Oblivion. To accept death and cease to exist, to cease to live.
That was Pride's goal, or at least, that was what he claimed. Whether that was truly what he wanted remained to be seen.
But wasn't finding Subaru the worst possible way to go about it?
A genuine death was, as far as Subaru knew, impossible. Return by Death, as well as Satella's interference, refused to let permanent nothingness become a real outcome, dragging everything back before it could ever settle. It did not seem to have limits, or at least, not any he understood. And as hard as it was to admit, he had died a lot.
"Then why come to find me…? You of all people…" Subaru glanced back at Louis for a moment before lowering his voice. "…Should know better than anyone that dying permanently with me is impossible."
Pride merely shrugged. "It's not just death I want, you know. That's only if I'm certain there's not some sort of afterlife waiting on the other side."
"Then what——"
"Well…" Pride seemed to smile, though Subaru could not see it. "There's got to be some way to put us back together, right? If we become whole I won't have to live well…" He raises his pitch-black hand. "Like this."
Subaru blinked, visibly caught off guard.
Just what had changed for Pride to think like this? What had he seen, or understood, to make him want to stop existing in the way he did now? Pride did not need to spell himself out for Subaru; the memories were still there, and they were not the sort of thing that ever truly faded.
Furrowing his brows, Subaru loosened his grip and let go of Pride.
"…Why?"
Pride tilted his head. "Why what?"
"Why should I even help you…? Huh? Answer me. Do you even know how much suffering and pain I went through? How I treated the people who cared about me? Because of you? And now you just want me to help you take the easy way out?"
Subaru gritted his teeth and swung his fist forward, his knuckles slamming into the concrete wall beside Pride's silhouetted face.
"You bastard. You finally get a little karma and now you decide you want to stop living altogether? How damn cowardly, how damn pathetic is——"
"I know it's pathetic, alright!?" Pride suddenly snapped back, his voice loud enough to stop Subaru cold. It was so unlike him that the outburst hit harder than the words themselves. "What do you want me to say? That I'm sorry? That I'm some stupid, irredeemable monster? That I'm a thingwhose entire existence is something we both hate more than anything else in the world? You created me out of desperation and despair, out of your own weakness, so don't go pinning all of this on me. I'm not even human at this point, if looking at me wasn't already obvious enough. So what is it you want from me, an apology or not?!"
Subaru's furious expression had already begun to fade by the time Pride finished.
The words had come out with such raw intensity that Subaru almost wanted to believe them, despite how absurd and hopelessly foolish that line of thought was.
"…No. No, I don't want an apology. What would that even mean at this point? I'd rather never have to see you again, but if I had to guess, you're going to stick around, aren't you?"
Pride let out a short sigh before nodding once. "I'd rather not, either, you know."
"Yeah, well, the oblivion you're looking for probably isn't going to come anytime soon. Not in a place like this, anyway."
Pride glanced around, then scoffed. "Yeah, Vollachia. How the hell did you manage that, huh?"
"It's a story that would take too long for me to explain. I'd rather not spend any more time talking to you than I have to," Subaru scowled.
"Hah…" Pride gave a strange chuckle, but no snide comment followed. Instead, he raised his arm and extended his palm toward Subaru. "Then let's just get this over with, right?"
"I'm not letting you back into me. I won't be having a repeat of what happened before," Subaru said quickly.
"Obviously. I'll just sit in your shadow instead. You won't have my voice in your head, if that means anything."
Subaru glanced down at the outstretched hand for a moment.
"That does sound like the best outcome…" he muttered. "Also… you can sit in my shadow? Does that mean that's something I can do too?"
"Hah…! Not with your current level of skill with the Authority. You're a total noob, you know?" Pride said, with a hint of, well, pride in his voice.
"Tch, enough with that——"
Subaru immediately grasped Pride's hand in a shaking grip, and watched as the black silhouette dissolved into the darkness beneath him.
Waiting a few seconds, he glanced down at his palm and sighed.
Just what are you planning this time… you bastard?
"Uaa…" Louis tugged at his sleeve, snapping him back to reality, and Subaru gave her a tired look of acknowledgment.
