With an overly long, echoing creak that shivered across the vast stone and silence of the library, the massive doors groaned open—reluctantly, heavily—as if moved by more than just physical force.
And through them stepped Subaru.
A silhouette, slouched and shadowed, crossing the threshold like a man freshly pulled from the bottom of the ocean. He looked up only briefly—just long enough to take in the impossible scale of the Library—before his gaze dropped again, heavy and ashamed.
Blood matted his hair, dried in streaks from where he'd slammed his forehead into the Trial's ground. His eyes were swollen, red from tears and rage and ghosts.
But then he saw them.
Satoru Gojo and Shaula—waiting for him.
And despite the exhaustion pressing down on him like gravity itself, Subaru felt it: relief. Pure and immense. It made his knees nearly buckle.
They were here. Which meant it was real.
He had truly passed the first of the three trials.
Gojo's head turned toward him even before the sound of footsteps reached his ears—those eyes, those impossible eyes, sensing far more than just sound or presence.
His smile faltered, flickered out completely when he saw Subaru.
But still...
He passed it.
Gojo stood slowly, stretching his arms overhead with a slight pop in his shoulders before strolling forward. Subaru didn't look up until the last second, meeting his gaze with tired defiance.
"So you did it, huh?"
Gojo's voice was light. A small smile returned.
Subaru took a shaky breath, the corners of his mouth tugging up in a grin—far too wide, too forced.
"Of course I did! What—did you think I couldn't?"
He tried to move past, brushing by with a step toward the towering bookshelves—but a hand landed on his shoulder. Not forcefully. Not painfully. But firmly.
That hand…
That hand.
Gojo wasn't smiling anymore.
"You're still pretending…" he said quietly.
"…Pretending like you're okay when you obviously aren't."
His voice was soft, but there was no mistaking the strength behind it.
"Subaru... just be more honest with yourself. Whatever you're going through... we can go through it together. It's why I've came all the way out here in the first place…"
Of course Gojo knew.
Nothing ever got past those eyes.
Those words… they struck deep.
Almost identical to what that false Gojo—the Trial's illusion—had said to him.
But now they were real.
They meant something more.
Subaru's shoulders trembled.
"…So that's what you really thought, huh…"
He muttered, his voice low and hoarse, eyes staring at the ground.
Gojo said nothing—just tilted his head slightly, patient as ever. Watching.
Subaru let out a long, bitter breath and turned fully to face Gojo. His voice cracked.
"Urgh… crap…"
It all came flooding back.
The pain. The deaths. The guilt.
All the loops. All the anger. Even the ones where Gojo had killed him—he knew those weren't really him. They never were.
And finally, it broke.
"I'm sorry…" Subaru said. His voice trembled, but he didn't look away.
"Gojo-sensei… I'm sorry. I'm so sorry—for pushing you away. For treating you like crap when all you did was try to help me. I—I just…"
He couldn't finish.
The tears had returned. Not like before—loud and wild—but quieter, more painful. The kind of crying that comes when the fight is finally over.
Gojo nodded. A gentle grin pulled at his lips, soft and reassuring.
He didn't need to know every detail of what Subaru was actually going through, so long as he was actually there, that would be enough.
"Don't worry about it!" Gojo said. "I'm just glad you're back. Right?"
Subaru let out a shaky laugh, wiping his eyes with a trembling forearm before grinning, his first genuine laugh in a long while.
"…Yeah. I'm back."
———————————————————
The trio wandered together through the hushed, endless corridors of the Library—no words, only the echo of their footsteps against marbled stone and the rustle of ancient air through towering shelves.
Then, breaking the silence, Subaru's voice cut through—quiet, but curious.
"So… this Library… it's supposed to have every piece of information in the world, right?"
Shaula nodded energetically, arms swinging as she walked.
"Well, I think so! That's what you told me waaay back when, remember~?"
"…Right…" Subaru muttered, eyes sweeping across rows of books stretching into forever.
"So, is there… a magic section or something?"
Shaula puffed her cheeks, thoughtful.
