The scene opened with the familiar hustle and bustle of the capital of Lugunica. The cobblestones echoed under the hurried footsteps of passers-by, merchants called out to customers with energy, and the colorful stalls overflowed with goods from all horizons. The air was alive, charged with voices, movement, heat… a world that never stopped.
« For any fan of Re:Zero… it would be a dream, »
thought Kozuwa Kurisu.
« The sounds of the crowd, the smell of the stalls, the demi-humans passing knights in armor… It's magnificent. It's 4K without a screen. »
Sitting on the edge of the fountain, Kurisu — or rather Regulus Corneas to his close friends and future victims — swung his legs slightly. His white gloves were of a cleanliness that was insulting to this medieval environment.
He did not breathe. His heart did not beat. The « Lion's Heart » maintained his body in a state of absolute temporal stasis. It was exhilarating. A true walking cheat code.
« So, dear little readers, do you see this? »
he whispered with a small, stifled laugh, his eyes fixed on an invisible point in the air, where he imagined the audience to be.
« Look to the left, near the apple merchant. The star of the show is arriving. »
And, a little further away, a silhouette appeared. A boy. Lost. Disoriented. His eyes scanned the surroundings with obvious confusion, his hesitant gestures betraying a total lack of understanding of the environment. He talked to himself, tested absurd hypotheses, looked for answers where there were none.
Indeed, Natsuki Subaru had just made his entrance. Black and white tracksuit, plastic bag in hand, with the typical look of someone who had absolutely no idea what was happening to him. A timeless classic.
And, as expected— He understood nothing.
From the fountain, which sat enthroned in the center of the small square, Kurisu observed the scene. Calm. Silent. Motionless. His gaze followed Subaru's every move with purely analytical attention. He dissected his gestures, his reactions. No surprise. Just a clinical interest.
« And there he is… »
Kurisu let out a slight, discreet Kekeke.
« He really looks more lost in person than in the anime. It's almost sad. Well, "sad"… you know what I mean. It's mostly hilarious knowing what awaits him in ten minutes. »
The scene unfolded exactly as the script required: Subaru approached the apple merchant, asked clumsy questions, received vague answers about the royal capital of Lugunica, the dragon kingdom. The boy nodded before continuing on his way, accumulating blunders, drawing fleeting glances from passers-by.
Time passed slowly. Then, as if drawn by an inevitable resting point, Subaru eventually dragged himself to the fountain, collapsing heavily next to Kurisu. The protagonist sighed loudly, clutching his head in his hands.
Kurisu stared at him from the side with Olympian calm. No pity. Just the cold excitement of a player ready to test the limits of his game.
Kurisu: « It's hard, isn't it. Waking up in a world without the slightest bit of logic… »
A sarcastic sneer slowly stretched his lips.
Kurisu: « And where no one notices how tacky your tracksuit is. It's a true insult to your existence. »
Subaru jumped abruptly, his eyes widening as he stared at the white-haired man.
Subaru: « Huh? You... you talked to me? Wait, who are you? You look like an important character, don't you? »
Kurisu smiled. A smile that had nothing of Regulus's murderous madness, but which exuded a deeply human and superior malice.
Kurisu: « Me? Just a spectator in the front row. What are you looking for? A silver-haired half-elf? Or just a way to not die stupidly in an alley? »
Subaru frowned, totally lost.
Subaru: « A half-elf? What are you... »
Kurisu stood up in a fluid leap, smoothing his immaculate suit without a single wrinkle daring to form.
Kurisu: « Forget it. Go do your tutorial quests, Subaru. We'll meet again when you have blood on your hands. Fate has a very… sharp appointment for you. »
Subaru: « What… what do you mean by that? »
Kurisu looked away, the conversation having already lost its interest.
Kurisu: « Nothing. Forget it. »
A heavy silence settled in. Kurisu walked away a few steps, leaving a totally distraught Subaru behind him. True to himself, the teenager stood up abruptly, refusing passivity.
Subaru: « Well… sitting here isn't going to change anything. »
Kurisu did not answer. He watched him leave from behind.
« Yes… go on. Do exactly what you must do. »
Subaru walked away, disappearing into the crowd, walking straight toward the iconic alley.
