Chapter Text
Ch. 1, Green Door: What secrets are you keeping?
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"Subaru Natsuki" woke up rather early this morning.
A teen carrying a young blonde girl in red pajamas and a girl in blue pajamas while making coffee was an unusual sight. The body heat of both girls was a powerful deterrent to breaking up his odd sleeping sheduele, but the phantom effects of mayo withdrawal still demanded a substitute, and coffee was as good as anything.
‘I don't know what I did to deserve having you two in my life."
When the man kissed the spirit's forehead, he was met with a smug grin.
" Damn it, why are you so cute? He agreed that Betty deserved to be pampered.
The spirit was beaming with smugness as she caught her contractor in a compromised position.The
He finished making his coffee. Having extra hands was a godsend now that he was a father figure to these girls. The events in Vollachia made his sloth less agreeable, but it still felt uncomfortable to be able to hold both girls the way he was warranted the pain.
"Betty needs some coffee."
‘Nope. My adorable Beako needs to have her beauty sleep, and coffee would get in the way of that." The man spoke smugly as he opened the door, using the “Dad” thigh to hold both girls.
"We are running low on chocolate mix. Ram and Otto are probably," the man paused as he looked at the two girls … "Tired (read hungover) from last night's celebration, and I do need the exercise. I should probably get stuff for Garfield while I am at it.”
Subaru thought that now that he had his real hands back, there were a lot of gadgets and toys that needed to be built, especially after all the hard work they put in.
“I hope Meili doesn't mind, but it looks like we’re going on a small shopping trip.”
The man said this as the little assassin was fast asleep on his back, grabbing some milk for the spirit.
“As much as I love being around Petra, I am not sure if I trust Rosswall and Clind to be responsible employers in this loop, so hopefully Federica returns from vacation soon.”
The man said mentally, letting Beako drink her milk and follow him with one hand, and kept letting the little assassin sleep further in his back. There were 3 days before Halloween, and Frederica did not intend to be in the mansion with that many children filled with sugar to add into his weariness his actions in vollachia lead a wolf looking guy to join the camp party for Ros money party because he wanted to be part of the madness., he didn't caught his name just yet however there was a strange familiarity between the both of them despite never meeting.
Cor Leonis confirm that the wolf man was technically on their side.
It was still rather early in the morning, so he didn't expect many shops to be open, but the walk with them was very refreshing for his mental health, plus Meili was still not used to this rare thing called affection in this loop.
It was a lovely morning with two of his favorite people in the world. He brought them treats and cute dresses while the Emilia Camp recovered from the celebration of the return from Vollachia.
Things were going better than he would have expected.
The man greeted by a strange door exclaimed, "Huh!" It stood about two stories tall, was green and ornate in golden tones, and had multiple handles to accommodate different heights. as well as handrails and a wheelchair ramp on one side
A letter with a hypercube made of circles as its insignia was attached to it.
Subaru exhaled, questioning whether this was a bad idea. He did not have the energy for it, especially on this beautiful morning, but leaving the door open would raise a lot more questions.
I'm sorry I couldn't do more.
The key is in your soul's nightstand
It's not much, but it's the best I could come up with.
I'm a friend, sincerely
Several things immediately stood out as red flags.
For starters, the letter was obviously written in Japanese; however, the way it was worded suggested that the author was not a native speaker and instead either used a translator or, more likely, wrote the note in a hurry.
Secondly, whoever this person was, they took the time to make the door wheelchair accessible, which was an odd detail that an enemy would not have bothered with.
Third, they placed the key on Beatrice’s nightstand without anyone noticing. It was not particularly strange, given that this appeared to be a surprise gift, but it was still a little unsettling.
Still, it appeared that his plans had been canceled.
“Well, that is not at all creepy.”
The knight said in a whistle, accidentally waking up the girl sleeping in his back
“No, Rem, I don't want to study; I want to sleep in.” The groggy kid said, pretending she had not gotten a wink of sleep the night before while celebrating her adopted father's return and successful revolutionary actions in Vollachia. She did not miss hugging him at all, and despite her protests, she did not cry when she saw him again. Frederica’s vacation had made her eyes dusty. Yes, she was not pleased to be sleeping on his back.
The knight, on the other hand, did his best to not have a heart attack in the moment. As if he weren't taking her measurements for the upcoming Halloween celebrations.
“Hmnp!” the spirit proclaimed. She was absolutely not jealous of the assassin's current monopoly on her contractor’s back
“This door is odd; I suppose I don't think Betty’s contractor was responsible for this odd occurrence. Betty assumes that her contractor can read the letter.”
"I can, but... It is strange because the person who wrote it obviously used a translator because they are not native speakers... Maybe divine protection? ... but no…”
The knight shut down that intrusive thought immediately. Al, Hoshin, and Fugel were definitely from earth, but the thought of someone else being from earth and being able to sneak into the Mathers domain annoyed him. But then again, this thing was supposed to be an olive branch of sorts.
