The table appeared in her thoughts. A small wooden table, the kind you might find in a cheap cafe or a forgotten corner of a library. Two chibi Subaru sat on opposite sides, their legs dangling, their faces scrunched in concentration. A chess board sat between them, the pieces carved from the same fog that filled her dreams.
The first chibi Subaru moved a pawn. "We have enough mana to maintain the lightsaber for a full day. Maybe longer if we ration carefully."
The second chibi Subaru shook her head. She picked up a knight, turned it over in her small hands, then put it back down. "What is the point? He is not going to tire out. He is not going to make a mistake. He is just going to keep attacking until we slip, and then we die. Again."
First chibi shrugged. "So we need something else. Something he cannot copy. Something that does not rely on weapons or speed or anything he can match."
Second chibi leaned forward, her elbows on the table, her chin resting on her hands. "We could create an 'I Am Atomic.' Just a massive explosion. Nuke the whole area. Him, the forest, the soldiers, everything."
First chibi blinked. "That is a terrible plan."
"It is a plan."
"It is a plan that kills us too. Either from mana depletion because we pour everything into the spell, or from being caught in the explosion because we cannot get away fast enough."
Second chibi waved her hand dismissively. "So what."
First chibi picked up a rook and threw it at her. The rook passed through her head without leaving a mark.
"Ow," second chibi said, flatly.
"You are not taking this seriously."
"I am taking it very seriously. I am just also acknowledging that we are probably going to die no matter what we do. So why not go out with a bang?"
First chibi sighed. She rubbed her temples with her tiny fingers. "Or we could just play cute. We have crossdressed before. In our last life, as a guy. We could just lean into the whole innocent girl thing. Bat our eyes. Act helpless. Maybe he will lose interest."
Second chibi stared at her. Her expression was blank, unreadable, the way a doll's face is blank.
"Rivale is not like that," she said.
First sighed. "What do you mean?"
"I mean he is not going to be fooled by batting eyes and helpless acts. He is a warrior. He respects strength, not cuteness. He wants to fight, not flirt. Playing innocent might work on human soldiers. It will not work on him."
Second chibi slumped in her chair. "Where did your manly pride go, Subaru? The old you would never suggest something like that."
First chibi picked up a bishop and examined it. "The old me is dead. He died in a forest, over and over, at the hands of a red haired boy. What is left is... this." She gestured at herself, at her small body, at the horns she could feel pressing against her skull even in the dream. "And this is what we have to work with."
Secon chibi groaned. "Ugh. Then what? What do we do?"
Silence. The chess board sat between them, the pieces unmoved, the game abandoned.
"Kick him in the balls?" second chibi suggested.
First chibi looked at her. "Won't work."
"Probably not."
"Demons probably do not even have balls. Or if they do, they are made of something harder than flesh. It would be like kicking a rock."
Second chibi winced. "That is a painful image."
"You started it."
"Fair."
More silence. The fog around them swirled, forming shapes that dissolved before they could become anything recognizable.
"How about using something like Domain Expansion?" first chibi said, her voice tentative, uncertain.
Second chibi tilted her head. "Domain Expansion? Like from that show we watched? The one with the fingers and the curses and the guy with the white hair?"
"Yes, that one."
"We can do that?"
First chibi shrugged. "I do not know. Probably not. Domain Expansion requires a deep understanding of one's own technique and a lifetime of training in jujutsu. We have been in this body for less than two weeks. We do not even know what our own soul looks like, assuming we still have one. Not to mention we can only copy things which have weapons or tools with them."
Second chibi nodded slowly. "So that is a no."
"That is a no."
"What about—"
The two chibi Subaru sat at their small wooden table, the chess board spread out between them. The fog swirled around their tiny bodies, soft and gray, the kind of fog that existed only in dreams and memories. The game had been going on for what felt like hours. Neither of them kept track of time anymore. Time did not matter in this place.
They generated various ideas. Some were smart, or at least smart adjacent. Some were definitely dumb, the kind of ideas that sounded good after too little sleep and too much panic.
"We could try to talk to him," the first chibi said. She moved a pawn forward, a cautious advance. "Explain that we are just someone who woke up in her body. Maybe he would understand."