"Dunno~ I've never actually been up here! In fact, I don't think anyone has. Not besides Master~ Shame you've got such awful memory, really~!"
Subaru sighed, dragging a hand through his hair, gaze shifting toward Gojo—who finally spoke.
"So… what do you even need magic for?"
His voice was light, casual—but the look in his eyes was anything but.
Silence followed.
Gojo raised his hands in mock surrender, stepping back slightly.
"Only if you wanna talk about it. Not tryna pry or anything…"
Subaru turned away slightly, walking toward a nearby shelf. His fingers hovered near the spine of a random tome.
"Nah. It's fine…"
He paused, voice low. "Simply put—I need a way to retrieve a part of my soul. I… lost it."
A beat.
"…Against Reinhard."
Gojo's brow lifted, expression turning sharper.
"Reinhard? Why the hell would he do something like that? I mean, I remember you saying the two of you fought but…"
"Well…" Subaru hesitated, voice growing distant. "Maybe because, at the time… I wasn't exactly completely sane to say the least."
No one responded to that. They didn't need to.
Dying to the same man over and over again for half a year would twist anyone's mind.
Subaru swallowed the lump in his throat.
"I'll explain it all. Eventually. But right now, that's all that matters."
Gojo nodded slowly, accepting the answer for now.
With a heavy breath, Subaru reached toward a book at random. What were the odds it'd be the right one in a sea of impossibility?
Still—why not try his luck?
The second his fingers touched the spine—
"Subaru—?!"
Gojo lunged forward, catching Subaru's limp body before it hit the floor. He gently lowered him down, eyes narrowing in alarm.
"What the hell just happened…?"
His gaze lifted, scanning the rows of tomes around them. Something… shifted in the air. He felt it.
Several seconds passed—then Subaru's eyes snapped open. He sucked in sharp, gasping breaths, like he'd been pulled from underwater.
"W-What the hell was that…?"
"You good?" Gojo asked, crouched beside him.
Subaru sat up slowly, wincing as he gripped the side of his head.
"Yeah… yeah, I think so. I mean, try it yourself if you're that curious—"
He let out a weak laugh, joking—mostly.
Gojo blinked. Then, with a shrug, stepped toward a nearby book and touched it without a second thought.
"You better catch me, then."
The moment his fingertips brushed the dusty, ancient leather—possibly older than any kingdom in existence—he felt a wave of exhaustion slam into him like a tidal force. He stayed upright for maybe three seconds before exhaustion began to kick in.
Then his knees buckled—and he fell.
And in that darkness, he saw it.
An entire life. Not his. Someone else's, someone he'd never met and someone he will never meet. From birth to death. Love, loss, betrayal, triumph. Every breath, every scar, every memory—streamed through his soul like a torrent.
"Uff—!"
His eyes shot open behind the blindfold. He groaned, sprawled on the polished floor as Shaula and Subaru leaned over him.
"Okay..." he breathed, rubbing his face. "Yeah. I'm not touching another book in here again. Ever."
Subaru chuckled, still slightly pale. "So… what did you see?"
"Someone's whole life.." Gojo muttered, blinking rapidly. "Like a memory downloaded into my brain or something. Fast-forwarded but real."
He looked at Shaula. "How long was I out?"
Shaula leaned in, eyes wide.
"Two days…"
Gojo's face dropped.
Then she giggled. "Kidding~! Not even ten seconds, aha!"
Gojo groaned, rubbing his temple.
"That was… something. I might need therapy after this."
Subaru managed a dry laugh. "Welcome to the club."
The three of them sat there, the weight of the Library pressing down around them—millions of stories, lives, secrets—waiting. Watching.
"Ugh… well…"
Gojo pulled himself upright with a sway, rubbing his head like he was shaking off a bad dream.
"So—how do we get to the next floor for the second trial? More stairs, right? Actually… what's that floor even called?"
Shaula straightened, hands on her hips, her usual sing-song tone returning.
"Weeeell~ It's the Second Floor: Electra. But besides that… I got nothin'. Never been past the fourth floor myself before now, sooo…"
"…Great."
