Disclaimer: This is a non-profit fanfiction. Re:Zero is owned by Tappei Nagatsuki; familiar characters, places, and events are credited to him. Please support the official release.

Re:Zero ~ Uchikatsu IF

Act One: A Wrathful First Day

Scene Four: Thieves, Brawls, and Ladies

When people get stuck between a rock and a hard place, they respond in three different ways.

Fight–they overcome the adversities before them with force and willpower.

Flight–they flee physically or mentally and escape the burdens placed upon them.

Fright–they freeze up and shield themselves from whatever's coming upon them.

As for Natsuki Subaru, who was trapped in an alley and about to be mugged by three ruffians, his response was to smile and tighten his recently shortened scarf.

It takes a moment to do a single movement, but in that same moment, one could generate thousands of ideas.

As such, he started thinking.

He had three opponents. He immediately labeled them as Ūnus, Duo, and Trēs.

Ūnus is a big burly man who seemed to be in his thirties. His eyes and braided hair are both purple. His physicality and bulging muscles posed a threat in hand-to-hand combat, but his huge size would likely be a hindrance to his agility.

His polar opposite is Trēs, a small man who may or may not be a child. He has chestnut mushroom hair and large black eyes. His tiny figure might be insignificant, but the dexterity it provided would be a problem until his strikes proved to be lacking in strength.

By that logic, Duo is the person who posed the largest threat to Subaru's well-being. Neither too big nor too small, his skinny physicality made the prison-like clothes he wore all the more menacing. The chain hanging from his neck clanked as he swayed from left to right, his casual movements showing a business-as-usual attitude.

"Guess I got rusty. Of course there would be people like this, even if it was in a different world."

Subaru scolded himself, repositioning in such a way that he was a stone's throw away from both sides of the alley while being a single step away from the wall behind him.

"Are you looking down on us?!" Duo stepped forward enough to be in punching range. He wasn't as tall as Subaru, but his shadow seemed to be looming over the latter.

Ūnus cracked his knuckles. "Looks like we'll have to teach you about not messing with us."

"Poor guy, he doesn't even understand the situation he's in!" Trēs chimed in, "You're trapped and outnumbered, you think you can do something?"

Unfazed, Subaru took a deep breath and let the eco-bag slung around his left shoulder slip and land on the ground behind him. With a smile, he put his hands up and clenched his fists, executing the basic boxer's stance.

"I don't think I can do something," Subaru answered, "I know I can."

It was a statement that implied overconfidence and carelessness, but its unconcerned tone made the trio unconsciously take a step back. They were used to people fighting back when they get forced into a tight spot. However, this certain foreigner, who was careless enough to wander in a dark alley with a bag full of valuables, lacked the drive to escape his dilemma unscathed.

As if he didn't care.

Or as if he already knew how things were going to turn out.

"Getting a case of the shivers?" Subaru taunted, "Don't worry, I'll be kind enough to let you have the first move."

"Don't get cocky, you bastard!"

Ūnus retaliated immediately, swinging wildly with a devastating right straight punch.

Being outnumbered doesn't directly translate to having a disadvantage in combat. In the end, it all relied on three things: natural talent, accumulated experiences, and the present surroundings.

Having to take on more than one person may be taxing for an individual. This is mostly due to the fact that one has to be on guard from multiple directions and that there are more weak spots that can be exploited.

However, if only the front and sides were being guarded, defending from attacks from multiple opponents would be exponentially easier. After all, everything in combat would be within the range of vision. In addition, it would be harder for the enemies to coordinate their attacks to hit as they may also be hit by the attacks of their allies in the crossfire.

Having your back against a dead end might look grim from an outsider's perspective, but Subaru knew that it was his saving grace in this specific circumstance.

He batted the incoming fist to his left and pulled it, closing the gap between him and the burly thug, and letting the latter's attack land on the solid rock wall behind him.

Both the sounds of breaking building material and the cracking of bone resounded in the area. Ūnus wailed in agony, the pain in his hand making his knees slightly buckle.

Subaru whispered into Ūnus' ear, "Emotions strengthen the charge, they don't control it."

