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Re:Zero ~ Uchikatsu IF

Act One: A Wrathful First Day

Scene Six: Lost and Found

The boy had nothing against good people. He admired them for their deeds. He was glad that they existed and influenced the people around them to become better versions of themselves.

Even so, he never failed to be suspicious of people who are too nice. With his not-so-dear father as an exception, these people normally had some sort of ulterior motive. Maybe they desired to have fame, a good reputation, authoritative leverage on other people–or, in his personal experience, a need to be worthy of someone's adoration and compassion.

That's why encountering somebody just like his father made his blood boil. There are boundaries not meant to be crossed and this is certainly one of them.

"Hey, I told you to wait up!"

Subaru finally caught the silver-haired girl and stopped her in her tracks. Applying as little pressure as possible, he made her face towards him.

"You told me you knew nothing of the thief who stole from me, yet now you proclaim that you can help. You're contradicting yourself." The girl coldly stared at his eyes. Compared to Puck's recent interactions with his left arm, the chills running up his spine were tantamount to nothing. "Stop wasting my time and make yourself clear."

The boy sighed. He felt a bit of irritation towards her though her actions were due to his own doing. Just knowing the fact made him all the more irritated at himself for not doing what is supposed to be done. "I will, but only after you hold this bag."

He held out the orange eco-bag slung on his left shoulder.

The girl took it with an unsure expression. In possession of a unique container that seemed to be made of neither paper nor cloth, her curiosity piqued and she began examining it.

"I know who you're looking for and I have an idea where she could be. However, I can only describe her physical appearances. Nothing more."

He paused and looked at her. She still had a laughable excuse of a wintry expression, yet her body language implied general acceptance of his revelations. It wasn't a natural response to discovering the truth behind a lie. He sought some form of disgust or surprise or anger in her, but he felt like he was staring at a brick wall.

He tried to stop his fists from clenching, but to no avail. He had to know. Having his father as one of his life's greatest mysteries was enough. "Why aren't you mad? I lied to you. You did something good to me and I repaid it with evil."

"I don't blame you for distrusting a person you just met. Especially..." Noticing the boy's discerning gaze, she shook her head and steered the flow of the conversation. "You may have told a lie, but aren't you telling the truth to atone for it? It's nothing to be mad about."

"And what if everything I'm telling you is a lie? What if I'm an accomplice of the person who stole your insignia and I'm just stalling for time?"

"Then I'd continue to be truthful towards you and appeal to your conscience. So what if you're a thief? In the end, you're human, and that's all that matters."

Subaru sighed. Surely enough, for a split second he had his conscience telling him to give in already and lead the girl to Felt.

He decided to give up on trying to make her be distrustful of strangers instead. Her nature was problematic. One that would take months to iron out.

"You're looking for a young girl about a foot—sorry, I mean a head shorter than me. Her distinguishing features are her blonde hair and the red scarf she wears around her neck. Dirty and grimy, too. Must be a streetrat."

It was then that he saw her smile. He felt his heart skip a beat as the world around her blurred. He was sure it wasn't the perfect rows of her teeth, or the immediate change of her expression—it was the fact that she genuinely smiled that took him off guard.

"Thank you."

She did a little curtsey and returned the bag she held to the boy, bowing once more before turning away and dashing into the streets of the city.

"Damn it, I went with her flow!"

Subaru powered through the crowds. He cursed himself for letting his guard down, and he despised himself a little more for letting the silver-haired girl he was following take control of the conversation earlier.

He was supposed to offer his help, even to the point of forcing his hand, but all he could do in that moment was speak out some words.

The mistake he did bore its consequences immediately. He could see the girl trying to approach other people only for either her or the other party physically depart from the conversation.

He found it strange that the people she talked to weren't exactly reciprocating as he thought they would, however. He expected surprise and annoyance. He got disdain. And something else. Something he didn't expect to even see in a casual conversation.

"You were a breath of fresh air, you know."