Both Subaru and Gojo just stared at her—blinking slowly, unimpressed. Hundreds of years in the same place, and she'd somehow not explored it all? Even for the absurd labyrinth that was the Pleiades Watchtower, it was baffling.
Gojo broke the silence. "So… now what?"
Even he sounded drained.
"Surely we just… look around?" Subaru suggested, gesturing vaguely at the endless expanse of towering shelves. "I mean, yeah, it's huge, but the staircase has to be somewhere on this floor."
Gojo groaned, dragging a hand down his face.
"Dude… that's like trying to find a grain of sand in a haystack. No—even worse. A specific grain of sand. In a haystack. While blindfolded. And also on fire!"
He crossed his arms in an X and drew out each word like a judge declaring a sentence.
"I-M-P-O-S-S-I-B-L-E!"
Subaru stepped back with a wary look.
"Alright, alright… so maybe we don't do that. What's the alternative instead?"
Gojo's grin returned, a spark of mischief in his voice as he smacked one fist into his palm.
"We… retrace our steps! Think about it—if the guy who built this place is anything like you…"
"Master is~" Shaula added without hesitation, beaming.
"…Then he'd totally want to piss off anyone who came in here as much as possible!" Gojo finished.
Subaru's frown deepened.
"Is that seriously what you think of me?"
"Pssshh… moving on…" Gojo said, waving it off. "If it were you, you'd probably bait us into thinking the staircase were just impossible to find—when really, it's been in some wide-open, obvious spot the whole time to just reaaally piss us off!"
He tilted his head, considering.
"Ooooor, I've completely overthought this, and I have no idea what I'm talking about. But… what would you rather do?"
Subaru crossed his arms, muttering.
"…Honestly? I'd rather not waste hours searching just to find out it was under our noses all along."
"Then we're agreed!" Gojo declared, already turning back the way they'd come.
———————————————————
They made their way back down through the Library, descending toward the Fourth Floor—Alcyone—and back into Shaula's self-proclaimed "dwelling area."
"Okay, so…" Subaru turned on his heel, arms crossed. "Shaula, are there any secret places you've conveniently forgotten to tell us about?"
Shaula tilted her head, her smile as bright and oblivious as ever.
"Weeeell~ Since Master's memory is kinda the worst, I guess I can help jog it! In Alcyone, there's this room—my dwelling, right here—and then there's also the Green Room!"
"The Green Room?" Gojo repeated, raising an eyebrow.
"Uh-huh~" she sang, then threw out an arm with theatrical flair, pointing dramatically to the side.
Subaru and Gojo followed her gesture—toward a green door. And not just "green"—it looked like a slice of some rainforest had been forcibly jammed into the sterile stone of the Watchtower. Moss caked the frame, ivy draped down in curtains, and tiny blooms peeked through the cracks. The door belonged in a jungle temple, not a magical monolith.
"Well, guess we're exploring now..."
Gojo said, already on the move. With a firm shove, he pushed open the mossy door. Old cracks of moss groaned and flaked away as he stepped through, Subaru trailing behind.
Shaula, naturally, just plopped down into a chair where she was and kicked her feet.
The inside of the Green Room matched its name and then some. It was alive. Vines tangled across the floor, ferns unfurled along the walls, and the ceiling sagged beneath clusters of hanging greenery. It felt humid, almost like the room was breathing.
Subaru batted away a few strands hanging like curtains as he caught up to Gojo, who wandered ahead with his hands stuffed in his pockets.
"Mmm... this one's not massive like the Library at least." Gojo muttered, scanning the space. "And I'm not seeing any doors. Or signs. Or… anything."
He pulled down his bandages, letting his Six Eyes go full throttle. His gaze swept the room, intense and calculated.
Nothing. No illusions. No doors. No tricks.
With a low sigh, Gojo shook his head, then turned to glance back at Subaru—and froze.
Tiny glimmering orbs floated all around Subaru, softly pulsing with gentle light.
"Spirits." Gojo noted, brows raised. "Huh. They really like you."
