Chapter Text
Shuffling.
Shuffling was what I heard from my bedroom. My dreary eyes opened, it was blurry but I could tell I was in my room. It was dark, only the glow of my digital clock on the nightstand was visible.
12:50am
That time was all that was on my mind. Why so late?
The shuffling and movement from outside sounded again. Was that my parents? What are they doing up so late? What could they possibly be doing? Are they fighting?
No, not my parents. Then what's causing all that noise? With that curiosity in mind, I slowly got up from my bed and planted my feet on the ground. My balance was a little off due to me being tired but I quickly got my bearings and rubbed my eyes because of dreariness. I took a few steps and eventually reached the door.
My hand slowly raised up, reaching for the doorknob. For some reason, I had a bad feeling, like I should stay in my room, that maybe it was better to leave the unknown sound be. But those hesitations made my resolve bigger than it was before.
“I’m just gonna take a look”
With me having said that, my hand grasped the doorknob, and slowly turned, it turned, and turned, until stopping, I then pulled back and slowly opened the door, letting a little crack open so I could peek my eye out. I couldn’t see much, just the dark hall and the dimly lit living room that was ahead of it. I still couldn’t make anything out of it, only that a little bit of red was showing on the floor.
My curiosity grew, I fully opened the door, and took a step, my feet making quiet sounds on the wood floor, the hallway felt longer for some reason, and the feeling of unease was building up inside me. But I continued with my slow walking until reaching the edge of the hallway, entering the living room.
squelch
This wet,moist sensation came under my foot, since I had no socks on. The feeling was quite disgusting, so I quickly brought up my foot and looked at it.
It was red, not like a tomato, but a deep red, the scent of iron reaching my nose made it clear just what this red substance was.
It was blood.
I covered my mouth, quieting the light gasp from my mouth. Whose blood could this be? I looked up and began walking forward tiptoeing around the blood, until a lying figure came into view, after taking a good look I could make out its features.
It was my dad, with a cut in his throat. My mind went blank, I couldn’t think, I didn’t know what to think. This was my first time seeing someone get murdered, and of all people it was my father. I looked up ahead of my fathers body, my brain still disconnected from reality.
I see a man standing ahead of me, holding a bladed weapon. I couldn’t make out his features, but I could make out a glint in his eyes, one that said he wanted to kill me too.
“ANEKO!!!”
A familiar voice sounded.
It was my mom, I saw her figure jump in front of me, and along with that, a blade was thrusted through her stomach.
SPLAT
The red fluid that was my moms blood, splattered onto me. This wasn’t right.
It’s unfair.
I want to cry.
But for some reason I can’t.
Her figure dropped to the side, and the man continued walking forward, but it seemed my mom still had life and grabbed his leg.
“Don’t touch her, please”
The man turned his head to her.
“...You seem to care for your child a lot, to put her life over your own”
He then laughed and brought his blade up and stabbed it through my mom again, this time straight into her head, The blood spurted out and the light in her eyes instantly faded. My legs gave out and fell onto my knees.
“Why?”
I asked the man, making him raise an eyebrow.
“Why did you kill them?”
My voice was empty, my mind was still blank, all I could think of was my dead parents and that their killer was in front of me ready to kill me too.
“...”
He didn’t answer, he just kept walking towards me, I knew full well why he didn’t. He was ready to put an end to my life. Why me? Why my family? What did we do? What did I do wrong? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, Why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why Why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why,why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why.
He brought the blade up ready to kill me.
SURVIVE
ESCAPE
RUN
Those three words filled my head, repeating over and over again. It made me snap out of my daze. I need to live, for my parents sake. I saw the man bring down the blade, and with quick movement I brought my two hands and stopped it. The man was quite strong so, I had trouble getting the right amount of strength to push on the knife.
“So you got a bit of fight left in you?”
The man said with a smile. I ignored him and redirected the blade to the left of me and used the momentum to throw him off balance.
“Woah!”
The man stumbled to the left, I took this chance to begin running out of the living room and to the front door. But the man quickly recovered and caught up with me, and just as I was reaching the hallway to the exit, he tried to grab me which I barely managed to dodge. I then took a beer bottle that was on the coffee table and slammed straight into his head.
The glass shattered and pierced the man's skin causing him to bleed on his forehead.
“ARGH!”
He grunted in pain and staggered back, I quickly took this opportunity to run away, I got to the hallway and dashed towards the exit, I bashed open the door and continued running outside.
I didn’t care how long I ran, or how tired I was, or how my lungs felt like they were about to explode. I just had to escape, I just had to escape, I just had to escape.
Eventually I Tripped and fell onto the sidewalk. I didn’t even notice it was raining, my black hair was soaked, along with my clothes, the night sky didn’t help either. The adrenaline that fueled my energy and body gave out, as a result, a huge wave of exhaustion hit me. And with it a wave of tears came flowing from my eyes.
Remembering the moments I had with my parents only helped to deepen the wound, until the wall finally cracked and I sobbed in the cold rain on the sidewalk, I don’t know how long I was there for, as I just continued crying, until I eventually succumbed to my exhaustion, and passed out on the sidewalk.
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kenichi POV:
Man this was supposed to be a normal day. I was taking one of my nightly walks in the neighborhood and now it starts raining, good thing for this umbrella Naoko gave me before leaving. Is she a time traveler or something? And what was with that weird guy I saw the police arresting earlier, in fact, there were multiple police cars in front of the Ankia’s, hope they’re alright.
I don’t remember talking to them all that much, even though I know everyone around here. They were a family that was pretty to themselves, and I respect that.
But as a result everyone around the block likes to spread rumors about them, saying they abuse their daughter and that they are part of the yakuza or something like that. Hmph, geez gossip is sure one big pain in the you know what.
Maybe gossip is what made Subaru the way he is now, or maybe something else? He hasn’t gone to school in a few months now. Even though I know he has to deal with it on his own, I can’t help but worry for him.
I looked up at the road ahead of me, the rain still continuing to pour down. But something caught my eye in the distance, coming on the corner of the street under the streetlight I saw someone laying on the floor.
“Hey!”
I immediately called out and quickened my pace and began jogging, the person then came into view. It was a girl. I eventually got close enough where I could see her features. She had long black hair and black eyes, she was unconscious and soaked in the rain.
