CHAPTER 46: LOCUSTS
Faced with that smile, for the first time, Subaru sincerely thinks: Man, Echidna is cute.
There's no cynicism or calculating nature to it, it's purely a thing born from goodwill towards Subaru. Having an individual as undeniably attractive as Echidna interact so warmly toward any man would be enough to open their heart. Though of course, for a Subaru whose heart was already harbouring two girls, it's not enough to push aside his feelings.
Subaru: “But still, there really was some heartflutter there...”
Echidna: “What was that you said?”
Subaru: “That it's gonna be problematic for me even if I do have witch-flirting talents. And having someone I don't remember flirting with getting attached to me... Ah, but I mean I'd be glad if you're saying you six witches'll help me outside without making any mischief.”
Averting his face and piling up bullshit, Subaru spouts that overly convenient idea. He's seen a fragment of Typhon and Minerva's power, but that's enough to gather that they're more than likely strong as fuck in the domains of offence and healing.
Echidna: “Unfortunately, while during my lifetime would be one thing, my posthumous self can't interfere with reality. Inviting you to a dream world like this truly is an exception.”
Subaru: “Igottit. Just saying it for the sake of trying. Honestly, just having you listen to me is way more than enough of a lifesaver.”
Or at least by cutting loose on what he'd been holding, he'd distanced himself from mental breakdown. He also managed to clear away some suspicions he had about the Witch of ENVY. He'd just not think about the part where they didn't solve the mystery for now.
Subaru: “Can I ask another question about RETURN BY DEATH?”
Echidna: “These are incredibly questions that my knowledge can only give speculation about. If you're fine with that, sure.”
Says Echidna as a preface, putting on some big-shot airs. But perhaps fundamentally excited to be answering questions, or unable to wait for Subaru to speak, her feet tap the ground in a quick rhythm as she fiddles with her hair.
Subaru: “When I RETURN BY DEATH, it happens that the point where I revive from DEATH shifts. It's been... six places, now? I've revived in different places at their respective different times. I want to know the conditions for that save point changing.”
Echidna: “Sayhv poiynt... alteration in site of revival, then?”
Subaru: “Fundamentally, once I've gone past one, I can't go back to the previous point. If two days ago was the save point, and I go past it on yesterday, I can't return to the save point from two days ago any more. Do you know what the mechanism is here?”
Subaru faces this problem with the same, or even more, seriousness that he had about RETURN BY
DEATH's limitation on tries. Save point modifications—a complete unknown with no visible conditions or consistencies.
Subaru: “I can return after dying. I don't intend to impose on that and think I can die as much as I want. I don't intend to, but... when it's all I can rely on, I'll rely on it without hesitation. But.”
What should Subaru do after getting into a situation he can't recover by dying?
Skirting through his mind is the image, unconscious and sleeping in the mansion, of Rem. Subaru's RETURN BY DEATH couldn't bring her back. He would never forget the time that he stabbed himself through the throat at her bedside.
Even now Subaru couldn't believe he had the will to commit suicide that hastily. Or no, it was exactly because he had lost will that he had committed suicide. Blood pouring from his throat, in a state of pain and suffocation, Subaru had lost his life.
And then he had opened his eyes to find himself returned only a handful of minutes prior to his stabbing himself. He had never loathed a save point change as much as then.
If it would mean settling things without losing Rem, Subaru would challenge the White Whale and the madman as many times it took.
Echidna: “Can you tell me in detail the circumstances of those sayhv poiynt changes?”
Subaru: “Uh, uh-huh... right. Well, so the first save point...”
Subaru gets into recollecting and explaining the place and timing of the save points, and the chronology of the RETURNS BY DEATH between them. That is to say, he explains the majority of his experiences during his life in a parallel world thus far. Even though abridging it, getting through this overly-dense two months eats up what feels like an hour.
Subaru: “And now's inside the tomb... just after overcoming the first TRIAL is where's the save point's fixed. Going off what you said before, this time should be there too.”
Echidna says nothing.
Subaru: “You got anything? I had a silly theory going for a while about old guys being the save point, but...”
For some reason the fruit salesman in the Capital has been chosen as Subaru's save point twice. Though Subaru revival point's also been in front of Rem twice, so maybe that could count too.
Subaru: “It doesn't feel to me like it changes on people, or things, or time, or that kind of condition. If it's on time then the spans of days're inconsistent, and even if it is on people or events I can't see any points in common. The conditions aren't clear in the slightest.”
Echidna: “Indeed, even from my perspective I can't see any consistency off what you've said. Meaning, perhaps what's necessary is for us to change our thinking.”
Subaru: “Change our thinking?”