The weight on his head spoke. Subaru then realized that he wasn't only carrying a metaphorical burden on his head.

"Puck..." He shivered. He could feel no part of his body freezing yet, but he couldn't be totally sure if the thing accompanying him was one that didn't like making human popsicles out of its enemies in public. "Shouldn't you be with her? She looks like she needs your help."

"Nah, I'd rather spend time trying to figure you out, since you did a better job of being her guardian even if you screwed it up a lot." It nestled itself in his scarf, twirling to make eye contact. "You were trying to make her distrust strangers, weren't you?"

It hit the nail on the head. Subaru nodded, replying, "She's wasting her life living like that. Being good is fine and all, but too much of everything is poisonous."

He looked back at the girl. She seemed to be currently picking up fruits and putting them into a basket. Another man—or what looked like a man, since the person was drowning in fur—was bowing in apology and helping her in the majority of her task.

Puck sighed and put a paw to its forehead. "We both know you can lead us to the girl we're looking for. It would save us a lot of time."

"Of course I could do that, but the life lesson wouldn't be as impactful that way. Look at her, she's barely able to hold a—"

Conversation.

Subaru abruptly stopped walking. Puck yelped as it almost lost balance and fell off of his scarf.

"Hey, Puck." He could feel a lump forming in his throat, and he found himself having a hard time breathing. "How many people have talked to her since she lost her insignia?"

"I didn't bother to count, but it sure wasn't a handful."

The boy gulped. It was becoming clear to him, but he had a hard time accepting it. "And how many talked to her the same way I did?"

Puck giggled. "Well, you were the only one who had a unique reaction!"

"No, not that. I mean a normal response."

Even though the sun was right above him, he could feel everything go slightly darker as he heard the response, "Define normal."

"Casual. Everyday." Subaru shook his head. He debated for a while before continuing, "Without... fear."

"I see."

Puck removed itself from his scarf and hovered inches from his face. It didn't reply, but the answer was right there on its expression.

Just you.

Rarely did the young man ever introduce himself to an acquaintance. After all, he didn't need to. The only times he did was when people who never truly belonged in the streets found themselves deep in its deadly clutches. Of course, he rarely ever saw those people again.

He might not remember the names of those people, but he knew that he would remain as a fragment of their lives for as long as they lived. Such was the nature of name-giving—like a contract, one bound themselves as soon as they gave it. It was an unseen bond and an implied vow that connects a person's life to another.

"My name is Natsuki Subaru," he muttered under his breath after rushing to the silver-haired girl's side. Excluding the self-introduction he did while returning to classes after quite a long time, a year had passed since he last introduced himself. "You appealed to my conscience."

As quickly as he had went to her, he turned and gently dragged her away from continuing to pick up the fallen apples. He dare not turn back nor look down.

The girl struggled at first, shocked at having a stranger hold her out of nowhere, but soon quietly followed his steps. Her companion seemingly read the air, not uttering a single word and continuing to give off the appearance of a sleazy pet dangling on its owner's scarf.

Only the people who met Subaru's eyes saw their intensity. Like prey forced into a corner, they stopped in their tracks and pointed somewhere away from the bustling activity of the district after they read the movements of his mouth.

"No matter where you are, there will always be that invisible wall between people. Well, I say invisible, but who couldn't see people laying down on the streets asking for alms and food to survive the day?"

Subaru started speaking to nobody in particular. The noises of the crowds around him drowned out, only leaving behind his labored breathing and the faint pulse he felt from the girl's thumb.

"Most of the time, people steal because they're forced to. So when something gets stolen from you and you're sure that it's not because of a grudge or wacky hijinks, you'e most likely encountered a streetrat fighting for their life.

"In my case, you'd have to trouble the police since it's easy to escape from petty robbery, but in this time where people are blatantly segregated according to the weights of their wallets... well, there's only one place to go, isn't there?