I put the umbrella over her and checked her pulse, she was still alive, good. Wait, isn't this girl the daughter of the Ankia’s, why is she here? Ok, this development definitely puts a lot of questions in my head right now, but there's no time for that. This poor girl is lying in the rain, I should probably take her to where those police were since they were in front of her house.
And with that, I began walking back to where those cops were. After a few minutes I reached them.
“Hey, over here!”
I called out to the officers who looked like they were conversing over something, they noticed me and came over.
“What is it sir? Ah! Is that…”
The cop looked kinda bored but after noticing the girl in my arms they changed their expressions.
“Yes it is” I answered them and handed over the girl to the cop.
“Could you take to the police station, and make sure to take good care of her”
“Of course sir!”
The cops then put her into the back seat of one of the patrol cars and began driving off. The cops then began asking me questions on any knowledge I had on the situation and how I found her, though it was quite the shock to hear that the entire Ankia family, except their daughter Aneko, was murdered and that was the man they just arrested a little earlier. I didn’t expect this neighborhood to be the place of a crime scene, but here we are.
After the questioning I was free to go home, I checked my watch and…
“Holy cow! 1:30am!”
Oh man, Naoko is gonna be mad when I get back, well, at least I have a good excuse. I began getting closer to my home, the rain now having stopped, the night air and the moonlight was very peaceful, I rounded the corner and my house came into view. I walk up to the front door and take a deep breath, in, and out, and open the door.
“I’m home!”
I exclaimed in a happy tone.
“Ah, Kenichi! So you finally decided to come back…”
“Eheheh, better late than never?”
I nervously said with a sweatdrop falling from my forehead, I promised Naoko that I wouldn’t be back until 11:00, but now it’s 1 in the morning so it was pretty self explanatory why she was giving the death glare with her already scary eyes.
“Now, Kenichi, pray tell me what exactly it was that you were doing that caused you to be home so late?”
She approached me closer with a soft smile, but the vibe she was giving off was anything but. I gulped and sighed.
“Look, babe, hear me out, there was a murder”
“Huh? Oh no! How terrible!”
With what I said, her entire demeanor changed, from angry, to concerned in almost an instant. It was like a switch was turned in her brain.
“Yeah honey, the Ankia’s were murdered, only their daughter survived.”
Naoko's gaze shifted downward.
“How awful, that poor girl, she’s 17 now right? To lose your family at such a young age, was the culprit caught.”
“Yep, they put him cuffs and he should be in the police station by now, I was a witness having found Aneko laying on the floor not to far from the crime scene, so they questioned me, didn’t think I’d be home this late though”
Naoko took in what I said, until she eventually went back to her usual soft smile.
“Well, at least your home.”
She then wrapped her arms around me in a hug, I hugged back and patted her head.
“Yep, I’m home, where's Subaru, he's asleep?”
Naoko then then looked at me with a confused look on her face
“I thought he would come back from the convenience store with you?”
“...Huh?”
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Aneko POV:
It was dark, my eyes were crusty, and closed. I rubbed my eyes to get the crust out, and they eventually opened. A bright light entered my vision, I put my hand in front of my eyes to shield them from the light until they adjusted, and when they did, the room came into view, it was gray and had gray and black carpet and doorways to office spaces, looking at the table in front of me I saw my black baseball cap was there, looking at my wrist I saw I had my hair tie around it. I sighed and tied my hair into a ponytail and put on the cap, much better.
I observed the bland space before me and saw that there was a table in front of me. Oh I see, they're gonna question me on the murder, I guess I am still a suspect in all this, well at least a witness.
I waited in that room for maybe about 30 minutes until a woman in a suit came in, probably the questioner. She had a clipboard with her, and wore glasses, and had dark brown hair tied up into a bun, she was decently good looking, not that it was important though.
“Hello, Aneko, right?”
“Yes…”
“My name's Sayoko, how are you feeling?”
I drifted my eyes downard to the side.
“Alright, I guess…”
The woman then gave a “I see” and put the clipboard on the table and crossed her legs, as well as her arms.
“I’m here to ask some questions on what happened just a few hours ago, you do remember, right?”
The image of my dead father and mother flashed into my mind.
“Hk!”
Just thinking about it made me curl up into a ball, just thinking about it made me wanna cry.
“I understand it must be painful to remember, but you need to remember for me, okay?”
I hugged my elbows and calmed down my shaking and voiced a quiet and soft “...ok”
“Now then, tell me what happened from your perspective”
“...I was sleeping, and woke up to shuffling outside my door. Being curious, I investigated, it wasn’t too long after I discovered my dads body, and saw the man responsible for his death. He then tried to kill me, but my mom jumped in to save me, he then stabbed her and finished her off, and made his way to me, but knocked myself out of my daze and stopped his attack and threw him off balance and ran and then he tried to grab me and I smashed a bottle on his head, and ran out the front door, and continued running until I passed out”
Sayoko wrote down as I talked, maybe lining up the physical evidence with my witness. She stopped writing and gave a faint smile.
“Thank you for being honest with me”
“...yeah”
She put the clipboard down and looked at me.
“Do you have any relatives nearby you can stay with, brothers, sisters?”
“...no, my family is pretty distant, and my grandparents don’t accept us”
“I see, ok then, other than that, were done here, but your gonna have to sit tight while we look into a place for you to stay”
Sayoko then walked out of the room and closed the door behind her. I'm probably going to be sent to an orphanage.
Time ticked by, and ticked by, and continued to tick, It felt like I was in that room for hours, the hot air not blending well with the red hoodie I was wearing. I know for a fact they have cameras in this room, so trying to sneak out would be useless.
I guess I’m an orphan now, people are just gonna go around calling me a girl who’s unfortunate, I guess I’ll still go to school though, at least I still have that, but I have no friends, the only friend I did have was Subaru back in middle school, I wonder what he’s doing now.
I continued to stare at the wall and think about trivial things, my mind just kept going down the rabbit hole, to the point where the room around me warped.
Wait, warped?
That can’t be right.
I gazed at another side of the room, and everything was back to normal.
“Guess my eyes are tired”
I rubbed my eyes again, to get any excess crust that may have been in them, and when I opened them The light in the room became brighter. The heck is wrong with the light, trying to blind me?! My eyes eventually adjusted, and then everything came into view.
