Kurisu smiled thinking about what would actually happen, and his mind turned to a precise moment. An event that had taken place a few days before his arrival at the Sanctuary...
[A few days earlier]
In a specific place. A place devoid of natural light. Dark, very dark. An icy place, the kind of cold that isn't caught but imposed.
The breath of anyone entering would have formed a white cloud in front of them, and that cloud would have hung suspended for a moment, as if hesitating to disappear.
It was a glacial place. It was a castle, perched in the north, where winter had never yielded to anything else. Gusteko. A name that few people pronounced willingly, and that the snow itself seemed to have erased from maps.
Within its walls stretched an immense hall, almost a throne room, surrounded by ice on all its periphery. There was no torch, no window, but the place bathed in a bluish and oppressive aura.
Gigantic columns of perfectly sculpted ice, as tall as century-old trees with sharp, translucent edges, rose toward a ceiling swallowed by darkness.
Each had been carved with maniacal precision, adorned with lace-like fine patterns that captured what little light there was and sent it back in bluish flashes.
The floor was smooth, perfectly polished, an impeccable tiling that reflected every mirror-like reflection as a black mirror, to the point where one might have doubted where the room ended and its reflection began. Not a grain of dust. Not a trace. Nothing to indicate that a living being had ever walked there.
This room was not designed to welcome. It was designed to impress, or to make one believe someone had taken the time to do so. As if someone had wanted this scene to look perfectly absurd in its seriousness, with everything needed for a great dramatic moment.
And in the middle of this overly vast space stood a throne.
An immense throne, adorned with precious stones of all colors, made of pure gold, shining with an almost indecent brilliance in this environment of ice and shadow, deliberately clashing with the ambient coldness of the room.
Rubies and sapphires seemed to pulse gently, as if they had captured a warmth that didn't exist elsewhere in the room. A gilded cage for the king of this purgatory.
And upon this throne, a man sat there.
A man with white hair. No. Whose entire body, from head to toe, including his clothes, was white. An immaculate, sharp silhouette that contrasted against the darkness like an inverted ink stain.
He sat there, nonchalant, one leg crossed over the other, an elbow resting on the golden armrest.
Kozuwa Kurisu observed the carnal work of art exposed before him with a mixture of condescending pity and deep amusement.
For before him, before his throne, suspended in the air at eye level, was a human head. Simply. Perfectly.
He was merely tapping it with his fingertips, and it swayed back and forth, with particular attention, like playing with a pendulum whose rhythm one watches for.
Kurisu : « So, how are you doing today, my dear Capella ? » he asked in a suave tone.
For yes, this head was none other than that of Capella Emerada Lugunica. And not just her.
This was no ordinary decapitation. The body of the Archbishop of Lust had been meticulously and conceptually dismantled. Her body was scattered all over the room.
Her arms and legs were impaled across the hall on several ice pillars, like grotesque relics, like pieces exhibited in a contemporary art gallery whose artist nobody would have wanted to know.
Her torso had been sliced into thin slices, aligned with an almost artistic care.
Her internal organs hung suspended in the void around the throne all over at once, held by unseen threads, swaying gently in the icy air, damp, smoking in the cold, like macabre lanterns.
As for her head, it was hung from the ceiling by her own entrails, dangling miserably before Kurisu's nonchalant hand.
The young girl's head thrashed with demented fury. Her bloodshot eyes fixed her executioner.
Capella : « Raaaaaahhhhhh ! How dare you do this to me, the great Capella ?! »
Her voice echoed through the ice hall, charged with barely contained rage, almost spitting in the entity's face, her eyes rolling in their sockets, her jaws clacking.
Capella : « YOU ! MISERABLE NARCISSISTIC IMBECILE ! WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS ?! WHAT THE HELL DID I DO TO YOU FOR YOU TO COME AND RUIN MY PEACE !!! »
She screamed, trying her utmost to move, to twist, to throw herself at him. She wanted to call upon her flesh, her cursed blood.
She expected her scattered limbs to liquefy, her organs to regrow, her body to metamorphose into a foul beast to devour this man.
Every fiber of her being strained toward a single goal: to free herself.
Yet she could not. Nothing happened. Absolutely nothing.
« Wait... »
Fine, cold panic began to carve a path beneath her anger.
Capella : « Wait... Why... Why can't I use my Authority ?! »
She spat this out while shaking her dangling head, and with every movement, her taut entrails pulled on her skull.
The cold silence of the room was her only answer, accented by the radiant smile of the man in white who continued to sway her gently.
Capella still perfectly felt each of her isolated limbs in the room. She felt the cold of the ice on her arms, the air on her exposed lungs.
She felt them all, distinctly, one by one, impaled, sliced, suspended, meters apart from one another, every nerve ending screaming at the same time.
Yet unable to modify them.
Unable to regenerate them. Unable to transform, to remake herself, to do anything at all. She tried once. Twice. Three times. Nothing. Not a twitch. As if that door had never existed.
