radiates power and authority, if everyone have been standing, they probably would have collapsed from the sheer power of his voice, Puck looking a little bit shaken, but continues to glare at the architect, but the architect glares with such an intensity, that eventually the spirit brakes first, looking away while letting out a small hiss in defeat.

"I believe Mr architect is telling the truth" Emilia says with confidence in her voice, as she looks at Puck with her own glare, which has the intended reaction as the little spirit seemingly begins the shrink, under the combined glare of her and the architect.

"I am grateful that you have confidence in me, young Emilia" the architect says, returning to his much more monotone, emotionless speaking voice, while directing everyone's attention to the scream again.

"I believe it's best we begin again" the architect says, as everyone returns their attention to the scream, to see it come to life once more.

the black screen slowly fades, to show Subaru with his head on a suspiciously furry pair of thighs, Subaru for his part, seems to be just coming around after falling unconscious, slowly and groggily opening his eyes.

"Is my head in someone's lap" Subaru says, obviously surprised the being such a position.

"Are you awake?" says the voice of Emilia off screen, a pleasant smile makes its way onto his face, with him seemingly putting two and two together, as to whose lap his head was in.

"I didn't know cute girls were this hairy, actually wait, that can't be right!" Subaru says, the pleasant smile on his face quickly disappearing, as he realises that young girls aren't supposed to be furry, he quickly turns his head up right, to look up at the face of the person whose lap he was in, only to see the very large face of Puck, staring back at him, after a good long couple seconds of staring at each other, Subaru jumps from Puck's lap. while letting out a confused / terrified scream.

"It's just a thoughtful arrangement we made, so you could at least feel happy until you woke up" Puck says, putting on a very bad impression of a young girl's voice, while Subaru continues to look at him like he's seen a ghost.

"First of all, stop talking in that high-pitched voice! secondly, no sane guy confuses a cat for the main heroine!" Subaru says frantically, while rapidly shaking his head back and forth, almost as if he was trying to give his brain a jump start, through the vigorous motion.

"Aww, making myself bigger was worth it to see you so happy" Puck says, scratching the back of his head while letting out a small laugh.

"I'm not happy" Subaru shouts back at the cat spirit, only now realising that Emilia is staring / glaring at him intently.

Subaru and Emilia, continue to start each other for a good couple second, while Puck looks on with mild interest and curiosity, Subaru seemingly doesn't know what to say to such a pretty young girl, while Emilia just seems to be frustrated in general.

"I'm sorry about this..." Subaru says, being the first one to break the silence.

"You stayed with me the whole time I was unconscious..." Subaru says gratefully, as Emilia continues to glare at him while Puck simply looks on, with a small smile plaster on his face.

"Don't get the wrong idea, I stayed because there are things, I want to ask you" Emilia says bluntly, causing Subaru to flinch slightly, while Puck looks at her with a slight disapproving clint in his eye.

"Healing your wounds and making Puck your pillow until you woke up, were for my own benefit" Emilia says, as Subaru looks on with slight confusion and uncertainty.

"So I need you to repay me in kind" Emilia finally finishes, putting her hands on her hips seemingly waiting for Subaru to reply, Subaru for his part, not knowing what to say, let's the silence drag out for a good couple seconds, before finally finding his voice again.

"For such a normal favour, you're making it some like I really owe you big" Subaru says nervously, seemingly still slightly perturbed by Emilia's, pushy and bossy attitude.

"Am I really like this sometimes?" Emilia asks, obviously having a lot of trouble, watching herself act in such a way especially towards someone like Subaru, she turns her gaze to Puck, who scratches the back of his head nervously, seemingly not wanting to upset Emilia with the truth, that she can act as bossy and pushy in certain situations, as her on-screen double ganga is currently acting, Rem and Ram had both spent enough time, with the half elf, to know that she could indeed, act just like this, in spite of Emilia being an incredibly calm and gentle person.

The architect for his part, continues to watch the screen analysing every detail of what he was seeing, in his millennia of existing, he had learnt being observant, was the best way to solve problems when they arose, with the conundrum of Subaru being just one of these problems.

"No such thing, you have some idea who stole my Insignia, right?" Emilia says as she stands up from her sitting position, walking over to Subaru, with her hands on her hips.

"Insignia?" Subaru says, obviously confused about what she was talking about, as he seemingly looks off into space in thought.

"Do you mean one of those bad things that shows your affiliation?", Subaru says nervously, mentally begging to whoever was listening, that was the right answer.

"It has a jewel in the centre, and it's about this big" Emilia says holding her hand out and making an O shape with her fingers about 4 inches in diameter, obviously still convinced that this strange boy, that she's only just met, knew something about her stolen Insignia.

"Sorry, but no matter how many times you ask I genuinely have no idea" Subaru says holding his hand out in front of her, obviously wanting to cut her off from asking more questions, about something he had absolutely no idea about.

"I see, nobody helping that, then, but you gave me the information that you know nothing, and you gave me my answers in return for healing you" Emilia says, crossing her arms in front of her chest, while seemingly finally accepting that this strange boy, she just met had absolutely no idea about her stolen Insignia.

"Huh?" Subaru says, obviously still absolutely confused about what's going on.

"Well, I'm in a hurry, so I'm going now, your wounds should be better now, but next time, don't do dangerous things like wandering into deserted alleys alone, I'm not concerned, I'm just warning you, if that happens to you again, saving you won't be any benefit to me, so don't expect me to help" Emilia finally finishes, as she quickly takes off, seemingly forgetting completely about her spirit companion, Subaru for his part simply watches her walk away with a complete dumbfounded expression on his face, obviously quite unsure how to actually process the stream of words, that just came out of her mouth.

"Sorry about that, she can be quite intense sometimes" Puck says in an apologetic manner, causing Subaru to look at him slightly dumbfounded, obviously still trying to process what had just happened

"Don't think too bad of her, she is a lot nicer, when not riled up like this" Puck says as Subaru returns his gaze to Emilia making her way out of the alley, his gaze lingers on her as he seemingly is trying to figure out something to say.

"Insignia?" Subaru says quietly, causing Puck to look at him, with a slightly confused look to his eyes.

"I think this goes beyond that, to find what was stolen from her, yet she stopped to help me, and she even came up with that lame excuse for a favour so it wouldn't feel like I owe her, even though I'm a total stranger, anyone who lives like that..." Subaru says trailing off into silence, before quickly turning around on his heels, grabbing the plastic bag as well as his damp tracksuit top, and then making a break after Emilia.

"Is going to end up wasting their whole life!" Subaru shouts as he runs past the entrance to the alleyway, coming back to the main street, looking around for a couple seconds, he quickly spots her, makes a break to catch up to her.

Despite the circumstances, the Roswaal crew couldn't help but smile at Subaru's actions, it was just like him to help like that, who he had only just met, however Emilia's smile faltered quite quickly, because for the fact that she still didn't understand why she didn't remember any of this, despite saying she trusted the architect, she couldn't understand why he wouldn't just tell her and the rest of her friends, the reason why Subaru's and their memories did not line-up, as her mind continue to race, she suddenly felt a tap on her shoulder, looking over she saw Puck looking at her mother slightly concerned expression, obviously sensing her inner turmoil and confusion through their telepathic link.

"I guess despite being a complete buffoon, Barusu certainly has his heart in the right place" Ram says nonchalantly, causing everyone to look at her in surprise, for the fact that she had just said something that could be viewed as a positive statement about Subaru.

"Yes, Subaru has the kindest heart, he's always willing to help people even if he doesn't know them" Rem says following up her sister, with an almost dreamy expression on her face, causing the half elf to look at her jealously, while gaining a small chuckle from both Ram and Puck, at the two's obvious rivalry over Subaru's affection.

"Hey! Wait up up!" Subaru shouts, causing Emilia to stop in her tracks and look at him, with clear annoyance and frustration plastered across her face.

"What? just so you know, I can only spend just a little more time with you" Emilia says, obviously just wanting Subaru to leave her alone.

"I sense you being a tiny bit Intent but forget that. you lost something important, right?" Subaru says seeming to catch Emilia's interest ever so slightly.

"Then let me help you" Subaru says pointing his fun at himself, causing Emilia to look at him with a slightly confused expression.

"But you said you don't know anything..." Emilia says, seemingly having a hard time, believing that this random strange boy that she's only just met, could actually help her find her Insignia.

"But I remember her face, at least, if I see her again, I'll know!" Subaru says in a almost pleading manner, Emilia for her part seems to actually be thinking about it, putting a finger to her chin in thought, while seemingly studying Subaru intensively.

"you're very strange..." Emilia says slowly, while continuing to examine Subaru.

"Just so you know, I can't do anything to thank you" Emilia says, seeming to begrudgingly accept Subaru's request for help, in the process causing Subaru's face to light up.

"You don't have to, I want to thank you. that's why I want to help" Subaru says, obviously still trying to convince Emilia that he doesn't want anything in return, for helping her find her Insignia, this causes Emilia to look at him like he's insane.

" I didn't do anything deserving of thanks I told you, I've already received compensation for healing your wounds" Emilia says forcibly, seemingly struggling trying to accept, that this strange boy wants to help her for nothing in return.

"Then... I'm going to help you for my own sake, too" Subaru says with a genuine happy smile on his face that seems to catch Emilia off guard, with her reaction implying that nobody had smiled at her, like that for a long time

"So my objectives is... Let's see..." Subaru says as he looks off into space in thought, seemingly not noticing Emilia's slightly shocked and completely stumped reaction.

"Yeah that's it! One good deed per day!" Subaru says excitedly, while holding up one finger, Emilia for her part looks absolutely confused, about what to say or do, she goes to speak but stops seemingly rethinking what she was about to say.

"I don't sense any malice, I think you can just accept his offer" Puck says as he climbs onto Emilia shoulder seemingly after materialising from nowhere.

"And besides, the most shields you between yourself and ruffians, the better, after all" Puck says while looking at Subaru out the corner of his eye, causing Subaru to flinch slightly while also feeling his templar flare at the comment.

"That's what you want me around for!" Subaru shouts as the small spirit let's out a small and mysterious giggle.

