The heavy air of tension dominated the alley.
Deep down, Arata was terrified.
But, as always, he hid his fear behind his social mask.
— Then let's do this!!
The men were startled by his sudden burst of courage. While they remained frozen in surprise, Arata charged forward.
His right fist shot toward the man in the middle.
The hook landed squarely on his jaw.
Arata put his entire body weight behind the blow, sending the man stumbling backward. Without giving him time to react, he swung his left arm into the man's torso and violently slammed him against the wall.
The impact was so powerful that the man immediately lost consciousness.
These weren't moves Arata had learned through martial arts.
They were attacks he had seen countless times in the shounen anime he loved so much.
For years, he had practiced them alone, imitating those movements for fun. But he had never had the courage to actually use them because of his passive nature.
Everything happened in an instant.
The other men took too long to react.
Taking advantage of the opening, Arata kicked one of them, knocking him to the ground.
Without wasting any time, he charged toward the last thug.
When he reached him, he shoved him against the wall with all his strength.
The man groaned in pain.
Arata continued attacking with a series of kicks.
But when he stepped back to catch his breath, he saw the man beginning to stand.
— Tch... you bastard... — the thug growled.
Arata raised his fists.
— Come on! Now it's one-on-one! I already took down the other two! What are you gonna do?!
Adrenaline rushed through his veins.
Even though he was terrified deep down, that surge of energy made him feel invincible.
The man seemed to hesitate.
Then his eyes shifted toward something on the ground.
A knife.
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He immediately grabbed it and charged.
Arata's eyes widened. He tried to back away.
He tried to dodge.
But he was too slow.
— GAH...!
Something pierced his back.
A knife was buried in the lower part of his back.
An unbearable pain shot through his entire body.
It was such a pure, primitive pain that his throat simply locked up.
He couldn't even scream.
I was stabbed...
Stabbed.
Stabbed.
Stabbed.
Stabbed.
The thought repeated over and over.
Arata began coughing.
Blood spilled from his mouth.
A lot of blood.
Soon, the coughing turned into vomiting.
The floor of the alley began to turn red.
His uniform became soaked.
Every breath was torture.
— Where did all that courage go?! — the thug mocked. — Weren't you acting so tough? Where's all that strength now, brat?!
Arata could barely hear him.
The pain consumed everything.
His body no longer responded.
Standing was impossible.
But even so...
He had to do something.
Gathering what little strength he had left, he prepared to scream for help.
He opened his mouth.
He stuck out his tongue.
He tried to draw in a breath.
— All right... then take one more before you try anything.
CRACK!
The second knife was mercilessly driven into his back.
— Ugh...
The sensation was worse than the first.
A numbness resembling an electric shock spread throughout his entire body.
His scream died before it could even be born.
Now there was nothing he could do.
The damage seemed to have reached his lungs.
Each breath became harder than the last.
Air entered.
But it wasn't enough.
His vision darkened.
His mind became slower and slower.
His arms and legs lost all sensation.
He no longer knew whether he was lying on his back or his stomach.
Even though there was nothing wrong with his eyes, he couldn't see anything anymore.
Darkness.
Nothing but darkness.
Then a thought emerged.
This time.
What did that mean?
At that moment, Arata finally understood.
It wasn't a prophetic vision.
He wasn't seeing the future.
He was experiencing the future.
And whenever he died...
He went back in time.
Return by Death.
It was an absurd idea.
Ridiculous.
But at that moment, it was the only possible explanation.
If he was about to die, he had to make use of his final moments.
Don't think about death.
Think about the world around him.
His eyes were already gone.
His arms were too.
All that remained were his ears and his nose.
The smell of dirt from the alley.
The metallic scent of blood.
The cold stone beneath his body.
Then even his sense of smell disappeared.
Only sound remained.
Fragments of voices.
— Take... his belongings...
— The guards... are...
— Run! This is bad! If we get caught...
The words reached him in fragments.
Distant.
As though they were coming from another world.
His mind could no longer process them properly.
Everything was disappearing.
Slowly.
One function after another.
Until nothing remained but emptiness.
Then he heard the sound of something being dragged out of the alley.
And at that moment...
Arata Ryusei lost his life for the second time.
......
Seconds later.
Arata opened his eyes.
But he hadn't returned to his checkpoint.
Not immediately.
He was somewhere else.
An empty space.
Almost infinitely dark.
Shadows spread in every direction.
A terrifying, ominous place that seemed like a dimension made entirely of darkness.
Silent.
Arata looked around, trying to understand where he was.
Then he turned around.
And saw someone.
A woman.
She slowly emerged from the darkness.
She had long silver hair.
Her body was covered by a black cloak that concealed most of her face.
Even so, her presence was overwhelming.
A shiver ran down Arata's spine.
— Who... are you...?
The woman opened her mouth to answer.
But at that exact moment...
Everything disappeared.
......
Arata opened his eyes again.
This time, he was back.
In the middle of the street.
Exactly at his checkpoint.
People were walking normally.
Carriages crossed the road.
The knight was saving the child.
The merchant was shouting at Arata to get out of the way.
Everything was happening again.
Exactly the same.
Arata's eyes widened.
The sunlight burned his vision, forcing him to cover his face with his hand.
His ears were working.
The noise of the city was deafening.
But compared to the terrifying silence of death, it felt comforting.
Even though he was only one street away from that alley...
It felt like another world.
— This time... I'll take another route...
His voice came out weak.
— I don't want to see those thugs again...
He lowered his head.
— I don't want to keep going either...
The image of the woman returned to his mind.
— Who was she...?
— That strange woman...
Could she have something to do with that power?
With his arrival in this world?
But at that moment, Arata didn't want answers.
He didn't want adventures.
He didn't want fantasy.
— Fantasy should remain fantasy...
— In games...
— In anime...
— In books...
His voice began to tremble.
— I can't keep going...
— I'm giving up.
For the first time since arriving in that world, Arata admitted defeat.
— I don't want to live here anymore...
— Whoever brought me to this place...
— Please...
— Send me home...
With his shoulders slumped and his heart completely shattered, Arata continued walking along the sidewalk.
He knew the girl needed help.
But he no longer had the strength to try to save her again.
After all...
She didn't even know his name in this timeline.
End of Chapter 6.
To be continued in Chapter 7...