Bathed by the darkness was the older of the oni sisters, Ram.
From an unknown origin, a voice had made itself clear. With a firm and impassive tone.
YOU HAVE SINNED
Ram looked up confused. Had she ever done something like that? More than likely she had. However, the question remained—What sin was the voice referring to?
Judging by the situation, it should be something related to Subaru, but in her mind, she hadn't done anything too bad to him. Considering how hopeless and useless he was, she would even say she was being overly nice to him.
Nothing came to mind. Was insulting him enough of a sin for her to be punished? Maybe a little flick on the forehead every once in a while? Calling him out for those perverted eyes Subaru always seemed to have?
Were any of these considered sins?
Ram sighed. The weirdness of the situation ticked her off. Whoever was behind all of this should just allow her to return with Roswaal along with her sister. Subaru could stay wherever he was until the end of his days if he desired it.
"I know you can hear me! Let me out already, this is starting to get really annoying. And give me back my sister. This whole sin nonsense is starting to get on my nerves!"
She screamed into the empty void.
Her words were received by that of the entity behind the events unfolding. As a response to her—
Ram's world started to spin, "Wh... What have you... done? I-I... feel dizzy... You... will pay... for playing... with Rem and Ram... bastar—"
Before she could finish talking, she collapsed to the ground. She lost control of her limbs. Her whole body lost feeling, and slowly but steadily, her consciousness vanished into nothingness.
♢
The next time Ram opened her eyes, the darkness was long gone. She was lying on a hard surface. How long had she been out? She wondered.
With a bit of effort, she raised her head again and inspected her surroundings.
A theater room, identical to the one she had been in, only that this one was completely empty. Well, not completely—
"Barusu, what is this absurdity?"
In the first row was Subaru Natsuki, who seemed impassive to Ram's comment. His gaze was kept straight, turning a deaf ear to Ram.
Subaru's behavior was usually one that bothered Ram, but directly ignoring her—truly that fool of Subaru was asking for it.
She walked up next to him, and—
"Huh? Why… what the—?"
As Ram tried to slap Subaru, her hand simply went through his head.
Subaru was intangible.
"Don't tell me... Are you really the one behind all of this?" Ram asked.
Of course, Ram quickly realized that that wasn't the case
"How silly of me. Your intellect wouldn't amount to that much. Still, you ignoring me really is irritating. Stop, Barusu."
She tried everything she could think of, punching, slapping, flicking him, and even tried to put her finger in his eye, but nothing worked.
Seeing all her efforts amounted to nothing, Ram let out an annoyed grunt and stepped away. She went to the last row and sat in the same place she had been in the other room.
The screen showed a new loop starting, one she didn't recognize either.
She quickly came to the realization that Subaru would die again.
In this loop, Subaru decided to leave the mansion, which could be seen as an attempt to escape the mansion before the killer arrived. Nonetheless, Ram knew Subaru better than that. She knew Subaru had a plan in mind.
After traveling ahead for a few kilometers, Subaru turned right and headed towards one of the mountains next to the mansion. There, he prepared himself for when the killer arrived at the mansion. He rested his back on a rock and waited patiently for the night to come.
The moment he relaxed a bit, the silence was broken.
"Oh no..."
A mace struck the rock Subaru was resting on, completely smashing it into pieces. However, that wasn't what made Ram's mood change. It was the mace. She recognized it. There was no mistaking it. That mace belonged to her dear sister Rem.
The realization struck Ram, who simply didn't know how to react. She tried to open her mouth, but the words didn't come out. What could she do? Was Rem watching herself kill Subaru all alone? Also—
"The previous killer… was also Rem?"
She needed her. Rem needed her sister. Ram needed to go with her. She must go. Rem wouldn't be able to bear it alone.
"Hey! Whoever is doing this, take me with my sister!" Ram shouted.
But no one answered her.
She stood up and went to the screen. Ram took one look at Subaru, who kept watching the screen oblivious to her, and started punching with all her might.
Every hit damaged her fists more, to the point where blood started to come out, yet the screen didn't take any damage. The pain she was feeling was nothing compared to what Rem was probably feeling in that moment.
"What the hell is this!?"
Enraged, she started hitting even harder.
"Go to hell!" Ram screamed as she looked back at the room. "You're nothing but human trash!"
She let out a last scream, and with her fists covered with blood, she turned back. This time, she didn't sit in the back row. She sat next to Subaru. Ram looked at his face, curled her fist, and once again tried smacking him in the face.
In her heart, Ram couldn't help but despise Subaru. He hadn't done anything wrong. He was the one who suffered during the loops. It probably wasn't his fault that Rem ended up killing him. Even while she knew this, in that very moment, she cursed Subaru's existence. Not because of who he was, but because he was the cause of her sister's suffering.
Unable to change anything about her current situation, she had no choice but to continue watching the screen with Subaru.
The video had already arrived at the part where Subaru saw Rem. He pushed her away and started running for his life, but before he could get away, something hit his ankle.
The sound of the attack. The appearance of it. The nature itself, all of it was familiar to Ram.
The magic used in that attack was wind style, which Rem did not possess. Only one person in the mansion controlled wind magic.
Ram widened her eyes. Now she knew why she had been sent away from the group. Rem hadn't killed Subaru alone.
Ram was her accomplice.
Ram had killed Subaru. She gritted her teeth, "Damn all of this."
She had to accept reality, there was nothing else to do. There would be time for lamenting later, she had to get her mind busy. Something that could help the group, something like the mechanism of that place.
The pieces of the puzzle were set. She only needed to place each one correctly. Slowly, the dots started to connect.
"In the previous loop, only Rem had been sent away. The killer was unknown, but with the info I possess now, I could assume it was Rem again. This time, I have been sent away too. Assuming Rem still is not with the group, how the mechanism works makes sense. The killer in each loop will be sent away."
The only unknown was whether they would return with the group.
Ram turned her attention at the video, Rem healed Subaru's ankle. His feet had been separated. The only reason why you would heal someone you're chasing was—
"Torture..." murmured Ram.
The questioning started. Every wrong answer would be punished, yet Subaru didn't flinch. Instead of cooperating, Subaru kept talking about his past loops, which confirmed the ability he had, but that Rem didn't understand. That Rem didn't know Subaru. For her, all he said was in order to escape the torture. Subaru cried as he asked why she wouldn't remember. The mace kept smashing into his body, every wrong answer a new hit.
Suddenly a merciful attack reached his throat. A wind attack sliced his neck, giving him a painless death.
Ram had mercy killed Subaru.
"What an unsightly view..."
With that, Subaru's loop ended, and that theater room lost one member, leaving Subaru alone once again.