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English
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Published:
2025-10-31
Completed:
2025-10-31
Words:
1,537
Chapters:
2/2
Comments:
6
Kudos:
23
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530

In a past life

Summary:

In the aftermath of a brutal loop in the Sanctuary. Subaru dies — again — and wakes up in Echidna’s tea party. But this time, something goes wrong: her dream world begins to twist, memories that aren’t his bleed through, and Subaru starts remembering fragments of Flugel, the ancient sage who loved Satella.

Chapter 1: The name beneath the tree

Chapter Text

The scent of tea should have been comforting.
It never was.
Subaru’s eyes flickered open to the familiar sight of the white table, the glassy void around it stretching into nothing.
Steam drifted from a porcelain cup across from him — and behind it, Echidna smiled with her usual curiosity, black and white hair glimmering in the empty light.
“Back again so soon, Subaru-kun?” she said sweetly. “You’re becoming quite the regular guest.”
Subaru let out a ragged breath. He still felt it — the phantom pain of his last death, the desperate pull of his body being torn apart.
He swallowed, forcing the tremor down.
“Yeah. Guess I’ve earned a loyalty card by now.”
Echidna tilted her head, chin resting on her hand. “You’re shaking. Again.”
“I just—” He stopped. It wasn’t just the usual post-death haze. The space felt different. Alive. The void beyond the table pulsed faintly, like something beneath its surface was breathing.
Echidna noticed it too. Her expression sharpened, eyes narrowing.
“Curious. This domain is mine, and yet…”
She trailed off, gaze flicking to the air behind him.
“You’re not alone, are you?”
A shiver ran down Subaru’s spine.
“What do you mean?”
Echidna’s smile faded. “Something followed you here.”
The world rippled. The tea in her cup began to tremble.
Subaru turned—and for a moment, he thought he saw her.
A shadow shaped like a woman, draped in silver hair, eyes hidden beneath darkness.
“...Satella.”
The Witch of Envy’s presence was suffocating, but different this time. Not rage. Not jealousy. Just sorrow.
Echidna stood, her composure cracking for the first time since he’d known her.
“Impossible. She shouldn’t be able to enter here.”
Subaru clutched his chest. His heartbeat thundered against his ribs—and then, he saw it.
Not with his eyes, but somewhere deeper.
A vast tree under a violet sky. Its branches were carved with countless runes, each glowing faintly like stars.
Beneath it stood a man with black hair and weary eyes, carving letters into the bark with bleeding hands.
And beside him—a woman. Silver-haired. Smiling softly as she touched his cheek.
“When you return,” she whispered, “find this tree. I’ll be waiting beneath it.”
Subaru stumbled backward, gasping.
“What… was that?”
Echidna watched him carefully, expression unreadable.
“You saw something. Tell me.”
“I… I don’t know,” he panted. “A tree. A name carved into it. A promise.”
“Whose name?” she asked quietly.
He hesitated. The letters burned in his mind, carved in light.
F…L…U…G…E…L.
Before he could speak, the world cracked. Shadows poured across the white table like spilled ink.
Echidna’s voice echoed, distant now.
“That name… it shouldn’t exist anymore.”
Satella’s voice slipped through the dark like a caress.
“Flugel,” she whispered—and this time, Subaru felt the name pierce his soul.
“You’ve come back to me.”
His breath caught. His vision filled with silver light, a warmth so familiar it hurt.
He reached out instinctively—
—and the dream shattered.
Subaru woke screaming, the Sanctuary’s cold air filling his lungs.
Sweat drenched his body. His hand was still outstretched toward nothing.
The Witch’s voice lingered, soft as a heartbeat.
“Find me beneath the tree.”
And though he didn’t understand why, Subaru wept.

