Re: Zero -Starting Life in Another World- Vol. 1

by Tappei Nagatsuki

  But Satella had rebuked him, and everyone around agreed that she was in the right.

  “If that’s all you wanted to say, then I’ll be on my way. I don’t have time to deal with you.”

  The girl looked on as Subaru simply stood where he was, hanging his head. She then turned and walked off, with her hair dancing behind her, having nothing more to do with him.

  Subaru thought to call after her, and started to shout her name, but it got caught in his throat as if it had frozen shut.

  If Subaru called her name again, he would simply be making the same mistake twice. But then, what should he call her?

  He hesitated, unable to decide what to do.

  “!”

  Subaru gasped. On the canvas top of a cart on the side of the street, from a position just a head taller than Subaru, something leaped. A small body was pulled by gravity toward the ground, and as soon as it landed it took off on the wind. That little gust of wind, with dirty clothes and blond hair trailing behind it, wove through the crowd with a godlike dexterity, and from it an outstretched arm slipped into a certain girl’s hawk-embroidered white robe.

  The two only touched for an instant, but to that little gust of wind, that moment was enough.

  As the wind made the robe fly up and the girl with the robe twisted around, the wind took off flying again.

  “It can’t be!”

  The silver-haired girl raised her voice in shock and stuck her hand into her robe. She couldn’t find what she was looking for, and with eyes opened wide, she looked in the direction of the quickly fleeing wind.

  Seeing the dragon-adorned badge in that wind’s hand as it passed quickly by, Subaru yelled, “Felt?!”

  With Subaru’s call, the wind waved for a moment in hesitation, but without slowing down it quickly flew down a narrow alley. Everything happened so incredibly fast that Subaru could only see for an instant what happened, but that had to be—

  “I’ve been had! Is that why you stopped me? Are you two working together?!” moaned the girl as she looked at Subaru standing still.

  The girl quickly turned her palm toward Subaru, but apparently changing her mind, she ran off in the direction the wind had gone down the alley.

  “Hey, wait! This is a misunderstanding! I…”

  Subaru took off after them down the alley, hoping to sort things out. As he ran, his mind was filled with questions and doubts. There was too much information to process, and his panicked mind couldn’t deal with it. Even without that, he had just gone through death twice, and everything in his mind was muddled.

  “There’s got to be someone out there who’ll be nice to me! Why the hell was I even summoned here?!” Subaru yelled, having had enough with nothing making sense, as he kept running with unsure footing down the dark alley.

  Subaru wasn’t sure of his stamina, but at a short distance, he didn’t think he would lose to those two girls. However…

  “Damn! A wall?!” Subaru spat. Right in front of him was a dead end.

  Neither of the two girls was there. Felt probably could easily climb over a wall like that, and he thought that Satella would have been able to do something about it with her magic.

  I could try to climb over to the other side, but I don’t think I’d be able to catch up to them.

  Subaru couldn’t afford to waste time here. He had no idea how to get around the capital, so if he lost them here, it would be impossible for him to catch up to them.

  “Then should I head to the loot cellar? If Satella and Felt are alive, then Rom must be…”

  Even as Subaru said this, he felt that several things were wrong and contradicting themselves. Felt had been cut down. Rom’s neck was slit. Satella fell in a pool of blood. Subaru had his abdomen cut open—twice. How was it that everyone was alive…?

  “No. Now’s not the time. I can’t waste time thinking. Right now I’ve got to…”

  Subaru would go on ahead and quickly meet up with Rom. That was what Subaru had to do. He could think later. The best thing for him to do right now was to leave this alley and head to the slums.

  Subaru turned around.

  “…You’ve got to be kidding me!”

  Right in front of him, blocking the entrance to the alley, were three shadows, three people, with dirty clothes and a rough and barbaric appearance. Three thugs who used these alleys as their hunting grounds. It was Subaru’s third time encountering them that day.

  3

  “Give it a rest already! Just what is it going to take for you punks to learn?!”

  Tired of seeing those three thugs again, Subaru furiously stomped on the ground.

  This was the third time they had met. Every time was in a back alley, three against one. Given how their first and second efforts were fruitless, Subaru was stunned that they were so determined to catch him that they’d try a third time.

  “I don’t have the time or the patience to deal with you fools. Out of my way, now!”

  The current situation had really put Subaru out of sorts, but there was also the fact that, given what happened last time, he thought he should be able to scare them if he shouted. At least that’s what he thought.

  “‘Get out of my way,’ he says. Ha! I don’t like your attitude. You don’t get it, do you? You’re not in a position to be ordering us around.”

  “It was three-on-one last time and you guys still lost like you were nothing! You think you can talk big like that? Even sore losers would show more shame when they wail!”

  However, the thugs didn’t seem to fear Subaru at all, and kept up their taunting. Subaru bit his lip at their unexpected reactions. Even small-time villains like this had a sense of pride, he thought.

  He wanted to avoid wasting any more time and risk losing Felt and Satella. Also, given the risk that a fight would entail, Subaru decided that he should deal with this peacefully.

  “Fine. Have it your way. I’ll give you everything I’ve got. That’s what you want from me, right?”

