Chapter 45: 44 - Timeless Conversation

"Man, that was hilarious, you totally thought that you got away successfully, and you did, but then you fell down anyway!" Chuckled Mitchell, before averting his gaze with a sheepish grin as I glared at him. 

"You like being annoying, huh?" I replied with a hint of exasperation. 

"Not at all! I do, admittedly, enjoy seeing the different reactions people give in certain situations, though."

"...and you put them in those situations by annoying them?" 

"Well, yeah...but I don't particularly enjoy that part, it's just a means to an end, the reaction is what I'm really after! Oh, right now, I bet you're thinking that I'll leave you alone if you don't react to me at all, am I right?" He said with a mischievous gleam in his eyes, "But in fact, I enjoy that the most, seeing people doing their best to pretend like I'm not bothering them is hilarious!"

I don't think I like this guy... 

"I-I'm sorry, it's all my fault," Apologized Seila with a rueful expression on her face. 

When she fell, she ended up talking down Katie, Lin, Mitchell and Kilella down with her, and she'd been pretty distressed about it ever since. We were currently on the bus, on the way to the Teleportation Point. 

"It was an accident, so there's no need to apologize! You all need to work together as a team, that means you need to get along, and that won't happen if one of you is downcast, you know?" Said my sister positively. 

"Yeah, that's true!" Responded Mitchell, a little too quickly, he was clearly starstruck. 

"Hey, by the way, what's with that backpack?" Kilella asked Lin curiously, "It looks kinda heavy."

Right, Lin's Secondary Manifestation was pretty much the only X-Ability in my class that I hadn't yet seen. She'd explained what it was earlier while we were discussing strategy and formation, and that backpack was crucial for the use of her Secondary Manifestation. As she explained to Kilella what it was for, I noticed Johan glancing at me from a few seats ahead. After that weird bit of static, what happened was this... 

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"Time and Space Manipulation...? Then you're an..."

The instant he said that, I kinda panicked... 

"<Activate Anomaly, Tier Two: Pause>," I mumbled inaudibly, before muttering to myself as I began pacing around, "Crap, now what? Maybe I should use Tier One, after all? And what was with that static? Also, 'Fairy Tale Authority', what even is th-?" 

"Are you...talking to yourself?" 

"So what if I-...," I began to reply, before freezing as I realized that shouldn't be possible, turning around to see that Johan wasn't frozen in time, "No way...how are you able to move right now?"

"Hm? What are you-...?" He started to say, trailing off as he looked around and saw that everyone else wasn't moving, "Is this...your doing?" 

This shouldn't be possible...don't tell me Anomalies are immune to the X-Abilities of other Anomalies? No, if that's the case..

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"Hey, tell me...over the past five months or so, has time ever frozen like this for you?" I asked cautiously. 

"What? Of course not, I would have definitely noticed if so. More importantly...you're an Anomaly?"

Hm, in that case...maybe an Anomaly is only immune to another Anomaly's X-Ability when they're in close proximity, close enough that they might be in danger of said X-Ability. 

"I suppose there's no point in hiding it...yeah, I'm an Anomaly too. Mind if I ask you a few questions about Anomalies? It literally won't take any time at all."

"I can see that," He remarked, tapping on his I-Watch, and nothing happened, "Fine, ask away. I have a lot of questions for you, as well." 

"First, are Anomalies immune to each other's X-Abilities?" 

"Yes, I have dueled against two of the other Anomalies, and our X-Abilities cannot directly affect one another. Hm, but if you have been using this time-stopping power frequently, one of the others as well as myself would have definitely noticed. Hm, then perhaps it's a matter of distance...?"

He trailed off with a frown, as he mulled it over, before continuing... 

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"Maybe...if you use your power while the other Anomalies are far away from you, then perhaps they will not be immune to it. Oh, actually I doubt it needs to be that far away, instead, it may only be when the other Anomaly is aware of the presence of the one using their X-Ability...I say that because there is another Anomaly in the Academy."

He's pretty smart. Yeah, I'd used my powers plenty of times while inside the Academy, the Level K student Anomaly would have definitely noticed time literally stopping if they were immune to it just by being within close proximity. Oh, I almost forgot... 

"Wait, what about that static thing earlier? What was that about?" 

