Short black hair, long torso and short legs, sanpaku eyes that looked like they could kill someone.
No matter which feature he picked, there it was—so painfully familiar it was almost sickening—staring down at
"————"
He stared, dumbfounded, eyes locked on the other person's face.
By any measure, it was a face he knew—no, it looked *slightly* different. That was probably because it wasn't the version of himself he was truly accustomed to seeing.
The self he saw every day was overwhelmingly the one reflected in mirrors and the surface of water. Human faces aren't strictly symmetrical, and that accounts for the subtle differences.
So— "Oh, right. Since it's not a mirror image, there's that weird uncanny feeling. When you think about it that way, this is more like what you'd get staring at a photograph or video footage, huh."
"——!"
"—? Oh, wait, were you thinking the same thing?"
A voice that felt like someone had read his mind made his cheek go stiff, and the other person picked up on it with uncanny precision.
That too sent a chill through him, but there was no point in arguing back—it wouldn't help or hurt anything. What mattered to Subaru right now wasn't their immediate exchange.
It was something bigger—something that could shake everything— "Then let me try again… Hey, brother."
"————"
"No, 'brother' might be a bit misleading. Let me be precise here… Hey, other me."
He raised one hand and greeted Subaru in a casual tone—no, that wasn't some detached stranger. The relationship between them was far too intimate for words like "acquaintance."
Because sitting there, without a shadow of doubt, was someone with the exact same face as Natsuki Subaru—someone who *was* Natsuki Subaru.
"'Natsuki Subaru.'"
"…Doesn't that sound weirdly stiff when you say it? Plus, calling yourself by your full name is kinda… But I dunno what the 'right' way to refer to me would be. It's a situation that comes up a lot in manga, but in practice, it's actually pretty agonizing."
"'Natsuki Subaru'…!"
Growing irritated by the other 'Subaru's' flippant remarks, Subaru scrambled to his feet. He lunged for the other's collar—and his legs tangled beneath him.
His knees gave out, his balance crumbled— "Whoa, careful there."
"——! Don't touch me!"
As he pitched forward, 'Subaru' caught him from the front. The instant those arms made contact, an unbearable revulsion surged through Subaru, and he swatted them away.
He stumbled back one step, two, putting distance between himself and 'Subaru,' and glared at him.
"Why are you here…! For that matter, where even *is* this!?"
Keeping 'Subaru' in his field of vision, Subaru gestured wildly at the white world around them.
White space, emptiness—it looked exactly like the cradle of Od Laguna where he had confronted Louis Arneb, the Sin Archbishop of Gluttony.
"Damn it…!"
His mind was a tangled mess.
Running into Louis had only been a matter of hours ago, measured in real time within the tower.
But for Subaru, who had repeated countless trial-and-error cycles against the five trials, it felt like it belonged to an impossibly distant past.
On top of that, Subaru had relived the life and death of 'Natsuki Subaru' more than twenty times through the Book of the Dead. Some entries covered mere minutes—life-and-death crises that flashed by in under five minutes. Others spanned stretches of over a year in which nothing happened.
He had devoured them back to back, greedily. His perception couldn't help but come apart at the seams.
Time had become hazy, and on top of that, he had been met by an entirely unexpected confrontation.
Eyes wide, arms flailing, Subaru roared— "Why the hell am I in a place like this?!"
"That's… proof that you've caught up to me."
"————"
"You read the Book of the Dead, and you caught up to me. Everything you didn't know, you experienced firsthand as memories. My life… in this other world."
"What."
At Subaru's breathless shouting, 'Subaru' answered in a flat, measured tone. Seeing that nonchalant composure, Subaru ground his back teeth.
That smug face, that all-knowing attitude—it was all infuriating.
—First of all, what the hell had this guy just said with that punchable expression?
"*I* caught up to *you*?"
"That's right. There's nothing about me that you don't know anymore. So…"
"Like hell I did!!"
