Chapter Text
The audience is left with a lingering feeling of guilt and sadness.
Emilia feels very ashamed and guilty about everything Subaru went through after being brought to Lugunica. She feels bad about the sanctuary. After all, this is the place Subaru experienced his worst deaths. She hates her thoughts of ranking Subaru's deaths by pain. Every single one of them is equally horrific. Him being killed in the mansion also devastated her. She had a good relationship with the maids Rem and Ram. Their bond was completely destroyed after Emilia saw these loops. However, she is a kind person by nature, and she saw Subaru forgiving them for their heinous acts, so she decided not to punish them and to forgive them… at least partially. She also remembers how she said that she will protect Subaru. The problem is that Subaru had to die a couple times to give her the ability to protect him. Quite ironic, considering Subaru never really allowed her to help or protect him. He always put Emilia on a pedestal.
Beatrice feels similar to Emilia; however, she didn’t forgive the maids one bit. Seeing how Rem tortured her contractor and how Ram delivered a "mercy kill," she and Emilia made sure that the two maids were never near Subaru's unconscious body at all times. In between the viewings, Emilia and Beatrice always dragged Subaru to Emilia's room to maximize the distance between Rem and Subaru. They didn’t really need to worry about Ram since she was deeply in love with that “bastard of a clown” Roswaal.
After seeing Subaru's "hell loop," as Subaru calls it, basically everyone in the theatre started to question Ram's love for Roswaal. Roswaal had killed her in that loop after all because it created an opening to kill Garfiel, He also orchestrated every event up to the sanctuary, but she still loves him. This loop showed that Roswaal basically spits on her life, but for some reason she ignores it. Ignorance?
Emilia's and Beatrice's hiding destroyed Rem emotionally. Seeing her torturing her hero and loved one, then him forgiving her immediately, and then when she was attacked by gluttony, killing himself to save her, brought her to the brink of insanity. Luckily her sister is there for her. But what if that clown kills her and her hero wouldn’t be able to save her? Does she even deserve to call him her hero? Does she deserve that love? Does she deserve to live?
Subaru's "Bros" Otto and Garfiel remember the time they made fun of him when they saw how he feared small animals, especially rabbits. They also remember the time Emilia put Subaru in a room filled with rabbits so as to “heal his fear of rabbits and show him that rabbits are harmless." Now they know the reason Subaru has this phobia of small animals. They know why he broke out of that room. He was covered in sweat, shaking with fear. It looks like Emilia doesn’t remember that moment yet, so they decide to stay silent, knowing if they told her that she could potentially become suicidal.
The events that happened before the sanctuary also broke them. For Otto the worst moment happened when he pushed Subaru off the carriage in one of Subaru's failed loops. For Garfiel it was when Ram delivered the “mercy kill” to his captain. Garfiel loved Ram very much…
The rest, Crusch’s camp, Anastasia’s camp, and Felt’s camp, have felt pretty similar in terms of emotion but for different reasons. Crusch isn’t drowning in endless guilt like the Emilia camp, but she still feels sorry for her ally. Realizing she would be dead and/or forgotten by everyone because of the white whale if Subaru wasn’t around made her feel deep respect and gratefulness towards Subaru.
Wilhelm feels pretty similar to Crusch. Subaru was the boy who allowed him to avenge his dead wife, Theresia.
Felix… Well, Felix is Felix.
Anastasia, who initially viewed Subaru as an unstable individual, now views him as inherently useful but also very dangerous. Seeing his deaths, she only could think of one thing: “What happens if Subaru one day goes insane from these deaths?” Rightfully so.
Julius feels guilty for beating up Subaru in the arena. He essentially beat up a weak kid with a lot of emotional trauma, who was provoked into causing a mess in the royal castle.
Everyone else in Anastasia’s camp feels empathy towards Subaru.
Felt thought of Subaru as her big brother, someone she really liked, someone who saved her. Seeing the cost Subaru paid to save her and Emilia and then his following deaths in the mansion, capital, sanctuary, and Priestella made her feel devastated.
Reinhard feels even worse since he had the chance to save Subaru from these deaths. He could have taken Subaru with him instead of leaving him to Emilia. Though if he took Subaru then Emilia and many more would be dead. Is the life of a royal candidate worth more than Subaru’s wellbeing? Anyway, seeing that in Priestella Subaru's third death was indirectly caused by him broke him internally. His useless divine protections, however, didn’t let his emotions be visible.
