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.

5. Ep-1 The end of the beginning part 3

Hello dear readers, welcome to the next and final part of chapter 2, since episode 1 of the anime series is so long (50 minutes to be exact) I decided to break it up into three distinct parts, this being the third and final part which will cover the second half of episode 1, anyway without any further ado, I present to you the third and final part for chapter 2 of watching Subaru lose his shit for 636 minutes straight

:characters thinking:

:characters talking:

:CHARACTERS SHOUTING!:

---

After their initial outburst, everyone fell back into stunned silence, not quite being able to process what they just seen, one minute Subaru was dying and the next he was completely fine, it completely boggled their minds, and to top the insanity off, Subaru had somehow upon his death, returned back to the fruit vendor.

"I-I... I don't understand, that's not possible" Puck says, being the first one to break the uncomfortable confusing silence.

"H-H-He was D-Dying, but now H-He's fine R-Right?" Emilia manages to stutter out, tears still pouring down her cheeks like a waterfall, her confusion at what she just witnessed being almost as immense as her sorrow and grief for Subaru, with her poor little mind trying and failing to make sense of everything she had seen. And despite the architect telling her that these were simply just memories, she couldn't shake the horrible feeling in her chest, at watching Subaru go through all of that pain and not being able to help him.

"H-He's not D-Dead?... H-He's. . . He's not dead!" Rem managers to stammer out, a fresh wave of Tears running down her cheeks, as she buried her face into her sister's chest, Ram simply held her sister letting the blue oni cry her eyes out, not caring in the slightest at the front of her maid uniform, that was now rapidly becoming soaked with her sister's tears.

"Why. . . W-Why are you showing this to us!" Ram shouts, quickly snapping her tear smeared face to look at the architect, completely disregarding the unpleasant feeling she got from looking into where she presumed his eyes were, underneath the pitch-black veil that obscured his face from view.

The Architect said nothing knowing that words would not help this situation, instead he decided to answer through his actions, he began to make his way slowly over to the pair of demon twins. Ram instinctively clutching her sister tighter as the giant covered the distance between them, now standing directly before them, Ram only just now appreciated how unnaturally told he actually was, Roswell was perhaps the tallest man she'd ever actually seen, but even he would have looked short standing next to the architect. Realising the position, she was now in, the pink haired Oni felt her body begin to shake uncontrollably, clutching her sister even tighter to her, as her anger previously directed at him almost completely forgotten, an almost primal fear was ignited in the deep recesses of her brain.

the Architect suddenly reach down with one of his massive hands, causing the pink haired demon to clamp her eyes shut and wait for the worst, however no pain came, in fact it was the opposite, an was almost a relaxing feeling overcame her body, her body's shaking stopped almost immediately, as she felt her tears dry up almost instantly. Cautiously opening her eyes revealed that the architect has placed one of his massive hands on her head, as well as his other hand on her sister's head, looking down at her sister she was surprised to see that her tears had stopped mash like hers, Ram looked at her sister, who looked back at her with a sense of confusion but also great relief, as if the weight of 1000 ground dragons had been lifted off her shoulders. looking up to the architect she could still not see his face through that penetrable black veil, yet she could somehow tell he was giving her a reassuring look, continuing to stare at him she gave a tentative nod of thanks. her throat is still a little bit raw from her own emotional fit earlier, her sister did the same giving the architect a smile of gratitude. Despite the demon sisters now not being an emotional wreck anymore, they still hold onto each other as if one of them would disappear a moment.

"M-Mr A-Architect?" said a familiar voice accompanied by a light tugging on the Architects scarlett cloak. Looking down to the source of the disturbance, revealed that it was young Emilia, looking up at the architect with a look that can only be described as sheer and utter grief mixed with just as much confusion. The architect suddenly felt an emotion he had not felt for a long time, and that emotion was pity. In fact looking at the little elf before him reminded him of someone from long ago, the architect for thought a moment, remembering a distant past filled with blurry yet familiar faces, but as quickly as the memories came they were pushed away as the architect returned to the present to settle the task at hand.

"Young Emilia, are you alright?" the architect said, putting on the most concerned voice he could manage, the young elf looked up at him again obviously trying to get control of herself to speak, the architect gave her all the time she needed to collect herself together.

"Is that. . ." the young elf started, but paused, choking back several sobs, while obviously trying to think of the correct words to say.

"W-What we saw, is that the reason why my memories don't match Subaru's because. . . H-He D-Died?" Emilia stuttered, finding it almost impossible to say what plagued her nightmares, even after seeing it happen to him, watching the life drain from him, even just saying it was a struggle for her to do.

The architect let the silence drag itself out for a moment, thinking of the appropriate words to say as to not damage the emotionally unstable elf any more than sure she was.

"Yes young Emilia, all I can see for now, is that he has a unique ability that only activates upon his death" the architect said, noticing the elf flinch at the mention of Subaru dying, the architect repeated the same action as he had done with the two demon twins. Placing a comforting hand on the young elves forehead, and much like Rem and Ram the effect was almost instant, her tears drying up and her breathing becoming much more regular.

Emilia looked up at the architect, her cheeks completely covered interior marks, yet she gave a thankful smile to the architect which he responded with a curt nod of acceptance. The architect then motions to the screen, directing everyone's attention back to the new memories that were beginning to play.

"I asked you about the appa, appa! Do you even have money?" the large fruit seller said, to Subaru who still had a look of complete bewilderment on his face at what just happened, one moment he was on the floor bleeding from his stomach, and now he was right back at the Apple seller, with seemingly being the middle of the day again.

"What?" Subaru asked, still not quite believing what he was seeing, the fruit seller for his part took the "what" as a question, about what he was trying to give to the young man, which just infuriated the large man even more.

Don't "what" me! The appa! Are you buying it or not?" fruit vendor said aggressively, shoving the Apple closer into Subaru's personal space, yet Subaru simply looked on blankly, his brain only just now beginning to switch itself back on.

"Oh, no. like I said, I'm completely broke beyond compare" Subaru says slowly, his brain finally working again, but obviously still trying to process what the hell has just happened.

"The hell? if you're just browsing, then move along, I haven't got time for window shoppers!" the large fruit seller shouts, causing Subaru to quickly take off in a random Direction as to not incur the large man's anger anymore, however after a couple pieces Subaru slowly comes to a stop, looking around at the busy street that surrounded him, the look on his face can only be described as sheer confusion.

As Subaru continues to look around the busy street, just below the noise of the busy street, was a new sound, something that doesn't belong, Subaru quickly looks around a growing sense of panic on his face as the sounds become just clear enough for the audience to hear. The only way that the sounds could be described, was as if a thousand souls were all wailing in agony, as one unified sound, but there was another sound. Barely audible over the horrifying cries that made everyone's heart stop almost immediately. And just barely perceptible over the haunting cries, was a sound that was eerily similar to the haunting howl of the White Whale, a horrifying sound that was permanently etched into their memories.

Everyone couldn't help but let a shudder run up and down their spines, despite everyone in the room not being present at the battle to kill the mighty beast, just hearing it's haunting cry or mentioning its name was enough to make even the bravest knight shudder. But for a particular blue-haired oni, the haunting cry of the beast, stirred even greater fear in her, which just served to confuse her, because during the battle itself she had felt relatively little fear, because having her beloved by her side, gave her reassurance that everything would work out.

Emilia herself, had not been present for the battle of the white whale, as such the fear that she had, was primarily because of the reputation that the white whale had, after all it was one of the original three great beasts, created by the witch of gluttony 400 years ago.

Ram likewise was much the same as the half elf, most of her fear from the haunting howl, coming from the white whale's reputation, rather than thankfully any first-hand experience with the beast.

"I don't know what you all were scared about, I could easily take on that overgrown fish" Puck says, doing a couple mock punches to hopefully lighten everyone's mood, luckily it seems to work as everyone minus the architect, couldn't help but giggle at the little spirit antics.

"What's going on, wasn't it dark just a few minutes ago?" Subaru says disbelievingly, his brain trying and failing to grasp or make sense of what was happening.

"The wound on my belly is gone, so was it all a dream or some kind of premonition..." Subaru trails off, before realisation hits him like a tonne of bricks, if that was a premonition of some kind, then Satella was in danger, and she didn't even know it.

"Oh, crap! Satella!" Puck was counting on me to take care of her, and I might have totally blew it" Subaru says, putting a hand up to his face, with frustration very evident in his voice.

"I have to get back to that shop and find her!" Subaru says, taking the hand away from his face, to reveal to everyone the oh so familiar look of determination on his face.

Without a second thought, he takes off running, desperately trying to remember where exactly the originally met Satella, without realising he has come back to a very familiar alleyway, running into three very rough looking faces, Subaru quickly comes to a stop, now staring down the same three thugs from earlier that "day."

"Hey, we haven't even done anything and you already look spoked" the smallest of the three says, seemingly taking a small amount of pleasure from the determined yet haunted look on Subaru's face.

"If you don't want to get hurt, cough up whatever you've got" the middle one of the group says maliciously.

"You guys again? Did you see I was alone and decided to get revenge or something?" Subaru says, sounding quite confused and frustrated that these three bums were picking another fight with him again, after they had already been scared off.

"Huh?, The hell are you on about" the white haired thug says, seemingly confused, at what the strangely dressed boy in front of him was going on about.

"Have you got a screw loose or something" smallest of the group says, seemingly just as confused as his friend was about what Subaru was going on about, which Subaru found quite odd, because from the way they were speaking, it sounded like they hadn't even met him yet.

"Don't worry about It kid, just leave everything you've got on the ground and will let you go" the biggest of the three says, which caused Subaru to realise, if he just gave them his stuff, he could get to Satella much quicker, instead of standing around with these three numbskulls.

"Wait... he really hasn't realised what's going on, has he?" Ram says with disbelief in her voice, finding it incredibly bizarre that Subaru had yet to realise that he had somehow gone back in time, despite evidence of such being right in front of his face

"To be fair sister, Subaru just experience . . . D-D-death, so I think it's fair to assume that his brain hasn't quite caught up yet" Rem responded to her sister, finding it incredibly hard to utter the fact that her beloved Subaru had apparently experienced the cold clutch of death. For her, just the idea and mental image of him being in pain, was enough to usually send her over the edge, yet she held herself together, not wanting a repeat of what happened earlier.

Emilia remain silent, as the two sisters conversed of each other, despite still being slightly shaking from the horrifying scene earlier, she couldn't help but notice small smile spread across her face, at the fact that Subaru despite only knowing her for a day, as well as not even knowing her real name, was still willing to go out of his way to help her. But as quickly as it came, the smile on her face vanished, her mind going back to the horrifying scene of Subaru and her bleeding out on the cold floor of the loot house. She couldn't help but think to herself that it must have been some kind of premonition or illusions. Because one minute he was on death's door and the next he was fine, it just didn't make any sense to her.

In fact if time travel magic was even possible, then the amount of mana it would take to actually perform something like that, would be off the scales. But that itself was kind of a moot point, considering that for all intents and purposes, Subaru couldn't use magic, which made the conundrum of his returning to a previous point in the day even more confusing to the half elf.

"Okay, fine, Everything I've got, huh? Whatever, I don't have time for this" Subaru says with obvious frustration in his voice, dropping his bag of "starter supplies" to the floor, without a second thought.

"Now act like a dog, get on all fours like a dog and howl, "Help me!" the smallest of the group sneakers, not realising he just pushed his luck too far, with the strangely distressed boy in front of him

"Don't get ahead of yourselves, assholes!" Subaru shouts suddenly, running straight at the group of Thugs, quickly delivering a savage uppercut to the white-haired thug, causing him to fly up into the air, with everyone in the audience shouting collectively "That's it Subaru!"

Before the other two can react, Subaru delivers a devastating roundhouse kick to the smallest of the three, causing him to smash into a wall, knocking him out instantly.

Subaru recovers quickly, as the largest and final member of the three runs at him, without much effort Subaru manages to dodge all of his sloppy but powerful punches.

"Whoa, there" Subaru says between punches, as the large thug continues to try and fail, to land some hits on the strangely dressed by in front of him, after one failed right Hook, Subaru sees his chance and grabs the man's arm, and then begins to violently twist, causing the large man's face to scrunch up with a look of pain.

"Don't underestimate a truant kid with too much free time," Subaru says, applying even more pressure to the larger man's arm, causing him to cry out in pain, much to Subaru's satisfaction.

"After swinging a wooden sword around all the time for no reason, my grip strength is over 70 Kilograms!" Subaru finishes, as he takes the opportunity to deliver a swift kick to the lodger man's private region, despite no one in the audience being male, everyone couldn't help but wince at the look of sheer agony that spread across the man's face.

As the large man doubles over in agony, Subaru quickly makes a break for the end of the alleyway, scooping up his stuff in the process, before quickly turning around to address the three beaten thugs.

"I don't have time for your shit, stay the hell out of my way next time!" Subaru shouts aggressively, as he turns on his heels and makes a break from the alleyway, desperately trying to remember the exact directions to the loot house.

"Honestly, Barusu is full of surprises, isn't he?" Ram says, trying to sound condescending but failing to suppress the small smile spreading across her face, at the fact that Subaru had made short work of the three common thugs.

"That's Subaru for you, he is running off and getting himself into trouble" Emilia says while letting out a small giggle, at Subaru's on-screen antics.

"That's my Subaru" Rem says, her voice practically overflowing with infatuation for the mean eyed boy in question.

"It seems that young Subaru combat prowess is much better than I initially thought" the architect says quietly to himself, his superhuman brain mulling over every little detail that was unfolding in front of him, to hopefully gain some answers to all of this.

After running around like a headless chicken for nearly an hour, Subaru managed to find his way back to the loot house. However as he marches up to the front door, he suddenly feels an overwhelming amount of Fear welling up within him, as a result he stands there unable to bring himself to actually knock on the door, in fear of what might happen if he does.

"Just keep it together, you can do this!" Subaru says quietly, obviously trying to psych himself up, and rid himself of the fear he was feeling, letting out a breath he moves closer to the door, raising his hand to knock, but he's stopped midway, as a look of pure unadulterated fear spread across his face, his mind flashing back to the "near death" experience that happened earlier.

Am I stupid? After coming all this way, I can't leave without knowing what the hell is going on! Subaru thinks to himself, as the look of fear is quickly replaced with one of determination.

Despite the upbeat atmosphere, from Subaru's triumph over the thugs still being present, Emilia couldn't help but feel her heart ache slightly, at the sight of unyielding Fear on Subaru's face, she had seen him be afraid before, but this time it was different, instead of being the general fear that one feels before or during a stressful event, this fear was much deeper and more primal, in fact it was the fear for one's very life.

Emilia clasped her hands over her heart, letting out a silent prayer that Subaru would make it through this safely.

"Is anyone there?. . . Hello?... someone's in there, right!?" Subaru says while knocking on the door with increasing intensity, as the seconds of no reply pass by.

"Please, answer me goddammit! please!" Subaru shouts, banging on the door with his fist so hard, that his fists were beginning to turn red from the repeated impact, however as he pulls his hand back to smack on the door again. The door is suddenly ripped open with so much force that it almost was ripped clean off its hinges, before he can even react, Subaru hears several loud thumping footsteps, coming from the now open door.

"Shut yer trap!" shouts a loud booming voice, as an incredibly large man crouches to get through the door.

"You tryin' to bust down my door when you don't even know the signal or password!?" the impossibly large man finishes as he comes fully into view, Subaru looks in shock as this giant of a man towers over him, looking at the giant man's face, Subaru could have sworn that it was familiar in some way. Then it suddenly hits him, the large man he had seen dead on the floor, was somehow the very same man that was now standing in front of him, looking no worse for wear.

"Wait, you're that guy..."Subaru says quietly as he and the large man continue to stare at each other, after a moment of silence Subaru breaks it, and by some miracle manages to convince the giant man to let him inside the loot house.

As Subaru made his way inside, he couldn't help but feel his stomach beginning to drop again, the memories or whatever it was, of his "near death" experience still being quite fresh in his mind, plus it didn't help that even during mid-day, the loot house was a dark and dingy place.

The giant man quickly makes his way behind what Subaru could assume with some kind of bar, then proceeds to grab a large wooden mug and begin pouring himself something that Subaru could definitely say was most likely very hard alcohol. An uncomfortable silence follows as the giant man proceeds to take a massive and long swig from his mug, all the while Subaru can't help that fidget in place, obviously nervous that something bad was going to happen.

"What'er you all fidgety for? Are your balls chafin' ya that much?" The giant man says, after finishing a massive gulp of his alcohol, Subaru is caught off guard by the question, his face going very red, at what the large man was implying.

Everyone couldn't help but feel their faces go slightly red at the mention of. . . Subaru's private region, Emilia and Rem's faces were practically as red as tomatoes, while Ram's blush was barely noticeable on her pale complexion.

