—Round and round, round and round, round and round. —The view spins, the world spins, the mind spins.
"—ru."
—Round and round, round and round, round and round. —All of it spins, every last thing spins, everything and anything spins.
"—ru!"
—Round and round, round and round, round and round. —Spinning without end, spinning without limit, spinning without cease.
"—baru!"
—Round and round, round and round, round and round and round and round and round and round and rouuuund.
"—Subaru!!"
Into the ever-spinning mind, the ever-spinning everything, the ever-spinning unceasing, an impurity that was not spinning worked its way in. That it was a desperate call, a frantic shaking and a lovely, tear-filled face became clear from somewhere deep in the ever-spinning world, the ever-spinning all of it, the ever-spinning endlessness. So did the fact that, in the ever-spinning view, the ever-spinning everything had at some point been kind enough to put a kink in the ever-spinning, never-ending rotation.
"Get a grip, I suppose! Subaru!"
Slap, slap went his cheeks, his shoulders were shaken, and everything that had been happening was wiped clean. For ages and ages, thirsting, starving, all he had done was spin. At last that was interrupted, and "Rubasu Kitsuna" was... "Tsukiba Rusuna"? "Sutsuba Rukina"? "Rutsusu Kinaba"? "Bakitsu Rusuna"—Barusu came twirling back.
Bravo! From the ever-spinning space! He had come twirling back!
"G-Gray Star! Please calm down! Don't bite your tongue!"
"What's this, what's that! Why'd he go nuts all of a sudden, out of nowhere? Kahahaha, is this some kind of joke?"
"Does this look like a jest? Black Dog, lend your hand as well, sir! Pin his arms!"
Things all around are getting kind of noisy, but let's not go around in circles about it. Barusu is full of pep and vigor, so no matter how flustered everyone around him gets, his head isn't going to spin. Uhahahaha, look around and there they are, the people all around, earnest faces ringed round Barusu's surroundings. Spinning. Not spinning. I told you I'm not spinning!
"Natsuki Subaru, loosen your grip. At this rate, Beatrice's hand will..."
"Betty is perfectly fine, in fact! This much doesn't hurt one bit, I suppose! It just proves Subaru is reaching out to Betty for help, in fact...!"
"Which part of this face is asking for help? He looks thrilled! But he's drenched in puke! Flooding from both ends, how filthy can you get!"
"Black Dog, just be quiet! Why, all of a sudden, why is this...!"
Right to left, left to right, the words go round like a relay baton, one hand-off after another. Nice, amazing, Barusu wants in too. Here goes, next one, here goes, okay, now!
"—aaaaaah."
Woo—hoooooo!! Nailed it! A grand reversal that went round and round and came full circle! Barusu's beautiful turning of heaven and earth, the lowly toppling the mighty, the Industrial Revolution and the Enclosure Acts, the Magna Carta! Barusu has now set off a paradigm shift, and his Copernican passionate is a heads-on-pikes standing ovation!
"—aaaaaah."
"Tch, this is getting us nowhere. Ferris! Treat him at once—"
Thank you, everyone around, for the cheers. I would love to make the rounds, going around every corner of the land on a thank-you tour. The relative rounds, the friend rounds, and a round for that stranger over there too.
"—Ferris?"
A voice, suddenly, that seemed to swing around to the far side of his mind. The voice had slipped roundabout feelings like a spy round the back of a heart gone round and round, and now, snubbing Barusu, it was trying to pass round someone from Barusu's surroundings like a circular. How lonely. He can't let himself get out-spun. Come on, everyone, all together now. SAY, Barusu! Barusu! Barusu! Baru—
"—Where is Ferris?"
—Unfortunately, it seemed those all around him had no time for that.
△▼△▼△▼△
"—aaaaaah."
As a stir went around everyone around him, Barusu found himself lapped. Even while dumbfounded, stunned shock finished making its rounds through the minds of those around him, Barusu's valiant struggle to prove to those around him that he was not spinning went on. But those around him, it seemed, could no longer devote themselves entirely to the rounds of Barusu.
"Blue Snake has vanished...?"
"Whoa, whoa, since when, since what hour, since what moment? That Blue Snake fella, missy, where in the whole wide world, where on earth, where-oh-where did he get off to?"
