(After a theatre scenario, Reinhard is now back at the beginning of the series, as the only one who remembers it. Here's what he does)!
After once again successfully preventing Subaru from being mugged, Reinhard insists on helping her and Emilia to find the missing insignia. The fight with Elsa still happens, Subaru still gets injured, but this time, Reinhard takes her back home as well as Felt.
Subaru, with no knowledge of the previous timeline, insists that she repay Reinhard for helping her, and becomes a maid at the Astrea Estate, working under Carol and Grimm.
Maid specifically, because Reinhard (The Knower) has been actively treating Subaru as a woman since they re-met. He's trying to be proactive; Subaru is very confused, but also very happy about this for reasons she can't quite name.
However Subaru is joining Felt on team 'Let Me Out'. As cute as Felt looks in those dresses, and as good a trope that gap-moe is, she really would suit something less frilly more, and also kidnapping is literally illegal even if you are the Sword Saint.
Reinhard tries to explain that he's keeping Felt so she can participate in the Selection and he's keeping Subaru to make sure she's safe.
Subaru, hasn't died once in this timeline. So she is very upset about the 'safe' thing. Surely she can walk around outside the grounds for five minutes and live out her isekai dreams! (No, she would so die).
Many escape attempts ensue.
Most of them are ones that Felt already tried last time around, so Reinhard already knows how and when to stop them. But he is very pleasantly surprised by all of the new methods that Subaru comes up with.
At some point early on he would mention to Subaru that if she wants to grow her hair out, he has a friend (Ferris) who can use water magic and make it grow really quickly. Subaru would then immediately want to say yes. But would flop about it for a few days before bashfully asking him if the offer was still on the table. (Obviously). This would all be part of Reinhard's master plan to give Subaru more friends.
The day of the Selection, with Carol accompanying Reinhard and Felt to the castle, Subaru manages to dodge Grimm and escape.
This results in her ending up in an altercation with TonChinKan before running into Rom, explaining to him where Felt is, then getting wrapped up in his plan to get Felt out of the castle and run. (Seems like a decent isekai plot to her).
Obviously this means that Felt does in fact join the selection, and that once again Subaru and Julius have a really weird meeting where he pisses her the fuck off. (Reinhard was planning on gently introducing them). (Failed).
Roswaal attempts to roswaal at Subaru while Reinhard death stares him whenever Subaru isn't looking. It is a very terrifying event for everyone apart from Subaru, talking to Emilia; Emilia, talking to Subaru; and Felt, genuinely concerned about what the clown did and starts death staring him too, regardless of Subaru looking at her.
Reinhard walks off in the evening a week later and kills the White Whale without telling anyone. Then kills off the entire Sloth Faction of the Witch Cult, hoping no one notices. (The Sloth Factor still transfers to Subaru, oops).
This version of events is #Found Family, because Reinhard found these people in a pile of rubble and they're his now.
subaru in fix-it vincent au who assumes vincent is the beautiful goddess who summoned him since she only has the letter and doesnt meet him in person
Nonnie, that's funny as fuck.
Subaru after going through Arc1, meets a strange yet beautiful Cecilus who has apparently been sent from a far-off land to keep Subaru safe until she can be taken to somewhere safe that's being made for her.
Cecilus of course has the letter with not only a guide of social norms- but a guide on how to not die, implying that this mysterious person has knowledge of the trials she will face. ...The explanation of how Ceci knows a guy who can get her a sex change if she asks is something she is trying very hard not to think about.
The letter also probably holds a very wordy apology for any suffering she may endure and that she can tell Ceci anything (apart from RBD, Vincent warns her what will happen) and Ceci will help her with everything.
Subaru is now simultaneously in love with Emilia, who saved her, and Vincent, who is helping her long distance. It's so messy.
Ceci of course has the communication mirror, and is telling Vincent literally everything. Including about Subaru's weird crush on him.
After experiencing a trauma-flashback of “…What if I say, I don’t want to?” Vincent very quickly starts figuring out plans for a second wedding involving him and Subaru.
Eventually Subaru discovers that Vincent is A. a dude, and 2. not a goddess. But considering the fact that Summoned by a royal is another isekai trope, she'll be fine. After finally making herself admit she's into men.
