After Subaru and Hikaru's training match, they were both taking a break. They both decided that they were going to take a small break before continuing their training, so to pass time they started a conversation.

"To be honest Subaru, I'm surprised. You just started and your all ready getting better and better at hand-to-hand-combat and your swordsmanship, not only that but you have better control of your Anti Magic as well."

"Yeah, I was surprised my self. I never thought I would improve this quickly though."

"Well now that you exceeded my expectations, we'll move on to the next step."

"Next step?"

"Yep."

Hikaru stood up and unsheathed his katana and coated it with his magic of choice being fire, he turned towards a tree and swung the sword horizontally making a slash of fire charge at the tree with immeasurable speed, and in a matter of seconds the tree was cut in half. Subaru could only watch in awe at the sight.

"You see, I'm going to be taking you a lot more seriously now. That means I'm going to be a lot more faster and I'm going to be using my magic to fight, but not at full power. If you can exceed my expectations again, then we'll move on from there got it?"

"Yeah." Subaru said with a new found determination.

Once their break was over they got back to training, trading blow for blow. Hikaru was moving a lot faster than before, so fast that to Subaru it looked like he was teleporting. He could barely keep up.

"At this rate I won't last! Come on! Think for a moment."

Subaru, using his Ki-sensing quickly turned around as Hikaru was behind him swinging flame based slashes at him. They were moving so fast he could barely negate them all with his Demon Dweller Sword. As soon as Subaru negated the slashes, Hikaru was out of sight.

"How is he moving so fast?! It's almost as if he's teleporting!"

"Maybe if I try to sense his Ki..."

Subaru closed his eyes and focused, sensing Hikaru above him he opened his eyes and looked up as se sent more flamed based slashes at him. Subaru wouldn't be able to counter them so he had to dodge. When Subaru dodged he noticed there were trees everywhere giving him an idea.

"Oh? It seems he caught on."

Though Hikaru was moving faster than he was before, he was still able to sense him as he jumped of the tree and charged right at him at intense speed. Hikaru sensing this was able to sidestep the attack but what surprised him was when Subaru came back towards him at twice the speed. That's when Hikaru noticed Subaru was using the trees to increase his speed, completely surprising him.

"Thanks to Subaru's body he has a high level of speed, and it's just his physical strength... if he keeps this up he'll be even faster than before."

Hikaru was able to counter the attack but the force pushed him back.

"Well I see you were able to keep up with me."

"Yeah, at first I couldn't find you...you were all over the place."

"Well, how did you do it?"

"Well, I noticed it when you were above me sending those flame based slashes. Though it was for a moment, I sensed you and dodged towards that tree I landed on. Once I did that I noticed this whole area was surrounded by trees and that's when I got my idea, since I have Enhanced Strength, durability, speed, and Heightened Instincts. I was able to further increase my speed thanks to my physical strength and the momentum, that's how I was able to get to you so fast."

"My body is completely different now, I have to train my body a lot more now."

Hikaru was completely shocked, basically Subaru was able to use the trees in the surrounding area to increase his speed as he added his physical speed to his momentum.

"You know Hikaru that boy...is really something else wouldn't you agree?"

"Yeah no kidding Kaida. Anyway when are you going to show yourself to him?"

"Hmmmm...I'll reveal myself to him soon not now though, I still want to stay hidden."

"You got it."

"Anyway Subaru, I think that's enough training for today."

"Yeah I agree. I think Rem might get worried if we stay out much longer."

So with that Subaru and Hikaru both returned to the Inn where Rem and Ram greeted them. As soon as Rem saw Subaru she instantly ran up to him tackling him to the floor making sure he was ok while Ram just stared at them with a disgusted look on her face.

"Disgusting. Pervert Barusu."

"What?!"

After calming Rem down and reassuring her that he was alright, they all made their way to Emilia, to prepare her for the next Trial that night. And once again, Emilia failed and ran into Subaru's arms while he comforted her. Everyone around was saddened by the results, but it was Hikaru who scared everyone by his actions...

...He started walking towards the Tomb.

Garfiel jumped in front of Hikaru and made a enraged face towards him.

"Back off!"

"Garfiel, I want to see if I can observe the Tomb more closely. Maybe we can learn something from it!"

"I don't care! I don't want ya' anywhere near it!"

"Garfiel listen to me! We need to help Emilia."

"Th' princess just needs more time, we got all the time in the-"

"All the time in the world my ass! That's bull Garfiel and you know it! I'm afraid of what all of this is going to do to her mind!"

