Chapter Text
Being stabbed hurt. It was the most painful thing that Subaru had ever experienced. But it wasn’t the scariest. It wasn’t the scariest.
As the boy clutched the silver haired girl’s hand beside him, his vision started spotting and getting dark around the edges in time with his gradually slowing heartbeat. Everything looked desaturated and way too vivid all at once. As another wave of pain washed over him, he clenched his eyes closed.
He felt so lightheaded. In between every strangled beat of his heart, he felt himself float up, up. He felt like a helium balloon rising into a vast blue expanse, tether cut. He wanted to stay, he wanted to- even the pain wasn’t as bad as whatever was up there. But then his heart pumped, and he got to experience a few more seconds blissfully grounded before he was swept away again, back to the void.
His vision collapsed into unreality as the waves swept him higher and higher- he wanted to cower, to run- but eventually he was carried up and away. The terror built higher and higher until it abruptly stopped. The black haired boy's eyelids went limp and his pupils wide.
****
A young blonde girl found herself sprinting through the streets, clutching a little pin in her hand all before she tripped and slid on her face for a foot. She looked behind her and saw a silver haired girl slowly lowering a shaky hand. Felt was shaking too, why was she shaking? Where was the black haired lady? Clenching her eyes shut, she shook her head and clutched her stomach. Then she stumbled to her feet and ran for all she was worth. She had to find Rom.
****
Emilia slowly lowered her hand, stumbled after the girl a few steps, then collapsed onto her knees.
“Puck, what just happened?”
“I don’t know Emilia…” Puck said coming out of the crystal to look her in the eyes. “Are you ok?”
Emilia nodded absently until a thought struck her- the boy!
She leapt to her feet and grabbed Puck’s paws.
“Puck, where did we meet Subaru?”
“Uh, the alleyway. We were chasing blondie, right?”
“Then let’s go, not a moment to spare!”
“Emilia, what about everything we just saw?”
“Never mind that!” Emilia said as she ran towards the market.
I have to save him!
****
In a distant shack, the bowel hunter paused while polishing her knives. Then she let out a dark chuckle.
“How interesting…”
****
“Hey kid, are you going to buy the appa or…” Subaru heard the appa man trail off. The man looked at the apple- appa in his hand and tugged on his bead with one eyebrow raised, as if he'd never seen one in his life. Subaru squinted at him. Wasn’t it just nighttime?
“Say, kid, haven’t I seen you before?”
Subaru noticed that the whole street was silent, the first true silence Subaru had heard since arriving at the Capitol. Distantly he heard a carriage crash. Then a low babbling chatter started picking up.
“Hey, you look like you’ve seen a ghost, kid! I feel like I’ve seen one myself…”
“What do you mean?” Subaru asked.
“I don’t know. Probably just been workin’ a bit too hard” the appa man said with an awkward laugh. “It’s just, one moment I’m making supper for my daughter, the next…” He gestured vaguely with the appa. “I’m here…”
Subaru didn’t say anything. The next, I’m here… echoed in his mind.
Satella!
Subaru closed the distance around the appa stand and put his hands on the appa man’s shoulders.
“Have you seen a silver haired girl here today?”
The appa man looked weirded out by the contact.
“No- yes- Let go!”
Subaru just looked into his eyes and let his sanpakku energy do the talking for him.
Stare...
“I- I don’t think I saw her today exactly.” The appa man said, slowly pushing Subaru’s hands down. “She helped my daughter before. Uh yesterday, I guess? But you were there too. Don’t you remember? Something weird’s going on, broke kid.”
“Yeah… yeah… Wait, how’d you know I’m broke?”
“Ha! So, we have met before! Looks like all them notice something’s up too” The appa man said, gesturing to the people on the street. Their babbling had become fevered roar now, and Subaru could pick up phrases like, “How’d I get here?” “You felt it too?” Subaru’s head was starting to hurt.
“You know what, never mind” Subaru said, pinching his nose. “I don’t have time. Gotta save her.” He backed onto the street and started jogging away.
“Wait! Broke kid! Save who?” The appa man said, going onto the street after him. “Who are you?”
Subaru didn’t reply, just waved his hand and kept running. All around him, he could see some people talking in hushed voices to each other while others were in open shouting matches. The odd person was rushing around just like him. The usually free flowing carriages seemed to be in a traffic jam and Subaru could hear some merchants swearing at each other and the guards, who seemed overwhelmed.
What’s going on?
I was in the loot house just a second ago, wasn’t I? And the appa man said something similar, didn’t he? He was cooking for his kid… then all of a sudden, back to the stand. What does that mean? Is this normal for this world?
Subaru's memory flashed- silver hair, soaked with clotting blood- and he clutched his stomach.
Is Satella even still alive?
Subaru unclenched his fists and kept running. He had to hope. He was running out of breath, so he turned into an alley to rest and leaned his hands on his knees.
“Why was I even summoned in this world?” he sighed. He didn’t notice the footsteps following him into the alley.
“What are you babbling about?” A voice came from behind him
“If you don’t wanna get hurt, cough up whatever you’ve got!” Came a second
Subaru turned around. Oh come on. Three thugs stood before him- a tall one, a fat one, and a short one. The short one squinted at him.
“Would you stop it already?! No one is this damn persistent!”
“You think you can mouth off to me, punk?!” The tall thug yelled, pulling out a knife.
“You’re in my way! I have somewhere I have to go!” Subaru said as he strode towards the alley’s entrance.
But then he felt something in his back.
Subaru collapsed onto the ground and tried to look behind himself There was something there, in his back- what was in his back?
You’ve gotta be kidding me… Subaru thought, as the pain caught up with him. That was a knife. Another goddamn knife. It hurts… It hurts…
He could hear the thugs arguing above him but couldn’t be bothered to listen. All that mattered was the pain, and the fear. “Hrk!” a spurt of blood came out of Subaru’s mouth, just like before, just like before, as one of the thugs yanked the knife out. A wave of pain enveloped Subaru’s whole being at the motion. Worse still was that awful dread. That floating feeling. His body slowly starting to fail, but being unable to stop it, coming closer and closer to the void until they were one and the same-
Subaru wanted to think about anything but that. He turned his head towards the most colourful thing he could see, feeling his own blood underneath him, sticking to his cheek. It was his potato snack.
But Old Man Rom ate those. How? C-could… this be…
He stared at his groceries, trying to drink in the colourful wrapper as if it could anchor him to this world. But inevitably, the pain faded to coldness, then the coldness to numbness, and black spots- or were those white lights- covered his vision. The light left his eyes.
****
“Well, boy, want this appa… What the hell, it happened again!”