"I mean it, though. I can't do anything to thank you" Emilia says causing Subaru's expression to change from an angry to one of excitement and happiness.

"No problem, just leave it to me" Subaru says triumphantly puffing out his chest while placing his fist over his chest, Emilia for her part looks on with mild curiosity at the strange gesture, after his proclamation they both begin to look for the half elfs lost Insignia, a journey that seems to take them across the entire city, with Subaru somehow managing to cause more trouble along the way, with particular incidents, like trying enter an abandoned building, because of not being able to read the signs, and mistaking a young girl at a fruit stand for the thief in question, finally the unlikely trio find themselves at the top of a large overlook, from which a breathtaking view of the city can be seen.

"I talked a big game, but isn't this town too huge to find one little thing in?" Subaru says exhaustedly as he sits on a step overlooking the city, taking in the beautiful sight of the city sprawled out before him, while also trying to catch his breath.

The Roswaal crew couldn't help but watch on with fascination at what was transpiring, Subaru and Emilia's interactions, with it certainly bring a smile to all their faces, because of Subaru, even on his first day in their world, was acting like just his typical kind and selfless self, Emilia herself couldn't help but feel her eyes moisten, at the fact that Subaru was willing to help her, despite how horribly she was acting to him, Puck for his part, felt much the same way, despite his on-screen self basically calling Subaru a living meat shield, which despite being a bit of a harsh thing to say certainly wasn't wrong, considering the amount of situations that Emilia would have most likely died in, if Subaru wasn't there to take the punishment instead.

"Honestly, if I was in Emilia's place right now, I would ask Barusu to leave, considering he's doing pretty much nothing, to help find the Insignia" Ram says with a huff, causing everyone to direct their angry glares her way again

"I mean, at least he's willing to help look for it at least" Puck says, getting a round of nods from Emilia and Rem, and surprisingly even the architect.

"I must say, young Subaru certainly must have a good character, considering that he is willing to help someone, despite only just meeting them, and them acting and a less than pleasant manner to him" the architect says causing the half elf in question to flinch at the comment, while also earning a nod from Rem, and a glare from Puck, at the unintentional insult of Emilia.

"That's certainly Subaru for you, he's always willing to help someone in need" Rem says with a brush spread across her face, causing Emilia to look at her with a small pout, while the architect looks at her reaction, with slight confusion, despite knowing the bodily mechanics of what blushing actually was, the actual emotional reason that triggers it, was still beyond him even after millennia.

"It's the capital of Lugunica, you didn't even know that... um..." Emilia says, turning her head from the beautiful view of the city towards Subaru, at the sudden realisation, that she didn't even know his name yet.

"That's right, we haven't even asked your name yet, we should all introduce ourselves" Puck says as he lazily floats in the air next to Emilia.
"Oh, yeah, you're right, I'll introduce myself first" Subaru says, as he gets up from his sitting position on the step.

"My name is Natsuki Subaru not only am I clueless, I'm also broken to beyond compare! Nice to meet ya!" Subaru shouts excitedly, striking and absolutely bizarre looking pose, with his arm raised into the sky pointing a finger, before bringing his arm back down to in front of him, into a handshake gesture, Emilia for her part looks absolutely confused and slightly shocked, at the display of energy, from the now named strange boy.

"When that's all you say, you really do sound hopeless" Puck says with a slightly confused expression just like Emilia.

"Well, I'm Puck! Nice to meet you" Puck says, doing a playful spin in the air, while flying directly into Subaru's hand, and much to Emilia's and his surprise, actually making physical contact with Subaru's hand, Emilia however seems to be having some kind of internal debate, almost like she was debating whether to tell him her real name or not.

"It's unusual to see someone who can touch a spirit so casually, where are you from?" Emilia says, obviously a little bit surprised and intrigued that Subaru can so casually touch a spirit, when most people have trouble even seeing spirits.

"Well, following the usual pattern, a small island nation to the east" Subaru says matter-of-factly, while Puck adorably mimics his every movement and gesture.

"Lugunica is the easternmost nation on our continental map, there is no nation east of here" Emilia says, seemingly quite confused about Subaru stating he was from a far eastern island nation, despite there being no other nations east of Lugunica.

"No way, really? there's nothing east of here?" Subaru says obviously completely shocked by the fact that there is nothing east of this place, Emilia found his reaction very surprising, it was almost like he had appeared out of nowhere or something.

"You have no idea where you are, you have no money, you can't read, and you have no one that can help you..." Emilia says training off, seemingly only just now putting all of the pieces together about Subaru.
"You might be in an even more precarious position than me, um... Subaru... was it?" Emilia finally finishes, with what can only be described as a look of genuine concern on her face, directed towards Subaru.

"Yes, that's my name" Subaru says with a brush making its way onto his face, at the fact that this cute elf girl had just said his name.

"When I look at you this way, you actually look pretty well built" Puck says as he floats around Subaru seemingly inspecting every part of his body.

"I do work out everyday" Subaru says opening and closing his fist while doing a little stretch on the spot, seemingly trying to emphasize what he had just said.

"For a shut- in who's gotta guard his house, that much is a given" Subaru says, causing Emilia and Puck to both look at him strangely, making Subaru feel just a little bit more self-conscious,

"I'm not sure I understand what a "shut-in" is, but that means you're from a respectable family, right?" Emilia says, as she walks over to Subaru, while still looking visibly confused about his very strange behaviour and mannerisms.

"that has got to be one of the most idiotic ways, to introduce yourself I've ever seen" Ram said with a sigh, while shaking her head in second-hand embarrassment, at Subaru's frankly embarrassing introduction.

"Sister, I think when it comes to Subaru we can finally agree on something for once" Rem adds, wild trying and failing to not feel second-hand embarrassment from Subaru's, somewhat ridiculous introduction to Emilia.

"I wish... that our first meeting had been this pleasant" Emilia says quietly, feeling somewhat dejected, that her on-screen counterpart had a much more pleasant and non-life-threatening, although admittedly strange first meeting with Subaru, as well as still being very confused about the fact that what she was seeing didn't line up with her own memories at all in the slightest.

"Man Subaru really is a doofus, but the lovable kind of doofus I suppose" Puck says a small laugh escaping his lips, earning round of nobs from Rem and Emilia, while Ram let's out another unamused sigh at Subaru's on screen actions.

Meanwhile the architect's thoughts were racing at the speed incomparable to the human mind, at the centre of this impossibly fast thought maelstrom, was the question how Subaru actually arrived in the new world to begin with, in his long existence he had seen and met many beings as the overseer of causality, many of them with power that could almost be equal to his own, yet there were very few that could actually travel between different realities. in fact there were fundamental rules in the very bedrock of causality that were meant to prevent something like this from happening, yet for a seemingly normal human to have travelled to a completely different reality from not of his own choosing, as well as the fact did was instantaneous, completely stumped the architect, which was the primary reason why he had initiated this strange Theatre from the beginning, to try and come to an understanding of why such a thing could happen and if it could possibly be prevented in the future.

the architect was pulled from his musings, turning his head in one smooth almost robotic motion, he found that he had been taken out of his musings by the strange little creature that called itself Puck.

"I want to ask you something important " the spirit said in a much darker voice that was a stark contrast from his usual almost childlike voice.

"And what question would that be spirit" architect said, despite his voice being relatively normal sounding, Puck couldn't deny that there was definitely something more and almost otherworldly with that voice, something that even made his ethereal body shiver slightly just from the sound.

"I want a straight answer, just what are we watching Subaru's memories for exactly, I understand that his memories don't line up with our own, and the he's not from our world, but what do you hope to accomplish by having us watch them with you" the little spirit says his darker sounding voice wavering ever so slightly, the architect can't help that think for a moment, he had indeed said that watching these memories would reveal everything they wanted to know, yet looking back on it he supposes that he could have been a bit less cryptic what exactly was going to be revealed, making up his mind the architect Returned his gaze to the small spirit, who seems to flinch ever so slightly, as the architects inhuman gaze stares him down fully.

"I can't tell you exactly what you will see, but I will tell you that your view of Subaru and the very world as you know it will change, I also can't promise that all of your questions about this will be answered, but I can say for certain that you need to be prepared to question your own existence and actions" the architect says, his voice almost feeling like a wave of dark energy washing put the small spirit, pausing the said spirit to shake even more, the architect pays this reaction no mind, returning his gaze back to the on-screen events.

."H-Hey-" Subaru stutters in embarrassment, as Emilia gently grabs one of his hands, holding it up seemingly to examine it.

"your hands are so clean it's a dead giveaway, they are also very pretty, this is definite proof that you're not a peasant at all" Emilia says as she continues to inspect the hand above very embarrassed Subaru, whose face could easily pass as an apple because of how red it was.

"Your muscles as well, they don't look like the kind you gain from simple working" the young elf says as she continues to obliviously inspect Subaru's hand and arm, all the while Subaru looks on in complete shock and embarrassment at the fact that this pretty young girl was casually holding his hand.

Emilia halts her thorough inspection of the young boys hand, looking up to stare directly into his eyes, both of their eyes meet and for a moment there is silence, Subaru's eyes are filled with embarrassment and bewilderment at the situation, while Emilia's are filled with concern and genuine puzzlement, over the young boy in front of her, Puck for his part simply looks on at the situation with amusement, deciding to let the staring contest run its course.

"S-So anyway, I know the little cat's name now, but I haven't heard yours yet" Subaru starters, as his brain desperately tries to restart after the odd interaction with the young beautiful half elf, the elf in question releases his hand as she thinks for a moment, as if she's having an internal debate whether or not to actually tell this strange boy her name or not.

"You want to know my name?" she says seemingly a bit confused at why this strange boy named Subaru would want to know her name.

"yeah" Subaru says desperately wanting to know the name of this beautiful girl who had helped him out less than an hour before, Emilia's brain seems to kick into overdrive, in her eyes an obvious tug-of-war can be seen, on the one hand it would be common courtesy for her to give her own name in return, but in the other hand she had known this boy called Subaru for maybe less than an hour, which meant that giving away her full name might maybe a bad option, the silence seems to hang in the air as she continues to think, before she gives a small nod to herself, seeming to have made up her mind on the matter.

