134: Ominous Conversations

I blink a few times as I take in the familiar scenery of Rigel's reality marble again.

"I sorta expected the dreams were over at this point," I admit. "I guess this means it wasn't Echidna that set this up?

He shakes his head as he takes a seat on the hillside. "I don't know how much of it is our connection from being the same person and how much is the normal dream cycle, but it'll probably stick around as long as I do."

"About that-" I start.

"Let's not get into what happens after we beat Hercules for now," He says. "I've still got to talk some stuff over with Medea, so just be patient, okay?"

"...Got it," I say, looking away from him. "Since we've got time, is there anything you wanna talk about?"

"We could rehash the different paths each other took, I guess. Might learn something interesting," He suggests. "...But, on second thought, everything I hear about your route through things makes me depressed, so let's not for now."

"-Then, what about the other question relating to you and me. 'How many more Natsuki Subarus are we gonna have to deal with?'" I ask.

"That's a scary question!" Rigel shouts.

"Right!? One surprise sibling was enough of a pain in the ass!" I say with a huff.

"-But, I've got some recollection of the Demon Pillars yapping about it that I inherited from Zepar. There was one other pillar, Phenex, who was investigating us, in the Roman singularity - and Raum said he would be investigating the other world directly," Rigel says.

"I know I'm not one to talk, but shouldn't you be more proactive about sharing important stuff like this!?" I say.

"I'm getting to it, okay? All the talk while we were awake was focused on the fight with Hercules."

"You're not wrong, but…!"

"I don't know the details, but Phenex's intervention also caused a Beast to emerge - it could be unrelated to him investigating us, but if he went the same kind of route as Zepar…" Rigel trails off.

"Well, it might be a different scenario than with you, right? There's gotta be other divergence points in our personal history, and the whole 'slinging cursed mud all over the place' gimmick isn't even native to our skillset," I give some tentative excuses.

"I feel like, for better or worse, if there's another version of us somewhere, he's going to make a big impact," Rigel says. "Not to get a big head or anything, but…"

"No, you're right." If only because of Return by Death, Natsuki Subaru is fated to be someone who impacts the course of history.

"...Unless it's some version of us that just eloped with Rem and lived happily ever after," he says after a moment's thought.

"What the hell? I'll blow him away," I say, clenching a fist.

"But putting aside our natural enemy, the 'Happily Ever After' Subaru who must be punched at all costs," Rigel says, "Can you think of any other potential divergence points?"

"...Maybe finding someone else to help fight Elsa, in the capital? I can't see that being such a big divergence, though," I say. "In the worst case, he's best friends with Julius - no, I take it back, that's horrifying."

Rigel rolls his eyes and sighs. "Jokes aside, there's the mansion loop too…"

"What, we bail out for real and end up running a business with Otto?" I muse. "Again, he doesn't really have a reason to fight us. No matter how I think about it, you've gotta be the exception as far as alternate Subarus go."

"...In Priestella, there were a couple of times I avoided Gluttony by the skin of my teeth," He says.

"Ah, there's a high-risk scenario," I nod. "As far as losing memories go - I actually got those eaten at one point, and they left me with all of my Earth memory intact, so I think they can't create a complete Amnesiabaru." It's still a big problem, though. "But if they got my name… I'm suddenly some strange guy who smells like the witch and knows everyone's secrets…"

"No, I was talking about the memories," He says. "To start with, I think the ability to smell the Witch was something unique to just a few people - Rem was asleep, Ryuzu Shima didn't show up after the Sanctuary, and we already beat Clind by that point. Keeping in mind that Gluttony was a known factor, it probably wouldn't be that hard to explain ourselves."

"Wait, you fought Clind…?" Why the heck did that- oh right, he was probably recognized as a bad influence on Emilia-tan. That'd do it. "Beatrice detected it before, too… but if Julius's situation is anything to go off of, we'd retain some kind of connection even with her memory of me gone. Since Beako is a perfect angel, it'd have to work out, right?"

"Don't tell me you dodged the Clind fight!?" He shouts. "That was a whole nightmare in its own right, and it just didn't happen for you…?"

I can't really say anything to that, so I just shrug. "-But, returning to the memory loss… that's gotta be the most worrisome. Because, in the Watchtower, I almost did something unforgivable."

"The Pleiades Watchtower… that's what you're talking about, right? Echidna stopped me from going there - she said I had no way of overcoming it no matter how hard I tried."

"How much of that was just self preservation since that's where Satella is sealed and how much was honest worry - I can't really guess," I say. "I had a real tough time, and you would probably have it even worse, since you'd be wading through a mountain of books."

"?" He looks at me in confusion.

"Anytime someone dies in that world, a book recording their life will appear. Finding my own books turned out to be the key to recovering my memories, but for you the number of books would have been crazy." I explain.

"Wait, are all of your memories just secondhand stuff you've read, then?"

"No, it was more like 'you read it and then the memories are beamed straight into your head'. I almost became Meili, at one point," I say.

"You went back and saved her, right!?"

