AN: Team Subaru vs. Scarecrow? Yup. Here it is, ENJOY.

ARC Ten: Return to Life

Chapter One Hundred Four: Evil Itself

Emilia and Rem fired countless ice spears at the large imposing figure known as Scarecrow, only for him to actually spit out a barrier with the strange green mist coming from his body. The ice based attacks broke apart in contact with his magic. He then rushed forward and met against Garfiel, the young man kicked at him, only for the beast like man to use his large forearm to block it. As he did, Garfiel held his head for a second...he saw images of a fight he had with someone, slightly similar to him. Not as tall or imposing...but someone quite familiar. He saw Julius there too...he just couldn't remember where he saw this all. But he ignored it.

The impact broke apart the ground underneath them, and Scarecrow grabbed his foot and tossed across the forest, making him slam through countless trees. Shaula fired her spears of light at him, only for him to slice them apart with his sickle, the sparks fell to the ground and started making a fire...which now engulfed a nearby tree.

Subaru put on his Helmet of Divinity, and along with Beatrice, fired Minya blades at him, only for Scarecrow to crawl at a rapid speed along the grassy ground, dodging them. He then tossed out his sickle, and while Subaru and Beatrice used Murak to float away, the sickle cut through countless trees behind them, the chains somehow getting longer. Mimi was in the air as she fired her sonic scream, Scarecrow then backflipped his body around, dodging the attack, and vomiting out a swarm of insects from his mouth that attacked her. She fell to the ground as Scarecrow used his remaining chains in hands to swat Mimi into a nearby boulder, breaking it apart. Frederica felt some sort of alarming rage in seeing this.

"No! Mimi-chan!"

Sarah and Frederica charged at him, only for him to disappear as green mist. They stopped their charge only for two Scarecrows to appear next to the both of them, who punched them both in the face before hurling green gas at them, sending them flying back. They held their faces as if they were in pain. Shaula attacked him with a large beam with her hands, only for him to fall into a green mist portal, once again disappearing.

He appeared behind her and used a discus punch, his fist wrapped in chains, right at her, even she was suprised at his speed and strength, being almost comparable to that of the previous Sword Saint, Reid. She caught herself on the ground, just as Scarecrow landed. Then he blocked a boulder strike and dodged a strike by the Morningstar. He growled as Rem, who had her horn out, charged at him. He laughed a bit as he then used his scythe to cut open his chest, and a green light escaped his wound.

Once Rem saw it, she dropped her weapon and let out a terrified scream, Scarecrow shot out his scythe and stabbed through her shoulder, bringing her closer to him. He let out a small joyful roar as he headbutted her away, just several green Minya blades were summoned by him. He fired them, only for Garfiel to return and get Rem out of the way. The blades riddled the forestside, destroying everything in its path.

Nearby, the rest of the forest was quickly burning away, engulfed by the ensuing battle.

Subaru and Beatrice were floating in the air, firing away at him with their Minya spells, but he was going as far as to counter them with his own green magic spears. He then laughed a bit, as he crawled over to Shaula who began trading blows with him, showing them all that they were practically evenly matched.

"Beatrice, who is this guy?!"

"Scarecrow. At least he calls himself that."

"He-...He wasn't always?"

Beatrice shook her head as she summoned her staff.

"Once, he was the original Scarecrow's contracted spirit. However, years ago Garfiel and Julius killed him, leaving the spirit, Amygdala, abandoned. It seems his influence caused the spirit to become further corrupted and now it has become this...THING."

She furrowed her brows...just as she saw Scarecrow kick away Shaula, blast away several of Emilia's ice attacks and guard against Garfiel's punch.

"What are you scared of Garfiel Tinsel?"

"Not an asshole like ya!"

"What about losing Mimi?"

Garfiel flew into a rage and unleashed a flurry of punches against him, only for another Scarecrow to appear behind him, grabbing his legs, then the original version grabbed his arms.

