The rain kept falling, and falling, and falling, until it stopped feeling like weather and started feeling like a presence. It pressed against Subaru's skin, soaked into her clothes, slid down her neck in cold, deliberate lines, as if it were testing her patience. The sound of it never softened. It drummed against leaves, dirt, broken stone, the hollow shells of abandoned houses they passed earlier. Every drop felt too loud in the silence between them.
Subaru hated that silence.
She was very uncomfortable with this girl.
Übel walked a few steps ahead and sat and she kept glancing back.
Not quick checks. Not the subtle looks of someone making sure their companion was still there. These were slow, deliberate turns of the head. Lingering looks. Her eyes slid over Subaru with open interest, unashamed, curious in a way that crawled under Subaru's skin.
As a boy, in the past, Subaru would have simped hard.
That thought came uninvited, and it annoyed her almost as much as Übel's staring.
Back then, he would have folded instantly. Green hair, sharp eyes, confidence dripping off her like a challenge. Even though Subaru's type had always been silver-haired elves, preferably with violet eyes, even though he would have sworn up and down that was it, no exceptions, he still knew himself well enough to admit the truth. He would have watched her walk. He would have tried too hard to impress her. He would have laughed at jokes that were not funny and remembered the shape of her smile long after she left.
He would have been doomed.
This Subaru, however, felt something different.
She was attracted, yes. That part was still there, stubborn and undeniable. But the reasons behind it made her stomach twist.
Firstly, Subaru wanted to touch her.
That alone would have been manageable. Easy to dismiss as leftover instinct, as nerves, as proximity. But it did not stop there.
She wanted to bite her.
The thought hit her suddenly, sharp and vivid. Teeth sinking into skin. The warmth of blood. The way flesh would give under pressure. Her mouth filled with saliva before she could stop it, and she swallowed hard, jaw tightening until it ached.
Eat her.
The realization made her take a half step back without meaning to, boots sliding slightly in the mud. She caught herself before Übel could notice, or at least before she could comment on it.
She was not on the verge of losing control. Subaru knew that much. She could still think. Still reason. Still choose. But her new sharp teeth, the ones she had discovered almost by accident, had already tasted human flesh.
That memory lingered like a stain she could not wash away.
It was not hunger in the simple sense. It was not desperation. It was something quieter and worse. A desire that sat patiently in the back of her mind, whispering instead of screaming, waiting for permission instead of forcing itself forward.
And Übel smelled… alive.
Subaru kept her eyes forward. She did not dare look directly at Übel's neck, at the line of her throat exposed by the way her collar clung wetly to her skin. She focused instead on the trees, on the rain, on the way her fingers curled and uncurled at her sides as if they belonged to someone else.
Even so, she could feel it.
Übel's gaze did not leave her.
It was almost playful. Almost amused. Like Übel knew exactly what kind of thoughts she was provoking and found the idea delightful.
"What's your speciality?" Übel suddenly asked.
The question cut cleanly through the rain, casual and sharp all at once.
Subaru flinched despite herself and looked up. Übel had turned fully now. Her smile was small but unsettling, lips curved just enough to suggest there was more behind it than friendliness.
"I don't know," Subaru said after a second. "What specialty?"
Übel tilted her head, studying her like a puzzle that had just become interesting. "Like magic spell. Your spell."
Subaru blinked. For a moment, her mind went blank. Magic spell. Specialty. She had not thought about it like that. Everything she could do still felt wrong, half-formed, like she was borrowing someone else's abilities without understanding the rules.
"Huh," she said intelligently.
The rain filled the gap while she searched for words.
"Well," Subaru continued slowly, choosing each word with care, "I'll tell. Only if you tell yours."
It was a challenge, small and almost childish, but it made Übel's smile widen.
"Hm," Übel hummed, clearly pleased. She tapped a finger against her chin, then shrugged as if the answer cost her nothing. "I can cut through anything as long as I can imagine it. Cach. Cach. Cach."
She mimed slashing motions through the air with her fingers, quick and light, as if demonstrating something simple and harmless.
"Your turn."
Subaru felt a chill that had nothing to do with the rain.
This woman…!
She cursed herself internally for asking, for opening the door to that explanation. Only after the words settled did it fully sink in what Übel had said. Cut through anything. As long as she could imagine it. There was no hesitation in her voice, no exaggeration. She said it like someone stating a fact about the weather.
Übel was like Sukuna from JJK.
The comparison sprang up immediately, vivid and alarming. A grin that promised violence. Power that obeyed imagination instead of restraint. Someone who could look at the world and decide it should be sliced open just to see what was inside.
Shit.
Subaru forced herself to breathe evenly. She could feel Übel's attention sharpen, like a blade honing itself on her reaction. She could not show fear. Could not show too much interest either.
"I…" Subaru started, then stopped. Her throat felt dry despite the rain. "I can summon a sword and fight."
The words sounded small the moment they left her mouth. That wasn't the full scope of Erafassen. If what she thinks is correct then…
"That's it?" Übel asked, eyebrows lifting.
"Yeah," Subaru said, a bit more sharply than she intended. "That's it."
Übel hummed again, not disappointed exactly, but not impressed either. She stepped closer, closing the distance until Subaru could smell her something metallic beneath it. Übel's eyes flicked briefly to Subaru's mouth, lingering on her lips, then lower.
"Hm. Sounds exciting," Übel said lightly. "Have you killed anyone before?"
The question landed with a weight that made the world feel suddenly very still.
A beat passed.
Then another.
The rain seemed to soften, or maybe Subaru's ears were ringing. Images flickered through her mind, unwanted and vivid. Blood on her hands. Faces she tried not to remember. The moment when the line between survival and murder blurred until it vanished entirely.
