Re: Rigel Starting From Zero
End : Beginning
Natsuki Rigel was staring at the entrance of hell, flames colored yellow and crimson overlapping each other in a bid for dominance and raged all across the landscape as far as his eyes could see.
That was the only way that he could describe the sight in front of him logically. His hometown was burning, fire licking and lapping at every building and piece of forest and grass it could get to. It was something that should have been considered impossible, given the location of the city of Banan. It was in the western half of the nation of Kararagi and was considered its second biggest city. As part of a nation of merchants, that meant that the city was well protected with a litany of mercenaries always on duty.
Should that fail, the reputation of Banan being home to 'The Admirer' Halibel, known to be as strong as Reinhard Von Astrea, one of the strongest beings known to man, would dissuade the rest from attacking. Yet Rigel was looking at something out of his worst nightmares as his entire body and mind went numb from the shock of it all. Taking small, hesitant steps forward, he forced himself to place one foot in front of the other. He had to make sure his family was safe.
'Stupid, stupid, so fucking STUPID. I shouldn't have left with Halibel-sensei. I should have stayed!' he thought to himself as the small steps slowly turned to large strides, his legs working overtime to keep up with the new speed he was pacing himself with. It was hard to believe that just a few days prior, his parents had informed him that Halibel was taking him in as a full time Shinobi. He had trained for a large chunk of his child and teenage life with the wolf man, learning his skills, weapon usage and the ability to use curses like him.
Halibel often told him that due to his parentage, with his mother being a member of the magic using Oni tribe, that he could surpass even Halibel himself someday if he put his mind to it. If Rigel was being honest with himself, he didn't really care. All he wanted to do was get a comfortable and well paying job, let his parents retire peacefully and then marry his precious and amazing little sister and live in peace.
It was a silly, stupid childhood dream. One that he himself had mercilessly crushed underfoot with his own actions. Even now as his body was running on auto-pilot through familiar streets and seeing dead bodies of neighbors, merchants that he had known all his life, his mind was stuck far in the past, unable to move on from dumb childhood decisions.
He had tried to be proud of his accomplishments. He WAS proud of what he had achieved through his hard work. The proof of this was being clad entirely in a dark blue shinobi attire hand crafted by his father and mother working in tandem, something which his father said 'If you don't wear this you're not a shinobi, period!' since apparently it was a design based on his fathers homeland, yet all he could feel was the bitter taste of regret.
"Mother! Father! Please answer me if you can hear me!" he called out, the face mask portion of his uniform protecting his nose, mouth and lungs from the thick smog and smoke that was all around him. His eyes watered up and his nose burned from having such a sensitive sense of smell which made everything even worse. The acrid scent of burnt flesh hung heavily in the air.
After what felt like an eternity, he saw his home, one of the few places untouched by the flames. He didn't waste any time knocking the door considering the situation, he just rammed it down. His worry was overriding everything else in his mind as he searched through his house and seeing nothing...nobody.
"Spica! SPICA! It's your onii-chan, Rigel! Can you hear me?!" He shouted, knowing that in the home there were several hidey-holes made by the two siblings in their youth that she could have hidden herself in should things have gone for the worst.
'Please...please at the very least let her be ok…' Rigel chanted in his mind. Of course he didn't want anybody in his family to be dead, but the thought of his younger sister who barely even got the chance to live her life getting snuffed out was almost too much to bear.
Nothing. There was no answer even after he screamed his lungs out. His heart was beginning to beat like crazy as his stress shot through everything else. When he realized this, he began to use the breathing techniques Halibel-sensei had taught him to calm himself down, rationalize everything so he could focus better. "Come on Rigel, think. Nobody is here, but that doesn't mean that I can't find something." He said aloud to himself.
He then took in a deeper, heavier breath. He filtered out the variety of smells that came in through his nose. The scent of his mothers cooking was among them, which brought a tear to his eye which was quickly wiped away. That was not what he was looking for. The smoke was also filtered out alongside the bits of ash that clung to it. The one other scent that pervaded the house was blood. Yet it was not the blood of his family. Nor was it the scent that he could sometimes smell on their family friend Tia.
Though it was hard to make out with his eyes from all the smoke, he narrowed his vision down to see bits of dried blood leading out of the house. Keeping that specific scent in mind, he began to follow it. As he began to make his way through the residential district, he could see that this scent was leading him down a merry chase to the mansion of Banan's richest merchant. He knew old man Riften well considering his father worked for the guy and often went along with his dad's wild and crazy ideas for 'festivals' that tended to annoy him to no end.
What was normally a good half hour to an hours walk was cut to a few minutes at the speed Rigel was putting himself through. As he was walking up the steps to the mansion, he could see that it too was set ablaze by who or whatever had done it to the rest of Banan. Considering Riften's reputation alongside Halibel's, it made sense that if something bad happened, going there would have made a good place for a last stand. His thoughts were proven right as with every leap he made towards the mansion, he saw signs of battle. A large chunk of it came from his mother's ice magic which, while partially melted from all the heat, was still in a good enough condition to let him see that she had been going for killing blows as blood was very much on the ice.
It was odd, however, that the bodies that should have been attached to them were missing. The ice was not the only indicators of battle that he had seen either. There were crossbow bolts, broken swords, signs of water, wind and earth magic being used...yet the only deceased he came across were the Kararagi defenders. Who or whatever they fought were all taken...and there were signs of bodies being moved.
Trails of blood could be seen from the dragging that headed away from the mansion, towards the outer parts of the city. Yet he had no way of knowing at the moment if every single body that had been taken was friend or foe. For all he knew, demonic beasts could have taken advantage of the chaos and descended like carrion vultures to feast on the dead for an easy meal, mana or no mana.
A feeling of dread started to well up in his heart. He shouldn't have left Kararagi with Halibel-sensei, even if it was to be his first mission as a shinobi. He should have stayed and helped as he was only given more and more evidence that the battle that had been fought was a long and losing one. It utterly terrified him that he was far too late to save the people that he had grown up with, known and talked to and laughed with. Then, he finally found himself stopping as he reached Riften's mansion while taking in deep lungfuls of air.
The gates were completely torn apart. It looked as if a giant had literally grabbed it and tugged it away as so much scrap. The mansion itself, once considered the pride and joy of Banan, was on fire and slowly being reduced to ash as pieces of the roof had already collapsed in and on itself. Yet that was not that sight that drew his attention. It didn't even come close to what had been the sight that was right in front of him.
Bodies. Dead bodies were piled up high in what seemed to be akin to a pile of toys tossed aside by a demented and bored child. The faces of the innocent civilians that had only sought shelter and safety were giving looks of fear and pain in death. Tears that had long since dried were replaced by droplets of blood that had spilled from the people above them. It was a never ending fountain of misery and torment to already lost souls.
Even in that pile, he couldn't see his family. Which meant that there was only one other place. The inner foyer of the mansion. While most of the interior had already collapsed on itself, the inner entrance was still fine. As he got closer and closer, he could sense...or rather smell, fresh blood.
"O-oi! Is there a survivor in there?! Hold on, I'm coming!" He shouted as he looked at the flaming door separating him from whomever was inside.
"I don't got time for this crap. Huma!" At his command, water turned to ice and blew against the door, killing the flames where they were and allowing him to bust the double doors in by ramming it with his shoulder.