They pulled until a loud snapping sound could be heard, then the copy bursted into green gas. Now facing a bloody Garfiel, he shot out of his hands a shockwave of green mist, which burned his chest and sent him flying away.

Emilia launched a plethora of ice attacks against him, only for the spirit to punch through them and stab the ground with his trusty weapon, green cracks appeared in the floor and shot out towards Emilia. She dodged in the nick of time as green gas fired at incredible speed and destroyed more of the burning forest.

"What's wrong Emilia? Afraid of losing someone like you did Puck?"

"Shut your horrible mouth, don't speak his name again!"

He then grew large crow like wings on his back and zoomed past Shaula and Garfiel, clawing at Emilia, even she was unable to dodge the slicing attack. He made the wing retract back and instead spider like appendages stabbed into Emilia's shoulder and legs several times before Scarecrow launched himself into a flying headbutt and made Emilia crash into a nearby tree.

"EMILIA!"



Subaru and Beatrice fired a shockwave at Scarecrow, but he merely chuckled as he made his right arm grow to nearly double its size, blocking the attack. Now back to normal size, he ran forward grabbing a boulder that was twice his frame and slammed it on top of Shaula.

Petra watched on at a seemingly safe distance with Sekhmet, watching in horror as her friends were losing against the strange monster. The little maid hugged her Bo Staff, feeling useless that she couldn't help them in the slightest. Then, Sekhmet panicked when she saw Scarecrow tilt his head at them….he was going to attack them.

He charged at them like a wild animal, mowing through Shaula's needle attacks by spinning the scythe around by it's chain. His hideous mask-like face and glowing orange eyes and mouth struck fear deep into Petra's heart.

Then, Subaru and Beatrice fired beams down at him, forcing him to maneuver around them and back to his starting point. Sure enough, Subaru and Beatrice landed back down and activated their trump card against him.

"E.M.T.!"

Erasing the ability to use magic around them, Scarecrow only scoffed at them. Rushing forward with his hook scythe in hand.

"E.M.M.!"

They took the strike but flew forward several meters, before Beatrice used her staff to slam the tip down and stop their acceleration. Scarecrow clawed at the ground and launched a green Minya spear at them, it bounced off thanks to their spell.

This earned him a punch by Shaula, but he used his forearm to block it.

"You're going down Scarecrow!"

"Really? Just like your teacher?"

"AH!"

Shaula was obivously shaken by his comment, making the Vile Spirit spread his orange mouth wide.

"Ohhhh, Flugel's death still haunts you, doesn't it Shaula?"

He then vomited out a green stream of gas at her face. She held her face as she screamed madly, only for her to stomped to the ground by Scarecrow. He stomped her again and again, over and over. Before he began wiping her with his chains, laughing as he did. Shaula whimpered and begged forgiveness...

"Sensei, I'm so sorry. Please. Please! Please, don't leave me! I'm sorry-"

"Look at this! Frozen in perpetual fear, even the former Great Sage is unable to do a thing! Fear! Dread! Terror! THAT IS THE POWER MY FRIEND, CRANE, VALIDATED FOR ME!"

Garfiel used his shields to try and smack away Scarecrow, but claws erupted out of his mouth and grabbed him mid air. They then began leaking out green slime, which hurt Garfiel intensely. They then tossed him away.

Subaru used King's Reach to try and knock him away, but he actually used his scythe to block the attack. Only for Beatrice to appear behind him.

"Al Minya."

"Oh how scary!"

He was then struck down by her powerful attack, causing a massive earthquake that broke apart the ground. Sekhmet put up a wind dome barrier around themselves and the carriage. A nearby mountain cracked apart from the force of the attack and many trees uprooted from the ground.

The attack could be seen in the far distance, even from high up above the clouds…

As Beatrice and Subaru panted and gasped for air…

Scarecrow emerged from the cloud of debris and laughed.

"Come on then Beatrice! Come and take my life!"

"Filthy monster...YOU NEVER ANSWERED BETTY IN THE FIRST PLACE, I SUPPOSE!"

