140: Speaking with Witches

Natsuki Rigel

"...You don't have to fight with us, you know."

I didn't really want to say it, but the point had to be made before we went any further.

"Jason's got his own reasons, and Aesclepius is only helping indirectly," I continued. "But for you, Medea…" I trailed off, letting the distant lap of waves against the Space Argo's exterior finish my sentence.

She didn't look up from her task, but the needle and thread in her hand paused for a moment. "And then what?" Her eyes flicked for a moment towards a strange mote of blue light, and a scowl crossed her face. "You can happily flirt with this girl with the knowledge that I've betrayed you?"

"It's not like that," I said, or perhaps lied. I wasn't really sure.

"Isn't it?"

"...I don't know. I spent a long time around someone who didn't understand human hearts, and I think she rubbed off on me," I admitted with a sigh. "I still have feelings. I realized that while fighting Dagon and… I guess I just have to call him Subaru at this point." I felt a wry grin appear on my lips, and raised my fingers to it to trace its shape as it turned to a confused grimace. "But these emotions, my emotions… they just show up. I don't control them, can't control them, because I barely realize they're happening until they're already moving me forward."

The glowing mote of light that Subaru had said was Rem blinked a little brighter, and Medea gave it a harsh look from the corner of her eyes. "I didn't know you before this, so I can't mimic whatever comforting words that girl wants to say," Medea said after a moment, turning back to her work. "But all of that aside, please don't imagine that I'll allow you to dispose of me now. You lost your opportunity earlier."

Ah… that's right, that's the kind of person Medea was. Leave it to a Witch to make overwhelming decisions like forgoing utopia based purely on a romantic impulse. Still… "Are you sure? You're throwing away a chance at 'happily ever after', here."

"Hmph. That's someone else's happiness. Make no mistake, Subaru-sama, If Hercules wins, 'I' will disappear," the Witch replied. "The happiness of the girl I once was, which Hercules says he'll guarantee, is something else - I don't mind stabbing her in the back. She'd do the same to me, after all."

As she said that, still painstakingly altering the contents of the stuffed doll requested by my own younger and better self, a small worry crossed my mind. "I don't really feel the same way, I think. Please don't do anything too drastic, on that front."

A pause in her work followed, and then a change in movements as she began to undo some stitches. "What will you do, then?"

"...I don't know," I muttered. It was supposed to be so easy. I was supposed to attack him, and steal his body. I hated [Natsuki Subaru] so it would be perfectly easy to erase him from existence. But the 'Natsuki Subaru' that met me turned out to be a different person, and even more than that- "I… really can't believe… that he just turned around and called me his family."

How was I supposed to respond to that? How was I meant to maintain my hatred, when faced with unflinching kindness, even after I already killed him a dozen times over?

No. To be honest, that wasn't what this was. It wasn't some grand morality play. It was just me throwing a tantrum, and him calmly stepping forward to defuse the situation with basic maturity.

"What the hell… that makes him the older brother after all, doesn't it…?"

I'd bet that Medea's teleportation magecraft was probably disorienting the first few times, but I don't really remember it, if it was. By the time of our transport to Circe's island, it doesn't even faze me.

And, similarly, considering the number of times I encountered it-

-A whirlwind erupts in front of us, spraying lightning everywhere, and the familiar voice of Circe the Witch booms out. "So it's you, Medea! Did you think you could simply waltz in here, and that I'd greet you with open arms?"

-there it is. The classic Circe opening line, where she pretends that she wants anything other than to spoil whoever showed up on her island rotten. In other words, she's a tsundere with about a millimeter of 'tsun' protecting her vulnerable heart. And the way to defeat her is-

"Hello Auntie! It's good to see you again!" Medea unleashes an all-out charm offensive!

"G-geh… did you hear anything I just said?" Circe asks, her voice obviously flustered. The charm is super effective! "And what part of 'don't call me Auntie' hasn't gotten through your thick skull yet!?"

"Miss Circe… no, I guess at this point I should be calling you Aunt Circe," I say, faking a knowing smile.