"I...I'm here! Where...are…" Rigel began to ask when he caged up his emotions to focus on helping whoever was in there. When he looked up, the words on his throat immediately faded as his pupils shrunk to the size of pin pricks.
In what was once the greeting area of the mansion, three crudely made crosses were seen with three bodies impaled onto each of them. All around the crosses, a circle of dead bodies that showed signs of being twisted far beyond human comprehension were seen to make the crosses even more noticeable, especially as the fire and evening glow illuminated everything in front of him.
For impaled on each cross, he saw his family.
On the left, his father. Though his eyes were closed, Rigel could see the marks on his neck, arms and legs that each one had been twisted...thoroughly. He had died slowly and painfully and then was seemingly put back together as if nothing had happened.
On the right was his mother. Her long and flowing blue hair had been caked red with blood. Her stomach was partially cut open and he could see her insides that were slowly being pulled out by gravity that had him dry heaving almost immediately.
It was who was on the center, however, that had shook him the most, down to his very core. For at the center...was Spica. His little sister, who never harmed a fly and who never did anything to hurt anyone. Her eyes were wide open and her throat slashed. Yet the wide open eyes had nothing but two black holes staring at him...for her eyeballs had been completely removed.
Yet from those missing eyeballs, just like the bodies outside, tears of blood continued to drip down from the orifice, as if mocking his inability to save her in time.
As if it was an accusation, as to where her precious big brother was and why he couldn't be there to protect her in her time of fear and need.
As if she had wanted so desperately to see one last thing, only for her murderer to deny even that simple wish and sliced her throat open to make it that much more quick and painful.
Each of them had their kimonos partially open across the chest and stomach area and in his sisters blood and it WAS his sisters blood for he could smell her scent on it, words were written.
'SUCH. SLOTHFUL. SINNERS.'
Rigel didn't need to be a genius to know what this had meant. Witch Cultists had descended onto Banan with a vengeance and fury unheard of in his time. He knew they often targeted small villages and merchants on the road. Very, very rarely would they be bold enough to target a well known and well fortified city.
That they had done so successfully spoke of foul play coming from the inside.
Yet his thoughts had not even reached that conclusion yet. A strangled and pained whimper came out of his lungs and tears flowed out of his eyes unbidden as they looked at his long dead sister.
"...aaahhhh…..aaaaaaahhhh….." he garbled out as his knees gave out on him. His whole body felt like led, looking at this horrifying sight.
That was when the tinge of magic was felt and his head snapped in the direction of his mother.
"M...mother!" He cried out, desperately scrambling and trying to hold himself together as he half crawled, half ran towards her.
"Ri…gel?" She whispered, her voice hoarse and nearly lost from her injuries.
"I...I'm here mom. I'm here! I'll save you!" Rigel promised as he tried to call out for his mana to come forth and flow into her to try and heal her.
"Ri...gel. Rem is...sorry, but it is too late for her." She informed him as she looked down at her almost spilling innards.
The smell of cooked and rotted meat clogged his nostrils for awhile now, but Rigel tried to keep it out of mind as he attempted to heal her anyways.
"No! NO! It can't be too late! I won't let it!" He cried out, like the scared child he truly felt he was at that moment. "Hu-"
"Rem told you to stop...Rigel. It's...okay. Rem only needed to know that...her darling and precious baby boy was still alive."
Her voice and the faint heartbeat that had reached his ears was growing fainter and fainter by the moment. He had gathered the mana to push against her wounds but despite his best efforts, her body was rejecting the healing.
"Mom...why? I'm trying so...so hard. Just like you taught me." he cried out, his voice cracking from the sheer terror and grief that was consuming him so.
"Rem was...too weak...to save anybody. They...they attacked so fast. Subaru-kun took Spica and ran...but there was nowhere to hide…" His mother informed him with a smile of resignation on her face.
"Huma! Huma! DAMNIT! HUMA!" Rigel kept crying out, his hand shaking from the heavy amount of water mana placed inside of it, but none would transfer into his mothers body.
She was already dead and they both knew it...but he couldn't accept it.
"It was...Sin Archbishop of Sloth...Petelgeuse Romanee-Conti. He came after us...no matter what we did to stop him. He burned, twisted and killed everyone to mock Subaru-kun and Rem." She explained.
"Why? What was so fucking important about you two that...that…" Rigel tried to get out, but couldn't even finish his sentence due to his own fears.
"He called Subaru-kun...Pride. Subaru-kun is no Witch Cultist...he did not like that answer...Rem…Rem tried to protect them...but she couldn't even move." Her voice was growing fainter and fainter by the moment.
"Ma….aaaahhhh…." Rigel's voice became scratchy from the lack of water to soothe the ache that was building up.
"Rigel...Rem's shining little star...please...live. Rem can hear Subaru-kun and Spica calling for her...Rem has to go now. R...I'm...sorry. L..i….ve…" Rem managed to get out before her body shuddered and she gave one last shaky gasp before her eyes grew dark.
"Aaaaahh…..mom…..dad…..Spica…." Rigel cried out as his forehead began to glow brightly. From his mask, pulled up by what was happening, a sharp and pointed horn grew out of it.
It was a circular center, which continued to go lengthwise to a pointed tip several inches away from his head. His once blue eyes became crimson with madness and fury as his blood, the blood of the Oni Clan, boiled in a way that nothing else could come close to.
"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!"
At that very moment, if an outsider had been looking up, they would have seen several long, sharp and very large ice pillars breaking out of the mansion, destroying what little had been left standing.
All coming from one boy on the cusp of manhood who lost his entire reason for living in the first place.
"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!"
His screams continued to echo through the empty town as mana surged into and through him, nearly ripping off his clothes from the sheer amount if his mother had not convinced his father to use some mana-resistant material on it.
The one thing that had broken, however, was on his left wrist. A simple, pure white bracelet, with two small jewels and one large jewel at the center. As mana continued to flow into him with nowhere to expel it, the jewelry got caught up in the process and the large center jewel cracked, nearly splitting itself into two.
Just like how his heart had been cracked, torn and shattered into countless little pieces that nothing could repair.
He was so lost in despair, rage and anger that he did not notice the gentle breeze that flew past him, nor did he see the light pattering of steps that came from behind.
He did, however, notice the large rise of bloodlust that began to appear behind him. The scent that she carried was one that he would always, always remember even as a small child.
"Rigel, I felt the connection snap. Who…" The voice was female, gentle in tone at first until the woman had gotten her bearings straight and saw the same sight that he had been looking at for the past several minutes.
The bloodlust spiked heavily within several heartbeats.
"Rem...nee-san…?" She called out hesitantly, her tone clear with disbelief in what was in front of her.
"Spica? Stupid Baru?" Her voice quivered as she noticed the two others nailed to their respective crosses.
"AAAAAAAGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!" The woman howled in madness, grief and despair for a single, solitary moment. It joined, overwhelmed and then carried both her own and Rigel's voices far, far beyond the land of Banan.
For if there was wind, there too was Zarestia, the Great Spirit of Wind and Murder.
A spirit who took the appearance of an inhumanly beautiful woman, with pure white hair and green eyes and a very sensual body covered by an immodest sized kimono that was white with some green and black swirls on the end of the sleeves. It seemed more fitting for a burial gown than a normal outdoor wear.