"Oh...right. THe reason I was following you was just morbid curiosity. Nothing more...especially in the fact that you seem to be desiring to bring back Batman."

"Of course, he is Betty's friend."

"Even if bringing him back...could result in something tragic happening?"

"No...Betty will not allow that, I SUPPOSE!"

"Oh come on now Beatrice, we all know that when it comes to you and Natsuki Subaru...you just get people killed!"

"The Sword Saint. Linnea Helena. The citizens of this world...Just being around you two has cursed everyone. Cursed…? That's right! Hahahaha! Let's not forget the ones whose lives you've ruined as well! Like Reinhard's mother, awakened from her slumber with all her loved ones gone! Or the Karsten daughter, with her soul shattered and left a dribbling mess of a human being!? HA! Everything you do, results in disasters does it not-"

"NONSENSE! Everything you say is just poison and-"

"-THEN WHY DIDN'T YOU SAVE BRUCE WAYNE?"

Beatrice was silenced by his words, making the large beast chuckle at the sight.

He pointed at her, his eyes and mouth glowing more intensely.

"And even you saving this world was a critical mistake was it not?! The Anti-Monitor and Satella were so close in ending the world and bringing about a new existence. Now that you all have stopped it, the world is on the brink of chaos, is it not? The fear and anxiety has spread throughout the lands...giving me quite the pleasurable view."

"Disgusting…"

"But it is evident that the life that exists now was a mistake! The world was supposed to end in the Convergence War! And thus it falls upon me and the other Vile Spirits to end this world and by oding that...we will show the futility of life! As such, my Anti-Life Society will discover the Anti-Life Incantation and prove to you all the futility of this pathetic existence!"

"That is your goal, I suppose? To either destroy the world, or prove life...is meaningless?"

"...In a sense...once life is proven to be worthless, fear will strike in everyone's hearts...AND I SCARECROW will be victorious….then we can all die together."

Both of them, as well as the rest of the group were now on their feet. Staring at the spirit and hearing his psychotic declaration. Many of their expressions showed the disbelief in his disturbing psyche. Now, Scarecrow sighed as he gripped his hook scythe, dragging his chains across the ground...

"Now all I have to do is-"

Then a beeping sound was heard, he stopped walking and grabbed something from his pocket.

It was a converging mirror.

He answered it immediately.

"Yes? Speak."

"Scarecrow-sama, this is Ovidius. I've contacted you to let you know...we found it."

"...I see, excellent. This will help us in the long run I concur."

"Will you be heading down here?"

Scarecrow paused for a moment as he peered over at his opponents, as they cautiously waited for a response.

"...Yes, I am going right now."

"Excellent, we shall be waiting your return."

He hung up the call as he smiled widely at them all.

"Now, sorry we couldn't finish things here...but I am afraid I must get going. Business with the Society and all."

"WAIT!"

Scarecrow used his sickle to slice open the air behind him, a large green tear opened and showed a dark foggy landscape on the other side. As he began heading to it...Shaula charged at him...only for a Guandao to push out of the portal, right by Scarecrow and pushed Shaula back. She stomped her feet down, as everyone rushed by her...only to see it.

In the tear, in the fog inside, they could see countless silhouettes. Some human. Some demi-human and a few armored individuals...numbering in the near hundred.

As Scarecrow was nearly through he turned around and winked at them...before he let out a hideous roar, one that echoed out past the mountains they were nearby. He then clapped his hands.

"Sorry I have to leave, but please enjoy yourselves..."

"SCARECROW!"

He made it through the portal and it closed on them. They could only stare in disbelief as they were unable to do anything to him...and he could have easily killed several of them, easily.

Garfiel helped up Mimi, who could only sigh at the results of the fight. Shaula looked at Subaru who checked her up and down.

"Are you alright Shaula?"

"Y-Yeah, a few scrapes and bruises…"

"I'm sorry I couldn't do more to help."

"...It's okay..Subaru...thanks for worrying about me."

"Of course, we're close aren't we? Of course I would worry about you."

