Everyone outside the screen was startled. Only Al broke the silence first.
[Al: ...A softlock, huh.]
After those words appeared, the chat fell even quieter for a moment.
Felt frowned.
[Felt: A softlock?]
Al explained.
[Al: It means you've already saved at a bad point.]
[Al: No matter how many times you start over, the worst has already happened by the time you open your eyes.]
[Al: You know you ought to go back further.]
[Al: But there's nothing you can do anymore. You can't undo it.]
Those words were like a needle, gently piercing everyone's ears.
Saying something could not be undone seemed absurd in the face of someone who possessed Return by Death.
Yet when applied to Natsuki Subaru on the screen, it was so cruel that no one could refute it.
Priscilla looked at Al.
[Priscilla: Al.]
[Priscilla: Your tone is quite unpleasant.]
Al did not answer immediately.
He seemed to want to make a joke and brush off what he had just said.
But the chat remained still for a long time before another line finally appeared.
[Al: Sorry, Princess.]
[Al: It's just that this scene makes it a little hard to laugh.]
Crusch spoke up as well.
[Crusch: In other words, Return by Death does not let Natsuki Subaru freely choose where he returns.]
[Crusch: It sends him back to a fixed point.]
[Crusch: If that point falls after a disaster, death can no longer serve as a remedy.]
This time, Felix did not use his usual lighthearted tone.
[Felix: And the memories remain.]
[Felix: The wounds disappear, the blood disappears, and his body returns to the past.]
[Felix: But the feeling of killing someone, of wanting to die, of discovering it's too late for everything-all of it stays in his head, meow.]
Otto stared at those lines, his fingers growing cold.
[Otto: So dying doesn't always mean he can start over.]
[Otto: Some deaths only send him back into the same cage.]
Anastasia was silent for a while.
[Anastasia: No wonder the answer was no.]
[Anastasia: He did hold out until Return by Death came.]
[Anastasia: But it was no longer a chance to save everything.]
[Anastasia: It was telling him that everything had already happened.]
Felt gritted her teeth.
[Felt: How is that starting over?]
[Felt: Everyone's already dead, he's already made all those mistakes, and it sends him back to this moment when he can't undo any of it.]
[Felt: Isn't that just driving him to his death?]
Reinhard watched the figure frozen on the screen.
[Reinhard: If he cannot choose the point Return by Death sends him to, then every death carries a risk.]
[Reinhard: He cannot be certain whether there will still be room to put things right the next time he wakes.]
[Reinhard: This is an even heavier burden than I imagined.]
Wilhelm also began to speak slowly.
[Wilhelm: Those on a battlefield can at least choose when to draw their swords.]
[Wilhelm: But that child cannot even control where he will go after death.]
[Wilhelm: This ability hardly seems like a blessing.]
Julius stared at the screen without commenting for a long time.
Only after a long while did his words appear.
[Julius: He always treated Return by Death as his last path.]
[Julius: But now, even that path has shut him out.]
[Julius: That is why he asked Shaula to kill him.]
[Julius: At that moment, he truly had broken down.]
Ram did not speak immediately.
She watched Barusu on the screen, kneeling on the ground with blood on his forehead.
That was not the frivolous look she knew.
Nor was it the way he usually smiled and talked back after a few scolding words.
He was simply someone who had finally discovered that he could not go back.
[Ram: Barusu really is an idiot...]
[Ram: Even now, do you still think making yourself suffer more will bring back the dead?]
Betty's grip on Natsuki Subaru's right hand tightened more and more.
She was not looking at Gluttony Subaru on the screen.
She was looking at the Natsuki Subaru beside her.
If Return by Death really did have save points.
If Subaru, too, had once woken up to discover he was too late.
If he, too, had once knelt somewhere no one knew about, just like his counterpart on the screen, begging someone to kill him, or killed himself...
Suddenly, Betty did not dare follow that thought any further.
Emilia also looked at Natsuki Subaru with heartache.
"Subaru."
Natsuki Subaru raised his head.
Emilia's eyes had already reddened.
It had also occurred to her that Natsuki Subaru might already have experienced something like this in the past.
His silence had made the air in the green room grow heavy again.
Al watched this scene, and for a long time, the chat did not light up.
He understood that feeling better than the others.
Starting over sounded like hope.
But when the starting point was wrong, that thing became a wall.
You knew the door lay further back.
You knew everyone could have lived.
You knew that if you had only died a little earlier, perhaps you could have changed everything back.
But when you opened your eyes, the door had already closed.
You could only stand behind it, knowing the people inside would never answer again.
Al slowly lowered his head.
[Al: Bro.]
[Al: This really isn't some fun ability.]
The image on the screen finally went completely dark.
Black text slowly appeared.
[Correct answer.] [Answer: B. No.] [Reason: Natsuki Subaru of the Gluttony Route cannot piece together a complete "Natsuki Subaru."] [Playback of the Gluttony Route's final record is complete.] [Beginning reward distribution.] [Reward 1: Natsuki Subaru may voluntarily activate World Rewind to any point in time (one use).] [Even if the user is unconscious, sealed, under mental interference, or in a similar state, this reward can still activate as long as the preset intent remains.] [Only the user may retain their memories.] [At the instant of activation, mental interference will be forcibly severed, and SAN will return to normal.]
As long as he held on to it, even if Natsuki Subaru truly was driven into a corner, even if he reached a wrong ending in the future, he would still have one chance to start over.
He would not wake up like his counterpart on the screen and discover that everything was already too late.
Looking at that line of text, Natsuki Subaru did feel a moment of relief.
Cognitive Obstruction, his companions' trust, some information about the future.
And now this chance to use World Rewind to a point he could choose himself.
If he held all of these in his hands, he should be able to walk a steadier path from now on and avoid more mistakes.
He should never again become that version of himself on the screen, kneeling on the ground and begging Shaula to kill him.
This should have been reassuring.
But as Natsuki Subaru looked at his broken counterpart on the screen, that little bit of reassurance in his chest slowly sank again.
Did he really need to keep this reward for himself?
He already had so much, yet his counterpart on the screen had nothing left.
Reikin could not come back, the village could not come back, and Otto, Garfiel, Anastasia, Ricardo, and Mimi had all become names in the Book of the Dead.
Shaula held him and cried, yet she did not even understand why he was crying.
Natsuki Subaru watched that scene, his fingers slowly tightening.
Suddenly, he understood.
What he wanted had never been for himself to live well.
Nor was it to use rewards to make the future foolproof.
What he wanted was for everyone to come back.
For someone who made a mistake to still be stopped.
For someone who had already reached the end to hear the words "there's still time" once more.
If this world insisted on making one Natsuki Subaru carry every sin all the way to the end.
Then another Natsuki Subaru would drag him back.
Natsuki Subaru slowly raised his head, his eyes filled with determination.
Reflected in his eyes was his broken counterpart on the screen.
This time, he did not hesitate for long.
"This reward..."
His voice was quiet, but clear.
"I want to use it on the Gluttony Route."
Now, at last, I had a little of "Natsuki Subaru's" resolve too, didn't I?