A spirit older than even the Witch and the Dragon, older than the Nations. For centuries, she has hated humans for taking advantage of her, for taking away her true power and leaving her only a fourth of the spirit she used to be. From that point on, she became focused on murder. Her obsession, her muse, her thoughts turned to it until that fateful day.
A spirit who had finally found someone she could once more call family. The Natsuki's had taken in Zarestia, treated her like a person and in return, she saw them all as sisters or brothers. With Rigel and Spica being the two exceptions.
Spica she treated almost like a daughter herself. Often lulling her to sleep as a baby when Rem was busy or taking her on walks.
Rigel was the second most important person in her long, long life that was now the first. Rem, her savior, her sister in all but blood, was gone with a smile on her face.
Rem, who had sacrificed almost everything to ensure that Rigel would be born despite a twisted first meeting. Who was patient, kind, understanding, nurturing.
Subaru she would often argue with, saw as lazy and a bit of a coward but who stepped up when the situation called for it. He was the least important of the family but still important.
Rigel, however, was...complicated to the spirit as she finished letting out her rage and fury.
Her feelings for the young half-oni ran to her very core. She had been there when he was born. She had seen him grown up and treated him like a little brother. She swore to save him from anyone or anything that tried to hurt him. She even wanted to entrust the source of her power and essence as a spirit to him at one point.
Although murder always came to the forefront of her thoughts, never once did she truly ever think to actually kill Rigel, Rem or Spica. Subaru she thought about murdering sometimes, but that was more revenge for tricking her into being next door to them and listening to him and Rem get intimate for three months straight.
Yet seeing that young boy grow into a man, Zarestia would not admit those feelings had shifted from familial...to romantic. Something that would never be now through this tragedy as the mournful cries of Rigel Natsuki turned into furious howls of anger and hate.
"PETELGEUSE ROMANEE-CONTI! I. AM. GOING. TO. KKKKKKKKIIIIIIIIIILLLLLLLLLLL YYYYYYYYOOOOOOOOUUUUUUU!" He swore at the top of his lungs.
'Ah. A name...the name of the person I will personally help to murder with a nice, big smile on my face.' Zarestia thought to herself before she moved forward.
Bringing her hands up, she slowly wrapped them around Rigel's chest and pulled him in towards her, his head resting comfortably between her large and firm bosom.
He didn't resist, knowing the pale and delicate hands that placed themselves around him well, along with the smell of her bloody wind.
"Rigel, I'm here now. It's going...you'll get your revenge." She whispered softly into his ears. To say that, 'It's going to be alright' was a flat out lie and an insult to everything that was in front of them. It was not going to be alright and it never would be, but at the very least, she could assure her charge that she was there for him now.
"Za-chan...I was only gone for a few days. Just to steal a sword with Halibel-sensei to see if I was worthy to be a proper shinobi. I...I got the sword but...but...what's the point of it all when I no longer have the people back home that were waiting for me? That wanted to see me succeed?" Rigel asked, his voice hoarse, haunted and broken.
Zarestia shook her head as she had no answer to such a question. "That's something you have to ask yourself. You said that you were going to kill the man that did this. Were those just empty words?" She rebutted, goading him into at the very least a short term goal that he could follow.
"No...no, you're right. I'm going to kill him and rip him limb from limb. If he cries for mercy he isn't going to get any." Rigel answered, one that brought a smile to Zarestia's lips.
"Ah...truly a man after my own heart. Rigel, I think it is time." She said, letting him go so he could turn around to face her.
"Time for what?" He asked, visibly confused by what she was trying to insinuate.
"Time for us to form our contract." The Great Spirit responded and gently placed her hand inside of her chest, grabbing and pulling out a sphere that glowed both a bright white and tinged with a bloody red color.
"That's the sphere you wanted me to have as a kid." Rigel noted, remembering how he had rejected her offers multiple times growing up before she offered the bracelet in its place.
"Yep! This is my light sphere. It is my vessel and the source of my powers. If stolen, someone bad can use it to take my powers for themselves, but they'd also take on my appearance and go insane." Zarestia explained with a smile on her face.
It was that same explanation that made Rigel wary of the seemingly innocent yet ominous orb in her hand. "There's a difference if it's freely given?"
"You get all the benefits of having an awesome beauty like myself in your soul, ready to protect at a moments notice at the cost of a bit of your mana. Also you take on my bloodlust, but that can be controlled so long as you rampage against a few Mabeasts every now and again. Plus you can use my wind magic!" She had attempted to sell a shady deal there and it made Rigel take a step back.
"Hold on there, you said something suspicious in the middle. I take on your bloodlust. Isn't that dangerous? You're a centuries old spirit that literally has the nickname of 'murder' tacked onto it. Doesn't that mean you have a ton of bloodlust?" Rigel countered.
"No less dangerous than the sword you've had strapped to your back the entire time. I could smell the curse on it all the way from my cave." Zarestia pointed out, which caused Rigel to remember that he actually never gave Halibel the sword before he had raced home when a fellow Shinobi had given the news of Banan falling.
Reaching inside of his uniform, he pulled out a seemingly simple looking katana that was stored in a sheath that had multiple talismans slapped onto it which also had the Kararagi word for 'seal' attached to it. The sheath was decorated somewhat, having a gold border around it that had been molded into the shape of clouds and ending towards the crossguard, where at both edges one could make out the image of two maidens with long hair holding up their arms to hold the crossguard.
The crossguard was also gold, but it had six gems inlaid into it in a perfect circular fashion. The one closest to his thumb was a lapis lazui and going clockwise there was a ruby, garnet, emerald, jet and topaz respectively, each of which covered the six elements of water, fire, earth, wind, darkness and light.
"Ah. Halibel-sensei said that sword was called the 'Reiken' and that the temple that had been guarding it went silent after a long time of guarding it and we were hired to take the sword inside." Rigel explained.
It had been a somewhat disturbing first mission as it felt like everyone in the temple had gone mad somehow. If they weren't trying to kill him, the guards inside were attacking each other and attempting to drink any source of blood that they could find.
The only one who hadn't gone mad was the head priest in the chamber guarding the sword and while Rigel was more than ready to fight, he had just been handed it without a word before the priest had walked away.
Zarestia squinted lightly at the sword. "It's definitely enchanted with magic. Don't use it unless you absolutely, positively have to. Those kinds of swords always come with a price to pay to be able to use. None of them have ever been beneficial in what they ask for." She warned.
'So I have a sword that might kill me if I use it and Za-chan wanting me to hold onto her light sphere and contract her despite making me take in her centuries of bloodlust. Fantastic.' Rigel sarcastically thought to himself before sighing.
"Let's just get this over with already. I feel bad leaving my families bodies there to rot while we talk. I want to give them a proper burial before we move on." Rigel muttered as he rubbed his arm. He had not forgotten what was behind him, but it was not like he could put it out of mind either.
He wasn't like Zarestia who could process grief near instantly due to her centuries of living. He could only take his eyes away from such a sight for so long.
"Alright. Take my hand and I will start us off." Zarestia explained as he did just that.
