Chapter 54: 53 - Deja Vu

"H-huh!? What's going on!?" Exclaimed Sakura, looking around in confusion. 

I'm getting deja vu here, didn't I just go through this... 

"Would you be willing to believe that this is all just a dream?" I replied with a sigh. 

Well, this is just great...I really wanted to avoid this. Damn it, I let down my guard. I could try using Load later, but if her memories don't get reset, then she might realize that I can go back in time, not just freeze it. 

"So, wait...you're an Anomaly too!? And...Time and Space Manipulation!? There's no way that's-...well, everyone else is literally frozen right now, so I can't exactly deny it. This is a lot to try and wrap my head around...are you keeping the fact that you're an Anomaly a secret? Why?" She inquired in bemusement. 

"Well, it's not like no one knows, but if I had my way, then definitely no one would know...including you, that's four people. Now, then...I have my reasons for keeping this to myself, so..."

"Oh, you want me to not say anything about it to anyone, right?" She guessed. 

"Right. Will that be a problem?" I responded with narrowed eyes. 

"No, I won't say a word...I get the feeling that I'd regret pissing you off," She replied with a wary smile. 

"That's a good answer...I'll unfreeze time now, go ahead with the final round like you would have when I do. Get back to the position you were in when I froze time," I instructed, turning my back to her and slightly moving my left arm back, since it had gotten pulled back when she grabbed my wrist. 

"Oh, uh...sure. I think I was right about here..."

"No, you grabbed my wrist with your other hand...and your feet are a bit too far apart...also, your head was leaning a bit more forward when-."

"H-hold on, did you memorize my exact position when you froze time?" She stuttered in disbelief. 

"Hm? Well, duh, I have to, if I'm in a different position when I resume the flow of time then it won't be long before people figure out that I'm not just a regular Paragon. Here, let me adjust your position...do you mind?" I inquired, turning around. 

"Um, no, I don't mind, go ahead."

After I made sure she was as close to the position she'd been in when I froze time, I also got into position, and then... 

"<Activate Anomaly, Tier Two: Play>," I muttered inaudibly, before turning around with an innocent look on my face, "Yeah, what is it? Did you need something?" 

"O-oh, nothing really, just wanted to say that you were impressive back thete," She replied, trying to play it cool as she let go of my wrist. 

"Oh, well, thanks," I responded with a smile. 

Right, now that that was over...I really need to go to the bathroom...!

... 

Phew, made it just in time. And now that I'm back, it looks like the final round was about to begin. Sakura would be facing the fourth and final team of Seila, Katie and Zoya. All three of them are pretty strong, so I'd say that they have a decent chance of winning this. But I doubt it'll be easy, Sakura looked like she was desperate to avoid losing two out of four rounds. 

As the Duel Field barrier activated and the countdown began, the three of them got in position with their Manifestations active, watching her warily. Sakura closed her eyes and took a deep breath to compose herself, slowly opening them as she exhaled, her expression calming down. The countdown then reached three...two...one!

Seila immediately expanded her blades towards Sakura, who narrowly avoided them by ducking and then rolling out of the way as Seila flicked her wrists downwards, grazing her shoulder as she just barely dodged. She then swiftly formed an XFE shield as Katie fired out lightning at her, the shield absorbed most of the impact before shattering, Sakura letting out a slight gasp as she got zapped slightly. 

Zoya then shot towards her and unleashed a barrage of slashes and thrusts with her XFE rapiers, grazing her several times but unable to land a direct hit. She then suddenly ceased her assault and sprang back, right as Seila extended one of her blades straight at Sakura from behind while swinging the other one, which was already fully extended, straight down at her. 

Sakura formed those large XFE arms and positioned one behind herself and the other above herself, the blade that was swung down reached first, her knees buckling as her Manifestation cracked severely, before the other one struck her other manifested arm with immense force, sending her flying back. 

Before she could crash onto the ground, she managed to stabilize herself in mid-air and land on her feet, right as all three of them charged at her simultaneously. Katie's dragon Manifestation had lightning charged up between its jaws, Zoya had both her rapiers pointed at her, and Seila was preparing to expand her blades again... 

Suddenly, XFE burst out from underneath Sakura and she shot straight up before they could converge on her, as she towered over them on a familiar looking Manifestation... 