Garfiel thought for a second...but shook his head and waved his hand at Hikaru, as if brushing off a pest.

"Th' princess is just fine. She can handle it! She can take th' damn Trials as many times as she wants!"

"...And how do you know that?"

"...!"

Garfiel's eyes widened as he heard this, making Subaru take a step forward and question him.

"You do seem to know a lot about the Tomb, so why is that?"

"I...just-"

"Don't make excuses about this!"

Garfiel just walked away from Subaru and Hikaru as he sneered at the both of them.

"That's it for the night. Everybody go home."

"Wait a minut-"

"I SAID GET TH' FUCK OUTTA HERE!"

Otto flinched at his sudden outburst while Lewes looked at him with a concerned motherly expression, meanwhile Hikaru and Subaru narrowed their eyes at the young man. Rem and Ram were actually shaking on the spot. The pressure was to much to much for them to handle. Rem and Ram both knew that conflict would break out between the three boys if something wasn't done so Rem walked up to Subaru and got his attention, telling him that they should just go.

With that everyone left Garfiel alone to his thoughts.

It was now the next morning, as Subaru Hikaru, and Otto were helping the villagers pack up their belongings on the carriages.

"You know, I'm actually surprised you were able to convince Garfiel Subaru."

"Yeah, it took two whole days to pull it off but he agreed that setting the people of Irlam Village free wouldn't be a problem."

"As expected of Subaru-kun, amazing as always!" Rem exclaimed as she hugged her beloveds arm with a warm smile on her face.

Ram wanted to say something to berate him but noticed that Subaru had a handkerchief wrapped around his wrist.

"That's quite an old-fashioned good luck charm."

"Hm? Oh, Petra gave it to me before we left. Right after Frederica hired her as a new maid."

"Frederica would never do anything mean to a new recruit. She would never be that fiendish, you don't need to worry about that girl."

"Do you have faith in Frederica or not? I can't tell."

"I don't know what she's planning.

"Like hell you do." Hikaru thought to himself.

"But Frederica is Frederica. I have no doubt about that. Also, I have a message from Roswaal-sama."

As soon as Ram said that she caught the attention of both Hikaru and Rem as they listened in without being alerted.

"If you're worried about having to face Frederica, turn to Beatrice-sama. And tell her this: Roswaal said to ask the question."

"I never heard Roswaal-sama mention a message." Rem thought to herself furthering her suspicions on Roswaal and Ram.

"Alright clown, lets see what you're planning."

"I don't know the details."

"Now that's bullshit."

"But when Beatrice-sama hears those words, everything will change."

"That's what Roswaal-sama said."

"...I see."

"Subaru!"

"Hm? Oh, hey Emilia-tan."

"Um...was I interrupting you and Ram's conversation?"

"Nah, no problem."

"We weren't talking about anything important."

"Besides, you take priority!"

"That makes me really happy, but you should give priority to the villagers right now."

"Sure."

Emilia placed her hand on Subaru's chest as she did her prayer, and with that they left and got pass the barrier with the help of Garfiel. Once they made it back to the village of Irlam, Subaru and Hikaru walked toward the mansion as Subaru knocked on the door but no one answered. So they both walked inside the mansion as they felt uncomfortable, as if someone was inside.

"Subaru, you feel that too don't you?"

"Yeah. I can sense someone else's Ki that I don't even recognize."

"And to top it all off, it's really murderous so keep your guard up all right?"

"Yeah."

When they walked inside, no one was there as they roamed the hallways and checked the doors, everything was empty. They both realized that something was wrong as they could sense someone coming right at them. Sensing the attackers Ki Subaru was able to dodge the attack as well as Hikaru. Hikaru unsheathed his katana as Subaru summoned the demon dweller sword and got into battle position.

"All right, who's there!?"

"Ara Ara, you promised didn't you? That you'd take good care of your bowels until we meet again."

Hearing that voice sent shivers down Subaru's spine as he shook in place as the figure walked right in front of the duo. The attacker was someone Subaru knew all to the well, the attacker was none other than Elsa Granhiert the Bowel Hunter.

Hikaru noticing Subaru shaking asked...

"Subaru who is she?"

"S-She's the Bowel Hunter, she's the one that tried to kill Emilia back at the loot house."