Her absolute power of mutation was no more.
Capella : « Dammit... what did you do to me, trash ?! ANSWER ME !!! » she cried out, her cry of impotence echoing endlessly in the ice mausoleum.
She screamed this at the top of her lungs, straight into the face of the man in white, whose smile hadn't budged by a millimeter.
Kurisu suddenly stopped playing with Capella's head. His fingers froze, and the head, which had been gently swaying back and forth, stopped as well, as if suspended on his attention.
His amused expression froze for an instant before stretching into a smile of deceptive sweetness, a tranquil smile, with the patience of a child letting an insect believe it stands a chance.
Kurisu : « Ohh... do you really want to know ? »
With a slow gesture, he caught the head with both hands, gently, almost with tenderness, and brought it close to him. Their faces nearly brushed in the room's icy air.
Capella felt his breath, which formed no cloud of vapor in the frosty air, and that minute detail slid down her spine like a cold finger.
The entity's nonexistent respiration contrasted with Capella's erratic and furious breathing.
Kurisu : « Well... I simply deactivated your power. For a moment, until we finish sorting all this out. »
He said it with a smile, like announcing one has put the keys away.
Capella : « WHAT ?!! »
Capella widened her eyes. She was caught off guard for a fraction of a second. A hiccup of surprise crossed her lips, but it was very quickly replaced by a scornful smirk.
She threw her head back as far as her suspended entrails allowed, then regained her composure, and let out a bright, strident laugh at the man, which bounced against the ice columns and returned in distorted echoes.
Capella : « Ahahahahah ! What a good joke ! You don't have that kind of power, you don't even have the power to scratch the slightest bit of flesh on me, as you've never done anyway ! And now you claim you've "deactivated" my Authority ?! Who do you think you are, cursed hound ? You don't know how to do anything other than be arrogant ! »
She rattled off these words with absolute fury, persuaded of her divine untouchability, her voice vibrating, a certain panic piercing through the arrogance nonetheless without her wanting to admit it.
Kurisu said nothing. He didn't answer. He kept his radiant smile, plunged a hand into the sleeve of his white garment, and pulled something out.
A mirror. A banal, oval object with a polished silver frame whose simple elegance almost clashed with the decor.
Capella : « What? What do you plan to do with th— »
She didn't finish her sentence. The words died in her throat, for Kurisu had just pointed the mirror straight before her face.
Capella turned pale. Color literally deserted her features.
The silence that followed stretched out. Long. Longer than that of the preceding torments, heavier.
One heard only the discreet cracking of ice working in the semi-darkness, and the slow dripping, somewhere, of a suspended organ that never finished draining.
Capella : « Huh ?... » she let slip, in a tiny voice, without arrogance, without rage, without anything, her breath cut short, pure horror seizing her features.
For what she saw in the mirror's reflection was not her magnificent, perfect face, that masterpiece of flesh—the one she had chosen, sculpted, perfected, and meticulously modeled over decades.
No.
She saw something else. Someone else. The face staring back at her through the glass, framed by messy blond hair, was that of a girl she knew far too intimately.
Features she knew better than any other in the world, because they had been hers, once. A person she had been, very, very long ago.
A young girl with a clear gaze, round cheeks, still full of promises and dreams people hadn't yet had time to steal from her.
Capella : « How... how can this face be here ? ... »
Her eyes in the mirror trembled. She wanted to look away. She couldn't: Kurisu held her firmly, and anyway, her body scattered across the room no longer answered to anything.
Capella : « What did you do to me ?!... »
She screamed this, voice trembling, for before her lay the face of the one she once was.
The face of Emerada Lugunica. The kingdom's former princess.
Panic now replaced arrogance. Her voice was nothing more than a high-pitched tremor.
Depriving her of her limbs was one thing, but forcing her to bear this loathed identity—that was violating the very essence of her existence.
Kurisu : « So, do you believe me now ? »
He asked with disconcerting simplicity, without mockery, without excess, with the calm of someone who had never doubted the answer.
Capella : « Who... who are you ? » she managed barely, short of breath.
Capella : « WHO THE HELL ARE YOU, SHIT ?! YOU'RE NOT REGULUS !!! »
She screamed this until she nearly burst her vocal cords, her bloodshot eyes staring at the monster before her, pupils dilated, Emerada's face distorted by a terror that didn't suit her at all.
Yet Kurisu didn't inform her. He totally ignored her. He contented himself with lowering the mirror, slowly, and addressing her with a silent smile, like leaving a question unanswered so it could do its work in the mind of the one asking it.
His attention had already drifted further, into the shadows of the vast hall.
For they were not alone. Two other people were observing the scene in dead silence.
Two people who had a particular connection to the creature currently being martyrized. Meili Portroute and Elsa Granhiert.
The two female assassins stood back, petrified, motionless in the shadow of a column, contemplating the scene without daring to breathe too heavily.
