My Measurement: The Villain Desires a Satisfying Payback

What is the first thing that comes to mind at the mention of the word 'end'?

If taken at face value, indeed, the answer may be simple:

Climax.

The conclusion.

The finish.

When something goes through the process of 'ending', it is commonly dictated to stop.

For example, life.

When life ends, it is dictated to stop.

There is no continuation to be had, no sequel to be seen, and no chapter two to be read.

No questions asked.

It is simply the way of the world.

But, isn't it strange?

Things don't cease to exist when they end; even life.

The body of a rabbit does not vanish upon the lion's teeth sinking in, despite its life having ended.

The creature's life is no longer, but the physical form still remains.

Then, did its life go somewhere due to the lion's action?

It was determined to have ended, indeed, but who or what was it that wrote that final full stop?

The reality is, nobody knows the truth behind these questions.

So, could it even be said that the rabbit's life still remains, despite the lion killing the rabbit?

After all, its physical body hasn't gone anywhere.

How do we know for certain that the rabbit's life has gone, too?

The only reason the rabbit is known to have perished is due to the lion's action.

And even if the rabbit's life is gone, is that enough to conclude that it has ended?

After all, not everything ends when it is gone.

Snow does not disappear when it melts.

It merely turns into water.

So, how do we know that a life disappears when it is taken?

Does life not turn into something else when killed, as snow turns to water when melted?

And, in that case, is the life in question truly coming to an end?

One could effectively claim that snow comes to an end when it melts.

However, you could also claim that it has only simply changed form, but continues onwards nevertheless.

Then, what is it?

If snow does not disappear when it melts.

If snow does not come to an end when it turns into water.

If life doesn't end just because it has died.

What becomes of it?

What does it truly mean for something to come to an end?

In many cases, the end merely serves as the beginning for a new era to begin.

So, for something to truly end, it means ruining the soil so thoroughly that no future sowed seeds could possibly sprout.

But, such a thing.

Is it possible to exist on a universal scale?

That's right.

The end of the universe.

Or perhaps, something even larger.

That is the scene I glimpsed through Liam's eyes.

❖─────❖─────❖

Simply indescribable.

I couldn't quite comprehend what I, or more precisely, what Liam Chiba-Wallace saw.

It wasn't just a single scene, but multiple.

To be exact, I had been shown four scenes in total.

The first was what Liam had evidently described as 'the end'.

Something so bizarrely candid that it was almost frightening.

I had thought he must've been exaggerating after just having experienced a life-threatening severe cardiac arrest, but I soon found out that wasn't the case.

It really was, simply put, the end.

Of everything.

The end of not just the world, but the universe itself, and even of what lay outside those bounds.

Completely unvarnished, that's what it was.

Incomparable to the 'hell' of the past that he had once upon a time seen within me, it had devolved into something so incomprehensibly dull that it was almost laughable.

Absolute nothingness.

What does one think of when that phrase comes to mind?

Whatever it is, it's wrong.

Because the fact alone that an image has appeared in response is incorrect.

Nothingness isn't black or white.

It is, simply, nothing.

There is nothing there, not even empty space.

It might as well not exist.

No, that's exactly what it is―nonexistence.

A realm of nonexistence.

A place where nothing except nonexistence itself could exist.

It was paradoxical, and it made no sense whatsoever, but that is exactly what makes it so terrifying.

The flowers, trees and nature we have now.

The technology, the people, the culture; the entirety of civilisation.

Even the sun, moon, and the countless stars in the sky.

All of it.

Everything that exists.

Anything imaginable.

In an instant.

From far away.

Gone.

There was no relic of the past, no speck of dust to prevail.

The end of everything as we know it.

It wasn't on the level of being destroyed or killed.

Because, even if something is totally obliterated, there will inevitably be something to persist; something to tell the tale of what once was.

But, even that was no more.

Not destruction.

Not obliteration.

Erasure.

An erasing of all existence, tangible or immaterial.

That's what is meant by 'the end'.

Something unstoppable, unforeseeable, and unknowable.

Something that cannot even be physically imagined.

The end.

Why did Liam see such a thing?

There was no way for me to understand, and I didn't even have time to contemplate why, as the next scene was quickly presented to me.

