Chapter 12: Chapter 10 - A Past Forgotten
A nightmare on paper, inked to almost believable life. Details drawn in haunting accuracy, as if the sketch itself was peering into the depths of his soul - wanting, craving to devour...
Fear had taken hold of him, welding him in place, the paper a tight grip in his hands. Deaf of the crowd going about life in ease; chattering, laughing... pestered only by the heat. He too had perspiration, going unnoticed, as it scaled down his forehead, which then became a droplet that stained the illustration, tinging it with a small bead of darkness.
"Find anything good there?"
The sun was then obstructed, a large shadow plunging both the paper and Subaru in a darkness the form of a man, the ill-boded image itself embracing the shroud from light, emphasizing further the sinister expression of death incarnated.
"The hunter, huh? She actually took a whole page today... about time."
The blackness shifted, and the heat was open to blaze once more upon himself, to little acknowledgement. His eyes pursued the shadow's origin, and saw Kris sitting at his side, skimming an advert beside the lifelike depiction with mild interest.
"Five for two? Must be mad, them..." Kris muttered, eyes flicking through words.
In his hands, held two rectangular cartons of a sight thought long gone. Red with a shine of raw goodness, veiling small portions of rice beneath its contents, accompanied with a familiar cone-wrapped delicacy that neared an easement of his worries. The sight seem to have embellish his hunger further, irking a rumble somewhere within his bowels.
"Oh yeah... your share. Here." said Kris, having perceived the sound of craving.
"Thanks."
The paper laid to rest, Subaru's hands reached toward the presented carton, muttered his thanks once more, and placed it on his lap.
"Dig in while it's still fresh, you won't want the sun to spoil it now, would you?" urged Kris through a huge mouthful of his own, noting Subaru's had been left untouched for minutes too long.
Still he was still, without response, perceiving only garbled nonsense, as he sat, brooding over his meal. Once upon a time, in circumstances drastically different to present time, he would have gulped every portion down in a moment's notice, but now, he favored relishing each second spent staring, almost reluctant to consume.
"Thanks for the food," Subaru muttered, deliberately in a stride unhurried, to pick the chopsticks at the side and pluck a piece into his mouth.
Chewing brought a tang of flavor alien to him, but somehow also nostalgic. Vapid and trite yet lively and exciting. He savored the strange sensation, an experience of taste very peculiar. It was bland. It was delicious. Almost as if its very essence was endowed with contradiction. If anything, it was a meal both worthy of disdain and worship - and he didn't know why that was so.
They ate in the ambiance of non-stop chatter, an assonance of subjects repeated scattered in the midst of citizens. A conversation overhead on the right regarded the elections in Lugunica. The one on the left, had each person's opinionated remarks of the candidates, most involving the use of the words "half-elf" and "witch". The same held true, for passersby at talk with one another.
To dine in peace, if not, untroubled proved impossible with terms he despised at a constant use.
Why was she always subjected to such unfounded judgement? No matter the region it seemed, her very existence was shunned. This alone resurged some semblance of the anger he felt, and the next bite he took, had aggression in his movement.
Meanwhile, Kris ate with nonchalance, lacking both the anger and disgust Subaru felt for the citizens in the vicinity. Subaru quickly came to notice his composed demeanor, which then brought forth a spontaneous urge of wondrous speculation that piqued his curiosity.
"Hey Kris?" He asked.
"Mmm?" Kris responded, devouring what little content remain of his meal, mind affixed to the almost empty carton in his hand.
"What do you think of the royal selection happening in Lugunica? Particularly the candidates, how do you feel about them?"
Kris' chopsticks repeatedly grasped air, failing to clutch a piece of rice at a corner of his carton. He continued without success, each attempt honing a focus unneeded, and answered without much interest.
"Nothing... much. How did we get... to suddenly talking about... politics?" He answered in intervals of failed clutches.
"So you have no opinions on any of them? Not even one?"
"That depends... which... one?"
"How about Emilia - the uh - half-elf?" He asked, hesitancy at dominance over his words, bracing for a probable response brimming with outlandish hate.
"The half-elf...." muttered Kris in slight elation, finally fruitful in his struggle with the grain of rice. "Well, I just think that she's kinda foolish for even being involved in the selection."
"What?" said Subaru with bemusement.
"I mean, being a half-elf is bad enough already, but she also resembles the witch. Taking part of the election - it's as if she's asking to get judged. I have nothing against her, but I admit, having someone like that rule a country kinda makes me uneasy. Pretty sure its the same for most people as well. The things you hear people say about her... really. Ah well, I ain't living there anymore so I don't care either way."
"So you don't... hate her or anything like that?"