Little Meili clutched the folds of her big sister's cape. She had recognized the man in white. She had spotted him from afar in Arlam village, where she was supposed to accomplish her mission with her demonic beasts.
Her sister had spoken to him using chosen, cautious words, the kind used to describe a storm one doesn't want to provoke. She had thus been surprised to find him there, in this village.
And since she knew her sister's warning, describing an absolute anomaly one shouldn't cross under any circumstances, she had remained very cautious.
She had arranged never to cross his path, never to give him the slightest reason to suspect a thing.
And yet... How was it that he was here, now, before them, terrorizing their elusive "mom" ?
She didn't know what to do. But a strange, almost involuntary emotion began to radiate in her chest.
Seeing her "mom"—that cruel woman who made her suffer daily, who had literally transformed her into a throbbing pile of flesh for punishing her failure at the manor—seeing her thus humiliated, broken, and dismembered... triggered something.
A tiny laugh escaped her.
Meili : « Hihihi... »
She barely did it, a sadistic, childish chuckle, savoring the vision of her mother screaming in rage into the void, hands pressed over her mouth to muffle the sound.
Of course, she knew that if her mother found out, or simply when all this was over and she wanted to take her nerves out on someone, she would be punished a hundredfold.
Yet for now, this single moment, mere seconds of macabre justice, Meili smiled.
Elsa saw her. And said nothing. Her own thoughts were spinning at full speed.
For her part, she had already crossed paths with the man in white during a mission to retrieve an insignia in the capital. Fleeing, she had run into this man who seemed empty. Void of life.
He was untouchable. Her blades had done nothing. Impossible to inflict the slightest damage on him, to see the slightest nick on him. The man possessed no nicks, no warmth, not even the beating of a heart.
A strange encounter, strange enough for her to mention it to her mother.
Listening to the description, Capella had simply grumbled, saying that this man was one of her "colleague" Archbishops.
A real chatterbox, completely idiotic. But whose invulnerability was so powerful that even she couldn't shut him up, which deeply annoyed her.
Elsa had been surprised. For the way the man had acted didn't match at all what her mother said about him. But when she had wanted to talk to her about it again, Capella had turned her into a fly so she would never remind her of a disagreeable memory again.
« A being even mom feared... »
This being now stood before them. And Elsa finally understood why her mother couldn't do anything against him. Her mother wasn't annoyed; she was terrified. This being wasn't a mere colleague. He was invincible. Purely and simply.
At that instant, the two young women understood they were dealing with something far worse than their mother.
Yet their questions were cut short when the man approached them, leaving Capella screaming bloody murder further away, her voice distant and distorted by the ice walls.
The sound of his footsteps on the ice echoed like a death knell.
Immediately, Elsa pivoted and took a defensive stance, positioning herself as a shield before Meili, her fingers clenched on the empty air where her blades should have been. She knew she could do nothing against him, but her instinct proved stronger than logic.
At least she would protect her little sister for as long as it lasted, even if it meant being vaporized.
Kurisu : « Ohh, but wouldn't this be Meili and Elsa ? » he said, stopping a few meters away.
He tilted his head, observing the tense posture of the Bowel Hunter and the irrepressible tremors of the little girl behind her.
He let out a long, exasperated, almost sad sigh.
Kurisu : « What ? Why are you shaking ? Are you afraid of me ? »
The two sisters didn't answer, holding their breath.
Kurisu sighed to himself, running a hand through his white hair.
Kurisu : « Well. You know you can't do anything against me, right ? » he resumed, his voice suddenly losing all trace of amusement to become cold, sharp, assured.
Kurisu : « So answer my questions, if you don't want to end up like that thing over there. »
He nonchalantly pointed his finger over his shoulder toward the dismembered Capella behind him, who was weeping blood tears from her entire body while screaming obscenities.
Seeing this horrific spectacle, the two assassins loudly swallowed their saliva, audibly.
Elsa's survival instinct took over. She very slightly relaxed her guard, knowing resistance was futile, and began to speak.
Elsa : « Yes... What do you want to know ? »
She asked with apprehension, her voice lower than usual, stripped of all her predatory sensuality.
Kurisu : « Ohh, not much... » he smiled again, the tension subsiding all at once.
Kurisu : « Just two or three small details about your presence here, and the exact orders of your employer. »
The two women nodded out of fear. And thus, over the next few minutes, Elsa answered everything in a monotone voice, choosing every word.
Elsa explained Roswaal L. Mathers' involvement, the details of their contract to attack the manor, and how they had been hired.
She spoke of the mage's suggestion to bring Capella onto the field as well when the time came. Meili, beside her, nodded at every sentence without daring to lift her eyes.
Kurisu listened religiously, holding his chin, his mind boiling.
Kurisu : « Hmm, I see, I see... »
He did this, holding his chin.
« Roswaal... you really made that move, huh ? » he thought to himself.
Initially, Kurisu had simply come to this place to retrieve Elsa and Meili, planning to integrate them into his own future plans.
