Chapter 1: Helping the new neighborhood

Note: The content of this chapter is very similar to that of the original story. If you don't feel like rereading a lot of content, you may skip it without missing out on much.

Ugh… What the…?

Subaru's head was bursting with pain from his berserk spider sense.

Shit…

But stranger than that were the unfamiliar surroundings he saw when looking around.

The change in environment didn't make sense in the slightest. From late at night, it somehow became the middle of the day. Not only that, but the place was incredibly lively, with countless people and carriages moving around between shops of different sorts.

"Carriages…?" Subaru said in a weak tone, feeling extremely nauseous and clumsily stumbling to one of the shops.

"Are you okay man? Do you want to buy an appa-"

Subaru proceeded to throw up what little he had eaten for the past few days.

"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING!?" The man standing in the shop tried selling him what seemed to be apples, but was understandably furious after the contents of Subaru's stomach were presented on the ground before him.

"S-Sorry…" Subaru mumbled an apology.

"Get lost! You'll make my appas look bad!"

With everyone staring at him, Subaru complied, and stumbled into a nearby alley. However, it seemed that someone was waiting for him there.

"You there, just give us everything you've got on you, and there's no need for anyone to get hurt."

The man had a large build, which he tried to use to intimidate Subaru. As he tried to turn back, two more men of average and short stature blocked his escape.

"You'll regret trying to fight Spider-Man…" Subaru said in not the most convincing tone.

"What the hell is he going on about?" asked the short one.

"I don't know, but I'm pretty sure he's making fun of us." replied the medium sized one. "We'll put you in a world of hurt!"

On a normal day, Subaru was confident he could easily win such a fight thanks to his incredible physical strength. That being said, he was on a now furtherly empty stomach and hardly any sleep, not to mention a headache caused by his crazed spider sense. On top of that, he didn't have any actual experience fighting. But without much of a choice, Subaru was prepared to defend himself.

Just then, someone dashed into the alley while yelling in a flustered-sounding voice.

"Hey! Out of the way! Out of the way! I'm talking to you! Move!"

It was a small girl with longish blond hair. She had red eyes, and her one canine tooth sticking out that gave her a cheeky look.

"Hey, do you mind helping me out-"

"Whoa! You look like you're in quite a pinch there, but sorry! I've got my hands full right now! Good luck! Live life to the fullest!"

Subaru was about to protest, but after remembering what had happened the day before, he closed his mouth in shame.

I have no right to ask her for help…

The girl raised her hand in an apologetic sort of gesture and didn't slow down as she continued racing down the alley. She went right past the men and kept going toward what should have been a dead end, kicked off against a wooden plank set up against the end wall, grabbed the top of the wall, and lightly flung herself up onto the roof of one of the surrounding buildings, where she disappeared.

With the girl now gone, the men then started approaching him from both sides, trying to attack him from his blind spots. Subaru suddenly stepped forward and launched a punch at the large man, trying to make an opening so he could escape.

"Woah!" The man was barely able to block it with his arms, but even the weakened impact caused him to stagger a bit.

"Don't think you can get away with this!"

"We'll kill ya!"

His accomplices, no longer surprised, charged at him from behind. Subaru managed to dodge the medium sized man's punch, but grunted as he got hit in the leg by the short one's kick.

With Subaru out of balance, the large man, who had recovered from the initial blitz, got his punch to connect with Subaru's face. He collapsed to the floor, after which the trio gathered around him and started beating him up.

"Take that!"

"Taste the pain!"

A feeling of resignation came over Subaru. It wasn't fear that overwhelmed him; it was more the feeling of emptiness that this would all end without him accomplishing anything. He laughed internally at the irony of the situation - he was about to die because of other's neglect, just like his father.

But in the midst of this overwhelming despair, a single voice overcame the noise of the crowd, the vulgar insults of the men, Subaru's own heavy breathing, as well as his fatigue and his headache.

"Hold it right there, you evildoers!"

That voice that seemed to shake the very foundations of the world belonged to a girl standing at the entrance to the alley.

She was beautiful. She had long silver hair with braids in it that reached down to her hips, and her violet eyes that were looking straight at Subaru shone with intelligence. In her soft features were both elements of youth but also mature beauty. There was also a noble air about her that gave her a dangerous and bewitching charm.

The girl was about one head shorter than Subaru, which made her around one hundred and sixty centimeters tall. The clothes she wore used white as a base color with touches of purple, further emphasizing her beautiful features.

The one thing that stood out about her clothes was the embroidery on her sleeves that depicted a bird of prey, adding to her impression of majesty.

However, it wasn't the clothes she wore that made her shine so.

"I will not stand by and watch any more of your wrongdoing. That is enough."

Her voice, like silver bells, rang beautifully in Subaru's ears, and for a moment his headache seemed to disappear. He was completely undone by the silver-haired girl's presence.

The other men seemed to be just as shaken up as Subaru was.

"Wha… Who do you think you are…?"

"If you stop right now, I'll let you go. In a way, this is my fault for not being cautious. So do the right thing and give back what you stole."

"Hey, what she's wearing looks expensive. You think she's nobility? Wait, huh…? What we stole?"

"Please. It is very precious to me. I'd be willing to give it up if it were anything else, but I absolutely can't in this case. Please. I won't do anything to you, so please just give it back." The girl looked as if she was pleading with all her heart.

However, the three men surrounding Subaru seemed confused.

"W-wait a minute, you didn't come here to rescue this guy?"

"…Those are some weird clothes that boy is wearing. Did you all have a fight among yourselves? I don't think three against one is really fair, but…if you're asking me if I know this person, I haven't ever seen him before in my life." Perhaps it was because she thought the men were trying to change the subject, but you could hear an amount of irritation in her voice. Because of that, each of the men rushed to explain themselves.

"If you're not after this guy, then we had nothing to do with it!"

"You said you had something stolen from you, right?! I bet it was that girl from before!"

"Yeah! She ran that way, back past that wall! At the rate she was going, she's probably another three streets down!"

As the men continued to plead their innocence, the girl turned her eyes to Subaru, as if asking whether these men were telling the truth. Without thinking, Subaru nodded.

"Hmm… It doesn't look like you're lying. So the one who stole from me is down farther ahead? I've got to hurry…"

The girl turned away from Subaru and the men and toward the main road. The men clearly looked relieved, but Subaru, although faced with the reality of yet another abandonment, wasn't shocked.

That's just how it is. I shouldn't expect more from people, especially since I didn't help anyone myself.

"Still, this situation is one I can't just ignore."

"...Huh?"

Bewildered, Subaru looked up at the girl. As she turned back around she put her hand up, palm facing outward, and a series of shining lights began to dance in front of it.

Suddenly, a chunk of ice shot out of that girl's palm. A moment later, a dull thud rang out, like that of a hard object striking flesh, followed by the cries of the men as they were thrown backward. Then, there was a high-pitched sound as the clump of ice fell to the ground right beside Subaru and quickly evaporated as if it were being eaten by the surrounding air.

What has transpired before him could not be described as anything other than 'magic', but he couldn't care less about that. There was only one thing he wanted to know - just why did the girl decide to help him?

"Now you've done it…"

The other men, who had taken a real hit from those clumps of ice, got back to their feet. To be fair, it was only two of them who managed to get back up. The short man must have gotten hit in a bad spot, because he was still knocked out. But rather than this fact taking the fight out of them, it seemed to just make the other two men even angrier.

