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This guy, who clearly hadn\'t been taking care of himself since he ran away, looked like a  true bum; long and unkempt hair; uncut, filth-ridden fingernails, et cetera. Most of all, however...

I glanced at his left arm―or the space it used to occupy.

"The hospital couldn\'t fix you up?"

Saying that for no particular reason at all, I pushed him out of the way as I barged into the room.

It was a place just like the rest of the trashy building; decaying wood that made up all the furniture that could barely be called as such, probably infested floor that creaked with every step, and crumbling walls and ceiling within which the pitter-pattering traces of something like a family of rats could be heard.

He showed not a hint of resistance towards my actions, so there shouldn\'t have been a problem. It was a relief he still felt positive towards me after what happened last time, though maybe that\'s only because Saburou was trying to kill me; you know, \'the enemy of my enemy is my friend\' and all that.

Perhaps it was such a feeling that caused him to view me as similar to him, but I wouldn\'t bother correcting him that we were far different. It was only convenient for me if he thought we were more alike, after all.

Sophie followed me into the room, standing at one side with her arms folded. From her slightly disgruntled expression, her reluctance to be in this place was evident, but she patiently listened in silence anyway.

I took a seat on a plank of wood covered by a dirty rag―something Tarou would\'ve seen as his bed for the last couple of months.

"So."

I motioned for the door to be closed and Tarou quickly followed my command. I then continued.

"You\'re probably wondering why we\'ve come to meet you like this, huh?"

He, who also stayed standing, nodded.

"Right... It\'s quite sudden, I didn\'t expect it at all. How did you even know I was here? This place is--"

"Not supposed to be easy to find, right?"

Interrupting his words, he nodded his head again as my face manifested a smile.

"To put it simply, I\'m really good at figuring things out. How exactly I knew doesn\'t matter so much, does it? The only thing that matters is what comes next."

That\'s right.

Tarou came to take refuge in this place because it was supposed to be somewhere impossible to find for an ordinary person. It\'s the kind of place where, unless you were looking for it specifically, you wouldn\'t find it.

Well, even if you were looking for this specific hotel, one could easily mistake it for an abandoned building or something―rather, that\'s probably exactly what it was before someone took it over and turned it into a hotel.

"Anyway, I won\'t waste time unnecessarily. Tarou Fushigimi, I\'ve come to recruit you."

His eyebrows raised for a moment when he heard what I said, but his expression quickly turned dark.

"If you\'ve come all this way just to ask me in particular... I can only assume it has something to do with..."

I showed a smirk.

"That\'s right. It\'s your brother."

Immediately, a glint shone in his eyes. His hand clenched tightly; I didn\'t even need to read his thoughts to know what he was thinking.

A brief moment passed before he seemingly cooled himself down.

"...What do you want me to do?"

Just as I had expected, the resentment held within him towards his family has not diminished since last time.

Good.

Looking at him in the eyes, I decided not to reveal the full extent of what I had plotted.

"Oh, I just want you to pay a little visit to your sister, is all."

"Is that it?"

"That\'s right."

Really, that was all.

"I\'ll inform you what exactly to do later, but for now, come with us; you need a cleansing."

I would take care of the rest.

❖─────❖─────❖

After collecting Tarou from his hiding place, we brought him back to the mansion. I instructed Sophie to use her Spatial Ordinance to obscure him from any outside eyes on the way and we soon returned without issue.

I sent him along with a couple of maids to clean him up and refresh his appearance. Then, as if waiting for that free moment, Sophie approached me with a look of dubious tension on her face.

"Hey, are you sure about this? Like, is what we\'re doing really the best way to go about it? I\'m sure that guy\'ll make sure to do his job right, but what about his brother? If he-- No, when he finds out, won\'t we be in big trouble?"

"Everything\'ll be fine. Why are you worried?"

"You damn well know why I\'m worried. No, I ain\'t even that worried, y\'know? It\'s just a matter of concern. Like... What do we do if he goes on a rampage? Can\'t you see somethin\' like that as havin\' a pretty high chance of happening?"