"What the hell do you mean 'at this point'!? We haven't even met, don't you go assuming I'm that much older because of this blockhead apprentice of mine-!" She's already lost. She's firmly associating Medea as 'her apprentice', no matter how frustrated she is right now. So, the final push is-

"Ah, sorry, I guess I'm getting ahead of myself," I say, chuckling and rubbing the back of my head. "I just figured that as Medea's future husband, I should call you the same way that she does."

Medea's 'customer service' smile turns a bit more genuine, but she doesn't get particularly flustered by my declaration. I'm not exactly sure whether that's due to her ability to stay subtle with her feelings or if she's unsurprised because she already assumed that sort of ending for our relationship as fact like the nascent yandere she is.

Circe, on the other hand, falls silent for a moment, and the storm she had conjured dies down. A moment later, her real body emerges with a glittering light and a cloud of feathers as she gets right up in my face. "...Listen here, you little shit. Medea's been through a lot, so don't you dare think about using her like some kind of tool."

Alright, Pattern C is in progress. I just need to lock in Variation Twelve and we're good to go.

…Incidentally, I've spent an unreasonable amount of time on this island in the past. In the end, Echidna and I decided that it wasn't feasible to properly recruit Circe, so we went with the 'send Stede' plan in the hopes that he'd be able to honey trap her long enough to keep her neutral for the duration of my fight with 'Natsuki Subaru'.

"You can go ahead and test me if you like," I reply, stretching a taunting grin across my face. "The rumored 'Great Witch Circe's Heart-Pounding Kykeon Love Scramble' - I'll blow it away without a second thought." Overwrought name aside, it's basically just a cooking and eating contest which will certainly end in me turning into a pig, which is why I went the taunting route.

"You think you'll get off that easily!? You're facing Circe's Castle, so get ready to die!" She blusters.

"That ridiculous obstacle course? I can take it, but does that really have anything to do with romantic compatibility?" I ask, shrugging and shaking my head.

"Subaru-sama, please don't tease Auntie too much…" Medea chides me.

"That's right! Medea's on my side! I don't know who you think you are, but if you think you can just pull the hearts of witches this way and that, you've got another thing coming!" Circe says, pointing at me with a smug look on her face as her wing mystic code flaps her to her nieces side and lets her pull the girl into a one-armed hug.

Anyway, that's the conversation steered into Medea's control, so my pulling of Circe's heart this way and that has been a success.

"...Auntie, Subaru-sama's words aside, we did come here for a reason," Medea says, wrapping Circe in a two-armed hug, and Circe's smug grin falls into a beleaguered scowl as she realizes she's been had.

"Don't tell me you're going to request something crazy from me again?" The Great Witch says. "I saw that… whatever it was, that got fired a few hours ago; I hope you don't think that I'm getting anywhere near that thing."

"...Actually, I can't imagine you'll be of that much use on that front," I admit. "We're here for Stede."

"...Eh?"

After some more negotiations, Circe ends up taking us to her island manor. Medea manages to corral her teacher into her workshop and drag her into a conversation about magecraft, and so I take the opportunity to stop by the wing of the house reserved for male guests. And there, I find-

"Yo, Stede. Did you enjoy yourself?" I ask a thoroughly unamused pig.

"Why are you treating that pig like it's me!? You came into my room, looked me in the eye, left, and then came in here!" The actual Stede shouts. "You're terrible!"

Something approaching an honest smile finds its way to my face as I turn towards the Gentleman Pirate. "Sorry, I couldn't resist the joke. I'm glad it seems like things are going well for you."

His face flits between a slight hint of happiness, then exasperation, and finally he seems to just give up, falling into a slightly annoyed indifference. "So? How was that 'alternate self' of yours?"

"Crazy freaking strong-willed!" I say, giving a big shrug and shaking my head. "I don't think I would have won even if he was vulnerable to Angra Mainyu's curse."

"Wait, you lost!?" He shouts.

"Right? And after all that big talk I was doing too…" I say with a sigh. "Drake got herself killed, too; and on top of all that, Alcides went and became the big bad of the singularity and now everyone's teaming up to stop him from destroying the entire timeline after Ancient Greece."

"Gee, if only you'd had a clever pirate captain around to help you out… is what I'd like to say, but I can't really see any way that I could have helped if things escalated to the point that Drake got killed," He sighs.

