Subaru was many things.
A once-promising student—good enough to be a shoo-in for student council, maybe even a cheerleader if she pushed herself. Hell, if the stars had aligned and life hadn't punched her in the teeth, she might've even ended up in the idol industry. She liked that dream well enough when she was a kid.
But then came the hard truth.
You're not always the best.
The things she used to be good at? They became average compared to everyone else.
And the things she was average at? They became embarrassing. Tragic, even.
Subaru never claimed to be a brave girl. So she did what scared people do—she locked herself away. Into her room.
Into the glow of screens and the comfort of anime, games, cosplay, and whatever else could blur the sharp edges of reality.
It probably disappointed her parents—she was pretty sure of that, even if they acted supportive to her face. Too supportive. Smiles stretched too wide, voices too calm.
She saw through it.
How could she pretend things were fine when they were always at each other's throats the moment she was out of earshot? And no, not in the "passionate couple still in love" way—more like "if murder wasn't illegal, one of them would be buried under the rose bushes by now."
But hey, none of it mattered in the end.
Because she got fucking isekai'ed.
And that she didn't see coming.
Maybe now her parents would finally get along. Maybe, if fate was feeling extra ironic, they'd pop out a couple more kids to fill the Subaru-shaped hole in their lives. She actually hoped for that, weirdly. If she ever made it back—somehow—maybe she'd have little siblings to meet.
So she stepped into a new world.
At first?
Total disappointment.
No charming prince to greet her.
No busty elf babe ready to teach her how to shoot lightning from her fingers.
No floating skill menu.
No cheat ability.
Just cold, confusing reality—and the distinct feeling that this wasn't one of those isekai stories.
Then she died.
And came back.
Each time—by the hands of the same madwoman.
Elsa. The Bowel Hunter. And did just not killed. She killed in very intimate way and slow.
It started when she was helping a silver-haired half-elf who called herself Satella, looking for a stolen insignia. That name sounded way too familiar for comfort, but Subaru didn't have time to unpack it.
Satella had this annoying habit of going off-script—sidetracking to help strangers, even if the strangers were glaring at her like she was something they'd scrape off their boots. Why was she obsessed with Sidequest when theif with her Insignia was on the loose?
But she didn't complained and followed along as elf heroine completed her side quests even if people spit when they saw her. How rude.
But some people in sidequest were kind.
Like the fruit-seller's daughter, same man where her checkpoint was set, and Satella and Subaru guided home his daughter back, Plum.
Returning a lost girl to her gruff old man—and that's where they met him.
The guy who didn't belong. Modern clothing gave it away, with coat style thin jacket and jeans and shoes. He was definitely from Earth.
Like her.
He called himself Winter. Said it was a direct translation of his real name, something that sounded more dramatic than suspicious in a world full of curses and talking animals. He said it was foolish to use real names as names have power. She called him paranoid.
Winter was… off. Paranoid. Observant, awkward, chatty and curious that will definitely kill him someday. But weirdly nice. He agreed to help her and Satella without hesitation. He even got along with both of them, which ticked Subaru off more than she liked to admit.
Because he had powers.
She watched him shoot fire from his damn hands.
And not long after, damn firebender started getting even stronger.
It was like watching one of those OP gamer fanfics where the protagonist levels up just for breathing in the right direction. The way he kept evolving—it was unfair.
If he'd had just a little more time, maybe he could've beaten Elsa.
But they both died, two girls clinging to half alive boy.
Subaru, Satella… both cut down in the Loot House.
She remembered his face—the horror in his eyes, the tears as her blood soaked into the wooden floor.
Somehow, it mattered. Even though she felt pathetic and small and replaceable, someone cried for her.
She died holding their hands.
And in that moment, Subaru felt like a happy woman.
Then—
She woke up.
Standing in front of the fruit stall again.
The Appa guy.
The same day. The same place.
And it hit her.
This was her Cheat Code. Exactly what Winter had predicted. it needed something specific to trigger it. It only worked after she died.
Damn. Fuck the ROB who gave her powers. Especially on their asshole and cunt, both at the same time.
Subaru calmed down, using breathing exercise as she clenched her fist.
And so began Loop Two.
Oh, boy. This one was a clusterfuck.
It started going downhill the second she called the silver-haired girl Satella again.
Because this time, the half-elf didn't smile.
She froze. Her entire body stiffened like she'd just been slapped across the face with a dead fish. And then—rage.
"If this some kind of sick joke I don't find it funny." She said, glaring.
Not anger. Not confusion. Rage. White-hot, spine-stiffening, leave-and-don't-look-back rage.
She stormed off, and Subaru stood there blinking in stunned confusion like someone who'd just unplugged the wrong cable on a bomb.
"Wait… wasn't that the name you gave me?!"
Apparently not anymore.
Then came Winter. Meeting him was a little different too.
He didn't snap or get hostile like Satella had. No, he just got… weird. Tense. Anxious. She could practically see the alarms going off in his head as she babbled on—dropping casual remarks about things he hadn't told her in this loop yet.
In Loop One, he'd been chatty, curious, almost eager for connection.