My ears were filled with sounds of footsteps, carriages, conversations, bells, people. Looking up, I could see a nice blue sky with white clouds, and where I was standing, I could see old medieval style buildings and people, along with beastmen, walking like it was normal.
“Huh?”
I looked around more, and saw a carriage pass by, being pulled by a big lizard?
“Have I gone crazy?”
Has the isolation of the interrogation room really affected me this fast, wait, no. I would be able to tell if something was a figment of my imagination, everything I’m hearing right now, and seeing, and feeling. It’s all real.
No
This can’t be happening, there's no way this is true, please let it be a dream, please let it be a dream.
I began hyperventilating, and sat down on the stone bench circling a water fountain. I put my head in my hands, this can’t be true, something like is physically impossible, it goes against all laws of this world. make it stop make it stop make it stop make it sto-
“What’s going on?”
A random voice rang in my ears, I looked up, and saw a black haired boy, about my age wearing a tracksuit. I couldn’t see his face, but telling from the way he looked, he was probably in the same situation as me.
“I’d say I was dreaming, but this is obviously really happening, totally not fake.”
He then looked down at the ground, and it seemed he quickly got the gist of his situation, his hands then started shaking, probably feeling the same as me.
“So does this mean, that i’ve been SUMMONED ACROSS THE UNIVERSE, TO ANOTHER WORLD!!!”
Startling me with his yell, he raised his hand up to the air, and earned himself, with a lot of weird stares from the people around him. He then gets quickly embarrassed and nervously chuckles and begins walking off down the road.
“Is he an idiot?”
Watching him walk off, I subconsciously started following him, I began to look at the many buildings and people passing by, and couldn’t help but be fascinated by it.
“From the looks of things, this seems to be a fantasy world with a medieval style culture, a world where demi-humans are commonplace and there's always a war or adventure to go on!”
I heard the boy in front of me muttering in a giddy voice. Why is he so happy about this? We are literally in a place we don’t not belong or even supposed to be in for that matter.
“Watch out!”
A random person yelled in the crowd, making me look to the left to the road beside me, and there I saw a small boy tripped in the middle of the road, and a carriage approaching him at fast speeds, seemingly not caring if it hit the poor kid.
I sprung into action, and ran quickly towards the middle of the street and scooped up the boy in my arms, and rolled out of the way, just barely dodging the carriage.
“Phew, that was a close one”
I then looked at the boy I was holding, he looked back at me with a sparkle in his eyes.
“Thank you miss!”
I smiled softly and put him down and gave him a little pat on the head.
“It was nothing, now be more careful, and don’t do anything dangerous, okay?”
The boy nodded and ran off to who I’m guessing his parents were, looking at the crowd from earlier they all gave cheers and claps at my save, getting embarrassed I pulled down my cap, but I then noticed the boy about my age I was following was looking at me, but now he was kneeling down and holding out his hand in a weird pose, he seemed surprised by me.
I finally got a good look at his features.
!
No way, that slicked back black hair, those scary sharp brown eyes, and that dumb expression on his face.
I went over to him.
“Huh? Uh, what can I help you with?”
I leaned in closer just to be sure, and yep there's no denying it.
“Subaru?”
His face now completely red and flushed. “Um, the one and only?” I moved my face away “It really is you”
“Huh?” He looked at me confused, and raised an eyebrow. “Remember, It’s me, Aneko from middle school?”
He squinted his sharp eyes making look like he was giving me a death glare, humming a “hmm” while searching his memory, until eventually his eye perked up like a light bulb
“Oh! You’re that gloomy quiet weird kid!”
I deflated, so that’s what he remembers me as? I’ll admit I was gloomy and had my hair cover my left eye, but come on!
I dropped my arms to the side “well at least you remembered, but now that I found you, it makes my situation a little more bearable, how did you end up here anyway?”
He then put a hand to his chin and began thinking. “I was at the convenience store bought some goods, left, then rubbed my crusty eyes, then poof just popped up here”
“Strange…”
“Eh? What is?”
“The way you were transported was the same as me, i was just sitting down, then I just rubbed my eyes because they were crusty, and here I am” I explained to him, he then replied “That is strange, so whoever did this, must have picked us two”
“Let's not jump the gun here, we still know to little”
He gave a nod,“So, want to join my party?” He extended his hand out for a shake. “Well, it’s better than being alone” I shook his hand and the party was formed.
We began taking one of the streets filled with many shops with goods and things we didn’t recognize, until something red caught my eye, looking closer to see an apple stand. Guess some things don’t change, huh? Subaru approached the stand and looked at all the price signs, I can’t read whatever language is written on these signs, but earlier I was able to converse with that boy.
Strange.
“Those are some strange clothes you two got there, you’re not from around here, aren’t you?”
Yeah so we are able to converse “Yeah, we're from…far north” I quickly came up with a lie that would probably most likely not land. “Ah, so Gusteco, that black hair sure does stand out around these parts.”
“Really?” Subaru asked “Now that I think about it, yeah there are more vibrant hair colors over here.”
The appa salesman then changed his demeanor “So you gonna buy something?” ah crap, I don’t think they take yen over here.
“Uh, sorry to do this to you sir, but I have no money on me right now.”
“I guessed as much, but since you two seem nice I’ll let ya off easy, now shoo”
The man waved us off, we both bowed saying “sorry” and walked away.
“So our appearance alone gives us attention” Subaru muttered “That much could be figured out just by inferring”
“Let’s continue gathering more information on this world” Subaru affirmed
“Right!”
—-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We were walking around and found ourselves in a square area with many tailor shops and restaurants.
“What’s that building?” Subaru asked me while pointing to a place that looked like a restroom.
“Uh, probably a restroom, so I would be careful on which door you enter.”
“Right” Subaru then walked over to it, and looked at the doors, they both had paws on them, though one was pink and the other was blue, obviously implying male and female restrooms. But Subaru didn’t seem to understand that and randomly picked the pink one. All I heard were a couple of screams and a smack, and saw Subaru walking out with a red paw print on his cheek.
“Told you”
“Yeah, whatever”
—-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
After that we decided to go into one of the restaurants.
“This place is for demi-humans only!”
