Chapter 58: Who are you?

The sensation of waking, was like the moment of emerging out of the water's surface. Pulling the dreaming, unconscious body upwards, using a breath to restore the entire body to reality, the consciousness slowly reawakened, and, breaking through the water's surface, he was born. If sleep was death, and wakefulness was life―― then that description would not have been far off. Anyways, such poetic sentiments aside, he gradually began to wake until he heard,

"――Subaru! Hey, Subaru, are you alright?"

"Th-the wha!?"

The moment he opened his eyes, immediately stricken by the beautiful face in front of him, Subaru rolled to the side and not rolling very far before running out of surface, he dropped a short distance and landed on his shoulder.

"Ngya!"

"Eek! Subaru, you alright!? Why did you start rolling all of a sudden!?"

"N-No, it's not like I willing decided to roll or anything..."

Squeezing his banged-up shoulder and lightly shaking his head, he pushed himself up. And then, in the blink of an eye, Subaru was confused. It was a green room. The entire interior of the room was covered by sprawling ivy that completely hid the walls behind them. If he was told that the whole outlandish-looking room was made of ivy, he probably would've believed it and apparently, Subaru was lying on the floor beside a bed woven from ivy at the very center of the room. That was probably what he rolled off of...would be his analysis of the situation.

It was funny that Subaru could make such judgment so calmly, but there was reason for that.

"Hmm, it looks like you didn't hit anything too hard. That's good. But I got reeeaaaally worried, you know, you shouldn't scare me like that."

"Emilia, if you say it like that, Subaru won't reflect on it, I suppose. If you don't say it more severely, Betty's worries won't get through to him."

"I guess you're right. But I'm surprised Beatrice would be saying that. After going into such a panic when you couldn't find Subaru, you were almost in tears when you found him lying there..."

"You don't have to mention that part can you not mention that part, I suppose!"

In front of his eyes, the conversation started going out of control. Nodding stupidly to the rhythm of the bickering that made him want to smile, Subaru turned around. Sitting on the floor and breathing behind him, was some kind of huge animal.

"――――"

There was, a giant lizard. With black scales covering all over its skin, it was a huge lizard the size of a horse. The strangest part was that it was gently snuggling up to Subaru's neck with its nose. Seeing that it was friendly, Subaru gently petted the lizard on its head and then, he let out a sigh.

"In other words, this is it..."

Calm, and collected, slowly, he breathed out these words. Seeing Subaru like this, the two girls in front of him tilted their heads.

"――Subaru?"

The two females simultaneously called Subaru's name with concern in their voice. A silver-haired girl who was so beautiful that his eyes wanted to explode, and a fairy-like little girl in a pretty dress. A beautiful silver-haired girl, a Drill-Loli, a giant lizard, and a room made of ivy, Subaru opened his mouth wide, and shouted it out.

"I'VE BEEN SUMMONED TO A PARALLEL WORL――D!?"

"Subaru?"

"What is going on here?"

The three heard another voice and turned towards it to reveal a girl who had short pink hair, having a stern look.

"Emilia-sama, what is going on here?"

"I-I don't know, Subaru is acting weird."

"When doesn't he?"

"Hey! I'm right here."

"Shut it, Barusu."

"Barusu...?"

Subaru was left stunned for a moment but before he could say anything, the one known as Emilia turns towards the boy to say,

"Subaru?"

"I-I'm Natsuki Subaru!"

"Umm Suba...ru. Sorry, but...you're acting a little strange."

"S-Strange? What, like my eyes or something like that?"

"Uh, no. Your eyes are still reeaaally scary-looking like usual, I guess it's nothing."

"My eyes are usually really scary-looking?!"

Subaru was trying to calm down by joking around a bit yet he instead got hit by that totally unexpected comment. Watching Subaru recoil from that remark, Emilia stuck out her tongue a little with "You're always like this". Subaru noticed this and was caught off guard on how cute Emilia looked doing this. He was entranced by this for a few seconds before something caught his mind,

'What did she meant by "always like this" and how close am I with this girl?'

Subaru was unsure on this yet the girls all three started to speak among themselves.

"――Emilia, you might have come to that conclusion too rashly. In fact, something does seem off, I suppose."

"――? But, Subaru's eyes just always look like that, I think."

"I'm not talking about Subaru's scary eyes right now! I don't really care if his eyes look scary, I suppose!"

"Barusu's eyes look stupid."

"What's with this about my eyes being scary-looking! Also they don't look stupid! It's a bad hobby to be picking on other people's weak points, you know! What's with you guys...ah, no, I mean, you three are, kinda cute and all..."

Subaru gained the attention of the three with Ram tempted to punch Subaru for even daring to call her cute. Before anything can happen, Subaru set himself up before pointing his finger up and going into his pose while saying,

"Let me introduce myself again. My name is Natsuki Subaru! Shamefully ignorant, blown here by the immortal winds of Gods and Demons! An uncouth vagrant, but nonetheless pleased to meet thee!"

"..."

Subaru noticed that the three girls were silent, making him stay in his pose until someone says something, only to see Ram approach him before smacking him in the head.

"Ow. What was that for?!"

"You are the biggest moron in all of existence, Barusu!"

"My name is Subaru! Not Barusu!"

Ram slapped Subaru once again for back talking to her, causing Subaru to get slightly annoyed at this only for Emilia to quickly calm the situation.

"Ram, that's not nice. Don't smack around Subaru like that."

"Pardon me, Emilia-sama. I was just putting Barusu in his place."

"Regardless, just let me handle it."

"Of course, Emilia-sama."

Ram bowed to Emilia and quickly stepped back, having noticed that Beatrice continued to have a blank facial expression in all of this. As Ram was away from Subaru, Emilia approached her boyfriend and started to question him.

"Subaru, what is going on with you? You are acting weird."

"What do you mean?"

"You aren't this energetic, what is going on?"

"I-"

Subaru was at a pause for a moment, seeing that things are much serious than he thought since these girls know who he is yet he doesn't know them.

"Can I first ask for your names?"

"Do you seriously not remember us, I suppose?"

"Yeah, that seems to be it, yes."

"You don't remember anything...? About this tower, about what happened in Priestella...even about Ram or Beatrice...Sora...and about me too?"

"I don't know any of you..."

"..."

Seeing Subaru with his knees neatly folded and stuttering out of his replies, Emilia's eyes widened. Her pupils violently trembled which sent a sense of guilt into Subaru's heart but she wasn't the only one who was shocked by Subaru's response.

"Your memories...are gone? No way, there's no way that could happen..."

The little girl whispered in disbelief, not sure how to handle the situation that is being unfolded in front of her. Subaru was unsure on how to handle this but the first thing he noticed was that his body looked much stronger. He moved around and could tell that he has been training harshly since he felt overwhelmingly strong. This made him curious how long he has been in this new world, causing him to turn towards the three girls to ask,

"What exactly did I do in this new world?"

"You were being trained to be a Keyblade Wielder by Sora."

"Keyblade wielder?"

Subaru was a bit unsure by this yet he knows now that he had some skill prior to losing his memories from the looks of things. As he is trying to figure things out, someone else appears to check on things.

"My My, what is going on here?"

"None of your business, bowel hunter."

"Come on great spirit, there is no need to be hostile."

"Hmph."

The little girl looked away in annoyance towards the woman while the woman looked at Subaru, noticing something was wrong. She wanted to approach the boy yet both the silver haired half elf and the pink haired girl both got in between the two.

"What are you planning, Bowel Hunter?"

"I want to see what is wrong with Subaru. That is all. I'm not going to do anything to him, I can assure you both that."

The two girls looked at the woman with suspicion before allowing her to approach Subaru, both of them sticking close in the case she tries something. As the woman was close to the boy, she looked directly into his eyes to tell that something is different in Subaru. She continued to look before she asked the boy,

"Do you know who I am?"

"N-No..."

Subaru was completely trying to stay still and calm since the woman in front of him was cute as well but what is slightly making him uncomfortable is the woman's chest being so close to him. As Subaru was keeping calm, the woman was able to tell that this Subaru is different since he didn't had the same determination in his eyes like before. The thing she notices in the boy's eyes is self-hatred but also excitement.

"Hmm. Well this is troubling."

The woman looked at Subaru and knew that similar to Sora, he also does not contain the memories of his adventure in Lugnica. She turned towards Emilia to tell her,

"We need to get Subaru's parents. They might be able to help."

"Hm. That is quite the idea coming from you, bowel hunter."

"I'm on your side, maid. No need to treat me like a threat."

"That is yet to be seen."

The woman just nodded at the pink haired girl and quickly took Subaru with the three girls following her. Subaru was left completely confused which caused him to say,

"I still don't know your names. Please, that way I can call you something."

"I'm the bowel hunter, Elsa Grainhert."

"Ram."

"My name is Emilia, just Emilia."

"Betty is the Great Spirit Beatrice, and Subaru is Betty's Contractor, you know."

"Cool names."

Emilia smiled at this since she is seeing the same Subaru she met back in their first encounter all over again, remembering how much excitement he had in his voice. Ram saw this as a problem since she has seen a dear friend grow within the year and a few months only to lose all that development and return back to an ignorant fool. As the group return with the others, Subaru noticed his parents and was left confused.

'Wait, did my parents also got isekai'd to this world too?! What exactly as happened then?'

Subaru was on edge now since he doesn't know what is going on or what had happened to him and his parents. Having read enough manga and light novels, he is aware on how the isekai trope works yet he hasn't seen anything like this where the parents of the protagonist also tag along. Subaru tried to think yet he wasn't able to say anything since his mind got thrown off when he actually saw his mother there, she was looking for something in the odd library they are in. The woman approached his mother first to gain her attention. His mother looked at Subaru and approached him after having an explanation. Naoko was the one to start the conversation with her son by saying,

"Are you okay, my baby boy?"

"Y-Yes mother...just a bit confused."

"Tell me, what was the last thing you remember?"

"W-Well I was leaving the convenient store and then I ended up here."

"Hm."

Naoko looked closely at her son to see that he really doesn't know what is going on. This made her concerned since now she knows that something is up, causing her to turn towards Emilia with her saying in a calm gesture,

"Gather everyone, we need to discuss this problem."

Emilia nodded and quickly went to go get the others, knowing that this is going to be important since both Sora and Subaru lost their memories. The group waited for a moment before the others all arrive, with Sora and Julius tired out from the training session. As the group all gather around, they look to see Emilia to question why they are all together. The first one to question everything was Kenichi, having noticed the atmosphere is much serious.

"Honey, what is going on?"

"Our son had his memories taken away like Sora-san."

"Wait what?"

Everyone was surprised by this, completely caught off guard by what Naoko said. Kishida and Julius were both thrown off by this since they didn't expect anything of the sorts while Kenichi was worried.

"Up to where is your memories, my son."

"Just as I was leaving the convenient store, father."

"I see..."

Kenichi was worried about this since he is aware how his son was prior to having been taken away from earth. He crossed his arms as he needed to think of a way to help his son while the others were all concern about this. The one to speak on this was Rem, knowing how it feels to lose one's memories.