"————"
"I caught up to you?! What a joke! Don't lie to me! It's not enough! There are still things I haven't figured out—the most important thing, the thing that matters most, I don't understand it at all!"
Eyes bulging, Subaru roared and this time grabbed the other 'Subaru' by the collar for real.
This time, 'Subaru' didn't resist. He let his collar be seized, and at a distance close enough to feel each other's breath, those black eyes stared right back.
"————"
Reflected in those black pupils—so identical to his own—was his own face. The instant he recognized it, a self-loathing so visceral it felt like retching surged up from within him.
Whether that disgust was directed at himself or at the 'self' standing before him, he didn't know—and didn't want to think about it.
All he did, still at point-blank range, was bare his teeth and snarl.
"Tell me! If you're here, then this is perfect—tell me! There has to be a reason you became who you are! I haven't seen it. I couldn't find it. That…"
"The reason I became me?"
"Yeah! There had to be some trigger—something that made you become you. You, you…"
"…Didn't you see that too?"
With his collar still gripped, 'Subaru' looked at him without resistance.
He didn't even try to pry Subaru's hands away. It gave Subaru the illusion that he wasn't being taken seriously at all.
That he was being looked down on from some higher vantage point— "Stop looking at me like that!"
"Guh—!"
Driven by rage, Subaru's fist slammed into that composed profile.
The hard impact met his knuckles, and 'Subaru' was sent flying as if bounced back. There was no matching pain reflected in Subaru.
The pain 'Subaru' received was 'Subaru's' pain—a wound.
It was different from what Natsuki Subaru felt.
"And you stand there, spouting words like you know everything… Yeah. I get it now."
'Subaru,' knocked to one knee by the blow, rubbed his reddened cheek with the back of his hand. Watching that, Subaru understood.
The person in front of him, talking like he knew everything—there was no doubt about it.
If this place was the cradle of Od Laguna—the Memory Corridor—then this was the first person you'd need to be wary of.
"You—you're Louis, aren't you?! The Sin Archbishop of Gluttony! It's you again, isn't it!?"
"…Me?"
"Don't play dumb!"
Last time, the Louis who had appeared in the Memory Corridor had tried every trick in the book to separate Subaru from 'Natsuki Subaru,' attempting to devour their very existence.
He had escaped her jaws by the narrowest of margins last time, but if she were the kind to back off gracefully after being repelled, she wouldn't be called a Sin Archbishop.
He had seen just how grotesque and irredeemable Sin Archbishops truly were.
Petelgeuse, Regulus, Sirius, Capella—bipolar wrecks, every last one of them. And that went for Rai, Roy, and Louis too.
If Louis Arneb, who had been waiting for him in the Book of the Dead within Reid's memories, had now infiltrated the Book of the Dead of 'Natsuki Subaru' through some unknown means…
Then it made perfect sense that she would be waiting for him here, bold as brass.
"That's the truth, isn't it?! Gluttony! Louis Arneb! If you can change your shape and appearance, it'd be a piece of cake to confuse me like this!"
Her Authority allowed her to steal 'Memories' and 'Names' from others—and to appropriate not just their abilities but their very appearance, chewing it all up and making it her own. That was Louis Arneb's power.
That viciousness had been on full display within the tower. And there was nothing jarring about her deploying it here in the Memory Corridor.
"So you're trying to devour me and take me over once and for all?! After I already rejected you, you just won't quit… Do you want 'Return by Death' that badly?!"
He spoke the words 'Return by Death' without hesitation.
By voicing them, he re-experienced the memory of having paid for it time and again—the excruciating penalty, like having his heart squeezed to pulp. But if that pain were limited to himself alone, it would still be bearable. —Compared to what would happen if it reached
But Subaru, who had screamed through his fear, felt no penalty activate.
Before him, 'Subaru' showed not the slightest sign of having his heart crushed either. For a split second, Subaru could see the relief on 'Subaru's' face at the curse's non-appearance—and that was enraging.
Wearing the same face, feeling the same things. —It was as though he were insisting, to the very last, that he and Subaru were the same.