"Hey, that looks like...," Began Suri, her eyes widening. 

"...my Relaxation Pedastal," Completed Kiran with a frown. 

Sakura then swiftly manifestated XFE, extending from her hands...in the shape of a chainsaw on each hand. They looked like Suri's chainsaw Manifestation, except... 

"Hey, you can only manifest one chainsaw, right?" I asked Suri. 

"...yeah," She grumbled, not looking very pleased.

Katie began to fire her lightning while Seila started to point her blades up and expand them, but they were two slow...Sakura suddenly rapidly expanded the chainsaws downwards till they were massive, and then swiftly spun herself around, the chainsaws slicing through the air as she did...and teleporting all three of them out before they could get torn in half. 

Manifestation Replication and Modification, huh...from what I've seen, at the very least, she can copy Manifestations, and she can combine those copied Manifestations to make something new...she'd combined Suri's chainsaw with Seila's Expansive Twin Blades...and the result was a twin expansive chainsaw Manifestation. 

If I had to guess, she probably can't copy my ability...first off, Anomaly X-Abilities don't directly work on another Anomaly, and more than that, her X-Ability is MANIFESTATION Replication and Modification, but the powers of my X-Ability aren't Manifestations at all. Good, it'd be highly problematic if she could copy my powers...still, that's one powerful X-Ability she's got. 

True, it can't directly work on me, her Manifestations would probably dissipate or destabilize or something if they touched me, but she could still use them to throw stuff at me or mess up the ground to upset my footing and stuff like that...meanwhile, my X-Ability is useless against her, and that goes for the other Anomalies too. I'll need to work harder on my regular skills... 

...

...

A few hours later, I was back home...well, my current residence in the X-Warrior Zone, that is. My apartment in the Residential District of the North Quadrant was just collecting dust now, I hadn't been in there for weeks. No, instead, I'd been stuck babysitting the Wight that we captured, Hebi. 

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He wasn't that much trouble to be honest, he spent most of his time watching anime and movies, but whenever I did interact with him...I found him annoying, he had way too much energy. He seemed to have forgotten that he was a captive, and he's the type who enjoys staying indoors all day everyday, so I don't think he even feels imprisoned at all anymore. 

They'd put a collar on him that prevents him from leaving the building I was staying in, it would electrocute him with a powerful charge if he stepped out of bounds, tries to take it off or shows any sign of hostility. I hate this, I much prefer living alone to having a roommate.

"Yo, welcome back, Kil! What's for dinner tonight?" He inquired as I opened the door and stepped inside, while his eyes were glued to the large screen in the living room. 

This place was way bigger than my apartment in the Residential District, but I was a lot more comfortable there than here. It was a large apartment building, and the apartment that I was posted in opened into a large living room, had two bedrooms with attached bathrooms, a spacious kitchen and a wide balcony. 

This building was one of few apartments in the X-Warrior Zone and were usually reserved for the high-ranking X-Warriors, my sister had a room in one too. So for me, a student X-Warrior whom most think is a regular Paragon, to stay here was kinda...not well received. I got dirty looks from the other X-Warriors who lived in this building whenever I passed them, and even more from X-Warriors who didn't live here...apparently, it's a big honor or something, so they were jealous. 

But if they really think that petty glares will intimidate me, they're sorely mistaken...I've been on the receiving end of far worse, so their dirty looks were like water off a duck's back...is that how that saying goes? Eh, whatever, it doesn't matter. 

"Heyy, I'm talking to you, Kil! What's for dinner!?" 

So annoying... 

"I don't know, find something in the kitchen. There should still be plenty of cup noodles left," I replied with a shrug. 

"I'm sick of those, I want some real food! Come on, Kil, have a heart!" He pleaded, putting on a sorrowful expression. 

"Okay, first off...stop calling me that. And second...fine, I'll get some takeaway tomorrow, so for now, eat the noodles!" I snapped, groaning internally. 

He's the type that won't back down in an argument when he wants something, so the best thing to do was end the argument as quickly as possible, even if that means losing the argument...he really is the worst. Well, that's an exaggeration I guess, Asshole is way worse. Like, WAY worse. 

"Hey, I smell chocolate...did you have sweets before coming here!?" 

He's also got an annoyingly sharp sense of smell. And yup, I went to Delectables before returning here... 

