“Hey, kid, you buying any apples?”
“Huh?”
Called out to by the man with the prominent facial scar who looked fiercer than a mobster, Subaru Natsuki couldn’t help but let out a dumbfounded sound.
His reaction made the man’s scarred face contort even more.
“What’s wrong, little bro?
You suddenly spaced out.”
“What?”
“So are you buying apples or not?
Apples.
Kid, you got money?”
“Say what?”
“The heck you mean, ‘say what’?!
Apples!
Are you buying or not?!”
Before Subaru’s eyes was the muscular, scarred man, holding a small, cute red apple in his palm.
He looked at the fruit, then at the middle-aged man’s face, and rubbed his eyes.
“…No thanks.
After all, I am a perpetually penniless pauper.”
“What the heck… Then how about you, miss, you buying any apples?
Don’t tell me you didn’t bring any money either?”
The girl’s clear voice rang out from beside him: “I’m sorry… I didn’t bring any money either.”
“Jeez!
If you’re just looking and not buying, then get lost, get lost!” The apple stand owner’s face instantly darkened as he shooed them away.
“I’ve got a business to run!
I ain’t got time to entertain customers who don’t pay!”
Driven away by the owner, Subaru stepped away from the fruit stand.
Weird… what’s going on here?
He wasn’t asking anyone in particular; just voicing his doubt and confusion took everything he had.
Subaru looked down at his hands: they were clean, with no dark red blood clinging to them.
“—Big brother!
Big sister!”
An excited, youthful girl’s voice rang out.
Subaru turned his head.
A little girl holding a middle-aged woman’s hand was happily waving in their direction.
“Ah!
It’s you!”
The girl beside him crouched down, her silver hair swaying and sparkling brilliantly in the sunlight.
“We meet again!”
Huh?
Subaru’s pupils shrank to pinpricks as he stared blankly at the silver-haired girl.
The main street was bustling with people just as before.
Aside from the occasional lizard-drawn carriage passing through, the entire road was packed with pedestrians.
His beloved black-and-orange tracksuit wasn’t stained with blood, and the despair-inducing heavy snow was nowhere to be seen.
“Thank you both so much for earlier.”
The girl holding her hand was still waving her arm vigorously.
“Big sister, this is for you!” The girl left her mother’s side, jogged over to the silver-haired girl, and reached out her hand.
In her small palm rested an accessory crafted into the shape of a red flower.
“Please accept it.
Our daughter wants to thank you in her own way.”
What is going on?
“Darling, do you know these two deadbeats?”
The owner turned to ask the middle-aged woman.
“Darling, please don’t call them deadbeats.
It’s very rude.”
Hasn’t… hasn’t all of this already happened once?
Faced with this suffocatingly familiar, bustling scene, Subaru aggressively yanked at his own hair.
“Agh!
I completely don’t understand anymore…”
“Subaru!”
His hands were grabbed by another set of hands.
The fingers were so slender, the palms so small; delicate and incredibly warm.
It was the hands of a living, breathing girl.
Subaru’s gaze was forcibly redirected.
The silver-haired girl before him looked at him with a mix of heartache and anger.
“Didn’t we agree that you wouldn’t hurt yourself anymore?”
Unable to grasp the situation, Subaru habitually apologized anyway.
“Ah… sorry.”
Subaru Natsuki finally had a moment to look around.
At some point, they had moved away from the apple stand.
Subaru stood on the crowded street.
The silver-haired girl in front of him was holding one of his hands, her other hand resting on her hip, her delicate brows furrowed.
—Pinned to her chest was the red flower accessory.
“Emi… Emilia?”
“Eh?!”
The girl retracted her hands like she’d been electrocuted, the tips of her ears turning slightly red.
“Subaru, how do you know my name?”
“…Didn’t you tell me?” Subaru was stunned.
“Huh… weird?
Did I say it?” Emilia’s cheeks were already flushed bright red, her fingers bashfully twisting the hem of her shirt.
“Did I accidentally let it slip after all?”
“I’m sorry!
I lied to you, Subaru!”
Emilia gave Subaru a deep bow, her earnest posture startling him.
“At-at first, I thought you didn’t seem like a good person, Subaru, so… when I introduced myself on the roof, I gave you a fake name…”
Weird.
This is so weird.
It was just night time a moment ago, yet the sun was now hanging high in the sky before his very eyes.
Heading to the slums, asking for directions, arriving at Old Man Rom’s abandoned loot house.
Encountering Elsa, the defeat, Emilia telling him her real name.
“Huh?
Subaru, why are you crying?”
Pale, slender fingers gently wiped away his tears.
Emilia’s jewel-like, blue-purple eyes were filled with panic.
“Are you okay, Subaru?
You’ve been acting really strange for a while now…”
“I-I’m fine.”
“Really?” With a lingering blush from having her lie exposed still on her face, Emilia tightly grasped the emerald pendant at her chest.
“If something is bothering you, you have to speak up, Subaru!”
“I’m really fine…”
So why is it like this?
Emilia, who had clearly died, was standing vividly alive right in front of him.
And he himself should have been frozen to death by Puck.
Subaru’s mind was trapped in a labyrinth, hitting dead ends at every turn.
Yet, within his blocked thoughts, Subaru found one conclusion that could explain this phenomenon.
Even though just considering the possibility felt utterly absurd, and logic had long since rejected it as impossible…
…It really had happened.
—After dying, he had rewinded time, bringing his memories back to the exact moment he was at the apple stand.
[Return by Death]
“Didn’t you say, ‘With great power comes great responsibility,’ Subaru?
As your companion, I have the power, and the responsibility, to help you!” Emilia said earnestly.
“Mhm…”
Subaru gave a casual hum, brushing Emilia off.
Marching in the direction of the slums, Subaru shadowed Emilia’s steps.
Staring at the girl’s back as her silver hair fluttered in the wind, Subaru bit down hard on his lower lip until it bled.
Are you kidding me?
Does someone like me, who failed to protect you, really deserve to talk about having “power”?
But right now… Emilia was walking right in front of him.
Alive and kicking, her body still warm.
Looking back every now and then to check if he’d fallen behind, chatting with him whenever she saw something interesting on the road.
Thank goodness.
There’s still a chance.
“Going back in time” is an eternal fantasy of humanity.
“If only I had done that back then,” “If only I hadn’t done that back then.” As regret and remorse intertwine in one’s heart, only a single thought is ultimately born.
If I could just go back to the past, I would absolutely…
Subaru didn’t know how other people would answer, but he only had one answer of his own.
This time, I will absolutely protect you!
…
Oh, please don’t let me die.
Ready for your touch.
No, don’t give up on life.
This endless battle.
Standing beneath the midday sun, Subaru Natsuki begins from zero!
Drop Stones to let readers discover this story!