What he hoped to derive from all this, even he was blatantly aware of how stupid it was. Seeking reassurance that not all hold prejudice to a person he had sworn to cut all ties with... the nerve of himself. What right did he have to impose himself again on this matter, when he had already abandoned her to a fate so cruel? Granted, the grisly horrors that awaited her had failed to occur in this loop for a reason still obscured... that still, however, does little to nothing to excuse and justify his previous intent.
I promise I'll save you
Those were words turned meager the very moment he fled down those steps, and to believe in them now was to proclaim himself foolish. How quick he was to break a promise he thought unbreakable. It was nothing but remarkable, a disgusting, scrofulous tenor of remarkable...
"I don't hate her... that doesn't mean I like her though. If I had a choice between candidates, I'd certainly wouldn't go for her... There's too much... history... with her appearance. The jealous witch isn't something to be forgotten about so easily."
It was an opinion well reasoned. He permitted himself to admit it was so, for to deny it was to be ignorant and brash. Agreeing with it, however, was an entirely different story, Subaru was far from being convinced otherwise and would have argued back before, defend her in her stead, but he knew now that to do so would also be ignorant and brash.
Hadn't he already done so long before? Spouting nonsensical proclamation and words he knew so little about, and where had that gotten him? Gotten her? Further ruining a reputation already so deeply tainted. He would never forget the pain he afflicted on her, the look on her face, as questions unending were asked of him, relentless in instilling the shame, begging for reasons justified, all synonymous with a word that will always be left with answers without true honesty - why?
Kris stood up, the paper carton now a crumpled ball in his fist, and turned to face Subaru, whom looked with eyes in question.
"You know, since we're here, I might as well trade in some stuff from inside the carriage, I think I'll find something good . Ahh - no need to follow, wouldn't want to risk losing your phone now would you?" said Kris, his hand at an outstretched halt, in response to Subaru's movement full of haste.
With puzzlement, Subaru slowly seated back, and asked in genuine confusion, "What do you mean lose my phone?"
An eyebrow rose in inquiry. "You didn't bring it with you?"
"No, of course I did. Why?" Subaru asked again, a palm against the modest bulge stowed away in his tracksuit.
"Then looks like you gotta wait for me again. Don't worry, don't think I'll be long - it's only a few stuff I'll be trading away."
"No, wait, why can't I follow though?" It began to evoke irritation in him, constantly unaware of things trivial to others, always with the same infuriating thought of being made into a fool.
"You're in Kararagi Subaru, remember? Metia are illegal for normal citizens to own here. You get spotted with one, it's a few days prison time and the confiscation of the metia. Here, every metia discovered instantly becomes the property of the royal family and brought to the castle."
This realization was conveyed in a slight whisper that was wary of guards on patrol, as well as perhaps, with confusion, as to why Subaru suddenly held no knowledge of this law, and continued, still bemused of the expression plastered on Subaru's face.
"You forgot? The trader shop here has guards to inspect for any shoplifters, if we were to walk out and they felt your metia... that wouldn't be too good now, would it?"
It registered in a moment so sudden, being made aware of this law, it plunged his stomach to a twang of deep utter worry. Vividly, he recalled, how casually he unveiled his phone, exposed it to countless dozens of hustling crowds. How without worry, he raised it up high in the air that now seemed to be for moments far too long, just so he could appease a question unneeded of an answer. What good does it serve to know that time here matches with his own? He grimaced at the memory of it... what if he had been seen there?
Don't even think about it... just be glad you aren't rotting in some dungeon or whatever right now.
"So, I'll meet you back here. You go to that library you always go to, and I'll be at the trader's. I'll pick you up there around, say, twenty minutes? After that we can discuss where else we can find that sack you threw."
Again, another past action he took unearthed, barely revealed through words that allude. Subaru had neared another query, but held his tongue. To further arouse a suspicion almost affirmed was a stupid thing to continue doing - he recited his improvised chant: Go with the flow, you know how it goes...
And instead spoke, "Sounds like a plan. Right, I'll go finish this thing off on my way there. See you in a bit."
Exchanging fleeting nods, they depart, striding away on opposite sides.
------
Subaru expected simplicity - libraries have distinct architectural designs, as it is in his own world.
So why was he, he pondered, lurking between alleys and paths for what felt like ages still in search for one?
This grand foundation of land, hosting buildings varying in many different shapes and sizes, held no answers and offered no help in describing the contents within. He found signs, undecipherable, markings and glyphs he had failed to recognize and once again curse his negligible ways.
Once I find that damn library, it's straight to the dictionaries for me...
He strolled about along the expansive cobbled ground in mystified wonder, straying onto uncharted trails, lost as he was during his first few hours in Lugunica, and ate in distrait as he did about so.
On a frail whim, void of expectations, he diverted his tracks and picked a building at random. The door he settled upon entering, posed with neglect, dejected with age and looked to be decaying in places. He gripped the handle, sensing it almost unhinged and momentarily, he hesitated.
