Chapter VIII: Resolution


The time that he spent from morning to evening doing his manor chore duty were nerve wracking in the extreme for Subaru, as he anticipated meeting Rem that night and having the implications of the events of his previous life catch up to them. They had to keep up cracking masks of aloofness throughout the day as they passed by one another or joined the other occupants for their meals, although the mask was clearly slipping on Rem's part as each time he saw her she looked significantly more harrowed than the last. It was clear that she was doing her best to keep her worry reined in, but it was a losing battle when her sister kept questioning her over the course of the day as Subaru imagined she would.

That was why, when Subaru turned around after closing his door, he wasn't surprised to be hugged around the middle by a distressed blue ball that slammed into his chest. She must have begged off of her afternoon duties as quickly as possible to wait anxiously in his room- he could see the depression on his bed where she had been sitting just a few seconds before. Her hair was sticking up in several spots on her head, so he absentmindedly set about patting it down and reaffixing it under her hairband, letting himself loosen and let out a sigh of relief when he felt her stiff form slacken around him. Words weren't necessary for the first few minutes. He took her to the bed in that position and she ended up arranged on his lap again, just sitting there in uninterrupted silence. The dam had to break eventually, though.

"Rem was so scared, waking up in the kitchens so suddenly like that..." the oni girl said at last, ending the silence.

"Ah," Subaru responded unevenly, "It can be easy to forget that you aren't as used to this as I am because this entire time we've woken up together, haven't we?"

"Hai..." was the only response that she gave. The truth was, the other time that a reset had occurred the two of them had been together at the checkpoint, and Rem had seen what had reset him to begin with. It had still been stressful for her but in that case she could actually do something about it. In this case Subaru had clearly died of something she didn't know about and couldn't defend him against. Waking up washing dishes and suddenly realizing that the man that she loved had just died without her being any the wiser had nearly caused her to have a breakdown. It was only through the constant self-assurance that she'd talk to him again tonight that she'd avoided making a scene.

She felt a hand run through her hair again, letting him, still alive as he was despite having just died, soothe her enough that she was ready to hear what he had to say when he finally spoke again. She felt his attention drift away from her when a small sound occurred from outside the door. Subaru barely managed to keep himself from tensing as he realized who had just arrived to eavesdrop on them, and set about responding carefully.

"Rem-rin doesn't need to worry about what happened this time. It won't happen again because we're having this 'lesson' tonight," he said, leaving the "instead of that lesson" part go unsaid. Rem looked up at him, then to the door, where his gaze was pointed, and Subaru watched her eyes narrow in resentment for a moment before she guiltily schooled herself back into being a normal bundle of stress instead of an angry one.

"Rem sees," she said, making Subaru glad that his Return by Death partner was as smart as she was, "So Subaru-kun's mistake won't occur again because he's doing better with Rem tonight."

"That's exactly right. There's no need to worry about it because there's no chance of it happening again. Rem-rin and I can come up with something different tonight."


Ram took her ear away from the door and stared at it in blank-faced confusion for a few moments. What was this "mistake" that Barasu was talking about, and why was Rem so worried about it? Well, Rem had been extremely nervous about teaching Barasu more about reading and writing for some reason, and she had excused herself from her chores the moment that it was acceptable to make sure that she was in his room on time to give him this "lesson" they were going on about...

Suddenly, Ram's eyes opened as wide as they could go and she felt herself lurch forward and let out an oddly canine sounding growl. She really did want to know just what type of "lesson" was going on behind the door in front of her, but if it was what she thought it was then she would kill him. Lovestruck sister or no, she would kill Natsuki Subaru for having the sheer gall to defile her sister like this!

How disgusting!


The two occupants of the room startled as they heard a voice that was obviously Ram's growl at the door. He sat Rem down on the bed beside him and then stood up, walking towards the door and flinging it open to reveal Ram, staring down at the ground with a furious expression, frozen to the spot at unexpectedly being caught spying on her sister and her supposed lover in the middle of what she thought was a depraved tryst.

"Ano, Ram?" Subaru's voice filtered out in the doorframe, causing her to look up and spot a disheveled looking Ram on the man's bed, looking at the two of them worriedly. There were reading and writing materials out on the desk, but the fact that the two of them had clearly been on the bed before she had been caught was evidence enough of guilt for her. She let out another unamused growl and raised her hand at the man, charging up a burst that would take his head clean off...