"I, Zarestia, hereby pledge myself to be in contract with you, Natsuki Rigel. My price is for us to always be together and to be able to protect you if you are in danger. Let us never be apart again. May my murders now mean something in the name of that whom I hold most precious." She intoned as she placed the light sphere in his hand.
Rigel wasn't really sure what to do in making a contract with a spirit, so he attempted to follow her lead. "I, Rigel Natsuki, or Natsuki Rigel if Kararagi tradition is kept, do hearby accept the contract and this vessel for you to be with me always." He responded.
Zarestia placed her hand on top of the sphere and slowly pushed it towards and into Rigel's chest, where it was taken in without resistance from clothes or skin. For a moment, everything seemed normal and in the blink of an eye Rigel was doubled over onto his hands and knees as he gasped for air.
'Shit she wasn't kidding about the bloodlust.' He thought to himself as he cough multiple times to try and be able to breathe as he attempted to push down the need to kill and murder which was creeping up to his foremost thoughts.
In response to seeing her new contractor in pain, Zarestia swiftly pulled him up before surprising him by kissing him on the lips. Thought the kiss was not an ordinary one by any means. By doing this, she was pushing wind, oxygen into his stressed system along with sharing her mana with him in a more intimate manner that allowed him more ease to control his new found urges.
"That...seriously Za-chan? That was my first kiss." Rigel complained as he began to breathe easy again, looking at the now blushing spirit.
"Well I've wanted to do that for awhile now and I did. Now we need to get to the other important point of business. Plus that was my first kiss too. Savor that I wanted to give it to you and waited this long." She said, avoiding direct eye contact as she strode past him and towards the crosses where the Natsuki family were placed onto.
As she began the process of cutting Subaru down from his cross, a frown came onto the spirits lips. "Rigel...it's starting to become morning, is it not?" she asked.
He turned his head over to her as he cut his mother free from her bonds with one of his kunai. "Yeah, why?" he asked.
She pointed her hand outside. "Then why is it getting darker rather than light?"
Rigel did a double take as she was right. Looking outside, rather than the sun coming up on the now city of the dead and damned, it was getting darker...or rather a very unnatural shade of pitch black that set off warning bells in his head.
'Please tell me that soon-to-be dead man came back to see if he did his job correctly.' He thought to himself as the darkness was creeping along at a slow pace before he noticed something off that was coming from it.
"Since when do shadows wiggle like a worm?" He asked aloud.
"Shadow's wiggl...Rigel get back!" Zarestia began to ask herself before she demanded her contract partner away.
From the darkness, came a figure. A figure clad in black just as dark as the void she came from.
Silver hair could be seen flowing down a head that was bowed low. All around her, the darkness spread and devoured everything in its path and sparing nothing.
The tales woven about her reached all across the land. She was feared, loathed, hated by everyone. The cause for disasters that nearly destroyed the world and took near mythical legends to even remotely seal away.
Beauty and tragedy rolled into the same person. For once the sea of shadows were seen, there would be no escape.
The Witch of Envy, Satella, had descended onto the world once more.
Despite the desperate situation they had found themselves in, Zarestia found herself snorting in amusement. "I see the envious little witch decided to wake up from her centuries long nap." She haughtily stated, a complete change from the friendly tone she took with Rigel, but considering she was older than even Satella herself, calling her 'little' was indeed warranted from her.
Although her eyes were closed, the Witch turned her head to Zarestia perfectly and hummed for a moment. In the blink of an eye hundreds of shadow-like hands dove at her with inhuman speed, but in that same blink the Great Spirit had already moved to her charge before gently putting down Subaru's body.
That simple motion is what caught all of Satella's undivided attention. The moment Subaru was brought into her vision, ALL of the darkness around her, thousands upon thousands of shadow hands came forth and sprang for the deceased man.
"HUMA!"
"UL FURA!"
Those same hands ran right into a barrier of water and wind, respectively, slamming against it with the force of a rampaging dragon.
"Damn it...your people already killed him! Leave my father alone!" Rigel shouted as blood dribbled down his nose from the backlash of his spell quivering and almost becoming broken.
Just as suddenly as the hands lashed out at the two lone defenders, upon hearing the spoken words, they suddenly reappeared behind Satella as if they had never moved in the first place.
"Father? You are Natsuki Subaru's son?" she asked, her voice faint but echoing loud and clear into Rigel's ears.
Despite years and years of training, at his very heart Rigel knew he was the same timid child that he had always been, but he had to gulp down all that fear and make his stand. He already lost his family once. The last thing he wanted was for their bodies to be desecrated further by insane cultists.
"Y-yeah. M-my name is Natsuki Rigel, son of Natsuki Subaru and future Shooting Star of Kararagi!" He stated, holding up his Huma spell still. He did not trust the Witch and it was by and far what he felt like his smartest choice made.
Until a split second later when the Witch walked through his water wall like it was paper and touched his face with her hands.
Zarestia was already on the move, a smaller but no less deadly Fura spell on her hand, only to be restrained by the multitude of shadow arms.
"Do not touch him with your filthy hands, you demented being!" She shouted, her wind cutting each and every hand pinning her down, only for them to be replaced by two more, creating a never ending loop that the Great Spirit would not win.
Satella ignored Zarestia, her voice comparable to a buzzing fly that she could easily swat aside. Instead, she carefully and delicately traced Rigel's face with her fingers as she opened her eyes to take a good look at him.
Being this close, Rigel found his cheeks flushing and his heart racing, but both were for different reasons. His heart was racing from the sheer terror that his life could now be snuffed out before he could even think of something. His cheeks flushed because he could not deny the fact that the Witch of Envy was beautiful.
Her amethyst eyes peered deeply into his blue, as if searching him down to his very soul and essence.
"Such a lost child you are. Such a lovely child you are. Yes...like Natsuki Subaru...I love him." She whispered directly into his ear as she pulled him into what most would say was a motherly hug.
Rigel would say it was highly disturbing. He dare not try to move a muscle, however, in fear of possibly annoying or making her patience wear thin with him. The last thing he wished was for him to be popped like a balloon.
"I loved him. I loved him, I loved him, I loved him, I loved him, I loved him, I loved him, I loved him." Satella repeated, over and over and over again while running her hands through his blue hair, lifting his hood up like it was a delicate piece of finery.
"I loved him...but I could not save him. Why? Why, why, why, why, why, why, why, whywhwywhywhywhywhywhy?!" She continued to utter, her voice becoming more manic with every passing second.
Zarestia at this point was howling for the Witch to let her contractor go, but she was becoming quickly buried underneath a sea of shadows. Only her head had become visible as the dense thickness of the arms grew stronger the more Satella spoke.
"I must save him. I love him, I love him, I love him." Satella repeated as she let go of Rigel and stepped back.
He watched mutely and numbly as Satella, the Half-Elf, let herself be consumed by the shadows surrounding her.
He thought this was the end. He was very, very sorely mistaken. Her going to the shadows only made things worse.
What he had seen...was the Witch at her most sane. In a matter of mere moments, two silvery orbs of light peered out from within the darkness and from it, Natsuki Rigel experienced true fear. Fear that marked a person down to the very core of what defined them. A terror that defined their very existence. Satella had left...but the Witch of Envy came forth in her stead.
"Natsuki Rigel. You wish to make things right? Do you not?" Envy spoke in heavy tones that did not sound womanly in the slightest.
