ARC Three: The Other Days

Chapter Nineteen: Scarecrow

Emilia had been sipping on her tea, as Roswaal continued his explanation on the matter.

"In other words Emilia-sama, Subaru-kun haaaaas greatly damaged his gate to a dangerous level. A few more misuses of magic annnnnnd his gate could completely collapse."

"Oh, I see…"

The entirety of the group sitting at the table could tell of the severity of Subaru's situation. Emilia held her hand close to her chest, looking concerned as ever. Batman held his elbows as he leaned over on the table, analyzing the problem. Ram stoically stood by Roswaal, who had his hand rubbing his chin. Puck floated around Emilia, now fully digesting his meal.

Batman raised his hand to catch Roswaal's attention.

"So if we're bringing this up, you must have a solution for it then?"

"Wellll of course! I have been able to come in contact with the 'Blue'."

"The Blue?"

"Yes. This person is considered the moooost powerful water magic user in all of Lugnica, and so surely they'd beeeee able to help Subaru-kun, right?"

"If what you're saying is true, then we should try to get this 'Blue' to help him out."

"It won't be easy…"

Batman lifted himself a bit, as he concentrated on Roswaal's words.

"This 'Blue' person iiiiis currently under the orders of one of Emilia's rivals in the Royal Selection."

"Things are never that easy, are they?"

"My no, we will have to come up with a good trade or negotiation for thiiiis to happen!"

"And that's where Emilia comes in right?"

Everyone turned their attention to Emilia as she finished making up her mind on the concern of contacting this "Blue".

"Alright. Subaru has done so much for me, so I feel it's only right to get him help in return."

Puck smiled at Emilia, like a father would if his own daughter did something worthy of praise. Batman nodded as he began reaching for his teacup…

"But I also want to help Batman-san, too!"

Batman turned back to Emilia as he heard this.

"Emilia, it's nothing to worry about. Really, me and Roswaal are...taking care of it."

Batman gave a quick glance to Roswaal, who was giving his usual excited grin.

"Besides, you have to worry about the Royal Selection. I know you're putting in a lot of work for this to happen, so just do that for me, and I'll worry about getting home. Okay?"

"Oh...okay."

Emilia looked rather disappointed about it, but Batman gave a quick nod to try and dispel her concern.

"I'm getting more than enough help Emilia, especially from Beatrice. So just study hard and that will be that. Counting on you."

"...Oh. Of course! I'll give it my best, just you wait!"

She clenched her fists and made a proud face as she said this to him. Batman turned his attention to Roswaal who was sipping on tea, only to finish it and have Ram pour him some more.

"Ohhhh, but Ram I think Batman-san is running dry, would you be aaaaa dear and pour him some more?"

"Yes, Roswaal-sama."

She headed over to him with a fresh pot, but of course Batman shook his head.

"I'm fine Ram."

"Please, Roswaal-sama insists you-"

"-I said I'm fine, thank you."

The two of them stared at each other emotionlessly, a tense air surrounded the two of them. Ram gave a small nod of her head and began to return to Roswaal.

"I see, very well then-"

"-Okay that's enough!"

A loud yell sounded off, as something slammed the table, almost shaking the plates and cups off. Everyone turned to see who it was that caused this. They were all surprised to see it was Emilia.

Her face making a pout.

"What's with you two? For a few days now you hardly talk to each other and now it looks like you were about to fight! What gives?!"

Batman and Ram glanced at each other with a look of surprise, it wasn't normal seeing Emilia this angry. So Batman took a shallow breath as he decided to calm the situation down.

"Listen Emilia, we're ju-"

Just then Batman noticed in the corner of his eyes that countless villagers appeared to be running for their lives in the streets. He got up, along with everyone else who had finally noticed it. Batman rushed over and grabbed a young man who was running away alongside several of his family members.

"What's going on?!"

"Hey mister, we got to get out of here!"

"Why?"

"The town is under attack! People are killing each other just up ahead!"

Batman's eyes widened hearing this, Emilia put her hands over her mouth in hearing something so horrible and Ram and Roswaal made quite surprised looks of their own. Batman interrogated him some more.

"Killing each other?! What do you mean?!"

"We don't got time for this! You should get out of here while you still can!"

The young man freed himself as he caught up with the rest of his family. Batman looked back at the direction where everybody was running from.

"Oh no…"

There he saw smoke, the dust of rubble and of course...a very familiar orange gas spreading in the city.

Rem was in front of Subaru, making herself a shield against the strange enemy in front of them. Subaru looked over her shoulder to see the scary man ahead of them. He was like nothing he had ever seen before.

In a world of ground dragon's, Ma-beast and even Demi-Humans...he was quite possibly the most terrifying thing he had seen at this point. His unnatural features made him look less like a man, and more of a monster straight out of a horror movie.

"So then, did I happen to interrupt your date?

His raspy voice sunk deep into Subaru's skin making him tremble a bit.

