Chapter 33: 32 - Are You An...?

Today was the 10th of February, 2116. And I was currently in the Shopping District, heading for Delectables...today was my two-weekly cheat day, and on top of that, they were serving a new, limited edition item...I could barely contain myself! No matter what happens, I don't think I'll ever not be all giddy and stuff when I go to Delectables. I've definitely got a sweet tooth.

Bytra seems to work there part-time, though I'd only run into her that one time, but even if she was working today, I won't let her ruin this for me. Ah, there it is, the entrance just came into view...it's so beautiful. As I walked up to the door and began to open it, my hand bumped into someone else's, as they reached for it at the same time as I did.​​

"Hey, watch it-...oh, it's you," Remarked a familiar voice, sounding a bit surprised.

"Hm? Oh, Suri, fancy meeting you here."

She always gave off this pricky, unapproachable vibe, but after the teamwork exam, she was comparatively amicable around me...well, I did save her life, even if it was for my own benefit, namely ensuring that I passed the exam. I had no interest in making friends, but occasional interactions with some of my more tolerable classmates would help me avoid getting labeled with the 'loner' tag like I had been in middle-school and early highschool.

Anyway, I opened the door and we both stepped in, before heading for the counter. There were three people in line already, I got in behind them and Suri lined up behind me.

"Not that I particularly mind, but haven't you ever heard of 'ladies first'?" Remarked Suri pointedly, since I was in front of her.

"Isn't that phrase from before WWIII, I didn't know people still used it. And wasn't it just an excuse guys used to stare at a woman's ass?" I responded with a shrug.

"Was it? Huh, that actually makes more sense than going out of your way to be polite to a woman for no real reason."

With that, a pleasant silence followed till I got to the front of the line...and of course it's Bytra's shift right now. What, does she only work when there's a limited item for sale?

"Welcome, uh-...ahem, w-welcome to Delectables, how m-many-...er, I mean, how may I help you, sir?"

She sure was spineless without Tairo around. That, and she probably had that whole thing with Misaki still in her mind, which I was responsible for. Ah, now there's a good memory.

"I don't want to have to talk to you more than I have to, so just give me as many of the 'Delectables Super Choc Delight Explosion' as you're allowed to give per person," I ordered bluntly, holding up my I-Watch to pay.

"Y-yes, sir, we allow three per customer, that'll be, um, let me see...," She replied, fumbling as she placed the order and calculating the total, before scanning my I-Watch to make the payment.

"You should really be nicer to public workers-...wait, isn't she in our class?"

"Yup. You just noticed? And don't get me wrong, I'm not an indiscriminate dick, only to people who deserve it," I responded with a shrug.

"If I remember right, she's dating that pale guy who's always sneering at you and calling you a Dud, right?"

"Looks like it."

"You knew them from before the X-Warrior Academy?" She asked curiously.

I didn't like being questioned like this, but while I did prefer to keep my classmates at arms' length, I didn't want to unnecessarily antagonize the ones that I had amicable acquaintanceships with...wait, is 'acquaintanceships' a word? As in the acquaintance equivalent of 'friendship'? Eh, either way, who cares?

"Yeah, sort of...well, let's just say that if they were in a burning building and I had the chance to save them, I'd probably throw gasoline onto the flames and then celebrate."

"That's...awfully specific. You've thought about it a lot, huh?"

"No, not this specific scenario, just thought it up off the top of my head."

Huh, maybe holding a conversation wasn't so bad after all, I actually wasn't minding this as much as I thought. Oh, looks like my order is ready. Bytra was looking even more nervous than before...guess she heard me talking about my burning building fantasy. I picked up the large paper bag and looked into it...three boxes, I can't wait to dig into them! As I began heading out...

"What!? Wh-what do you mean they're sold out!?" Exclaimed Suri in dismay, slamming her fist on the counter.

"Um, I apologize, ma'am, but we just sold the last three of the limited item."

"Seriously...will you have another batch tomorrow?" She asked with desperate hope in her eyes.

"I-I'm afraid not, it's only for today."

"Grr...," Suri growled irritably, before turning her attention to me and walking over, "H-hey, if you don't mind, um..."

I really didn't want to part with one of these boxes...but...if I was in her position...I can't imagine how much despair I'd be in right now. Fine, I guess...

"Alright, I'll sell you one for double the price, take it or leav-."

"Done!" She agreed immediately, without a shred of hesitation, and I gave her one of my three boxes after she transferred the CredPoints to me.