In Loop Two? He looked at her as if She looked like a stalker.
A creepy, clingy, strangely well-informed stranger.
And she remembered something now while she was talking with Winter and Satella while they were going to Loot house and Winter called them both his friends in the first loop and then things started to make sense for Subaru.
He didn't consider anyone a "friend" until he'd spent at least an hour with them. Minimum. Standard vetting procedure. And she skipped right past it went too personal and intimate in first ten minutes of their meeting. Woops.
So yeah. She'd blown this one too.
Still, he agreed to help eventually—his reasoning simple and honestly sweet:
"I'm not letting some powerless Earth girl die on her first day."
Powerless? Ouch. Accurate though.
Only this time, when they fought Elsa… he didn't use fire.
He used telekinesis.
Straight-up mind powers. Flinging crates like a Jedi in therapy or that Eleven girl from Stranger Things.
And when she asked him about the fireball? He just gave her the world's most confused expression.
Right.
So his power changed with each loop.
How?! Why?! Was it randomized? Did it depend on his mood?
Or maybe… the timeline itself messed with him?
Either way, it didn't help.
Felt never showed. Rom was already dead.
It was just the two of them.
Against her.
Elsa. The butcher in black that looked both of them like she wanted to mutilate both of them, have threesome and kill them in no particular order, judging by her moans of delight.
And this time, Subaru died under moonlight—bleeding out on a rooftop after Winter dragged her mangled body halfway across the city.
He ran. He cried.
That night, as she faded out, she heard him whisper many things about him.
His life. His wins, His regrets. His failures, his success. His fear.
Over all many information about him that she thought wss true because why would anyone would lie to a dying girl?
Apologizing that he didn't know how to save her. That he didn't know how to unlock her aura yet.
Then—
She died.
Reset.
Loop Three.
This time? She was done playing nice.
If this loop was doomed anyway, she might as well use it.
So she made a plan. Cold. Calculated.
One objective: gather information.
She wanted to know everything.
Who had the insignia.
Where Felt was. Bribing people of slums were much easy than she expected.
When Elsa would strike.
The layout of the city. Timelines. Patterns. Escape routes.
So she let it happen.
Let the three thugs find her. Let them beat her. Nearly worse like getting SA'ed judging by how they were trying to tear her jumpsuit off.
She gave herself up to it, just long enough because this timeline was expendable if necessary and she knew help was coming.
Then—on cue—Not-Satella swooped in to save her. Right on time. So she played along the first loop.
They helped Plum. Found Winter.
Gathered their party like it was a damn RPG tutorial.
Except this time?
Winter had a lightsaber.
Like, an actual plasma sword. Glowing. Humming. A literal lightsaber.
She nearly died on the spot just from joy.
Before she could even fangirl properly, Puck—of all fuzzy little smug bastard—casually called it a Flame Sword.
Flame Sword.
Blasphemy.
It was like calling the One Ring a keychain.
She died with that sacrilege echoing in her head. She could hear George Lucas crying in the corner. Damn you Puck.
And so came Loop Four.
But this time… something changed.
Winter was already onto her.
He confronted her early. He talked too much, and never answered with straight words, always riddles or mysterious tone, like Riddler and Sherlock Holmes had lovechild who talked like knock off Batman.
Said he suspected her of being the time traveler.
Because—get this—he'd set a trap in Loop two when he was whispering while she was dying.
Like any Gen Z, chronically-online, conspiracy-kid he had always fantasized how he was going to convince his past self if time travel was real and he had made several plans for that.
He had catchphrases. Secret bits of information he'd only share to someone to test if they were going back in time and this information was a message from future versions to the past. His broken arm. A detail he hadn't told her yet.
She'd blurted it out by accident.
Checkmate.
And now? He believed her. Not just because of her mistakes—but because of his own prep work and paranoid mind.
Turns out Winter was smarter than he looked.
Way smarter.
Behind the boyish awkwardness and soft eyes was a brain with naive face and act. Not that he was evil or coward as he didn't abandoned her even once but still.
Subaru had severely underestimated him.
Because in Loop One, he'd acted sweet.
In Loop Two, he'd been cautious.
In Loop Three, he'd fought with fire and steel.
But here in Loop Four he was full on detective mode. Too bad talking didn't save any of them from Elsa. She noticed he only died this time. Hah arrogant bastard.
She hoped this time powers will not affect Winter's mind, for his own sake more than hers.
Ahh it hurts so much. Suck a dick whoever is putting her through this hell. On choke on it for bonus points too.
Reset.
Maybe Loop Five was the charm, Subaru thought, mostly out of spite.
She had just been ambushed—again—by Chin, Kon, and Tan. Not their real names. Just what she decided to call them, since she couldn't be bothered to actually remember. Three interchangeable thugs with bad breath and worse aim.
She hadn't expected it this time. They caught her off-guard, and pride be damned—she screamed.
"Someone—! I need a man—!!!"
In a past loop, Reinhard had shown up like a red-haired angel with plot armor and saved her. So she screamed, half-hoping history would repeat.
But it wasn't Reinhard this time.
