Chương 3: Chapter 3 - Welcome To Kararagi
Lost, dazed, shocked and confused. Subaru did not know which he felt more.
All he knew was that a moment ago, just mere seconds after closing his eyes, he was behind a carriage, lying in between sacks of fruits, fleeing towards a much-desired new life that awaits him in another land. Kararagi.
Now, having awoken to the provocative glares of very intimidating individuals, whom looked to have never worked an honest day in their lives, claiming that he had, beyond all logic, been here for already a month, left him staring speechless upon the sneering, contemptuous smile of a muscular, sly looking man. Wishing and half believing that he was still dreaming.
"What's with the stare, boy? Don't act like you don't know what I'm talking about. My metia, where'd you put it?"
Subaru's continued bewildered expression along with a stunned silence, wiped the passive-aggressive smirk off the man's face, worsening the already hostile atmosphere that permeated the area.
"You're a good actor, almost got me convinced here that you ain't had a hand in all this. But you know what they say: Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice... I'm not getting fooled twice."
The swelling he felt in his head had not yet subsided, the eccentricity of the situation only worsened his already aching headache, only able to stare dazedly into the man's hazel colored eyes and letting out another confused "Huh?".
But that only made to provoke the man further, bending down and clutching Subaru's shirt, who realized that he was no longer wearing his usual white, black and orange tracksuit, instead, sporting a now crumpled, bloodied and ripped tuxedo, with a bowtie hanging loosely from his neck.
"I played my fair share of games with you already. Now I just want to get my prize back. Where is my metia? Last chance." He growled, a vein bulging out the top of his forehead.
"M-Metia? What metia? I don't understand I-- What did I do?!" Subaru sputtered, panic stricken and petrified under the intense and terrifying stares of the group of people who all gathered closer around him.
"Lost and confused, going with that one, huh? You know, my boys are ransacking your place as we speak, surely you rather not have someone or something dying in your hands tonight now, do you? What say you?"
Subaru blinked rapidly, his eyes phasing between focused and unfocused, breathing turning rapid and rough, a cold icy feeling down the pit of his stomach, and having no idea why, he found himself worried about something other than his plight.
"Wait no! Please don't! I'll tell you everything!" He shouted without warning and without thinking. "Just don't touch, Don't touch-" He trailed off.
What didn't he want touched? He had no idea. But the sudden threat stirred something deep within his aching, pounding head.
"Oh-ho, what happened to having no idea, hm? I guess you finally came to your senses." He grinned, letting go of Subaru's shirt and standing up, his hands folded against his chest. "Now, my metia. Where is it?"
Once again, Subaru found himself lost for words and prayed that an answer would magically come out the top of his head, but none came. To buy time, Subaru opened his dry mouth and out came a few mutters and grunt, sweating profusely with each passing second. He watched the grin gradually fade away and twist into what was now seething fury and knew he was out of time.
"Forgotten again I see... it seems you need to think about it a little bit more. Maybe a quick bath will clear things up for you."
A loud snap resonated from his fingers and two, equally intimidating men, moved forward.
"Wait! No, wait! Where are you taking me?" He asked desperately, seeing the two men lift the anchor that he was tied to on each side.
"Oh, you know... Where the stubborn ones go to sleep. Nighty-night, Natsuki Subaru. It was a pleasure knowing you, even better forgetting you." He said, giving a wave before walking away with the rest following suit, disappearing into a door behind them.
Meanwhile, Subaru was, with must resisting, being dragged off deeper into the sewer tunnel with no means of escape.
"Guys, listen! Please, you aren't going to kill me right? Tell me please, tell me I won't die."
He turned to each side, begging desperately and pulling relentlessly to no avail. The men never uttered a word of assurance, and the rusty metal chain showed no signs of snapping.
So he was left, feet dragging across the puddled ground, his groveling and pleading echoing across the dark tunnel. The two men, silently moving him to place unknown.
Subaru knew dying meant going back, back in front of the stall in the capital, back to hearing Rem's heartbreaking cries, back to acting like the damn coward he was. Perhaps this is what he deserved for having ran away, maybe this was retribution for hurting Rem like that. And in spite of himself, Subaru gave a quiet sorrowful laugh, staring with blurred vision at the curvature of the dark tunnel.
