Chapter 41: Choose me
Subaru ran through each hallway and opened each door as best as he could to get to Beatrice while Sora and Elsa fought each other once again with the silhouette that resembled Elsa was trying to slice his head multiple times yet Sora was able to deflect each attack. As Sora was being pushed back harshly by the silhouette of Elsa, he tried to reason with her.
"Come on Elsa, snap out of it! This isn't like you at all!"
"..." No response from Elsa except a couple of offensive attacks which for Sora it isn't really much. This worried him since Elsa is acting like a lifeless puppet, as if Elsa who just wanted to see her opponent's bowels is now just a lifeless killer.
'I have to snap her out of this...!'
Sora deflected a bunch of Elsa's attack with much ease than in his previous fights with the bowel hunter, making the Keyblade Wielder realize that this Elsa is just trying to kill him by using uncoordinated attacks.
'She is not Elsa...but the real Elsa is somewhere deep down, I can sense it.'
As Sora was holding his own, he could sense that someone was behind him, quickly causing him to use Reflega to protect himself from any attacks from either side. As he summons his large bubble, he turns to see that it is Meili standing there, somewhat in shock to see Elsa in this state.
"Elsa...?"
Meili says this and was spooked when Elsa charged to kill the little girl but was stopped by Sora, having broken his own barrier to save the little girl. As Sora was in between the two assassins, Meili looks at Sora not as an enemy but as a desperate ally she needs.
"Help Elsa!"
"Don't worry, I will."
Sora spoke with confidence before starting to deflect every attack without too much trouble, still showing that he is the much stronger of the two. While he deflects all of the attacks, Sora eventually realizes that something had been wrong with Elsa that he didn't notice with Subaru.
Elsa was completely burned alive yet she is still fighting as if she was immortal. This caused him to use one of his attacks to shove Elsa back long enough for him to cast Curaga on the assassin. As he does this, Elsa's burned body has restored to normal yet her eyes seem dead. Meili noticed this and was scared of Elsa as she never saw this side of her at all, even during their first meeting.
"Um...keyblade wielder...what are you going to do? Elsa is still not herself."
"Hmm." Sora was in deep thought for a moment, trying to figure out what he could do to snap Elsa back out of her dark stance. This reminds him of how Xion was against them during the keyblade graveyard, not herself.
'I think I have an idea...it's risky but this is probably the only way to bring her back from whatever she is in...no, it will!'
Sora gave a look of determination and continued to deflect every attack once he had a plan. He continued to deflect each attack and dodge a couple that were heading towards his face until he saw his opening that he needed to enter Elsa's heart, seeing that he needed to bring out the light inside the assassin from within. He pointed his keyblade directly at Elsa's heart while Meili asked him what he was up to, sounding hostile towards the boy. Sora noticed this and smiled at her before he gave a response.
"I'm going to save her."
"You better save Elsa or you're dead."
Sora gave an awkward giggle as he didn't know how to react to a little girl threatening him yet he was confident that what he does next will save Elsa. As the light beam hits Elsa's chest, Sora begins to glow bright before the entire place is blinded by light.
Eventually Sora had managed to find himself in Elsa's heart yet something felt off about it. He looked down on the pillar he was in to find it oddly broken with only a glimmer of light showing while the rest is covered with death and darkness.
"What is going on here? Elsa, what happened to you?"
As Sora questioned this, he noticed that something was on his left that looked like a cursed looking doll. This caught him off guard yet he pulled out his Kingdom Key and got into his fighting pose, having a feeling that whatever this thing was is what's causing Elsa to act like a heartless killer.
'I'm going to save you, Elsa!'
Sora charges at the cursed doll, starting the fight with him going on the offensive first. As Sora was pushing the cursed doll back, he was surprised when all of a sudden the doll landed a powerful hit to his gut, sending him flying back a few feet. Once Sora was able to recover from the attack, he looked up and noticed the cursed doll just standing there, lifeless.
"What...what are you?"
"..."
