5.1
—When Rem regained consciousness, her feet were not planted on the
ground.
There was an arm firmly around her waist. Someone was carrying her. She did
not think that the rough manner was any way to touch a girl. Though that was
indeed the case, the owner of the arm was sprinting recklessly, with not a shred
of concentration for anything beyond that.
"—Barusu, go right at the broken tree in front! You are slow!"
"Don't…demand the impossible… I'm—haghh—running…as hard as I can…
here!"
Two familiar voices, one more intimately so, were yelling at each other from
close by.
The intense up-and-down shaking jostled Rem's head back into
consciousness.
"…Subaru, what are y—"
"—! Rem…you're awake?!"
Subaru kept running as he voiced his delight and glanced down at her. Rem
looked up at him, her mind still rather hazy, when something unexpectedly
caught in her throat.
The side of Subaru's face was wet with blood. Maybe he'd cut his forehead?
The scars all over his body from the night before had whitened; at some point,
new wounds had been made on top of them, staining both with fresh blood.
Ram, her pink hair swaying as she ran beside Subaru, made a faint, pleasant
smile toward her.
"…I am so glad, Rem… You are one high-maintenance girl…"
Ram's words were few, but only those who really knew her knew this
particular smile. She reached out and stroked Rem's blue hair. A moment later
—
"Fulla!"
She conducted the Blade of Wind incantation and used the resulting attack to
slice through the trees—and cut the demon beast charging at them into discs to
nourish the plants on the forest floor.
For a moment, Ram seemed dizzy; her steps went astray, making her lightly
bump into Subaru's body.
"Owwwww! Ram, you know better than to touch my right shoulder, geez!!"
"…Be quiet. You would have been bitten if not for me. You can at least be a
wall for me to lean on."
"At least pick the other should—Owww!"
Subaru was half in tears as he cried out in fierce pain.
Ram put her weight on Subaru as she bled from the scar of her lost horn. Rem
watched both of them as the current situation slapped her in the face.
Why was she in a place like this? Why were they protecting her?
"Wh…y…?"
"Ah?"
"Why…did you not just let me be?"
She trembled as she voiced the question. Subaru stared down at her with a
look of disbelief as Rem's quivering lips continued.
"You and Sister coming made it meaningless. I…I have to do this myself… I
should be the only one getting hurt…"
"It's a little late for that. Ram and I are all beat up already! Hell, maybe more
than you are!"
Subaru was prone to exaggeration, but he seemed to believe every word of
that last sentence. She wondered what Ram thought of that, but her beloved
twin did not enter the conversation. Rem felt like her sister had left her out on a
limb as she desperately tried to find the right words.
"It…it is my fault. I hesitated last night, that is why… I have to take
responsibility… If I do not, I cannot face you or Sister…"
"Now may not be the best time for it, but we're actually, you know, talking!
That's seriously awesome…"
"Really, you should not have been bitten at all—"
Though Subaru didn't look like he was listening, he apparently heard her
words loud and clear. His face went stiff, looking at Rem as she confessed her
sin.
Rem's shortcomings had caused Subaru to risk himself to shield her during the
forest battle the night before. When she saw the fangs had punctured and
ripped Subaru's flesh, bathing him in blood, she could only gape at what her
conduct and judgment had wrought.
The same scent as on that day long ago, when everything had been burned
away, had hovered thickly around Subaru. And Rem had caught a whiff of it,
leaving her unable to move.
"It is because I hesitated to reach out to you that you nearly died. And then
your body suffered too many curses to lift. That is why I—"
"You went off to deal with it by yourself to atone for it, right?"
Just as Subaru nodded in acceptance, Rem drew in her chin, once again
acknowledging her own sin.
Rem was prepared to be scolded and scorned. Subaru should have given her a
tongue-lashing before she had set foot into the forest again.
She had not let him because she had not a moment to spare to save Subaru.
That, or she was unprepared to face the consequences of her weakness.
—Rem, resenting her own frail heart, thought it must surely be the latter.
She was prepared to accept whatever words he struck her with, however
stern they might be. After all, that was only the punishment she deserved for
the crime she had committed.
"Rem."
"Yes."
—Subaru's face was truly right before her eyes.
"Bonk."
"—?!"
The hard smack sound of bone upon bone sent sparks into Rem's vision.
