'I don't care how many times I have to repeat this loop. I don't care how many times I need to break my body to exhaustion. I don't care how painful my deaths will be.'
Subaru takes a deep breath.
'I have been given a chance. And I will not toss it away. Even if I have to spend an entire week in the same situation over and over and over again.'
Subaru still breathing heavily, shakes the blood away from his sword with a single swipe, and uses the bed sheets to wipe away the residual blood.
("I knew about that custom, for a very long time, but today I looked it up. It's called Chiburi. The ritualistic swing after bloodying your katana.
In the last loop Subaru needed to use up all the bed sheets to make children-backpacks. Yes I am sticking to the name, because it's funny.
Anyways in the last timeline Subaru didn't wipe the blood, before putting his sword away. I didn't plan it to be this way, but right now: I am glad how this worked out. That act of disrespect toward the blade, was a good metaphor for Subaru's mental state. He was doing things half assed, and everything resulted in bloodshed. If he pushed himself just a bit extra, and wiped away the dirt and blood, he might've saved Rem." -author)
'this time, Rem-kohai shouldn't interfere. This task is for me alone.'
He walks back to the small dome of unaffected by magic within the big dome of Shamak. In that centre of the centre was a barrel that had a bed sheet to cower the top.
'Children should not see what is happening. Well I guess I can dispell- no. I need to pick up Cain and Dine first.'
Subaru's voice is winded:
"I'm back. And up. We go." Subaru lifts the barrel.
'with R.B.D. only I should suffer. They didn't deserve to experience this hell.'
"Meina. Are you. Feeling. Better now? I shouldn't. Have made you. Drop down. From a hill."
"I'm fine now, I know Subaru only told me so he can protect everyone."
"Yer a. Brave. Girl. Meina. Yer parents. Will be. Proud." Subaru talks endearingly
Subaru exits the shamak dome which he still keeps up:
"Boys. How are you. Holding up? Are you. Keeping. The moral. High?" Subaru's boyish commanding tone now dominates his vocal cords.
"We're doin' fine, boss!" Lucas chimes
"I hope nobody gets seriously hurt" Mild meekly adds.
"Good. Remember. Do not. Lift. The Bedsheet. You guys. Shouldn't watch. Bad stuff. Happen. It'll get. More cramped. Pretty soon. I hope... You don't mind.
" 's no prob, boss"
"I like more company, it's less scary"
"I hope Petra-chan will be with us soon, I can't be the only girl here."
"Hehe, well you'll get two boys instead."
"Ugh, why do I have to be with those guys!"
"Yo, Cain. Subaru. Has arrived. I've come to. Rescue you, children. After I. patch you up. Get in the barrel."
"Huh, wha?"
"No time. To explain. Just get in. The rest. Of the gang. Will explain. As we go."
"Nuh, you're crazy!"
"Hehehe, Subaru is weird, I reacted the same when he got me."
"Same."
"Same."
"Just get in the barrel, dummy. We have to make it easier for Subaru to rescue us all." Meina chuckled.
" 's not that bad, actually."
"You'll feel safer with friends."
"agh! Fine! Subaru put me in!"
"Sure thing. Cain buddy."
"We gotta explain the rules, Subaru is out of breath." Meina responsibly adds
'I am grateful to them for giving me this time to think. We- I should really discuss what happened last time. I can't just ignore it forever, in this neverending time lop. I tried to avoid it until now, hyping myself for the battle...
But I killed that girl. I did it in the most cruel way too. The world might not remember, but I do. I need to make sure that situation doesn't happen. If the grip on my control is so easily shaken... What if I loose it in the future.'
"Ugh, power through it. You piece of shit: Subaru! I can't crumble mentally right now."
The children went silent after hearing this mumbling.
They arrive near Dine.
"Ahh, hell nah! I ain't going in no barrel!"
Subaru starts patching his leg, without a word.
"Dine don't be such a child!" Lucas bosses around.
"Yeah, don't make this hard on Subaru, he's trying to protect us."
