Chapter Text
Subaru Natsuki was having problems – More problems than people in his particular situation should even be having actually.
It started out pretty normal – he had gone out shopping for snacks at the local 24-hour mart, only to exit into another world that he was destined to save by the mysterious forces that ruled over those sort of things.
Or at least he thinks that’s why he’s here. Jury’s kind of still out on what his quest goal is or how he’s supposed to do all that, but it’s obviously something super mega important that only he can do! After all, Subaru wouldn’t be here if the powers that be didn’t want him doing something awesome and cool, right?
Said powers that be were not making it easy for him though – not ten seconds in and he gets cornered by some generic mook thugs, running into a mysterious girl who may (or may not) have been his multidimensional partner-in-crime (Which turned out to be a hard nope considering how quick she bailed on him after seeing him in danger). Naturally, Subaru handed them their asses the second they even thought of trying to mess with him, but one pulled a knife and forced him on the defensive-
“Please forgive me!” he cries, falling to his knees in hopes that they’ll see he’s realized his terrible mistake and back off hopefully. He had originally thought of the three as dimestore RPG back-alley thugs that just needed a good smack or two, but if they were packing weapons, then he definitely overplayed his hand here. But that didn’t change the fact they were back-alley thugs, and back-alley thugs like them are usually very easily convincible if you act humble enough and could empathize with those who knew their struggle of needing money. Surely, this paragons of peasant life would recognize him as a fellow slummer and realize there was no need for violence here, right?
A foot to the face tells him all he needs to know about that.
And as he valiantly took boots to the side and punches to the face, another miracle occurred! A mysterious and beautiful figure entered the alleyway, saving him from the dastardly trio and rewarding him with a well deserved lap pillow for his grand efforts of attempting to survive!
(Well, it was actually from her pet/familiar, but a pillow was a pillow as far as he was concerned! Still sucked his first one was taken by a giant cat creature though….)
This girl was Satella, also known as his savior. Apparently she was trying to track down some no good thief (who coincidentally was the blonde girl who abandoned him to the alley thugs) who had stolen an important treasure from her called the Insignia that she desperately needed back. She didn’t really go into the specifics of it outside the name, but it was obviously crucial for whatever she was in town for – A magical ritual item needed to seal an ancient evil? A sacred totem necessary for gaining an ancient power hidden in her bloodline? An old family heirloom that revealed her to be the long lost daughter of an extinct race of ancient astral rulers? A parking ticket she was overdue on?
Whatever the case, with no where to go, no money on him, and literally no clue as to what to do next (Not to mention the whole owing her his life thing), Subaru took it upon himself to help her out, despite her insistence to go at it alone – after all, a good deed a day kept the doctor away, and what kind of Isekai hero would he be to ignore a damsel in obvious distress!
It wasn’t easy though. Their journey was harsh, rife with danger and intrigue – angry vendors, snobbish passersby, crying lost kids, runaway carts, shimmery spirits, snarky commentary! Hour by hour they investigated into the seedy underbelly of the capital, getting closer to their goal, and closer to each other as well.
(What? He was a sucker for the Tsundere type! Plus she was really nice, and she helped him out in that alley and even healed him afterwards even though she didn’t have to and was already busy trying to find the thief. Someone who did all that for a worthless no good idiot like him without any reason other than "she wanted to" was someone he had no problems trusting himself and his heart to...)
Eventually, their search led them to a dilapidated warehouse (Well, "Loothouse" actually) far into the slums outside the capital, supposedly run by some guy named Old Man Rom. Apparently Felt (the thief) always came to him when she wanted to offload any ill-gotten goods, so if they wanted to get Satella’s Insignia back, his place was their best bet.
After they arrived, Subaru volunteered to go in first, mostly to scope out the area and make sure it was safe (They were trying to steal back a stolen object after all, he doubted the owners of the storehouse would be happy to see them snooping around without an invite). It had been disturbingly quiet the whole time, no a peep or whisper from anyone, his cellphone being the only source of light to guide him through the towers of knickknacks and relics that filled the halls. With the lack of life inside, the extinguished fire lamps, and it already being evening, Subaru had nearly assumed they had made it in after closing and that the occupants were already asleep or away.
The two bodies decorating the floor however, still slick with blood and already attracting flies, told a different story.
Naturally Subaru tries to book it out of there, wanting to get back outside and warn Satella that their fun detective mystery had turned into a slasher flick – If these two were recently dead, then their murderer was likely still around, and with Puck asleep, Satella was basically defenseless!