We were greeted by a bunch of lizards and beastmen, out of all the places why a place like this? Eventually a big lizard guy pushed Subaru out while entering, making him hit the door.
“Ow, my eye!...can’t…see!”
He moved around trying to find something to lean on and was about to fall into the water way over the bridge. I took quick advantage to grab him but his momentum caused me to fall into the water with him.
—-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We now found ourselves in a dark alleyway isolated from the crowd, waiting for our jackets to dry after they got soaked, our information gathering led to us being humiliated, so now all we can do is wallow in our shame.
“Is this how it's supposed to be?”
Subaru looked down in despair at our less than stellar situation, it seems he finally realized that this isn’t some fantasy tale anymore.
“Well uh, yeah, how were you expecting it to go?”
He snapped at me “None of this makes sense! Where's my main character setup and status bar!?”
“Maybe you could find it in a dumpster”
“Gah! Aneko you're not helping!”
Subaru clicked his tongue and pulled out his old flip phone. I would brag about my phone, but it’s probably still left in my bedroom at my house, so yeah.
“Well there's no point in even having it now!”
He yelled behind me, probably noticed his phone has no service in another world. I looked at him and he turned to his bag of convenience store goods.
“And the gear I started off with is a joke, if you're gonna summon lazy ass kids like me to your world, then you better overhaul your crappy welfare program!”
He continued to rant, and honestly it was starting to piss me off.
“Start me off with an Excalibur sword! Or a magic cloak!”
“Alright Subaru, could you shut up for one moment!?”
“Eh?”
He stopped and looked at me “what is it?”
“You keep going on about, I don’t have this! Start me off with that! You're complaining about stuff that honestly, doesn’t make sense, do you just think that everything is gonna be given to you just because you're from another world, that is merely fantasy bullshit! Have you even once thought about going home!?”
Subaru looked at me with a dumbfounded expression “Aneko, what’s with you all of a sudden?”
“Oh I don’t know, maybe it’s just that we just got transported to another world that isn’t ours, we don’t know where we are, and here you are acting a FOOL!!!”
I yelled out loud and was left huffing after giving a piece of my mind, Subaru still looked at me with confusion, then switching to a somber expression.
“Oi what’s going on here, lovers quarrel?”
Our argument was interrupted by a rude voice, we both gritted our teeth and turned towards the source of the voice as it turned out to be three people, a small guy with a bob cut, a big guy with purple dreads, and a tall lanky dude with gray hair with a pink accent. And wait, lovers quarrel?!”
“Not like it matters, listen! If you don’t want to get hurt, cough whatever you got!”
The tall guy yelled. Great now some random ass muggers, in broad daylight too. Me and Subaru looked at each other and then back to the muggers.
“Look, you two picked the wrong kids to deal with, and plus were pissed, so anyone who gets in our way.”
“Gets punched”
Me and Subaru said while darkening our expressions. The thugs were taken aback by our statement but quickly went serious, the big guy grit his teeth.
“Tch, don’t get cocky!”
He rushed up to me, readying a big right haymaker, he swung and I quickly dodged under.
“?!” the thug widens his eyes after seeing me dodge, using this opportunity, I quickly throw out two punches at the guy's stomach.
“Hk!” they landed making the guy grit his teeth, I then followed up with a push pick to his chest, pushing him back and making him bump into his small friend.
“Subaru!”
“Right!”
We then rushed at the tall guy,, he looked unguarded, but he then reached behind his back and pulled out two knives.All of a sudden I saw Subaru stop his attack and take a step back.
“Subaru?”
“I can’t do anything against a bladed weapon”
“Huh?”
Before I could think I was kicked in my back.
“Guh!”
I was knocked down on my stomach, I grit my teeth and rolled out of the way, and sure enough I dodged a kick to my exposed stomach.
“Damn, you’re fast.” The thug blurted out before quickly readied his knives preparing to swing, stay calm Aneko, you’ve dealt with one bladed foe before, and this one’s untrained.
I took a quick breath. The adrenaline started to surge, the thug blindly swung his first blade, it was quick but slow enough for me to just barely dodge to the side, I quickly grabbed his wrist and drove my palm into his forearm.
“Agh!”
He let out a quick cry of pain, and the knife dropped out of his hand, still holding onto him. I threw him towards Subaru.
“Alley oop!”
“Huh? Oh, right!”
The thug stumbled after getting thrown struggling to get his footing back, Subaru quickly saw this as an opportunity to attack, he readied his leg, and brought it up and with a quick motion did a roundhouse kick, straight into the thugs face.
“HOOAH!”
“Guah!”
The tall thug spun around and hit the hard floor, the other two had their mouths agape at the scene before them, I walked up to Subaru and bumped fists.
“YOU BASTARD!!!”
The small one going in with an emotionally driven punch, waiting for him to get close enough. I intercepted his punch with a knee to his face, cracking his nose, and followed up with an axe kick on his head, sending his face straight into the ground.
“Woah! Aneko you’re awesome!”
Subaru watched in amazement, I smiled.
“I took a few martial arts classes because my father forced me too, so I know a thing or two, though I'm no master.”
“Wow, this is the first time I've hit someone, ha! I knew this world was set up so I could be strong, let’s do this Aneko!”
I rolled my eyes”Right…” We then rushed towards the big guy, he tried to throw another punch but I quickly dodged it and threw a straight right, into his face. Subaru followed up with a gut punch, I continued and threw a low kick on his leg making him kneel down.
“Ho!”
Subaru threw a left hook into his face.
“Ha!”
I followed and landed a right hook into his face, The big guy was left completely in a daze, me and Subaru both smirked as we both readied our final punch.
“HOOH!”
“HAAH!”
We both threw our punches at the same time, landing straight into both sides of his face, hitting him so hard he went flying back a tiny bit and quickly landed on his back, out cold.
“WOOH! Now that did it!” Subaru started shadow boxing and getting excited.
“Good job.”
I gave him a thumbs up, and he gave one back, both then looked around, here we are in a back alley with three thugs knocked at our feet.
“So, what now?”
“Move you guys!”
Another voice came in, we both looked and saw it was blonde haired girl with red eyes, she quickly dashed past us and parkoured up the building out of sight.