Puck felt his killing Intent, for a certain nasty eyed boy began to spike, as some of the images from Emilia 's imagination began to filter through their mutual connection. Let's just say that all of them involve a certain black-haired nasty eyed boy, in some rather compromising positions. In fact if he wasn't so angry, Puck would have been impressed in a morbid way, at how his little Lia's mind was able to conjure up such . . . lewd images, despite her understanding of anything sexual being less than that of a teenager.

Ram let out a small huff, despite her love for her sister, being almost as vast as the world itself, she had long since come to understand that her sister had extremely strange taste in men. Considering that Barusu somehow managed to make her poor sister fall in love with him without seemingly doing anything, but thinking about it she couldn't help but let the smile spread across her face. Because even if Barusu was the cause, seeing her sister be happy for once in her life, was what made Ram the most happy.

"I'm not worried about the positioning of my balls, in the slightest thank you very much!" Subaru shouts, his face still quite red from the quite inappropriate question, the giant man had just asked him.

"And please don't start conversations with dirty jokes" Subaru finishes, managing to get his embarrassment under control, as the task at hand was a lot more important than feeling embarrassed over a dirty joke.

"Yer know, you're already interrupting my evening booze" the giant man says, pausing for a moment to take another large swig from his wooden mug, after a silence that lasted a bit longer than it really should have, the giant man pulls the mug away from his lips, letting out a small burp and surprisingly a very uncharacteristic hiccup.

"Don't drink while the sun's still up, you'll die young" Subaru says matter-of-factly, tingly not very impressed by the giant man's seemingly disregard for the state of his own liver.

"Actually, this is a dumb question, but..." Subaru suddenly pauses halfway through this sentence, trying to think of the correct way to word his question, without sounding like a crazy person, but after a moment, Subaru realises there's no real way to word it, without him sounding like a crazy person.

"Have you died recently?" Subaru asks, the man looks at him for a moment, seemingly trying to judge if the strange boy in front of him was joking or not, after uncomfortable silence the man suddenly let's out a full belly laugh, nearly dropping his mug of alcohol in the process.

"Well I admit I'm an old man at death's door, but I ain't really died yet" the large man manages to get out, struggling to try and contain his laughter at the obvious "joke" the boy was playing on him.

"Okay, then have you seen a girl with silver hair?" Subaru asks, the giant man's laughter seemingly silenced by his question, after a moment of what Subaru assumes to be deep contemplation, the large man responds.

"Silver hair? I ain't seen anyone that eye-catching" the large man says, taking another large swig from his wooden mug, while Subaru is left trying to figure out what exactly happened earlier, considering that he was a 100% positive he had seen the large man dead.

Despite the dark undertones of Subaru's question, Emilia couldn't help but blushed slightly at old man Rom's response In fact other than Subaru and Puck, nobody had ever called her silver hair eye-catching and meant it in a positive way.

"Barusu is cutting right to the chase I suppose" Ram says with a huff, giving a silent thanks to the great dragon, that she wouldn't have to suffer Subaru's weird roundabout way of asking questions, this time anyway.

"I agree sister" Rem replied, agreeing with her sister, because even though Subaru was the love of her life. There were some things about his behaviour and mannerisms that puzzled / annoyed her, his seeming inability to ask direct questions being one of the few traits that she found undesirable about her beloved.

Puck meanwhile couldn't help but feel a smirk spread across his little furry face, feeling his sour mood caused by the nasty eyed lifted slightly, at the fact that the oni twins had insulted him.

take that Subaru, you won't corrupt my little Lia's mind anymore Puck thought to himself, his smirk growing slightly at his supposed victory over the black-haired boy in question.

Meanwhile on a completely different plane of existence, a certain black-haired nasty eyed boy suddenly let out an unexpected sneeze, interrupting his cleaning duties.

"Weird, why do I get the feeling that someone is insulting me right now?" Subaru said aloud to himself.

Was it all a dream, if so then exactly how much of it was a dream, and why am I in this world? Subaru thinks, trying desperately to piece together what exactly was going on, unfortunately for him, he was trying to put a puzzle together that still had 90% of the pieces missing.

"So what are you doin' here anyway" the lodge man asks, putting down the large wooden mug that now was empty, of its previously alcoholic contents, upon the man's question Subaru suddenly remembers what exactly he was here for, and decide it's better to not lie to the large man in front of him, about what he was here for.

"Oh, I'm looking for an insignia, it belongs to a silver haired girl who helped me out, I don't know why, but it's very important to her" Subaru says, thinking back to what "Satella" had told him about the Insignia, she never actually said why it was important, but Subaru had several ideas of what it could be import, considering that she wanted to get it back so frantically.

"Anyway, I think she said that it had a Jewel in the centre and was a golden colour?" Subaru says to the large man, who looks down into his empty mug for a moment, as if in deep contemplation about what the strange boy in front of him was describing.

"An Insignia with a jewel. . ." the large man utters, desperately racking his alcohol ridden mind, to try and figure out if he had something like the boy was describing in his inventory.

"Sorry, but I ain't got anything like that in at the moment" the large man says, causing Subaru's face to drop at the news.

"Are you sure? really think about it!, maybe you're just old and senile?" Subaru says without any tat, obviously frustrated at the man's complete, ignorance about what he was talking about, despite Subaru's unintentional insult directed at the large man, he seems to not care, instead going back to his large wooden mug, bringing it to his lips only to realise that it's now empty of alcohol.

"If I can't remember when I'm at my best, with booze in me the only explanation is that I don't know..." the large man says, stopping halfway through his sentence to refill his wooden mug, with more alcohol before continuing.

"But..." the lodge man continues, only to stop again, taking a massive swig from his wooden mug, after a long moment he brings the mug away from his lips to continue.

"I've got someone bringing in some goods later, I'm told that it's some fine loot indeed" he continues only to stop again and take another large swig from his wooden mug, letting out a large and obnoxious burp after he was finished, causing Subaru to cringe slightly at the man's obvious lack of manners.

"There's a good chance that it could be what you're lookin' fer" the large man finishes, Subaru suddenly realises that, if the man was correct and the loot was coming in later, then that means it could be none other than that thief girl Felt, which causes Subaru's spirits to lift slightly, because that meant, he wasn't at a dead-end like he originally thought.

"Is a girl named Felt bringing it in?" Subaru asks, wanting to confirm with the large man that Felt, was the one bringing the Insignia to the loot house.

"What, you even know who swiped it?" the large man asks, suspicion very evident in his voice. Which causes Subaru to worry for a moment but as quickly as the suspicion comes, the man dismisses it returning to his mug of alcohol, Subaru gives a silent thanks for whatever God's were listening, that the alcohol had impaired the man's judgement just a little bit.

"Well of course, whether you'll be able to afford it is another matter" the large man says, refilling his mug of alcohol for the third time, despite realising that the large man was trying to size him up, Subaru couldn't help but feel just a little bit sorry for the man's liver.

As the events on-screen unfolded, Emilia couldn't help but feel her chest tighten slightly, Subaru was going through all of this to help her. when at this point, he only knew her for less than a day, and on top of that she had directly lied to his face, what her real name actually was.

"Subaru..." Emilia said quietly to herself, desperately wishing that he was here right now, to feel his warmth beside her, and see his smile that always pushed away the darkness in her mind.

Emilia suddenly felt a wet drip land in her hand, confused for a moment she felt another wet drop land on her hand, bringing her hand up to her face, she realised that the wet drops were in fact her own tears.

"Lady Emilia, are you alright?" a voice says, causing Emilia to jump slightly, turning her head she sees that it's none other than Ram.

"I'm F-F-fine Ram, it's just..." Emilia trails off, trying and failing to find the correct words to tell the pink haired maid.

"You're thinking about Barusu, aren't you lady Emilia?" Ram says, causing Emilia to stare at her with a look of surprise, as if the pink haired oni had just read her mind.

"I thought as much, you shouldn't worry yourself lady Emilia, as much as I find Barusu to be a disgusting, womanising, uncouth pervert..." Ram says, Emilia couldn't help but wince slightly at every negative description that Ram used for him, however before Emilia could respond in Subaru's defence, Ram quickly continued for where she left off.

"But despite him being all of those things, I don't think he would like you crying over him like this, in fact, I think he would want you to be strong for him, just as he has been for you" Ram finished, her face giving off no outward emotion, yet despite that Emilia could see in Ram eyes, that she meant every word of what she said, Emilia couldn't help but smile. Giving a quiet "thank you" to the pink haired oni, which caused Ram's serious face to melt slightly, a small smile making its way to her lips, and with her mission now complete, Ram returned to attention to the on-screen events, Emilia quickly following suit.

"It's no use trying to size me up, I'm as broke as they come, after all" Subaru says confidently, pointing a finger at himself, as if being completely penniless it was somehow an amazing achievement.

"Ain't no use talkin' about it, then" the lodge man says with a snort, the rational part of his brain, seeming to break through the alcoholic haze, for just a moment to realise that the strangely dressed by in front of him, was wanting something, about actually having any money to trade for it.

"That's not true, I could always try trading something" Subaru says confidently, motioning towards the item-filled plastic bag that was resting on the bar top, which causes the giant man to take some interest in, because the bag and it's contents were like nothing he had ever seen before.

"Now that you say it, you've got some unusual stuff there" the large man says inquisitively, putting down his half empty mug, to look at the strange bag and it's even stranger looking contents.

"That's right" Subaru says a smile spreading across his face, because it looks like his ploy was working, judging by the very intrigued to look, he was given the plastic bags contents.

"For example, this is a corn potato snack, and trust me, it's super tasty" Subaru says, reaching into the plastic bag and pulling out a packet of potato chips, at the mention of what the bag contained being edible, the large man's eyes seem to light up with glee. Which made Subaru give another silent thanks to whatever deity was listening, that his plan had worked.

"Wait, that's food!" the large man says abruptly, to which Subaru says nothing, only giving a nod of acknowledgement, as he hands the bag of potato chips to the giant man, the large man looks at the bag in his hands for a moment. Trying to figure out exactly what the bag was made out of, and how to get to the supposed food that was inside it.

Still examining the strange bag, the man puts a bit too much pressure on the bag with his giant hand, and before Subaru can say anything the bag lets out a quite loud pop. A pop that reverberates through the entire loot house like a cannon blast. With the bag popping, the man's hand was sprayed with a fine dust that had a very odd but enticing aroma. The man quickly reached his hand into the now split open bag, and retrieved the handful of the strange looking food before shoving it into his mouth.

He chews for a moment, seeming to examine the taste of the strange food in his mouth, before a happy look right across his face, enjoying the odd new flavour of the strange food that was given to him.

"I see! what an odd flavour!" the large man says with his mouth full, spewing crumbs everywhere as he speaks.

"These would go great with some booze" he continues, taking another handful of the strange food and shoving it into his mouth.

"Well, I guess the old saying of the fastest way to a giant's heart is through his stomach, is true them" Ram said with her usually serious tone of voice breaking slightly at the end, because she couldn't contain a small giggle, at the old giants behaviour

"It would seem that way sister, but it would also appear, that the stereotype of giants having no table manners is also true" Rem replies to her sister, also struggling and failing to keep her giggles under control, at the display of the old giant acting so goofy and carefree.

"Yeah, old man Rom is most definitely quite a character. . . actually I wonder how he's doing now. . ." Emilia trailed off at the end, thinking back to the last time she actually spoke to the old giant, which was just before the Royal selection in the capital.

"I'm sure he's fine Lia, after all he is a giant, so he can easily take care of himself " Puck says, floating next to Emilia's head giving her cheek a little nozzle with his nose, causing the half elf to giggle slightly at his cold wet nose tickling her cheek.

"Though. . ." Rem pauses, trying to get her giggling fit under control before continuing.

"Does anyone else find it rather odd that Subaru is willing to trade the few remnants that connected to his homeland, in exchange for Emilia's Insignia?" Rem says, her question annihilating any positive atmosphere that was in the room before, leaving everyone feeling just a little bit uncomfortable at the implications of her question, with a particular silver haired half elf, feeling the most uncomfortable about the blue haired maids question.

"H-H-he is really willing to trade S-S-some of the last connections to his H-homeland, just for me?" Emilia says, trying to keep her voice under control, as a fresh wave of emotion washes over her. She brings her hands to her chest, as fresh tears threaten to spill from her eyes, as the realisation that Subaru, was willing to do just about anything to help her, crashes into her like a fully laden cargo wagon.

Puck, seeing that Emilia was about to enter another emotional downward spiral, quickly nuzzled her cheek affectionately which she accepted, giving a smile that unfortunately only lasted for a moment before faltering, being accompanied by more tears that began to spill down her face, Emilia brought her hands up to her mouth, only just managing to contain a small sob that escaped her throat.

The two demon maids looked on with concern, for Emilia as she cried silent tears, with only the occasional quiet sob managing to escape her lips. Rem in particular felt extremely guilty, because it was her question that had triggered this emotional outburst from the half elf. But as quickly as the tears had started to fall, Emilia seemed to get herself under control again, wiping away the tears that now stained her cheeks, sending a thankful look to her little spirit companion, as she returned her attention to the on-screen events.

The Architect throughout all of this chose to remain silent, feeling a small amount of pity for his guests, because what they had witnessed so far, only scratched the surface of the twisted horror that young Subaru had been through, and there was still so much worse yet to come.

"Right? Right?... Hey! don't just start eating all of that!" Subaru shouts pointed a finger at the large man, only just now realising that the giant man was completely obliterating the bag of potato chips, before his very eyes.

"Well, dunno what you plan to trade, but you'll have to come back after Felt gets here" the giant man says, as he stuffed small potato chips into his mouth .

"Mm, that's good" the large man says of his mouth full, causing Subaru to let out a sigh, as he picks up the plastic bag that was now minus 1 item, and heads for the front door, shutting the door behind him, Subaru stands there for a moment, before he slumps down onto the steps letting out another sigh, as he waits for felt to return.

As the minutes turn into hours, Subaru can't help but examine the slums around the loot house to try and pass the time, but the more he looked, the more he realised just how bad these people really had it. And as the hours passed the sun finally began to set in the sky, casting the entire slums in a eerie red and orange glow, Subaru looked up at the sun, as it continued its slow descent towards the horizon, watching as the entire city which was visible from the slums, began coming to life with light as the night was fast approaching.

In fact, Subaru found it kind of ironic in a sad way, that the poor of this world literally lived in the shadow of the rich and famous, with people desperately trying to make ends meat. While the nobles of this world could literally look down upon them, judging them for simply not having as much money as they did.

"I guess there's those with money and those without it, no matter what world you're in" Subaru says thoughtfully as He notices kids in rags, staring at him intently from across the street.

"Still, unlike back home the difference here is clear as day" Subaru utters, as he takes another look at the rich and lit up city, on the distant hills. Which itself served as a complete contrast to the slums he was currently residing in.

Hey, what're you doing here, you're in the way" Subaru's musings about this world wealth gap are shattered by a familiar voice, looking up Subaru was met with the sight of a very familiar thief, who was looking at him with suspicion.

"Felt!" Subaru says excitedly happy to see the fifth girl, although the said girl looks very confused about the fact that this strangely dressed boy in front of her, seems to know her name, yet she cannot remember actually meeting him before.

"You know me" Felt asks, confusion very evident in her voice as she tries to remember, if she actually met this strangely dressed boy before.

"Of course I do! I've been waiting for you!" says Subaru, trying to remind Felt about the interaction in the alleyway "earlier that day" To which Felt looks more confused and a bit more suspicious about the boy.

"Waiting for what?" the young girl says, as she looks at the strange boy, her suspicion growing by the second.

"Wait, you're saying you don't remember me" Subaru says desperately, seemingly failing to jog the young girls memory, which caused Subaru to feel a pit of worry begin to form in his stomach, because from the way she was speak, almost as if this was the first time she and him had ever met each other. Which didn't make sense because, he distinctly remember her being present in the alleyway "earlier that day"

Felt brings a hand up to her chin leaning forward to inspect Subaru's face, racking her brain trying to match his face to anyone she'd actually met before.

"S-She doesn't remember" Emilia said, a disgusting sinking feeling beginning to grow in her stomach, at the implications of the thief girl not remembering her interaction with Subaru.

"it seems Barusu, is just as idiotic as I suspect, he really hasn't connected the dots yet" Ram's words were harsh as always, yet it was very obvious to everyone especially has sister, that she was feeling just as uneasy as everyone else. At the implications that Felt did not remember Subaru in the slightest.

"It had to be a premonition or something! I examined his gate, and it was not developed enough to perform anything other than basic magic. Plus I don't even know if time travel magic is even possible, given the amount of mana it would actually take to perform something like that!?" the little spirit explained, desperately wanting to believe that Subaru's earlier death was just a premonition or vision, and not the real thing.

"Maybe she just doesn't remember meeting him?" Rem says, her optimistic answer, doing very little to satiate everyone's uneasiness, about what exactly was going on with Subaru's earlier death, and everyone not remembering him in the slightest.