"What is... No. There is one thing we must confirm here first."
Rumors flying around, or rather flying back and forth, and one of those passing them around, still pinning Barusu down with one arm, drew an elegant knight's sword without so much as a twirl and levelled it at someone close around. Then, to those around her holding their breath, she asked without beating around the bush:
"—White Sheep. Is it you who has done something?"
"Eh... N-no, it wasn't me!"
"—Then what of you, 'Black Dog'? Have you any notion of what has happened here?"
"Kahaha, gone batty, gone mad? Didn't do it, wasn't in on it, couldn't care less!"
"Good, both of you. Neither is a lie. That means Ferris is in danger."
Drawing her drawn sword back from those around her, the woman—Schcru! Schcru rose to her feet where she stood. The weight on him lessened. At once the girls, Tricebea and Sheepwhite, changed colour.
"'Jade Beauty'!? Where are you... 'Gray Star' is still..."
"Ferris is in danger, just as Natsuki Subaru is. That one's power is surely indispensable to us. If someone has carried him off—"
"That there, this here, one, two, ten! You're skipping steps in your thinking, missy."
"What?"
At Schcru's quiet but dangerous question, another from around him rose to his feet: the hulking Dogblack. Another weight gone. Dogblack, who had been the source of that weight, pointed at this Barusu.
"I mean, look at him, this state, this mess! Plainly, obviously not normal. But if he didn't get hit and kicked into madness, then we're talking magic or something. So here's the thing. —A magic-user who's always pawing at other people, and he's gone missing, vanished, poof! Now that's suspicious!"
"You suspect Ferris of doing this? To what end?"
"Who kno-ows? I don't get that guy at all, not one bit, not a whit! Blinded by gold, maybe?"
"—Take that back. Otherwise..."
Schcru's menace climbed another notch, and, round and round, spread to Dogblack as well. At the two around him, their blood circulating far too briskly to their heads, Sheepwhite cried out, "Wait!"
"W-wait, please! Both of you, this isn't the time for that, is it? With 'Gray Star' like this, fighting... *sniff*"
"Do not cry, 'White Sheep'. There is no lie in your tears, but I have stated my condition for lowering my blade. The rest—"
"The rest? The rest is what? If I don't do as I'm told, you'll let your sword do the talking? Well that there, this here, mighty fine! If you'd made king, you'd be a tyrant! Good thing your loss is locked in, the people can sleep easy-y!"
"—I did warn you."
In that instant, in the eyes of the sprawled Barusu, sword flashes and light spun and danced. A crash exploded, and with a cry of "Subaru!" little Tricebea, right around him, threw herself over him. Through the gaps around her body he saw Dogblack leap swiftly back and Schcru give chase.
Swiftly swapping in a spare mask from his robe, Dogblack lit green flames in both hands to meet Schcru as she came around at him. But he was too roundabout. —No, too slow.
"Damn you!!!"
"For the first time, I hear words from your mouth that are no clown's."
Dogblack's howl went round and round the corridor, and an impact trailing a spray of blood slammed his body into the wall. He slid down it on his back, and his head drooped limp.
"Eek! 'Black Dog'! 'Black Dog'!"
"I have not taken his life. Tend to him."
So Schcru told the shrieking Sheepwhite, the Dragon's Eye blazing beneath her removed eyepatch, and then she looked at Barusu and Tricebea around her.
"I will search for Ferris. You are to join up with Russell Fellow."
Leaving these words, which took no detour and went nowhere roundabout, she swiftly spun on her heel and kicked off the floor. Before anyone could stop her, Schcru was receding into the distance. Tricebea could only watch her go, dumbfounded, as if she had no idea what was happening. But even that was cut short by Sheepwhite's sobbing voice: "'Librarian'!"
"Uh, aah, 'Black Dog'... 'Black Dog' is... p-please, help him, please!"
"—Ngh, what on earth has gotten into you all, I wonder! Why is everyone suddenly... Subaru! You stay put, you hear! Don't you go biting your tongue, I suppose!"