“Well that was strange”
“So much for a cute girl summoning us”
“Like that was happening anyway”
“That’s enough!”
Another feminine voice chimed, we both were starting to get a little annoyed so we both turned quickly and were ready to voice some complaints, but both of our feelings of anger were washed away when we saw who that voice belonged to. It was a silver haired girl, she was pretty, like stupid beautiful, with white pale skin, white robes with purple accents, and gorgeous amethyst purple eyes with cerulean pupils. We were both enthralled by her beauty. what she said next…
“Now return what you stole.”
“Eh?”
“Huh?”
Came out of left field.
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“Stop now, and I’ll forgive you. If you would be so kind to give back what you stole.” She aired a presence of confidence and urgency, but we were both left confused. She continued to give us a fierce glare.
“Please, it’s very important to me.”
We both continued staring until Subaru eventually spoke up.
“What we stole? Uh I think you got it wrong miss, if you're looking for a thief it was most likely that girl who just dashed by a little bit ago.” Subaru informed her, the girl then put a hand to her chin “You don’t seem to be lying, so I need to go after her.”
She then began running past us, until stopping at the edge of the alley and pointing her palm towards us.
“But I can’t overlook what’s going on here!”
Just then something that should be physically impossible happened, the air around her palm formed into multiple ice balls, it was magic attack, aimed at us.
Ah shit.
“W-w-w-Wait! Wait! Uh lady,you got it wrong, we didn;t attack these guys, they tried to mug both of us, so we just defended ourselves!”
“Yep, please believe us, we wouldn’t harm anyone who was defenseless.”
We put our hands up in fear, like we were being accused by the police, which it pretty much was kind of the same thing.
“I think you can trust them Lia, I sense no malice in them”
A new unfamiliar voice entered, and with it a new figure flew out of the girls hair, it was a…FLOATING CAT?! Okay! Now I've seen everything. It continued speaking to who I assumed was Lia.
“Puck, are you sure?”
“I mean, just look at them.”
The cat gestured to us, and we both just continued standing there like some idiots. The girl looked at us before eventually putting her palm down and with it de-materializing the ice clumps around her.
We both then sighed and looked at each other and gave each a nod communicating.
‘Crisis Averted ‘
The girl then turned the other way “Come on Puck, let’s go get my insignia back.” she then looked back at us “I highly suggest that next time you don't do dangerous things like wander into deserted alleys alone. I'm not concerned. I'm just warning you. If anything like that happens to you again, I already know that saving you won't be of any benefit to me, so don't expect any help. Bye!”
Why the tsundere-like response? Not that I'm complaining. Although it was a little out of the blue. She then walked out of the alley.
“She’s so insincere sometimes, sorry, don’t think bad of her, okay?” Puck told us
“It’s fine.” I replied.
I looked at Subaru, who seemed totally entranced. This lonely dude with zero experience talking to girls definitely just fell for this girl he just met, didn’t he? I narrowed my eyes at him, until he eventually grabbed both of our jackets and then ran over to me.
“Huh? What are you-?”
He then grabbed my hand and rushed out of the alley.
“Ah”
My mind stopped functioning.
“Hey! Wait up!”
Subaru told the silver haired girl, she turned around and put her hands on her hips. “Was there something else you needed? Just so you know, I can only spend a little more time with you ,okay?”
“Ah, figured you were gonna shut me down, anyway, you lost something important right? Well then let us help you find it”
She raised and eyebrow “But you already gave me information on the thief already, that’s equal enough compensation for causing you trouble”
“But if we work together, we’ll be able to find her faster!”
“You’re so strange. Well, anyway, I won’t be able to offer you any reward.”
“Listen, we don’t need one”
“What warranted you to go out of your way to do this?”
“Look, I want to help you for my sake too. I should probably set an objective, uh…”
Subaru looked around thinking of some excuse to help the girl until showing her a single digit.
“Right! One good deed per day!”
The girl looked at Subaru with an unsure expression. “I don’t sense any malice here, so I think you can just accept his offer. After all, the more shields between you and the ruffians, the better”
“A shield!? That’s what you want me around for!?” Subaru exclaimed, the girl ignored it and said “I meant what I said though, I can’t do anything to reward you.”
Subaru shook his head and pointed his thumb to his chest “No problem at all. Just leave everything to us.”
After that statement I finally got to speak.
“Uh, Subaru…”
“Hm?” he looked back at me and tilted his head, making my expression redder. “Uh, you're still holding my hand” I voice went quieter as I said the last part while looking at our conjoined hands. Subaru then looked down and finally noticed and quickly became embarrassed.
“Uwah!? I’m sorry!”
Subaru then scratched the back of his head with a light blush on his face.
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
After that embarrassing moment, we moved through many parts of the town, and found no trace of the thief girl. Subaru even almost climbed into a boarded up alley, I mean come on I know we can’t read but I’m sure those signs said ‘KEEP OUT’ or ‘NO TRESPASSING’ or something like that. Jeez that guy is such an air head sometimes.
Our search has now led us to a nice overlook area that gave us a nice view of the town. “Hey, Ilnow what I told you before but, isn’t this town a little too big to find one tiny insignia?” Subaru asked the girl, while the latter just raised an eyebrow.
“This ‘town’ is the Capital of Lagunica, how could you possibly not know that?”
Oh crap, she’s onto us, she’s going to find out we're pretty much lost here.
“Uh…”
“Hey that’s right. How rude of us! We haven’t asked their names yet. Shouldn’t we all introduce ourselves?” thank you puck for the save. Subaru then nodded with a “Guess so”
“Might as well get the ball rolling first, then”
Well this is going to be good.
Subaru pointed his arm into the air and bended his hips in a certain way, striking an unflattering pose.
“My name is Subaru Natsuki. Not only am I totally clueless, I'm also broke beyond compare! Nice to meet ya!”
Well that was a depressing introduction, guess it’s my turn.
“Aneko Ankia.” I quietly gave my name. The floating cat shook his head. “If that’s how you introduce yourselves, you really do sound hopeless.”
Ouch.
“And my name is Puck, Nice to meet you!”
Puck flew fast into Subaru’s hand, making a cute squishy noise on contact.”It’s very unusual to see someone who can touch a spirit so casually like that. Where are you from exactly?” The silver haired girl asked us. Ah! I wasn’t prepared to be asked this sort of question, I can’t just say japan.