"I apologize for it, but work has to come first you know? It's one of the first things you learn as an adult. And you two have work to do."

Rem gripped the chain of the Morningstar as she narrowed her eyes.

"And what is you that you want from us?!"

"Simple. To see your fear."

"What?!"

"Fear is the prime instinct in almost every intelligent creature, it leads to biological changes and can even attribute to the evolutionary process by- oh!"

Scarecrow scratched his forehead with one of his claw fingers as he realized something.

"I'm rambling again. I apologize, but we should really get to it."

He then quickly dropped something from his left hand and smiled.

"We have work to do."

The canister he dropped broke open and released a large amount of the orange gas around them. Subaru and Rem coughed as they inhaled the gas. Subaru was in a coughing fit, so he held both hands over his mouth. Something pushed him and he fell over, he lost of track of where he was and wandered around, being almost blind by the orange gas.

"R-Rem? REM?!"

He realized he lost track of Rem and tried to move his hands around in the orange gas. The gas started to clear up as he began to see beyond it.

"...Rem?"

In front of him was Elsa, her mouth forming a smile and blood dripping from it.

"Subaru-kun?!"

Rem continued to cough as she desperately searched for Subaru. She ran forward as she could see light. Maybe if she made it past the gas and looked around she'd find him, but she didn't.

"No...Subaru-kun! Subaru-kun?! SUBARU-KUN!"

Then, emerging from the gas behind her was something she recognized the shape of.

"Y...you…"

People in dark purple robes with straight hoods, red markings and red eyes. A horror from her past that brought her fear...but also absolute disgust.

"W...Witch…!"

The people stood in front of her, carrying large blades and all of them staring right at her.

"WITCH'S CULT!"

Rem flung her Morningstar at them.

Rem was completely covered in blood at this point, her Oni Horn glowing brightly, as she had an almost sadistic smile.

"Kill all of you…!"

A witch cult member burst out of a store front aiming to cut off Rem's head with an axe. She spun her body away and swung her iron ball at the cult member, he was unable to move as his axe was stuck to the ground. The Morningstar crashed into him, splitting him in half.

"You'll pay for what you did to Nee-sama…!"

Another attacker attempted to throw a barrel at her, but as it was flying at her, she ducked under it and kicked him in his legs. His legs snapping in half like twigs. Rem then swung her free hand and punched him square in the face. His face caved in and was left a bloody mess, an eyeball actually popping out and hitting Rem in the face.

She quickly flicked it away.

"Die for your sins…!"

She the noticed another member had their back on a nearby wall, holding a knife as the person shook. The knife was pointed at Rem, but Rem made a vicious expression as she swung her Morningstar around, screaming as she did.

"GIVE ME BACK SUBARU-KUN!"

The iron ball smashed through the cultist and broke through the very wall itself. Rem pulled the Morningstar, which was now covered in blood. At this point it would be, now that she had killed at least twenty of her attackers. She took several breaths to help regain energy.

"It's amazing how strong you are. I hope it doesn't mean you have a high resistance to this batch."

Rem heard the voice of the man she had seen earlier. She swung her weapon around to attack him.

Only to see no one there.

"Still, the late reaction is a good sign that it's still in effect."

Rem realized he was already behind her, with a farming scythe in his left hand next to her ribs. She attempted to kick him away but it was almost as if he was a shadow, as her leg swung, he was moving in an unnatural way around her. He then almost flashed away and was now a few feet away from her.

"What?!"

"That look of shock is good. But sadly, it's not enough…"

What Rem didn't know was that this gas was one that made people hallucinate, lose sense of reality and even have their brain functions slowed down. Thus, covering himself in the gas and giving high doses to others, made him appear to move like a phantom, run at high speeds and even change forms.

All of it was a trick of the mind.

Rem charged at him, letting out a massive roar, he backed away into the leftover gas. Rem stopped as she hesitated, she was unsure of what that gas was and had to be more cautious of it. And most importantly, she had to make sure Subaru was still okay.

Just then, she turned her eyesight to something she barely noticed. A witch cultist dragging himself on the road wall facing the lake. He had a knife embedded in his left shoulder, possibly from a citizen who fought back. She grinned as she charged at him readying her weapon.

The cultist put up his hands as if it show he was not putting up a fight.

"FOOL!"

But Rem would never show mercy to a madman from the same group that destroyed her village, took her sister's horn and was possibly involved in this chaos. Though she couldn't smell properly due to the odd smell from the gas, she could easily recognize them, she always dreamed of finishing them off once and for all.

"URAHHHH!"

She swung her Morningstar as it smashed his entire left side away. But it was still not enough to kill him and shrieked in pain and tossed and turned on the floor. Rem smiled as she now had someone to interrogate for information. As she walked over to him, she noticed the gas dissipated and she was slowly regaining her senses.

She heard clapping behind her and quickly turned to see who it was. She saw it was the horrible man from before now leaning on a wall.

