CHAPTER 11: SLOTH TO WRATH BY PRIDE
So Subaru's fucking terrified of Echidna.
He can't breathe. He can't register the beating of his heart. Not even sweat rises on his brow, and he can't blink without Echidna permitting it. Absolute isolation. Echidna: “Crap, guess I overdid it on the menacing. It's always been that when I get so excited, I wind up saying too much. Sure is a pain, this witch's nature.”
Even if she realises she overdid it, that doesn't reduce the overwhelming pressure she's exerting in the slightest. Their friendly back-and-forth is fucking gone. The girl standing before Subaru now is not a girl. In the truest meaning, she is only a WITCH.
Echidna: “This happened every so often when I was alive. It did when the royals of every country came to me to borrow my wisdom and... well, I suppose you have to have some caution while looking at me.”
Echidna shakes her head and looks at Subaru with her black eyes. Subaru trembles at his emotionless self reflected in her eyes, Echidna smiling. Echidna: “Then, maybe this'll suit your fancy?”
The change happens abruptly. Simultaneous with Echidna's muttering, Subaru crinkles his brows, uncomprehending. Echidna's smile melts into the darkness, and right after Subaru blinks—
???: “What're you lookin' at—you?” Subaru: “...Wha?” ???: “You're staring.” Says a girl now there before Subaru, kicking her legs and puffing up her cheeks. Her dark green hair is shoulder-length, her cheeks as red as an apple. Her tan skin goes well with her white dress, and her sweet, youthful loveliness scatters freely about her surroundings. She has an artificial barette of a blue flower which looks to be her characteristic.
A harmless, innocent little girl—now sitting where Echidna was, staring at Subaru. Subaru: “Eh, uh, ah? Wa, wait. E-Echidna? Where'd she go?” Girl: “'Chidna? I dunno where 'Chidna went—but what's with you.” Subaru: “M-Me? My name's Natsuki Subaru. A lost man neither invited nor summoned, just in the middle of going home after some tea... currently troubled by the sudden disappearance of the landlord...”
Girl: “Ehhh. So—you're 'Baru.” The girl smiles happily at Subaru's honest self-introduction, which even in this situation makes Subaru's chest go all warm and fluffy.
The situation is complete chaos, but the instant Echidna disappeared, Subaru got released from all that crazy pressure. Thinking about it more calmly, this girl sitting before Subaru could just be another victim dragged here from somewhere else. Have her cooperate to escape from here— though Subaru doesn't know how much help she'll be, Subaru goes to raise his head.
Subaru: “Okay, first we'll pull a while the cat's away mice will play and work out a plan for getting out of here. Since there's so little footing to work with the room for thought is pretty narrow but, first of all would your name...”
Girl: “By the way—'Baru. Are you a baddie?” Subaru: “...be something you could tell me... what?” The girl's legs sway and the chair rattles as she goes back and forth. She pouts. Girl: “Iiii saaaaiiiiid,” Girl: “Are you a baddie—or not a baddie. Which?” Subaru: “Every human is a creature of sin, for which living cannot proceed devoid of victims. Thus, we may have become criminals upon the very instant of our conception in this world. But even so, people live. They are aware that although it produces victims, they cannot acquire things of worth without creating those victims... or such kind of philosophical banter feels pointless with a little girl but, is that what you mean?”
Girl: “Hnnn—I listened but—I don't get it. Ehhh—whatever—just to check...” Subaru tilts his head. The girl tilts her head at an even deeper angle.
She grabs Subaru's outstretched hand. Feeling how soft it is fills Subaru with new resolve to get her out of here safely. Subaru: “I think about this when I'm dealing with Petra too, but man I'm unexpectedly fond of kids.
Even though I hated them for being so noisy before...” Girl: “SINSCOSTNOTHINGBYPAINALONEATONED” Subaru: “Nuh?” The girls whispers to herself quickly. Subaru, unable to catch it, raises and eyebrow and goes to look at her when he gets hit with a light shock. Alongside the feeling of his arm being tugged comes a feeling of liberation as if letting go of a heavy load.
Subaru turns his head, looks around to see what happened, but there's no changes to the world. Just him and the girl, no sound or wind. But in the girl's hand she grasps a man's arm, severed from the shoulder.
Subaru: “—!?” Girl: “It doesn't hurt—so you're not a baddie—good.” And so Subaru realises his right arm's been plucked off. He feels no pain and there's no bleeding.
The bone, veins, arteries, and pink muscle enveloping them is plainly visible dangling from the points of severance and looks like something edible you could get at a butcher's. If you removed the unacceptable reality that it was all protruding out from his own right shoulder.
