Time Rewind

"!!!"

It was as if his consciousness had been yanked out of deep water. The darkness lasted only an instant before his vision came back into focus.

It was the same forest. The same trees, the same light and shadows, the same air.

"I... What... What happened to me?!"

Subaru clapped a hand to his neck. The skin beneath his palm was intact and warm, and he could feel a pulse beating. The sensation of the crocodile crushing his throat bones still lingered in his nerve endings, but reality told him there was nothing wrong with his neck.

He frantically felt his legs and looked down, checking them over and over. Both legs were perfectly intact. Not even his pant legs were torn.

"Didn't I... die?"

He muttered to himself, his voice still trembling. The pain he had just felt-his leg being torn apart, his throat crushed between sharp teeth, his body gradually growing cold-had been too real for him to believe it was an illusion.

"Was I... dreaming just now? Was it a nightmare?"

Subaru tried to convince himself. But he had never had a dream so vivid. Every frame remained clear in his mind, and even the foul breath and the sound of breaking bones still echoed in his head.

The sensation of "dying" was far too specific.

He had never imagined that one day he would know what a hunted herbivore felt. Being torn apart alive, struggling in vain, and finally drawing his last breath in fear and helplessness-he never wanted to experience that a second time in his life.

Just then, Subaru's gaze happened to fall on a nearby tree trunk. A blue stag beetle and a red beetle, probably a type of rhinoceros beetle, had locked horns and were fighting fiercely.

It was exactly what he had seen when he first arrived.

Subaru looked down and checked the plastic bag in his hand. The cup noodles were still there, as was the corn-flavored snack. But the white fruits he had picked later-

They were gone.

"...I'm back?"

He stared hard at the things in the bag. A "dream" could never explain this. No matter how accurate a vision in a dream was, it couldn't reproduce the scene of two bugs fighting on a tree trunk so precisely.

"Then was it... a prophecy? A prophetic dream?! A supernatural phenomenon? Some strange singularity space? Or..."

Subaru swallowed, not daring to follow that thought any further. And why did that crocodile have a horn on its forehead? How could something that big crawl so fast?

"Can I still go home...?"

Subaru lowered his head, his fists clenching without him realizing it.

"Mom must be worried. Please... I hope the time difference between here and there isn't too big."

He started walking again. Standing around and letting his thoughts run wild would accomplish nothing. An excessively strange forest, a horned crocodile, and abnormally large insects-those were the only fragments he had, and they were nowhere near enough to figure out what kind of situation he was in.

After he had walked for a while, the white fruits came into view again. Subaru stopped in front of the tree for a few seconds and hesitated, but in the end, he reached out and picked a few to put in the bag.

There was no particular smell on the surface of the fruits, so they probably weren't a trap that had lured the crocodile over... probably.

"This river again..."

The stream ahead was as clear as ever. Last time, he had encountered the crocodile near here.

Subaru's heart involuntarily quickened for a few beats. Whether it had been a prophetic dream, time rewinding, or something else-whatever the mechanism, he had indeed experienced a "future where he died by the river." And now he stood at the same crossroads again.

"That's strange. Does my face look a little younger?"

As he crouched to scoop up some water, he caught sight of his reflection on the surface. Last time he reached the river, he had been too excited to pay any attention to his face.

Looking closely now, the face reflected in the water looked a little younger than he remembered, and the skin seemed smoother. For no apparent reason, he looked a few years younger.

"Does this river have beauty benefits or something? Or is this a side effect of coming here...?"

He shook his head and set the question he couldn't answer for now aside. The river wasn't deep, and given his height, he would have no trouble crossing it. He had intended to sort out his clothes before getting in, but if that "premonition" was right, the crocodile could appear from any direction at any moment. The sooner he left the area, the better.

By the time he waded across the stream, half his body was soaked. His clothes had absorbed water and clung heavily to him, making every step more difficult than before. But Subaru didn't dare stop to wring them out. He kept his head down and hurried away from the riverbank until the bushes gradually grew sparse.

Then the view suddenly opened up.

Below the slope in front of him, a flat expanse of green stretched out. The grass was short, covering the ground like a thin velvet carpet. Afternoon sunlight streamed down at an angle through gaps in the clouds, bathing the entire plain in warm gold. A gentle breeze brushed against him, carrying the scent of earth and grass, as if the way ahead were bright.

"Did the locals clear this path?"

Without giving it much thought, Subaru leaped off the slope.

"Splash."

The sensation under his feet was completely wrong.

Instead of the solid feeling of stepping onto firm earth, there was a soft, sickening slide as thick liquid enveloped him from all sides.

The liquid flowed so freely that his feet sank straight into it, and the soles of his shoes failed to touch anything solid.

"...Huh?"

Subaru instinctively tried to lift his feet, but his legs wouldn't budge. The liquid trapping him clamped around his calves like a living thing, pulling him down little by little with irresistible force.

