Chapter 43: 42 - Level J Final Exam Begins

Today was the 27th of June, 2116, the day of the big exam. And I had a kinda bad feeling about it. I was on my way to the Academy right now, I had just arrived in the X-Warrior Zone and was in a bus heading for the Academy. I was in one of the two teams of five, the four that I was teamed up with were Seila Khan, Mitchell Jones, Lin Yang and Katie Cummins.

I didn't know who the Ace in charge of us was yet though. I had tried contacting my sister to see if she knew about it, but I got no reply, so she was probably out on a Mission. I got off the bus as it arrived at the Academy and headed inside, before making my way to Training Hall 06. As I entered and shut the door behind me, I saw that everyone else was already here.​​

It was currently a few minutes to 10 AM, which was the time we were supposed to arrive at, so I wasn't late. I actually preferred this, since arriving just before the specified time meant that I wouldn't have to wait much. The Ace X-Warrior who would be leading us would meet us here and then head for one of the Teleportation Points that would take us to an underground bunker outside of the Sanctuary.

My group would be heading north of the Sanctuary, while the other two groups would be heading northwest and west, respectively. Regarding the four I was grouped with...my opinion was pretty much neutral. Of the four, I'd interacted the most with Seila, but that's not saying much, I just greeted her for time to time and we got occasionally paired up during sparring and teamwork exercises in classes.

Katie didn't speak much in general, and besides the time when I used XFE Takeover on her, I hadn't had any significant interactions with her. And as for Mitchell and Lin, they both seemed nice enough, but I had barely spoken to either of them at all. I had gotten paired up with them a few times during classes, but we didn't exactly do much talking. Guess I'll have to converse with them today though...

"Oh, looks like we're all here now," Remarked Mitchell, as I approached the rest of them.

He was on the short side, with medium-length blonde hair pushed back from his forehead, blue eyes and a heavily freckled face. Like I said, he seemed nice enough, but I couldn't say for sure since I barely knew him at all.

"Do any of you know who the Ace in charge of our group is?" I inquired curiously.

"Ooh, I've been wondering the same thing! I wonder who could it be!?" Exclaimed Lin with a look of anticipation and intrigue.

She had long black hair that was parted down the middle with the back tied in a low ponytail, wore big round glasses, and was the overly friendly, hyper type. She had way too much energy, sometimes I felt tired just watching her talk in class, she was loud and spoke really fast, I don't know how she wasn't exhausted half the time.

"Hey," Katie spoke up, tugging my sleeve, her expression as hard to read as ever, "Don't control me without asking, okay?"

Yeah, every time we got paired up during classes after that, she made a point of saying this to me...I guess she really didn't like it when I took control of her XFE. I hadn't done it to her since then, though I had used it a couple of times during XFE combat exams, my victims were Makoto and Alex those times.

With the former, I kept him under my control for a while to really get my Dark Attribute poison flowing, since he's a sleazy asshole and I don't like him, but with the latter, I just controlled him for a few seconds to keep him still and then got the Duel Field's teleport function to kick in by slashing at him, since he was usually pretty nice to me. He still got a bit poisoned though, but there was no helping that.

Speaking of that technique, it was now officially called XFE Takeover, and for a couple of weeks after it became public knowledge, I was kinda getting a lot of attention. Fortunately, the hype died down after that, probably because it's a technique that not everyone can use.

Only those with the Dark Attribute can use it, and they need to have a steady control of their XFE to be able to maintain it. Oh, and it wouldn't work on other Dark Attribute users, and those with the Light Attribute were highly resistant to the technique. I tried it out on Mutants, but they don't have XFE in them so it didn't work.

After I used it in those instances that I mentioned, it became hard to use it again because everyone was wary of it...especially because Taayin, who also has the Dark Attribute, attempted to use it at every chance he got, so whenever anyone in my class was sparring against a Dark Attribute user, namely either myself or Taayin, they were very much on guard against the XFE Takeover technique.

"Don't worry, I won't...well, unless it's an emergency, like a life-threatening situation or something," I replied half-jokingly.

"Hm...even then, ask first...okay?"

I really couldn't tell what she was thinking, or even whether she was mad about it or not...

"Oh, uh...yeah, okay."

Her expression gave nothing away, I couldn't see any emotion or change when she spoke...I didn't like it, I have no idea what's going on in her head, and that kinda throws me off. Usually, I can guess what a person's thinking by looking at their expression, to an extent of course, I'm not a mind-reader, but I like to think that I'm fairly good at reading people from their body language and facial expressions.

"Hey, Seila, why so quiet? And why are you sitting so far away?" Inquired Lin, turning her attention to the clumsy twin-tailed girl sitting a few meters away from the rest of us.

"O-oh, well, I...I don't w-want to cause any t-trouble, so..."

She did tend to trip and fall a lot, and anyone who was close by would also end up getting dragged down with her.

"Come on, don't be like that! We're all supposed to be a team for today, so you shouldn't keep your distance!" Declared Lin, walking over to her and pulling her up, before leading her towards us.

I subtly shifted my position so that I was to Lin's left, since she was pulling Seila with her right hand...I'd rather not get caught up in one of her clumsy 'accidents', especially not with an audience present.

