Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Tokyo, Japan.

Another day, another shift.

Another streamer who come to the store to record another episode of wathever mistery program they have.

Just as they have been doing for the whole year after that boy's dissapareance.

Truly, the mistery of the century, but man, having to deal with these snoopers for the last year have been very tiring.

At least he doesn't need to deal with the poliice anymore.

As my shift ended, I was about to close the store until i see something in the ground just in front of the door.

No, not something, someone, who was lying face flat in the ground.

As I got closer to check up on the person on the ground, I then saw they weren't alone.

There were other 2 figures there, a girl with blue hair, and a child with unusually long blond hair, and a rather... Inapropiate dress.

But, how they got here? I saw at the sides of the streets to see if they were dropped from some vehicle here, but the streets were entirely empty at this hour.

What should I do? They were unconcious, and after prodding them a bit, they didn't woke up, so I did the sensible thing:

Call the authorities.

----------------------------

"Okay sir, so you didn't saw them arriving, you just found them lying on the door?"

"Yes officer, it was just like that, as if they ahd come out of nowhere?"

"Hm, can we check up the security footage?"

"Of course, come in"

A police cruiser had arrived shortly after the clerk had called the authorites. After the police checked up the individuals and saw thye weren't waking up, the officers called for ambulances to take away these people to a nearby hospital.

While the ambulances were carrying up the uconscious people aboard, one of the paramedic ran inside the store to tell something to the officer.

"Officer! the boy, It's the Natsuki boy!"

"What!? are you really sure it is him?"

"Yes officer, we are sure, he looks identical!"

"Okay, take them to the Ichiya hospital, I'll call back hq to send over there more officers"

As the paramedic left towards the ambulance, I opened the security footage on the computer, and rewinded the footage to see how these people appeared there.

"Okay, lets see what happened"

I hit play of the footage,

At 7:34Pm was the last minute they weren't there

7:35 hit and

...

Its...

The same thing that appeared in the footage of the boy dissapareance.

A black spot appearing momentanously, before the three people materialized out of thin air.

What. The. Fuck.

The officer looked now shocked, in disbelief of what they had just.

"Sir... We-we need to take the footage with us, and you will have to come too for declarations"

Oh come ON! not this bullshit again, damn it.

Just when this circus was nearing to an end, now this happens and I get dragged into this all over again.

I hope this gets resolved quickly, I don't wanna waste my nearby vacations in a police station, just like last year.

I saw the three ambulances leaving while blarring their sirens, I hope those three are fine and Okay.

I guess I have to call the boy's family to tell them his son was found after all this time.

Chapter Text

?????

Ugh my head. Where am I?

As his conciousness started to return, he could feel the severe fatigue he had acumulated the extended use of cor leonis in the tower.

I died? No, Am I on a bed?

As he took sense of his surroundings, the first thing he felt was the soft mattress under him, as well as the cool air of the room where he was.

Where am I?

As his eyes started to focus, he could see in more detail the room.

A door in front of him with a glass window on it.

2 people sleeping in a bench next to his bed, along a baby stroller.

A window poiting at a street with streetlight.

Wait.

Streetlight!?

He finally focused his eyes well, and efectively, outside there were streetlights and skyscrappers, as well as some cars of the road.

No

His confusion turned to panic.

This cannot be!

He was back.

Back in Japan.

But how!?

Had the with sent him back?

Had she done a mistake?

Or maybe... It was everything a dream from a coma?

The panic started to get to him, and he tried to put his hands on his head, only to feel something was pulled with them.

He looked at his left arm, which was covered in bandages, and he could see that within the gaps, there was black skin.

He saw then his right arm, which had an IV on it, as well as the scars that dotted his arms.

My arms, the scars! They are real, so it is not a coma!

A bit of relief entered him, but it did little to soothe his worry about this.

What happened to Rem? Did the shadow took her?

Did the shadow took everyone else!?

But his mussings were cut short as he heard stirring.

He turned to see the 2 people sleeping om the bench, who subaru now was able to identify.

Mom, Dad.

He could feel tears starting to form in his eyes.

His parents were here, with him, long after he came to terms with the fact he would never see them again.