Chapter 2: A name that burns

Chapter Text

The morning sun pierced through the thin canopy of trees surrounding the Sanctuary’s outer grounds, but Subaru barely noticed.
His body ached in ways that death shouldn’t have allowed, every muscle still tense from the latest loop, yet his mind was consumed with a single, persistent thought.
Flugel…
The name had burned itself into his memory, echoing louder than any scream or threat he’d faced in the Sanctuary.
The way it resonated felt intimate, like it belonged to him, yet alien, as if it were a life he had once lived and had long since forgotten.
Subaru wandered the grounds aimlessly, his steps hesitant.
Each shadow seemed to twist unnaturally in the corner of his vision, and every rustling leaf whispered fragments of voices he couldn’t fully place.
Satella’s voice—soft, mournful, beckoning—hovered at the edge of his consciousness.
“Find me… beneath the tree…”
He shivered. The words were not a threat, not this time. They were a plea.
Back at the white table of Echidna’s tea party, the memory of the dream lingered.
He remembered her curious eyes, the shadowed shape of Satella, and the tree carved with glowing runes.
The image burned brighter with each passing hour, and he knew he couldn’t ignore it.
The next loop came sooner than he expected. Death came, as always, cold and inevitable—but this time, as he felt his body tearing apart, his mind clung to something that wasn’t panic.
He clung to the name: Flugel.
When Subaru opened his eyes again, he wasn’t on the cold ground of the Sanctuary.
He was back in the tea party, yet the familiar space felt… different. Warmer. Softer.
The edges of the room rippled, and the endless white void beyond the table seemed tinged with faint violet light.
Echidna was there, of course, sipping her tea as always, though her smile carried a note of unease.
“You survived again,” she said, her tone lighter than usual, almost cautious. “And yet, something is different about you, Subaru-kun. Do you feel it too?”
Subaru hesitated, unsure of how to describe the tremor inside his chest.
“I… I saw her again. Satella. But… not as she is now. She… she was…”
He swallowed hard. “…she was herself. Before. And she called a name… my name, maybe. Or… hers? Flugel. I don’t understand it, but…”
Echidna’s eyes narrowed, the faintest crease appearing on her brow.
“Flugel… That name should have vanished with time itself. How could you remember it?”
Subaru shook his head violently.
“I don’t know! But it felt… like it was mine. Like I knew her. Like I loved her.”
The silence that followed was heavy.
Echidna’s gaze lingered on him, her usual calmness replaced with something more measured, as if she were trying to weigh the danger—or the truth—of what Subaru had just admitted.
“You are remembering something,” she said softly, almost to herself. “Something older than any of this… older than Subaru Natsuki.”
Subaru’s stomach turned.
“Older? What do you mean?”
“Time is not kind to souls like yours,” Echidna murmured.
“It seems the cycle has remembered itself through you. A name… a promise… a love that existed long before you were summoned to this world.”
Her words hit Subaru harder than any blow.
His mind raced, trying to stitch together fragments of dreams, feelings, and memories he could barely touch.
And then it came again. The whisper. Barely audible, yet unmistakable.
“Flugel… you’ve come back to me.”
Subaru froze.
The voice was softer than any he had ever heard in his life, yet it carried the weight of centuries.
It didn’t feel threatening. It felt like warmth, sorrow, longing, and hope all at once.
“Satella…?” he whispered, his voice trembling.
Echidna leaned back slightly, her eyes narrowing.
“Careful, Subaru. She is dangerous, but she is… calling to you. And it seems she remembers you as well.”
Subaru’s hands clenched into fists.
The weight of the loops, the deaths, the endless failures—it all became secondary.
His heart ached for her—for the woman who was both the Witch of Envy and someone he felt he had once loved.
He didn’t understand why, yet he knew it was true.
He closed his eyes, letting the memories seep through, flashes of a life he had not lived consciously but somehow belonged to him.
A tree beneath a violet sky.
A woman’s hand brushing his cheek.
Words of love spoken centuries ago.
A promise carved into bark glowing faintly with light.
“Find me beneath the tree…” the whisper echoed again, closer this time.
Subaru opened his eyes and stared at Echidna.
“I… I have to find her,” he said, voice firm, trembling with both fear and determination.
“Even if I don’t understand it all… I have to see her again. I have to remember everything.”
Echidna’s gaze softened slightly, but the intensity remained.
“Be careful, Subaru. You are awakening something that has been buried for centuries. Once memory takes hold, it cannot be undone.”
He nodded, swallowing hard.
His heart pounded. He didn’t care about danger. He didn’t care about death or Return by Death.
All that mattered was the name, the promise, and the silver-haired woman who waited for him across time.
And as he left the tea party, the faint violet glow of a tree beneath a distant sky seemed to burn into the edges of his vision, calling to him.
“Flugel… come back to me.”
Subaru’s breath caught. His fingers twitched. Somewhere deep inside, a piece of him—the soul of Flugel—stirred.
And for the first time, he felt that the endless loops, the suffering, and the pain of the Sanctuary were no longer just his punishment.
They were a path, a test, a journey back to the one he had loved before time itself had forgotten.
But the tree was far away, and Satella’s call was faint.
And somewhere in the shadows, Echidna’s warning echoed:
Some memories are dangerous… because once awakened, they cannot be silenced.