Beside Dogblack, slumped against the wall, Sheepwhite had crumpled in tears with her face in her hands. Grimacing at the chaos around her, Tricebea left Barusu and rushed over. At once a faint healing light went round, and the treatment of the slashed Dogblack began.
"—aaaaah"
Still sprawled there, watching sidelong, Barusu's thoughts rotated. Everyone around him was frantic, everyone around him was heated. For those around him, it felt like Barusu's turn had come around, that there was something he could do, something he had to do.
"—aaaaah"
Very strangely, though his awareness and heart and thoughts were spinning round and round, his unconscious and body and instincts weren't particularly spinning round and round. So he stood up easily. He walked easily. Why had he stood up? That was the question. Thoughts turning, ideas turning, starting to turn.
"Tha's, i'"
Breaking free of full-throttle happiness Armageddon, working a tongue that couldn't turn the words round, Barusu felt understanding come around. Schcru. Where Schcru had run, the far end of the corridor: that was bad. That way, that way was no good. Round and round, that was the way Barusu had gone around before.
The way where Barusu had ended up spinning and spinning and spinning, on and on, forever and ever. So no one should go around that way.
"Shru, krush, ruru, shcu!"
The tongue he tried to turn so he could turn her around caught, trembled, spasmed, and the sounds wouldn't come round. His uvula cramped, and every muscle around his tongue felt swollen tight. The thoughts he wanted to put into words wouldn't come around either. Hand pressed to the wall, he went after the vanished back.
He rounded the corner, no, wrong, turned the corner, and reached for the back receding ahead. He tried to call out to it, loudly, as well as a tongue that wouldn't turn allowed—
"—"
His voice didn't make the rounds. No, that wasn't it. It came out. It just didn't become sound. Not because his tongue had cramped, not because his throat had gone dry. It simply didn't become sound.
"—"
He put a hand to his throat, a hand to his cheek, opened his mouth wide and screamed so it would echo all around. Even after all that, his voice didn't become sound. The voice was coming out, and it didn't, become sound. And his voice wasn't the only thing that didn't become sound.
There was no sound from the slap to his cheek, none from his teeth clacking together, none from his faltering footsteps, none from the broad blade that ran him through from back to belly.
"—"
There was an impact. Put into sound, it would be a *thunk*, followed by a *splurt*, and the scream would go *gyaaah*. And in fact, Barusu took the *thunk*, bled the *splurt*, and shrieked the *gyaaah*. Only none of it became sound, and Barusu simply writhed around where he lay, quietly, like an old silent film playing on a reel that clattered as it turned.
"—"
There was no sound. But the pain didn't lie. There was no sound. But the scream could only be the kind that literally coughs up blood. There was no sound. But now was the only chance to warn his friends.
"—"
His voice didn't reach the back pulling away. Because it didn't become sound. His voice didn't reach his friends back where he'd come from. Because it didn't become sound.
Then, soundlessly, right beside Barusu as he splashed about in his pool of blood, a broad blade, the same one that had pierced his back, was driven into the old outer wall. The blade was wrenched roughly. The crack running through the wall spread in a single breath, and shattered stone tumbled out of the castle trailing dust. In silence. Beyond lay the black space where no god had ever made heaven and earth. He shuddered. But that didn't become sound either. No one could hear "stop," or "no."
"—"
Still unheard by anyone, he was kicked through to the other side of the wall. In silence.
"—"
Round and round, round and round, round and round, spinning as he fell. The whole string of events had played out without a sound, as if someone had forgotten to switch off the mute, like a clumsily run livestream where only the picture kept rolling. In silence.
"—"
Danger. Run. There's an enemy. None of it reached anyone. Still unreached, Barusu—Subaru fell.
Spinning, he fell toward that place that was no sky or anything else, the place where, over hours, over days, he had died of suffocation from lack of air, or of thirst as his body dried out, or of exhaustion as he wasted away, one of those, anyway.
In silence.
"—"
But this time, it didn't look like it would take days. Blood was gushing soundlessly from the holes in his back and stomach, and though the agony was searing his brain, his consciousness was slipping away.
With that fading consciousness, he understood. The same thing had happened one time before. Before Subaru spent days falling, the same thing had happened to everyone.
"—"
Not even his grieving sigh of "ah" became sound as he thought of his friends, who had fallen in silence.
