If something truly unsolvable came along, Subaru could always just die clean and loop back.
Once not enough? Twice.
Twice not enough? Three times.
Gojo couldn't guarantee much else. But killing Natsuki Subaru painlessly, before he even registered it? That was well within his capabilities.
So the situation unfolding before him didn't worry him in the slightest. Nor did he waste a second wondering whether Return by Death might somehow fail. On one side stood the Witch of Envy, a being who'd nearly devoured half the world. On the other, a frail Sin Archbishop who worshipped her like a lovesick dog. The idea that Petelgeuse could override her gift was laughable.
"Subaru. How are you feeling right now?"
Gojo looked at him the way you'd look at an old friend catching up over coffee. As if the person standing there hadn't just been hijacked by a raving lunatic, but was deciding what to have for dinner.
The words cut through. Behind the wild, distorted expression contorting Subaru's face, something flickered. A crack in the possession. Pain. Struggle.
"That bastard... is inside... my body..."
"Ahaha, what a perfectly suitable vessel this is!"
"O Witch, shower me with your love!"
"So now... what will you do? Kill me?"
Petelgeuse puppeted Subaru's body with manic glee, triumph blazing in borrowed eyes. In his mind, the tables had turned completely.
"Subaru, can you force him out on your own?"
Gojo watched the grotesque performance, the corner of his mouth twitching, and asked again.
"I... can't..."
Subaru wrestled for control long enough to choke out two words.
"Hah?"
"Don't say pathetic crap like that, you idiot!"
Felt's voice cracked with frustration as she rounded on him.
"Reinhard, do something! Can't you pull that thing out of his body?"
Reinhard studied Subaru with furrowed brows, gaze intense and searching. After a long moment, he shook his head.
"I can't guarantee Subaru's safety. If I act, there's a strong possibility I'd destroy both him and Petelgeuse together."
"You really do have the worst luck, don't you."
Gojo rubbed the bridge of his nose and gave Subaru a sympathetic look.
"This isn't the time for wisecracks!"
For all her usual griping, Felt genuinely considered Subaru a companion. The panic bleeding through her composure proved that much.
"What if we knock him out and tie him up? Bring him back to the Royal Capital and figure it out there?"
She thought it over and offered the suggestion. Without knocking him unconscious first, dealing with the Unseen Hands would be a headache.
"Betty, you got anything?"
Gojo yawned and turned to the small spirit.
"When it comes to matters of the soul, I don't have any particularly good solutions either."
Betty, who knew enough of the backstory to share Gojo's calm, spoke without a trace of alarm.
"I see."
"Guess it's time for the last resort, then."
"Last resort?"
Felt whipped toward Gojo. "If you had an idea this whole time, why didn't you say so? I've been worried sick for nothing!"
"Relax. Nothing to worry about anymore."
She was just opening her mouth to ask what he had in mind when the sight before her stopped her cold.
Gojo raised his hand and obliterated Subaru's head.
The act was so sudden, so brutally casual, that it froze everyone where they stood. Felt. Reinhard. Even Petelgeuse, riding inside Subaru's body, hadn't anticipated that Gojo would execute his own companion without hesitation.
He hadn't even gotten the Unseen Hands out before it was over.
In the instant Subaru's skull burst apart, everything stopped.
When Gojo's awareness returned, he was standing back at the end of the royal assembly. Right where it had all begun.
Here we go again.
Subaru, looping back for a fresh start, was noticeably calmer this time. He stared down at his own hands, expression dazed, as though the sequence of events hadn't fully caught up with him yet.
"Tch. Thanks to you, I now have 'murdered his own friend' on my résumé."
Gojo slung an arm around Subaru's shoulders, tone light and teasing.
It clicked. Subaru's eyes went wide as the realization crashed into him. Gojo had set him free.
"Ahhh!"
He sucked in a massive breath, gasping like a drowning man breaking the surface.
"How was it? Not too bad, right? You were dead before the pain even registered."
It took Subaru a while to stop hyperventilating. Long enough to draw a few curious glances from passersby before he finally steadied himself.
"Being wrapped in death... it's not exactly a pleasant experience. Felt like drowning."
"Don't be too harsh. That was pretty much the only option I had at the time."
Gojo's tone shifted, the playfulness draining away.
"Walk me through it. What happened back there?"
"We were so close to pulling it off. Then everything fell apart at the finish line."
"I'm not entirely sure myself. All I know is that right at the end, some foreign consciousness forced its way into my body and took over." Subaru's brow creased as he tried to piece it together. "I was like a spectator trapped in my own skin. I could see everything happening but couldn't do anything about it. Only when I fought back with everything I had could I claw back a sliver of control."
"So his consciousness transfer works on you too. I assumed it only targeted Witch Cult members."
"No, wait. Maybe it's not about affiliation at all. Maybe it's because the Witch's scent on you is dense enough."
Gojo frowned, thinking it through.
"But if that were the case, the scent on me is just as strong. I've had way more direct contact with that lunatic than you have. By that logic, I should've been the prime target."
"Or maybe he just went for the weaker one?"
Subaru laughed bitterly.
"If that's how it works, then the only way to deal with him is complete isolation. Otherwise, even if he doesn't jump into you, he'll jump into someone else nearby."
"Still, if his ability were really that broken, he'd basically be immortal. There has to be a prerequisite. Some condition that makes it possible."