The room fell into silence after Rem's answer, everyone having their own thoughts about what exactly could be going on, with Subaru's earlier death, yep the one thought and emotion that united them all, was the large amount of concern they have for the nasty eyed boy in question.

Emilia in particular was the most concerned about Subaru, partially because her on-screen counterpart had also supposedly died, much to her and everyone else's shock, but Emilia couldn't help but think back, to what the architect has told all of them, before the viewing had begun, that what they were apparently viewing were Subaru's unaltered memories. Meaning everything they had seen so far had actually occurred to him, which just confused her and everyone else even more.

Subaru has never mentioned to any of them, that at least Emilia knew of, that he had experienced a premonition of his own death, which caused Emilia to feel a bit betrayed, because he had promised her that he would never keep secrets from her. But yet he had done that very thing, breaking his promise and damaging her trust like he did before. Yet despite all that Emilia brought her hands to her chest, looking longingly at Subaru's on-screen counterpart, giving a silent prayer to the great dragon that he would stay safe.

"Have we met? You know, I'm a busy woman so I don't remember most people I meet, unless they leave a huge impression" Felt words cause Subaru's face to fall even more, as the realisation that she did not recognise him in the slightest, finally began to sink in which intern added another mystery about what was truly going on with everyone not remembering him.

"I'd say that was a pretty huge impression" Subaru mutters to himself as he lets out a dejected sigh. Subaru himself was quite certain that he was beginning to go insane, because the more time he spent in this new world the less everything made sense. With his death premonition and everyone not remembering him it all just didn't make any sense.

"Well, forget that, I want to negotiate for that Insignia you have" Subaru quickly gets up from his sitting position on the steps, as his words caused the young girls eyes to widen in surprise, at the mention of him being there for the Insignia, realisation flashing across her face, as the presence of this strange boy in front of her finally began to make sense.

"Oh, so that's it, huh? You should have said that sooner" Felt sends a toothy grin Subaru's way, causing the boy to blush slightly, as the young thief girl quickly matches up to the door, giving it several rhythmic like knots, after a moment an all too familiar voice is heard.

"For a rat. . ." "Poison" "For a white whale. . ." "A harpoon" "To the noble Dragon Lord we are. . ." "Shitbags"

For a moment Silence is all that is heard, before the unmistakable click of a door being unlocked is heard. The door is pulled open to reveal the same giant-man from earlier, looking somewhat more sober than Subaru remember him being just a few hours previously.

"Sorry to keep you waiting, old man Rom, my target was more persistent than I thought, so shaking her loose was a bit troublesome" the young blonde remarks, making her way inside as the giant man now identified as old man Rom, looks down at her with what can only be described as a fatherly look, the corners of his mouth twitching upwards slightly.

Subaru go's to follow the young girl into the dark loot house, only to be stopped dead in his tracks by old man Rom looking him dead in the eye, with a look of obvious suspicion. The staring contest between Subaru and the giant old man lasted for at most maybe a fraction of a second, but to Subaru it felt like a lifetime as Rom seemed to stare into his very soul. the old man gives a satisfactory nod, coming to a conclusion that only he was privy to, allowing young boy to enter, intern causing Subaru to let out a sigh of relief, as he makes his way into the dark interior of the building, the old man shutting and firmly locking the door behind him once he was inside.

"I. . . can't believe that he would go through all of this trouble for me, W-W-W-when I've L-L-lied to him about who I am" Emilia could feel the guilt eating away at her heart. It hurts so much that she had lied to him like that, and yet he was still willing to put himself in danger to get her Insignia back.

Nobody could bring themselves to answer, even the architect simply remained silent, letting them absorb what they had seen. Rem felt sorry for the poor half elf, yet despite not wanting to acknowledge it, she could feel jealousy beginning to nibble at the corners of her heart. Subaru always spent more time with Emilia than her, even though Rem and Subaru spent most of the day together, working on various things around the Roswaal Manor. As soon as his work was done, he would immediately race off to find the half elf, whatever she may be in the manor, always leaving a quite frustrated Rem behind.

Puck was still trying to wrap his head around the supposed Revolution, that Subaru had some kind of clairvoyant or future predicting ability, which looking in hindsight made everything strange about Subaru make sense to the little spirit, his perfect timing when it came to deadly events was always something that Puck very peculiar. Yet in the heat of battle that was never really time to question such a thing, but now with this information all the little spirit could say is that he was going to have a very interesting conversation with said boy once it was all over.

Ram had come to a similar conclusion as the spirit, being the ever observant maid that she was, she had long theorised that Subaru had some kind of future foresight ability, considering his uncanny luck when it came to life or death situations, the attack of the Witch cultists on the mansion being a notable example, not only had he predicted exactly when and where they would attack, but also have managed to root out a spy that was hiding in the village. Thinking back on it, everything surrounding the enigma that was Subaru, which had caused frustration. Without end, nothing about him made any sense, from the less important things such as his clothes and appearance, all the way up to his mysterious future sight ability. But to Ram's secret relief, it seemed the viewing was finally shedding some light on the mysterious boy, as well as his mysterious power.

"Hey, Old Man Rom, did you water down this milk, it's just plain nasty" Felt held up the glass in front of her, allowing both old man Rom and Subaru to see into the glass, and to Subaru's discussed she was correct, the milk look positively nasty, at least to his eyes.

"C'mon, I give you something out of the goodness of my heart, and you call it gross?" Rom words have an undeniably disapproving tone to them, it was obvious to Subaru that the old man was quite affectionate towards the young girl, especially when he placed one of his gigantic hands on her head ruffling her hair, and causing her to let out undeniably cute wines in protest.

in fact looking at the scene between the two it reminded him of something. . . that being his own parents but as the mental image of his parents entered his mind, a realisation that he had been subconsciously with regressing finally hit him full force, that being the he would most likely never see his parents again. And just to add insult to injury, when his own mother had called out to him telling him to be safe, he simply ignored her, not even turning around or acknowledging her as he left the house for the last time.

Both Rem and Ram felt their hearts shutter in two, at Subaru's sudden revelation, both of them have lost their parents at an early age, so both of them knew exactly what it felt like to know that you would never see your family again. Despite not talking about it for years even amongst themselves, not a day went by where they didn't think about their mother and father.

Rem felt tears beginning to leak from her eyes again, as it all finally made sense, why he never spoke about his family and when the subject was ever brought up he would simply stay silent, an indescribable look making its way to his face. If it was even possible her heart shattered for a second time when another realisation crossed her mind, he was always going on about how everyone in the mansion was his family. At the time she simply fought it as an affectionate thing, but now with the context he came from another world, the horrifying truth was presented to her….

...

They were his new family, to make up for the one that had been taken from him as a result of coming to their world.

...

...

...

And that was it, tears began to flow freely down Rem face, bringing a hand up to her mouth to try and quiet her sobs. Ram only just managed to hold herself together, and brought her sister into a tight embrace, trying to comfort her sister and hush her sobs and cries.

Emilia for all of this simply stared at the screen incomplete bewilderment, that quickly turned into shock and then horror. She didn't know anything about her real parents, Puck being the closest to biological family that she had, but to find out that her Subaru had a family. That he could never see again even if he wanted to, broke something inside her, and as she felt tears beginning to run down her cheeks, memories began to surface, memories that she wasn't entirely sure were hers. They were hazy and undefined, with the only recognisable aspects being the frozen Forest that was her home once.

But there were also two people in those memories, their faces indistinguishable and fuzzy, yet they felt familiar in a strange way. But as quick as they came, the memories vanished leaving a hole in her memory where these memories would have been, this accompanied by a new feeling, that being a deep sense of loss. Even focusing on the hole in her memories produces nothing, the holes simply remaining as that, perfect holes that could never be filled, which just made her even more emotional.

Subaru held his head low, his face flashing through numerous different emotions as the realisation hit him full force, tears of threatening to begin leaking from the corners of his eyes, yet with a tremendous amount of effort he stabilised his emotions, because if he started bawling his eyes out now, it could mess up getting back her Insignia.

"You two are a lot closer than I hoped or expected, I'm kind of feeling left out over here. . ." there was a slight sadness to his words that didn't go unnoticed, by the little blonde and the giant, which caused both of them to raise an eyebrow at the strange boy, but as quickly as it came the sadness was gone replaced with his usual energy.

"Well don't talk like a wuss when you've got a face almost as scary as Old Man Rom's" felt gave a nervous laugh, trying to lighten the atmosphere and make the strange boy feel better, only when she looked at his face again, her eyes widened slightly as the look on his face, cause a shiver to run down her spine.

"People have said a lot of things about me, but you think I can compare to that ugly mug!?" Subaru's face contorted into one of barely contained anger, his sinister glare and malevolent smile causing the young girl next to him to shiver in momentary fear.

Despite Emilia, Rem and Ram not having fully recovered from the previous revelation, concerning the nasty eyed boy's family, taking one look at the sinister face he was pulling, all of them felt a shiver run down their spine in a similar fashion to Felt.

"I guess his scary eyes are not just for show" Puck muttered quietly under his breath.

"It would seem so, little spirit" The architect spoke quietly for the first time in ages, giving a nod of the head, in agreement at the spirit's comment.

"Okay, I went too far that time, sorry, bro" Felt gives a nervous chuckle, as the strange boy continues to glare daggers at her.

"You two ain't banding together to try and piss me off, are you?" Rom cuts in irritatedly, causing both Felt and Subaru to look at him in surprise.

"Well ok, how about we get down to business?" Felt says, pushing her cup to one side and looking at Subaru with what could only be described as excitement, about the upcoming transaction.

"So! what are you willing to pay big bro!" Felt's excitement seemingly continues to grow without end, as she leaned in closer to Subaru.

"You don't waste any time do you?" Subaru lets out a sigh, a bit put off by how excited she was, but continuing from where he left off. "But before I answer that, you do have the Insignia, right?"

"Of course I do" Felt reaches into her cut-off vest, rummaging around for a second before producing the item in question, and presenting it to Subaru.

"See?" Felt holds the Insignia out for Subaru to look at, but keeps it at such a distance when he couldn't easily reach out to grab it.

Subaru upon seeing the insignia for the first time, he thought back to "Satella" telling him how important the Insignia was to her, and to his credit he was expecting something a bit flashier looking, instead of something that could be confused for a simple brooch, with an unremarkable red gem in the centre. But regardless of what it actually was he had made that promise to her to get it back no matter the cost.

Rem and Ram were both too busy consoling each other to notice, but in her own emotional state Emilia noticed it right away, the gem in the centre of the Insignia was glowing in Felt's hand, meaning that she really was a royal candidate. Despite still feeling immense Sadness, Emilia couldn't help but let a small smile spread across her face, remembering all the times she had spent with the young feisty blonde. And out of all of the Royal candidates Felt was perhaps the only one that Emilia truly got along with, in fact she would even dare say that they were friends, despite competing against each other for the throne.

"Lia, are you ok now?" Puck's quiet voice caught Emilia off guard, as she quickly turned her head to look at her contracted spirit.

"I'm fine, Puck. . . I think" Emilia's voice had a slight shake to it, but compared to a few moments ago she seems to be doing much better. In fact, thinking about all the pleasant times she had spent with Felt seemed to have lifted her spirits slightly, but only by a little bit.

Puck chose to say nothing both mentally and verbally, simply sending a reassuring smile her way, which Emilia reciprocated in kind. satisfied that she was at least better than before, the little cat spirit floated over to her nuzzling her neck, causing the half elf to let out a small giggle as his nose tickled her neck. Watching this undeniably cute scene in front of them, both Rem and Ram film both of their moods improve slightly. Both of them released each other from the tight comforting embrace they had both been in, instead opting to simply hold hands, the way they usually comforted each other when on duty as maids.

While all of this happened, the architect simply looked on with a mild interest, themes of companionship bringing back fuzzy and hazy memories of a much different time for him. But as quickly as they came the memories were washed away, being replaced by a content empty nothingness that was his existence.

After letting Subaru look at it for a moment, felt hands the Insignia to Rom, due to it incredibly small size compared to his frame, the giant man has to hold extremely close to his face to examine it, while he does so felt turns back to face Subaru excitedly, obviously wanting to explain something to him.

"This one's got a nice red jewel in it, so I worked pretty hard to get it" Subaru could just tell from the tone of her voice, that the young thief girl sounded incredibly proud of herself, for stealing such an expensive looking piece of jewellery from her target. "So if you can pay enough to match my effort, big bro, we'll both be happy!"

"I have no money"

both felt and Rom turned to look at the strangely dressed boy in complete shock and surprise, in fact both of them had to do a double take just to be sure that he wasn't kidding. Yet much to their collective surprise, look on his face indicated that he wasn't kidding, as a result both of them couldn't help but think the same thing

Is this kid for real?

"Idiot" Ram said firmly, shaking her head in disappointment at how stupid she believe Subaru was acting, by telling both of them that he had no money

"I can't disagree with you on that one sister" Rem responded, as much as she didn't want to admit it her sister was right on this one, Subaru has just completely destroyed any advantage he had in negotiating for the Insignia.

"You silly dunderhead" Emilia was quiet with her words, still in the little bit of shock, how idiotic Subaru has just acted. he had completely destroyed any chance you had in negotiating for her Insignia with just those words, yet Emilia knew that this was Subaru they were talking about, the boy after her heart, somehow always manage to come out on top in every situation he was in, even if he seemed to be a disadvantage. So Emilia prayed that this would be one of the times he managed to perform such a feat.

"if you have no money. . ." Felt pause for a moment, trying to think of the appropriate words, use for this strange boy in front of her "T-Then we have nothing to discuss!"

"tsk tsk" Subaru held out a finger to stop the young girl from going any further, in a similar manner that a parent would use with a child that was having a temper tantrum.

"Sure I don't have money that I can use" Subaru pause for a moment letting his word sink in, but not giving the little blonde and the giant man enough time to actually respond before he continued "But I do have things worth money"

Subaru then pulls out his flip phone, so both of them can examine it, needless to say both of them were intrigued and confused at what they were looking at, it was a device that neither of them had ever seen anything like before, made out of a strange material that was not known to them. after letting them inspect it for a moment Subaru then "explains" exactly what it is.

"This here is a magical device that can stop time for everyone, everywhere, this magical device is called-" Subaru pauses for dramatic effect before finally announcing the name of the strange device in his hand.

"A cell phone!"

with the strange device that super had his hand now named, Emilia suddenly had a thought occurred to her, something that only looking back on it she only realised now.

"I wonder what Subaru actually did with his cell-phone?" Emilia thought out loud, causing Rem, Ram and Puck to look at her and confusion, before it suddenly clicked in their brains what she was referring to.

"Yeah that's a good question Lia, I remember he showed it to us during his first week at the mansion" Puck paused, scratching his little chin, trying to remember if he had seen it at any point after that, ultimately his mind came up with a blank "Actually after that one time I don't remember ever seeing it again?"

"I was never aware of this cell-phone, but knowing Barusu, he even lost it or destroyed it due to his incompetence" Ram couldn't help but let out a huff disapproval, knowing that Subaru had lost or destroyed such an important relic from his home, yet at the same time she couldn't help it be little bit disappointed, knowing that she never got to see this "magical" cell phone in question.

"Subaru never got rid of it, or lost it, in fact it's kept at the very back of the writing desk drawer, on the left side third one down" Rem blurted out without thinking, causing everyone to look at her in surprise.

"Rem. . . how do you know that?" Emilia asked innocently, not quite understanding how she would know such a thing, but quickly the realisation hit her like a tonne of bricks, at exactly how the maid knew where the object was.

"Rem. . . have you. . . been looking through Subaru's belongings!?" the shock was very evident in Emilia's voice as the mental image of the blue haired oni, rooting through Subaru's stuff made itself Very at home inside the half elf's mind, causing a new feeling to begin to bubble in her chest, a sickening feeling that was called jealousy, maybe just a little bit of anger mixed in.

Rem's face suddenly turned completely red, and she quickly brought her hands to cover her face and embarrassment, only now realising she had blurted that out without realising. She would never tell anyone this but she would always go through Subaru's belongings specifically looking for his clothes, even more specifically his clothes that have been used. What the blue-haired oni would do with those clothes was only for her to know, but thinking about those activities now, caused her face the term even more red which was a tremendous feat considering that her face pause already bright cherry red, steam practically flying out of her ears as the embarrassment continue to eat away at her.

"tsk to know that my sister committed such a perverted act, one that even Barusu wouldn't think to do" disappointment was extremely evident in Ram's voice as she crossed her arms over her chest indignantly.

"Ah, to be young and full of hormones" Puck chimed in trying and failing to hold in his laughter, as the entire situation was just completely hilarious to him. To know that Rem had been going in Subaru's room and stealing his dirty clothes, to do dragon knows what with them was something that made a little spirit continue to laugh is metaphorical guts out.