Right now, she looked more grateful than she did after I saved her life...mhm, I totally understand. I see, this must be what a 'kindred spirit' is. Still, this means I'll have less dessert than I could have had. Well, it's fine, once I get home, I'll use Save and Load so that once I finish eating, I can go back in time and enjoy it again. Anyway, with that, I left the Shopping District and headed back to my apartment.

My sister was coming over later, probably with Kumar as usual. It had been about a couple of weeks since the teamwork exam ended, but she'd been away on a Mission at the time, which had ended a few days ago, after which she'd been busy reporting on how it went and other stuff. She was finally free today, so she was coming over. She'd apologized a ton about not being able to visit sooner after what happened during my exam, but from my perspective, there was no reason to apologize.

Well, whatever, for now, I'll just focus on the mouthwatering desserts I'd just bought myself. I was back home, and was opening one of the two boxes with a growing sense of anticipation. The box was about the size that's used for small cakes, too bad it wasn't bigger. My eyes widened as I opened it and took in the sight of what was inside...I had already seen what it looks like from the promotional poster, but seeing it in real life was so much better...

This is why I love Delectables so much, in most other restaurants, the food never looks as good as the pictures of the food, but that was never an issue with this place. That, and the fact that their desserts are absolutely unrivaled. I had tried desserts from a few other bakeries and sweet shops, but none had compared to Delectables, so I used Load to go back and save my money after trying the sweets in those places.

Anyway, back to my dessert...the limited item, the Delectables Super Choc Delight Explosion...it was a very complex dessert, I didn't even know where to start. The outside was shaped like a volcano, made of brownie with hidden dark chocolate chips embedded throughout it. Inside the volcano, was rich chocolate lava with bits of red velvet cake in it, along with a red velvet base. There were crunchy chocolate chunks around the outside of the volcano, inside of which were pockets of thick caramel syrup. And to top it off, pop rocks and powdered sugar were sprinkled all over the volcano.

"O-okay, first things first...<Activate Anomaly, Tier One: Save>."

It's beautiful...so beautiful that I almost don't want to ruin it by digging in...but at the same time, I couldn't wait to dig in. Wh-where do I start? I'll try to get a bit of everything...I dug my spoon into the side of the top of the volcano, getting some of the chocolate lava and a piece of red velvet in it, some of the lava slowly flowing down the volcano through the gap I'd just made. I topped off my spoonful with one of the crunchy chocolate chunks and gulped as my mouth was nearly overflowing with saliva, before shoving the spoon into my mouth...

.

.

.

An explosion of pure dessert bliss burst across my tastebuds as I began chewing, it had a devastatingly powerful impact, but it wasn't overwhelming, it was a strong but beautiful harmony...the delightfully soft and chewy texture of the brownie, the slight bitterness of the dark chocolate chips, the heavenly richness of the chocolate lava, the silky red velvet, all accentuated by the chocolatey crunch of the choc chunks, and finally, the deliciously sticky caramel...fuck me dead, this is the best thing I've ever put in my mouth.

I...I don't know if I can ever enjoy other, lesser desserts after this, but I couldn't bring myself to care about anything right now, I was completely fixated on the godly dessert in front of me. Time to dig in...

...

...

A few hours later, I was on my bed, laying down with a sense of satisfaction...I ended up using Load three times, so it was like I ate eight of those desserts instead of just two...fuck, that was amazing. My sister would be here in about half an hour, and I was currently working on improving my inaudible chanting speed. And by that, I mean how long it takes me to activate my Anomaly X-Abilities. Activating X-Abilities required voice activation, you couldn't activate them just by repeating the activation phrases in your head, you actually had to say them out loud.

I had managed to learn how to chant inaudibly, since I can't let anyone hear me, but I could stand to improve how fast I chant. Right now, I could consistently chant within one second, and I was working on doing so in half a second, but it was tough to do without stuttering or biting my tongue.

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Well, anyway, it didn't take long after that for my sister to arrive, my doorbell ringing a couple of times. I got up with a lazy stretch of my arms and walked towards the door, unlocking it and opening it. The instant I did, a blur rushed towards me, and the next thing I knew...

"Zax! Are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere? Do you have any trauma or-?" My sister rattled off, as she scanned me with a look of concern with her hands firmly on my shoulders.

"It's been like two weeks, sis, chill out, I'm fine," I replied with a sigh, "Why don't you come in?"

"Yeah, okay...but are you sure that you're-?"

"Just come in," I groaned, pulling her by the arm and beginning to shut the door, when it hit something.