"Will Subaru be alright?"

"He should be, for now we just have to keep an eye on him."

"Yes but I find it strange."

"What do you mean, Anastasia-sama?"

"The two keyblade wielders are the main ones to have lost their memories. Subaru-sama was the one to solve the first trial we faced with Sora-sama being the second alongside Emilia-sama. That would mean..."

"That Emilia-sama could be next..."

Julius continued Anastasia's sentence, with the group seeing this as a problem as well since it is the only logical thing to why both Sora and Subaru lost their memories. This made the group see that they will need to keep an eye on Emilia until they all are able to pass the trial. Emilia understood this and asked if she could take care of Subaru. Kenichi and Naoko both allowed this, hoping that Emilia can help their son once again. As Emilia noticed this, she stood close to the boy she loves while Sora looked at Subaru with some sadness in his eyes, seeing that someone also lost their memories like him.

The group agreed to have Emilia, Beatrice, Naoko, and Kenichi take care of Subaru while Rem and Ram took care of Sora. Before the two groups did anything, Ram turned towards Subaru to ask if the two can speak in private. Subaru nodded and quickly the two walked away from the group with Kishida wanting to speak with Sora in private. The young keyblade wielder was caught off guard by this yet he nodded, curious to know what the knight wanted to talk about. Sora and Kishida both went to one place in the library away from the group while Ram and Subaru went up the stairs until they were far enough to speak privately. As they were far away, Ram started the conversation by saying,

"Barusu, you have poor taste in plans but that was believable for once."

"What do you mean?"

"That's enough, dumbass, you can drop the act now, Barusu."

"Eh? The act?"

"That's the whole point of changing locations, you understand that, don't you? You didn't have to make a girl so embarrassed. Disgusting!"

"Disgusting?"

Subaru was unsure on what was going on since Ram had wanted to speak with him in private. She hugs her own elbow while continuing to speak,

"Anyways, Barusu must've come up with some kind of half-assed plan again, didn't you? Nevermind the indiscrete Emilia-sama, the opposing faction Anastasia-sama, and the untrustworthy Shaula...at least tell Ram what you're thinking. I assume you are doing this because Sora-sama had lost his memories, correct?"

"About that, um. Ram, what you said just now. It's not that I don't understand, but..."

"But?"

"Sorry, but, this is really not an act or a prank or anything. I really don't remember. Sorry I can't live up to your expectations."

"Stubborn. I know Barusu always likes to go at it alone, but this time it concerns me as well. Ram has a stake in what happens to Rem. So I'm afraid you have to let me in on this."

"No, but I mean..."

Subaru felt himself at a loss with Ram insisting, doubting the fact that he lost his memories. This caused him to be unsure on what to do. Ram continued to speak,

"Even though Ram doesn't understand...If it's Barusu, Barusu always has a plan. So come clean with me. I will keep it secret."

"Although sharing a secret just between the two of us sounds enticing and all..."

Subaru crossed his arms for a moment, conflicted since he can tell from what Ram said that she has faith in him. It is unclear how much but enough to make him feel bad since he isn't the same Subaru like the one she knows. Ram noticed Subaru lost in thought, causing her to speak in order to gain his attention,

"Barusu."

"Huh?"

Ram shoved Subaru into the wall, starting lose her patience. This caught Subaru off guard by this yet Ram continued to speak,

"You are starting to annoy me, Barusu. Now tell me your dumbass plan."

"B-But I don't have a plan. I really don't remember anything."

"Stop fooling around!"

Ram punched the wall with anger in her eyes, not believing that Subaru had forgotten his memories but is faking it. Subaru just looked at the pink haired girl known as Ram, scared of her since he was telling the truth. Ram grabbed Subaru's orange scarf to intimidate the boy while saying to him,

"Stop lying! Let me help you with this stupid plan of yours! There is no way...no way you too forgot about Rem..."

Ram shoved Subaru onto the wall once again and was about to punch Subaru in the face until she ended up punching the wall near Subaru's face. This frightens Subaru for a moment before looking at Ram closely, seeing the tears in her eyes.

"Spit it...out..."

Her voice was trembling, something that Subaru could feel the impact despite not having his memories.

"...Please, spit it...out..."

"R...am?"

"...please..."

She softly leaned her forehead against his chest, the girl spilled this out in a trembling voice. Having lost all of the force of a moment ago, the only thing that remained was sorrow.

"If Barusu also has forgotten, then Rem...then Rem..."

"..."

"Then the Rem from before is..."

Subaru knew that he must have been the last person to remember Rem since she made a mention of him being someone else who has forgotten Rem. He stood silent for a moment before saying in a sincere tone,

"I-I'm sorry...I wish I could help but I'm weak..."

"..."

Ram looked at Subaru with tears in her eyes. She was already angry and sad that now nobody remembers the old Rem, the one she wants her sister in current time to regain her old memories. Subaru was still for a moment before hugging Ram, hoping that this would do something to comfort her. At first, her instinct was wanting to shove off Barusu since she dislikes this yet she knows that this amnesia version of her friend is trying his best to help. She allowed this since she felt a little comfort from it before shoving him away.

"Pervert Barusu."

"Hey! I'm trying to help."

"Forget what happened here. It'll only worry Emilia-sama if you bring it up. So for the sake of Ram' impeccable reputation, keep it to yourself. If you dare mention it t-"

"..."

"...It seems you really don't remember."

Subaru was unsure on what Ram was going to say, thinking that perhaps she was expecting him to counter with a quip before she did. All he knows is that her attitude had changed from sadness to one of seriousness. The two returned to the group with Subaru having kept in mind what Ram said, knowing that he is probably going to die if he speaks about it.

"Sorry to keep you waiting, Emilia-sama. We've returned."

Subaru noticed Ram returned to her original self, seeing that this is how she presents herself while what he witnessed earlier was something reserved for someone she cares about to see. This caused him to respect her even more and to question how his previous self was able to do everything. He was lost in thought for a moment before Emilia and his parents all three snapped him out of his trance, wanting him to pay attention.

"Come on my son, don't start daydreaming in front of your girlfriend."

"G-girlfriend?"

Subaru became all flustered by this, trying to process the new information. He looked in front of him and started to realize that the cute silver haired half-elf is his girlfriend.

'Natsuki Subaru, honestly how did you pull this off?!'

Subaru now contained a bit of curiosity on how he was able to pull this off, something that made him doubt his current self since he isn't strong or special at the moment. As Subaru was with his group, Ram joined Rem and Sora since she was assigned to take care of the Keyblade Wielder alongside her sister. As she approached the group, Rem noticed that something seemed off with Ram by the aura she was giving.

"Ram-sama, are you alright?"

"Yes Rem, Ram is doing well."

"Are you sure?"

"Don't you worry, Sora-sama. You should be the priority for now."

"I don't know about that, you are important as well."

"Well Sora-sama, flattery won't change that we are here to priorities your safety."

"Yes, Ram-sama is correct, Sora. We need to priorities you."

Sora was left a bit uneased by this yet he knew that they are just worried for him. Sora crossed his arms and thought back on the talk he had with Kishida.

As Ram and Subaru left towards the stairs, Sora and Kishida both went to a place away from the group. As they were away, Kishida started to talk to the young boy.

"What do you think? Is it possible for Subaru to be lying?"

"I-I don't know but I can feel something off."

"What do you mean? Is it possible that this isn't our Subaru...or well the Subaru you interacted since you don't remember him."

"Well I don't feel malice or deception...but I don't know. I'm just a kid."

"A badass kid."

"Huh?"

Sora was unsure on how to deal with this, considering that he has no memory of doing anything to be praised for. He crossed his arms and started to think on his skills, seeing that he was able to keep up with Julius, the finest knight. As he was in deep thought, Kishida spoke,

"Sorry to have brought you here like this. It feels surreal on how you are all of a sudden young."

"H-How old was I?"

"From the looks of things, you looked like a seventeen or eighteen."

"W-Wow, really?!"

Sora was a bit shocked on how old he was prior to losing his memories, unsure on how to deal with things now. Sora looked down with a sad facial expression since he doesn't know what happened to Kairi or Riku during the long years since he now knows that it had been a long while since the things that happened in Destiny Island.

'If I was this old when arriving to this world, then what happened? How did I arrived here and what happened to many things?'

Sora crossed his arms for a moment before he looked at Kishida to ask him,

"What is something that I have done in this world?"

"Well you have done many things alongside Natsuki Subaru. You both were responsible for defeating the White Whale and The great rabbit; two of the three great mabeasts. You two were also responsible in taking down the Sin Archbishops of Sloth, Wrath, and Greed. You two are heroes."

Sora was left speechless and surprised by just how much he along with Subaru were able to accomplish a lot. He smiled at himself and quickly asked for more information, wanting to learn more yet his biggest question was how he met everyone.

"Ah, I think that should be a question for Emilia-sama and the pink haired maid. Those two met both you and Subaru in the same day. The only thing I know is the bowel hunter and you were in conflict since she was against you all until you managed to bring her over to our side."

"Conflict? What kind of conflict?"

"She was hired by an asshole to kill everyone in this group but in multiple cases, you stopped her."

"Oh."

Sora was a bit surprised by this since he saw how much Elsa cares about him and a little bit of her care towards the group. This causes him to question how he was able to turn her to their side. Seeing that he would need to get answers from the others. He turned towards Kishida to say,

"Thank you for the information."

"No problem. We should probably return. I wouldn't want to worry your girlfriend and Emilia-sama."

"Wait, Girlfriend?"

"Hadn't Rem-san told you? You and her have a deep relationship from what I've seen."

"What?"

Sora now has a lot more questions since in his mind, he didn't think of Rem like that. He thought of her like Kairi, very close friends or at the very least that is what he thought their relationship was. This left him with a red face and with more questions.

Sora had thought of the conversation with Kishida, seeing that a lot of things had happened since he left Destiny Island. These thoughts would eventually get interrupted when both Ram and Rem checked up on him while the three were walking. The three walked around the library for a bit, all three looking around for a bit while the two maids made frequent check-ups towards Sora until Subaru and his group joining them. Sora looked at Subaru and could see that the boy was as confused as him. This prompted him to go towards Subaru to speak with him for a bit.

"Subaru, right? How are you doing?"

"I'm alright, just trying to learn everything I can."

"Yes, I know how you feel."

Subaru looked at Sora and felt that he as someone he can relate to regarding losing one's memories.

"What have you learned of this world, Sora?"

"Hm. Well you and I are Keyblade wielders. From what you said before losing your memories is that I'm your master."

"W-Wait what? But you are way to young...unless you are secretly older than me. How old are you?"

"Fourteen."

"What?!"

Subaru was dumbfounded by this, thrown off that a very young boy like Sora was the one teaching him, the older of the two, to become a Keyblade Warrior. As Subaru felt embarrassed that a kid had to teach him, he turned towards his father to ask him,

"Dad, mind if I ask how did we got here?"

"To this world? Well it is unclear in your case since you were already here but your mother and I entered this teleport that lead to the sanctuary."

"Hm...okay...then how did I get here?"

