The space inside the display tent was dark and suffocatingly cramped. Four figures pressed tightly against one another, completely motionless, not even daring to breathe. Outside the thin fabric of the tent, the Nostra hunting squad's flashlights swept past repeatedly, casting cold, menacing streaks of light.
The situation grew deadlier by the second as the assassin's ability began to saturate the air. Kairi's ears started to ring—a high-pitched drone like summer cicadas, but infinitely more agonizing. The surrounding space felt distorted, shrinking inch by inch. The crushing psychological pressure made the oxygen inside the tent feel as though it had completely vanished, pushing Ginji and Yume's anxiety to the breaking point.
In the midst of this death trap, Kyouya sat silently in the corner of the tent. He slowly took off his glasses, calmly using the hem of his shirt to wipe the dried blood from his forehead. Yet, if one looked closely, his fingertips were trembling violently. He stared blankly into the empty void ahead. His ability was operating at a frantic pace; lines of neon-blue numbers danced continuously in his pupils until, finally, they froze at a brutally balanced outcome:
[Stay with Kairi's group: Survival rate 50%]
[Separate and leave a trail betraying the other three: Survival rate 50%]
Fifty and fifty. A grotesque equilibrium. For a man who lived by algorithms and always chose the highest probability like Kyouya, this balance was a fatal blow to his faith. Mathematics had been rendered useless.
In that moment of silent contemplation, staring deeply at those two numbers, Kyouya's mind automatically drifted back against the current of time, plunging straight into the Original Loop (The First Lifetime)—where the very first, deep scar in his soul had been forged.
Back then, he wasn't a Time Breaker. He was just Kyouya, a brilliant and promising design engineer: steadfast, fiercely loyal, and guided by strict moral principles. Under him was Tanaka, a subordinate and his closest friend. Tanaka was a pragmatic, highly ambitious man, but in front of Kyouya, he always played the part of the weak, grateful, and subservient protégé to win his favor.
Tragedy struck late one afternoon when an underground facility they were constructing suddenly collapsed due to a massive landslide. Kyouya and Tanaka were the sole survivors, completely trapped inside the central control room deep beneath the earth. The oxygen levels plummeted rapidly. The backup power system only had enough juice left to operate a single escape route: the hyperbaric rescue pod.
However, this rescue pod required an unforgiving dual-verification process:
The person inside the pod had to press the Start button.
The person outside the control room had to hold down the Pressure Release lever continuously for 3 full minutes to ensure the pod's safe ascent. If they let go midway, the pod would jam, and the person inside would instantly suffocate.
Only one person could go up first. The one left behind was practically condemned to death, as the remaining oxygen outside would only last for exactly 5 minutes.
Tanaka began to panic. He collapsed to his knees, clutching Kyouya's legs, his face a mess of tears and snot. He brought up past favors, weeping as he begged:
"Kyouya-san, please let me go first! I swear to you, the moment I reach the surface, I'll use the admin controls in the upper command room to trigger the secondary escape hatch and save you! I will never abandon you, Kyouya-san!"
At that moment, Kyouya faced two choices. He could selfishly force Tanaka to stay and hold the lever so he could escape, knowing full well the man's pragmatic, self-serving nature. Or he could wager everything on their brotherhood and the tears of his best friend. He reasoned: If I don't trust him and force him to stay, he'll find a way to let go so we both die. I might as well gamble on trust.
Kyouya chose Trust. He yielded the rescue pod to Tanaka.
He stood alone outside the control room, his hands gripping the pressure release lever with everything he had. Three long minutes dragged on like three centuries. The friction tore the skin from his palms, making them bleed, and his lungs burned from the lack of oxygen, but Kyouya still smiled. He thought he had just saved a brother. On the surveillance screen, the pressure pod successfully delivered Tanaka to the surface.
The surface connection signal flared to life. Through the camera feed, Kyouya watched Tanaka step out of the pod. But instead of running to find a rescue team or activating the secondary hatch... Tanaka slowly walked over to the control panel up there, staring directly into the camera lens with a gaze that was cold and entirely unfamiliar.
His voice crackled through the intercom, distorted by static but piercingly clear:
"Kyouya-san, you know what they say: if you're going to do a good deed, you should see it through to the end. Truth is, the site collapsed because I cut corners on the materials and embezzled the funds. If you make it up alive and this gets exposed, I'll definitely rot in prison. So consider this your final favor to me—just stay down there."
The intercom clicked off. Tanaka coldly severed the final reserve oxygen supply and completely disabled the communication link.
The oxygen system whirred down into silence, then died entirely. Kyouya stood frozen in the pitch-black darkness, his bloodied hands slowly slipping from the pressure lever. Tanaka's words, "see it through to the end," pierced straight into his chest, a throbbing, sickening agony far worse than the lack of oxygen tearing at his lungs.
He didn't scream. He didn't curse. The sheer cruelty of the betrayal left him dead inside. Kyouya's knees buckled, dropping him onto the freezing concrete floor. In the suffocating, deadly silence, a hoarse, hollow chuckle escaped his lips—a bitter laugh mocking his own foolish loyalty.
If I could do it all over again... I would never blindly trust anyone.
The exact second his heart stopped beating, a cold, mechanical voice echoed through the void: "Congratulations. You have been chosen to become a Time Breaker."
Arriving at the First Loop, he awakened with his memories and his new ability. The very first thing he did was use his probability numbers to gather evidence, reporting Tanaka to the police and personally sending the traitor to prison. He realized then that this world functioned solely on the logic of numbers, and trust was the most idiotic variable, capable of ruining any equation. He had survived up until now—even escaping the Nostra organization in the previous loop—entirely by always choosing the highest number.
Back in the reality of the dark tent. Faced with the freakishly balanced 50% odds, the psychological scar from his original lifetime forced Kyouya to make a decision. He would not entrust his life to the "variable" known as Kairi's group. He only trusted himself.
Click.
A soft sound echoed. Kyouya quietly pulled a glowstick from his pocket. Before Kairi, Yume, or Ginji could react, Kyouya coldly ripped open the tent's zipper, leaving all three of them stunned.
He snapped the glowstick with force. The neon-green chemical light instantly flared, illuminating Kyouya's emotionless face. He violently hurled the glowing stick just outside the tent door to leave a pinpoint beacon for Nostra. Then, without a second of hesitation, Kyouya used his momentum to dash straight out the store's back exit, fleeing alone into the dark.