Kurisu resumed his walk, a smirk hooked to his lips.
« Did you see that, Author-san? »
he threw out internally while heading toward the slums.
« I threw him a massive free spoiler and he didn't even catch on. What a pleasure. Now, toward Rom's hideout. I wouldn't miss Elsa's first "gutting" for anything in the world. »
The atmosphere in Rom's dusty old building was stifling. The air smelled of moldy wood, rancid alcohol, and cold sweat.
Kurisu was there. Standing in a dark corner of the room. He was not invisible. He was simply ignored by reality itself. Untouchable, outside of any physical interaction thanks to the Authority of Greed. The light slid over him without illuminating him, the air did not move around his silhouette. He was an absolute ghost in the machine.
In the center of the room, the tension was thick enough to cut with a knife. Felt was disemboweled on the ground, Rom was collapsing in a bloody gurgle. And Subaru… short of breath, lungs burning, Subaru was desperately trying to understand why the temperature of the room seemed to have dropped so violently. The sound of his own jagged breathing echoed in the morbid silence.
Elsa Granhiert moved. It was not an attack, it was a macabre dance. A flash of silver that cleaved the heavy air with a lethal hiss.
Kurisu watched. The curved blade tore through flesh and clothing with a dull, wet sound, almost obscene. Subaru gasped violently. His eyes bulged, staring into the emptiness of the room. He hadn't even had time to scream. His knees hit the filthy floorboards, his trembling hands vainly trying to keep his own intestines inside his body. The warm, coppery smell of blood instantly saturated the air.
The contrast was terrifying: the visceral, brutal, and real agony on one side, and Kurisu, on the other, observing the butchery with crossed arms and flat calm.
« Clean. Sharp. Effective, »
thought Kurisu, a shiver of pure excitement running down his spine before this masterclass of violence.
« The rendering is even more visceral than I imagined. Well played, Elsa. »
He approached slowly. Subaru had collapsed, panting in a dark red pool, his hand pitifully stretched toward Emilia who had just collapsed near him. Life was leaving him second after second.
Kurisu crouched just above the boy's sweaty face.
Kurisu: « So, this is it, the famous Return by Death? Pity I can't feel it with you. Don't worry, I'll be there when you wake up to remind you just how bad you are at this game. »
Subaru let out a final muffled groan. The light left his eyes. And then… death activated.
Kurisu felt it immediately. A dizzying distortion. The very fabric of reality began to tear around him. He felt a violent shift in space, a conceptual shockwave, a vertigo of artificial déjà-vu that crushed the world to force it backward.
For anyone else, time would have simply resumed with no memory. But for him, the out-of-script OC, it was like a violent jump cut in the editing.
The world recomposed itself in a silent crack. Sunlight struck the cobblestones once more, raw and blinding. The hubbub of the fountain and the shouting voices of the merchants returned all at once, as if someone had abruptly unmuted the game's sound.
Kurisu burst into a clear, genuine laugh, drawing the confused stares of a few passers-by around the square.
Kurisu: « Kekeke... Come on, Author-san! Let's do it again! »
And so, a few meters away, a scene of a cruelty invisible to others played out again. Subaru fell heavily to his knees. His hands gripped his own stomach violently. His face was of a cadaverous pallor, covered in a cold sweat. His lungs searched for air with desperate gasps, while his eyes, dilated by panic, frantically scanned the square, looking for the woman with the silver blades who had, just a moment before, gutted him on the filthy floor of the Loot House.
Sitting in exactly the same spot on the stone ledge, Kurisu watched him out of the corner of his eye. He didn't make the slightest gesture. He simply crossed his legs, smoothing an non-existent crease on his impeccably white trousers. « And here we go for loop 2, » Kurisu thought, a slight boredom already beginning to dawn behind his initial amusement.
« The denial phase. Classic, but so redundant. Let's see if he'll think this time... »
Subaru eventually stood up staggering, nearly tripping over his own feet. His gaze briefly met Kurisu's, but he did not recognize him. Terror totally blurred his senses. Without a word, the teenager in the tracksuit turned on his heels and dashed into the crowd, running breathlessly toward the slums, convinced he could change destiny by the simple force of his will.