“Well, if things follow the usual pattern, it’s a small island nation to the east.”
“But Lagunica is the easternmost nation on our continental map. There are no more countries in that direction.”
That’s about what I thought would happen, I looked at Subaru who deflated and drooped his arms in disbelief.
“No way, Really? There's nothing east of here?”
The girl then put a hand to her chin.
“You have no Idea where you are, you have no money, you can’t read, and you seem to have no one around who can help you.” she then put a hand over her mouth and looked at us “You two might be in an even more precarious situation than I am…”
We were both kinda hurt at her assessment, but it was true, we know jack shit on what to do right now, it’s not no video game where we get quests and have a goal that’s already set for us.
“Uh, your Subaru and Aneko, right?””
“Yep”
I heard Subaru give a light gasp, as a light blush formed on his cheeks.
“...Uh. Yes, that’s my name.”
Man this guy is really getting all flushed because of a pretty girl saying his name, oh boy.
“All that aside, I gotta admit, you seem to be in pretty good shape” Puck came into the conversation. Subaru open and closed his hand “I do try to work out every day, ya see, when you’re the shut-in protector of your own house, you gotta stay fit as much as possible.”
The girl raised an eyebrow “I’m not sure if I understand what a ‘shut-in’ is, but I assume it means you’re from a reputable family, right?” she walked up to Subaru and grabbed one of his hands.
“Hey, What’re you…?”
“Your fingers, too. They’re very pretty. They don’t look like the working hands of a peasant at all. And your muscles don’t look like the kind you get from doing field work.” she then went over to me and started feeling the fabric of my hoodie.
“And your clothes, they seem finely made and comfortable. And your hair, it’s soft and well kept, like the hair of a high ranking noble.“ she ran her fingers through the side of my hair, until casually swatted it, then looking at Subaru who was still in a daze, probably from feeling the soft hands of a girl for the first time in a while. I then looked back to the silver haired girl.
“Anyway we know your cat’s name now, but I’m curious to hear yours.” I told her, she then seemed a little surprised and her expression went a little solem.
“Oh, my name?”
She then looked towards the view of the city, the wind beginning to blow, making her silver hair flow gracefully.
“It’s…”
She then looked at us.
“It’s Satella.”
“...”
“No Family name. So that’s the way you may address me, alright?”
Subaru was left with a surprised expression, probably because he likes how pretty that name sounds.
But something is bugging me…
“Hold up a second”
I narrowed my eyes at Satella, and then approached her, while the latter looked down, seemingly expecting a reaction.
“Puck called you ‘Lia’ right? Where does that nickname fit within Satella?”
“Yeah, so what’s with the nickname?”
Subaru added on to my questioning. ‘Satella’ then had guilt come over her face, and Puck then floated over to her.
“I think you should just tell them.”
“B-but!”
“No buts, they’ve already saw through your bluff”
She sighed and then turned towards us, with her eyes facing the ground.
“My names….Emilia, only Emilia.”
Now that is a nice name.
“I see, Emilia it is. that’s a nice name!”
I nodded at Subaru’s compliment, Emilia then looked surprised, like it was unusual to receive praise. Subaru then stretched his arms saying“Welp I guess we should go back to asking around” and I nodded “Yep, that insignia won’t find itself”
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We continued our investigation, wandering through the city and such. Still no sign of the insignia though. And no leads either.
On our search we were fortunate enough to come across a lost girl in the city, and promptly returned her to her mother, still it didn’t really benefit us in any way.
“Okay…So…” Subaru started, who was leaning off the bridge we were resting at.”In my opinion, that whole string of events with the little girl was nothin’ but a side-quest, but what benefit will you insist that you got out of it? Go on, tell me!”
Emilia put on a smug expression while putting her hands on her hips.”That's easy.Now we can continue our search with our minds at ease knowing we did the right thing. Anyway, why'd you end up helping me with that? Thought you said you
were against the idea.” Emilia changed her tone and changed her expression.
“Could say I just wanted to show off my magic trick, but that'd be a lie. Like I told you before, finding your insignia will be my one good deed for the day!”
“I know that was the plan, but since you helped
the little girl, isn't your one good deed over?”
Subaru snapped back “You are being super nitpicky! It doesn't hurt to do more than one nice thing in a day, does it? I just got tomorrow's out of the way. My plan is to get a week's worth of good deeds taken care of early!”
“Well that’s an excuse.” I chimed in.
“If I were to guess, you’re the type that basically wastes their whole life, right?” Emilia asked, Subaru, wasting his life? Now I wouldn’t say that, though he did call himself a shut-in a bit earlier…
“Seriously? You're the last person who should be saying that to anyone.”
“Wait a minute!” I looked at Subaru and he looked at me, though with a solemn expression. “You’re really a shut-in?” I asked him, he then looked over the bridge averting his gaze.
“Yeah…”
“...”
I was left silent for a bit, and gave him a look of sympathy. He probably doesn’t want to talk about it right now, maybe when we have alone time. “Anyway, what were you talking about Emilia?” I changed the subject.
“Me? Oh, I was going to say that your two are not bad kids”
“Why do you act like we’re so much younger than you?”
“Yeah, you can't be that much older than us!”
Emilia then gave a wry smile while saying ”Well, you may think that, but all of your guesses would be wrong. Because... I'm actually half-elf.”
As she said this, I finally saw her pointy ears on the sides of her head. How did I not notice them by now?
“Ah, no wonder. It makes sense now. From the moment I saw you…” Subaru said also just now noticing her ears.
Emilia then looked down again, like she was expecting a reaction.
“I thought you were cute! Elves are always beautiful, aren't they?”
This guy wears his heart on his sleeve. I tried to resist the urge to strangle him. But I have to admit he is right, Emilia is leagues more pretty than me, guess I better step up my game.
Emilia gasped in surprise, like this was the first time she was called beautiful, guess she isn’t used to praise.
“What is it?” Subaru asked, noticing her expression.
“Didn't you hear what I just said? Listen, I'm trying to tell you that I'm a half-elf.”
“Yeah we heard you”
“Loud and clear in fact”
Emilia then got up from where she was sitting and walked a couple steps facing away from us, and put her hands on her head while crouching down. Me and Subaru looked at each other then back to her, then back to each other.
