Re:Zero: Wrath Route Yandere Emilia Watches the Projection

Emilia answered Natsuki Subaru’s question with complete seriousness.

”It’s because I’m using spirit arts. That’s why he can’t fight at full strength.”

”What does that have to do with anything?” Natsuki Subaru asked, genuinely puzzled.

”If Reinhard were to fight in earnest, all the mana in the surrounding air would flee from me.”

”...Right, the healing is just about done. Once I give the signal, let him know.” Emilia finished with a quiet reminder, and Natsuki Subaru could only marvel — in every sense of the word — at how utterly unreasonable the [Sword Saint]’s power truly was.

”All clear!”

”Reinhard, I don’t really know what’s going on, but go ahead and cut loose!” Natsuki Subaru bellowed across the room.

Hearing that, Reinhard smiled faintly, released the restraints on his power, and began drawing in enormous quantities of mana from the surrounding air. The sight was spectacular — a pillar of magical energy coiled visibly around him like smoke.

”So it’s time to get serious.” Elsa’s gaze sharpened, her expression turning grave. She announced her name with quiet ceremony.

”Elsa Granhiert — the Bowel Hunter.”

Reinhard met her gravity with equal solemnity.

”Reinhard van Astrea, of the lineage of the Sword Saints.”

He raised the standard-issue longsword into a stance and began to channel power into it. Countless motes of magical light poured into the blade in a rushing torrent, so overwhelming in quantity that they bled the colour from everything around him, reducing the world to its most primitive, colourless state.

Reinhard lifted the sword slowly, brought it down with the same unhurried deliberateness — yet the arc took only an instant to complete.

Elsa threw herself against the current of that blazing magical light, making one final, futile struggle. But true to her word, she had never once surrendered simply because the odds were against her.

No fangs? Then her claws. No claws? Then her bones. No bones? Then her very life!

— This is what it means to be the [Bowel Hunter!]

BOOM!

The mana compressed to its absolute limit — and then the explosion came, thunderous and absolute. The room they had all been standing in was obliterated in an instant, blown apart into scattered chunks of rubble and debris.

”What the — hey, hey, HEY!” Natsuki Subaru let out a wild yelp of disbelief, only to go abruptly quiet, face flushing red, when the shockwave sent Emilia tumbling straight into his arms.

A gift from the heavens. Best enjoy it while it lasted.

”Oh my — so Subaru likes holding me like this! Noted, noted~ I want to know every little thing Subaru enjoys!” Outside the screen, Emilia’s eyes lit up like stars as she hurriedly committed this newly discovered detail — one she had completely missed at the time — to memory.

[After a long moment, the chaos gradually settled.

All that remained before Natsuki Subaru’s eyes was Reinhard, standing tall and composed. Of Elsa, there was no trace whatsoever.

— She had probably been annihilated. Not even dust left behind.

”He just... swung his sword, and it ended up like that? That’s terrifying...” Natsuki Subaru murmured under his breath, deeply impressed.

Nearby, Reinhard was looking down at the standard-issue longsword in his hand — now a mangled ruin, its blade notched, cracked, and riddled with damage — and spoke to it softly.

”You worked hard. Rest now.”]

[”Is it over?” Emilia rose to her feet and turned to Natsuki Subaru.

”Yeah. It’s all over.” He answered on reflex — and then, realising the weight of those words, he found himself staring at Emilia, unable to look away.

”Hey~ Why are you staring at me like that? I think it’s rather rude, you know.” Emilia puffed her cheeks in mild indignation.

”It’s nothing... just that your arms and legs and head are all still properly attached to your body.”

”Isn’t that completely normal?! Could you please stop saying such terrifying things?” Emilia stared at him in bewildered confusion.

”Right... ah! Of course — my hands are still on too, there’s no knife sticking out of my back, and there’s no gaping hole in my stomach!” Natsuki Subaru did a frantic sweep of his own body and then let out a long, long breath of relief.

”The way you say that makes it sound like you’ve actually been through all of those things before.”

”Well... I have, actually...” Natsuki Subaru gave a self-deprecating laugh. He had a thousand things he wanted to say and couldn’t — so he let them dissolve into a smile, and left it at that.]

”Honestly! What was I even saying back then?! If Subaru wants to look, just let him look!” Outside the screen, Emilia buried her face in her hands in mortified exasperation, desperately wanting to look away from her past self.

She had been such a blockhead back then. Understanding nothing — and sometimes, without even meaning to, letting Subaru’s feelings go right over her head.

[”But anyway — what a relief.”

”Back in the alley too — don’t tell me you actually heard my heart calling out to you? My friend!” Natsuki Subaru asked Reinhard with unabashed cheer.

”If I truly could, I’d be rather proud of myself — my friend!” Reinhard laughed softly, accepting the title without any reservations.]

”...Friends?” Outside the screen, Reinhard quietly repeated the words to himself, as though he had slipped into some strange, faraway state of mind.

”This is a completely different path from the story I know. Is this another possibility — a road not taken?” he murmured, pensive.

”Why is there such a vast difference between them?”

”He has Return by Death. So why would a Subaru different from the one on that screen choose to walk alongside Elsa and the Witch Cult?”

”Perhaps, if I keep watching, I’ll find my answer.”

The light cast by the screen shimmered and flickered continuously in Reinhard’s eyes.

[Reinhard introduced Felt — it was her cry for help that had drawn him here.

Emilia’s first instinct upon seeing Felt was wariness.

But after the other two spoke up on Felt’s behalf, she was on the verge of letting it go for Natsuki Subaru’s sake —

Suddenly!

”Subaru!”

Reinhard, who had been wearing a calm and gentle smile just a moment before, seemed to sense something before anyone else — his voice rang out first as a sharp cry of warning.

From beneath the pile of broken planks and rubble that had fallen from the roof behind Natsuki Subaru came a faint, telltale sound.

CRASH!

In an instant, Elsa burst through the pile of shattered wood she had been hiding under, revealing herself, and launched herself at Natsuki Subaru with the speed of a thunderbolt.

Time seemed to slow to a crawl.

Natsuki Subaru barely managed to begin turning around. By the time his head swung over, he was already staring straight into Elsa’s eyes — cold, vicious, and utterly cornered, like a lone wolf with nowhere left to run. His heart lurched.

Reinhard reacted the moment he understood what was happening and sprinted toward Natsuki Subaru.

But the distance between them meant he would inevitably arrive one step behind Elsa.

”Her target is —” Natsuki Subaru, face to face with Elsa at point-blank range, snapped awake from his daze. Something clicked in his mind — the answer crystallised in an instant.

He clenched his teeth, scooped up Old Rom’s enormous wooden club from beside his feet, stepped his right foot wide, and shoved the dumbstruck Emilia out of the way with all his strength.

”— Elsa’s original target has always been one, and only one person.”

”She’s a professional killer. That’s probably the kind of mindset she has — even if she dies, the mission cannot fail!”

Natsuki Subaru’s mind was racing, cold sweat breaking out across his brow.

”Stay calm. Think carefully. Elsa’s title. Her attack patterns across four loops.”

”So, Elsa —”

”Your next target is only one thing. And that thing is — your gut!”

____

👻🔥+40 ch: Walnut-chan🔥👻

🎯 100 Powerstones = +1 extra chapter for everybody