Meina was pouting.
"Yeah, nii-san don't be a wuss." His brother Cain teases.
"You only get one chance to join the Barrel club" Mild offers.
"Who came up with that idea?" Dine blurts in frustration.
"Oh, you have a better one? How would you carry 6 brats on your back?" With teasing tone Subaru lifts an eyebrow.
"I woul- grrahhh! Fine! You win this time Subaru."
Finally managing to calm his breath, after "having a pause" by not rushing the patching up the remaining children. Don't get it wrong carrying 4 children on his back is still a workout, but at least he doesn't have to fight with it in this short period
Subaru with his new composure speaks out
:
"Hm, hm! Good man! Now get in the barel. From this point on, everyone stand up. Hug the wall of the barrel we need to fit in Petra quickly. We will remove the bed sheets, but no peaking what's outside, ok?"
Everyone agrees in their own way.
Something steels his attention in the distance:
"What is that sound? Are you kidding me?! I thought I said that only I can defat the-! Oh faaaarrtt she's coming this way!"
("He tried not to swear words in front of the kids, too late buddy..." -author.)
Subaru was pacing left and right.
"Rem turn away! Don't come here!" Subaru grew more and more anxious: 'she can't hear me! Shit I'll have to use it'
Subaru notices a big clump of muscle and murder intent rushing toward the maid.
"Rem! Look out, you idiot!" Subaru screemed in despair, preparing his shot of cursed energy blast.
Rem managed to dodge away from the bite with hair's width. Subaru was watching it intently so he managed to call off the risky shot, but still charging it.
Deciding she would be better off running than fighting she rushes to Subaru to drop the girl in a barrel. She picks the barrel up and starts running toward the village, not looking behind because that monster could be on her tail.
"Don't run away yet, Rem! I'll scold you later, but I am too grateful right now." As he fires the shot through a Wagpig's brain space, with a similar looking shot like last time: all the way baby!
'There are no universes where I can align a shot on this hippo together with something else. Especially not Guiltylowe. So I guess it's not a waste. Where is it, by the way:'
"Rem don't move until we deal with Guiltylowe."
"Yes, senpai!"
'I am down to half my curse energy when combining that last attack with everything else before. It's not that technique is usually this draining it's just that I suck that much.'
The blue haired girl thriws a temper tantrum on the back of the oversized cat:
"Cheater! Cheater! Cheater! You aren't supposed to have help! And what is up with that attack on my rockpiggie! You'll pay! You'll pay! You've sinned and now the village will pay the price ahahahahaha!"
Small explosion can be heard. Subaru looked panicked.
"I Rigged the protective crystals to explode! Now an entire army of Mabeast will wipe the slate clean!"
"You little demon spawn! I'll kill you!" Subaru sluggishly ran towards her. Rem was unmoving unable to process what to do. Her sister was there.
"That's right! That attack must have taken a lot from you. I would like to play with you a lot more, but I think I'll just take my revenge and leave. Lowey, kill him"
She looked delighted watching his pitiful, horrified, angry face. The way hers Guiltylowe was preparing to chomp him in half.
Oh what joy! The look on his ugly mug. Huh? He is smiling? A bluff? He was already inside his mouth. It was a bluff surely!
...
The way the top of Guiltylowe's head just slid off with a fountain of blood, made Meli think this is a dream.
A really bad dream. A dream where she's made fun of by the cruelty of this world.
In her shocked state she didn't even notice she hit the floor. The man she hated the most now stood above her:
"A game of hide and seek was fun, wasn't it? Shall we change it to a game of Chase? Run little witch, run!"
Running away from him? From a man drenched in blood, with those eyes that can see through thickest foliage? What a joke! She can only bargain.
"If you let me go, I promise to recall the attack on the village."
"Hmmm, let me think about it... No!"
"Are you crazy? All the people there will die."