Rigel found it hard to breathe once more, let alone speak. It took several moments and a side-eyed look at the terrified expression of Zarestia to allow him to nod his head at the Witch.
"I can sense it deep inside of you. Your Envy."
The shadowy black limbs started to gather around his body, slowly engulfing him piece by piece. Infinite darkness embraced him with the gentle caress that he had only thought could have come from his mother or more recently Zarestia.
It was comforting.
It was terrifying.
Those silver orbs which brought out the truth that was hiding deep inside of himself that he would not say even to his contracted spirit if they had any time to talk.
"Your mind is shattered."
Yes...it was. The image of his failures kept playing out in front of him, making him ignore everything around him in his broken state that was thrust upon him from almost out of nowhere.
"Your heart is torn."
Why would it not be torn? He had lost everything in less than a few days after finally feeling like he had gained something. Spica...poor, sweet, innocent Spica. It should have been him, it SHOULD HAVE BEEN HIM!
"Your soul is exhausted."
It truly, truly was flickering to almost nothing. What was the point of even existing if everything that you fought and cared for vanished like a flame that vanished before it could even shine bright?
Although he had his contract with Zarestia, he could no longer see her, hear her or feel her presence in his soul. It left him feeling achingly alone.
"Yet even through all this, you ENVY."
Yes...even at his lowest point, he could feel it deep in the last vestiges of what made Natsuki Rigel. He envied. He envied the dead, for having his family being among them. He envied his sister, not having to worry about pain and suffering anymore. He envied his parents, who joined her and left him behind.
"I am Envy. I am Satella. Natsuki Rigel, would you like to make a deal with a witch like myself?"
Nothing could escape her and with but a lone stare, she had already made Rigel forget about promises made mere minutes ago and brought out the absolute worst in him.
Looking up with eyes that were dead to the world and having nothing left to lose, he spoke to her.
"What do you want?"
Satella pointed down, to the body of his father.
"I love him. I love him. I love him...I have lost him to something which should not have been."
Another twinge of envy cracked his already broken self. Even in death, his father seemed to attract the oddest of affections.
"I gave him a gift. A gift that has been returned. A gift I can freely give once more. Allow me to love you, Natsuki Rigel, so that you may Return to Zero. To prevent this from happening."
It was tempting. It was so, so tempting. He was frightened. He was lonely. He was envious.
"Why?"
"I love Natsuki Subaru. I dedicate my entire being to protect him from that which could harm him. Yet even with my gift, it is no longer enough. Your souls are similar. Protect him...where I cannot. See him to the end of his long journey proper."
Envy turned to Jealousy. Jealousy turned to Wrath. Wrath turned to Greed. Greed turned to Lust. Lust turned to Gluttony. Gluttony turned to Pride. Pride turned to Sloth.
"Why?"
A womanly figure stepped out of the shadows, dressed in all black. She was one of the most beautiful things he had ever seen. Hair of silver and pointed ears. A look of envy on her face.
"A Witch cannot be with a Hero."
He was tired. So, so tired. He wanted to rest so badly. To sleep and never wake up again.
"Why?"
"The Sins of the Father...can only be inherited to become the Sins of the Son."
Was it truly that simple? It could not be, but for the life of him Rigel couldn't even find it in himself to try and resist. Even the bloodlust of Zarestia's light sphere, even the bloodlust of the Reiken, paled in comparison to the sheer exhaustion that had taken over his entire being. Such was the power of the ultimate witch to rend his mind asunder like so much paper.
As much as he wanted to accept right then and there, if only to make this suffering go away, there was one thing that he would not hold back any longer.
"May I...may I at least bury my family first, before I make any decision?" he asked.
The Witch tilted her head, seemingly in confusion. "You would be going back to erase this from even happening. What is a burial compared to that?" She asked.
Rigel looked down and felt tears dripping down his face.
"Even if I go back, there will always be a 'here' and a 'now'. Right here, right now...they all deserve that much, at least." Rigel responded.
Her head tilted in the opposite direction before nodding. "I love him. Give him a proper burial."
It was not a question. It was a statement that clearly meant what she had said and the underlying threat of if she was not satisfied.
"Za...Zarestia…" he muttered, shakily pointing at where he had last seen her while the arms that had pulled him in slowly pushed him out. It also had the effect of clearing his mind up and almost making him fall down again right then and there from the mental burden placed on his mind and soul.
The shadows, which had grown to a large dome size in his absence, shattered apart like so much glass, but not a one touched them.
He felt the arms of Zarestia pull him into her once more.
"You...YOU…" The Great Spirit growled, her yellow eyes almost glowing with insanity and a need for retribution.
"Zarestia, enough. She is giving us time to bury them. Let us not leave them to rot a moment longer in this place." Rigel explained as he touched her shoulder with a shaking hand.
She didn't want to back down, not to someone centuries younger than herself. Yet she was now under a contract and she swore to obey and help her contractor. Plus, he had a point. Even she would be comfortable staring at the blood and murder in front of her for much longer when it came from the people she cared about even more than murder itself.
As Rigel reached for the bodies that had encircled his parents and younger sister to move them out of the way, Satella lazily waved her hand. Black hands appeared underneath all of the bodies and dragged them into their depths, including the one of Riften. He wanted to ask for her to return him for the kindness he had shown his family for so many years, but he could tell that he had been pushing it as those two silvery orbs stared intently at him to make sure he was doing his job right.
It wouldn't do to bury them right in the area that they died in, but going back would mean instant death. So instead he asked Zarestia to gently lift their bodies up with her wind magic. As they floated, he made sure each of their eyes were closed and their mouths were shut. Although his father and sister both had what seemed to be sad frowns on their lips, his mother had shown only smiles.
Taking in a deep breath, he summoned his water magic and used it to put all three bodies in a water capsule of sorts. From there, he then twisted his magic to flash freeze all of the water at once, making it as cold as permafrost but hard as metal. When they were lowered down, each looked as if they had been placed in a beautiful crystalline coffin.
"I swear, I'm going to save you." He promised as he looked at the three coffins in front of him.
In that single moment, as he swore this oath, had he turned around he would have seen a miracle in the making.
For it was with those words that a single tear fell from the eyes of the Witch of Envy at her most merciless.
It was words that she had heard before. Beautiful words that had always given her hope until it was snatched away from her, just like always.
Yet it wouldn't happen a third time. Both Envy and Satella mutually agreed that if Natsuki Subaru was to be saved and go down his true and proper path, they would use anything to do so...even his own son.
Slowly walking over to the coffin that contained Rigel's father, Envy placed her hand down on it and gently rubbed the surface back and forth before planting a single kiss where his lips would be if it was not covered.
Zarestia gave a silent prayer to the family, as did Rigel in hopes that their souls would be at peace, even if they were to erase this event from ever happening.
With the miniature funeral over, Rigel walked over to Envy and took in a deep breath before letting it out.
"I'm ready." He informed her.
Envy gave a solemn nod before reaching out and placing her hand on his cheeks, letting her silver orbs stare deep into his soul once more.
"I love you." She whispered to him softly, before a black hand plunged itself right to where his heart was and squeezed down tightly.
"Gggghhhh…...Gaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!" Rigel screamed, feeling like his blood had been replaced with molten magma.
