My Measurement: The Villain Desires a Satisfying Payback

The destruction caused was limited to the area in which the event was taking place, but that didn't take away from its ferocity.

The ground in the direction of where Saburou's arm swung had completely hollowed out, as if erased; there was even the side of a small building simply missing from where it once was.

It was a scene straight from fiction.

Everything even just slightly scraped by the attack up and vanished into thin air, obliterated into nothingness.

To put it as simply as possible, it was as if it were simply deleted from existence, with not a single trace that anything had ever been there aside from our own memories.

What that meant for Tarou...

"Aghk?!"

...Was, fortunately, not that much, because he had been lucky enough to avoid a fatal hit. That didn't mean he came out unscathed, however.

There may have been no blood.

There may have been no pain.

But his left arm―everything from the elbow down was simply gone.

"Eughk...!"

Falling to his knees, Tarou grabbed what little flesh remained and clenched it tight, gritting his teeth as if it was the most excruciating thing he had ever experienced.

The end of his arm, the exact point where the limb had been "severed" contained nothing and was simply a smooth, black cutoff.

He felt no physical pain, but an agonising phantom pain surged throughout his body with the missing arm as the origin. This torturous feeling of his brain being unable to fully realise that his arm was no longer―a feeling no less than pure misery coursed through his veins, but he endured it as best he could.

"Mmf...!"

Biting his lips tightly as he whimpered on the ground, slightly sobbing at the pain, Tarou was then pushed over by something.

"Stay... Stay out of this... There's no need for any more harm to be done... I'm sorry..."

Saburou, a grim expression embellishing his face, apologised to his twin brother. I don't think it meant much to him, though, considering that he didn't have one of his arms any more.

Shortly after, Tarou passed out―presumably due to the aggregating horde of strong emotions and intense anguish from losing a limb to his own long-lost twin.

Kneeling down and gracing the unconscious face of Tarou with the tips of his fingers, Saburou stood up and faced me, his dark look turning into one of silent rage.

The tale of two twin brothers. My, how tragic and emotional.

"As for you..."

He took a step towards me, slowly moving his right arm up to point his palm in my direction.

I couldn't shoot him―something like a gun was worthless when he could simply delete it from within my own hand without me being able to resist. I needed to move it out the way to dodge the attack, but if I do that then I can't aim properly.

I can't get close to him, either, because that would lessen the need for high precision on his end, which would lead to me being unable to avoid his attacks.

"...This is the end of the line."

Staring at each other for a few seconds, I shrugged at his menacing tone.

"It's not though, is it? You're not allowed to kill me because things will get troublesome, so I wouldn't exactly call it the 'end of the line', wouldn't you agree?"

His brows furrowed slightly at my response.

"You're quibbling over semantics. You've been let loose like a wild dog for far too long. I'll be taking you back with me to the Playground, and once you're there, there isn't going to be another opportunity for you to get out like last time."

Cracking his neck, he added an argument.

"―So, yeah, I would still call it the end of the line."

"Hmm? Is that so? Speaking of which, do you even know about the incident that happened last time? You weren't there, were you, so how do you know if I can or cannot do the same thing next time?"

"No, I wasn't there, but I did hear a few things through the grapevine. Do you want to tell me how that happened? You somehow decimated a whole slew of professors without leaving a single trace of their corpses."

"I don't know, did I do that?"

Honestly, I have absolutely no idea what on Earth he's talking about. I would love to hear more about what happened during that incident, but I highly doubt he's willing to tell me.

Well, at least I gained some info on it.

Saburou sighed.

"Anyway, that's enough screwing around. If you want to play more games, you'll have plenty of time to do so back in the compound."

What? Does this guy hear what he's saying? Games? In the Playground of all places?

"Have you been smoking something, or have you just never played one of their awful games before? Why the hell would I want to play one of those games when I can do literally anything else?"

The types of games they allowed me to play, I had explained them briefly before; terrible, utterly appalling and completely boring games that were no fun whatsoever.

