Chapter 4: Prelude

The duo find themselves in an alley. Kei was leaning on his back towards a wall with a bag of appas still in his arms.

Subaru in the other hand was sitting on stairs grumbling as he was soaked from earlier during the day and was currently drying himself in the sun.

He just sighed thinking back to the brief event that lead up to the both of them here.

(Earlier)

"Subaru I don't think you should enter this place." Kei suggested as he looked at the building in front of them. He didn't know how to read the language of this world yet. But he can tell that the place doesn't exactly look that welcoming to either of them.

"Come on. We might be able to find some information in here." Subaru insisted.

He just sighed giving up trying to convince his associate from entering the uninviting place.

"Fine, Go ahead and check if there is anything substantial in there."

With a confident look on his face. Subaru proceeded to enter the establishment as Kei just stood there waiting for him to be kicked out.

On cue a rather tall demi-human pushed subaru out of his way. Which in the process Subaru's face met the entrance specifically hitting his eyes blinding him temporarily.

Temporarily blinded subaru walked aimlessly trying to find some sort of hold to balance and adjust himself with. Blinding heading to Kei's way.

Seeing this Kei did what any respectable individual would do in situations like this.

He moved out of the way.

Immediately after that. Without anything to stabilize himself with Subaru toppled over the bridge dropping to the canal underneath.

Once again he sighed and sat nearby and waited till the moron resurface.

After a few seconds Subaru emerged from the canal. He called out to the drench moron. Who in turn gave him an angry look.

Getting out of the canal Subaru angrily asked why didn't he help him.

Kei's simply answered that he was doing what any good samaritan would do and make way for a blind man.

Subaru just grumbled and marched on to a nearby alley to dry off as Kei just followed to take a break.

(Present)

"Is this how It's suppose to be?" Subaru asked in a dejected tone before erupting in a rant about the whereabouts of his 'protagonist status'.

Kei just continues to ignore the immature and childish tantrum of the neet. In place of a more pressing matter.

How was he going to convince Reinhard and not be too suspicious about it?

Trying to come up with multiple ways and methods. But in the end all the methods he came up with only a slim few seem to work… with a slim chance.

'Bullshit blessings.' He cursed in his mind about the embodiment of a broken anime equivalent of Jesus.

Kei just sighed. Even though the chances of not being suspicious to the man who practically has any blessings may be very VERY low… but there was still a chance.

He nodded his head slightly content. But there was one thing he wants to find out before he tries.

He looked at Subaru who was still on about being the protagonist. His usual blank look turned cold.

'What exactly would happen to me when subaru loops.' It was a question that was still in his mind. He begins to think of some guesses while looking down and holding his chin.

His first guess was that subaru will loop without him and the events continue on with only him experiencing the future events.

But that guess was thrown away. Reason being that subaru right now was acting like it was his first time here and that he didn't know Emilia yet. And also that he didn't encounter the thugs yet… And screamed like a damsel.

His second guess was that he loops back in time along with subaru. Which was likely.

And finally his third guess was that the world would continue to exist and there wasn't a loop back. He got the guess from the possibility of Subaru's return by death just transporting Subaru to a different parallel world which was shown in his 2nd trial.

He will have to test this out later on. For now he needs to-

"Hey Kei you there?" Breaking out of his thoughts he looks towards Subaru who called to him.

"What?"

"Your from a rich family right?"

Kei's raised an eyebrow to Subaru's question. He is indeed from a very wealthy family. But he didn't exactly want to talk about it. Plus it wasn't exactly clean.

"Sort of why do you ask?"

"Do you… um… perhaps have anything useful we could use as a start up?" Subaru asked curious but also a bit worried.

"Can be more specific?" Even though he asked Kei already had a guess what he was referring to but he wasn't going to fully answer.

"Something like a weapon or some sort of helpful gadget?"

He has. Besides Wilt and blush he also had a gun in his coat and a few other weapons hidden. But he wasn't going to reveal them… yet.

Putting the bag of appas down as well as the plastic bag. And begins to rummage inside his coat for his items pulling out a few.

"I have my phone, A charger, Capable headsets, A solar powered power bank. My notebook And a spare phone." He listed out his items.

"Do have a signal?" Subaru asked.

Looking at his phones reception he finds that he didn't have a signal. He shook his head which made Subaru dejected.

'Welp no [In another world with my smartphone.] for me.' He thought bitterly at the lack of access to the internet. But there was a silver lining though.

And that was the fact that he had a lot of downloaded images, music and videos in his phones. At the least he got some used out of his phone unlike with Subaru's flip phone.

Putting his stuff back into his coat and pocket. He looked at subaru who seems to be in deep thought.

"What about that prop on your side?" Subaru asked pointing to the 'Prop' on his side.

"Mm?" Looking at the 'prop' on his hip he raised an eyebrow. "What about it?"

"Well… Do you think it became like… real?"

His eyebrow raised higher at the question.

"What do you mean?" He asked actually quite curious at what he meant.

"Well from an anime I watched. The main protagonist gets transported to another world. But there was an interesting premise to it." Subaru explained.

"And that would be?" His brow quirked with a bit of interest.

"The Main Character gets the same powers of the character he cosplays as."

Kei just gave a blank look to Subaru who under his look tried to defend himself. But couldn't due to the small judging look from Kei's blank expression.

Turning away from Kei, Subaru just looked down mumbling about not having a certain legendary sword.

Kei just continued to lean on his back against the wall. But contrary to his expression. His mind was filled with realization and surprise.

'Do I have a semblance?' Kei shook his head. No, he probably does not since aura probably doesn't exist in this world.

But that begs the question. Does he have a power? If so than what is it?

As he was coming up with guesses a stream of information suddenly entered his mind.

As if in an instant it stopped. A feeling of lightheadedness came right after as he breath out in exhaustion at the sudden stream of information.

As he was controlling his breathing and composure. A single piece of information popped out of his mind.

[Divine Protection]

"Hey you okay!" hearing a loud voice he looked to Subaru who had a worried expression on his face.

"Yeah… I just feel a little lightheaded from the heat." He gave an excuse.

The worry in Subaru's face seem to have lessened but was still prominent.

"Maybe you should drink something cold." He suggestive.

He nodded his head in agreement. Maybe all he need was a relaxing cold drink to calm his mind.

As he was about to get a can of soda from his bag he suddenly heard 3 pairs of foot steps heading towards this direction.

Kei's eyes narrowed knowing what will now happen. He took a breath and faced towards the where the footsteps came from.

'So their finally here.'