Hikaru hearing this, instantly narrowed his eyes as he glared at the women. He knew for a fact that this lady was bad news. Subaru recalling how she teased him when he was bleeding to death as he slowly died was trapped in his mind, he hated this women with every fiber of his being.

"Well you certainly improved the last time we met, the way you dodged my blade I'm honestly impressed."

"Elsa...who's blood is that?"

"Oh...who's blood it is indeed-"

At this point Subaru wasn't in the mood for her games as he knew she was toying with him.

"TELL ME ALREADY DAMN IT!!!!"

"Oh my! Quite impatient are we? It was one of the maids, she kept screaming "Subaru!" "Subaru!" as she slowly died."

Subaru and Hikaru's blood ran cold, they both knew who she was talking about as soon as she imitated the little maid's screams as she died. Hikaru was outraged as his grip on his katana tightened. Petra was just a innocent kid, who would gut a 12 year old!?

"P-Petra...no...Petra!"

"You monster!"

Subaru's mind went into a frenzy as the memories of him spending time with Petra came flooding into his mind, but what tipped him over the edge was when she nonchalantly imitated the little girl's voice like it was some game. Without thinking his Anti Magic energy was leaking out as his eyes turned blood red with his pupils replaced as slits.

"Subaru! Calm down!"

Hikaru's words didn't reach him as he stared at the Bowel Hunter, ready to kill her on the spot.

"You....YOU BASTARD!"

Subaru quickly charged right in front of Elsa in a blink of an eye completely shocking her. She barely had time to react as he swung the Demon Dweller sword horizontally at her chest area as he sent her crashing through a nearby window and followed her out that way.

Hikaru was going to follow until he sensed something else coming at him, when he turned around he saw Mabeasts of different kinds charging at him. Taking them out was child's play as he cut them down but more just kept coming.

"Damn! At this rate I won't be able to back him up. Just hang in there Subaru."

Hikaru kept slashing at the Mabeast, making sure to cut them swiftly so he wouldn't waste time, that's when he noticed that the Mabeast were most likely being controlled by something or someone to keep him and Subaru separated. With this thought he used his Ki sensing skills to find the culprit. Once he picked up on the culprits signature he swiftly cut down all the Mabeasts and charged right for the attacker.

When he got there he saw to figures sitting on a Hippo looking Mabeast as he stood there shocked at the figure standing next to the small one. It was a person with a white cloak with three eyes in the middle, Hikaru knew all to well what that cloak belonged to, it was a cloak belonging to the Eye of the Midnight Sun.

"The Eye of the Midnight!? But how!? I thought we defeated them!"

"Well this is a turn of events..."

"Yeah no kidding! How in the hell did they get all the way over here!? I thought we defeated them!"

"Well I do have a theory on that but for now, we have better things to worry about."

"Yeah."

"So I take it you're the one controlling those weird looking animals?"

"Oh. That's me Onii-san."

"Wait, you're the one controlling those animals?"

"Yes! That's me."

The little girl had a victorious smile as she said this, letting Hikaru instantly know that this little girl and the Midnight Sun member were with Elsa when they murdered everyone here.

"So sense you killed everyone here, you're going to try and kill me and Subaru too?"

"Yes! We have to finish a job after all."

Hikaru sensing that they were going to fight, got into his battle stance as the Hippo looking Mabeast roared summoning more of them, as the Midnight Sun member charged at him.

Meanwhile outside of the mansion.

Subaru and Elsa were trading blows with their blades. Subaru was in a flying rage, all he cared about was killing Elsa for what she did to Petra. Meanwhile Elsa was having a hard time against him and to be honest, she was getting quite annoyed. This boy was completely different, he kept dodging her attacks at the exact moment and knew exactly when she would attack.

"This boy...is completely different from the last time we crossed paths."

"Ara ara, I hope you can entertain me a bit longer."

"SHUT UP!"

Subaru charged at her as she dodged and started moving around the area at immense speed, Elsa was going to go for the gut for next attack. But before she could do anything Subaru instantly turned around towards her direction, completely shocking the Assassin as he grabbed her arm. As Elsa was doing everything she could to escape his grasp, but that's when she noticed the look in his eyes. She could feel his rage and bloodlust as she noticed black energy surrounding his arm.

"T-This boy...is no human, he's not a demihuman either. And he's not a demon...no he's more than that, this boy...is the Devil himself."

And with that last thought in her mind she felt her mind black out for a second as she realized Subaru punched her as she was sent flying. After she crashed into a tree the last thing she was Subaru walking up to her as she passed out. After checking if she was still moving, Subaru left thinking that she was dead.