The second scene; something tangible.

It took place in a woman's bedroom.

Unfamiliar, it was a woman I had never seen before.

A bedroom I had never seen.

It wasn't a particularly extravagant space, but nor was it sparse of items.

A bookshelf lined one wall, filled from end to end with various magazines, fictional books and comics.

There was a desk on one side with a standard desktop computer; beside it sat a pile of documents and notes.

Perhaps the woman worked from home? With lustrous black hair, she appeared relatively young, but nonetheless of working age; most likely to be around her early twenties.

Whether it was a scene of the past, present or future, I wasn't aware.

Who the woman was, exactly, I also didn't know.

I had no idea what this scene was supposed to be showing me, but I continued to watch.

Enjoying her free time, she lay curled in her bed, utterly absorbed in the book she held.

I couldn't see the cover of the book nor its contents, but the woman appeared deeply engrossed in the story it told.

And then.

"Argh! No...!!"

She yelped.

The woman suddenly slammed the book down on her bed. Bringing the duvet to her head, she buried her face and let out a muffled scream.

"No, no! What!?"

After a minute of calming herself down, she lowered the bed cover and asked.

"Why the hell...!?"

Of course, there was no one to answer her, but the woman appeared more than a little passionate.

"Argh, seriously...! It's so frustrating, this guy!"

She wrestled around by herself in the bed for a short while before sighing.

"Gahh... If only someone was there to help out or stop it beforehand, maybe the whole situation could've been avoided from the start..."

I'm not sure what development took place within the book, but the woman eventually resigned herself to the outcome, knowing nothing could be done to change what had happened.

"Damn, it's so sad... Why does it have to be my favourite character this crap happens to...?"

Her sudden strange attitude and frustration piqued my curiosity, but I had no time to wonder as the scene changed yet again.

The third scene.

This time, it contained more than one person.

"Sana."

Moreover, they were people I knew all too well.

"Do you resent me for what happened?"

I watched a conversation between a version of myself and Sana, but it was odd.

"...Would resenting change anything?"

Inside the scene, Sana looked a few years older, having grown into a young teenager.

I, too, seemed to have changed in a way.

I must be no older than in my early twenties in this scene, but I looked as if my life had been stripped from me.

My face nor eyes held any kind of vitality within them, and my depthless, inscrutable eyes in particular seemed to contain something incredibly dark.

What would have happened to cause me to become like that, I wonder?

Although I asked that, there was only one answer I could come up with.

The truth.

It must be that finding out the truth changes me in such a way.

Even still... It has to be done.

For the sake of my own sanity, I can no longer rest until I uncover everything.

But, it wasn't just me.

Sana's eyes, too, were dull. Despite her and Sona's ordinarily expressionless faces, the expression of the Sana in this scene was one far too inhumanly blank that I could never imagine the current her making such a face.

I thought they had already become inured to things such as violence and death, but was there something more to come that devastated them so ruthlessly in the future?

I also thought it was rare that I would speak individually to one of the twins rather than to both of them, but there was no way I could know the reason for that just two seconds into the scene.

So, I resumed watching.

And I listened to what this me was saying.

"You know well. There is nothing that can be done whether you hate me or not. Though, I don't think you would hate me even because of something like this. Am I right?"

"..."

"After all, it's impossible for you to hate me. After everything that has happened, there's no way you could."

"..."

"But, do you wish it were possible?"

I couldn't understand what the point of the conversation was, nor where it was heading.

I was obviously asking Sana if she wished she could hate me, but why?

What on Earth happened for such a conversation to take place?

As my questions only continued to build and build, Sana eventually opened her mouth.

"I won't ask if you regret it."

As did I, the me in the scene only listened to her exceedingly cold words.

"I know you wouldn't feel something like that, whatever happened."

"I also won't ask if you thought it was truly necessary."

"Because something like that doesn't matter, and no answer could change anything anyway."

"But."

"After everything that has happened."

"After everything we've been through."

"After everything we did, all for your sake."

"Tell me, Ciphy."

"Honestly."

"Sona."

"Did you feel anything at all when you killed her?"

At Sana's words, my mouth fell open.