Subaru crossed his arms as he ended up in deep thought with Sora also in deep thought, wanting to know how he even arrived to this world as well. His memory is that he was taken away from his island into a dark ball yet he knows that he is missing a lot of memory. The group all arrived at one location of the library to where Sora felt that something was off.

"Subaru, Rem, Ram, everyone else...something is wrong."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"I feel...darkness nearby."

Rem, Ram, Emilia, and Kenichi got themselves ready for a possible attack from the three organization members with Beatrice staying close to Subaru. As they were getting ready for a fight, all of a sudden they felt a chilling aura nearby.

"Wh-What is that?"

"The threat Sora-sama was talking about."

The group all turn towards the dark area to see two very threatening people. Sora pulled Kingdom Key while Kenichi pulled his sword, both of them wanting to protect Subaru and Naoko meanwhile Emilia, Rem, and Ram got themselves ready for a fight with Ram summoning her two dream eaters.

"Kenichi-san, can you take Barusu, Naoko-chan, and Sora-sama to safety?"

"Are you sure, Ramram?"

"Yes. Emilia-sama, you should also join them as well."

"No, I want to help you and Rem-chan against this threat."

"Very well. Beatrice-sama, can you keep Barusu from doing something stupid?"

"Although he is a hopeless man, you will respect him, I suppose."

"Barusus is still Barusu."

"Hmph."

"Are you done? We have been waiting for you to finish~TSU."

"Lye Batenkaitos. Roy Alphard."

"We are ready for the feast!"

Emilia created a few icicles all around the area before firing them directly at the two boys, starting the fight while Sora and Kenichi took Naoko and Subaru away from the fight with Beatrice preparing her mana to protect her contractor. Subaru looked back to see that Rem and Ram jumped into the fight with two animals, all four of them taking on Lye and Roy.

"W-We should help them."

Kenichi, Naoko, Beatrice, and Sora all four looked at Subaru and quickly stopped in place to hear Subaru's comment.

"Son, we are not strong enough to help out."

"But what about Sora? He can probably do something."

"I don't know, Subaru. I may have done many things but I don't feel like I have the strength to win this fight..."

Subaru noticed this and realized that maybe they can ask other people for help. He turned towards Beatrice to ask if she knows how to fight. She looks at him annoyed before saying,

"Betty is powerful, I suppose. But Betty alone wouldn't be able to do much against them. We need the others, in fact."

"Julius and Kishida?"

"Yes, I suppose."

"Alright then, let's get some assis-"

Before Subaru could finish his sentence, he was caught off guard when Shaula randomly appeared and gave him a charged hug. This caused Subaru and Beatrice to fall to the ground with Shaula hugging Subaru's face tightly.

"Master! Master! You have been ignoring me!"

"Help!"

"G-Get off of me, I suppose!"

Subaru is completely helpless in this situation with Beatrice constantly trying to struggle her way out of the position she is in. Sora and Kenichi helped Subaru get Shaula off which did annoyed her yet she wanted to talk to her master.

"Master! Master! Spend time with me!"

"Um...who are you?"

"That's cruuu~eal Master!"

Shaula shakes Subaru around, not having been aware of what happened while Subaru is unsure who is this woman with a slightly revealing attire. Naoko smacked Shaula in the head while saying,

"That is no way to be treating my baby son, Shaula-san."

"I'm so soooorry."

Shaula says this with a sad tone towards Naoko, wanting to look good in front of her master's mother but also embarrassed that she was scolded by her. As she was sad, Subaru looked at her and quickly asked,

"How strong are you?"

"Master, you should know that!"

"So super strong?"

"Super-duper strong!"

"What are you thinking, in fact?"

"Something that will help against those two threatening boys."

Beatrice, Sora, Naoko, and Kenichi all four looked at one another, all not sure what exactly is Subaru up to. The only thing they know is that it's dangerous, causing Sora to pat Subaru in the arm while saying,

"I know you want to help but this is dangerous Subaru."

"I know Sora but I want to help!"

"We will help Rem, Ram, and Emilia. For now, we need to regroup with the others and let them know what is going on."

"But I can be helpful." Shaula says with Sora and the group looking at her a bit questionable.

"How so?"

"Well, I am the guardian of this tower. I can protect everyone. I am suuu~per strong! Master made me this way, right Master?"

"Uh...I-I guess...we'll we need to save Emilia-chan, Rem-chan, and Ram-chan. Can you save them from whatever the threat is?"

"Anything for my maaa~aster."

Shaula smiled and attempted to kiss Subaru only for Beatrice to get in between the two and looked at her with a stern look.

"You will not be doing that to Betty's Subaru, I suppose!"

"Hmph. No faaaair! I want to kiss Master!"

Shaula looked annoyed at Beatrice before she went to look for Emilia and the two oni sisters to help them out. As Shaula goes to assist Emilia, Rem, and Ram, Sora and Kenichi lead Beatrice, Subaru, and Naoko to where Elsa and the others are located. Elsa and Meili were both speaking with each other, both of them wondering what they will do once Capella had been taken care of. Anastasia and Julius were both looking for anything to help out with Julius' problem and Kishida had gone back to get some more training with Reid. Elsa and her group noticed Subaru and his group all running towards them which alerted both Elsa and Julius that there is danger nearby. Elsa went to check up on Sora first, approaching the young boy to make sure he is alright.

"My Sora Dear, how are you doing? Where is the blue haired girl, her sister, and the silver haired half elf?"

"I-I'm alright, we just encountered two boys with one of them speaking oddly. Emilia and the others are holding them off."

"Speaking oddly?"

"They had an odd voice but the one that spoke did say TSU at the end of his sentence."

Elsa and Julius both took a moment to think on what Sora said until finally they put everything together with Anastasia saying,

"Seems like the Gluttony duo are here."

"How did they found this place?"

"It is unknown but Roy...that bastard is an annoying opponent but his brother is worse." Elsa spoke with disgust in her voice, hating the idea of seeing Roy Alphard once again. She made a tight fist before she closed her eyes, knowing that she is going to work hard in protecting both Sora and Meili.

'I will protect you both, no matter what it takes!'

Elsa gained a hard determination in her heart before turning towards Julius, knowing that he is also determined to do something in order to protect Anastasia. The finest knight and the bowel hunter both look at each other for a brief moment before nodding, both knowing that they are going to be needed in the front lines against the Sin Archbishops of Gluttony.

"Kenichi, think you can protect Anastasia-sama in my stead?"

"Don't you worry Julius, I'll make sure to keep them all safe."

"I entrust you with this."

Julius and Kenichi nodded before he turned towards Elsa, knowing that she is going to ask him to protect Sora as well. She turned towards Subaru's father to ask him,

"Can you protect Sora Dear and Meili?"

"Don't you worry Elsa-san, I'll protect your little crush and your little sister."

Elsa's face turned completely red when he said this, causing her to be tempted to call Kenichi an idiot for this while Sora was just confused by this. She turned away and with Julius, the two headed towards the direction of where Emilia and the others are located. As Elsa and Julius go off to help Emilia and her group out with Shaula ahead of them, Kenichi decided to take the group to the second trail where they are guaranteed to be safe. While the group were heading upstairs, they end up encountering one of the two attackers. Kenichi pulled out his sword and pointed it directly towards the threat with Sora pulling out his keyblade.

"Who are you?!"

"We are Roy Alphard, member of the witch's cult, representing Gluttony!"

"How are you here? Where is your ally?"

"Brother is holding the three girls. We will take care of you all."

"Hm, I won't let you get to them at all!"

Kenichi spoke as he was confident that with his skills, he will be able to hold back Roy long enough for his son, his wife, Beatrice, Anastasia, Meili and Sora to get to safety. Subaru saw this and all he can feel in his heart is fear since he doesn't want anything bad to happen to his father.

'Come on Natsuki Subaru! What did you do to protect them?! I can't let anything bad happen to my father...'

Subaru had a tear forming in his eye, with fear in his heart that something bad will happen to his father due to how weak he is yet he felt someone hold his hand to comfort him. He looked down to see Beatrice holding his hand.

"No need to be afraid, I suppose. Betty is here for you."

"Th-Thanks..."

Subaru was at first uncertain for the fact that a little girl was comforting him yet he appreciated this. He looked at his father and Sora, watching the two stepping up to the plate to face off Roy. He closed his eyes and tried to summon some power within him yet nothing happen, causing him to be disappointed in himself for being weak. As he was thinking this, Anastasia and Beatrice both snapped him back into reality when the two along with Naoko and Meili started to push Subaru to run, allowing Sora and Kenichi to fight against Roy without the fear of them getting hurt. He turns towards the fight to see that Sora and Kenichi were both barely holding their own against the Sin Archbishop of Gluttony.

'Don't get killed, father, Sora.'

As Subaru, Naoko, Meili, Anastasia, and Beatrice arrived to the second floor, Kishida and Reid stopped their training when they noticed the five.

"Subaru? Anastasia-sama? What is going on?"

"The two gluttonies have arrived to the tower." Anastasia said which caught Kishida's attention.

"What? But how?"

"We are unsure, I suppose. All we know is that the threat is here."

"Hm. Where is Sora?"

"He along with Kenichi are facing the Sin Archbishop of Gluttony nearby. The rest are holding off the other Sin Archbishop of Gluttony."

Kishida took note on what Anastasia said, seeing that this is when he is needed now. He turns towards Reid and bows to him before making his way out towards the library. The group sees this and quickly questions him with Subaru being the one to say,

"What are you doing?"

"Don't you worry Subaru, I'll help take out the threat."

"Wait but-"

"I have confident that with my skills, I can help make a difference. Just stay here and let me handle the threat."

Kishida ended the conversation with that, having gone down the stairs to assist Kenichi and Sora against the Sin Archbishop of Gluttony. As Kishida leaves, Subaru continues to try to summon the power that his previous self once used yet he wasn't able to do it yet.

'Damn it! How did you pulled it off, Natsuki Subaru?!'

Subaru continued to this over and over but to no avail. To make matters worse, they weren't aware of what was happening outside of the floor, which caused the group to worry for the safety of the others.

"Onii-san, do you think Elsa will be okay?"

"I hope so..."

Subaru spoke with an uncertain tone in his voice, not knowing how things are going outside for the others. He turned towards Anastasia and Beatrice to see if they can sense if something is going on.

"Betty would but this place is too weird for me to sense, I suppose. I can only sense you because of our contract."

"Hm. What about you, Anastasia-sama?"

"If only I could though I am curious as well on what is going on."

"Don't you worry my baby boy, everything will be alright."

Subaru looked at his mother and was silent for a moment before just giving a nod, believing in what his mother said. The group stayed for fifteen minutes, unsure on what to do or what to think since the others haven't returned. As they were there, Reid looking at the group, having a more focus towards Subaru. This caused the stick swinger to approach Subaru in order to question him, catching the group's attention.

"Hm. Ya seem different than before, kid."

"What do you mean?"

"Just like Keyblade boy, yer oddly different and ugly lookin'."

"Really? Shitting on my appearance."

"Not like th't, just somethin' else."