"I don't care if you're a magic user or nobility or whatever! I've had enough. We're gonna kill you! Do you really think you can win a two-on-one fight?!" yelled the middle sized man, who drew out a knife while holding his face, blood still dripping from his nose.

In response to his threats, the girl closed one of her eyes. "You're right, one against two sounds like it could be a little tough."

"In that case, would two on two be a bit more fair?" As if it were finishing the girl's sentence, a new, higher-pitched, genderless voice entered the fray.

Startled, Subaru looked around. The other men also followed suit, but there wasn't anyone inside or at the entrance to the alley who looked as though they were the owner of that voice.

Then, as if to show both Subaru and the other men the answer to their question, the girl extended her left hand.

"When you all stare at me like that, full of expectation, it's uh… kind of embarrassing."

Using its paw to clean its face was a small, palm-size cat that stood upright on its two hind legs atop of the girl's white fingers.

It had gray hair and floppy ears. To the best of Subaru's knowledge it was nearest to an American shorthair. That is, if you ignored the fact that its nose was pink and it had a tail about the length of its body.

Seeing the small, palm-size cat, the man with the knife seemed overcome with fear and yelled, "Y-you're a spirit mage?!"

"That's right. If you want to leave right now, I won't chase after you, but make up your minds quickly. I'm in a hurry."

With that, the men rushed to pick up their fallen companion and leave the alley, but as they passed the girl on their way out, one of the men clicked his tongue and said, "I'm going to remember your face, you bitch! The next time we see you it won't go this well for you!"

"If you do anything to her I'll curse you and all of your offspring, you know? Though, in that case you won't be having any."

For the thug, that must have been his best attempt at intimidation, but in contrast, the cat's response was light in tone but much more severe.

The cat didn't seem to be completely serious, but the men paled more than they ever had before, and ran out into the main road without another word.

Once the thugs were gone, Subaru was left alone in the alley with the girl and her cat. He still hadn't fully digested the situation that occurred before him. But just as he was trying to get up, he remembered.

"I could… save them… so I had to try…"

"-!"

And although he was saved, Subaru could feel tears well up in his eyes.

"Don't move," said the girl, still being cautious. Even though she realized that Subaru was not with the other thugs, she wasn't about to let her guard down, that much was clear.

"You know the girl who stole my insignia, don't you?" Her expression, full of confidence, was lovely. However…

"I'm *hic* sorry, but I don't know her at all…" Subaru answered while trying to wipe away his tears.

"Wait, What? Seriously!?"

As her confidence was stripped from her face, Subaru was able to get a glimpse of how she naturally expressed herself, as opposed to her ongoing act. With that dignified air of hers out the window, the girl, flustered, turned quickly to the cat still resting on her palm.

"Wh-wh-what are we going to do? Was this really all just a waste of my time…?"

"You should probably go after her… She couldn't have *hic* gone too far…"

The girl looked a little worried about him, given his current state.

"Don't worry about me, I'll be fine. I can't thank you enough… You're in a hurry, right? You should go…" Subaru tried to reassure her, his credibility questionable.

Although Subaru wished he could get to know her or at least to thank her properly, he didn't want to impose even further on a person that helped him out without gaining anything in return.

"Ugh…"

Suddenly dizzy again, Subaru reached for the wall but missed, and fell face-first back onto the ground.

"Wait. You shouldn't try to stand up just ye—Well… okay," came the cat's warning, just a step too late.

After falling with zero capacity to catch himself, Subaru felt a sharp pain as his consciousness went winging away.

"…So, what should we do?"

"He has…nothing to do with us. That's not enough to kill him. We're going to leave him."

Yeah, you've saved me. Leaving could hardly be called selfish…

"Are you sure?"

"I'm sure!"

Right before the thread of Subaru's consciousness was cut for good, he was able to see that silver-haired girl, red in the face, turn around and shout.

"There's no way! No way that I'm going to save him, okay?! Okay?!"

Man, even when she's angry she's really cute.

With that last thought in mind, Subaru's consciousness fell into darkness.

When Subaru opened his eyes after regaining consciousness, the sun's light was at an angle and shone into them, causing him to squint at the brightness and rub his eyes.

"Oh, you awake?" said a voice from right above Subaru's head, with him still lying down.

As Subaru turned to look in the direction of the voice, he realized that he was still lying on the ground, but had his head on something soft that was being used as a pillow.

"You shouldn't move. You hit your head, so I can't say whether it's safe to just yet."

This concerned voice also sounded very kind, as Subaru remembered what happened just before he lost consciousness, he thought.

Having his head in a girl's lap was a dream come true for Subaru, but it was the rest that he got from it that was the thing he realized that he desperately needed. Not only that, but his spider sense seemed to finally be working properly again.

Just how selfless can this girl be, not to mention hairy-

"-Hey, wait a minute!" sputtered Subaru as he faced up, and took in what was happening.

Right in front of Subaru, in his upside-down vision, was the face of a giant cat. "I thought that at least until you woke up, I'd make you feel comfortable. You can thank me later."

Subaru had certainly never been in a situation before where he got to use a human-size cat's lap for a pillow and, well, he did need the rest, so he decided to make the best of it.

"Wow, this is actually really comfortable… thanks…"

"Well, if you're going to be this happy about it, I guess it was really worth super-sizing… Don't you think so, too?"

The cat scratched at his face as if it were embarrassed and winked as if seeking confirmation. At the end of that glance was the silver-haired girl, standing at the entrance to the alley looking unfazed.

It was the same girl from before, if Subaru was to believe his memories, eyes, and heart, which were all deeply branded by her image right before he lost consciousness.

"Umm… I'm sorry about all of this. It looks like you ended up staying here with me until I woke up, and-"

"Don't get any ideas about this. The only reason I stayed is because I still have some questions to ask you. If it weren't for that, I would have left you behind. I mean it. So don't get any ideas."

Subaru didn't buy her story.

"Cone on, you can drop the tough act. Helping someone is nothing to be ashamed about. Not many would be willing to do what you did for me…"

"Y-You're mistaken. The reason I healed your wounds, and the reason I had Puck serve as a pillow until you woke up - all of that was for me. So I'm going to have you make it up to me, okay?"

Pressing the point, the girl put strong emphasis on her words.

"...Yeah, I promise. I'll help fix whatever mess you got yourself into because of me." Subaru felt a great sense of duty growing inside him, so he was willing to do whatever it took to help her. With that being said, there was a small part of him that simply didn't want to part from her just yet.

The girl looked at Subaru, a bit surprised by his determination, but nonetheless satisfied.

"You know something about my stolen insignia, don't you?" asked the girl, dropping the tone of her voice. However, as this wasn't any different from what she had asked before he had passed out, Subaru had to tilt his head in confusion.

"I don't think so…"

"It has a big jewel in the center, and is about this big." The girl demonstrated its size with her hand.

"I'm sorry, I haven't seen anything like that."

Subaru's answer was the same as the one he gave beforehand. However, the girl didn't look particularly crestfallen, but instead nodded.

"Well, if you don't know, you don't know. But, the fact that you know absolutely nothing itself is information you have provided to me, and enough for me to justify healing you," the girl replied, using twisted enough logic to baffle any swindler to describe her complete loss.