"Ow, hey!" Exclaimed Kumar, shaking his right foot gingerly.

"Oh, uh...sorry, didn't see you down there," I replied apologetically.

"...was the 'down there' part really necessary?"

"Heh, slip of the tongue, my bad," I apologized with a sheepish grin, though it was totally intentional on my part.

I let them both in before shutting the door. Since they come over so often and I don't have chairs or anything in the room except for the one by my desk, I'd bought a couple of beanbags...though I made my sister pay for them. I sat on my bed as Kumar flopped onto one of the beanbags, while Kilella was still looking at me with concern.

"Hey, Zax, are you sure you're okay-?"

"Yeah, I'm sure I am. I didn't get any notable injuries to begin with, and I spent some time in a Healing Pod just to be safe," I replied with a shrug.

"What about counseling, did you get any?"

Uh-oh...everyone I was teamed up with and I were recommended to get some counseling, but I wasn't particularly traumatized or anything, so I didn't bother.

"Y-yeah, I totally did."

"Hm...you're lying," She responded immediately.

"...okay, I didn't, but only because I didn't feel the need to, no mental scars to speak of or anything," I shrugged.

"Well, if you say so...but just to be safe, maybe you should-."

"Come on, Ella, drop it already."

She didn't press the issue any further, but still looked pretty concerned. It was a little annoying, but I guess I'd be lying if I said I didn't appreciate it.

"Well, I am glad to see that you're doing alright, and I'm really sorry that I couldn't come over sooner."

"That's really not something you need to apologize for...why don't we talk about something else, Kumar looks like he's feeling left out," I remarked, nodding at Kumar, who was fidgeting awkwardly.

"Oh, you're right, he does look kinda lonely."

"H-hey, you're making me feel even more awkward, knock it off," He muttered uncomfortably.

"So, I've been wondering, you two seem to spend a lot of time together and know each other really well...are you going out?" I inquired curiously.

"Absolutely not," Responded Kumar instantly, without a shred of reluctance.

"Ew, definitely not," Answered Kilella simultaneously.

"Wow, no hesitation at all, huh?"

The conversation kinda petered out after that, none of us had anything in particular that we wanted to talk about. Oh, right, I should thank Kumar...

"Hey, man, thanks for setting up the thing with that old bastard, that was awesome!"

"Oh, don't worry about it...I don't really like him either, so I enjoyed it too."

"Huh, what are you guys talking about?" Kilella inquired curiously.

"Exactly what you told me to do. Your father was definitely taken by surprise, he certainly didn't expect to be congratulating the son he'd disowned. He was pretty baffled afterwards, he looked like he wanted to say something to me and was looking at me kinda suspiciously, but since he had no way of knowing whether or not I know that you two are related, he didn't want to reveal that fact, so he kept quiet."

"Ohh, I totally forgot about that...right, his speech thingy! Hehe, so that's why he's been in a bad mood lately, that's awesome! Nice work, Kumar, I knew you could pull it off!" Grinned my sister.

The three of us spent the next fifteen minutes talking shit about my piece-of-trash father, which was really nice and pleasant. And then, about ten minutes before the both of them were planning to leave...

"Hey, something's been bugging me, and I really have to ask. You don't have to answer if you don't want to, it's regarding the teamwork exam," Said Kumar, looking at me with curiosity in his eyes.

"Hm? Sure, I don't mind."

"Are you really sure, little bro, you don't have to answer if it's traumatic or anything."

"Yeah, it's cool, I really don't mind at all."

"Well, in that case...," Remarked Kumar, before continuing, "I've been thinking about what happened, and I read the reports on what apparently happened, including your side of it...and it just doesn't add up."

...uh-oh.

"I've fought plenty of Two-Headed Serpents before, they're among the smarter species of Mutants, and they can be tricky to deal with when there are multiple of them, even with my X-Abilites. First off, running while carrying three people, plus half a corpse, would be ridiculously difficult even under normal circumstances. But to do so while fighting two Two-Headed Serpents is just...impossible. Everyone who read the report seems to have written it off as a 'mother lifting a car to save her baby' kinda moment, which would make sense since the ensuing muscle damage would be easily repaired by Healing Pods. But since most of them don't know you personally, they overlooked an important detail...in order to break past your body's naturally self-imposed limits like that, you'd need an insane level of desperation and determination. Don't take this the wrong way, but you just don't seem empathetic enough to want to save other people that badly. I've thought about it from several angles, and no matter how I look at it, I can only draw one conclusion..."

Oh, fuck...

"...are you an...Anomaly?"

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