I feel like the every other day chapter release during the week can work for me but damn sometimes I just wanna be lazy :/ . Regardless I'm still really enjoying writing these so ill keep putting them out.

This all seems so familiar to him. The split second of complete and utter darkness, his mind a complete blank not being able to process anything going on. Then as quickly as it happened everything starts to fade back in.

When Ryan starts to fade back in again his vision is one of the first senses he gains back. All the others shortly follow after.

The first thing he notices again is man standing in front of him waving an apple around. Ryan still vividly remembering what just happened to him tries to process it.

"I… that women…what the fuck…" He thinks to himself

Ryan than quickly grabs at his face still feeling the split second as the shrapnel of the grenade tore threw it and into his skull. He then grabs frantically at his stomach the feeling of his insides falling out even though there not.

Even as the sensations of psychogenic pain began to pass it is still all to real to him. Ryan begins to feel weak in his knees as something in his stomach begins to work its way up his throat.

Ryan quickly pushes the apple man out of the way and walks to the corner of the building his shop is at and vomits.

What was he vomiting? The breakfast he had this morning? Yesterday morning or even the breakfast he had two days ago? Time started to feel fake to him and a Groundhog Day Syndrome swelled inside of him.

As he finished vomiting, he wiped the vomit still sticking to his chin.

"There is no way any of this is fucking real" he said to himself as the apple man approached him and put a hand on his shoulder

"Hey kid what the hell? Are you alright?" he asked in a concerned tone

Ryan quickly turned around and pushed the man back unholstering his pistol and shoving it in the mans face

"Back the fuck up or I'll end you!" Ryan said shouting at the man

The man did so but gave Ryan a confused look as he starred down the barrel of his gun not even knowing the amount of danger he was in.

"Kid I don't what wrong with you, but you need to leave, your scaring away my customers." The man said folding his arms.

Ryan realizing how he overreacted slowly lowered his pistol noticing the amount of people beginning to stare at him. When Ryan then looked at the crowed he saw Emilia with them also looking at him only she was the only one who knew what his pistol was capable of.

"Ryan!" she shouted at him while walking up "What are you doing? You wonder off and then start threatening to kill people?!"

All Ryan could do was stare at her. This was the first time he's seen her since he saw her on the ground blood pouring out of her body.

"Em-"he starts but his words get caught up in his throat. He then looks back at his hand realizing he still has his pistol out and finally holsters it looking back at her.

"Emilia it wasn't like that, he just… scared me was all." He said to her and then looked at the man still not knowing what was going on and wondering how his life was being threatened.

"I'm sorry" was all Ryan could think to say to him.

The man just shrugged not being able to care on what was going on anymore and went to the front of his shop to tend to it.

Emilia than got his attention again speaking up "Ryan I don't know what's going on with you but your acting strange. You're acting completely differently than you were earlier" she said to him.

Earlier.

That word stuck out the most to Ryan. As if the events that have been happening to him was ONLY happing to him.

"Emilia" he started to ask "Your okay right?" Ryan asked her with genuine concern for her

Emilia slightly taken back by the change of tone he had answered "Yes? I feel fine why do you ask?" she asked confused by his question

He then shook his head "It's nothing, just started feeling really sick out of nowhere I guess."

Just as Ryan was beginning to walk off he saw her. In the crowd with a smug grin plastered across her face.

Felt.

She was alive too, even after Ryan had seen her get dissected there she was standing amongst the crowd.

"Felt?" he said to himself

"What was that?" Emilia asked him slightly turning her head sideways

Ryan turned to her "N-nothing, like I said im not feeling too good right now" he said actually not lying.

Ryan was feeling as if he had just woken up from a long sleep and he still wasn't fully awake. Everything seemed so fake to him yet it wasn't. He felt like he was sleepwalking and nothing around him was actually there.

Yet it was.

As Ryan was beginning to lose his train of focus again a small figure brushed past him and into Emilia. It was like a blur, there one second then gone disappearing down the street.

Ryan then saw Emilia's eyes widen as she watched the blur fade away into the crowd. She then quickly reached into a pocket on her dress only to find nothing.