Echidna: “There's some reason why you return to a place... is a sort of thinking that isn't giving us an answer. Then, let's try with first reaching a reason we can overcome, and surmounting that.” Subaru: “Reaching a reason we can overcome?” Echidna: “Depending how you consider it, this sayhv poiynt is less of a SITE OF RETURN and more a
BLOCKADE RETURNED TO. A blockade that, until overcome, pulls you back to it through DEATH. You could also call it a pit.” Subaru knits his brows, thinking over the meaning of what she's saying. A blockade, otherwise a pit. By returning to save points through RETURN BY DEATH, Subaru had changed several situations he otherwise couldn't defeat. Or rather, situations that would have ended unsurmounted were it not for RETURN BY DEATH. With each change in situation, the save point for RETURN BY DEATH had changed.
Subaru: “Every time the situation I can't change changes, RETURN BY DEATH shifts?”
Echidna: “In this situation, RETURN BY DEATH is nothing more than a means. If we question what motives that mean carries, the answer would be in the thinking of the being causing it.” Subaru: “The being causing it, is...” Echidna nods at a Subaru lost for words, giving a peeved frown. Echidna: “The Witch of ENVY. The witch causing you to RETURN BY DEATH desires that situations you can't surmount without meeting DEATH change. And every time you overcome those situations, the sayhv poiynt alters.” Subaru: “B-but... then, there's something I can't... agree. I mean, that's... what about Rem. I can't save her. If RETURN BY DEATH is a power to change situations, then why to a time where I can't rescue...”
It was RETURN BY DEATH that overwrote his save point and made Subaru lose the chance to save Rem. Exactly because that happened has Subaru been so finicky about save point changes.
Echidna: “Unfortunately,” Echidna: “Maybe the Witch of ENVY just hasn't considered this Rem you speak of.” Subaru goes silent. Echidna: “What the Witch of ENVY desires is incredibly your escape from cornered, dead-end fates.
RETURN BY DEATH is a means for that, and the damages done to those except you don't factor in. Using the power to save people is entirely your desire. It's got nothing to do with the witch.” Subaru: “au...”
Echidna: “I'll state it clearly.” Subaru looks up at Echidna, a weak light in her pupils. She closes her eyes once, as if bearing pain, then pierces through Subaru with her gaze.
Echidna: “Until you conquer the problem in your way and change your future of death, your soul will assuredly return to my tomb. But hypothetically, if you permit many sacrifices, and from that grounding the future changes...”
Subaru: “—The chance to take back those sacrifices won't be coming.”
Echidna: “...That's what it'd be.”
The only one the Witch of ENVY is really taking into consideration is Subaru. Everything is trifling to her outside of Subaru overcoming a fate of DEATH. No matter how stalemated he is, she believes that infinite retries will eventually uncover a path for him alone to survive. Or no, even if it's hopeless Subaru wouldn't be allowed to give up. Because all the conditions for RETURN BY DEATH are in the Witch of ENVY's hands.
Subaru: “Right then... if your favouritism's only for me, my mind's made up.”
Echidna goes silent.
Subaru: “I'm gonna abuse the crap out of this gift you gave me, RETURN BY DEATH. And on the tail of that, I'll get to where you are without losing a single thing. I've decided. It's decided. That's what I'll do. I'm the best there is at making other's plans go wrong.”
If RETURN BY DEATH is by the will of the Witch, its usage is determined by the will of Subaru. So he'll pile it up, overcome, grab everything and get out the other side.
If the Witch's love would only save Subaru, then Subaru would save everything else. He achieves this, and for the first time, Natsuki Subaru will have one over on the Witch.
Subaru: “Changes in situation... meaning, breaking through the problem in SANCTUARY and the problem in the mansion. If those are cleared, then the point for RETURN BY DEATH will change no matter how many casualties there were. So if there's going to be a situation clear, overcoming the problems while preserving everything is an absolute condition.”
Echidna: “Me saying this is pretty something, but don't you think that's rather tough? Though, you certainly did accept it easily.”
Subaru: “Just putting in writing something I thought was pretty vague. Doesn't break my spirit, in fact here's firing up my motivation. This rebellious heart of mine is flaring.”
Echidna is speechless. Taking some satisfaction in her stupefaction, Subaru clicks his neck.
Subaru: “This's all I'm gonna get on RETURN BY DEATH. Either way, that did help, thanks.”
Echidna: “...Since I also had a valuable conversation and sated my curiosity. There really isn't any give and take to be had on that. Because this was more me just stating speculation than flaunting my knowledge.”
Subaru: “Then, this time I'll be relying right on that knowledge of yours.”
Subaru: “I just RETURNED BY DEATH... do you know how I died this time?”
Echidna: “I haven't looked over that part, so I haven't seen it. I'm incredibly interested in your tellings of these multiple deaths you've had... but doesn't look like you're in the mood for that right now.”