“What is she doing? Did you offend her or something?” I whispered
“I don’t know, I was just speaking the truth.”
Puck all of a sudden flew out of Emilia’s hair and gave Subaru a right hook.
*It wasn’t very effective*
“What the heck did you do that for?”
“I just had to do something about this unbearable tingle I'm feeling!”
“That's the weirdest reason for punching somebody I've ever heard.Though I'll forgive you since it was squishy.”
“I didn't hit you in the face out of anger or anything. In fact, it was quite the opposite”
“Subaru, Aneko, you two are both such dunderheads!” Emilia yelled at us.
“Dunderhead?”
“Yeah, so who says ‘dunderhead’ in this day and age? And why are you insulting us in the first place?”
Emilia got up from where she was crouching down.
“Ugh! Whatever! More importantly , we have to get back to the search. So let’s go.”
“Hey wait a minute!” Subaru stopped her. “Just running around without a plan is never a good idea. That’s the basic rule of searches.”
“What are you talking about?” She looked at Subaru with a raised eyebrow, I chimed in and said “What he means is retracing your steps, where exactly was your insignia stolen?”
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So we went back to where the insignia was first stolen, which was coincidentally where that appa salesman was, we tried to ask him something but almost got chewed out. Luckily that girl we helped earlier, happened to the daughter of this salesman, and after finding out we helped.
He happily gave us some info on where to look next. Though the place we had to look was somewhere I’d rather not be in.
“The air, the atmosphere, and most likely the attitudes of the people living here are awful.” Subaru stated, and I had to agree. The sun was starting to go down, so now the place had a desolate atmosphere, and people were giving us weird looks. The slums as it was called, was definitely the poor district of this city, just looking around I can’t help but feel bad for the people here.
“But it’s our best bet”
Flashback
“You’re saying shes a nimble little blonde, right? ‘Cause it might be that Felt girl we see from time to time. She’s well known in the slums. Dunno where she lives though. That’s about all I can tell ya”
Flashback end
“Maybe someone will tell us if we ask?”
“I don’t thi-” Puck interrupted me “No one would sell out their own, especially to a couple of strangers, so asking would be useless.” hearing this Subaru then said “Maybe we should come back later.”
“We can’t turn back now, we’ve come so far”
Puck then interjected “Whatever it is you wanna do, I suggest you decide quickly. ‘Cause i’ve just about run out of time here.”
Subaru and I raised an eyebrow.
“Out of time?”
“Out of time?”
We both asked, and Puck nodded “I’m able to take on this cute appearance, but i’m a spirit. it takes a lot of mana to appear in physical form. So when day becomes night , I return to the crystal I was summoned from and prepare for the sun to emerge, on average my ideal time to stay out is roughly nine to five”
I smirked “What are you an office worker?”
“Employment terms for spirits is pretty severe.” Subaru added, Emilia assured us “We’ll be fine without Puck. We need to keep moving forward on this.”
“Sorry ,but I’m at my limit”
“It’s almost like he’s dying when he disappears.”
“Sorry to’ve worked you so hard today, Puck. We’ll handle things from here, so settle in and get some rest.”
“Don’t do anything reckless, alright? If it comes down to it, you can always use the od to summon me again”
Puck then looked at us with a wink “I’m leaving things in your hands, Subaru, Aneko! Good luck!” Puck then burst into many glowing particles, it was like a short light show, the particles circled around for a moment before all of them converging on the green crystal necklace that Emilia was wearing.
After that we continued walking, though the sun was even lower now, adding to my unease. Looking at Subaru I noticed he had an idiotic smile on his face.
“Hey, wow I haven’t been in one of these ‘alone with a girl’ situations since grade school.”
“Oh god, don’t remind me of that”
“Aw come on Aneko, you remember how scared you were in that test of courage, what did you say…?”
“Don’t you dare”
“Oh right! You had the cutest expression on your face, while saying, ‘could you please hold my hand Subaru?’”
“Oi YOU!!!” I grabbed Subaru’s collar “do you want me to rip you to pieces?! Cause I will!” Subaru then shrunk in fear, waving his hands up. “I give! I give! I’m sorry, please don’t kill me!”
“Tch” I let him go and quickened my pace up ahead. “The more important issue at hand is how we find Felt now.”
“I’ll contact the lesser spirits” Emilia stopped her pace.
“Lesser spirits?” Subaru asked
“Precisely. They’re beings that haven’t become full-fledged spirits yet. They grow little by little overtime, and when they gain enough strength and self awareness, they become full spirits, just like Puck.”
“Cool”
Emilia then held her hands out in a sort of praying position, and then mouthed a few words as if saying something but no sound came from her voice. Then like magic-no it was magic, all these glowing orbs appeared around her, illuminating the space around her, and her silver hair and pale white skin, it was like she was a divine being, the lights moved around her, and we continued to stay put, like time was stopped and only she was granted motion, it was honestly…
“Beautiful…”
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The had fully set, and now the slums looked like a place that you see in horror manga, it made me shiver, good thing Emilia and Subaru are here to ease the uneasy atmosphere. I didn’t believe in ghosts in my old world, but here they could be a real problem that could be dangerous.
“It’s getting more desolate and quiet.” Subaru said wearily.
“I know, hard to believe she actually lives out here”
“I know, but the lesser spirits specifically said they saw someone who looked like Felt headed in this direction”
As we were saying this, I spotted a man walking by with his hands in his pockets, normally we would ignore him but…
“Scuse me man!” Subaru got his attention and he turned around, hands still in pockets. “Know if a girl named Felt lives up this way?”
He raised an eyebrow “Huh? You’re lookin’ for Felt? There's nothing up that way except Old Man Rom’s loot house.” He then chuckled “Hah, I guess she must’ve stolen something pretty important for y’all to come out here. Well I wish you luck on bargaining to try to get it back.” He finally waved to us goodbye “Live strong, okay?”
He walked off.
“What was he talking about? Why do I have to pay money to get back something stolen from me?” Emilia said ignorantly, I gave her a neutral look “Welcome to the real world.”
“Huh?”
“Don’t worry about a thing, just leave everything to me.”