"My insignia." She said shocked and turning to Ryan "That person just stole my insignia!"

Ryan once again having to be brought back to focus by Emilia looked at her

"What?" he asked

Now very visible frustrated she yelled at Ryan "My insignia Ryan! While you were here causing a scene you let someone steal my insignia!" she said placing all of the blame onto him

"The fuck? How is this my fault. How is any of this my fault? What the fuck is even going on what the fuck is happening to me?!"

He then looked back at her not appreciating the attitude she was giving him.

"Emilia I'll get your fucking insignia back but acting like a bitch isn't going to help you" he said to her anger building up inside of him

Anger from his confusion.

Anger from seeing Emilia die.

Anger from seeing Felt die.

Ryan was fucking pissed off and having Emilia pouting at him wasn't helping him either all it was doing was making it worse.

Emilia took a step back shocked by what he said to her. After a couple of seconds she regain her composure and told him

"I don't know what wrong with you Ryan but this is not the man I met back at Roswaal's mansion. You need to calm down. Until then I will go get back my insignia myself" she said as she stormed off.

Ryan suddenly feeling guilty reached out "Emilia wait I-" as he grabbed for her arm she quickly spun around and jerked her arm from his grasp

"Leave me alone until you calm down!" she said then storming off again

"Phf, me calm down huh?" he said to himself as she walked away

Ryan then seeing the gathering crowd around him walked off into an all well known alley.

"I swear I'm fucking going crazy, like I'm not just seeing shit am I?" he said to himself walking down the alley

"None of this makes any actual fucking sense. What could fucking explain this shit in my head?" Ryan continued to rant to himself as he walked further into the alley

Thanks to him completely shutting off the outside world and practically locking himself inside of his head lost in his thoughts Ryan was un aware of his three favorite thugs now standing in front of him with the middle one having his knifes drawn out.

He yelled out to Ryan "Give us everything you have and we wont kill you!" he said

Ryan simply looked up at them and continued to walk towards them "Fuck right the hell off cocksuckers, I don't have time for your bullshit"

Ryan then continued to walk straight into the middle man.

Catching him off guard with being completely unfazed by them the middle man panicked. As Ryan got within arms distance he impulsively reached his arm out and punched Ryan in his side.

Ryan, having taking many punches in his live didn't seem to bothered by this except when he tried to keep walking his legs suddenly gave out beneath him. Ryan wasn't even fully aware of what happened to him until his face hit the ground and the hard smack.

"Wha-?" he began until the familiar sensation of a burning built up into his side. The thug completely surprised and taken off guard my Ryan's attitude with them and seemingly unfazed with the knife he was brandishing panicked.

He didn't want to be punked out by this man and made to look like a coward and fool Infront of his friends, so he did the first thing his body told him to. Stab Ryan with his knife.

Ryan now on the ground struggling to get air into his body while coughing to get the blood out of his throat reached around and felt the knife. All he felt was the hilt of it meaning the whole thing must have been buried into him.

"Fuck… this isn't good" was all Ryan could manage to think. He then slowly reach for his hip and with some difficulty unholstered his pistol. While the three of the goons were panicking Ryan tried to line a shot up on them.

"St.. steady…just squeeze…and"

The shot went wild and completely missed. All three of the thugs seemingly frozen in place from the loud miniature explosion they heard slowly turned their heads and looked at Ryan.

"Hu-hurry up and kill him!" The small one shouted to the middle man

But when the second of hesitation that the middle thug showed before going to bend down and take his knife out of Ryan was all he needed.

Being that close even if Ryan was on the verge of death there was no way he could miss. With a second pull of the trigger the bullet flew through the mans chest and out the other side.

For some reason that second shot didn't faze the short thug. Not even seeming to notice his friend clutching at his chest the short thug ran up to Ryan and wrenched the knife out of his side before he even had a chance to re adjust his aim.

With the knife now free of Ryan's side blood now freely gushed out and onto the street. His already weakening body and fading vision seemed to double their speed on him. With a gasp of pain Ryan dropped his pistol and with both hands clutched at his wound putting pressure on it.