He unknowingly sniffled loudly, which was enough to make his mother awake.

She slowly opened her eyes and straightened her head, only for her lock eyes with Subaru.

"Subaru"

"Mom"

They kept their eyes locked for second, while tears started to form in Naoko's face, her expression turned into one joy.

"Subaru, MY BABY!"

She jumped out of the bench, making Kenichi fall on the bench and waking up in an instant, while Naoko hurried to hug Subaru with all of her strenght.

"SUBARU, SUBARU, MY BABY, YOU ARE HERE, YOU ARE HERE, YOU ARE BACK!"

Subaru was speechless, he could do nothing but hug her back, until he felt another pair of arms hugging him.

"SON, SON, YOU ARE FINE, YOU ARE FINE!"

Both his parents were crying over him, grateful that their son had made it back home after a whole year, safe and sound, if a bit scratched.

All their crying, however, bothered another member of the family.

"Wah, wah, Waaaaaah!"

His parents cries were silebced by the wailing, their attention turned to the stroller.

Naoko walked to it, gently lifting out of it the source of the wailing.

"Su-subaru. Meet your new sister!"

She then proceded to give Subaru a small bundle of clothes she had lifted out of the stroller.

Inside the bundle, there was a small baby girl which couldnt be older than a few months at most, wailing loudly, no wonder bothered by all the crying from his parents.

Subaru picked her and rucked her in his arms, her cries almost dissapearing as sge was picked up by him.

Subaru feel a deep happiness in his heart at the sight of the baby.

His parent hadn't been entirely abandoned after his uniwillingly departure.

His mind eventually settled in a single thought at the sight of such an scene.

I am truly back

Chapter Text

Fujiwara hospital

This has been an uneventful  and slow night for Doctor Seiko.

No emergency calls, no surgeries scheduled for tonight.

For a moment, he thought he could end his shift earlier than usual today, given the relative peace of the hospital today.

However, just as he was about to clock out, there was an incoming call from ER

'Great, right when I am leaving'

Begrundigly, he answered the call, hoping it wasn't something so serious.

3 people, found unconcious on the street with no apparent wounds. One of them wqs the Natsuki boy.

'Natsuki? Now this got interesting'

Seemingly one of the persons being brought was the boy that, over a year ago, quite literally, vanished in the air in front of a store.

'Duty calls I guess'

He put on his robe, and walked out from his office towards the emergency room, whete the new patients were being unloaded.

As he arrived there, he took a look at the three figures in the stretchers, who were being placed in medical beds by the paramedics.

'Lets take a look'

First, the Natsuki boy.

He had several lacerations and cuts visible, some of his clothes were torn in places, on top of these looking... Antiquated. The paramedics confirmed there was not signals of internal hemorrage or concussion. He would order full xrays and resonance just in case.

Next the blue haired girl.

Again, clothes that had a mix of being old with modern, a dress that looked medieval while having modern looking leggins and a corsette. Weird cosplay indeed.

She didn't had signals of any kind of injury, and her clothes were inmaculate, ir somehwat dirty.

Again, full xrays and resonance to ensure there was no internal damage.

Next, the child.

She had inusually long blonde hair, and was wearing a white dress that, frankly, was anything but appropiate for a child her age.

She neither had any signal of injuries, but just as the other 2, the paramedica were unable to wake her up.

'Drugs maybe? They dont smell like alcohol'

X rays and resonance for her too. As well as blood tests for the three of them.

As he was about to leave, one of the parameeics called him back with hurry on his voice, pointing at the boy.

"Doctor! His arm!"

Indeed, as the paramedics started to undress them to intern them, they discovered that the boy's left arm was pitch black.

For a moment he thought it was gangrene, he almost had him sent to surgery to remove it. Until he looked closer.

The skin, aside the color, didn't had the bloating gangrene usually has.

Nor it had the smell of rotten meat.

On top of it, if the boy had a whole arm gangrenated, the sepsis would have killed him far before it got this bad, yet the boy had no symptoms of such.

And the paras kept undressing him, they found that his right leg was also blackened just like his arm.

The doctor, for the first timw in his life, wasn't sure at was he was looking.

He did not know about a condition that could blacken tissue like this without causing cellular death.