As Subaru looked on, dumbfounded, the girl clapped her hands together as if to finish things.

"Well, I'm in a hurry, so I'm going to get going now. Your wounds should all be healed, and I threatened those other guys so much I doubt they'll go near you again, but it's still dangerous to enter an alley like this all alone. Oh, and I'm not saying this because I'm worried about you; this is a warning: If I see you in a similar situation again, there won't be any merit to me saving you, so you can't expect me to do so again," said the girl with machine-gun rapidity.

Subaru was completely at loss from her display of incredible rapping prowess, so taking that silence as affirmation, nodded to herself, and turned around to leave.

"I'm sorry about that. She's not really honest with herself. Don't think too strangely of her, okay?" said the cat with a laugh as, having returned to its original size, it jumped up onto the girl's shoulder.

The girl patted its back as if to affirm its touch, and the cat disappeared, slipping behind the curtain of her hair. And without once looking back, the girl continued to walk on.

She had something stolen from her, and even though she was in a hurry to get it back, she saved Subaru. Then, after Subaru had passed out, she healed him, and when he woke up, she used terrible reasoning to try to show him that she wasn't worse off for doing so. "She's not really honest with herself" was not going far enough. Her efforts were coming up negative in everything, and it was hard to watch.

The girl had every right to blame Subaru for getting in her way, but she hadn't complained even once, and she didn't even look for an apology. To her, the only reason she saved Subaru was for her own ends.

She was the epitome of his fathers ideals, yet she was faced off against the world alone. He simply couldn't let that happen.

At that moment, he decided - Spider-Man would be a hero dedicated to helping others.

"Wait!" Subaru called out as he got up, patted his dust-and dirt-covered tracksuit and started running.

The girl touched her silver hair and looked a bit troubled as she turned around. "What is it? I'm going to tell you right now, I only have a bit more time to spend dealing with you."

"I said I'll help you, and I meant it!" Subaru said as he reached her.

The girl examined his face.

"You look awfully pale, so it's probably not a good idea to run. Have you been eating properly?"

"Um, I wouldn't say so…"

"You won't grow without eating properly, you know? You've helped me enough already, so go and have something to eat instead." She said in a slightly worried tone.

Subaru tried to think of a way to get her to agree to let him help her. Then he remembered the contents of the bag he was carrying.

"Hey, is ice the only type of magic you can do?"

"...? But that was fire magic?" The girl replied in a confused tone.

Perfect, Subaru thought to himself.

"Are you sure you don't want some? It's really good." Subaru asked while eating the contents of the second instant ramen cup that he had on him.

"Oh, thank you! Of course!" The small cat on the girl's shoulder replied happily.

"That question wasn't meant for you…"

"That's kind of rude, considering I was the one that helped you prepare these."

Subaru had asked the girl if she could heat up some water to put in his instant ramen cups. That way not only will his hunger be sated, but he would also have an excuse to help her find her lost insignia. The cat, who turned out to be a spirit of fire, was the one to actually do it though.

And as they walked through the city with Subaru eating his first meal in a day, he thought about what happened to him up until that moment.

Assuming I really have been summoned to a fantasy world…the state of civilization appears to be the usual, medieval-like setting. Apart from the magic and half beasts of course…

Although he failed to notice as much before, a good portion of the people around seemed to have the characteristics of different animals. But even so, them walking around beside regular humans appeared to be something everyone was accustomed to.

After taking note of his surroundings, Subaru checked his current equipment, or lack thereof. With the instant ramens being eaten, all he had left were his cell phone and his wallet, the latter being obsolete since this world didn't seem to use the same currency as Japan. Apart from that, he only had his clothes that he was wearing at the moment, consisting of his trusty gray tracksuit and well-worn sneakers.

"You're a spirit, right? Do you even have to eat?"

"Of course! How could I experience the many joys of life otherwise?"

"So you don't need to…" Subaru mumbled, but let the cat have some anyway.

"Wow! You really should try this!" The cat exclaimed, having tasted the wonders of modern food.

"We really don't have time for this, Puck." The girl replied, not too happy that her companion was getting distracted from their objective.

"It's okay, you won't regret letting me help you!" Subaru told her as he finished eating, putting the empty cup in the bag along with the other one.

Before she could respond, Subaru shot webs out of his wrists to the top of a nearby building and leapt while strongly pulling on them, launching himself upward.

The girl was taken aback by unexpected action, along with countless others who had witnessed what he had just done.

"I'll look for her! Just stay here and leave it to me!"

He smiled at her reassuringly from atop the roof of the building, and then started swinging from one building to the next with his webs.

But although the crowd maintained their surprise, the girl's expression shifted to that of worry.

"His sudden change in attitude was really weird… It couldn't have just been the food, right…?"

Having now seen the layout of the city from above, he swiftly scanned all the roads in that part of the city. But even after doing that, he couldn't find a trace of the theif, so he returned to the street where he left the silver haired girl. He panicked at first when he didn't see her there, but quickly spotted her in a nearby alley.

Her eyes were closed and her lips moved as she muttered something a few times. Surrounded her were faint lights that looked as though they were fireflies, which caused the area around her to glow. Subaru jumped down from the top of the building from which he found her and landed next to her.

"Ah!"

The girl cried out in surprise from Subaru's sudden return. Then her flustered state spread to the lights around her and…

"Oh no, they're panicking…!"

The many lights started to flee this way and that before finally scattering and disappearing into the air.

"…Oh…"

Both Subaru and the girl opened their mouths, dumbstruck, searching for where the lights had gone. Quickly the girl tried to continue what she had been doing, but it didn't appear to work.

"Ah… Um… I'm sorry! What you did must have been very important…"

"It's a good thing I had them under control. If you had done that to an inexperienced spirit mage, it would have been awful. In the worst case, the spirits could have gone berserk and… BAM."

"'Bam…? Wait, those little things were spirits?'"

The cat, floating in midair, waved its long tail back and forth. "Those were lesser spirits. They're beings that, in a state prior to becoming real spirits, start to develop some knowledge. If, over time, they gain power and self-awareness, they'll become fully-fledged spirits like me."

"Okay, but there's no way those little sparkly things are actually that dangerous, right?" Subaru said in a doubtful tone.

"Well, to put it one way," Puck said, "I may look pretty cute… but it would only take two seconds for me to turn you into a pile of dust."

"Damn, spirits are scary!" A shiver went down Subaru's spine in response to the cat's peaceful-sounding death threat, and he looked back at the girl. "I definitely hope you don't happen to be so upset you set that cat on me or anything…"

"I would never use Puck for something like that. If I were going to be violent with you, I'd handle you myself… Ugh, it really looks like they aren't going to answer me anymore." Failing to establish a second contact with the lesser spirits, the girl, depressed, shook her head powerlessly.

"I suppose it's not helpful to ask this after the spirits have already gone, but what is it exactly that you were trying to do?"

"I was trying to see if I could get any information from them about what I'm looking for. They disappeared before I was able to ask, though."

"Oh…" Subaru realized the gravity of his mistake. "I've searched the area nearby, but I couldn't find her. I'll just have to search some more!"

As he was about to leave, the girl jumped in.

"Um, b-but… It did take some time and lesser spirits don't have the kind of clear awareness that regular spirits have, so I wasn't really expecting much, but… Okay, I'm sorry, that's a lie."