Rem knowing there was nothing that she could say to defend herself, buried her face even deeper into her hands, as the embarrassment continued eat away at her very being, the fact that all of them now knew her secret, and that they would most likely never let her live it down, just made her feel even more embarrassed. Also knowing Emilia, there was a possibility that she might just straight up tell Subaru what the blue head made have been doing in his room with his clothes, which again if it was possible made the embarrassed oni's face even redder than before.

"What is that?"

"I ain't never seen one of those before"

Much to Subaru's satisfaction, Both Felt and Rom to be fully intrigued by his phone, which caused him to smile slightly, as he flipped open the phone, because so far everything was going according to his plan.

"Alright take this! nine shots per second: continuous shot!" Before the little blonde and giant could react or even register what he had just said, both of them were suddenly assaulted by a flashing light emanating from the device, followed by a loud clicking sound. The light was so intense that both of them were momentarily blinded.

"Woah! Hey! the hell was that sound! that light was too bright and my eyes hurt!" Felt winded rubbing her eyes, in a desperate attempt to return her vision to normal, after being assaulted by the light from the strange device.

"Are you tryin' to kill me!? don't you go makin' light of this old man with dodgy tricks like that!" Rom was now positively pissed but what I just happened, interpreting the strange bright light as some kind of weak attack, however before both him and Felt could say anything else, Subaru held up his hand to stop both of them.

"Hold on the both of you" both of them stop what they were going to say looking confused, has Subaru turned the phone to face them, both of them are momentarily stunned by what they are looking at.

"Is this..."

"Them's me and Felt's faces. What sort of Magic is that?" Rom and Felt couldn't quite believe what they were looking at, the strange device at somehow managed to perfectly replicate both of their faces, in fact just looking at it both of them could tell but it was too good to be some kind of drawing or painting, which made both of them wonder, just where the hell did this boy come from to have such a artefact with him.

"Strange I wonder how it does that" Ram found herself quite intrigued by the strange little device, despite hearing mentions of it in the past she had never actually seen it before, let alone actually seen it magical properties in action, but finally seen what he could actually do ,she could completely understand why Subaru used it as a bargaining chip, even if it was a sacred object from his homeland.

Emilia was in much the same headspace, she had seen the cell-phone multiple times before, yep Subaru had always neglected to actually ever explain much but how it actually functioned. But finally seeing what it could actually do, she could completely understand why Subaru would use it to bargain for her Insignia, because at least to her mind, this cell-phone was definitely more valuable than her Insignia.

"Dunderhead" Emilia said quietly, her thoughts shifting to the fact that Subaru was willing to part with a piece of treasure from his homeland, just to get her Insignia back, she still couldn't wrap a head around why he would go through so much trouble for her, especially when she had blatantly lied to his face, about her real name in some kind of feeble effort to drive him away. and then there was the whole issue of the supposed death he had experienced, it just didn't make any sense to her, it was too real to be some kind of premonition of vision, but at the same time she and Subaru were both thankfully and most definitely still alive, meaning that he hadn't died in that cold loot house in the middle of the night.

Puck simply looked on, reading most of his daughter's thoughts regarding be strange occurrence, he was in the same position as her when it came to the conundrum, it had to be some kind of vision or premonition, but it was way too real to be either at least to him, but but thankfully Emilia and Subaru to a lesser extent were both still alive, meaning that they didn't die, the more he thought about it the more his little spirit brain hurt, causing him to let out of grone frustration because as far as he was concerned nothing about Subaru made sense.

"Weren't you listening? this is a mystical item that can freeze a single moment in time" Subaru can't help that smirk slightly, giving a silent thanks that his plan was working completely as expected, both Felt and Rom were both very interested in the cell phone that was currently in his hand. With this you can catch on moments and time and store them forever"

"Wow! that sounds so cool!"

"Remarkable, ain't ever seen anything like that before, is it one of them metia things I've been hearing about?" This caused Subaru to look at him in surprise, not understanding in the slightest what the giant was possibly referring to.

"Metia?" Subaru rolled to the strange world around in his mind for a moment, trying to think if he had heard a similar word to that before, but after a moment his mind drew a blank, at the fact that he'd never heard that word before, and knew nothing about what it could possibly be referring to.

"It's the name for devices that let people use magic, without needing to use their own gate, like a real magic user" Rom explained to the best of his abilities, although Subaru now knew what a metia was thanks to the giant's explanation, something else that caught his attention that being the thing that Rom referred to as a gate, again whatever it was referring to sleep and had no idea what it was.

"I don't care what it does or what it is! just tell me what it's worth already, just what exactly can I get for this metia thing?" Felt interrupted, using a hand gesture to refer to Subaru cellphone, clearly she didn't care about what it did, and only cared about how much money she could get for it.

"Well, it's my first time dealing with a metia, but I definitely say there's no doubt, that it'll fetch more than that Insignia" Subaru immediately picks up on the fact that his phone was apparently worth more than the Insignia, which caused him to smile because as far as he was concerned it was mission accomplished.

"then that settles it!" Subaru can't help but feel giddy, as well as extremely relieved, he had managed to get the Insignia back over for nightfall, and nothing bad happened, so it all turned out just right in the end. "this cell phone for the Insignia, negotiation complete as far as I'm concerned!"

"There was no way it was that easy!?" Puck felt his mouth hit the floor , because Subaru had somehow against all of the odds, managed to negotiate for the Insignia, despite having no money to negotiate with, this caused the little spirit to think that maybe have written off Subaru a bit too quickly, because after what he'd seen maybe the boy was actually in negotiating genius.

Emilia said nothing simply letting a smile spread across her face, at Subaru's supposed victory at getting the Insignia, despite not having much to negotiate with in the first place. In fact Emilia couldn't help but give a silent prayer, at the fact that Subaru had achieved His goal so easily. which are the same time also caused an immense amount of pride and affection to well up in her chest for the black haired boy in question question, much to a certain spirits annoyance and dismay.

Subaru reaches out for the Insignia, his excitement almost built up to a fever pitch, at the prospect of finally completing the promise he had made to "Satella" about getting her Insignia back. however as his hand is mm away from it, the Insignia is snatched away at almost superhuman speed.

"Hey!"

"Sorry Big Bro, but not yet! Felt says matter-of-factly, as she puts the Insignia back into her jacket pocket, much to Subaru's frustration, his goal that he was so close to achieving having literally been snatched from his grasp at the very last second.

"Ha!" Ram failed to control herself, because as far as she was concerned that was the funniest thing she had ever seen, Subaru was so close to achieving his goal., only to fail at the very last second due to him not thinking things through.

Meanwhile everyone else was a bit shocked and also slightly disappointed, Emilia in particular felt her positive mood practically deflate instantly, just when things were finally looking up for him, the world have kicked him, and in all honesty Emilia was beginning to think that Subaru simply just have the worst luck imaginable, considering that every turn things seem to go wrong for him in fact the half elf couldn't help but pout, frustration very evident on her face.

"it seems young Subaru has tremendously bad luck" Even the architect couldn't help but feel just a little bit disappointment, which considering his emotional state most of the time was quietly achievement, everything he had seen so far suggest this boy which was unremarkable in every other way, seems to be some kind of maelstrom or focal point for bad luck. almost as if the boy himself was cursed in some way.

"Dragon dammit!" Rem cursed quietly under her breath, her embarrassment from earlier on was completely gone on instant upon seeing Subaru, fail at achieving his goal when he was so close to doing so, and much like a certain half-elf, she felt frustration beginning to make itself known, but unlike Emilia who was able to control her emotions a bit better. The frustration in the blue haired oni quickly turned to anger, specifically anger that was directed towards the little blond that had caused Subaru to fail at his goal.

"Man this kid can't catch a break" Puck managed to pull his jaw off the floor, not quite realising how horrifyingly appropriate his statement really was.

"Hey why not!?" Subaru despite managing to control his emotions externally, was almost apoplectic internally, his goal was right there! right in front of him, only inches away, but the world had yet again kicked him straight in the teeth, the Insignia being swiped away just before he could grab it.

"You're not the one I'm negotiating with for this" Felt despite being slightly intimidated by the larger boy in front of her held her ground, after all, this boy was not the person she was meant to be negotiating with in the first place.

Huh? Was all that Subaru could say in response, not quite understanding why somebody would use a Middleman, or middle girl in this case, and go through so much trouble just to get something that didn't have any practical value as far as he could tell.

"Besides I only nabbed this Insignia because I was asked to, my client told me I could get ten holy coins for it!" felt held all 10 fingers up, a smile making its way on her face, which in any other Circumstance the Subaru would have found absolutely adorable, but right now it just made him feel even more frustrated than he already was.

"You already had a deal when you stole it? I don't know what the value of ten holy coins is, but..." before Subaru could go any further, Rom interrupted him.

"That metia you got is worth at least twenty holy coins by my reckoning, actually I wouldn' be surprised if there are people out there willing to pay double that, for something as exotic as that" and like that Subarus hopes were restored slightly, despite failing the first time maybe he could negotiate with that in mind, before he could respond he was interrupted by a very excited little blonde.

"Really!? That means I can get away with overcharging for it!" Felt was practically ecstatic at this point, most likely thinking she'd hit the jackpot and to be fair Subaru couldn't really blame her for reacting that way. Despite not knowing how much holy coins are actually worth, he could definitely tell from the way she was practically drooling at the thought of so much money, that it certainly had to be quite a lot of money in this world. However another thought suddenly occurred to Subaru regarding the little blonde's suspected client.

"So when and where exactly are you meeting this client?" Subaru inquired, not liking the idea of possibly changing locations to conduct the negotiation.

"Don't worry big bro, negotiations will be here, plus if a little thing like me can deal with them, I'd be sunk if a client decided to bilk on me" despite having his fears put to rest, Subaru was most definitely not convinced that this little girl in front of him could actually hold up in a fight, in fact judging from house small and skinny she was, Subaru was confident that a strong wind could snap her in two.

Any positive feelings that Emilia had before were quickly vanishing, as she realised that the time was quickly approaching, the fight between her, Elsa and Subaru was very soon from what she remembered, any minute now she would come bursting through that door looking for her Insignia, which would quickly escalate into a full-blown battle between her and the bowel Hunter. she really thought about that fateful encounter, most of the time choosing to bury it in the back of her mind, or simply just forgetting about it entirely, but now all of the memories from that back or coming to the surface.

Despite not showing any fear towards the deranged woman, Emilia throughout the whole fight was practically petrified, the only real thing keeping her going being her basic survival Instincts. And then there was everything to do with Subaru during the fight, the fact that he had called Puck at just the right time to block a blow from the deranged gut Hunter. As well as being able to dodge and somehow predict her almost superhuman movements, as if he had somehow experienced all of her moves before.

"Lady Emilia, is something wrong?" Emilia's train of thought was immediately shattered, the question startled her slightly, looking at the owner of the voice revealed that it was Rem, looking at her with obvious concern.

Emilia didn't know what to say, yet to the Blue haired maid, it quickly became apparent what was troubling the silver haired half elf.

"Are you troubled about the fight between you and Elsa" Rem said, trying to be as tactful and respectful as possible, considering that the subject was still a very sore one for Emilia, in fact Emilia never talked about it as far as she knew, the only reason that she knew anything about it, was the bits and pieces that her sister had filled her in on, after returning to the mansion with Emilia and an unconscious boy that would quickly become the love of my life.

"Y-Yes" Emilia stuttered, her mind racing a mile a minute trying to find the correct words to respond, even though it had been nearly two months since that fateful night, the entire event was permanently scarred into her mind, the fear she felt that night would never leave her even after a thousand lifetimes, which is why she chose to not think about it most of the time, the few times that her mind would wander back to that night, would cause the unyielding fear to return with renewed vigour.

"I see, it's going to happen soon isn't it?" Rem decided it was best to not beat around the bush, despite Emilia's emotional state being quite renowned for its fragility, the blue-haired oni decided it would be best to simply address the problem head on, instead of beating around the bush.

"Any moment now, I'm going to walk through that door, and then after that S-S-she's. . ." Emilia couldn't bring herself to say anymore, the fear that happened bubbling up in her chest, grabbing onto her heart with a vice grip, refusing to let go.

"Lady Emilia, you have nothing to worry about" Ram chimed in, despite her voice sounding calm and harsh as ever, it was obvious that the pink head oni was trying to help in the only way she knew how, and that was to use harsh but concise language.

"Despite his injuries you and Barusu, made it out of that situation alive, and now it is in the past, so there is nothing to be fearful" to an outside observer, the pink haired maid's world positively insensitive, considering that the situation was a life or death one, but Emilia had interacted with Ram enough to tell the meaning behind her words, after all despite her sharp tongue Ram was a remarkably caring person, something that most would have never picked up on unless they interact with her on a regular basis. So despite it faltering slightly, Emilia managed to put on a smile for both maids, much to both of their satisfaction, after all their duty wasn't just to their Lord, but it was also to the Royal candidate Emilia, a friend to both of them.

"Hey, I should get to cheer her up as well, you know!" Puck exclaimed, flying over to Emilia and quickly nuzzling her cheek with his nose, causing the half-elf because of his wet nose tickling her cheat, this intern got a small chuckle from Rem, and the ever so slightest of smiles from Ram.

As all of this joy and laughter was happening around him, the Architect's superhuman mind was racing a mile a minute, something had been nagging at the back of his brain for quite a while, something about everything that was happening didn't seem right to him. But what exactly was the problem he still couldn't fully ascertain, despite his expansive knowledge.

"most troublesome indeed"

Despite her reassuring words it was obvious that Subaru wasn't convinced, still finding it hard to believe that a little girl such as Felt, could actually hold herself in a fight.

"Besides there's nothing to worry about, if things get dicey I have Old Man Rom here with me, just in case" Felt tried to reassure a Subaru but he's still wasn't really convinced, however before any of them could speak any further, all of them were interrupted by a series of gentle knocks on the door, causing all of them to look at the door surprise.

"This is it" Emilia's words were quiet, her body quite literally beginning to tremble at this point, as her entrance was only seconds away.

"It's alright Lia, I'm here for you" Puck words did reassure the half somewhat, knowing that has spirit companion was right here with her to face what was going to happen did help, but not as much as she would have liked, considering that her body was still trembling like a leaf.

"We're both here for you lady Emilia" Ram and Rem both said in perfect unison, both of them sending reassuring looks to the half elf, which Emilia appreciated.

"Do they know the password?" Rom raised one of his bushy eyebrows, finding it odd that this suspected client had not been told the password already.

"Oh, I didn't mention it, that's probably for me then, so I'll go check" Felt got up from her seat and quickly went to the door, leaving both Subaru and the giant man alone for a moment, both of them watching the little blonde, conversing with somebody that was blocked from site by the door.

"You're really ok with letting her use you like that?" Subaru inquired, finding it quite odd that such a large and imposing man like Rom, would let a little girl like that simply do whatever she wanted in his establishment.

"Well, it ain't like we're total strangers, I've known her for a long time so I don't mind helpin' her out'' the tone in the giant's voice was definitely one of affection, Subaru could immediately pick up on it, this giant of a man, viewed the little girl as almost his own daughter. However, before Subaru could actually respond to what he had said, Rom got up from his seat. Walking over to a large rack of Weapons of various different types, everything from daggers all the way up to Great swords, each one of them labelled With what seems to be price tags. However instead of picking up a more refined weapon such as a sword, the giant instead picked up a very worn but still deadly looking club, in fact the thing was so big that it was almost comical in a way, and looked like something out of an old cartoon.

"That's quite the collection" Rem noted a little bit impressed by the sheer variety of weapons and artefacts that the giant had, in fact she was positive that Rom had a collection of weapons that was maybe even greater in number, then the royal guard Garrison in the capital

"Considering his occupation, I'm not surprised but he has a large collection" even Ram was a bit impressed by the sheer variety of weapons, that the giant had accumulated, just from the brief you second that it was on screen, she could identify weapons of almost every type and function, and even a few that was completely foreign to her.

"I guess in a monster outbreak, his place would be the best place to be" Puck added, much like the two demon twins, he was incredibly impressed and also a little bit concerned how the giant had accumulated such a vast weapon collection.

"You know, even I have to give a chuckle at the sight of that thing, it makes you look like a proper barbarian" Subaru couldn't help that smile slightly, however the giant man simply looked at him confused for a moment, before letting out a tired sigh.

"Look where we are boy, everyone around here is just desperate to survive, it's common around here for youngsters to join forces with others, in similar situations to keep themselves alive" Rom stated matter-of-factly, causing the slightly amused expression on Subaru's face to vanish, as the Giants words sank into Subaru's mind, Rom continued from where he left off, directing his gaze at Felt who was still conversing with the unknown client, that was still blocked from site by the door.

"But Felt the little thing, ain't cut out for that, that's why I've gotta look out for her" it was obvious to Subaru that Rom's affection for the little blonde, was quite high he definitely viewed the young girl as his own daughter, wanting what was best for her.