Just to be sure, he asked for a scalpel and did a small incision in his arm, half expecting for the putrid smell of gangrenw to come.

Instead, no smell came, and red blood started to flow out of the wound.

"Have samples of his arm's skin sent to the lab. I have never seen something like this in my life, also do full blood toxicologic tests on the three of them"

As he turned around, nobody saw how the wound closed with a speed far too unnatural for an human body, then healed without even leaving a scar behind.

----------------------------------

It's been 2 hours since the patients arrived.

They put over the descriptiom of the other 2 girls, hoping somebody could recognize them, given nobody has woken up yet to explain themselves as to what had happened to them.

The Natsuki's parents had arrived just a few moments after he left ER for the test, they had cried a lot before being allowed inside his son's room to await his awakening.

As to the other 2, nobody had yet called them to indetify them. Guess they'll have to wait.

The X rays and Resonances showed no signs of internal injuries, albeit the blue haired girl showed the presence of a strange, cartylague like, tissue on her forehead.

This had left the specialist baffled as to what he was seeing, as far as they knew, there shoudln't be any cartylague there.

Yet it wasn't the only oddity.

When the blood test arrived, they all were clean of any know drug on their systems.

But the boy and blue haired girls resutla were quite interesting.

The boy blooe actively showed 2 types of blood. B negative, the boy known blood type. And traces of O negative in his bloodstream.

Had the boy received a transfussion recently?

But that wasnt the end of it. His samples showed the presence of a black susbtance on it after the blood had been centrifugated.

It was a small amount, the lab was still investigating what this substance was, because they had never seen something like this in their lives.

And the second oddity was the blue haired girl.

The levels of... Everything. Were off.

Hemoglobine, glucose, lactic acid, white cells.

Every single level was either far too above or far too below of that of a normal person.

The presence of unknow aminoacids had the technician wonder if the blood he was given was actually human blood at all. Seiko had to personally had the technician take a sample of the girl to confirm the blood came from a person.

He had then ordered a DNA test to be done to the girls blood. Discretely of course. He didn't know what he was getting into, or what the hell had the boy been involved into. But that girl... Was an oddity.

And oddity he better keeps silent about. For now.

As for the child, everything was normal.

All the levels were on acceptable bounds. And there were any signs of drugging either.

'Then why aren't they wakint up?'

As the doctor mused on this, a nurse knocked on his office's door.

"Come in"

"Doctor Seiko. The blue haired girl and the Natsuki boy had woken up"

"Hm? What is their status?"

"The boy seems to be fine. He is being hugged by his parents right now".

"Good. And the woman?"

"She seems to have amnesia. She doesn't even recall her own name"

Amnesia? Well, this was severe.

"Have some nurse watch over her and answer wathever question she has. Once the boy parents stop crying, we can question him about those two and what happened for them to end up like this. And the blonde child?"

"She hasn't woken up yet doctor."

"Okay, call me inmediatly when she does. You can leave now"

"Okay doctor"

As the nurse left, the doctor was kept wondering about this night events.

'guess I'll have to do extra hours today. Now what other surprises are in store for today'

Chapter Text

While waiting for the further results on the blue haired girl's blood test, Seiko decided to visit the new patients, starting with the Blonde haired child, which as far as hebknows, is still unconscious.

However, as he approached the ro where the girl was kept, he heard strugling sounds, hearing some shouts coming from the room.

"Calm down! calm down!"

"Aaaauaah!'

"You are safe, calm do- AAAAAAAH"

A blood curling scream was heard, which didn't sounded like a children scream, then loud thud, lile someone getting hit.

When he was about to open the door, the dorr was blown open, and behind, was the child, standing on all fours like an animal.

With blood driping from her chin, and two fingers on her mouth.

She spat the fingers and with far more strenght than a children should have, shoved aside the doctor, and set off running in all fours towards God knows where.

When he turned to check the room, there were the two nurses who where attending the girl. One of them was tumbled agaisnt the wall, her hand clutching the left side of her chest.

The other was helding her hand, attemping to use her shirt to make an improptu tornqiuet.