"If you're trying to make me feel better, it's not working!"

"Well, you looking around did help me eliminate some possibilities, so you have paid your debt already. You don't need to concern yourself about it anymore." The girl said, trying to comfort him.

"I prevented you from talking with the lesser spirits, so it doesn't count!" Even though he had only delayed her search, he wasn't ready to give up on helping her just yet.

"I-Is that so…? Then it's probably best to start searching somewhere further away. Maybe we should go back out to the main road and ask some people if they know of a place where she might be."

"Yeah, that's probably a good idea!" Subaru agreed, relieved to be given the chance to redeem himself.

As per her suggestion, they started to look for a spot where a lot of people who they could question were passing by. That was when Subaru noticed something.

"Ah, now that I think of it, we haven't told each other our names yet, have we? We should introduce ourselves. I'll go first!"

In an overly energetic fashion, Subaru struck a pose and pointed to the heavens, as he did many times before.

"My name is Subaru Natsuki! The one and only Spider-Man! Nice to meet you!"

"That's one heck of a title! Anyway, I'm Puck. Nice to meet you, too."

As Subaru put out his hand, Puck leapt into it with his whole body for a handshake. An onlooker would probably think Subaru was trying to squeeze the cat to death.

The girl blinked in surprise at Subaru's bold interaction. "It's rare to see someone who's willing to approach a spirit so easily… and your name is just as unusual. With black hair and dark eyes like that - not to mention your strange talent - just where did you come from?"

"Hmm… Given this trope, I'll have to say I come from a small country to the east!"

"If you look at a map of the continent, Lugunika is the country farthest to the east, so… there's no country to the east of here."

"What, are you serious? There's nothing east of here?!" Subaru exclaimed, disappointed that his imaginary country of origin couldn't logically exist.

"So you don't know where you are, you don't seem to have any money or anyone you can count on…"

"It seems that I also can't read anything here."

"I'm starting to think you're worse off than I am…"

"Don't worry about me, I'll get the hang of this place in no time!"

While Subaru was shocked at this new development, the girl was also starting to look anxious. Given her personality that made her want to help others, she probably couldn't help but be concerned about Subaru, who suddenly seemed quite helpless to her.

The girl looked at Subaru again carefully, from the top down.

"You seem to be in pretty good shape, I don't think anyone can deny that after what you did earlier, Um… Uh… Subaru."

"Huh? Oh. Yep, Subaru. That's my name." Having his name called in such a hesitant way for some reason felt like a fresh new experience to Subaru, and he couldn't help but stumble in his response. After clearing his throat to hide the fact that he was shaken up, he showed his biceps. "I used to do strength training every day. Since I was almost always cooped up in my room, I had to do at least that much to stay in shape. But now you're looking at the muscles of Spider-Man, a multi-record holder from my country!"

"I don't really get what you mean by 'cooped up in your room,' but your hands aren't ones of a commoner, and strong as they are, your muscles don't look like the product of hard labor." The girl said as she suddenly grabbed his hands, causing Subaru to hold back a squeak from rising out of his throat.

"I've heard that black hair and dark eyes like yours are a common trait of the refugees from the south, plus your weird talent resembles the ones that some demi-human species that live there are said to possess. So the fact that you are here in Lugunica with those traits means that you are able to live a life of luxury. Also, the craftsmanship of these strange clothes of yours is magnificent… So, you're from a high-ranking family with some demi-human blood and were taught some sort of martial art, weren't you?"

She expertly analyzed Subaru's characteristics, and seemed rather confident in her conclusion.

"Well? have I got it right?"

"My family…"

Subaru grew quiet and had a pained expression written on his face, similar to the one he had in the alley. Seeing that, the girl gave up on her investigation.

"Are you feeling okay? If it's something you don't want to talk about, I won't question you any further… hmm?"

But when she took another look at Subaru, whatever emotions she thought that she saw on his face beforehand were nowhere to be seen, instead replaced by a renewed smile.

"Well, now it's your turn to tell me your name!" He announced, the anticipation apparent in his voice.

The girl's eyes widened a bit in surprise at the sudden change in his expression. She then closed them, and after a few seconds of silence, said…

"…Satella."

"Oh?"

Subaru, who because of her silence had begun to think that he had made some sort of a mistake, was a bit late in reacting to her whispered reply.

In response, the girl turned away from Subaru and continued.

"I don't have a last name, so you can just call me Satella."

"That's a nice name!" Subaru told her.

"...Eh?" The girl, Satella, had let out a confused sound.

As he observed Subaru and the girl's exchange from the sidelines, Puck had one thing to say before slipping back under the girl's silver hair.

"…That's in really bad taste, you know," he muttered, though his voice did not even reach the girl's ears, let alone Subaru's.

Using the sounds of the bustling crowd as a guide, Subaru and Satella reached the main road after walking for a short while.

Shifting his gaze this way and that, Subaru looked for who they should question first, when Satella, who stood beside him, pulled on his sleeve.

"Hey, Subaru…"

When Subaru looked back at Satella he saw that she had her gaze fixed on something on the other side of the street. Subaru looked in the same direction and realized what Satella was looking at.

"…Do you think that kid is lost?"

Where Satella was looking, near the buildings across the street, there stood a young girl. She looked as though she was around ten years old, with shoulder-length green hair (or brown, novel diff idk) that was very cute. Her eyes were filled with anxiety, and she looked moments away from tears.

"Well, if she's lost, that leaves us only one option. We have to help her! You go talk to her and I'll start asking around about the thief." Subaru, who has witnessed Satella's kindness firsthand, knew what was going on in her mind in that exact moment, and fully agreed with her.

But for some reason, Satella seemed to be rather nervous about his proposition.

"What, are you not good with kids? Would you prefer to switch the roles?" Subaru asked in an attempt to understand her strange reaction.

"O-Oh, No, I don't mind!" Satella quickly turned down Subaru's suggestion, although that didn't entirely convince him that she was okay.

"You know, that kindness of yours is a great virtue, and something the world could really use more of. Go help her! You can do it!" He cheered her on while deciding to keep an eye on her as he did his questioning.

"Ah… th-thanks, Subaru. I'll do my best." Her silver hair dancing behind her, Satella trotted off across the street to where the little girl was standing.

The girl, who had been looking down with her teary eyes, noticed that someone had suddenly come to her side.

"I'm sorry I'm not the one you're looking for," said Satella as she knelt down to talk to the girl, whose eyes opened wide in surprise.

But in those eyes was not a feeling of relief, but a feeling of fear. He could tell, even from far away, that being spoken to by a stranger had caused her heart to shrink away, afraid.

"I'm sorry if I'm bothering you, but where are your father and mother? Aren't they with you?"

It looked as though Satella had noticed the girl was afraid, and her voice was in a tone that was kinder than Subaru had ever heard it before. However, it wasn't enough to convey her concern to the girl, who had lost sight of her parents and was now shivering because she did not know what to do.

"Umm… Uh… Please don't cry. I won't do anything to hurt you, okay?"

Satella tried to keep the girl's heart open before it shut completely on her, but it didn't seem to work, and the little girl only shook her head back and forth. The tears that had welled up in her eyes looked as though they were about to overflow, when…

"Now feast your eyes on the amazing Spider-Man's tricks!"

