My Measurement: The Villain Desires a Satisfying Payback

―I'm close.

Since leaving the branch manager's office, I have not come across any Order members.

The gradually cooling air as I walked in the direction of the breach and the ever-increasing volume of faint screams told me all I needed to know.

Soon, I arrived at a place that looked like a scene from Hell.

To be precise, a Niflheim kind of Hell.

"This fu--!"

Vho~o~o~o~hm~!

Following a bizarre ringing sound similar to that of a whale's pulsed call, I suddenly witnessed Chrysanth Order Grunt A's curse get interrupted by his entire body freezing over, killing him instantly.

The fight had been going on for quite a while, it seems, as there were not even a double digit amount of the Order's grunts that remained.

"No! Y-you little...! Get over he--!"

Vho~o~o~o~hm~!

Grunt B, in protest, recklessly charged across the ice-veiled floor towards the culprit, just to be met with the same fate of being turned into a frozen statue before he knew it; that same pulsing sound resounding throughout the area.

Here, the temperature was anywhere below negative celsius―evident by the frosty white breaths of myself and through the masks of the horde of powerless grunts.

The kind of frigid air that stung one's skin on impact was biting and sharp, even piercing through the thick fabric of the uniform I wore.

Even the guns they wielded were utter garbage in this situation where their inner mechanisms had frozen and jammed.

Seeing that, I dropped mine to the floor without a second thought.

The weapon was useless, after all.

―And yet, the ends of my lips tipped upwards at the situation in front of me.

"...Where...?"

A soft voice, ever-so-small, sounded. Despite its miniscule volume, there was not a single person present who missed it.

"Where?"

The voice asked, but of course, the Order would not give an answer so simply.

"Shut up and--"

Vho~o~o~o~hm~!

Vho~o~o~o~hm~!

Vho~o~o~o~hm~!

"...Tell me."

More pulsed calls resonated throughout, leading Grunts C, D, E, and so on, to perish―turned into living, or not-so-living any more I suppose, statues of ice before they could even register that they were a target.

"Where?"

Floating gracefully in the air, her white hair flowing in the wintry winds as she occasionally waved her hand, sending infernal blizzards that slaughtered her foes; she appeared just like a Yuki-onna of the myths and legends―like a dreaded devil of the snowy mountains.

Wonderful.

I almost couldn't contain my grin as I watched such a sight.

This magnificent show of power was much more than I had expected of you.

"―Sana."

With a jolt, the girl turned her head in my direction.

"...Ci...phy...?"

Her eyes did not widen, nor did her brows raise, but I could not mistake the astonished look of wonder on her face as she called my name.

Perhaps Grunt F thought that was his chance, as he sneakily tried to rush in and grab Sana by surprise, but...

Slam-!

"Gah...!"

All of a sudden, a different girl of identical semblance appeared and without warning sent the grunt flying with a super-powered punch.

―Sona, using Location Swapping, had swapped places to protect her twin sister.

What a beautifully-timed counter. It looks like the two's training has been going swimmingly.

Perhaps sending them to school won't be as detrimental as I thought.

Looking around, I found that Ryuu Kishigami was still alive, though obscuring himself at the far end of the room and observing from a place of safety.

This coward.

"Girls," I called. "I'm safe now, so you can get rid of everyone here except that one; I want you to capture him for me."

Their attention directed towards him after a gesture from me―they had identified him as the target.

By that point, although he had noticed what I was doing and attempted to flee, it was already too late.

After all, I had sicced my extremely talented dogs on him―there was no way he could escape now.

"...!"

Jumping backwards carefully so as to not trip on the tricky floor masked by a thick sheet of ice, Ryuu Kishigami kept his peeled eyes on the twins all the while.

Crack-!

Sona leaped from where she stood, shattering the ice beneath her feet and generating a small crater in her place.

Her superpower-charged body did not falter in this glacial atmosphere even despite the raw winds brushing against the bare skin of her face, legs and hands, her feet simply stomping powerfully through the ice on the floor, smashing it to smithereens with every step.