"——! Just get it through your head already! Is this power really that amazing?! Something worth admiring!? All it does is let me die and start over. That's it—nothing more, nothing less. And if I'm garbage, then the results are garbage too! That's why…"
"————"
"That's why… I couldn't save anyone. …Everyone dies. Because I'm weak, everyone suffers. Just like right now, like I still can't save anybody…!"
—'Return by Death' is no gift.
It was, in every sense, a rotten, garbage-tier power.
It would be far better off not existing. There had been a
You could hand a cannon to an ant and it still wouldn't know how to use it. In the end, it was simply beyond his station.
He was weak, insignificant, alone, a blubbering child throwing a tantrum.
What the Witches had said at that dream tea party was right. It couldn't be helped. He was weak. He couldn't pick it up. It couldn't be used. And 'Gluttony' and the 'Witch of Greed' who didn't understand that were garbage too.
Just how many times would he be deceived, have his hope crushed, have his ??? broken before he learned?
Why—after being deceived so many times, having his hope trampled so many times, having his ??? broken so many times—could he still find it in himself to try?
'Return by Death' only ever showed him the worst parts of the world.
The irrational, the absurd, the kind of fate you wanted to turn away from— And yet, somehow— "——Because I love everyone."
Without realizing it, Subaru had crumpled to the ground, kneeling, screaming like a curse.
At that pathetic, sobbing appeal, 'Subaru' shook his head. Shaking his head, he spoke once more, firmly.
"—I love everyone. That's why I can't stop."
"————"
Wiping the redness from his bruised cheek with a finger, 'Subaru' stood up in his place.
Same clothes, same build, same face and name—yet looking so fundamentally different, that other 'Natsuki Subaru' gazed at the one on the ground and said— "Honestly, just imagining how brutal your position is makes me sick. You're back to a blank slate—starting from zero, the initial starting line—and yet you're already at Stage Six. Every complaint you've made, every word of it—I understand. They're wounds I've tasted just as many times."
He had the face of someone who had tasted inadequacy and ignorance over and over again. —No, he *had* tasted them.
The defeats, the pain, the anguish of 'Death' that 'Subaru' had experienced—Subaru knew them all. He had witnessed every one. He had felt every one in his body, in his ???.
Because he had experienced them, because he knew they weren't lies, that was precisely why he couldn't accept 'Subaru's' words. He didn't want to accept them.
"If only I were stronger, if only I were smarter, if only I were more… It's so frustrating, isn't it."
"Talking like you understand…! What do you even know about me—"
"I do understand. And you know that I understand. It's an unproductive argument, honestly. For both you and me."
"——!"
His rebuttal carried no force. Of course it didn't.
A rebuttal required the will to shove the other's opinion aside, to reject what you found unsatisfying, to crush them with "You're wrong."
And Subaru couldn't do that to 'Subaru.' Because he knew.
That it wasn't a lie or a facade—that it was everything 'Natsuki Subaru' truly was.
"I shouldn't have looked at your memories…"
"That's rich, coming from the guy who read someone else's diary without permission."
"I shouldn't have looked at your memories!"
At the sullen tone of 'Subaru's' voice, Subaru clenched his fist tight.
Even after being punched, even after being screamed at, 'Subaru' still refused to break their dialogue. That made him seem far more mature than Subaru. Perhaps that was only natural.
After all, 'Subaru' was supposed to be a full year older than Subaru.
He had spent that year in another world, accumulating dense experiences, dying and returning again and again, forging bonds, and securing his place as who he was today.
And yet— "I shouldn't have looked at your memories…!"
Again, Subaru repeated the words.
At Subaru's renewed expression of the same regret, 'Subaru' said nothing. Subaru, not looking for an answer, continued as if in a trance.
"I wanted to see hope in you. I wanted to believe that you were this incredible person, and that if I could find whatever it was that made you great, then I could do the same. But…"
But he had figured it out.
He had seen it all.
