With a shaky hand, Subaru put the metia up to his ear. He wasn't sure whose voice he was going to hear. Subaru spoke his next word in a calm voice.
"Hello?"
Whoever was on the other side of the metia only spewed out static. Among it there was what sounded like a distorted voice calling out to him, but it could've also have just been Subaru's imagination.
Subaru heard a, "Haahhfro."
"Hello!?" Subaru stupidly thought that if he raised his voice the metia would work. Subaru had a worried expression on his face. He was going to lose them. Even though it was just static there was no doubt that this call must have come from Kararagi. That's where the only other metias were located.
It had to be someone from Kararagi. It had to be. There no way it couldn't. Subaru held onto this like his life depended on it.
Subaru's life was Rem, if this caller was from Kararagi then they might, MIGHT, know a way back. A way back to Rem.
"Who is this!?"
More static. More distorted voices.
The man next to Subaru was watching the whole ordeal. He didn't know what was going on, but the phone-thing was making a lot of noise, "Hey, kid! Turn that off!"
Subaru either didn't hear or didn't give a damn what the man thought, "Hello?! I can't understand you! Where are you?!"
"Hey! Will you shut it off already?!" The man was raising his voice now. An irritated look was evident on his face.
As if to answer his request on its own, the metia hung up. The person on the other side must have ended the call.
"Damn it!" Subaru tried to call back, but he remembered the number was blocked.
A thought crossed his mind; if he was able to receive a call from Kararagi then he must also be able to make calls too. Right?
Subaru flipped through the contacts list, starting with the most important people first.
Subaru clicked on Rem's icon.
This metia is no longer available or in service.
Pain struck his chest, but he didn't give up. Moving onto Oki's icon, Subaru pressed it.
This metia is no longer available or in service.
Subaru began to feel tears roll down his face. Another.
This metia is no longer available or in service.
His tears were still falling. And another.
This metia is no longer available or in service.
Subaru tried each contact he had, but was met with the same message. With every call failed, a new tear fell.
For just a few second Subaru was in contact with the other world. But now he was cut off again.
The man in the other bed saw Subaru's face and worryingly asked, "You OK, kid?"
Subaru closed his eyes and shook his head. No.
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It took two days for the doctor's to finally deem Subaru as healthy enough to leave.
During his last two days no one called him back on the metia. Subaru took it with him everywhere he went, no matter where he was going. The doctors would ask if they could take it from him to return it to his room while he went through various physical tests.
"No, I want to keep it with me." The doctors didn't want to argue so they would leave it at that.
Subaru was visited by his friends the day after he met his parents. They were all happy to see him back, but no tears were shed, they all didn't want to seem weak in front of Subaru who appeared to be holding himself together.
He tried to answer all their questions. All their bright faces couldn't wait to hear about Subaru's misadventures. But unlike with his parents, Subaru didn't want to say anything weird about where he's been in front of his friends so he went with some vague answers.
"Where've you been?" Somewhere else.
"Were you kidnapped by people?" No, but I did get some help though from a woman. The witch.
"Who was she?" I don't know really.
"Why were you gone so long then?" I got used to it.
"Used to what?" Not being here.
The questions went on for a few for minutes until the talk shifted to school.
One of Subaru's good friend, Klein, said Subaru had missed a lot.
No sh**, idiot! I was gone for a whole year. But Subaru didn't say that, he just smiled, "Yeah."
Subaru was sure how he felt about having to go back to school. It meant him having to go through his Junior year without his friends as they progressed to their Senior years. Nobody pointed this out, but it still hung in the air like a poisonous gas.
After another hour of talking and reminiscing a nurse came by and ushered the boys out of the room say that visiting hours were over.
The man that used to be next to Subaru was gone, he was moved to another section of the hospital to be closer to the x-ray room. An empty bed took his place. Subaru never realized he could feel so lonely without him. His little quips here and there brought some life into his time at the hospital. Subaru just didn't realize it before. He should have been nicer.
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Now out of the hospital, Subaru was eased into a car by Kenichi. Not much was said on the ride home, Subaru mainly looked outside at the blooming cherry blossoms and buildings, all of which passed by his vision in a blur.
"I'm glad you're back, Son." Kenichi took a hand off the wheel to rub Subaru's shoulder, "You know, for the first few months I wasn't sure your mother was ever going to stop crying over you."
Subaru looked at the side of his dad's face. Kenichi's eyes were wet, but he didn't cry. A small grin formed across his lips.
"She thought you ran away, but I knew better. I knew my son would never leave his mother behind, broken, left to a state where she cried every night for months." Kenichi wiped his eyes with a tissue. A bag of them rested on a dashboard. Left there for when Naoko would have her Subaru moments in the car. "But after a few more months, I lost hope in you ever coming back. We prayed for your safety. Wished you would live peacefully wherever you were.
Subaru wasn't sure what to say, and under his expressionless face, Subaru was dying of guilt. He never thought that while he was living a happy life with Rem in the other world, his parents were suffering in this one. Suffering over him.
Subaru, again, looked at his dad who was trying to hide his tears. He felt sorry for bring tears to his dad's perfect face.
