Chapter 192 - Team Reshuffle

"Hello, my name is Grey Cintor...I was in the Level J class during the previous six months, and I was informed that I'd be skipping Level Q and joining the current Level K batch instead. It's, uh, nice to meet you all," Grey introduced himself, as he walked over to the front of the class. 

"Um, excuse me, instructor...I've never heard of someone skipping a level in the Academy, not even those that went on to become Aces. So, why now?" Inquired Zoya, as pretty much everyone in class looked curious and confused by this. 

"Well, this is something of a special case...you see, nearly every student in the previous Level J batch suddenly fell into comas a few months ago. And of the handful that didn't, he's the only one who remained at the Academy. We couldn't just leave him by himself in a class of one, and making him repeat Level J would have been unfair since he had done more than well enough on his exams to pass already. And so, the decision was made to have him join this class, though he will have a few extra sessions every week to cover whatever he missed by skipping Level Q," Explained Instructor Satou. 

I guess that's fair...the weekly schedule for Academy classes is kinda tiring, to have a bunch of extra sessions on top of that for the next six months is probably gonna be hell for the poor guy. 

Still, I'm a little apprehensive about this...I mean, while I did think his reasons were justified, he did try to kill all of his previous classmates. And well, he succeeded, just not in this timeline...though the effects remained. 

If he gets off on the wrong foot with anyone here, who knows what might happen...maybe I'm just being paranoid, but a little caution doesn't hurt. It should be fine though, the majority of my classmates aren't bad people. 

From what he'd told me before, it'd sounded like pretty much his entire class has been bullying him...I bet that there were at least one or two exceptions, but it seemed pretty undeniable that the majority of his classmates were in on it. 

Well, let's just see how things go...if nothing happens, then I won't need to do anything, I'll just sit back and keep an eye on it. But if things do get messy, something like Asshole being an asshole to him, I'll step in and interfere. 

"Does this mean that he'll join one of our set teams? If he's weak, then he'll only be a nuisance," Frowned Asshole, being an asshole as always. 

"Actually, that reminds me, since the teams in this class are currently lop-sided, the current twelve students in this class will be divided into two teams of six. Team Kilzachs, which has remained intact, will have just the one change; Grey will be joining that team. And the rest will form a new team, you may discuss amongst yourselves and decide on who should lead you," She informed us. 

Wait, what? Another teammate? Damn it...it's going to take a lot of joint practice to get used to the addition of one more person to the team, and just when the five of us had really started to come into our own as a team...still, I suppose there's no choice but to accept it. 

It's either this or have three teams of four each, which means that, at best, I'll lose one of my current teammates, and at worst, end up with three completely new teammates. If I had to pick, I suppose that, yeah, I'd rather deal with one new teammate than losing an existing one. 

After all, the current balance of my team takes all of them into account...if Mitchell goes, I'll have to play the role of cover and scout, making both positions less effective as my focus will be split. If Seila goes, our front line is significantly weakened. Same with Katie. Suri's got the second longest range after me, and is pretty powerful at the front line herself. 

Instructor Satou then decided to rearrange where we were sitting, suggesting that each team's members should sit on one side of the classroom...fortunately, since everyone in my team were already sitting on the left side of the classroom, we didn't have to move. 

Grey sat in the middle seat of the front row, while Asshole and Makoto shifted over to the front row of the right side, on either side of Bytra, who looked a bit apprehensive. It did seem like she'd moved to try and get away from those two, but in the end, she gets what she deserves. 

We're halfway through the X-Warrior Academy, we'll be X-Warriors this time next year, assuming we pass...things have changed a lot since a year ago, when I first enrolled at the Academy. A whole shitload of death and destruction, enough to last a lifetime. 

And now, with things having changed so much over the past twelve months, I can only imagine what's in store for me in the next twelve months. More death and destruction? Or hopefully, maybe some peace and quiet? Yeah, somehow, the former feels like the much more likely possibility... 

... 

... 

"Here's hoping we get someone famous...or hot," Grinned Mitchell hopefully. 

"Why are you the way that you are?" Sighed Suri in exasperation. 

It was currently the third and final session of the first day back at the Academy, we had combat training after the theory session, in which we sparred against training bots. 

And now, to finish the day off, it was teamwork training. We don't have a set instructor for teamwork training in Level K...instead, we'll be instructed by different K-Ranked X-Warriors every week. Oh, and each team gets a different K-Rank, before swapping in the second week, and then two different X-Warriors will tale over for the next two weeks, and so on. 

So, in other words, we're gonna have a good twenty to thirty different people guiding us in teamwork training...the intention seems to be to help up develop better adaptability instead of getting used to the same old thing every day, but if you ask me, this is kinda risky. 

There's a good chance that all this'll do is create confusion and uncertainty amongst the teams. And another thing, it seems like teamwork is going to take up a much higher proportion of our final grade than theory or individual combat. 

During Level J and Q, the proportion between the three was relatively even, but now teamwork accounts for fifty percent of our final grade, individual combat taking up thirty percent and theory only taking twenty percent.

Anyway, we were currently waiting for the K-Rank who was supposed to instruct us today to arrive, it was already a couple of minutes past the time they were supposed to show up at. 

"I don't get it, why do they keep doing this...whenever an X-Warrior is going to be involved in our classes or exams, their identities are kept hidden until they actually show up. I mean, I can't think of a single time where we knew ahead of time, can you?" Complained Mitchell impatiently. 

"Yeah, it is kinda annoying, but at the end of the day, it's not that big a deal," I shrugged in response. 

"I actually agree with Mitchell...why can't they let us know ahead of time?" Frowned Seila. 

"Maybe it's fair enough when it comes to exams, but for random classes like this, it shouldn't matter whether we know or not, so they might as well inform us," Agreed Suri, while Katie watched on with bemusement. 

"You guys all seem to get along pretty well, huh?" Remarked Grey. 

"Sure, except that we all hate this guy," Responded Suri, nodding at Mitchell. 

"Hey, that's mean! So not cool!" He protested indignantly. 

"By the way, sorry to hear about what happened to all your old classmates, that must have been difficult," Said Seila sympathetically. 

"Well, it certainly was shocking and unexpected, but honestly, I didn't have the best relationship with my classmates, so I wasn't exactly emotionally devastated," He replied with a faint smile...huh, gotta hand it to the guy, he's a pretty convincing actor... 

If I didn't know what actually happened, I'd have probably bought that too. Impressive. 

"It is pretty scary though, this whole coma thing...so many people randomly fell into comas last year, no one's been able to identify the cause, and none of them have woken up yet. It hasn't happened in a while as far as I know, but man, it's still terrifying...at any moment, it could suddenly happen to one of us," Stated Mitchell grimly. 

Sheesh, way to guilt-trip a guy. I mean, yeah, he doesn't know that my powers are what caused all of those comatose people, but still, I couldn't help but avert my gaze as he spoke. I should keep my expression straight, otherwise-...

Suddenly, the door opened and someone walked in, cutting off my train of thought. Oh, must be the X-Warrior who'll be taking over our teamwork sessions for this week. Let's see who it...is...

"You've gotta be kidding me...," I muttered, as Katie stiffened slightly. 

The person who walked in met my gaze with a glare, a familiar, unpleasant face entering my sight...damn it, what is HE doing here? The bastard who roughed up Katie during the X-Warrior Championship, and one of the few other Anomalies in the Sanctuary...Yugi Suzuki... 

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