Yet discovering that Roswaal had deliberately pushed Capella to join the attack—most certainly out of paranoia, to ensure victory over the unknown variables he represented—Kurisu understood the mage had rigged the chessboard himself.
He slightly altered how he had planned to do things.
« Kekeke... This is going to be amusing. » he laughed inwardly, already savoring the clown's downfall.
He shifted his attention back to the two sisters, who awaited their judgment in anxious silence.
Kurisu : « Well, my dear little ones... you're coming with me. » he declared in a flat tone, as if announcing the weather.
Meili : « Huh ?! » choked the little girl, shocked.
Elsa : « Uh... what ? » went the assassin, totally confused by this turn of events.
Kurisu furrowed his brows slightly, ostensibly clenching his right fist.
Kurisu : « I said you're coming with me. A problem with that ? »
At the sight of that slightly clenched, almost mechanical fist that had just dismantled an Archbishop in the blink of an eye, the two women snapped to attention, terror erasing all hesitation as if struck by a military order.
Elsa and Meili : « No sir ! » they cried out in a perfectly synchronized and military voice, sincerely terrified.
Kurisu nodded.
Kurisu : « Hmm, hmm. Good. »
He stepped forward, raised both hands, and brought them toward the young women.
They tensed up, closing their eyes, unable to move, paralyzed by fear and what he might do if they dared make the slightest gesture, persuaded their bodies would explode or turn to mush.
Elsa gritted her teeth. Meili closed her eyes with all her might.
Yet the pain never came.
Instead, they felt a light pressure on the top of their skulls. Kurisu was gently petting their heads.
Kurisu : « By the way. From now on, you are no longer under Capella's orders, but mine. You don't have to follow her anymore. »
At those words, the two froze on the spot, as if struck by lightning. Their eyes widened, staring at the entity's white torso.
For a very long time, nothing moved in that ice room. Even the air seemed to have stopped.
Elsa : « Wh... what ? ... » murmured the woman in black, her voice broken by the shock of this sudden liberation.
She could say nothing else.
In her eyes, something flashed very quickly: a calculation, a distrust, an assassin's instinct seeking the trap in this unexpected generosity.
She found none, or rather she found a thousand, but none worse than what she had already known.
Meili : « You... You mean we're not going to stay with mom anymore ? »
The little girl asked this in a voice so thin it nearly lost itself in silence.
So Kurisu crouched slightly to be at Meili's height and held out his arms to her. The little girl, still conditioned by abuse, closed her eyes expecting a monumental slap.
Yet once again, Kurisu did nothing of the sort.
He simply lifted her, cautiously, to hold her in his arms, resting her comfortably against his torso, like carrying something one is afraid of breaking.
Kurisu : « Of course, Meili. If you follow me, you won't have to endure all that anymore. »
He began this with a gentleness unlike him, then corrected himself with a small laugh.
Kurisu : « Well... If you follow my orders to the letter, you won't suffer as much anymore. I'm no choirboy either, kekeke. »
A heavy silence settled in the room. The echo of Capella's moans seemed distant. Barely a few seconds.
Then, a few seconds later, Meili felt her vision blur. Burning tears, charged with months of terror, suffering, and loneliness, began to stream down her cheeks.
She cried hot tears that rolled without restraint, already soaking the man's white jacket.
She immediately buried her face in his torso, clinging to him with all her might, her little fingers clenched on the fabric.
Meili : « Thank you... thank you, mister... thank you so much... » she sobbed, her face buried in Kurisu's immaculate garments, clinging to it like a life jacket.
She repeated this while crying, over and over, unable to stop.
Kurisu petted her gently, saying nothing, his hand on her hair, like a gesture learned in another life.
Yet inside his mind, something else was happening. A veritable storm was raging.
« Damn... I'm really weird today. » he analyzed with a hint of perplexity.
« First my reaction to Celestia's cake, and now this ? »
What was happening to him, exactly ? Why was he becoming more and more tender? He didn't know. Absolutely nothing.
An evolution of his own psychotic ego ? He couldn't define it.
He could have sought an explanation, turned the question over in every direction, made a game of it. He did nothing of the sort. He simply let that strange warmth settle inside him, an instant longer than necessary.
« Hmm... That's a funny feeling... » he concluded, watching the little girl cry against him.
« But I don't mind it. »
He thought this with a slight serenity that no one in that room had ever seen on his face.
Beside her, seeing that Meili was not only spared but genuinely protected, Elsa felt a colossal weight lift from her shoulders.
The ruthless assassin bowed solemnly, placing a hand over her heart with a devotion she had never offered to anyone else.
Her gesture had nothing theatrical about it. It was stiff, almost awkward, that of a woman who had never had to ask for anything.
Elsa : « I will serve you at the peril of my life, as long as you protect Meili… She doesn't deserve all this madness... »
She said this almost in hope, her voice tight, her eyes never leaving the little girl in the man's arms.
Kurisu sighed.