"Right, right. It's pretty late as it is. Wallowing in all these negative thoughts isn't going to help us in the morning. Let's go, Louis."
Taking her hand, he felt her give him a small smile. Despite the strange—no, suspicious—scene that had just happened a moment ago, her faith in him still seemed completely unwavering.
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Sitting at the scarred wooden table across from Cecilus, Subaru watched the blue-haired boy happily munch on the standard-issue gladiator lunch——a tough, slightly burnt slab of meat and stale bread.
Subaru noticed a shift in the atmosphere around them.
Typically, their combined presence cleared out the mess hall like they were radioactive. To the rest of the gladiators, Subaru and Cecilus were simply too dangerous, too volatile to sit near. The air around them usually felt heavy with fear and unspoken threats. Or at least, that was how it had been up until yesterday.
But ever since Subaru had saved Hiain's group from the multi-headed Witchbeast during the last Sparka, the other fighters looked at him… differently.
It was exactly what he had been hoping for. It was a calculated part of the reason he had intervened. Sure, he would have saved the lizardmen regardless—he couldn't just stand by and watch people get slaughtered if he had the power to stop it—but proving he wasn't a mindless monster definitely helped his goal. He needed to unite the island for the revolution, and you couldn't unite people who were terrified of you.
Not only did the other gladiators not instantly flee when Subaru entered the room, but a few of them had even initiated small talk. It was just basic things like, "Morning," or "Good fight yesterday," but that was an enormous step up from the terrified silence he was used to.
"This is quite the thorny path you're going down, Basu." Cecilus commented, licking a speck of grease off his spoon and snapping Subaru out of his thoughts.
"Ceci...?"
"Well, trying to save everyone, I mean." Cecilus shrugged, kicking his legs under the table. "That's pretty much a guaranteed tragic ending for someone in the cast. You know it's impossible, right?"
Subaru just let out a short breath, poking at his own food.
It wasn't as if Cecilus would understand anything about hardship or saving people just for the sake of it. He hadn't, and wouldn't, bother lifting a finger unless it fit into his grand narrative or made things more 'entertaining' for him. That was just the type of person the Blue Lightning was.
He was one of Subaru's least favorite archetypes of people, but… he had to accept it for now.
Cecilus, at the very least, wasn't a mindless butcher. He had only killed Subaru once, and that was when Subaru had openly attacked him first——a move that was pretty much asking for a quick beheading.
Subaru shifted his gaze back to the blue-haired boy, genuinely curious.
"Why don't you help people, Ceci?" Subaru asked, his tone lacking any accusation.
"Hmm? Well, it's not like I never help someone. If the script calls for a dramatic rescue, I'm your guy!" Cecilus grinned, before his expression turned surprisingly philosophical. "But… a true warrior must be able to clear their own path through any obstacle. If you accomplish things by constantly borrowing the strength of others, you won't be able to overcome that same hurdle the next time you face it alone."
Cecilus pointed his spoon at Subaru like a teacher instructing a student.
"You can't borrow power forever, Basu. People will eventually die. They leave the stage. Even I am not immortal——though I am very, very hard to kill! If you rely on others to save you, what happens when they miss their cue?"
Subaru frowned. The logic was understandable. It wasn't impossible to comprehend.
But it was a type of logic that only Cecilus could declare with such absolute certainty, because he was strong enough to simply cut through his problems. It was a harsh, unforgiving worldview.
"Strong people do strong things, cool people say cool things, and weak people do weak things. It's just how the story goes sometimes," Cecilus shrugged, going back to his meal. "If you become too overly reliant on the supporting cast, isn't that just an absolute guarantee that you'll never reach your true potential?"
"...Huh."
It definitely wasn't an outlandish take. If anything, it aligned frustratingly well with Satoru Gojo's mindset.
Maybe that's just how the absolute strongest become the strongest... because their mindset isolates them from the start.
"I won't bother watching your next Sparka, whenever it is, that is." Cecilus mentioned suddenly, breaking the brief silence.
Subaru raised a brow. "Why not? I thought you lived for this stuff."
"Well, why would I waste my time watching a scene when I already know the outcome?" Cecilus laughed. "It kills the suspense!"