As I gave nought but a brief moment of silence, Sophie stared at me whilst awaiting an answer.

The subtle anxiety present within her eyes was palpable, but I didn\'t think there was much reason for it.

"I don\'t think Space would act so rash as to do something like that."

If having a hostage held against him was enough to sway his emotions to the point of going on a rampage, then he was never worth the consideration of being my enemy from the very beginning.

It\'s also something that would get him heavily rebuked by the Wardens, potentially even costing him a significant portion of his freedom; from his perspective, even if the whole world were against him, wouldn\'t he at least want to retain that sliver of humanity?

"But."

However.

"Even if he did..."

Even if he went against all logic and rationality; if he decided to come for my life even in that scenario...

"He\'d only be digging the hole even deeper."

Both for himself and his sister.

❖─────❖─────❖

The plan would commence on Monday night.

It was purposefully planned to take place at such a time where no one would expect it, but also because it\'s convenient.

Although I say this, if things aren\'t as ready as I would have liked by that time, then I\'ll postpone it for a bit; there\'s no need to rush, after all.

In any case, as today is Saturday―and thus the weekend―I was spending most of my time split between three things:

First was resuming Selina\'s adaptation to using her Measurement of Life to heal, as that alone would be a great insurance to have for the upcoming battle.

It would be nice if she was useful in other ways, but it\'s fine as the bare minimum. Even if she was unwilling to harm anyone or take any other actions aside from that, healing is still very good for a contingency plan.

What\'s more important than anything else is that she will be able to act without hesitation during a situation where pressure and tension are through the roof. She\'s only a 14-year-old sheltered child, so I honestly don\'t expect too much, but the excruciatingly slow progress is rather disappointing.

Ordinarily, I would pluck some thug off the streets and use him to get her used to human suffering and whatnot, but in her case, I felt that it would only suffice as a substantial setback instead, so I reluctantly decided against it.

Secondly, I continued research on the essence of Liam Chiba-Wallace\'s Measurement, or in simpler terms his \'soul\'. This was necessary in order to develop the I.M.E. serum, or Induced Measurement Evolution serum, but just like with Selina, progress was relatively sluggish.

At the rate it\'s going currently, I\'m holding severe doubts that it would be ready in time for the conflict at Weinstell Park, but that\'s fine since I never intended it to be done by then anyway.

Finally, in preparation for Monday, I\'ve been working with Sophie to try and develop a certain kind of... What might you call it... Material? I suppose so.

Either way, the primary goal is to make an anti-space room―a place Saburou cannot enter using his Measurement.

The theory was that by taking Sophie\'s Supernatural Ability to control the space around her as the target and designing something that can nullify that power, then it should also be able to nullify the origin―Saburou\'s power, which Sophie\'s was initially derived from.

The Measurement of Truth also confirmed that it should work so long as we do it right, so there was no worry in that department.

Having Sophie and her Supernatural Ability right here to experiment and play around with is a great help when it comes to stuff like this, so this fortunately might be completed faster than I expected, especially in comparison to the other tasks.

When we\'re done with the room that I mean to function as a sort of prison, I was thinking of creating some restraints with the same nullification ability. If we make them out of metal then they should not only work against Saburou but anyone else who wouldn\'t be able to normally escape them.

I would have liked to make something like a drink or food that nullifies his power while it\'s inside his body, but something like that would be nigh impossible to develop. Not to mention that it needs to maintain enough stability that it actually functions properly after being eaten and digested, so the amount of effort simply wouldn\'t be worth it.

Either way, they\'re just possibilities.

On a side note, I will be planting a few \'gifts\' around Weinstell Park in preparation for the battle. Although, I probably won\'t be using them, so it\'s only to be cautious.

Even I think twice when deciding whether or not to terrorise something like the city park, after all. There shouldn\'t be any reason for me to do it anyway; like I said, it\'s just a precaution.

If I need to, I can threaten to blow up the place. They probably wouldn\'t care that much since it\'s just grass and trees, but I\'m sure some people would be upset by the idea.