"I'm... Satella"

Everyone in the room minus the architect, felt their stomachs drop at what they had just heard, Emilia's first reaction was to cover her mouth in shock, at the fact that she had directly use the name of the witch, and had called herself that name, puck's reaction was much the same, with his little jaw practically hitting the floor, and his eyes going as big as dinner plates, the two demon twins reactions was much of a repeat, the mouths hitting the floor and their eyes expanding to a point that didn't seem possible, and for an uncomfortably long moment there was nothing but almost deafening silence in the room, as everyone simply looked at the screen in complete shock, while trying to comprehend what they're just seen and heard.

"M-Miss Emilia, D-Did you actually use the W-Witches name, as an alias" Rem stutted being the first to break the uncomfortable silence, Emilia tries to answer, but can't bring herself to, despite not wanting to admit it, if she was in this situation she probably would have done the same thing as her on-screen counterpart, which was the part that disturbed her the most, Rem stares at the young half elf, the silence being the only thing that answer her question, Rem feels anger beginning to rise in her chest, at the fact that Emilia would use the name of the Witch, which all of society agreed was a major taboo that should never be broken, but it was not the fact that it was a taboo that anger her, it was the fact that her and her sister had directly been victimized by followers of the witch of envy, as such using the name of the witch or anything related to them was something that really pushed the young demons buttons, the anger in her chest begins to reach a fever pitch as she opens her mouth to chew out the half elf, but before she can say anything, a hand grasps her shoulder snapping her head to the left a bit too aggressively, revealed that it was her sister who had grabbed her shoulder.

"Rem get a hold of yourself, being angry at miss Emilia, won't help the situation" Ram says while throwing an apologetic look at the still in shock half-elf, who seems to only barely respond to the gesture, Rem looks at her sister for a moment, the burning anger evident in her deep blue eyes, after a moment she closed her eyes, and let's out a deep calming breath/sigh.

"This Satella, I take it she is someone of great importance or infamy in your world" the architect says, is otherworldly voice shattering The deafening silence that had enveloped the room

"I thought you knew everything, considering you're the god of forever or whatever you called it" Ram says with a huff, annoyed that the architect had asked a seemingly stupid question.

"the overseer of causality, I am the being responsible for sustaining the flow of causality, but I am not omniscient, and therefore I cannot know everything" the architect says his voice seeming to carry a slight edge directed towards the pink haired demon, who upon hearing his voice seems to have the colour drained from her face slightly.

"Satella is the witch of envy, one of the seven sin witches, and the and the one responsible for bringing the world, to the brink of destruction thousands of years ago" Puck interjects from across the room, seeming to recover from his own shock at what he had heard.

"I see, that is a satisfactory explanation, I will have one of my assistances, gather more information about this witch of envy for future reference" the architect says, satisfied with the small spirits explanation.

"I'm so horrible" Emilia says quietly, which draws everyone's attention in the room to her.

"I D-Don't remember but I've said so many H-Horrible things to Subaru, A-And I even use the W-Witches name" young elf says tears beginning to well up in her eyes, puck immediately flies over to her, nuzzling her cheek, in an effort to try and stop her sadness, Emilia brings her hands up to my face, as she lets out a quiet sob, with tears freely flowing down her cheeks.

"There is no need to feel sad young Emilia" the architect says quietly as he comes to the young elves side, she pulled her hands away from her face to look up at the large and imposing cloaked figure, her eyes now swollen and red and her cheeks stained with tears.

"you should not feel sad, these events that we are witnessing are the past , you should not feel bad for these actions, especially when you can't remember them yourself, look to the future with your relationship with Subaru and hold on to the happiness you will find" the architect says quietly, placing a reassuring hand on the young elf's shoulder, Emilia looks up at the cloaked form of the architect, despite his face not being visible, she can feel warmth in his gaze, and can't help but smile in gratitude at him, she brings a hand up to her own face, trying to rub away in the remainder of the tears from her cheeks, the architect much to her surprise reaches into his large Cloak, and surprisingly spools out a silk handkerchief, handing it to her, she hesitates for a moment before taking the handkerchief giving a quick and quiet "thank you" using it to wipe away the remains of her tears.

"I have no family name, so just call me Satella" Emilia says a small amount of hesitation very evident in her voice, Subaru for his part looks at the half elf in what can only be described as complete this punishment, the small spirit hovering next to him imitating his shocked expression although for a completely different reason.

"I see, Satella, Huh?" Subaru says seeming to familiarise himself with the foreign but elegant sounding name.

"That's a nice name" he says giving the half elf a trademark Subaru goofy smile, Emilia look at him in surprise, as if he had grown a second head or something, while Emilia looked at Subaru in bewilderment, Puck flies up to her shoulder letting out a sigh as he whispered into her ear

"You have terrible taste, you know that?" the little spirit says quietly as he quickly dematerialised out of view, leaving Subaru and Emilia alone on the overlook.

"Ok then, it's time to get back to asking around!" Subaru says energetically while giving a fist pump, Emilia simply nods as the two quickly make their way down from the overlook back into the main centre of town, to continue their search for her Insignia, walking down the main street, Emilia's attention is suddenly drawn to a young girl standing on the side of the street, looking around nervously, it takes a moment but it suddenly clicks in the young elf's head that this young girl is obviously lost.

"Hey, Subaru, don't you get the feeling that girl is lost?" Emilia says, drawing Subaru's attention to the young girl, who is beginning to look more and more distressed by the second.

"I mean yeah, but what about finding your Insignia?" Subaru says seemingly confused why Emilia would suddenly take an interest in a lost young girl, when before she was seemingly wholly focused on finding her Insignia.

"Yes, that's important too, but if she's lost we have to do something" Emilia says surprising Subaru thinking this was a bit out of character for her, but after a moment he realized maybe it wasn't, after all she had intervened in his little scuffle with those thugs when she didn't have to.

"I guess I'm in no place the talk after you saved me, but I thought your Insignia was the most important thing to you?" Subaru says seemingly more the question then a direct challenge to what she had said, although the young elf seems to take it as a direct challenge to what she said.

"But... she's crying! can't you see that, Subaru" Emilia says defiantly, her gaze directed towards Subaru with a noticeably hard edge, Subaru for his part can't help the stare back in surprise, almost seeming like he was lost or mesmerized by her beautiful amethyst-coloured eyes.

"If you can't do this with me, that's fine, thanks for all your help, Subaru" Emilia says her gaze softening ever so slightly, as she makes her way over to the lost little girl .

"I'll handle it on my own from here, after I help that little girl" the young elf says more to herself than anyone else, her eyes filling with the unmistakable look of determination to accomplish this goal, quickly managing to manoeuvre through the busy street, Emilia walkers up to the lost girl, causing young girl to look up at her with a look of relief, which quickly drains away as she sees the silver haired elf crouching before her.

"Sorry I'm not the one who you were looking for, so what's the matter little one, have you lost your mummy and daddy?" Emilia says, putting on the kindest and most approachable voice she can manage combined with a reassuring and kind smile, the young girl looks at her for a moment before the tears begin to well up in her eyes again.

"H-Hey... Don't cry, I'm not going to hurt you, ok" Emilia quickly says, trying to reassure the young girl who's about to burst into tears, Subaru who's watching from across the street quickly realises that this is not going to end very well do something, quickly and very non elegantly making his way through the bustling street, he reaches into his pocket realising the perfect thing to diffuse situation.

"What I have here is one ridged 10-yen coin, I will now clench it tightly in my hand" Subaru says holding out a small brown coin in between both girls, the young girl stopping her crying to look at the coin with curiosity, and Emilia also looking on with just as much curiosity at what Subaru was doing.

"One, two, three, and..." Subaru says excitedly and he shakes his hand with each number counted, by this point the young girl is completely what's happening, while the young elf across from her simply looks on with confusion what Subaru is doing.

"Wow! imagine that!" Subaru says energetically, opening his hands to reveal that the coin has vanished, much to the little girl's amazement, looking up at him in astonishment, Subaru gives the little girl genuine caring smile which seems to lift her spirits.

"Now let's see where that coin was hiding" he says as he quickly reaches for the side of the little girl's head, running his fingers through a lock of her hair, and surprisingly pulling out the same coin from just a moment about, showing it to the little girl who somehow looks even more amazed and what just happened.

"You can keep it if you want" Subaru says holding the coin out to the little girl, who looks at him unsure whether or not to actually take the coin.

"It's very rare, so don't lose it ok" he says as the young girl carefully takes the coin from his hand, continuing to look at it in astonishment, as if it was some kind of magic item.

"Thank you!" little girls says a smile spreading from ear to it, which Subaru reciprocate in kind, all the while Emilia looks on in astonishment and a slight bit of embarrassment/ jealousy, at the fact that Subaru could easily could easily approached this young girl and make us smile, while she only made the young girl cry, Subaru takes the young girls hand into his own, and she begins to explain how she had become lost from her mummy while they were grocery shopping.

Despite everyone's shock from the previous event still being there, well everyone minus the architect anyway, felt their spirits raise considerably at the incredibly heartwarming scene they just witnessed, after all it was a stranger to none of them that Subaru was great with kids, if is reputation amongst the village children's anything to go by, Emilia in particular felt her mood improved considerably, at witnessing the scene, but at the same time a very strange thought enter the very back of her brain, that is her and Subaru ever had children he would be an amazing father, as quickly as the thought came, she felt her face heat up considerably as a massive blush spread across her face, a sound gets her attention looking to her left she sees her small companion Puck snickering to himself, it takes her a moment but she realises / remembers that her and her little spirit companion share a mental link with each other, meaning that they can both feel each other's emotions and read each other's thoughts to an extent, this realisation her face grows even redder, at as the small spirit continues the laugh at the embarrassed half elf.

"Honestly, if Subaru has one redeeming quality it has to be his ability to entertain children" Ram says surprisingly with no obvious contempt in her voice, causing her blue haired sister to nod in agreement with her.