One camp stands out: Priscilla’s. Priscilla doesn’t really feel empathy towards Subaru, but she still recognizes his worth. She finds him very entertaining in a cruel way. Al shows empathy but less than everyone in the theatre. It seems that he knows something. It seems he knows how it feels to return by death…
One thing is that every camp wants Subaru for themselves for different reasons: love and protection, strategic advantage, or entertainment
After the last viewing ended, seeing how Julius was forgotten, everyone went to their rooms, waiting for Subaru to wake up. Emilia drags him with little help from Beatrice into her room. Rem, as always, starts to feel even more guilty seeing her hero being dragged to Emilia's room. Ram calms her sister down, and everyone else goes to their room silently. In her room, Emilia gently places Subaru on her bed and lies down beside him, unable to bring herself to leave his side. Being close to him calms her heart a little.
“At least I can protect him when he is next to me…”
More often than not, she ends up crying herself to sleep while holding his hand.
Elior Forest
The sun is shining. Birds are singing. In the middle of an open field in the forest are Emilia and Subaru sitting infront of a fire, talking together, laughing together.
"-and I'm telling you, if you stack pancakes like that, it's basically a crime."
Emilia laughs without thinking. For but a moment she forgets her guilt and actually enjoys the moment. A butterfly flies by and lands on Emilia.
"I guess it likes you, Emilia-tan!"
Both of them laugh. This is the first day where they could actually enjoy their time together without any worries. No witch cult. No royal selection. No whales. No rabits. It seems like a great day! Then the air changes. Subaru pauses mid-sentence.
"Emilia...?"
She looks down. Frost is forming under her legs. First appearing as a small layer. Something you see on gras on a very cold day. As it spreads it begins to crystallize into bigger chunks until it forms a uniform, jagged layer of ice. The fire dies. The forest around her starts to freeze. The logs they were sitting on are already frozen. Emilia begins to panic. Wait...they...
"Suba-!"
His legs are already frozen in place. He looks at her. His face projecting horror.
"What are you doing Emilia?"
He asks a bit to calmly.
"Can you make it stop?"
Seeing this Emilia freezes. Is she killing him?
"Wait Subaru! I will fix it!"
Desperately she runs to Subaru, trying to stop her mana from freezing her everything. The space around her becomes bigger. She doesn’t notice. She just has to save him. At least this one time...
"Why isn’t anything happening?!"
From the sheer stress of seeing her loved one getting frozen by her own magic, she starts to flail her hands around. Just for something to happen. Tears start to flow out of Emilia's eyes. Will she really be her loved one’s murderer?
"It's okay Emilia. You didn’t mean to."
Hearing Subaru say these words made her cry harder.
"NO! DONT SAY THAT! THIS ISNT ALRIGHT!"
Now fully weeping she finally in front of Subaru. Subaru is completely frozen, except for his head. Using all of his strength he utters:
"Don’t worry... Everything... fine... don’t worry..."
"I AM SO SORRY! PLEASE DONT LEAVE ME!" Emilia cries out.
Finally able to touch him, she does. Suddenly:
"CR-R-R-ACK-SH-S-S-H-H-H!"
As Emilia touches his arm he shatters into a thousand tiny, beautiful ice shards.
"It’s okay, Emilia."
His voice echoes though the forest one last time.
Emilia wakes up, tears already flowing. It was just a nightmare. The first thing she sees is Subaru’s peaceful sleeping expression. Emilia, her tears still flowing, just stares at it. She just killed the person she loves... She throws herself at Subaru, wrapping her arms and legs around him, as if he is the last solid thing. As she holds him, she cries into his chests trembling so hard, it looks like she is vibrating.
“I am sorry. I am sorry. I am sorry. I am sorry. I am sorry. I am sorry. I am sorry. I am sorry. I am sorry. I am sorry. I am sorry. I am sorry. I am sorry. I am sorry. I am sorry. I am sorry. I am sorry. Am sorry. Am sorry. Am sorry. Am sorry. Am sorry. Am sorry. Am sorry. Am sorry. Am sorry. Am sorryam sorryam sorryam sorryamsorryamsorryamsorryamsorryamsorryam sorryamsorryamsorryamsorryamsorryamsorryamsorrysorrysorrysorrysorrysorry sorrysorrysorrysorrysorrysorrysorrysorrysorrysorryamsorrysorrysorrysorrysorrysorry sorrysorrysorrysorrysorrysorrysorrysorrysorry…”
[...]
[...]
