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Alram Village ┃ Mid afternoon ┃ Day 2

♪ Re:ZERO ost : Promenade of Whistles and Creation ♪

The Alram Village is a small but lively human settlement that is located within the territory belonging to Roswaal L. Mathers.

The distance between the village and the Roswaal mansion is short. As it is possible to simply walk to the village from the manor.

The settlement has sixty six buildings that is surrounded by trees, dirt roads and farm plains.

But no village would be complete without its many villagers. Ranging from the elderly, middle-aged, young adults and adolescents.

The youthful group are very small as there are only seven, but they were able to have fun amongst themselves One is a shirtless boy, the other is a chubby boy, two brothers, a brown-haired girl, an orange-haired girl and a girl with indigo coloured hair.

As per usual, the villagers are going about their peaceful yet lively days as usual.

━━*Chatter Chatter*

However, the serene state of the village is abruptly interrupted by the arrival of two people.

One being Rem. The blue-haired maid that everyone in the village is familiar with.

However the second person is a complete stranger. The unknown guest, Kakine Teitoku.

It would be more accurate to infer that it was Kakine's presence that caused low whispers and silence to befall the villagers of Alram.

Even the group of adolescents stopped playing as their eyes spotted the stranger.

Kakine: ". . ."

From Kakine's perspective, he felt out of his element.

He was so used to seeing the tall pristine white skyscrapers accompanied by wind turbines, and cleaning bots found in the technologically advanced Academy City.

And yet now, he's in a simple yet peaceful small rural village. Witnessing this, it was the type of scenery that gave the #2 a sense of cultural whiplash. 

Because of this, he was starting to feel a bit home sick. But he would never admit it. In fact, a part of him actually hated himself for even feeling that way.

Shirtless boy: "Whozzat guy?"

Chubby boy: "I—I don't know... but he looks kinda scary..."

Brown-haired girl: "Yeah..."

A majority of the young villagers looked visibly shaken. Especially the chubby boy. And they weren't the only ones affected by the stranger's presence.

The rest of the villagers continued to murmur amongst themselves.

Meanwhile, Rem noticed this change in the atmosphere and sighed. She predicted something like this would happen.

Regardless, she had a job to do and she intends on completing it.

Rem: "Sir. I'm going to—"

Kakine: "Drop the 'sir' nonsense. It's beginning to annoy me. Say it like normal."

Rem: ". . ."

Her opinion on him continued to lower. However Kakine is feeling irritated due to the unflattering stares he's getting from its villagers.

Rem: "...Very well, Kakine. I'm going to head off to purchase what we need for Lord Roswaal's mansion."

Rem: "It may take me a while, so please do not run off and cause a disturbance."

In response, the esper grunted and waved his hand dismissively. Rem simply nodded her head in acknowledgement and went towards the village's mini market which is located in the center of the village.

The #2 then went and leaned against one of the buildings with his arms crossed. Leaving himself with his own thoughts.

Orange-haired girl: "It looks like everyone stopped playing to look at that person."

Indigo-haired girl: "Who is that, Petra?"

Petra: "I dunno, Meili..."

Meili: "Oh..."

Petra: "He came with that maid from the mansion. —Huh? Wait Meili, where are you going!?"

Meanwhile, the esper simply continued his train of thought in silence as he waited for Rem. He was trying to ascertain what his next move is.

♪ Re:Zero ost : Train of Thought ♪

Kakine: (My mind keeps replaying that moment with the caretaker... If I'm going to continue staying in this world, then I need to prepare myself for whatever nonsense is going to come my way...)

This was the same method he used when preparing to battle the #1. He needed data on his calculation methods and thought patterns in order to exploit his ability.

Kakine: (That's in the past now. I don't intend on repeating the same mistake.)

It was the truth. After facing death and learning about the existence of dragons, magic and spirits, Kakine became a lot more cautious then how he was originally back in his old life in Academy City. He can no longer be reckless.

He also needed to evolve his ability if his interaction with magic is anything to go by.

♪ Re:Zero ost : Appa ♪

Suddenly, he snapped out of his thoughts when he sees someone approach his field of vision. It was an indigo-haired young girl.

He simply stared at her with a stern expression accompanied by an irritated tone.

Kakine: "...You got a problem, kid?"

Meili: "Uh... Uhm~mm..."

(...Definitely the one...)

Petra: "Meili!"

The #2 sees another young girl approach the scene. It was clear to him that this orange-haired girl is her friend. Meili turned her head and sees Petra looking at her with a panicked expression.

Petra: "You shouldn't bother strangers, Meili."

Meili: "But... I wasn't..."

The meek indigo-haired girl replied.

From a distance, the group of youthful villagers are watching the interaction and noticed that Petra looked visibly nervous.

The ones who are most affected by Petra's demeanor are the brothers. The two then began shouting.

Youngest Brother: "Petra!"

Eldest Brother: "She looks scared! Don't worry, Petra! I'm coming!"

Youngest Brother: "—Wah?! Hey no fair! I'm gonna go save Petra!"

The two brothers began running towards Petra's location. This caused the rest of the young ones to look at the two with surprised expressions.

Brown-haired girl: "What are you two dummies doing?!"

Chubby boy: "They're fighting for Petra again..."

Shirtless boy: "C'mon let's go after em!"

Shortly afterwards, Kakine is surrounded by a small group of young villagers. Each have a mixture of emotions dwelling within them, but it's clear that the two brothers have the impulse of "helping" the orange-haired girl.

Youngest Brother: "Hey you! Leave Petra alone!"

Eldest Brother: "Hey, I was gonna say that! Leave Petra alone!"

Petra: "Huh?"

