AN : My first ever fanfiction.

Took the idea from a guy on the Re:Zero SubReddit named suffering_addict on the weekly fanfiction ideas. A million thanks to him. This story is also inspired by Re Union, by Ewent. Go read it, it is a good story.

With that said, I hope you guys like it. I don't know how much time it is going to take to get the second chapter out though.

I do not own Re:Zero. It is written, and I guess owned, by Nagatsuki Tappei.
"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."


Natsuki Kenichi was depressed.

Simply put, his only son, Subaru, had been missing for a year. It happened so quickly too. He remembered the day in vivid detail.

It was your normal weekend, him, his wife Naoko and Subaru were having a family dinner that day. Subaru and Kenichi made a mess of the broccoli and rice by burning them in the cooker. It was literally uneatable. Subaru had thought that this was a nice excuse for eating some instant ramen. Kenichi told him to get some corn chips for him too.

Naoko had made them both forcefully eat some of that literal poison though first, saying that this was their punishment for missing their quota of daily green vegetables.

He recalled Subaru saying that he will be back in almost half an hour.

Oh how wrong he was.

Naoko grew worried when an hour and 30 minutes had passed by but Subaru still had not returned. They tried to call him on his cellphone, but it was unreachable. Kenichi tried to calm her by saying that he must have met some girl, and must be trying to awkwardly talk to her. Truth be told, he was worried too. But he had to stay calm for the sake of his wife.

After some more time passed, Kenichi decided to visit the store himself. He asked the store clerk whether he had seen Subaru or not, and the clerk said that he had brought some items, paid for them and left. The clerk offered to check the CCTV for him, and Kenichi readily agreed.

He was shocked by what he had seen. Evidently, Subaru was walking across the street when suddenly, black shadows appeared and engulfed his son out of nowhere. The clerk said that this must be some sort of glitch with the system. Kenichi thought that too, but the second CCTV camera, heck, even the third caught the same thing out of the corner of its lens.

Kenichi believed that this must have been some sort of kidnapping attempt against his son. He wasted no time in calling the authorities, showing them the CCTV footage and demanding that an investigation be started as soon as possible.

Next, came the hard part. He had to break the news to Naoko.

Just as Naoko saw Kenichi's number on her phone, she picked it up readily. Upon hearing Kenichi's grave voice, she froze in shock.

"I think Subaru's been kidnapped. I saw the CCTV footage and have called the police. Stay calm Naoko."

Stay calm? How could she? She just received news that no parent ever wants to hear in their lifetime. Naoko quickly rushed to the store, not even bothering to put the apron away, rushing to Kenichi to confirm what happened. She hoped this was a nightmare. Sadly, reality almost never is.

She broke through the police tape, and saw Kenichi talking with the local police inspector. She all but ran to him, grabbing him by the shoulders, with tears in her eyes, and shouted, "Where is Subaru?! Where is my son?! Tell me, where is he?!"

Kenichi calmed Naoko down by hugging her, and the police inspector showed her the CCTV footage. Her hope of all this being some elaborate joke fell away like a house of cards. She started crying uncontrollably.

A single, lone tear fell from Kenichi's eye.


Ever since that day, Kenichi and Naoko had been lost in their grief. They weren't able to move on. The police investigation brought out no results, no forensic evidence, no nothing. It was as if Subaru had simply vanished. Every day, both of them would pray for their son's safety. They didn't even know whether he was alive or not.

There were dark bags under Kenichi's eyes, his ever present laid back smile was gone, his clothes were dishevelled and unkempt. Even at his workplace, Kenichi didn't socialise with people like before. Naoko was in a similar state. Her hair was uncombed, and the ever present light in her eyes had dimmed.

They spent a lot of time trying to find their son. They posted missing posters on walls, asked random people on the street whether they had seen him, but it was all in vain.

Naoko spent a lot of time crying, looking at the family photos along with Kenichi, who would just stare with a blank face, lost in memories. He regularly cleaned his room. Naoko would sometimes wait at the dinner table, as if asking Subaru to come back.

They both regretted not confronting their son earlier about his problems, too. The couple had seen that their son was going through something and subtly encouraged him to go back to school every day. They had never thought they would lose him like this.

Here they were again, in the cold winter of Japan, again walking to the convenience store, searching for their son. Some people tried to discourage them, saying in a roundabout way that their son was gone forever now. None of them believed it.

"Naoko, let's go now. It is getting late." Kenichi said, in a low, sad voice.

"Please, just a little bit more.." Naoko said, in an equally low voice. Kenichi hugged her around her shoulders and kept walking. They stopped at a crossroad.

"We will come back tomorrow, Naoko. Let's go back for now." Kenichi said. Naoko nodded, and started to cross the road.

Kenichi's eyes felt tired and heavy. He felt it was very hard to open them. As he opened his eyes again -

"What the hell ?!"

It was in a different world.


AN : So, how was that? I feel fairly confident in my grammar and spelling(that's just because of spell check though). I am also ready to get roasted in the comments(or is it a review?) section.