"...Okay."

She seemed to blush a bit when he said this, making him tilt his head.

His eyes sunk though when Emilia and Rem made their way to them, showing the injuries they sustained...as well as-

"Rem...your hair."

"Oh...yes…"

The side of Rem's hair that covered her right eye...was now white as snow.

Subaru concluded in his mind that Scarecrow's attack on her caused such distress in her that her hair whitened in a patch. He fell to his knees as he punched the ground. Rem and Emilia made it over to him, seeing the regret in his eyes, he tossed off his helmet in frustration.

"Even now...I can't do anything-"

"-Subaru-kun."

Rem kneeled down to hug him tenderly.

"Rem, I'm sorry I couldn't-"

"-Nonsense. Subaru-kun overworks himself when it come to helping us...Rem doesn't mind this change to her, as long as Subaru-kun still wants Rem."

"...Hell yes I do! Rem, I love you right? So no matter what, I need you by my side."

She smiled as she hugged him around the neck, Emilia joining in as well. Petra and Sekhmet made it over, seemingly relieved that no one died in the fight.

"Still, if I see Scarecrow again, I'll make him pay for hurting everyone."

"Hell ye' Boss! Tha' fucka is gonna ge' his some day!"

They both smiled, intending to begin moving.

Then they felt the ground began to tremble and shake.

Something was coming towards them.

From the cloud of debris, they saw it.

A dog, one that someone would recognize as a giant pitbull.

A jet black dog, easily twelve feet tall and four feet long. It had a single glowing pink eye in the middle of its face.

As it snarled at them, they could the intense heat escaping its mouth.

Beatrice grasped Subaru's collar. He could see the panic on her face.

"This is…"

"Beatrice...what is it?"

"Damn...One of the three God Beasts."

Everyone followed her panic with their own, as they stared up at the snarling monster in front of them. Then-

"It's the Inflamed Barghest."

"GRAGGGROOOOAAAARWOOOOOO!"

It let out a mighty roar as a pink bright fire covered it's entire body.

Garfiel launched a large boulder at the beast, but it sidestepped around the attack and escaped. It then kicked off the ground and opened its mouth wide and attempted to bite down on him, but Rem's Morningstar knocked him back a tad.

Subaru used his trusty whip to try and hit him, but the tip evaporated in contact with the fire around his body. Rem also noticed her weapon was now smoldering.

Emilia had a gigantic ice boulder fall from the sky and launch downward at it, but it let out a growl as the fire shot up from his body and melted the ice instantly. It then focused it's single eyebeam at them, while they dodged it...an entire mountain was cut in half behind them. It then charged towards Sekhmet and Petra, but luckily Shaula launched herself up and fired countless light needles at it. This made it focus up at her and it rolled out of the way. Then, Shaula let out a groan as she fired an intense beam out of her hands, but once again the Barghest blasted out it's eyebeam at her, thus the two attacks collided in the air and made even some clouds part ways.

Sekhemt tried launching a wind slice at it...but once again, it seemed the flames wrapped around its body caused the attack to fall apart. It let out a roar as it could sense Mimi's oncoming staff magic. She fired a pink ring at it, but it stomped it's back leg down and caused a piece of the earth to shoot up and take the hit instead.

"AH!"

Even Mimi showed shock at how prepared it was.

Soon enough the two opponents ceased their projectile attacks.

"GRR."

"GROOOOAR!"



Garfiel caught it's attention as he turned into his tiger form and charged at it, the large canine roared as well and used it's head to attack.

The two clashed, but by the look of things, it was evident that Garfiel was being burned by the flames. However, Garfiel used his strength to launch him away and made it crash through some remaining trees.

With clear frustration, the Barghest got up as it shook its head. The beast let out a hideous snarl as it opened its mouth wide...as flames began forming inside its mouth.

"GARFIEL! MOVE!"

The Barghest shot out a sea of flames that covered the land in front of it. Like a beacon of hell itself it practically engulfed the entire are in front of it and traveled forward at high speed, before coming to a stop several miles away.