The second chibi captured the pawn with a knight. "He would not care. He does not care about identity or memory or any of that. He only cares about fighting."
"Then we could refuse to fight. Drop our weapons. Sit down on the ground. If he wants a battle so badly, he cannot have one if we do not participate."
"He would kill us anyway, like before." The second chibi moved her rook into position, threatening the first chibi's king. "He would see it as cowardice, and he would end it quickly."
"Okay, okay." The first chibi rubbed her temples with her tiny fingers. "What about running away? Not just running, but hiding. Using Erfassen to create a camouflage cloak or something. Blend into the trees. Make him think we disappeared."
"He can sense mana. Hiding our appearance would not hide our energy. He would find us in seconds."
The second chibi leaned back in her chair, crossing her arms. She looked satisfied with herself, the way a cat looks satisfied after knocking a glass off a table.
"Then we trick him," the first chibi said. She moved her king out of danger, a desperate escape. "Create a fake version of ourselves. A mana construct that looks like us and fights like us. Let him chase that while the real us sneaks away."
"He would notice the difference. The construct would not have the same energy signature. It would be like a paper cutout compared to the real thing. Also, again, we don't know for sure if we can create fake-us."
The second chibi moved her queen. "Check."
The first chibi studied the board. Her options were limited. Her king could move to one of two squares, but both were threatened. She could block with a bishop, but that would just delay the inevitable.
"You are enjoying this too much," she said.
"I am trying to keep us alive," the second chibi replied. "Enjoyment has nothing to do with it."
"Liar."
"Maybe a little."
The first chibi moved her bishop to block the queen's path. It was a delaying tactic, nothing more. She knew it. The second chibi knew it.
"We could try to use his own strength against him," the first chibi said. "Create a weapon that gets stronger the harder he hits it. Something that absorbs his force and redirects it back at him."
The second chibi captured the bishop with her queen. "He would just stop hitting it. He is not stupid. He would figure out what was happening and adjust his approach. Our mana reserves are vastly inferior to his."
"Then we create multiple weapons. A whole arsenal. Overwhelm him with variety. He can only copy one thing at a time, right? If we throw ten different weapons at him, he has to choose which one to copy."
"He is fast enough to copy all of them. He has shown that. He can create multiple weapons simultaneously. We saw him do it with the knives."
The first chibi slumped in her chair. Her king was trapped. Every move led to capture. Every path led to checkmate.
"What about talking to him about something other than fighting?" she asked, desperate now. "Find out what he wants. Negotiate. Offer him something."
"He wants a fight. That is what he wants. That is all he wants. We have nothing else to offer him."
"Then we pretend to be stronger than we are. Make him think we are holding back. That we have a secret power we are not using. Maybe he will hold back too, waiting to see what we can do."
The second chibi shook her head. "He has killed us multiple times already. Pretending will not help."
The first chibi sighed. She looked at the board, at her trapped king, at the pieces that had once represented ideas but now represented nothing at all.
"I have run out of ideas," she admitted.
The second chibi smiled. It was not a kind smile. It was the smile of someone who had just won a game they had been playing for a very long time.
"Checkmate," she said.
She moved her queen into position, blocking the king's last escape. The game was over. The board glowed for a moment.
The first chibi stared at the board. Her eyes traced the lines, the positions, the way the pieces had moved. Something clicked in her head. A pattern she had not seen before. A move that had been hiding in plain sight.
She saw it. The way the queen had trapped the king. The way the bishop had been used to block. The way the rook had controlled the open file.
"I have a plan," she said.
The second chibi raised an eyebrow. "You have a plan?"
"Yes. A real plan. Not just random ideas. Something that might actually work."
"What is it?"
"We are the same person, so…"
The first chibi blinked. "Oh, of course. Alright," she said. "Let us try your plan."
Subaru opened her eyes. The real world rushed back in, loud and bright and terrifying. Rivale stood across the clearing, his lightsaber still humming, his grin still sharp.
She had a plan. It was not a good plan. It was barely a plan at all. But it was something.
She raised her blade and prepared to survive.