Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Chapter 1: What's our name?

*****

"So that means... I have been summoned to another world??" two voices shouted in unison.

Of course Subaru was surprised by the other voice, so he looked towards it's source, only to find... Subaru?

It wasn't just any old Subaru of course, otherwise he would've assumed it was some sort of unique magical power he had been granted by the gods, although now that he thought about it, it might still be just that.

Still, the thought to question his first assumptions had at least crossed his mind, and that was because...

"There is a female me?!"

Said female Subaru was just as startled, although it seemed she was not quite as exentric as her male counterpart, given how she didn't shout back this time.

She did look just as confused though.

"Erm, hello?" The female version of him said.

Noticing her clear confusion, male Subaru snapped out of his clearly unproductive train of thought.

"Ah, hello, my name is Natsuki Subaru and I'm comlepetly clueless and shocked at how hot I could've been."

He recalled looking vaguely like that when crossdressing once, but he wanted to purge that cringe inducing time from his very soul.

Although on further inspection, she had a slightly bigger bust size than his Natsumi Schwartz persona.

The Natsumi lookalike widened her eyes when he spoke his name, and then:

"My name is Natsumi Subaru, and I think we should probably have a talk. First of all, exactly how 'clueless' are you of this situation?"

Hmm, so she was thinking he had something to do with this... No wait a second...

"Wait, you really are named Natsumi?!"

At this point, she was clearly getting slightly annoyed at his continued screaming, but he couldn't help it.

"What's that supposed to mean? The way you phrased that, it's not surpise at how simular our names are. Are you the one who summoned me then?"

*****

The misunderstandings kept mounting, and it would take quite some time for them to clear their situation up.

Though most important part is: Natsuki Subaru had just found himself a sister from another world.

But hey, at least Subaru got himself a distraction from doing stupid stuff like falling into a river, or walking into an empty alley... No wait, they still did the latter, the plot wills it.

Chapter Text

Chapter 2: Natsuki/Natsumi Subaru?

*****

She had been talking to the stange boy who looked like herself for half an hour by now, while walking around the capital city of Lugunica.

It appeared as if her male counterpart was a slightly perverted shut-in NEET, although she saw throuh his facade right away.

After all, she was the same. Well, she wasn't a perverted shut-in NEET, but she was just as awkward as him, along with also being an otaku.

Due to this, she didn't consider herself very hot, but objectively, the boys in her class begged to differ, not to mention that Natsuki Subaru had called her hot which is the reason she thinks of him as a pervert.

However, she did still go to school before being sent here, which is more than her male counterpart did if his words were anything to go by.

She felt as though she could trust him though, due to a strange link that seemed to connect their very souls from the moment they arrived in this new country named Lugunca, as it was called by a slightly agressive "appa" salesman.

This link told her that he wasn't lying, which meant he really was a pervert who found her hot.

She didn't know what their relationship was supposed to be, or how closely related they were on a genetic level, but she thought that they would have to figure out their relationship over time, which she presumed they would have plenty of now that their fates seemed to be connected.

At least they could communicate with the locals, even if they couldn't read the written language, which nearly became a issue when Natsuki almost walked into the women's bathroom.

Luckily though, the fact that he was so loud when talking to her meant that the locals stopped him before he could commit this faux pas. She knew it was unfair, but her impression of him as a pervert only grew after this incident.

After a while, they walked into a secluded alley where they could talk without anyone overhearing, and there was one pressing matter that they needed to resolve.

***

"So, how do we refer to each other? We can't just both call ourself Subaru, it would confuse the locals." Natsumi Subaru asked him.

Natsuki had put a little bit of thought into the matter already, so he awnsered right away.

"How about we keep our current names, but use Subaru as a surname and Natsumi or Natsuki as our given names. It would clear up some confusion at least."

Natsuki seemed to be going down the family route, although it could also mean they were a married couple...

Gah! It was hard being connected emotionally to a stranger of the opposite sex, even if they looked a lot like you. Especially since they had never met before in their 17 year old lives.

Their parents even shared the same names, with only a tiny diffrence in their respective surnames.

This would have to be postponed until they managed solve the issue of having a place to live.

"Okay, we'll do that for now, but only if I can be the onee-san." Natsumi felt as if she was more mature than Natsuki, so should couldn't help herself. She had always wanted a little brother.

"Fine, exalted onee-sama" was the rather unsatisfactory rosponse Natsuki gave her.

She pouted, but there wasn't much she could do about his attitude, so she didn't retort.

With that out of the way, they walked out of the alley, only to find three thugs trying to rob them.