Kurisu did not move an inch. He stayed there. Motionless. Untouchable. Passers-by unconsciously avoided him, as if reality itself refused to collide with his existence.
Time stretched out. The sun began its slow descent, warming the air which became charged with the smells of dust and grilled meat. An hour. Perhaps two. Kurisu sighed deeply, distractedly tapping the edge of the fountain. A slight mental fatigue invaded him, not physical, but that dull irritation born of useless waiting in the face of a stubborn NPC.
Kurisu: « You know, Author-san… this loop serves absolutely no purpose. »
He raised his head slightly toward the azure sky of Lugunica, addressing the clouds with the expression of a reader skipping pages.
Kurisu: « He's just going to run, panic, make the same mistakes, run into Elsa again or get stabbed by the three idiots in the alley because he's too stressed to analyze the situation. It's filler. We're in a quality fanfic here, we don't have time for useless reruns. »
A silence floated around him, isolated from the tumult of the capital. Then, Kurisu sketched a mocking half-smile.
Kurisu: « Shall we skip the scene? »
The very moment those words crossed his lips, the air around him seemed to freeze. A glacial shiver, purely conceptual, ran down his spine. There was no soft transition. No fade to black. A distortion of unheard-of violence. The entire world twisted upon itself in a brutal tearing of space-time.
A fraction of a second later, the roar of the crowd burst into his eardrums again with the violence of an explosion. Back to the starting point.
Subaru collapsed backward. His face suddenly lost all its color. He gasped brutally, his hands moving by reflex to his back, where the ghost bite of a blade had just struck his nervous system. His knees gave way. He was going to crash heavily against the rough cobblestones.
But this time, Kurisu intervened. With a movement of almost supernatural fluidity, he reached out his arm. His white-gloved hand gripped the collar of Subaru's tracksuit before the fabric even brushed the ground.
The boy stopped dead in his fall, suspended in the void with disconcerting ease. It was like catching a dead leaf in mid-flight. Kurisu, whose immobility and strength were absolute thanks to his Authority, felt neither the weight of the teenager nor the slightest muscular effort.
Kurisu: « Gently, hero. You're going to dirty the cobblestones with your sweat. »
Subaru emitted a muffled groan, his lungs burning to catch oxygen. His bulging eyes fixed on Kurisu's calm face.
Subaru: « You…! The Loot House… Elsa… ! »
Kurisu put him back on his feet with a sharp motion, releasing him with a slight flick of the wrist to brush an imaginary dust from his glove.
Kurisu: « No idea what you're talking about. But you should really learn how to breathe, you look like a fish out of water. It's embarrassing. »
Subaru was trembling all over. His brain was spinning at full speed, overheating in an attempt to piece together the fragments of his successive deaths. Suddenly, a blond flash crossed the square at top speed. Felt. The little thief had just fled with the insignia, slipping with devilish agility between the merchants.
Subaru froze, eyes glued to the dark alley where she had just disappeared.
Subaru: « The insignia… Satella! She's going to arrive, I have to wait for her! »
He took a step forward. And hit a wall. An indestructible wall hidden under an immaculate white suit.
Kurisu had interposed himself, arms crossed, his gaze filled with mocking pity and a hint of weariness. Subaru stepped back staggering, rubbing his nose which had just hit Kurisu's chest, as hard and cold as tempered steel.
Subaru: « Hey! Move! It's a matter of life or death, I have to find Satella! »
Kurisu slowly tilted his head to the side, raising an eyebrow.
Kurisu: « Satella? Really? » A short, almost sharp laugh escaped his lips, underlining the absurdity of the situation.
Kurisu: « Listen to me well, stranger. Either that girl has an absolutely disastrous sense of humor, or she hates you deeply. »
Subaru frowned, confusion replacing for a moment the vital urgency.
Subaru: « What are you talking about? That's her name! »
Kurisu stepped forward half a pace. His tone became professorial, tinged with a dark irony.
Kurisu: « Satella is the name of the Witch of Envy. The most feared, hated, and cursed creature in this world. The one who, long ago, destroyed half the continent. Calling her that, in public, is like screaming "I am a suicidal heretic" in the middle of the capital. »
Subaru remained with his mouth half-open. The shock of the revelation hit him full force, shaking his certainties.