Simply, and somewhat surprisingly, Cecilus had absolute certainty in Subaru's strength. The Blue Lightning didn't even entertain the possibility that Subaru could lose against the island's Witchbeasts. It was a level of trust—or at least, acknowledgment—that Subaru hadn't expected to earn so quickly.
"Hmmm. You're my ally, right, Ceci?" Subaru asked, leaning forward slightly.
Cecilus tilted his head, the starry light in his eyes gleaming with intrigue. "I suppose so. Right now, at least. What brought this on, Basu?"
"Ahhh, nothing, nothing... just curiosity, I guess."
The blue-haired boy hummed thoughtfully for a moment. Then, the small smile upon his face intensified into something sharp and dangerous.
The next words that came out of his mouth instantly forced Subaru to raise his guard. The air around them seemed to crackle.
"Well, if things stay as boring as they are right now, my patience might just run out soon..."
Subaru's breath hitched. His muscles tensed, Cursed Energy instinctively pooling in his core. He stared at the child sitting across from him, realizing just how fragile this supposed alliance truly was.
The silence dragged on. A second felt like an hour.
Then, Cecilus burst into loud, bright laughter, the oppressive pressure vanishing in an instant.
"Just kidding, of course! You should have seen your face, Basu! Absolute gold!"
Subaru let out a long, ragged exhale, his heart hammering against his ribs. He forced his shoulders to drop, though the tension didn't fully leave his body.
"Don't joke about that," Subaru muttered, glaring half-heartedly at the blue-haired child. "My heart can't take jump scares like that. I feel like I've got grey hairs coming in as it is from the stress."
Cecilus just giggled, kicking his legs under the table again. "You're too high-strung, Basu! If you keep acting like a tightly wound spring, you're going to snap right before things even get interesting. You have to learn to enjoy the downtime!"
"Easy for you to say," Subaru grumbled. He reached over and tore off a piece of his own bread, handing it down to Louis, who had been sitting quietly on the bench beside him, staring longingly at his plate. She took it with a happy little "Ua!" and immediately started gnawing on the crust.
Cecilus rested his cheek in his palm, his starry eyes drifting from Subaru to the blonde girl.
"She's an odd one, too," Cecilus observed, his tone surprisingly flat for a moment. "She looks like a normal little girl, but my keen eye and gut tells me that there is far more to her than meets the eye."
Subaru instinctively shifted his body, angling himself slightly between Cecilus and Louis. It was a subtle movement, but against the First Divine General, it was as obvious as waving a flag.
"She's just Louis," Subaru said firmly. "She's not a fighter, and she's not part of whatever 'cast' you think we're in. She's just someone I have to protect."
Cecilus didn't seem offended by the defensive posture. In fact, his smile grew a fraction warmer.
"The 'escort mission' trope! A classic!" Cecilus clapped his hands together once. "You really do treat everyone like they have equal value, Basu. You look at these people in the arena, you look at this lost little girl, and you put them right on the same level as yourself. That's a very rare trait for someone who possesses the strength to stand on the main stage."
"It's called common sense, Ceci," Subaru sighed, leaning his elbows on the table. "You're the weird one for treating people's lives like they're just ink on a script."
"But they are!" Cecilus argued, throwing his arms wide. "If life isn't a play, then why does the world set up such perfect, poetic tragedies? Why do the strongest always end up fighting each other? Why do people like you and me end up trapped on an island like this at the exact same time?"
Cecilus leaned in over the table, his voice dropping into an excited, conspiratorial whisper.
"Look around, Basu. Feel it."
Subaru frowned, but he did as he was told. He glanced around the mess hall. The gladiators were eating, muttering to each other in low voices. The guards stood by the doors, their expressions bored but vigilant. The air smelled of sweat, cheap food, and damp stone.
It looked normal. But beneath the surface...
"The air is heavy, isn't it?" Cecilus murmured, his starry eyes gleaming. "The stars are getting restless. The pacing is slowing down. The island feels like it's holding its breath."
Subaru felt a cold prickle at the base of his neck.