"Ah my bad, let me pick you up so you can see. Rem you can go back now." He grabs the back off blue haired girls neck, like if she was a kitten. Strangely Meli didn't feel discomfort. As if the grip existed, and simultaneously it does not.
He backs away from the tree lines, and lifts her up high in the sky so she can clearly see the sky above the village.
Surely there was her swarm of black winged bats. Then there was the flash of a light blue storm that lit up the sky above the village, and suddenly there wasn't a swarm anymore.
"What did you do? What the HELL did you do?!"
Subaru lowers her down, and starts restraining her with bed sheets.
"Who, me? I did nothing. You're asking the wrong person, little girl!"
"Bastard! I don't care what you'll do to me! Kill me if you have to! But I'll send you to hell with me!"
Boss Wolfgarm walks out of the forest.
"You're such a bad girl. But I guess it saves me the time for looking for that Alpha. Wait for me h-. Actually! Since I already tied your arms and legs like this, I might as well wear you as a backpack."
("Meli's left arm was tied behind her back to the left leg, the same was for the right side, making... (Sigh)... Human made handles." -author)
"You're fucking crazy."
Subaru does exactly that...
("I swear to god, it wasn't my idea. This guy is just batshit crazy." -author)
"Feel that assassin-chan, this is called humiliation. Something you will come to know very intimately as I revoke your human rights when we get back to the Mansion."
("He has lost it. On the other hand, she kinda deserved it? Subaru stop changing my moral compass" -author.)
The Wolfgarms circle around Subaru. He draws his sword.
("Yes this sword durability is higher here, it not only serves as a metaphor, but Subaru genuinely focused his cursed energy to make it more durable and deadly. In his last time with Guiltylowe, he had lost control. Cursed energy usage is all about control." -author)
A wave after the wave of Wolfgarms fell down. Despite being surrounded Subaru used fairly little of his infinity. How? Did he grow eyes on his back?
...
Ohhhh.
OHHHHH!
He used the little girl as his radar!
By watching her hands he could see the changes in curse energy. When the wolfgarms attacked: the energy was fluctuating in the spectrum of vengefulness and resentment. The emotions of getting revenge. When his back was safe it was sadness and frustration. The emotions of someone being egged on.
("Even the narration is blown away by this insanity! Subaru, I know it's creative, but please stop. You can't use people as backpacks. This is not Star Wars, and the girl is no Joda!" -author.)
The kitchen knife he used so wrongfully in the last route, now is used to protect his back without looking. Subaru is flexible after all, and he can stab pretty far behind his back.
("Okay, even I can appreciate the irony of his back being protected by a knife. Y'know instead of being stabbed in the back by a knife."-author said like the biggest dork)
Subaru's method wasn't perfect and it only protected his most vital points. He was still being bitten on his thighs and calves. He powered through those and just ended the Ulgarm attacking it with his knife.
'An earthquake! I sort of ignored the existence of Alpha's yellow magic gate. So... the beast can use magic'
Subaru is sent flying, he is smirking: "talk about unfair, even beasts can use magic."
The Ulgarms are gathering at where they tought Subaru would be dropping to.
"Oi, you big idiot ugly mutt, you really tought I would be at a disadvantage in the air?"
Subaru started walking on air with his infinity. The Alpha now knowing Subaru was planning to drop on him turned to his giant form. Alpha opened his maw.
Subaru just summersaults with his sword, slashing the Alpha's head vertically. After he rotated in a front flip all the way around to his initial position: he raises his legs upwards pushed against a wall of air. Propelling himself downwards aiming for the neck. Then he drew the blade all the way down.
Technically the beast was dead after the first strike. The rest was Meili torment and just showing off.
In which way you may ask?
Well with this continous slash the friction of flesh finally lessened and Alpha's head flopped on two separate sides. You could see the brain matter and all, perfectly cut in the middle. Like a flower it bloomed all the way to Alpha's collar bone.
"You had more chance, leaving me on the ground: just sending cannon fodder onto me."
'Seriously my legs are busted up.