Natsuki probably wanted to look cool in front of his exalted onee-sama, so he tried to fight back like an idiot, which actually worked until one of them decided to pull out their knives.

At least he wasn't a complete idiot, since he decided to beg for mercy.

He wasn't stabbed, but they stomped him pretty hard, so she knew she had to intervene.

"Please, anyone, help us!" Natsumi shouted to nobody in paricular.

***

An unhelpful brat with blonde hair and red eyes ran by without offering anything but a "stay strong".

Then came... a handsome knight with flaming red hair.

Natsumi noticed said handsomeness, but he wasn't her type, she liked silver hair, which she knew was unrealistic on someone young enough for her, but she couldn't help how she felt, that still didn't help how her with how to think about Natsuki.

"I'll let you go if you stop this at once" mister handsome man told the thugs.

"No way, it's the Sword saint, Reinhard" was the response of the now panicked thugs who were running away as fast as they could.

Reinhard introduced himself to the two after checking up on Natsuki, but before they could respond, another person came to this oddly crowded secluded alleyway.

They had beutiful silver hair, which peeved Natsumi quite a bit given how said person was a girl, instead of a handsome boy.

She looked over at her male counterpart, only to see him look at the newcomer in awe.

Natsumi gave him a knowing look at his prefrence in women, since her taste in men was identical.

The newcomer ran towards them without noticing Reinhard, and said "Please give me back my insignia...".

Thus, the historical encounter between four of the most influential people began.

Chapter Text

Chapter 3: A witch and a pervert

*****

"Please give me back my insignia, it's very important to me!" Said the silver haired newcomer.

"Excuse me Emilia-sama, but I don't think these two are who you are looking for, however I would be honored to offer you my assistance" Reinhard replied with the sort of elegance the two Subarus expected from a knight.

Emilia, obviously caught off gaurd, looked towards the knight she hadn't expected to encounter in a shady back alley.

"Ah, hello Reinhard-san, I'm soo sorry for asking, but could you please elaborate on that?"

Looking around, Emilia took a look at the unconventional trio in front of her.

"I just saved these two from being mugged by some petty theifs, and given their current emotional state, I doubt they had anything to do with your current problems."

After this Emilia examined the two very closely, ignoring Reinhard's sudden display of mind reading.

The two Subarus couldn't ignore it however, and as such they stared wide eyed at Reinhard for a little while.

"Wow, this really is a fantasy world!" exclaimed an excited Natsuki, and Natsumi nodded along.

"Fa-n-ta-shi? No, more importantly, you really don't have anything to do with stealing my insignia? No way, what am I supposed to do now?"

"Emilia-sama was it? Me and my brother saw some brat running by, looking really busy while my brother was being mugged by thugs. I understand not wanting to get involved, but her actions seemed just a little suspicious somehow. Either way, since we know how she looks like, we'll help you find whatever this 'insignia' thing is".

Natsumi wanted to pout at the happy feelings he sent through thier link directed towards this Emilia chick, but she decided that it was more important to cover for his general awkwardness, and therefore she decided to get involved in the conversation.

Don't get me wrong, Natsumi really didn't have any sort of weird brother fetish, but the whole "brother/sister relationship was just a temporary solution to avoid having to explain their situation in detail, right? Right?!

Natsumi examined their mysterious emotional connection for a little while longer, and decided that this was a pointless endeavor, after all, he was clearly not going to change his mind, and thus it was better to just surrender to the inevitable and treat him as her new brother instead.

While Natsumi's heart finally started steering towards normalcy and away from Alabama, a floating grey cat had manifested right in front of them, startling the Subaru siblings.

"I think you should accept her offer, I'm not sensing any malice from either one of these youngsters." the fluffball confirmed.

"Yup, definitely fantasy" Natsumi said this time, only for her brother to nod along this time.

"Alright, I'll accept your offer, only as long as your... brother is also fine with it."

Emilia was unsure of their relationship, so she hesitated a little before saying the word 'brother'.

"Where my sister goes, I go! It's not like we have anything better to do anyways, since we just got here without any money or idea of where we are."

Reinhard looked very concerned after Natsuki's comment, but he ultimately decided it could wait for after Emilia he had solved Emilia's problems. It's not like they were starving yet at least.

"So anyways, we were going to introduce ourselves before you came, so let's restart! My name is Natsumi Subaru, and this is my brother-" she was cut off when said brother struck an awkward pose, which was probably a reference to something that her, or maybeshe should say their dad liked or something, she wasn't quite sure. She did however feel a little bit of her soul slip away at the display of NEETness.