Kurisu : « Yeah, yeah. After this last mission, you'll stop all these arbitrary assassination delusions. Sound good to you ? » he asked, waving a hand dismissively.
At this, Elsa smiled, a true smile, without irony, without predation. The smile of someone to whom something they thought lost has just been returned.
Elsa : « Thank you... sir... »
She stopped, realizing she didn't even know the name of her new master.
Kurisu : « Kurisu. Kozuwa Kurisu. »
Elsa nodded.
Elsa : « Thank you, Mr. Kurisu ! »
A wide, carnivorous, almost affectionate smile now stretched across her face. The Bowel Hunter had regained her color.
Then, as if to bring order back to things, she added, with a returning joy:
Elsa : « I will slice open any bowels you wish ! » she cried out with macabre joy, sincerely delighted with this arrangement.
Meili : « And my little beasts will devour anyone you want to make disappear ! » chimed in the little girl, raising her tear-reddened face, her sadistic smile fully restored.
Kurisu looked at them, his eyes narrowing with pleasure, his broad demonic smile resurfacing.
Kurisu : « Oh, really ? Magnificent ! That's exactly what I wanted to hear, kekeke ! »
The three of them then began to laugh in unison, a profoundly sadistic laugh, devoid of any morality, echoing in the ice chamber at the thought of cheerfully shredding their future enemies.
They had truly found each other. Birds of a feather flock together, as the saying goes. They literally seemed made for each other in this murderous madness.
Then, it was time to leave.
Kurisu approached Capella's head, Meili still in his arms. The little girl turned her head toward Capella, who was glaring at them with unspeakable hatred.
Meili : « Goodbye, mom ! I'm leaving with DAD now ! » she cried out with feigned innocence and a cruel smile.
Kurisu's mind underwent an emergency reboot. He slowly turned his head toward the little girl, his face frozen.
Kurisu : « ...Dad ? »
« Seriously ? Holy fucking shit... »
He remained frozen for a full second, the time of a tiny bug, before pulling himself together, straightening up, and returning to the essentials.
« Anyway… Let's resume. »
He brushed away this absurd thought with a shake of his head and approached what remained of the Archbishop, resuming his mask of absolute coldness.
Kurisu : « So, Capella, bye. I'm taking your two assassins with me as well. That's fine by you, right ? »
He asked this, a provocative tone directed at the dangling head, with a polite smile.
Capella : « YOU DISGUSTING RAT ! DOG ! GO TO HELL, YOU FILTHY SHIT ! GO GET FUCKED ! I'M GOING TO REDUCE YOU TO PIECES, YOU PIECE OF SHIT ! I'M GOING TO SHRED YOU, I'M GOING TO DRINK YOUR BLOOD ! DAMMIT, DAMMIT, DAMMIT !!!!!! »
She continued to insult him with such force that she almost seemed to make the wind blow by the mere tone of her voice. The ice columns vibrated, and a fine frost fell from the ceiling like sickly snow.
Kurisu inserted a little finger into his ear to clean it, totally impassive before this torrent of hatred, looking profoundly indifferent.
Kurisu : « Wow... you had quite a lot to get off your chest, huh ? » he breathed, blowing on the tip of his finger.
He asked the archbishop this, without rushing.
Kurisu : « Anyway... I was planning to let you go without further ceremony, but given your attitude... »
He smiled broadly and placed the palm of his hand directly onto Emerada Capella's face. A second passed. Then he released her.
Capella shivered violently. A deeply foreign feeling seeped into her corrupted soul. Something had just changed within her, something she couldn't quite name.
She shifted her eyes back to the man.
Capella : « Wh... what have you done ?... Why do I feel so... »
She couldn't even describe this sensation, this void, this absence of movement where a heartbeat should have been.
Kurisu : « Ohh, well. I made a few minor adjustments. » he said simply.
Capella : « Ad... justments ? » she repeated in a breath.
She barely managed this, her voice almost extinguished.
Kurisu : « Yes, yes. First of all, you won't be able to use your Authority at all for a full week. So you'll remain stuck in this state for quite a while. »
He raised a slender index finger before her eyes.
Kurisu : « Next, you'll keep this old face until I'm in the mood to let you change it. Whether that's tomorrow or ten years from now, I make the call. »
He raised a second finger.
Kurisu : « And finally... »
He raised a third finger.
And a smile of such pure, absolute sadism spread across his lips that it made the Archbishop tremble to the marrow of her virtual bones.
Kurisu : « If you attempt to come seek revenge, hunt me down, or even try to force the change of this appearance by yourself... you will instantly suffer excruciating pain. Constant agony, as intense and physical as if you were being devoured alive by the Great Rabbit. Understood ? »
He said it with a big smile, like announcing good news.
Of course, Capella refused to submit. She opened her mouth to spew a fresh round of insults, to scream her rage, to vow to destroy the entire world if necessary, everything that had been boiling inside her for hours.
Yet...
Tap.
A simple sound. Kurisu had just snapped his fingers.