He grabbed the wounded hand and weaved under the arm it belonged to. Suppressing a grin at the big thug's manly cries, he then jumped as high as he possibly could and slammed down on the man's wrist with his elbow.

"AAAAAAARGH, IT HUUUURTS!" Ūnus wailed, a bit of froth starting to come out from his mouth. His legs lost their strength, and his gigantic figure fell flat on the ground.

"You're going to pay for that, you monster!"

Trēs was the second thug to move after Subaru executed a fracture-inducing blow. All that the little man could do was watch as the boy in the tracksuit outwitted them all in one fell swoop. It was too late when he realized that the space around them was too tight for three-on-one combat in a narrow alley.

But everything was going to be salvaged now. The boy wasn't even looking at them, and he wouldn't expect a creature to move as quickly as Trēs did.

The small thug took pride in his speed and accuracy. He kicked his feet and flew towards the boy, clenching his fist and landing a hit to the boy's stomach, making his target bend over and grunt.

"You underestimated me too much." Trēs muttered through grit teeth, "This is what you deserve, you scum."

"No... it's the other way around, you see."

As all of this transpired, Subaru merely chuckled and grabbed Trēs' fist, which was still on his stomach.

"I've overestimated you too much."

Speed is essential when it came to combat. Directly correlated to accuracy, it decides how well one hits and how well one can take or not take a hit. The more there is, the more chances there are of doing more damage to an opponent.

However, if speed is all that there is, there would only be attacks being hit with no damage inflicted. As such, having a balance between how many hits are given and how much power are behind those hits is important.

"Feet, legs, waist, torso, shoulders, arms, hands, and fingers." Subaru clenched his fist and leaned back, his other hand tightly gripping the arm of his current attacker. "Learn to use your whole body to punch next time."

A nose-breaking overhand punch was successfully landed on a shivering thug who could only helplessly hope that his face wouldn't cave in from the impact. He crumpled to the ground, unconscious.

"Damn it! What the hell are you?"

Duo was the only thug left standing and capable of fighting. The others were either laying flat on the ground or on their knees and groaning in pain.

He drew out the two curved daggers he kept sheathed behind his back and tried to calm himself down.

Things never went this far whenever their victims started fighting back. Even before weapons were drawn, fear would overwhelm the poor souls and self-preservation would kick in.

Whoever this person was, he was no longer human at this moment. Duo felt as if he was against a beast waiting for its prey to come and face it head-on.

Even so, he swallowed the lump forming in his throat and started swinging. He rarely used his daggers but they were objects deadly enough to not be easily ignored. He could see the boy start to pant while dodging the attacks meant to wound him.

At this point, Subaru had lost the benefit of narrow spaces and delimited attack directions. He was in the middle of one-on-one combat now. Nobody else could interfere, so possibilities of allied crossfire were thrown out of the equation.

Furthermore, his final opponent had a weapon that gave him sufficient range to strike without getting struck back. The wall behind him had betrayed him, giving him only the left and the right directions to evade.

Fortunately, the silver-haired thug looked to be shaken at what happened to his companions. All the swings he made with his daggers were deadly but slow and easy to track and evade.

It was becoming difficult over time to evade, however, and he seemed to gain more confidence with each swing. He was also closing the gap between him and Subaru. After a few seconds, Subaru found his back touching the wall, with no room to step back.

In front of him was Duo with a pained grin on his face. "I should have done this sooner. Gaston and Camberly wouldn't have been hurt!"

There was not enough room nor time to evade the strike.

Subaru mentally cursed himself for not thinking quickly enough and brought up his arms to block the blade from hitting any vital body parts.

Both daggers attacked his sides, their blades sinking into both of his arms. Subaru hissed in pain and used his knee to kick Duo in the gut, but the pain he felt from the previous strike made the counter-attack seem like a slap from a newborn baby.

Duo brought the daggers back and prepared for another strike. Instead of going for the kill, however, he took five steps back and whirled behind him.

It was at that moment that Subaru heard footsteps.

There was another person in the alley besides them, and that person was running quickly towards their direction.

Subaru hoped that it wasn't another thug, but that didn't seem likely due to Duo's reaction. He could only pray that the person he was going to see didn't take kindly to hooligans.

"Hurry, get out of my way–wait a second! It's you again!"