Having your voice reach no one was just too terrifying. So next time—
"—"
His resolve, having reached no one, never became sound, and Natsuki Subaru, still in silence, fell into the colorless sky and vanished.
In silence.
△▼△▼△▼△
In silence.
"What are you mumbling about, I wonder? Come on, this way. Don't you go getting lost, in fact."
"Uwaaaaaah—!!"
"Gyaaaaaah-I-wonderrrr?!"
With a snap, Subaru was swallowed by a flood of sound, as if someone had suddenly cranked a TV's volume to MAX, and he screamed at the shock of it. Startled by Subaru's scream, Beatrice let out a high shriek right along with him.
"Wh-wh-wh, wh-what's wrong?! Both of you, suddenly yelling like that..."
"B-b-b, b-Betty only got carried along by Subaru, in fact! Subaru's the one who suddenly started screaming his head off, I suppose! This prank has gone too far, in fact!"
"Frankly, I was shaken as well... but is it truly a prank?"
Beatrice, who had been so flustered defending herself, turned around at the question. "Huh?" Where she was looking, Subaru was down on one knee on the castle floor, trying to square away his sense of balance. His head, his body, his mind: the balance of all of it was off, and his breathing came ragged. His heart was pounding. He could hear the blood thudding as it coursed through his body. —He could hear sound.
"It came... back... the sound."
"Subaru, what on earth is the matter, I wonder? What happened, in fact?"
"Ah, yeah, Beako, let me hear more of your..."
...voice. The longing for the peace of mind the silence had torn out of him pulled at him hard, but he was held back by what that silence had led to, and by the round-and-round, ever-spinning world just before it. Right. This wasn't his turn to go looking for warmth. —It was his turn to fight.
"—!"
Grinding his back teeth, Subaru put his strength into his knees and stood. Looking around, he found himself in a corridor walled in by stone: inside Kugelschreiber Castle, and most likely on the way to fetch the thing Beatrice had left behind. In other words, this was a Return by Death to just a little before the events that had brought Subaru to his "death."
"Never any time, every single time...!"
He knew he was being greedy, but it wasn't a power he'd ever asked for in the first place. So surely heaven wouldn't punish him for at least wishing it could be lavish about it, and as convenient to him as possible. Either way, all he could do was face this new crucible with every scrap of will, strength and desperation he had.
"Everyone, be careful! It's not just us. Someone else is..."
...here, he meant to say, but as he turned to look back at his companions, he noticed. —Someone was missing. A worried Beatrice, Crusch with her arms folded, White Sheep reaching out with fluttering hands, Black Dog twirling a finger at his temple: Ferris wasn't there. That's right. That was it. Earlier, while Subaru had been out of his mind, they'd been talking about exactly this.
"Where's Ferris!? Ferris, where'd he go!?"
"Where, what, how... hey, well this, that, what a shock, what a surprise! Meow meow meow, where'd Mister-Missy Blue Snake get to?"
At Subaru's frantic voice, everyone finally noticed Ferris was gone. Ferris had been walking at the rear of the group. But he'd been part of the conversation right up until a moment ago, or it seemed that way, surely. Subaru didn't think anyone had been missing.
"What... no. There is one thing to confirm here first. —Gray Star, what was that scream of yours just now? What in the world happened?"
"Huh? Ah, no, that's got nothing to do with this right now."
The reaction in the moment of coming back from Return by Death, the junction between "death" and "life," so to speak, was something Subaru couldn't account for himself, let alone to Emilia and the others close to him. But letting it turn into noise would be bad. The truth was, it was a hole that looked connected to the current situation but wasn't, and there was no point digging into it. However—
"—There is a wind of lies."
"Nngh...! That one's hard to explain! It's not unrelated, but it's, like, an allergic reaction to something bad having happened."
"Al-ler-gic..."
"It's true, Crusch! Subaru wouldn't lie about something like this, I suppose! He knows better than anyone that this is no time for that, in fact!"
Beatrice spread her arms and planted herself in front of Subaru as if to shield him. He had no intention of hiding behind her, so he stepped out at an angle and faced Crusch side by side with her. At the two of them, Crusch narrowed the amber eye her eyepatch didn't cover—
"—Good. Neither of you is lying."