"...I think that's why I left you here, in the end. I made up some half-baked excuse about keeping Circe neutral, But I think I was just looking for an excuse to keep you safe and away from what I thought was the final battle," I admit.

"Huh?" He gives me a quizzical look.

"I mean, we're friends. I don't want to see you hurt," I say simply. "And sticking you on an island with a girl who's your type is a bonus."

"Wait, you thought we were gonna hit it off?" He asks with slight shock.

"I had a pretty good idea, yeah."

"I forgive you for everything - no, really I need to thank you! Even for being so rude as to stuff me in a barrel!" Stede says with a kind of enthusiasm that doesn't really suit a guy in his late thirties. "Circe is seriously an angel! Why couldn't I have met her back when I was alive…?"

"Well, if you really want to thank me… we kind of need your help with something," I admit. "It's sort of a long shot, but… if anyone can do it, it's you."

"Wh-what's with that strange confidence of yours?" He asks, taking a step back, embarrassment plain on his face.

"It's not strange. When it comes to winning people over, you're the best there is. You managed to last three full days with the Witch Circe without getting turned into an animal - compared to that, this is child's play," I say with a grin. "All you need to do is convince some sailors to do something they don't want to do."

"No! No way! Putting aside the fact that your vague description makes it super obvious you're gonna put me in over my head again, I've got a good thing going on here!" Stede protests, making an 'X' with both hands. "There's no way I'll abandon Circe! I… I know it's been three days, but I'm in love with her!"

I start to respond, but I'm cut off by a flurry of movement as Medea enters the room. "Subaru-sama, we should leave as soon as possible. Auntie is getting strange ideas again."

"The manageable kind of 'strange', or are we going to have a fight on our hands?" I ask.

"She was saying something along the lines of 'Ehehe, if he knows about the love trials, he must have been watching me for a long time… Maybe it's fate!~ I'm getting pretty fed up with Stede, anyway!'" Medea reports.

"Geh!?" The aforementioned pirate collapses to the ground. "W-what do you mean, fed up? She said she was happy I was relying on her, so even if I haven't done a single thing other than laze about and eat her food while flirting with her, shouldn't she be happy!?"

"Well, you were going to blow it eventually…" I sigh. "Get the teleportation ready, Medea. Do you think we should take this guy with us?" I gesture towards the pig, who begins nodding vigorously at the idea. "Ah, he can understand me."

Stede pauses in his tears for a moment to look up at us."...He's a pretty smart pig. Circe calls him Hector."

Oi.

A faint rumbling starts to become audible as the manor starts to shake - oh dear, she's on the rampage. "We'll take him, so Medea, please hurry up."

With a terrible crash, a swarm of conjured animals smashes through the wall and door blocking off this wing from the rest of the house, a wild-eyed witch at its head.

"Don't think you can escape!" Circe shouts, lobbing a large glass bottle full of something black and squirming at us-

The pig launches itself over our heads to intercept it - and in an almost cartoonish puff of smoke takes human form.

"Didn't you think the transformation was sticking a little long?" a brown-haired man in green armor says with a lazy grin as he arcs through the air. "Forgive an old man his tricks, would ya!?" He catches the thrown bottle, secures its cork before it can open, and with a sudden burst of flame from what seems to be a mechanical arm jets back into Medea's teleportation spell in just the nick of time.

-And so, in a flash of light we find ourselves at the planned meeting place.

"Ah, there's the first arrivals," An unfamiliar voice says, and I turn to take in the appearance of a man with slicked back black hair, wearing a black vest over a red shirt and tight red pants. "I just got finished with my summoning, so you're just in time."

I look around for a moment, but the Servant in question seems to be in spirit form, so I turn back to gaze at the stranger directly. His smile's friendly enough, but there's something… the scent of primeval sludge, just hinted at in a newly resurgent breeze.

"Sorry, I won't be revealing her identity just yet. Call it insurance, if you like." Distant lightning glints off his glasses, and he continues to smile as he slides something yellow into his pocket, and extends his other hand for a handshake. "Beryl Gut. I guess you're technically not my Kohai, since you're his… alternate self or something, right? But it's nice to meet you, man!"

Well, he seems friendly enough.