For an instant, the sharp pain narrowed Rem's field of vision as she put a
hand on her forehead in confusion. When not in her horned form, her flesh was
no hardier than an ordinary human's.
No doubt others would be able to see a faint, reddening bump from the
impact to her brow.
Rem's eyes were still wide, with no idea what was going on, when Subaru
looked down at her.
"To begin with, are you an idiot? No, you are an idiot."
"Barusu. You split your split forehead and it is bleeding again."
Ram butted in to speak. Subaru shook his bloodied face.
"I'm an idiot, too. I know that already! But your little sister's an even bigger
idiot!"
Rem realized that Subaru had head-butted her. She didn't understand the
significance at all.
"Now look here, in my homeland, they say, 'Three women make a market.'
Not that that has anything to do with this. But they also say, 'Three heads are
better than one.'"
What's sagacity, anyway? Subaru murmured to himself after he spoke. "Er,
anyway," he said, twisting his neck as he continued, "it's like how it's easier to
snap an arrow with three people than a person might think."
"I am guessing you are using that somewhat unlike the original…"
"A-NY-WA-Y! Don't think about it all by yourself and rely on the people
around you! You understand what I'm saying, right?! If you had your heart
grabbed like m—"
Subaru was about to say something when his expression changed to one of
pain.
"That was over the line, huh…? Th-that's a little strict, ain't it?"
"What are you talking ab—? Wait, Subaru, the scent of the witch is suddenly
much thick—"
Rem pinched her nose, twisting her body away from the repugnant smell.
Right beside her, the horrible, abominable stench wafted about. What had
suddenly caused it to—?
But Subaru moved to set Rem's misgivings aside with a statement of his own.
"Well, I need you to switch gears on that for now. I'll switch gears, too."
Rem was agape, but the serious look on Subaru's face told her to push that
question down the road. Subaru looked ahead as they ran, the tension and
caution in his eyes growing stronger.
Simultaneously, Ram, again running beside him, put a hand to her painful
forehead as she began to chant.
"Ram, the villa—No, the barrier's good enough. Which way is it to get there?"
"If we can slip past the pack before us, we simply need to sprint to the left,
but what are you planning?"
When Ram asked, Subaru let out a long mmm sound as he made a sour face.
"How about I push Rem onto you and I cruelly run off to the barrier on my
own?"
"You intend to let me flee with Rem while you lure the Urugarum away?
Understood."
"Can you not spoil what I was trying to hide?! It's embarrassing!!"
The speed of their run did not abate as Subaru and Ram sparred with their
words back and forth.
When she heard what they were saying, Rem felt a feeling of despair, like the
whole world was turning black before her.
"I cannot…save you like that… Pl-please stop this. If you do this, I…"
"Luggage should be seen and not heard! It's all right, I'll get past the barrier
and hook up with you there. After that, I have a special plan you don't know
about to take down the demon beasts all at once. It'll be big, an easy win!"
She had no idea what "special plan" Subaru had prepared. To be blunt, she
wondered if there even was one.
Was he simply papering things over? Subaru slipping past the pack by himself
was all but impossible in the first place, she thought.
"You need to do no such thing… I will wipe out the demon beasts all by myse
—"
She couldn't let Subaru do anything rash. Rem tried to move her arms and
legs. But her limbs merely dangled, refusing to obey her commands. The most
she could do was wiggle her fingers and move her tongue around a little.
Nothing was working as she was accustomed to.
"Where is my weapon…?"
"Like I could carry around a heavy thing like that! I'll buy you a new one later,
geez!"
Pain shot through Rem as she realized she was unarmed and unable to move,
so there was nothing she could do but be protected by others. The thought
drove her to despair.
Subaru gently handed Rem off to Ram.
"Don't drop her."
"I believe I have more strength than you possess in one arm, Barusu."
"Why'd you make me carry her, then?!"
"You never told me to, did you, Barusu?"
"Seriously, that's your answer?!"
Subaru slapped his own face for missing the opportunity.
Rem looked up at Subaru from her sister's arms, shaking her head at the
unbelievable reality. She'd said so many mean things about him. Why was he
going this far?
"Subaru, why are you going this far to…?"
"—Good question."
Her inquiry sent Subaru into thought for but a single moment. He raised a
finger and smiled.
"Because you're the first girl I ever went on a date with. I'm not so cruel that I
can just turn my back on you."