The universe answered the boy's prayer, albeit in a way that caught him off guard.

The same blonde girl Subaru met moments ago ran past Duo and skidded to a halt beside him, a faintly green gust of wind trailing behind her. It all happened so quickly that neither of them could react.

She pointed at the rips of Subaru's tracksuit which were heavily tainted with blood. "Why is it that whenever I bump into you, I see you getting yourself killed?"

"It's not my fault!" Subaru weakly protested, keeping an eye on Duo who was surprisingly not showing any sign of aggression. "I was just defending myself."

"And why do you think you got attacked? You walked into an alley carrying a huge bag! Of course you'd get mugged by these guys..." The girl trailed off, noticing two other people who were out of commission. "Wait, you did this?"

"Yeah. Wait a minute, you know these bastards?"

"They're just making a living like I do, but it looks like they went too far this time and got what they deserved." She turned around and looked at Duo with a stern gaze. "We're thieves, Rachins. We threaten and mug people. We don't hurt them."

Duo–Rachins, as the girl called him, snickered and looked at her with disdain. "You're far too sheltered by that giant to be one of us, Felt. It's an eat-or-be-eaten world around these parts." He raised both of his daggers and pointed them at her. "Go back to your puny little castle, missy, else you'll end up stabbed to death like him."

"You bet I will, I still have a job to do." Felt turned back and jumped, landing gracefully on Subaru's head.

The boy's knees started to wobble, but he leaned against the wall behind him to stop falling. The wounds on his arms were getting worse as time went by. Being a sudden third party between an argument between two thieves didn't help his situation at all. He knew he was slowly dying of blood loss, but his mind was also distracted on understanding the situation of the girl standing on top of him.

Just like the thugs he was fighting, she–Felt–was also stealing from other people in order to live another day. Unlike them, she stole without hurting anybody. It was not a life suited for a young person, yet it was one that she was forced to have.

When the word 'thief' is uttered, all that comes next would usually be negatives. But this girl in particular had saved him twice by sheer chance. She pulled him off of the road when nobody else did, and she stopped a thug from stabbing him to death.

"I don't like the idea of you fighting him without a weapon," Felt whispered to Subaru, "so I'll loan you mine. Pay me back later, okay?"

Rachins was right. She wasn't one of them. After all, what kind of thief would help a victim of a thievery?

With what little bit of strength that remained in Subaru's hands, he tightly gripped the wooden hilt of the small knife that was given to him. It was crude, but it was also sturdy.

The weight on his head disappeared as the girl jumped once more, successfully going over the wall. She flashed him a giant grin and mouthed, "Live strong!" before going out of sight.

"That's unfair, disappearing like that." Subaru sighed, a faint hue of red on his cheeks. "I was just about to take back the spotlight."

He looked at Rachins.

The thug's confidence from before dwindled now that his opponent has a weapon. "T-that doesn't make a difference now!" he tried reassuring himself, "Your arms got injured, it'll be a miracle for you to even swing that thing properly!"

"A miracle?" Subaru chuckled. "I don't need one."

He used the knife and sliced his left palm open, much to Rachins' shock. He then waved it in the thug's face, making drops of blood splatter all over it.

Rachins screamed. Terror, shock, and nausea washed over him. His legs gave out and he fell to the ground.

"I'll brute force my way through!" Subaru swung and struck the silver-haired man's throat with the hilt of the knife.

Only one man remained standing, his arms covered in his own blood.

Natsuki Subaru sighed. He missed the wooden sword he usually wielded. If he brought that with him he wouldn't have had such a hard time.

He knelt and started taking Rachins' daggers and upper clothing. He put the weapons inside his eco-bag and used the knife to make more make-shift bandages and rope. He used the rope to tie the thugs up and bandaged himself up afterwards.

Satisfied with his work, he turned around and started making his way outside...

Only to find himself face-to-face with a silver-haired girl who had her hand outstretched towards him.

A/N:

I'm very lucky that this fight was in a narrow alley. If it wasn't, I would have struggled with the combat and the dialogue more. I've already banged my head against the wall and (insert PTSD here) trying to do this.

*starts munching on a cupcake*

...oh, right. See you when I see you! All reviews are appreciated.