He knew exactly what Cecilus was talking about. Subaru had been quietly laying the groundwork for a gladiator rebellion. He had been saving lives in the Sparka, winning over the fighters, subtly testing the waters with Hiain and Weitz. The tension wasbuilding.
But for Cecilus to sense it just by the pacing of the island? It was a terrifying reminder of the intuition that came with being the closest to the pinnacle of the sword.
"Something big is coming, Basu," Cecilus said cheerfully, leaning back and resting his hands behind his head. "I can feel it in my bones. The curtain is about to rise on the next act. And whoever is waiting in the wings... they're going to flip this whole stage upside down."
Subaru stared at his half-eaten bread. He thought about Gustav's suspicions. He thought about the Witch Cult, the Empire, and the fact that he was stuck in the body of a child.
"Yeah," Subaru muttered, his voice quiet, his eyes hardening as he looked at the wooden table. "Something big is coming."
"I can't wait!" Cecilus beamed. "Make sure you give me a good cue when the fighting starts, Basu! I'd hate to miss my entrance!"
Subaru just closed his eyes and let out another long sigh.
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The control tower stood on the island side of the drawbridge, looming over the structure like a checkpoint that had outlived everyone who ever tried to ignore it.
There were no guards posted outside, but the metal door was shut tight, and the lock on it looked heavy enough to stop a siege.
Over the last few days, they had been searching for one, but since Gustav was the one who operated the drawbridge himself, the simplest answer was also the most annoying one.
The key was probably on him. Not that it would particularly be able to stop Subaru from entering but...
Subaru exhaled slowly and looked up at the tower.
"I really wonder how strong Gustav-san actually is..."
He did not know.
From a distance, Gustav reminded him a little of Kurgan, just with fewer arms. Even so, that alone meant nothing. The man was the Governor of Gladiator Island. He was the one keeping order over a place full of people who would rather bite first and ask questions later. There was no way a man in that position was weak.
If he fought Gustav once, Subaru could judge him properly. Whether he was strong or not, whether he could be forced to back off or not, all of that would become clearer then.
But that was exactly the problem.
"I really don't want to end up making Gustav-san angry in the first place..."
From Subaru's point of view, Gustav and he were supposed to be on opposite sides as gladiator and governor, but Subaru did not dislike the man. In fact, among all the hard-to-deal-with people he had met in the Empire, Gustav had never once raised his voice at him. Subaru's impression of him was that he was one of the few people here who could actually be talked to like a person.
Which was a lot better than the Cecilus, who somehow managed to feel like both an ally and a threat at the same time.
He'd rather get permission that properly get on the bad side of someone like that, no matter how easy it would be.
"Still, I'd rather not end up hanging around Gustav-san like I do with Ceci."
Subaru was not reckless enough to start openly poking around for the key or asking after it. If he did that, the worst possible outcome was obvious enough: Gustav wold kill him with the Curse Rule.
If that happened, he'd be set back a few days, typically.
So for now——
"We just have to keep digging little by little."
He scratched his head and muttered under his breath, already irritated by the road ahead.
If he wanted information about the drawbridge, he had to look at the people in control of it, which meant the guards.
There were fewer of them than the gladiators, but that did not make them easier to deal with. In fact, the guards around Gustav gave off the kind of pressure that made them feel less like ordinary men and more like disciplined Imperial soldiers who had no room for weakness.
And with Gustav's instructions so thorough, even Subaru trying to ask questions would probably only make them tighten up more. Maybe that was partly due to the fake Cecilus too. Between the two of them, the island was already full of people who had no patience for nonsense.
Either way, the guards were a dead end.
If Gustav had already heard about what Subaru was up to, then that alone might have been enough to put him on alert. Maybe Subaru had already made things harder for himself without meaning to.
"If I'd gotten punished for something else, maybe this would've gone differently... no, that's pointless."
Reflection mattered, but regret did not get him anywhere. Regret was only something he could afford when he had time, and he did not have any. Every second wasted here could be a second spent moving.
If one guard shut him down, then he would just have to deal with ten more. Or a hundred. Or a thousand, if that was what it took.
