In a certain sense, throughout the entire second season of Re:Zero, Natsuki Subaru was little more than a cog in the machine.
His role in the story was to serve the other characters.
After all, in a season with more than twenty episodes, Ram received one or two episodes of memories. Roswaal got three or four. Emilia, as the female lead, also had three or four episodes devoted to her past. Beatrice had one or two. Even Garfiel received a full episode of flashbacks. Otto, who often felt like someone merely passing through the story, was given nearly an entire episode built around his own life.
And within Emilia's memories, even Petelgeuse, who had died back in the first season, had his past from a hundred years earlier carefully portrayed, back when he was still a pure-hearted young man.
All those scenes gave the supporting characters flesh, blood, and soul.
The problem was that, throughout most of the season, the protagonist himself seemed painfully passive. Dragged along. Almost ornamental. He spent the entire arc being crushed, broken, and abused.
But starting from episode twenty-two, Subaru finally erupted.
He began solving one threat after another in the Sanctuary, and then, taking Garfiel with him, charged back toward the mansion.
Defeating Elsa, the Bowel Hunter, was only part of it.
Now, at last, he had arrived before Beatrice, the girl who had waited inside that mansion for four hundred years.
Flames roared around them.
Beatrice, who had only wanted to wait for "that person" to arrive so she could ask him to kill her, looked at Subaru - who insisted on saving her - with nothing but anger.
Anger.
Frustration.
Despair.
Subaru only needed to lie.
All he had to do was admit that he was "that person." All he had to do was deceive her.
If he did that, Beatrice would be willing to believe him.
The four hundred years of loneliness she had endured in that room would finally be rewarded.
And yet the protagonist refused to do it.
Firmly.
Unshakably.
He even said it clearly to Beatrice.
"I am not the person you've been waiting for."
Without realizing it, Shinji Morisawa had stopped breathing.
During the Sanctuary arc, Subaru had already come to this room five times.
Not once had he been able to make Beatrice willingly step out of it.
Not once had he managed to give her hope for the future.
In the end, all of it was Echidna's fault.
The Witch of Greed.
Shinji truly hated that white-haired witch with her rotten personality.
She toyed with people's hearts. With a single sentence, spoken almost like a cruel joke, she had bound Beatrice for four hundred years.
What "person" was supposed to come someday?
There was no such person.
Echidna had only been curious. She wanted to see when Beatrice, the daughter she had created to live without dying, would finally be driven into despair by that careless little joke and choose to abandon her own life.
That was the only reason she had said those words.
And Subaru, knowing exactly how twisted Echidna was, also knew that if he claimed to be "that person," he could temporarily deceive Beatrice and accomplish his goal.
"But that would only treat the symptom, not the wound," Shinji murmured with a sigh. "If the words aren't sincere, how long could they really free Beatrice's heart?"
At the same time that he marveled at how deeply Sora had shaped this character, Shinji also felt a faint resentment toward him.
In the end, it was all the writer's fault for being so damn cruel.
What he did not know was that, during this very moment, a new thread of emotional value quietly formed and flowed into Sora's lottery system, thousands of kilometers away.
"Even now, I still can't forget the promise I made to Mother four hundred years ago. To wait for the arrival of that person."
Beatrice sat in her chair, tears soaking her cheeks.
She could no longer keep waiting.
For four hundred years, she had remained locked inside the Forbidden Library, too afraid to leave. The book of prophecy her mother had given her had not offered a new instruction in centuries.
The promise made four hundred years ago had become the cage that imprisoned her.
After waiting for so long, she had finally met Subaru, a human capable of accurately finding the door to the Forbidden Library.
And yet he told her that he was not "that person."
"I… I am not your 'that person.' No matter how many times you ask, that will not change."
But Subaru looked straight at Beatrice.
"I want to stay with you, Beatrice."
Beatrice wavered.
She flipped through the book of prophecy in her hands.
There was nothing written on its pages.
No words.
No guidance.
No answer.