And he was sadly right, because the second he turns to leave, he immediately gets stabbed by the perpetrator, left to helplessly bleed out as he watched his first companion in this strange other world become their next victim.
As said - Subaru Natsuki was having problems.
Subaru coughed weakly, feeling his body slowly grow cold as blood gushed from the wound at his side. After a few, shaky breathes, he managed to get himself rolled over off his back, but it did nothing to really stop the pain nor halt the inevitable fatal blood loss
“S-shit” he groaned, staring at the now-limp form of Satella, who hand her back towards him. He couldn’t tell if she was still breathing or not, but she was obviously in worst straits than him.
(If he could have just had more time to warn her, if her could have have more time to find this place quicker, if they had just had more time...)
He reached a hand out feebly, vision fuzzing over as his fingers brushed over her limp hand
H-have to save…her….
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Subaru wakes up in the city once more, surrounded by a sea of people.
What?
He doesn't know why he's outside, or how. Last he remember, his stomach had been cut open and Satella was bleeding out next to-
A stray elbow digs into his back and forces him to stumble forward
“Watch it girl!” the well-dressed man scoffed, giving him a dismissive (that morphed into disgusted) once over as he turned before continuing on his way.
Subaru blinks. Girl? Well sure, he might be a little on the thin side maybe, but…
He shook his head slightly to move on from the thought – No time for that! Or wondering how he got back outside. He had to hurry back to that loothouse, find Satella and make sure she was okay, then get her the hell out of there!
The crowds are more congested than the morning he arrived, but Subaru manages to slip through somehow. The path they took is stiff fresh in his mind, so navigating through the streets is less trouble than expected.
Alright, I think there was a bridge nearby...ah, there it is!
He spots the bridge and passes over, long white hair glinting in the reflection of the water bellow, focused on-
He stops at the other side, brain short-circuting suddenly at the presence of conflicting information.
Subaru is aware that he had black hair, and has had black hair for a very long, long time if you don’t count that incident with the colored hair spray (He just wanted to cosplay this super cool hero from a monthly magazine he read – how was he supposed to know his hair’d react badly to it!). Black hair was the staple of the proud people of Japan after all, and the sacred mark of the otherworlder in the fantasy landscape. Black was the dark avenger, the fabulous night, the color of a beloved coming-of-age hero!
There’s no way in hell it should be anywhere close to white.
He spots a small staircase leading to the canal the bridge lay over and stepped down, slowly making his way to the water as his heart thumped and he stared down
Bright lavender eyes now belonging to him stared back, and in the ensuing panic that went through him, near fell over and grasped himself.
What the fuck?
WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK!
“Shit, shit, shit!” he cusses, stumbling to his feet when he sees people stopping to stare at him, and immediately scampers away as quick as he can, still cursing under his breath.
“Okay,” he breathes nervously, pacing back and forth in front of the shop entrance he had stopped at after running for god knows how long “Let’s review – I woke up here, found out I’m an Isekai hero, tried to awaken my new special powers, met a very cute girl who saved my life, went to the slums to help her finish a quest, got us both murdered, and now I am somehow said girl.”
He stopped, let a beat pass, and began tugging his (Her? Their? God this was going to be confusing!) hair in frustration. Seriously - what the fuck?! When did he suddenly switch out to a reincarnation plotline? That makes no sense!
"The hell kind of sick punchline is this!?"
Naturally, he received no answer (though he did earn a few looks from the passersby), and proceeds to groan even harder. “Okay, okay, I...just need to figure out how to fix this. These kind of tropes have triggers right? I just need to figure out what caused this, do it, and I’ll be back to my old self in no time!”
But…what exactly did trigger it? Aside from dying (and no, he did not feel like testing that theory), he hadn’t really done anything significant before hand – or at least anything significant that he was aware of. Maybe he passed by some invisible magic sigil or gotten a spell casted on him without noticing while searching for clues with Satella? Or maybe one of those items at the warehouse had body-swapping magic? Hell maybe his special ability was taking over the bodies of dead people who were nearby!
(Be kind of an inconvenient one if it was though, consider how he ended up possibly activating it...)
"Maybe...Satella used her magic?", he muses, stopping his pacing to furrow his brows and tap his foot. She did say she could communicate with spirits – it could have been that she wasn’t fully dead and used a spell to try and keep them alive, causing Subaru to take over her body by accident!