Subaru: “Uawh, aaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! A-arm... my aaaaaaaaaaaaaarm!?” Girl: “But it doesn't hurt—stop yelling. It'll fall if you move too rough—you won't get it back.” Subaru: “Y, you, youu!? Putting aside you severing people's arms, what, what the fuck are you saying! G-give it back! Give it back!!”
Subaru glares fucking daggers at this kid while touching and screaming at his open flesh. Give me my arm back fuck. It doesn't even occur to him that such a thing is impossible. Girl: “ERRSACTASFETTERSNEVERUNBOUND” This time it's his legs as he goes to step forward, which shatter like glass from the knees down.
Unable to stop this, he leaves his body to momentum and falls forward into the little girl's lap. She catches him gently as he shivers, and slowly pats him like a mother soothing a beloved child. Girl: “You're not a baddie—but you think you're a bungler. You're a kind—good boy. You're so sad
—you're suffering.” Subaru: “Wh, what the hell.. a-are you...” Neither his right arm or is shattered legs are giving him any pain. Not bleeding either. She tilts her head. Girl: “Typhon's the WITCH OF PRIDE.” Subaru: “Pri...!?” This shock again brings Subaru's thoughts to a stop. There's anger and fear, but he has absolutely no consciousness of either. He only just met the WITCH OF GREED, Echidna. And now he's suddenly making contact with the WITCH OF PRIDE. These witches who were destroyed, and supposed to be dead, are—
???: “—huu. Looks like I'm up next. haa. No choice but to do it.”
And down comes a tired-of-the-world voice from above, Subaru's shock making him moan with absolutely all his might. All he did was blink, again. The world hasn't changed at all. He's still missing his arm and legs. But despite that—
???: “haa, You're pretty heavy. Even though those missing limbs should be lightening you up a bit. huu. That's a man for you... though don't you think it's better when men and women in themselves are meaningless, are we're just souls?”
The person supporting Subaru has changed from Typhon to a different woman.
Her magenta hair stretches extremely longer than average, and she gives the impression of being extremely fatigued but beautiful. Her skin and lips are abnormally pale. Her eyes are narrowed more with a deficiency of will to live than with sleepiness, and the way that she makes every breath seem like a pain spreads her environs with a gloomy atmosphere. She's wearing a black robe, but the filth and frayed patches scattered around it give an incredible impression of this seriously being the only thing she wears.
She sighs as she looks down at Subaru.
Woman: “haa, You're quite the luckless one too, aren't you. Tossed around by Echidna, then me and Typhon... huu, having face-to-face meetings with three witches in turn, that's something you'd only get with say, that moron Flugel or Reid, swisher of sticks.”
Subaru: “Are you, a witch too? That kid before, and Echidna...”
Woman: “haa, I'm Sekhmet. huu, It's really a chore but I guess you could call me or not call me the WITCH OF SLOTH. haa, Not that I'm asking to be called on at all, it's really all a bother. huu, Chatting makes me listless, so can you stay quiet?”
Subaru: “Give me a break. I think I'm gonna go crazy. If I don't talk with somebody I'm going to see what my reality is right now and that is bad. Please, tell me what to do here.”
Subaru has his only good limb, his left arm, grip onto Sehkmet's dress as he cranes his head up to look at her. Sekhmet sighs with the unconcealed emotion of 'this is a fucking pain'.
Sekhmet: “You've got nothing from your right shoulder, haa, or your knees down. huu, By that style it looks like Typhon? That girl doesn't understand others' pain. haa, She's exactly a child made ruthless through her innocence. huu, it's sure something to pity. haa.”
Subaru: “Will, my arm and legs... r, return to normal?”
Sekhmet: “huu, Nothing I can do... ahh, actually this works fine, haa. This was a pain for me too, huu, so I'll just leave the rest to her and go to sleep. haa, breathing's such a damn chore. Do you ever think like, if we could get out lifetime's supply of air into our lungs all in one go, we could settle things there without breathing our whole lives, haa.”
Subaru: “If that happened our lungs'd burst and we'd die, more importantly what about my situation he...” Still looking as entrenched in ennui as ever, Sekhmet bewilders Subaru with her fucking ridiculous proposition. Subaru goes to tell her off since he wanted a more serious talk with her after pleading with her, but,
???: “—Did you really just say 'die' in front of me?” Comes a bloodthirsty voice. Again, the person before Subaru has changed. That old thicket of hair is gone, and the thing to replace her in Subaru's gaze is, Subaru: “...Boobs?” ???: “—! Wh-where are you looking! Where!?” Subaru tries to look up to see the face of his new conversation partner, but his vision is interrupted by protruding masses of flesh around the beast region and he doesn't reach the face. The feeling of this person's lap is plumper than Typhon or Sekhmet's, and her build over all is abundant in womanly curvature.