I have about a minute left on infinity too. They don't need to know that tho.'
"We have only 40 wolfgarms left. What do you say little girl, have you given up yet? Or should I exterminate them too."
"You're bluffing!"
"(Sigh) you don't give up, do you?"
'40 Ulgarms sould be no problem, even the way I am now I might still defeat them. But I want to come back home safely.
NOT to pass out with miss: I'll tear your guts apart with my pet lion or crocodile or whatever'
Mabeast circle around Subaru, and he tried to use the shield bash method like he used on the start of his previous route.
An utterly foolish move
Walking in this state is impossible. So subaru started to do what Subaru does. Flinging pebbles. He tried to do it on large masses so one can potentially take out two-three Mabeast. He took out 15 of them with his left arm. He didn't do it with his right because if he had dropped his sword it would've been game over. Ulgarm's rushed him as soon as they noticed their comrades where falling like flies. Subaru took out his kitchen knife positioned toward the back of his hand:
"Time to dual whield this shit!"
His right arm was the very touch of death. Cleaving through flesh, like a scythe in a wheat field. His left arm was merciless strike of a snake with a tenacity of a wasp. Not resting until the target received the barrage of stabs that turned body to mush.
There was a moment where one foolish dog managed to bite his left upper arm. Its bottom half went missing for its transgression. There was another that bit his right forearm. Its jaw and esophagus was separated by a kitchen knife.
'Oi, Oi, Oi! That's way more than 40. Fuck!'
Subaru's infinity ran out. He didn't push it to bleeding his eyes, just like that time with Elsa
Still he just knew, he is without his life-vest.
'The last five dogs.'
They were circling around him.
'Winning condition switched to have me bleed out. heh. You're all smart but, have you forgotten?'
Subaru takes out his stones. Not dropping his kitchen knife.
"1! 2! Spin! Slash! Stab! All dead!"
Subaru's spin sent him stubling over the corpeses:
"Fuck!"
"So you finally spent your everything, huh? Natsuki Subaru! How did Elsa lose to someone as pathetic as you?!"
"I still have energy to snap your neck, brat. Don't push it."
Subaru starts crawling on all fours.
"What are you going to do? Crawl your way to the village? Just go ahead and die already!"
"If i die then, you'll share the same fate. I don't think you can get out in time of this bind until all my comrades arrive."
Subaru got a nice 30 meters before...
"I'm just going to rest here a bit. The grass just feels too soft to pass on."
"No! Subaru!" Emilia's voice was panicked in the distance
"Might as well take a little nap."
Subaru's mind gives in to exhaustion.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Sorry for cutting this chapter short, it was too much of a tonal shift to be considered one coherent part.
Next chapter is going to be light-hearted before we jump into the heavy stuff. I am looking foward to that one, because there is major plot development in there.
I shouldn't spoil too much but it has something to do with: current Subaru's appearance.
Anyways I changed my profile pic. It is Subaru, because of this story... I want to honour my success to him in a way.
Special thanks to Eiiknostv for support. Your words mean so much, and you're the main reason why I decided to embrace this picture.
(Edit:) Special thanks to Deidrax too for supplying the internet with the awesome art of Gojo Subaru. I only recently got the green light on using your art for my profile and cover picture. I owe my existence in this form to you. I am sorry I didn't contact you earlier, for permission .
I like the sticking tongue part, because that's the only part I share with this art in appearance.
Silly author mood, lol.
A little bit of trivia:
Subaru is now my favourite fictional character due to the events that happen in arc 7.
Previously he held the third place right after childhood favourite spider-man, and Jonathan Joestar because he is such a kind hearted muscle mountain.
Still the difference between the three (previously) was microscopic so they basically shared the number one spot.
Not anymore tho.
Arc 7 gladiator island is... Just pain. It changed how I view Subaru forever. I knew he was heroic before. But the tooth incident is... God damn. My big brother instincts are driving me insane. My lil bro needs help. I swear I am heading to Re:zero in my next life to help him any way I can.