Chapter 568: Real Itsuki
" How can I believe that you aren’t tricking me?" Itsuki asked Ryder, frowning. He still didn’t fully trust him, even though he felt like that story made sense.
" If you still don’t trust me, there’s nothing I can do. You don’t want to show your real self? Fine. I’ll just leave," Ryder told Itsuki as he turned to leave.
"Wait! Tell me more about it. I trust you," Itsuki said as all the other versions of him disappeared. Only one Itsuki was left there.
"How can I be sure that you’re the real Itsuki?" Ryder inquired.
"Didn’t you say that it was about trust? You trusted me and told me your story. It’s now my time to trust you and show you my real self. That’s the cycle of trust. If you want to break it at this moment, go ahead," Itsuki answered in the same tone as Ryder.
"Fine. I’ll believe you. Just let me touch you once. If you’re not an illusion, I’ll tell you everything," Ryder answered.
"Sure. I’m right before you. I’m standing right here. Touch me and satisfy yourself," Itsuki said as he spread his arms.
"You should be careful about your words. Your last line sounds so... Ah, whatever. Let me test."
Ryder started stepping towards Itsuki.
"Wait a minute. Don’t you think that Scythe is too much? Unless you’re coming to kill me, keep it back," Itsuki told Ryder, stopping him midway.
Ryder kept the Scythe back since he needed to show his sincerity. To kill Itsuki first, he needed to know the real one. If he couldn’t even know who he was, it was all going to be useless.
As Ryder reached Itsuki, he reached out his hand to touch Itsuki. The touch felt real, unlike the illusions. Also, Ryder was sure that he wasn’t in a dream. He had taken precautions to strengthen his mind to make sure Itsuki couldn’t control it to show him dreams. The best Itsuki could do was show Ryder the illusions.
Ryder made sure that it was actually Itsuki. Without waiting for even a second, he once again called forth the Moon Scythe. Now that he had the proximity, he wanted to utilize it.
It didn’t matter if he had Divine Protection. Even though he couldn’t be killed right away, he could still be injured with a weapon like Moon Scythe. And that initial moment was enough for Ryder to take other precautions to take Itsuki away.
As the Moon Scythe came swinging towards Itsuki, he couldn’t move. Everything happened so fast that before he knew it, the Scythe came swinging. It sliced Itsuki in half.
As Itsuki’s head was sliced, his body dropped to the ground, lifeless.
"This can’t be. It was too easy. He’s not Itsuki," Ryder muttered, frowning.
"He’s a real human, though. He’s not even an illusion? Could it be that Itsuki had a person go through plastic surgery to take care of things here?" He wondered.
As Ryder was curious, tens of Itsuki again appeared around him, out of thin air.
"Aww? You killed that innocent human. How cruel can you be, Ryder? After making up all those stories, this is what you had to do? You know, I’m disappointed. For a moment, I thought you were serious. In fact, if you hadn’t attacked him, I would have personally met you," All the Itsuki’s said at the same time.
"None of you are real. And the one I killed, isn’t you right. Where are you hiding? Are you not going to come before me? What happened to your bragging about killing me? Are you going to kill me with boredom?" Ryder asked, frowning.
"Nope. Instead, I know everything now. You came here because you found out that I knew about you. I think Aluren told you about it. But for you to come here because of that, one thing is obvious. You don’t want anyone knowing about your existence," Itsuki said again.
"This became more clear since even when you talked about leaving, thinking I won’t show up, you made up a story to make sure that I won’t tell others about you. So I’m going to do what you’re most scared about. I’m going to tell everyone. And then I’ll show you my real self, with everyone else. Don’t worry; the wait won’t be long," he continued as he started laughing.
Seeing tens of Itsuki’s laughing, Ryder felt like his head had started aching.
"You know what, Itsuki? You’re an idiot. Thank you for telling me that you would have shown yourself if I hadn’t attacked," Ryder retorted as a grin started forming on his face.
"I’ll see you later," Ryder said as he used his time reversal.
He didn’t go much back in time. He only went back by a few minutes to the moment when Itsuki had invited him to touch.
"Sure. I’m right before you. I’m standing right here. Touch me and satisfy yourself," Itsuki said as he spread his arms.
Ryder started stepping towards Itsuki, but he stopped.
This time, he didn’t let Itsuki tell him to keep the Scythe back.
"Oh right, I should keep the Scythe back now," Ryder said before Itsuki could even speak.
He soon reached Itsuki and touched him to make sure he was real.
"Alright. You’re real. I’ll trust you now," Ryder said as he took a sigh of relief, acting as if he didn’t know this one was fake too.
He started leaving.
"You’re going?" Itsuki asked Ryder, watching him leave. Ryder didn’t attack him even when he was defenseless. It seemed like he really didn’t want to kill him.
"I need to kill the ones who are going to destroy the future. I just came to tell you not to tell anyone about me. Now that I’m done, of course, I’ll leave," Ryder replied, glancing back.
"Oh, one thing before I leave. Let me prove that I’m actually the Son of the Lord of Time. As thanks for your trust," he further said as he kicked a flowerpot that was on the roof.
The flowerpot fell down, shattering to pieces.
After breaking the flowerpot, Ryder reversed the time of the pot. The broken flower pot started going back in time as its pieces went back to their original places.
Soon, the flowerpot was lying new like nothing had happened.
"Oh right, your shirt has gotten dull too. Let me help you with that," he further said as he pointed his finger towards Itsuki’s shirt.
His shirt that seemed to be a few months old, also started going back in time as it returned to the time when it was new. There was no dust around him. Even the button that had started to get loose was back to how it was when the shirt was new.
"Goodbye, Itsuki. Make sure you keep this secret if you don’t want the future to be destroyed," Ryder said for one last time as he stood at the edge of the building, looking like he was going to jump.
Standing behind Itsuki took a deep breath as he wondered what he needed to do. Ultimately he raised his hand as he tried to stop Ryder from leaving.
"Wait! Don’t leave! I want to show you something, and I also want to know more about that event which will happen in the future! Also, I want to show you the real me! Let me apologize and really trust you now!"
"What do you mean? What real self?" Ryder asked, frowning.
"Follow after me," Itsuki told Ryder. "You’ll know everything."
Ryder looked confused on the outside but on the inside; he was grinning. He had a better idea now. Instead of killing Itsuki, he was going to use him to kill the other god-sons.
Even Janus hadn’t imagined that it was how things were going to go when he sent Ryder to kill Itsuki.
But Ryder really believed that he had a chance to get Itsuki on his side.
’ I’ll kill the others with Itsuki. He knows much more. It’s going to be so much easier as I collect the bodies of other god-sons and absorb them. By the time Itsuki will know the truth, it will be too late. I’ll already be too strong for him,’ Ryder thought as he followed after Itsuki.
Standing in a faraway country, even Janus was amazed at what Ryder was planning.
"Even when he is asleep, his plan will always be one step ahead of me," Janus muttered as he laughed heartily.
Ryder followed after Itsuki, who brought him to the office where Ryder was previously sitting.
Only the female assistant could be sitting in the office.
"Greetings to the Son of the Lord of Time. I’m Itsuki," the woman told Ryder as she stood up.
"You’re Itsuki? Then this?" Ryder asked, glancing at the male Itsuki.
"That’s actually the person who pretends to be me so I can be safe in some unforeseen circumstances. You have no idea how worried I was when you stepped in this office suddenly this morning," the woman said, laughing.
"I thought I was caught, and you’ll kill me right here," she further said.