It was Winter.
She spotted him as he rounded the roof—wide-eyed, innocent, very much not the cunning little bastard from Loop Four who set trap-phrases for time travelers.
To be honest all Winter set up the trap because he had that time traveling fantasy. Well look at her, she didn't feel that fantastic now did she?
But no what she meant is this Winter had the same soft-eyed energy from Loops One and Two, once he got past his suspecious phase. Curious. Hopeful.
Still new to this nightmare.
And yet… still smart. Every version of him was smart. Too smart. The kind of clever you didn't expect from someone who looked like he was raised on plushies and Pixar.
Even now, when he clearly had no memory of her, no reason to care—he threw himself into the fight without hesitation.
"Bitch… Don't screw around! You're seriously yelling at a time like this?!" Thug #1 barked.
"You're supposed to listen if you don't want to get hurt!" Thug #2 added.
"Shut up! Who gives a damn what normally happens?! Offbeat, off path, wrong way, they're all right! I just wanna find some gold and silver-haired hotties!" She snapped frustration bubbling up as she let her mouth do as it pleases.
"Three future dead thugs say what?" He called, casually from the rooftop.
"What?" all four said in unison—including her because that was so random you couldn't help but repeat.
Grinning, he pushed his Aura into overdrive. A golden glow surged around him—making her and three thugs shielding their eyes because holy fuck he's bright.
"Geronimo!" He shouted, jumping off and aunt gravity did what she does best, pulling flying idiots back on ground with accelerated speed. Like, full-body flying tackle.
Like WWE Lucha Dragons highflying action.
"The fuuuuu—!" was all she heard before he crashed down onto the three thugs.
Well this was over very quickly.
She didn't fight this time. No point.
Instead, she looked at her savoir and she used her knowledge. Played her part.
And for once, she made friends with him properly. The honest way.
Which, it turned out, wasn't even that hard.
Winter wasn't the kind of person who kept walls up. He didn't posture, didn't flex.
He was weird, and soft, and open.
And strangely… familiar.
They even liked the same dumb niche anime shows.
She joked about magical girl tropes and he laughed like someone who knew exactly how trash Isekai anime there were and still watched them anyway.
Of course, she still slipped up. Said too much. Let a few time-travel facts spill out.
But when he figured it out—he didn't panic. He didn't accuse her.
Didn't even care that she might've been manipulating him from the start.
Just gave her a look. That calm, unreadable look. He had gall to say:
"And don't play the brooding mysterious girl with me," he said, leaning toward her, her poor maiden heart pounding very loudly. "I can see through that act. You know me, but I don't know you. Conclusion? Time's involved. So if my future self trusted you with that information… then I'll trust myself. Even if I don't trust you."
"…And why don't you tell the real reason too?" she asked, huffing as she relaxed her grip. She knew what he thought of her when he brought her to the moonlight before she died in his arms. Not that he would know anything.
"Well…" he scratched his cheek, oddly innocence that she knew would not last into this shitty Isekai world. "Despite looking like a shut-in, you're actually pretty. I'd feel kinda bad if I let you die."
Subaru will never admit but her heart went Doki-Doki at this once again. Damn him. Damn him for not even giving one good reason to hate his guts. Why couldn't he be a self-centered asshole? Why not be a coward who would leave her? Why not be a lustful boy of his age?
She sighed once more and lead to Loot house quietly, Winter following behind like a lost puppy.
Which led to this:
"Subaru, duck!"
She dropped instantly, just as a blur of black whipped overhead.
Thwip-thwip-thwip—
Elsa's legs sliced the air where her neck had just been. One more second and she'd be soup on the pavement.
"Give it up, Elsa!" Winter called out, never breaking stride, eyes locked on the assassin. "You're surrounded by two mages, a giant, and a Subaru. And you're unarmed."
"Oi." She called out. What do you mean a Subaru? She's the only Subaru dammit.
He still had her kukri gripped in one hand—stolen right from her when she tried to attack Felt with it, getting stabbed by fork as reward.
Elsa just smiled, eyes wide, delighted.
"Isn't that exciting?" she purred. "I could die at any moment… in so many delicious ways…"
She moaned—moaned, disturbingly—like she was whispering sweet nothings to a lover.
"What pain will I feel? How long will I suffer?" She drew the syllables out like a song, eyes fixed on Winter with twisted adoration. Instead of hating to young man who nearly killed her, Elsa was having orgasmic smile that Subaru instantly recognized.
Damn internet has rotted her brain.
Then, voice like a promise:
"Ahhh… I'll save you for last. I'll peel your skin and take your organs out in alphabetical order."
There was a beat of silence.
Then Winter, cocking his head, actually looked intrigued.
"…Which alphabetical order?"
And then he hurled a chair at her.
Subaru sighed as chaos erupted around her. Screams. Magic blasts. Elsa laughing.
She crouched behind cover, dust in her lungs, adrenaline in her throat, and thought:
This is my life now. Seriously fuck whoever brought her here. When she gets her hands on them....
No Rolling or Accomplishment in Interlude chapter or from Alternative timeline or Doomed loops.