She lifts Subaru up easily, one handed—despite his missing arm and legs, Subaru should still have quite some weight for a woman to carry. Woman: “You look in the person's eyes when you're talking to them, the eyes! I swear, men are always like this, unbelievable!”
And viola she's a blue-eyed beauty with wavy blonde hair. She's wearing a short skirt with clothing that looks easy to move in, and even considering that she's sitting right now, she's pretty short. But her big chest and abundant curves give her a salacious air.
She glances at Subaru with some anger.
Woman: “Right arm missing. Legs missing from knees down. No bleeding or pain... you got punished by Typhon! That girl... she went off doing whatever she likes again, she's just awful!” Her eyes cloud over with fury. Her speech is filled with anger, her attitude with fury, her actions with violent passion, but tears well up in her eyes. Subaru: “A-are you crying?” Woman: “Of course I'm not crying! I'm just mad! Right, I'm mad! At that Typhon, making these wounds and just leaving them there! And at this world that lets her do these awful things! And at people fighting and hurting each other and making each other suffer, the craziness of it all!” And she tosses Subaru into the air.
Subaru: “Whu?”
Woman: “I won't forgive it! Not pain! Not fighting! Not wounds! As if I could leave it like this!!”
The next instant, a flurry of blows from the woman's fists assaults Subaru. The punches come with extreme speed and force, and Subaru is jettisoned away. BUT Subaru: “Bhuh—?” The blows should've been enough to send him flying, but he immediately hits the end of the world.
It's barely any distance at all. The shock of slamming against an invisible wall penetrates Subaru's whole body.
Woman: “—Safe! Don't you dare think you're getting away!” Just as Subaru's about to slide down the wall, another hail of fists pounds down at him, sandwiching him between her punches and the invisible wall. The force of all her punching transfers through him into the wall and the foundations of the world start to shake.
Battered around so thoroughly he has no idea what's up down left right anymore, Subaru's consciousness goes white. All that fills his vision are the fists, and the girl with a torrent of tears rolling down her face. At he watches the tears scatter into space, he goes to try and complain that he's the one who wants to cry here when once again a fist pays a visit to his face.
Endless torture in the deepest ring of hell—which ends suddenly.
Woman: “With my fists, I'll restore the world! With my anger, I'll purify the world! My wrath, my healing fists, are how I answer!” The next instant, the would shatters, broken to pieces by the force transferred through Subaru to the wall. The rain of punches stops, and next comes the feeling of something soft. He's back in the field with the tea party. Subaru gets up and looks around, dumbstruck. The girl strides over to his side, patting her hair down, and glares at Subaru.
Woman: “Right arm!” Subaru: “Hweh!? Uh, yesmaam!” Subaru unconsciously raises his right arm at him being called, to find that his arm is properly back in place and everything to his fingertips is back and restored. Woman: “Legs!” Subaru: “Are there too. I can stand, walk, moonwalk!”
He hops up to his feet and indeed does a confirmatory moonwalk. The girl crosses her arms and nods with full satisfaction as she watches Subaru slide away across the field. Subaru burns that picture, which emphasises her breasts, well into his memory.
Subaru: “Y-you really helped, thanks. But, just going with the conversation, you'd be...?” Woman: “I'm the WITCH OF WRATH, Minerva! Nothing worth introducing myself!” Subaru: “Really now!” Minerva: “Nope, it wasn't a big deal! I just can't permit there being people being injured, or injured people where I can see them! It's nothing worth being passed down to the hereafter!”
Subaru: “And yet you still go ahead with working for your own great exploits! You're one of those people who doesn't listen to what others say, a type I am not very good with!” Minerva turns her back to Subaru, who's waving his healed arm around. Minerva: “Anyway, if your wounds are healed then I've got nothing to do here! Now don't you get hurt by even the tiniest bugbite! That's a promise between you and a witch!”
Subaru: “I couldn't do that even living in a sterilized room! And don't just make these promises! Breaking a promise with a witch sounds like comes with a seriously heavy penalty!” Minerva: “No it doesn't. Just, when it happens... Every one will be healed.” Subaru: “Don't say that like you're gonna kill everybody, it's scary!” But seriously it's true Subaru's injuries are healed now. She really does heal people by punching them. Echidna: “—Now,” So Minerva dashes off, but before she disappears she turns around and blam now she's Echidna. She tilts her head, looking at Subaru cheerfully.
Echidna: “I let you meet some other witches to prove to you how harmless I am, but how did it go? If your attitude towards me softened a little, then waking them up from their sleep was worth it.” Subaru gives a deep sigh, and slowly raises his head. Subaru: “No mistake, you are a witch. ...Humans don't think anything like this.” Is what his spits at her with all the intensity he can muster.
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