Subaru: “Talking tales 'bout wounds and deaths's impossible without being boozed. And the only thing around here's Chinda Tea so that hope's not happening.” Echidna: “Shame. ...Looking at the condition of your body outside, it seems considerable mental and physical anguish came along with this death... with this end.”
Her laying off on the term 'death' might be her form of being considerate. Subaru's cheeks loosen slightly at the consideration, but he immediately stiffens his expression and nods. Subaru: “Yeah,” Subaru: “Just remembering it gives me shakes, but... this time, I was eaten.”
Echidna goes silent. Subaru: “And by these stupid, tiny little hand-size rabbits. Apparently omnivores, and apparently hungry. They gnawed my whole body with not a part to spare.”
His phrasing softens it, but there really is no describing that atrocity. The memories of teeth biting him, his flesh and bones and blood being violated, still now asserts its existence in a deep part of Subaru's mind. He forces it back down, managing to keep his calm. Echidna puts the back of her hand to her lips.
Echidna: “...Encountered the Sizeable Hare, is what happened.” Subaru: “Sizeable hares?” Echidna: “Not in size, in quantity. A sizeable number of hares also said the Sizeable Hare. A part of the Witch of GLUTTONY Daphne's unpropitious legacy—one of the three.” Subaru: “The Sizeable Hare is...” The name of one of the three witchbeasts Echidna, and also Julius, had mentioned before.
White Whale, Blacksnake, and the Sizeable Hare. All of them being witchbeasts terrorizing the world for 400 years, and all subordinate to the Witch of GLUTTONY Daphne. Subaru: “Just when I think the White Whale's down, instantly here's the Sizeable Hare please don't...”
Echidna: “If the Sizeable Hare's your enemy, your enemy is beyond terrible.” Echidna's expression is dark, giving Subaru a bad feeling. Subaru: “There was this anxiety with the White Whale, too, but... which one's worse?” Echidna: “Comparing purely by combat strength, almost definitely the White Whale. But if we're talking about which is harder to destroy, undoubtedly it's the Sizeable Hare.”
Subaru: “Hard to destroy...”
Echidna: “Listening?”
Echidna raises a finger.
Echidna: “You may be thinking that it's the same as a normal witchbeast, an opponent that's just a little more troublesome than usual.”
Subaru: “No, I've at least figured out they don't match up with their loveable appearance...”
Echidna: “The Sizeable Hare, more accurately, would be a natural disaster. Always moving in a drove, a bundle of instincts operating only off insatiable hunger. Every creature there out there is its food, and there is not a single thing it does but consume. Once the Sizeable Hare has passed, all that remains is an unpopulated field. The crops and fruits suffer not a speck of damage. All it will eat is the living.”
Subaru swallows his breath. Echidna's expression is hard, and Subaru already knows what she's saying isn't exaggeration.
The depopulated SANCTUARY, and his body being eaten by a drove of tiny rabbits. If that was the Sizeable Hare, then the empty SANCTUARY was undoubtedly because everyone had been devoured by the witchbeast. Emilia, Ram, Lewes, Roswaal, even tiger-form Garfiel—none would be exceptions.
Locusts—is the word that skims though Subaru's mind. The result of grasshoppers undergone transformation, groups in huge numbers ravaging fields, considered crop-destroying famine-bringing natural disasters.
The Sizeable Hare behaved in a similar way. Although, the hares consumed living creatures, and their inexhaustible hunger brought a far more directly life-threatening danger than a plague of locusts.
Subaru: “Do you know if it's possible to defeat them?”
Echidna: “Individually their strength isn't anything serious, but you best pay mind that that thing moves in a drove. There's no purpose in it no matter how many of them you repel, and if they spot prey even once, they won't stop until it's eaten or they're dead. They're HUNGER itself.”
Subaru: “Waitwaitwait. I mean, is there anything... like, if the Sizeable Hare moves in a drove, there should be some kind of boss leading the drove. Can you defeat the boss and the whole drove collapses?”
The rules of the human world state that if you eliminate the head, the group will fracture to nothing. Though considering the rules of the animal kingdom, maybe it just means the second-in-command would become the head. That said, Subaru doesn't know the lifestyle of witchbeasts too well. All he can do is cling onto Echidna's knowledge. But she shakes her head.
Echidna: “You seem a little mistaken. The Sizeable Hare is a drove, but it knows no concept of boss. All that thing is is truly the instinct of HUNGER. It eats other creatures to sate its starvation, lacking any other mechanism to it. It multiplies by dividing, staving off hunger though cannibalism when no prey is around. They don't even have a sense of fellowship.”
Subaru: “Cannibalism... wh-just why the fuck were these monsters made!?”