Sora tried to talk to the cursed doll yet he got no response, confusing him for a moment before forcing him to get his guard up when it charged directly at him. Sora managed to deflect off a couple of attacks before taking a hit, surprised just how the cursed doll managed to break through his defenses easily. He quickly landed on his feet and tried to go for an attack yet he was shocked when he saw the cursed doll right near him.
"What...are you?!" Sora spoke with some fear in his voice before getting knocked back once again, forcing him to switch keyblades from Kingdom Key to Oblivion. As he switches keyblades, he also changes into his dark form, gaining enough strength to keep up with the cursed doll.
As the two were giving it their all, Sora eventually used a barrier ability to block off one of the cursed doll's attacks, giving him the opening he needed to defeat his opponent. As he slashed the doll in half, all of a sudden it created two of itself that charged at him.
"This isn't good."
Sora knew that if he wanted to end things quickly, he would need to use double form, which is basically a combination of both his light form and dark form. As he switches to a more powerful version of final form being double form, having Oathkeeper and Oblivion on both his hands.
Sora looks at the cursed dolls and quickly using his ultimate ability similar to the one he used on Elsa back on the loot house yet more powerful, he gave it his all and managed to destroy both cursed dolls, not wanting to fight any longer as he knows he has a limited amount of strength. After delivering a powerful attack, he falls to the ground with almost very little to no energy left in him.
"Please...let that be the end of this..."
Sora got up with his remaining strength and looked around to see the pillar beginning to break, as if he destroyed something that was attached to the Bowel Hunter. As the pillar was beginning to break apart, Sora jumped to the sky and flew for a moment to look down and see the pillar that was breaking starting to show a keyhole for Sora to unlock.
He switched back into his regular form while also reverting his keyblade to Kingdom Key before pointing the Keyblade towards the keyhole. As his keyblade unlocks the keyhole, for a brief moment he felt as if both his heart and Elsa's connected before the pillar got restored. The pillar show Elsa as the main one with Meili being one of the small circles and to the Keyblade Wielder's surprise, it showed him as well.
"That's...good to see..."
Sora smiled as he started to fade away from Elsa's heart and return to the real world, feeling happy that he managed to bring light to Elsa's heart.
As Sora returned to the real world, he looked at Elsa and noticed that her purple eyes were returning to her. As this happened, Meili was standing behind Sora with some fear in her eyes since she doesn't know if Elsa had come back to her senses. The two waited until she looked at Sora and smiled at him.
"Elsa?"
"...I'm alright, Meili."
"Elsa!"
"Hehe...that's good to hear. Honestly you really are scary when you are in that form of yours. Glad I was able to bring you back to your senses."
"My My Sora dear, didn't know you were capable of taking away curses."
"What do you mean?"
"I had a curse called curse doll which allowed me to be reckless but since I was too far gone, the curse had activated until you somehow destroyed it. I suppose a thanks is an order, my dear."
"You're...welcome?"
Elsa smiled before showing that she is her usual self by approaching Meili and patting her in the head. As she does this, she was tempted to attack Sora to continue their dual yet she wanted to confirm something.
"What are you going to do now? You know I'm still a very bad person."
"I know that but there is some good in you, a light within the vastness of darkness inside, I just know there is."
"...Why do you keep trying to reform me? I enjoy the person I am. I'm happy seeing everyone's bowels. So why keep fighting for someone like me?"
"Because I want a better path for someone I want to consider a friend."
As Sora says this, he gives Elsa a hug which completely surprises both Elsa and Meili. Elsa knew that this was a chance to stab the keyblade wielder in the back yet something was preventing her from doing it. This hug from a boy she was fascinated to cut upon is somehow making her heart warm. This surprised Elsa for a moment as she was conflicted between herself of harming the boy and accepting his warm hug that is giving her the same warmth she receives when disemboweling people.
'Why? There have been people trying to achieve what this...amazing boy is doing...so why do I feel warmth...?'
Elsa held her knife near Sora's back and was about to stab him yet their hearts ended up connecting again, giving Elsa a warmth she had always want back then. Sora eventually stopped the hug to see a very conflicted Elsa, having felt how pure hearted the keyblade wielder is.
