Chapter Text
Hurling up his own dark blood with rapidly fading vigor, Natsuki Subaru once again found himself at another Bad End, his life seeping out from his numerous wounds as the seconds went by.
A minute came and went in painful silence, his blood loss leaving him lightheaded by now. Yet, as Subaru faded out more and more, he couldn't help but experience a strange sense of peace, knowing that he tried his best to leave his dearest ones with as much as an advantage as he could provide with his cursed gift. His trust in them was absolute, enough to quirk his bloodstained lips upward in confidence towards the others as he left the rest to them in his dying moments.
Not long after, and Subaru finally met his end in tranquil darkness, his soul bound for the envious void once more.
Except... He noticed something wrong with what should have been the familiar, alluring Shadow Garden as his once depleted senses rushed to full vitality all at once, his feet meeting solid ground instead of fading into non-existence.
"...What the?" Subaru heard his voice clearly, echoing through the dark expanse he found himself in. He stepped forward and felt the ground splash underneath him. He could see his hands outstretched far out yet could not grasp anything.
"This isn't a joke, is it?" Pinching himself to make sure, a sobering jolt of pain confirmed what confused him.
Surrounding Subaru was the dark emptiness befitting of the "Limbo" between life and death he visited again and again, but now he realized that this expanse was no longer his.
When Niko had come to, they instinctively recognized the void surrounding them as the inside of the tower. Mildly apprehensive of the sheer starkness of the dark interior, they nonetheless could not curb their enthusiasm at the progress towards their ultimate goal. "______! We did it!"
"...______?"
"Hello?"
Except... They could not seem to find the guiding light that helped them inside to begin with.
"Come on... Say something..." Niko tentatively stepped forward, beginning to wander as if exploring would reunite them with the one who showed them the way all throughout their journey.
As the steady rippling of water accompanied their aimless trek, Niko had begun to lose hope in finding a proper direction to continue their journey, having neither a guide or even the light of which they held.
"This doesn't make any sense... I thought we made it here together! But I don't even have the Sun anymore... And I can't find ______ anywhere!" Pupils darting around, the lost child nervously searched for any familiar sights in the quickly alienating landscape, or lack there was...
The tracksuited boy aimlessly wandered the darkness with apprehension, mind racing to rationalize the cause of his predicament.
"What the hell kind of checkpoint is this..." Natsuki Subaru grimaced, his mind flashing back to the hellish situations his Return By Death had once put him in, now knowing that he is very much alive again.
Of course, even despite the painful memories weighing on him, Subaru shook his head and focused on the present at hand, choosing to go with the flow rather than waste time worrying, as his eyes caught onto something gleaming in the distance.
As Subaru steadily approached the still object in the distance, his eyes scanned the surrounding area. "No light elsewhere for miles, not a single other sound besides the ground splashing beneath me... Is this place a secret dungeon or a forbidden dimension?" Subaru weakly chuckled to himself, a bead of sweat dropping down his cheek as he closed in onto the only noticable object within the space.
"...Is that a lightbulb?"
Niko's pace had considerably slowed after their desparate search took its toll both physically and mentally, and soon the child was on the verge of complete hopelessness, their tired body lowering to the ground.
"..."
"I just wanna go home..."
"I just... *sniff*"
As the first tear fell, Niko's despondent cries turned to quivering whimpers, and they silently let the accumulated stress of their confusing and overwhelming journey release through blinding sobs that wracked through the otherwise dead silent space suffocating them, as they curled into themselves.
"______... Please come back..."
The dripping water hardly registered to Niko anymore, whose sorrows continued to unfurl without respite, spiraling deeper and deeper.
The child didn't even notice the noisy splashing of water approaching that didn't belong to them, not until they could hear a painfully familiar hum of light accompanying it, now accompanying them as it hovered just above their balled-up form.
And as if reading their mind, an obnoxious voice filled with a lively spark confirmed what they longed to hear.
"What I have here is a ridiculously large lightbulb! Watch it brighten up this scary place, brighter, brighter, and brighter..."
Niko slowly turned their head up from the curled ball they receded into, and gasped at the familiar light before them, and the boy who exuded that same reassuring radiance as he held it.