Subaru: « She… she gave me a fake name? But why would she do that… ? »
Kurisu sighed, waving the idea away with sovereign indifference.
Kurisu: « To make you run away, probably. But as you are obviously endowed with the survival instinct of a blind lemming, you decided to follow her anyway. I advise you not to go that way. You're just going to make a monumental mistake. »
Wounded pride, the trauma of deaths, and accumulated frustration exploded in Subaru's gaze. Kurisu's superior and detached tone was the final straw.
Subaru: « Shut up! You don't know anything at all! I have to find her, and that's that! »
With those words, guided by a bravery as admirable as it was stupid, Subaru violently bypassed Kurisu and dashed toward the alleys, intimately convinced he was right, that he could save the situation.
Kurisu did not make a shadow of a gesture to hold him back. He simply turned his head slightly, watching the silhouette in the tracksuit disappear into the cutthroat streets. A heavy and genuinely tired sigh passed the barrier of his lips.
Kurisu: « And there you go. I serve him the solution on a silver platter, I save him from making a fool of himself… and he still runs straight into the mobs' base camp. »
He closed his eyes for a second, massaging the bridge of his nose with his fingertips, feeling a purely psychological migraine coming on.
Kurisu: « Even with a complete strategy guide, he'd find a way to get killed by level 1 monsters. Fascinating. »
A few minutes passed. In the main square, the joyful noise of the market continued, totally indifferent to the drama unfolding a few streets away.
Then… the distortion. Faster this time. More aggressive. The nauseating vertigo of Return by Death hit Kurisu's mind with a new acuity, as the fabric of reality was brutally rewritten.
The OC reopened his eyes. The fountain. The heat of the sun. And Subaru, falling backward again.
But this time, something in his gaze had changed. Raw incomprehension had given way to a glimmer of lucid terror. The boy had finally understood. He knew the morbid rules of his power.
Straightening himself up while trembling, ignoring Kurisu's presence, Subaru staggered toward the dark alley. As he went deeper between the leperous walls, the atmosphere suddenly grew heavier. The shouting voices from the square were muffled, replaced by a moist, sticky silence, heavy with threat. The three thugs appeared out of the darkness, menacing silhouettes blocking the exit, the blades of their knives shining sinisterly in the shadow. The vice was closing.
But rather than fleeing or fighting stupidly like the previous times, Subaru took a deep breath, stepped back, and screamed directly at the top of his lungs, tearing through the silence of the alley:
Subaru: « HEEEEEELP! »
Staying back near the fountain, Kurisu perceived the distant echo of the cry. A real smile stretched across his lips, chasing away all traces of his previous weariness. The player finally saw the plot moving forward.
Kurisu: « Perfect. Finally the Reinhack loop. »
.....
Subaru's cry for help had not fallen on deaf ears. In the dark alley, a bright red shadow had swept through the gloom with disconcerting elegance. With a simple wave of his hand, without even drawing a weapon, the newcomer had sent the attackers fleeing without a second thought.
Subaru, his body trembling, had begged the Knight not to let a silver-haired half-elf approach the Loot House. Reinhard, though perplexed, accepted. His sword, Reid, was already vibrating. A dark resonance emanated from Subaru, but his gaze was so pure that Reinhard chose to follow him to understand.
It was then that, letting Subaru rush toward his destiny, Reinhard turned back to exit the alley. He hit a wall of ice. Or at least, that is what it felt like. Kurisu was there, leaning against the brick wall, arms crossed. His presence was so nonexistent that Reinhard had not detected him until he was three steps away.
Suddenly, the scabbard of the sword Reid shrieked. A violent metallic rattling shook the knight's hip. The divine relic was trying to force itself out of its casing to strike down the absolute threat it perceived. Reinhard stopped dead, his hand whitening on the hilt to force his blade to stay obediently in its place. His blue gaze turned sharp.
Kurisu: « Calm down, calm down... I know your toothpick doesn't appreciate my presence, but we're not here for a hidden boss duel. »
Reinhard narrowed his eyes. He attempted a calculated approach to trap the anomaly.