He was going back... There was no way out.
For the rest of the journey, Subaru remained silent, resigning himself to the suffering that's in store for him. Whether the two men found his sudden submissive state suspicious or not, he did not care. All he knew was that he was going to die, and that there was no way out of it.
And sure enough, a short moment later, Subaru heard the sound of flowing water join the clinking of his chain and the grunting of the men, increasing in volume with each resounding step. They stopped and dropped the anchor onto the ground, a loud clang reverberating through the sewers as metal met solid concrete, they twisted it, so that Subaru who was on the other side of the anchor, could see what grisly fate awaited him.
An expansive circular hole, with water gushing from above met his horror struck eyes. Standing on the edge of a sheer drop into a dark abyss below, echoing the sound of splashing water.
His heartbeat grew tenfold and a lump appeared in his throat. He was going to drown.
Subaru stood, rooted to the spot, his shaking knees barely supporting his weight. He tried to breathe, a deep breath, hoping to savor the cold damp air despite the foul stench of the sewer but found even that difficult to do. He tried again, bracing himself for the worst, relishing the cold air entering his nostrils. Suddenly, he felt a rough shove from behind, his legs buckled and toppled forward under an intense weight pushing him down, he looked back, saw one of the men with his hand outstretched, then.... he was falling.
His own screams were drowned out by the cold gust of air sweeping across his face. His eyes wide open, burning from the wind, focused onto the depths below, wondering, dreading, the moment he reached the end of his fall.
With a loud splash, Subaru was plunged deep into the freezing cold water, sinking rapidly with the anchor. His vision was black, everything around him was completely void of light. He continued sinking, unaware of when he would reach the bottom. His rapidly beating heart his sole indicator of sound.
It was unbearable. Knowing his own demise relied solely upon his lung capacity. The descent placed an unbearable pressure in his ears, along with an unimaginable pain, that made his head writhe and twist from the agonizing stinging. A moment later, Subaru felt, along with the pain, fluids trickling from deep within his ear canal and instantly knew he was bleeding out of it.
A muffled clunk told him that he had reached the bottom. Now all he had to do was wait until he drowned.
It was terrifying, the anxious feeling in his stomach increased a hundredfold, which did not help his lungs that were slowly, gradually, painfully urging him to take a breath. He forced his mouth closed and did his best to ignore the growing impulse to gulp a mouthful of air.
His ears stung again, forcing his eyes to water. His brains pounded with a force of a sledgehammer, and his heart was threatening to burst out of his chest at the ever growing pressure placed upon it.
He was going to drown. He was going to die.
Then suddenly, he was reaching out. He did not remember himself twisting and flailing, his legs pushing against the anchor, trying to free himself from his binds. He just knew that he didn't want to die here, not like this. He pushed and impelled with all his might. The chains were scraping and grinding against his wrists, drawing blood. His heaving and grunting showed themselves in the form of small bubbles, floating upwards to the surface, as if taunting him, floating effortlessly into the inky blackness above. He heard a muffled crack and then felt a sudden surged of pain down his right arm. He paused.
He had dislocated his shoulder, but yet he would not give in, his lungs already exceeding past the breaking point. All the pain in his ears, his chest, his head, added into his adrenaline-induced frenzy as he resumed his relentless attempt upwards. A sharp pain pierced his lungs and instinctively, took a huge gulp, swallowing a mouthful of sewer water. He continued pulling up, the anchor clanging and slamming, mouth still open, forcing down even more water. His nostrils too were filling up, his lungs felt ready to burst open with pain, desperate for air. Between mouthfuls of water, he found himself lurching and regurgitating everything up, only to immediately swallow it all back in unwillingly, with his body still screaming for a breath of fresh air.
Subaru twisted and turned non-stop to the pain, but yet in spite of this, he kept on pushing. His mind was growing numb, but he persisted, again he lurched out more water, but pushed onwards, his shoulder blinding him with agonizing pain, but continued forth, his eyes fixed onto the darkness above him. He can't die, not here, not like this.