Right. Didn't some great guy once say that the key to picking people up was quantity? ...Though I'm not exactly picking up girls here.
Clenching his fists, Subaru forced himself back into motion, using the words of some unrelated expert to help straighten out his own thoughts.
He started walking around the island with renewed energy, already thinking about which guard to annoy next.
Then a low voice reached him from the side.
"Yer a restless one, Schwartz..."
Subaru turned his head. "What, Weitz?"
Weitz was sitting on the ground by a wall near the passage leading toward the gladiatorial arena. Subaru stopped short and blinked at him.
This part of the island was basically a dead end. The arena itself could not be entered except during Sparka or a death match, and the iron gate in the corridor was kept down the rest of the time.
In other words, there was nothing useful here.
"What are you doing in a place like this? Hiding from work?"
"I dunno what that is, but probably not..." Weitz muttered. "I came to check on somethin' down in the basement for a bit."
"Basement... oh, that way."
Subaru followed the motion of Weitz's chin and looked over.
Right beside the passage to the arena was a door leading down into the island's basement. Since the island floated on a lake, the basement did not go anywhere underground in the usual sense. It was connected to the water outside.
Or, more accurately——
"It's basically just a drain to the lake," Subaru said. "They use it to dump bodies."
Weitz grimaced. "Gladiators and beasts that die in the matches... they all get lumped together, huh. If not for you, we would've ended up the same way. Just fish food."
"Yeah, that gives me the creeps."
By fish food, he meant the aquatic Witchbeasts in the lake. The most common way to die here was in the Sparka, but the second most common was probably getting eaten by the monsters in the water, either while trying to escape or by accident.
If Subaru could not make use of the drawbridge, he would end up in the same place.
Weitz looked at the corridor, then back at Subaru.
"Ya heard the story about the one gladiator who escaped this island long ago, right?"
"Huh? Yeah. I heard about that. Apparently that whole mess is what got the previous chief fired, and Gustav-san was put in charge after that."
"Yup," Weitz said. "Conditions got better after that... but the position of gladiator got a lot more stable too. So what do ya think?"
Subaru blinked. "What do I think?"
Weitz scratched at his cheek and asked the question directly.
"Should we just... accept bein' gladiators? Accept bein' ruled over?"
Subaru went still.
He immediately glanced around to make sure no one nearby had overheard that. It was the kind of thing that could get a man into trouble if the wrong guard heard it, especially on an island like this.
And since Weitz was in the same Unit as Subaru, the guards would probably look at him even more harshly for it.
"Uh, Weitz, I think you should be a little more careful about saying stuff like that," Subaru said, lowering his voice. "It's fine if you say it to me, but I'm not sure everyone else would take it well."
He was trying to rein him in gently. If it was only Subaru getting dragged into the next Sparka, there were ways to work around it. But if Weitz got involved too, the difficulty would go up fast.
However, Weitz just kept looking at him.
"Why d'you think I came down here?"
Subaru blinked. ""What?"
Weitz pushed himself to his feet.
"I came to help ya," he said. "You're tryin' to get outta this place, ain't ya? Then I'm goin' with ya. I'm not stayin' here as a gladiator forever. And I still owe ya."
He rose fully, then looked at Subaru with a serious expression that sat oddly on his tattooed face.
When Subaru met those eyes, he felt his breath catch.
This was not the look of someone joking around. It was not even the look of someone trying to sound brave. Weitz was being serious.
"...Weitz, I——"
"I know who ya are, after all."
Subaru froze. "Huh?"
Weitz raised a hand before Subaru could say anything else.
"But that ain't the point. Don't lump me together with Hiain and his smooth talkin'. I ain't interested in whatever crown yer wearin'. I just wanna lend ya my strength. Remember that."
Subaru's whole body went stiff.
The fact that Weitz said he knew Subaru's real identity was strange enough. But what came after that was even worse in a different way.
Weitz had no intention of betraying him. He had decided to help anyway.
Even if Subaru was nobody. Even if he was pretending. Even if the whole thing was a mess.
"That's... honestly really reassuring, Weitz."
"Hm..."