"yes sister, whenever me and Subaru go down to the village the children always want to play games with him, which makes getting any work done quite difficult" Rem says with a small chuckle, remembering all of the times that she would find Subaru in some corner of the village either being dog piled or chasing around the children in a game of tag, in fact it made the blue oni think that Subaru would be an amazing father if he ever had children, which causes a small brush to spread across her face.

"I see, you got separated from your mummy, huh? it will be fine don't worry, me and my friend will be able to find her for you" Subaru says gesturing to the half elf, who the little girl seems less afraid of now, as the three of them continue to walk down the busy street, the little girl grabs both Subaru's and Emilia's hands, causing Subaru to blush at the implications of the scene that him and Emilia where now in.

Man, if people didn't know us, they probably think that we were married couple or something, huh? Subaru thinks to himself as he looks at Emilia then the happy child skipping between them holding their hands, man how embarrassing this must look he thinks one last time, as the unlikely duo continued to walk down the busy street in search of the young girl's mother, after a moment the young girl quickly spots a familiar face in the crowd desperately looking for something or someone.

"Mummy!" the young girl shouts quickly breaking the handhold between Subaru and Emilia, and quickly rushing towards her mother, who looks up at the sound of the familiar voice, the young girl practically crashes into a mother who holds little girl very tight to her chest, as if the little thing would disappear at any moment, Subaru and Emilia look on at the heart-warming scene, feeling a sense of relief and accomplishment at finding the young girl's mother.

"Looks like she found her" Subaru says not taking his eyes off the heart-warming scene.

"yeah, I'm glad that it worked out" Emilia as the two renew their quest to find the lost elves Insignia, which eventually brings them to a large park like area near the centre of the city, with both of them stopping to rest on top of a large ornamental looking Bridge overlooking a shallow pond at the centre of the park.

"So... I think we just wasted a bunch of time, but what benefit will you insist if we go out like this" Subaru says, as he intently stares at the still pond water beneath the Bridge as if he's daring it to ripple even just a little bit.

that's easy, we can now continue our search with our minds at ease, right? Emilia says with a Huff, crossing her arms over her chest in obvious frustration, at the fact that Subaru was still seemingly questioning her logic, Subaru looks up at the half elf, who is sitting on the thick stone railings of the bridge.

"Anyway, why did you help me if you thought it was a bad idea?" Emilia says angrily, turning to look at Subaru from her sitting position on the fix stone railing, amethyst eyes meet Brown as she looks directly the Subaru eyes, Subaru is taken back for a moment at how pretty her eyes actually are, after all it's not every day you see someone with amethyst coloured eyes.

"I could say I just wanted to show off my magic trick, but that'd be a lie" Subaru says seeming to a finally found his voice again, as him and Emilia continue their weird sort of staring contest with each other, with Subaru's cheeks beginning to take on a noticeably red tint to them.

"Anyway remember? I'm helping you find your Insignia as my good deed for the day" he says holding up one finger to emphasise the one good deed for a day, which only seems to make Emilia confused.

"But you help that little girl earlier, isn't that your one good deed for the day done then" Emilia says confused tilting her head to the side slightly in a manner that made Subaru mentally scream Cute!.

"Damn! there's no holes in that comeback!" Subaru says loudly, seemingly caught off guard by the logic the half elf girl I just used against him.

"Come on, it doesn't hurt to do more than one good thing a day, right?" I just got tomorrow's out of the way" Subaru says confidently, hoping that his logic won't be picked apart by the cute elf this time.

"Plus, my plan is to get a whole week's worth of good deeds taking care of early" he says leaving the two of them in a strange uncomfortable silence, Emilia's previously angry expression is now gone, replaced with what can only be described as a completely blank stare, the blush on Subaru's face disappears has the silence between him and Emilia becomes almost deafening.

"Subaru you're the type of person that would basically waste your entire life, aren't you?" Emilia says completely straight faced, catching Subaru completely off guard, but he quickly recovers when he remembers that he had fought something very similar earlier today when he first met Emilia.

"you're the last person I want to hear that from you now" Subaru says dejectedly draping his whole body on the large stone railing of the bridge, seemingly fed up where the conversation already.

"You're not a bad kid, though" Emilia says looking up into the sky at the fluffy white clouds scattered in the sky, her comment causes Subaru to scrub his nose in frustration, at the fact that she was talking to him like he was significantly younger than her, yet! even though she looked about the same age as he did.

"Why are you treating me like I'm younger than you again?" Subaru says questioningly frustration very evident in his voice, yet Emilia seems to pay his frustration no mind as she continues to stare into the sky, her eyes following the gentle movements of the clouds.

"Like, I doubt there's that many years between us" he says doing a strange gesture which catches Emilia's attention for a moment, before she returns her gaze back to the sky, seemingly in deep thought about something, Subaru realising that he's not going to get much of a reaction up at her, now rest his head on the stone of the railing closing his eyes for a brief moment, in that brief moment of silence both of them think about various different things, Subaru thinks about the fact that he is truly in a fantasy world which excites him, but at the same time there is a bit of annoyance at the fact he seemingly has no powers, no magic, no enhance strength and no super speed, for all intents and purposes he's just a regular teenage boy in my fantasy world, Subaru can't help but let out a small dejected sigh at his predicament, Emilia for her part thinks about a lot of things, most of them revolving around her Insignia and how she needs to get it back pronto.

"I still find it incredibly on that Subaru is handling this situation so well, if I was in his situation, I'd be panicking a lot" Emilia says shattering the silence that had overtaken the audience.

"I agree with Lady Emilia, if I was in this kind of situation, I would be a lot more on guard right now" Rem says in agreement with Emilia, about the fact that Subaru seemed to be handling the entire other world situation a bit better than most people would, which itself just begged the question, of why he was so at home in for what all intents and purposes was an alien world.

"I would suspect that is because in his original World, the idea of travelling to a different reality was quite a common one, in fiction that he consumed" the architect says, is inhuman the voice washing over everyone in the room, causing them to shiver slightly.

"honestly, the idiot is just confusing sometimes, most of the time he can't handle situations to save his life, then there are those moments where it's almost like he becomes a different, becoming extremely determined to see something to the very end" Ram says expressing more of her inner monologue them directly speaking to anyone, still it made everyone think about what she said, most of the time Subaru didn't handle stressful situations very well, but then like she had said they were those moments where it was like he was a completely different person Rem and Emilia witnessed it multiple times, his usual almost puppy dog like eyes would hared, a look of pure determination welling up within them, and as quickly as these moment would come, they would go again with Subaru returning to his normal demeanour.

Rem in particular couldn't help but think about the many situations where Subaru have managed to avert danger and death, with seemingly no way to actually tell it was going to happen, many people who knew him either believe that he could feed the future to some extent or was just insanely lucky, Rem knew there was something more to it, because every time before he save to someone from certain death, there would be these moments where he would simply just space out completely.

Almost as if his soul at left his body for just a moment, his eyes would go dull and he would simply stare off into the horizon not looking at anything in particular. usually these moments lasted for a second or two before he was suddenly taken a sharp intake of breath, his eyes usually taking on a very concerned look, in fact Rem remember to one time in particular where she and him were collecting fruit in the capital, when they got to a particular apple stand, one of the spaced out episode happened, except this one lasted for a lot longer than the others, nearly a full 30 seconds before he snapped out of it. she would never forget the look on his face, it was complete and utter defeat a face that she'd never seen him before, but at the time she didn't have much time to think about it, because right at that moment he quickly pulled her into a hug, collapsing to his knees, she thought at the time that he was finally accepting her as his beloved, but that's when she noticed he was quietly laughing but not the happy kind of laugh, no this one was much darker and more deranged, it was the laugh of someone who was truly broken this was confirmed when she saw hot tears pouring down his face, thinking about the memory was enough to bring a tear to her eye, the sight of him on his knees laughing like a deranged defeated man, was almost too much to bear even now.

"Sister, are you alright" Ram says pulling the blue oni from the fog of her own memories.

"I'm fine sister" Rem says wiping away the small tear from her eye, her pink haired sister doesn't look convinced, but knows that if something was truly wrong her sister would have told her, instead Ram hold out your hand sister which Rem quickly accepts, both of them tightly holding each other's hands, both of their spirits feeling lightened slightly.

"I don't think you'll get anywhere guessing like that" says quietly to herself, seeming to be frustrated at something or maybe even herself.

"I'm a half elf you know" she says quietly, waiting for the reaction that she had experienced many times when people found out she was a half elf.

Subaru upon hearing her, lift his head up from the stone railing to look at her, realisation quickly spreading across his face, she was afraid of what she wants because people judge her for being a half elf.

"Now I get it, no wonder I thought you were so cute! Elves are always beautiful right" Subaru says cheerfully, giving Emilia a genuine smile, which seems to catch the half completely off guard, and causes a small blush to spread across her face, at the thought of someone calling her cute and beautiful.

"What?" Subaru says noticing that Emilia is staring at him like he's grown a second set of eyes.

"Didn't you hear me? I said I'm a half elf" Emilia says confused, pointing at herself as if Subaru didn't quite understand what she had said.

"Yeah, I heard you" Subaru says simply, what causes Emilia to look surprised, at the fact that he wasn't joking or misheard her, he had genuinely meant it when he had said that she was beautiful and cute.

Emilia feels her face go even redder than before, desperately searching for any kind of indication that Subaru was joking, as the two continued to stare at each other she suddenly realises that he was being 100-percent completely serious, she quickly jumps down from the stone railing before quickly squatting on the spot grabbing her head, which just made Subaru absolutely confused what was going on.

suddenly a particular small spirit emerges from her flowing white hair, quickly doing a barrel roll in the air before directly flying at Subaru's face with his little fairy fist connecting directly with Subaru's cheek, as expected causing no damage or injury whatsoever.

"What'd you do that for" Subaru asks genuinely confused about what the hell is going on now, considering Emilia's reaction and the fact that the small spirit who had been missing for quite a while, now decided to reappear.

"I just had to do something about this tingling feeling" Puck says as he playfully hits Subaru's cheek again, causing Subaru to look at him with a slightly irritated expression.

