Chapter Text
“...Ugh.” Waking up in the middle of a parking lot, Subaru stared at the pitch black sky for a whole minute. The star that he was familiar with, after seeing the Lugunican night sky for over a year now, has completely disappeared. Instead, he sees a few but familiar stars.
“I think I remember this sky.” Subaru thought to himself, as he was seeing the North Star, the Moon and a few other dimly lit stars in the pitch black sky.
“Subaru!” Beatrice, who was with Emilia at a distance having a chat with Anastasia and Julius, spots Subaru waking up and was looking around his surroundings. She immediately rushes to his side and clings to him, like a small child that has finally found her parents after being lost in a massive mall. She ran at her full speed and crashed into him, hugging him tightly in the process.
“It’s okay Beako, I’m here now.” Subaru started patting Beatrice’s back, who was crying on his chest at the moment. It took a moment for him to come to his senses. Emilia, from the sidelines, called out for Anastasia and Julius to come closer to Subaru, while Ram, who was anyways close to him decided to remain seated in her place, tending to Rem’s well-being first then Subaru’s.
“Glad you are awake now, Subaru.” Emilia sat next to Subaru and said those words to him.
“E-Emilia-tan!” Emilia’s boldness caught Subaru off guard, with him not expecting her to be this bold with him. The last time something similar to this happened was in one of the failed loops at the Pleiades watchtower.
“Yeah, glad you are all right too. But…”
“But?”
“Where are the others?”
“Right next to you, Barusu."
“Huh? Nee-sama?” Sitting to the side of Subaru, who was still lying on his back, Ram looked and spoke to him. Anastasia and Julius also arrived, with them standing behind Emilia.
“Didn’t you hear me? Ram said she is sitting next to you.” Subaru, who just got up after hearing what Ram said, couldn't contain his happiness and relief as he saw Ram and Rem doing perfectly fine, with Rem resting on Ram’s lap. Subaru slowly crawled to Rem’s side, to check up on her and once she woke up, he would be the first face that she would see, beating Ram.
“If you are wishing for Rem to see your face when she wakes up, Ram is sorry, but she woke up a few hours ago.”
“Huh?” He couldn't believe what he was hearing. Rem woke up way before he did, and he missed the opportunity to see her awake.
“I guess this is my punishment for failing to save Rem.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Hah?”
“Didn’t Barusu himself say that when Rem wakes up, he wants to be the first person she sees?”
“Yeah, but how–”
“Well, she was with you for around two hours or so, before going to sleep.”
“Huh?” He again couldn’t believe what Ram was saying. What does she mean by Rem being with him for a few hours? Isn’t she affected by [Gluttony], and therefore wouldn't have memories if it wasn’t spat out? From behind, Julius and Anastasia, who was with Ram and Rem while he was asleep, decided to put his fears to rest once and for all.
“Ya know, Natsuki-kun, Rem-chan was hugging you the entire time, fearin’ that ya might leave her outta nowhere.” Anastasia said to him.
“And I must say, it was a sight to behold.” with Julius backing up Ana’s statement.
“... So… Re-Rem is awake with her memories?”
“Yes.” Tears fell from his eyes, as the final confirmation of her memories and name returning to Rem healed something inside him. To the side of him, Beatrice held his hand, as he started to cry his eyes out after the confirmation.
“Subaru, are you okay now?” Emilia asked him in her sweet voice, the kind that gives comfort even to the most vulnerable ones, while crouching and resting her hand on his shoulder to give him some comfort. Subaru, who was sitting crossed legged after getting up a couple of minutes ago, placed his hand on top of hers, looked and gave her the most genuine smile he could ever muster up.
“Now then… I think we ought to know where we are.” Julius said to Subaru, with Anastasia and Ram nodding to his statement.
“Well I…”
“Subaru? Do you know where we are?” Beatrice called his name, after he saw the bright yellow billboard that she can’t read for some reason. Seeing his eyes go wide, she immediately went to the front of him, repeatedly calling out his name. Finally, when he came out of the trance and started talking–
“Beatrice, why are we in front of a mini-stop?”
“Eh? Subaru? You can read that?”
“Beatrice we got a bigger fish to fry than me reading that sign.” Subaru said to her in a serious tone, looking straight into her eyes.
△▼△▼△▼△
“So, you are telling me that this is Barusu’s hometown?”
“Yeah, ain’t much exciting now is it?”
“What do ya mean, Natsuki-kun? This is a treasure trove for a merchant like me!”
“Eh?
“Betty’s Subaru isn't some kind of information merchant from which he can be exploited!”
“Okay, okay, ya have it in your way. So, Natsuki-kun.”
“Yes, Anastasia-san?”
“Where exactly are we?”
The group, after Subaru woke up, shifted to the parking lot of the mini stop, after Subaru realized that the mini stop store was about to open in a few minutes.