"Obviously," I reply. "But, before that, I had a notion - just a simple idea that I was able to put behind me really fast. 'Everyone else knows me, the me that was here before I lost my memories. If I read all of their books, maybe I can piece together some imitation of who [Natsuki Subaru] was.'"

"..."

"If there's some version of me out there, who went down that path, devouring our friends' lives like a Gluttony Archbishop… He would be the worst of all," I conclude, and a moment of silence follows.

"Well… that's just a hypothetical, though!" I put a brave face on. "Getting back to the thing you were talking about before - is there anything else you heard from Zepar?"

"Yeah. Like I said, Phenex made a Beast appear in Rome - and in addition to that, Bifrons created one more or less on purpose in Jerusalem," He says. "That's most of what I got, except… apparently something happened six years ago, and it's a really big deal. Like, 'the Demon Pillars are screwed if they don't do something about it' big."

"...Six years, huh?" I mutter. "That'd be 2009…"

"Do you know something?" He raises an eyebrow.

"Probably not," I shake my head. I know someone who that year is important to, but… "That girl isn't important in the larger scheme of things, and as far as you and I go, the only significant thing would be the neighborhood play group imploding."

"There's not a chance in hell that that's plot relevant, get over yourself," Rigel deadpans.

"...Still, more Beasts, huh?" I look up at a false blue sky. "Hey, Hercules said he was going to attack them, so do you think they'll lend us a hand?"

"Not a chance."

Locusta

Crank presence concealment to its very maximum… Slowly, slowly… let's get a good vantage point!~

Finally, edging forward carefully like a mushroom sprouting from the earth, I look at the man standing at this coastal mountain's peak, overlooking a short strait of water, beyond which a second mountain island is visible.

There he is. That's Hercules, alright! I can feel it from him, and… I can also feel, he's totally immune to poison, isn't he!? Blech.

"Another observer?" He asks, and I freeze. M-maybe he's talking to someone else? "Come out."

Just… stay motionless. Like a mushroom.

"I'm talking to you, that girl in purple there."

"Geh," I blurt despite myself. Why me!?

"Rats shall scurry where they will," Another deep voice suggests, and for the first time, I notice the other presences atop this rock. To one side, a strange black shadow with three blazing red eyes drawn upon it. To the other, a man with long black hair and tattoos covering his body lounges upon a throne, raises a wine glass full of something pink and sludgy towards a snake sprouting from his left shoulder, and then offers it to the one on his right, before finally continuing his thought. "My destined foe, you should not concern yourself with the presence of the weak. This Ahriman forbids it."

"I-I'm not weak!" I shout, springing to my feet. "I was sent here by the Princeps herself, and don't you doubt that I have a hundred and one different ways of poisoning you!"

'Ahriman' scoffs, looking down his nose at me. "How useless."

The black shadow with burning eyes does not react in the slightest, hovering with total motionlessness.

"So?" Hercules asks. "Which one are you the representative of?"

"VI/S," says Ahriman dully. "And so, all of the observers have arrived. Beasts I and VI/G shall observe from afar. IV and VII accompany the Chaldeans directly. And of course, this Ahriman has already informed you of his own nature, and that of the shadow over there."

Oh. So this is a whole Beast fight watch party, huh?

WHO DECIDED SENDING ME WAS A GOOD PLAN!? I'm gonna die! I'm super duper gonna die! Even putting aside that all these guys are terrifying, what am I gonna do if Hercules finds out I harvested that hydra venom earlier!? "O-on second thou~ght, I'm gonna m-make like a mushroom and mycel-leave~!"

Lady Nero would never risk me like this! She loves me! Someone had to be whispering poison in her ear, in which case-! "That damn Purge King!" I hiss under my breath as I back away "I'm gonna poison him! I'll feed him so many mushrooms his brains'll ooze out!"

"Such a pathetic creature…" Ahriman sneers at me. "Should this Ahriman put some use to its brains? Even if this body is just that of a familiar, it should suffice."

"A-ah, you mean the Purge King, right?" I mentioned brains, so surely those snakes looking so hungrily at my head is a coincidence! The pink slurry in that cup of his is just some fruit juice, right?

"She's free to leave if she wishes - just as you may observe for as long as you like," Hercules says. "As those watching shall soon see… it will make no difference."

A/N:

It's a foreshadowing chapter this time.

Subaru: "Surely nothing bad could happen with alternates from the first two arcs" -Clueless

Please forgive the slight jab at the cluster of Re:Zero fics around the "Re:Forgotten" idea in this chapter. Apologies to anyone who has written/enjoyed those stories, but they tend to strain my suspension of disbelief way too hard unless basically the entire cast is possessed by Arc 2 Rem and/or Felix AND Subaru has gotten brain damage AND Satella is picking reset points aggressively to cause problems.

By the way, I don't tend to imagine specific voice actors for characters, but Ahriman is 100% voiced by Koyasu Takehito.

I am living within close enough proximity to the areas affected by Hurricane Helene to have strongly considered going to volunteer with the disaster relief efforts. One of the conditions I set for myself as an excuse not to do so was to use what little platform I have to try and raise awareness.

If you have money that you want to throw at me for writing this, please send it to one of the many disaster relief charities working in that area instead.