"A swamp?!"

No, that wasn't right. For some reason, the sensation felt familiar, a little like especially viscous oil. And the stuff covering the surface wasn't grass at all! Those blue-green things were some kind of moss floating on the oil, a thin layer that made for a flawless disguise.

"Damn it...!"

Subaru struggled desperately, trying to pull his legs free, but the more he moved, the deeper he sank. His legs had already disappeared completely, and the thick oil was slowly and inexorably swallowing his waist. His center of gravity tipped little by little into the bottomless deathtrap.

He suddenly remembered something he had heard somewhere-if you fell into a swamp or quicksand, you must never struggle. The more you struggled, the faster you sank.

But what use was knowing that?

Subaru looked desperately around. There were no vines, no tree roots, nothing he could call a lifeline. His hands grabbed at the air a few times in vain, catching nothing.

And his body kept sinking.

"No, no, no-!"

Subaru flung away the bag of convenience-store goods and clawed frantically at his surroundings with both hands, trying to reach some truly solid ground. His fingers scraped over the floating moss and through the oil. Everything was slippery, everything was soft, and there was nothing to grip.

The surface of the oil was already nearing his chest. Pressure squeezed him from all sides, and even his ribs began to ache. He kept sinking. His chin touched the oil. He kept sinking.

"What's happening?! Help-! Somebody-! What... What's going to happen to me?!"

He tilted his head back, desperately trying to keep his face up, but the oil mercilessly rose over his lips, over the tip of his nose...

In an instant, his breath was taken away completely.

A heavy resistance pressed against his chest, forcing the air out of his lungs. Thick oil surged into his mouth and nose, filling every crevice of his throat. The heat scalded his mucous membranes with a fierce, stabbing pain, as if someone had thrust a burning torch straight down his throat.

Subaru struggled wildly, flailing his limbs through the oil, but every movement was like stirring a vat of mud. It was too thick to push through.

This wasn't drowning in water. Water at least left room to sink and struggle. But oil was different. It coated the inside of his windpipe and clung fast; every time he tried to breathe, he drew in scalding oil mist.

A searing pain shot through his lungs. The oil blocked his alveoli one after another, cutting off the passage of oxygen entirely. Air could neither enter nor escape. There was only an ever-growing sense of suffocation, tightening around his consciousness like a red-hot chain.

It hurts. It hurts, it hurts, it hurts.

This is worse than drowning. This is worse than having a crocodile crush my throat.

A heaviness began to settle deep in his brain, and the bell of oxygen deprivation rang dully inside his skull. Subaru told himself with all his might that he couldn't pass out. Once he did, it would be over. There would be no chance of rescue-

"Is... anyone... there...?"

He moved his lips and squeezed out the words, but even he couldn't hear them.

His consciousness plunged into boundless darkness. The oil continued to eat away at his airways and the lobes of his lungs until the rise and fall of his chest stopped completely.

"Gasp-!!!"

The moment he opened his eyes, Subaru sucked in a huge breath like a madman.

Fresh, clean air without a trace of oil rushed into his lungs, carrying the scent of plants and earth. But what did that matter? It wasn't enough, not nearly enough. He took five or six breaths in a row, each as greedy as if it were his first.

It hurts. Why does it still hurt so much?

I'm going to drown, I'm going to drown, I'm drowning-!!

He knelt on the ground, both hands clawing at the earth, bits of dirt and grass wedged beneath his nails. His vision was a blur, and tears and sweat mingled as they dripped into the soil.

It wasn't an illusion. How could that pain have been an illusion? The feeling of his body being filled with oil inch by inch was still embedded in every cell. Whenever he closed his eyes, he could smell that scalding, nauseatingly greasy odor.

Fear crept from the back of his neck all the way down to his tailbone.

Why?

He was just an ordinary high school student. He had temporarily taken a leave of absence from school and shut himself away at home for so long, but he had never hurt anyone or done anything that deserved hell. Why did he have to go through this? Crushed by a crocodile, drowned alive in an oil swamp-why did he have to die in such painful ways?

He knelt on the ground, gasping for a long, long time. Tears poured uncontrollably from his eyes, his shoulders twitched, and a few broken sobs escaped from deep in his throat. He didn't have the strength to wipe his face, nor did he know where to wipe. His whole face was wet.

After a long while, once the last wave of trembling had faded from his fingertips, Subaru slowly raised one hand.

He was holding something.

It was the convenience-store bag. Cup noodles, snacks. White fruits-none.

He turned his head.

On the tree trunk, the blue stag beetle and the red beetle were still locking horns.

Everything had returned to the way it was at the very beginning.

"Could it be... after I died, time... reset?"

(This book has no system or cheat from beyond the world. There are still many ways to grow stronger in the Re:Zero world; the old bastard just tormented 486 to death and forcibly blocked every path to becoming stronger.)