“Well, as I said, it’s my hometown.” Subaru tried to explain but he got cut off by everyone asking a lot of questions the moment he started explaining.
“This is your hometown?”
“How did you get to Lugunica then?”
“Why come to Lugunica if your hometown looks this good?”
Ram, Anastasia and Julius started bombarding him with questions, with Emilia and Beatrice also wanting to bombard him with another set of questions but before that can happen–
“Everyone, chill the eff out. Imma go question by question. We can't afford to speak out loudly at the moment.” Subaru tried to calm everyone down but more questions only arose as Emilia and Beatrice started to question him for his safety.
“What do you mean by not talking loudly?”
“Is there anybody spying on us, I suppose?”
Yeah. Safe to say, no interaction with anybody or very limited interaction can cause issues like not understanding social construct and hierarchy, though Subaru understands why Emilia and Beatrice are asking these questions to him.
“Well, no. No one is spying on us or anything like that. It’s just that everyone would be sleeping right now so we need to lower our voices. The store owner might also try to shove us away if we were too loud.”
“Okay then.” Subaru had a sigh of relief after she backed off–
“But! If push comes to shove, we will protect you no matter what it takes!”
“Emilia-tan?!”
“Emilia-sama is right. If we spot a danger approaching, Ram will not hesitate to protect you first.” Ram, who was carrying Rem on her shoulders, added to Emilia’s words. Subaru could only stare at the group in astonishment.
“Is this why you loved them more than yourself, Natsuki Subaru? Damn, I envy you man.”
“Thanks guys.” Turning his head to another direction, Subaru thanked them without them hearing anything, before turning back to them to clarify about their situation. Taking a deep breadth, and exhaling it slowly, he started.
“We are currently in my home country called Japan, in a city called Nerima, which is a few kilometers away from the capital city."
Silence filled the air, as everyone wasn't able to process the information that Subaru gave to them. Some of them like Emilia, Beatrice and Meili were confused with the information that Subaru gave them while–
“Y-Ya mean like a remote place inside ta continent?”
“Anastasia-san… We are in a country beyond the waterfall.”
“But how is it possible? How on Od did we end up in a place far across… Barusu, if this is true, then how did you end up in our world?”
“Same way we ended up here. I blinked and the next thing I knew, it was daytime instead of night.” Everyone went speechless after that revelation. Even Emilia and Beatrice, who were thinking about any reasons, stopped thinking and listened to what he just said.
“Wait what? Excuse me?"
" Yeah. It’s been almost two years since I have transmigrated or ‘isekaied’ to your world.” Looking to the side of the road, he noticed that something felt off, with the cars parked on the side of the road having designs with subtle changes with them. But he had bigger problems than the changes in car designs and so he discarded those feelings. Just when he was about to start another explanation on what happened in his first day–
‘Grrr’
“Someone must be hungry after waking up a while ago.” Meili joked about Subaru being hungry just a few minutes after waking up, to which Subaru and Beatrice, in mock anger, decided to play and chase her for a while.
To the side of the the two–
“Ah, that’s why Natsuki-kun did not show up in any of the records ah?” Anastasia remarked,to which both Ram and Emilia showed surprise, the anger at them for spying on one of their camp members. Before Emilia could even be pissed with Anastasia about spying on one of their most trusted and beloved friends, Ram beat her to it.
“HOW DARE YOU TRY AND SPY ON ONE OF OUR CAMP MEMBERS, ESPECIALLY ON BARUSU?!” Ram shouted at Anastasia, and before Julius could even try to defend his liege, Emilia saw the opportunity to also say the things that were on her mind when she heard about the new revelation.
“What Ram asked was the right question. Why were you spying on Subaru, even though he did nothing wrong?” Seeing that even Emilia started to question her actions, she had to give up any excuse she had prepared in advance, and with the current situation that they are stuck in, she has to give her the truth, else everything will fall apart sooner or later.
“Well, to tell ya ta truth, we had ta spy on Natsuki-kun cuz he was an outsider and when we checked up on his records, there was no entry until the day he arrived…”
“Which was the day when my insignia was stolen.”
“And it has been one year and two months since Barusu was transmigrated to our world.” Just then, Rem, the blue haired girl who was in suspended animation-like state for over a year, then woke up a few hours ago and fell asleep again, started to wake up from her slumber. Emilia, Anastasia and Julius, seeing Rem wake up, decided to talk about this situation later when they
“N-Nee-sama?”
“Good morning, Rem”
“It’s already morning? And… SUBARU-KUN?! WHAT HAPPENED TO SUBARU-KUN NEE-SAMA?!”
“See for yourself Rem.” the moment she looked up, after breaking eye contact from her twin sister, she noticed–
“Rem?”