"I want to tell you to stop complaining and just deal with it like the criminal threat to society you are, but that isn't going to resolve anything... If it makes you more willing to comply, we can arrange different games for you to play? There are a number of things we can do to make it more comfortable for you, so if it means you won't resist or try to escape again, we'll fulfil any desire you might have."

This guy. He thinks I'm stupid or something.

It's not that they won't do what he said, because they genuinely will try and make things as comfortable for me as they could if I was making things easy for them, but why would I do that?

What I want is freedom and to live a good and safe, normal life.

Last time I checked, that didn't involve being held captive in a dreary and tiresome place like the Playground.

Thus, my answer is simple:

"I would rather die than go back to that place. It's boring as all hell."

Exhaling a single sigh at my reply, a sharp glint flashed in Saburou's eyes.

"...Then, I suppose I'll have to take you back with force. I will give you a final chance before things will become harder for you than they need to be; are you sure you want to resist?"

I snorted a laugh at his statement, talking condescendingly to me as if things had already ended.

"Hah. Now, would I do that? I'm still standing here; the fight isn't over yet."

"You're alone. There's nothing else you can do."

Suppressing an emerging smirk at his words, I put a hand on my chin that half-covered my mouth and tilted my head up towards the dark sky above.

"Hm? Ah, about that..."

Looking him in the eyes, I moved my arms and shrugged without another word, revealing the enigmatic grin on my face.

Bringing the gun in my hand up, I aimed it towards Atsuko Fushigimi and pulled the trigger without hesitation.

Before it could even reach its target, however, Saburou acted.

Vhooom~!

Crackle-!

Instantaneously, the air warped and ripped between me and them, resulting in a wall of void-like black tear in space opening up and devouring the fired bullet mid-flight.

I pulled the trigger three more times, causing a second, third and fourth repeat of the cycle. In the next moment, however, Saburou's eyes widened as he noticed something.

'Where did he...?!"

He was so focused on stopping the bullet that he didn't realise I had disappeared.

"Behind you~"

Suddenly hearing my voice from right behind him, Space tried to turn around.

"Wha--?!"

Bang-!

―Before he could do so, a bullet was released from the barrel of the gun pointing right at his head.

"...Tsk."

But, he was still alive.

"What was that for? I thought you wanted him dead."

Turning my head to my side, I asked the person who had just arrived with hints of displeasure apparent in my voice.

Before they could answer, Saburou's shocked expression worsened with a mutter.

"...You're... Professor Asanami's..."

Sophie Asanami, certain areas of her body drenched in sweat, only gazed at him with a strange look and answered my question straightforwardly.

"I said I wanted you to help me kill him. Keyword being 'me'. I ain't lettin' anyone else kill this bastard, whether it's you or even himself."

Spitting that out while staring oddly expressionlessly at Saburou's face, Sophie approached him step-by-step. Watching her, my eyes narrowed slightly before releasing a sigh.

...Annoying.

I don't understand why I can't simply kill him now and get it over with; it would be the best possible course of action to take and would save endless hassle, and yet it has to be like this.

The fact Sophie greedily wanted to do things 'her way' was quite vexing, but there was nothing I could do to stop her in this matter―it was something she had to be the one to do, no matter what, and I wouldn't be able to convince or persuade her otherwise.

Best to just let her get on with it.

At the end of the day, so long as Space was dead I suppose the process didn't matter so much.

It's not like he can beat her anyway, with her Supernatural Ability.

"...Miss Asanami. I--"

"Shut up."

"..."

Saburou's eyes trembling, he glanced between me and Sophie as he took a step of trepidation backwards. It's not like that extended the distance between the two, however.

For each step he took backwards, Sophie took two steps forwards.

Pushing her deadpan face into his nervous one, she shoved his chest, causing him to fall to the ground on his ass.

Towering over him, a cold and disdainful look rooted deeply within her eyes, Sophie stated one thing.

"You will experience the same pain that she did all those years ago."

Saburou, who couldn't bring himself to resist the prided executive's daughter, only gulped in apprehension.