Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

"Wow that was.." His eyes watered. His mouth trembled like never before. He had done it. He had finally finished reading SBR. Tears began to form, sliding down to his cheeks. 

"I can't believe it..." His words barely forming. His scary brown eyes darting all over the room, he couldn't believe it. After all this time, he never fought he could do it. 

"That was one of the best experiences of my life! What a great story haha!" He shouted. The Boy jumped with glee, his ever glowing smile beaming. His eyes stopped the waterworks that were previously flowing.

To Natsuki Subaru, this story was one of the best pieces of fiction he could ever had the pleasure of reading.

"Now I've fully finished Steel Ball Run, I should start rea-" Growls from his stomach suggested a different idea.

"Ok, OK! I'll get something to eat. Maybe something from the store? Maybe some good ole' ramen!" Subaru shouts. His stomach voices in agreement.

Subaru began to put on his most iconic orange and black tracksuit, his mother and father gifted to him on his last birthday as they knew how much he liked the colour orange. Then he enters the spacious bathroom, lights shining on him like he was on a theater stage. At least that's what he thought. Subaru stared intently at the mirror, constantly reminding him of his disgusting features. His sharp eyes, messy hair, lackluster build. His nails overgrown past his liking. He hated nearly everything about himself, ever since that day from school, his self confidence was crushed to a pulp. Causing his hikkimori lifestyle. His parents tried everything they could to get him to stop being like this but all their attempts fell on deaf ears.

"Enough meandering. Let's actually get a bite to eat." He thought.

Subaru lightly pushed the door open, grabbing his wallet & shoes on his way downstairs, his parents currently in their room watching whatever programs was on. Soap Operas, Live action, Sci-fi, you name it. Subaru steps down the long stairs, heading to the living room. The room had 2 couches, comfy and fluffy. Just the way all three of them liked it. He sat on the one closest to him, put on his black shoes and headed to the front door. He gave one last look to the hallway, seeing all the pictures of him and his parents, young and current. Subaru then opened the door and shut it behind him.

After what felt like ages, he finally reached the store. He entered in and searched for his favourite ramen, making his nose go into overdrive for that sweet salty smell.

"AHA! Found it! Score!!!" Subaru gleefully grabbed the normal ass ramen and began to walk to the counter. However, the manga section catches his eye. He began scanning for anything good.

"Romance... Romance... Comedy... Battle Shounen... Damnit! Nothing good like usual..." Subaru scowls. "Whatever, atleast they had the ramen I was looking for."

He walked up to the counter and paid for his food, giving the cashier his iconic smile. When he walked out of the store, his eyes felt the ever crushing heaviness that his all nighter sessions have put them through. 

"I didn't think it would be this bad. Damnit, I'll try to get some shuteye when I get home.." Yawned the ever young lad. Subaru blinked once.

All it took was one blink. The young man opened his eyes to a bustling medieval street, the sky was as bright as the eye could percieve. Animals and humans talking, walking past each other, doing their business, chatting up each other.

"I- I- what?! How?! Wha-" Subaru was stunned. His mouth dropped, eyes widened. He couldn't believe it, transported to a different world?! This has to be a dream!

"No no no... This is all too real, no way this is just a dream?! How what I ONLY JUST BLINKED?!" The boy thought in his ever panicked mind.

Whilst the boy panicked, some thing floated behind him. Small, weak and barely holding itself from crying, the little pink things eyes looked to it's "master" infront of it. His tiny little nubs barely not reaching Subaru's shoulder. The creature floated closer but not too close, it worried that it would anger the boy somehow. He finally tapped Subaru's shoulder and spoke:

"Chu- Chu- Chumimin?"

Subaru instantly turned around and noticed the pink blob. His eyes widened in shock and his mouth trembled, only able to shout one word:

"TUSK?!"

And now, the stage is set for our heroes.

Chapter Text

"TUSK?!" Subaru shouted. 

The young man was stunned to his core, he never thought stands had the possibility of being real, let alone obtaining one of the greatest ones for himself! His scary eyes stared intensely at the little pink guy, scanning and searching for anything that could make this seem fake. 

"Chu?" Tusk tilted it's head all confused. As if his master completely forgot himself.

“I- WHAT?! MAN I?!!” Subaru stumbled over his words so intensely, it was so overwhelming to him that he didn’t notice all the glares from the people around him.

“Uhm, Ignore me… I’m just having a moment..” Subaru sheepishly smiled

After hearing this, the citizens began to move again, ignoring the boy as they did prior whilst Subaru was internally screaming.