As he spoke, he gently petted Rem with the same hand.
"Well, I'm gonna head off for a little bit. Take care of Rem, Big Sis."
"I pray that you meet with us safely, Barusu."
With that brief exchange, they suddenly parted ways, with Subaru running
one way and Ram another.
Ram ran right. Subaru ran left.
The Urugarum pack coming from the front hesitated at their prey splitting up,
but only for a moment. They immediately ran off in pursuit of Subaru.
"—Sister!"
"Barusu is risking his life to buy us time. I shall make good use of it."
Sweat formed on Ram's brow as her tone made plain she had no margin for
error. The combination of wounds and fatigue slowed her down considerably.
Compared to Rem in horned form, it was nothing.
When Rem thought of that, she regretted what she had done enough that she
wanted to cry.
If Rem could have returned to horned form, she'd have had the power to get
them through this, not only to save Subaru but to carry her older sister out of
danger. She could do it all.
And yet, at the most critical of moments, she was unable to even bring out
the demon within her.
It was her own halfhearted weakness that had brought Subaru and her older
sister here and held them back.
In contrast to the regret-filled Rem, Ram had not hesitated when Subaru
offered himself as a decoy. No doubt that was because she valued Rem's life
above Subaru's and, indeed, even her own. Knowing that Subaru's ploy would
buy them time and increase their odds of survival, she had accepted without
the slightest falter.
Though Rem thought her beloved older sister's judgment was correct, she
suddenly rebelled against the idea.
Why was Sister so strong, strong enough to cut anything and everything
away? What incredible part of her allowed her to make such a horrible decision
so easily? Rem wanted to see for herself.
"Sister… Subaru… Subaru is—!"
"Rem. We cannot turn back. It would put his resolve to waste."
They were the words of her beloved sister. Her sister was always right.
If Rem followed her, she would surely be safe, for Ram had always been right.
—Then why did what was right feel so empty…?
"—Sis!!"
"—!!"
Ram's expression greatly trembled in response to Rem's heartfelt shout. Ram
bit her lip, her eyes wide open as her feet came to a stop. Rem instantly twisted
her body, escaping her sister's arms to fall to the ground, rolling as she looked
behind them—and saw Subaru's back as he ran.
Far away, his run was much too slow to be called a sprint.
She saw his black hair and his wounds all over. She saw the sway of his listless
right arm, devoid of strength, and the way Subaru appeared to be hiding his
emotions.
Towering before Subaru was a giant, sheer black demon beast. Judging from
its size compared to the rest of the pack, it might well have been the leader.
Under that fearsome gaze, surrounded by predators, Subaru ferociously ran.
No matter how much she stretched out her fingers, no matter how much her
heart quaked, she could not reach his back.
And yet, Rem shouted, as if pleading.
"—Subaru!"
She did not know if her voice reached him.
All she saw was Subaru on the run, his left hand drawing the dimly glimmering
sword as if responding to her call.
5.2
He didn't understand it himself.
Since when had he become a man stubborn enough to do something crazy
like this…?
No matter how much he wanted to put on a brave face and not make the
sisters feel like they owed him, this was completely, thoroughly not like him.
With his back turned to them, the look on his face crumbled the instant he
knew they could no longer see it.
He keenly felt both extremes of pain—dull and sharp alike. His mask had
fallen to pieces, Subaru's magnificent face scowling as his tongue pathetically
hung out like that of a dog.
"It hurts… It hurts. It hurts, Mommy, Daddy, Emilia-tan…!"
He invoked the three most important people in his life as he glanced at his
dangling right arm.
The intermittent numbness in his shoulder was from his crash landing after
his blow to Rem's horn. He hoped dearly it was merely dislocated.
One way or another, he couldn't rely on his right arm for combat. With one
less weapon at his disposal, Subaru had no idea how he was going to face the
enemy standing before him.
As Subaru ran, he found the demon beast pup standing in his path—the one
that had been the bane of his existence more than once. Subaru wondered if it
had a grudge against him to be so darned persistent.
"I'd like this to be the last time we meet…"
Subaru kept running as he girded himself for the cascade of stones the demon
beast would surely unleash. If that hit him when his guard was down, there was
no way he'd get away with just a dislocated shoulder.
Shaking off the unpleasant image of being whittled to death by a thousand
stone cuts, Subaru mentally simulated dodging at the exact moment the stones
would be unleashed. He gave the demon beast a half-resentful, gimme-your-
best-shot glare when—
"Uhh?"