"I can't accept being hit for a reason like that, though I'll forgive you because of how cute and soft you are" Subaru says irritation evident in his voice evident in his voice, as him and the spirit practically rub noses with each other because of how close they are together.

"I didn't hit you out of anger or anything, in fact quite the opposite" the little cat spirit says doing a playful barrel roll in midair, to try and emphasize his innocent and cuteness, which Subaru doesn't believe for a second.

"Subaru, you're such a dunderhead!" Emilia says turning from her kneeling position to look at Subaru, embarrassment and confusion evidently written across her face.

"Dunderhead? Who even says that nowadays, and more importantly why are you insulting me?" Subaru says confused that why she would start insulting him like this, like did him calling her cute and beautiful, really push her button that much?

"Hmph! Whatever!" Emilia says angrily embarrassment still very obvious on her face, as she gets up from her crouching position, making sure to give the long sleeves of her topcoat a quick dusting before turning to look at Subaru.

"More importantly we have to get back to the search" she says as she quickly turned on the spot and begins to make her way down the shop incline of the bridge, leaving Subaru and her little spirit companion behind.

"Hey, hang on just a minute! running around aimlessly never ends well" Subaru says quickly, which seems to catch her attention, causing her to stop and look at Subaru with the look of embarrassment now replaced with confusion and curiosity.

"There is one basic rule when searching for an object" Subaru continues silently thanking whatever deity was listening, for Her actually listening to him instead of her running off into the city without a game plan, like it seemed she been doing for most of the day already.

"A basic rule of searching" Emilia asks inquisitively, doing that incredibly cute thing, where she tilts her head to the side slightly, almost like a curious cat or dog.

"Yep, we just have to revisit the area where your Insignia was stolen, like me some clues that we can find" Subaru says excitedly, which seems to make it finally clicked inside the half elves head, what he meant when he said one basic search requirement, so after telling him where her Insignia have been stolen from her, the unlikely trio, begin to quickly make their way back into the bustling City, with their journey eventually ending and a very familiar Street, and in front of a very familiar fruit stand.

"it's that fruit stand vendor again, for the life of me I can't remember what his name was?" Rem says quietly to herself, noticing that the fruit vendor seems to be a quite regular site for some inexplicable reason, considering the number of times that notable events happened in near or around his fruit stand, from her recollection anyway.

"Man, maybe that fruit seller is actually some kind of god, controlling everything behind the scenes" Puck says causing everyone to look at him only to see that he had a completely straight face, after a moment he begins to sneaker before letting out a full belly laugh with Emilia and Rem letting out little chuckles of their own, even Ram who though wasn't laughing let a small smiles spread across her face at the joke.

"I find it highly unlikely little spirits that particular fruit seller is the all-powerful creator" the architect says with a completely serious tone, completely shattering then light-hearted atmosphere that taken over the room, everyone looked at him hoping that he was simply adding to the joke, yet it seems he was completely serious, meaning that whatever light-hearted atmosphere remained in the room completely evaporated, leaving everyone feeling just a bit uncomfortable again.

"Man, you really don't understand humour do you" Puck says letting out a sigh, which causes the architect to direct his gaze at the small spirit, which despite his best efforts made him flinch, as that unnerving feeling comes over him again.

"I understand the concept of humour little spirit, but I am not human therefore I am incapable of feeling any response to humour" the architect says with a completely straight face, his voice not wavering even in the slightest, Puck try as he might can't seem to keep eye contact with the architect, being the first break their mini staring contest, as soon as he breaks eye-contact the feeling of having every part of his being examined disappears instantly, with the little spirit letting out a small sigh of relief.

Ok, so your Insignia was stolen near this fruit stand, right?" Subaru asks not realising that he's now in front of the exact same fruit stand, that he had been chased away from before.

"You again? I thought I'd had a customer but it's just you again" the fruit seller says, seeming to be more tired at this point then angry.

"You really need to take that kind of attitude?" Subaru says finally realising that he's now in front of the exact same fruit stand from earlier.

"Haven't you noticed there's something different about me now?" Subaru says gesturing to the half elf standing next to him, the fruit seller looking at her, give her a quick up and down before seeming like he's just done with it all.

"What exactly is different" the fruit seller says seeming like you just want this day to end already, and to not deal with anymore moneyless troublemakers.

"Just look who I brought with me this time" Subaru says as if Emilia is some kind of new shiny toy he wants to show off to the other kids in the playground, Emilia for her part just looks very confused that what's going on and just a little bit annoyed.

"In fact I brought someone who might be irregular" Subaru says proudly, almost as if he was claiming victory over some imaginary battle that him and the fruit stall seller were waging, the fruit vendor looks at him for a moment, the look on the fruit vendors face can only be described as shear utter confusion with maybe just a little bit of frustration mixed in, Emilia similar looks confused at exactly what Subaru was trying to get that, then it clicked in her head, he thought that she was a regular to the city and therefore might know the fruit seller, unfortunately he's supposed victory was about to come crashing down in front of him.

"Um, Subaru..." Emilia says carefully, desperately trying to think of the right words to use without shutting him down in a harsh way.

"You seem to have some weird expectations about me... but I don't have any money either" she says carefully, hoping her word choice wouldn't offend him too much, unfortunately despite her best efforts, his face seems to falter for a moment before a look of disbelief crossed his face, as if he couldn't quite believe that she didn't have any money either and didn't know the city very well, which unfortunately was the truth, that she was just as clueless about the city as he was, although she wouldn't admit that to him.

"Huh!? Seriously you have no money?" Subaru says in a tone that seems to resemble more confused frustration rather than outright anger, which made Emilia laugh nervously, the fruit seller by this point looks completely done with the situation, turning his head to address the strange broke boy next to him.

"So now I've got two broke customers, what did you want to say to me, bud?" the fruit seller says aggressively, at this point just wanting the two troublemakers to leave his store alone, so actual customers could come along, Subaru at a loss of what meets the gaze of the fruit vendor, flinching a little bit at the hard gaze the much larger man was giving him.

"We're actually looking for someone and was hoping that you could answer a few questions..." he said nervously, which only seems to frustrate the large man in even more.

"it's called a sarcasm, I have no time for dirt poor losers!" the larger man yells aggressively, quickly breaking Subaru's personal space while shouting, and jabbing a finger into the young man's chest, Emilia who's watching this unfold, quickly and quietly prepares a spell just in case the larger man becomes violent, however before she do anything about casting a spell to defence Subaru, a very familiar high-pitched voice rings out from down the street, drawing everyone's attention to it.

"Mister!" says a young energetic voice, looking towards the source of the voice Subaru is surprised to see that's the little girl from earlier with her mother in tow.

"Damn why is he always so lucky" Ram says, we've just a little bit of jealousy making its way into her voice, primarily because even if she tried her luck could never be back good, like the odds of running into and helping the daughter of the person you wanted information from, were astronomical in a city that size.

"Yeah, Subaru luck does seem to be quite high most of the time " Emilia says, agreeing with the pink haired oni, remembering all of the situations, most of them life or death where he had managed to get incredibly lucky to the point where it was eerie, in fact many people believe his ability to cheat death wasn't out of pure luck, and instead was some kind of future sight, which Emilia herself didn't believe for a second, because outside of life and death situations Subaru didn't seem to utilise this supposedly future sight power, which two her mind meant that he was most likely just incredibly lucky to a point where it was ridiculous and eerie.

"Subaru's incredible luck is another reason why he's so remarkable and is the light of Rem's world" Rem says seemingly mostly to herself more than anyone else, which immediately elicits a response from the half elf sitting next to her, causing Emilia to pout with a look of jealousy spread across her face.

Puck seeing Emilia's reaction and feeling her jealousy through their mutual connection, couldn't help but left with a small chuckle, yet at the same time what they had said about Subaru being lucky, was always one of the things about Subaru that had bothered him the most, like they had said his luck was incredible when it came to a life or death, with him cheating death on many occasions.

In fact, despite Emilia saying otherwise Puck had always believed, that Subaru had some kind of basic future sight, with his own personal best guess being that it was some kind of unconscious ability that Subaru wasn't actively aware of, yet would subconsciously influenced his thinking to always make the right choice when it came to matters of life and death.

"Thanks for your help earlier" the girl's mother says as the to come to a stop in front of the fruit stand, the woman giving the fruit seller a little glare causing him to flinch a little, before looking back at Subaru and Emilia.

"What brings you here" Subaru asks, not quite realising that the woman is actually the wife of the much larger fruit seller.

"This is my husband to shop, so we were just shopping nearby" the woman says gesturing to her large husband who is still standing next to Subaru and Emilia, upon hearing her words, Subaru's mind finally clicks, in the realisation that the little girl is actually the large man's daughter, which isn't that surprising in hindsight to Subaru, because the young girl had her father's hair colour and eye colour.

a look of surprise crosses Subaru's face, how's he stares at the fruit seller, the large man staring back at him with a slightly less intensity than before, however before any more words can be exchanged the young girl runs up to her father, trying and failing to wrap her arms around the man's very muscular waist in a hug.

"Hey there, girl" the large man says, the hard look in his eyes disappearing in a fresh, as he gives his daughter an affectionate head pat, causing the young girl to give a big smile in return at her father.

"Wait, you know these broke losers?" the man says turning to look at his wife while pointing at Emilia and Subaru.

"Yes, our little girl got lost and they helped her find me" the woman says sending a small glare her husband's way, at calling Emilia and Subaru broke losers, the larger man turns against back to Subaru, the two stare at each other for a moment, almost as if the older man this somehow determining whether his wife is telling the truth or not, however before anyone can say anything the little girl runs up to Emilia.

"Pretty lady here!" the little girl says energetically, holding out a small pink flower in her hands, Emilia is confused for a moment almost as if she's never actually experienced this kind of affection before.

"Please accept it, she's trying to thank you in her own special way" the girls mother says directing a kind smile towards Emilia, who seems a bit taken aback at someone actually genuinely smiling at her and not being afraid of her appearance, after thinking for a moment Emilia let's smile spread across her face, genuinely touched that someone would actually be nice to her like this.