Reid observed Subaru with a critical eye yet something else got his attention. The group could feel a darkness approaching them which caused the stick swinger to grab his two chopsticks and prepare himself for a fight.

"Stand back y'all, I got this."

Reid approached the shadows closing in on them and quickly waited before charging into battle, showing just how powerful he is being able to dodge a swarm of attacks and managing to destroy some of the darkness with his own strength. As he was doing this, Subaru and Naoko both turned towards Meili, Beatrice, and Anastasia to see the three stuck in place, afraid for their lives.

"A-Are you three okay?"

"..."

"Hey-"

"I love you."

"huh?"

Subaru turned towards the new voice that just appeared and could tell that something is wrong, seeing a woman in dark robes in the middle of the shadows that Reid was holding off. Naoko's motherly senses told her that her son is in danger, causing her to get in between her son and this new threat which caught Subaru's attention.

"M-Mother?"

"Beatrice, we need to protect my baby boy!"

"Y-Yes ma'am."

Beatrice managed to snap out of her fear when the mother of her contractor's voice was strong and stern enough to remind her what she needs to do, protect her contractor. She grabbed Subaru's arm and started to pull him away from the area towards a door nearby that seemed to be a pathway to the next trial. Knowing that Subaru would try to do something, she asked Anastasia and Meili to help her out. The two nodded and started to pull with everything they had to get out of the room while Naoko was hoping to do something to help protect her son while Reid kept doing his best to attack the shadows of this new threat only to eventually be overwhelmed and covered by shadows. This caused Subaru to worry for his mother, knowing that she isn't that strong to do something.

"Mother!"

"Don't worry my baby boy, just know that I love you."

"Wait!"

Before he could do something, he watched has his mother was covered in shadows, showing no trace of the woman that was known as Natsuki Naoko. Seeing that his mother had been killed caused Subaru to feel the greatest sadness, more than he had ever experienced in Japan. He fell on his knees with tears in his eyes.

'Mother...if only I had that power Natsuki Subaru had...maybe then I could've saved you...WHY AM I SO WEAK?!'

"Mom!"

Subaru's grief quickly turned into increase anger, eventually feeling the power of the Starlight Keyblade yet as he did that, two different things happened to Subaru. A destructive dark aura appeared around Subaru while also he ended up having a dark sphere cover him for a moment before the dark sphere went away with Subaru's entire body and attire being darkness while the destructive aura was still around the boy.

"S-Subaru..."

Beatrice looked in horror, watching her contractor go into the rage form similar to what happened to Sora back in the city of Priestella from what she was told. Meili and Anastasia both were shocked by this, unsure what to think of since this is the first-time seeing Subaru with such power. Subaru was filled with grief and hatred in him, wanting to avenge his mother and all those who had possibly died when facing the two threats that had arrived. The woman in front of her continued to say the same three words to Subaru,

"I love you."

"..."

Subaru charged at the woman, wanting to harm her only to be hit by a couple of the woman's shadow hands.

"Subaru!"

Beatrice shouted when she noticed Subaru taking some damage. This caused the little great spirit to act by creating multiple purple icicles before sending them towards the woman in the shadows, hoping this would help her contractor. The woman looked at Beatrice and tried to send the shadow towards her but Subaru was able to cut them down with this new found strength. The woman noticed this and quickly with her shadows managed to cover Subaru within seconds. As the boy was covered by the shadows, the woman approached Subaru while continuing to say the same things over and over and over again.

"I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you."

The sensation of waking, was like the moment of emerging out of the water's surface. Pulling the dreaming, unconscious body upwards, using a breath to restore the entire body to reality, the consciousness slowly reawakened, and, breaking through the water's surface, he was born. If sleep was death, and wakefulness was life―― then that description would not have been far off. Anyways, such poetic sentiments aside, he gradually began to wake until he heard,

"――Subaru! Hey, Subaru, are you alright?"

"Th-the wha!?"

The moment he opened his eyes, immediately stricken by Emilia's face in front of him, Subaru rolled to the side and not rolling very far before running out of surface, he dropped a short distance and landed on his shoulder.

"Ngya!"

"Eek! Subaru, you alright!? Why did you start rolling all of a sudden!?"

"N-No, it's not like I willing decided to roll or anything...this is some strange déjà vu."

Subaru looked at himself and was unsure what had happened to him or whether what he saw was even real. The one thing he did wanted to confirm was the power he had felt prior to the vision ending. He moved his hand forward while closing his eyes, focusing on the power he felt until finally all of a sudden he felt the Starlight keyblade in his hand. Subaru looked at his hand and smiled as he was able to summon the strength the original Natsuki Subaru had yet he still was unsure what he saw.

"Subaru?"

"Huh? Oh sorry Emilia-chan, I was just thinking about something."

"Emilia-chan...?"

"Anyway...I think I'm having déjà vu."

"Déjà vu? What are you talking about, Barusu?"

"Hmm. Don't worry about it, Ram-chan."

Ram stood silent but, in her mind, she felt something off when Subaru said this. Emilia was looking dumbfounded at what Subaru said. Beatrice looked at her contractor with a skeptical look as he was looking around for a moment.

"What are you doing, I suppose?"

"Nothing...just had a weird dream."

"Weird dream?" Emilia asked with a curious voice.

"Y-Yes, just an odd one where...I think I saw the future."

"That is stupid, Barusu."

"Yeah Yeah, I know. It was just weird."

Subaru got up and was about to say that he doesn't remember anything yet he didn't want to worry them for now. He knows that if the vision he saw was truly the future, he needs to do something about the threat coming to them. He looks around for a bit on his own, causing the three girls to have some concern on the boy. Before anything could be said, the boy starts running around which left the three girls stunned. Subaru looks around in hopes of finding the place where the threat had arrived.

'Hopefully my memory serves well, assuming that it was a vision of the future. I can't let anything happen to my father or my mother.'

Subaru searched and searched for a moment before eventually getting lost in the library. This annoyed the boy since he knows that he has around two hours before the threat arrives. As he was unsure on where to go, he suddenly gets tackled to the ground.

"Ah!"

"Master! Master!"

Subaru felt Shaula tackle him to the ground, hugging him tightly similar to how she did in his vision. As Subaru tried to free himself, like a spoiled brat Shaula would say,

"Spend more time with meee!"

Subaru kept trying to free himself from this but failed as he was starting to lose his conscience since he wasn't able to breath in between Shaula's chest.

'Come on, I can't pass out like this! If my g-girlfriend, Emilia-chan, sees this I will be in quite a mess.'

Subaru eventually managed to break free once he faked being dead which got Shaula worried. As Subaru jumped away from the girl, he got up and quickly managed to start running away which caught Shaula off guard for a second before chasing her master.

"Maaa~ster! You're sooo mean!"

The two would run around for a few minutes until Subaru managed to bump into Emilia, Ram, and Beatrice. The three girls were looking for him in concern, with Emilia leading the team until they eventually find the boy when he bumped into Emilia herself. The two fell to the ground with the two ending up having an accidental kiss. Subaru and Emilia's face completely turned hot red before Subaru jumped back.

"I-I'm sorry!"

"...I-It's okay."

"Barusu! You are such a dumbass!"

"That's mean!"

As Subaru said this, he felt another tackle before a couple of light punches on his back.

"Master! You idiot! Dummy!"

"Hey! Get off Betty's Subaru, In fact!"

Beatrice tried to attack Shaula yet she was able to easily deflect it off. Subaru noticed this and quickly managed to escape the girl's grasp which caught the girl's attention. Before anything can be said by any of the girls, Subaru got in between Beatrice and Shaula while saying,

"Stop! We are allies! There is no need to fight among ourselves."

"Hmph. She should apologize, I suppose!"

"Why? Master needs to apologize!"

"Wait why do I need to apologize?"

"Because you did something dumb!"

"What?!"

Shaula goes and starts shaking Subaru around a bit, leaving him dumbfounded for a bit before Sora, Rem, Meili, and Elsa walked in the corner to see all of this happen.

"What is going on here?"

"S-Sora? I might need your assistance."

"Okay, I can help. What is the problem?"

"Master is an idiot!"

"Take that back, in fact!"

Beatrice looked at Shaula with anger while Shaula continued to whine, allowing Sora and his group to realize what is going on. Elsa and Meili both approached Shaula to calm her down while Rem went to her sister and Emilia's side, wanting to protect them just in case a fight breaks out. Sora approached Subaru's location before looking at Shaula, hoping Elsa and Meili could do something about this. Meili looked at Shaula and said,

"Naked onee-san, what is going on? Why are you flustered?"

"Master is such an idiot!"

"How so?"

"He kissed her!"

Shaula points towards Emilia, causing Sora and his group to turn towards Emilia only to see the silver half-elf girl's face turn completely red along with Subaru's face. For the boy, this was the first girl he has kissed. There was a silence for a moment before Shaula returned to complaining to Subaru, calling him an idiot a bunch of times.

"Okay, Shaula, no need to keep calling me an idiot."

"Master is an idiot!"

"..."

"Idiot!"

Subaru stood silent for a moment before turning towards the group to alert them of his dream, knowing that this was something he needs to tell them.

"Hey, I actually wanted to talk to you all about something important."

"What is it, Barusu? What could you possibly tell us right now?"

"Well I have this ability to view the future...I think, I saw two threats coming here."

"Two threats? What did they look like, Barusu?"

Ram looked at Subaru with a critical eye, sensing that something is wrong with the boy with Elsa also noticing something off with Subaru. Prior to this day, she could see the determination in his eyes yet this time she can only see something different. Before making a comment on this, Subaru quickly describes the appearance of the duo that he saw which caused all focus to be on the boy.
"Are you saying that the Sin Archbishops of Gluttony will be making their way here?"

"Yes Rem-chan, seems like we have a few...problems heading this way. They appear somewhere in this library but we should be prepared for this before they arrive."

"Hm. This could give us a chance to surprise attack them."

"What do you mean, Ram-sama?"

"If we play our cards right and Barusu's stupid vision is true, then we can take care of another set of archbishops."

The group all decide to take Subaru's word as true and began to prepare for the arrival of the Sin Archbishops of Gluttony within one hour and thirty minutes. As they were setting things up for the trap, Elsa waited for the right moment before she decided to speak with Subaru.

"May I speak with you for a moment, in private."

"U-Um sure..."

Subaru was a bit through off by this yet he didn't want to seem suspicious so he followed the woman towards some place away from everyone. Once the two were far away from the group, Elsa proceeded to look deep into Subaru's eyes, having noticed a shift while Subaru was slightly embarrassed to have a woman like the bowel hunter close to his face. She observed for a moment before she began to speak to the boy,

"Are you truly Subaru?"

"Wh-What do you mean?"

"What city did we went?"

'Shit! This is an interrogation! Damn it Natsuki Subaru, think! There has to be something I can use or I'm good as dead.'

Subaru was quickly thinking hard within the time he had until eventually he recalled something when meeting Emilia in his vision.

"Priestella."

"..."