"You okay?"
"...I...honestly don't know..."
Elsa for the first time in her life was lost of words yet seeing Sora's smile somewhat brought her some hope. She smiled and petted his head before answering Sora's answer properly.
"You really have a way with girls, don't you Sora Dear?"
"Uh..." Sora's face turned red as he wasn't sure how to properly answer that which made Elsa and Meili laugh at him for a bit before Elsa continued to speak.
"I can't change, in my core I will always enjoy killing but...it wouldn't hurt to change just a little."
"And if Elsa joins your side, then I will too"
"Do you both mean it?"
"My My, having little faith in us, Sora my dear?"
"N-No, just want you two to be sure about this."
"Elsa will have a hard time changing."
"Yes, I would since it wouldn't be fun to not see those beautiful entrails, but I guess a little change wouldn't hurt. After all I would need to be careful from here on out."
Sora looked puzzled at Elsa, which caused her to explain to the keyblade wielder that the curse doll 'blessing' allowed her to survive many battles and without it, she would've surely died a long time ago.
"Without it, Elsa must not be so reckless."
"I'll try not to be though being a hero doesn't suit me."
"I just want you to be a good person and actually try."
"...Okay, I guess it shouldn't be too hard. Besides, you kept Meili alive and saved my life so I owe you a debt."
"That is a shame that you two would side with one that doesn't know anything of love."
Sora, Elsa, and Meili all turned towards Capella, seeing that she is standing right in front of them with a sadistic smile. Elsa met those words with ones of her own, also having her own sadistic voice and expression.
"Sorry Mama but I do like a more interesting fight...I also would now like to see your bowels."
"Hahahaha, you have a unique kind of love "daughter" but you won't be seeing anything."
Capella prepared to face Elsa, Sora quickly casted Firaga directly at the ceiling which blocked the path for Capella. As he does that, Sora tells the two to follow him as they start making their way towards the others.
As this was going on, Subaru managed to enter Beatrice's forbidden library. As he entered, he looked at Beatrice and started their conversation.
"Hello Beako, it's good to see you. We need to go, I sort of burned the mansion."
"You are a complete moron, I suppose."
"I know I am but we need to get you to safety. Also you left Master Sora confused since he never got a chance to give you an answer-"
"An answer that I already know."
Beatrice interrupted Subaru, making the boy see that his master wasn't enough to get Beatrice to be free from the curse contract she was given by Echidna. There was a moment of silence before Beatrice looked at Subaru with some hope in her eyes.
"Are you that person?"
"...I'm not that person Beatrice. I'm just Natsuki Subaru."
Subaru spoke with confidence about this, knowing that he would rather be honest than lie about it like Roswaal had prompted him multiple times. This only made Beatrice's hope break and caused her to throw Subaru out of the library, forcing him to look for her on many floors. He found the door in one of the floors. He quickly opens the door while saying to Beatrice,
"Come on Beako, let me-"
"Shut up! Go away!"
"No wait!"
Subaru was thrown out the library once again and saw that the door had changed once again, forcing him to look for Beatrice in another floor. Eventually after many tries, he finds her yet he ends up finding himself in a whole new problem.
'Dammit, if things weren't already hard enough. I have such shitty luck.'
Subaru was trapped by fire with only one door in front of him, which sadly isn't Beatrice's door. He touches it with his left hand but damages it, making him aware that if he opens it, he will burn. This made him try something risky, something that made him hope from the bottom of his heart that Beatrice was listening to him.
"Beako...Beatrice...I know that you want 'that person' to be any one of us...Master Sora...me...but it's not us...because that person isn't coming. I know it's hard to hear this because you've cling on to that feeling...I know that because I hate myself..."
Subaru spoke with the truest words of his heart before opening the door in front of him, trusting that Beatrice would teleport him to her library. Once he opened the door, he saw her looking at him with an angered expression while crying tears of pain.
"What do you know?! What do you know of self-loathing?! What do you know about THEY?! What do you know about anything, I suppose?!"