The Barghest looked around and sniffed the ground as saliva dipped down it's mouth.

Then it realized everyone escaped behind him, turning around the Barghest saw the carriage making a break for it. It roared once again and proceeded to chase after them.

Inside the carriage Mimi was tending to a now returned Garfiel whose arms were burnt.

"Hang on Garf! Mimi is gonna help you!"

"It's okay, are you doin' okay tho?"

"Heck yes! Mimi is at-"

Then they looked out the back window of the carriage and saw the Barghest running after them, snarling as it did. Shaula stuck herself out along with Emilia and they fired countless projectiles at it. Once it again it got upset and was forced to dodge them by leaping around, before running to the right side of the fleeing carriage. Beatrice aimed her staff at it and fired countless magic bolts at it, making the beast fly away, and giving Shaula a chance to launch a gigantic needle at it. As she fired it, the shockwave nearly made the carriage fall to its side, but Garfiel slammed his foot, making it regain its balance. The needle flew through the air, making the Barghest fire it's eyebeam once again. This time, the needle broke through the beam as it barrelled towards the large dog monster, it snarled as it saw the danger, thus deactivated it's attack and tilted it's head...the needle shot past it, but slice it's side cheek open.

Enraged, the Barghest drooled in rageful action, the steam escaping it, melting away nearby downed trees and crumbling the ground underneath its paws. Soon it kicked off with immense power and made a beeline for the attacking carriage.

Beatrice tapped Shaula's shoulder.

"B-Beatrice?!"

"Hold my hand, Betty needs your help in teleporting us out of here,I suppose!"

"O-OKAY!"

She took her hand and closed her eyes, everyone else looked to the side window and saw the Barghest running at them with an intense ferocity. Then the fire around its body began actually creating fireballs around itself, with the express purpose of destroying its infuriating prey in front of it.

However, as its fireballs fired out, the carriage warped out of there, surprising even the Barghest immensely. The fireballs crashed down all around it, but since it did not hit the target, it was a waste of an attack. All that wasted energy made it hungry…

Soon it sniffed around the air and on the ground...soon it gritted its large teeth as it smelled some nearby prey, some animals that were too slow to escape and had burned to death during the fight. It headed that way, unknowingly getting farther away from his escaping enemies from earlier.

It made its way through the uncontrolled blazing fire and disappeared from sight…

The carriage along with an exhausted Shep found themselves in a village far in the direction of where they were heading. It was a village known as Marstrand, it was well known for being a city where travelers would stop by before entering closer to one of the five major cities. Still, the city seemed just a tad slower in the last few days, possibly due to the sighting of the Barghest nearby and everyone afraid to run into it.

Still, the city survived and everyone hoped that eventually, business would boom again.

Now having escaped the Barghest everyone exited the carriage and found themselves taking a short breather as they began healing each other. As for the rest, they were given X-Potions to help speed up the process.

"Damn, just what the hell was all that Beako?"

"It would seem the Barghest can be controlled by Scarecrow's roar, I suppose. Though it seems similar to Pandora's control of the Blacksnake, just the ability to make it go a certain direction."

"...So is this Scarecrow, the original one-"

"-Yes...he was one of five individuals along with you, who were summoned to this world, years ago, I suppose."

Everyone listened intently as Beatrice continued.

"Bruce Wayne, Slade Wilson, Pamela Isley, Scarecrow and Grodd, I suppose. These five were from a world outside of yours Subaru. And while Scarecrow and Grodd remained the same disgusting individuals as they always have, the other three eventually became our friends, I suppose."

As she said that, they winced in pain, seeing images of three unique individuals they could feel pleasant with, but not accurately sure why. The little spirit saw that they were too exhausted to continue the trip down memory lane, so she dropped the draining conversation…

"Anyways, it's already getting late, what say we find a place to rent for the night and continue the journey henceforth, I suppose?"

"Y-Yeah…"

As everyone made their way to an inn, they could sense it. The anxiety.