"What's really concerning is how you didn't realize that on your own. Even more concerning, is how the people you talked to never guided you to this simple conclusion. They could have just said that the person you're looking for is in the slums. They could have spared seconds for a stranger who needed help.

"So why?"

Subaru stopped walking in the middle of a deserted street. The familiar scent of dust and grime entered his nose. A non-functioning fountain presented itself in front of him, its stagnant water seemingly offering the floating waste on it to any person who paid attention to it.

He turned around and faced the girl, whose expression he couldn't understand as his vision started to blur.

"Why is somebody kind enough to heal my wounds and believe my lies also a person that people are afraid of?"

He felt something warm on his cheek. At first he thought it was Puck, but he could still feel its fur on his neck. Then he thought that it was the girl's other hand caressing his cheek. But he also knew that was impossible.

It was liquid, after all. He didn't even have to look down to know that a tiny pool was forming at his feet.

Compared to his streams, the girl only had a single streak rush down. "And I thought that I was a sheltered one. Don't you see? It's been right in front of you all this time."

Subaru took an instant to compare her from everybody else he came across with, and just as quickly, found the obvious difference. "Nobody else has silver hair, just like how my black hair sticks out like a sore thumb. Pointed ears, too. So that's it? Just because you look different? Isn't everybody different once compared with another person?"

"You're not wrong, but you miss the point, Mister Hermit." Puck flew out from his scarf and landed on the girl's head. "It's what people remember. Haven't you read your history books or listened to your old man's tales? The Witch, the war between humans and demi-humans, any of that ringing a bell?"

Subaru sniffled and wiped his tears with the handles of his eco-bag before rotating his head sideways.

Puck stifled a giggle. Realizing that the boy was actually serious, it sighed. "She looks like Satella, the Witch of Envy, who caused the Great Calamity four centuries ago. A being of destruction. But of course, you know better than to compare a historical abomination with a present living being."

The boy nodded once, then turned his attention to the girl again. "Considering that you never gave me your name after I gave mine, is your name coincidentally Satella, too?"

Her expression darkened as she crossed her arms. "What if it was?"

"Nothing, I just thought it was a nice name. It rolls off the tongue easier than other unique names, don't you think?"

Adelheid Takahashi sneezed.

"I feel like punching somebody."

Finding nobody in sight, she slammed the dough in her hand on the table with all her might. She sneezed again, coughing out some flour that got into her mouth.

"Hahaha..."

Satella—at least, that's what Subaru thought her name was—started to giggle. It was far from the icy expression she constantly wore previously, and it gave the boy a bit of warmth in his chest.

"You're an idiot, Subaru."

[You're an idiot, Subaru-kun.]

"Not really." He took a step back and caught his breath. He shook his head before continuing, "Anyway. Here we are. The slums. Home of the warriors of the streets. What now?"

"I'll be looking for the person who stole my insignia, of course."

"No, you should stay here." Subaru saw her start to retort, and put a finger to her lips. "Look at it this way. How would a thief feel if the person they stole from started asking around in their home territory? I'd rather avoid further trouble."

Satella swatted his finger away. "But—"

"Don't worry, I know what I'm doing. Just hold tight there. You could also leave if you're feeling impatient. I'll bet I'd have it in my possessions before tomorrow morning, though."

"Still—"

"Satella."

Struck speechless by the affectionate tone of his voice, she let Subaru make her sit on the rusty seats of the fountain.

"You saved my life. Now let me return the favor."

Turning around, Subaru bolted off to the distance, not realizing that a strange shadow had crept up behind the girl's back, ready to strike.

Author's Note:

You know you've screwed up when Nagatsuki-sensei updates the original story faster than you update your fanfiction. Guess there's the schedule thrown down the bin. Might as well be erratic to catch up with the chapters I owe all of you guys who put up with my crap.

I've redone this chapter four times. Talk about inconsistency. At least the headaches are gone now. Must have been the lack of Feltium in my blood...