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Crackle-!

A thunderous sound like a strike of lightning resounded in the area as space itself was violently split and ripped apart, opening up a crack―a rift appeared in the middle of the air, widening with each passing moment as the crackles and crunches of the universe\'s fabric being torn echoed.

It appeared as if a demon of another dimension had grabbed ahold of the very space that connected our worlds and tore it in an attempt to invade.

No, that\'s almost exactly what it was.

Space... A Concept of his level threatens more danger than any devil, after all.

As the rift in the air had opened up to a size of roughly two metres in height, something―someone―began to emerge from the black, void-like nothingness beyond.

The man who appeared was a carbon copy―he looked exactly like Tarou Fushigimi, bar the white clothes he wore that resembled the pristine uniform of the Wardens, and the grave expression on his face.

I knew without having to ask that this man was Saburou.

I wasn\'t expecting it to be this soon... I need to buy time.

"...What is going on here?"

Stepping down from whence he came, Saburou glanced once at each of the three of us and asked with a displeased look, the rift slowly imploding, collapsing in on itself and closing behind him.

He then saw the aggression Tarou bore towards his sister, causing his brows to crease even further.

"Atsuko?"

He looked very obviously unhappy.

It was understandable, though he must be confused; suddenly receiving a message from his sister saying \'come. urgent.\', he made his way here as soon as possible, but upon his arrival, he found the long-lost identical twin brother whom he had never met before as well as the infamous Truth he\'d heard a whole lot about from the Playground\'s professors.

"Hey. Let her go."

Saburou called out to Tarou, who was still holding onto Atsuko\'s shoulders.

"...You... You\'re..."

Realising the newcomer\'s identity, Tarou\'s mind froze. His sister didn\'t respond to any of his questions or accusations, but she didn\'t even need to in the end.

The proof was right in front of him.

The missing clues were filled in and the dots were connected.

Everything I, Oscar Itou, claimed was true―this is what he will believe; that he was betrayed.

"This..."

Taking a step back, he faltered away from his sister, beginning to look at her as if she was a stranger.

"This is..."

At a loss for words, he found it difficult to find anything to say, so he simply shook his head in repudiation of the situation as he backed away from Atsuko―from the both of them.

Tied by blood, they were undeniably his family, but could he truly see them as such? He neared closer and closer to me with such thoughts floating about his mind.

Well, that certainly saves me the effort of going over there, doesn\'t it? If I were to be the one to make a move, that Space bastard would have just commanded me to not move and subdued me without a chance to resist.

However, if he were to come to me...

The corners of my lips rose ever-so-slightly at the convenience.

When he finally ended up beside me, Tarou let out a small breath; a sigh of either relief or exasperation. Was it because he felt safer standing next to me than next to them?

I was flattered, but that was a mistake.

Noticing that Saburou\'s eyes kept stealing glances at me repeatedly, I realised that he wanted to take action in case I tried something.

―Well, too late.

Grab-!

"Heuk...! H-hey, Itou!? What are you--!?"

"Shut it. Nobody move."

Wrapping my left arm around Tarou\'s neck from behind before he could react, I maintained my chokehold grip on the guy to prevent his escape. My right hand, still containing the Ruger mkIV-s, pointed at his head.

My eyes stopped briefly on Saburou, warning him in particular.

"Especially you, Space. If you take so much as a step, I\'ll pull the trigger and blast your brother\'s brains out right here."

No matter how little contact Saburou may have had with Tarou throughout their lives, he was still the guy\'s brother at the end of the day, and he cared about him to an extent. Of course, even if they weren\'t related, he would still be reluctant to make any reckless moves in this situation wherein a human life was at stake.

He wanted to struggle at first, but Tarou\'s mind, overly conscious of the gun in my hand, rendered him unable to take such action even if he wanted to.

With his life in jeopardy, there was no way he would want to take a risk that may just exacerbate the situation.

"...!"

Saburou gritted his teeth in silence, the expression on his face becoming so twistedly frustrated that he seemed able to transform into an asura at any moment.

Don\'t know what to do, huh?

Hah. Such weakness has always been the main thing holding the Wardens back―that is, the compassion that binds them. If they took a lesson from Professor Lynton and from the Order he founded, the Wardens\' levels of progress and efficiency could soar far above what was previously possible.

Although... I suppose that greedy ambition of his is exactly what caused his undesirable situation.

Additionally, if they did that, they would seek to lose far more than they would gain, so altogether it isn\'t really feasible in reality.

Hm...?

Suddenly, I noticed a slight distortion in the space my right hand was occupying. Immediately jolting my arm away, I had barely avoided the air that was now ferociously rending and wrenching.

"...Oi, Space."

If I hadn\'t moved at that exact moment, my hand would have become mangled and bloody.

"―What do you think you\'re doing, huh?"

Pressing the barrel of the gun into Tarou\'s lower back, hiding it from Saburou\'s vision, I asked him.

"..."

That didn\'t seem to stop him, however, as within an instant five such vortexes appeared in various spaces on top of me―twisting my body just enough to dodge being mutilated and gnarled by the attacks, I moved at an intermittent pace around the fairly open area so as to maximise my chances of not being hit, Tarou still firmly in my grasp.

"You sure you want to do this, Space? You might end up hitting an unintended target, you know?"

I didn\'t need to specify or name Tarou in particular for him to know I was talking about his twin brother.

Tarou, who remained clenching his mouth shut in an effort to not accidentally say something to make either me or Saburou kill him, looked at the both of us in fear.