He suddenly sounded quite clueless.
Subaru could scarcely believe his eyes at the scene unfolding before him.
The demon beast pup made a small howl before curling up its little body
further. It seemed to be gathering all its strength. Before Subaru, whose eyes
were narrowed with no idea what was coming next, it…
"—!"
The fur ball suddenly grew with explosive force.
Poof—in the blink of an eye, it grew from the size of a cute, huggable
domesticated dog to something larger than the largest breeds, to the point one
might call it jumbo sized.
"I've seen this in manga a lot, but seriously, where does all the extra mass
come from?!"
The reply to his question was a howl that seemed to make the entire forest
shudder.
It used its hind legs for support as it vigorously sprang off the ground. The
demon beast then struck together the claws of both its raised paws, revealing
them to be sinister weapons that could slice through human bone with the
slightest graze.
"Oh, so you're not gonna settle this with magic? What did I ever do to you…?"
Subaru shuddered at its decision to fight their final battle mano a mano as he
looked around, searching for any avenue of escape—but demon beasts in
pursuit were cutting off the back and the sides, making escape a difficult
proposition.
"Man, coming after me instead of the beautiful sisters… You guys have
seriously demon-cursed taste… Damn it all!"
Once he noticed it, his steps slowed as the beasts surrounded him.
Apparently, Subaru had brought every demon beast in the whole forest
running. His decoy operation was a huge success.
He didn't have time to have a nervous breakdown or piss his pants while
begging for his life.
With all avenues of escape cut off, his only option was to run straight forward.
In other words, he had to take the giant demon beast down one-on-one.
He fumbled in his side pocket. He felt a rock…a piece of hard candy…
something that felt sticky and icky…and…
"All I can do now is trust in Puck…!"
He took it out and tossed it in his mouth as he prayed to the gray cat with all
his might.
There wasn't much time before Subaru would reach the demon beast. They
would clash in mere seconds.
That was when…
"—Subaru!"
…he heard it.
That moment, Subaru heard someone call his name.
It had a painful echo, drenched in sadness as if the whole world were about to
end, knowing that whether Subaru lived or died determined whether her heart
would shatter—perhaps it was insensitive of him, but Subaru was happy.
I'm too pathetic. A pervert. A two-faced jerk.
It wasn't like he couldn't guess how the girl felt as she cried out his name. The
fact that he smiled nonetheless was proof he was totally mad.
He smiled, and smiled, and when he was done smiling, Subaru's left hand
drew out the broken one-handed sword.
The demon beast roared before him. Subaru put all his weight behind the
sword as he, too, yelled out. Their voices raised a pair of discordant war cries.
Soul clashed against soul.
A moment before they were within each other's reach, Subaru inhaled
deeply. He pictured the center of his body. He focused on the region between
chest and waist, imagining a gate connected to the outside, just above his
navel.
"—SHAMAAAAK!!"
The magical invocation permeated the air. The next moment, a black cloud
erupted around Subaru.
The cloud enveloped Subaru and all the demon beasts. The decisive battle in
the forest was now sealed within the darkness.
Illustration 9
5.3
Within the black cloud, the world was incomprehensible.
The shape of the world, its color, its scent—none of these things could be
discerned here.
The single firm, solid sensation came from the soles of his feet touching the
ground. If not for that, surely he would not have even known which way was up
inside the darkness.
He could see nothing. He could hear nothing. He could understand nothing.
So this was the end of the world.
As Subaru felt his feet pressing against his shoes, he searched for something
within the haze. Surely there was something that awaited him within the black
cloud, something he had to do.
—Something, something, something, something was missing.
Faced with a world of incomprehension, he had to remember the world of
comprehension.
Why had this nothingness come? Who had brought it? What were the
conditions for ending it?
Remember, remember, remember the world beyond, the world that was firm
under his feet.
His command to his brain made thoughts erupt like sparks.
He couldn't make it another step. His feet were drained of all strength.
Sooner or later, the incomprehension would crush him, making him doubt even
the sensation of his soles. If he could see that coming, the answer did not lie
outside him.
If the answer was not outside his body, it must lie within. Even if he could not
bring the oblivion outside him to heel, he could call upon his internal organs, all
subconsciously functioning even then.