Capella : « Ah... ah... »
She barely managed these two sounds before nothing more came out.
Kurisu had just placed her under absolute silence.
Thus, she remained there, mute, tears of rage beading at the corners of her eyes, incapable of doing anything other than being frozen in her humiliation, in the middle of this room that was too big, too cold, too silent.
Kurisu walked past her without another glance and positioned himself near Elsa.
The young woman in black wore a radiant smile, gracefully leaning toward her fallen creator. A genuine smile, calm, definitive.
Elsa : « See you later... No. Farewell forever, mother. »
She said this with a smile, without any cruelty in her voice, only the weariness of a long end.
Meili smiled too, in Kurisu's arms.
Meili : « Goodbye, mom ! I hope I never see you again ! »
She cried out from Kurisu's arms, a smile overflowing to the ears of her child's face.
And finally, just before space folded back in on itself, Kurisu stopped dead.
Kurisu : « Ah, I almost forgot. »
Tap.
Kurisu snapped his fingers again, restoring her speech.
Capella : « Wh... »
She barely managed, staring at Kurisu with total incomprehension, her recovered voice sounding like a foreign object in her throat.
Why give her voice back if he was leaving?
And so, Kurisu turned his head one last time toward her, his eye gleaming with infernal mischief.
Kurisu : « By the way... You're going to feel that famous excruciating pain for a full day. Starting from now. Just so you fully understand the extent of your crimes, kekeke. »
Before the Archbishop's brain could even assimilate the sentence, the trio vanished in a flash of silent white light, leaving her alone.
In a silence that lasted a few seconds. One, two, three. Time for the ice to resettle, for the shadow to reclaim its rights, for the air to become still once more.
And barely had they vanished when...
Capella : « Ehh... ahhh... »
The pain arrived like a wave held back for too long.
Capella : « AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH !!!!!!!!!!!»
A blood-curdling scream tore through the dimension. Pain struck her like an incandescent tidal wave.
She felt the pain in every nerve ending of her shattered body as if she were being pierced by billions of needles reddened by fire, glowing white-hot.
Her eyes rolled back in their sockets, spewing torrents of blood. Her arms and legs, impaled on the ice meters apart from one another, each twisted on their own account, filled with uncontrollable spasms.
Her organs, suspended here and there in the void, pulsed frantically, throbbing in all directions at once, like severed hearts that had each learned how to scream, radiating pure agony, tearing every atom of her phantom flesh.
She felt every piece, simultaneously, unable to flee a single one of them.
Capella : « Arghhh... !! I want to die… !! I want to die, please, have mercy, kill me !!! AHHHHHHHHHHHH !!!! »
She screamed this, her head suspended by her own entrails, which tightened and relaxed with every spasm. Pain radiated from every atom of her body.
The suffering was absolute, unbearable.
And she remained there, screaming and begging death to come claim her, for a long, very long time, through very long solitary hours, echoing for eternity in the black ice tomb that had never been designed for anyone to come and hear her.
[Return to the present]
Thus had unfolded the events of those few days. And thus had Kurisu discovered in advance Roswaal's true plans, deciding to add his own twist by appropriating his enemy's master pawns.
He gently closed the door of the house behind him, casting one last look toward the semi-darkness of the room where a bandage-wrapped mage awaited, unknowingly, the continuation of his own story.
« Kekeke... If only you knew, Roswaal. »
He thought this to himself as he walked away into the light.
The chessboard was set. The pieces were rigged. It was high time for him to enjoy himself a bit at the Sanctuary before things finally got serious.
......
Time followed its course, as it always does, with that quiet indifference that never ceases to surprise those who wish it would stop.
And our dear Kurisu, after giving the fright of a lifetime to a certain blue-haired clown, had set off without further ado, hands in his pockets and steps light.
He was simply enjoying the sun and this apparent haven of "peace" to take a little stroll around the Sanctuary. There was something almost indecent about his stride.
The morning air smelled of damp earth and warmed wood, somewhere a child laughed, and he walked like a man without the slightest debt to anyone.
Kurisu : « Hmm... what could I possibly do ? »
He wondered aloud, holding his chin with a pensive air as he walked with a light step along the dirt paths.
The question was sincere. When one already knows how everything is going to unfold, the problem is never knowing what to do, but finding something amusing enough to justify getting out of bed in the morning.
But barely had he taken a few steps when a familiar voice suddenly shouted in the distance:
Subaru : « Holy fucking shit, KURISU ?!! Where the hell were you ?! »
And of course… This particularly annoying and urgent voice, hoarse from shouting and running too much, could come from none other than Natsuki Subaru in person.
Kurisu turned his head.
The boy was running toward him down the dirt path, arms flailing, tracksuit plastered to his back, sweating profusely, with the look of someone who had scoured the entire village before finally stumbling upon the only person he was looking for.
Kurisu : « Ohh, Subaru ? How are you doing ? In good shape since the manor ? »
He asked this smiling, with an amiability so perfect it almost bordered on provocation.