It was a fight between two Concepts, but it wasn\'t a fair one by any means.

Even calling it a "fight" was a stretch.

If I were to rank our Measurements based purely on raw combat power, then out of the nine of us, I was easily dead last―what the Playground\'s professors would classify as \'F-rank\'.

Saburou, on the other hand, is classified as \'A-rank\'. A tied third-place out of nine.

With only three living Concepts on a level equal to or above him, there was almost no one on the planet who would be able to stop him should he desire to go on a rampage.

A vs F.

In a fight between the two of us, there should be no competition whatsoever.

Fortunately, however, there was a slight silver lining in the current situation―I had Tarou Fushigimi who I could use as a hostage, effectively limiting the power Saburou could exhibit against me at this time.

Furthermore, \'space\' is inherently something immensely difficult and meticulous to control. To warp it to his liking, he would have a hard time controlling the precision and accuracy of his power even under ordinary circumstances.

Capturing me, who was constantly moving around in an unpredictable pattern, without killing me and without causing harm to the hostage or the surrounding area?

In a situation like this, where he has to try and do all of that simultaneously, the pressure he is experiencing was maximised, and thus there was simply no way he would be able to win using brute force and the sheer might of his power.

Even a sliver of his full power would be tricky to use accurately under such conditions, which is the main reason he hasn\'t been able to land a hit on me yet. Naturally, I\'m not making it easy for him either.

"...If that\'s what it takes to reign you in once and for all, then I will do what I must."

―And yet, he continued, seemingly unperturbed by the possibility of harming Tarou in the process.

Hearing Saburou\'s words, Tarou\'s eyes widened.

Although this was their first-ever interaction―and it was an awkward one, to say the least―he had an inkling of hope that his twin brother would have at least so much affection for him that he wouldn\'t want Tarou to get hurt.

But, because Saburou appeared to hold no aversion to Tarou\'s potential loss of life, combined with the claim that he would do whatever it takes if it results in my capture, merged together to cause a certain, dark feeling to sprout within Tarou\'s heart.

Put frankly, it made him feel like shit.

"Hey, Tarou, as I said before, I\'m not actually going to shoot you, okay? So, can you help me stall this guy for a bit?"

I whispered into his ear so that Space couldn\'t notice what was being said, occasionally jerking my body to move out of the way of the small but menacing ripples in space that threatened to rend my limbs from my body all the while.

"...?"

Tarou\'s wet and lachrymose eyes only looked at me in fear, hints of emotions like puzzlement and anger shining through.

I gave him a little more convincing.

"The gun\'s just an empty threat to stop him from killing me, alright? This guy is the real crazy bastard here, so I need you to help me gather some time. I have a lot of knowledge, connections and money; if you help me, I\'ll give you anything you want after this is over."

I didn\'t wait for a response.

I didn\'t need one.

I just needed to plant the idea in his mind that \'I am not the enemy\'.

"Uh...!?"

He let out such an exclamation as I abruptly shoved him away from me―in the next instant, an abnormally large vortex of twisting space suddenly materialised and swirled rapidly between us.

The attack barely grazed the back of Tarou\'s clothes, ripping his jacket and even the shirt underneath clean off his torso as they disappeared into the nothingness of the ethereal whirlpool.

"...!!"

Wondering if that might have convinced him, I shouted to him from the other side of the intense vortex.

"See?! He doesn\'t care if you die along the way, so stand up for yourself! Help me and we\'ll take him down together, got it!?"

I watched the metamorphosis that occurred inside him with great satisfaction.

With a hardened expression at this call far too close for comfort, the confusion on his face transformed into conviction; the wretchedness into determination and the accumulated frustrated animosity solidified into a core of pure resolution within him.

"...Got it."

Oh...? Ha... Hahaha!

I watched his quiet mutter and laughed.

At first, I thought this guy would just be a nuisance. His usefulness increased when I took him hostage, but I never expected him to become this helpful all of a sudden!

"--!? Tarou, what the hell are you doing?!"

Atsuko screaming at him from far away, Tarou charged straight at Saburou seemingly without a care in the world about his personal safety nor minding the severe winds clashing against his bare upper body.

From their perspective as people who saw me as a dangerous person they needed to subdue as soon as possible for the safety of the world, Tarou\'s figure―rushing directly into them to stop them from achieving that goal―must have appeared utterly insane.

They would have thought he lost his mind due to all the confusion and adrenaline. Such assumptions are not entirely inaccurate, however, I would like a little credit too.

The twisting space, barely-visible vortex attacks and scary ripples of ruination in the air all around me were suddenly halted as Saburou clicked his tongue in irritation.

"You...! Ugh, get out of the way!"

He couldn\'t maintain enough concentration to launch small and precise attacks at me once Tarou began running at him, and it didn\'t take long before the two were in close-quarters range.

"Get off! You don\'t understand what consequences these actions may have for the world!"

Saburou hurriedly backed off while flailing his arms in the air to block Tarou\'s incessant incoming strikes, his gritted teeth forming an evidently disgruntled look.

Good job, Berserker!

In the next moment, however, the smirk that was slowly rising was wiped completely off my face.

"I said―"

Crackle-!

With a frightening sound even louder than thunder that rumbled the earth, the surroundings shook violently, as if a magnitude 5 or 6 earthquake had occurred.

No... That\'s not it.

It wasn\'t the earth.

...It was the space itself that was shaking.

"―Get off...!"

Bringing down his arm from the sky in one motion, the space aligned with it ruptured instantly.