Subaru knew that like with Emilia, he needs to be honest with the petite girl right in front of him. He looked at his hands and clenched them into a fist before speaking to Beatrice with his true feelings.
"I know for sure that I can't be "That Person" because let's be real, I'm a worthless piece of trash...one who is an idiot but I had thought that maybe Master Sora could've been "That Person" for you but seeing that you kicked him out, you don't believe that yourself."
"What's your point, I suppose?!" Beatrice shouted as she was angry by what he said earlier in the hallway, something Subaru was aware of. Subaru took a deep breath before he responded to the girl's angry question.
"The point is that...is that...I need you..."
"...huh?" Beatrice looked at Subaru with a pondering look while tears streaming down her eyes.
"You see, I pose as a hero who is capable of fighting yet in reality I ain't nothing but a weakling who is dreaming big. I'm someone who wants all the strength but I'm weak...which is something I hate myself. Yet you on the other hand don't need anybody, you are very strong, you are intelligent as hell, and you are very cute...you can do anything on your mind and can get things done whenever you want."
"..."
"You are more than capable enough of living on your own. Of course. If you weren't then you wouldn't have managed four hundred years. So not a word of this stuff about helping you or saving you resounded with you."
"..."
"But even though you're strong and smart and can do so many things, it scared you to live on your own. It hurt you. It made you lonely. Nobody can fault you for clinging to THEY."
"Betty's feelings...what could you...possibly understand!"
Beatrice bit her lip while giving Subaru a hateful glare yet the emotion wasn't full hatred for the boy she got to get close only because he understood how to read the Book of Prophecies. She continued to speak with a broken voice, "It's not like it matters, I suppose. The book foretold that everything is going to end up in darkness anyway...so why bother...?"
Subaru took a moment to think, knowing that the last page of the Book of Prophecies states that 'Darkness prevails and light expires' yet this boy from another world was going to defy that expectation.
"We can change that page."
"Huh?"
"It's not all set in stone, Beatrice. I know by myself I can't change a dark fate because I'm not strong, in fact I'm powerless even with the keyblade...but if you were there by my side, fighting by my side, then together with the knowledge of the book we can change that future into a better one. Not only that Beatrice but I don't want you to be alone...the only thing I can do is cling and beg."
Beatrice's eyes widen as Subaru presents his right hand being the one that doesn't look too injured and ugly to look at compared to his left hand that received burned marks.
"Beatrice-sama, help me."
"..."
"I know I won't be able to live with the loneliness without you. Help me."
For any normal third-party listener this would sound pathetic and shameful form of coercion yet this is all Subaru knows he can do because he truly believes that he can't offer anything to Beatrice yet he wants Beatrice to accept his plea. He wants her to know that he needs her in his life because he values her life like he wants to value his. This was selfish, unreasonable, and hopeless means of coercion yet...
"Not fair...it isn't fair, in fact."
Subaru stood silent as he can hear Beatrice crying while being slightly angry by his words, seeing that he is getting through the petite spirit.
"Using those words...and saying it so...after this you...when you're not THEY...when you even...rejected the idea of being Betty's THEY and yet..."
Beatrice was hesitant on this yet she still felt the pain of losing people during those 400 years of isolation, of loneliness.
"I was alone for four hundred years! I spent all that time in isolation, so what could taking your hand now would possibly... you'll just die anyway! Human lifespans pass like a blink of the eye to Betty... after all of this...How could I cling to this?!"
"Ironic you say that when Master Sora died and came back."
"Wha...Sora...died?" Beatrice looked at Subaru puzzled as she never heard of a human being revived after having died. This managed to make Beatrice's anger lessen for a moment, allowing Subaru to continue his talk.
"Yeah, he died to save the one he loves so dearly. Compared to me, I don't think I have that kind of luck. If anything I'm just an ordinary boy who was given such a big role. I also know that I can't say I understand what you are going through either, it just wouldn't be right and well I haven't even lived a twentieth of that. I know that I can't understand all of your fear for what'll come after I die."
"Then...nothing you've said presents any solution...!"
"But tomorrow, we can be holding hands."