Elsa looked closely at Subaru, seeing that he wasn't hesitant when answering the question but the way he answered was slightly off on its own. She continued to speak,

"Who is the one that trained you to be a Keyblade Wielder?"

'Hm. The only person with a Keyblade is that young boy so I have to assume its him...'

"Sora."

"Hm."

Elsa looked suspiciously at Subaru for a moment before coming up with the final question.

"Who was the first person you met in this world?"

'Huh? Well considering that who I'm close with, it would only me natural that I met...'

"Emilia-chan."

Elsa took note on what Subaru said and just gave him a nod before leaving the area, leaving Subaru both confused and uncertain whether or not he managed to convince Elsa that he really is Subaru.

'Hopefully that was enough to convince her...Damn it, Natsuki Subaru! Why did you go and kill that poor girl?! I hate you!'

Subaru was mad at the events that had transpired but knew that he needed to prepare for the threat that was to come by. This caused him to walk on his own, wanting to think of some plan to save everyone from the threat that will be arriving in less than two hours. As the boy was walking around for a bit until all of a sudden he felt his mind blank out for a bit, everything going dark.

Subaru woke up in an unfamiliar room, causing him to think whether or not he had returned back to the same place Emilia, Ram, and Beatrice had found him. He looked and looked yet he saw that he was the only person in the room at first. He noticed some writing in the walls saying "Natsuki Subaru was here", causing the boy to think that the original Subaru had taken over and done something. He walked around until he stumbled upon a body. At first Subaru thought that it was a sleeping body since he saw the little girl in an odd pose until he looked further to notice that the little girl that had a similar attire to Elsa's was not breathing.

'What did you do, Natsuki Subaru?!'

Seeing that he was the only person in the room with a dead girl, people would think that he did it which caused him to quickly hide the body. As he was hiding the body, he started to run around the library, hoping to find someone. As he was scared while running, all his mind can think about is how the real Natsuki Subaru that build a bond with everyone in the tower. Subaru ran and ran until he bumped into someone, causing himself and the person he bumped into to fall to the ground.

"S-Sorry about that, I wasn't looking."

"I-It's okay, Subaru."

The boy looked to see who he bumped into to see that it was the other boy who had lost his memories and somehow de-aged to be around 14 years old. Sora looked at Subaru and gave him a smile, seeing that Subaru was a bit tensed.

"Are you alright?"

"Y-Yeah, I'll be okay. Sorry for crashing into you."

"Don't worry about it."

The two keyblade wielders got up with Subaru looking around, curious to know why Sora is alone since he was expecting the blue haired girl to be next to him.

"Where is everyone, Sora?"

"They all went to look for you and Meili."

"Wait why?"

"Well you two have been missing for an hour."

"An hour?!"

Subaru was shocked by this, having realized that his blackout lasted for an hour, meaning that they only have less than 30 minutes before the two Sin Archbishops of Gluttony arrive. As Subaru was going to say something, someone spoke towards Subaru.

"There you are, Barusu! You are such an idiot for disappearing for an hour."

"Yes, what a hopeless contractor you are, I suppose!"

"Such a stubborn boy."

Subaru turned to see Rem, Ram, and Beatrice all three insulting him for having disappeared for an hour. Although it hurt, he did understand why the three looked at him with some annoyance in their voice. Before anything else can be said, the five of them noticed Julius and Kishida approaching them with a serious facial expression.

"Kishida-sama, Julius-sama, what brings you here?"

"The Bowel Hunter wishes to gather everyone. She says that this is important."

"Hmph. This better be."

Ram responded to what Julius said before the group followed the two knights towards Elsa's location with Beatrice holding onto Subaru's arm, not wanting to be far away from her contractor. As the group were walking towards the entrance to the library, they noticed that everyone else was there and waiting for them. Naoko and Kenichi noticed Subaru and quickly approached their son to give him a hug, happy to see that he is okay. As the Natsuki household were hugging, Elsa regained the attention of them along with everyone else by saying,

"Sorry to disrupt our planning for the fight that is coming but I want to bring everyone's attention to something important."

"What is it, bowel hunter?"

Elsa turned towards Rem, knowing that she is asking what everyone is wondering. She quickly pulled out a book while explaining new situation.

"I was looking for Meili only to have found her name on this book in one of the shelves here."

"Which means that something happened to Meili..." Emilia spoke with a worried tone of voice, causing everyone but Subaru to ponder what could this mean. Subaru was the only one who truly was afraid since he knows that Meili is dead, making him scared that Elsa will call him out on it but as he was starting to think about how screwed he was, he could feel Beatrice holding him tightly, having noticed him being tensed. Subaru smiled at Beatrice before looking at Elsa, seeing that she wanted to open the book.

"Hold on, Bowel Hunter."

"What?"

"You shouldn't open that book just yet."

Elsa looked at Anastasia, a bit curious to know why she doesn't want her to open the book of Meili Portroute.

"My My, and why shouldn't I?"

"Considering that Sora-sama had his memories lost in this library, it could be inferred that the cause of this was the books of the dead. If reading the books to the fullest can cause a person to lose their memories, then it would be unwise to read that book unless you want to risk losing your memories."

Elsa took a moment to ponder on what the merchant woman said, seeing that the whole problem had started due to Sora having all of a sudden de-aged into a fourteen year old and lost his memories. This is something that she needed to think carefully since she doesn't want to forget Sora or Meili, the two people she cares deeply for. After a minute of pondering, she nods at Anastasia before turning towards the group to suggest a plan.

"We could have Sora-sama read the book to find out what happened to Meili-san and to see if reading these books to the end are the cause of memories lose."

"That is risky, putting Sora in possible danger of losing any more memories like that." Rem protested with Elsa slightly agreeing to this, both not wanting anything bad happening to the young Keyblade Wielder. As the group were all debating whether they should have Sora read Meili's book, both Emilia and Subaru looked around for a bit until their eyes met. Emilia smiled at Subaru while Subaru was left dumbfounded on how his previous self was able to get Emilia as his girlfriend, considering how beautiful she is while he knows himself to be a loser. This thought caused him to accidently say,

"Why don't I view the book? That way we can know if reading these books are the cause of losing one's memories."

"Wait what?" Both Emilia and Beatrice spoke in unison as they were surprised with Subaru's statement. Naoko and Kenichi were unsure on this as well, not wanting to let anything bad happen to him.

"Subaru, are you sure about this? We don't know how far your memory loss can be."

"I know the risk but I'm willing to do this. I have you all if I lose any of my memories."

"Me too."

Subaru turned towards Sora, surprised along with everyone else on hearing the boy speak about how he will join in on reading the book as well. The group would want to argue this yet Ram stepped in to speak on behalf of both boys.

"We cannot waste any more time. If Barusu wants to be an idiot and lose his memories, that is fine by me, but we need to do something and now."

The group all knew that Ram had a point since they had to prepare themselves for what's to come. The group all agreed that the two keyblade wielders should do it with Emilia, Beatrice, Kenichi, and Naoko worried for Subaru's sake while Rem and Elsa were worried for Sora's sake. Sora and Subaru both held the book in front of them and just as they open the book, Sora didn't seem affected yet Subaru was. Subaru can feel his mind heading into a memory of someone he wasn't too familiar with. He looked around and can see that he was in a forest with a young blue haired girl and a couple of demon looking animals. Subaru was unsure what he was suppose to understand from this odd vision like memory but one thing was certain was that he recognized the woman approaching the little girl with her animals.

(E-Elsa!)

Elsa had been covered in blood after the vision got blurred for a moment, seeming to have fought the demon animals and defeated them all on her own.

"―This welcome is much bigger than what I thought. However, I do not mean to hurt you."

Elsa got close to the little girl and smiled,

"I will take you back with me. That's why, I shall accompany you."

Elsa forcefully took the little girl who had nothing, leaving the place where she had lived for a long time, where she had spent a long time with the beasts, where she was together with them for such a long time. Even after all that, the little girl still could not do anything. She did not know any words, so she didn't know to mourn. She did not know how to use her legs, so she didn't know how to walk. She lost the way of survival, so this time she may have no choice but to die.

"The way to mourn, the way to walk, the way to live, you lost all of those? No way, no way, there cannot be any excuses made for such a lineup."

That was her regret of not knowing the way to mourn.

"Mourn, for my sake. Resist, for my sake. Live, for the sake of loving me."

That was her regret of not knowing the way to resist.

"No matter what you lose or what you forget, you can never go against me ― That is, because it's your duty towards your mother."

That was her regret of forgetting the way of living, and her inability to think about her way of dying. Subaru's mind eventually started to meld with the little girl's, having her emotions, thought process, and memories merge with his. This caused him to experience what she thought. More hellish than hell, more nightmarish than nightmares, more evil than evil―

That was Mother's idea of discipline, not for other women, but just for her. Mother did not lie. Mother was innocent. Mother used every possible means to be loved. Mother however, just used distorted version of those means. She remembered words. The way of mourning got peeled away. She remembered the way to walk. The way of resistance was painted away. She remembered the way of living. She no longer wished to die, and this got engraved into her.

"Please stop being under the complete control of that person. Because, except for me, surely, the number of lives left would be short."

Suddenly, when she had remembered the way of words, and the way of walking, she had recalled Elsa. Elsa had often shown to have the face of a woman. Before she even noticed, she was acting in accompaniment of Elsa much more than before. Before meeting mother for the first time, she remembered when she was embraced by warm water. Covered with blood, mud, and dirt, the merciless girl in black had sloppily rinsed her of the irremovable dirt or perhaps, maybe it was the feeling of freedom that the little girl had felt at the end. Mother's intention made it clear that she wanted the little girl to be aligned with Elsa. Elsa was abnormally strong. Her way of killing was amazing. She knew more about the way of killing rather than the way of living. Everything else except for that was scarce in her.

"Regarding ■■■■. If you entrust her to someone like me, she will do well."

A single event would shape everything else that had happened, or that's how it felt like. She was undisciplined. She wasn't strict. She was her companion in hand. She couldn't take her eyes off her companion. She was not faithful to Mother. She not only knew the way of killing, but also the way of living with freedom. She had seen hell. She had seen nightmares. She had seen evil. For her whole life, the woman thought she would never forget the horror. While she was together with Elsa, while she went along and helped this undisciplined girl, it felt like what was engraved in her would fade away. But―

"― Oh so you came here too, ■■■■■?"

"Huh? Subaru? What are you doing here?"

The little girl looked at the black haired boy, surprised that he was there in the room with her when he should be helping the others set up.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you ■■■■■. I was just looking around."

"Shouldn't you be setting up for the fight ahead?"

"You are right ■■■■■, maybe you can help me."

"Um alright."

The little girl walked with the black haired boy towards a room near the library, confused on why they are there considering that the threat is not arriving there. She crossed her arms and started to suspect that the person in front of her isn't the boy that she knows.

"Who are you?"

"Well ■■■■■, I'm still ■■■■■■■ ■■■■■■. What are you talking about?"

The little girl crossed her arms and could tell that the boy is suspicious looking, causing her to run which caused the boy to jump her.