"My name is Natsuki Subaru, and the two of us are completely lost and and broke beyond compare, nice to meet ya!"

"Hey, even if everything you said is true, please don't include me in your pervert speeches!"

"Pervert?! Is that what you think of me?! Neee nee-sama, you wound me!"

The others had a laugh at their carefree banter, after which they continued with the introductions.

*****

In the loothouse located within Lugnica's slums lived a gigant. He was an old man who had seen many things during his long life, not least of which was the destruction caused by discrimination and war.

During the Demihuman war, he had been entrusted a small black box by a friend with pink hair. After some time in his possession, the box had changed felt as if it had changed, as if it had captured some sort of powerful dark spirit or something.

The country remembered the woman who had entrusted this box to him as a witch, and it wasn't really far off.

What nobody, not even this old man knew, was that the one of the main reasons his old friend even existed was to make sure this box ended up in this place at this time.

The old man noticed that the box had started to glow since about an hour ago.

The intensity of the light emitted by the box continued to increase, until it was positively shining.

That was when someone knocked on the door

'This time, you wouldn't want me to ask for a password, huh Sphinx?' The old man thought to himself.

At the moment he opened the door, the box suddenly snapped open.

*****

At the moment the door opened, a certain teenage girl could feel a dark entity wriggling it's way into her very soul, sending shivers down her spine.

What nobody knew at the time, was that this signalled the birth of the first true witch in 400 years.

This holder of a witch factor would never stoop so low as to call herself a Sin Archbishop, so witch was the only title that would be considered at least somewhat correct for her personality, although that term har long since lost it's original meaning.

That was how this generation's Witch of Pride, Natsumi Subaru, unknowingly gained her title.

Chapter Text

Chapter 4: I Felt it in my guts

*****

Today was a good day. After all, today she had snatched a big haul which would help her with getting out these dirty slums.

What she hadn't expected was that she'd be greeted by her victim when she got back to the Rom's place.

"What is this, old man? Did you finally decide to sell me out?" Felt didn't actually believe her own words, they had known each other since she was a child after all, and more importantly was the fact that there was a knight standing inside of the loothouse (not to mention the siblings with senpaku eyes), meaning that he couldn't exactly warn her of their arrival.

"Are ya trying ta piss me off? Of course not! Although I might admit tha' I didn't hate these fine people's company."

"You're Felt, right? You took something that's suuper important to me, so I would be glad if you gave it back to me without us having to fight."

The silver-haired onee-san didn't have to tell her twice. They had already managed to pacify the old man, so it would probably be suicidal to get into an actual fight with these people.

Wait a second, silver hair? Long ears?

She trembled as the gravity of the situation dawned on her, which didn't go unnoticed by Emilia.

"Wait, it couldn't be? Are you-"

"Nonono, that's just an accidental resemblence, and it has caused a lot of trouble for me over the years".

That calmed her down, which would've been good if it didn't create the perfect opportunity to throw knife her way.

Luckily for her, the knight who had stayed silent so far had noticed in time to parry the incoming projectile.

*****

"I thought gathering everyone in one place would've made my job easier, but it turns out I might have underestimated my opponent. You are the sword saint, right?"

The offending party had a deadly smile on her face, as if she had long since gone insane from a lifetime of murder, and if her skill with her Kukiri blades was anything to go off of, she had done exactly that.

"That would be correct, and based on your black hair and iconic knives, you would be the bowel hunter I presume?"

"It's an honor to have my deeds recognised by someone as famous as you! It makes me wonder what color your guts have."

Reinhard tried to draw the sword on his waist, but it didn't want to be drawn.

"I'm terribly sorry, but it appears I cannot draw my sword in this battle."

"I believe I might have been the one who is being underestimated this time."

"It's a quite troubling judgement for me as well."

Seeing the scene playing out right in front of him, Natsuki grabbed a sword hanging on the wall and threw it towards Reinhard. After getting to know the guy for a little while, Natsuki was confident that Reinhard could catch it no matter how terribly he threw it, so long as he aimed in Reinhard's general direction.

"Thank you Natsuki! Now please surrender, or I'll have to kill you."

"How could I say no to such an enticing proposition."

They exchanged names in a display of epicness, after which Reinhard absolutely obliterated the bowel hunter, along with the entire building.

*****

"Sword saint my ass! Is there anything saintly about this?!"

"Geez, my brother can be so annoying when he wants to be. What did you contribute to the battle to be able to spout such words anyway?"

Not only did Natsuki Subaru get a full view of his sister's scornful expression, but he also felt it through their emotional link. He was happy to get a reaction out of her.

