My Measurement: The Villain Desires a Satisfying Payback

Ignoring her face of apparent fearful disgust, I signalled Sophie to come over.

"Eesh..."

Awkwardly stepping around Atsuko's legs on the floor, she glanced at me with a look of concern. I knew what she wanted to ask, but my answer is as I've said many times before.

"Why are you worried? It's not like he's going to find out until tomorrow. I told you, Saburou only comes home on the weekends to visit. We also confirmed the effectiveness of the cell, yet what makes you hesitant?"

Seemingly reluctant, she took off and unzipped the backpack she wore and took out a large, folded black bag as she mumbled, "It's not about that... I'm just thinking, like... Ha, no, nevermind. Sorry. Let's just get it over with. Please."

Pausing momentarily, I cast her a cold glance before snatching the body bag from her hands.

"Sophie."

...No thoughts to betray me or disregard orders. Let's hope it stays that way. Still, for issues like this, it's better to nip it in the bud while I can.

"What?"

Unfolding the body bag and beginning to put Atsuko inside of it, I spoke to her calmly.

"Do you remember the reason we have a relationship?"

"Wh-what?"

It was for a simple reason.

So simple that even I could recall her exact words at the time.

"You wanted to avenge your mother."

You wanted to kill Saburou, or Space; the one who mutilated your only loving family.

"..."

"Don't tell me you forgot?"

And although you didn't mention it at the time, you held a deep resentment towards your father, who was the one to both allow contact between Space and your mother as well as forcibly bestow upon you a power derived from that same murderer.

"...Of course not. How the hell could I? Forgetting something like that... It's impossible."

You wanted revenge.

"Then why are you acting like this?"

To that end, you came to me.

"..."

"Do you understand?"

There is a bigger meaning behind doing this than to simply gain an advantage over Saburou.

"This is not just for me, but to fulfil the contractual obligation I made with you."

Surely you realise that truth, right?

"So, don't go pussyfooting around when I'm doing exactly as you asked me to."

We've been acting together for a while now.

"You're a smart girl. I shouldn't have to spell it out for you."

You know I don't act kindly to people who go back on their words.

"This is not a warning or a threat, but a reminder."

"..."

"Sophie Asanami."

I like you.

"Listen to me."

So I'll tell you this with full honesty.

"You are someone I would hope that I would not have to discard."

Zip-!

"So."

Having stuffed Atsuko's entire unconscious body into the body bag, I turned and gazed into Sophie's eyes.

"―Don't act in a way that'll make me inclined to do so."

Because that would be a waste.

"..."

A great waste indeed.

❖─────❖─────❖

An hour later, Atsuko finally woke up.

"―What... Do you want from me?"

Staring down at her with my arms crossed, I calmly listened to her tensed voice that contained within it a subtle trembling.

"When did I say I wanted something from you?"

"...Don't talk nonsense."

The clinking of the shackles that bound her wrists and ankles resounded in this small and dim room with no innate source of light.

"Nonsense? What do you mean? Fushigimi sister, why, what could I possibly want with the likes of you?"

"..."

"You, who lied, betrayed and abandoned your very own dearest triplet brother for nigh-on a decade? My, what a tr--"

"Shut up! You know damn well I had no choice...!"

Suddenly lashing out at me, I watched as the chains linking her arms and feet to the sturdy wall of this underground cell restrained her movement just as she tried to jump at me.

Disregarding her argument, which was obviously fuelled by false logic, I didn't bother reprimanding her for interrupting me.

"...Is it uncomfortable?"

"If I say yes, will you remove them?"

"Of course not. After all, if it makes you uncomfortable, it's miles more effective in riling him up."

She muttered at my words, "'Him'...?" And then, her eyes widened.

"N-no, you...!"

The edges of my lips curled up.

"Do you finally understand?"

Her eyes―staring at me with an amalgamation of violent emotions swirling within―quickly narrowed.

"...Son of a bi--"

"Saburou Fushigimi."

Calling the name of her brother... Or well, the one whose side she seemed to have taken, I continued as she froze her words in order to clearly hear mine.

"Do you perhaps think he will be able to save you here?"