That 'Natsuki Subaru'—the one who existed in those memories—was the same weak, insignificant man as the Subaru sitting here right now.
He had just met different people during times Subaru didn't know about, lived through stories Subaru hadn't witnessed, and seen landscapes Subaru had never seen. But at his core, he was ordinary.
"—I wanted to deny you and come up with some convincing argument."
But he couldn't.
"Because I understand what you feel. —You *are* me."
He had seen the world that 'Natsuki Subaru' had seen. The world he had lived in.
Every wound that 'Natsuki Subaru' had suffered in order to love this world, these people, Emilia and the rest, and to keep on loving them—he had seen it all.
He had been wrong. He had been deluded.
Perhaps it was more accurate to say he had been arrogant about himself.
The fantasy of 'Natsuki Subaru' as some kind of superhuman—shattered, discarded.
"Yeah, I know! I always knew! That the reason you keep getting up, the reason you never give up no matter how many times you die—it's because you simply *can't* give up!!"
Just like Subaru, 'Subaru' had thrown himself against that impassable wall over and over again.
Each time, he died. He piled death upon death. He changed the situation, changed how he met people, changed how he connected with them—and overcame each difficulty.
That was all.
"After everything
The scenery that 'Natsuki Subaru' had passed through, the trigger needed to overcome it—it wasn't some grand 'something' that Subaru had been searching for. It was just a wish, layered on top of more wishes, one after another.
"I love Emilia. I want to protect her. I want to be with her. The fact that she told me she wanted me to be her knight—me, of all people—it made me happy. She's so scared of being rejected, and I want her to walk around without a worry in the world! I want to brag that everyone loves her! I finally got
So— "—The reason you can't give up is because you love everyone, you piece of shit!! Why aren't you some kind of superhuman?! Why are you still just a stupid kid?!"
"————"
"Be strong like Reinhard! Be someone who can do everything like Julius! If you can't do that, then be useful like
What he had come to understand, through time and pain and suffering, was that.
That 'Natsuki Subaru' was an ordinary person. That he held the same hand of cards that Subaru currently held. That he played those cards clumsily, and had no luck.
If he could have been any one of those things— "If I could just be one of those…"
His voice drained of strength and momentum, barely a whisper.
If he could have been even one of those things—just one—he would have clenched the hand that held nothing.
"…You're not Louis, are you?"
In a hoarse voice, a question that had nothing to do with what came before tumbled out.
Hearing it, 'Subaru,' who had been silent for a long time, nodded with a quiet "Yeah."
"No. I'm not Louis. And I'm not going to say 'unfortunately,' either. I'm not about to get mocked by that girl. You know what kind of personality she has, right?"
"…Yeah. I do."
Small and weak, Subaru answered. Then he covered his own face with his arm.
The throat-shredding screams of moments ago had gone silent. The fist he had used to strike 'Subaru' now throbbed with delayed pain.
If this was the Memory Corridor, then the body Subaru occupied here shouldn't count as real. And yet the pain was real—how absurd.
—Yes, pain and 'Death' were always absurd and unbearable.
And that was exactly why the Sin Archbishop of Gluttony, Louis Arneb, was wrong.
Desiring that power for yourself—there was no question that was a mistake.
"…Why did you disappear?"
"Hm?"
"Why did you vanish? After you disappeared, do you have any idea how much I struggled…"
The incomprehension that wouldn't go away, and the trigger that had started everything.
The reason 'Natsuki Subaru' had vanished, and Natsuki Subaru was born.
What had happened to 'Natsuki Subaru,' whose very existence had been erased along with his memories?
"You disappeared because…"
"…That was my own screwup. I went into 'the library' looking for a strategy to beat Reid, and I managed to find his book, but…"
"…And Reid's book was blank."
"That's when I ran into Gluttony. The rest, you can probably guess."
He scratched his head, looking back on his own humiliation.