He slackened his hold, frozen before the door before him. Ominous, a sinister feel, permeated into his body, there was feeling, a vague one, that told of the unknown he will find, the dangers inside... further, his grasp opened.
Screw it.
A jingle of a bell, the squeaking outcry of creaking hinges, and finally with steps at a scamper, Subaru entered the building, breath at a hold.
"Well, lookie we got here, back again eh?"
His expectations of foreboding dread vanished, and instead he found himself taken aback. His fear, paranoia was unfounded, for what lied behind that creepy old wooden door was merely a shop.
"What's it this time? Ain't got time for dilly-dalliers at the moment, cleanin' ain't gonna do itself."
He partook in a moment of establishment and saw, dusty shelves lining the walls, mingling with the glass cabinets at all sides. Vials, flasks, and many other instruments inhabited these standings, and hinted neglect, evident by the accumulated grime in each and every one of them.
Fronting him, a long counter was in place, displaying arrays of peculiar leaves and shriveled fruit, or so what it seemed to be. His eyes finally confronted his greeter, a wrinkled, haggard old face that implied irritation. An old man, with a wet cloth in hand that sat awaiting behind the counter.
"Um..." Subaru began, "I'm looking for the library... do you know where I can find it?"
The old man gave a grumble.
"It's starting to feel like you just come here just to get info on stuff. You ever gonna buy somethin' or am I gonna keep losing business?"
With context unbeknownst to Subaru, he was left in momentary dumbfounded thought. He glanced through his wares once again, quickly, and briefly wondered what purpose do seemingly expired products serve to public use.
"Uh, yeah... I'm just looking for the library, so..." His words trailed to find silence, having absence of excuse.
He understood. He has been here before, has stood in its eroding gray walls in the forgotten weeks of the past. Had conversations, preceding present time's, inquired many things supposedly... memories he had shared, only, they emerged no longer as memories, but as enigmas.
It registered. A realization now truly accepted. There was a past, the weeks he had not known, even if he knew nothing, those days still existed for everyone, still remembered, it still had transpired.
Tragic, woeful as it may be, he had grown accustomed of knowing. To go unacquainted in times never to be remembered, a sole key witness of events he may never speak of. An impotent being of time, all-knowing, yet unknowing, and now, to be on opposites sides in this grisly spectrum of time, it had only further embellished his weakness, no longer able to rely on the happenings yet to come, for he has none to recall.
"Exit on the left, make a turn on the second right you see, red color paint with a huge sign, can't miss it." said the old man, a tiresome sigh trailing shortly after. "Now off you go, I only deal with actual customers. Shoo."
Subaru left, nodding in appreciation as he did so, and walked. Silence to accompany the melancholy roosting a home within his thoughts unending. In a daze attentive only to himself, a contemplative stroll of the things that tested his resolve recently reignited.
Among the many, there was one left to rot in neglected fear, supressed yet still glaringly in place, yearning to be released, unforgotten. Elsa had not left his mind, her very existence in this place, came to mother an innumerable number of questions. Why was she here? Had she come looking for him? How long could he continue wandering in place before an encounter with her occurs?
No reasonable answer came forth.
His eyes found the sky, a deep infinity of blue and white, hues of color that he once could find solace and comfort in, even that too had turned against him, spawning only pain and guilt to fill his already encumbered heart.
"I'll repay all my debts now... and we'll end this." said the White.
"I cannot run away with you. Because, we're supposed to laugh together as we talk about the future remember?" said the Blue.
A brief passing of emotion came, and the pain was reinforced... he knew what it was - of the first of what surely was to be many more to come, his resolved momentarily faltered.
------
<<A History of Kararagi>>
The book was thick, heavy, close to unbearable to keep upright in his hands.
Something not of much surprise, a dead silence hung in the air, as if time had frozen to a standstill.
A ruffle of pages, the drawling yawns of people, those are of what few will break the monotonous quiet, between the scraping of chairs and the occasional mutters of those accompanied.
Much like it is in his world.
A familiarity he had embraced with open arms. He came unease, mind troubled with worry, and entered, stayed engrossed, at calm with the world, as he attended to the words on paper before him.
The librarian knew him, conversed as a friend, a short chatter of things trivial.
"Bookworm Subaru, pleased to see you again. It's been a while."
"How bout the weather huh? Almost died on my way to work. Knowing you, you probably didn't even break a sweat."
"You're here to continue your session, yeah? Well, no one came to borrow it, so read it all you like. And remember, you can't borrow it until you return the one you took back with you. Deadline's in a few days, alright?"
Mostly, his lips stayed shut, only allowing quick mutters of "yeah" and short awkward laughter for response.
It ended. Now he sat alone at a table, the furthest end of isolation, reading the book he had supposedly been studying.
He had grown weary of deciphering words he had not yet mastered, keeping each page brief before turning to others, he skimmed and skimmed, yet he could find no reason why he would be reading this.