"Well, firstly, rest easy, I do not think it plays a factor in the immunity effect. You see, the first time I dueled the other Ace Anomaly, I was immune to his powers, after the fight, we shook hands, and we both experienced that static and heard what each other's Anomaly types were. It appears that is triggered upon initial physical contact between two Anomalies. And with that Anomaly, I felt that static after the duel was over, and since I'd been immune to his X-Ability during the duel, we can rule out the possibility that the static is the trigger to the immunity."

"I see, that's good. You don't have to answer this if you don't want to, but I'm kinda curious about your X-Ability...mind telling me what your Fairy Tale Authority Anomaly can do, vaguely at least?" I inquired hopefully. 

"Hm...I suppose it won't hurt so long as I don't tell you the details. You probably know that Anomaly X-Abilities come with multiple powers, right? Mine are, uh, how to put this...fairy tale-themed. I'll reveal one of my powers, since this particular one would be useless against you and it's also my weakest power. You might have heard that I can put people to sleep...that power is called Sleeping Beauty. Well, I shared mine, mind sharing yours?"

That's his weakest power? Hm, I don't want to reveal my powers, so....I'll just lie... 

"Well, this time stopping power was already unlocked when I awakened my X-Ability, but I have no idea how to unlock my other powers."

"Yes, the Unlock Conditions are unknown, that it a common factor among all Anomalies. All the powers I unlocked were through pure coincidence and luck. And since that is the case...I'm afraid I don't have any advice to give you on how to unlock the locked powers of your X-Ability. Does anyone else know that you are an Anomaly?"

"Yeah, my sister does, and Kumar Silva too. Though I, uh, told them that my power was teleportation, not time stopping. I just figured that it'd be way unsettling to know that someone else can freeze time, you know? Plus, with this power, it's pretty easy to make it look like I'm teleporting. So, this goes without saying, but...don't tell anyone about me, okay? I'm trying to keep the fact that I'm an Anomaly as a secret. It's a long story, so I won't bore you with the details, but two major reasons are, one, because I'd rather that people didn't know that I can literally stop time, and two, because if I am going to reveal that I'm an Anomaly, it won't be until I've unlocked at least two of my other powers."

"Hm, I don't know if you've realized this, but your time stopping power may easily be the most powerful X-Ability in existence right now, you could use it to defeat almost anyone or anything," He pointed out. 

"Yeah, I'm well aware of what I can do with this power...but it's no fun if I just spam it the whole time, and besides, I don't want to become overly reliant on it. So it's kind of a last resort, I'd like to fly under the radar for as long as I possibly can," I explained with a shrug. 

"About that...you are actually talked about a fair bit amongst X-Warriors, due to the XFE Takeover technique you discovered. I was actually quite curious to meet you as well, it's not often that a student makes such a discovery. But to think that you're Kilella's younger brother and an Anomaly on top of that...you're quite impressive."

"Heh, that's pretty flattering coming from an Ace and senior Anomaly, but...being her brother and an Anomaly, those were both things that were out of my control, so I can't exactly take credit for this like I can with the XFE Takeover technique."

"Hm...when you say 'senior', you better not be calling me old...," He responded, narrowing his eyes at me. 

"No, I meant it in the 'more experienced' way, as in I'm the junior Anomaly when compared to you. Okay, one more question...I've been thinking about this whole exam thing, and I can't help wondering...are we being used as bait to draw out the intelligent creatures that have been attacking and killing X-Warriors? I mean, no matter how you slice it, two Aces guarding a team of Level J students is definitely pretty strange."

"If that really is true, then I was not informed of it...but I can see how you came to that conclusion, there might even be some degree of truth to it."

If he doesn't know anything about it, then there's no point in questioning him further. Time to wrap this up... 

"Well, anyway, I think it's time to wrap up our literally timeless conversation. I'm going to unfreeze time now...I don't want to use up too much XFE." 

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And now, back to the present. 

We arrived at the Teleportation Point and walked into the building after getting off the bus, before we were Teleported out to one of the underground bunkers to the north of the Sanctuary. It looked more or less the exact same as the bunker we used during the first teamwork exam. 

"We still have about ten minutes before 12 PM, so use that time to mentally prepare yourselves," Advised Johan, as we all gathered by the platform elevator. 

"Yeah, what he said! You have no reason to be nervous, the chances of anything going wrong are low, and even if something does happen, we're here to keep you guys safe!" Declared Kilella with a grin. 

Ever the optimist, my older sister. Well, I guess she had a point, all things considered, the chances of something going wrong were low...or at least, I could hope that was going to be the case... 

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