Despite the strange meet up, Kakine continued to stay firm with his arms crossed. However he did raise his eyebrow at all of this.

Kakine: (Where the hell did all these kids come from?)

The esper's eyes shifted and scanned this small group.

The two brothers are standing in front of Petra and Meili and there is a shirtless boy standing in front of a chubby boy and a brown haired-girl.

To him, they all looked annoying to deal with.

Kakine: "Ah...? Go play somewhere else, you brats."

He didn't want to deal with this nonsense.

Eldest Brother: "Huh!? We're not scared of you!"

The eldest brother is determined to protect Petra and show off how brave he's being.

However, Petra just looked at him with confusion. She wanted him to stop or else they'll get in trouble with either this stranger or the village elders for even interacting with him.

Kakine gave this kid a little bit of credit. He's good at acting brave.

Although, he easily interpreted his "bravery" as reckless bullheaded stupidity more than anything.

Regardless, the kid looked a lot braver than those alleyway thugs from the other day.

Kakine: ". . . ?"

The esper noticed the gazes he's getting from the rest of the villagers and it was starting to annoy him even further. If this nonsensical scene were to continue, then he's going to receive a lot of bad looks from these people.

Not that he personally cared about their opinion on him, but it would be irritating getting scorned looks every time he passes through this place. And if he were to become really annoyed by their stares, he would become very... destructive.

The esper sighed as he doesn't want all this unnecessary negative attention, so in order to avoid that outcome, he decided to interact with the children.

Kakine: "You two. You like that girl, right?"

This caused the brothers to blush. The youngest brother's mouth began stammering.

Youngest Brother: "H-Huh? Well I—"

Eldest Brother: "No way! He's too bratty for Petra."

Youngest Brother: "W—Wah?! Well he doesn't like Petra either!!"

Suddenly, the two brothers turned to face each other and started disputing amongst themselves on who didn't like Petra. The #2 esper merely pointed out their obvious crush so he can stop the two brothers from being bullheaded morons towards him.

Kakine: "Idiots... You. Petra, right? Come here."

Petra: "H-Huh? Me? But I don't want to..."

Kakine: "...I said come here."

Petra: "Eep!"

After hearing his voice sound a bit more demanding, Petra feared the consequence of disobeying. With this in mind, Petra did what he instructed and got closer with slight hesitation.

By doings so, Kakine uncrossed his arms and looks at her with his dark eyes. Petra on the other hand was unable to conceal her intimidation by them.

However, something happened that Petra wasn't expecting.

Kakine: "...Your favourite animal."

Petra: "Eh?"

Kakine: "What is it."

The stranger asked her a question and looked annoyed at the lack of an answer. Petra caught onto this and thought about his question for a few seconds and replied.

Petra: "R-Rabbit..."

Kakine: "Open your hands."

Petra continued to have a bewildered expression as she followed his instruction. Once she did, Kakine shifted his attention to her open hands and hovered his own palm above them. Shortly after, Kakine started using his esper power to create a Dark Matter construct.

It took the shape of a white rabbit and has the exact same coloration as the esper.

Despite being created by a white substance that operates under Kakine's own set of laws, Kakine made sure he created the Leporidae fauna down to its minute details.

To its long ears, its cute fluffy fur and its behavior.

The orange-haired girl saw all of this with wide eyes.

Petra: "W—Wow! Amazing! It's a rabbit! It really is!"

From her perspective, she saw the stranger's hand sparkle and emit a white glow and then shortly after, a cute white rabbit appeared in her hands.

Petra made a (≧◡≦) face and proceeded to cutely rub the side of her face against the rabbit to feel its soft fluffy fur.

The other kids, the villagers and even the village elders looked at the scene with awe in their eyes.

━━*Chatter Chatter*

Villager(1): "Woah! Did you see that? He made that rabbit out of nowhere!"

Villager(2): "Is he a magician??"

Villager(3): "He must be! He came from that mansion!"

Villager(4): "I've never seen magic do that before... Maybe it's a spirit?"

Suddenly, the villagers who were surrounding the area began to become lively again as Kakine's actions caused the silence and murmurs to cease.

Brown-haired girl: "I want one!"

Chubby boy: "Me too!"

Kakine: "Hah?"

♪ Re:ZERO ost : Memories of Time and Sky ♪

Some time passed and Rem was able to purchase what she needed. She is carrying two big brown paper bags.

When she noticed that Kakine isn't present, she began looking around for him.

Rem: "Kakine?... Hm?"

Meanwhile, not too far away from Rem's location, a small number of the villagers are crowded around to watch a mini event going on.

━━*Chatter Chatter*

Rem spotted this from the corner of her visible eye and treaded towards that location as she had a feeling it had something to do with her guest.

Once there, Rem sees the children playing with a multitude of different white animals.

She sees white rabbits, white squirrels, a white fox, a white cat, white butterflies, a white dragonfly and a white rhinoceros beetle.

They each emitted a very faint white glitter. Giving off an otherworldly yet festive feeling.

Despite the display, she still wanted to know where her guest was.

After scanning her surroundings one more time, Rem spotted the person she was looking for.

♪ Re:Zero ost : Longing for Sunbeams ♪

From a distance, she sees Kakine leaning against a tree with his arms crossed.

Kakine: ". . ."

Kakine is thinking to himself as he's observing the happy children.

In a way, the esper is a little envious of them.

He doesn't remember the last time he was even close to being that happy in his youth.

With no family or friends, along with being brought up within the dark side of Academy City, Kakine's eyes were already open to how cold the world was at an adolescent age.

Unlike him, and many others in his old world, these kids experienced no atrocities, and seeing them play and looking so carefree gave the esper a sense of longing.