Y/N POV
I never thought that this was going to happen. I mean, who would?
Out of all the animes I could've landed in, it just had to be this one.
I mean, I'm not complaining one bit. Not. One. Bit.
Because in the world of Re:Zero, the real fun begins.
To sum it up, I was working in my little room I created for my chemistry purposes. It was late, but so what? Many kids and teens stay up until midnight to do their things, whatever that is. In my case, it was doing school homework while doing a little research on my own. And by research, I meant testing out theories with my papers and computer, since I lack lab equipment.
My name's Y/N L/N. A half-shut-in in the middle of Tokyo, trying to decide his life choices and on the verge of breaking into sleep before he finishes procrastinating on his homework.
Being 18 years old with a nice brain is not easy. It means that you have a bright future, but a lot more workload than those freeloader dropouts. As much as their life is cool, I somehow set myself up on the path I'm on today.
That is, until I bonked my head on the way down to bed on a corner, and a blinding light flashed into my eyes, forcing me to close them.
The next thing that happened was straight out of an anime. The same demihumans and dragon carriage that people see when they first start watching the anime, Re:Zero, Starting Life in Another World.
To be honest, I was amazed, out of my mind, when I saw this sight in front of me, it was quite concerning in some ways. I had no starting gear unlike Subaru (Tracksuit + a few instant ramen), and I'm in my lab coat, lacking in sleep.
Unaware of my surroundings, the appa seller tapped on my back as he asked me the same question he asked Subaru. "Hey, kid, are you here to buy some appas?"
"Sorry, sir. I'm flat broke, so I'll usher myself out of your sight since window shoppers aren't your thing." My brain did I weird flip, and I yanked myself out of there immediately. The shopkeeper looked at me as if I was some kind of bizarre beast, since I did predict his line.
Exhausted from my studies, I ventured into the slums, and hoped that one place might be willing to help me. I walked longer than I expected, but when I saw the loot house in the distance, I knew I have finally arrived at my destination.
The large, wooden house seemed worn-down, but seeing that nobody was near, I assumed it was safe, and did the thing that I saw a certain blonde-haired girl do in the first episode.
I knocked slightly on the front door two times, and a coarse voice came out from behind the door.
"For a rat..."
"Poison." I replied, waiting for his reaction.
"For a white whale..." He continued, to my surprise. I suppose I shall as well.
"A harpoon."
"To the noble dragon lord, we are..."
"Shitbags."
The door opened, and I saw the man I expected to see, but with a weird look on his face.
"Who are you, youngster? And how did you know the password? I didn't think Felt would tell anyone..."
"Mr. Rom, could you please kindly take me in for a day? I'm just a little...tired..." The fatigue took over my body, and I fell head first onto the floor of the loot house.
"Old Man Rom! He's waking up!" A voice, akin to a little girl's, sounded above my head as I slowly regained my vision, finding myself under a wooden roof, on a makeshift bed made of a few chairs.
I sat up and gazed at my surroundings and eyed them warily, and I then turned to the people who were looking at me. "Thank you for your hospitality. Felt and Rom, I assume?"
"How do you know our names?" Felt asked me as her eyes bored into me, and I reluctantly thought up a somewhat truthful lie, hoping that the wind divine protection of Felt will not activate.
"Well, let's just say I do have a very reliable source of intel." I told them, and they looked a bit perplexed, but accepted my explanation. "Also, your names are somewhat known around those parts, so I connected the dots." I added that, and they seemed to be at ease a bit more than before.
"That aside, how did you know the password?" Rom asked me.
"Well, one day I was just wandering near here, and I heard a girl (Felt) near a door murmuring something and I decided to listen in. Although I couldn't deduct the meaning of the phrases, I assumed it was a security measure since she went in after saying the lines. I kept them in mind in case I ever need your help, and it turns out I did."
They looked at me curiously for a while, before sighing to show as a sign of slight belief. I then stood up and took a bow for their actions of gratitude towards me, before saying something that determined my job for the rest of the days.
"I suppose I want to repay you for your kindness, so how about I help you two out a little for the next few days in exchange for letting me stay here for a few days as well?"
"And how exactly are you going to do that? I'm already quite fast due to my Divine Protection, you know." Felt said as I gave an immediate answer that I remembered from one of the spin-off prequels of Re:Zero.
"I could act as a potential decoy while you do your job, you know, to help distract the target's attention. I might not be skilled in thievery, but causing a ruckus is no big deal." My answered seemed to be satisfactory, seeing that I was accepted quite easily by the nodding of heads.
"We start tomorrow, then?" Felt asked as I nodded in confirmation. She then left in a hurry as if to finish a job, and left me in here with Rom.
"I gotta say, youngster, although I usually don't let people stay here, you might be an exception. Few are willing to help someone in Felt's world. Thieves and jobs relating to stealing usually have the employed work along, unless a gang is in action. In our case, we did our own thing so people like you are truly bizarre. Come to think of it, I still don't know your name."
"My name's Y/N L/N. Pleased to make your acquaintance."
Just as I was wondering how to discover a power to use in my mission, a tiny dot in the sky with a turquoise glow floated down to me as I regarded it. "Are you perhaps a... spirit?" I asked it, and a little hum came as a response, so soft that if not for my trained ears, few could hear it.
"Yes, and it appears that my contract with you was set in stone a long time ago. My master has told me that the one worthy of her Authority would come in 500 years, and here you are." The spirit then materialized a cube-shaped object in the air, and it floated towards me as the spirit continued to introduce itself. "My name is Alchemis, a spirit of fire magic. It appears that coincidentally, you have an affinity for fire magic. Please accept my master's wish of absorbing this Authority to gain your proper place."