In the Memory Corridor, he had encountered Louis Arneb, and 'Natsuki Subaru' had his 'Memories' stolen. After that, he forgot his entire life in this other world, and what was born was a Natsuki Subaru who didn't even understand himself, let alone the feelings of the people around him—a Natsuki Subaru who couldn't even help himself.
"Don't put yourself down like that. …Although, that's easier said than done, isn't it. You're me, after all."
"…'Natsuki Subaru' is weak, and insignificant, and a hopeless idiot."
"Yeah. That's right."
"But—"
"Hm?"
At Subaru's faint murmur, 'Subaru' had been about to agree with a wry smile but raised an eyebrow instead.
Looking at 'Subaru,' Subaru spoke the words that followed his pause.
They were— "—You're an incredible person, 'Natsuki Subaru.'"
—And those were the unvarnished, honest truth from someone who had witnessed more than twenty 'Returns by Death.' △▼△▼△▼△ "————"
Slowly, he narrowed his eyes at the man standing before him.
A face he knew. A face he was sick of seeing. A face he found ugly. And yet it was himself. It was himself, but not himself. It was himself, but he couldn't quite see it as himself.
That face had shown an unexpected reaction for the first time, and it was oddly satisfying.
"…The closest stranger, huh."
Not many people can genuinely like themselves from the bottom of their heart.
Subaru especially belonged to that category—he hated himself. And 'Natsuki Subaru' was probably no different. —Subaru, 'Subaru,' hated himself.
But when Natsuki Subaru looked at 'Natsuki Subaru' as the closest stranger to him—and this was embarrassing to say out loud, but—it had struck him as something *cool.* "Weak, helpless, unable to do anything, and yet you keep fighting, and you love those people so much. I respect that. So—"
"————"
"—That's what it meant for me to read your 'Book of the Dead.'"
It wasn't that the Book of the Dead had been opened solely so he could taste helplessness, lament the loss of his lead, and hurl complaints at a version of himself with the same face.
Nor was it some grandiose delusion about tracing the roots of a superhuman Natsuki Subaru and obtaining unimaginable power.
He learned that 'Natsuki Subaru' was simply human, and he accepted his actions, his path.
"…You're an embarrassingly straightforward guy, you know that?"
'Subaru,' who had been frozen by Subaru's words, suddenly moved.
He narrowed his eyes, looking sullenly—no, with something like awkward embarrassment—at Subaru, slowly pointed at himself, and said: "It's weird saying this about myself, but after looking back at everything I've been through, I can't believe you can say that with a straight face. If you think about it, this is basically 'Natsuki Subaru's Otherworldly Life From Zero' or something."
"Yeah, it's a weird feeling when the protagonist has the same name as you."
"At least the heroine's name is better than your mom's. …Wait, that's not—"
They traded light barbs, and Subaru met 'Subaru's' gaze.
With an expression like he'd been slightly deflated, 'Subaru' pointed at himself and said: "I said all that just now, but are you really okay with that? It's not like you've completely ruled out the possibility that I'm a fake made by Louis."
"It's ruled out. I punched you for real and nothing changed."
"That only works if you're talking about the copy ability from that柳沢 case…"
As 'Subaru' pointed out, that wasn't his actual basis for trusting him.
But at this point, Subaru had already let go of his suspicion toward 'Subaru.' That was probably because of what 'Subaru' had said earlier.
Even if Louis Arneb could devour a person's entire life from head to toe without leaving a crumb, he believed she couldn't replicate *that* face, *that* voice.
Because she couldn't understand happiness. Or fortune. Or joy.
And therefore— "A person who can't love anyone wouldn't understand the feeling of wanting to 'Return by Death' because they love someone."
"————"
Before him, 'Subaru' fell silent. And Subaru let out a long, ragged breath.
Spoken aloud, it was hopelessly cliché—nothing more than pretty words that sounded nice but meant nothing. And yet, he couldn't find any other answer.
So the 'Subaru' standing before him was, without a shadow of doubt, 'Natsuki Subaru.' "Why are you here? Were you waiting for me?"
He acknowledged that the 'Subaru' before him was a being who shared his same roots.