Subaru gave him a thumbs-up and laughed lightly. Weitz looked away at once and sniffed through his nose, clearly not used to praise. Subaru took that for what it was and smiled.
The reason Weitz had gone to the basement was probably to look for a way to work the drawbridge and help Subaru escape. But there was nothing like that here. The only way off the island was still the drawbridge.
Which meant they would have to keep doing this the hard way.
Then the island shook. "That shaking must be..."
Weitz's head snapped up. "The drawbridge...?"
A low tremor rolled up through the ground beneath them, followed by a deep mechanical groan that seemed to vibrate through the island itself.
Subaru and Weitz looked at each other. There were only two things on the island with enough size to shake it like that: the arena and the drawbridge. Since the passage to the arena was already closed off nearby, the answer was obvious.
"Another group must've arrived..."
That meant the next Sparka was about to begin.
Weitz looked at Subaru, who muttered the words almost to himself. Subaru met his gaze and smiled.
It was meant to reassure him, though whether it worked or not was impossible to say.
"...Let's go take a look."
Weitz turned away without much comment. He was a man of few words, so Subaru followed behind him as they moved from the lower level of the island up toward the middle, then climbed to the higher ground overlooking the drawbridge.
"If we're lucky, maybe we'll get to see the tower entrance open and close." Subaru muttered as they went.
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Subaru had only just started walking again when the shadow at his feet moved.
At first, he thought it was a shadow of someone passing by. But, nobody was actually there to pass by.
Then the darkness stretched in the wrong direction, like something inside it had decided to breathe.
Subaru stopped dead in place and frowned.
"...Don't tell me——"
A thin, black shape rose from beneath him, like a person climbing out of water, except it was made of something far worse than water. No face, no eyes, no features at all. Just a silhouette that looked wrong in a way Subaru did not want to think about too deeply.
Louis let out a tiny noise and clutched his sleeve.
"Uu...?"
Subaru instinctively stepped in front of her.
"What the hell are you doing now?"
The faceless thing gave a small shrug, almost casual.
"Relax, man. If I wanted to do something terrible, I probably would have started with a better entrance."
"Yeah, well, that is not comforting at all."
Pride tilted his head, as if Subaru's irritation was genuinely interesting.
"I know. That is kind of your thing, isn't it?"
Subaru's eye twitched.
He had no idea whether that was an insult, a joke, or Pride accidentally saying something honest. With Pride, it was often all three at once.
"You said you were going to sit in my shadow," Subaru muttered, narrowing his eyes. "Not crawl out of it to annoy me like some cursed bug."
"Same thing, different delivery." Pride lifted one hand and waved it vaguely. "Besides, I thought it was better to talk before you got distracted again. You looked like you were about to start glaring holes through the floor."
Subaru stared at him.
That was, annoyingly, accurate.
He had been trying not to think too hard about it, but the idea of having Pride anywhere near him again was making his skin crawl. Not because Pride looked threatening, but because he didn't. The fact that he could stand there, all flatness and shadow, and still make Subaru feel like something had gone very wrong somewhere deep in his soul made it even worse.
Louis peeked around Subaru's side and pointed at Pride.
"Uu?"
Pride turned toward her, though there was no face to turn. "She's got a point. I also do not know what I am supposed to do with that sound."
Subaru rubbed a hand over his face.
"Please do not start teaching my kid new problems."
"She is not your kid."
"She is right now, thank you very much."
Pride went quiet for a second, then gave a tiny, dry laugh.
"...That was almost good."
Subaru scowled, but before he could say anything else, a voice came from somewhere above them.
"Oho! What a delightful little reunion! I leave for a short while and come back to find a shadow giving a monologue. Truly, the stage here never disappoints, after all."
Subaru's head instantly snapped upward.
Cecilus Segmunt was stood along the fence that hung precariously over the edge which revealed a hundred foot drop. No doubt, a very untimely death for anyone who falls.
Subaru let out a long, pained sigh.
"...Why are you like this?"
"Like what? Dramatic? Artistic? A little too handsome for this world's own good? For the sweet on top."
"An annoyance."
"Ah, there it is! A truly harsh review that is agreed upon by one too many people for my liking."