"You!"

"But still…"

He pointed downward with his syringe finger next to him.

"You are such a terrifyingly bad person...doing all this by yourself."

Rem looked to where he was pointing. Her eyes widened at the sight.

"..."

The witch cultist that had attacked her from earlier...was now the owner of the flower shop, split in half, his intestines all strewn across the floor and a face indicative of sheer pain.

"No...no…"

She shook her head at the sight before her.

Every single person that she killed...were villagers.

The man who sold her and Subaru the snacks from before. His head was caved in.

The woman who was helping out at the flower shop. Her dead body flung into the now broken wall.

A young man, looking no older than herself. Without a head.

And a young girl looking younger than herself. Ice spears piercing her neck, impaled on a wall.

Twenty villagers dead. All killed by Rem.

"No..what has Rem done?!"

"But to think you're already back to your normal self. It must be that horn of yours, I better get my hands on it and study it. Just to make sure."

Rem with tears falling from her eyes, turned to face the man. She was now in a fury. Now all she can think about was killing this despicable person in front of her. She would have ...but…

"Hukk...hukk!"

She heard terrible coughing from behind her. It was probably the man she attacked from earlier. As she turned to see him…

"HUKK!"

HER ENTIRE WORLD FELL APART.

"R...Re...Rem…"

She had attacked Subaru, and now he was at death's door.

She dropped her Morningstar onto the ground and stumbled towards him.

Her horn dissipated away.

Her eyes now filled with tears than ran down her cheeks. They were also now devoid of life.

She fell onto her knees and slumped over Subaru and held him close, whimpering as she tried her best to comfort him.

"S...Subaru-kun...Rem..is-"

She tried her best not to cry, but she didn't just cry...she screamed.

"-UWAHHHHHHHHH! SUBARU-KUN! SUBARU-KUN!"

"...em…"

"REM IS SORRY! UWAHHHH! REM IS SORRY! FORGIVE REM! FORGIVE REM!"

She grasped his head kissing his forehead several times. Her tears falling on his face. Making him cry as well.

"R...eeem…"

"SUBARU-KUN! SUBARU-KUN! PLEASE! PLEASE DON'T LEAVE REM! DON'T LEAVE! PLEEEEEEEEEASE!"

Rem continued to sob uncontrollably, her face making an expression that made Subaru sad. Subaru coughed blood, but used his utmost strength to try and use his hand to cup Rem's cheek.

"...em…!"

"SUBARU-KUN! SUBARU-KUN! SUBARU-KUN IS CLOSEST TO REM'S-!"

"Enough. I've seen that face of despair too many times to care."

BANG!

Rem's head slumped over, followed by her body, falling over on Subaru.

"R….em..?"

Subaru saw it. Rem's head had a large hole in the back, with smoke trailing from it.

"Nooo…..hk."

Rem had been shot in the head. And now she was dead.

"HKKKKKKKK….AHHHHK!"

Subaru tried to scream, but blood in his throat made it impossible. Tears streamed down from his face. He cried as if he was in excruciating pain. And it was pain...the pain of loss. The loss of a good friend.

"I'll just leave you there to your business, while I take care of my own. Goodbye then, you two were good subjects to study."

Subaru narrowed his tear filled eyes at the man as he walked away. The monster placed his handgun back in it's holster.

His vision became blurry as he stared at the man's back.

Then he heard voices.

One that sounded like Emilia.

"What could have….S-Subaru! NOOOO! SUBARU!"

One that sounded like Ram's

"R-Rem?! No! NONONONONONONO! REM!"

And another that sounded like Batman's.

"SCARECROW!"

And finally one last voice…

"BATMAN! You've followed me even here! That's good, excellent even! COME HERE AND FACE THIS NIGHTMARE OF YOURS! HEHAHA! ALL OF YOU TOGETHER!"

The last thing Subaru saw was a giant cloud of orange gas as it engulfed everything in sight. He could hear gasps and screams from his friends.

Subaru saw nothing but orange...and then slowly, saw darkness.

"All of you...Emilia. Bruce. Ram. Roswaal…..REM!"

They were his last words in this world as he faded away...

"I will save you...save you all!"

"Um, Subaru-kun?"

Subaru opened his eyes. He looked around and saw Dunharrow was bustling away like normal. The streets filled with people, the sounds of laughter and conversations being held all around him.

"Subaru-kun, are you quite alright?"

Subaru turned to his right to see Rem sitting down and sipping on her tea, as she stared at him worryingly. He then trembled as he looked down at the table, Puck was there big-bellied and relaxing where the snacks he bought should've been.

"Subaru are you okay?"

He looked over and saw Batman staring at him with a concerned look. Subaru tried to form a smile on his face, but his mouth shook uncontrollably.

"Did something happen?"

"Ah...I'm back."

The first loop had ended. But the battle against Scarecrow had just begun.