  Subaru held back his irritation and raised both of his hands in the air, showing that he was giving up.

  The thugs all looked at one another after Subaru changed his attitude, and then all burst into laughter.

  “What’s that?! If you were that scared, you should have just said so!”

  “Ha! Look at this guy! Don’t talk all big if you’re just gonna bend over!”

  “Whatever. If he’s going to do as we say, that just makes it easier on us, right? But what a coward, huh?”

  Subaru was irritated, but he just laughed it off. He decided to name the group of thugs “dumb, dumber, and dumbest” to make himself feel better, and muttered under his breath, so they wouldn’t hear. “Once I meet back up with Satella, I’m going to borrow Puck and make them…pay?”

  Just as Subaru was about to lay out all that he owned in front of him, he froze.

  “Huh…?”

  Out of everything that had happened since Subaru had arrived in this new world, this was the most unsettling.

  “Why…?”

  At Subaru’s fingertips, inside his plastic convenience store bag, was a bag of crispy snacks. Corn-soup flavored, they were one of his favorites, and he had grabbed them on a whim at the store to eat in place of his dinner.

  When Subaru was with Rom at the loot cellar, he had shown them off to him as a great late-night snack, an act that he had later regretted.

  However, that bag was still there, as full and sealed as when he had bought it at the store.

  “I shouldn’t have these anymore… Rom ate them all, and I complained and…there weren’t any left. I’m sure of it.”

  Why were the snacks back in the bag? There was no trace that it had been opened. It wasn’t possible.

  Subaru felt his thoughts blocked on all sides. However, in that locked state, Subaru still came to a conclusion about what was happening. Even though he had come to a conclusion, it wasn’t doing him any good. As soon as it occurred to him, he rejected it as impossible. His sense of re
ason denied the possibility.

  “Hey, what are you doing?!”

  “…What?” Subaru suddenly heard a voice right next to him. Cut from his train of thought, that was the only way he could react.

  It was one of the thugs. The smallest one. The one Subaru had just named “Dumbest.” While Subaru was lost in thought, Dumbest had walked over and put his hand on Subaru’s shoulder.

  Subaru twisted and pushed his hand away. “Out of my way…”

  “What’d you say?!”

  “In every sense of the word, I’ve run out of time to deal with you guys. I’ve got to…check something.”

  “Are you kidding me?” As Subaru pushed Dumbest aside and moved to exit the alley, the other two stood angrily in his way.

  “Get out of my way! I’ve got somewhere to be!” He had to rule out this unbelievably stupid, unthinkable theory…

  Faced with Subaru’s yell, the men hesitated a bit. If he could break through and get out onto the main street, he would probably be out of harm’s way. After deciding that, Subaru stepped down to kick firmly off the ground.

  However…

  “…Wha?”

  Just as Subaru put his foot down it twisted. The strength drained from his legs, and he fell to his knees. He put out his hands to catch his fall, and cursed his idiocy for stumbling at such a critical moment.

  “Huh… That’s strange…” Just as Subaru tried to push against the ground so he could stand back up again, his arms started shaking. He didn’t think he could stand back up again. He didn’t think he could even lift his body.

  “Well, I’ve done it now, haven’t I…?”

  Subaru looked back as he heard that voice tinged with anxiety, and then he realized what had happened. A knife was sticking out of his back.

  “Gah… Ah…” As soon as Subaru was conscious of it, an unbearable pain swept through him. He choked. It was a natural reaction to the searing agony.

  …I’ve been stabbed! I’ve been stabbed! I’ve been stabbed! I’ve been stabbed! I’ve been stabbed! I’ve been stabbed! I’ve been stabbed!

  Dumber, the one with the knife, had struck first. Subaru didn’t notice as he drew his weapon, and just as Subaru was trying to push past him, he was stabbed in the back.

  This pain was the same kind of torture that he had experienced in the past few hours, but no matter how many times he experienced it, he didn’t think it was possible to ever get used to it.

  “What? You really stabbed him?!”

  “I didn’t have no choice! What do you think would have happened if he had escaped out into the street? Just think of what we’d have to deal with if he did.”

  “Wait! Don’t do that, you idiot! ….Ugh. Yeah, this is bad. His guts are damaged. He’s gonna die.”

  The giant, Dumb, turned Subaru’s body over, and as he did, the knife was pushed deeper into his back.

  “Ughh….” Still greater suffering was piled on top of Subaru’s existing pain and even Subaru’s death throes were kept from leaving his throat.

  Subaru couldn’t call for help or scream out in anger. There was nothing left for him to do. He just repeated his irregular breaths, feeling as though he was going to drown in his own blood as it filled his throat.

  The feeling in Subaru’s hands and feet started to leave him, and his consciousness was flickering weakly like a light about to go out.

  Again, his vision went dark. This was the end, just like last time.

  What do you mean, “last time”…? Subaru thought to himself. The fact that he was now clinging to an idea that he had disregarded as stupid before just made him feel even more pitiful.

  But if he was going to cling to it, he might as well go all the way.

  Turn your thoughts away from dying. Before you die, figure out what’s happening around you.