However she does have to ask Cecilus what Vincent looks like because if he wasn't pretty her crush would have crumbled in an instant.
Unfortunately Vincent doesn't ever get the chance to give the go-ahead for transferring Subaru to the empire, because Subaru ends up in the tower and being shamaked to Vollachia first. At least he saves on shipping.
Luckily, he'd figured out that as long as a Vincent Vollachia dies, it doesn't matter which one it is. So he got Chisha to turn some poor schmuck into a copy of him, killed it, then tried very hard not to laugh at Ulbik trying to commit treason over his commandment being destroyed before he could fufil it.
The zombies still happen, but everyone is very well prepared this time.
The Emilia Camp arrives in Vollachia a month later, just in time for the world's most politically complicated wedding.
Luckily for everyone, Ferris is used to working while stressed. And hooooo boy was the theatre stressful.
We know from the Arc1 Side Stories that the Karsten Camp was in the Capital at the time, so Ferris just has to visibly break down for five seconds, before snapping into action.
He all but rides Wilhelm into battle to be on scene for the Elsa fight, but alas, only arrives as Subaru has her stomach slit open.
Ferris very quickly bullshits his way into healing Subaru, acquiring Subaru, then getting Subaru to the Karsten Estate, getting her into a guest room, then privately explaining to Crusch what's going on.
After Crusch has a reasonable reaction to Ferris explaining the concept of RBD, she agrees that keeping Subaru here where she will be safe is the best course of action.
Once all that is said and done, Ferris decides that he's going to speedrun through all of Subaru's bullshit, and goes through his wardrobe looking for clothes Subaru would like. They're canonically the same height and about the same size I am allowed to make this happen.
So Subaru wakes up to people she doesn't know explaining that they're going to be looking after her now.
Then Ferris immediately goes 'And we don't have any spare clothes, so you're borrowing mine!' Then once that's done he tells Subaru that her hair doesn't match the outfit and uses magic to make it instantly grow longer.
Subaru looks in the mirror and a pretty girl stares back and Ferris has completed his fix Subaru speedrun.
From there, Subaru very quickly becomes the darling of the Karsten Camp. She's nice to everyone regardless of status and follows Wilhelm around like a duckling, they've never seen him smile this much. She feels bad about freeloading so she helps out wherever possible and is literally so adorable. And she's trying her best to learn how to read and write and etiquette. She's such a good reminder of why they're trying to kill the White Whale.
But, Subaru is Subaru, and Ferris is Ferris. So Subaru thinks Ferris hates her while he aggressively looks after her.
It gets solved quickly when Subaru asks Crusch why Ferris is mean to her, and she explains that Ferris isn't trying to be mean, it's that he saw her almost die and panicked, and is now trying to look after her. He's just very bad at feelings. To which Subaru decides to start being play-mean to Ferris back. Kind of like how she is with Ram.
In the background of all this, Crusch and Ferris are of course trying to figure out how to kill the White Whale without involving Subaru or being attacked by the Witch Cult on the way back.
At the very least they won't have to worry about the Witch Cult decimating the Mathers Domain, because the only reason why Roswaal let them attack was so Subaru could deal with it. No Subaru = Yes Roswaal. Which does mean that Subaru still gets the Sloth Factor, and is very confused as to how that happened.
The plan is to fish for the Whale by capturing Cultists and using them as bait. And also to bring as many long range weapons as possible. And to try and team up with at least one other Camp.
Also since the Karsten Domain is pretty close to the Capital Subaru gets to visit Reinhard and Felt a few times, and Ferris introduces her to Julius for shits and giggles. He thinks that flustered Subaru is funny as fuck to watch and he's right.
Uh, obviously the angst kicks in when a bunch of people die to the Whale and Roswaal orchestrates some bullshit to make Subaru suffer and get her into the Emilia Camp post haste.
At the very least, Subaru does not get 100000 curses placed upon her by evil dogs this timeline.
Vincent wakes up however long it has been in the past. "There's another reason why I'm on my knees right now." Is still ringing in his ears.