But then, his body grew still, the strained expression on his face began to loosen. A endless stream of bubbles flew from his wide open mouth as the life in his eyes slowly faded away. The pressure was gone, everything that has ever hurt has gone, only darkness remained to embrace his cold lifeless corpse, floating a few inches away from the anchor that held him down to the watery depths of Kararagi.
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Subaru swung his eyes wide open, gasping for air.
A white wall, with cracks sporadically placed across its length stared back at him. He was lying sideways on a rickety bed, his body resting on his right arm. He turned to face the ceiling, the mattress groaning loudly, still breathing heavily, feeling the tingling sensation of a blood-deprived arm beginning its circulation again.
"This isn't the stall." Was the thought that came first to mind.
A small familiar weight was felt on the palm of his other hand, and turned his head sideways to look at it, catching sight of the rest of the room. Light shone from a window by the side, one of its wooden flaps hanging loosely by its hinges, rotten, as was the floorboards that looked to have never been swept since its inception. A wooden door was slightly ajar right beside it. The corners of the ceiling was riddled with cobwebs with spiders, dead and alive residing above his sleeping body. The small room itself hung with an aura of abandonment, with its walls peeling apart with age, parts of it revealing brick.
"What the-?"
Subaru stared in disbelief. His shock and terror overthrown by absolute confusion, thinking his eyes were deceiving him. For the flip phone that he had given away, was parted open and laying dormant in his grasp.
He pressed the button in the middle of the keypad and the screen flickered to life. For a long while, Subaru stared at the menu, unconsciously fiddling with the directional pads, while his mind flooded itself with question after question.
Who was that man? How on earth did he forget a whole month? What metia had he stolen? Why did he have the phone? How long has he travelled back? Why did he return here, in this room he had never been to, and not at the stall in Lugunica? In fact, where was here?
He got up, realized that he was now wearing his old tracksuit, pocketed his phone, then began walking his way towards the window, the floor creaking loudly with each step and stared. The outside held no answer to his question. Puddles of water were scattered all across a grassy plain, beside it was a path of dirt trailing further off into the distance, but where it led, he did not know, for a thick forest obstructed his sight. The sky was tinged a bright orange, the sun having barely risen from the east, with an atmosphere that was damp and cold implying that it had been raining not too long ago.
"How the hell did I get here? What kind of checkpoint is this?"
Confounded that he was ever before, Subaru swung the door open and stepped outside onto the the dirt trail. He turned backwards to find an old wooden house, small and squarish in size, holding only the one room that he had slept in. It was ancient, looking as if it were about crumble down on itself at anytime. The walls stained and dirty. It was a wonder that he even fell asleep here.
"Where the hell do I go now?"
He looked left and right on both ends. The right lead further into the distance, towards the rising sun, while the left housed the forest that strongly resembled the ones by Roswaal's domain.
Subaru stood there for a long while, pondering over a decision, until a faint galloping drawing from the right broke the desolate silence that plagued the area. It took a while for Subaru to notice but when he did, instantly turned towards the source of the noise. A flash of green and silver along with a huge gust of wind and dust blurred past him. Coughing, Subaru turned left and saw a green ground dragon, a huge sack swaying violently by its side, with a figure cloaked in silver lashing the reins in their hands, urging the dragon to run faster, vanishing out of sight into the forest.
"Nice neighborhood..." He muttered, rubbing dirt off of his eyes. "Guess I should go that way then."
Turning left, Subaru began his walk to the unknown, hoping that at least, it would be a short one.
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The sun was at its highest in the sky, the glaring heat forcing a now dehydrated Subaru to take cover under the leaves of a singular tree isolated among the grass that covered the landscape.
The forest that aired a dark and menacing presence came off a little less than intimidating. Thick with greenery and other wildlife, it proved to be a very long yet very relaxing walk across it. The trees sheltering him from the sun's glare, birds singing their morning song high above the branches.
Now that he was out of it and under the intense stare of the sun, he almost wished he hadn't left at all. If not for the city he saw way off into the distance shortly after leaving the forest, he might have already. So, begrudgingly and tirelessly, Subaru continued forth, his pace slowing with each passing minute, before finally submitting himself to rest.