“Idiot, idiot, idiot! Why did you spout all that out loud?!” Subaru screamed. His inner voice seeming strained.

Whilst Subaru continues to have his inner episode, Tusk takes the opportunity to inspect his “new” companion. It noted that the boy was pretty fit, his muscles somewhat defined. His sharp eyes seemed nice to Tusk, it liked looking at the bright brown colour. Tusk also inspected the boy’s face, smooth and good looking. 

“Chu…” Tusk spoke softly. Internally noting all of the boy’s features. The spirit then went to tap on Subaru’s shoulder in an attempt to stop Subaru’s misery.

It sorta worked. Subaru lifted his head to meet Tusk’s eyes, still in awe that the stand that he liked the most was in his possession. He thought to himself “What did I do to deserve something as powerful as Tusk?” pondering why he was ever gifted with such power.

“You know, I can hear your every thought?” A voice pierced into his brain.

“What?!?! WHO’S THERE??” Subaru jumped at this voice, landing his ass onto the bench nearby. Moaning in pain.

“It’s me, Tusk!” - The voice proudly spouted. 

Subaru instantly looked at the pink spirit nearby and saw it doing some kind of smug pose.

“Wait.. You can actually speak full sentences?” Shock was plastered all over Subaru’s face, for all he knew he thought Tusk could only speak the same chumimi line.

“Well, as far as I know. I’ve only came into this ability a few minutes ago! I’m just as confused as you are!!” - Tusk insisted, its face looking with worry.

“Alright, Alright!! We can discuss this in a secluded place.. They’re all looking at me again!” - Subaru internally shouted.

He wasn’t wrong, some people were still giving him weird looks for his prior outburst and wished for him to simply disappear. The young lad got up from the rocky bench and sprinted down the street, trying to find any alleyway to slip through.

“HEY HEY HEY!!! I’M NOT THAT FAST SUBARU!!” Tusk shouted through their link.

“What the hell?? How far does our mental link go?! Augh who cares! I just need to find a damn alley-” Subaru thought intently, however he immediately cut that thought.

“Finally!” Subaru said. “I thought it was gonna take ages!” 

Tusk finally caught up to the boy, phasing through him like a ghost. Shaking it’s head, it begin to to inspect everything around the duo.

“Hey, can you ATLEAST wait for me??” - Tusk angrily said.

“Yeah yeah, I will next time- Wait hang on.” Subaru pondered causing the pink elephant to look confused.

“Can you only speak like this in my thoughts?” Subaru inquired. Surely Tusk can speak full sentences on his own..

“Chu- Chuchu Chumimi!” - As Subaru expected, the spirit can only speak clearly in his mind.

Both looked disappointed that this was their reality. Whilst Subaru pondered in thought, Tusk inspected the boys hands.

“...” “..” “..his nails are spinning. Just like I thought.” Tusk thought.

“What was tha- HUH????” Subaru jumped like a meerkat from the pure shock. His nails were spinning! Was he doing it subconsciously?

“WHAT?? I CAN USE THE SPIN?! I?! NO WAY!!” - He screamed so joyily and with a bit of concern. Causing the guys in the alleyway nearby to notice.

“Oh you’ve done it now…” Tusk thought, attempted to facepalm with it’s nubs.

“Well sorry! I didn’t know my nails were just spinning! They weren’t earlier!!” - Subaru exclaimed his ignorance.

The thugs looked at the both of em with contempt

“Oi, oi, oi!” - The lean thief said “You looking to get robbed???”

“Yeah pal.. You looking for trouble?” The more bulky man beside the lean thief spoke up.

“I say we take him for everything he has! That bag of his looks valuable!” - The smallest thief chirped up whilst eyeing up Subaru's bag, smelling the ramen.

“Hey! That’s mine you little rascal!” Subaru pointed his finger at the little man.

The nail on his finger was spinning furiously, ready to be fired at a moments notice.

All 3 thieves look in shock and a little bit of fear overtook their roughed up faces.

“Woah pal! Put down that nail or whatever you’re doing down. We can do this peacefully!” - The bulky man spat out.

“Gaston are you for real?? We gotta get out of here!!” The lean thief spouts

“Lachins is right, we don’t need to negotiate! We can just run past him!!”- The smallest one shrieked out.

“Yeah we cou-” - Subaru was immediately interrupted when a young girl, somewhere around 15, her bright blonde hair waving in the wind, stomped on the young mans head, dashing to the roof above with an amulet of sorts.

“Hey big bro. Stay strong!” - The young girl quickly spouted before she disappeared over the roofs.

“Wha? OW WHAT THE- WOAH?” Subaru accidentally shoots the nail bullet on his finger, creating a huge crack in the wall behind the three thieves.

“His power is this limited?” Tusk thought. Pondering something.

The three looked at the wall with immense fear, slowly turning around with their faces scrunched with horror.

“LETS GET OUT OF HERE!!!” - The three spouted before trampling their soon to be attacker

“HEY HEY! OW OW O-” Subaru could barely get any words out, moaning in pain from the trampling prior..

“SUBARU! Are you okay??” Tusk worried thought in their link, floating down to the man on the floor.

“Augh, not doing the best at the moment but I can do much better.. Hah…” “Also… DId you see that?! They were scared of my nails!! I’m like Johnny now hahah!!” Subaru breathed all these out, barely clinging on.

“Subaru, just rest for the moment… No need to gloat about a power you cannot control yet…” Tusk demanded, still worried for the condition of it’s master.

“Don’t worry Tusk.. Look my nails stopped spinning at the moment…” Subaru noted, wondering if he could make it return.

“HEY!” 

The duo turned to look at the source of the silver bell like voice.

“Have you seen my insignia?” - She demanded.

“A ELF?!” - The duo screamed in their link.

Now the second major player has entered the world stage.

Chapter Text

“AN ELF?!” - The duo screamed in their link

The silver haired elf glared at them harshly, as if they both had personally wronged her.

“Have you two seen where a blonde haired girl went?”

”Yeah.. She somehow got onto those roofs above us..”

The elf grunted really childishly, earning a laugh from the tired lad.

“This isn’t funny!” The beautiful elf squealed out

“It is!! Haha!” While he said that, Tusk “punched” (more like poked) Subarus face, indicating to him to stop his bullshit.

After calming down, Subaru sprang up and cleaned himself up as much as he could.

The elf opened her mouth once again, “If that’s all you know, I'll be going.”

She began to turn out of the alley, heading to any place that could give her more answers.

“Hey hey, hang on! I can try to help you! Also I got plenty of questions to ask!!” The boy shouted

“Don’t use that much energy… You’ll hurt yourself more.”

“But I want to help! One good deed a day as my folks said!” He sheepishly replied

She blushed a little but kept a stern look. Thinking that this boy was teasing her.

“You want to help me? In your condition?”

“YES!”

“Fine. Let me heal you up then.” She walked straight up to him, bringing her hand out. She investigated more of his body incase he was hurt anywhere else. Then she turned her eyes to the lad’s companion.

“Hey… Are you his spirit?” She inquired

“Chu?” 

“Wait, you cannot speak our language? That’s weird.” She pondered. A spirit that can’t talk? That's awfully unnatural.. Was it a part of their contract?

While she was debating the logistics of why someone would ever do that to a spirit, the duo began to voice their concerns in their link.

"can she see you, Tusk?!” Subaru panicked, he thought he was only one gifted with the power to see stands.

“I don’t know! We can try to assume that she has some kind of stand aswell?? Otherwise how the hell can she see us so freely?” Tusk matching it’s partners panic.

While the duo are having their government mandated panic attack, the kind stranger had finished healing all of Subaru’s wounds. Staring at the boy’s wonderful sharp eyes, reminding her of a memory that she seemingly can’t recall.

“Lia, are you done with these two bozos yet?” 

The 3 of them suddenly jumped like they were in a cartoon, looking directly at the owner of the cat-like voice.

“Hey, what’s that look for? Did I scare ya?” teased the smirking cat spirit like he was waiting for the opportunity to do this.

“Well you certainly did!!”

“CHUMININ!!”

“You didn’t need to do that!!”

The 3 of them shared their frustration with the spirit in their own unique ways.

“Anyways… What’s with the pink fella? I know he can’t be a lesser spirit..” The cat pondered

“He’s just a normal spirit alrig-” He cuts off his own sentence after seeing his nails spinning furiously once again. Why were they doing that again?! He was in no danger right?!

“Woah pal! I ain’t gonna hurt ya for talking to Lia!” The cat gestured to him to stop whatever he was doing.

“I can’t stop it! It just happens! I’ve only had this power for an hour now!” 

Tusk perked up in their link - “You can’t control your spin yet, I think you’re accidentally tapping into it because you’re nervous. Calm down a little” As if the pink fella had any right to talk.

“Puck! You can try to stop those rotations on his nails right?! They look really dangerous!” 

“Lia If I could, I would’ve done it by now but thats the kids own power, he needs to stop it himself”

Lia pouted but partially accepted her contracted spirits laziness once again.

Over to the other two, Subaru tries to undo his current predicament however his spin is still far stronger than his will at the moment.

“Tusk you gotta help me here, I’m trying to control my spin like johnny did but it’s not working! Oh god, OH GOD!”

“Calm down a second..” Tusk thought for a sec. “EUREKA!” 

“???”

“Try spinning your arm in the other direction, your nails are spinning to the right, correct?” Tusk graciously asked through their link.

“Yes!” Subaru said, whilst calming down a little, catching on what Tusk is trying to say.

“Try the opposite direction then. That should stop the rotations!”

“Ok, let’s try that..” Subaru gulped, he thought it was too simple to work for something as advanced as the spin. He tried anyways because to him this was the only way out.

He began to spin his arm to the left, with Puck, Lia and Tusk watching his every move, the nails on his fingers on both arms began to spin slower and slower like the rotation was being dispelled. Eventually his nails began to sit still. Subaru immediately breathed a sigh of relief, falling back on the hard ground once again.

“Thank god… But now I know how to dispell it anytime I want…” Subaru gasped out.

Lia immediately pulled her hand out after, “Here, you can get up now.”

Subaru graciously accepts the offer and dusts himself down after. Noting how he can dispel and potentially reactivate the spin.

“Wow that worked? Colour me surprised.” Puck spoke out, impressed with the boy and his spirit.

“Thanks.. Puck was it?” correctly guessed the boy, picking up on his name after his short convo with Lia

The cat nodded.

“Anyways, let's stop messing around. We gotta find a thief right?” Subaru perked up

Everyone else nodded and all agreed to head up to a higher point of this city to get a good gauge of the scale of their search.

Whilst on their walk, Tusk and Subaru had a private convo on the spin and their abilities.

“How did I even use the spin before.. I never rotated my arm prior?”

Tusk huffed “You subconsciously rotated something in your body, I could tell the first two times you did it.” 

“Your connection to the spin is interesting though, I’ve never seen someone pick up on it so quickly… Especially someone as panicky as you.” Tusk mocked, like it was any different!

“HEY!! I like to see you try to control your damn nails for the first few times!” - Subaru angrily growled in response.

“Yeah yeah, anyways. Now you have a grasp of the spin, you can probably do the trick you did before.” Tusk inquired. 

“Probably can huh..” Interrupting his own thoughts, he saw that the 4 of them reached their destination. The city looked as beautiful as ever, the blue sky giving it a really heavenly glow. The view was amazing, being able to see many nooks and crannies as far as the naked eye could see, the tall buildings encompassing the life in it, the markets busy as ever with many people enjoying all the wares.

“Wow.. this is all breathtaking. I can’t believe such a sight is real.” Subaru noted, internally taking it all in.

Lia turned around to face the boy. Looking into his eyes once again.

“Subaru. Why did you bother to help me.. I’m a half elf. You know?!”

“Why does that matter? You’re a beautiful girl!”

“But I have the face of who destroyed half of the world!”

“Who?”

“... The witch of envy?” So much confusion was plastered on her face. How can someone not know who she is?! Is he seriously not from this land?

“I’ve never heard  of someone like that in my life! I, Natsuki Subaru, hail from a land east from here and broke beyond compare!!” Subaru does his most iconic pose, pointing his arm to sky.

“Lugunica is the most east nation here… You’re seriously not from here?! That explains how broke you are..” Lia felt some quiet sadness for him.

“HEY HEY!!! I only got in this world a few hours ago!”

Puck pushes in. “Lia I think it’s time you tell him your name.”

The girl sprang up and nervously played with her fingers. How could she forget such a major detail?!

“You’re right! My name is… Sat-”

“Lia. Your real name. You can trust him.”

She huffs but follows through with her fathers demand. She doesn’t want to upset him.

“Emila. My name is Emilia.”

The sun shone on her, highlighting her ever present beauty to the young man and his companion. Her purple eyes reflected off his. His heart was bouncing in his chest. The woman of his dreams and potential friend right infront of him.

“That’s a beautiful name, Emilia.” Subaru declared. A large smile appeared on his face.

The two potential love birds looked over the view one last time, ready to discuss a plan of action…

[Checkpoint Reached!]