"I was right it is for me" Felt's voice caused by Subaru and Rom to look at her, standing next to her was the client that has come for the Insignia, a woman cladding a strange yet revealing black dress, with a black cloak draped over her shoulders, despite her face being feminine and gentle looking, taking one look into her eyes, revealed that there was no emotion there, they were the eyes of a bloodthirsty predator, a predator that was just waiting to pounce.

W-W-what, T-that's not possible, T-T-that's not H-how it happened Emilia's mind was almost broken by the site, she was expecting to see herself, but instead it was Elsa the bowel Hunter that had entered the building. Emilia grabbed her head with her hands, pulling out her hair, she kept repeating it's not possible that's not how it happened, over and over again, nothing about it made any sense, she remembered walking into the Loot house, and then subsequently being attacked by Elsa, not Elsa being the first to make it to the loot house like she had just seen.

Puck was in a similar state to Emilia, his mouth having long since hit the floor at the site of the bowel Hunter herself, entering the loot house, this was not at all how he remembered everything happening, Emilia and him had been led to the loot house, after asking around the slums, eventually making it there just in time to interrupt the supposed deal between Felt and her "client" to be attacked by Elsa, which if it wasn't thanks for Subaru's quick thinking, Emilia would have most likely had her head separated from her shoulders, again for the little spirit this just reinforced the fact that nothing about Subaru made any sense, these were his memories of cording to the architect, meaning that this is how he experienced everything, but that couldn't be right, considering that his memories supposedly contradicted everyone else's.

"I demand an explanation now!" Ram was equal amounts pissed and confused, she had not been present for the fight at the loot house, but Emilia had filled her in on the chain of events that happened, which is why she couldn't understand why Subaru's memory, completely contradicted everything she have been told, either Emilia was lying or mistaken which was unlikely, or these were not Subaru's genuine memories.

"My sister is correct, I think an explanation is in order" Rem didn't feel as strongly as her sister and Emilia, considering that she knew very little about the incident involving the bowel Hunter, other than what her sister had told her in passing, however she like them wanted an explanation for why Subaru's memories again contradicted the chain of events that had already been established according to both her sister and Emilia's memories.

"These are indeed young Subaru's memories, they have not been tampered with an anyway" the architect terms to address the three girls, despite not wanting to believe it both Rem and Ram, could simply just tell that there was no lies in him what he had said, which in turn simply causing to feel even more confused, because again Subaru's memories had contradicted a established event.

"Liar. . ." it was so quiet that everyone could have sworn it was just the wind.

"Why. . . why!. . . why are you lying!?" it started out quiet, but quickly Emilia's voice picked up an intensity, by the end she was shouting at full volume.

"This is not how it happened, it's just all wrong. . . T-T-this can't be how it happened" tears were freely flowing down Emilia's cheeks now, it was just too much for her, everything she had seen regarding Subaru's memories, completely contradicted her own, nothing about it made any sense now. How could somebody have completely different memories that completely opposed her own, another aspect that made her feel even worse was the possibility that Subaru was lying to her about certain things. He had promised her that he would never lie again, and he seemingly had done it again.

Nobody could say anything after that out Plus, the only sound being the the half elf's prize and sobs, Puck by now have recovered from the shock of Elsa being in the loot house before them, and had made his way over to his contractor, nuzzling her cheek with his nose and head, in a desperate attempt to try and make her feel better.

Rem and Ram both sat there stunned, Emilia was known for being quite emotional, but both of them couldn't remember a time when she had such an outburst of emotion like that. Both of them also couldn't help but think about what the architect had said. He had said to both of them that these were Subaru's unaltered memories, meaning that this is exactly how he experienced everything, which didn't bode well for both of them, considering the supposed death he had experienced earlier.

"Over here, chair to sit down?" Felt gestured to one of the many tables that littered the building.

"There seem to be several outsiders here" the dark haired beauty remarks, Subaru can't help but marvel just how beautiful she actually was, which was also certainly helped along by her outfit which left little to the imagination about her body. However, there was something about her eyes that made Subaru feel very uncomfortable. It was almost as if the gentle smile was nothing but a mask, to hide something truly ugly that may lay underneath.

Rem felt both her envy and anger skyrocket at the same time, envy at the fact that Subaru's internal monologue had just called another woman beautiful that wasn't her, and anger directed towards the bowel Hunter, daring to be in the same room as her beloved, if her demon powers were not being suppressed, then she would have most likely gone into a complete fit of demon possessed anger, from the sheer rage that was beginning to flow through her, like a hot and fiery disease.

"You know, I hate how right he is sometimes" Was all that for the little spirit would say, despite finding very strange that Subaru referred to the bowel Hunter as beautiful of all things, he couldn't help but agree with the fact that despite her seemingly gentle appearance, it was nothing but a mask to hide a truly deranged predator that lay underneath.

"Subaru P-please, just run N-N-now, while you still can" Emilia managed to get out between her sobs, she wanted him to run as far away as possible, and get the hell away from that monster that was only standing feet away from him.

Ram couldn't bring herself to say anything, simply shaking her head in disappointment and a little bit of Sadness, because despite not wanting to believe it. She already had a good idea of what was going to happen, despite all of the evidence to the contrary. It seems this was the end of the road for everyone in that building, even if they didn't know it yet.

"Well, I'd be in trouble if you bilk on me, we weaklings have our own brand of smarts you know" Felt remarks nonchalantly, leaning up against a suit of very heavy looking plate armour, while putting her hands behind her head.

"I know this older fellow, but who's the young man?" the mysterious beauty gestures towards Subaru, which makes him quickly realise that she most likely was not expecting anyone else other than Felt and Rom to be there for the negotiation.

"This guy's your rival, he's the other person negotiating with me for the Insignia" Felt says proudly, as Subaru and the mysterious woman lock eyes of each other, Subaru can't help but feel a shiver ran down his spine, because despite her face being gentle and elegant looking, eyes were completely cold and lifeless, almost made him feel like he was staring into the eyes of a vicious predator analysing every aspect about its new prey.

after making themselves comfortable with Subaru and the woman sitting across from each other, Rom offers the mysterious beauty a glass of milk, obviously trying to be courteous towards their "guest" after taking a long sip from the cup, the woman seems pleased with her beverage, licking her lips which in any other Circumstance Subaru would have found quite erotic, but for some reason it made him even more unsettled by the woman.

"I see now, I understand the situation" the mysterious woman says, putting down her now empty cup, after Felt took the liberty to explain what exactly Subaru was doing there.

"So that means you too will be bidding against each other, to be honest I don't really care who gets the Insignia, so I'll sell it to the highest bidder" Subaru looks over towards Felt out of the corner of his eye, trying to see if she felt the same way he did regarding this mysterious beauty in front of them. Yet she seemed completely unfazed by the woman, which just made Subaru confused because he couldn't understand what exactly about the woman was so unnerving, sure her eyes were kind of scary looking, but considering his own that wasn't really something he could judge her on. But something in his gut told him there was just something off about this woman, as if her very existence was just wrong somehow.

"Hmmmm I'm surprised that Od Laguna, would let such a grotesque being exist" architect mused, not noticing the numerous states that were now being directed towards him, or maybe simply not caring.

"Did you just say. . ." Ram trailed off not quite believing what her ears had just heard.

"Od Laguna!? Rem finished her sister's sentence, her mouth subsequently dropping to the floor.

"Yes I did, why do you ask?" The architect responded not quite understanding what was so shocking about what he'd said .

"I want to believe that you're pulling our legs, but considering it to you, that's probably not the case is it?" Puck lets out a frustrated sigh, his brain beginning to hurt even more now with that piece of information now revealed.

"I do not joke spirit, if you are inquiring about what I just said, then yes I do know Od Laguna, although I have not spoken to them in nearly two-and-a-half centuries" The architect confirmed, much to the little spirits annoyance, meanwhile both Rem and Ram's mouths were both family planted on the floor. As they stared at the architect incomplete bewilderment, not only was this being a god himself, but he also knew the being that was responsible blessing people with divine protections and possibly creating the world itself, on a first name basis no less, even Emilia couldn't help but feel her mouth hit the floor at the revelation

"My head just hurt now" Was all that the little spirit could say, as he rubbed his temples of his paws, in frustrated confusion.

"I can certainly respect the Hustle, so how much did this young man bid?" the mysterious woman gestures to Subaru. Subaru realising it's his time to speak quickly pulled out his phone.

"I'm offering up this metia, it's a rare item, perhaps the only one of it's kind in the world as far as I know" Subaru says this while flipping the phone open, free strangers watching questioningly as he presses a series of buttons, before he holds the device up to the face of the mysterious woman in front of him.

"That muscle man over there, tells me that it's worth no less than twenty holy coins" Subaru finishes this sentence by taking a picture of the woman in front of him, she looks at him questioningly, Subaru then turned the phone around to reveal a picture of her, Subaru can't help the smile slightly most likely thinking that the woman in front of him was impressed by the device.

"A metia. . ." The smile on the woman's face changes just for the briefest of moments, to something a bit more insidious looking, before her neutral pleasant expression returns.

Seriously, there is something really freaky about this woman?

"You idiot, I hate how right you are sometimes" Ram said bitterly, despite not wanting to, she knew it was coming, it was only a matter of time now.

Rem couldn't bring herself to say anything, there was rage and sadness bubbling within her, the rage was directed at two people, most of it was directed towards Elsa the bowel Hunter herself, for daring to be in the same room as her beloved. But there was also a portion that was directed at herself, because she was not there to help her beloved, and the sadness, well that was self-explanatory. The fact that her beloved was in such close proximity to the infamous assassin, meant one thing and one thing only, and that he was not going to make it out of that building in one piece or alive for that matter

"Subaru just run, P-P-please. . ." despite not wanting to admit it, it seems that cold harsh reality had other ideas, the bowel Hunter herself was sitting right across from Subaru less than 2 feet away, the look in the deranged woman's eyes was that of a hungry predator just waiting to carve up the boy in front of her, as if he was a new piece of meat. It was the same look that Elsa had given Emilia during their fight in the loot house, what she saw behind those eyes during the fight, would forever be scarred into her memory, behind those eyes was nothing but the singular Instinct to kill everything around it, and to satisfy its never-ending bloodlust.

"It's going to be alright Lia" Puck repeated trying desperately to make his daughter feel better, but even he by this point couldn't bring himself to believe his own words, the fact that Subaru was so close to her meant only one thing , and that was that everyone in that room including Subaru was going to die.

"As it happens, My client sent me some extra funds for the transaction" the mysterious woman sends a smile Subaru's way, but instead of making him feel great, that a beautiful woman had smiled at him, the smile just sent a shiver down his spine, however a realisation about what she had just said suddenly struck Subaru, as the woman continue to speak "so young man I be prepared to sweeten the deal if I was you"

"Wait, The client, so that means you're here as a proxy?"

With that piece of information revealed, things were beginning to make a bit more sense to Subaru, the person that wanted the Insignia was most likely someone of higher class, as a result they had sent a middleman or middle woman in this case to collect it, instead of dirty their own hands by doing so.

"That's right, the client is the one who wants the Insignia, I'm simply here to collect it" the woman pauses for a moment seeming to examine Subaru, her eyes running up and down his body, but for just the briefest of moments her eyes seemed to linger on his belly region. It was certainly strange to say the least, and it was so quick that Subaru wouldn't have noticed it unless he was looking directly at her. "Would you happen to be in the same business young man?"

"Being in the same business as me would mean being unemployable!" does another one of his trademark hand gestures but after his words there was an uncomfortable silence for a moment, as Felt, Rom and the mysterious woman all look at him in confusion.

There was nothing left that anyone could say, Emilia was too busy crying to herself, the idea of losing her pressure Subaru, one of the few bright lights in the eternal darkness that was her life, disturbed her greatly, in fact just thinking about it was enough to make her cry even harder, Puck bless his little spirit heart was trying to comfort his he's a surrogate daughter, as much as he could, but even now he couldn't help but think why was all this happening, because this is not how it went at all according to His and his daughter's memory.

Rem and Ram felt a myriad of emotions, Ram felt sickened and disturbed by what she was seeing, that Subaru would experience such a fate, that she wouldn't even wish on her worst enemy, sickened to hurt stomach, as well as making her heart hurts just a little bit, because even if they didn't get along most of the time, after all of the time she had spent with him, she had come to view him somewhat as an annoying brother, rather than somebody that was completely detestable which had been her original impression of him when made first met. But above all of the emotion even now her analytical mind was racing, trying to figure out how exactly Subaru could make it out of a situation like this, and more importantly why the hell his memory was completely different to everyone else's, because the events that she had seen so far in the loot house, had completely contradicted both Emilia's and pucks recollection of events.

Rem meanwhile was almost ready to throw herself out of her seat, and jump at the screen in a blind rage, the fact that this monster was sitting across from her beloved so casually as she eyed him up, as if he was some exotic animal that was to be butchered, caused her blood to boil, but almost as equal to the anger and rage, was the horror and concern, which was because Subaru was unknowingly sitting across from one of the most deadly and brutal assassins in the world, and he didn't even know it. No, that was a lie, they had heard his thoughts, something in his gut was telling him that this woman in front of him was bad news, but he was giving her the benefit of the doubt much like Subaru would.

"Yeah. . . so this unemployed guy has named a price, that puts him far in the lead, what price is your client putting on it then?" Felt says excitedly, the mysterious woman says nothing instead retrieving a small leather bag, loosening the tie knot at the top, she empties his contents on the table, to Felt and Subaru's shock it's a pile of brilliant silver coins, that even in the dim light seem to shine brightly. Even Rom is surprised, as he goes to count the coins, after a moment of dividing them up, there was exactly 4 groups of 5, which much to Subaru's dismay meant that there was 20 holy coins on the table right now, which was exactly the same amount that his phone was worth according to the old man.

"Twenty exactly" Rom reaffirms much to Subaru's disappointment, however Rom looks at him incredulously, as if Subaru just offended him by simply being there.

"The world is really just kicking him, when he's down isn't it?" Puck couldn't quite believe it honestly, everything he had seen so far, just proved to him that Subaru was perhaps the most unlucky person to have ever lived, from literally being plucked from his own world dumped into a completely new one, all the way to staring down perhaps one of the most deadly and bloodthirsty assassin's in the world, without even realising it, it just seen that Subaru couldn't catch a break.

if that woman. . . no that thing! lays a finger on him... I'll. . .I'll" couldn't bring herself to finish her sentence, despite being incredibly strong with her horn, even she was in doubt that she could beat the infamous bowel Hunter in a straight one-on-one fight. Other than Lord Roswaal, the only person she could conceivably see, battling the bow Hunter on an even playing field, would probably be Garfiel, the shield of the Sanctuary, and even then, she doubted that he could beat her in a fight, despite how strong he was.

As Rem continued to seethe and mald, in regards to not being able to protect her beloved. The architect continue to piece things together in his brain, so far he had a basic outline of what was going on, it seem that young Subaru had some kind of ability to rewind time, although the exact nature of how is ability work was still a mystery to him, for example he couldn't be sure if it was a completely uncomfortability or if Subaru had Direct control over it, it was simply too early to make a judgement on that.

But there was also something else nagging him, that being the fact the flow of the world had been drastically changed from what it was originally meant to be, which wasn't uncommon considering that causality was a fickle thing. Always changing and flowing depending on the actions of everyday people, but this kind of change was so large that it almost bent the entirety of causality in half. Of course there were many explanations for such a thing happening, however the one that the architect feared the most was that somebody was directly missing with the flow of causality. And if there was one thing that made the architect furious, it was individuals messing with the very flow of causality, to suit their own ends.

Emilia through all of this was much the same as before, the tears didn't stop, nor did the horrifying sickening feeling that was eating away at her heart, what she was seeing right now she couldn't understand, it just didn't make any sense. It completely contradicted everything she remembered, and despite wanting to believe that these were simply false memories, the architect's words of these being Subaru's on altered memories kept ringing in her ears, which despite not wanting to believe so left no doubt. That what she was seeing right now is exactly how Subaru remembered events happening, which two horror may have also included the strange supposing death he had experienced in the loot house.

"These are all of the holy coins that my employer sent me with, is it not quite enough" the mysterious woman asks seemingly innocently, however again there was just something about her that is really off-putting for Subaru, almost as if that gentle and elegant looking face was nothing but a facade the hide something much more disgusting in grotesque.

"Toughen up boy! don't make such a pathetic face!" Rom did not resort to shouting, but his voice definitely had a hard edge to it, as he addressed Subaru, in a similar manner to how a strict father would.

"I told you that your metia is worth no less than twenty coins, as I see it, the deal is leaning towards the boy" As soon as the words leave the giant's mouth Subaru can't help but feel his mouth open in shock, I've done it?. . . I. . . I really did it! is what he thought that very moment, a feeling of relief and excitement welling up within him.

"As for you miss, unfortunately for you and your employer I'm afraid you've missed out on this one, I think it's best you bag up your coins and leave" there is silence for a moment, as the words sink in, the mysterious woman giving a pleasant smile, that could fool someone into believing that she was accepting the loss with humility. However Subaru didn't care about that at this point, as he began to tremble much to the confusion of all around him, finally he jumped up from his seat, shouting at the top of his lungs

Hall yeah!