He helped the the injured nurses, seeing that the one agaisnt the wall had a noticeable bruise in her chest, and shortly after started to cough blood.

It seem that her lung was pierced. But how? A child shouldn't have the strenght to injure an adult like this. Much more less to bite off fingers.

Shortly afterwards, some more nurses arrived at the room, alerted by the scream.

"Help them out,  and take mizuke to surgery to reattach her fingers. I'll go for the girl"

He then ran out of the room, following the blood trail on the floor of the halls.

Where was this girl heading? It didn't took long to figure out where.

"MOM, DAD, GET AWAY FROM HER !"

He heard shouting coming down from the leftmost hall, where the Natsuki boy had been placed.

He went there, finding that the door to his room was also blown off, the lock being clearly broken, and inside, saw the Natsuki parents stading on one side of the room, while in the middle, there was the girl, on fours over the boy, licking him?

"GET OFF ME" Yelled the boy before pushing the girl off from him into the ground, the girl looking confused, while his mother expressikn, which was just as confused, mow turned sour.

"Subaru? That's not how you should treat a kid!"

"Mom, she is not a normal kid, she is very dangerous!"

"Nonsense, all i see is a kid who is happy to see you"

"Mom! Her mouth is covered in blood! She probablt bit someone on her way here!"

"Must side with the boy miss Naoko"

"Huh?" 

"The girl gravely injured two nurses before coming here. A girl he age shouldn't have the strenght to do so. I ask you to stand back please"

He approached the girl, who was now at the foot of the bed, attemping to climb back into the bed, until he heard a conmotion behind him.

2 male nurses, along a cop, arrived at the room, their intention more than obvious: aprehend the inusually strong girl.

"Officer!" Said Subaru "Take her away! Cuff her and put her in a locked room!"

"Subaru! What is wrong with you, she is just a child" said Naoko, whose anger toward his son was clear for everyone in the room.

"Mom, she is dangerous, very very dangerous trust me, you don't even wanna touch her"

"How can a child be that dangerous?"

"Just trust me. Later I will tell you"

"The girl was looking at him, expectantly, as the other 2 nurses approached her from behind and picked her up.

She started to struggle in ther grasp the nurse clearly syruggling too im keeping her restrained.

"Aaauuh uuaaah! Uuuuaah!"

"Get away from here! Out"

This seemingly did the trick. The girl shutted up, then slowly started to cry. The officer slowly approached the child and cuffed her, the child no longer resisting the nurses, whot took her away, her cries being heard in the hall.

Subaru himself had a surprised face after seeing how the girl had seemingly pacified after he orderwd to stop, then asked the doctor.

"You said she injured two people, how?"

"She broke the ribs of one nurse, and then bited off the fingers of a second"

"Damn it. Are they fine?"

"Don't worry boy, they were taken to surgery to treat their injuries as soon as possible"

"Good, good" said Subaru who was starting to calm down from the conmotion.

His mother approached him, her anger replaced by worry.

"Subaru, dear. Do you kow that girl?"

"Y-yes mom. She is an evil person. She tried to harm me and my friends, i don't even know how she came here with me"

"She wasn't the only one who was found along you"

"Huh?"

"Aside her, there was a blue hairwd girl too. I think she is also unconscious"

"She actually woke up not too long ago miss Naoko" said him.

Subaru expression suddenly shifted. His face was serene, then tears staryed to flow out of his eyes.

"Re-Rem, she is awake!?" Asked Subaru desperately.

"Yes Mister Subaru, she has woken up not too long ago. But she seems to have amnesia, as she doesn't remember even her own name or how she arrived with you at the store"

That had made it, subaru tears becane a full blown cry, Subaru cries making his parents gets close go him to console him.

Eventually his cries nade the young baby, his sister if he recalls correclty, to cry along him.

He spent a long while crying, while muttering "Rem" and "You are awake"

After he calmed enough, and Naoko was able to calm down his sister, the doctor asked him.

"Subaru, i need to talk with you about some things. Particularly abou those two girls and some of the injuries you have in your body. And some cops would also like to mske you some questions"

The boy visibly tensed, clearly afraif of such a questioning. Did he not wanted to share what happened to him?

