My Measurement: The Villain Desires a Satisfying Payback

As the twins slowly approached Kiryuuin, something in his eyes shook.

"...!"

Two identical girls: flowing white hair; crimson, ruby-like eyes and faces without the slightest hint of an expression.

Although the last time he had come face-to-face with them was in both a vastly different time and scenario, they were unmistakable.

"You two; you're... Sana and... Sona, too...?"

They seemed much younger and substantially different than the last time he had seen them, perhaps because this was in the distant past, and even further back than when he had originally first seen them, but it was undoubtedly them.

'These girls... The catalyst for everything...'

Hearing his words, they halted.

""...""

Still, they gave no response. He didn't exactly expect them to speak to him anyway, so it wasn't a surprise, but then, Sona opened her mouth a few moments later.

"...You know us?"

It was the first time they had seen this person in their life, so how did he know their names?

Kiryuuin gave a calm response to the rather naive question.

"I know quite a bit about all of you. Especially..." His eyes momentarily darted towards the one being shielded by Araceli at the back, but he quickly returned his gaze towards the twins, his eyes seeming to linger on Sona for a single moment longer as they passed by.

'...I swear. This time, I'll save you two.'

Even those impassive eyes of theirs seemed to contain some sort of innocent childishness; something that never existed in the future he came from.

"..."

Recalling the starkly vacant eyes he witnessed all too often in the previous timeline, Kiryuuin subconsciously gritted his teeth.

'How... How did things deviate so far? From this point, just what was it that caused such tragedy to befall them...?'

His words thus far have been completely worthless in having an effect on Cipher himself, so did he have no choice but to go for the people around him next?

Whatever the case...

"...I need to stop it."

""??""

―He had to do something before it was too late. Otherwise, that catastrophic future would just repeat itself once more.

'Is the reason Von wasn't able to see the future of this event because it's not something that occurred in the previous timeline? I don't think something like that should affect her ability, but either way, it's a prime opportunity to change the future.'

Because this wasn't an event that was ever supposed to happen, could he use it to forge a path towards a better future?

Even if it wasn't possible, that was Kiryuuin's hope; a thought that helped fuel his drive.

"Sana, Sona. I don't want to hurt you two. We don't have to fight. We shouldn't. Really."

He raised his hands as if to imply surrender. The twins looked at each other for a moment and spoke in turns after turning back towards him.

They shook their heads side-to-side.

"...We can't do that."

"Sorry..."

Is that what it meant? In other words, they had no choice but to fight.

"Why...?! I'm sure you understand! I only want to help all of you in any way that I can!"

Kiryuuin, beginning to feel lost at their inexplicable reason, exclaimed, but the girls shook their heads again in unison.

"...It's not like that."

"We can't defy Ciphy."

"If we say no."

"Or if we behave wrong."

""Then we might be alone.""

"Ciphy promised we wouldn't be, but we know Ciphy."

"Ciphy lies to everyone."

"Even to himself."

"If we disobey, he might think we are 'useless',"

"And Ciphy doesn't like 'useless'."

"He throws away a lot of 'useless'."

"We've seen Ciphy think about giving us an Absolute Contract if we disobey."

"But, if we sign an Absolute Contract, then Ciphy won't give us gifts anymore."

"He won't give us affection."

"He won't trust us."

"He won't need to do any of that, because he won't need our loyalty."

"...We don't want to be useless."

"...We don't want to lose affection."

"...We don't want to be thrown away."

"So..."

"That's why..."

""Even if you want to help, if Ciphy doesn't want it, then we don't want it too.""

Kiryuuin was rendered speechless by the twins' explanation.

"..."

'That... That's just...'

If there even were such a thing as a suitable way to describe it, then he certainly wasn't able to find the right words.

""...""

The twins had said their piece, and now the dialogue had finished. They didn't plan to wait for him to devise a way to continue the conversation and wanted to finish things up quickly to help the others.

As Sana stood back, Sona activated her Supernatural Self-Enhancement and leapt towards the dismayed Kiryuuin at extreme speeds, leaving a miniature crater in her wake.

Crash-!

"...!!"

Barely reacting in time to the little girl flying at him at a lethal speed, he rolled out of the way to avoid the collision. However, what came next was a punch without delay.

Crack-!!

Accompanied by the thundering crackle of a whip, a razor-sharp gust of air blasted through the spot Kiryuuin's head occupied just moments prior.

'What absurd strength even at such a young age...!?'

"Ngh, stop...!"

There was no verbal response to his cries, but instead, a low sweep targeting his knees.

Kiryuuin avoided the attack by jumping over the girl's swung leg; taking advantage of the opening, he used the bought time to widen the distance between them.

"Listen, Sona! Really, this isn't necessary! Even if you think it is, this isn't something you have to do!"

"..."

"It's okay...! You don't... You don't need to rely on Cipher for everything you couldn't have until now... I promise I'll do everything I can. I'll get you anything you want if you'd cooperate. It's for his and your own sake-- Woah!?"

Stumbling back as Sona suddenly shot forwards and extended her arm towards him, Kiryuuin ducked to evade the jab.