"Glad you get it. Then..."
"—White Sheep. Is it you who has done something?"
The relief lasted only a moment. Crusch's aim swung around, pointed now at White Sheep. At the question, White Sheep's eyes went wide and she hurriedly shook her hands and head.
"Eh... N-no, it wasn't me!"
"—Then what of you, 'Black Dog'? Have you any notion of what has happened here?"
"Kahaha, gone batty, gone mad? Didn't do it, wasn't in on it, couldn't care less!"
"Good, both of you. Neither is a lie. That means Ferris is in danger."
Having heard White Sheep's and Black Dog's answers, Crusch murmured it in a low voice. Yes, that was true too. Ferris, walking at the rear, must have been carried off by the enemy without Subaru and the others noticing. Normally that would be impossible. But Subaru had experienced, in his own body, a phenomenon that made the impossible possible.
"That silence..."
That unnatural phenomenon of silence, which had not only kept Subaru from crying out but allowed no sound whatsoever to be made, all while carrying out lethal attacks and tearing apart the building—unless Subaru, who'd lost his mind at the time, had also suddenly lost his hearing, it had been real.
Just by being unable to make sound, or hear it, Subaru and the others had been wiped out.
"Librarian, I must ask you to give up on your forgotten item for now. We need to find out at once where Ferris... where 'Blue Snake' has vanished to—"
"Whoa, whoa, wait up, hold it, don't go deciding things on your own. Don't you get it? Right now we're smack in the mid-dle of an enemy attack. Who cares about 'Blue Snake'? Retreat, we retreat!"
"Wha... H-how can you say it like that?!"
Crusch had swiftly cleared her own people of suspicion and was about to set off after the missing Ferris, and at the heartless words "Black Dog" used to hold her back, Subaru rounded on him. But "Black Dog" only turned his unchanging masked face toward him and said, "Idiot!"
"We can't go pulling risky stunts or dangerous deeds for one lousy 'Blue Snake' in a situation like this. They sniffed us out somehow. We've got no home-ground advantage here! This is no place for a scrap. Speaking as the great 'Dastardly Sorcerer,' these are terms I just can't swallo-ow!"
"...Then you may do so. But my view differs. 'Blue Snake' is an indispensable asset to us. Without that one..."
"Whoops, now that's way too much misunderstanding and misapprehension, missy."
"What?"
About to turn sharply away, Crusch looked down at the hand on her shoulder holding her back. Meeting her gaze, "Black Dog" tilted his head far to one side. "You don't get it, do you?"
"Here and now, first and foremost: if we're gonna tell those guys to drop dead and die, we need your power. Your eyes, to be precise, and your blessing, to be more precise, but that's the thing we can't afford to lose. That comes first."
"...What are you trying to say?"
"Of course, naturally, it goes without saying: when I say retreat, that includes you, missy."
"..."
Swapping his mask for a crying face, "Black Dog" pressed his case hard. As reasoning from a member of the "Six Tongues," it was perfectly sound. Seeing through the authority of "Lust," which was tormenting the kingdom, required her "Blessing of Wind Reading," and nothing could replace it. But that was the reasoning of the "Six Tongues," and no more.
"Allow me to correct one assumption, 'Black Dog.'"
With that, Crusch brushed the hand from her shoulder and turned to face him. Then, looking straight at "Black Dog," her back to Subaru and the others, she said:
"I am cooperating with you, but I have not become your subordinate. I have the right to act at my own discretion, and my discretion does not permit abandoning Ferris here."
Declaring it firmly, she took a step forward. She would not abandon Ferris. It was only natural, but hearing her say it made him glad. Because Subaru felt exactly as Crusch did—
"—Fine, got it, then it's gonna have to be brute for-orce!"
The next instant, green flames erupted from beneath Crusch's forward foot. With a whoosh, the smell of scorched air and a wave of heat singed Subaru's bangs, and he reeled back. But he had only caught the edge of it. The real target of those flames was Crusch.
"'Black Dog'?! Wh-why would you attack 'Jade Beauty'?!"