With the appearance of such a powerful opponent, the memories trying to escape their cloudy minds and the dreams they had...one had to wonder what this trip was for.

Was Bruce Wayne really their friend?

Was all the pain they were going through really worth it?

Was he worth it?

Just...how would all this end?

But they let it go as they made their way through the village streets, not even glancing at the large plumes of smoke in the distance….

Wearing a helmet with two goggles, the man in the hood and robes waited patiently in the darkness. Soon enough a large cobra lizardman with orange tattoos, and in traditional Kararagi armor emerged with their commander.

"Scarecrow-sama! We're glad to have you back!"

"Yes, well while I was having some exercise, it seems something important came up?"

"Of course, please, the other Spirits are waiting for you!"

He motioned to a dimly lit room, of which Scarecrow nodded. He then turned to the lizardman, who was holding the Guandao weapon he trusted more than anything.

"Loup Garo, I hope I didn't take too much of your time."

"Not at all, I had always wanted to see the heroes who 'saved' the world'."

"I see...then, I can ask you to return to you position?"

"Yes sir."

But before he left he noticed Scarecrow was smiling wide.

"Hehehe…"

"Sir?"

"Beatrice has them all going to free Batman...after all this time?"

"Hehahaha...such fools, they have very little idea of what they are about to do. Once they reach him, what will they do? How will react? Hehahaha-"

He soon held his sides and laughed with everything in his being, even creeping out his warriors.

"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! They'll suffer so horribly! The dread on their faces when it happens will be immaculate! AHAHAHAHAHA! I wish I could be there to see! The fear! The unflinching terror and screams of panic! AhahahahaHAAAAAA…"

He soon composed himself as he gave a motion with his hand.

"Now enough of that, I'll be heading inside. Please do have a good time, both of you. Loup. Ovidius. Excuse me."

Scarecrow made his way to the door, as his two warriors made their way out.

"Did you see her Loup?"

"...The one you're after perchance?"

"Yeah...THE SAGE?"

He could feel the anger in his voice and sighed.

"Yes, Shaula was indeed there."

"...Hmph."

"Do not worry my brother in arms, one day, you will have your chance."

"Oh yeah..."

He held his face as the glimmer of hate shined in the glass of his goggles.

"I'll make that bitch pay one day..."

The two men joined up with the rest of their Society...all one hundred members.

Scarecrow entered the candle lit room and saw his fellow spirits there.

Der Amboss; a vile spirit in the form of scantily dressed woman with yellow hair and silver eyes...and the lower half of her body being that of a golden orb weaver spider.

Anthrax; a jester like being covered in black, his face reminiscent of an ox skull...his piercing blue snake like eyes striking fear into the hearts of many.

Rosenrot; a being that was in heavy looking, red, spike covered armor, his helmet a fearsome sight with two horns protruding out the sides, with his vicious lime green eyes shining brightly.

On the round table that was in front of them, Scarecrow set his scythe down and smiled down at the sight before him.

"Well...it's a start, right?"

As all four of them looked down at it...the Dragon Sword Reid.

For what purpose they had for it...was still unknown at this time...and only time would tell….the Society continued it's plots unseen.

Subaru finished speaking with the innkeeper and had informed everyone that they were able to acquire some rooms for themselves. Garfiel, still feeling drained decided to take a nap with Mimi. Sekhmet did as well, but she took Petra with her, as she seemed out of breath from all the fighting.

Petra hugged Subaru quickly and made her way upstairs with Sekhmet, holding her hand as she did.

Subaru smiled seeing the bonding they were up to.

"Hey Emilia, Rem...can ask you two to go find some supplies for us? I'm going for walk with Beako."

"Subaru, are you alright to do so? I mean…"

"Come on, I've been through a lot worse than that, right?"

Emilia and Rem sighed, seeing he wouldn't take no for answer. So they smiled and agreed to his request. They both gave him a quick kiss on his cheek and left him on his own. Shaula decided to eat, so she waved him goodbye...as he left he didn't notice how she stared at his back, longingly.