"...Annoying."

"?!"

He heard something preposterous.

'What...?'

Was Sona normally the type of girl to say such things? He didn't think so, but then again, he never did meet the twins this far back in the original timeline.

Her face remained expressionless, but wasn't there now a hint of something contained within those blank eyes?

In any case, he knew there was no time to stand still.

However, he also couldn't bring himself to harm these innocent girls; especially knowing what fate is supposed to await them later down the line, it simply wasn't something his conscience would allow.

Was all he could do really limited to waiting until they got tired?

The twins were only young, so their endurance was bound to be low; still, was it not pathetic for someone who strives to save the world?

'It doesn't matter... I have to do anything I can...!'

Pushing aside such worries for now, he activated the gift he had been granted after returning to the past.

"Measurement of Dimension"

His Measurement of Time had evolved into something entirely different, causing Kiryuuin to lose his previous capabilities of manipulating time.

And, although it had evolved, most of its features were still locked due to him being "too weak to handle", or as he took it, 'unworthy of utilising its true potential'.

Still.

There were a couple of small things he could do with this ability that could help him last in this scenario.

Crash-!

As Sona propelled herself once more towards Kiryuuin, she was certain not to miss this time.

However, he didn't even look like he planned to dodge; only holding his hand out in front of him as if telling her to stop.

Needless to say, Sona didn't stop. Continuing her charge, she pulled back her arm to ready an imminent punch.

She arrived just two metres before him within the blink of an eye; immediately, her arm launched forward.

But then.

~~!

Instead of hitting her intended target, Kiryuuin, her fist had stopped without emitting a single sound.

"...?"

Staring blankly at her clenched fist that still felt like it was pressing against something inconceivably hard, all she could see was her own hand in the air.

"??"

Was it something invisible? But it didn't make any noise even after hitting it with all her telekinetic-enhanced strength, and neither did it appear like whatever it was, was going to budge.

~~!!

She gave the 'invisible wall' a second full-powered strike just to be sure, but it was truly as if all the energy had dissipated into nothingness, with no sound or literally anything of the sort that would signify its existence.

"...Strange."

Muttering so, Sona vanished.

Rather, she swapped positions with Sana in the distance, who had been busy charging up an attack of her own.

Vho~o~o~o~hm~~!!

Without hesitation, a lethal wave of frost was unleashed; with a resonating toll that contained incomparable power to the kind she used during the original kidnapping event.

The surroundings had been devastated within an instant, turned from a beautiful meadow of luscious green grass with intermittent daisies to a thick layer of cold permafrost.

The affected area was large enough to have an impact on the other battles going on in the area, but it was none of her business.

The transformation was so rapid it was as if the land had always been that way.

It was Sana's full, unrestrained power.

And yet.

~~!!

"...Must be shocking, right? You girls are incredibly strong, after all."

Kiryuuin, just two metres ahead of her, was completely untouched.

"..."

"Don't be alarmed, though. I have no intention to harm either of you, but I also have no intention of going down here."

Now, Sona had approached again and was standing still by Sana's side.

"You can feel free to attack me as much as you want, but I'll warn you now that it's not going to work."

The twins stared at him.

Naturally, if Sona really wanted to, she had certain other ways of increasing her attack power.

Likewise, ice attacks weren't the only temperature extreme Sana could use.

However, they both instinctively knew.

""...""

Kiryuuin's words were correct.

"...Why are you doing this?"

"You don't want to win, but you don't want to lose."

He looked at them for a moment before replying with a kindhearted smile.

"Couldn't I say the same about you two? You're not exactly playing to win because you want to, but you also can't afford to lose at the same time. Would you understand if I said it's the same for me?"

""...""

They could somewhat understand.

Just like the twins, he too had someone he was fighting for.

What they didn't know, however, is that the person they each were fighting for, was the same.

"I don't want you kids to think you're weak, so I'll tell you the secret to my defence; you being unable to affect me like this isn't a fault of your own, so you could say it's a little unfair, but..."

""...You're cheating?""

With his free hand, he scratched his left cheek.

'I guess it kind of is like that... Still, even if it's cheating, if it helps me save everyone, then there's no issue with it, right?'

"Well, that's right. This ability, it uses the fabric that makes up our dimension to shield me from incoming attacks."

""...?""

The twins were irrevocably confused. From what they had heard from Sophie, wasn't it just the same as Saburou? The truth was, even Kiryuuin himself didn't know the difference between them.

His ability was invisible and caused no vibrations (and consequently, no sound) when an attack hit, whilst Saburou's fabric of space was pitch blackness, dark ebony like the void itself, and still produced vibrations when impacted... But that was all.

Still, the fact alone that the twins wouldn't be able to breach this barrier was all he needed to know right now.

Even if he couldn't join the others' fights, if he could just keep these two preoccupied here, then his allies would stand a considerably greater chance of winning their own battles.

'Von. Saburou.'

And so, bringing another random topic of conversation up with the twins, he prayed in the back of his mind.

'Please hold on.'

In order to change the future for the better, today's result would need to be a good one.