The shadow the tree casted was a huge breath of relief for worn down Subaru, whom instantly collapsed onto the soft grass, breathing heavily and with great effort.
"Didn't I picture myself doing this?" He grunted, turning over so that he faced the sky. "Way to jinx myself. Nice going."
Desperate as he was to reach civilization, his break was quick one, dismally standing back up to continue his journey. He was getting closer now, the small smudge he saw beyond the horizon now turned into an expansive wall, soaring high above the sky, a huge archway as an entrance, with a gate barely hidden above, its spikes protruding into visibility. He stepped in, ignoring the look of suspicion the two guards stationed outside the walls gave him.
"So... This is Kararagi?" He heaved, slowly walking deeper in, just as lost and clueless as he was when he first arrived into this world. His eyes taking in the sight of huge circular buildings, almost as tall as the wall itself, some stretching across huge distances, others connected by a walkway suspended in the air, citizens endlessly crossing on both ends. The cobblestone streets were littered with stalls, their merchants shouting out their wares of the day as the sidewalks lined up with customers by the dozens. But the thing that stood out the most, was a huge clocktower way off in the distance, taller and more visible than any other structure Subaru could see. It's long hand landed onto the twelfth number, while the short swung down to the third. Immediately, the sound of ringing filled the air, lingering on for a full minute before ceasing.
"They have... Clocks? I didn't see any at the capital." Muttered a bewildered Subaru, reaching into his suit and pulling out his phone. Turning it on, he raised it into the air, beside the face of the clock. "And the time matches up too... The hell?"
But before he could continue wondering about this strange coincidence, a voice pierced through the noises in the streets, calling him with a loud shout of "Subaru!".
Subaru stood in place, scanning the crowd for the source and spotted a familiar sight walking among them. His raven black hair, still messy and unkempt. Brown eyes spotting him, filled with both relief and worry. His face, suddenly stubbled and tired. An old traveling cloak was what he was wearing.
"K-Kris-san?" Subaru said in disbelief, pocketing the phone in an instant.
"There you are, Subaru. Really, Helen was getting worried." Kris said, reaching him, breathing a sigh of relief.
Subaru was all the sudden too wary of the small weight hidden inside his suit and did his best to try and hide the nonexistent bulge in his chest.
"H-Helen? Umm, who?" Subaru asked.
"You forgot her name? You're lucky she isn't here to hear you say that. She'd be quite upset." Kris said, sounding both surprised and hurt.
Subaru gave a nervous laugh. "Right, yeah, sorry. Hey umm, you wouldn't happen to know how long I've been here, would you?"
Kris stared, his eyebrows scrunching up.
"I thought you'd be the one keeping track of that, considering." He said, then placed a hand on his chin, deep in thought. "Hmmm, if I'm not mistaken, I'd say exactly two weeks."
"Two weeks." Subaru thought. "I don't remember those two weeks though... Or the journey here, what happened to me?"
"Anyway, it's noon now. If we go back, you might still be able to catch lunch." Said Kris, glancing at the clock and patting Subaru's shoulder, before walking away, gesturing Subaru to follow him.
Confused, Subaru followed closed behind, doing his best to traverse the hordes of hurried crowds.
"Go back? Back where?" He asked, the old decrepit house making an appearance in his mind.
"Where else?" Kris replied, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "My place. Or would you rather live someplace else?"
"Wait, I'm living with you?" Subaru asked, his face turning more incredulous by the second.
"Yes. You're being chased, aren't you? You said so yourself."
"Oh... Oh yeah." Subaru muttered, faintly recalling what he had said in the shed. "All right then, lead the way." He said more confidently.
And so they walked, through the bustling, lively streets of Kararagi. Turning corners and crossing streets, more than once being separated by the copious amount of people going about their day.
And despite having no idea how he got here, how he was missing month, to suddenly missing two weeks and the journey to Kararagi, the sudden return of his phone, drowning and that strange dream, Subaru still dared on hoping that he might in fact still be able to live a life, an uneventful and boring one at that.
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