... and found herself looking at the doorframe in a dazed fury a split second later, her cheek stinging like fire and her neck aching at the sudden change in angle. She righted her head and glared at the man in front of her, anger renewed. When she reached up to her cheek with her hand, she was surprised to find that there was a little bit of blood where the sting was. Not much, but enough to let her know she'd been struck hard. She was about to try and attack again, but her entire form froze up as she realized that the man still had one hand in his pocket and the other on the door. Beside him, under his arm, though, was an outraged looking Rem, one hand extended outward, palm red as an apple.

"Rem?" she found herself begging more than asking, dazed and hurt.

"No one will hurt Subaru-kun again, not even Ram!" the other sister yelled, her words veiled in resentful accusation. Ram felt herself wilt at the displeasure of her sister, something which she had never received to this degree before- they had fought in the past, it's true, but Rem had never struck her outside of training.

"Rem... Why do you defend this thing, this man who arrived here with you unannounced, who disrespects Roswaal-sama, who acts suspicious and takes advantage of you like this?" Ram responded, sounding a bit more desperate than she perhaps intended. She watched as her sister looked back and forth between Subaru and herself as if calculating a risk. Once, twice, thrice she looked back and forth with indecision, before seemingly making up her mind and letting a rough breath escape from her nose, meeting Ram's eyes resolutely.

"Rem loves- No, I love Subaru-kun."


"Ehhhhhhh!?" Subaru let run through his mind unhindered, if only so it wouldn't actually escape through his lips. As it was, he was left with an open mouth and wide eyes as he looked down at the top of Rem's head as if seeing her anew... again... for the third time in a short while.

She loved him!? That made no sense at all! There wasn't much between the two of them! Well, they had gotten a lot closer to one another, and he did find her to be kind of cute, and she did spend a lot of time worrying about him even before she joined him on the resets, and he thought they had both enjoyed accidentally ending up cuddling together, and she had given him company during the resets that he honestly appreciated more than anything else in his life thus far, and they mutually respected and felt affectionate memories for one another, and he had sort of put away the idea of marrying Emilia for her, and they had agreed to go out on a date together, and he did keep catching her looking up at him with those big eyes...

Okay, so there was a lot between them, and he had maybe thought once or twice about whether or not it would work out.

"Huh," his mind summed up.


Several emotions fluttered over Ram's face in the span of a few shocked seconds before, ultimately, it settled on a soft smile as she looked Rem in the eyes and could tell that her sister really meant what she was saying and wasn't under the control of some odd spell or being forced to say it against her will or something equally sinister.

"Okay," Ram finally concluded, reaching forward and pulling Rem into a hug around the neck, which was quickly returned with a tearful one around Ram's middle. The two hugged for a few seconds before holding each other at arm's length.

"Ano, Rem is sorry for hitting Ram," Rem apologized meekly, spotting the palm print on Ram's face.

"Ram is sorry for trying to attack Barasu without a good reason," Ram returned, sharing her sister's speech habits as they both teared up a bit more, "If Rem really loves him then it's no wonder she would defend him, even from Ram. And... If Rem really loves him, he can't be as bad as Ram thought."

She separated from her sister and gave Subaru a small bow- nothing too deferential, but it was something. She also took the time looking away from her sister to compose herself mid-bow.

"I apologize for how I've treated you," she said. It was a formal apology. They were still strangers after all, but it was entirely against what Subaru knew of her from when they had been friends and Subaru wasn't sure how to respond. Luckily, the words seemed to tumble out eventually.

"It's okay. I'd be just as protective of my sister. I mean, if I had one, which I don't," he responded nervously. Ram gave him a blank look for a few seconds before huffing out through her mouth and looking back at Rem.

"Thinking back on today, I don't think he's competent enough to do any harm," she said to her sister, who giggled into her hand through the light mist of tears in her eyes.

"Hey!"


When Ram returned to her own room, Subaru was still more than a slight surprised at the turn of events for the night. If he had known that all it took to get Ram on their side was a slap in the face, he'd have suggested it earlier. Well, actually, it had been Rem's indirect love confession that had sparked that.

Rem's confession! What was he going to do about that? Certainly he didn't feel the same way, right? Right?

"Ano, Subaru-kun... can Rem stay here again tonight?" her voice called to him from behind, sounding at once both small and relieved. It left a smile on his face that he had to fight to keep down.

"Ah," he thought, "Natsuki Subaru, you've sure gotten yourself in trouble this time."