"Nope, must be your imagination."

"You're so mean."

"Yeah, yeah. I'm tired, so don't bother me," I replied, as I headed into my room. 

"Don't forget, tomorrow you'll bring me real food for dinner!" 

"Yeah, that's tomorrow, so why tell me now? I definitely won't remember. Just remind me before I go to the Academy tomorrow."

"Can't you set a reminder on your watch thingy, I won't be awake that early in the morning!" He protested indignantly. 

"Then, tough luck." 

With that, I shut the door to my room with a sigh, before flopping onto the bed. In just a few days time, I was going to be a part of an operation that could essentially be a one-sided massacre...I don't really have any qualms with killing, but even I was going to stress out over something like this...I'd been in life or death situations before, sure, but this was way larger in scale than any of those previous times. 

Well, guess I'll go to sleep, I was pretty full from the desserts I had, so I don't need to eat any dinner. I changed out of my clothes and got into bed with a yawn, switching off the lights. Another person found out that I'm an Anomaly...if too many more people find out, it'll be hard to keep it a secret for much longer at this rate. Before that happens, I need to figure out how to unlock the rest of my powers somehow. 

Suddenly, I got a notification in my I-Watch, I picked it up off the bedside table and tapped on the screen to see what it was. Oh, it's from the X-Warrior Academy. I opened the message and looked through it...it's the details of the team I was going to be a part of. I quickly sat up and scrolled through the message, my heart pounding in dread as I looked to see if any unpleasantly familiar names were there... 

There weren't. I let out a sigh of relief as I didn't see any of Tairo, Bytra or Makoto's names. Yay. Okay, let's see who I am teamed up with...hey, this isn't bad at all. My four teammates were...Suri, Katie, Mitchell and Seila. I have no trouble tolerating any of those four, though Seila's clumsiness was a recipe for disaster...I'll need to keep my Save and Load ability at hand to counter that, just in case. 

And on top of the fact that I can get along fairly well with these four, they're all pretty strong too. It wasn't exactly my absolute ideal team...if I had one more girl instead of Mitchell, it'd be like my own harem. Just kidding, that kind of situation sounds nice on paper and all, but in reality, would probably be really messy. Still, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't happy about the fact that my team was mostly girls. 

Hm, if I was given the option of making changes to this team, let's see...I'd probably trade in Mitchell and Seila for Kiran and Zoya...I don't dislike Mitchell, but his playful nature and teasing sarcasm can be kinda annoying, and I probably get along with Kiran better than I do with anyone in my class besides Suri. 

And as for Seila, I already mentioned why, her physics-defying clumsiness was honestly terrifying...and I'd trade her for Zoya simply because of the rest of my classmates excluding the ones already mentioned, she was probably the easiest to get along with. 

But it's a moot point, I don't really have a say in this, and even if I did, I can't deny that these are pretty weak reasons for wanting a change. My I-Watch then buzzed as I got another notification...oh, it's a message from Suri. Let's see here... 

'Looks like we're on the same team, and um...I'm glad' 

...okay, that's kinda cute. I should write back... 

'Yeah, me too, looking forward to working with you' 

Hm, that kinda sounds like something you'd say to a new coworker, but this is sort of the same thing...right? Eh, it's fine, it works well enough... 

I sent the message and continued scrolling through the email I got from the Academy...oh, the other two teams have also been included. Let's see...Asshole, Bytra, Makoto and Andre. Huh, so they stuck all three scumbags in one team, along with one of the only people nice enough to put up with them. Andre had the patience of a Saint, it was almost inhuman. I felt bad for him, he probably wouldn't have been stuck with them if Misaki hadn't died during the Level J final exam. 

As for the final team, it was made up of Lin, Taayin, Zoya and Kiran. Looking at this, it was pretty clear that my team was the strongest...setting aside my Anomaly powers, Seila and Katie had arguably the most powerful Manifestations in our class, and after Alex died during the Level J final exam, Mitchell was the only person was a Manifestation that could fly. 

Did Director Silva have a say in this? She's made no secret of the fact that she considers me valuable due to my mad skillz-...yeah, that was awful, I'm never saying 'mad skillz' again. Anyway, if she had any influence over this, then it made sense...well, whatever, I'll ask her about it later I guess. For now...I sleep... 

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