  Your eyes are dead. Your arms and legs are gone, too. What you have left is your nose and your ears. Then you’d better use them both to death. It doesn’t matter what lingering scent I smell. It doesn’t matter if all I hear are insults. I smell the mud of the road. I smell the iron-like smell from the blood pouring from me. Now my nose is dead. It’s dead. I doubt my ears will last much longer, either.

  “…at…take the…valuables…”

  “…ere! The guards! They…”

  “…un! No! If we…caught, I’ll…”

  All I was able to pick up were those bits of conversation. That’s great and all, but the part of my brain I need to figure out what that means is already dead. I’m dying so I just listened. I don’t know if I’ll remember. …What does it mean to remember? Why do I want to remember? What does it mean to want? Why…what?

  As Subaru’s brain died, his other functions followed soon after. At the very end, with a faint sound of something being pulled from him, something scraping…Subaru lost his life a third time.

  4

  When Subaru’s consciousness awakened, he was in darkness. But realizing that it was a darkness of his own creation, he opened his closed eyelids. The bright sunlight burned his eyes. Subaru groaned a bit and put his hand over his eyes.

  “So, kiddo. How’s about that abble?”

  It was a question that Subaru had grown used to hearing, in a voice he had grown familiar with, that was lobbed at him.

  His ears were in perfect working order.

  The hustle and bustle of the main street was loud, and completely different from the silence that was around him just before the end.

  That was the way things were, despite the fact that, distance-wise, the silence was in an alley just one turn off the main street.

  Pretty pathetic that I couldn’t even get more than one street away.

  The shop owner frowned at not getting an answer to his question. As Subaru saw the white scar being stretched across his face, he thought it made him look even more villainous.

  But Subaru knew that he was actually a really kind and thoughtful person who was obsessed with his kid.

  Of course, he probably didn’t remember what Subaru did.

  Thinking of that, he turned once more to the scarred shop owner.

  “How many times have you seen my face so far?”

  “What do you mean, ‘how many times’? I haven’t seen you before in my life. The way you stand out, I don’t think I’d forget you and that awful expression you’ve got if I’d seen you before.”

  “I didn’t need to hear that last part about my expression, you know? Anyway, what’s the date today?”

  “It’s Tammuz the 14th. At this point, according to the calendar it’s halfway through the year.”

  “Huh. I see. Tammuz, huh.” Subaru had no idea what that date was supposed to mean. To begin with, he had no idea how they fixed the calendar in this world. It was probably too much to expect that they went by a solar calendar, but he couldn’t be sure.

  “So anyway, kiddo. How’s about that abble?”

  The shop owner was patient as Subaru went silent, but for him to have to deal with someone this long to just buy a single apple… He seemed to be reaching his limit. His face was starting to twitch.

  Now this was a guy who didn’t look all that great wearing a smile in the first place. When he was trying his best to smile, it probably had more of an effect of scaring customers away, and Subaru felt that whatever god put this man in this occupation was a cruel god indeed.

  As for Subaru’s answer to the shop owner’s question, he put his hand on his hip and proudly put out his chest.

  “I’m sorry, but I’m as broke as the sky is blue!”

  “Then get the hell out of here!” The shop owner’s yell was enough to throw Subaru back, and he scrambled out of there in a hurry.

  I really can’t go back to that shop for a while, Subaru thought, with both meanings in mind.

  CHAPTER 4

  FOURTH TIME’S THE CHARM

  1

  “Wallet…check. Cell phone…check. My corn soup chips and cup ramen are also here. My tracksuit and sneakers are at zero damag
e, and of course…”

  Subaru lifted up the hem of his tracksuit top and twisted around this way and that to look at his back. There were no scars or any other traces of a wound on his back, around by his hips, or around the front of his abdomen. There wasn’t a knife sticking out of him, or anything else unusual.

  “Phew. Good. There’s no greater embarrassment for a swordsman than getting stabbed in the back. As someone who did kendo in middle school, even if I take a wrong turn off the road when it comes to life, I can’t let myself lose the way of the swordsman.”

  The sun was high in the sky and a gentle breeze brushed up against Subaru’s skin. People bustled about, back and forth on the main street, and yet again that same lizard cart passed by.

  “Well, with this much circumstantial evidence, I’ve got no choice but to accept this, do I? It’s a little bit hard to believe, but…”

  All of the wounds on Subaru’s body had disappeared; the rips and bloodstains on his tracksuit were gone as well. In Subaru’s hands, inside that plastic convenience store back were his unopened chips, waiting for Subaru to eat them.

  “So, it’s one of those things, huh…”

  He put his hand that had been up against his jaw out in front of him, and then snapped his fingers so that everyone on the street could see him.

  “Whenever I die, I start back at square one in my initial state. At least, that’s the way it seems.”

  Subaru had thought that his theory was stupid before, but he finally decided to accept it.

  2

  “I guess I’ll call it ‘Return by Death’… The fact that it’s a power that assumes you’re going to lose really makes it fitting for me, doesn’t it?”

  It was a power that activated once the user had lost their life. If the heroic thing was to come back from the brink of death and win the day, then getting a chance to do things over after you’ve lost felt more like something a cheat would do.