Subaru finally reached him, his knees nearly giving out.
He stopped by leaning on his thighs, his lungs desperately searching for air, his breath whistling in his throat, his back shaken by each inhalation.
Subaru : « Ahhh... ahhh... fuck... » he went, laboriously catching his breath.
He remained like that for a moment, bent in two, incapable of stringing two words together.
Then, when he was finally able to form a proper sentence, he raised his head and locked his gaze into that of the man in white.
Subaru : « Damn... where were you ?! Why'd you just disappear like that after we got to Roswaal's manor ?! »
He shouted this with sincere astonishment, and a reproach he would have fiercely denied if it had been pointed out to him.
For it was true. After their little chat and Kurisu's "lesson," he had followed them all the way to the manor.
Yet shortly after their arrival, he had simply evaporated without leaving the slightest trace, without a word of farewell, without even one of those sarcastic remarks he was known for.
The manor's members had been utterly surprised, and no one could tell at what exact moment he had ceased to be there, leaving Subaru to handle the rushed departure toward the Sanctuary all by himself.
Kurisu : « Ohh, so my little apprentice is worried about his master ? »
He asked this while holding back a burst of laughter, a corner of his mouth already turned upward.
Subaru : « No ! Of course not ! It's just that... »
He barely managed, his gaze shifting away, his eyes sliding sideways as if searching for an exit that didn't exist.
He was thinking back to what the man had done at the manor right before disappearing.
That was the real reason for his presence here, and he knew it, even though he would have preferred to bite off his tongue rather than admit it.
Kurisu : « Ohh, that's right, I almost forgot... »
He raised a finger, as if struck by the memory of something of capital importance.
Kurisu : « It's because I gave the blue one a little patch-up, isn't it ? »
He chuckled as he uttered this phrase, without the slightest solemnity.
At these words, Subaru froze for an instant.
The boy knew. Or at least, Emilia and Frederica had explained it to him before their departure: right before Kurisu vanished like that, he appeared to have "healed" Rem.
The young maid no longer presented any physical injuries and, logically speaking, should normally wake up within the next coming days.
Yet the situation was urgent; Subaru hadn't had time to wait for her awakening, and his group had departed directly for the Sanctuary to understand the situation with Roswaal.
He had left Rem behind, asleep and breathing softly, unable to be there the moment she opened her eyes.
He remained silent for a moment, gaze lowered, staring at the dust between his shoes.
The words seemed to weigh heavier on him than they should have, as if he had kept them too long and they had gained weight while waiting. A heavy emotion gripped his throat, preventing him from formulating a sentence.
Subaru : « Tha... thanks… »
He barely said it, in a voice that frayed before the end.
Kurisu looked at him for an instant. His mocking smile faded to make way for an indecipherable expression. He raised a hand and simply placed it on the boy's head.
Kurisu : « Yeah... you really remind me of him… »
He murmured this while ruffling his hair with a distracted, almost mechanical gesture, like petting an animal one has known for a long time.
A light silence settled.
« Ahh, Tenmori... I wonder what's become of you. »
He thought this for a moment, the image of his own younger brother crossing his mind, a laugh, a distant silhouette, a world away on the other side of the light.
For a second, the monster of arrogance let a silent weight show through, a distant affection.
A second barely. A breath.
Then he let the memory slip away as easily as it had come, without clinging to it, without holding it back, with the practice of someone who knows precisely how many times he can do that without anyone noticing.
Subaru, slightly red and embarrassed by this unexpected contact, gently pushed his hand away with a brisk gesture.
Subaru : « Why... Why'd you do that ? »
He began thus, not quite knowing where he was going, groping for words.
Subaru : « Weren't you the one saying you didn't give a damn if others died ? »
He asked this without truly understanding the absurd and contradictory being standing before him.
To this, Kurisu instantly recovered his habitual aura. He remained calm and spoke with disconcerting simplicity.
Kurisu : « Ohh, did you forget ? » he asked in turn.
Subaru raised an eyebrow.
Subaru : « Forget what ? » he went, perplexed, his brow furrowed.
Kurisu : « I knew you'd be devastated if your dear little blue one stayed like that… And honestly, having you in such a depressive state of mind for the Sanctuary would have been way too boring to watch. »
He tapped his forearm with the tip of his finger, eyes closed with an exasperated air, like a professor reciting an obvious fact he's being made to repeat for the tenth time.
Kurisu : « That's why I gave her a helping hand. To revive the spirit of my one and only apprentice ! Pretty nice of me, huh ? »
He smiled watching the boy, chin slightly raised, savoring the reaction in advance.
Kurisu : « Come on, praise me ! Glorify me ! Implore my infinite pity and grace ! Kekekeke... »
He laughed in a booming theatrical voice, arms spread wide as if expecting an imaginary crowd to prostrate at his feet.
Subaru : « Tch... I'd rather die ! »
Cried out Subaru, dismayed by this sudden return to megalomania, which only amplified the laughter of the man in white, who doubled over, one hand on his stomach.
