Spoiler Warning: This story contains content beyond season 2 of Re: Zero.
Re: Zero - Power in Another World - Re: Write
Prologue; Sometime during a different future.
Back then, I had my doubts. Then again, why did I? It wasn't impossible, was it?
Natsuki Subaru, a young adult, stood there panting from the severe injury on his chest.
No, it didn't feel like it. Especially once I could obtain power from others.
Subaru began coughing, sending sharp pains throughout his chest. He looked at the floor. He saw blood.
Blood. None of mine was ever spilled on my path to glory. Not officially, anyway.
Blood dropped for his power. Blood of his allies who were his friends. Blood of his enemies, Subaru saw pools of it.
Oh man, the sight of blood usually gets me going, but what I want more than that right now...
Subaru looked at the man far away from himself. Red hair, blue eyes of determination, and worst of all...
"...Is to see you bleed...! Hah... So why... Hng... Are you spotless?!"
The man before Subaru was none other than Reinhard van Astrea, the man who couldn't bleed. Supposedly.
Subaru's course of history changed when he received an ability after learning the name of the one he loved.
"I... Will not fall... To you... Again! Koff! This is double digits DAMMIT! Just die!"
With his resolve scratching his throat, Subaru's hand transformed into a tiger's claw, activating one soul.
"Die! Die!"
Firmly planting his feet on the ground, Subaru began using the stolen Divine Blessing. The earth beneath Reinhard's feet began to shift, moving in a way that seemed very specific.
Before anything new could be tried, Reinhard swung his sword, a dead knight's normal sword.
Natsuki Subaru was cut in half.
...That's the third time I got caught off guard like that. Am... Am I an idiot?! I've tried killing that red-haired bastard over fifty times! AM I AN IDIOT?! Yes! YES! That's what I am! I achieve so much, but I'm still the same idiot I've always been! The same idiot who failed at home! The same idiot I've always been...
Subaru began gritting his teeth, tears welling up in his eyes as he laid down on the stone road half a man.
Nothing's changed... But... It can't be that way forever... The old Natsuki Subaru died a long time ago. And then the older Subaru died after him... And then the older one died after him, and then the older one died after him! I have no limits... I'm not mortal like the rest of these fools! Reinhard isn't a god!
Subaru smiled as he felt his life oozing out of his cut torso.
"...I am."
...The voices. I hear their voices. I hear all of them. Their sobbing. Their wrathful shouts. Their sultry pleads. Their trembling whimpers. Their stinging agony. All of them. I didn't kill them. I killed their mortal bodies. I took their souls. They reside in me now. They reside in their god. I didn't kill them. I will cleanse this world and free Satella. Because once I claim her... No, claim them both... I'll-
"Please... Wake up..."
...Who am I, again?
The severe injury in Subaru's chest woke up right up. He began to cough out blood, spitting it onto the ground.
"What the... Argh... Dammit... What's the big deal, you red-haired bastard?!"
Reinhard held his palm out and positioned it back to his side.
"I didn't want to hurt you like this, old friend. Please, turn yourself in, you've done too much to everyone."
Subaru wanted to laugh, but his chest was somewhat caved in.
"To everyone? I think you meant for everyone, Sword Saint."
Reinhard let out a tired sigh, this was the end for them.
"It seems you've fallen deep into your delusions. I am sorry, old friend, for not helping you sooner."
Reinhard looked down at his hip, the Dragon Sword Reid, the sword would sometimes call out to Reinhard, and sometimes it would not. Why did the sword do this for Natsuki Subaru? He was nowhere near strong enough to hurt Reinhard, let alone fight him evenly matched, perhaps similar to a certain blue lightning.
"So why...? Why does the Dragon Sword go off on you sometimes? You are a rather unfitting opponent, old friend."
Subaru delighted at Reinhard's confusion before answering him.
"Because, Reinhard, it knows what I could be after death! For now, I settle for being mortal like you, but soon..."
Subaru pointed to Reinhard's sheathed sword.
"I will take Reid... And I will destroy it. After all, I do intend to kill Reid twice... Heheh..."
Subaru let his own body become cold, activating one soul.
"Let's see how you handle this! The End 1!"
Subaru summoned a giant meteor of ice, letting it fall toward the flat world.
Reinhard looked up at the giant rough ball of ice, seeing it slowly but surely reach toward the surface. With determination to stop the world's current threat, he leaped from the ground, leaving a crater behind as he swung the sheath that held Reid in it, Dragon Claw, at the hard ice's surface. As the cracks envelop the ice meteor, crackling and rumbling could be heard. Going from blue to greys and whites, the enormous ball of ice shatters into hundreds of pieces, each piece falling from the sky.
"Let's see you save everyone from this!"
Subaru's body warmth returned, and in return, his forehead burned hotter than anything in the entire world. Along that burning sensation grew two horns of an insect. Sweat hugged his own body.
"The End...-"
Suddenly, the shattered pieces of ice began floating in place. Subaru then released his own body, spreading his arms wide open.
"2!"
The pieces of sharp and blunt ice were sent in every direction. Upon landing, Reinhard could only question Subaru.
"What did you just do?!"
"What I did was a continuation of The End 1, Hero. The End 2 lets whatever I want to seek out a living being. And their current priority is humans and demi humans, rather than say, a spider or a butterfly."
Receiving this information, Reinhard realized he had no time to stop all of the shards, let alone save everyone.
"You could only delay the inevitable, Hero. Just like when you prolonged little Felt's suffering-"
Subaru was in the mountains, crushed and mangled to bits.
"...I guess... He has a thing... For making people... Suffer in their last moments... Heh... Eh..."
Over and over, I see their faces. The mixture of it all, the separation of their content lives. Some were not content, some were suffering. As a former fellow mortal, I feel for their pain. After all, they only have one chance. Mortals only have one chance. I don't. I have no limits on chances. Therefore, I am not mortal.
The pain in Subaru's chest jolts him awake.
"Crap... You... Really know how to make people suffer... Don't you, Reinhard?"
Reinhard held his palm out and positioned it back to his side.
"Please, do not repeat those words. Do not remind me of my failure to... Her safety."
Subaru could only chuckle, pain surging through his chest as he did so.
"Isn't it important you remembered her, Reinhard?"
Reinhard remained silent before he shook his head slowly.
"No, of course, I'll remember her. The one you took... Old friend."
Subaru smiled.
"The one who's suffering you made worse, huh?"
Reinhard looked into Subaru's eyes, sensing a darkness in him.
"And yet... I can't bring myself to hate you, old friend."
Subaru couldn't help but laugh, ignoring the sharp pain in his chest.
"You... You really are... An idiot..."
The pain became too much for Subaru, so he fell unconscious.
Prologue End; Sometime during a different future.
Author's Note: This is a rewrite of "Re: Zero - Power in Another World", a story that I often neglect. In addition to neglect, I also wrote chapters without thought, rather than sticking to any plans or guides I wrote for it. Now this rewritten prologue is technically shorter than the original prologue, but that's a good thing. Cutting the one, bigger prologue into different, smaller parts gives each cut section a chance to become something different than what I initially wrote. As of uploading this chapter, I don't know if I'll continue the story in here or in the original version. So for now, feel free to read both versions, they'll both exist together.