Satella and the little girl were both surprised by the sudden voice that had leapt in. When the two looked up, there was Subaru in his gray tracksuit, smiling from ear to ear.

If there was one thing that he knew how to do well as Spider-Man, it was tricks.

"And now, with the help of your lovely big sis," Turning his smile towards Satella, Subaru motioned her to come closer. "you shall witness his incredible spider-powers!"

Satella complied despite her confusion, and so Subaru instructed her to hold both of her hands forward.

"This might feel a little weird." He whispered a warning to her after she fulfilled his instructions.

Subaru then began meticulously weaving something with his webs in between the fingers of Satella's outstretched hands.

"I've heard that small cats are quite popular nowadays, do you feel so too?" Subaru asked the girl in a boisterous voice as if he were some sort of balloon artist.

The little girl blinked a few times at the sudden question, and then nodded slowly.

"I see. I get where you're coming from!" Subaru reaffirmed her as he added a few final touches to his creation.

"Wait, Subaru… what are you…?" Satella, still baffled, tried to understand Subaru's intentions.

"Tadaaa!"

Ignoring Satella's interruption, Subaru presented Satella's hands, and in between them was a pattern that looked exactly like a certain mouse colored cat.

Subaru took a magnificent bow before the little girl, who was stunned by his performance. Although taking part in the act, Satella was equally as stupefied by it.

"Hey, could you pick up two sticks from over there?" He asked the girl, pointing towards a few that were laying on the ground beside her.

She nervously obeyed his request, and so Subaru removed web-puck from Satella's fingers and stuck it onto the sticks as she held them.

"I'll let you keep it as a present. It'll dissolve in an hour, but you can still show it to your friends and family. Just don't touch the middle part, it's very sticky."

Subaru looked on with a smile as the little girl held the web-puck and nodded vigorously. He then turned to Satella to apologize.

"Sorry for making you do that so suddenly…"

As he was doing so, Satella poked him in the side. "N-No, I didn't mind at all! It's just that your trick was very unusual…"

"Yeah, I know it was a gamble. It's a good thing she didn't find it disgusting-"

"...So I was wondering if you could do it again for me after I found my insignia?" She asked with an earnest look in her eyes.

"Uh, yeah, sure!"

Thankful that he didn't receive a repulsed reaction from Satella either, Subaru turned back to the little girl. She was looking very curiously at web-puck, which seemed to have helped calm down her anxiety. When Subaru knelt down and asked her a few questions, she answered them quickly and clearly.

"I see. So you got separated from your mother, huh. Don't worry, don't worry. Just leave it to Spider-Man. We'll find her right away!"

After giving the girl another pat on the head, Subaru held out his hand to her, and with a little hesitation, she grabbed it. Satella, who was watching, opened her eyes wide.

"You really look like you're used to this… Subaru, is your profession taming children?"

"When you take it out of context like that, that sounds really, really bad! It wasn't a profession, but that's actually not that far off from what I was doing…" Subaru said, recalling all the stunts he had done in the past month for people's entertainment.

"So, big sister, how about you hold this lonely little girl's hand? She looks like she could use another friend," said Subaru with a wink. He offered to hold web-puck for the little girl, and so she reached her now free hand out to Satella.

Satella looked surprised for a moment and held her breath, but then let it out and took the little girl's hand in her own. "Right. Don't you worry. Just let your big sister handle this. We'll definitely find your mom, okay?" Satella said, smiling at the little girl as she nodded silently.

Subaru and Satella led the girl along, with her between them, and the three continued down the main road through the waves of people together.

"The way we are now, don't you think there are some people out there who look at us and think that we're a young couple with our child? How embarrassing!"

"…Huh? Even with the benefit of the doubt I don't see how anyone would think that you and that girl are anything other than brother and sister…"

"I can't tell if that's just a really dry joke, or that's really what you thought I meant!"

As Satella and Subaru went on talking, the little girl between them let a big smile spread across her face.

Fortunately, perhaps because they really stood out as a group, it didn't take long before they found the little girl's mother. In this case, it wasn't only Subaru who stood out, but also Satella, with her silver hair and extraordinary beauty.

"Thank you so much!"

Once the girl's mother was reunited with her child, she thanked Subaru and Satella several times, though they smiled and played it off as if it were nothing.

"Look mommy! Spider-Man made this for me!" The girl showed web-puck to her mother, who unfortunately didn't react to it as well as her daughter or Satella did.

As the little girl and her mother were leaving, the girl looked back and waved good-bye several times, and Subaru and Satella waved back. Subaru turned to look at Satella, as she stood beside him waving to the girl, and saw that she had a bright and cheerful expression on her face.

"Now, we've wasted a lot of time doing this, but what does our big sister have to say? I'm sure she'll find some kind of way to describe this as a means to an end!" Subaru poked fun at Satella. After all, she has given such a roundabout excuse for why her encounter with Subaru was useful, so he was curious to hear what she would say.

"It's simple." In response to Subaru's teasing, Satella smiled. "Now we can be in a good mood as we continue to search. Don't you think it is better to both help the girl and get my insignia back? Even if we got my insignia back, I'm sure I would have regretted not helping that girl."

"…"

It didn't look like Satella was just saying that to keep her own hopes up. She looked so refreshed, so she probably believed it. Subaru became quiet for a moment and looked down at his feet.

"...Yeah. I suppose you're right…"

Satella turned to look at Subaru, a little confused to suddenly hear such a melancholic tone from him. "Is everything okay? A boy your age shouldn't be this gloomy-"

*SMACK*

The sound of someone's face being slapped was suddenly heard from Subaru's direction. He himself had straightened up, his signature smile plastered on his face once more.

"What was that sound?" Satella questioned Subaru.

"Oh, it was nothing." Subaru answered, the two red marks on his cheeks indicating the opposite. "By the way, it kind of bothers me that you're treating me like I'm younger than you. We really can't be that different in age, can we?"

Subaru thought that by a rough estimate Satella looked to be about seventeen or eighteen years old. He himself was seventeen, so he thought that it was possible she could even be younger than him.

But in response, Satella narrowed her violet eyes slightly and said, "However old you think I am, I don't think that you're very close… After all, I'm a half-elf."

"…"

Subaru was at a loss for words. Seeing his response, a number of complicated emotions flashed across Satella's eyes.

"I see. No wonder you're so cute. After all, it's like a given in fantasy worlds that elves are always beautiful."

"…Huh?"

Subaru finally nodded, having come to his own conclusions about Satella being a half-elf. She blinked her eyes several times, her expectations having completely missed their mark.

"Hmm? What's wrong?"

"It's not that anything is wrong, it's just…I mean…I'm a half-elf, and…"

"Yeah… I heard you the first time."

Unsure of what Satella had a problem with, that's the only way Subaru could think to answer, but Satella's reaction was dramatic.

"….ah."

Satella made a strange sound in her throat, before suddenly turning away from Subaru, finding the nearest wall, kneeling beside it, and holding her silver-haired head in her hands. In the face of such an inexplicable reaction, Subaru just didn't know what to say.

"Take that! Taste the pain!"

"Frittata! What was that for?"

Puck, which as always seemed to come and go as it pleased, had punched him in the face with its paw like it was reenacting a fancy fighting move.