"Thank you very much, little one" Emilia says crouching down to the girls eye level to accept the flower, making sure to securely pin the flower to her top coat, at seeing this the little girl's face lights up with joy, at the fact of the pretty lady had accepted her yet, the large man suddenly clears his throat catching everyone's attention.

Sorry about earlier, you helped my daughter, so I suppose that you one" the large man says, his cheeks reddening ever so slightly with a tiny bit of embarrassment evident in his voice.

"So, ask me anything and I might be able to help you" the large man says to Subaru and Emilia, causing both to look at each other for a moment and excitement, because now they can finally ask the question, they originally came into ask.

"There you, see? it came around and worked in our favour!" Emilia says choosing the worst possible time do start gloating, about how helping the little girl was the right choice all along, Subaru let's out a sigh deciding to let Emilia have this small victory, considering that she looked incredibly cute when she was proud like that.

After getting the information they wanted from the fruit seller, the two of them begin to make their way towards the slums of the city, and by the time they reach the slums, the sun is beginning to sit low in the sky casting everything an orange hue and causing the air to turn slightly misty.

what's the two of them make their way through the run-down streets of the slums, both of them can't help but feel incredibly out of place, and it certainly didn't help that everyone they saw on the street and in buildings was looking at them strangely.

"The air, the atmosphere and most likely the attitudes of the people living here are awful, is that girl really here?" Subaru says quietly more to himself than anyone else, praying to any deity that was listening that the fruit seller had been right about his guess that it was a particularly notorious thief that lived in the slums.

"Maybe someone will tell us if we ask" Emilia asks, seeming to be a bit naive about the nature of the slums and the unfortunate people that had to call it home.

"No one wants to sell out their own, so I don't think that would work" Puck says re materialising on Emilia's shoulder much to Subaru surprise, considering that the little spirit has been absent for most of the day since the fruit stand.

"Maybe coming back later would help" Subaru says, thinking that may be catching the thief later in the day or possibly early night might be the best option for getting Emilia's Insignia back.

"Whether you stay or leave you should decide quick, I'm almost out of time" the little spirit says, suddenly beginning to wobble on Emilia shoulder almost as if all of the energy in his body had left him in an instant.

"Oh no, I completely forgot about that" Emilia says causing everyone to look at her a bit strangely, because she somehow forgot that Puck cannot stay awake at night because of not enough spirit energy being available in the area.

"Honestly Lia, how do you keep forgetting that?" the little spirit in question says letting out a sigh while shaking his head in dismay, despite him not remembering the onscreen version, forgetting his usual hours of operation what was the something that happened a bit too much for his liking, to the point where he felt like if he wasn't there she would just be a walking trainwreck.

"Lady Emilia, I know you are forgetful sometimes... but how in the everloving name of the Dragon can you forget something like that!?" Ram says with disbelief, finding it absolutely bizarre that lady Emilia like being a half elf, somehow had the worst memory of any person she had ever seen, like even despite Subaru being an idiot, his memory was still better than hers 99% of the time.

"Young Emilia, I could manually adjust your memory if you wish" the architect says, causing everyone to jump slightly at his voice, because of how quiet he was many of them had forgotten he was even there, Emilia looks at the architect for a moment as if seriously considering his request, before Puck suddenly gets right up in the Architect's face which doesn't seem to elicit any response from the architect himself.

"Her memory is fine! if you even think about rooting around inside her brain, then me and you are going to have problems buddy!" Puck says aggressively, his voice taking on a much darker tone from his normal childlike voice, an uncomfortable silence follows his outburst, as him and the architect seemed to settle into a silent staring contest, everyone else in the room simply staring in shock that why the little spirit had suddenly snapped like that.

"I meant no harm by it little spirit, however I think it's unwise you threaten me" the architect says is voice remaining the same emotionless monotone, yeah everyone could feel the energy in his voice somehow turned dark, causing everyone to start causing everyone to shiver uncontrollably, even the little spirit himself wavered breaking Line of sight from the architect, as his entire body felt like it was being surrounded by some kind of dark presents, however as soon as he broke line-of-sight, the dark feeling vanish in an instant, causing Puck to let out an unconscious sigh of relief.

"Puck! there was no need to talk to Mr architect like that!" Emilia shouts loudly causing everyone including the architect to look at her in surprise, Puck having his mental connection with her could feel the anger and disappointment radiating off her, after weighing his options he quickly realised that like in the past, he wasn't going to win in an argument against her, so he decided to stay quiet and let her scold him.

"Mr architect is only trying to be helpful, yet you got angry and shouted at him and also got in his personal space, you should be ashamed of yourself" the half elf says, as the little spirit continues to stay quiet and not even trying to defend himself, satisfied that he had been chewed out enough, Emilia crosses her arms and lets out a huff of annoyance, before looking at the architect and shooting him and apologetic look and mouthing the words I'm sorry about him.

"Out of time? what's that mean exactly?" Subaru says questioningly, wondering why the spirit was talking like he had a battery that just run out or something.

"As cute as I look, I'm still a spirit you know" the little spirit says pausing halfway through his sentence to give a large yawn to emphasize how tired he was.

"It takes a lot of mana to maintain a physical form... so at night I return to the crystal I will summon from, wait for the sun to come back up" Puck says seeming to drift off slightly halfway through his own sentence before managing to wake himself up again.

"I usually try to keep myself here from 9 to 5" Puck says leaning into Emilia's neck, obviously trying to keep himself upright and awake for just a few moments longer.

"9 to 5? you sound like a civil servant, employment terms for a spirit must be harsher than I thought" Subaru says mostly to himself, finding a kind of bizarre that a literal spirit animal, would seem to operate on a similar time schedule to that of a normal office worker.

"We'll be fine without Puck, we have to keep going " Emilia says says defiantly causing the little spirit on her shoulder to let out a sigh.

"I thought you'd say that, but sorry... I'm at my limit" the little spirit says giving another large yawn to emphasize his point.

"Wow it's almost like he's dying or something" Subaru says with a concerned but at the same time amazed sound to his voice as the little spirit seems to become semi-transparent.

"Sorry to have worked you so hard today, we'll take it from here, so get some rest" Emilia says detaching the crystal from around her neck and laying it in her hands, Puck wasting no time quickly jumped into her hands, sitting his very little rump next to the crystal in her palms.

"Don't do anything reckless, if it comes down to it, use your odo to summon me again" Puck says as his body becomes even more transparent, Emilia gives him a nod of understanding, which causes the little spirit to look at Subaru.

"Ok take care of the rest Subaru, I'm counting on you" the little spirit says for the last time, as he suddenly explodes into almost blinding light in the half elf's hands, almost looks like his body explodes separating into possibly hundreds of individually coloured light balls hovering in the air, Subaru can't help but look on with amazement at what he had just seen as the little balls of light hang in the air for just a moment, before they are all suddenly are sucked into the crystal in Emilia's palms, the light the almost blinding light from these balls vanishing as quickly as it had come.

After reattaching the crystal to her neck, Emilia and Subaru begin to make their way further into the slums in hope of finding where the thief's hideout actually was, hoping to find it before the sun vanish beneath the horizon completely, which judging by Subaru's best guess wouldn't be too far from now considering how low it was in the sky.

As everyone continue to watch the events unfolding on screen, Emilia suddenly felt something in her chest, it was almost a strange familiarity with what was going on, despite her not remembering it, in fact she hadn't said it out loud yet, but everything she had seen so far was completely new to her yet for some reason it helps familiar in a strange way, almost as if she had experienced it but then forgotten it, which just puzzled her even more. Yet there was also another feeling she couldn't quite explain, this was a growing sense of dread almost as if something terrible was going to happen, she suddenly felt a tap on her shoulder pulling her out of her own thoughts, turning to look at the source of the distraction, she found it was her little spirit companion with a concerned look plastered across his face, it took her moment but she quickly realised that he had most likely felt these feelings because of their mutual connection.

Lia, are you ok Puck says telepathically, Emilia looks at him for a moment trying desperately to figure out the right words to respond with, because even she truly didn't know why she was feeling this way, nothing about what she had seen made sense with her own memories, yet it was almost as if her heart or soul remembering things that she didn't.

I'm F-fine Puck Emilia sends back, which judging by the little spirits face doesn't seem to convince him for a moment, but knowing what the half elf was like, the little spirit decided it would be best to wait for her to tell him instead of forcing an answer out of her.

As the two of them continue to make their way through the dirty streets, Subaru can't help but think of the situation they're in, and more importantly the fact that he was with a pretty girl like Emilia.

"Come to think of it I haven't been alone with a girl since I was in grade school!" Subaru says, not quite realising until it was too late that he had said that out loud for Emilia to hear.

"Don't get any weird ideas, I can use magic you know" Emilia says defiantly, making it very clear to Subaru that she wouldn't think twice to blast him away, if he tried to do anything funny.

"I won't!" Subaru says in embarrassment, kicking himself or saying something that embarrassing out loud in front of Emilia like that, after a moment of uncomfortable silence, Subaru decided it's best to change the subject quickly.

"The biggest issue now is how we find felt now" Subaru asks out loud, which causes a look of realisation to spread across Emilia's face much to Subaru's confusion.

"I'll ask the lesser spirits" Emilia says coming to a stop on a small wooden bridge, overlooking a slightly dirty stream.

"Lesser spirits?" Subaru asks, not being quite sure what she means by lesser spirit, Emilia looks at him confused for a moment before remembering that he's not from around here, so he may not know what a lesser spirit is.

"Lesser spirit are beings that haven't become spirits yet, they grow over time, and when they gain strength and self-awareness, they become full spirits like Puck" Emilia says, deciding to keep her explanation of lesser spirits relatively simple for Subaru's convenience, finishing her explanation Emilia set something to quiet for him to make out, after a moment of nothing, hundreds maybe even thousands little glowing balls of light suddenly appear, most of them congregating around the half elf, making it look like she was almost glowing, Subaru looks completely mesmerized although it's not because of the spirit flying around them, it's because that moment he is suddenly shrunk by just how beautiful Emilia actually is, the Look in Subaru's eyes can only be described as pure infatuation with the half elf in front of him.