“S-Subaru-kun?” Subaru started walking towards Ram, who was holding Rem at the moment. His walking speed ever increased after she responded to his call.
“Rem!”
“Subaru-kun!”
“REM!”
“SUBARU-KUN!” The two come together and embrace into a hug, with Subaru now carrying and holding Rem rather than Ram carrying her. All forms of love, joy and ecstasy have been poured in the hug, and the two had a big smile on their faces when the two looked into each other’s eyes.
From the sidelines, Rem, Emilia, Beatrice, Meili, Julius and Anastasia, who already had their reunion a few hours before Subaru woke up. Emilia, who was watching the reunion, was happy for the two as they are seeing each other for the first time, but for some reason, there is another voice, a darker voice that tells her to not be happy, and she can’t exactly figure out what is that feeling nor why is she feeling like that. So, to protect this moment, she decided to ignore that feeling for the moment.
Rem and Subaru, after a long hug, decide to break the hug so that they can plan for the next steps that can be taken, after seeing that the sun is slowly starting to rise.
“I assume nee-sama said everything that happened while you were asleep, right?” Subaru asked her, while still carrying her in a princess carry. She nodded to him before adding–
“Nee-sama did give Rem a recap on what happened in the last year that Rem has spent sleeping, but I want Subaru-kun’s version of what happened too.” with a smile she replied back to which, Subaru also smiled back.
“Alright then, this is a promise. I will recount every single moment that happened when you were asleep,”
“It is a promise then!” Just as they made the promise, Ram came with a problem that they are facing currently.
“As much as we want this reunion to go happily, we need a place to stay.” Subaru, who was holding Rem, after seeing Ram approaching them, decided to hand Rem to her. And when presented with this new problem–
“I know a place where we can stay.”
–His parent’s home is the first thing that comes to his mind.
△▼△▼△▼△
“How many more minutes till we reach your home, Barusu?”
“A couple of minutes now, nee-sama.”
Walking down on the Ozumigakuen street in 7-chome, Nerima, Subaru and the group consisting of Subaru himself, Emilia, Beatrice, Ram and Rem, who was watching the surroundings, while the latter was carrying the former, Meili, Anastasia and Julius, were looking around the place, the LED overhead lights brightly illuminating the surface of the road. While this brings nostalgic memories from his childhood for Subaru, the others were more fascinated by the advancements in Subaru’s world.
Subaru glanced at Emilia and Beatrice, who were walking by his side, then at Ram and Rem, who were watching the surroundings, noting the cars parked on the side of the road, the buildings, the signposts with bright colours and the cables that were dangling from the telephone posts.
“With all these contraptions, this could go for a lot of money in the continent.” Anastasia remarked after seeing a blue Subaru parked outside, with Subaru, the alive version, chucking at her remark and replied back.
“It sure will. It is the innovations accumulated in the span of a hundred and fifty years which brought the modern car to life.”
After a couple of minutes of walking down the street—
“We are here.” Subaru announced anxiously. Emilia and Beatrice noticed his anxiety and calmed him down, in their own ways. He then took a deep breath, and went to the door bell, which he rang once.
Ding Dong
It took a few seconds before someone arrived on the other side of the door, as the muffled sounds of footsteps were heard.
“Mom, dad, I’m home.”
The door opened and for a minute, the group and the woman who opened the door stared at each other. Then—
“I’m sorry, but what in the actual fuck?”
—Standing on the other side of the door, is a person that Subaru has known for a long time, and is with him currently, yet shouldn’t be standing in front of him.
△▼△▼△▼△
“Good morning.” A girl in her early twenties, pink hair with a two-block haircut and wearing gym clothes, stepped into the living hall, where her parents have been awake for a while now. The time at the moment is around half past six and the three have woken up earlier than their usual time because of a certain someone coming to their home in a few hours.
“Morning Ram-chan! Slept well?” Kenichi, the head of the household, was sitting on the couch, while holding the television remote, asked Ram the moment she stepped foot on the living hall.
“I was able to sleep as much as possible, though I’m more worried about you papa, not sleeping to see Barusu in a few hours.”
“Your dad is worried about your brother’s safety more than anything now Ram-chan.” Her mother Naoko, who was also concerned with Ram’s younger brother Subaru’s safety, as he was coming back to Japan for the first time in a while now.
“Yeah mama, I get that. But Papa is also the same man who woke all of us up and drove to the airport for a flight that would leave more than half a day later.” She remarked, remembering the time when the entire family went to the airport to catch a flight to Italy that would only arrive twelve hours later to Tokyo Haneda airport. The family still remembers it as it was their first flight that they have taken, let alone their first flight to another country.
“At that time, your F3 regional championship was coming, and we couldn’t afford to be delayed by any factors.”