"You may be right about that, but it still hurts a little when you say it".

"Mou, apologize to Reinhard this instant Subaru!" Emilia added helpfully with a stern tone.

"Which Subaru do you mean?" Natsuki gleefully countered, before regretting it the very next second when Emilia grabbed him by he ear.

"Alright, alright, I'll apologize! I'm sorry Reinhard for saying bad things about you! Please accept my sincerest apologies! I repent, I repent!"

With a victorious smug smile, Emilia let go of his ear. Seeing this, Natsuki could only react with an "E.M.T!", which made Emilia tilt her head. Natsumi just ignored it since she felt through their connection that he was thinking something stupid.

*****

Felt felt sorry (author's note: sorry) for having stolen Emilia's insignia, or perhaps guilty would be a better way to word that (author's note: yes I'm a wordsmith, guilty as charged), so she was standing on the sidelines, not quite knowing how to apologise.

Elsa had rushed to kill Felt first, and she had even waited for Felt to get here before she attacked.

Honestly, it was quite weird that she would attack only after everyone was gathered here. Elsa should've backed off as soon as she saw Reinhard, but she chose to engage anyways. Perhaps her orders specified that she should attack only after everyone was gathered?

Felt didn't understand how Elsa knew that they would all gather here in the first place, especially together with Reinhard. The mad assasin obviously knew of him, and she didn't seem like the suicidal type, she has so many sadistic things to live for after all... Wait, if she isn't suicidal, that can only mean...

"Careful everone! She isn't dead yet!"

This startled everyone, but it gave them enough time to counter Elsa before anyone was killed. Not without incident though, as Natsuki was the only one close enough to shield Emilia from the assasin who suddenly launched at her.

Natsumi watched in horror and agony as her brother was impaled in the stomach without anything to protect him from the assasin's kukiri blade.

Before the madwoman could continue to push her offensive, Reinhard arrived between her and Natsuki.

Elsa backed off by jumping towards the remenants of the destroyed roof, departing with a sadistic speech about opening people's bowels and whatnot.

Emilia rushed towards the unconscious human. "Natsuki, please stay with us!".

She proceeded to heal him, and luckily managed to stabilise his wounds. Also luckily, Natsuki's connection to his sister had taken on some of the damage, so he just barely managed to survive the attack from the infamous bowel hunter.

*****

After a while, everything had calmed down enough for everyone to be able to continue their conversation. Natsuki was unconscious on the floor, and Natsumi sat next to him, leaning against what remained of a wall.

"Um, I'm sorry for stealing your insignia onee-san, it won't happen again!" Felt bowed to Emilia, and then straightened up to try and get said insignia out of her pocket.

Emilia asked Reinhard to look the other way from Felt's crime this time, to which he steadily agreed.

As she fiddled in her pocket, she continued "Please take care to not get it stolen again."

"It feels weird to hear it from the one who stole it in the first place".

Felt finally managed to grab it, and as she held it up to give it back to Emilia, it started glowing.

"No way. Please state your name and age." Reinhard commanded as he held on to Felt's arm.

"Let go of me! My name is Felt, no family name, and I think I'm 15 this year. Let go!"

As Felt struggled, Reinhard waved his hand in front of her which had the effect of instantly putting her to sleep.

"What did you do to her, Astrea!" Rom said as he approached Reinhard in a threatening manner. Of course he knew he couldn't win againt Reinhard, but here were some things that he just had to protect at all costs.

"Don't worry, I'll just need to take her over to my estate for a little while. You can come with me if you are worried for her safety, Rom-san." He turned towards Emilia and said "I'm sorry I couldn't keep my promise to you, but this is something rather urgent I'm afraid".

"It's fine, but may I ask what this is about? If it's about her stealing my insignia, then I have already forgiven her for that."

"That indeed is not small crime Emilia-sama, but he crime I just witnessed right in front of me is much greater."

They continued to talk for a while, and after the pink haired maid Ram met up with them, Reinhard departed with a sleeping young girl and a weary old man.

*****

"I'll have to take Natsuki to my home in order to heal him properly. You may also come if you want."

"I have no other place to go, so I humbly accept."

On their way to Roswaal mansion, Natsumi made small talk with the half Elf and maid.

It really was just small talk though, such as the following example:

"Could you tell me more about your brother?"

"He's a pervert."

"Hah, don't bring him anywhere near my sister."

Chapter Text

Chaper 5: Getting my spirits up

*****

Natsuki Subaru woke up to an unfamiliar ceiling.