Should she accept Subaru's kindness, his desperate desire to save her?
Or should she remain in the Forbidden Library, wait for the flames to consume the entire mansion, and end her life there?
Shinji stared at the screen without blinking.
Come on, protagonist.
Use that invincible power of persuasion already.
Untie the knot in her heart.
Beatrice looked at the empty book, tears gathering in her eyes.
But with a wave of her hand, she still used teleportation magic to send Subaru away.
Wanting to die there was her selfishness.
Refusing to drag Subaru down with her was her kindness.
Even if Subaru was not "that person," she could not bear to watch him die because he had tried to save her.
And the instant Subaru was teleported out, he threw himself back into the burning mansion without the slightest hesitation.
"Subaru Natsuki, you absolute man among men. A model for the rest of us."
Shinji clenched his fists, cheering inside his heart.
Yes, this protagonist was weak.
But everything he did struck Shinji right in the chest.
Once again, Subaru reached the door.
Once again, he opened the entrance to the Forbidden Library.
The flames were so fierce that even the tips of Subaru's hair were scorched yellow. When he grabbed the doorknob, the heat seared his palm until white steam rose from his skin.
Even so, Subaru stood there again.
In front of Beatrice, who sat near the door, clutching that blank book to her chest.
"You really are an idiot," Beatrice said, her voice empty of emotion.
"Beatrice can no longer fulfill the promise she made with Mother."
"Then, if that's the case, listen to what I have to say at the very end."
Subaru looked at her.
"Beatrice. Choose me."
From this moment onward, the monologue Subaru Natsuki delivered would be etched into the memories of countless Re:Zero fans across Japan. Some would remember it so deeply they could recite it word for word.
Shinji's pupils contracted.
"I won't say that I can take you out of your loneliness. I won't say that I can help you, either. Words like that would just be an act. You're strong. You're cute. You don't need someone like me to help you."
Subaru's voice was calm.
Shinji burst out laughing.
This protagonist really was too direct.
How could someone say something so useless with such a cool expression?
"But even someone as strong as you is afraid of being alone."
"What do you know about me? You just rejected my kindness on your own."
"I know."
A smile appeared on Subaru's face.
On the screen, scenes from the first season and second season began to appear one after another.
In different world lines, Beatrice and Subaru had met, interacted, helped each other. Beatrice had protected him. Saved him. Reached out to him again and again.
To the Beatrice of this moment, Subaru was only a strange, arrogant, presumptuous boy with an inexplicable obsession toward her, someone who insisted on saving her.
But to Subaru…
Beatrice was the gentle girl who had saved him several times in other world lines.
The girl who had helped him again and again when he was drowning in despair.
She should not spend her life bound to an empty room by one of Echidna's cruel, meaningless jokes.
She should not kill herself in loneliness.
In an instant, tears surged into Shinji's eyes.
"You're someone who takes the hand of a person in trouble and gives them peace. I don't have strength. The only thing I can do is beg you."
Subaru reached out his hand to her.
"Beatrice. Choose me."
Subaru knew he was not "that person."
He was not the one Echidna had casually invented, the one she had used to deceive Beatrice into making that promise.
But Beatrice could choose for herself.
She could decide who would become the one and only person in her life.
The person who could illuminate her darkness.
The person who could drive away the loneliness in her heart.
The person she herself acknowledged as "that person."
When Subaru said, "Choose me," Shinji instantly understood what he meant.
He wanted Beatrice to make her own choice.
He wanted her to break Echidna's chains with her own hands.
To break free from the book.
To find, for herself, the person she recognized as special.
That was what a protagonist should do in this moment.
Using private knowledge obtained from previous loops to pretend to be "that person" would be nothing more than deceiving an innocent girl's heart.
Making her choose him of her own will was the only way to shatter the cage inside her.
"Subaru, you're too damn cool. You're my god."
Shinji's eyes were wet, and his face carried the emotional, almost doting smile of someone watching a child grow into greatness.