He is screaming, crying, throwing up, locking himself in his room and refusing to come out. Chisha is having a panic attack because of how worried he is.
Three hours later, a very haggard looking Vincent comes out with a drawing and a very long letter.
The drawing is of Subaru. The letter is for Subaru.
He makes sure to give Cecilus the drawing and a long distance communication mirror and the instructions of 'Don't let Subaru die.' This way he can get regular updates on what is happening with Subaru while making sure that she doesn't die while he's not looking.
The letter is mostly a guide to Lugunican social norms and basic history, with a few tips on how to avoid very specific deaths along the way. The rest of the letter is him explaining that there is magic to transform one's body into the opposite sex if Subaru is interested.
Vincent would love to kidnap Subaru to Vollachia, but first needs to Subaru-proof the entire country and prepare for the Great Disaster.
Vincent also very busy trying to figure out how to make sure neither he or Chisha dies in the Great Disaster, and also planning their wedding. Which Subaru is invited to. She'll probably end up attending as Cecilus's plus-one or something.
Eventually he'll have Subaru be moved to the Empire permanently, there is just so much that needs doing first.
Cecilus is about to have the best holiday of their life while the entirety of Lugunica is going to experience the nightmare of Subaru's very enthusiastic pet Divine General.
Beatrice has the best start of any of these Fix Its.
She won't be able to get to the Capital in time to prevent the first three deaths, but she sure as shit can prevent the rest of them.
While waiting for Emilia and Ram to rush a very injured Subaru back to the mansion, she very quickly goes through the Forbidden Library to find all of the books on transitioning a body through magic.
Subaru wakes up with long hair and a little girl staring down at him.
Beatrice introduces herself and explains that Subaru looks cuter with the long hair which is why she used magic to grow it. She is going to be playing up the "little girl act" so much this If.
At breakfast when Subaru asks for a job, she demands a library assistant.
Which gets accepted, but then Subaru suddenly becomes a bit apprehensive when she demands that her assistant be dressed cutely and has to wear Frederica's old uniform as a result. 'It's only for the time being though', as Beatrice tells Subaru, 'You'll get your own uniform eventually."
(That night, Roswaal asks Beatrice if it was Subaru's eyes that are the cause of her fondness. She says they aren't, he doesn't believe her).
Subaru's job as Library Assistant is a lot different than expected. The Forbidden Library sorts itself, so her duties include making toys, playing dress up, drinking tea, and learning to read and write.
Beatrice is doing a really good job of looking after Subaru! All the activities she picks are things she knows Subaru likes! She makes sure that they both eat a lot at mealtimes and go to bed at reasonable times. Once Subaru gets better at reading, she's going to suggest a sleepover where they stay up late and read scary stories to each other.
Of course, she suggests they go to the village.
Subaru and Beatrice play with the kids while Rem and Ram do the shopping.
When Meili shows up with the Wolgarm pup, Beatrice uses Yin Magic to freeze it and demands she come with them to the mansion to explain where she found it. The kids are all sent home and the villagers warned not to let the kids out of their sight.
Meili is acting innocent but internally panicking to the extreme at the fact that this cute girl she played with turning out to have terrifying magical capabilities.
Roswaal exterminates the Wolgarm population in the forest that night.
The villagers are thankful. Meili is kept at the mansion under observation because her being suspicious is obvious now that the plot has been uncovered.
The next night, Elsa shows up to rescue Meili who's being held captive. Which is when Beatrice plays her card.
She knows that they're working for Capella, but if they work for the mansion, their deaths will be faked and they can attempt a more normal life. Roswaal did not know that this was Beatrice's plan for dealing with them, but rolls with it anyway.
They accept! And with a little bit of disguise magic through the combined efforts of Beatrice and Meili's Mabeast Tools; the two of them are ready to become the new 'maids' of the estate.
Frederica is called back to work at the mansion to balance this out.
Subaru is understandably horrified by this development, luckily her job as Library Assistant keeps her away from them.
Because of how scared Subaru is (which was expected) Beatrice suggests a pact. One where she keeps Subaru safe and happy forever and never lets anything bad happen to her, and Subaru keeps her company and keeps on making happy memories with her.