But that doesn't really tell me why I ended up back in the capital, or where my body is for that matter...?
He lets out another groan. Dammit, he was getting no where like this! If he wanted to figure things out, he needed to think backwards, retrace his steps or something….
Okay, first thing he did was search around the city (done and done), get yelled at(...maybe he could skip that part), try to ask the Appa seller for help, and then go into the alley.
“Alrighty,” he says, hands planted on his hips and startling two poor customers coming out of the store “Let’s go find the Appa seller! I bet he has some answers!”
…Was the plan, but, as always with him, Subaru ran into an inconvenience.
“Goddamn it, where is it?” he huffed, turning another corner. He had set off to find the stall, figuring he could get back to it by memory, but so far all he managed to do was just get himself more lost (which was stunning considering he had spent most of the day wandering the capital with Satella to find Felt, so he should definitely have the layout of the city memorized). Seemed wherever it was he got dropped off to was further off from his original entrypoint into this world than he thought, and now he was just wandering around until he spotted a familiar landmark or something.
“Gah, you’d think the old man would be easy enough to spot with that sour mug of his,” Subaru grumbled as he turned again, stopping when he realized it was an alleyway he walked into.
And a familiar one at that – with a familiar set of voices following after.
“Oi girly!” The lanky leader growled, narrow chest puffed out threateningly as his fellow goons flanked him “Hand over everything you got right now!”
Subaru’s shoulders drop and his expression goes flat in an instant. Talk about deja-vu – and not the fun pseudo-eurobeat kind.
“Seriously, you three exp lumps again?” he whines, earning a confused grumble from the trio before giving a dismissive wave of his hand “Anyways, I don’t got time to waste with you clowns. Maybe try and find a better hobby than robbing people, ‘kay?”
Lanky lets his brief look of shock flutter away as he snorts at him “No point in acting brave, now hurry up and-”
Suddenly, he looks at Subaru – and like actually looked rather than the thing thieves do when they think they found an easy mark, and suddenly goes pale.
“No way…”
The other two do the same, taking in Subaru’s (new) appearance as they quake in their frightened boot
“L-look at her hair!” the larger one gulped, while his more shorter companion hide behind his leg. “And those eyes! It really is her!"
"I thought it was just a dumb rumor," lanky mumbled, teeth chattering "But it's really you - The half-devil!”
Subaru couldn't help but blink, watching as they huddled against each other. What...just happened? The three were acting so cocky and confident before, but now they looked like they had seen the devil himself rise up before them. Were they really scared of Satella?
He pauses and thinks back to how she had told she was half-elf, and while he hadn't thought much of it at the time, he realized now how frighten and nervous she had been about broaching the subject - likening it at the time to a child about to confessed to her parents about shoplifting and being fully prepared to be grounded for it. Subaru expected there to potentially be discrimination in his new isekai-ed reality (because whether in his old or another, people will always be assholes about something), but the way Satella had been and how these thieves were reacting right now told him there was likely more to the story than he was aware of.
But that really didn’t help him with the problem at hand though.
He stares at their shivering selves for a bit more and takes a step forward – and the thieves violently flinch before taking a large step back, causing him to smile as an idea began to form…
Subaru gives the haughtiest villainess laugh he could, and aims a wicked grin their direction “...That’s right,” he declared as they flinched again, and Subaru revels smugly in it as he stuck his nose in the air “It is I, the dreaded half-devil you all fear so terribly!"
The three back away as he glared, hand out threateningly as he prayed they took the time to run away because he had no fucking clue how magic worked in this place and Satella barely used any during their first run around. "So don’t try any funny business with me pals, or I’ll be blasting you to kingdom come!”
They still seem now to get the hint, so he touches the summoning stone – if he remember correctly, Satella just called Puck and he showed up. Subaru should be able to do this (and hell, maybe he can help him figure out what happened).
“Puck!” he yells, causing them to stumble over each other as they ran, “LET’S GO – we’ve got trash to take out!”
He presses his fingers to it and the thugs have yet to reach the mouth of the alleyway as –
Nothing happened.
The thugs stop their running as they find themselves unharmed and turn to blink, and Subaru begins to sweat
“H-hey Puck, no need to be shy! Come on out now...” he says, nervously tapping the gem again.
And yet, silence was still his only response.
