Chapter Text
Two people stood opposite him. Roswaal, with his unfailing smile, which he was apparently so used to portraying that his cheekbones never twitched. And Ram. Ram, as always, stood a little apart, but now she was looking not at her master — at him. At his empty eye socket, at his shaking hands. There was no usual mockery in her gaze — only wariness and anxiety.
"How did you guess..." Subaru's voice became hoarse. "You..."
Roswaal bowed his head, his face not changing one iota.
"Oh-oh-oh? How interestingly you expre-he-ess, Subaru-kun. Guess? It would be more accurate to say that I knew for sure. You're so funny when you're rushing from side to side, Suba-a-ar-ku-…"
"Shut up!" Subaru barked, taking a step forward. "Don't you dare call me that! Because of you... because of your games…"
Ram slid silently between them. She stood opposite Subaru, her back to Roswaal, and placed her palm on his chest, stopping.
"Barusu. Cool down. You're seething and not thinking."
He looked at her. There was no longer the usual sarcasm in her eyes. There was a strange, frightening seriousness. She was trying to protect. Protect who? Roswaal? Or him? From himself? Or from the one behind her?
Roswaal bowed his head, his lips stretching into a damned smile.
"Subaru-kun, you must understand the rules…"
Roswaal took a step. One smooth, fluid step.
And his hand passed through Ram's chest.
With a disgusting crunch. Simple. It went in like a knife through butter and emerged wet and red.
Ram didn't scream. Only a quiet, strangled breath escaped her throat as her body gave out. She slumped, and Subaru, acting on pure reflex, caught her, keeping her from falling to the floor.
"Ram... Ram!"
He backed away, hugging her until his back hit the cold wooden wall of the hut. She lay on his chest, her head thrown back, and he could see her face very close. Her eyes were wide open, showing no reassurance, no pride, no duty—only pain and confusion. Her lips twitched, trying to form a word.
"S-s... u..." the air whistled out of the pierced chest. "wff... A... khr… uu... ha..."
She tried to call him. Not Barusu. His real name. But couldn't…
“D-don't,” he whispered, wiping the blood from her face with his hands full of abrasions, but there was too much of it, it was flowing from everywhere, and he himself was shaking. “I’m here, I-I… Everything will be...”
And then her body went limp and her eyes glazed over.
Subaru froze. The world narrowed to the size of her face, to the drop of blood frozen in the corner of her lips.
“No...” he breathed out.
His ears began to ring, a nasty ringing filling his head, drowning out all the sounds of the outside world. He looked at her, unable to look away. Just now she had been alive. Just now she had been looking at him. And now she was just a body. Cooling and empty.
Somewhere far away, through the ringing in his ears, a voice broke through. Fragments of phrases.
"...it was rude to do that to Ram, however..."
Subaru looked up. Roswaal stood there, wiping his bloody hand with a handkerchief. He was smiling contentedly.
"...now, Subaru-kun, we can finally talk..."
The ringing in his ears grew louder, and his words were drowned out by it.
"...you must learn to make cho-o-oices…"
Subaru hugged the dead Ram tighter. His fingers instinctively curled into a fist and found something hard in her pocket. A wand.
Roswaal stepped closer, his smile widening, almost maddening.
"Y-you...will kill me?.."
"Mm-hm? Oh, that's a misunderstanding. Your death is the last thing I need. In fact, I'm happy that I have you."
Subaru's heart sank. Roswaal didn't want him dead. "He knows I can come back, but he doesn't know how."
Subaru didn't hear the rest. One thought pounded in his head: "Die. Right now. So he can see. So he can choke on his smile."
His gaze fell on Ram. On the stick sticking out of her pocket. Long, with a pointed end.
Roswaal took another step.
Subaru rushed.
He grabbed the stick and pulled it out.
“…let me help you strengthen your resolve…” Roswaal stopped short.
Subaru pressed the tip to his neck. Roswaal jerked forward, losing his composure for the first time.
"Stop!"
He hit.
"Go."
Twice.
"You."
"Fuck...kh..."
Three times. The tip of the stick pierced the skin, flesh, and artery. Pain flared up, blood gushed out like a fountain, flooding Ram's face, his chest, the floor. The stick crunched as it broke off, and sharp the fragment remained inside, stuck tight.
The last thing Subaru saw before he lost consciousness — Roswaal's face, distorted and maddened with rage.
This death is not for the sake of a reboot, but a slap in the face of this painted bastard.
Subaru smiled with just his lips, falling forward, burying his face in Ram’s hair.