Puck purred, flicking at his whiskers with the same paw he had punched Subaru with. "I don't know, I just felt this overwhelming frustration and couldn't keep it bottled up inside of me."

"If that's the only reason, it's going to be hard to get rid of the feeling that a great injustice has been done to me, but it was a soft and squishy punch, so I forgive you."

"I mean, I'm not really mad at you or anything. If I had to say one way or the other, I'd say it's the opposite."

But before Subaru could ask what Puck really meant by that, Satella had returned.

Twisting the ends of her silver hair in her fingers, Satella glared at Subaru.

"Subaru, you're such a dunderhead!"

"Nobody uses the word 'dunderhead' anymore, and what have I done to be insulted by you?"

"Hmph. If you don't understand, that's not my problem. More importantly, we've got to continue our search."

With the subject of Satella's unreasonableness cut off without another word, Subaru looked a bit irritated, but that irritation evaporated as Satella began to act more friendly and familiar. Subaru still didn't know why she'd had such a sudden change in attitude, but there were more important things to think about.

"Anyway, that episode with the little lost girl made it painfully clear - isn't this town just too big to be asking random people about the thief?"

"Well, it's the capital of Lugunica. It's the largest city in the nation. If I remember correctly, there are about… three hundred thousand people who live here, and a lot of others come and go." Satella answered Subaru's question in detail and with a hint of pride in her voice.

"In other words, we don't have any more room for error. We have already given up a big advantage to the thief, so we need to focus our search."

"What do you mean?"

"If we run around without some sort of plan, we won't get any results. For instance, if we go back to the place where your insignia was stolen, we might be able to get more information out of people. Do you remember where that was?"

"Yes, I think… it was this way."

As they made their way through the confusion of the bustling crowd with its many different kinds of people, Subaru felt a strange feeling that he had seen this place before, and that feeling just wouldn't go away.

"Wait. No, I have definitely seen this place before."

Seeing the place that Satella had led him to, he scratched the side of his face and smiled a half smile.

The place where Satella had had her insignia stolen from was the same street corner to which Subaru had been summoned.

"This is where I was before running into the alley with the thugs. Where I-"

"…What, it's you again!? Go away, I don't want you throwing up in front of my shop again!" The owner of the apple-looking fruit shop yelled at him, gaining the suspicious look of Satella.

The man wore a bandanna and was very muscular. He had a stern looking face with a white scar that ran down its left side and a deep, threatening voice.

"Don't give her the wrong idea! That was an accident!" Subaru tried to defend himself.

"Listen miss, it's dangerous to walk around with people like him." The shop advised her in a hushed voice.

"I don't know what you think about me, but it's wrong! I was in a bad spot back then, I didn't mean any of it!"

"That's what they all say." The man further pushed his argument.

The last thing Subaru wanted was for Satella to think of him as some sort of freak. However-

"Don't worry. He is only helping me to repay the debt he owes me." Satella sided with Subaru, albeit stating his motive to be repaying debt, much to his dismay.

The man sighed, deciding to give up on his lecture.

"Well, do you wanna buy some appas?" He asked the two of them.

"Sorry, I don't have any money on me."

"I hate to break it to you, but I'm forever and everlastingly broke!"

The two of them turned down his offer for the same reason, although in very different manners.

"Ugh, I don't know why I expected a different answer…" The man said, his left eye twitching in irritation.

"Well, actually, we're looking for something, and I wanted to ask if you could at least hear us out?" Subaru asked, oblivious to the man's bad mood.

"And why exactly should I use my time to deal with you people who not only can't buy from my shop, but also have the gall to throw up in front of it?!" the shop owner yelled.

Subaru felt himself take some intense eardrum damage.

"M-Maybe this wasn't a good idea after all, was it?" said Satella, shrinking away as she tugged on Subaru's sleeve.

Subaru wasn't a fan of being yelled at, and could somewhat understand where the man was coming from, so he decided to let the matter go. But just when he and Satella were about to try and ask someone else, he heard a voice that sounded familiar.

"Hmm? Are you… the two from before?"

Subaru and Satella turned around. Standing right in front of them was a woman with long brown hair. It was someone they had both seen before; after all, the woman was not alone. Holding her hand was a little girl who looked very happy to see them.

"We are, but…why are you here in a place like this? The only other person here is this scary-faced man."

"Ha-ha… This is my husband's shop, so I thought I'd stop by and say hello."

"Your husband's shop?"

Subaru and Satella looked at each other, and then turned back to look inside the shop, their gazes finally settling on the scar-faced man, who had folded his arms.

Subaru looked back in shock at the woman, who smiled, looking a bit unsure of how to react. She was a beautiful woman, with fine features and a gentle demeanor. This woman and that stern-faced man? There had to be some mistake. But despite Subaru's somewhat rude conjecture, the little girl who was holding her mother's hand darted past Subaru to the shop owner, who hugged her and picked her up.

"Wait, do you know these two destitute beggars?"

"Beggars? Dear, don't call them that!"

After hearing her husband's sharp words, the girl's mother raised her eyebrows and began berating her husband. She then explained how she, her daughter, Subaru, and Satella had come to meet.

After hearing what happened, the shop owner set his daughter down.

"I'm sorry about that. That was not the way to talk to the people who saved my daughter. Please forgive me."

"Oh, don't worry about it. I mean, it is true that we don't have any money on us, and… umm…" Satella looked at Subaru with a conflicted look in her eyes.

"Yeah, I'm also sorry about the whole puking thing. I'll make sure to be more careful next time." Subaru continued what Satella was trying to say.

The mother wasn't too pleased to learn that the person who gave her daughter a creation out of spider webs had also thrown up in front of her husband's shop, but quickly hid her displeasure.

Disregarding her mother's opinion on different bodily materials, the little girl reached out her hand to Satella. In her hand was a small ornament in the shape of a red flower. Satella held her breath, and looked from the ornament to the little girl and back several times, with a slightly troubled expression.

"Please, take it," said the mother, urging her on while avoiding looking at Subaru. "My daughter wants to thank you in her own way."

Satella nodded slightly and then took the flower ornament from the little girl's hand, and pinned it on the left breast of her white cloak, before kneeling down so that the little girl could see it.

"Thank you. I like it very much."

As Subaru watched Satella's brilliant smile from the side, he found himself unable to look away. Seeing that smile, the little girl blushed and looked away, and the shop owner, watching all of this, cleared his throat.

"You saved my daughter. I want to thank you. Ask me whatever you want."

With a strong nod, the stern-faced shop owner put on his best smile.

Satella was surprised, but then looked at Subaru with a triumphant smile on her face.

"Look Subaru! Some things really do come around and help us in the end!" she said, as if this odd twist of fate was entirely her own doing.

The street Subaru and Satella were on wasn't far from the main road, but the hustle and bustle from before now seemed like a far-off dream.

"We heard from that guy that if we were looking for stolen goods, they would be handled and sold in the slums, but…" whispered Subaru as he peered down the street that supposedly would lead them to the slums, "…the air down there and the mood, not to mention the general character of the people down there, are all probably going to be pretty terrible. Are you sure you really want to go? I can just look for it myself and bring it to you."

"I can't have you do that! I know that you owe me, but this is still my problem!" Satella insisted.

"Okay, then together it is! We really are a power couple, don't you think?" Subaru said, smiling at her earnestness.