My voice was the only noise to be heard.

In this place, utterly isolated from the rest of the world, one could hear the melody of their own heartbeat or even the crawling of the ants on the ground.

"Let me give you a piece of advice."

"..."

"You had better discard such notions while the hope is thin."

I was being genuine.

The confirmation given to me by the Measurement of Truth was that Space could not infiltrate this place no matter how hard he tried. In the first place, he was only able to penetrate places he had a solid mental image of inside his head.

That was why, aside from places he had already visited, he had to look at images or recordings of an area before he could warp there.

The anti-Space material this prison is constructed from is simply a precaution, as I have mentioned before.

Of course, I didn't explain any of this to Atsuko, and as the co-creator, Sophie was the only person aside from myself who knew of this material's existence.

In any case, where is he currently? It's about getting to the time where he returns home for the weekends, so has he realised what has happened yet?

「The individual known as Saburou Fushigimi, or Space, has just found himself coming back to an empty home; his thoughts are that no one being home is strange, but is justifying it in such a way that his parents are at work and his sister is in town」

Ah, perfect.

"Atsuko Fushigimi."

"..."

Perhaps mistaking her eyes for daggers, she glared at me without a reply.

"Your other dearest brother has returned home. Would you like to be the one to notify him of your vacation, or should I?"

"Motherfucker... Let me do it."

Then, let us give him a call.

Dududu~

Taking out a smartphone that wasn't my own, I tapped on the number with the contact name 'Saburou' next to it and let it ring.

Dududu~

Atsuko looked at me expectantly, but I didn't hand her the phone, however.

Dudud--ttk-!

[Hey, Atusko? Where are you right now?]

Since the phone was on speaker mode, both I and the girl in question could hear Saburou's voice.

Her eyes widened once more as she heard her brother's innocent tone as someone who was yet to have an idea of what was going on.

That was, until I spoke.

"Surprise~"

[...]

The other side of the phone ran cold.

"Say, what was that? 'Atsuko, where are you'? Huh. Now, why would you ask something like that, I wonder... Oh. Perhaps, is she not at home?"

Klink-clang-!

"Hey, you said you'd let me answer it, bastard...!"

Worrying if Atsuko's wild thrashing and yelling might detract from the mood, I covered the phone's microphone before replying to her.

"I don't recall saying something like that, though?"

"What?! Yes, you did, you lying--!"

"Didn't I only ask if you wanted to answer it or not? I never mentioned anything like actually letting you do so, did I?"

"You...!"

Ignoring the rest of whatever she wanted, I removed my hand from the microphone and waited for the recipient of my call to respond.

[...Hey.]

Even from the other side of the phone, I could tell how frozen his atmosphere was. Did it take this long just to thaw out enough to say one word?

[Tell me if what I heard was correct.]

Glad that he was finally starting to talk, I asked him with an invisible smile.

"Oh, my. You sound so cold. What's wrong...?"

[Did I just hear her voice?]

"What...? Saburou, my friend, why on Earth would you have heard her voice from my phone? Ah..."

I put on an act that pretended not to know, but I think he saw through it quite quickly.

Of course, that might have something to do with the fact I called him through Atsuko's phone.

[...You fucking piece of shit.]

A harrowing voice, it was a curse that seemed to arise from the very depths of his heart.

"Haha. That's rude. What's wrong with you, huh? Wake up on the wrong side of the bed or something?"

[Tell me where she is right now, fucker.]

"Tell you... No way, did what I guess really happen?"

[I'm not fucking around! You bastard, tell me what you did to her!]

Since he appeared to have caught on well, I thought it was about time to end my shenanigans.

"Ahhh... Do you mean the abduction?"

Not giving him time to respond, I gave Saburou one final message―the main reason I decided to contact him here.

"I don't think I need to tell you what will happen if you try something funny, but just in case you're foolish enough to believe I might not do something before you're able to rescue her..."

Adding a momentary pause to my sentence, I dragged out the length of my last words to pile on as much tension as I could.

"Well. You really don't want to test the limits of my spitefulness, is all."

Leaving it at that, I ended the call.