The more powerful the ability, the more complex its activation. Take the Limitless Cursed Technique. Devastating in practice, yes, but it required the Six Eyes to operate. Prerequisites existed for a reason.
"What are you two muttering about over there?"
Betty's crisp voice sliced through their huddle.
"You've both been reeking since earlier, standing here whispering like nobody else exists."
"Something bad happened again, didn't it."
She pinched her nose, eyeing Subaru with the expression of someone who'd already seen through the entire charade.
"Yep, you really are my most reliable partner."
Gojo bent down and scooped Betty into his arms before she could protest, remembering too late that he'd forgotten to consult the walking encyclopedia.
"What are you doing in front of all these people? Put me down!"
Her voice pitched higher, though she kept the volume restrained to avoid drawing attention.
"Betty, help me work through something."
He gave her a quick summary of the Petelgeuse situation. Everything, including the detail from the previous loop about her former etiquette teacher.
Her bright eyes went wide.
"You're telling me Geuse did all that? That he was killed multiple times, and he was going to attack Emilia?"
The intelligence gathered across two loops hit Betty like a physical blow. For a moment she could only stare.
"That's right. That's what we're dealing with, and we need to handle it fast."
"Of course, if you think you could talk your old teacher down and convince him to stop causing problems, I'd consider that a perfectly valid solution."
"Because that resurrection trick of his is a real headache."
Betty pressed her lips together and said nothing.
Gojo and Subaru exchanged a glance. Neither spoke. They waited.
"What are you lot standing around for? Everyone's leaving and you're still planted here like trees."
Felt wandered over, looking between Gojo and Subaru with obvious confusion.
"We're discussing a brilliant get-rich-quick scheme."
"Reinhard, you go on ahead. I'd better stay and make sure these two don't end up in a life of crime."
Leaving the royal palace, Gojo and Subaru talked it over briefly and settled on the same plan as before: head to Roswaal's manor first.
Keep Emilia steady. That was the priority.
Until both the White Whale and the Witch Cult were dealt with, it was best not to stray far from the Royal Capital. And once Emilia was secured, everything else would fall into place.
The mere mention of the Witch Cult and the White Whale was enough to send Felt into a frenzy of excitement.
The one small difference from the previous loop was Reinhard making a detour to the Knight Order's headquarters, returning with an item in hand.
A Conversation Mirror.
"I figured you'd report the White Whale to the Knight Order and have them join us."
On the road out of the city, Gojo voiced his surprise.
"Under normal circumstances, standard procedure would dictate exactly that."
"However, if we can subjugate the White Whale ourselves, it means not only a substantial bounty but also a tremendous boost to Lady Felt's reputation. An opportunity like this shouldn't be squandered."
A good knight didn't just fight. He solved problems for his liege.
"Besides, the White Whale has deep ties to my family's history..."
"Say no more. It's all yours this time. I already had my turn anyway."
Gojo waved a hand, magnanimous in a way that left Reinhard visibly puzzled.
"The bounty, though? That's mine."
"Don't worry, you brought us the intel. I'm not the type to cheat someone out of what they've earned."
Felt waved dismissively, though the grin on her face was pure avarice. The White Whale and the Witch Cult? She could barely calculate how much reward money that added up to.
"About the Sin Archbishop of Sloth..."
Betty spoke up, her voice cutting through the chatter. She'd been quiet since Gojo filled her in on the events of the previous loop, processing everything.
"About Geuse. I think I understand how that ability of his works."
"I knew you'd come through, Betty!"
"There are two known methods for transferring one's soul into another person's body, setting aside unknown Authorities. Two."
Her expression was flat, clinical.
"The first is a spell designed by my mother, the Witch of Greed. It overwrites the target's soul with the caster's, effectively achieving transference. In theory, it could extend one's lifespan indefinitely."
"But to use it, the target must share a blood relation with the caster. At least, that's how it works as far as I know. Without that connection, the spell simply fails."
"Ruled out," Gojo said without hesitation. "There's no way Subaru is related to that guy."
They'd both crossed over from the modern world. A blood connection between them would be beyond bizarre.
"The second method belongs to Evil Spirits."
"And to be clear, by 'spirit' I mean the kind of spirit Emilia is. A Demi-human subspecies. Not the same category as me."
"While they differ from natural-born spirits in certain ways, there are points of overlap."
Betty raised one finger. "Specifically: Contracts."
"For Geuse to transfer his soul and seize control of another body, a prerequisite must be met. The target needs to have an exceptionally high compatibility with spirits."
"If that condition is satisfied, planting a Cursed Technique inside the target's body beforehand makes the process even smoother."
"And if the compatibility is high enough, even that step can be skipped entirely."
"In other words..." Gojo connected the dots instantly. "Subaru isn't talentless at all. He's a natural-born genius as a Spirit Arts User!"
"A Spirit Arts User?!"
Subaru jabbed a finger at his own chest, stunned.
After one humiliation after another, after being told in every possible way that he had nothing to offer, a path he'd never imagined had just opened beneath his feet.
"That's probably the only redeeming quality this idiot has."
Betty's mood was still clouded, but her tongue was as sharp as ever.
"That's great news, Subaru! Looks like you've finally found your calling!"
Gojo clapped him hard on the shoulder, grinning.
He meant it. As a friend, seeing Subaru light up after all that misery was worth celebrating. The guy had been wearing despair like a second skin for way too long.
...
Get early access to 40 chapters ahead on my Patreon!
patreon.com/fawkess