Was this from Al? No, that didn't feel right… Priscilla had connections with Vincent, so maybe? But this didn't feel like his modus operandi; the logo in the letter felt familiar, but it wasn't one he associated with Al.
He touched the door, the black blood in his epidermis retreating in contact but returning as soon as he stopped touching it as he felt mana escaping his body, leaving him with a stupid expression on his face as he just stared at the palm of his hand.
“Hey Beako, can objects take mana from you?”
The man asked like an idiot, as if she didn't see it happen. The office stare from the blonde didn't help.
“Why do you think the door did that then? Do you believe it is similar to your door-crossing ability, but in an automatic version?”
“Maybe it's a trap.” The girl on his back said she was placing her chin on his face
“Probably, I would not be surprised if it were... any suggestions?”
“Open it and deal with it like the brave camp we are."
The assassin shrugged, knowing that half of the camp was insane, including herself in that section. In her defense, Halloween was 3 days away, or, as she knew it, “Subaru gives me candy in exchange for dressing me up for the day.”
"Well, Halloween is coming up soon; we can open it up then. because it could be spooooky!”
The teen father said, He was waving his hands like an idiot for comedic effect.
Being killed by Sirius was not as agonizing as the silence.
*cough* "Are we going to open it?" On second thought, perhaps we should make it a sort of event and call in reinforcements?"
In an attempt to save face, the man said this, letting both girls off his back and hands as a form of discipline. A lesser man would not have been able to withstand the girls' token squeaks and grunts after he had freed himself from their influence. This level of determination was earned through countless torture sessions at the hands of various enemies during his three-ish years in this new world. Subaru Natsuki remains firm, breathing to protect his CPTSD-ridden heart.
“It’s still too early to wake everyone up, I'm just here because I need to readjust my sleeping schedule. Maybe we can go buy some clothing in the meantime for Halloween.”
The girls, with a dark expression, nodded along, shaking, half exaggerating the weight of their punishment. They quietly followed their abusive father to the nearby village.
Meanwhile, On a certain nightstand, a key resembling a fountain pen suddenly always exists in the nightstand, simply manifesting into reality.
Elsewhere, a large green door with golden ornaments appeared in a Japanese public park as if it were always there, but the people around it merely noticed it recently.
—----
"HOLY SHIT! HOLY SHIT! We just won the fuckin Nobel!"
In Winchester, Virginia, a doctor working in a small lab said he was shaking the shit out of his monitor as a coworker, bewildered as hell, stared at him and dropped her sandwich.
"What the hell are you on about?"
"I triple-checked and discovered a fucking Higgs field that did not exist two days ago; we just won the fucking Nobel! Its like an extra fundamental particle...holy fucking shit, we are going to make so much fucking money!”
“No way. You probably misread it. It's a high-field uncertainty; it’s kind of its thing.”
The woman expressed her annoyance towards the doctor. In academia, most of the hype surrounding quantum mechanics was usually discounted. As of 2015, the discovery of the Higgs boson around 2012 was the closest thing to finishing the standard model.
"Celene, I am telling you, this seems like a winner. You are probably right, but we probably need to run some more tests before calling DARPA."
"I'm telling you, you probably messed with the sensors... fields do not just start showing up out of.”
With a glance at the computer screen, the second researcher stated as much.
"Nowhere… Call DARPA now!”
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Reinhard is not immune to strange dreams, even though he has numerous divine protections at his disposal. Normally, he sleeps soundly. This time, the knight was dreaming peacefully in a field of reeds. The man was first startled out of his slumber as he started to walk around this endlessly serene chamber of reeds by the glimpse of red hair that startled him deeply. Since he was a small child, that woman and her smile have been a common nightmare.
“Grandmother?”
The woman smiled and asked the worried Knight to follow her; sadly, in spite of his best attempts, he was unable to do so.
“Gramdmother, wait!”
He began to run faster and faster but she was still ahead of him.
His legs, despite his stamina, were useless against his grandmother.
His lungs began to burn as several more minutes of abusing his oxygen intake began to exhaust him in a way that they hadn't in years.
And yet his grandmother kept running as if she were floating.
No, that was not right. She was actually floating, and the man stopped. His grandmother smiled at him with a radiant smile.
“The conquest of nature is to be achieved through number and measure."
The previous knight whispered lovingly at him. As she began to float above him,
“What does that mean, grandmother?"
“It means that your friends need you to wake up right now, Reinhard.”
“What?”
The previous visage of his grandmother was replaced by a horrifying creature.
Her face and body began to elongate and grow as she began to grow two heads, a lion and a bull. She had the wings of a dove, and each of those feathers was covered with eyes. All of them were staring at him. Only him.
“WAKE UP!”
—
The man awoke, covering himself in his own vomit and sweat as a nearby piece of yarn sitting on a stand called his attention.
He felt his Divine Protection of Calculations being strengthened and modified by Od Laguna. He now had the Divine Protection of Computer Hacking.
His dream made him check on his friends.
Felix and Subaru were not that hard to find, but a gut instinct told him to check on the Anastasia camp and Al.
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