The small thug went to stab Ryan a second time until the largest thug yelled out to him pointing to the original owner of the knife.

Their friend was now on the ground dead and Ryan was soon to follow.

"Y-you bastard!" he yelled before repeatedly stabbing the knife and Ryan trying to jam it into his chest.

Luckly for Ryan his vest with the addition of his plate that he had in it were doing a good job at stopping the knife from painfully going into him.

Ryan letting go of his wound with his left hand reached for his bayonet and unsheathed it swinging it at the small man attempting to impale him.

In his blind rage he failed to notice Ryan's knife coming at him trying to pull back in time. Ryan's knife caught the man across the face slitting it open.

The thug dropped the knife and clutched at his face screaming in pain at the wound he just received.

Seeing the small man in such pain almost brought a smile to Ryan's face except his couldn't feel his face. In fact his couldn't feel anything at all.

That was when Ryan notice that the last of the thugs and the most biggest was brining his foot up and down on his head.

Ryan thought that was funny. This man was trying to kill him yet Ryan couldn't feel any of it the only thing he could feel was the sudden coldness enveloping his body.

Even with his helmet taking the brunt of the force after such repeated curb stomps the mans accuracy started to get better and was now aiming his giant foot right for Ryan's face.

As the foot came down Ryan closed his eye's preparing for the darkness to yet come back to him and embrace him.

Then nothing.

Ryan felt absolutely nothing again. Except… what was that smell?

When Ryan finally decided to open his eyes he wasn't even shocked by what he saw. If anything, he weirdly felt relived.

It was the goddamned apple man again waving another one of his apples in his face.

"This… this is starting to make fucking sense to me know. I might be the biggest dumbass I know but I fucking think I know what's happening to me and my body"

"Well boy, ya want this appa or not?" he asked Ryan

Ryan just stared at him straight faced and asked him "Hey man….have you like, ever seen me before?"

The man still holding the apple out the Ryan simply replied "What do ya mean? I aint ever seen you before." He then raised the apple "Well, ya want the damned apppa or not?"

Ryan just chuckled.

At least it started out as a chuckle until he started fully laughing. It was crazy, maybe he even WAS crazy but how could he not laugh at his situation? It was all a big fucked up joke to him and he couldn't help but laugh at it.

The apple man just stared at Ryan like he was some sort of maniac until Ryan replied "Sorry man, I aint got no fucking money to give you" he said with a wide smile.

"Then get ya broke ass outta here!" the man yelled at him.

Ryan starting to love this fucked up joke walked behind the apple mans stand and sat on a pair of steps that looked comfy enough and was out of the sun.

"Well, what do I know? I'm fucked in this world without my gun and even with it I'm still equally as fucked." He said to himself strangely in high spirits

"Fucking good, mom didn't raise no bitch and I love a challenge" he said as he was giving his M4 a look over

"So Ryan, it appears death even hates your ass so much they don't even want to put up with your dumbass. Meaning, all that shit that's happened was real, and I'm just a big fucked up piece of shit soldier who Is…. getting himself stabbed by kids." he said remembering his conversation with Rick

"Fuck man wish you were here so I could tell you about this even though you wouldn't believe me. But this shit is real, I keep coming back no matter what happens to me. It's like fucking Groundhog Day but much, much more fucked up" he said looking off into the street.

"I get a fucking cool superpower but I have to die to use it, great I'm like some shitty hero with an even more fucked up power. I'm I right apple man?" Ryan said shouting over to the apple man

"Huh, why are ya asking me, and my damned name aint no apple man!" he said then turning to ignore Ryan again.

"Fucking rude" Ryan said to himself

Ryan got up and dusted himself off and began to walk down the street.

"Well if I can just keep coming back here when I die why not go fuck off for a while? Just walk around until I find a bar pickpocket some drunk and then use his money to get drunk myself. I fucking deserve a drink after all of this bullshit."

As Ryan kept walking down the street a nagging thought kept poking him in the back of the head.

Emilia.

Felt.

Rom.

Those three people.