Subaru blinked and looked down at himself, confused—until he realized the burning throb in his forehead was… gone. The lingering aches from the Centaur trial faded like they were never there at all. A warmth surrounded him, gentle and calming.
The spirits ignored Gojo entirely. They clung to Subaru like bees to nectar.
"…Doesn't that technically make you a spirit user too?" Gojo grinned. "Almost makes me jealous—almost—but I'm still me, so."
Subaru scoffed. "Yeah yeah…"
He lifted one of the little orbs onto his finger like it was a soap bubble.
"I knew there were different types of spirits," he muttered. "Guess these are lesser spirits… not as flashy as Beatrice back in the old library."
Gojo blinked at the name. "Mmm. Wonder how she's doing right now… since we kinda, y'know… nuked Roswaal's mansion and garden into oblivion."
Subaru just groaned and dragged a hand down his face.
"'We'?"
Not responding to Subaru, Gojo tied the bandages back over his eyes and gave one last sweep of the room before turning back toward the entrance.
"There's nothing here. No secret stairway, no trapdoors, no hidden bullshit. If I don't see it—believe me—it's not here."
Subaru nodded. He trusted Gojo's eyes more than his own instincts at this point.
Back outside, Shaula stood up with a stretch that was far more showy of her chest than necessary.
"Weeell~ any luck?"
Gojo rolled his eyes.
"Nope."
As Subaru and Shaula fell into another lighthearted exchange—complete with Shaula hugging a clearly overwhelmed Subaru—Gojo tuned them out, glancing to the side… and froze.
"…This wasn't here before."
"Huh?" Subaru noticed the shift in Gojo's tone and turned.
Gojo walked away without answering at first, eyes narrowed toward a partially obscured corner beside the Green Room's exterior wall—where, tucked almost behind a curved stone alcove, was a grand stairway ascending into darkness.
"You're shitting me…" Gojo muttered.
"What?" Subaru followed, confusion turning to disbelief. "Wait… is that…?"
Gojo let out a long, annoyed sigh.
"Yup. The stairway. It's right here. Just… sitting there."
Subaru stared in silence for a moment.
"…We walked past this once before already."
"Don't remind me." Gojo dragged a hand down his face again. "This place really was designed to drive us insane huh."
Shaula poked her head over with a grin.
"Tehehe~ Told ya Master is a genius!"
Gojo shot her a look.
"You say genius, I say pain in the ass."
Subaru just stepped toward the stairwell, letting out a long breath.
"…Second Floor: Electra, here we come I guess…"
———————————————————
The trio ascended the grand staircase—if you could even call it that. The stairway alone was the size of an entire room, the climb winding endlessly upward in a maddening spiral. Compared to the stairs they scaled before, this was just absurd. So much so, any rational person might wonder how something this enormous wasn't visible from the outside of the Watchtower.
But rationality and magic had long since parted ways.
"Okay, so.." Gojo began, his voice echoing slightly in the stone stairwell, "I'm not usually the guy who says 'we missed something obvious,' but there's no way I wouldn't have noticed a giant gaping stairwell in that room before."
Subaru nodded with a grunt.
"Yeah. It had to be hidden until the first trial was complete. No other explanation makes sense."
Gojo leaned over toward Subaru with a grin.
"Still~ You've gotta admit, you're real glad you listened to me, huh? If not, we'd still be crawling around that dusty old library like idiots."
"Urgh… you're so insufferable." Subaru muttered.
"Anywaaay~" Gojo stretched lazily. "One trial down. We're a third of the way through this freakshow!"
Subaru frowned at that.
"...Yeah. And that was the easiest one. It already pushed me to the brink of despair."
Gojo shook his head, still walking with his hands in his pockets.
"C'mon. That last one was designed for someone like you. That's why me and Shaula coasted through it while you struggled."
Subaru sighed but let the comment pass. He couldn't really argue with it.
After another long moment, Gojo's brow furrowed. His footsteps slowed.
"This staircase… it's not getting any closer. Let's speed it up."
With a quick step forward, Gojo suddenly surged upward, covering a dozen stairs at once in a blur—again and again—Subaru and Shaula following with less grace but just as much urgency.
