4: Making friends is important

Incidentally, coming to Chaldea hadn't been my idea in the first place. Frankly speaking, I had no idea what I was getting into here. I was told that if I joined Chaldea, I'd likely meet someone who could get me back to Lugnica, but…

"This is the Wizard Marshal," he says as he answers the phone.

"Oi, old man, I can't help but feel like I've been tricked into accepting a job way outside my pay grade here," I say immediately.

"Hmph. Did you expect the path to reach 'another world' to be an easy one, Subaru-kun? You told me you were prepared to suffer madness or death if that's what was necessary to get there, but clearly that was all bravado if you can't handle something on this level," the Magician replies.

That's right. To start with, I had approached this old man, because he supposedly had the ability to "control parallel worlds", only to learn -

"Are you stupid? What you're talking about isn't a parallel world. Aren't you a high schooler? You ought to know what the word 'parallel' means. That world isn't running along what could be called a similar course to ours by any measure. Rather than a 'parallel' world, isn't it obvious that such a place would be 'another' world?"

- it was like that. Kischur Zelretch Schweinorg had no ability to transport me back to Lugnica. It was completely outside his wheelhouse. To start with most 'other' worlds were so alien to humanity that it was considered 'heretical' to even try to reach them. According to the Old Man-

"Even that Foreigner you've got following you around won't be able to protect you from the things you might find if you go poking around in 'other' worlds without a guide. That time travel trick of yours - quit gawking, it would be hard not to realize what you were doing with my unique perspective - that trick probably won't work in places where time doesn't exist."

And so, I got pointed towards Chaldea, because supposedly there would be someone who could bring me to Lugnica here. However…

"Look, Old Man, I'm just confused. Because you implied that I'd find a way back to that 'other world' in Chaldea, but this place is pretty thoroughly focused on this world." I complain.

He laughs. "Well, that self-proclaimed 'Gentleman Who Travels Through Time and Space' will turn up, in about two-and-a-half years."

"Oi, that's an important detail you left out!"

"Hah! I suppose you'll just have to save the world first, if you want to get home!" the man laughs.

"Do it yourself, dammit! Aren't you supposed to be some big shot sorcerer!?"

"I wish I could." He says, laughter stopping abruptly. "Unfortunately, the one responsible for the Incineration of Humanity is a [Beast], one of the seven [Evils of Humanity]. It can't be truly defeated, not by something like me."

"...Since you're a Vampire, yeah?"

"Correct. Rather than myself, the one best for the job would be a [Perfectly Ordinary Human Being]. However, since this timeline is lacking a unique existence like that, you'll have to fill in." Zelretch says.

I sigh. "Right. Can you actually tell me anything useful about the guy responsible? Or is this something we humans are gonna have to do on our own?"

"Sorry, but my hands are tied."

"Figures."

"...Of course, there's still time for you to reconsider my offer. Between your abilities and mine, we'd certainly have the time-" The Wizard Marshal says.

"I refuse." I interject. "Like I said, I've got no intention of returning to Emilia-tan's side as a totally different person. It'd be one thing if it was my only way back, but you already told me that's not the case."

"...It's good that you've got your eyes on the right prize, I guess. I was a bit worried about that 'witch' of yours, but If you've got an answer like that… you'll probably be alright. Good luck Subaru-kun. Humanity is counting on you." He says- and then, without letting me get another word in, he hangs up.

Well, that was a waste of time. I've got, what, twelve minutes until the bombs go off now? This timeline's no good, huh? I sigh as I open the door to my room-

"Okay, I'm in here - wait? Whaaat? Who are you?" Cries a distressed orange-haired man in green medical scrubs. "This is an empty room! It's where I slack off! Who gave you permission to come in?"

"Er… Master candidate forty-eight, Natsuki Subaru. I was told this was my room, but I guess Mash got it wrong?" I say, caught a little off guard by the man's brazen declaration.

He sighs. "Dr. Romani Archaman, head of Chaldea's medical staff. A lot of people just call me Roman, though. Apparently it's easier to say. You're in the right place. I just figured I'd have a chance to eat one last slice of cake in my secret slacking spot while everyone was busy setting up for the rayshift."

"Well, you would have been fine, but I got kicked out during the briefing because I wasn't paying attention, so…" I say, rubbing the back of my head. This is kind of awkward, huh..?

"Just got here, and you're already on the director's bad side, huh? Well, that means we're alike. I got yelled at too, just so you know. 'Romani, when you're here, everyone slacks off!' She said that, and kicked me out." He says. His Olga Marie impression is surprisingly accurate… How long did he spend practicing that? "Anyway, this is what you call a blessing in disguise, right? Since we've both got nowhere to go, how about we spend some time and deepen our friendship?"

I chuckle. Considering the time remaining until [Apocalypse Conflagration], we wouldn't exactly be able to-

Wait. Romani is on the medical staff. And he's a doctor, so presumably he went to medical school, not the Clock Tower. He can't hypnotize me. So maybe, just maybe…

"Actually, Roman…" I pause, trying to figure out a way to word it. Finally, I sigh. "I can't tell you how I know this, and I know it's gonna sound crazy, but in about eight minutes-"

He gasps. "Disaster, right!? You had a premonition too!? Do you have any idea how to stop whatever it is?" Wait, he already knows!?

"You already know!?" I shout.

"Just the barebones- I knew it was sometime this year, but I didn't realize it was today until just now, and I don't have a clue what it is!" He says.