After a minute or two of conversing with the lesser spirits turn off the balls of light, suddenly opens her eyes with all of the balls of light disappearing in an instant, after explaining the Subaru where they needed to go, both of them quickly make their way to the area of the slums where they've been directed to go to, the sun completely vanishing below the Horizon and the sky turning black by the time they arrived.

Rem couldn't help but let a pout at the scene of Subaru looking mesmerized by Emilia talking with the letter spirits, in fact she could feel the jealousy rising her chest like like some kind of horrible heartburn, which was made all the worse by the memory of Subaru telling her that he only love Emilia in the way she wanted him to love her, looking at the half elf in question Rem as much as she wanted to be happy for Emilia, the jealousy of Subaru choosing Emilia over her would always be there slowly eating away at her heart, but Rem would ultimately respect Subaru wishes, even though they went against what her heart wanted all this time.

"Sister, are you alright" Ram says pulling her sister from her internal debate, Rem looks of her sister concern evident on her face.

"I'm fine, don't worry about it sister" Rem says putting on her usual kind smile, although her sister could see right through it, Ram knew better than anyone that trying to get information out of her sister, was like trying to get blood from a rock.

"Actually wait! going back to what we saw earlier, why I am not feeling any fatigue or mana drain, considering it has to nearly be 7:00 right now?" Puck says suddenly, causing everyone to look at him in confusion for a moment, before they suddenly realised what he was talking about.

"Wait! Puck is right, he should have gone back into his crystal by now?" Emilia says, taking the said crystal off her neck to look and see if it was somehow broken or not working right.

Well young Emilia and little spirit Puck, like I said earlier this realm you're currently residing in was never designed for mortal beings like yourselves, as a result I had to change several aspects of this environment to facilitate your survival in this space" the architect says stopping mid-sentence, to make sure that everyone was following along and understanding what he was saying.

"In your case little spirit I made your body 100% physical so you would not suffer from this mana drain that you speak of, in fact none of you as of now, none of you need to breathe or consume any nourishment to survive in this space" the architect says, everyone looking at him in confusion and disbelief, after a moment of the uncomfortable silence Ram suddenly takes in a sharp intake of breath causing everyone to look at her and surprise, as the seconds quickly turn into minutes everyone realises that the architect was telling the truth. because after nearly 3 minutes, Ram was still holding her breath and didn't look concerned or like she needed oxygen in the slightest.

"it's getting more and more desolate, does that girl really live around here?" Subaru says as him and Emilia continue to make their way through the streets, looking around, it almost looks like it's been through some kind of war, with most of the buildings either being destroyed or in some major state of disrepair.

"the lesser spirit said they saw someone who looked like felt going in this direction" Emilia says again reconfirming for Subaru, that felt indeed went to this direction according to the lesser spirits, before Subaru can respond without, Subaru spot a scruffy looking man walking towards them, Subaru and the scruffy man exchange a quick glance as they walk past each other, but Subaru suddenly gets an idea in his head that might just work.

"Hey bro!" Subaru says turning on the spot to address for scruffy looking man, who himself quickly turns around to look at the strangely dressed young man who just addressed him out of the blue.

"Does a girl name felt live up this way by any chance?" Subaru asks hoping desperately that the man might pull through on giving them some more information, for a moment the man looks confused before a look of realisation suddenly crosses his face.

"Felt?... nothing that way but Oldman Rom's loot house" the scruffy man, pointing in the direction that Emilia and Subaru had been going previously.

"Damn did she really still something from you guys, well anyway good luck negotiating it back, Livestrong you two" the scruffy man says giving the two a wave before he makes his way down the street out of sight, leaving a slightly confused at Subaru and Emilia behind, both of them quickly continue their journey to where the man had said the storehouse was, finding it to be a remarkably well kept building considering the area it was in, however examining the building to find a way in was much harder without any kind of light source, but luckily Subaru quickly spots a Lantern sitting on a box near one of the windows, grabbing it and fumbling around with it for a moment he manages to make it spark into life, bathing the side of a building it a bright white glow.

"Why do I get the feeling that I'm going to have to pay for something? that was stolen from me?" Emilia says out of the blue, causing Subaru to look at her with confusion for just a moment.

As the on-screen events unfolded everyone couldn't shake the uneasy feeling that was beginning to overtake them, almost as if something bad was going to happen soon, to Ram and Rem the feeling was new, and confused them greatly but for a certain half-elf she had been feeling like this for quite a while and by this point was practically on the edge of her seat for a reason she didn't quite know, her little spirit companion had also been feeling this for quite a while as well, primarily because of his mutual connection with Emilia, but by this point instead of feeling it simply through their mutual connection, he himself was beginning to feel incredibly on edge for some unexplainable reason. but by this point even he was beginning to feel.

"I really don't like where this is going" Puck said out loud, gaining a round of nods from everyone who was feeling the same way he was.

"Something bad going to happen, I can feel it" Rem said nervously both her and her sister squeezing each other's hands to the point where it was becoming uncomfortable, yet they didn't let go, no that wasn't right they simply didn't want to let go, in fear at whatever was about to come.

I hope what they are going to witness, doesn't affect them to badly the architect said mentally to himself, despite him not feeling human emotions in the same way that everyone else did, even he couldn't deny the tense atmosphere that seemed to be continuously building in the room, he had originally expected them to stop watching after this feeling had begun to grow, however to his pleasant surprise he found that they seem to be glued to the screen, unable to tear their eyes away from it.

"Subaru, please be safe!" Emilia says quietly no one else seeming to hear her or acknowledge her, unlike everyone else who was feeling incredibly uneasy, for her the feeling had changed into almost complete and absolute fear and terror, it almost felt like how it did many times before, with that feeling of absolute terror you get when you are staring down your own death, animalistic Instincts in your brain kicking in telling you to run and hide, she was feeling it all now as if she truly was staring death in the face once again.

"Well anyway let me handle it, I'll do the talking and get your Insignia back in no time" Subaru says expecting Emilia to immediately protest his decision, whatever no rebuttal comes, instead to his surprise she simply nods her head and accepts his request.

Ok, I'll let you handle it" Emilia says surprising Subaru even more that she didn't put up any resistance whatsoever, unlike she has done for most of the day.

"I thought you'd put up more of a fight" Subaru says turning to look at Emilia, being careful to not flash the powerful lamp directly in her face.

going off how you've been up until now, somebody as useless as you will handle it, that's too funny, I can't feel my sides!" Subaru says trying and failing to do a even possible impression of how Emilia actually sounded, Emilia can't help but look at him for a moment feeling just a little bit offended, mostly because of how bad his impression of her actually was.

"Anyway, despite all that, I still made up my mind to help you anyway" Subaru says hopefully making his point clear that despite her being obnoxious, he still chose to help her out instead of leaving her out to dry.

"I wouldn't say something that mean, and I don't sound like that" Emilia says pointing an accusatory finger at Subaru, who simply let's out a sigh at her reaction.

"Of course, I'd be lying if I say you haven't been holding me back..." Emilia says once again proving her remarkably poor way of words, Subaru could have sworn if there was enough light, you would have seen veins popping out of his head, because of how frustrating this girl was sometimes.

"Did you really have to say it like that!?" Subaru says with a Huff, turning his head away from her indignantly.

"But... I'll try believing in you" Emilia says catching Subaru off guard completely, turning his head to look at her again, he can see that she's been 100% serious, Subaru doesn't know what to say, and can feel his cheeks beginning to redden again at the fact of this pretty girl said she believes in him.

Despite of the nature of the scene being quite sweet and wholesome, nobody was laughing or smiling, the uneasy feeling of dread had almost reached a fever pitch with Rem and Ram's breathing becoming quite fast and laboured well as a bit of sweat beginning to form on their foreheads, Emilia bless her heart was practically hyperventilating by this point the feeling of sheer terror somehow continuing to grow and grow with each passing second, even Puck by this point was in the same situation as the oni twin, surprisingly to top it all off, leaving the architect was beginning to feel incredibly uneasy which itself was a relatively new feelings for him, which make him wonder just how strong was the emotional connection between Subaru and his friends if this kind of reaction could even have an effect on him.

"Subaru for the love of the dragon, please be safe" Rem and Ram said in near perfect unions, their hands been classed together so tight, that their arms were beginning to shake from the strain on their muscles.

"Subaru you idiot, don't you think about going in there" Puck said aggressively, whooping with all his non-existent heart, that the on-screen Subaru but listen to him and not go inside that! building.

"S-Subaru" Emilia struggle to say, only just managing to say his name through her quick and intense breathing.

"it'll be a bonus if that actually goes well" Emilia says letting a small smile spread across her face, which Subaru reciprocates in kind.

If you looked up and me and said, do your best for me!, I might be a bit more motivated" Subaru says doing another bad impression of Emilia although this time not in a disrespectful way, the smile that was on Emilia's face a completely disappears, replaced with a look that can only be described as never in a million years am I saying that!

"I can't force myself to say something like that, but still... good luck in there" Emilia says giving Subaru another genuine smile, Subaru looks at her for a moment before feeling is the termination welling up inside him, quickly dispatching any fears he might have had about going into the dark building by himself.

"Yeah, thanks" he says given her another smile of his own, turning and heading towards the large wood doors of the building.

"I'll go first, you stay outside and keep watch, I won't be out too late, but you can have dinner without me" Subaru says letting out a small chuckle as Emilia's face goes slightly red because of the implications of what he had just said.

"Don't say things like that, be careful in there" Emilia says embarrassed, why also beginning to feel just a tiny bit concerned for Subaru, mostly because who knows what was actually inside that building.

"Sure, sure, don't come in until I say it's safe Satella" Subaru says not noticing the slight flinch Emilia gave at the mention of Satella, right now Emilia was definitely not feeling very great about not telling Subaru her real name, in fact looking back on it, choosing that name in particular as an alias was a stupid decision, maybe after they got her Insignia back she could tell him her real name, as thanks for helping her through this.