Checking his abdomen, he noted that he wasn't dead.

'I should probably try to find out where I am though' he thought as he stood up as if he wasn't just sliced through with a knife like some sort of regular unenchanted grocery store butter.

Natsumi probably would have called him and idiot (and a pervert) if she saw him doing this, but since she wasn't here, and given how Natsuki doesn't like to think these things through, he just straight up ignored all conventional wisdom and walked to the door.

*****

Natsuki continued walking... and walking... and wa- hey! This isn't right! "Ah right, it's just a looping hallway".

With this thought in mind, as if it was the most expected turn of events ever, as if looping hallways were the most natural things ever, he decided to open the closest door.

"You're an insufferable man, I suppose" said a drill loli who was peeved that her victim had ever so casually opened the only door without some sort of magical trap connected to it, which happened to be the door connected to the forbidden library.

"First NPC found!"

"What does that even mean, I suppose?!"

Ah, so it was easy to push her buttons. He understood that they would get along very well.

"So what is this place anyways?"

"Is that the first thing you say, I suppose?!" Beatrice tapped her feet against the libarary's floor to show her indignation, after which she calmed down to awnser his question.

"This is the forbidden library, in fact. Please leave now that I've awnsered your question, I suppose!"

"Hey, that isn't very nice, you haven't introduced yourself yet. I cannot leave until you tell me.

"You're just as insufferable as your sister, in fact! Does being annoying run in the family, I suppose? Betty's name is Beatrice in fact. Now leave before I throw you out of here!"

"My name is Natsuki Subaru by the way, thank you for asking."

Natsuki wouldn't ever regret saying those words, but they led to drill loli using some kind of invisible force to throw Natsuki out of the "forbidden library".

*****

"That man is insufferable, I suppose."

Beatrice hadn't used mana drain to figure out the human boy's intentions. It would'e been redundant to do so since she had already done that to his sister.

Someone as powerful as Beatrice could quite easily read the intentions of someone connected by synesthesia just by feeling the mana of someone on the other end of the connection, so if she read the intentions of the blue-haired maid, she instantly knew the intentions of the pink-haired one, and if she read the intentions of Natsumi...

"Compared to the annoying black-haired girl, the boy was a little less annoying, I suppose."

Betty had been quite gentle with the Natsumi when using mana drain on her after she noticed all of the mana she tried to drain had turned into miasma, before dispersing into the atmosphere.

Since it takes a fraction of a second to make mana drained by mana drain stop flowing towards Beatrice after deactivating it, she noticed that the mana she was draining stopped turning into miasma as soon as she stopped intending to knock the girl unconconsius by by way of mana depletion.

Being the daughter of an individual who was nutorius for her thirst of knowledge, Beatrice's curiosity got the better of her.

So she tried draining Natsumi's mana again, this time not intending to knock her out.

This time, Natsumi's mana didn't get dispersed as miasma before reaching Beatrice, and she was able to drain it just fine.

Beatrice was knew the insufferable girl had noticed Beatrice's intentions, given how she was glaring at her, but she didn't seem nearly skilled enough to do something like turning mana into miasma through conventional magical means, meaning it was probably the automatic effect of an authority.

"At least she holds no hostile intentions, I suppose." Beatrice could tell this from the mana she had finally managed to absorb.

Natsumi's peaceful intentios were the only thing Beatrice was willing to admit that the smug brat had going in her favour.

"She's quite unusual for a witch, I suppose. Betty can only hope that whatever the eccentricity she posseses is, it won't be as destructive as the personalities of the witches of old, in fact."

She took a black book from under the stool she was sitting on and opened it, giving it a melancholic gaze.

"But even with two annoying insects like those two pratteling around, mother still won't guide Betty's way, in fact."

*****

Natsumi had been forced to witness Natsuki getting stabbed in the abdomen, and a part of her changed irreperably from that moment forward

Ever since that moment, Natsumi had made a silent vow to protect him even at the cost of her own life, as the pride of a big sister dictated.

Natsumi had tried to remain calm after her brother had been healed by Emilia-sama, but on the inside, she was the most panicked she had ever been in her 17 years of existence. The panic hadn't abaited while on the way to Roswaal L Mather's mansion, and she only truly calmed down after a young girl named Beatrice had healed Natsuki's wounds for real.

Natsumi had exchanged small talk with the half elf and the pink-haired maid while in the carriage, but it was plain for everyone to see that Natsumi's heart wasn't in it.

After arriving at the mansion, the group was greeted by the mirror image of Ram, a blue-haired girl who's behaviour was the very epitome of maidly ettiquette, a maid named Rem.