But then of course she ends up making toys together with Elsa for Meili (and herself but Beatrice hasn't told Subaru that yet).
Subaru is kept at home for the Selection because she hasn't been cursed. Emilia is subtly told by Beatrice to ask if Reinhard and Felt can visit because Subaru would like it. Emilia very enthusiastically agrees.
While that's going down, Beatrice is planning to have Elsa and Meili help her kill the White Whale and Betelgeuse (despite her unenthusiasm to kill the latter). (Subaru still gets the Sloth Factor).
After that's over and done with and Subaru got her playdate with Reinhard and Felt (and Rom, he wanted to see how she's doing); Beatrice kidnaps Emilia to the Sanctuary while Roswaal isn't looking, yells Garfiel into retaking the trial, and convinces Puck to break his contract with Emilia.
Both Garfeil and Emilia pass their trials and the Sanctuary is freed! Yay!
So Beatrice teleports back to the mansion and gets transport sorted out to get everyone back to the mansion, Roswaal is p a n i c k i n g.
His current theory is that Beatrice's book started filling in instructions counterproductive to his, and he needs to up his game to beat her in in... whatever this is. And fails. Because Beatrice got Elsa to distract him while she stole and destroyed the book.
At some point in all this, Subaru runs into Otto and forcibly hires him.
Eventually Subaru realises that everyone thinks she's a girl. Which Beatrice has been encouraging. And after a breakdown, realises she's happier this way and rolls with it.
When Priestella eventually happens, Subaru has a verrrrry embarrassing reaction to meeting Julius.
Then Beatrice leads everyone to victory.
Tower? Beatrice never even met her! But she does long distance save Vollachia. Somehow.
He immediately convinces Jamal that they need to pick up everything and leave the country. This works because he comes up with a convincing enough reason.
Through intense mind-breaking planning, Todd knows that it'll take a little under two months to get to Lugunica so what he needs to do is plan to kidnap Subaru while she's running around the capital with Priscilla.
He somehow convinces Jamal to help him with this as well, while Katya sulks in the room of the inn they had gotten.
They put on some disguises, run to where Todd knows Subaru will be, knock her out, apologise to Priscilla for ruining their fun, and head off.
Subaru is kidnapped to the inn, very confused, and then everyone bares witness to Todd's breakdown about how Subaru is going to ruin his life and turn everyone against him and he won't even be able to kill Subaru!
Jamal and Katya very quickly come to the conclusion that Todd might have been turned into a Stargazer because that is the only possible reason why he would do any of the buckwild things that he's been doing lately. Subaru is tied to a chair and very confused.
Todd has been running on fumes for capturing Subaru and did not come up with a stage two of his plan.
Since he's not going to admit that he's a time-traveller who witnessed Subaru's entire life, and does not want Subaru to know he's a time-traveller who witnessed her entire life, so when pressed, he has to say that he doesn't know how, just that Subaru is going to ruin his life.
But the thing is, Todd did see that Subaru didn't actually mean any harm, and was just a dumb kid.
And this is Arc3 Subaru, who is. Arc3 Subaru. So even while Todd can absolutely blame Subaru for all of the bad things that will happen, he does also know that this Subaru doesn't know anything. So he has a bit of a dilemma.
Can't kill Subaru, could lock Subaru up but then she'd find a way out of it. Everyone thinks you're crazy now. You're a deserter from the Vollachian army.
So, it's time to prepare for the world's worst roadtrip.
Can't go back to Vollachia (military deserter), can't stay in Lugunica (Reinhard exists), Gusteko (Gusteko). Kararagi time.
Step one for roadtrip prep is chopping off Subaru's foot so she can't run off while they're not looking. Which means getting her drunk so she can't feel it that much, and gagging her when it's actually being sawed off. Katya, I'm so sorry you had to witness that.
Of course, they can't keep Subaru in a bag for travel all of the time, which leads to step two. Included in the aforementioned disguises, was a shoulder-length dark brown wig (Todd's), and he goes 'Come up with a fake name or I choose one.'
Natsumi Schwartz is so totally a family friend who's willingly a part of this journey. Definitely.