"Idiot, just grab the Insignia get out of there" Ram said with a certain amount of hastiness to her voice, something deep down inside her told her that something was going to happen any moment now, how's the results she was preparing herself for what was to come, because considering Subaru's company, meant that whatever was going to happen certainly wouldn't be good.

Much of Rem's rage and anger had been replaced by horror and sadness, horror at what was most likely going to happen to her beloved, and a deep sense of sadness and loathing, that was born because there was nothing she could do to help him. As well as not being able to be there to protect him. In fact it made her sick to her stomach, for the fact that her beloved was literally in the jaws of death, with that beast of a woman Standing only a couple feet away from him, and there was not a single thing that the blue-haired oni could do about it.

Emilia was in a similar state, despite her tears having long been exhausted, but her whimpering cries did not end, she desperately wanted to turn her head away from the screen, to not see what was about to happen. But as if possessed by some ungodly force, she could not tear her eyes away from the screen and the events that were unfolding on it, she was quite literally watching the person that was most precious to her, walk into the jaws of death. Just to retrieve a stupid insignia for her. These revelations simultaneously broke her heart even more and made her affection for Subaru grow exponentially. The fact that he was willing to put his very life on the line just to retrieve something that in the grand scheme of things was completely useless and had no value, spoke more words then all of the libraries in the world could contain.

complete silence is all that follows Subaru's outburst, the mysterious woman, Rom and Felt all looking at him with a confused expression, probably wondering something along the lines of what is with this kid? However eventually Subaru realises what he had just done, his cheeks reddening slightly as he looked around and all of the confused looks being directed his way.

"Wh-What? what's wrong with a little victory pose, I'm psyched right now!" Subaru stutters out, feeling incredibly embarrassed about what he had just done, god I'm such a cringey idiot dammit, was the only thoughts that kept repeating over and over in his head.

"No one said anything big bro" Felt said matter-of-factly, obviously finding his behaviour a bit strange but not really being the kind of person to judge, at least that's what Subaru hoped anyway. "Go as crazy as you want, I don't care as long as I get my profit"

with the transaction now over, the mysterious woman gone up from her seat, placing the Maori sealed bag of coins back into her cloak, despite the mysterious woman being incredibly unnerving for him, Subaru decided that it would lease be polite and apologise, for making her come all this way just to get nothing.

"Hey I'm not sure if I ever got your name, but I'm sorry for making you come all this way just to get nothing, I hope your employer doesn't get angry at you" Subaru rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, which the woman immediately picked up on giving another smile that seems to be one of the acceptance, yet still made Subaru really uncomfortable.

"My name is Elsa, and it's quite alright young man, it's my employers fault for trying to underpay in the negotiation, so there's no harm done" the woman now revealed as Elsa spoke, her voice was soft sweet and elegant, yet something about her voice made a shiver ran down Subaru's the spine, as she looked into his eyes, again those eyes had no emotion behind them, they seem to only be possessed by one instinct, and that was the Instinct to kill. Subaru also noticed out of the corner of his eye, Rom momentarily jumped when the stranger revealed her name, his eyes widening in surprise and maybe just a little bit of horror? before he shook his head as if dismissing something the only he was privy to.

"He's a real goofball isn't he?" Puck gave a few nervous laughs, obviously in a vain attempt to try and lift to the negative atmosphere that overtaken everyone, yet much like he predicted it didn't do anything, Emilia continue to cry silently to herself, Ram continue to shake her head indignantly, a look of sadness making its way down to her face surprisingly, and Rem still looked like she was somewhere between rage and sadness, her face contorted in between those two emotions, yet never completely settling on just one, little spirit looked over to the architect and despite not seeing his face, even he could tell this seemingly god like entity was beginning to feel very unnerved about the entire situation.

However what Puck didn't know was that the architect was unnerved for a completely different reason, and that was the fact that he had come to a disturbing realisation about Subaru's seemingly time travelling ability. Considering the evidence he had seen earlier, originally he had tentatively concluded that the ability was subconsciously activated, when Subaru was on the verge of dying, but another realisation had struck him like a cannon blast. That being that maybe Subaru's time travel ability wasn't even under his control to begin with, and instead was being controlled by an outside factor. Despite needing evidence to conclusively prove his conclusion, the architect for the first time in centuries felt a shudder run down his spine, because of this hypothesis was true, then that meant that somebody was quite literally messing with the flow of time, using the poor boy Subaru has some kind of anchor point for this ability.

"Well this deal has ended in disappointment for me, so I'll be taking my leave now" Elsa says after finishing the remainder of her milk, putting putting the cut down on the table and licking her lips, that if Subaru was in any other situation right now he would have found quite erotic, "But her doing it just send a shiver down his the way, I am immensely curious what do you plan to do with bath Insignia, now that you have it?"

"oh I'm going to find the owner and return it to her"

The silence that followed Subaru's statement was so quiet, that a pin drop would have sounded like a cannon blast going off. Subaru looked around confused, not quite understanding what everyone was looking at him strangely, however his pupils suddenly shrink as his face turns white as a sheet, realisation suddenly striking him full force.

Both Rom and Felt look at him confused, but he was not paying attention to them right now, in fact it was Elsa the mysterious beauty in front of him who had his full attention, the look in her eyes and change for the first time since entering the building. Instead of being emotionless like they had been before, they changed to something that could almost be described as sadistic glee, her pleasant almost innocent looking expression morphing into something much more sadistic and deranged.

"Oh. . . So you're with them"

Ram turned her head away, she did not want to see this. She did not want to see someone be butchered by that monster, especially somebody that meant something to her and her sister.

"Subaru! R-run!" Emilia managed to shout, she noticed it immediately, the slight change in Elsa's posture, the ever so slight ruffling of her cloak, indicating she was ready in her weapon, and most importantly they look on her face, it was the look of a predator that is finally found its prey and was ready to strike and disembowell them. At this very moment Emilia felt completely powerless, there was nothing she could do, even if she could somehow forget about the fear in her heart, there was nothing she could do to help Subaru now, it was truly the end of the road for him despite her not wanting to admit it.

Rem was in much the same state as Emilia, despite all of the anger and sadness there was not a single thing she could do to help her beloved, she was completely powerless to help him, against that monster in front of him.

Subaru didn't even have the time to register what she just said, because he was suddenly tackled by somebody, both of them landing on a hard wooden floor with a loud thump, after getting his bearings for a moment Subaru looked over to find out who it was, only to see that it was Felt looking at him with a look of both relief and confused anger.

"Wh-What?"

"Do you want to die, idiot" Felt responded, Subaru couldn't understand what she was talking about, yet the fear that was action day her pretty little face was evident, however before any words could leave his mouth, Else's sickly sweet voice made itself known.

"Oh my. you managed to dodge my strike"

If it was possible Subaru his face paled even more, when he noticed what the woman was holding in her outstretched hand. It was a large deadly looking curved blade, it's cutting-edge so sharp that it looked like it could cut through the very air itself, in fact the edge looked so Sharp, that the edge reflected the light around it, making it look as if it was almost glowing.

Sh-She's trying to kill me! was the only thought that ran through his head at that very moment, as the confusion turned into full-blown fear.

Seeing the look on his face broke her heart, in the little time that Emilia actually knew Subaru, she had almost never seen him actually act scared about something, to see the look on his face right here and now, made her heart hurt. Knowing that he has been pulled from his own world, tried to help someone out of the goodness of his heart, only to have them lie to him in some feeble attempt to drive him away, then experience a strangely visit premonition about his own dead, and finally facing down one of the deadliest assassins in the world and being completely powerless to do anything to protect himself. It was all just too much for her, the tears that had long since dried began to flow again. She brought a hand up to her mouth to try and quiet her cries, she desperately wanted to look away, but again as if possessed by some otherworldly force she couldn't tear her eyes away.

Rem by this point could not hold back her own tears, although instead of being purely born from Sadness, her tears were a mixture of sadness, rage and Hate, the rage and hate directed towards that awful vile monster that dared to be in the same room as her beloved, and the sadness was obvious. To see her beloved face contort into one of complete fear, broke her heart into a million pieces, it also brought back unpleasant memories for her, particularly the one where he was at his absolute lowest, begging her to run away with him. He was so defeated then that it was almost like looking at a completely different person. Despite helping him to overcome his sadness and self-loathing, the look on his face that day would forever be etched into a memory, and now that memory was brought back to the surface by the look of pure unadulterated horror that was on her beloved's face.

however a loud war cry is suddenly heard, with something smashing straight into the spot where Elsa was standing, it was so quick that Subaru almost didn't catch it , the thing that had destroyed the spot where Elsa was originally standing, was quickly revealed to be that of Rom's massive club, however Elsa suddenly appeared from nowhere landing on the table elegantly, before Rom quickly smash the spot where she was standing again, this time Subaru managed to catch her backflipping through the air elegantly.

"This is my first time battling to the death of a giant" Elsa landed elegantly on the bar, as Rom pulled his club from the now destroyed remnant of the table.

"It's disgusting, how she takes enjoyment in this" Ram spat, how words full of venom and vitriol end towards the deranged assassin. despite never having met her face to face, all of the stories that were told of Elsa the bowel Hunter, said that she was somebody who revelled in the thrill of the kill, always disembowelling her enemies, as if it was some kind of sick obsession, Ram was no stranger to killing people, get even when killing her worst enemies the witch cult, she did not take enjoyment from ending their lives, because to do so would make her a monster just like Elsa.

"She is truly a despicable being. . . No, plain and simple she is an abomination of nature" the architect mused, even he couldn't help but feel revolted by looking at this woman, she was quite literally an abomination nothing more and nothing less, calling her a person would be an insult to all living creatures with sentiments, because this woman was driven by one instinct and that was to kill everything in front of her for her own sick and twisted pleasure.

"Yeah, that's a pretty accurate observation" Puck words were hard and harsh, his voice had long since lost it cute almost harmless sound, no it was replaced by a hard ominous edge, but the same time his voice wavered slightly, because of his connection with Emilia, he could feel every emotion that she was feeling including the immense amount of sadness and grief that was flowing through her right now.

Quiet, little girl! I'll grind you up and feed you to the rats!" Rom retorted as he brought his club down again hoping to squash the annoying woman, however she again avoided the club by millimetres, as it came crashing down on the spot when she was standing, pulling his club out of the destroyed bar Rom renewed his attack on the assassin, hoping to get a clean hit in somewhere, however much to his annoyance she kept avoiding his strikes causing him to simply destroy the area around him.

As the two of them continued to fight, Felt and Subaru had managed to pull themselves off the floor, both of them obviously on guard watching the fight from a far, Subaru immediately noticed the giant was at a disadvantage, despite having incredible power, his strikes were slow and predictable even for someone like him. So Elsa, who looked More skilled and was faster than everyone in this room, had absolutely no trouble avoiding his hits, in fact judging from the smile on her face it almost looks like she was enjoying this, as if she was a predator taking joy in toying with its prey.

"Seems Rom, is a lot more proficient at combat than I would have thought" Ram pointed out her observation, mostly as an attempt to distract her and everyone else from the morbid conclusion that was most likely going to occur, at the same time she was also silently rooting for the Giant, to hold a true on his words and grind up the deranged assassination into dust.

"Indeed you are correct, I am quite surprised by the combat prowess of this giant" The architect added, he immediately understood what the pink head oni was trying to do, and decided that for everyone else is saying he would play along, although sadly he already knew where this was going to end.

"R-Rom kill her now, D-don't let her A-anywhere near Subaru!" Emilia managed to get out between her sobs, much to the surprise and shock of Rem, Ram and especially Puck who honestly for the life of him couldn't remember the last time he had heard his daughter wish death on anyone, even her own enemies.

"This isn't good!" The fear was evident in Subaru's voice as he watched Elsa and Rom continue their battle across the entire loot house.

"Don't worry, there's no way that Old Man Rom is going to lose to someone like her" Felt says with confidence, yet even with that confidence Subaru could tell that she was just as scared as he was.

"Take this!" Rom screamed at the top of his lungs, as he pulled back his massive club, ready to strike the assassin that was directly in front of him. then something happened, something that was so quick that Subaru didn't even catch it, one second Rom arm was attached to his body, the next it was completely severed from the shoulder up flying through the air leaving a trail of blood in its wake, the look on Rom's face was complete horror and agony mixed with confusion at what had just happened.

"Old Man Rom!" Felt screamed as the severed arm landed on the floor with a loud thump causing blood to fly everywhere, a small amount of which landed directly on Felt's horrified face and Subaru's legs and lower body staining his tracksuit a deep red colour.

Any semblance of a positive or hope atmosphere vanished in that moment, Else's blade had completely gone through his arm bone and all without any resistance, leaving a perfectly smooth gory looking stump, where Rom's arm was attached just seconds ago.

Emilia felt her stomach flip, causing a wave of nausea to overcome her, after witnessing Rom's arm be separated from his body, in a shower of blood. but it was quickly forgotten when she saw the horrified expression on Subaru's face, it was a look of pure horror and fear. seeing such an expression on Subaru's face caused her heart to shatter again, causing even more tears to begin to leak from her eyes .

Rem could not bring herself to say anything, anger and rage completely absent, as a horrible realisation finally set in, causing her face to pale, and her stomach to flip. Once Elsa was done brutalising Rom, she would quickly move on to the other two occupants, that including her beloved Subaru. That's when the tears began to flow, tears of anger, rage as well as sadness and horror, this was truly the end of the line for her beloved. And there was nothing she could do about it, looking at the screen the image of his frightened face would forever be scarred into the back of her mind.

Ram simply said nothing, choosing to look away from the screen, a look of mild revulsion and horror spreading across her face, she didn't want to see this, she didn't want to see someone, especially Subaru be brutalised by that thing that dared to call itself a human being.

Puck was in much the same situation as the pink head oni, choosing to look away from the screen, and his little furry face, twisted into one of contained anger and horror, despite him and Subaru not getting on most of the time, the boy certainly had a soft spot in his heart, so to see him face down the dreaded bowel Hunter, what's something that the little spirit did not want to see.

"Damn it!" Subaru could see Rom's face complete absolute agony, as he clutched the stump where his arm used to be, blood gushing from between his clenched fingers, yet remarkably the giant did not collapse, his face contorted from absolute agony Into complete rage and anger, the pain seemingly fuelling him to keep going, as he stared down the woman in front of him, which much to Subaru's horror there was still blood dripping from her blade.

"Oh I almost forgot-" Elsa said in an almost sing-song-like voice, but Rom cut her off before she could continue.

"I can at least take you with me you little Bitch" Rom charges at the woman, just for the briefest of moments Subaru felt hope in his heart, thinking that maybe this was it, however that quickly vanished when Elsa did something unexpected. Instead of running or dodging she simply held her arm directly in front of her, and almost instantly the giant stopped his advance. Subaru watched in horror as blood began to dash down Rom's front, soaking into his white chest hair turning it completely red.

"thank you for the milk"

With those words Elsa twisted her grip slightly, causing more blood to gush from the old Giants neck, Subaru felt his stomach twist as blood began to leak from the Giant's mouth, before he finally puked up a large amount of blood as a result of his severed neck. Finally done before brutal execution Elsa simply let The old giant fall backwards, his now limp body landing on the floor of a loud thump, as blood continued to dash from his neck staining his clothes and forming a pool of red beneath him. The look of complete sadistic pleasure on Elsa's face would forever be scarred into Subaru's memory; she's not human… She's a monster!

The site of so much blood was too much for Emilia to handle, quickly a hot viral sensation rose up from her stomach and up her throat. She tried with all of her might to resist, but it was too much.

Everyone immediately noticed Emilia's face turn slightly Green, but before any of them could ask if she was alright, a torrent of bile and half digested food came through from her mouth, Rem and Ram sat there momentarily stunned unable to do anything as they watched the half elf puke her guts up, Puck was it much the same position to shocked to do anything or even move, as his daughter was violently sick.

"Lia!" Puck was finally able to move, quickly rushing to her side, despite not having a digestive system like a human being or similar creature, the little spirit knew that the best thing to do when someone was being sick was to rub their back gently, so that's exactly what he did, his face grimacing every time he heard his daughter unload another another wave of disgusting bile.

The architect by this point had moved from his position as well, coming to stand next to the half elf, just in case she needed any kind of assistance. Puck noticed this and despite not getting along with the god gave him a look of thanks and gratitude, which the architect reciprocated with a subtle nod of the head.

After one final wave of nausea and coughing, Emilia managed to regain control of her stomach, she looks to her left to see Puck looking at her with a face of concern and worry, she didn't need to say anything for him to understand how she was feeling, the thoughts and feelings sent through their mutual connection was enough to tell him exactly how she felt.