Frederica and Sarah were resting in their room, when Frederica stood up and stared out the window.

"Frederica?"

They both could see the smoke from the battle rising into the sky, she could only hold onto her face which was still healing a bit from then.

"Sarah?"

"Yes?"

"Do you think this trip is worth it all?"

"Huh...well, if it is to bring back our old...friend. Then I think it is, yes."

"...But we almost got..."

She held back a bit, before she let out her opinion on the matter.

"Petra nearly got hurt...or worse. And it seems we are drawing a lot of attention to ourselves by getting closer to our destination."

"Well-"

"-The Great Spirits. And now, this Scarecrow...they've been warning us about it. And deep down...I wonder..."

"What exactly...?"

Frederica turned around, revealing her teary eyed face.

"We should ask the others...to turn back around."

Silence filled the room with Frederica's innermost thoughts surfacing.

Subaru was holding Beatrice's hand as they began exploring the village. The people waved at him, with even some girls swooning seeing the recognizable man from the capital. He enjoyed for some time…

"Beatrice...um, that Scarecrow guy was really strong, huh?"

"Even Betty agrees that his strength is mighty, but he is not unbeatable, I suppose."

"Well duh...but I wonder if he-"

"-Can get stronger?"

Subaru nodded down to her. She sighed.

"Scarecrow's ability to manipulate reality around his own body and the use of his own organic, 'Fear Toxin', combined with his use of Yin magic make him a formidable foe, I suppose. And his own power derives from fear..."

"So the more people are scared of him, he gets more buffed up?"

"Yes. And in this current era, everyone is one edge and frightened of each other, I suppose."

"Hahhhh, so it's a smorgasbord for him to feed off of?"

Beatrice nodded, as she held his hand tighter.

"But I think you can help people find that courage Subaru."

"Beatrice."

"And...once we get Bruce back...people will see you two together, and they'll find their courage and hope again, I suppose."

"...Once that happens, we'll beat the hell out of Scarecrow and his Society."

Beatrice smiled at him, all the while giggling at the thought of these two working together again...

Then he noticed a man was carrying quite a lot of supplies with one arm, so he figured he should help out.

"Hey man, need some help with that?"

"Nah, I got this. Thanks though."

Though the boxes and such covered his face, it was evident with his arms that he was physically strong.

And with that, Subaru assumed that he was wrong to even ask him-

Then he moved the boxes to get a better look at Subaru….and he, along with Beatrice were stunned into silence.

"Oh my god…"

"What's up, Kid? You okay there?"

"...AL?"

Aldebaran was staring at him with his usual helmet. Though his next actions spoke volumes about his situation.

"...Al? Hmmmm...don't know anyone named that."

"Tell me something kid, do you know me?"

Emilia and Rem were helping each other with the supplies they were able to require...only to hear something shatter in front of them as they made their way to the exit…

"Why….?"

The voice they heard was instantly recognizable. They looked on in abject horror...a long haired feminine person was standing in front of them, wearing a nice set of blue colored clothing, including a well made navy blue coat...so the cat eared person glared at them.

"Emilia...Rem...what are nyou two doing here?"

"F-Ferris…?"

"I asked you a question."

The usual tone was gone in his voice as he gripped his fists and moved his body in front of the exit.

"He's here to, isn't he?"

"W-Who-"

"-Do not mess with me...I mean him! NATSUKI SUBARU!"

He held his chest tightly...still glaring at the two of them…

"I will not let him...anywhere near her…"

Unbeknownst to all three of them, a woman with long striking green hair was sneaking out of a nearby carriage and happily exploring the streets of the village with the splendor of a small child.

"Hm?"

Then she saw him. A person she had longed to see for quite a while.

A person she felt strangely towards.

A man she trusted.

A friend.

"U...aru…?"

Crusch Karsten was now making her way to Natsuki Subaru.

Away from the battlefield and the darkness that crept through it, they found themselves in a different kind of situation entirely.