The roles had been assigned. It was time to move. And so, finally—
"—!!"
Suddenly, he felt like his entire body was on fire.
The unendurable sensation of heat ripped through Subaru's body, bringing
not words from his throat but a bestial cry… No, he thought it had. He did not
understand even that.
He didn't understand. He didn't understand, but his feet, once drained of
strength, moved once more.
Forward. His feet moved in the direction he believed to be forward.
Awareness, oblivion, awareness, oblivion, awareness, oblivion, over and over
and over, until finally—
5.4
The instant Subaru broke through the black cloud, leaping outside it, his
sword hit something extremely thick. The sword in his hand was ripped out of
his grasp. Subaru lifted his face and bit down his shock.
Before his very eyes, the huge demon beast's head remained thrust into the
black cloud—and the single-handed sword Subaru had been grasping was deep
in its chest.
The surprise blow left an ugly feeling lingering in the middle of Subaru's hand
—the feeling of plunging a dull blade into the flesh of a living creature. The
psychological shock was greater than he'd anticipated, giving rise to what was
almost an eerie, out-of-body feeling.
The demon beast, still in the world of incomprehension, couldn't even feel
the blade in its body.
Even as Subaru glanced at the contradictory spectacle of a dead beast that
didn't know it was dead, he shamelessly ran, putting distance between them
while he still could.
His head was heavy; his whole body was sluggish. It was the aftereffect of
using magical power without complete command of it, and thus burning excess
amounts of mana.
In the first place, using that magic should have spewed out all the mana in his
body, leaving him on the ground and unable to rise again, but Subaru had
played his trump card to get around that.
"—Thanks a million, brats."
Subaru spat out the tiny remnants of the fruit's skin still in his mouth as a
small smile came over him.
He'd spat out a bokko fruit, a recovery item that brought strength back to a
body devoid of mana. It was amid the completely useless things the kids in the
village had pushed on to him when he was heading off to rescue Rem. He had
no idea where they'd found one.
The instant he was sure he had one, his head had been able to muster that
plan alone. If he bit down on it at the exact moment he used his magic, maybe
he'd be able to move afterward. He'd gambled his very life on it, but the scales
had marvelously swung Subaru's way.
Putting his back to the demon beast trapped in incomprehension, his feet
took him in the direction the barrier ought to have been.
Subaru was a beginner with insufficient mana, so he had no idea how long his
Shamak would keep going. He couldn't think of any other way to buy time, so
he had to get as close to the barrier as he—
"—Ah?"
But Subaru's scheme was instantly foiled by a single claw that grazed the back
of his left thigh.
The sharp pain heralded the bleeding. Subaru let out an anguished groan as
he fell to his knees. But Subaru's mortal foe would not permit him to kneel.
Its thick paw violently grabbed Subaru's neck, the tips of its claws digging in as
it easily hoisted him up.
"Damn it all…"
Before his very eyes, he saw the gaping maw of the huge demon beast, open
wide enough to swallow Subaru whole. Its fangs dripped with blood as its stinky
breath hit Subaru's face. He could only smile desperately at the depth of the
creature's grudge.
"Go to hell, why don't you—?!"
He yanked the sword out of the demon beast and plunged it into the
creature's mouth with all his might.
"—!"
The fatal blow delivered to the inside of its mouth sent the demon beast
roaring and flinging Subaru's body away.
Subaru tumbled across the ground, holding onto the sword, then held it
before him as he looked up at the demon beast.
"Yeah! How's that, sucker?! Bite on that!!"
The demon beast shook its head, facing Subaru in a berserk rage. Subaru, his
body drenched with blood, taunted it with trash talk.
With blood all over their faces, they only had eyes for each other. They were
whittling down each other's lives.
They both understood. None of this would end until one of them slew the
other.
They stood off against each other. A single spark would be enough to set
them off.
The confrontation between man and beast—no, two beasts—was on the cusp
of beginning. But the square impact of the fiery shot that rained down from the
sky put it on permanent suspension at the sound of a man's voice.
"—Ulgoa."
"Whoaaa?!"
Subaru shielded his face as the shock wave enveloped his body and blew him
back.
All of a sudden, the ground in front of him exploded into flames. The high-
temperature impact enveloped his entire body with a ferocious wave of heat.
Subaru, lying on his side, shook his head as burns added to the wounds
already peppering his flesh.