Subaru cut the conversation off, we continued going forward until reaching an old run down wooden shack, despite appearances. This was our destination. Subaru took the initiative and walked up “I can handle negotiations”
“All right then” Emilia agreed. “You agreed to that pretty easily. I figured you’d say something like ‘you want me to leave this to a useless boy like you? That’s such a ridiculous idea, it actually hurts my stomach’ And although that would stomp all over my feelings, I’d still decide to keep helping you anyway.”
“I’d never say something that mean to anyone! Of course, to tell you the truth, I’d be lying if I said you two haven’t been holding me back a little bit.”
“Ouch”
“Oh great! That’s good to know!”
We said one after another, Emilia then changed her expression. But again, I’m leaving this in your hands. If it actually goes well, I’ll consider it a bonus.”
“Now if you said something like ‘Work hard for me, okay?’ I’d probably feel a whole lot more motivated.”
“Sorry I can’t force myself to say something like that. However, please do your best.” jeez these two,get a room already. Acting like I'm not even here.
“Yeah, you got it. I’ll go in first. You two can wait outside”
“Hold up a moment!”
“Huh?”
I strutted over to Subaru “I’m not just going to sit out here and wait for good news, remember that we're in a party, okay? And a party member always sticks next to other party members” Subaru sighed and scratched the back of his head. “Fine, just don’t come whining to me when you regret it” he then looked back to Emilia “We won’t be back to late, but you can have dinner without us if you get too hungry.”
“Don’t say dumb things like that. And be careful” Emilia voiced her concern, but we waved it off.
“Sure, sure.”
“Now don’t come in until we say it’s alright, Emilia”
She seemed uncertain but she nodded, we nodded back and with slight unease we opened the door to the loot house.
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The door creaked open, greeting us to a dark empty loot house, no one said “hi” not even a “Oi! What the hell are you doing here?!” it was completely dead. Subaru shone the light in, revealing some nice shields, swords, and even armor sets.
“So are we walking into a demon nest or a snake pit? In a fantasy world either is totally plausible”
“Is this all stolen loot?” I asked, Subaru shrugged “dunno, but if it is, impressive. But where's the owner? All this stolen loot and Noone around to guard it? Strange.”
Indeed, it was strange, it like this place was abandoned, not that it already looked like that from the outside anyway.
We continued searching the place, my unease continuing to grow, so large it made me want to scream and run out of here, but I can't do that, I have to be there for Subaru.
"Hey Subaru?"
"Yeah, what is it Aneko?"
"Do you think, ghosts exist in this world?"
After hearing my words he chuckled and laughed it off "come on, you really don't believe in ghosts, do you?"
"O-of course not!"
He then sighed "if it'll make you feel better, you could hold my hand" he gave a smug grin.
"As if!"
"Ah, your always so easy to tease."
I walked ahead of Subaru, man who does he think he is?
"Whatever we just need to find that insignia-"
I felt a sqelching sound under my feet, just the sound alone made my entire body freeze.
"Aneko? Why did you stop? Oi!"
I couldn't answer. I slowly moved my head down to see what I was standing on.
It was a red liquid
Blood, once again, I found myself standing in someone's blood.
Subaru came by my side and shook my shoulder "hey, what's wron-?" Subaru then noticed the blood as well "wha-?"
I didn't want to look up, I couldn't look up, but my body moved for me, and followed the trail with my eyes, the trail flowed into a pool, it was then I caught a glimpse of a pair of someone's feet.
No
Not again
Don't
Please
Not this again
No, no, no, no,no,nononononononononononono!
My eyes looked up,I could see a torso, of a big man it was covered in blood, looking up further I could see his face, it was an old man with bushy eyebrows.
His stomach and neck where opened up, to where you could clearly see the organs, bowels and all. His neck had pieces of glass lodged in it, showing the deep red blood, the bits of flesh cut, some on the floor.
His eyes were wide open, lifeless.
My knees gave out.
"Hey! Aneko!" Subaru kneeled down to me, I was in complete shock, I've never seen someone's body so heartless violated before, it was like whoever the killer was took joy in it. It was unforgivable.
"Aneko! Come on! Move! please! We need to get out of here!"
I know that, I know full well we need to inform Emilia of this horrible incident, but my body wouldn't respond, no matter how hard I tried.
"Oh dear, you found that?"
"Hk!?"
A voice called out, and our hearts sank, it felt as of time stopped, my eyes slowly turned to the source of the voice.
"Then I have no choice then. No choice at all"
SLASH
"Agh!"
Subaru was slashed by something in the back. He sent barreling forward. It was then I was knocked out of daze.
"SUBAR-!"
But it was too late.
SLASH
I was struck with a sharp pain in my back, and like Subaru, I was sent barreling forward as well, this wasn't any normal pain, it hurt.
It hurt a lot.
I landed adjacent Subaru, the burning of my wound still there.
"It hurts. It hurts"
I heard Subaru's words and I looked up and saw Subaru laying there, with a huge cut in his stomach, I don't even how his top half was connected with his bottom half. I then looked at my own wound.
It was more or less the same, though it was my back, if I remember correctly Losing about a third of your blood could be fatal, but looking at the wound. It looks like I lost just about all of it.
I was going to die.
I could feel tears welling up in my eyes.
"Su-kuhk!?"
I couldn't speak, I only coughed blood. It's checkmate, I'm dying here.
Why?
Why, do I have to suffer again. This burning it won't stop, it burns, it burns, it burns, it burns, burnsburnsburnsburnsburnsburns!
"Subaru, Aneko, what's wrong?"
No, not her too.
"Run away! Get out of here!"
Subaru called out to Emilia in a raspy voice, but it was for naught
"Kya!"
She let out a short scream before her body fell, right next to ours, a pool of blood forming from under her. Not even is getting out of this.
"Tch"
"Ah?"
I felt something grab my hand, I turned my head, It was Subaru's hand, grasping mine and Emilia's hands.
"Stay…with…me"
My consciousness started to fade, as I felt my strength waning.
"No matter what"
My eyes wavered, struggling to stay conscious.
"I'm going to…"
Subaru's hand got cold, we're not lasting much longer
"Save you two"
And with his last words.
Everything went dark.
I couldn't feel anything.
See anything.
Or hear anything.
I could only think.
Oh.
I'm dead