However, Rem's attitude very quickly proved to be a facade, as Natsumi felt something that could only be described as pure malice directed towards the new guest as soon as she got close to the maid.

Natsumi didn't know why she felt that way, but her suspicions of Rem only grew when she noticed Rem staring at her in the corner of her eyes.

According to Puck, Natsuki was to be taken to a room where he would be healed, and Natsumi wanted to be there for him throughout this time. Everyone wanted to respect their pricacy as much as possible, and as such they all generally left the two siblings alone, except for when the excentric owner of the mansion popped by to introduce himself, as well as the young healer.

When Beatrice arrived to healg him, Natsumi wondered how such a cute thing could be so adept at healing magic, when Emilia-sama, who Natsumi assumed was quite a bit older than she appears due to her half elf origins, couldn't heal him back to full health.

With a smug grin, Natsumi informed the loli of her cuteness, only to be met wih the cutest outburst of tsundere behaviour.

When she managed to push Beatrice over the edge with her teasing, she noticed a feeling of malice simular to that which she felt from Rem, eminating from the loli. It wasn't anywhere near as opressive as the feeling she got from the maid, but it was still opressive enough as it was. Natsumi unvolontarily glared at Beatrice due to this aura.

The magically adept loli prosceeded to to put her tiny palms against the larger human girl's body, and said human girl felt as if her energy was rapidly being drained. She felt like there existed some kind of odd tingleing sensation inside of her chest at the same time as her life force was being sucked out, and it didn't feel particularly pleasant.

And just as suddenly as the draining of her mana had begun, it stopped, and with it the feeling of malice dissipated into nothing, leaving behind a shocked looking loli.

And a few moments later, after having replaced her shocked look for a more contemplative one, Beatrice resumed the mana drain, but this time it somehow felt gentler, and there wasn't any aura of malice this time around. There wasn't any kind of tingeling sensation present this time around, Natsumi noted.

After pulling her hands away, Beatrice said "You aren't a threat, in fact", before she resumed the healing of Natsumi's brother.

Her interaction with the loli left Natsumi scratching her head, since there were so many unexplained things that happended within a span of a minute.

Not only that, but she had now felt the same malicious aura from two people, but the bowel hunter that anyone would say looked like very concept of murder just by a single glance, didn't emit such an aura, so she could only grow more confused about this the more time she used to think about this.

Natsumi couldn't stay awake for much longer, so she finally went to the room she had been provades with, and took a long, well deserved sleep.

Chapter Text

Chapter 6: Reflecting

*****

Early the next morning, Natsumi abruptly woke up due to feeling her idiot brother getting hurt somehow through their connection.

From what she felt, it wasn't very serious, but she couldn't live with herself if he got seriously hurt without not at least checking up on him.

'You won't let me get a proper amount of sleep, baka!'

With this flash of tsundere sentiment shining through, Natsuki probably wasn't going to have an easy time today either.

Natsumi judged that he wasn't in any imminent danger, so she decided to do something about the sweaty clothes she had worn during the past two days first.

She didn't want to think too hardly on the events that transpiered, but she estimated about two days had passed at least. Actually it might be more, depending on if she counted the day full of activities before coming to Lugunica.

'I put the clothes on in the morning, got isekai'd later that night, suddenly jumped timezones in a single moment into the afternoon, got attacked at around dusk by an assasin, met up with Ram a couple of hours later, travelled to the mathers domain for about 8 hours, at which point it was a new day. Then I made sure than pesky brother got treated well, then I went to sleep... Wait a second, did I sleep the day away?! At least it explains why I'm not very tired at the moment.'

Seemingly, she had already forgotten her earlier outburst of tsundere-ness, but it would be more accurate to say that she was ignoring it.

Walking over to the closet, she could only find outfits that felt a little too medival. Her sense of fashion wouldn't be dissuaded by this fact though, as she was confident she had the best fashion sense in the entire mansion.

Her perception was fundamentally flawed though, given that the person who truly wielded the best fashion sense just didn't give a shit about it most of the time, preferring a comfy tracksuit instead.

Natsumi grabbed the clothes best suited to her, and placed them in a neat pile on he bed.

She proceeded to the mirror to get an exhaustive look at her previous outfit, trying to figure out out to replicate her usual style using medival clothing.

She stood in front of the mirror for a couple of seconds in order to build a mental image of what to do.

She wore plain black leggings and a black for modesty.

Upon a base of thin black garments, layered upon this, she wore a skirt spangeled with stars that looked as if it was a picture taken from outer space.