"Are you alright young Emilia?" The architect asked, surprisingly everyone could pick up just the tiniest amount of concern in his voice. Emilia on top of the strange god, despite everything that happened, it seems that being in his very presence had a calming effect on her, for just a moment the nausea, sadness and horror was gone, replaced by a brief moment of complete blissful nothingness. Which Emilia appreciated immensely, which she showed by giving a shaky nod of the head, to show that she was for the moment anyway fine, although the same thing cannot be said for her dress which was completely ruined, as a result of having been covered in half digested food and bile.

T-T-thank you" Emilia managed to get out between her coughs, the bile that had just been in her mouth a moment to go, leaving a horrible aftertaste, as well as a burning sensation in her mouth and throat.

"Your gratitude is graced, young one" The architect replied, returning his attention back to the on-screen events. Emilia really didn't want to do the same, but she had promised that she would be strong for Subaru, so with a great amount of effort she turned her gaze back towards the screen.

"Oh! where are my manners, I forgot to return this to you" Elsa said with a fake innocent and cute voice, the sadistic sarcasm practically dripping from her voice, as she put down the deadly instruments, that had taken the Old Giants life, in an ironic twist it was the very same glass that the giant had given her, and had been used to end his life.

"You Bitch. . . how dare you?" Felt rose to her feet, her voice was full of grief and rage, as her face was obscured by shadow, Subaru watched in fear as the girl shook letting off a quiet sob along with a single tear running down her cheek, before she turned to look at him, an unapologetic yet grief-stricken look on her face.

"Oh I see, it seems you have more courage than your friend there" Elsa said mockingly, Subaru felt a shiver run down his spine, as the deadly woman locked eyes with him and Felt, her gaze was almost like that of a hungry predator evaluating its next meal. "If you resist me little girl, you might get hurt"

"You'll just kill me even if I don't fight back, you crazy Bitch!" Felt words were bitter, laced with white hot rage and grief, despite the tears that were beginning to form in the corner of her eyes, Subaru could see the young girl's face harden, a look of absolute animalistic rage making its way onto her face, as she stared down the deranged woman in front of both of them.

Emilia felt her heart ache, knowing just how close Felt was to Rom, seeing the young girl not being able to breathe over the loss of her grandfather for a lack of a better term, made something inside Emilia break, despite not having a traditional family like most, Emilia understood that losing a family member especially the only family member you had, could literally destroy someone emotionally, losing the one thing that you cared about the most was something that she wouldn't wish on anyone, even her worst enemy.

Rem and Ram were much the same, in fact it brought back very unpleasant memories for both of them, both of them had lost their family and their entire village a long time ago, so both of them knew exactly what the young girl was going through at this exact moment, the grief loss, anger, Sadness, confusion, and all of the other emotions that came of losing a family member, they could see all of those emotions flash through her eyes, as the old giant's life came to an abrupt and violent end right in front of her eyes, even worse for her was that she didn't even have a moment to grieve the loss of her family member, because of Elsa the bowel Hunter, Rom's murderer was standing right in front of her, mocking her about about the old giant's death.

"If you move around little girl, my hands might slip, I'm quite rough at handling blade you see" The mocking tone in else's voice was evident, as she twirled one of her blades around her hands, despite her facial expression not changing Subaru could tell that she was enjoying every moment of this, as if torturing people before their deaths, was the thing she lived for.

"She's nothing more than a blood starved Beast" Ram said quietly, her face contorted into one of barely contained anger and discussed, truly this woman. . . no this thing was as despicable as they come, not even the most vile which consist torture their enemies like this, it also made the pink haired oni think how such a creature to come to exist in the world, what would drive a person to become something like that, was it an accident in the past or was Elsa the simply born that way? it was a question that she knew would never be answered, but nonetheless it still plagued her mind.

"Your right sister, she's truly psychotic" The rage and discussed in Rem voice was very evident, as she stared daggers of the screen which portrayed Elsa, this woman was truly a despicable creature, deriving on the pain of others, gaining some kind of sick pleasure from it, the witch cult in the blue-haired oni's was the personification of evil, yet this woman seemed to outdo everything they had ever done to her and her sister as well as the other countless innocence. In fact despite her current mindset, Rem found it kinda remarkable in a morbid way, that a single person could outdo an entire organisation when it came to cruelty inflicted upon others.

"Sorry you got caught up in this big bro" Felt says, despite managing to keep an even tone, the tears beginning to form at the corner of her eyes were extremely evidence. Before Subaru could ask or say anything, the little blonde disappeared instantly, a strong gust of wind following her disappearance, Subaru then looked on in shock as Felt seemingly materialised right next to Elsa almost the exact same second she had vanished from her spot in front of him. Subaru saw Felt bring down the short sword in a downward slash, yet to his horror Elsa dodged it without seeming to use any effort whatsoever, time seems to slow for both Subaru and Felt, As Subaru watched the expression on the young girl's face morph into one of confusion and then horror.

"How wonderful, it seems that you are truly loved by the world, I envy you truly"

It happened so quickly that Subaru couldn't even register the movements, one second Elsa was standing completely still, the next she was a blur of movement, delivering a brutal downward slash to the young blonde, completely cutting her open from neck to pelvis. Subaru watched in absolute horror and disgust as the world slowed down, the expression on Felt was one of pure agony, as she fell to the floor with a loud thump, her blood and internal organs spilling everywhere.

"Felt!" Emilia screamed, as she watched the young girl's life come to a brutal end, at the hands of Elsa. again her heart broke, seeing the young fiery free spirit of a girl, having her life ended in such a fashion, made Emilia feel a new emotion, this no emotion was anger, no it wasn't just anger, it was pure white hot rage, directed at Elsa the bowel Hunter. In fact, for the first time in a very long time, Emilia wanted nothing more than to kill the assassin with her own hands, to end her life so that no more innocent people could be slaughtered at the hands of Elsa.

Puck felt all of these emotions coming from his daughter, despite him understanding where is emotions were coming from, he couldn't help but feel just a little bit shocked, at the fact that his daughter, perhaps one of the kindest most understanding and forgiving person in the world , truly and utterly wanted to end the life of another living being.

Ram and Rem both looked away from the screen, in complete revulsion and discussed, at the exact moment the little blonde's life came to an end, they didn't want to witness such a young girl have her life snuffed out in such a fashion, buy some crazy deranged.

"The old man and little girl have fallen, yet you remain still, have you already given up boy?" Elsa's words cause Subaru to look away for Felt mutilated body, looking into elsa's eyes, Subaru felt his fear Skyrocket even further, do spike be still pleasant smile being on her face, her eyes were nothing but that of a cold insatiable bloodlust, in fact he could practically feel the murderous intent in her gaze.

"D-Damn it..." Subaru finally gets his feet, his entire body shaking like a leaf, as he stares down the deranged murderer in front of him, Elsa noticing that he finally gotten up, lets out a pleasurable sigh, as if this was exactly what she wanted to happen.

"Oh, you finally have the courage to stand, cutting you open is going to be less fun because you took so long, but still, not bad" as the words leave her mouth, Subaru feels a shiver ran down his spine, because it really didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what exactly she meant by "fun"

What am I going to do! If I run she's just going to come after me This thought kept bouncing around inside Subarus head, as the silence between him and the assassin dragged on.

Damn it! Rom and Felt stood no chance but I've got no choice With that final thought, Subaru suddenly let out a loud battle cry, charging directly at the murderers assassin, with a look of fear on his face, as he ready his fists to strike her.

everyone felt their breath hitch in their throats, it was finally The Moment of Truth, there were a myriad of thoughts going through everyone's mind at this very moment, all Emilia could think about was the sadness and horror of seen Subaru literally fear for his life, in fact it broke her heart seeing the horrified expression on his face. Yet in that moment she made another of many promises, that she would never let Subaru have such an expression again, and that she would always keep him safe, even if the world itself was against him, she would stand by him no matter what.

Rem was in much the same position as the half elf, watching her beloved literally quiver in fear for his life, broke something inside her, she had always seen him as a pillar of strength, even when he was an absolute lowest, he always somehow managed to turn it around, all she could do now was pray to herself, that this was another one of those times where he would be able to turn it around at the last moment.

Ram wanted to say that he was an idiot for charging directly at a deadly assassin like Elsa, but considering his options, she couldn't really bring herself to say it, if he had chosen to run, Elsa would have easily caught him and gutted him because of her massive speed advantage, before he would even make it ten steps, so him choosing to stand his ground and fight despite being at a disadvantage was incredibly foolish, but at the same time was also incredibly brave and commendable.

"So that's how it is then" Elsa said quietly as Subaru closed the distance between them, however before he could even think about delivering of strike, Elsa quickly delivered a hard punch his face followed up by a very hard kick to his abdomen, causing Subaru to fly back but somehow managing to stay on his feet, as he coughed and hunched over from the sheer pain, her kick was so hard that it took the very wind out of him.

Damm it, that fucking hurt, just how strong is she!?

"Your determination is admirable, but ultimately meaningless though, you're clearly a novice, and your movements are rough and unrefined, and you clearly have no blessings or techniques" Elsa let out a disappointed sigh, as if she was expecting Subaru to be more efficient at fighting than he actually was. Subaru meanwhile was still hunched over, trying to catch his breath Elsa's puncture was so hard that it completely shattered his nose causing blood to begin to leak from it, running down his face in two dark red streams.

"You Bitch!" Rem screamed at the top of her lungs, as she went to move, luckily though Ram was much quicker as she grabbed her sister and prevented her from charging straight at the screen, intent on completely tearing the assassin apart. Luckily whatever force the architect had used to bring them here, seemingly deactivated her sister's horn in the process, which caused Ram to let out a silent sigh of relief, as she struggled to hold her sister back, as she continued to scream and rage at what was happening on screen.

Emilia was in much the same position, seeing Subaru be hurt by the assassin call something to snap within her, her eyes despite the tears hardened into a menacing glare that could send a shiver down even the bravest knight, if it wasn't for the same force that had taken away Rem's demon powers, then Emilia was very certain, that the entire room along with everyone in it would be completely frozen solid, because right now there was only one thought in her brain, and that was to protect Subaru at all costs, even if it meant giving up her own life to do so.

"What a truly despicable creature" the architect said quietly to himself, despite him not feeling emotion in the same way that a human does, even he was disgusted by the woman, everything about her was a complete or front to the natural order, in fact if it didn't cause extreme consequences he would have personally erased her from existence, as punishment for what she had done to so many others. but alas there were rules that he had to follow, meaning that unfortunately the deranged assassin would exist for another day.

"You can say that again pal" the tone in Puck's voice had a hard edge to it, watching Elsa toy with Subaru in such a manner, caused his blood to boil, which combined with the emotions that were coming from Emilia through their connection, cause the little spirit to feel almost white hot rage towards the assassin.

"I was hoping I could squeeze some information out of you, but you clearly like any knowledge regarding the situation, so I suppose you were just in the wrong place at the wrong time" the disappointment in else's voice was palpable, yet her sadistic smile did not disappear, as she spins one of her blades around in her hands, seemingly just itching to gut Subaru like a fish.

"Shut up! at least I still have my pride, after you've put me through all of this..." Subaru managed to say between between the bursts of pain in his stomach and face, as he brought his head up to stair down the assassin, however a thought some me occurred to him, something about what the assassin had said, sounded eerily familiar, that's when it finally clicked for him, the voice he had heard when he had supposedly died, was almost identical to Elsa's voice.

"You certainly are determined I'll give you that, perhaps if you had shown up sooner, things might have done differently for these two" The mocking tone in Else's voice Returned fullforce, as she gestured to both Rom and Felt's mutilated corpses, despite his revelation regarding Elsa, Subaru's eyes lingered on both of them, feeling an immense amount of guilt for both of them, because maybe if he hadn't shown up they might have both been able to live.

"Why. . . H-How could she do that do them" Emilia said through gritted teeth, seeing the mutilated body of the young energetic blonde and her giant adopted grandfather, brought sadness to Emilia's heart, but it also brought an immense amount of rage, why did someone so young and full of life, can somebody that despite his appearance was incredibly kind and understanding, had to have the lives come to an end in such a way? why was the world that cruel? and why do the person like Elsa, someone who caused misery and sadness to everyone around her need to exist

"There's no rhyme or reason to it Lia, some people just exist to bring misery and death" Puck affirmed, his words were not sugar coated in the slightest, what he said was simply the truth of the world. for all of the good that existed in the world, there was usually an equal or greater amount of pure darkness that existed, in other words for every holy saint there would be at least five devils.

"Puck is right lady Emilia, some people just exist to cause misery, it's just the nature of the world I'm afraid, I should know from the experience" Ram added in, as she continued to restrain her sister, who was still screaming and raging at what else had been done to Subaru. the pink head oni also lowered her head slightly, her eyes darkened, the horrible memories came flooding back to her, she and her sister knew above everyone else, just how cruel the world truly was, in fact in all of her years on this earth, she had learnt that for every good action, there was usually at least ten bad ones committed.

"It still isn't right. . . it just isn't" Emilia gritted her teeth again, hot and angry tears mixed with sorrow and rage welling up in the corners of eyes, it just wasn't fair, the world itself wasn't there.

"That's just how it is Lia. . . that's just how it is" Puck said quietly, as Emilia's negative emotions crashed into his own, combining into a maelstrom of anger, rage and sadness, which he was certain that if he was in the real world right now, would have caused his magic to go out of control at this point.

"If there were no rules in place that I must follow, I would gladly erase her from existence" the architect mused, finding the very existence of this woman as an affront to all that was decent.

"Wait! you can do that!?" Puck replies looking at the architect with a raised eyebrow, despite him finally believing that this being in front of him was a god, surely he did not have the power to completely erase somebody from existence.

"Indeed I can" Was all that the architect said in response, his answer caused Emilia and Ram to look at him in surprise, the anger and rage both of them felt momentarily disappearing, as they were overcome with complete shock and surprise at the fact that he could perform such a feat.

"If you can then why do-" Emilia stopped mid-sentence as the architect held up a hand to silence her, turning his gaze towards her, Emilia felt a shiver ran down her spine, yet unlike before the overbearing feeling that his gaze exuded was not as intense, she wasn't completely sure if that was simply because she had gotten used to it or he was actively replacing it in some way.

"I could do such a thing if I wished, but there are rules in place that I must follow young one, erasing someone from existence is not as simple as making them not exist" the architect pause for a moment, steaming to think of the best way to explain the concept to the mortals that were in his presence. "if I was to erase Elsa the bowel Hunter from existence, it would cause a butterfly Effect, that could possibly spell the end of the entire floor causality, because if she doesn't exist people she interacted with, then what about all of the victims that she's left behind suddenly there is no one responsible for their death, suddenly that vile creature that cause so much suffering doesn't exist anymore yet the suffering that she has caused and will cause will remain, which despite being such a small things in comparison to the flow causality, could end up spelling doom to the entire flow of causality itself"

With the architect finishing his long explanation, the words sank into Emilia and everyone else's mind, despite what he had said being hard for her to understand, Emilia did understand roughly what he was talking about, if Elsa suddenly vanished from existence, then who would have caused all of the death and suffering, people would have died for no reason with no cause, but just because Emilia to understand where the architect was coming from, didn't mean that the idea of Elsa simply not existing anymore wasn't a pleasurable idea to her.

"You know I can see where you're coming from with that, but you'll like the god of causality or something right? but can't you just change all of the details or something?" Puck, like his daughter, was trying to wrap his head around what the architect had just said. He understood the basic concept behind what the architect was saying, but still understanding the specifics was just something that he couldn't.

"I must agree with Puck, surely you could arrange the details in a different way to get a different outcome, considering your power" Ram added as she continued to restrain her sister who surprisingly was only just now beginning to lose her strength, screams and cries of rage beginning to dissipate, as her struggles against her sisters hold on her began to weaken.

Well yes I could, and I have actively done that in the past, in fact that is what I'm trying to do right now, but still despite her status as an abomination, I'm afraid that Elsa has a very important part to play in the flow of causality, erasing her despite how beneficial it would seem would only cause more problems further on down the line, for you and many others" the architect replied, causing quite a few to left out reluctant signs of disappointment, yet something else he had said suddenly course all of them to perk up.

"Wait, did you just say down the line for us?" Emilia said the question really, her mind quickly putting the dogs together. In hindsight it shouldn't have been surprising to her and everyone else, at the fact that the architect knew their future considering that he was currently showing them Subaru's past memories, but still to learn that he actually knew their future was quite the shock indeed.

"Wait so you know our future" Puck like his daughter, in hindsight didn't find it that surprising, but to actually learn a fact first-hand is quite the shock to the system, the fact that is being in the front of him new his future and most likely his past, caused Puck to feel immense amount of fear and anger, it was almost like somebody seen you naked but on a deeper and personal level.

"Indeed I do, unfortunately I'm not at liberty to give details, after all if you knew your own future whether it be good or bad, you would do everything in your power to change it" Emilia and Ram both let out sighs of disappointment, while Puck couldn't help but let out a relieved sigh, quite frankly he was not in any hurry to remember his past and much less to know his future.