Subaru enters the front of the building giving a quiet "excuse me" which was mostly out of habit more than actually expecting anyone to be in, shining the lamp around reveals that it's a large almost Warehouse looking building with crates, boxes and items stacked all over the place, seemed like every possible object you can imagine for a fantasy setting was in this room, everything from large great swords down to tiny little wooden drinking mugs.

"Now am I walking into a demon's nest or a snake pit?" Subaru said quietly as he continues to make its way into the Dark building, shining the lamp around just make sure nothing caught him off guard and he didn't trip over on something.

Everyone was on the edge of their seats now, some of them practically hyperventilating, Emilia could feel her heart beating so fast right now, that she would bet good money that if she was in the real world right now she be dead, Puck was in much the same position breathing like he was trying to draw all of the oxygen out of the air, and all of the fur on his body standing up on end, and even his tail was sticking straight out of his body instead of being curled like it normally was, Rem and Ram were full-on hugging each other now, both of them gripping onto each other so hard that they were both sure they have broken bones if they were still in the normal world.

"Subaru P-Please get out of there!" Emilia said quickly, hoping to the great dragon himself that the on-screen Subaru with listen to her, and get out of there.

if this is all stolen loot, why is there no one here?" Subaru said quietly to himself a sense of foreboding beginning to overtake him.

"A place that deals with so many stolen good should have at least one guard right" Subaru asked, if he was expecting the darkness itself to answer him, the only answer that was given was unyielding silence, which seemed to unnerve Subaru more and more with each passing moment.

Taking a deep breath to calm himself, Subaru takes another couple steps into the Dark storehouse, only to step into a large puddle of liquid on the floor, looking down at it he's confused for a moment about what he stepped in, however in the dim light of the lantern he sees the unmistakable deep red colour of... blood!

Looking up and following the trail of liquid reveals that it's coming from a large severed arm, Subaru looks dumbfounded almost like a deer in headlights, however that's when he spots it, at the far end of the room, is a large man up against a bookcase with blood pouring out of his neck and mouth his left arm completely severed! Subaru's eyes go as wide as humanly possible while his pupils shrink to a minuscule size, his breathing begins to quicken, as the lamp begins to shake in his grip, the look on Subaru space can only be described as one thing, that been complete unyielding terror.

Everyone felt their breath stop in their throats, as their worst fears had seemingly been realised, with everyone screaming at once "Get the hell out of their Subaru!" however before them or the on-screen Subaru could even react to anything else, something caught the on-screen Subaru's attention causing his eyes to go as wide as dinner plates.

"Oh, dear, you found that?" a sickly-sweet voice said to Subaru from the darkness, causing his face to go completely white as a bed sheet, as if daring fate he slowly began to turn his head to the source of the voice

"Well, wrong time, wrong place, yes, just the wrong time at the wrong place" the sickly sweet voice said again as Subaru continues to slowly turn his head to look at them, however before he could even get all the way he was suddenly impacted by something, sending him flying across the building skidding to a halt on the floor, the lamp itself had been thrown from his grasp sliding across the floor into a distant corner of the room, the only light source now being that from the moonlight coming in through the rafters.

Everyone exploded at once screaming "SUBARU!" as the events unfolded on screen, none of them could believe what they were seeing none of it made any sense to them at all.

Emilia could feel her heart shattering into a thousand pieces, at the fact that Subaru had unwittingly taken a direct blow for her from the mysterious assailant.

Rem wasn't in much of a better position than the half elf, her emotions were all over the place, half of her was in agony that Subaru have been injured, while the other half was almost in a blind rage wanting to tear the throat out of whoever had done it to him, if it wasn't for her sister holding onto her she would have most likely charged at the screening out thinking, wanting to get her hands on whoever had attacked him.

Ram and Puck both parts confused and terrified for Subaru's safety, like the other two they didn't understand what was going on, however Puck suddenly felt his worry grow exponentially when he realised something, on-screen Emilia was still outside waiting for Subaru to call for the all clear, she would most likely try to investigate after hearing the crash from inside the building, at the realisation the spirit wouldn't have been surprised if his face was completely jet white and his eyes as big as dinner plates because of the realisation.

the architect meanwhile simply looked on feeling some Sympathy for the four of them, however he knew there were much worse things to come then this.

"Ow, that burns... " says Subaru struggling to breathe because of the amount of pain emanating from his stomach, with a great herculean effort he manages to roll himself on this side only to see something that makes all the colour drained from his face, where is stomach is in a large rapidly growing patch of red on his tracksuit top, bringing his hand away from the wound, he can see that is entire hand is covered in his own blood.

Oh crap, is this all my blood? Subaru says mentally, as he suddenly feels a liquid rising in his throat, putting his hand over his mouth, he lets out several horrible wet sounding coughs, with more blood beginning to leak between his fingers.

I'm in some deep shit, seriously deep shit! Subaru thinks to himself as he tries to swallow all of the blood that's coming up from his throat, but not managing to, as more of it leaks from between his fingers, he tries to prop himself up with his other arm, but Subaru is suddenly hit with a strange light-headed feeling, all of the strength in his body disappearing and subsequently collapsing to the floor with a loud wet thump, just as the sound of the front door being opened rings out into the darkness.

"Whoever you are! don't you dare hurt him even more!" Rem suddenly screamed at the top of her lungs, almost breaking free from her sister's hold to charge at the screen like an enraged bull.

"Subaru please D-D-don't D-die, you just have to hang on" Emilia says quietly tears freely flowing down her face, watching Subaru be horribly injured and him slowly dying was her worst nightmare made reality, even her little spirit companion couldn't offer any words of reassurance , he was simply and shock and what he was seeing, because of his luck in life or death situations, Subaru always seemed like he was somehow invincible, as if there was nothing that could truly kill him, that little illusions was completely shattered by what he had just witnessed, leaving the little spirit at a complete loss for words.

"Subaru you idiot, don't you dare think about dying on us" Ram says worriedly, feeling tears of her own beginning to run down her own cheeks, while struggling to only just hold back her sister from putting a hole through the screen with her fists.

However, a certain voice ringing out from the Darkness on the screen, made everyone stop in their tracks, their faces going as white as bed sheets, with that particular half-elf immediately recognising who that voice belongs to.

"Subaru, what's wrong" says the voice of Emilia, as she makes her way into the darkness after hearing the commotion from outside.

"No... run away now" Subaru struggles to say, his entire face now extremely pale from the blood loss, however Emilia doesn't hear his weak voice, she stopped near the middle of the room before a sudden sickening wet sound is heard, and to Subaru's complete horror, her body unceremoniously falling to the floor, a large pool of red beginning the form beneath her.

Subaru can only look on with abject horror and shock in his eyes, the girl he had spent all day, made jokes with, and interacted with was now here lying dead on the floor next to him, her very blood leaking out into a rapidly expanding puddle on the floor beneath her.

Emilia screamed, a scream that made everyone turn and look at her in shock, the pain was unbearable it was almost as if she'd physically been injured at the same time as her on on-screen counterpart had, it almost felt like her entire stomach has been ripped open and all her entrails were hanging out.

Puck's body reacted quicker than his mind, immediately flying over to her, practically crashing into the half elf wrapping his tiny little limbs around her in an effort to calm her, his presence seems to help just a little bit but she continued to scream in pain , tears running down her face like a waterfall, and her face contorted into a look of absolute agony, however before Puck could do anything else to try and help her, the architect seemed to materialize out of nowhere, quickly placing a hand on her shoulder, almost instantly she seems a calm, her screams of agony quickly replaced whimpers of mild pain, and then those quickly replaced with sniffles and sobs of sadness.

The little spirit looked up at the architect, feeling a sense of genuine concern coming from the strange entity, he mouths a silent thank you, as he continues to hug the emotionally destroyed half elf.

Rem upon hearing the on-screen voice of Emilia stop her rage, only to witness Emilia being cut down by the unknown assailant, Rem quickly realised it was a nightmare made real, the two most important people in her life other than her sister being cut down in some dirty warehouse with no one to come save them, seems to break the blue haired oni who collapsed to her knees, tears falling down her face like a waterfall, has sister rapping her into a tight embrace desperately whispering reassurance is in her ear.

"Just wait..." Subaru struggles to say while somehow finding the strength to reach out for Emilia's hand, which was illuminated by a ray of moonlight coming through the rafters.

"I... Will..." Subaru struggle to continue saying, blood pouring out of his mouth as he reached for the half elf's hand.

that's when everyone realised, it was just like the scene from the beginning where they had seen Subaru bleeding from his mouth, saying he was going to save someone, what they had seen at the very beginning had come to pass without them even realising.

"Save you!" Subaru finally finished, managing to take a hold of Emilia's hand and and hold it tight with the remaining strength he had left, his vision finally turning black as consciousness leave his body for supposedly the last time, for a moment of the screen is completely black however suddenly there is a voice in the darkness, a very familiar and recognisable voice.

"What's the matter their kid, you look like you've seen a ghost" says the very familiar face of the fruit vendor, holding out an apple to Subaru, who looks completely and utterly confused his face almost completely white, he looks around not quite believing what he is saying before turning back to look at the fruit vendor.

What? Subaru says completely and utterly confused.

Everyone looks at the screen in complete disbelief, their grief and sadness quickly replaced with complete unyielding confusion, none of them can make heads or tails of what the hell they just witness, one second Subaru was dying in some dark dusty Warehouse, and the next he was back at the very start with the with the fruit seller.

"Wait what the hell just happened! everyone shouts in unison completely at a loss of what the hell they just watched.

---

Hello readers if you have made it to the end then congratulations you've just completed this absolutely mammoth chapter, I wasn't kidding when I said if I was to do episode 1 in one continuous chapter it would be nearly 40,000 words, considering that this chapter is nearly 20,000 words by itself, anyway I won't bore you with my dribble too much.

The only important thing I have to say is thank you for all of those people who continue to support this story, i really can't put into words how sorry that this story was really put high and dry for so long, I can't say when the next chapter will be released, hopefully with my life circumstances being a bit better now it will be soon, anyway I'll let you go now, again I think all of you deeply for supporting my story the way you have, so have a nice day my readers.