"AAAAAAAHHHHHH!" Zarestia screamed as well as she felt her entire being fading in and out of reality through her connection with Rigel via the light sphere.
"There cannot be two of everything. Only one. The orb you may keep, but the spirit of the past shall be your companion." Envy spoke through the screams.
"Your heart shall never die. Your soul will become tethered to another. If one should perish, so shall the other but neither shall ever experience true, eternal death. For each time one of you dies, you will Return." Envy continued as she poured her authority into him.
It felt so familiar, so intimate that she could touch a heart like that so directly once more. She couldn't resist a tiny blush forming on her face at the thought of Natsuki Subaru feeling her power once more.
"Now then. Return By Death, Natsuki Rigel. Return To Zero."
With that declaration, the shadows consumed all as Rigel reached out to Zarestia, even through the unbearable pain he was feeling. Eyes dyed red with his blood from having his heart slowly being crushed inch by painstaking inch.
His Spirit tried her best to reach him, but her fading image could only flicker to and fro as she attempted to approach.
Before his vision was gone entirely, he felt their fingertips touch...and that was enough to let him leave his first life with a satisfied, ear to ear grin before his heart was completely smashed to bloody pieces.
16 years earlier
Capital of Lugncia
Natsuki Rigel awoke, his breathing coming in greedily and gasping for air as he looked up at a clear blue sky. The smog, blood and scent of death were all gone. Instead, he nearly turned around and vomited from the hodgepodge of smells that assaulted his nose all at once. Clean linen, dirty water, fresh food, clean and uncleaned animals and people all swirled together in a torrent of chaos that drove his senses nuts and forced him to close his eyes and cover his nose.
'Calm. Remain calm and remember what mother had said. One scent at a time.' He told himself as he slowly let go of his nose. He began to sort out the smells of a city, one after another, until he could push himself up. His hands did not feel dirt underneath them like before, but rather the hardness of concrete. Pushing himself up, he attempted to look at his surroundings to find his bearings.
One gaze told him he was totally and utterly lost. He recognized nothing in front of him. From the architecture to the people and their clothing. All of it seemed foreign in nature to him, especially the large castle and walls that he could make out easily from a distance. From his vantage point, he could see he was on top of a building overlooking what appeared to be the city's central hub of trade, if the wagons going around and large fountain were any indication of a gathering spot.
Though as he continued to stare at his surroundings, he found his nose scrunching up slightly. There was a scent that he couldn't pinpoint, but it both smelled sweet and rotten at the same time. If he had to compare it to something, it was like fruit that had been left out in the sun for too long. It just lingered on him and it was distracting him slightly.
He lowered his head and began to wonder what he should be doing, when he noticed something odd. His shadow, which was ahead of him due to the position of the sun, seemed to almost separate from himself as it pointed back down towards the square.
No doubt that was the work of Envy at hand. Some direction was better than none, however and he would take what he could get in this topsy-turvy fantasy like situation he had been forced into. As he looked down and tried to find what she wanted him to see, it was very easy to point out the glaring obvious difference that stuck out.
It was his father. He could never forget that face because they shared the same face and the same eyes. Yet his father looked much younger than he remembered, almost about his own age if he had to take a guess at it. Wearing strange clothes to boot as he never recalled him wearing anything but a Kararagi kimono. Right now it seemed as if his dad was wearing a top with a strange metal bar keeping it shut going down the middle, long pants made of a fabric he couldn't identify and footwear that was most definitely not boots.
As he narrowed his eyes on him, Rigel could also smell that sickening yet sweet smell coming off of his dad. It was an odd scent to be sure, but at least it would make it easy to track him down should he lose sight of him because as of right now he wasn't going to approach him.
It wasn't like he could just go and say, 'Hey, guess what? I'm your son. Look at us, we could pass of as twins if we wanted to.' That was a quick way to find himself screamed at like he was absolutely insane. Then again, accepting the deal of a Witch who was obsessed with his father enough to apparently send him to the far past already spoke plenty about his deteriorating mental state.
As he brought himself out of his thoughts, he heard his father rambling about things like 'being the main character' and 'isekai', whatever those meant. Apparently the eccentric behavior of his family had started early on. At least that was something to go off of, since his father never talked about his past much to him. If this was any indication he had good reason as to why he wanted to keep it a secret.
While he observed his dad as he tried to buy something, only to get shooed away by the stall keeper when it was revealed that the money he had was no good, Rigel noted that he was not alone on the rooftops. A young blonde haired girl with a long red scarf was jumping from roof to roof herself and sometimes ducking into alleyways before getting back to the roofs.
A quick scream caught his attention and he found that his father had accidentally stumbled into a womans public restroom from the intensity of the screams and watched as the old man (in his eyes) got slapped hard by a cat beastwoman. It brought a snort of amusement to his lips as he started to follow him going from misadventure to misadventure.
Eventually he began to move along the side roads and Rigel followed him from the rooftops. He hopped from building to building, observing things as he went along and ready to interfere should his father get into any trouble. Trouble which seemed to come almost immediately when he was complaining about not having 'excalibur' or having the sheer gall to call three thieves 'lumps of exp' before they had jumped him.
At that point, he was going to step in, especially when one of the thugs slammed his shoe into his dad's cheek. That was when he nearlybumped into a girl that eerily reminded himself of Satella. A silver haired and amethyst eyed half-elf who threatened to use some very dangerous ice magic on the three thugs if they didn't step away from his dad and apparently returned something that they had stolen from her.
Somewhat ironically, the thieves pleaded innocent to having stolen anything from her. The half-elf seemed to have a divine ability for she could tell that they weren't lying to her, but she then slammed a light shard of ice against all three for attacking his father. Normally this would make most cower in fear, as magic always gave an advantage over petty thieves. Though in this case, it had seemed like they had gained a bit of courage from beating the crap out of his old man.
Until the half-elf summoned her spirit, who then proceeded to threaten the thieves until they ran away. Putting away the kunai that he had slipped out of his hand, Rigel began to stand up since he was not needed yet. That was when he froze, feeling the gaze of something akin to an alpha predator looking down at him.
His eyes honed in on the source and found it came from the rather adorable but now very scary tiny cat the half-elf had summoned. The half-oni could tell that the spirit was judging him on the spot, tilting its head curiously before its contractor spoke up and it changed its personality sharply as it began to mess with his now unconscious old man by turning human sized and giving him a lap pillow.
Apparently it had deemed him a non-threat. While that was what he was going for, a part of him felt slightly insulted by that. Probably the last bits of his pride as a man and as a warrior of the shadows.
It took a bit for him to wake up, but eventually his father regained consciousness and the half-elf asked him for assistance in looking for something that was stolen from her. Most of their conversation he caught by lip reading since getting any closer with the spirit still out felt like a very suicidal idea.
The trio had made progress traversing through the city and finding a lost little girl, who apparently was the daughter of the stall keep that rejected his father earlier. Rigel was making a mental map of the place he was as at as they all walked along in their own way.
When they introduced themselves to one another, he heard her calling herself 'Satella'. Though if the way her body language spoke was any indication it was not her real name. His father also introduced himself and making a goofy pose while he did it.