"You said you weren't 'that person.' You clearly rejected me. For four hundred years, Beatrice has always been alone. Even if I take your hand now, you're human. Your life passes in the blink of an eye. You'll die soon enough. Beatrice cannot depend on a mere human like you."
Beatrice's eyes were already blurred with tears.
"But I can take your hand tomorrow."
This man named Subaru Natsuki was unleashing a persuasion technique even stronger than Naruto's talk-no-jutsu.
For the past four hundred years, he had not even been born. He had not yet crossed into this world. He could not have stayed beside Beatrice.
And in the future, as a human with a short life, he would not be able to accompany her forever.
But…
"Right now, he can stay beside you, Beatrice."
Without realizing it, Shinji murmured those words aloud.
"Even if I can't stay with you for four hundred years, I can walk with you through my life."
Subaru's voice was sincere.
His hand, reddened by the heat of the flames, remained extended in front of Beatrice.
This exchange between Subaru and Beatrice, every question and every answer, made countless Re:Zero fans cry that night.
"I can't be with you forever. But I can be with you today. Tomorrow. And after that. So, Beatrice… choose me."
"You are not 'that person.'"
"No. I'm Subaru Natsuki."
"You will die someday. When that happens, I…"
"Forever doesn't exist. The future you fear will come one day. Even so, choose me. Keep walking with me. Driving away the loneliness of the four hundred years you spent here will be easy. To someone immortal like you, the time we spend together may only be a fleeting instant. Then carve that instant into your soul. This man named Subaru Natsuki will never fade, not even in the face of eternity."
Subaru looked straight at her.
"Choose me, Beatrice. You always sat near the door because you wanted someone to take you out of here, didn't you?"
Shinji did not know whether Subaru's final shout had shaken Beatrice.
But at the very least, as an anime fan, he had already lost the battle against his own tears.
This was the charm of animation.
The kind of emotion only anime could deliver.
Even after spending an entire week being excluded by coworkers and mocked by his boss, all it took was watching a story like this on a Friday night for the misery of the week to begin healing.
In that regard, anime possessed a power few other mediums could match.
It was something that could only be understood by those who felt it.
Subaru Natsuki was unbelievably cool.
At that moment, right as Subaru shouted those words, Beatrice let go of the book she valued more than her own life.
Her body left the chair.
In front of her was Subaru's outstretched hand.
Leaving the cage of the Forbidden Library was easy.
But how could one leave the cage inside one's own heart?
And yet, at this moment, someone had reached out to her.
For the first time in four hundred years.
Roswaal's mansion collapsed with a thunderous roar amid the flames.
A gentle, beautiful melody began to play in the episode, another divine insert song that seemed to pierce straight through the chest.
Among the burning ruins of Roswaal's mansion, a pink light rose like a star.
It floated into the sky, turned into a meteor, and flew toward the Sanctuary, which was being overrun by the Great Rabbits.
Subaru needed Beatrice's power to defeat the Great Rabbits and save Emilia, as well as everyone in the Sanctuary.
And on the fifth loop, he did it.
He broke the cage inside Beatrice's heart.
And formed a contract with her to stay together.
Shinji's heart pounded hard.
Thump.
Thump.
"Subaru."
Inside the pink meteor streaking across the sky, Beatrice's voice rang out, filled with dependence and trust.
"Yes. That's right," Subaru answered, confident and gentle.
"Subaru."
"Subaru."
All the feelings Beatrice had suppressed for four hundred years seemed to pour into the sound of her calling his name.
"That's right. That's my name," Subaru continued.
"Subaru, Subaru, Subaru…"
The final image of episode twenty-four lingered on the night sky, where the meteor crossed the darkness, accompanied by Beatrice's voice actress calling his name with emotion so raw it could not be faked.
As the star descended from the sky, before Emilia, who had nearly been defeated by the Great Rabbits in the Sanctuary, a black-haired boy and his contracted spirit appeared once more.
Like heroes falling from the heavens.
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