Beatrice stood silent as she continued to hear what Subaru had to say.
"Tomorrow and the day after and the day after that too. It might not be four hundred years but we can spend our days together. It might not last for eternity, but tomorrow and this present, I can treasure you."
"..."
"Beatrice. Choose me."
The moment he says this, the entire library begins to be set on fire due to how the mansion and the forbidden library are connected.
"Choose me."
"But you'll go away..."
"It won't last forever. I know that the future you are fearing will definitely come by. The time when you're left behind, eternal as you, will surely come. But thinking of only the fear of farewells will only throw away all the fun of being together, it takes far too much out of both of our lives."
"But you'll leave me..."
"Let's be together. Let's live together. Let's go together. Let's pile memories upon memories, enough to blast away your fears of goodbye, enough that you can smile and say with your chest held high: I enjoyed it. Enough that you can recover those four centuries you spend in solitude and counterbalance them."
"Even if….that happened, I'll be alone someday!"
Subaru steps forward to close the distance between the two, reflecting off the girl's wavering eyes. She knows that he looks pathetic, that he is far from the prince she's been waiting for. If anything Sora would have been more convincing to her just by looks alone yet right there in front of her is the usual, mundane Natsuki Subaru. The same Natsuki Subaru she got to spend time with the most out of many people in her four hundred year isolation. The same boy who is reaching his hand for her.
"You'll live forever and well the time I spend with you might only be a microsecond for you. So I'll just carve it into your soul. My microsecond."
"..."
"-That Natsuki Subaru was a man, who even through eternity he was too vivid to ever fade to sepai!"
The library begins to crumble for a moment, showing how the fire is beginning to spread quickly around yet at that moment neither of the two cared. Subaru continued to give out his hand as he wanted to take Beatrice's hand while she was hesitant as she ended up holding her gospel, given to her by her mother. Her hands were shaking as she clutched the book, with belief that unhooking her fingers meant mending her centuries of solitude, Subaru reaches out his hand more and shouts, "Choose me! Beatrice!"
"..."
"You want someone to take you outside! That's why you are always sitting opposite the goddamn door!"
Those words were enough to finally get Beatrice to accept Subaru, believing in the boy's words on how they can change the future, on how he needs her. As she finally accepts his hand while also dropping her gospel, she can sense that Sora and the two people he is with are in danger and quickly teleports the five of them out of the mansion.
The only person left was Capella as everything started to crumble. She quickly used her transformation to create wings and to escape, vowing that she would return to exact her revenge on her treacherous "daughters". As Capella leaves and everyone in the library has either escaped via the secret tunnel or teleported by Beatrice, the place burns to the ground with the library about to burn two books yet a mysterious figure picks the two books up. He looks over one content and sees that it is beginning to write itself while the other is his.
"Now this is no place for my things, how ungrateful are they...though I am curious about something."
The mysterious figure takes both books and begins to leave using a corridor of darkness before the Forbidden library collapses in on itself.
As Garfiel and Frederica both lead Rem, Petra, Kenichi, Otto, Yabuto, Kishida, and Waraki out of the mansion through the hidden passage, they all turn towards the Roswaal mansion to see it burn to the ground. They were all at awe when they saw the mansion burning down with Capella seen flying away, giving the group an idea that the Sin Archbishop of Lust survived the fight.
"Th'bitch survived...!"
"Language, little Petra must not hear such words."
"Sorry sis..." Garfiel says this after getting a powerful hit on his right side from his sister, causing the three knights, Otto, and Kenichi all laugh at this before they continue to look at the burning mansion.
"All I can say is that my son and his master will survive this."
"Agreed, Sora-san and Subaru-san are both stubborn fighters who can break through anything together."
Otto, Garfiel, and Kenichi all looked at the mansion proudly as they knew Subaru and Sora managed to save Beatrice. As they were all looking proudly, they turned their attention towards Rem since they knew that she might have questions. Frederica was the first to speak to Rem,
"How are you holding up, Rem?"
"I...don't know...I don't know who I am or what I am...all I know is that boy with the spikey hair feels...oddly familiar..."