"H-hey, wait a s-sec-...woah!" Seila began to protest weakly, before stumbling and tripping as she accidentally kicked the back of her left heel.

She fell forward and across to her left, towards Lin, who was caught off-guard and lost her balance as well, and started to fall...in my direction. You have got to be kidding me...I sprang back but it was already too late, as Lin's arms shot up in an instinctive attempt to grab onto something and stop herself from falling, she grabbed onto my jacket right as her chin slammed onto my left hip.

And since I was in the middle of an attempt to back away, I wasn't in a stable position, and as a result...I couldn't maintain my balance, and fell on my back. Lin fell onto me, her chin painfully digging into a spot on my thigh. Ow, that's gonna leave a mark...and on a more terrifying note, a few centimeters to the right and she'd have crushed my ba-...n-no, I'm not gonna think about that, I should just be thankful that they're still intact...

"I-I'm so sorry!" Cried Seila, apologizing profusely after we all got back on our feet.

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"No, that was my bad, guess I pulled you too fast, huh?" Replied Lin sheepishly, "And besides, no one got hurt, so it's all good!"

Not so sure about that, the spot where her chin slammed onto was definitely bruised...but I won't say anything about it.

"No offense, but that was kinda funny...," Said Mitchell, struggling to keep himself from smiling, before turning to me, "Your expression when you realized you couldn't escape getting dragged down with them...heh, that was freaking priceless."

...okay, I've decided...this guy is annoying.

"Anyway...it's past 10 AM already, shouldn't the Ace be here already?" I inquired, changing the subject after glancing at my I-Watch.

"Oh, right, about that! I almost forgot, I bumped into Instructor Satou when I arrived today, and he said that it'll actually be two Aces per team! How cool is that!?" Exclaimed Lin, her eyes lighting up as she recalled that little detail.

"So, uh...how exactly did you forget to mention that till now? We brought up the subject of the Ace multiple times," Pointed out Mitchell with a raised eyebrow.

"I dunno...sonetimes I just forget stuff, you know?" She replied, after mulling it over.

"Right...," He responded with a bemused look.

Still, two Aces per team, huh? That means six out of the twelve Aces would be occupied by this. The fact that half the Aces were assigned to be a part of what was essentially a glorified training exercise in the guise of an exam for Level J students, just went on to emphasize how uncertain the situation outside the Sanctuary was right now.

The door to the training hall then opened, all five of us immediately turned our attention to the two figures that walked in through the doorway, seized by curiosity and anticipation. I recognized the one on the left...Johan Grantz, he's...he's one of the two Ace Anomalies. The exact details of his Anomaly were unknown, but a lot of the rumors mentioned that he could put a target to sleep without even touching them, and I'd also heard that he could form and control XFE puppets to fight for him.

He had albinism, with really pale skin and white hair, which was about medium-long and spiked up with a undercut. His eyes were dark red and he was on the tall side. He wore a dark green t-shirt under a black jacket with the collar turned up, dark blue trousers and black shoes. He had some X-Weapons on him, I spotted a blade handle and a couple of pistols, looks like they were all standard issue stuff. He also had an umbrella strapped to his back...maybe a counter against the sun? People with albinism generally had sensitive skin.

"Woah, that's one of the Anomalies...so cool, this is the first time I'm seeing one!" Exclaimed Lin excitedly.

Well, that's not exactly true, but I definitely wasn't going to correct her...in fact, I think I'll play along.

"Yeah, me too," I added, putting on a tone of awe...well, it wasn't completely fake, I was genuinely intrigued by seeing another Anomaly.

"Huh, is it just me or did you sound kinda sarcastic just then...?" Muttered Mitchell, giving me slight cause for alarm, before he seemed to lose interest, "So that guy's one of the Anomalies, huh? I wonder what he's capable of. Hey, I recognize the other one...isn't she...?"

Yeah, as for the other Ace, I recognized that one too...to be precise, I recognized her too well for my liking. It was my sister. This is bad, she and I look a lot alike, which is especially noticeable when we're in the same room, there's no way no one's going to notice the resemblance-...wait, calm down, if she and I act like we're just meeting for the first time, the others will have to assume it's just a coincidence that we kinda look alike.

"Ohh, that's Kilella Floence, she's the youngest Ace at the moment, but also one of the most powerful!" Said Lin, her eyes widening in awe.

Even knowing what a big deal my sister is, stuff like this still weirds me out. It's kinda hard to explain...

"Mhm, I've heard of her too," Chimed in Katie, a slight hint of admiration in her usually-blank expression.

"Yeah, she's r-really famous, it's m-making me pretty n-nervous," Stuttered Seila, though she looked the same as usual.

Hm, what should I say? I should probably say something nondescript, pretending that I don't know who she is might backfire since she is pretty famous...

"Hey, you don't seem all that awestruck...don't you know who she is?" Asked Mitchell, a glint of curiosity in his eyes.

Tch, he's pretty sharp.

"No, I have no idea who-," I began in an innocent, calm tone, when suddenly...

"Hey, little bro, I bet you're surprised to see me, huh!?" Came a loud and cheerful voice.

...god...fucking...dammit...

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