Cecilus dropped lightly to the ground, landing in a crouch before rising with a grin. Then he properly noticed Pride's existence.
For the first time, his expression actually changed. His eyebrows raised in surprise, and equal intrigue.
He leaned forward, starry eyes fixed on the shadow-shape.
"Oh?"
Pride gave him a look that Subaru could only describe as a silent request for everyone to stop existing.
Cecilus ignored that immediately. "Now that is interesting."
Subaru's brows furrowed.
Cecilus clasped his hands behind his back and rocked on his heels, studying Pride like he was some rare insect he had found under a rock.
"Hmmm... yes, I see it now. I can feel a fellow co-star when one is standing on the stage. And this one..." He smiled wider. "This one is strange indeed, very strange, actually..."
Pride said nothing, mainly because he was a little bit too freaked out to actually muster a response.
Subaru, on the other hand, looked between the two of them with growing suspicion.
"Don't say weird stuff like that about him. It'll only act as kindling to his inflated ego."
Cecilus blinked at Subaru. "About him? So it is a him? Fascinating."
Subaru regretted opening his mouth instantly.
Pride sighed, or at least made a sound that suggested sighing. "Can we skip the part where you two act like I'm not standing here?"
Cecilus's grin sharpened. "Oh, no no. Please don't mind me at all, haha! I'm only delighted, that is, A shadow that talks, and a black-haired guest who keeps attracting oddities. This is the kind of thing I live for."
Subaru's face hardened. "You make that sound a lot less creepy than it is."
"It is creepy..." Pride muttered.
Cecilus pointed at him. "See? He gets it!"
Subaru pinched the bridge of his nose. "Why are you even here?"
Cecilus laughed, stepping forward. "Well, two reasons."
He held up one finger. "First, the gladiators don't really hold back on the rumors, so listening in on the stuff they talk about is real easy. Second, the drawbridge just opened, and apparently there were some very interesting guests."
Subaru's posture straightened a little. "What guests?"
Cecilus's eyes lit up. "Ah, now that is the good part. The island has been buzzing all day. I heard one of the guards say there were a few 'special guests' arriving from the bridge. Though, even with my incredible hearing, I couldn't quite get any more information beyond just that, though, they are likely already on the island."
Pride glanced from Cecilus to Subaru, his featureless black silhouette leaning back against the fence. He placed a shadowy hand on his chin, the darkness of his form rippling as he muttered quietly.
"...Something's wrong."
Subaru turned his attention toward his dark counterpart, his brow furrowing. Cecilus did the same, though the blue-haired boy tilted his head with a look of interest.
"What? What do you mean?" Subaru asked, his voice low so as not to attract the attention of the other gladiators in the hall.
"I'm not sure. I can't help but feel unsettled about all this," Pride commented. "I mean... there's a crap ton of weird stuff going on in the Empire because of you, right?"
Pride pointed a black finger down over the edge of the fence, over the cliffside.
"And all of a sudden... two special guests just happen to show up here on Gladiator Island? Right when you do? The timing is too clean. It feels purposefully."
Cecilus tapped a finger against his cheek, his starry eyes gleaming. "Implying their appearance is not a coincidence at all is definitely very interesting. Although, since I don't really know the context of what you're talking about so I hate to say that I won't be much help in trying to deduce what is going on."
Subaru opened his mouth to tell Cecilus that he wasn't exactly helping the situation, but the words died in his throat.
Immediately following Cecilus's comment, Subaru's attention was forced to the side.
Louis, who had been happily smiling moments prior, unnaturally swayed. Her small body went completely slack, and she pitched sideways, falling heavily against Subaru's arm.
Subaru's eyebrows shot up in shock. He instinctively threw his arms out, catching Louis's body before she could hit the ground.
"L-Louis?! Hey, what's wrong? Are you——"
As he caught her and pulled her into his lap, Subaru's breath hitched in his throat.
Blood. There was blood.
A thick, dark stream of crimson was trickling rapidly from her bloodshot eyes and nose. It was silent. It was sudden. It was as if she had instantly been placed on the absolute cusp of death without a single sound of distress.