On top of that, the question that arose was: why had two Subarus ended up face-to-face here?
At Subaru's question, 'Subaru' planted his feet on the pristine white floor and said: "The reason we're meeting here is because this is the only point where you and I intersect."
"The only point where we intersect…"
"Inside the tower, the me with 'Memories' and the you without them could only cross paths in this particular run-through of the 'Book of the Dead.' Not before, not after—we couldn't have met anywhere else."
"…I'm going back to my original question. Why are you here?"
Subaru's explanation didn't satisfy him, so he asked again.
Strictly speaking, it made no sense for two Subarus to meet here. It would mean a Subaru with memories and a Subaru without them existing simultaneously.
—The rules governing the creation of the 'Book of the Dead'—he didn't know the exact details.
If you really wanted to get into it, it was already bizarre that the 'Book of Natsuki Subaru' had accumulated one volume for every death. That phenomenon could only exist if the world were observing Natsuki Subaru's 'Deaths' from outside and recording them.
Was Od Laguna the one serving as that observer?
"But if that's the case, then I don't get why Louis, who was hanging around in the Memory Corridor, was so excited about observing 'Return by Death.' If it's something you can recognize from outside…"
"She was just squatting in the Memory Corridor—that doesn't make her the ruler of the place. The ruler of that place is probably someone with an even worse personality, if you ask me based on the current situation."
"I'll agree on the bad personality part. The top candidate would be…"
Subaru paused, and then both Subarus spoke in unison: "—'Sage'
He was, without question, the most likely candidate.
The person involved in the construction of the
Honestly, he felt sorry for Shaula. If he could, he'd steal her back from that so-called master of hers.
"So the reason we—Subarus with and without 'Memories'—can exist at the same time is…"
"…It's the kind of question that has no answer. As long as I'm here and you're here."
"Is that really… how it works…?"
Something niggled at him, but he accepted 'Subaru's' words and nodded.
In truth, it was the kind of problem with no one to pose it. Even if he reached some kind of logic, he'd never actually get an answer.
If he was going to push this question to its limit and demand an answer, then— "As long as you're really not Louis Arneb, it's a non-issue."
"You're persistent. Do you seriously believe that?"
"I believe, I believe. Punch me on the other side too and I'll believe even harder."
"Oh yeah. Then you're getting a real bargain, huh."
They traded casual banter, and Subaru shrugged at 'Subaru's' words.
That lazy deflection—trying to shift the core of the conversation—it might work coming from someone else, but from yourself, it was painfully transparent.
So Subaru deliberately posed the question for the third time.
"Hey, other me. —Why are you here?"
"————"
"You're not gonna ask me 'don't you know?' or something?"
At 'Subaru's' silence, Subaru narrowed his black eyes and murmured. But even now, no light banter came back.
Instead, what floated in 'Subaru's' black eyes was a light that had been there from the very beginning.
It was probably what people called guilt— "Hey—what do you think will happen when the memories merge?"
That was why Subaru asked, deliberately bright.
△▼△▼△▼△ "Is there, like, a set pattern for how this kind of thing usually goes?"
"Dunno. I don't think there's a clear 'this is how it works' answer."
"In practice, you seem to know more about this place than I do—was there anything in the rules that's useful for me to know?"
"I've read your copy of the解体新書 too. It's fifty-fifty."
"Fifty-fifty."
"Fifty-fifty."
"…What if, by accident, we collide and annihilate each other or something?"
"Don't even say that. Whatever you're anxious about, I'm usually anxious about the same thing…"
"Yeah, fair enough. Then whoever wins, no hard feelings?"
"No, I'd be absolutely furious. And if I'm furious, that means you'd be furious too."
"Well… yeah. Probably. Hmm—my ??? feels tight."
"What was that?"
"My ??? feels tight… Wait, that sounded weird."
"…No, I think you just misheard."
"————"
"————"
"Oh, right. Since there's a chance this could happen, there are a few things I want to say. Is that cool?"