"I told you that I would make you pay for what you did, and I meant every word!"

With that Subaru rushed back towards the mansion to reunite with Hikaru as he knew they were separated when he went to go fight Elsa.

Meanwhile with Hikaru.

Hikaru was slashing Mabeast left and right. As he was getting exhausted from all the slashing, Hikaru tried to go for the Hippo looking Mabeast but every time he did it gave another Mabeast or the Midnight Sun member an opening to attack him.

"Damn! No matter what I do there's no end to these things! And I can't attack the Hippo because that would just give them an opening. I'm gonna have to use my magic if I want to get out of this mess."

"Hey, why don't you just give up Onii-chan? It would be a lot easier for us to kill you so we can finish the job."

"Well, that's because I was holding back, and besides this is where I surpass my limits!"

And in a millisecond, Hikaru was out of sight completely shocking the little girl as she looked around her as all the Mabeasts were dead in seconds. When she looked up she saw wind slashes coming at her at intense speeds. The Midnight Sun member sensing this jumped in front of her and used his magic to block it.

"Spatial Magic huh?"

"All right, I have a certain time limit until more of those animals show up, so I have to make this quick."

The Midnight Sun member pulled out it's grimoire and turned it's pages as he shot magic bullets of spatial magic at the young mage as he instantly appeared behind him and kicked him, sending him crashing through a wall. The little girl seeing Hikaru charging at her could only look on in panic as he was inches away from her. Right when Hikaru was going to slash at the Hippo, a blackish portal opened up. Hikaru knowing exactly what it was, backflipped towards the ground as a magic bullet cut his cheek. When he landed another portal appeared right behind him as multiple magic bullets behind Hikaru. He couldn't react in time as they got closer, the little girl thinking that it was finally over clapped her hands together as she sighed in relief.

"Shit! I couldn't react in time!"

But at that last moment someone appeared behind Hikaru and slashed the magic bullets completely negating them, this someone was none other than Natsuki Subaru who appeared at the right moment before they could touch Hikaru.

Hikaru smiling, couldn't help but chuckle.

"Took you long enough!"

"Hey! I had to fight a crazy gut loving sadist, cut me some slack!"

"Yeah, yeah. I'm just glad you're all right."

"Yeah, same here."

"Subaru, I'm going to go and take down that Hippo. While you take down that mage got it?"

"Yeah, you got it!"

With that the duo charged towards their opponents, Subaru charged towards the mage while Hikaru charged toward the little girl sitting on the Hippo, while he slashed Mabeast while doing it.

The mage summoned black portals around Subaru as magic bullets shot out towards him. Subaru seeing this, summoned both of his Anti Magic weapons and began slashing them. But he couldn't slash all of them as some were able to hit and deeply injure his leg.

"Ow!"

"It's hard to counter all of these when there's so many of them!"

Hikaru, seeing that he wasn't going to get anywhere on ground decided to use his wind magic to fly to give him an advantage in the air, Hikaru putting his wind magic into his blade only said one chant as he swung his katana.

"Crescent Kamaitachi!"

With that one chant, the wind based slash was a lot more quicker, bigger, and more precise cutting all the Mabeasts in one go. With the Mabeasts out of the way, Hikaru flew towards the Hippo as it was the only one left. At the same time Subaru also found a way to fight the mage he was up against, he threw both of his swords away and closed his eyes. The mage thinking it was over shot more magic bullets at Subaru.

He suddenly opened his eyes and quickly turned behind him as he jumped into one of the portals shocking the mage.

"H-He jumped through my portals!?"

Subaru then appeared in fornt of the mage as he pulled his fist back glaring at the man. The mage had no time to react as Subaru was to close to him to do anything. All it took was one punch from Subaru to send the mage flying as he crashed into a wall, knocking him out. At the same time Hikaru was able to slice the Hippo's head off as his body came crashing down making the little girl fall off and land right on her ass.

"Oh man! That hurt like hell! What kind of magic was that anyway!?"

"It's called spatial magic Subaru."

"Spatial Magic?"

"Yeah a rare magic that allows the user to manipulate the fabric of space."

"So it's like Beako's door crossing?"

"Well, in a way yes."

Seeing that the girl was trying to escape Hikaru pointed his blade at her as he had a cold look in his eye.

"Don't even try it."

While they were distracted, something was able to cut Subaru as he wasn't looking. Hikaru sensing it on time was able to dodge but Subaru wasn't.