Reinhard: « You were here from the beginning. And yet, my senses indicated that this alley was empty, except for that boy and his attackers. Who are you to deceive the Divine Protections in such a way? »
Kurisu sketched a smirk, distractedly tapping the scabbard of the sword that was agitating.
Kurisu: « A friend who means you well, Reinhard. Or at least, someone who wants the story to keep a decent pace. You planned to follow Subaru, didn't you? Your blade warned you that something was wrong, but you hesitate because he looks too honest to be a threat. »
Reinhard remained stoic, but his jaw tightened. The hand on Reid's hilt did not relax by a single millimeter.
Reinhard: « If this man is truly in danger, as you seem to know... Why did you not intervene yourself? »
Kurisu slowly uncrossed his arms. He stared at an invisible point in the alley, his expression suddenly becoming firmer, almost serious.
Kurisu: « Because that is not my role. »
He paused briefly, letting the silence of the alley thicken, then a slight, enigmatic smile stretched his lips.
Kurisu: « And because some lessons are only learned by dying, Reinhard. »
The knight felt a chill run down his spine. The answer was of a brutal honesty, without any trace of vice, which made it even more terrifying.
Reinhard: « You speak of what is to come… as if it were already written. Are you linked to this? »
Kurisu scanned the alley, observing the debris on the ground as if looking for a flaw in the world's texture.
Kurisu: « Let's just say I've… seen this scene before. »
He turned his attention back to the Sword Saint, his eyes shining with a glint of cynical amusement.
Kurisu: « Several times, even. »
Reinhard took a step forward, an invisible pressure emanating from his silhouette, forcing the air around them to vibrate.
Reinhard: « I perceive neither your breath nor your heartbeat… Are you even human? »
Kurisu let out a short, dry laugh, yet did not back down against the pressure of the Sword Saint.
Kurisu: « That depends on the definition. »
He shrugged with total nonchalance, his white gloves shining under the dying light of day.
Kurisu: « Today? Not really. »
The silence that followed was heavy. Reinhard perceived no hostility, but the anomaly before him was too unstable to be ignored. He asked the final question, the one that would decide if blood must be shed right here.
Reinhard: « Are you an enemy of this kingdom? »
Kurisu met Reinhard's gaze without blinking. His smile vanished to give way to total neutrality.
Kurisu: « Today? No. »
He paused again, observing Reinhard's reaction, before adding in a lighter, almost playful tone.
Kurisu: « Tomorrow… that will depend on if I get bored. »
Reinhard did not loosen his grip on his sword. He saw that Kurisu was not lying, but this honesty about his own instability made him even more dangerous than an Archbishop.
Reinhard: « Why this interest in that boy, if you are neither his ally nor his enemy? »
Kurisu pushed off the wall, taking a step toward the exit of the alley, passing right next to the Knight.
Kurisu: « Because he is interesting. »
He stopped for a moment at Reinhard's shoulder, lowering his voice slightly.
Kurisu: « And because the world revolves around him… even if he doesn't know it yet. »
Reinhard stared at Kurisu for a long time. He searched for a flaw but found only an abyssal void. He then made the logical choice: prioritize the lives of Subaru and the half-elf.
Reinhard: « Your intentions are… confusing. I will follow your advice. But do not think this encounter will be forgotten. »
In the blink of an eye, the knight disappeared in a blur of movement, kicking up a cloud of dust. Kurisu remained alone, adjusting his gloves with manic precision.
Kurisu: « And there we go. The script is back on track. It's much simpler when you know which button to press to skip through the cutscenes. »
He looked up at the twilight sky, wearing a satisfied smile.
Kurisu: « Well, Author-san… it's time to go see what this famous "Huntress" is worth against a wall that doesn't bleed. »
…..
A few minutes later, the Loot House collapsed in a cloud of dust and blinding light, struck down by the disproportionate power of the Sword Saint. Fleeing the disaster, Elsa Granhiert leapt from tile to tile with the predatory grace of a nocturnal feline. Her torn cape fluttered behind her in the cool night air, and her blood, warm and scarlet, stained her purple dress. Despite her deep wounds, an ecstatic smile stretched her lips: she was drunk on the fury of the combat she had just left.
Suddenly, she froze on the ridge of a chimney. Her senses, sharpened by years of slaughter, screamed an impossible presence at her.