Emilia, after a while, takes Subaru and leaves her room to go into the theatre, checking where Rem is, so as to not let her get close to Subaru. As always, the Emilia camp sits in the first row of the theatre except for the maids and Roswaal, who sit at the farthest corner in the theatre. Emilia places Subaru in the middle of the first row and sits beside him. The Crusch and Anastasia camps are located in the second and third rows, and Priscilla’s camp is sitting in the last row of the theatre. Everyone is still waiting for Subaru to wake up.
There is a problem that can be summarized with a question: “What do we do when he wakes up?” Since they were not sent back home, they assume that somehow Subaru died another time. This hurts most of the audiences' hearts, since after a battle their friend still died. These thoughts make Emilia clutch Subaru's hand tighter, but she has to be careful, as to not break his hand again. Beatrice, who sits on Subaru's lap, presses her back against Subaru's chest so that she can feel his heartbeat.
Some time goes by, but nothing happens. Subaru doesn't wake up, the "window" doesn't light up, and the warden is not to be heard.
"Uhhh... Beatrice, do you think something happened to the Warden?" asked Emilia with a hint of worry in her voice. "Or do you think that he is just late?"
Beatrice answers. "I don't know, I suppose. It is strange that the Warden didn't come."
"Maybe he is-"
"Shut up, in fact! Nobody wants to hear your filthy words come out of your filthy mouth!"
Rem was interrupted by a very angry Beatrice. Rem lowers her head in shame. She is a filthy individual in her eyes. Ram tried to comfort her, but it didn't work. All of the guilt Rem had accumulated bursts inside her… again. It is such a big amount, in fact, that she didn't even cry. It is that overwhelming for her.
"What if the Warden is dead?" asks Julius.
"If that were the case, then that means that we are trapped here," says Otto.
Just before panic breaks out in the theatre, they hear the warden's voice.
"Ah shit!" screams the Warden.
His voice filled with fear and an underlying note of hatred. A high-pitched, shimmering, cosmic chime is heard combined with a deep, vibrating hum. This puts the audience somewhere between full panic and general unease. They don't know how to feel about what they hear.
"It looks like this insolent bastard is getting attacked. How pathetic," comments Priscilla.
She uses a tone that should show that she doesn't really care about the warden. That the Warden is beneath her. However, a slight unease is detectable in her voice. If a being who can trap the sword saint is screaming in fear, then something incredibly powerful must have attacked him. Luckily, no one noticed her unease except for one person: Aldebaran. But he chooses to ignore it, as mentioning it would cause his beheading.
"WHOOSH-SHKWEEE!"
The sound of something tearing through the fabric of reality.
"What's happening?" asked Petra in her panic. "I've never heard such a sound in my life!"
Such a sound doesn't exist in their world. No spell, no authority, no divine protection, and no swordsman attacks sound like this. The audience cannot classify what they hear. This affects the Knights, Anastasia, and Crusch deeply. Reinhard especially.
He is the Sword Saint. Surely, he would know what's happening. He should know what's happening. So, Felt asks Reinhard,
"Rein, what the hell is happening?"
Reinhard doesn't reply to her question immediately. What should he tell her?
"...I don't know, Miss Felt. I've never heard such a sound in my life, though what I can tell you is that this appears to be a projectile attack. I presume many projectiles were thrown at once."
"Augh!"
The warden has been pierced by many things. He screams in agony. It's clear that what hit him was pretty painful.
"Fucking hell..."
These are the Warden's last words as his consciousness begins to fade, dying slowly. The Warden is dead. At least that's what it sounded like.
"What... was that?" mumbles Emilia to herself after hearing this.
Not only did she just hear how someone died, but she also witnessed the moment that potentially trapped her and everyone else here in the theatre. Are they trapped? Emilia doesn't really know, but she is sure Subaru has a solut-. She remembered that he is unconscious. Since the warden himself put Subaru to sleep, would that mean that Subaru will sleep forever? Emilia doesn't know how to feel right now. She is overwhelmed.
Everyone in the audience is silent now. It is quite shocking how a powerful entity like the Warden was killed like that. Furthermore, the warden was killed by something alien to them. Something beyond their world.
"What if that sound was something from Subaru's old world?" asks Julius with a bit of unease.
"It does make sense," comments Anastasia. "We don’t know much about Subaru’s old world, but there wouldn’t be something…"
Anastasia is trying to remain composed, though it's inherently audible that every fibre of her being is scared to death.
"It cannot be from my contractors' world, I suppose..." remarks Beatrice.
"Why do you think that way, Beatrice?" asks Crusch with fear but also a hint of curiosity. "Do you think it's an authority?"