"O-of course doctoooooor"

"Seiko, call ne doctor Seiko"

"Okaaay Doctor seiko... What do you want to know?"

Here we go, time to find some answers.

Chapter Text

Doctor Seiko was on his way towards the blue haired girl room, after questioning the Natsuki boy about his injuries.

He was particularly evasive, saying most of his scars were caused by a pack of dogs (albeit they were far bigger than a normal dog bites) and that the seemingly necrosis in his arm and leg wasnt necrosis, but some sort of infection that made it black, but was under control. Given how the paramedics said the arm was seemingly fine, no signals of putrefaction or tissue death at all. He would have further tests ordered to figure out what exactly caused it. The boy insisted it wasnt contagious, he hopes so.

As he apprached the blue haired girl room, Rem, as Subaru had called her, he passed by where the blonde child, Louise, had been kept before she broke out. There was blood in the floor, and a door almost entirely blown out of the hinges. How could a child so young have the strenght to do so, but even overpower and heavily wound 2 adult people almost thrice her weight? More questions for later. He heard the officer was guided to an old psych ward of the hospital with a reinforced door, hopefully it should be enough in case she goes nuts again.

He finally arrived at the girl's room, hearing some conversation inside, he entered, and saw the girl talking with the nurse responsible for this room, confusion clear as day in her face.

"Hello miss, how are you?"

"Hello sir... who are you?"

"Call me Seiko, I am the doctor responsible for your case"

"Doctor? what's that?"

"This amnesia is weird, it shouldn't affect knowledge as per se"

"I am responsible of treating sick and injured people"

"Am I sick? I dont feel as such"

"Well, we found you unconscious on the street, and the authorities brought you here so we could treat you"

"Hm, I see, if so, can I make a question?"

"Yes you can"

"Do you know my name?"

"Hm. We found you along 2 more people, a blonde child and a black haired boy. The boy claimed you were called Rem, no last name. Do you recall anyhting from those 2"

"No, I don't remember anyhting about them... I don't remember anything at all"

"I see. What you have is amnesia, essentially you forgot most of your memories. We don't know what might have caused it, there weren't any wounds on your head, and no traces of drugs in your system either"

"Drugs? how would you know if I had taken drugs?"

"A simple bloodtest, we take a small sample of your blood, and we put it inside a machine that analyzes it"

"I see. Then, where am I?"

"You are in the city of Tokyo, miss"

"Where is that?"

"Japan, miss"

"Hm... I don't recall a place called Japan... I don't recall any place actually"

"I see, I see, then, do you have any other request?"

"The boy who said he knew my name, where is him?"

"He is in another room right now, he was quite injured"

"Can I talk to him?"

"Of course, nurse, prepare a wheelchair for the girl, and take him to the Natsuki's room"

"Thank you Seiko"

"You're welcome, now I must take my leave"

As he left, he saw the nurse preparing a wheelchair to move the girl towards the Natsuki room, given how elevated were the level of lactic acid, it's unlikely the girl would be able to move a lot on her own for the time being. But given how anomalous her blood test was, probably it wasn't that bad on her? better safe than sorry.

As he returned to his office to fill in his report, he saw the lab technician waiting on the door, folder on hand.

"What it is this time?" asked the Doctor.

"Sir, this was a cariotype test we ran on the girls blood, take,  be discrete about this"

After the tecnician gave the doctor the folder, he quick left. Seiko, puzzled by this reaction, entered his office and sat down to read the report.

The report wasnt long, and aside the heavy technical jargon of genetical testing he, unfortunately, wasn't very well trained into, proceeded into the cariptype itslef

There were 30 pairs of chromosomes...

"30 PAIRS!?"

This... should be impossible. No human could have this set of chromosomes.

Unless.

"She cannot be not human, right?"

Given how inusual the blood test was, and the cartylague tissue on her forehead...

He needs to do some calls right now, and be discrete about it.

Chapter Text

Augria desert, Luganica

The mood in the carriage transporting the expedition crew was that of sorrow and bitterness.

Not only the expedition has been a failure in all senses.

Yes, they arrived at the tower, even if it nearly cost them their lives.

Yes, they found Shaula… And that was the height of their success.

