135: Let's Split up, Gang!
Waking up comes easily enough. I blink the last remnants of sleep from my eyes, sitting up in the first proper bed I've had these past four days.
The Space Argo seems to be bigger on the inside, unlike the original, with numerous personal cabins for the occupants. More than that, there's some kind of sci-fi stabilization going on, so cots aren't necessary, and I finally get a real bed to sleep on - though, of course, there's part of my Japanese soul that still yearns for a futon. All that said, the room is still absolutely laden with gaudy golden plating that reduces any possible aesthetic value it might have had to zero.
As I sit up, a small, plush form clings to my neck, and reaching up, I gently lower the doll containing Rem's consciousness - never mind the fact that it's clearly a Jason doll with its hair lazily died blue - I gently lower Rem to the mattress, placing her in front of me. The doll still retains the insufferable smug smirk that it had before its repurposing, but the voice that emenates from it is gentle and soothing.
"Good morning, Subaru-kun," She says, and already I have to choke back some tears.
"Y-yeah. Good morning, Rem!" I force out as I close my eyes for a moment. Gently, the doll's hand rests on mine, and I manage to get my breathing under control again. "...Sorry again for asking you to do this."
"No," She says, shaking her head. "All that has to be said here is 'thank you for the service'."
A wry chuckle escapes my lips. "...But, even so. This was cruel of me. Sorry."
Wordlessly, she leans her head against me, and I let silence fall over me as I enjoy this peaceful moment for all it's worth.
"...By the way, Subaru-kun, your Rem has been doing her best to stay calm, but what exactly is even going on?" She finally asks.
Uh-oh. "…Um, do you mean with Rigel and all, our current plans, or…?"
"All of it. My last clear memory is fighting Gluttony and Greed on the road to the capital - and then the next thing I knew…" She trails off, looking at her stubby plush arms. "Strange magic, baffling Divine Protections… and judging from the amount of water I've seen thus far, are we perhaps past the Great Waterfall right now?"
"In a… manner of speaking." I say as the enormity of the task becomes clear to me. "I feel like I'd need a flowchart to even start explaining…"
"I don't understand, but I believe in you, Subaru-kun!" She says.
As I finish the most barebones explanation I can give, the face of the doll (still fixed in that ridiculous smirk) slowly turns downward. "...Subaru-kun, your world is confusing."
"If you said that to me before the return trip, I'd say yours is way worse, but all the secret supernatural stuff I didn't know about is way too wild!"
"No, even more importantly, Subaru-kun… was from another world?" She seems to vibrate with a strange confusion and distress.
"Well, I talked it over with my parents, and even if I can't find some way to regularly go between worlds, I have their approval to go back to yours," I say. "And I… I think I have to go back, at this point. So, don't worry, we should be able to get your body back, at some point."
"Um, more importantly, Rem was wondering…" Getting your body back is important, though!? "B-biological differences! Subaru-kun, you're another species technically, so we should probably check if there are biological differences between our two worlds…"
Well, if there was anything extreme, I would have noticed. "Girls have a super low body weight for some reason over there," I note, though. "I threw Nee-sama that one time; a girl on Earth would have been way tougher. Carrying Beako around too."
"Rem meant… compatibility…" She mutters something I can't quite hear. "Also, Mother and Father - er, Subaru-kun's parents, that is. Rem would like to… meet them… while we're here."
"Y-yeah. Um, after we're done with the whole… making them not incinerated thing. I-I'll take you to m-m-meet them," I stammer as my face goes redder and redder.
"So, without further ado, let this meeting of the three strategists (read:stooges).. begin!" Nobbu shouts, slamming her rubber mallet on the table.
"Rigel's here now, though, so shouldn't it be four…?" I note.
"He's our d'Artagnan," She says simply, as if that explains anything.
"I have no idea who that is," I deadpan.
"The fourth musketeer from the book 'The Three Musketeers'," says Rigel, and then in response to my look of shock and bafflement, he continues, "Stede had it in his ship's library, somehow. Despite it being printed after his death."
"Getting us back on track," says Jason, "we're pretty short on time and there's way too many people we still need to pick up before the fight, so I'm going to motion that we split up a bit."
"Makes sense to me," Rigel nods. "Even with its flashy upgrade, the Argo is still way slower than most of our other transportation options. Heck, Medea can teleport, so she and I should really head over to talk with Circe and Stede as soon as possible. I kind of… left things on a bad note there, so it might take a bit to convince them."
"...Speaking of Medea, what's her actual stance on this fight?" I ask. I know how Jason wound up coming over, and Aesclepius is insisting he's neutral, but the witch's motivations are still up in the air last I heard.
"Th-that's… a little complicated," Rigel says. "I'll tell you about it later."
"Is that an actual promise to tell me later, or is it that thing you and I do where we say we're going to talk about it and then put it off indefinitely?" I ask, and he falls tellingly silent.
"She's not gonna betray us last minute, is she?" Jason grimaces.
"No, nothing like that," The Alter Ego shakes his head.
"Well, it was secret romantic talk that they wouldn't want anyone else to hear, so it can't be helped," Nobunaga says. Hey, how did you know what kind of talk it was? Were you eavesdropping? "Anyway, Subaru and I can probably go pick up Elly together, and then you can take the boat and everyone else to go find Atalanta."
"Hang on, why are we splitting off with just the two of us?" I ask.
"I mean, I can only carry one person while flying on a gun," She says matter-of-factly, and I go pale.
"No way! Not happening! That's scary! Hey, Jason, this funky sci-fi ship splits up into small transforming robot components, right? Can't you just lend us one…?" I say with increasing desperation.
"Like I know," He shrugs with a wide grin. "Good luck up there, mister ace pilot!"
"What the hell did I do to deserve that kind of attitude from you!?"
Giving a wry smile, he raises his hands and begins to count. "Punched me. Punched me. Choked me. Punched me. Kicked me. Said I was ugly…"
Ah, come to think of it, I have been pretty rude to him, huh? "S-sorry…"
"Hm? I'm not upset. I'm choosing to be the bigger man, after all," He smirks. "So, like I said, have fun up there! Take pictures!"
"You're definitely holding a grudge!"
"Putting aside Subaru's glorious future as an ace pilot," Jason says. "I'll be getting Grimr to help me look for Atalanta and Hector. They should both be around."
"Right, you mentioned him before - one of the greatest heroes of the Trojan war, right?" I say. "He gave the grail to Blackbeard, so-
"Ah, we never actually ran into anyone like that when we were fighting Blackbeard," Rigel says. "Maybe Reid killed him and took it, and then ran into Blackbeard by coincidence?"
"That guy just keeps causing problems, huh!?" I groan.
"...Well, considering it's Hector, he might have just handed it over for free and now he's slacking off somewhere," Nobunaga notes.
"...I've been meaning to ask, what's with you recognizing almost everyone on sight, all the way down to the personality level?" Rigel asks the girl.
"Actually, she's the third member of our very exclusive club!" I say, gesturing to both him and myself.
"How do you do, fellow Isekaijin?" She asks, and then pauses. "...You know, considering Jason has fused with his Servantverse self, that might just be all four of us now?"
"Anyway, she's from an alternate version of Chaldea that's further along the timeline, but she wasn't paying attention for a lot of it, so a lot of her info has been useless," I explain.
"That's… so stupid…" Rigel mutters. "All this time… all that difficulty… and she was some kind of joke character? That's… so stupid…"