In a futile attempt at resistance, he tried to dodge her incoming hands that appeared to him like no less than the dreaded talons of the Grim Reaper, wanting to drag him down to the deepest depths of the afterlife.

Clench-!

The young girl's small and flat voice rang out as she grasped onto the hem of his clothes, tightening her grip like the maw of an alligator as she pulled him in.

Ryuu Kishigami.

"...Got you."

You cannot escape.

Seeing that was done, I turned to the other twin with a smile.

"Sana, if you will."

"..."

She nodded her head without a word in response and waved her hand in the direction of the few other grunts that remained standing.

Vho~o~o~o~hm~!

Yet another pulsed call like the sound of an ice lake cracking reverberated so loudly that it felt as if it had vibrated within the vestibules of my ears and further into the skull itself.

―Within an instant, multiple grunts had frozen on the spot, now no more than deceased sculptures of ice.

Good job...!

Now, all that was left was Ryuu Kishigami.

Although, in truth, there was not much I wanted to do with him.

Approaching him with a devilish smirk decorating my face, the twins stood on each side of me as I crouched down and opened my mouth towards him, who had his arms and legs inflicted with severe frostbite.

"Hey. Isn't this an unfortunate turn of events?"

"..."

"Just how on Earth did this happen, I wonder...?"

"...What do you want, you sick bastard?"

His blackened skin, hard and in the midst of dying, caused him to effectively be incapacitated, yet he still glared at me seemingly unaffected.

"Hah. Are you in a position to be giving me such attitude?"

"..."

"I remember well how you treated me on the way here. Did you think I would forget?"

Not moving my gaze away from his, I spoke to the girl on my right.

"Sana. It's getting a bit chilly, and our friend here is looking a little cold, so shall we turn the heat up a bit?"

She understood my instructions well without me having to say it explicitly.

"Say, do you know much about the physics of temperature? The more you reduce the temperature of an object, the more brittle it becomes."

Coming forth, Sana hovered her right hand above Ryuu Kishigami's numb and frozen left arm, and then―

"Did you know? This fact, combined with a reaction called a 'Thermal Shock', can produce an interesting result; for example, if you pour an incredibly hot substance, like hot water or coffee, onto an incredibly cold object like an ice cube, then the ice cube will crack."

Shatter-!

"Ghh...!?"

―It fragmented into tiny chunks of icy flesh, leading a pained groan to escape his mouth as he clenched his teeth.

"The same logic applies to humans."

Shatter-!

"Gahhh..!"

Releasing an uncontainable yelp as Sana repeated the same process on his right arm before looking back at me.

"It's fascinating, no? The way this world works."

Nodding my head at her, she nodded back and this time moved her hands to his legs.

Shatter-!

Shatter-!

Like glass hit with a hammer, all of Ryuu Kishigami's limbs were now no more than insignificant remnants, tiny pieces that littered the floor.

"You silly bastard. Did you think I would just sit around and take it?"

Of course I wouldn't.

"Don't regret the choices you can't take back. Next, I'll be coming for Professor Lynton."

"...!"

Ryuu Kishigami's face, overrun by the expression of the excruciating pain he felt, showed a sharp reaction to my statement.

Unfortunately, however, he didn't have time to speak his thoughts about it.

Shatter-!

―Moving her hand away from what used to be Ryuu Kishigami's head as what seemed to be a wave of glitter danced in the frosty air, Sana moved back to my side.

There's no point in playing around any longer.

Professor Lynton; I have decided to make him the next and final target of this nonsensical charade.

The head of the Chrysanth Order.

The one responsible for this mess and the catalyst for all my current troubles.

I wonder what our reunion will look like, Professor.

But for now...

"Sona, Sana."

I turned to face the two girls; a look of worry still ever-present in their seemingly hollow eyes.

""...""

Were they still concerned?

"Let's go home."

Without a word, they nodded in unison, and the three of us promptly left the facility.