Minutes passed like that—relentless running—before at last, the ceiling ahead opened into white light.
And then, they arrived to...
"…Another white room. Great…" Subaru muttered.
Gojo glanced around.
"No mirrors this time just yet at least."
The new space was a carbon copy of the Third Floor's trial chamber. Polished white floor, seamless ceiling, blank infinity stretching in all directions. It was eerily sterile, and infinite.
"It looks identical…" Subaru said, stepping forward, "but… we definitely climbed more steps than before. This has to be a different floor."
He paused, gesturing ahead.
"Look—something new!"
A sword.
Simple. Sleek. No scabbard. Just a steel blade buried point-down into the polished white floor.
Gojo stepped up beside him, hands still in his pockets. Shaula bounced after them.
"Guess that's how we start this trial."
Subaru hesitated.
"Weeeellp—go on then!" Gojo gave him a light push with a grin on his face.
"Ugh—damn you—!"
He'd braced himself for resistance—muscles tensing, cursed energy running through his arm, ready for the stubborn pull of a weapon long-buried. Instead… the metal slid from the ground with barely any effort, like it had been waiting.
The blade came free easier than Subaru expected.
A deep crack splintered through the white floor, the sound echoing endlessly in the void.
And then—
An echo. Not from the ground, but from inside his skull.
'—Gain his forgiveness, by hand of the Fool who has reached the Heavenly Sword.'
The words weren't shouted. They didn't need to be. They sank in with a force that made Subaru's teeth grit. His fingers tightened on the hilt without thinking.
He caught movement in the corner of his eye—Gojo's posture straightening, head turning sharply toward… something. Shaula's ears twitched once, then pinned flat out of confusion.
'—Gain his forgiveness, by hand of the Fool who has reached the Heavenly Sword.'
The voice repeated, identical in tone, each word falling heavy like a ritual being chanted by something that didn't understand the meaning.
A shape began to form in the distance. No footsteps. No sound of approach. Just there, like a shadow deciding to become a person. At first, it was featureless—nothing but a black silhouette against the endless white. But with every repetition of that same phrase, more details bled into being.
Long, flowing red hair. A length so wild it reached his waist, shifting faintly despite the still air. Eyes—sky blue, sharp and impossibly alive—burned from beneath the hair. Broad shoulders. A frame tall enough to meet Gojo's gaze level, maybe even look down on him. Muscle, taut and ready, like every inch of him had been built for violence.
And draped over it all… a crimson kimono, the right side left open, baring a scarred chest and an eyepatch over one gleaming eye.
Subaru's first thought was Reinhard. But no. Not Reinhard. The aura was different—less calm, less pure. This man didn't radiate protection. He radiated danger instead.
A grin split the man's face—sharp, wolfish. The kind a predator might wear when the hunt stops being necessity and becomes pleasure.
Gojo met that grin with one of his own, but his smile faltered as soon as he glanced at Shaula.
She was trembling.
Not shaking from cold—her breathing was ragged, shoulders curling inward, pupils wide in something far beyond discomfort.
"Haa… haa… no, no no, that's not…" she whispered. One shaky step back, horror etched onto her normally so happy expression.
'—Gain his forgiveness, by hand of the Fool who has reached the Heavenly Sword.'
The voice came again. Louder now, though the man's lips barely moved.
Then… it began to warp, to falter, his stature creaking with each word that passes.
"...Gain… forgiveness… fool… heavenly sword…"
The even cadence broke apart. His tone twisted like it was being forced through a throat unaccustomed to speech.
"Urgh… forgiveness… grh…"
He jolted—head snapping back, fingers suddenly digging into his hair—and then the sound came.
A roar.
It wasn't just loud—it was physical. A wave of force punched the air from Subaru's lungs, the ground beneath him trembling like something massive had struck it. He tried to brace, arms coming up—but Shaula threw herself against him, clinging tight. The weight threw his balance, and they both went down.
"Urgh—!!"
"Master—masteeeer!! We—we have to run! I—I DON'T WANNA—!!"