"I think it's time to end this, boy, I'll send you to meet the angels just like those other two" Elsa remarks as she deliberately begins to walk slowly towards Subaru, meanwhile Subaru looks at her strangely, before he suddenly gets himself ready for her, taking on a loose battle stance, Elsa singing this quickened her pace, until she is almost a blur.

Time from Subaru's perspective slows, as Elsa closes in pulling back her blade ready to strike, however Subaru does something surprising. With a quick movement of his feet, he suddenly pulls his entire body back, Else's blade missing his stomach by only inches much to her surprise.

Everyone is left completely speechless, Subaru had managed to dodge Elsa's strike, this caused a small amount of hope to begin to well up within their Hearts, judging from his display of reflexes, there was a possibility he could make it out of this alive, with his innards completely intact and unmolested by the deranged assassin.

"That's it Subaru!" Emilia shouted, she couldn't help but feel hope beginning to return to her heart, because maybe if Subaru had managed to dodge Elsa's strike, then there was a possibility that he could make it out of the situation alive.

"How did he do that! it was almost like he predicted her move!?" Puck couldn't quite believe what he just seen, not only had Subaru managed to dodge a strike from the infamous bowel Hunter, but he also managed to do it in such a way that it looked like he had predicted her exact move, witch in the little spirits mind, I was just more evidence to suggest that Subaru had some kind of future foresight ability, because that was the only real logical explanation of why he has managed to dodge has strike so perfectly .

"That's a good question, perhaps Subaru is not as incompetent in hand-to-hand combat as I originally thought" Ram replied as she let go of her sister who seems to finally be coming down, most likely as a result of exhaustion and the admittedly impressive display that Subaru had just put on.

"H-he. . . he managed to dodge it!?" Rem spoke for the first time in quite a while, by this point her rage had almost completely disappeared for a combination of exhaustion and surprised at the fact that her beloved, had managed to dodge the assassins strike which seeming ease, this of course brought a small amount of hope to her heart, because maybe have a love it would make it out of this alive.

Seeing that Elsa was momentarily distracted by his dodge, Subaru used the opportunity to deliver a powerful roundhouse kick to Elsa's side, which sent her skimming across the floor. And for a moment there was nothing but silence as the two of them stared at each other, Elsa's face going a deep shade of red, as her legs seemed to tremble slightly, which just confused Subaru.

"Oh, my, I actually felt that one" Elsa's voice was hot and husky, as if what Subaru had just done to her was the most pleasurable thing she had ever experienced. however before Subaru could ask what the hell she was going on about, there was suddenly a bolt of pain in his stomach, causing his breath to hitch in his throat, toppling over in agony he brought his hands to his stomach, only for his hands to come into contact with heavily soaked fabric, looking down he was horrified to see the entire lower half this tracksuit was soaked in his own blood.

"Subaru no!" Everyone screamed at the exact same moment, the worst fears have been realised, Elsa using her superhuman speed, how much does cut Subaru completely open, while he delivered a powerful kick to her, The Assassination had quite literally used his own attack against him.

"Subaru P-Please don't D-Die, J-Just hold on please" Emilia said through her own tears, she kept telling herself that her and puck, would arrive at the loot house any moment now, and saves to brew from the assassin, but as the seconds on-screen ticked by, that fantasy became harder and harder to believe. instead her mind went to the seemingly logical conclusion, that all of this was simply just fake, but that fantasy was quickly crashed, by the words of the architect ringing in her mind again, everything that she was seeing was exactly how Subaru remembered it happening, which didn't make any sense because he was still alive right?

"W-Why. . . why is this happening to him" Rem managed to say between her cries and sobs, seeing the pain on her beloved face, the fear in his eyes as he realised that his life was quickly coming to an end broke something inside her, the anger towards Elsa was still there, but it was overpowered by the sheer sadness of seeing her beloved, go through such pain and she not be there to help him, and much like Emilia she wanted to believe that this was all simply a fabrication, but considering the words of the architect she couldn't bring herself to believe it, despite desperately wanting to.

Ram I didn't say anything, no she couldn't say anything, it was all just wrong, Subaru was alive, he was happy, always smiling, so it just didn't make any sense to her why she was watching him bleed out, in some dusty old criminal hideout, with his murderer being the infamous assassin Elsa the bowel Hunter. Despite her and him not getting along most of the time, it broke her heart to see the fear and pain etched in his face. In fact it reminded her very much of her parents when they were killed, the look of absolute pain and suffering along with the fear that would come just before death, it was too much even for her heart to take. So without warning she quickly grabbed her sister, and pulled her into a tight embrace. Rem was surprised until she had her sister begin to cry quietly, this intern caused more tears to spring forth from her eyes as well, as the two sisters cried into each other's embrace.

Puck floated over to his daughter, nuzzling her cheek in an effort to comfort her, but also as a distraction to not look at the horrifying events that happening on screen, he didn't want to see Subaru die like this, despite him and the boy not getting along sometimes, to literally watch someone that meant so much to your daughter, be literally gutted like a fish was too much to bear for the little spirit.

"Oh my, are you surprised? I opened up your belly when we passed by one another, this is the one thing I excel at you know" Elsa remarks, as Subaru doubles over in agony, his legs giving out from under him as he falls to the floor, his intestines slept from between his fingers, falling out of him onto the cold hard floor, causing more pain to shoot through his body. has Subaru struggles to control his breathing, Elsa walks over to him squatting down in front of him, removing one of his hands from his open belly with a surprising amount of gentleness, the blush on her face intensifies as she gets a good look at Subaru's intestines lying on the ground surrounded by his blood.

"I knew it, your guts have such a lovely colour boy!" The tone of Elsa's voice was practically ecstatic, as if she was a child who just found the best toy in the world. Meanwhile Subaru continues to grunt and cry in agony, as tears begin to leak from his eyes.

it hurts... it hurts... it hurts... Subaru keeps repeating in his mind, as blackness begins to creep in at the corners of his vision, yet the pain did not subside, it only seems to increase with every second, causing even more tears of agony to leak from his eyes.

"Does it hurt boy? Is the pain too much for you? Is it completely unbearable?" Elsa's voice had a distinctively mocking tone to it, as she looked directly into Subaru's eyes, at that exact moment Subaru wish that it was all just a dream, and that she would wake up again in his bed back in Japan, cause this world wasn't a fantasy adventure, it was a complete unending nightmare of death and suffering. "Are you sad boy? Is the pain so unbearable that you want to die?"

Emilia's heart completely shattered in that moment, she desperately wanted to look away so badly, yep as if possessed by some Force she couldn't turn her head away, image of a dying Subaru, his fear stricken face completely covered in blood with tears running from his eyes, would be an image forever seared into my memory. It was just completely unbearable, Subaru didn't deserve this, he deserves to be happy, he deserved to always have a smile on his face. but most importantly he did not deserve to die like this, butchered by a crazy mad woman in some dark and dusty loot house, in a world that he didn't know or understand, it just wasn't fair.

Rem cried even harder into her sister's shoulder, it was just unbearable seen him in so much pain and agony, completely alone with no one to help him, as he was mocked by the very same person who was his executioner, it was just completely unbearable for her, in fact it broke something in her. Her Hero, the one shining light in the eternal darkness that was her life, the one that had given her meaning in life was dying, and there was nothing she could do about it.

Ram despite not crying as hard as her sister was a match the same wavelength, seeing someone like Subaru who was almost like an annoying brother to her be butchered like this, it was almost too much for her heart and mind to bare, despite Subaru's failings he did not deserve this, nobody deserve this, to have someone's life be ended in a manner such as this, and being forced to watch it was just sick plain and simple. The pink haired oni also couldn't help but think, what exactly has Subaru done in his life to deserve such a fate , was the universe as a whole simply picking on him? or was he just incredibly unlucky?

Puck could hear everything that was happening on screen, yet he dare not look at it, his face was that of a angry haunted explore, as he heard the life or Subaru come to an end, along with the mocking words of Elsa it caused both immense amount of Rage and sadness to build up within him, despite everything Subaru had done in his short time with them good and bad, he did not deserve this, nobody deserves to have their life come to an end like this. "Damn it, it's just not fair!"

the Architect while all of this was happening, look on with disgust and surprisingly anger, despite already having over viewed much of Subaru's life in the new world, actually witnessing such a brutal death first-hand, stirred something within the architect, and was a deep sense of Rage and disgust, nobody not even the most evil individuals deserve a death like this, let alone somebody like young Subaru.

Die?

I'm still alive?. . . when will I die?

Despite his consciousness beginning to fade, Subaru's mind was still racing a mile a minute, his entire life flashing before his eyes, all the while Elsa looked down on him, her face growing more excited with each passing second as death began to wrap it's dark claws around Subaru.

I'm scared. I'm scared. I'm scared. I'm scared.

it was almost pure agony for everyone, hearing is internal monologue, hearing him repeat the same thing over and over again as his death slowly approached, they couldn't understand why listen happened to him, they couldn't understand why him of all people had to fall at the hands of Elsa. and most importantly there was nothing they could do about him being scared and alone at this very moment, the person they had come to know love, hate and share both good and bad moments with was dying. a person that was important to all of them in their own way, and there was nothing that could be done about it. At that moment everyone thought the same thing, this world is truly cruel and unfair.

"it's coming boy, your heart is beginning to slow down isn't it, each beat is becoming slower, slower, slower. . ." bye now else's face was nothing more than a dark indeterminate blob in his vision, as his consciousness continue to fade, he gritted his teeth as he tried to keep his eyes open, trying to grab onto that last thread of life that was rapidly leaving his body.

I'm going to die! I'm going to die! I'm going to die! I'm going to die!. . .

"P-P-please no more, I C-can't take this" Emilia managed to say through her tears, as they continued to run down her face while she watched the boy that she had come to care for, to try and desperately hold onto life at the very moment he was going to die. it was completely and utterly unbearable, yet at this moment it's stirred memories in her mind, this wasn't the first time she had seen someone close to her died in a gruesome manner, yet when she tried to focus on the memory it see me vanished, leaving an empty hole where it would have been, get the feeling did not dissipate, which only caused her to cry even harder.

"just let it be over!" Puck managed to save through gritted teeth, he had still not turned to look at the screen, he did not want to see it, the sounds of the dying boy were just enough for him.

Rem and Ram could not bring themselves to say anything, the sounds of the dying boy were too much for their minds, hearing him cough on his own blood, desperately crying out, trying to hold onto the small amount of life that he still had, was just unbearable for both of them, it really did bring back the memories of their village, of their parents being brutally mutilated by witch cultists, in a horrifying wait was exactly the same as it was back then, seeing someone they care about be massacred by somebody that was the pure embodiment of evil it was almost as if time itself was playing a sick joke on them.

oh I'm dead

That was the last four that went through Subaru's mind, as his consciousness left his body for the last time, his vision turning black, as the sounds of the deranged mad woman faded into nothing, Subaru had finally died at the hands of Elsa the bowel Hunter, despite his murderer being there he died alone scared in a place that he didn't understand.

That was it despite everyone's tears and cries of anguish, a small part of them or at least thankful that it was finally over for the young boy that all of them cared for, his suffering had finally come to an end. But despite his suffering finally being over. So many questions were still left with the most important one being why exactly did Subaru remember his death, when according to everyone else's memories he was still very much alive. Was he some kind of clairvoyant, or did he have some kind of divine protection or maybe he had some kind of future sight, these were all questions that ran through everyone's mind as the screen faded to black.

"This is sick" Puck managed to say through gritted teeth, turning his fiery hot gaze towards the architect.

the architect to chose to say nothing, he perfectly understood why the little spirit was in such a state, along with everyone else, despite not wanting to cause such Sadness, the way they were acting right now was a direct result of his own actions, so remaining quiet was the best choice for him and for everyone else.

Subaru H-He's . . . he's. . . Emilia just couldn't bring herself to say it, saying out loud but the boy she cared for so much was now dead, was just something she couldn't do, she didn't want to acknowledge it, she wanted to bury her head in the sand and simply ignore what she had seen, but it was too real, to visceral to be nothing more than an illusion, plus considering that the architect had said that these were Subaru's memories, made it almost impossible to believe delusion she's so desperately wanted to be true.

Rem continue to scream and cry, watching the person that was her Hero, the only other thing beside her sister that shone bright in the eternal darkness that was her life, being ripped away from her broke something inside her, it was just like her village all over again, it was the exact same thing, watching the most precious thing in the world to have been ripped away, by a vicious and and murderous psychopath, first it was her family with the witch cult, and now it was the one man that she would give her heart to, the one person that deserve to be called her Hero, everything was just not fair, it was almost as if the world was punishing her and her sister for some kind of transgression they had no knowledge of committing.

"That thing is a monster, there is not a single shred of anything good in her" Ram said quietly, her tears having long since dried out, but even still the cry and sobs did not did not stop, even for someone like her she was naturally strong-willed, it was just too much to bear, much like her sister all she could think about was how was just like her village all over again, something precious belonging to both her and her sister being taken from them by the literal embodiment of evil and suffering.

"Why... why... Why are we watching this? Subaru's not dead, but if he's not then how are these memories!? I just don't understand I just. . . I just don't. . ." Emilia's rant eventually came to an end, the poor elf simply having no more energy left to scream, as she collapsed back into the admittedly comfy seat that had been provided for them. Her mind was practically fried by this point, everything she had seen, everything she had heard just confused her and upset her. Subaru wasn't dead, he was alive most likely performing his chores right now, but at the same time these were Subaru's genuine memories. So how could he have died when all of the information pointed to the exact opposite conclusion.

the architect again chose to say nothing, realising there was not much he could truly say to lift the spirits of a half elf and her companions, instead with a small gesture of a hand he motioned back to the screen, everyone didn't want to look at it again they already had enough suffering for one day, that is if possessed by some unyielding curiosity they all turned to look at it again, only to be absolutely shocked by what they heard and saw next.

"Hey kid! you going to buy an appe or not?"

It was faint at first, but it was undeniably a man's voice, suddenly the screen which had been completely black and my face before suddenly lit up, revealing that Subaru was back to the apple seller, Subaru looked around completely dazed, there was a think throbbing pain in his belly, that quickly dissipated into nothing. Subaru blinked slowly, as he began to sway from side to side, much to the apple sellers concern

"I have no idea what's going on anymore" Was all that Subaru said as he collapsed, the world going black in an instant, as he fell into unconsciousness.

everyone felt their Jaws fall to the floor, just one they thought that Subaru had died a horrible absolutely gruesome death, to be completely fine back at the apple seller again for the second time, it just didn't make any sense what's another premonition, no that wasn't right, just like the first death it was too real to be a premonition, and it certainly couldn't be clairvoyant or some kind of future sight

"I D-D-don't U-understand. . . H-how. . .?" Emilia said with a stutter, her mind completely unable to process what she had just witnessed.

"H-how is he not D-dead, is this some kind of sick joke or some kind of Hell!?" Rem's tears began again with a renewed vigor, they were both tears of relief and tears of sadness, relief that her beloved was not dead, but also sadness and rage that her beloved torment was seemingly still destined to continue.

"That's not possible, it's just not!" Ram shook her head violently, her mind simply unable to process it, Subaru had quite literally come back from the dead, for a second time no less, it was just too much for her, wasn't helped by the fact that none of it made any sense.

"Did he just come back from the dead" Puck finished everyone's line of enquiry, his mouth firmly planted on the floor, as he looked at the now black screen in complete shock, he just couldn't understand what was going on anymore.

The architect, taking this moment, moved in front of the screen blocking it from view behind his massive frame, everyone looked at him confused but also expectedly, as if he was about to deliver some explanations of what the hell was going on.

"I believe that a break is an order, I will give you some time to process what has happened" was all that he said, which everyone was disappointed by but at the same time appreciated, they had some time to process what the hell they just watch, it was truly a rollercoaster of emotions every single second of it, from the high points of seeing Subaru kick the Butts of those common thugs in the alleyway, to the absolute lowest and heartbreaking scene of Subaru bleeding out on a cold floor with no one to help him, has his murderer stood over him enjoying every second of his pain and agony. Yet for some strange reason all of them felt a shiver run down their spine, a single thought occurring to every single one of them at the exact same moment.

This isn't the end is it?

---

Well it's finally over, the first episode of the anime is finally complete after nearly a year and a half, so let's hope that the next episode doesn't take half as long. in all seriousness tho thank you to everyone who has followed and favourited this story over the months that it's taken to get this out, I'm going to start work on the next episode of the show at some point soon, but at the moment I think I'm going to focus on the Dead Space reaction story that I've started which you can check out if you feel like it

Also if you feel like it, why don't you come join me and many of authors on the reactionist's fanfic server r/Re_Zero_Fanfiction/ (couldn't get the discord link to work so use the Reddit link and find the link to the discord server on there)

Well until next time I'm signing out, see you in the next episode.