"Don't forget me!" replied Puck, who had reappeared on Satella's shoulder, looking at Subaru and Satella as he wiped his face with its paw. "But we don't really have the time to just sit around and talk anymore. I've only got about an hour before it's time's-up for me."

"What do you mean 'time's-up'?"

"I'm a spirit, remember? I use a lot of mana just by materializing. When night falls, I return to the crystal that is my vessel and prepare for when the sun is out again. I suppose you could say it's the perfect nine-to-five job."

"Nine to five? That sounds like a government job… The conditions to hire a spirit sound more severe than I expected…!"

As Puck looked up at the sky, Subaru followed his gaze and saw that most of the sky that was peaking through the buildings on either side of the street had already shifted from blue to orange.

"I don't know what you mean by 'power couple', but Puck's right, we've got to keep going. I can't let this chance go and risk having my insignia be out of our reach forever." Satella reminded Subaru.

"Hmm… these houses are too short for me to swing from them. Maybe we'll ask the people around here if they know something. That worked last time!" Subaru suggested.

"Yes, that's probably a good idea!" Satella agreed and approached a man that was walking nearby.

"..."

"Um, I have something I'd like to ask you, but-"

"What's that? We don't cotton to people like you with your fancy clothes 'round these parts, young lady, so go on now, scram!"

Satella was brusquely turned away as she tried to ask him for help. Given his response, it had to do with both her good looks and her fine clothes.

Subaru tried his luck with a different person. This time they were willing to talk to him, though they didn't seem to know about someone with the description he gave them.

"I'm happy to be useful for once, but…" He mumbled, not feeling too good from the reaction he received.

However, Satella was happy that he was able to get a response. "It's a good thing you're covered in dust and dirt, and even have traces of blood. The people who live here also have it hard, so they must look at you in pity and can't help but be kind to you…"

"You didn't have to say it out loud! But you're right, I suppose! Damn it all!"

As they say, people with the same sickness pity each other. So while Satella's likeability was at an all-time low, it was good that Subaru seemed to be more likable in the slums in an unexpected way.

"The thugs from before made similar comments, but you really are dressed pretty well, aren't you?"

"I guess I do stand out, don't I…?" replied Satella, looking at Subaru nervously, as she rolled down the sleeves of her white cloak.

However, while she acknowledged the problem with her fine clothes, she seemed to be oblivious to the fact that it wasn't just the clothes, but the person wearing them as well.

If Satella couldn't do this on her own, he was glad to make use of his dirty appearance to make progress.

I guess this means that good things can come even from getting beat up by a bunch of thugs in an alley.

"Well, don't worry about it too much. You can leave this to me. At this rate we'll soon have her cornered! So! Let's…keep…searching!"

"I understand that you're happy to be useful, but it's really lame when you put so much emphasis on yourself like that."

Subaru had struck a pose with every pause of his sentence, which he thought was cool, but when Satella put it like that, it just made Subaru seem like he was hopping up and down as if to say 'Don't worry, I can do it!'.

Despite all the talk, their search continued in the same way as before, basic as it was. Whenever they found someone, they would describe who they were looking for and ask if the person had any ideas about who it might be.

It was about half an hour since they entered the slums and started asking around when Puck announced his departure.

"I'm sorry, but I'm already at my limit," said Puck weakly as he leaned up against Satella's neck. His gray coat glowed with a weak light, and his figure blurred as if he were going to disappear at any moment.

"The way you disappear kind of looks like you're dying."

"I tried to stick around longer than usual because I wanted to protect my precious daughter from this evil-eyed guy spinning his web around her. But when I work myself to the bone, I end up fading away when it's time for me to disappear."

"That's terrible! But leave it to me! I won't let any dangerous guys near her after you disappear!"

"Wait, does that mean it's okay for me to wipe you off the face of the Earth before I disappear?"

"No! Not okay!" shouted Subaru, stepping away and hugging himself.

"I'm joking!" said Puck with a small burst of laughter.

After that, Puck looked to Satella, who took from her breast pocket a crystal that was glowing with a green light.

"I'm sorry for pushing you so hard, Puck. I'll do my best from here on out, so you just get some rest."

Puck crawled down Satella's arm and approached the crystal, then reached out and hugged it to its small body. Finally he turned back toward Satella.

"I'm sure you know this already, but be careful, and don't push yourself too hard. If something happens don't hesitate to use your od to call me back out."

"I know, I know. I'm not a child. I can take care of myself."

"I wonder about that… My precious daughter here always makes me worry when it comes to things like this. I'm counting on you, Subaru."

Puck looked at Satella with affection, the way a parent looks at their child. Satella blushed, but also looked annoyed.

With the conversation thrown his way, Subaru beat on his chest. "All right! You can count on me. If my spider sense alerts me of any danger nearby, I'll get us out of there in no time, princess carry style!"

"I really don't understand half of what you're saying, but all right. Now with that out of the way, good night. Be careful."

With a last glance directed at Satella, Puck finally vanished. His small body became a small ball of light, which gradually melted away into the world around it as he disappeared. Satella ran her hands lightly over the crystal, which was probably holding Puck's core right now, and put it carefully back in her breast pocket.

"Now it'll be just the two of us… but don't get any ideas. I can still use magic, you know."

Apparently Satella had taken Puck's last words seriously, and was on her guard.

"Spider-Man does good and good only. Besides, I don't think anyone would try anything after what Puck said."

"…All right. Let's keep going. But remember, with Puck gone we need to be even more careful than before."

And so the two continued their search without their furry friend.

"You know? It might be that Felt girl. She was blond and really fast, right?"

After a little under an hour later, they had finally run into some valuable information.

The guy who gave the information was someone that Subaru had gone straight up to and said, "Hey, my brother, how's life?" like they were already friends.

"Did Felt steal something from you guys? If it's her you're looking for, whatever she stole is probably sitting in the loot cellar over there."

The man pointed toward a building in the distance.

"You'll have to try and negotiate to get it back."

After thanking the man, they both started heading towards the building they were directed at.

"That guy said we should buy it back, but without any leverage, I don't think we actually can, though."

"Why do I have to pay to get back something I already own…?"

As the problem veered back toward their combined lack of funds, Satella looked worried. She had a point, of course, but it wasn't like they could expect the loot cellar's master to agree.

"You know, they have stolen from you, after all, so wouldn't it be okay for me to just return it without them noticing if the negotiation fails?" Subaru suggested, hoping that Satella's kindness wouldn't deny it.

"That's stealing! If we were to do that we would be no better than them!" That hope was quickly shattered, as he had feared might happen.

"If it's not theirs then how can it be considered stealing…? Okay, we'll just have to be really convincing!" Although seemingly agreeing to her terms, Subaru was still more than willing to resort to so-called 'stealing' if need be.

They reached the front of the so-called "loot cellar" shortly after.

"..."

Subaru examined the building. He had expected to sense some danger emanating from a building supposedly containing the manager of stolen goods, but something about it felt especially off. He decided to be extra careful when entering.

"I'll go in first. Don't worry, I'll get your insignia back in no time, so you can just wait here and leave it to the amazing Spider-Man to save the day!" He reassured her.

"All right. I'll leave it to you."

"You agreed to that awfully easily… I was expecting at least some resistance to letting me go alone, but that just comes to show how confident you are in my abilities, so I'll take that as a win!"