“Yeah, but there was no need to go like twelve hours before the flight even arrived right?” At that moment, a notification arrived to all three of their phones, all from the same person too.
“Subaru-chan?”
“Of course Barasu’s flight is delayed.” Ram said in annoyance, then turned and looked at her father, with a gesture that signals ‘I told you so’, to him.
“Well, we can sleep even more now.” Kenichi, having no answer for her question, decided that it would be a great time to sleep, to which Naoko polled his ear in annoyance. Just then—
Ding dong
“Uhh… did someone start reading newspapers?”
“Not me. Maybe, Subaru-chan might have pranked us by sending that message.”
“There is no way that idiot would do something like this again. The last time this exact scenario happened, he almost died at Rem's hands after scaring the ever living shit out of her.” Ram replied back to her father, with the three remembering the incident where, after a fourteen hour shift from her residency doctor work, Subaru scared the hell out of her by messaging her that he was dying as a prank in front of their house.
Of course, Rem is sleeping at the moment so nothing of that sort is going to happen, and Subaru, after that incident, never made the same mistake again, and so there wouldn't be any pranks in front of the door ever since.
Either way, someone has to check on the door, and Ram took it to herself to open the door. Nodding at her parents, she took a leap of faith and opened, expecting nobody in front of the door. What she was greeted to instead was–
“I’m sorry, but what in the actual fuck?”
Standing in front of the door was a group, specifically four people she knows, yet she feels that they should not be standing in front of her.
△▼△▼△▼△
“Barusu, are we at the correct house?”
“Mama?! Did Barusu say anything about his flight delay shenanigans?” Both Rams voiced their questions to Subaru and to Naoko respectively, then realized that the two sounded the same at the same time.
“Hey what the hell?! Why the hell are you speaking like me/Ram?!” Both the Rams started arguing with themselves, while the Pleiades group were stunned to see two Rams arguing with each other. At the same time, Naoko and Kenichi arrived to the front door and saw–
“Mom? Dad?”
“Subaru-chan?”
“Mom! Dad!” Subaru, who was really overwhelmed after seeing his parents for the first time in a while, rushed past the Ram who was in front of him and gave them a big hug. Naoko and Kenichi, who were startled with that hug, decided to hug him back, even though they have no idea what is going on at the moment.
“I-I missed you both!”
“There, there. It’s all fine now.”
To the side of the trio, the two Rams and the rest of the pleiades group were standing there, watching the heartfelt reunion. Though–
“Mama, I think we have to bring these people in. All of us have a lot of questions that need to be answered now.”
“Ah, yes. We have a lot of questions that need to be answered, especially about your group kid.” Kenichi said to Subaru, before flashing his signature grin that Subaru started to miss ever since he got transmigrated to another world.
With that, everyone went inside the Natsuki house, in a universe that isn’t theirs to begin with.
△▼△▼△▼△
“Wow, the entire house looks serene.” Rem, who was being carried by Ram inside the house commented about how the house looks. The group removed their shoes at the door, requested by Subaru and wore the few slippers that were available. Julius and Rem opted out not to wear the slippers, Julius because it was unknightly of him to wear while the person he serves doesn’t and Rem–
“Ever since Rem woke up from her one year slumber, she hasn’t been able to move on her own and that is why Rem doesn’t have the need to wear the slippers.” Rem stated her reasons to the parents, to which they gladly accepted it.
“I’ll go wake up Rem and come back.” Ram, who was watching all of the action from the sidelines, went to wake Rem from her needed sleep and bring her to… whatever she is involved in right now. Right now, the group looks around the living room where they will be sitting in for the moment, and as they looked around–
“Wow, there are a lot of trophies and certificates framed here. I wonder what achievements have been done to get all of these on here.” Subaru commented, after seeing the sheer number of trophies, papers and certificates on the shelves in the room.
“Well, all of these were achieved by you three, Subaru-chan, Rem-chan and Ram-chan.” Naoko, who was preparing tea for the newcomers, answered from the kitchen. Just at that time–
“Oh, Subaru-kun and Tella-chan are back?” A groggy Rem, who just woke up and having no context of what happened, saw Subaru and Emilia sitting together and immediately assumed that her brother and his girlfriend were back from the US, after the two were staying there for more than two years at that point. The group, who just arrived, got confused seeing the other Rem call Emilia ‘Tella-chan’ and with this confusion–
“I-I’m sorry, but who is this ‘Tella-chan’?”
“Wait, don’t tell me you forgot your own name cuz you didn’t interact with many people.”
“No, I do remember my name but, who is this ‘Tella-chan’ that you speak of?”
“Eh, but aren't you Satella? That's where the nickname ‘Tella-chan’ comes from for you.”
Silence filled the room, with the residents being confused as hell, while the guests, especially Emilia and Rem being horrified as fuck, after this new revelation.