Yet barely seconds after calming down, Subaru resumed a worried expression, observing his surroundings.
Subaru : « By the way... I have a question. »
He said it a bit quietly, glancing around him as if someone might overhear.
Kurisu raised an eyebrow, looking at him with interest.
Kurisu : « Ohh, do you finally need my help ? Tell me. »
He spoke calmly, with that almost suspicious serenity of someone who already knows the answer.
Subaru : « Actually... haven't you seen a certain Garfiel ? He's pretty well known around here. He's a blonde guy with pointed teeth… and we haven't seen him in a while. He was supposed to join us… »
He said this looking around, as if the boy were about to pop out of a bush.
Yet Kurisu said nothing. He merely stretched a particularly wide smile, which immediately and legitimately made Subaru suspicious.
Subaru : « You know something ? »
He asked this, observing the strange expression of the man in white, that contained satisfaction one only sees in those who have prepared a joke for a long time.
Yet Kurisu still said nothing. He merely closed his eyes and slowly raised an arm, pointing his index finger straight up toward the sky.
Subaru followed his gesture, still confused, his neck craned. And when he directed his eyes toward the clouds… he widened them in horror.
At first, it was just a tiny dot, way up high in the air, a speck of dust against the azure. Then, all at once, the dot began to approach. Faster and faster.
More and more dangerously, growing larger by the second in a whistle tearing through the air at terrifying speed, taking on a shape, a silhouette, a trajectory that left no room for doubt.
Subaru : « Holy fu— »
He realized both too late and too fast, throwing himself out of the spot purely out of survival instinct, rolling to the side in the dust.
BOOM !
The thing dropped from the sky crashed down exactly where Subaru had been standing two seconds earlier. The impact produced a deafening crash. A gigantic shockwave swept across the grass, kicking up an immense cloud of dust and earth that engulfed the area.
A rumble made the ground vibrate beneath their feet. Pebbles ricocheted, a shutter slammed in the distance, and somewhere, an animal fled screaming.
Subaru : « What the actual fuck was that thing ?! »
He shouted, emerging from the smoke, coughing, hair gray with earth, eyes wide.
Then, when the dust cleared a few seconds later, Subaru saw Kurisu simply standing in the exact same spot, hands crossed behind his back, as if nothing had happened. Not a speck of dust on his white clothes.
And right in front of him, at the bottom of an immense crater, lay the thing that had crashed.
Yes. It wasn't an object. It wasn't a stone, nor a beast.
It was a boy. With short, spiky blond hair.
Subaru : « Ga... Garfiel ? »
He did this, shocked, his voice reduced to a trickle.
Yes, what had just crashed at that moment was none other than Garfiel Tinsel, the Shield of the Sanctuary.
The boy had visibly lived through a beyond-traumatizing event, without anyone knowing a thing about it.
He lay there at the bottom of the hole, nearly unconscious, completely knocked out, eyes rolled back.
A long, pitiful groan escaped his parted lips while a trickle of drool slipped from the corner of his mouth, limbs splayed like a doll tossed away by a weary child.
His right leg gave a slight nervous twitch before falling back heavily, inert.
Subaru : « What... what the hell is going on, dammit ?! » went Subaru, panicked, turning his gaze toward Kurisu in urgent search of answers, his mouth open.
Kurisu : « Ohh, you want to know ? »
He asked this keeping his playful tone, lightly shifting his weight from one foot to the other.
Kurisu : « Well, this little cat thought he could growl at me. So I simply put him back in his place. »
He smiled to himself, looking very satisfied with his own pedagogy.
Then Kurisu shifted his gaze toward an invisible point in the sky, directing his eyes precisely toward a dimension only he seemed to perceive, precisely toward those watching him from above.
« Remember, dear readers. Didn't I say I had "other fish to fry"? Well, here it is. Kekeke. »
He chuckled this in his thoughts, addressed to those observing this world with attention. A wink. Just once. Better not abuse a good thing.
Then he stepped down into the crater at a leisurely pace and hoisted Garfiel up with one hand by the collar of his jacket, like a sack of grain.
The blond boy produced only a faint groan of pain, unable to move anymore, capable of doing nothing other than letting his head bob against the man's shoulder.
Kurisu : « Anyway. Come with us, Subaru. »
He said this hoisting the blond boy onto his shoulder, without further ceremony, with the exact casualness of someone adjusting a coat.
Subaru : « Heh ? Go where ? »
He asked this, still in shock, and somewhat sorry for the poor unconscious boy whose hair dangled into the void.
Kurisu : « Ohh ? Well, let's go explore this Sanctuary ! I'd love to see how things are going right now ! »
He did this, setting off on the march with a perfectly assured stride.
Subaru, still totally perplexed and incapable of processing the absurdity of the situation, followed him without a word.
Thus began the dawn of "peace" at the Sanctuary, before everything spiraled into total chaos.