"I'm surprised you caught on, ■■■■■. Seems like I have to apologize because this is going to be harmful to you. Hopefully in the next run you won't do the same thing in front of people."

Her neck was gripped with a strong force. Her mouth was opening and closing but the air that was so important for her body wasn't coming. Writhing. Struggling. She grabbed the hand on her neck and dug her nails in. Desperately, she kicked her legs. She can't move or push him off but if she was Elsa she could deal with him.

"My oh my, this is going to be very interesting ― The Natsuki Subaru murder mystery."

I'm being killed. The reasoning was nothing but flawed. I'm going to be killed. In the end could I do anything at all? Killed. When I was hunting in that forest, what did I. Killed. Meaninglessly unable to do anything. Being killed. It was fun. Killed. It was enjoyable. Be Killed. Like I was part of some childish game. Being killed. Killed. Killed. Killed. Killed. Killed. Killed.

(―I'll kill you.)

Subaru began to panic after the memories of the book had ended, surprising everyone around him. Elsa being the most curious and worried, she approached the boy and started to ask,

"What happened? What did you saw?"

"I- I am…. ah. eh? I? w-w-wwwhat just. how. wh-. eh?"

Beatrice pushed Elsa aside to calm Subaru down with Naoko and Kenichi assisting the great spirit.

"Deep breaths! Take deep breaths, in fact! You don't need to force yourself to talk, I suppose! Nobody touch that book under any circumstances, in fact!"

His eyes were going in circles and foam was sprouting from the corners of ■■■■■■'s mouth as the girl― Correction, Beatrice desperately called out to him. Beatrice called out to the silver haired g― Emilia who was reaching for the book. Yes, Emilia once again nodded and retracted her hand away after all.

"But Beatrice, Subaru is looking weird! This book is..."

"That's exactly the reason why, It would be troublesome if Emilia were to fall into the same condition, I suppose! It's probably quite likely that he ended up diving in too deep, in fact. He is confusing how he talks, I suppose."

"Come on baby boy, you are Natsuki Subaru."

"Yes! You are the son of the great Natsuki Kenichi and of the amazing Natsuki Naoko."

"Subaru, Remember. You're ok, you are Natsuki Subaru, my knight. You're clueless about the world and broke beyond compare, You get along with everybody and...you're. You're...my boyfriend!"

Subaru managed to get some of his mindset to snap back to reality once Emilia charged at him and gave the boy a kiss, surprising everyone while Shaula looked only for her blood to boil with jealousy. The two kissed for a few seconds before Emilia separated her lips from Subaru's, leaving the boy completely dumbfounded for a moment before he was able to regain his mind once again.

"E-Emilia!"

"You are such a dunderhead."

"Nobody says dunderhead anymore."

Emilia smiles at this, happy to have helped Subaru regain his composure yet he wasn't done. Elsa had approached the boy and once again asked the same questions, wanting to know what happened to Meili. Subaru took a moment to think on what he saw before recalling that he was the one to kill Meili. Knowing this, he quickly tried to think of something he can use to avoid feeling the wrath of the Bowel hunter. Just as he was going to say something, everyone felt something off, causing them to be on their guard. Anastasia turned towards Shaula to ask her,

"Is there anybody else here with us?"

"Weeeell, I did sense two new people enter the tower. They are not with us at the moment but they should be arriving soon."

The group noticed this and quickly started to separate in groups like discussed with Kishida and Kenichi taking Naoko and Anastasia to the floor where Reid is located, knowing that the two women will be safe there. Before leaving, Kenichi and Naoko both turned towards their son with Naoko being the one to say,

"Will you be safe, my baby boy?"

"Don't worry mom, I'll be safe."

"Your mother and I know that you are no longer a little boy but try not doing anything too risky my amazing son."

"I'll come back safe and sound, father."

Kenichi and Naoko hugged Subaru before joining Anastasia to the second floor of the tower. As this happened, Elsa's group composed of Rem and Sora all gathered and head towards the location Subaru said the two threats would arrive with Subaru, Ram, Emilia, and Beatrice staying with Patrasche and Frufoo on the center of the library, being the backup of Rem's group with Shaula just standing around. As Subaru's group waited for anything to happen, Subaru needed to make sure that Meili's body was still where he left it. He turned towards Ram, Beatrice, and Emilia to say,

"I-I need to check on something. I'll be right back."

"W-Wait, Subaru!"

Emilia tried to say something yet she alongside Ram and Beatrice were caught off guard by Subaru running away from the scene. Subaru just ran and ran with all of his might, knowing now what truly happened when he blacked out for an hour. "Natsuki Subaru" was up to something and killed Meili when she realized that this wasn't the real Subaru, meaning that there is a fake Subaru inside the amnesia Subaru.

'As if things need to be complicated.'

Subaru took a minute before arriving on the room where he woke up and quickly searched the hidden room he found where he hid Meili's body. As he checked there, he noticed that the body was somehow missing.

'What?! Where could it be?!'

Subaru looked around as hard as he could until he felt that someone was right behind him, someone who gave off a chilling aura. He slowly turned around with his Starlight keyblade appearing, only to be kicked in the chest.

"My My, look what I have found."

Subaru tried to get up but was knocked out by Elsa's kick to the jaw, sending him back into a sleep for a bit before waking up to hearing a couple of women arguing. He looked around and noticed right off the bat that he was in a cage with Sora looking at him, worried for his sake.

"Subaru, are you alright?"

"Y-Yeah. My head hurts but I'm alright. What is going on?"

"Well..."

"Ah, the imposter Barusu as awaken."

Subaru noticed the voice speaking about him, causing him to turn towards the direction of the voice to see the Bowel Hunter and the Pink haired woman looking at him with anger and disgust while Emilia and Beatrice looked with concern. Subaru approached the cold bars of the cage while trying to ask what was going on only to be met with a death gaze by the woman with black long hair.

"You should know, imposter. You are the one who killed Meili. Now tell us, what did you do to Natsuki Subaru?"

"Wh-What are you talking about? I am Natsuki Subaru!"

"You may sound and look like Barusu but you are clearly a fake."

"Now hold on, he could be telling the truth." Sora says, trying to defend Subaru yet he was ignored by both Elsa and Ram. Sora looked disappointed by this but eventually he got a response by a purple haired merchant.

"That may be true but his actions tell otherwise. Going back to the scene of the crime. That is damning evidence if you ask me."

"B-But that is Betty's Subaru! I still feel the connection of our contract, in fact!"

"Forgive us Beatrice-sama but we cannot take any chances with an imposter that might be aiding the threat that is walking around the tower."

"Anastasia-sama, are Julius-san and Kishida-san in position."

"Don't worry Emilia-sama, they are in position."

"Good, now Subaru, tell us what is going on."

Emilia tried to approach the boy, yet Rem and Ram stopped her, both fearing that Subaru will do something.

"Pardon us Emilia-sama but Ram-sama and I cannot allow you to get close."

"B-But it's still Subaru."

"His actions speak otherwise. Barusu would be more honest about things compared to this fake."

'Fake. Fake. She is right...I'm a fake...Not the real Natsuki Subaru...their Natsuki Subaru. If that is the case then...'

"Who are you?"

Subaru looked up with sadness in his eyes as he looks directly into Elsa's eyes, seeing the woman's eyes being filled with many emotions but one is grief. Elsa starred directly at Subaru's eyes and could tell that there is no malice in them but confusion and grief as well. After a few seconds of silence, Subaru finally broke down and could only say,

"I-I...I don't know! All I know is that I lost all my memories! I don't know anything aside from being transported into another world!"

"Hmph. As if we believe you, fake Barusu."

"Hold on."

"Hm."

Ram looked at Elsa with a blank expression, a bit curious on what the bowel hunter is thinking. Elsa observed the way Subaru was speaking and looked back at the boy's eyes, seeing tears streaming down but what most caught her attention was the pure sadness and self-hatred the boy had. This eventually caused her to break the ice cage, surprising the group and even causing Rem and Ram to prepare to fight the Bowel Hunter, both twin sisters thinking that she was going to kill the boy. As they prepared themselves, Elsa extended her hand towards the boy while saying,

"Then who are you? If you are not the Subaru we know, then who are you going to be?"

"I-I..."

Subaru looked up and was unsure what to say, seeing that Elsa was doing everything in her power to not kill him. As the boy was about to accept the hand extended to him, the group felt an explosion nearby which caused everyone to be on guard. Ram turned towards both the bowel hunter and the great spirit to say,

"Go and take Anastasia-sama, Sora-sama, and Barusu to safety."

Beatrice and Elsa both nodded before quickly taking the three to safety, knowing that they are a liability. As Beatrice and Elsa were leaving with Sora, Subaru, and Anastasia, the five of them notice a large scorpion attacking Emilia, Rem, and Ram. This caught the groups attention with Sora and Subaru both pulling their keyblades out, not wanting anything bad to happen to Emilia's group. Elsa and Beatrice noticed this and tried to say something only for Elsa to quickly push the two boys to the ground.

"Watch out!"

As Elsa shove the two boys to the ground, the three were able to dodge a laser beam directed towards them. As the three look at the large scorpion, Emilia and Ram both fired a combined attack that was able to do some damage to the scorpion before having Rem head over to Subaru's direction to check on Sora.

"Sora, are you okay?"

"Yes."

"That's good. Here, let me help you up."

"Thanks."

Rem helped Sora get up before Subaru and Elsa got up as well, all four of them turning towards the scorpion to see how they can help Emilia and Ram out only to see one of the Organization members with Sora's keyblade attacking the two girls and the scorpion.

"Wh-Who is she?"

"Don't worry Sora Dear, I will protect you from that thing."

"So will I." Rem spoke as she got closer to Sora, wanting the Bowel Hunter to be away from the boy she loves. Elsa noticed this and just shrugged it before charging into the fight, managing to get in between the Organization member and Emilia to block off the keyblade attack. As Elsa was able to deflect the attack, Emilia quickly assisted Elsa by firing a couple of icicles towards their opponent. The Organization member blocked off Emilia's attacks only to get stabbed in the left shoulder by Elsa's blade.

"Got ya!"

"..."

The Organization member did not react to the damage and just proceeded to kick the bowel hunter in the gut, sending her back a few feet while pulling out the knife. Once the Organization member pulled out the knife, it quickly healed itself before charging at Elsa. The Bowel Hunter noticed this and quickly grabbed her strongest blades before charging towards her opponent, not afraid of facing a very dangerous opponent. While Elsa took on the Organization member, the rest took on the scorpion with Anastasia keeping her distance with both Beatrice and Subaru protecting her.

Rem and Ram both charged together towards the scorpion with Emilia creating some ice shields to protect the twin sisters when the scorpion fired its laser towards the two. Sora kept his distance but at the same time waited for the right moment before he attacked, knowing that if he joined in on the fight as he is, he will be a liability. Rem and Ram eventually got close enough to both land a powerful sister punch towards the head of the scorpion, causing the large mabeast to scream in agony before starting to fire many powerful mana lasers all around the area. One of the lasers headed towards Subaru and his group, forcing Beatrice to use one of her abilities to create a bubble for the three of them to not get hit by the attack.