Those three people are and will die tonight if Ryan doesn't do something. If Ryan just fucked off and did whatever he wanted he knew those three would die and he could have helped to stop it.

After walking a good distance away that thought turning from a nagging poke into an pickaxe hacking at his brain cause him to stop.

"What the fuck am I doing? I'm better than this aren't I? My fucking friend died to save me and here I am able to save three other people and I want to go and drink my sorrows away? God am I piece of shit"

Ryan then brought up his hand and slapped himself.

"Ryan you shitbag, soldier the fuck up and do your god damned job. Even if it's changed now you still have to protect Emilia you dumbass."

Ryan still standing in the street turned around and started to walk back towards the apple man's stand, but after walking in turned into a fast walk and then a job.

Before he knew it he was sprinting back to the apple mans stand.

He stopped in front of it catching his breath from the short but very quick sprint.

"Hey man" he said to him catching his breath

"Huh, you again? What do you want broke boy?" he replied

"There's something I got to ask you, you seen a small girl with yellow hair pickpocketing a girl with snow white hair?" he asked finally catching his breath

"Huh, asking more questions without even buying anything? You really got some guts on you" he said

Hearing that Ryan flinched for a second before he continued

"Pickpocketing incidents aren't that uncommon at all. Though, that last one was unusual.. I didn't quite see it but they threw around some magic and it went flying into the street a couple of times." He said looking at some damaged caused most likely by Emilia

"Things that looked like icicles flew around and lodged in the wall. They disappeared pretty quick though." He said to Ryan

"Fuck, I was too late wasn't I?" Ryan said "I thought if I ran back here I could make it in time to stop that shit from happing in the first place, then maybe…" he trailed off

"Maybe what?" the apple man asked

"Oh, nothing man. Just going crazy and talking to myself" Ryan joked "But thank you for telling me that, even though I didn't end up buying anything from you."

The apple man laughed "It's no big deal! Some broke kid just like you just helped my daughter after she got lost earlier."

This news slightly socked Ryan until it brought a grin to his face

"Fate has a way of doing shit even if you're not there" Ryan said to himself smiling

The apple man looked at him "What are you smiling about?"

Ryan shook his head "Nothing man just thinking about something that happened earlier. Next time I'm here though I'll be sure to buy and apple from you!" Ryan said as he began to run off to the slums

"Sure. Buy one and you'll finally be a customer. Get to work, broke boy!" He shouted to him

"Already am!" Ryan shouted back giving him a thumbs up

As Ryan was running he was talking to himself

"Just got to get to the loot house before that Elsa bitch and buy the insignia from Felt and give that shit back to Emilia."

As Ryan was running he decided to take a short cut through an alley to the slums, but as he was running through it he saw three figures standing in it blocking his path.

"No fucking way." He said to himself bringing his run to a stop some distance away from them.

"Where are you going in such a rush?" asked a very small person

"If you don't wanna get hurt, cough up whatever you've got!" said the one standing in the middle

"I'm starting to get sick and tired of having to fucking deal with you three dumbasses. Fucking stupid, stupider and stupidest. I've delt with you fuck faces enough times and I learned my god damned lesson! It's time the city earned what it paid for." Ryan said to the three thugs that have been a thorn in his side since getting to this city

Ryan, with some great exaggeration, took in the biggest breath of air he could inside of his lungs.

"Guuuaaarrrrdddsssss!" he yelled as physical loud as his vocal cords would let him

"What the hell?! You fucking bastard!" the small thug shouted at him

Ryan chuckled to himself as he saw panic spread across the face of the three thugs

"I sure fucking hope the guards in the city work harder than the ones at the gate"

Several seconds passed and then almost a minute. Nothing. The panic on the faces of the thugs slowly started to vanish.

"I fucking guess not"

"Don't scare me like that" the biggest one said letting out the breath of air he was holding in "I.. might have freaked out a little bit."

"Just a little bit" said the middle thug

"Just a tiny little bit" added on the smallest thug

The thug standing in the middle then pulled out his knife and the big one pulled out a cleaver and the three of them looked like they were ready to pounce on Ryan.