Instead of a dry black and white scientific interpretation of the stars, the skirt was a vibrant portrait of the endless abyss being healthily spattered with various colours. The most prominant colours were black and orange, but there was a healthy amount of white, green, blue, purple, red and so on to represent the various stars and nebulas.

As for her upper body, she wore a thick, mostly white crop top with a couple of orange stripes on the sides to ensure it doesn't look too monotone, layered upon a thin black tshirt

Since neither the crop top or the skirt were sweary or particularly dirty, she just had to find something to replace the modest black layer with, which wasn't very difficult, essentially meaning she didn't have to change outfits into some hideous medival dress for now.

With the very important clothing issue out of the way, she hurried towards her brother's location.

*****

The unreasonable drill loli had used some sort of magic to throw him out, and Natsuki wasn't very cheerful about that fact.

If Beatrice had been little less careful, he would've flown out of a window, so he wanted to chastise her for being so reckless.

Beatrice's actions were intended as a warning, but Natsuki hadn't yet seen through her intentions, leaving him to curse the loli with powerful drill curls for her perceived recklessness.

Even without flying through a window, getting slammed into a wall was a painful ordeal, even if it couldn't compare to the pain from getting stabbed in the abdomen.

He stood up, trying to shake off any stray dust particle that would've found itself attracted to his clothes somehow, which was something he was unlikely to find due the hard working nature of a maid he had yet to meet.

After walking around for a while, he didn't run into a maid with the cleaning skills of a sci-fi robot, but he did run into a peeved looking female version of himself.

"Why hello there, exalted onee-sama, did I do something to incur thy wrath today?"

"Who even speaks like that in this day and age? And I think you know very well what you did!"

He had in fact known that she'd be this peeved when they finally met up since the time a loli shot him out of the library, due to a sudden spike of worry coming through their connection after that.

He wasn't blind to her tsundere nature either, which is a minor miracle in and of itself, given how he doesn't seem to recognise those very same traits in himself.

"Hai hai, I understand, please let me off without turning me into mincemeat this time."

Natsumi's glare only increased, so he relented, showing his surrender by bowing and simply saying "I'm sorry".

*****

The Japanese siblings decided to take a walk around the mansion. Given how Natsumi had a singlemindedly focused on keeping her brother safe the other day, this was the first time really exploring the mansion for the both of them.

"So, have you noticed anything weird since coming here?" Natsumi asked.

"Perhaps being a little more specific would help?" Natsuki made a genuine retort, causing Natsumi to retreat into herself trying to formulate an awnser based on something more than feelings.

"Just now, I felt a tingeling sensation."

"And what is that suppos-"

"Argh, mind letting me finish getting my thoughts together first?!"

After a few more seconds, Natsumi continued. "I had the same sensation yesterday when Beatrice-sama tried to... I don't know, drain my energy somehow?"

"Either way, I could sense a somewhat pronounced... 'aura' of hostility eminating from her while she was doing it, and based on her expression, as well as the fact that the malicious 'aura' disappeared at the same time she made said expression, I can only guess something happened on her end. At the same time as she drained... something... I felt the same tingeling sensation as I'm feeling now. The tingeling stopped as soon as her hostile aura disappared though, and she proceeded to continue draining it as soon right away, but without any hostile aura or tingeling."

"So your magical powers have finally showed themselvs! I wonder what my powers will be able to do?" Natsuki beamed.

"Idiot, didn't you hear me?! The last time I felt it, someone was doing something potentially harmful to me, and I felt the same thing just now!"

Natsuki froze in his tracks, having the meaning of Natsumi's words finally sink in.

"Oh shit, it's some sort of danger sense then? Let's go outside where we can at least see any potential hostile people from further away."

*****

It was quite early in the morning for the guests to be walking around, so Ram had decided to keep an eye on them. That was the plan at least, but it seemed as if the female guest had managed to resist her clairvoyance somehow, even though it should have worked on her under normal circumstances.

She decided to try her luck with the male guest instead, and this time it worked as planned.

What she heard both intruiged and terrified her. It seemed as if Natsumi had recently gained an ability, which is what Ram assumes is the reason for clairvoyance failing, given how the guest had apparetly felt it at the same time she attempted to activate clairvoyance on Natsumi.

What really terrified her though, was the comment she made about feeling a hostile aura from Beatrice-sama. Ram knew Beatrice wasn't the sort of person to actually try and hurt people she didn't know under normal conditions, so if she had felt such a strong hostile aura eminating from Beatrice, she could only imagine what the guest had felt when looking at her younger sister.