"You did seem to use them reliably, but I would be lying if I said that I'm confident in them…"

"Come on, I know I haven't done much for you, but is your evaluation of me that low...?" Subaru was devastated from Satella's assessment.

"...Still, even though you act very strangely sometimes, it was because of you that we were able to keep that little girl from crying, and I don't think you're the kind of person to lie or do anything without thinking about it first," said Satella, looking back over their journey thus far.

"So… I'll try believing in you. Good luck."

"…All right, I'll give it my best shot," said Subaru, breaking into a smile before heading toward the entrance of the cellar.

"Um… Is anybody home? …Er, wait… the door's open."

Subaru went to knock on the door, but from a gap in it, he saw that it wasn't locked. When he peeked inside, he could only see darkness, even with his enhanced vision.

As Subaru prepared to go inside, he turned around to Satella. "I didn't hear anyone answer me. I'm going to go ahead and go inside, so be careful and don't come in until I call for you - got it?"

"Are you sure it wouldn't be better for us to go in together…?"

"I can't have you put yourself in harm's way - it's against Spider-Man's code!"

"At least take a lagmite crystal, and make sure to call me if you see something." Satella said as she took a white crystal out of her breast pocket, which suddenly shone with a white light.

"Wow, this is really useful. I don't think I'll be gone too long, but you can go ahead and eat without me."

"Oh, stop being so stupid. Be careful, okay?"

"Gotcha… Hmm? What's wrong?"

Satella was looking at Subaru frozen, with her eyes open wide. This reaction was far different from any that Subaru expected, and so he tilted his head in confusion.

"I'm sorry… It's nothing. Once we get my insignia back, I'll apologize properly."

"I don't know what you're planning on apologizing for, but I'd rather hear a 'thank you' instead. It would be even better if that thank-you came along with a smile."

"You dummy."

As those two words came out of her mouth, Satella made a little bit of a smile, which made Subaru take his oath all over again. Even with all his previous mistakes, he was finally going to help the selfless girl who had saved him.

And if all of this turned out well, he would like to see that smile again, in a brighter place.

"All right. Will it be a snake or a demon that pops out this time? Given the fantasy setting, neither option is one I can just laugh off…" Subaru joked to himself, and with lagmite in hand, he carefully made his way into the cellar.

In the dim light, Subaru could make out a counter in front of him, across from the entrance. The building must have originally been something like an inn. It looked as though they were using the first-floor bar area without any major changes. On top of as well as behind the counter - which was probably serving as something like a reception desk - Subaru could see a lot of different items cluttered close together. There were small boxes and pots, swords and cheap metallic objects, and many other varied items. It was clear that all of these were stolen items, based on the wooden tags that were attached to all of them.

"This is all stolen loot…? And why isn't anyone here? A place that handles stolen goods can only afford to be so careless…"

Subaru ventured farther into the cellar, looking for Satella's insignia. But just then…

"Hmm?"

Subaru suddenly stopped, feeling something strange under the soles of his shoes. It didn't feel like he had stepped on something hard; it was actually the opposite. Like the ground he had stepped on was clinging to him; like there was something sticky on his shoes.

"What is this…?"

His spider sense starting to tingle, Subaru put the lagmite out in front of him and started forward. Then, he found the source of the slime.

"…Wha?"

Subaru unconsciously let out a foolish sound as he looked on. In the small visible range of his light, what he first saw lying limp on the ground was an arm. Its hand's fingers were reaching out as if to grab something, but the other end of the arm, at the elbow, was missing the body it should have been connected to.

Moving his light and following along the axis of the arm, Subaru saw a leg farther on ahead - a leg attached to a body. It was the corpse of a large old man.

"Eek!" Subaru squealed pointlessly as he realized what he was looking at. The warnings his spider sense gave him were getting stronger by the second.

At that moment, Subaru's mind had blanked out. His thought processes had completely left him, and his hands and feet had frozen in place.

There was a pause, and then…

"…Well, you found it. That's just too bad. Now I have no choice, yes, no choice at all."

The voice sounded like that of a woman. It was low and cold, and its bearer appeared somewhat to be having fun.

"Woah!"

Subaru instinctively leapt backwards, avoiding what he now realized was a deadly attack. However, the attacker didn't seem to give up on killing him just yet, and continued their assault. Trusting his spider sense, he barely dodged the flurry of blows while trying to reach the exit of the building.

"Satella! Run!" He warned the girl at the top of his lungs. He wasn't sure if he could get out of the situation alive, so he at least wanted to allow her to escape.

But then, much to his fear, he heard the door open, and from its direction a voice akin to that of silver bells could be heard.

"Subaru! What's wrong-"

"Get out of here-Gwah!"

"Subaru!"

Acting against his spider senses' judgment, he turned to warn the stubborn girl once more. But at that moment his body was blown away by an incredible force. He hit his back against the wall, and on impact let go of his lagmite, and darkness closed in as it tumbled into the distance.

"Gu… it's… h-hot."

A great heat assaulted Subaru Natsuki and completely overwhelmed him.

This is really, really not good.

Feeling the hard texture of the ground against his face, he realized that he had fallen facedown on the ground. He couldn't move, even when he tried, and he already couldn't feel his fingers. What he did feel was heat, and it overwhelmed his entire body.

He coughed and vomited the blood he felt rising in his throat - the source of his waning life. So much came out that it frothed at the edges of his mouth. With his hazy vision, he could see the ground in front of him stained red.

You've…got to be kidding me… All of this is mine?

Feeling as though all of the blood in his body had spilled out of him, he reached a shaking hand to try to find the source of the heat that was burning through his body. As his fingertips reached the large cut in his stomach, he understood.

No wonder it felt so hot. His brain must have been mistaking pain for heat. The clean cut that ran through his torso was so deep it had almost cut him in half. Only bits of skin were still holding him together. As he realized the hopelessness of his condition his consciousness began to fall away from him.

But that didn't matter anymore. He just couldn't let Satella share his fate.

"Run…"

"Suba-!"

With a short scream, someone else fell upon the carpet of blood.

She fell right beside him. With what little power he had left, he weakly attempted to reach her. Her white hand fell, powerless. He lightly grasped it in his own bloodstained grip and felt the fingers of her hand move slightly to grasp his own.

"Just you wait…"

He seized his fading consciousness, pulling it desperately back around to buy a bit more time.

"I'm going to…"

-find a way to save you.

In the next instant, Subaru Natsuki - The amazing Spider-Man - lost his life.

Well, guess which point the loop starts at this time! Appa man's got it tough. Subaru too, I guess.

Subaru is now transported to the world of Re:zero and the first arc has begun. Why is Subaru acting so weirdly in front of Emi-I mean, Satella? His inner thoughts will be revealed later, but the reason is not actually that hard to guess.

This chapter is significantly longer than the prologue because I used a lot of content directly from the light novel, like character and location descriptions as well as some dialogue and reactions. That being said, I modified it to fit the story and shortened it as much as possible. After all, the focus should obviously be the difference from the original story given the premise of Subaru being Spider-Man, not the descriptions everyone already knows.

I am trying to tackle new and compelling themes that were not in the original story, so if the behavior of a character feels weird or unfitting, please tell me! I want the progression of Subaru's character to be as natural as possible. Of course, criticisms of all other sorts are welcome as well.

Hope you enjoyed it! Till next time!