How? Another assassin? Did they bypass Cecilus's senses?! But that shouldn't even be possible!
Subaru's mind screamed, his heart hammering against his ribs in sheer panic
Then what? Poison?
He knew there was only one person on the island who worked with poison, an old man who's name he didn't even know. But he had nothing to do with them. It didn't make any sense.
A small, trembling hand reached up to grasp his cheek.
Subaru looked down. He didn't even realize he was crying until Louis's bloody thumb smeared a tear across his skin.
"N-No, fuck! What the... Louis?! Hang on, just hang on!" Subaru yelled, his voice cracking with desperation.
Before he could even attempt to call for help, her arm fell limply to his side. The dim light in her blue eyes vanished.
Immediately following that...
"Ah."
Blotches of blood began to pool down onto Louis's corpse.
This time, however, it was not her own blood.
Subaru's entire body began to sway, his vision suddenly swimming with vertigo. He vomited violently onto the ground, a thick, awful mixture of stomach acid and bright crimson pooling beneath him.
What is going on?
It wasn't painful in the slightest, unusually. There was no burning, no tearing of flesh which he'd come to grow so familiar of. But still, he felt the cold, undeniable sensation of his life force draining out of him like water from a cracked vase. He was dying, somehow.
"Well... this is bad, huh." Pride muttered from the shadows, his voice lacking its usual mocking edge, replaced by genuine confusion as he watched the scene.
Subaru didn't care what Pride had to say, though. He couldn't even see him clearly anymore, even if he did.
Blood was weeping from his own eyes, painting his fading vision in a blurry, hazy red. It was dripping from his nose while filling his mouth with the taste of copper.
"Huh. How... unusual..." Cecilus muttered.
Subaru forced his heavy head up. He looked at the Blue Lightning.
Cecilus had a hand raised to his face. He wiped his nose, looking curiously at the crimson that painted his fingertip.
"I was quite happy I could say that 'I'd never bled before', what a shame."
Yet, Cecilus put up absolutely zero fight. He simply took a calm step backward, stepping closer to the fence before slowly lounging down onto the floor and folding his legs into a comfortable, cross-legged seating position.
"Ceci...?!" Subaru groaned out, wiping his mouth with a trembling hand before his strength failed him completely.
He collapsed onto his back, hitting the stone floor hard.
"Uh-oh... Basu?" Cecilus questioned, raising an eyebrow. He looked entirely, utterly uncaring about the blood that was now streaming steadily from every orifice on his face. "Seems like this is quite the formidable, unseen enemy. To think it could entirely bypass even my senses... what a fantastic plot twist, indeed."
Subaru lay on his back, staring up at the sky before glancing to his side. He could barely breathe.
"How... are you... so calm...?" Subaru choked out, the words gurgling in his throat.
"Are you asking if I'm afraid of dying or not, Basu?" Cecilus smiled, a bright, genuine smile, even as blood stained his teeth. "Well, if I had to answer that, I would say... no. Since people die all the time, after all."
While understanding perfectly well that what was drawing ever closer to him was imminent, unavoidable death, Cecilus responded without a single shred of hesitation.
Without hesitation. Without bewilderment. Without fear. Without anxiety. Without nervousness. Without regret.
Unlike Subaru, no Save Point lay beyond Cecilus's death. This was the end of his story, as far as he was aware.
Even so, Cecilus Segmunt held absolutely no fear toward Death, supposedly the most terrifying concept among all living beings.
I see...
That was what Subaru wanted to say. He wanted to acknowledge the sheer, terrifying purity of the boy's existence. But his vocal cords refused to work. It was impossibly difficult to even draw breath.
"I'd wished for this entire show to go on for a little longer, but..." Cecilus sighed, closing his eyes as the blood continued to flow. "I suppose that was asking for too much."
What a ridiculous guy, Cecilus Segmunt.
Subaru wanted to scoff. He wanted to laugh at the sheer absurdity of the Strongest in the Empire treating his own death like it wasn't important at all.
But unfortunately, there was no time.
Amidst the overpowering taste of warm blood filling his mouth, Subaru felt that familiar, freezing coldness wrap around his soul.
And suddenly, everything went dark.