Ram wasn't a fool, and she knew the sort of look Rem had given Natsumi the other day.

With a trembeling voice, she wispered "I can only pray that your plans won't lead Rem into certain death, Roswaal-sama"

Ram could prayed that the guests would stay as easygoing as what she had witnessed, but her main concern wasn't their actions, but rather, the actions of the person she loves the most in the world.

*****

"You two are up early today it seems. Thank the spirits that Beatrice was able to heal you Suba- Natsuki-kun." Silver bells chimed in harmony with the the morning breeze, standing against the background that is the rising sun.

"That dill loli was the one to heal me?! It wasn't Emilia-tan then?"

Emilia got more confused for every word spoken by Natsuki, but she ultimately decided not to comment on Natsuki's antics, due to the knowing look Natsumi sent Emilia's way.

"Natsuki, I think we should really do something about these names, they only serve to confuse Emilia-sama even more than your very existence is doing. Even the twin maids that work here have less confusing names, since their names are at least short and snappy unlike ours".

After giving Emilia a look that said "ignore my brother, what he's saying doesn't make sense", Natsumi said something even more confusing than what Natsuki had said.

"Eeeh, those aren't your real names?" Emilia wondered why anybody would give her a fake name, not realising that she would have done the exact same thing to Subaru in a parallel universe.

She quickly came to the preemptive conclusion that it had to do something with her race.

"I'm sorry Emilia-sama, but our situation is a bit complicated. My real name is indeed Natsumi Subaru, and my brother's real name is Natsuki Subaru. This isn't the problematic part."

Natsumi was unsure about how to explain it, so Natsuki took the lead.

"Is it alright for me to tell her about our circumstances, onee-san?"

Natsumi pondered for a bit. This was the first time her brother had simply called her onee-san, which hammered home that he wasn't kidding around.

Natsumi tried to asses Emilia right then and there, and she came to the conclusion that Emilia was just as pure as she seemed. Not only had her actions in the capital, and Reinhard's attitude towards her told Natsumi most of what she needed to make a judgement, but Natsumi's as of yet unreliable danger sense ability, if that was what it was, hadn't yet detected any hostile intent from Emilia.

Coming to a conclusion, Natsumi gave him the go ahead.

"Where we are from, our given name comes after the family name, so both of us have Subaru as our first name, while Natsuki or Natsumi are our second names".

Emilia had a habit of tilting her head, but this time she tilted it just ever so slightly further than usual.

"Eeeeeh? But if you're not related, then why do act as if you are?"

"That would be more complicated, especially since we just met for the first time on the very same day we first met you."

You're getting sidetracked, so please return to the topic, Subaru". Natsumi faltered ever somslightly when calling him Subaru, since it felt a bit wierd to call your carbon copy by your own name, but she did anyways to make sure she didn't add to Emilia's confusion.

"Right, so basically there's this theory that is somewhat famous in my hometown, which claims there are an infinite amount amount of worlds in exisence. Given the nature of infinity, an infinite amount of those worlds are exact replica's of an infinite number of other parallel worlds, and there are even more worlds that are almost the same as those, but with slight diffrences."

Emilia's head tilted another couple of millimeters for every second that Natsuki spoke.

"From what we were able to gather from talking to each other, we are from two very simular worlds, where the only major diffrences that we could find is that our respective family names are different, and that that in one of us is a male and the other is female. We even seem to have the same parents."

Natumi was getting worried that Emilia would break her neck soon at the rate of head tilting, so she intervened.

"Good grief Natsuki, I could practically feel you struggling trying not to mention Heisenberg or something."

"Look, imagine that you're out taking a walk. You blink, only to find yourself in a country not on any map you've seen before in your life, and next to you is some guy named Emilio, who looks just like you, and acts somewhat like you. The next thing you know, you get dragged into some sort of assasinstion plot. That's the sort of situation we found ourself in". Natsumi finished.

Just as Emilia's eyes were starting to water from trying to comprehend such a foreign concept that went against everything she had ever learned, a floating cat appeared.

"Good morning Lia."

Puck lazily flated closer to his contractor, and continued: "These two don't seem to be lying, but I don't really get how any that could happen."

"Don't look at us, there's no magic where we come from, so whatever brought us here probably originates from this world."

Emilia's eyes widened at the the way Natsumi said "this world."

"No way, are you guys from across the Great waterfall?"

"What even is that? Don't tell me that this is the sort of fantasy world which is flat, and where all of the water falls off at the end of the world... hey guys, what's with the look in your eyes?"

And so the hours went by, until two maids appeared.