The former half read, progressively grew within the minutes, and continued to nearly a third of its contents flipped.
Then he ceased his hasty spree, he stopped with a page held upright. Something had caught his eye. The corner of this page had been folded. His focus reawakened, eyes flickering with surprise. This was a page he had stopped at, bookmarked for later use. What was it that was so important here?
He found little reason to hesitate, he turned the page, and began to read, one word at a time.
<<The Tale Of Maka, The God Pioneer Of The West>>
<<The story of Maka is one that has gone shrouded in mystery. It remained as one of Kararagi's greatest enigmas to date. To describe in detail of his life, would be a task impossible to accomplish. This chapter is dedicated to what little there is to tell of his legacy and how he came to be hailed as Kararagi's greatest legend.
Revolutionizer, innovator. The few labels of many that tell of his deeds. As a normal citizen of Kararagi, he first coveted the title of "Royalty" with his aid to the Royal Family. An ailment presented to the late King Lawrence, whom was on the brink of the death (See Chapter 14: Ancestors of the Throne) that even the best of healers could not produce, and has went on to create a new branch of healing magic he branded "Medicine". >>
Medicine. The very word distant itself from the others, jarring letters littered among the rest. But what made even more shockingly distinct was the formation of this word, not with the writing of a world with magic that had grown surprisingly mundane, but of his own, in kanji. The distinctness halted the tale, and he stared dumbfounded.
Perhaps it was coincidence?
He continued. With little haste.
>>With the title of Duke bestowed onto him, he devoted most of his life to research and for many years, he remained silent. Then one day, he entered the public's eye once again, and with him came methods that would change forever the stature of Kararagi. He presented to King Lawrence, metia, which at this point had only been mere collector's item, at the dozens and told of their purpose to be used, and coined them with terms still used to present day.
The skeptical king agreed with reluctance to replicate the metia's purposes, which led to the creation of many of Kararagi's most sought after inventions. The most famous, and arguably most important being, the creation of the "Clock Tower". A device to tell time using numerical letters, that would ring at every hour's end.
The rest of Maka's life was spent on the inception of many other things, in various fields. The creator of the two-way mirror, the maker of the now famous "sushi" and so forth. >>
There, scattered in the midst of doubt, certainty began forming a conclusion. There were too many to simply reduced to being mere coincidences, the name's this "Maka" had labeled these devices, were inscription of his own world. Written among the fantasized scriptures, were letters of his own tongue.
Reading came to an abrupt end, as the realization struck with the force of a sledgehammer.
Subaru wasn't the only being to be summoned to this world.
Someone had come before him, lived a way of life that diverted from the modern world, and died, hailed forever as a God. This person, this "Maka"... never had skepticism been so nonexistent, he didn't need assurance, there was no doubt, this man was not of this world.
A chair shook, and howled a creak, indicating of a weight that burdened its resilient. Subaru eyes deviated from the book, rising upwards to face a front he thought empty.
"Natsuki."
Brown, fearsome eyes met his own. A man sat across the table, an intense stare to his own filled with uncertain confusion. He was bald, large and bulky. His arms looked frighteningly solid, as if sculpted from the strongest iron, scars lined his face, telling of a life void of peace and brimful of conflict. A voice gruff and as stern as his demeanor, surfaced from the depths of his thick throat, as he uttered yet again,
"Natsuki."
A panic made worse by ominous dread came to envelop the boy at opposite side. Subaru lifted his arms, feeling them placed with a weight unseen, and kept them close, never once straying gaze.
"Natsuki."
It was an inquiry.
"Yes?"
He perceived himself - a pitch higher than what was usual, quieter than it normally was, resulting from the impulse to response, apprehensive factoring heavily into his present actions.
The man leaned, a margin of distance slight, but enough to be the sole being in perception.
"Come. Do not run. Do not shout. Only follow."
A lump obstructed the answer to leave his lips, a sweat colder than ice froze his thoughts into irrationality, contrasting the hot bubbly sensation within his guts that shrieked endlessly to begin a run.
"Okay?"
A question absent of answer the man had not cared for, he stood up, stared with a malevolent expectancy dissuading a defiance of orders, and walked steps of a few, pausing once before the exit, waiting.
How does he know my name? Who is this guy?
The only things he comprehended in the anarchy of disheveled thinking were questions, that once again went without answers.
Fear had taken hold of him, welding him in place. Deaf of the surrounding going about life in ease; reading, living... pestered only by the heat. He too had perspiration, going unnoticed, as it scaled down his forehead, which then became a droplet that stained the pages, tinging it with a small bead of darkness.
The man glared through a sideways glance, warning to not test a patience that had little, to begin with.
He hesitated, a jerk of movement torn between decisions. He breathed.
Then he stood.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone