Re:Zero: A Cold Place A2:C8

Chapter 9:

"Subaru."

"Y-Youra..."

Subaru did his best to keep his composure in front of the man who had ordered his death twice.

He stayed silent for a moment, thinking through his next words.

"I want to talk... may... I come inside?"

Youra's eyes narrowed. "Talk? About what?"

"Y'know, just a friendly talk about what we've been doing since we last met."

Subaru forced a weak smile onto his face. Youra nodded slightly. He stepped to the side and said, "Come in."

Subaru stepped into Youra's house. It was dim inside with most of the windows covered by curtains. There was minimal furniture in the room he had stepped into, and the few pieces of furniture that were there were covered in dust.

"Follow me."

Youra began walking down a nearby hallway and Subaru quickly followed. After a few moments Youra opened a door and stepped into a room.

Subaru followed, cautiously looking around the unfamiliar place.

The room was dim and bare again. A desk was positioned across the room directly opposite the door. Two couches were on both sides of the room up against the walls.

Youra walked behind the desk and sat in a chair behind it.

Subaru swallowed hard and took a breath. "So... how have you been, Youra?"

"Fine. How have you been?"

Subaru pushed down his anxiety and replied, "Good. I'm living with Clement and helping him with a stand that he owns."

Youra nodded. After a moment silence fell upon the room.

"S-so... what have you been up to?"

Youra sighed quietly. "Business has been as usual."

"Business? What do you do?"

"I run an organization."

"Mhm..." Subaru took a breath. He continued talking, his mouth dry from his anxiety. "What does it do?"

"It's... something like a mercenary group."

"Ah. Got it."

Silence filled the room again. Subaru took another breath and sighed.

"Hey, Youra?"

"Yes?"

"Is... there any reason that you would order someone... One of your mercenaries, to... kill me?"

Youra kept a straight face. "Why... do you ask?"

"Just... uh... some paranoia."

A heavy atmosphere filled the room.

Youra stared Subaru in his eyes. "Subaru..."

"Y...yes?"

"There is a reason I would send a member of my organization to you."

"W...why...?" Subaru's voice was weak.

"I would only send someone for you if someone paid to have it done."

Subaru's knees felt like they were going to give out. He said in a quiet voice.

"Has... anyone paid to have me killed?"

Youra nodded.

Subaru took a few deep breaths.

"Youra... please tell me... who did it."

"A woman... Aura."

"A...Aura?"

"You may remember her if I tell you that she's an archer."

"Oh..."

He closed his eyes, fighting off growing nausea. "W...why?"

"There is a limit to what I know."

Subaru took a few deep breaths, still processing what he just heard.

What reason did she have to kill him...?

Why?

Why?

Why?

Subaru got back to his knees. "Th...thank... you, Youra..."

Subaru turned around and left the room. He quickly walked back down the dim hallway and into the dim bare room. He stepped over to the front door, but froze when someone outside opened it.

A man in a black cloak with gray edges had opened it and stepped in. His red eyes fell on Subaru.

Subaru froze. The man looked at him for a moment, and walked over to him. The man, Zei, was about half a head taller than Subaru. Zei looked down at Subaru. Then, he said, "Nice to meet you. I'm Zei, an assassin of Alphe-sama. You just talked to him, right?"

"A-Uu..." Subaru was frozen, fear coursed through his body as he stared at the man who had killed him about an hour ago. He pushed Zei to the side and ran away through the door and into the bright sunlight. He ran blindly, not caring about where he went, only caring about getting away from Zei.

He ran. And ran. And ran.

Then, he was standing before Clement's house, his body aching and breathing sporadically. He stepped up to the door and opened it, stepping in. Clement was gone, probably off to work.

He walked over to the living room and flopped onto the couch, exhausted physically from the run and mentally from everything. He just wanted to sleep. And so, he drifted into sleep.

Zei cocked his head at the strange black-haired man who had just run away. For some reason, Zei had felt intense fear coming off of him. He tried to remember if he had ever seen the man before. He looked up at the ceiling and down at the floor as he thought, but then shook his head, "These are the kinds of things I accidentally think about for hours…"

He started to walk down the nearby hallway towards Youra's minimalistic office. He stepped up to the half-open door and knocked on it.

"Who is it?" Youra's stern voice came from behind the door.

"It's Zei, sir. May I come in?"

"Come in."

Zei pushed open the already half-open door and walked in. He stepped to the middle of the room and bowed deeply towards his master. Zei straightened his back and made eye contact with Youra. "Sir, may I ask who that man was?"

Youra quietly said, "That was the man who led me to Hans a month ago—Natsuki Subaru."

"Then… he's the one I'm to dispose of in a few days?"

Youra's eyes dropped. "Yes."

Zei nodded and Youra continued, "I am grateful towards him, as he let me avenge my wife. Be sure to make his death quick and as painless as possible."

Zei responded, "Alright, sir, I'll do my best."

Zei wasn't too sure if he would be able to contain his sadistic side while murdering the man, but he would do his best. Just the thought of murdering the man who seemed so terrified of him was exciting.

"I mean it. If I happen to find out that you drew his death out there will be consequences."

Zei nodded again, "Yes sir."

Silence filled the room. Zei took a breath and said, "Sir... I apologize if this is offending or a stupid thing to ask… but if you're so pained about having him killed why did you accept that woman's request?"

Youra averted his gaze. "Her sum of money was large… and I happen to have a few debts I need to pay off."

Sensing that his master didn't want to speak about it any longer, Zei dropped the subject.

"Now, sir, about what I really came here to ask. What is your relationship with that woman, Aura?"

Youra raised his eyes and met Zei's gaze. "She and I used to travel together, stopping bandits and rogue beasts across this country. That was a long time ago now. She and I had a terrible disagreement about something trivial and we broke off our relationship."

Zei nodded and Youra kept talking, "I met up with a new group and settled down with them. A year later, Aura murdered them all in their sleep." Youra's face grew grim. "She woke me up and declared herself my enemy, before running away."

"Ever since then she and I have been attacking the other whenever we meet." What Youra didn't mention was that it was much more so a friendly rivalry now. While yes, the two would try to kill each other during their battles, neither side was truly out for the other's blood.

"Mhm," Zei said, "So that's it."

Youra nodded. He took a deep breath and stared Zei in the eyes. "Zei, about Subaru… kill him tonight, or as early as you can after that."

Zei paused, then nodded, "Understood, sir."

Subaru woke up a few hours after he had fallen asleep. He groaned and rolled over on the couch, now staring up at the ceiling. He closed his eyes and thought through everything.

He sighed and got off of the couch. He raised his arms up and stretched.

Clement was still gone, so it had to be before or just after noon.

Pushing the curtain to the side, Subaru looked out a nearby window. It was still and quiet outside and the sun was bright. He stepped away from the window, letting the curtains fall back into place.

Subaru walked over to the door and put on his usual coat. He turned the handle and pulled open the door. The cold air bit at his exposed skin. He stepped outside, locking the door behind him, and started walking towards where he had previously met Ceres yet again. A few hours had passed since he last checked, so he figured that she might have wandered there by now.

As he walked down a quiet street paved with cold stone he found himself thinking of everything again. It was a lot to take in.

The person who was behind all of this had turned out to be the archer, Aura. Youra ran a kind of assassin organization, and Aura had paid for Youra to send someone to kill him.

The transaction had already happened before Subaru's save point, so it was useless to try to stop Aura from doing it. It might be possible to convince Youra not to send Zei, though. But Subaru had mixed feelings about teaming with Youra again, as it still felt like he was responsible for his past two deaths.

He ended up thinking of Lain, and consequently the fight that started earlier. Subaru hadn't ever gone back to check what happened there, though to be perfectly honest he didn't really feel like going anywhere near Aura. All he could do was hope that Lain had won.

Subaru walked into the park, the ground under him frozen and hard.

Not long after Subaru walked up to where he had previously met Ceres. Looking around he didn't see her. He decided to try to call out for her, so he turned his attention inward and focused on Ceres. After that he formed a thought, just her name imbued with emotion, and sent it towards her.

Subaru doubted that it would work, but it was worth a try.

He waited around for a while. Not too long after he spotted a small blue minor spirit floating around curiously.

"Ah-" He walked over to it, cautiously approaching.

He cleared his throat when he was a few feet away from it and said, "Uhm, hello."

The spirit floated away from him a little.

[H...hello.]

A soft curious voice came to him. Cere's voice.

"Uhm, I'm Subaru. I'd… like to make a temporary contract with you."

Subaru projected his friendliness towards the spirit.

[...Sure.]

A moment later warm bubbled up within Subaru, before quickly fading. He checked for the newly formed contract in the back of his mind and found it.

"Do you mind… if I call you Ceres?"

[A...name?]

"Yeah a name."

[Ceres… is me.]

"Yeah, it's you, Ceres."

Later that night, shortly after Clement got home, Subaru introduced the two. It went pretty much the same as last time, only Clement was much more surprised about Subaru having contracted with her.

Clement agreed once again to introduce Subaru to Amai, with the same conditions as last time; that is, Clement would pay for lessons right now, and Subaru would pay him back later.

Ceres had apparently used a lot of mana to form the contract, despite it only being a weak temporary contract, so she dematerialized and rested for most of the night.

Subaru and Clement talked for a while about a bunch of things.

"Hey, Subaru, are you okay?"

Clement asked this question out of nowhere.

"Eh? Yeah, I'm good."

Clement narrowed his eyes.

"If you need any help I'm here for you."

"Yeah…"

"Y'know, I'm pretty capable in all kinds of circumstances. You can count on me to help if you need anything."

"...Yeah."

Subaru clenched his fists.

"I know… I can count on you… but…"

Subaru closed his eyes as he lowered his head. "I… You don't need to suffer… because of me…" His voice was barely louder than a whisper.

"Subaru."

"You don't have to get hurt because of me…"

"Subaru."

"You don't have to… help me. I can do it myself. I know… I can."

"Subaru." Clement's voice was sturdy.

Clement walked over to him. "Subaru… do you remember when we fought Hans?"

"..."

"I was hurt during that. I was burned and got all cut up, remember?"

"Yeah… I do."

"If I could redo it, I would do it all over again as long as it meant meeting you."

"Eh…?"

"I care about you, Subaru. I don't care if I get hurt by it, I want to help you if you need help."

"Nhnn…"

Clement grabbed his shoulder.

"Subaru, do you need help?"

Subaru clenched his fists harder. Maybe… I should ask for help.

He lifted up his head and looked at Clement. A small smile was on Subaru's face. "Clement…"

"Yes?"

"I—"

It was at that moment that a man in a black robe leapt through a nearby window and ran at the two.