"Ah."

"I...let my guard down."

Subaru looked down and noticed his stomach has indeed been cut opened, as he fell to floor bleeding out. Above him was a pissed off Elsa covered in blood and cuts with a swollen face.

"For some reason my Divine Protection wasn't working. That boy is a threat that must be eliminated!"

"I'll make sure you meet that little maid in the afterlife boy!"

Hikaru seeing this charged at the Bowel Hunter using his magic to give him a boost. Elsa seeing this moved out of the way as she sensed she was in danger by the amount of pressure in the air.

"YOU!"

"Is the only thing you know how to do is kill people!? Do you think life is some game!?"

"I only came to kill everyone here because I was hired to. And besides, I love to see my victims insides and touch them."

Hikaru hearing this could only look at the two in utter disgust, though he didn't know the little girls name. He remembered Elsa's name and he would never forget it.

"I swear...I will kill you."

Hikaru sent multiple wind blades at the pair but Elsa was able to grab the little girl and made her escape through the smoke screen. When he turned around to check on Subaru he checked his pulse only to find out he was dead.

"Damn it. DAMN IT!"

Hikaru was going to go after the assassin until a black fog appeared and covered everything else except for Subaru and Hikaru, Hikaru froze, he couldn't move as he heard a voice whisper something in his ear.

"Protect him."

As soon as Hikaru heard that sentence he was back at the Sanctuary in front of the tomb with everyone else.

"What...the hell?"

Subaru woke up inside the Tomb right next to Emilia inside comforting Emilia as she woke up saying she didn't do it or it wasn't her fault.

"I see so the save point updated to the first day of Emilia's trial."

Once Subaru and Emilia exited the tomb, they had the same talk they had in previous loop. Once that was over Subaru and Hikaru went to their training spot. That's when Hikaru asked the question.

"Subaru."

"Yeah?"

"Did we somehow...loop through time?"

Subaru was shocked, he knew he couldn't talk about Return By Death so he tried to play it off.

"W-What are you talking abou-"

"Don't give excuses Subaru!"

"Huh?"

"I remember what happened! We went to the mansion and when we got inside no one was there. And when we ran into Elsa, you went into a frenzy after finding out she murdered Petra! Once you got back we both fought that little girl and that Mage. Once we took care of that, Elsa came out of nowhere highly injured and cut your stomach open and you died! And now we're back here, so what's going on?"

Subaru was surprised, normally if he tried to talk to anyone about what happened in the previous loops the Witch would either grab his heart to shut him up or destroy someone else's heart if they ever found out. And here Hikaru was, talking about what happened in the previous loop without any consequences. Maybe just maybe he could tell Hikaru.

"The thing is...I have a power that allows me to go back in time under some...'circumstances'."

"I would tell you but it won't won't allow me to."

"I see. So that's how you time loop?"

"Yeah that's pretty much it."

"I see, well I'll just leave it at that. Come one we have to train harder than before!"

"Y-Yeah!"

So Hikaru and Subaru trained where they left off for at least two hours until they decided to head back. Subaru told Hikaru that he was still worried about the mansion and he was worried that Frederica might've had something to do with Elsa so they both decided to go to Roswaal.

"And what is it you would like me to do?"

"I want you to get the people of Arlam Village back home. It doesn't look like I'll be able to get them to agree with me this time."

"This time? Hmm...And why is that?"

"That Garfiel punk seems to hate my guts. And we don't have time to convince someone as volatile as him. And there's one other thing."

"I want to go and tell the people who're still in Arlam, that their families are safe. And of course, I'm also going to the mansion, where I think Frederica's planning something."

"Ram has informed me of this."

"I highly doubt that."

"But given what I know about her, Frederica would not be so hasty in-

"And what do you know? Frederica gave Emilia the glowing stone. That's proof she's planning something!"

"And if she does prove to be an enemy, what will you two do?"

They discussed some more until Roswaal made a suggestion.

The next morning Subaru, Hikaru, Ram, and Rem would be on their way towards the mansion. Since they only had one ground dragon, it was decided that Hikaru would carry Ram while Rem would ride with Subaru. Garfiel gave Ram his crystal as they left, though Hikaru was flying shocking Rem and Ram except for Subaru of course. Once Ram calmed down she had a flushed face while Hikaru was holding her the whole ride there.

Subaru and the others made it to the mansion but unknown to them, things were about to take a turn for the worst.