"Woah, woah, this is a lot to take in, you know? Alchemis, will anything bad happen to me when I absorb this?" I remembered that when Betelgeuse took in the Witch Factor of Sloth, he kinda lost his mind and became somewhat of a different person. "And... and this..." I looked at the cubic structure of the object I received and noticed the smaller cube within the cube, connected to each other by invisible strands of energy linking their corners together. "This is a freaking Tesseract?"
"Well, master did explain why her 4 dimensional cube was the way it is, but the only shape the Authority of Elementals take is this form, when reduced to a mere witch factor."
"I suppose I don't have a choice, don't I?" I took the ominous looking tesseract, and plunged it into my heart as I suddenly spasmed and received a shock before finally coming back to my senses, while Alchemis stayed in his place, unfazed by my reaction. "I'm going to take your reaction that this is normal."
"Well, taking in an Authority will always have some pain, but look on the bright side! You should see the circle now, correct?"
"Circle?" I looked up a little and saw the Periodic Table of Elements from my world, clear as day before I turned to the Alchemis, who looked excited despite only being a sphere of light. "All I see is the Periodic Table."
"Well, I suppose Master was right about how the Authority changes with the user's knowledge." Alchemis sighed. "So I suppose you have to figure it out yourself since I won't be of any help. Anyways, I gotta go take my rest now, it's almost sunset, so see ya tomorrow, successor."
"Wait!" The spirit stopped before it vanished. "What was your master's name?"
"Frakinedottir, the Witch of Elements."
Timeskip*
So after a few hours of tinkering with stuff on the imaginary table that materialized in front of my eyes, I noticed a few things:
Most (if not almost all of them) of the elements are locked, aka I can't use them.
When selecting a certain element to use, your hand will produce around litre of the atoms selected, causing them to form a tiny sphere until further usage.
While in state of tiny sphere, you can:
- Fuse them into molecules (such as H into H2 gas)
- Rearrange molecular structure.
-Make isotopes or ions if you have enough mana (note: I definitely do not have enough yet.)
After you decide to release the sphere of molecules and atoms, they'll simply spread into the air as if it's part of the air itself. (Or drop onto floor if solids or liquids unless you generate it fast enough/ throw it)
Well, added on with my fire magic, I can basically only do one cool thing, or light things on fire.
Only in theory, that is, since I didn't want to burn the loothouse down.
Since I can only produce Hydrogen atoms right now, I can only turn them into Hydrogen gas. (H2). H2 is a highly flammable gas considering how it caused a German blimp to catch fire and crash, I'd say it's a very efficient fuel. Plus, it's colourless and odourless, which means I can place it somewhere, and light it later without anyone noticing anything strange. Of course, before it floats away.
I only know one spell, Goa, which was like the torch lighting thing that you do when you first get fire magic in a fantasy world. And since I have a fuel, I don't need to worry about the base intensity of my fire.
Despite myself somewhat knowing the fire spell Goa and a little Hydrogen gas release, it was not guaranteeing my survival on the job. So naturally, I was quite stressed, and was not really looking forward to stealing things. Felt, on the other hand, looked oh-so-ready to commit some crime. Or to her, it was just business, since she woke me up early today.
We now stood on top of a building, glancing down at the target. Apparently, the client (whoever that was), asked for the purse of a certain noble. It was said that they just wanted the purse along with the contents, and hopefully have it not damaged in any case. Now, noblemen and noblewomen carry their purse on their sleeves, which make it easy to catch. My plan was to create two walls of fire out of thin air by spreading hydrogen gas down in the streets, and then light it with Goa to make the noble panic, which results to the noble falling and then Felt can seize the chance to snatch it using her divine protection while the noble is panicking. I mean, it's not the best plan, including the parts where I left my abilities out, but Felt agreed. I also gave her a mask just in case if the plan fails.
And so, Felt waited on the target building while I descended first, and began spreading the hydrogen gas around the two alleys that surrounded the building as fast as I can, and after I finished laying the groundwork, I climbed up the building on the opposite side a little bit later and gave Felt the signal to be ready.
I aimed my finger gun at the line of gas that I could dimly see thanks to Alchemis, and whispered my first spell to be in action. "Goa."
The tiny ball of flame went towards the gas line in the air, and miraculously, my plan worked amazingly as the walls of fire activated themselves, the hydrogen linking together as the flames spread throughout the alleys. Although not hurting anyone, it was enough to give people a fright.
I'm not considered an arsonist because of this, right?
Ya, no, I'm not burning anything, technically.
Felt seized this moment, and dashed down towards the noble faster than the eye could perceive. Seconds later after she made her move, I felt a light tap on my shoulder and turned to face a smiling Felt.
"Y/N nii-san, I got it!"
"Woah! Splendid job! I can't even follow you with my eyes!"
"Well, my ability does come into handy at times like this. Speaking of abilities, you still haven't revealed yours to us, have you?"
"Uh... sorry about this, but I don't really understand how it works either. That's one part of it, though. The other part is that I contracted a fire spirit recently, and that's how I learned Goa."
"Hmm... well, we all have our fair share of secrets, so I'm not going to pry into it further."
With that, my first mission in this world ended, and I followed the girl back to the slums to declare our mission as a success.
Profile Update: Every Episode contains one of these!
Name: Y/N L/N
Authority:
Authority of ? (Commonly known as Authority of Elements):
Hydrogen Mastery: Stage 0, 75/1000 complete. (Spells: Hydrogen Gas Formation, Hydrogen Gas Wall, Hydrogen Gas Mist)
? Mastery: {locked}
Spirits: Alchemis- spirit of fire (turquoise)
Magic Spells:
Goa- shoots a small ball of fire from the tip of the user's index finger imbued with mana.