As she does this, the three notice another member of the Organization charging towards the group. Subaru was the one to notice this first, allowing him to be prepared to deflect the attack with Beatrice using everything she had to hold the shield in hopes that the attack of the Organization member with a larger keyblade fails. As the man with white hair closes in on them, Subaru was able to block off the attack with Beatrice's shield still holding up just in time before the little spirit ran out of mana.

"That was too close, I suppose!"

"Let's get Anastasia out of here!"

"Agreed, I suppose."

Subaru and Beatrice quickly guide Anastasia out of there only to notice Julius and Kishida both running from the direction they were going towards with the two sin archbishops of gluttony following behind the two knights.

"Anastasia-sama! What are you doing here?"

"Sorry Julius-kun, we were having an issue that required my assistance."

"Don't worry Julius, Beatrice and I will get her out of here."

Julius quickly stopped the three as he knew that they are trapped by both sides with the Organization and the large scorpion mabeast blocking one path meanwhile Lye and Roy blocking the other path. This causes the knight to look at Subaru and with a serious facial expression to say,

"Protect Anastasia-sama at all cost!"

"D-Don't worry, I will!"

The two nodded at each other before focusing on their objectives with Subaru noticing the Organization member with white long hair charging at them while Julius takes on Roy. Kishida with the skills taught to him by Reid Astrea was able to keep up with Lye, catching the interest of the Sin Archbishop of Gluttony.

"You might just be gourment~tsu."

"The hell with that!"

Kishida continued on his offense, attempting which each attack to land the killing blow yet Lye Batenkaitos was able to deflect and dodge each attack with ease. Anastasia looked at the fight all around her and could tell that they are in a massive disadvantage with only Emilia's group being the ones to somewhat be winning. Rem and Ram were both able to land a couple of blows onto the scorpion with Emilia using her spirits arts and her magic to distract the scorpion. After a few fatal hits, the scorpion mabeast was about to destroy the two sisters with a powerful attack only for Sora to jump into the mix and cut off the tail with his keyblade.

As Sora was able to destroy the tail, he quickly charges once again towards the scorpion to easily take it down with one powerful swing to the head. Sora's strength was enough to knock out the threat but just as this happens, everyone was alerted when they sensed a darker presence around. They all turned towards this dark presence to find a woman in dark robes surrounded by shadows. Subaru recognized her has the woman that ended his previous vision and the one that killed his mother. His blood boiled with anger but before he could do anything, he noticed the shadows attacking everyone with the two Organization members being forced to defend themselves.

Elsa, Emilia, Rem, Ram, and Sora all five jumped away and joined up with Subaru, Beatrice, Anastasia, Julius, and Kishida. Roy and Lye both ran away as they knew the threat in front of them is too much for the two to handle, leaving the group with only one threat to deal with. The two organization members were pushed back for a moment until Replica Riku showed up and managed to open a portal for the two Organization members to escape. The woman in black attire attacked the portal but was too late, seeing the corridor of darkness fade away. As that happened, she turned towards the closest thing to her and quickly consumed the large scorpion mabeast before turning her attention towards the group.

"I love you."

The woman spoke which caught everyone off guard, uncertain on how to respond to this. Subaru was the only one in fear since he knew that this was directed to him yet Emilia and Beatrice hugged the boy to calm him down. Rem got in front of Sora, not wanting anything bad happening to him yet the group noticed Elsa walking in front of them with both her blades ready for a fight.

"What are you up to now, Bowel Hunter?"

"Don't you worry about me, maid. I'm just going to buy you all enough time to get out of here."

"Wait Elsa-"

"Sora Dear, it has been wonderful. Just know that I want you to be safe because I...I...c-care about you more than anything...Keep that boy safe for me."

Before anything could be said, the Bowel Hunter charged at the shadow woman and quickly gained her attention by throwing one of her blades towards her. The shadow woman was able to easily deflect the attack with one of her shadow hands before sending a swarm of them towards the bowel hunter. Thanks to Sora's training, she used her super human speed to barely be able to dodge the attacks thrown towards her, allowing the others to quickly escape since Elsa was distracting the shadow woman. Sora and Subaru were the last to turn around to see Elsa eventually get overwhelmed by the shadows.

"Elsa!"

Sora and Subaru shouted before the two left the area with Emilia holding Subaru's hand while Rem held Sora's hand. As the group were running with everything they got, they realized that the shadow woman was approaching them in a rapid pace.

"This may be unwise but we should split up. It is the only way to draw away its attention from all of us."

"Are you sure, Kishida-san?"

"Yes Anastasia-sama, it is better this way."

"Julius-san, do you agree with this?"

"Sadly I do, my lady. There isn't much we can do and we can't risk that witch getting all of us."

"Well then, let as split."

Everyone agrees with this and quickly the large group split up into three groups with the first being composed of Julius, Kishida, and Anastasia. The second group is composed of Rem, Ram, and Sora with the last group being just Emilia and Subaru. The shadow woman looked at the three groups and quickly started to fill up the entire tower with darkness, starting with the first floor slowly rising with darkness covering every single portion.

As she did that, she looked at Subaru's direction and started to follow the two. Emilia and Subaru both noticed this, causing Emilia to create a powerful magic to block off the hallway they were in to buy them some time to get far away from the shadow woman. As they ran and ran for a bit, they eventually found a room they could close off with Subaru putting as much barriers as possible before Emilia froze the entire door itself to reinforce the barrier. As the two were trapped in this room, Subaru falls to the ground with tears in his eyes.

"Subaru! What's wrong?"

"I'm a fake! This is all my fault! I should've said something about it! I don't know who I am...!"

Subaru's eyes were filling up with tears, completely uncertain what to do anymore. He already watched everyone suffer in the vision he had and now someone who resisted the urge to kill him had died because of his inability to warn the group of all the threats.

"I don't know anymore...why did Elsa trust me?! As Ram said, I'm nothing but a fake! A phony! Why did you all believe me?!"

"..."

"I just...don't know anymore..."

Subaru was still on the ground for a moment, letting the tears out since he felt worthless until he heard her voice speak to him.

"Me and Subaru met for the first time at the alleyway in the Royal Capital"

――

――――

――――――――

"――――"

Subaru had sunk to a bottomless swamp with no escape; he couldn't even move his own body, as he asked himself these questions and wallowed in self-condemnation. Emilia's sudden confession had made Subaru's eardrums throb― her words came out as if it was bringing fond, precious, nostalgic memories back to her.

"...Huh?"

Subaru was dumbfounded, all he could do was let go of his breath in his lungs when he received those words with no context so suddenly. In no way was this meant to scorn or mock Emilia's sudden actions. Subaru's consciousness simply couldn't keep up with her, and was genuinely stunned into silence. And yet, Emilia ignored his reaction, waving a finger as she allowed more memories to resurface.

"Back then, Felt-chan stole a reaaaally important insignia from me. I was in a mad rush with Puck to try and get it back. And then, after we pursued her, we met that Subaru. All alone, being beaten up by some thugs. After I saved him, I wanted him to not help me with this reaaally important but he stayed with me. I even lied to him and said my name was Satella, the witch of envy's name but he didn't care. He was such a dunderhead and still wanted to help me. So we looked around until we found Felt-chan which lead us to go to the loot house to meet Sora and Elsa for the first time. The two were fighting with Elsa wanting to kill us but Sora protected all of us. Just as it seemed that Sora was going to win, Elsa tried to harm Sora... until that Subaru came to save him."

"――――"

"...Don't you remember it?"

Hearing her question, Subaru shook his head. Even though she had recited those memories in detail, he had no knowledge of even a small bit of what she had said. It was to be expected of course. Those were the memories of Emilia and Natsuki Subaru. No matter what, he couldn't trace over those actions and recall them, those were bits of memories spun by Natsuki Subaru―

"But, Subaru protected Sora, causing him serious injuries so I brought you back with me to Roswaal's mansion. And there, whilst she complained, Beatrice treated your wounds. Ram and...surely even Rem got on well with Subaru. And then Subaru summoned the keyblade for the first time. You got along with Sora, or well Master Sora as you called him. The two of you trained together."

"――――"

"And then, with Elsa, Meili acted wickedly and spurred on the attack of some Witch Beasts. Subaru and Ram held them back with Sora defeating Elsa on his own...I was staying in the mansion, it was when you'd also promised to take me on a "daaayte"...don't you remember it?"

"――――"

He shook his head. He didn't remember it. He hadn't ever done such things. He never had.

"And y'know we did so many things in the mansion. We made mayonnaise, we drank alcohol with everyone, Puck made it snow, we played the "King Gaaayme"...and after that, I was called to the Royal Capital for the Royal selection, right?"

"――――"

"The Royal Capital was attacked by Sora's enemies and Subaru ended up getting badly hurt trying to save me. I wanted him away from danger but Sora knew that he had to stay in the Capital to be treated for his wounds. I was worried because that was the first time Subaru showed his vulnerable side to me, how he missed his family. I just wanted to stay with him and help take the pain away."

As she recounted these memories, Emilia's voice started to faintly tremble. There was a mixture of joy and sorrow, anxiety and expectation; various conflicting emotions. Subaru was assailed by a feeling of being completely parched. Unbearable, unbearable, unbearable was this yearning scorching his chest. For the sake of Emilia revealing this expression in its entirety― no, for this single reason, that yearning was unbearable.

"I didn't understand what was happening, at the time I was being swept away by the uneasy situation and then Subaru came running back to me when I was my most depressed, and after that..."

"――――"

"And after that, what was it that you said?… Do you remember it?"

"I don..."

He couldn't get it out. It didn't come out. He couldn't finish the sentence. The trembling of Emilia's voice, her appeal, her voice that clung onto him, all of these were evident. The Subaru that was here now was not the Natsuki Subaru that she wanted. Subaru burned in envy and jealousy towards himself at the facts thrust out at him which he couldn't comprehend.

'Why...what are you, Natsuki Subaru? You and I, why are we so different, Natsuki Subaru? Emilia, and everyone thought like this. Return the real Natsuki Subaru. Kill the you, the Natsuki Subaru right now. If he had been in this place already, how long had it been?'

Thinking that, despite feeling like he wanted to sigh, and remembering the suffering and injuries...despite all of that, he―

"―But, I remember everything. I remember what Subaru promised me, and what Subaru told me, and what Subaru has done. I remember everything."

Joy and hope were lodged in that smile, so that both sadness and anxiety would never appear there. Seeing Emilia's smile, Subaru's lips trembled. Everything he had said, everything he had done, everything he had promised. Inside of this body, inside of this head, inside of this heart, at the depths of his soul, there was nothing. And so he said―

"I don't remember. I don't even remember it. Who are you… who are you! Who are you all! WHO ARE YOU ALL TALKING ABOUT!?"

Faced with his derision, Emilia widened her amethyst eyes. All the while still gazing at her, Subaru rapidly blinked his eyes, clearing away the hot tears that had welled up there, with an even dirtier voice which strove to preserve a malicious tone, he continued to howl,

"Putting your life on the line for someone else's sake! Springing into action straight away for someone else's sake! Running away and staying alive for someone else's sake! Accomplishing something by risking my life for someone else's sake! Can there be such things!? Can I do such things!?"