"I told you the why and the wherefore! How soft can you get? You think that sneaky bastard's gonna forgive us if we let that woman slip away? Dying from a curse brand is not on my list, thanks!"
"That's... But doing it like this..."
"White Sheep," eyes brimming, tried to protest that she couldn't accept it, and "Black Dog" scratched his head through his hood. It was right after that.
"—Then would you rather be cut down by my sword than by a curse brand?"
The column of green flame was split, and beyond it shone a single line of golden light: the glow of Crusch's "Dragon's Eye," her eyepatch removed, as she stepped unscathed out of the fire. A divine feat only Crusch's "Dragon's Eye" and her surpassing skill could achieve—spell-cutting.
"Tch, we're a bad match through and through, all the way down! Bet we don't share the same taste in food or hobbies either!"
"We are not setting up house together. If you know you are at a disadvantage, why not withdraw?"
"I said it, so you heard it, right? I just don't wanna die from a curse brand, is the thing!"
"...I see. You have my sympathy. You will not have my restraint."
With that, Crusch closed in, and "Black Dog," switching masks and kindling blue flame in his right hand, shoved "White Sheep" at his side toward Subaru and the others with his left. Subaru caught her as she let out a shriek, and by the time he looked up, the fight between Crusch and "Black Dog" had already begun.
"Subaru! This is bad, in fact! They've started fighting, I suppose!"
"I know! Screw this, that bastard 'Black Dog'... Crusch is a hundred percent in the right here... and still, damn it, damn it, dammit all..."
"...Subaru?"
Holding up "White Sheep," Subaru seethed with fury at "Black Dog" for starting the fight, the words spilling from the corner of his mouth like a curse. The guy always went to extremes. Subaru understood the "Six Tongues'" reasoning. He understood why they'd follow it. Even so, there was no reason to take such a hard line against a comrade. It made him furious. Let him get what was coming to him.
"Ugh, sniff... Why, why is this... This is wrong...!"
Leaning back against Subaru's arm, which shook with fury, White Sheep covered her face with her hands and sobbed. How pitiful she was. No one would listen to her pleas, she'd been shoved aside, and now all she could do was cry. The poor thing. Did Black Dog have some grudge against her? And so—
"Damn you!!!"
"For the first time, I hear words from your mouth that are no clown's."
His spell was cut apart a moment before it fired, and a kick sank into Black Dog's exposed side. His tall frame folded in half, and a returning flash of the blade caught him from below and sent him flying down the corridor. Straight into the wall, and down for the count: the same sequence Subaru had seen before. Evil never prospers in this world.
"Eek! 'Black Dog'! 'Black Dog'!"
"I have not taken his life. Tend to him."
White Sheep's knees gave way in Subaru's arms, and she stretched a hand toward the fallen Black Dog, tears streaming. Crusch spared that a sidelong glance, then turned to Subaru and the others, her eyepatch off.
"I will search for Ferris. You are to join up with Russell Fellow."
"W-wait, Crusch! We'll look for Ferris too! He's our friend! I'm worried about him! So..."
"—'Librarian', uh, aah, 'Black Dog'... 'Black Dog' is... p-please, help him, please!"
As if to cut off his declaration, White Sheep's anguished voice pleaded with Beatrice. For an instant, his attention went to her. In that opening, Crusch broke into a run,
"I leave things here to you. I am counting on you."
She said that much and no more, and vanished down the corridor. Subaru wanted to go after her, but White Sheep was still clinging to his arm. On top of that, he couldn't just leave Black Dog lying there.
"He brought it on himself, but Beako! Heal him!"
"Understood, I suppose. ...But Subaru, are you all right, I wonder?"
"Huh!? About what!?"
He all but bellowed it at her, then clapped a hand over his mouth.
"Sorry, that came out louder than I meant. I should just die."
"...Anyway, Betty will heal him right away. White Sheep, you stop your sniveling too, I wonder."
"Ugh, hic, s-sor, sorry...y."
Rubbing the back of the sniffling White Sheep, Subaru watched Beatrice work, full of gratitude and love for his steadfast partner, who hadn't snapped back even though he'd yelled at her for no reason. She really was a wonderful partner. His pride and joy. The best. Next to her, he was hopeless. Garbage.
