My Measurement: The Villain Desires a Satisfying Payback

I held my right hand out above the sleeping Liam Chiba-Wallace.

Moving his body so that he lay on his back, I was careful not to shake him too hard. I knew there was no real risk of him actually waking up, but it wasn't impossible for too much of an impact to rouse him from his slumber, so I acted gently.

Closing my eyes, it was only a short moment, but already could I feel a subtle change in the atmosphere, with the boy in front of me as the central point.

With that quick confirmation that everything had been correctly set up, I recalled the next steps documented by the government researchers.

I took something out of my pocket resembling a modified stethoscope that came in two pieces. Fortunately, this meant it was small enough to fit in my pocket.

This tool, called a 'psychiscope' because of its unique function to look into the human soul―the psyche itself―was invented in theory even hundreds of years ago, but it was only until a few years ago that it was able to be brought from paper into reality.

Or at least, that's what the documents stated. Of course, they were all confidential government reports marked as classified, so I can't imagine the information to be false.

In any case, this psychiscope was a replica I created myself and there was no time to test it out, but it should work fine nevertheless.

Like a pair of opaque sunglasses, I unfolded the first part of the tool that covered one's eyes and ears and put it on. I took the other piece in my hand and put it firmly on Liam's chest, right on the solar plexus, and pushed the back like a button once it was stable.

The way the psychiscope worked, once explained, was rather simple.

Because humans cannot observe something like a Measurement, essence, or a human soul with the naked eye, this tool was developed in hopes of taking one step closer to the truth of why Measurements exist in the first place.

People already knew Measurements existed because, well, anyone could be born with one and you could see it with your own eyes even if you were blind, and researchers already knew that they existed semi-physically within the human body because they had conducted countless tests to determine as much.

Rather, they found something.

Electromagnetic waves.

There was something deep inside the human body, deeper within than even the heart which people had previously considered to be the home of the Measurement, and it was emitting short but powerful electromagnetic waves, full of energy.

These waves were slightly different for each individual, however, as they emitted with a unique pattern that no other person seemed to have, at a different frequency, and with a different pulse.

That thing, whatever it was, would disappear entirely upon death, along with the electromagnetic waves, and was not found present within any creature or lifeform aside from humanity.

Many bodies had been cut up, gouged out in the name of science, both dead and alive, but nothing new had come of it.

In the end, all they discovered was that it was not a physical organ within the body that was emitting these waves, but an invisible force.

Because it could not be observed in any way, the actual existence of what was eventually named the 'soul' was naturally full of scepticism, and as such, heavily disputed among researchers.

With the finalisation of the psychiscope, such debates have finally been put to rest.

What the psychiscope does is take in those electromagnetic waves and convert them into an image through the use of a tiny computer.

In other words, it was basically radio imaging.

Radio imaging of the soul itself.

If anything, it was more complicated than ordinary radio imaging since the psychiscope was not just taking in radio waves and converting those, but rather all kinds of electromagnetic waves and working with all of them simultaneously. Because each person's soul had differing wavelengths, frequencies, amplitude, and pretty much everything else, this process only became infinitely more complex.

That's why it was only able to be produced in recent years with the advancement of technology.

Thus, you complete the set-up as I've just done, and the essence of the Measurement will soon be shown to you through the visor of the scope.

And what I saw...

"..."

Was a medium-sized orange circle with intermittent spikes of varying sizes across its surface and a strange texture across the middle x-axis, about 6... No, 7 centimetres thick. Additionally, I could hear a continuous low-pitched buzzing noise with the odd distorted whistle.

It may seem like nonsense at first glance, but the reality was that every aspect of what I was currently seeing and hearing had an important meaning behind it.

"0.6 overall standard deviation in the minor, wavelength 1.3 to a pulse frequency rate of 0.2... Lesser resistance, that's good..."

Mumbling the results to myself, I jot down everything with a pen and paper I pulled from my bag.

You see, each quality of the 'shape' I saw and the sounds I listened to could be converted into the exact characteristics of the soul we could not observe. Once I have all the information, I can match it to the corresponding meanings listed in the researcher's spreadsheet and ultimately, determine from that the conditions necessary to achieve evolution.

It's something that wouldn't make any sense to an outsider, and even to me is rather confusing, but thankfully I can understand enough to know what I need to do.

Once I had everything written down in my notepad, I put it and the psychiscope away and slung the bag over my shoulder after zipping it close.

I didn't bother pretending to be quiet as I exited the room and just went downstairs after closing the door normally. Entering the living room, the sleeping figure of Ella with her head and arms on the coffee table as she sat on the floor entered my sight.

On the table were two full cups of tea; taking them, I poured the contents down the sink and left them on the side after rinsing them with water. Then, picking up Ella, I placed her on the long sofa and put a nearby blanket over her.

Leaving a short note on the side of the kitchen counter, I left the Chiba-Wallace household and headed home.

❖─────❖─────❖

The next day, school progressed pretty much as normal. As it was the first Friday back at school since the winter break, most students were tired and greatly awaiting the imminent weekend.

Having spent the entire day thinking about the developmental progress of the M.E. serum, which I had just started in earnest after returning from Ella and Liam's house yesterday, it seemed that such aloofness was apparent on my face as Sophie brought it up to me during the lunchtime break atop the school roof.

"Ya sure everything's fine? You've seemed... I dunno, distracted recently."

Sitting cross-legged on the floor, I cast a sideways glance at her, who was standing, and responded assuredly.

"Of course. Why wouldn't I be fine? It's not like anything's going to happen―if it did, I would know―and plus, even if something does happen, that's the whole reason I have you with me, isn't it?"

I caught her eyebrows jump for a brief moment before I turned away. Then, her soft voice entered my ears.

"...Is that right... Well... I guess so."

Saying that nothing was going to happen was an obvious lie, and Sophie knew it too. The latter part of my sentence, however, was more true than anything else and is in fact the main reason why I can be so calm about the whole situation.

If I didn't have Sophie, or at least someone like her, on and by my side at all times, then I'm not even confident that I would be able to go to school every day without fear of something happening.

Because, if she wasn't here, then anyone with a smidgen of strength would be able to take me out. So long as they didn't plan anything out in advance and just randomly decided to come at me, then there wouldn't be anything I could do about it.

So, her presence is a great relief for me, even if she doesn't actually need to do anything.

As I was thinking this, I was about to take another bite of the bagel in my hand when all of a sudden―

"Watch out-!"

"...!?"

―Sophie grabbed me by the scruff of the neck and powerfully yanked me backwards.

The sudden force made me drop my food on the ground. Sophie acted quickly and showed her back to me like a mother bear defending its cub, doing something strange with the space around us so that it appeared mildly distorted.

Understandably confused at what was happening, I was still trying to figure out what the situation was when I felt something sinister appear in front of us.

Rising to my feet, I looked ahead as an explosive crackling resounded, alongside the image of space itself splitting apart.

Immediately, I knew who was coming.

"―Truth."

Tsk, what the hell...

"We come offering a proposal."

This fucking guy again?