Her jaw tightened. "Why do you ask?"
Übel's smile widened, slow and deliberate, as if this had been exactly the response she was hoping for.
"Because I have,"
The rain drummed steadily against the mouth of the cave, a dull, endless sound that blurred time into something shapeless. Subaru sat with her back against the cold stone, posture loose, expression carefully arranged. She looked relaxed. Almost bored. Anyone watching would have thought she was comfortable here, sharing a cave with a woman whose smile alone radiated danger.
That was the point.
She made sure her shoulders stayed loose, her breathing even. No flinching. No twitching horns under the cloth wrapped around her head. Fear was a language, and Übel was fluent. Subaru had learned that lesson the hard way, across dozens of deaths.
She wasn't afraid of dying.
That was the disturbing part.
Death itself had lost its teeth. Pain still hurt. Terror still came in flashes. But the end of it? The silence after? That was almost… easy. Too easy. She could step into it if she had to. She had done it before. Many times.
What she was afraid of were the loops.
The way the world snapped back into place. The way everything reset except her. The way memories stacked on top of each other until her head felt too small to hold them all. The way despair didn't end, it just rewound.
She could not afford to fight someone whose limits were dictated by imagination.
Her eyes flicked, just for a moment, to Übel's hands. Long fingers. Relaxed. Confident. A mage who didn't chant much. A mage who smiled when she talked about cutting people apart. Subaru had seen enough manga, enough anime, enough stories to recognize the type.
Too free.
Too dangerous.
She swallowed, not outwardly, but inside.
Wait. Isn't my own magic imagination-based?
The thought came uninvited, sharp and unwelcome. Erafassen. The word echoed faintly in her mind, a name that still felt too big for something that belonged to her. A power that let her replicate weapons she had seen, techniques she had seen. Blades that never existed in this world, styles born in fiction, moved by hands that were never meant to hold them.
She hadn't lied to Übel.
But she hadn't told her the truth either.
Not the full scope of it. Not the ugly part where even Subaru didn't know where the ceiling was. How far Erafassen could go. Whether it had a limit at all, or whether the only thing stopping it was her own fractured imagination.
That thought scared her more than Übel did.
So she leaned into arrogance instead.
"I don't kill," Subaru said lightly, as if they were discussing the weather and not murder. She tilted her head, lips curling into something that almost resembled a smirk. "It's a waste of strength."
Übel's eyes sharpened with interest.
Subaru continued, voice steady. "Why burn mana killing a weakling? Dead people don't give anything back. No information. No challenge. No return on investment."
She felt it, the way Übel's attention tightened around her like a wire. Predators recognized other predators. Or at least, they recognized the mask.
"And if you meet someone strong?" Übel asked.
The question was casual. Curious. Dangerous.
Subaru didn't answer right away. She let the silence stretch, just enough to feel deliberate. Just enough to seem confident.
Then she looked straight at Übel.
"Are you strong?" she asked.
The challenge was calculated. It wasn't bravado. It was theater. A line delivered for effect, not truth. Inside, her heart thudded hard enough that she worried Übel might hear it.
For a split second, she wondered if this was how it always went. If this was the moment that would spiral into another loop. Another death. Another reset.
Übel's grin widened.
She cracked her knuckles, the sound sharp in the cave. "Wanna find out?"
The air shifted.
Not magically. Not visibly. But something tightened, like the cave itself had decided to hold its breath. Rain still fell outside, but it felt distant now, muffled, irrelevant. Subaru became acutely aware of her own body. The weight of her limbs. The sharpness of her teeth behind her lips. The way mana sat coiled inside her, restless.
She imagined it, just for a moment.
Blades. Dozens of them. A weapon perfectly suited to cutting through imagination itself. A counter to a woman who could slice anything she could envision. What weapon can do this—
Her pulse spiked.
Stop.
She forced the thought down, buried it beneath layers of restraint. Acting confident was one thing. Escalating was another. She didn't know how Übel's magic interacted with Erafassen. Didn't know if imagination clashed or compounded. Didn't know which of them would break first.
She internally gulped.
Then, deliberately, she sighed.
The sound came out slow. Almost tired.
"No," Subaru said.
The word landed flat. Unexpected.
Übel blinked. "No?"
Subaru leaned her head back against the stone, eyes half-lidded. "No."
A pause.
"You afraid?" Übel asked, tilting her head, curiosity sharpening into something more pointed.
Subaru almost laughed. Almost.
"Not in the mood," she replied.
Übel's smile turned strange. Crooked. "Huh. What would it take to get you in the mood?"
The words slid wrong. Too casual. Too intimate. Subaru's stomach twisted.
Ew. That sounds so wrong.
She grimaced internally. I'm not Goku. I don't live for fights. I don't get stronger from punching my problems until they go away. If anything, fighting was how her problems multiplied.
Outwardly, she kept her expression neutral.
"I've got plans," Subaru said. "Big ones. I'm still thinking about crossing the Northern Plateau."
That got Übel's attention. Subaru could see it in the slight lift of her brows.
"Until then," Subaru went on, "I'm laying low. I'm unregistered, remember? Can't attract attention. Can't afford to."
That part wasn't a lie. Every fight risked witnesses. Every witness risked rumors. And rumors, in this world, turned into silver-haired elves with beams of light and parties that shot first and asked questions never.
She had learned that lesson in blood.
Übel studied her in silence. Her gaze was sharp, invasive, like she was peeling back layers, searching for cracks. Subaru met it head-on, refusing to flinch.
Finally, Übel hummed.
"I see," she said.
I will be posting chapters every day. Big chapters will be broken into 3 or 4 chapters, you can read it ahead by checking out the tips in my bio.