Before Subaru could answer, a voice—dry, irritated—cut through the fading roar.
"Ugh… shut the hell up already, shit… My head's killin' me, so quit with the damn shoutin'!"
Shaula went limp instantly a heartbeat later, unconscious out of nothing more than just genuine fear.
What the hell could have Shaula of all people, that very same woman that utterly eviscerated something one-sidedly that Subaru himself couldn't even handle?
Gojo's grin returned, wide, excited now. His tone almost teasing.
"It's pretty obvious… the red hair, the attitude…"
He tilted his head.
"…Reid Astrea, is it?"
The man scoffed.
"Tch—who shittin' else would I be? What, you a follower or somethin'? Tch… whatever. Kinda small fry, right? Pretty lookin' though… charmin' face too… yeahhh."
Gojo blinked, half-amused.
"Don't really get what you're on about, but you got one thing right at least—I am one hundred percent charming~"
Reid's grin turned feral, laughter spilling out unrestrained.
"GYAHAAHAHAA!! I like you. You're a funny guy!"
Then his head snapped toward Subaru, the mirth vanishing in an instant.
"Tch—Oi. You. The hell're you doin' bastard? Clingin' to a hot woman like that right in front of me? You'll switch with me, yeah?"
Subaru didn't answer right away.
He just stared at the man—at the way Reid's sky-blue eyes bored into him with that impossible mix of amusement and challenge. His brows furrowed, breath slow and deliberate, as if weighing his next words.
"…Yeah, uh…" Subaru said finally, voice flat but steady.
"Gonna have to say no on that one. Out of respect for the person herself…"
For a heartbeat, neither moved. Then Subaru shifted—fingers finding Shaula's limp shoulders and easing her off him. Well… easing might have been the intent.
The reality was… less graceful.
Her body flopped to the polished white ground with a muted thud, hair spilling in a wild tangle.
Her head bounced. Just slightly off the ground.
"Baaah?!"
The bark was so sudden, Subaru flinched momentarily.
"The hell you pullin' that for y'bastard?!" Reid snapped, his tone dripping with the same outrage someone might have if a priceless relic was dropped on the floor.
"That's no way to treat a beautiful woman, you shittin' clown!"
Subaru winced, eyes flicking guiltily toward Shaula's motionless form.
"…Yeah. Sorry about that."
Reid just clicked his tongue, the sound sharp in the still air, and turned away. His gaze wandered across the endless white around them, the lightless horizon stretching without end.
A crease formed between his brows less than a second later.
"…Ahhh. Yeah... I see now."
The tone was casual—too casual, as though he'd just remembered he'd left his boots outside in the rain.
"Makes sense eh…" He went on, voice almost lazy. "I'm dead."
Subaru's grip tightened on the sword in his hand.
Reid rolled his neck once, vertebrae cracking audibly. The tension in his posture didn't fade, but the grin that spread across his face made it somehow more dangerous.
"Righty, you. Let's start this thing, then."
Subaru didn't need to think long to understand the trial's meaning. Gain his forgiveness, by the hand of the Fool who had reached the Heavenly Sword. If this man was Reid Astrea, there was only one way for this whole thing to even go.
Gojo flexed his fingers, cracking his knuckles one by one. Subaru shifted his stance—shoulders low, feet grounding into the strange, invisible surface beneath him. No words passed between them. The readiness was mutual, unspoken.
Across from them, Reid lifted his right arm. Slowly. Deliberately.
Light shimmered—soft at first, then sharpening—as a weapon began to take form in his grip. Its spirit-forged edge wavering faintly, like heat haze on a summer road.
It didn't hum or glow with some grand hero's aura. It growled—quietly, but with the kind of primal weight that momentarily made even Gojo's skin crawl, as if signaling danger was coming.
Reid set it casually against his shoulder, tilting his head with an almost lazy confidence.
"Aye…" he drawled, letting the word hang for a moment before his grin deepened.
"I'm just a stick-swinger. Nothin' more, nothin' less. Y'hear?"
"The Trial of The Second Floor: Electra"
—Begin.