"Okay, so in about eight minutes every human on the planet is going to spontaneously combust. I'm pretty sure it's related to Singularity F. But Chaldea is protected from it for some reason-!" I explain.

"So we can fix it! Thank God..!" Roman says.

"Except there's a second problem. Whoever our culprit is, they've planted bombs - or some kind of bomb-like magecraft - in the command room." I interject, and his eyes widen.

"What!? Who would even do such a thing!? Sabotaging the survival of humanity is-!" He says.

"...Lev. There's something living inside his magic circuits. That one cat demon - from the Lesser Key of Solomon, I think - Flauros. Or at least, something capable of casting a spell dependent on that name." I say, hoping desperately that he buys it.

Dr. Roman stares at me as if I've grown a second head. "How could you possibly- no, there's no time. We've got to hurry."

And with that, we sprint off down the hallway.

Dr. Roman manages to keep pace with me despite not looking like an athletic guy. I get a little ahead of him, but it's a difference of about thirty seconds. I stand outside the command room - because there's no way I'm barging in ahead of him - and grasp around as far as I can reach under the floor with [Invisible Providence].

Roman opens the door and yells. "Everyone out of the command room! There's-!"

Lev immediately pulls out a detonator and presses the button.

It would have been impossible, if I was still the same Natsuki Subaru who was thrust back to Earth a year and a half ago. At that time, [Invisible Providence] was barely usable - a single hand, with tiny range and a sluggish pace, that wracked my body with pain every time I used it. However, in the time since I returned to Earth…

I grew used to it. Or perhaps, I grew an affinity for "Sloth". The ability that I inherited from Petelgeuse was manageable now, at least to the point that I could use a single hand without destroying my body. And so, just in time, the Unseen hand closes around the bomb-!

I manage to contain a scream of pain about as well as [Invisible Providence] manages to contain the explosion - a few jets of fire escaping my fingers, but the main body of the explosion is deflected away from the command staff.

So. if a bomb goes off in the grasp of one of my invisible hands, I still feel the associated pain that the bomb would have caused my real hand - but the hand itself is undamaged. Good to know.

Lev is reduced to ash - or perhaps he just used some sort of teleportation? The explosion didn't look like it hit him.

Further explosions rock the facility, with several of the coffins below taking direct hits.

[Cor Leonis].

"Doctor, Mash just got ejected from her coffin. She's injured. I'm going to go try to help her," I say. "You see what you can do up here."

"Right. We'll talk later." He says, applying pressure to Olga Marie's left arm - or rather, the stump of it. I deflected the blast as best as I could, but… there are still plenty of people dead and injured.

The lower level of the command room, where the Rayshifts take place, is a mess. Fallen debris and flames make it near impossible to navigate, but slowly, using [Cor Leonis] as my guide, I make my way to where Mash has been trapped under a massive slab of stone.

System switching to the final phase of rayshift. Coordinates, AD 2004, January, 30th, Fuyuki, Japan.

The automated announcement is still talking as if the rayshift is going to happen, but I really doubt that. Surely we don't have enough power.

"...Oh."

Finally, I find Mash. She's in bad shape, though…

"Hang in there! Dr. Roman is just upstairs, so..!" I say, activating [Invisible Providence]. Unfortunately, one hand alone is too hazardous - dropping the slap of rock on her a second time is game over for sure. I'll have to use my second hand - which means taking the damn [Penalty]. I was pretty excited a few loops back, when I stopped being put in excruciating pain for brief usage of my first hand, but the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Gritting my teeth to ignore the pain, I'm able to get enough leverage to lift the slab off of her. Luckily, for all it lacks in speed, [Invisible Providence] doesn't seem to have much of an upper limit in what it can lift, allowing me to get Mash out.

"Eh… that was..?"

I lift her into a princess carry - ugh, but she's heavy. I lost a lot of the muscle I had built up in Lugnica when I got kicked back to Earth, so it's a bit of a pain. Slowly I trudge back towards the door.

The closed door.

"Are you serious right now?" I mutter.

And then, golden particles, emanating from somewhere, fill the air around us. What the hell is-?

Rayshift starting in 3, 2, 1…

It still had enough power!?

All procedures clear. First Order, commencing operation.

And then, the world dissolves into a tunnel of blue light...

A/N: Well, it may not be Monday in my time zone anymore, but I haven't slept yet and it's still Monday in some places, so deadline met!

This chapter got a bit sloppy in some places, and I cheated a bit with the timing of things - realistically speaking if I hadn't messed with the canon time clock subaru probably could have gotten Mash out of the command room, but that would mess things up so let's not.

Subaru knows Zelretch! He basically brute-forced his way into a conversation with the guy upon learning about the kscope. The old man will not appear again until post Temple of Time (if then), so don't worry about bad fanon infiltrating the story too much.

Speaking of bad fanon, did you know that in Kagetsu Tohya, Nasu says Zelretch is "similar to Jotaro Kujo"? Drawing from this, Zel is a bit more serious in this story than a lot of fanfic depictions of him. He's still supposed to be someone who "laughs at do-gooders" though, so there's some mild trollish elements present. Hopefully if he ever makes more than a cameo appearance in canon, this depiction will be at least somewhat accurate.

Subaru and Romani get along pretty well, though Barasu is still slightly mildly ruffled by his name (loud Petelgeuse Romanee-Conti noises in the distance).

Next chapter by Friday hopefully.