'It's all looking pretty peaceful so far. Though if Envy was telling the truth, then father is going to be in mortal peril soon enough. Anyone touched that deeply by her would no doubt have a lot of uncomfortable encounters in their life. Like myself for one.' It was a morbid thought, but there was no reason to doubt someone that obsessed with a person whom they had apparently observed for his entire life.
As the two continued to walk into the poorer section of the city, he ran out of proper rooftops to hide on and began to follow them from the darkness of the alleyways in the slums. It was rather easy to tail them since the spirit was keeping his charge unaware while she did her own business. While the time passed, the sun began to set and the spirit let out a yawn before vanishing. Apparently the contracted amount of time it could stay out had been up.
The wild chase came to a head when they were in front of a large building. Apparently it was a loot house, a place where goods could be traded illegally for money with little to no questions asked. A place perfect for thieves, spies and assassins to hang out at to share and swap information semi-discreetly while still making themselves look like they were drinking ale and eating gruel or bread.
Yet the moment his father opened the door, a very, VERY familiar scent hit Rigel's nose hard. It was a scent that he had been knee deep in only half a day ago...or a lifetime and a half day rather. The scent of blood and death. He watched as his father boldly entered the dark loot house and that was when he acted.
Dashing from his hiding point, he sped past the half elf and almost bodily threw himself inside, pulling out five kunai from their holsters and throwing them out in an arc.
Despite it being pitch black, he could see each one getting deflected in a lazy manner. Making sure that his mask was on tightly, Rigel grabbed another kunai and held in a reverse grip while his father was panicking and asking what had been going on.
"Run you idiot!" Rigel shouted as he kept an eye on the shadows. That was the only thing that allowed him to react in time to the shadowy assassin trying to hop over him to murder his father. A large blade was racing towards the teens neck and Rigel once again placed himself between his father and the attacker.
'Zarestia, I could use a bit of help here!' He thought to himself as he attempted to contact his contracted spirit.
Much to his shock, he couldn't feel a response. The light sphere in his chest was still there, but not the spirit that it belong to who swore to be by his side.
The distraction he placed on himself cost him in that single moment.
"Got you. Show me your bowels, please." A sensual, feminine voice rang out.
SCHLK!
"Guhhh…." Rigel half gurgled, half coughed as he felt his kunai snap under the opposing blades pressure and stick itself deeply inside of his side and ribs.
Looking behind him, he saw his dad cowering in fear and if he smelled it right, had just urinated himself from the violent scene in front of him.
The half-elf girl had come in at this point and fired multiple ice shards at the attacker. Though in the enclosed space and confusion, she had also found Rigel himself to be a target and sharp ice spears dug into his back and poked holes out of his front from how deep they were.
'Fuck...I didn't think...I'd die this soon. D-damnit old man...run!' The half-oni thought to himself as he kept a death grip on the assassins arm that was holding onto the blade in his gut. It proved to be a small inconvenience as the woman dodged all the ice shards readily and then threw apparently a second hidden blade from her sleeve and into the half-elf's throat, causing her to fall on her side, dead instantly as blood flowed freely from the wound in her neck.
Despite his best efforts, Rigel felt his strength leave him and the assassin managed to loosen his grip from her hands, causing him to lean to the side and crash into a table as he did. There seemed to be a look of grudging respect in her eye as she had to rub her wrist from the death grab he had placed on it.
'No...NO!' He thought as she strode over to his father before murdering him right in front of Rigel's slowly closing eyes by slicing his stomach clean open.
'Zarestia...why...didn't you answer?' His thoughts were beginning to feel jumbled as the woman calmly strode out of the store. His eyelids grew heavily as his father dragged himself over to the female half-elf, swearing that he would save her as all three bled out together.
That was when he heard the Witch's earlier whisper in his ear once more. "There cannot be two of everything. Only one. The orb you may keep, but the spirit of the past shall be your companion."
So he had kept Zarestia's Light Orb, but in exchange he had to find the Zarestia that lived in this time and contract with her, without the memories to accompany how she knew him and vice versa or why he had her orb.
'Damn it...'
Natsuki Rigel's first Death from Zero found him dying alone and feeling very, very lonely as his eyes shut themselves closed for the last time.
Or so he thought.
His eyes snapped open and he found himself coughing heavily once more.
A blue sky greeted him from the previous yellow twilight that eclipsed the city.
The noises, the scents, were all the same.
"No…"
It was not Death From Zero.
Natsuki Rigel Returned By Death TO Zero.
End : Beginning
Omake
Oni in Japan
As Rigel opened his eyes, he found himself in an odd place. He wasn't in Kararagi like he was expecting. Rather, he found himself looking at an odd street light that wasn't being powered by a lantern. It seemed to be giving off a light that was much, much more powerful than the flames he was used to.
"Oops." A voice echoed in his head.
"Oops? What do you mean, oops?" He asked aloud, already feeling his heartbeat rapidly increasing in dread for the Witch of Envy saying such a simple word that meant nothing good.
"I took you back a little too far and now I can't pull you back for awhile. Tee-hee." She responded, lightly knocking her head with her fist and sticking her tongue out at him from within his minds eye.
His actual eye was beginning to twitch rapidly at how nonchalantly the seemingly all powerful Witch made a deal of dumping him apparently so far into the past that it felt as if he was in another world entirely! He couldn't even feel the mana in the air!
"Ah...that's because it actually IS another world and there ISN'T any mana in the air. This is where your father is from. Surprise?" Satella informed him before trying to make light of the situation again.
Witch of Envy that could kill him as easily as breathing or not, if he had the ability to he'd be wringing her neck right now in trying to get him back to where he SHOULD currently be, not where she had randomly dumped him in the middle of a NEW WORLD.
"Ah, it-it's not that bad! Your grandparents on Subaru-kun's side should be here!" Satella stated, which caused him to raise an eyebrow.
It was something that he had actually never thought much about. His mother had informed him that both of her parents had died a long time ago when she was a child. While his dad just changed the subject whenever his parents came up in a conversation, yet he always had a guilty look on his face. Now Rigel knew why that was the case.
"So what am I supposed to do then? Find them? I don't even know where to start!" He shouted in frustration before kicking the light granting pole next to him, watching it nearly crumple in half from the force of his sheer strength.
"Well, for now at least, since it's still night I would suggest blending with the locals before trying to thinking of finding your grandparents."
Considering how he was currently pinching his nose for a multitude of reasons, he found that it was probably the safest thing he could do at the moment. Though he had no clue of what passed for clothing in this place, so he put his shinobi skills to the test and erased his presence from the area and walked into the shadows.
He completely missed the lit building behind him, which contained a wide-eyed human looking at how, to them, a person in a ninja cosplay knocked a metal lamppost in two with a swift kick.
One Hour Later
Staking out the streets was beginning to become a challenge to his eyesight, his hearing and his nose. Everything was so darn bright, loud, obnoxious and smelly. The scent of tobacco, alcohol, sweat and sex along with a weird smog were the most prevalent things he sniffed. He kept to the crowds, never lingering for more than a few moments and looked around, left and right to see if he could pick up context of what to do.
So far, he learned that fashion here was apparently a free-for-all. If one could imagine it, they could dress in it. From top to bottom, he saw garish colors and combinations that could only come from a fashion designers dreams and nightmares come to life. It felt like the ONLY thing that he had to blend in was his hair color, which came in every shade imaginable here.