The sage wasn’t the sage, they weren’t even sure if there was a sage anymore.

The existence of a library raised their hopes.. Which were crushed once it was found the library was a morbid reservoir of the memoirs of the dead.

On top, the witch cult had somehow found their expedition and attacked them, killing one archbishop and capturing the other, as well as surviving Shaula and Reid

If not for Suabru, their success would have been impossible.

Yet.. It came at an unthinkable cost. No matter how extensively they searched the tower, or asked Beatrice, they were unable to find Subaru or Rem.

Meili and Ram informed the rest of the group that right before the shadow flooded the lower levels, a girl with blonde hair had appeared right when the spirit of the green room seemingly vanished.

After Volcanica suddenly flooded the tower with a bright, yet harmless bright blast of mana that even restored the people on the tower to full strength, the room appeared to be fully empty.

The realization that the shadow might have done something to them struck like a fullspeed carriage, crushing the victorious atmosphere of the group and turning it into one of utter defeat.

Nobody in the carriage had any desire to talk or speak about it, the carriage being silent as a tomb.

Out of everybody in the group, Beatrice took the hit the hardest, herself collapsing after trying to call Subaru via their contract for hours on end with no answer, she fell asleep, unresponsive to anything outside of her, which forced Emilia to carry her back into the carriage and laid her onto her lap.

In front of her, Ram, Meili and Anastasia were already asleep, their faces marred with clear sorrow on them.

As they approached Mierule, Emilia was deep in thinking how to deliver the horrible news to the rest of her camp, her heart clenched in a pain she had only felt once in her entire life, when mother fortuna died at the hands of Pandora.

As the pain started to become more and more unbearable, She felt Beatrice shift under her, then suddenly she shot up, her eyes clenched it as if she was trying to focus on something

“Be- Betty! What’s going on!? What happened!?”

“Sush girl! Betty is talking to her contractor!”

Emilia was dumbfounded at this, didn’t Betty say she was unable to find Subaru, and now she is talking to him!?

A few moments later, Beatrice opened her eyes and looked around the carriage, pointing her finger towards a seemingly random direction.

“We must go there, in fact”

“What, why? How were you able to talk with Subaru!? How did you feel now his location”

“I can explain it later, My contractor genius mind came up with a way to send messages via the contract in a simple manner, now, tell that Purple haired playboy to change course immediately!"

Beatrice tone ended up awaking Meili, who in a groggy voice asked:

“Hm, What’s with all this shouting, some of us are very busy mourning!”

“Beatrice has picked up her contractor location, in fact! we will change course now to find him!”

“Beako, we just barely survived the Tower of Doom and now you want us to go into another wild trip to find father? at least you know where he is?”

“Yes, he is to the north of here, in that direction”

“Beako, Gusto is in that direction” answered Emilia.

“What of it? In fact?”

“We need help to get there, Gusteko its a cold, wild place, and a lot of dangers lurk there. What if we get intercepted by the church, or if they see Emilia’s face?”

“Hmpf, then we shall send a message to the mansion to have the whole camp prepared to find him”

“Betty” asked Emilia, whose bitter demeanor had fully vanished and now it was replaced by a hopeful excitation “What did Sbaru tell you?”

“What!? Subaru spoke to you!?” Asked an excited Meili, whose bouncing on her seat ended up awaking Ram and Anastasia.

“Betty’s Subaru said he is fine, and that the Blue haired maid its unharmed and with him, I suppose”

“It must suck to be stuck in the cold north”

“Give me a minute, let me ask him if he knows where he is, In fact”

Beatrice closed her eyes again, focusing once again, drawing the attention of the recently awoken pair, who were still unaware about the sudden change of mood in the carriage.

“Lady Emilia, may I ask what Beatrice-sama is doing?”

“Ram, Betty found Subaru! He is in the north, and right now she is asking him if he know where he is!”

“Ram eyes went wide open at the revelation, and when she opened her mouth to ask something else, Beatrice eyes opened, now with an worried expression”

“Hm… This is troublesome”

“What is it Betty, do you know where he is?”

“I can feel where he is, but it may not be the real place where his is, I suppose”

“What do you mean?”