“P-puck?” he mumbles, tapping increasing in rhythm “Yoohoo~, up and at ‘em buddy! You dear pal needs you to put a pin in that catnap so he doesn’t get shishkabobed.”
But still Puck refused to show so much as a paw bean of himself, and as Subaru’s calls continued to go unanswered, the three vagrants slowly lost their fear and drew closer, much to his dismay
“What was that you were saying before?” their leader sneered, reaching for his blade again “Something about ‘blasting’ us?”
Subaru froze, and the trio stepped nearer still as he desperately tried to come close to something resembling a plan
Okay then, I’m currently trapped in Satella’s body, have no clue how her magic works, can’t summon her familiar, and am about to be beat up for the second time today – what do I do? Think Subaru, think!
The trio of thugs come closer, and the lanky one brandished his weapon
But thinking sadly just brought up how sharp the leader’s knives looked, so Subaru, completely out of options, decidedly feels upon the trademark scenario all female heroines turn to when in peril –
Just as the three were in stabbing distance, Subaru collapsed to his knees, screaming as high and loud as Satella’s voice will allow him
“Help, oh help!” He sobs dramatically, draping an arm over his eyes for extra measures “I, a poor young innocent lady, am about to be assaulted by rapscallions in this dirty dark alleyway!”
This gets the three to stop their advance, startled by their victim’s sudden theatrics
"Oh woe! Oh despair! Oh cry~! Can anyone come and save the poor helpless me!" he faux sobs, covering his face to avoid letting his actual expression show as he bowed.
Okay, that should have gotten someone’s attention. If I just keep laying on the waterworks...
But nothing occurred. No one came dashing in valiantly to shield him, no one peeked their head in to see what the noise was - no even a stray cat crossed his path. All that remained was a wailing Subaru and the three thugs who were getting more uncomfortable with each passing second.
(Seriously, how cold! A pretty young woman was crying out for a savior, and yet no one is moved to take action! Just how heartless were the people in this world?!)
He lifts his head, meeting awkward gazes of the thieves, and it was embarrassing enough that Subaru, too flustered the turn flow of events (and the pummeling to his male pride), began fumbling through Satella’s dress pockets for anything resembling loose change
“Uh, y-you just wanted coins right…”
The three stood patiently as Subaru began padding Satella’s pockets.
Then her sleeves.
Then her pockets again.
Then again about twice more.
(Now that he thinks about it, Satella did mention before that she wasn’t carrying any cash with her when they went to the Appa vendor for info and he tried the whole “paying customers only” bit on them.)
He can feel the glares from the three getting heated again as he quickly turns around. Okay, reassessment time – he doesn't have any money, he can’t fight, and from the looks of things, his little act from earlier hadn’t caught anyone’s eye. Unless he thought fast, he’d be getting his second near-death experience sooner than planned, and he was having slight doubts he’d be waking up in another pretty silverhaired girl's body this time around.
Okay okay, Satella said she didn’t have money, but she did mention something about a patron at least, so maybe I could use that…?
“...Okay look, I don’t have money on me-” He admits, leaning back at the blades aimed at him again “But, I do know someone who does – like, entire houses of it. If you fellas help me out, I can get you hooked up.”
Lanky scoffs and raises his knife higher at his claim “You’re bluffing again.”
“You think I’d be lying about something like this?” Especially with my and Satella's life on the line “I promise I can pay you, you just gotta help me get something of mine back with your...unique skillsets is all.” he explains, feeling a little thankful when he sees their weapons move down slightly “I’ll stick with you the entire time, no calling for help or anything! Then once it’s all over, I’ll get you set up with whatever reward you want and we can forget this whole kooky mishap ever happened!”
The other two seem pretty drawn to the idea of a quick payday, but their leader is eyeing him suspiciously now
“…Why?” He then asks, quirking his one visible brow questioningly “If ya really want whatever is it back that badly, why not get the guards on it? Unless...”
Subaru scrunches his face in confusion as the trio glance at him (specifically his ears.), but never the less continues with his spiel “That’s...a bit complicated” He says (Especially since I really have no clue where the fuck the guards are), and clasps his hands together non-threateningly “Let’s just say I want as few people involved in this as possible. Plus I’m pretty sure the last thing you guys want is me going to the guards after what just almost happened.”