Echidna: “Now, that's something only the person who made them would know. Though at least Daphne herself doesn't have quite as much of an appetite as the Sizeable Hare.”
Subaru shivers at the hares' horrifying lifestyle. Following instinct to eat other living beings and remain alive was a true principle for all creatures. Humans, animals, and even witchbeasts all seemed identical on that front. But the Sizeable Hare, multiplying by its bodies dividing and propagating no young, wasn't even that. Far from it—leaving its numbers high after multiplying, the individuals would eat each other to stave off hunger, diverging far from the ordinary course. A monster.
Subaru: “Hypothetically... yeah, hypothetically if I were to destroy the Sizeable Hare, what do you think I should do?”
Echidna: “Honestly, I think that's a 'what should I do to evaporate all the droplets in a rainstorm?' kind of question.”
Subaru puts his hand to his forehead, dizzied at the height of this hurdle for defeating the Sizeable Hare.
Subaru: “The Sizeable Hare's still defeatable, if you kill all of them.”
Echidna: “That'd be pretty reckless. As far as I know, the only ones who could probably do it would be Reid Astrea and Sekhmet. Reid's overwhelming swordplay would kill them all with none remaining. Sekhmet... there's an affinity problem, but she'd destroy them in one second.”
Subaru: “Heard about these two before, but they really are monsters...”
Sekhmet arises in Subaru's mind. Subaru's impression of her being someone who considers every single action a fucking bother isn't going away, leaving her an entirely suitable witch for the title of SLOTH.
Subaru: “Hold on.”
Recalling his interaction with Sekhmet, a light appears inside Subaru. A dim, flickering light, but it's more than enough to illuminate this dark dead-end, and it's something he absolutely needs Echidna's help for.
Subaru: “Echidna.”
Echidna: “What's that serious expression for? ...No, we can't. You're living and I'm dead. This fated intercourse of ours is merely temporary illusion, a transient dream. No matter how heated a gaze you pour upon me, I...”
Subaru: “Uh no, sorry for this while you're getting worked up but that's completely wrong. Seriously, completely wrong.”
Dumbfounded at a somewhat dejected Echidna, Subaru again enters the main topic.
Subaru: “Echidna, I want to meet the Witch of GLUTTONY—to meet Daphne.” Echidna goes silent. Subaru: “You let me meet the witches of PRIDE, WRATH, and SLOTH at this tea party before. You said back then that you were managing the other five witches or something like that.” Echidna: “...Gathered, it was. Traces of who they were before death indeed are within me. If I were to disembark them from the vessel I am, yes it would be possible for them to manifest. Possible, but...” Echidna's brows furrow, troubled. Her gaze putters about, eventually coming to look at Subaru, having trouble speaking. Echidna: “I really think you better not meet Daphne.” Subaru: “Why. I think I've already experienced over this period that witches are finicky, but I'm prepared. No matter what comes out, I won't regret it.”
Echidna: “Before we get to regretting, by my opinion, you and Daphne would have terrible affinity. Or you could even call it horrid. Even if you met her, a useful conversation wouldn't...” Subaru: “Don't know until you try. It's trial and error—words you're apparently fond of.” Taking action to procure results is something I approve, Echidna said.
Echidna gives a 'guh,' her expression looking as if jabbed in a sore spot. Subaru: “And also,” Subaru: “You're the one certifying I don't have to worry about my life in this place. Not saying I'm being optimistic, but if I at least don't have to worry about losing my life, there's no loss in trying.” Echidna: “You realise I can't deny the possibly that your spirit will break and you'll be a cripple?” Subaru: “I'm trusting you to pull me out before that happens. Come on, Echidna. When it comes to depending on others, I'm the best in the damn world.”
Subaru gives a thumbs up. Seeing his incredibly frivolous attitude, Echidna's eyes progressively lose their will to resist. Echidna: “...All right. I'll let you meet Daphne.” Subaru: “Yess, thanks.” Echidna: “But let me just say this. Absolutely do not unfasten her restraints. And you're banned from touching her. Also I'd like you to try to avoid eye contact.” Subaru: something seomthing following all those makes me mega creepo but okay!!! Besides, Echidna's statement had some incredible words mixed in there.
Subaru goes to inquire about them—but Echidna finishes preparations before he can.
Same as last time, there is absolutely nothing foreshadowing it when Echidna prepares to present a witch. Subaru blinks, and in the space where Echidna was, is now a completely different person. That's also the same as last time. But,
Subaru: “Hold up... this, is...” What appears before Subaru's eyes makes his cheeks stiffen. There, in front of Subaru, is the Witch of GLUTTONY—Daphne.
—Inside a coffin, her entire body bound immobile in restraints, her eyes sealed behind a thick, black blindfold, is the witch-girl.
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