The last time Kenichi cried this much was when he saw the comatose Subaru on the hospital bed. Kneeling, Kenichi took one of Subaru's hands into his own and whispered a silent prayer into. Pleading to whatever god was listening, to wake his son from his own dreams.
Subaru's heart was hurting from the distress he inadvertently caused his parents. His mother didn't deserve to go through the pain his disappearance caused. She was too fragile, anything serious would break her heart. His father was too good of a man to have suffered so much in the past year, having to watch his wife succumb to depression.
Kenichi worked hard to keep his family happy and when Subaru disappeared he stopped building the boat he reserved for his family, using its pieces to block the holes that threatened to sink Naoko into the deep depths.
For ten minutes neither said anything. Subaru had thought about it the whole time, but he was finally ready to say the few words he hadn't said to his father in many, many years.
"I love you, dad." Subaru looked at his father with a sincere smile. Kenichi looked at his son. Subaru's smile shattered Kenichi's dark thoughts. His son of 19 years had finally said the words he most truly wanted to hear since Subaru started to ignore him 10 years ago.
Kenichi's eyes wouldn't stop leaking, causing him to have to wipe them constantly. Kenichi looked to his son again after wiping away his tears, "I love you too, son. I always have." Subaru and Kenichi both smiled at each other for a few seconds.
Looking back at the road, Kenichi slammed the brakes, and narrowly avoided being T-boned by a massive semi-truck. If Kenichi hadn't noticed the red light both of them would have been dead, their bodies mangled by the impact of what should have been a very powerful hit.
Kenichi was shaken up, his expression told Subaru that he was scared, scared of what might've happened if he paid any less attention to the road than he did before.
"Are you OK, Subaru?"
Subaru had the wind knocked out of him. Before the slamming of the brakes Subaru happened to be exhaling. The Sudden stop propelled his motion forward causing his lungs to squeeze out any air that was left in them. The result was a pained Subaru who talked just above a whisper.
"Yeah....I'm OK." Subaru began to take deep breaths.
Kenichi looked at Subaru, he half jokingly said, "Damn, that was a thrill ride, right, Subaru?"
"You could say that, I guess." All this felt familiar to Subaru. This inability to breathe, the threat of death, a pain in his chest. They all represented his punishment from the witch.
As Kenichi started to drive again, this got Subaru thinking. Did he have Return-By-Death anymore? In Lugnica and Kararagi Subaru reset every time he died. Did his powers extend to this world? Granted, he never died during his first 17 years in his world. So he had no idea if his powers extended from this world and to the next or if he only had RBD in his other world.
Subaru wasn't exactly keen on running experiments on his theories by jumping off buildings. He didn't enjoy the fact of actually dying for real and not restarting. The witch would probably be looking at him and laughing while pointing at his distorted body, "What a loser!"
Subaru had to remember this hypothesis. In Lugnica, jumping off a cliff and getting killed was how Subaru actually solved his problems. By killing himself Subaru was able to gain an advantage on everyone because he had knowledge of the future. (AN: I'm not supporting the idea that suicide solves all your problems. This only applies to Subaru. You may already know that, but I'm putting it in here just to be safe.)
Until Subaru found Rem his plan was to not die. Not that there was any dangers in his world like psychotic, blade-wielding female hit-men, monster infested forests, and murderous cults rampaging all across Japan. Everything in his world was just peachy.
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For the rest of the ten minutes left in the drive, Kenichi drove more cautiously. He didn't want a repeat of earlier so he settled with giving Subaru side glances, smiling almost the whole ride home.
Upon entering the house Subaru saw just how little changed in the house over a year. Next to the front door, a shoe rack was placed, his old kid shoes were there from all the years of changing shoes. Subaru never realized why his parents kept his old shoes, he wanted to throw them away but his mother insisted against it. A short hallway led from the front door to split area. Going straight led to the living room, going to the right led to the kitchen, and if one were to go left would find themselves going down a long hallway. Halfway down the hallway, a restroom was located and at the end of the hallway three doors were located; two on the right and one on the left. The first door on the right was a guest room, the second door was his parents room, the last door on the left was Subaru's room.
Subaru removed his shoes and went straight to his room. Nothing was different except for the fact that it was clean. From the door his room stretched towards the left of his house. His bed was in the far corner, dresser still placed at the foot of the bed. A studying table was next to his bed, a tattered lamp was still standing on it. A door on the wall at the entrances left was a closet.
All the furnishing took up a little less than half of the room, letting Subaru have enough room to throw his stuff on the floor and not cause a tripping hazard.
Flopping onto his bed, Subaru pressed his face into his pillow. Pulling out his metia and scrolling through his contacts, Subaru had an idea form in his head. Subaru turn onto his back and stared at the ceiling. He pocketed the metia back into his pocket.
Subaru wanted to find a way back to Kararagi and wanted to find it fast. The sooner he saw Rem, the sooner he would feel happier.
People often say that if you lost something the best thing for you to do would be to retrace your steps. If Subaru wanted to listen to this advice he would have to wait till nightfall. Hopefully by morning he would be able to see Rem's beautiful smile once more.