Eventually it started to become too much for him to process all at once and he ducked into an alleyway that was next to a darkened clothing store of some sort. As much as he didn't want to do something like this, he'd eventually have to come by new clothes unless he wanted to make a scene. Making sure his presence was still unnoticed by the people outside, he pulled out a kunai and use the tip to press against the lock of the door and forced it open. Going inside, he saw mannequins that held several display of clothes and the lack of lighting didn't bother him much due to his training and oni lineage allowing him to see in the dark very easily.
Wanting to be quick about it, he grabbed a matching top and bottom set along with the natural footwear he had seen people going about in with the white foot covers.
He also tore open a package that contained a pair of underpants. While he couldn't judge his own personal size, he could guesstimate it. Using the speed he had gained through training, he quickly undid his entire Shinobi uniform and turned it into what seemed to be a simple travel back which had his stolen sword dangling from the back.
His new attire consisted of a top with a neck cover that also had arm coverings going down to his hand. It was split into several colors with the main color being white until it reached the shoulder and arm area, where an orange line separated it from the natural shade of blue that covered the rest of it with the orange line also going perfectly down the middle of those areas too. The letter 'R' was seen on the chest area made of blue and orange colors and the wrist area was made of a fluffy orange colored material as well. The inside of the garment was lined with an orange color and seemed to close with a metal bar that could be pulled up to the neck. Underneath that was a plain blue shirt.
The chosen bottoms were also a natural shade of blue in color but he noticed it was made of the same stretchy fabric as his top and didn't seem to need a belt to hold it together. The underpants were a basic white that stopped at his upper thigh and his foot coverings were the same. Lastly, he had on a pair of blue foot coverings that had orange stripes of material looping in and around it. He found that he could tie the end parts into a colorful bow to keep it held together.
With his outfit picked, he left the store as silently as he came in, shutting the door behind him like nothing happened after disposing of the evidence that he had been in there, of course.
Wanting to get out of the noisy city, he hopped up and down on his new footwear to make sure they were tightly on and quickly jumped from wall to wall in the alleyway until he reached the top of the building. All he could see were a multitude of lights that threatened to blind him if he stared too long. So he roof jumped from building to building, heading away from the light and towards a softer looking residential area that had little in the way of lighting.
Along the way, he saw odd transports that required no magical beast to pull and seemingly just rode themselves. One of them looked like a snake that traveled across an already made pathway while the others just looked like metal boxes with wheels on them. It also seemed like Metia were plentiful here as almost everybody he saw had one on their person.
Cutting away from his observations, he ran out of tall buildings to jump off of and quickly scaled down the side of one before hopping into the residential district on top of another light bearing metal pole. It was easy to touch the ground afterwards and he brushed some dirt off of his new clothes before he noticed a picture stuck to the light pole.
It was somewhat old and a little faded due to time and the weather, but his eyes widened slightly as he saw a face on the paper.
He knew it because it was his own face. Rather, it was his fathers face, but his father was far too old to match the image seen on the paper.
He couldn't read the letters on the paper, but he imagined that if his father had been transported to the world he was from, then the family left behind would have organized some kind of search party and this paper was a leftover from it.
"I guess Grandma and Grandpa were looking for him a lot." He muttered as he carefully folded the paper in four. He never had any images of his parents from when they were younger so he wanted to keep this as a memento, if nothing else.
From there, all Rigel could do was walk aimlessly through the residential streets until evening broke to dusk and dusk broke to dawn. It felt like the area stretched on forever as he had walked several miles already without taking a single break.
As he stopped to stretch his back and arms to allay any stiffness from his walking, jumping and running, he heard the door to one of the homes open.
Rigel turned to the noise and found himself looking into eyes that seemed to almost be a direct copy of his own belonging to an older woman that looked to be a little older than his own mother, but not by much. Like everyone else, she wore what to him seemed to be strange clothing covered by an apron and slippers as her choice of footwear while holding a glass vase filled with flowers. As he stared at her, so too had she stared at him, unbridled fascination, wonder, hope and fear crossed her eyes.
Their faces were somewhat similar, but it was the eyes that stood out the most.
As she stood there frozen, a man came out from behind her. He was taller and as Rigel's eyes turned up to meet the newcomers own, he saw that their hair was in the exact same style.
His face was much more rugged looking than his fathers though by and far. His physique was well toned but not to the level of the Kararagi workers he passed by everyday until recently.
A pair of spectacles covered his eyes, but there was no hiding the tears that began to form in them.
"Subaru?" The woman found her voice first, but it came out faint and almost hoarse, like she couldn't find it properly.
Rigel could see the tiredness and despair that had been etched onto their bodies for what had been an apparently long time. He didn't blame them one bit. His father was gone for years and years. It was enough to drive any parent to grief and assume that their child was dead or vanished to the wind.
Yet upon seeing his face, he could tell that hope was beginning to rise up within them.
"Ah...no, my name is Rigel." He said, watching the hope quickly turn to despair and seeing an invisible weight being placed on their shoulders.
"O-oh...I'm deeply sorry. You...you j-just look exactly like him...right down to the clothing. The only difference is the color." The woman apologized.
The man, clearly her husband, placed his hand on her shoulder and pulled her into a hug as she cried into his chest.
"A-ah...wait. I wasn't done." He said, the words coming out of his lips before he could really think about it.
The woman sniffled lightly and looked up at him.
"My name is Natsuki Rigel. Natsuki Subaru and Natsuki Rem are my parents. Do you know them?" he asked.
The wide eye look the two gave him told Rigel that despite not being in the correct time or place, he was in for an adventure all his own. Trading violence for a daily life that one could say was peaceful, but just as odd as home in an entirely different way.
Oni In Japan
End
A/N: I do not own Re: Zero. It belongs to its creator and the anime belongs to the anime studio that developed it and the light novel to the company that publishes it.
Hoo boy was this fanfic a long time in the making. I had held onto this brainchild for well over a year since I had first started reading the light novel spin-offs. Rem IF fascinated me and while I am glad the creator always does something with Rem once a year, it is sad that the rest of the family hasn't been included in awhile.
Almost every fanfic I read stars Subaru in some situation or another, even in an IF scenario. So I wanted to do something unique, something no other fanfic (so far) has done as far as I'm aware.
Aging up Subaru and Rem's child and putting him on what amounts to a suicide mission of trying to prevent his dad from traveling down IF timelines, not knowing that he made a deal with a witch who wouldn't care if he died so long as his dad lives.
As you can see, Rigel has his work cut out for him. No amount of OP Bullshit matters in Re:Zero, because there are always people that one-up it.
The Omake is just a little bit of my own IF scenarios. In this case, Oni in Japan is Rigel's personal Sloth IF.
Pairings for Rigel are as follows: Zarestia, Frederica, Shaula
Possible future pairing: Felix (I don't discriminate to best cat boi trap)
Not sure when Chapter 2 will come out as sadly inspiration comes and goes, but I will do my best to make sure that this will see the light of day again sooner rather than later.
I do imagine there will probably be several questions in the reviews and I'll try to answer as best as I can if it doesn't contain too many spoilers.
For now, here is some OST's you can play.
Rigel Theme: Silent Solitude (OxT), Bad Apple (Christina Vee version)