The three seem to agree with him on that part, and looked at each other expectantly as they huddled together into a circle, whispering back and forth while Subaru briefly wondered how far he could get towards the entrance of the alley before they caught back up with him (his math did not look promising, sadly). At least it seemed like they were interested in his bit – if he managed to keep up the bullshitting and remain calm, he might be able to get out of this with hopefully few to no stab wounds for his trouble.
(Last thing he wanted is for Satella to suddenly come back to a body with a knife in it. Again.)
Eventually, the giant broke off from the group and stepped forward, bending to stare down at him like a cat would at an uncovered fishbowl
“Y-you really gonna pay us?” He asks, blinking at him eagerly as Subaru quickly responds with a cocksure grin
“Yep!”
“Like, actual real gold and shit?” pipped up Tiny
“Totes.”
“And all we gotta do is help you steal something?” Lanky questions
Subaru nods as enthusiastically as he can, leaning against the wall for extra confidence “Just think of it as...holding me hostage, but mutually!” he states cheerily, tapping his chest “A ransom-collab if you will – You guys get free coin, and I get back my stuff and not stabbed, everybody wins!”
The three stare at him for a while before they huddled together again, whispering quietly as Subaru waited, twitching nervously with every hushed grunt and murmured argument (The words “dressed rich”, “crazy”, “half-devil” (again, what was the deal with that word?), and “dumb kid” came up a lot, for some reason).
They part, and Lanky takes lead again “...Alright, we’ll take the job-” Subaru gives a sigh of relief that gets cut off immediately “But if this is a trick and we see any guards or knights, you’re gonna have a lot more to worry about that a missing whatever you’re looking for.”
He relaxes the tense knot that formed in the past thirty minutes, but remains alert. Okay, no stabbing rules have been established. Great! Now for the easy part...
“Okay, now that that’s settled, introductions are in order.” He says, smiling brightly as he held a hand out “My name’s Satella, it’s nice to meet-”
At the moment he gave her name, the three’s faces pale with shock before morphing into anger and indignation, and the weapons were immediately out again and all pointed in his direction.
“...you?”
Hey hey hey what’s with the mood-whiplash here? I thought we were all friends now?
He does his best to keep his face pleasant despite being in the presence of so many pointy objects and loathing glares “U-um, did I say something wrong?”
“Oi,” Lanky asks, tone suddenly dark and glare murderous “What kind of prank are you trying to pull missy? Cause it sure as shit ain’t funny.”
“No, no pranks here!” He squeaks, eyeing the knife carefully, "Just kind of wonder what's got you guys all tense. All I did was give my name-"
“Liar!” Tiny hissed, “You might be a dirty half-devil, but there’s no way you share a name with that monster! You’re trying to pull one over on us!”
“B-bet she don’t know any rich folks neither!” growled Giant, while his tiny partner glared venomously from beside him
He shakes his head quickly, hands up defensively “No, I definitely know rich folks, tons of them even! And I totally did just give you my name just now!”
“As if! You really want us to believe you’re name is-” lanky pauses to grimace, as though the name was poison itself “That! You'd really have us think that you both have the same name?!”
“I have no clue who this other Satella is, but she has no affiliations with my group,” He pauses to think, trying to remember Satella saying anything to him about being named after someone (and if that person was particularly hated) “Seriously, I don’t know what the problem is here?”
Tiny spat at the ground while the large one cracked his knuckles menacingly “Bullshit – everyone knows who the Jealous Witch is! Ain’t a bloke in all Luganica that hadn't heard of her or the terror she wrought.”
“Exactly! So either you’re completely daft,” hisses Lanky, pressing in with his knife “or you honestly think we’re that stupid to fall for such a ruse? Now fess up, who in blazes are you?!”
Subaru finds himself pressed against the wall as the three draw in closer, looking ready to drive their weapons into his guts and leave him bleeding out into the alley (which brought up that awful memory of dying again)
Okay, so it turns out the name Satella(?) gave him was 1)possibly fake and 2)a very bad name! He can’t really imagine what possessed her to not tell him her real one. He didn’t recall having really done anything that could prompt her to feel compelled to fake her identity – In fact she seemed pretty honest and receptive to his questions, and had even been open with him enough to tell him she was a half-elf, something that seemed incredibly personal just to share with a stranger of all people. He could imagine that if she was a runaway princess or something then it’d be justified (she was certainly dressed the part of nobility, and the way she had been so focused on getting back her Insignia held an air of "can't fall into the wrong hands" you'd get from that kind of storyline), but she never really gave any indication she was on the lamb or trying to avoid being recognized by anyone, and she certainly didn’t look like she was lying to him (or having trouble with it). Had she really given him a fake name? Pretend to be someone else? Tricked him like that?