They carry her around in one of those backpack things like she made for Rem in Arc7, Todd figured out how she did it. And Todd tells her that she isn't allowed to talk unless she does a girl voice. She doesn't want people to hurt her for pretending to be a girl, does she? Not that Todd would do that, he doesn't care. He is taking advantage of her insecurities because he sucks.
Things that happen on the trip:
Todd very angrily takes care of Subaru. He's not nice about it in the least. Rough and abrasive at all times towards her. But he can't have her die, so he still makes sure the leg stump doesn't get infected and that she has at least one meal a day + water.
Katya and Subaru actually bond quite a bit, because both of them were ripped from their homes to Lugunica, and now they're on a second, even more unwanted trip. But Katya is not going to advocate for Subaru in the least. Sorry girl.
You ever think about how Subaru as a girl is Jamal's type? Right, so, Jamal actually brings that up to Subaru at one point. (While Todd and Katya aren't in the room. Todd would get mad and Katya would be disgusted). Subaru is shocked to hear that anyone would be attracted to her ever. So Jamal hypes her up a bit and it's actually pretty sweet. When you ignore that she's a kidnapee in this situation.
Overall it's a lot of give and take on both sides. Stockholm Syndrome ain't real, but making concessions and coming to agreements is. Subaru is not good at manipulating but Todd is. He only allows her something if he knows it'll benefit him, Katya, and Jamal.
A few months pass.
Subaru now lives in a house with her kidnappers in Kararagi. She has a prosthetic foot so she can walk around now. Todd and Jamal are making money by doing mercenary things while Subaru looks after Katya and the house.
The reason why Subaru doesn't run away now is because. Not only is she in a different country, Todd has fearmongered about all the horrific things that could happen to her if she did. Especially in Kararagi. Also, if Subaru leaves, that would have to happen while Todd and Jamal were out. Meaning that Katya would be left alone. Unable to take care of herself. (She totally could, but, manipulation). So Subaru stays.
This has gotten long, so I'm going to make a part two.
Emilia notices while talking to Julius, that Subaru has wandered off somewhere. Like she feared.
She gets Julius to help her in looking for Subaru, but doesn't find her.
So she gets Roswaal and Rem to help, but doesn't find her.
She looks all night, but doesn't find her.
And after she very unwillingly goes to the Royal Selection instead of continuing to search for her missing friend, Emilia begs the other Camps to help her.
The Felt Camp immediately agrees, because they like Subaru and want to help. The Crusch Camp agrees, because Ferris doesn't like that one of his patients has gone missing, but still informs the Emilia Camp that they are busy and might not be able to do much. The Anastasia Camp is going to help a little bit in exchange for a favour... apart from Julius, who feels bad that Subaru went missing while he was talking to Emilia and is going to put his all into it.
The Priscilla Camp is not helping. Al says he'll keep a look out and send them a letter if he sees anything, which is unlikely to happen. The thing is, Priscilla is the best lead they could have, as Subaru was kidnapped while with her; she let it happen on Todd's promise that entertaining things would spring from it. So far that promise is ringing true.
This is of course when things go from fucked to worse.
Two days later they find a severed foot that through scent is identified as Subaru's. (On the opposite side of the city to where Todd & co were staying, of course). (Subaru's foot was cut off on the day they kidnapped her, they left they day after, so it has been three days since Subaru was kidnapped).
They scour the city for where the foot might have come from, and manage to find the inn Team Todd was staying at within the day. (Thank you to strong smelling blood).
However Team Todd checked in using fake names, and are using new fake names per town. It doesn't help that they used disguises while in the Capital.
At the very least they would know that the group that kidnapped Subaru consists of two adult men, and one adult woman in a wheelchair.
Black hair is very distinctive in the Re:Zero world, not that this fact helps them with Subaru being made to wear a brown wig. And since Subaru is also going by Natsumi Schwartz, they won't be able to go with 'boy missing foot', not that they know this yet~
So. The best thing to look for is a woman in a wheelchair. (Too bad she's staying in the Todd Squad's carriage that they own most of the time).