Beatrice stays silent for a little, staring at the screen before she says,
"It's beyond our world, Betty thinks...".
Beatrice is unsure herself, so she stays silent. Before another question could be asked, the window starts to show something. On three words appear on the window in plain text:
"A Call Beyond"
"'A Call Beyond?'” asks Otto. "What call? Where?"
The phrase "A Call Beyond" triggers something in Emilia. A protective instinct for some reason. Does she fear him being taken away from her? If that happens, then she fails to protect her loved one again? She cannot let that happen. She pulls Subaru closer to herself, as to shield him from the world.
"Maybe it has to do with Subaru. He is from a different world, so maybe it means that he was called beyond and then got here..." proposes Emilia with distress.
"I also think that it has to do with Subaru; however, it may also have a connection with what we just heard," suggests Crusch.
"Do you think the attack is called 'A call beyond,' Crusch-sama?" asks Felix.
"I think so," replies Crusch.
That is the name of the attack. But still, everything else is still a mystery.
"What if captain will just be taken somewhere? Like he is called from beyond," theorizes Garfiel.
His thoughts, which he presented, made him really angry at himself. If it were true, then he could not protect his captain. Emilia and Beatrice, hearing Garfiel's words, made them clutch the unconscious Subaru even tighter. Most of the theatre also went rigid at this thought. Especially Rem.
Subaru is the person she loves most. Him being hidden from her is already harsh on her mind. If he were taken away, she wouldn't be able to handle it. Emilia and Beatrice also feel the same way. The only thing on their mind now is, "I cannot let that happen!" However, it is already too late. The words on the window disappear, and a new scene is visible.
The window is black at first but slowly, the image fades in.
“Oh, yes… Paleblood…"
A dark room covered partially in light fog comes into view. It is essentially lit by nothing except for a lantern. A silhouette of a person with a top hat becomes visible. This person is sitting in a wheelchair. Technology that was never seen by the members of the audience.
"Well, you’ve come to the right place.”
The person continues speaking while getting closer to the examination table.
“Yharnam is the home of blood ministration. You need only unravel its mystery.”
He pauses briefly.
“But where’s an outsider like yourself to begin?"
The persons face now gets illuminated by a yellow light.
“Easy, with a bit of Yharnam blood of your own.”
The person moves his face closer to the person on the bed revealing the persons look. It’s an old man with an unkempt beard with bandages running from his cheeks, across his eyes up until his forehead which is covered by the top hat he wears. The old man leans forward, closer to the persons face.
“First, you’ll need a contract.”
The screen goes black. Before anyone could say something, the screen comes back to life again. The old man remains beside the examination table. He says:
“Good. All signed and sealed.”
He adjusts the transfusion equipment beside the examination table.
“Now, let’s begin the transfusion.”
The person laying down on the examination table starts to lower his head so he lays flat on the table. For a short moment the clothes of this person become visible. He is wearing Subarus iconic tracksuit.
"Oh, don’t you worry."
Liquid moves through glass containers and tubes. The old man continues:
“Whatever happens… you may think it all a mere bad dream…”
The camera remains fixed from the perspective of the person on the table. The persons vision blurs. The old man starts to laugh ominously. Everything is now black.
[...]
The person wakes up slowly. Dripping liquid is heard. The person lifts his head up and starts to look around. The clothes of the person are now visible again and indeed, these clothes are Subarus tracksuit.
To the left of the table the person spots a big pool of dark red liquid. A large creature slowly rises out of the blood. It resembles a beast with long limbs and wet fur. It crawls upward making gurgling sounds showing its hungry for prey. As it got closer it slowly starts to extend its left front limb to get in contact with the persons face. Before contact happens, fire appears across its body. Flames spread over the creature, partially blinding the person. It recoils and pulls away from the examination table. The beast burns while twisting and flailing is limbs around until it collapses in front of the table and the flames die out.
After the scourge beast vanishes, small pale creatures begin emerging from the sides of the bed. Their thin arms and hands reach upward. More of the small creatures climb onto the table and climb on to the person lying there. The small, ugly creatures overwhelm the person laying there so his head gets pushed by these creatures as more of them crawl on to the person. The vision of the person starts to fade until it is black. A female voice rings out:
"Ahh, you've found yourself a hunter..."
[…]
The scene changes. Subaru awakens alone inside the room. The room is quiet and dimly lit. At the bottom left side of the window appears a text for but a moment.
Iosefka’s clinic