(Had she...really not trusted him that much? Did he seem that unreliable to her that she’d rather give him a name that was hated enough to get stabbed over than her real one?)
Of course you are? Did you really think people this world would be any different. Did you think anything changed – that you had?
He shakes his head, shifts the darker thoughts away to focus on the problem at hand – He had no clue what Satella’s actual real name was, and there was no way for him to go and ask her for it himself (unless she was running around somewhere in his body, which brought up a whole ‘nother round of issues he didn't have the frame of mind to panic over properly like he should at the moment), so looks like he’ll have to rely on his wit for this one.
By which he means – double down and fake it till he makes it!
“Listen, that....seriously is my name” he pleads, doing his best to look at honest as possible “The one I was born and raised with, given to me by my very loving and kind parents, spoken very nicely by my peers! Swear to...” he freezes. Fuck, what kind of gods do they have? Shit, no time to wonder, go lower “t-the king’s” Wait, is their king still alive? Too late, go for broke! “throne, I’m not lying!”
The three just continued to glare violently at him, and he feels the sweat pouring off him which each distrusting blink
“...Look,” he sighs, shifting his feet “My parents were...weird and kept to themselves a lot. I don’t even think they thought about how it would come off to people. Hell, I’m pretty sure they didn’t expect me to have to give it to three jerks trying to mug me at knife point - which, by the by, is rude as fuck!”
The three’s sharp glowers just intensified, and Subaru had to pause to swallow the lump threatening to clog his throat “I promise, I’m not lying to any of you. I wouldn’t be telling you this if it wasn’t true" Then added with a determined glare to meet their angered ones "Especially when I still need your help getting my insignia back! That really is my name, sadly…”
The stand-off seems to go on for eternity, the trio holding up their weapons while Subaru stood there tensely, readying to either fight for his life and flee with all his power. He had no clue how strong Satella (or whoever she was) was without her magic, but he could at least give her credit for her stamina consider how much running around they did searching for Felt. If he just gave himself a head-start with a distraction, then maybe….
Eventually, Lanky finally lowers his knife, tension leaving his face as he relaxed his stance.
“By the great dragon, you’re parents must have a terrible sense of humor to burden you with that name.” He huffs, sheathing the weapon before gesturing for his companions to do the same
Subaru laughed nervously in kind, rubbing his neck tenderly as he finally relaxed himself “Y-yeah, parents – what can you do?”
“Stab’em” was the trio’s immediate response, and Subaru just forced himself to laugh even louder to drown out his nervousness heartbeat.
“Got to tell ya, this is a first” laughs Tiny “Never imagine getting hired to steal something, especially for an insane clueless half-elf.”
Subaru managed to give a strained good-natured scoff at that “Well, it’s not like I entered this alleyway expecting to bargain with three thugs either.” He counters bemusedly.
The rest just laugh and with that the tension vanishes once again, though he keeps some on it on him. While things had turned out alright in the end, it made him realize just how unprepared he was to deal with this world and just how little he actually knew about it (or his savior). If he was going to figure out what exactly happened to the two of them and get it undone, he needed to be careful and avoid tipping off anyone that he wasn’t who was supposed to be.
And to do that, he had to find out exactly who he was – and getting back to the loothouse to retrieve that insignia was priority step one
He turned to the entrance he came through, hands on his hips defiantly as he faced the sunlight
Watch out world, Subaru Natsuki, currently...Whoever Satella actually was, is hitting the scene!
As soon as he turned around again, the trio was looking at him awkwardly
“Say, don’t you got, like, a nickname or something?” Lanky asks, scratching his cheek “No offense, but calling you...that makes me feel like I’m getting cursed all over.”
Subaru paused, tapping his chin thoughtfully as the other two nodded in agreement. He brought up a good point – if their response was considered bad, god knows how the rest of the folks here might react if he spoke that name in public. If he was going to be stuck like this, he should at least do something to avoid getting into any more trouble than he’s already in.
That, and it felt kind of weird, being called by someone else’s name (especially one that wasn’t even their name in the first place).
“Then call me...Subaru.” He smiles, then headed for the exit, hoping up the steps. “Now onward men – we’ve got a insignia to retrieve and murderer to catch!”
"...What, wait?!"