"What the hell just…?"
The hot, parched air seared Subaru's throat as he looked up…and saw. His
cheeks stiffened in shock.
—Before Subaru's very eyes, the huge demon beast was wrapped in a pillar of
fire. It was burning.
The flames licked its entire body. The demon beast's paws shuddered and
tore at the ground in agony. With the air scorching its lungs, the demon beast
could not make a sound as it writhed within the crimson sea and finally dropped
to the ground with a heavy thud.
All that was left behind was a clump of blackened flesh that had lost two-
thirds of its mass.
"—"
The unforeseen end of the demon beast was not all that surprised Subaru.
Flaming shots like the one that had burned the demon beast to death rained
down from the sky one after another, plunging into the black cloud. From
outside the spread of the darkness, Subaru could not see for himself the full
power of the flames upon landing. But he could guess what they were doing.
Inside the impermeable darkness, the demon beasts were being destroyed
without even realizing.
Subaru could no longer tell if that was cruelty or mercy. However—
"Myyy, my, myyy, who would have thooought that a mere Shamak, used
chiefly for smokescreens, could be employed with this much impaaact?"
The man who had directed the demon beast's fiery-death scene floated down
from the sky, a flippant smile on his face.
His long indigo hair swayed in the wind. His eyes were oddly colored: one
blue, one yellow. He wore a bizarre outfit over his tall, slender body. The
clownish lord, mightiest magic user in all the kingdom, Roswaal, had arrived.
Upon landing, Roswaal brushed off his pant legs and swept his long hair
behind him as he looked down at Subaru.
"Ohhhh, you look rather teeerrible, I must saaay."
"You're super late to the party, Rozchi. How many times do you think I
thought I was gonna die there?"
It was definitely more than a handful.
After flinging his abuse, Subaru lost his strength; he fell down then and there,
not even strong enough to get up on his knees.
"You sure figured out where I was, though."
"Ah, that is because of what Lady Emilia pounded iiinto me at the viiillage. She
said, 'Even if it's crazy and reckless, if he's backed into a corner he'll probably
use magic, so don't you dare miss it from the sky.'"
"Damn it, Beako…you let Emilia figure it out real quick."
Apparently Beatrice had not been up to the task. Perhaps it was for the
better, given how Roswaal had miraculously entered the fray at the last
moment.
Subaru thought over the circumstances when a voice sounded in his ears.
"Master Roswaal—!"
He saw Ram, who'd taken a detour around the burning black cloud, cutting
through some thickets. Rem was leaning on her shoulder as Ram's expression
melted in Roswaal's presence.
"I am sorry to have caused you so much trouble."
"Oh no, that is quite fiiine. Indeed, you have done veeery well in my absence."
Blushing hard at the words of praise, Ram pressed a hand to her chest as she
made a solemn nod.
Watching the exchange between them, Subaru let out a deep sigh of relief.
"—Subaru!"
Rem suddenly rushed over and embraced Subaru, drawing a sharp cry from
his throat.
"Guh!"
Before his eyes, blue hair swayed right next to his face. The soft sensations in
so many places made Subaru understand the circumstances. In any other
context, he'd be overjoyed, but he had no such leeway at that moment.
"Rem, my body's banged up all over the… Ah, my mind's kinda…"
Maybe she couldn't control her feelings, but she was hugging him with all her
might. Every wound on his body began to cry out as Subaru desperately tried to
pat Rem's back to appeal to her. But—
"You're alive. You're still alive. Subaru, Subaru…Subaru!"
Rem was too overcome with emotion to notice how Subaru was reacting.
He felt her press her face against his chest and her warm teardrops flowing
down her cheek. A wide range of ticklish sensations struck him, well beyond the
capacity of Subaru's brain to deal with.
In other words—
"Oh man…not this…again…"
As Subaru spoke, his head slowly tilted forward, his neck no longer able to
support itself.
His mind grew distant. The voices grew faint. Finally…
"Go ahead and sleep. When you awaken, I must thank you quite earnestly. At
the very least, rest assured I shall eliminate that which threatens you."
…someone's voice sounded in his ears, serious and devoid of clownish affect.
Feeling a deeper sense of security, Subaru gently let go of lucidity.
Until the moment he fell asleep, he reveled in the warmth of the embrace and
the relief of finally receiving it.
Subaru's consciousness sank into a river of unconsciousness.