To hear all of Emilia's recollections, and reply that he couldn't remember. Bearing that regret in his heart, he'd listen to Emilia gently, almost convincingly, talk about her memories.

"―Don't joke about! Such a guy cannot be Natsuki Subaru!"

There was no way that someone could entrust their wishes to Natsuki Subaru.

"I know all too well! About how pathetic, and disgusting, and helpless, and what a rotten bastard Natsuki Subaru is!"

There was no way that someone could believe in Natsuki Subaru with all their heart.

"Who were you actually looking at!? What were you talking about!? Such a guy is nowhere to be seen! Everything is a downright lie! The things that guy showed, the things that guy said, everything...everything! It was just random talk that he spouted out from his mouth! There isn't any value in believing in it!"

There was no way that someone could pardon Natsuki Subaru from that sin.

"You think there's such value in Natsuki Subaru!? Natsuki Subaru is the very essence of pestilence! He's a useless rotten bastard! I know this better than anyone else!"

There was no way that someone could rely on Natsuki Subaru.

"――――"

There was no worth. There was no worth or anything to be desired anywhere. Natsuki Subaru was pestilence personified. Even with someone else, everything just amounted to wounds, loss and death. Thus, let's end it. Emilia, and everyone else needed not get hurt anymore because of that guy.

"...It doesn't have to be...me."

Standing alone, he muttered this out loud. It didn't have to be himself― No, it'd be way better if it wasn't Natsuki Subaru. Why did they entrust things to a man who couldn't do anything. Why did they believe in him. Why did they forgive him. Why did they rely on him. There should be more ways for them to manage things better. There should be someone else to help them manage things better. Even if that someone was the Natsuki Subaru that everyone wished for, he was nowhere to be found anymore. Natsuki Subaru was a pretence that he never possessed from the beginning. He was a person of vanity.

"Someone like me, just disregard and toss me away. Someone smarter than me, someone stronger than me will turn up. I am..."

He said that he couldn't do anything. It was just this sense of sheer helplessness that knocked down Natsuki Subaru. Everyone had a share of it. Everyone had their own identity. He wanted everyone to understand that. Subaru was unqualified to walk next to Emilia and the others. He was unqualified to desire them. He was unqualified to wield the keyblade. He was neither strong nor smart. They needed not desire to have such a Subaru around. Therefore he would―

"―My name is Emilia. Just Emilia."

"―Huh?"

Having spat out his sheer sense of helplessness, with his heart dominated by the things he wanted to spit out as he spiralled towards hollowness, the bell-like voice rang out, like a surprise attack.

"――――"

He didn't understand the meaning of those words. ―No, not the meaning. It was her intention that he didn't understand. Lifting his head up, Subaru looked at the person who had introduced herself as Emilia standing right in front of him. She had her hand on top of her ample chest. Within her shimmering eyes, Subaru could see his own figure reflected, his breath was taken away. Emilia continued on with her speech, right in front of Subaru.

"There are so many things I have to tell you, and so many things I have to ask you. Many many many things. But, right now I have to hear just one thing."

"――――"

"I want to protect you at any cost...I didn't want you to die...That's why..."

Emilia closed her eyes, and plunged into thought, full of emotion. After a few seconds, she broke off her speech. He could see that various emotions were coursing through her chest. These even included her feelings of anxiety for her companions who weren't here. Emilia's cherry blossom lips quivered with those emotions fresh in her mind,

"Who are you to make me think about us that way?"

"――――"

"Please. ―Let me hear your name."

At Emilia's question, the very depths of his heart shook within his chest. The manifestation of her intentions weren't to deny the Natsuki Subaru in front of her eyes or to recover the old Subaru.―They were an affirmation of Natsuki Subaru.

"――――"

The one before us is a fake, return the real Natsuki Subaru to us, words along those lines, behavior along those lines, resentment along those lines, would have been easier to bear. Yet still, it was because it was nothing other than something Subaru had desired himself. He still preferred the side of those who said that his self-standing in front of their eyes was a fake, that they wanted him to return Natsuki Subaru, the ones who said that to him, the ones who wished that from him, the ones who tormented him with that, he still preferred their side, but it was Emilia that―, No, not just her.

Up until here, everyone who had spoken to Natsuki Subaru had requested the same thing. Irrespective of whether he was strong or weak. Thus, even if he let himself be seen so shamefully, and couldn't help forgetting everything, he still hadn't changed. By their words, by their behaviour, by their life, they showed their need for Natsuki Subaru―

"Why...?"

"――――"

"Why are you here, Natsuki Subaru? What can that guy do? What do you expect from him...?"

He didn't understand it. In this… In just this overwhelming despair, in their helpless numerical inferiority, what would happen if Natsuki Subaru was there? In what way would the situation improve? Could they break through this?

"A weak, dumb, miserable, spineless guy… what do you even see in him?"

"―Maybe it's as you say."

Emilia cast her eyes down at Subaru entreating her with this, shaking her head without denying it. Her eyes were bordered by long eyelashes, her voice ever so reminiscent of a silver bell tickled his heart; everything about Emilia seemed to be a linchpin that tied Natsuki Subaru to this world.

"There are plenty of people stronger than Subaru, and surely there are many people smarter than Subaru. But, I like to be with Subaru no matter when. I believe that Subaru can do it, I rely on him. And still..."

"――――"

"If people are helping me anyway, more than those who are capable, someone who helped because he happened to be there― certainly, having it be someone I love, would make me so so much happier."

And, whilst smiling, Emilia said this. Whilst smiling and with her cheeks slightly blushing, she said this.

"――――"

Subaru let go of his breath. Having received Emilia's words, in that instant, surely all time had stopped within his body. With a bad-um, bad-um, the depths of his heart pounded. And at the same time in which his feelings had boiled up from with him, another emotion rose up; it was scorn towards Natsuki Subaru.

"―Hah"

'I see, Natsuki Subaru. Did you fall in love with this beautiful girl? Someone who is probably way out of my league. Such a young woman who would probably avert her face from me? Entrusting to you, believing in you, forgiving you, wishing it were you. Not asking you to be a savior, nor even expecting you to be a savior, merely, if those staggering walls had to be crossed, rather than someone capable, just wishing it were you.'

"―My name is Emilia. Just Emilia."

Once again, Emilia gave the silent Subaru her name. She looked over to him with her amethyst eyes. Subaru's dark-brown eyes gazed back at those eyes right in front of him. And then,

"―Please. Let me hear your name."

"I am..."

He hesitated forming his words, hearing Emilia's question once again. He had denied it over and over again. He couldn't do it. He couldn't do it. He couldn't do it. He had repeatedly denied it. So, this was surely nothing more than convenient wordplay. ―Entrusted, believed in, forgiven, relied on. In this desert's tower, if he were qualified to be treated thus by Emilia and the others. In this desert's tower, if there was someone that could save Emilia and the others. If that was Natsuki Subaru, then if that Natsuki Subaru was nowhere to be found...

"―My name is… Natsuki Subaru."

"――――"

The black haired boy answered the young woman with the glimmering silver hair, staring with his dark-brown eyes into her amethyst ones. To the question that had quivered from her cherry blossom lips, his blood-stained lips answered back.

"I AM NATSUKI SUBARU."

Right now, feeble, without strength, mind and body wracked by despair, but still he declared it. For Emilia, for Emilia and everyone else, for you, for you and everyone else, for their safety, for peace and quiet, and their wishes and their desires.

"――――"

Subaru strongly declared it. In his heart, he hadn't fully wiped away the pieces of distrust towards Natsuki Subaru. Even now, the one that caused his death hadn't left Subaru's mind―No, not his death, Meili's. The face and voice of that wicked man. Maybe when that was wiped away, he wouldn't come, but it's okay. Even still, it's okay. It's not that I wanted to be saved. It's not that I will always cling on and wish to be saved.

'I wish to save you all. I want to help you all.'

―If that can be done by Natsuki Subaru then I will do it. Starting from the same point, heading toward the same goal. As long as the path in their hearts were the same… Even if I dislike you, I will not complain

"Thank you, Emilia. ―You made me believe in myself."

"...Subaru, I am―"

With Subaru's reply, ripples rose within Emilia's amethyst eyes. Her lips quivering, Emilia started to somehow string together some words towards Subaru who had named himself as such. And just after that,

"―hk"

Up until then, nothing had disturbed the two of them talking. The situation which had until now remained peaceful, cracked in an instant.

"―Emilia!"

A large quantity of shadows surrounded the two within seconds, covering both of them in shadows. Subaru and Emilia tried to escape yet they were too late, the shadow hands were pushing them deeply into darkness. Subaru looked and tried his best to pull Emilia out but it was too late, she was the first of the two to be swallowed by darkness. This caused Subaru to remember the vision he had, realizing that it may not have been a vision after all but something that did happened to him at least. Just as he was about to die the same way he did before, he made a vow,

"Even if you forget ―I will not forget any of you."

Subaru regained his determination, wishing to save everyone in the tower that care about him and have been by his side from the beginning. Subaru eventually was swallowed by the darkness only to eventually feel his life gone, knowing that the true battle as begun.

Subaru felt the familiar way in which he was waking up, seeing that he had returned to the same checkpoint as before. He quickly got up only to see Ram, Beatrice, and Emilia approaching him with Emilia and Beatrice having worried looks in their faces.

"Are you alright, Suubaru?"

"Y-Yeah...I just have to do one thing first."

Subaru turns his attention towards Beatrice and surprises the little girl by holding her close to him and giving the little girl a hug. As he does this, Beatrice's face turns completely red and starts shouting at Subaru.

"Wh-What is the meaning of this, I-I suppose?!"

"Hehe sorry, I just wanted to hug my favorite loli."

"I-Is that supposed to make me feel better, I suppose?!"

Subaru continued to hug Beatrice for a moment before setting her down, seeing just how cute she is when she feels embarrassed. As he sets Beatrice down, Emilia looks confused at him while Ram utters one word to the boy.

"Pervert."

"Okay, no need to be harsh."

"Shut up, Barusu. Pervert."

"Aside from that, I did wanted to come clean about something."

"What is it, Subaru? Are you okay?"

"Y-Yes, I'm okay. It's just that, I lost some of my memories like Sora."

"What?"

Emilia, Ram, and Beatrice all three took note on what Subaru said with Ram being the most skeptical of the three.

"You say this but you clearly remember us."

"Yes, that is true but I lost a lot of my memory. The only thing I have is who you are but that's it. Not only did I lost my memory but I also gained information as well."

"What kind of information?" Emilia asked.

"Well, there is going to be an attack in two hours by the Sin Archbishops of Gluttony. We need to prepare."

The three girls all looked at the boy with uncertainty but seeing the determination on his face, the three nodded at him. They understood that the others need to know of this, causing the four to start gathering everyone to make sure everyone is informed with the new information. As the four go to find the others, Subaru had something in his mind.

'This time I will save you all. No matter what it takes.'