Just opposite, sitting on the edge of the facing roof, legs dangling into the void, Kurisu was waiting for her. He held a silver pocket watch which he snapped shut, the metallic click echoing strangely in the night silence.
Kurisu: « Right on time. You're a bit more beat up than in my memories, Elsa. The redhead didn't hold back, did he? »
Elsa narrowed her dark eyes, her short breath releasing a fine mist.
Elsa: « Ara… who are you? You look interesting…. »
She slowly ran her tongue over a drop of blood beading on her lip, her pupils retracting. In a flash, she lunged forward, a trail of purple cleaving the darkness. Her curved blade hissed through the air, aiming with surgical precision at Kurisu's plexus. She was not merely seeking to kill; she burned to spill his entrails onto the cold tiles.
Clang.
The noise was deafening. It was not the sound of steel slicing through flesh, but that of a chisel striking a block of raw diamond. Elsa's blade bounced back violently, nearly flying from her hands under the shockwave. Kurisu had not blinked. He had not even contracted a muscle to absorb the impact.
Kurisu raised an eyebrow, wearing a small smirk while adjusting his gloves.
Kurisu: « Hmm… she's faster than expected, this production. But I'll stop you right there. You're wasting your time. »
At the mention of the word « time », Elsa shivered. A fleeting cognitive dissonance ran down her spine, as if reality itself were whispering to her that the being before her belonged to no second, nor to any era.
Elsa: « Impossible… »
Obsessive, she refused to understand. Her smile widened into pure madness. She attacked again. Once. Ten times. A hundred times. A veritable storm of steel descended upon Kurisu. Sparks flew into the night with every impact, illuminating his impassive face.
Seeing that the torso was impenetrable, she changed her angle with renewed ferocity. She aimed for the throat. Clang. She tried to pierce his eyeballs. The tip of her knife slid off his eyelashes as if off tempered steel. She threw herself at the joints, the wrists, the knees, attempting to saw through the living matter with chilling perseverance.
Nothing. Not a scratch. Not the slightest trace of sweat on Kurisu's face. His immaculate jacket did not even wrinkle under this hysterical onslaught.
Elsa finally backed away, hands trembling with exhaustion. For the first time in her career as a killer, she was bewildered. The morbid fascination in her eyes turned to a dull, almost painful frustration.
Elsa: « You do not breathe… Your heart does not beat… You have no warmth… »
She approached slowly, placing a blood-stained hand on Kurisu's chest. She felt nothing. No vital vibration, no flow, no soul. It was like touching a statue carved out of absolute nothingness.
Elsa: « You are… empty? Where are your entrails? Tell me… what does your inside look like?! »
Her voice broke, oscillating between panic and a hunger she could never satisfy. Kurisu placed his hand over Elsa's and pushed it away with calm firmness.
Kurisu: « Sorry to disappoint you, lady, but my "inside" is on a permanent coffee break. You'll have nothing to carve here. That's the problem when you try to play against someone using cheat codes. »
He stood up, towering over Elsa. He then turned slightly to the side, where there was only the emptiness of the night, and addressed a wink that only the invisible audience could catch.
Kurisu: « You see, dear readers? This is the pleasure of trolling "off-screen." You break the author's favorite toy without even breaking a sweat. »
Elsa stared at him, total confusion clouding her mind.
Elsa: « Who are you talking to… ? »
Kurisu: « To no one important. Well, Elsa, Act 1 is over. Go tend to your wounds. We'll meet again at the mansion, I imagine. Try to be a bit more creative by then, because for now… it's a bit monotonous. »
He turned his back on her with insolent nonchalance, walking toward the edge of the roof as if he were about to stroll on the air itself.
Kurisu: « On that note, we'll stop there for today. We'll meet again for our dear Arc 2. I can't wait to see the twins' faces when they realize they can't kill me either. See you soon! »
In a visual distortion effect, a flickering of reality that the human eye struggled to conceive, Kurisu simply disappeared.
Elsa remained alone on the cold tiles. She looked long and hard at her chipped blade, then at her hands stained with blood that was not the kind she sought. In the crushing silence preceding dawn, a terrifying thought imposed itself upon her: face to face with this absolute void, she had never been so useless.