"Idiot, this is no time to mope. Think, think, think. There's an enemy here. That's bad. Ferris is in danger. Can't leave Crusch on her own either. And Black Dog went and made more trouble for everyone, ah, dammit!"
"Eep!"
"Gah! Sorry sorry sorry! No, it's not your fault, White Sheep—"
She flinched, round eyes brimming with tears, and her stare left him squirming. There was so much to think about and not one piece of it was getting resolved, and with his panic and irritation piling up, Subaru decided to start with what was in front of him and ask Beatrice how Black Dog was doing—
Right above Beatrice and Black Dog, a sliced-off section of the corridor ceiling fell. —In silence.
"Invisible Providence!!"
In that instant, faster than hand or foot or head, acting straight through his soul, the third demonic hand shot out. It scooped up Black Dog and Beatrice, who was casting healing magic on him, both at once, pulled them clear of the ceiling as it came down without a sound, and flung them aside with barely a hair to spare.
He'd made it. He must have. But he had no time to check. —Because above Subaru and White Sheep, the same silent crack had opened, and the ceiling was starting to fall.
"—Huh!?"
Springing to his feet, Subaru grabbed the startled White Sheep's hand and took off at full speed. She'd had her face buried in her hands crying and had no idea what was happening, but he dragged her headlong down the corridor. All the while, a rain of rubble kept collapsing right on their heels, chasing them in silence.
"Uwoooooaaaah!!"
He had no chance to look back, and with no sound he couldn't tell when it would stop. So as not to be swallowed by that silent ruin, he just ran, and ran, and kept running—
"—Mr. Gray Star! Please, stop!"
A sudden, forceful cry and a hard yank on his arm threw him off balance, and Subaru stumbled. He nearly went sprawling, caught himself on his hands, and whipped around to look behind them. But the collapse hadn't reached this far. —No, it seemed to have stopped quite a while back. The corridor behind them lay buried in rubble for some distance, but Subaru and White Sheep were unhurt.
"Wait, what about Beako!? And Black Dog too..."
"...I lost track of them on the other side of the rubble. But I saw the light of Miss Librarian's magic, so I'm sure..."
"Beako's... yeah. I can feel the connection, faintly."
Shutting his eyes against the surge of emotion, he checked what White Sheep had said. The path running between contractor and spirit, distant though it was, vouched for his connection to Beatrice. That meant she was safe. Safe for now, anyway.
"Dammit, I knew there was an enemy around, so how did we let them walk all over us like that..."
"You think it was strange too, Gray Star?"
"Of course I do! Out of nowhere like that... Okay, Black Dog putting on a parade of snide remarks and sarcasm is business as usual, but that wasn't like Crusch either. Even if something happened to Ferris, she's not the kind of person who'd turn her sword on an ally..."
As he spoke, one clearly unnatural thing after another surfaced in his mind. Crusch drawing her sword, Black Dog leaping straight to force: whatever the circumstances, both had been far too quick to act. And then there was Subaru, doing nothing but panicking and snapping, and White Sheep, sobbing her heart out and unable to do anything at all. Every one of them had been off. Sure enough, the White Sheep wiping away her tears in front of him now had shed the frailty of a moment ago.
"Don't tell me that was an enemy attack too...?"
"I think it was. They turned us against each other. We fell right into it and got split up..."
"The sound cutting out, and that... what was that? Our emotions got forced... no, it wasn't like Sirius's thing. Getting angry, crying, it was all different..."
Going back over what had happened to them, he pieced together a theory of what had been done. For an instant, the Authority of the Sin Archbishop of Wrath crossed his mind, but that was a wicked power that ruled other people's thoughts under the banner of uniting everyone's hearts as one. What had happened here was slightly different. Each of them had reacted in their own way—
"—We couldn't hold ourselves back anymore?"
"That's it! That's the closest! The sound cutting out, and the lid that keeps our emotions in check getting pulled off... Is there a connection?"
"No. —Gray Star, please listen. This might be really bad."
"I already think it's pretty bad as it is, but what? Tell me."
Clasping her hands tightly in front of her chest, White Sheep fixed Subaru with a serious gaze. And then—
"—There's a good chance that two or more Beloved Children are here right now."
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