Frederica and the others all looked sad at this, especially Kishida since he was there when she lost her memories and her name by the Sin Archbishop of Gluttony. Feeling the guilt he approached Rem and started to ask for forgiveness.
"I'm sorry...it was my fault, as a knight I should've protected you but in the end I couldn't and lost my arm in the process. I'm sorry that you lost your memories. I'm sorry that nobody but those two keyblade wielders can remember you. I am truly sorry, Rem."
Kishida bows at Rem who was stunned and unsure on how to speak to the knight yet all she could think of doing was patting him in the head. This got everyone's attention with Kishida lost for words on what to say of this.
"I um don't know anything about my life, who I am, or who are the people I once knew but I can say with confidence that you are not a bad person. Stand up."
Kishida looked at Rem and got up just as she said to do, feeling some redemption in himself as Rem was forgiving him despite not knowing anything. As he got up, Rem could only give a smile before speaking to the knight in confidence.
"Whatever happened has passed, all we can do know is push forward. That is what I will do. I will try to regain some memories of my own while also pursuing for a new me."
Everyone nodded at this with Kishida bowing once more at Rem, showing his respects to what she said before Garfiel, Otto, and Kenichi suggested that they should return to Sanctuary. Frederica and the others agreed with the three knights swearing to not tell anybody of Sanctuary's location.
With the group beginning their journey towards Sanctuary and Sora and Subaru's group escaping the mansion, Emilia with the support of Ram and the villagers prepares to face the final trial. She had managed to pass the Trial of the past and the Trial of the present, now she faces the Trial of the future.
As Emilia goes to face the final trial with Ryuzu and Ram both giving her words of encouragement, Emilia enters the tomb with her mind being on the two people she cares most in the world, Puck and Subaru. She wants to make her adoptive father proud and she is starting to feel something that is love for Subaru, wanting him by her side and wishing for him to be the pillar of support just like he was when she took the first trial both times.
She knows that right now Subaru is with Sora and the others, dealing with the threat of the mansion yet she can't help but worry for her friend...the person she saved two months ago.
'Please Subaru...come back to me safe...'
Emilia enters the tomb with her heart and mind prepared for what's to come, she enters the room to hears the voice that starts off the Final Trial,
"Face the impending calamity."
As Emilia was starting the final Trial, Ram looks at Ryuzu and the villagers of the Sanctuary to tell them to stay there while she goes off to do something with the two dream eaters given to her by Sora. As Ram walks alongside the Aura Lion dream eater and Keeba Tiger dream eater, she smiles at the two as she wishes to have these as her pets yet her mind returns to focus when she encounters the one she contracted with.
She feels how her heartbeat grows a touch distant in her chest has never been bathed in such hostility from this person ever before. Physical contact with him, exchanging words with him, being ordered by him. Those things were the epitome in joy for Ram, and her meaning in life. And so the fact that she feels girlish elation...even when he regards her with hostility...overjoys her.
"...Hoooooooow dare you show yooooooourself here."
Roswaal mutters at Ram, giving the girl a harsh glare. His tantalizing voice makes a sweet ache run through her brain. Just by having his heterochromatic gaze on her, everything below her waist feels like it could shatter. Although, this is naturally not the time to display such weak and girly things, a woman like that would merely be deemed useless and discarded.
"Nooooooooow then, what could you have coooooooooome here for?"
"—That is simple. I have come to snatch you away from your witch delusions."
She speaks with respect to Roswaal while the two dream eaters accompanying her get themselves ready for a fight.
Author's note:
1. The Opening visuals are pretty impressive, they do spoil how the season will go from here on out.
2. Regarding the story, Sora entered Elsa's heart and put light into her darkened heart. The two also connected so Elsa felt something she never felt before, good. Also before anything regarding Elsa, in the Greed if she was a part of the Emilia camp through some means so there is a way to get her on your side though it is unsure how greed if Subaru did it.
3. Subaru's gate isn't broken in my version, so that might prove to be beneficial in the future.
Overall I hope you all enjoy this chapter.