"Trying to run away won't help you" declared the smallest thug

As Ryan began to tense up ready for a fight he heard a voice speak up from behind him.

"That's enough." It said surprising all of them

All four of them then turned to look at the source of the voice.

What Ryan saw was a man slightly smaller than him with red hair wearing a white looking uniform carrying a sword, that's hilt was golden with golden spirals going up the handle.

"It can't be" one of the thugs said "Reinhard?" they said with a surprised voice in disbelieve

"The Master Swordsman, Reinhard?!" they said with even more surprise in their voice

The man Reinhard nodded his head "Looks like I don't need to introduce myself then." He said as he began to approach the thugs stopping next to Ryan

"Though, that nickname is a bit much for me. I don't know how much help my modest stench can be to him, but if you wish to resort to extreme measure… As a knight, I will have to fight back." He said then starting to put his hands on his sword as if to draw it

"S-screw this! It's not worth it!" Said the biggest thug starting to run away

The other two thugs then soon followed after him joining him in his retreat.

Both Ryan and Reinhard watch as the three thugs pathetically ran away. Reinhard then took his hands off of his sword and turned to Ryan

"I'm glad we're both safe. Are you unhurt?"

Ryan was shocked at how all well this had worked out. Never did he imagine that apparently a renowned swordsman would come to his call for help in a dark alleyway tucked away in the city.

Ryan nodded "Y-yeah I am, thank you like I really really thank you for coming to me and saving me from those three. My name is Ryan and I can't thank you enough for saving me from that trouble"

Ryan almost felt himself ramble on. Not only did his crazy plan work apparently a really well know and feared knight came to rescue him.

The man simply smiled at him

"There is no need for so much thanks, I was only doing my duty as a knight." He said modestly "Once it was three against two, they lost their advantage, If I'd been alone, it would have been a completely different story."

"God damn this guy isn't fucking joking. He is sincerely being this fucking nice to me?"

The man then simply turned to Ryan and gave him another smile.

"Um, it would be Sir Reinhard then right?" Ryan asked the knight

"You can just call me Reinhard, Ryan." He said smiling

"Damn when does he turn off the charm?"

"Well, thank you again Reinhard."

Reinhard nodded and then looked at Ryan

"By the way Ryan, what nation are you from? At the moment, Luguncia is a bit more restive than in peacetime. If you have a problem, I would be more than glad to help you."

This sparked joy in Ryan

"Then could you come with me to the loot house!?" Ryan asked before having flashbacks to what happened to him before

"Loot house?" Reinhard asked

"Ahh, never mind. It's probably better if you don't come" Ryan said.

If Reinhard is as renowned as Ryan thinks he is the sight of him could either send Felt running or Elsa into another killing spree.

"But.." Ryan said speaking up again "I would appreciate it if you could deliver a message for me" Ryan asked

"Of course, I would be glad to. What should I say and to whom?" Reinhard replied

"Well, her name is Emilia and she has white hair and she wears white robes."

"White hair with white robs.." Reinhard says to himself putting a hand on his chin

"She's also very pretty with purple eyes so she should stand out in a crowd" Ryan said adding on to her description

"Hmm, very well and what should I tell her if I do see her?" Reinhard ask

"If you see her please tell her, do not come near or to the loot house, no matter what. I will find the pickpocket and bring back what was stolen myself" Ryan told him in a serious tone

Reinhard nodded "Very well. If I see her I will be sure to relay your message to her"

Ryan smiled "Thank you" he said as he began to walk off

Before he exited the alley he turned to Reinhard "I will be sure to repay you some day" then turned and began to jog off to the slums

"Sure! Take care now!" Reinhard shouted out to Ryan as he left

So now this is it, time for Ryan to finally break past this loop and defeat Elsa. Hopefully yall are enjoying my little spin on this even though I haven't fully set Ryan to his full potential yet but I don't wont to start off to strong with him. Hopefully I can make it to where the story actually is interesting and fun to read.

Lmk what you like or dislike so I can further improve my writing and make this story more enjoyable for everyone. Cheer.