“I’ll explain later, for now, tell the Purple haired knight to hurry up, we need to call for the rest of the camp and take off to the north as soon as we can”

“On it” Said Anastasia as she walked up to the driver's cabin.

The bitternes had vanished entirely, replaced now by a hopeful expectation

“Please be safe” thought Emilia.

—--------------------------------------------

Subaru was right now crying his heart out at the hospital bathroom.

Before asking for a nurse to take him to Rem’s room, he decided first to try to call Beako using morse code via the contract, it was worth a shot.

A simple method requiring only pulls of the contract, however it required a lot of concentration, and he still didn’t feel like telling his parents about the otherworld, nor suddenly starting to meditate in front of them.

After the nurse took him to the bathroom, he entered a stall and focused on sending his message to Beako.

“B-A-K-O-B-A-KO”

He waited for a few minutes, his heart sinking, until he felt the familiar pulses pulling into his od.

“B-L-A-C-K-R-C-I-V-D… Y-U-F-I-N-E-?”

“Y-E-S…R-E-M-W-T-H-M-E…B-T-H-S-A-F-E”

“W-H-E-R-E-Y-O-U-?”

Subaru didn’t knew what to answer… For a moment he thought about lying, but he knew if the messages could be sent, then she could find him… That meant there was a connection between the other world and earth!

“Save it for later, be truthful”

“J-A-P-A-N”

“H-O-W?”

“N-O-C-L-U-E”

“I-F-E-L-Y-O-U-N-O-R-T-H”

“P-O-R-T-A-L?”

“M-A-Y-B-E…-T-I-R-E-D…C-A-L-L-A-T-E-R”

“B-Y-E”

With it, the pulls stopped, and as soon they stopped its when he started crying, happiness flooding him, knowing he could see his friends soon.

“Where is the portal, it is on Japan even? how long it will take them to arrive, I must prepare for it. Crap, what if they reach somewhere people don’t speak japanese!?”

As he thought more and more about it, the nurse knocked the door.

“Mister, are you okay? Do you need help?”

“I’m fine! I’m fine! I’m coming out!”

He exited the bathroom, finding a worried nurse standing next to a wheelchair. While he could walk just fine, the hospital staff wasn’t taking chances with his blackened leg, so they had him walk as little as possible.

“So, can we go see Rem now?”

“Yes Mister Natsuki, I warn you again, she doesn’t remember anything and it’s quite… Confused. I have seen only 2 amnesiac persons before, but even then they still knew what a TV or a Hospital was. It seems she doesn’t even remember the very planet we are living on in the first place. Be careful in what you say to her… Would you have any Idea why could this be the case?”

“...” Subaru quieted up for a moment, his face frowning slightly until he spoke:

“Terrorists”

“Terrorists?”

“Yes, A religious sect… One of their used some sort of… Neural device? She fell in coma for nearly a year, and I am surprised she woke up right now”

The nurse noted how Subaru stuttered a bit when saying the neural device part, as if he wasn’t even sure of what he was saying in the first place.

“A device that can erase memories… That is horrible… I think you’ll need to talk to the police soon and tell them this, imagine if the schematics of that device appeared online!”

“I doubt it, they have been secretive and kept offline in such a way nobody can track their attacks back to them” a lie, but hopefully will prevent the nurse from prying more info.

The nurse saw how Subaru’s demeanor became hostile, a sing he had a hard time with these people and clearly resented them, so she decided to drop the convo an take him to Rem’s room.

As they approached the room, she could hear some conversation going on inside the room, but as she pushed Subaru right before the door, the room quieted up suddenly, moments later Doctor Seiko came out of the room, his room filled with worry.

He saw the nurse bringing Subaru to the room, and his face filled with confusion, he turned his head towards the room and signalled Rem to wait a moment before closing the door, and then turned to talk with the pair.

“Mister Natsuki, I think we have a problem”

“What! What happened to Rem!?”

“Nothing with her is more wrong than the usual… But you… She is showing a lot of hostility towards whoever was approaching the room”

“Hostility?”

”Yeah, something about an evil odour.. She wants me to check who is approaching to assure her nothing is wrong”

Ah, right, the miasma… This is gonna be… complicated.