After about a month, the name Natsumi Schwartz floats around and into the ears of the Subaru Savers as a young woman missing a foot travelling with two men and another woman in a wheelchair. It isn't that difficult to put together that Natsumi sounds like Natsuki.
The thing is... in the trail they've been mapping out in trying to find Subaru, it is becoming increasingly obvious that she is being taken in the direction of Kararagi. And with how long it takes to get there from the Capital... She is definitely either somewhere near the border, or in a different country.
This is where the problems start.
The Crusch Camp stopped helping after things left the Capital. They have the Whale to worry about. (Don't worry, no one gets eaten in this).
Because of the Reinhard Clause, the Felt Camp can't help with anything to do with Kararagi. Sure, Rom probably knows a few people who could help with the search, but that's about it. They also have a lot of their own problems to worry about regardless.
The Anastasia Camp is the best equipped to help them in this situation. And with the whole 'being kidnapped to Kararagi' thing, Anastasia is more inclined to help than before. Not only because she's from Kararagi, but because if someone is going to this extent to obtain Subaru, there's got to be something about her that makes it necessary.
Emilia is very heavily backed by Roswaal on finding Subaru as soon as possible, he is panicking so hard about Subaru being taken and not being able to get away. What with him not knowing about the activation conditions of Subaru's abilities. This also puts a hold on his scheming too. (Also they find and hire Otto at some point during this, I need him).
A few more months pass.
Subaru has been missing for about half a year now, Todd covered his tracks impeccably well for someone with such a distinctive group.
Anastasia actually got Halibel to help out with the effort as he's the closest thing to Reinhard in Kararagi. (I like Halibel).
He shows up and spies on the house a bit, seeing how the place runs, sending updates on the situation to the combined forces of the Emi-Ana Camps. Before actually going to talk to Subaru and see if he can get her out of there safely.
He knocks on the door to the house and explains the situation to Subaru when she opens it.
As much as Subaru would like to leave (not as much as is healthy), she can't leave Katya alone, what if something happens?! Besides, even if Halibel is actually helping to save Subaru, how is she supposed to know if she's never heard of him before?
So Halibel is like 'Fair enough' and heads off to tell people that this is definitely Subaru, who might need some convincing to leave.
So a few days pass, and Todd and Jamal come home one day to see The combined forces of the Emilia Camp, Julius Juukulius, and also Halibel the Admirer for some fucking reason, standing outside their door.
Todd knows that no matter how hard he and Jamal try, they would not win this fight.
So instead they start calming down Katya who is having a panic attack about how she knew this was a bad idea and she never should have gone along with Todd's stupid plan and how dare Jamal talk her into this.
Emilia and Rem are fully prepared to kill Todd, when Subaru tells everyone that they can't.
Because Subaru is of the opinion that even though she was kidnapped, had her foot cut off, carried around like luggage sometimes even in a bag, drugged twice, had the shit kicked out of her a few times, had a leash put on her once, was flirted with, was manipulated in every conversation, taken to a completely different country, AND was forced to work for them- she doesn't want anything bad to happen to her kidnappers, because in her opinion, they were pretty nice to her all things considered!
And Todd, who did most of that shit, is SO CONFUSED!
Sure, he did intend on making Subaru care about him and Katya (and by extension Jamal) to the point where Subaru would want them alive, he didn't think it would actually work.
Who on earth would actually care about the people who chopped off their foot? Subaru. Subaru would.
Because as Todd knows, Subaru is the same person who still loved Rem and Ram after being chased down in the woods, had her foot chopped off, and was tortured for 3-6 hours (books make it unclear).
So he's trying so hard to keep his composure and everything under control knowing his plan succeeded, even if Subaru was being rescued.
He even helps to pack up Subaru's things.
A few months later, having used the excuse of Stargazer bullshit, Todd and Jamal have their jobs back, having moved Katya to new house as far away from the capital as possible.
Todd is getting antsy with how he's in the same place as before. He's going to wait until he has an opening, to grab Jamal and run off to join the Rebellion. Because they have an all but guaranteed survival if they do. Even if it will suck.
When all of a sudden, Jamal comes back with grave news.
They were going out to grab water, and found a few people washed up on shore.