"Sure. At this point, go ahead and say whatever."
"You know more about this world than I do in general… Though most of that advantage disappeared once I read the 'Book of the Dead,' some things have probably changed, right?"
"Changed?"
"After I lost the 'Memories,' I talked to everyone, got to know them all over again… It's the story of 'Natsuki Subaru's Otherworldly Life From Zero'—the parts you don't know about."
"————"
"First, Meili. She's got some heavy stuff going on right now, but if you talk to her, you'll understand. Right now, Meili is the hottest topic in my heart."
"Got it."
"Also, there's a huge scorpion wandering around the tower, and that's actually Shaula. She's gone pretty dangerous-looking… But she didn't do it because she wanted to. She needs help too."
"Got it."
"Oh, I forgot to mention—when I met Louis, Rem kicked me in the back. At that point, I didn't even remember Rem, so I only figured out what kind of person she was after reading the book… But yeah, she was exactly the Rem I knew."
"Hey, she's *my* Rem."
"No, she's mine."
"Mine."
"Mine."
"————"
"————"
"Oh, and
"Yeah, it really is."
"As for Julius… well, I don't think we need to say anything about him. It's not like he's so hopeless that you and I have to step in."
"Yeah, agreed."
"Oh, and thank you for apologizing to Mom and Dad for me."
"Yeah, of course."
"Thank you for saving Otto and Garfiel."
"Yeah."
"Thank you for saving Petra, Frederica, everyone in
"Yeah."
"Thank you for bringing Beatrice out, for holding her hand."
"————"
"Emilia…"
"————"
"Thank you for falling in love with Emilia. I love her too. More than anything."
"…Yeah. I know."
"—Natsuki Subaru. You're an incredible person. I genuinely know that, and I know you'll be fine."
"Yeah."
"————"
"Yeah. …I will."
"————"
"Yeah. —We'll be fine."
△▼△▼△▼△ "Fine, huh."
"Yeah. We'll be fine."
"You really are incredible, you know that."
"…Yeah, but—wait, there's one more thing I need to say."
"————"
"—My summer vacation… is over, huh."
△▼△▼△▼△ —The last thing they did was the most cliché gesture of all: pressing their palms together.
"————"
He breathed in, and breathed out.
The merger had probably occurred in an irregular fashion. —No, a merger was never supposed to take place here in the first place.
Subaru's very existence, the events that had unfolded—everything about this was irregular.
So— "————"
It was only when a tear traced down his cheek that Subaru noticed, thanks to a droplet falling from his chin.
Somehow, he couldn't bring himself to wipe it away—because the tears falling didn't feel like they were Subaru's own.
Someone inside him, slowly dissolving into Subaru, was the one shedding those tears.
And then, breathing deeply over and over, he turned his awareness inward. What was seared into his own memories was— "——!"
Without warning, Natsuki Subaru's twenty unconscious 'Deaths' flashed back.
Each one—the deaths he had suffered while struggling and flailing inside the tower, the agony of each 'Death' encountered along the way. The parts that had been uncertain, the question of whether they would carry over—all of it had connected.
It had connected.
"You went through hell and back for me too, you know…!"
His other self, who had showered Subaru with words of praise. Swallowing everything about that solitary struggle, and the fierce battle that followed once he believed in his companions, Subaru understood.
It was exactly as he had said. —You are someone worth respecting.
With that emotion, and to suppress his abnormally rapid heartbeat, he took a deep breath and nodded.
Then Subaru raised his head and looked ahead.
It was the same white space as before.
A blank zone within the Memory Corridor, born from an irregular occurrence.
The place where, just moments ago, another Subaru had stood pressed palm-to-palm with him. —Looking down at the small figure slumped there, Subaru narrowed his black eyes.
And then— "Did you see what you wanted to see? —Louis Arneb."
Reading deeper into the Book of the Dead, arriving at this place, and vanishing—Natsuki Subaru—no, Louis Arneb. Subaru posed the question quietly.