[Discontinued] Yet Another World (Re:ZeroxRWBY)

11. Retry

"D-Did I just…."

Return by Death. Those three words represented both a curse or a blessing, depending on the perspective. The ability to rewind time after death, a disgusting ability. Yet, it saved him countless amounts of times. It felt weird for him to not have died for quite a while, and it felt even more nauseating after digesting the fact that he had died in yet another world. A world where The Witch shouldn't have an influence on, or could she?

For all the nasty-eyed boy knew, he was a beacon, a sort of catalyst, of Satella's influence. Maybe that's why he can access Return by Death here in this world, and maybe that's why Satella herself had seemingly gained the ability to move his checkpoints even throughout the vast distances of other worlds. It made him feel another wave of goosebumps after realizing such a thing, but right now, he has to analyze what just happened.

"Did someone attack?"

It could be possible that an assassin was sent to kill him, or even both him and Ruby. But he did not feel any pain nor sense that something was coming. It reminded him of another death loop where he died just like that. The one that had caught him off guard.

"Todd…"

That loop where Todd killed him several times in quick succession in the walled city of Guaral, where he was forced to face a loop with only half a minute of timespan. It was a shock at first experiencing that sort of checkpoint, it gave him little time to analyze what was going on. Wait...

Timespan, he forgot to analyze the timespan! All this time he did not consider that he had just died so fast. From Ruby's gesturing to come over and to him answering her question. It was only in a span of ten full seconds, meaning

"Shit! Ruby, listen to me! There's a killer nearby!" He yelled.

"A killer!? Subaru what are you talking abo-"

It was too late. She did not act quick enough, or rather, he did not act quick enough. As if time had slowed to a snail's pace, a crimson blade of wind came into view in Subaru's fearful eyes. It thrashed the entire immediate vicinity of its trajectory. Some of Ruby's limbs had been fully dislocated and some bones had been fractured just by the sheer shockwave of the attack, and by the next moment, immediately the red blade of wind sliced her clean vertically in half. Spilling the air with the red mist of her blood and remnants of her organs and brain matter, before crashing and breaking the white metal rack and the wall behind into a pile of smoke and sawdust, sending shrapnel of metal to all directions, some hitting and pricking Subaru all over.

As the scene was cleared of smoke, only the remains of the once joyful little rose were left, her once clean and naive face now a broken remnant stained in blood. But even before his mind could even react to what had transpired. Within the next moment, his mind had gone blank instead.

______________________________

He was back at the same spot once again. No kind of damage was done, everything seemed so peaceful, and Ruby was back, currently reading a magazine. He was glad that it ended so fast, but he just can't seem to get used to the mental aspects of Return by Death, even after two years of being summoned from his world.

The girl in front of him, Ruby Rose, jumped in excitement at her findings, as always for the last two loops. She turned her eyes to him and gestured to him to come over, wanting to share the page for him to read. But, Subaru did not even react to that, he only stood there, frozen and hiding his shock.

His legs felt weak as if fatigue had suddenly come rushing over to him. Pupils had dilated to a single point, his expression had soured, cringing at the mere thought of seeing her corpse being in that state. Ruby quickly noticed what was going on and immediately dropped her book, choosing to rush over and check on him.