Chapter 44 - 43 - Another Anomaly

What. Is. She. Doing!? 

"Wait did she just say-?" Began Mitchell, his eyes starting to widen as he glanced at me. 

"Nothing, she said absolutely nothing," I interrupted before I could stop myself...well, there's no talking my way out of this now. 

Should I go back in time? No, I hadn't been able to contact my sister when I tried yesterday, she must have deliberately turned off her ringer so that she could surprise me, this had been planned ahead of time...to be fair, I hadn't explicitly told her not to reveal that I'm her brother, but come on, she had to know that this was the last thing I'd want...right? 

Actually, looking at her expression right now, in response to the absolute death glare I was giving her...it looks like she had only just realized that fact. The main reason I didn't want people to know that we were related was because I didn't want to get stuck in her shadow, but I never told her that because it might upset her, and regardless of how blunt I generally am, I'm not completely cold and heartless...and right now, I was regretting that. 

"O-oh, uh...n-never mind, I mistook you for someone else, Zax-...I-I mean, uh-...!"

"Give it a rest, stupid sister, the damage is done," I sighed in exasperation, "Now go away."

"Hey, don't be so mean, I haven't seen you in like a month! Come on, give you big sister a hug!" 

"Absolutely not."

Man, this sucks...I need to have a word with her. I walked towards her with a frown and grabbed her arm, dragging her towards a corner of the room as the others all began whispering and staring. I hate this. 

"Take it easy, you seem kinda pissed, Zax-." 

"Yeah, I'm pissed! You do realize that I've been trying to keep a low profile here, right? What's this all about, anyway?" I snapped in exasperation. 

"Well, I just...I heard the Academy's request for Aces to guard teams of Level J students, so I volunteered...and then I saw your name in one of the teams and I got excited and requested to be in the charge of your team...but I guess I shouldn't have, huh...I'm sorry, little bro."

"What's done is done, I guess," I sighed, before adding, "You could've at least told me ahead of time, you know."

"But...I wanted to surprise you."

Well, I guess I couldn't hide it forever anyway, so this wasn't the end of the world. Fine, whatever, I'll let this slide...I then walked back to the others with a sigh, my sister following after me. Great, everyone's staring...not that I could blame them, who wouldn't stare in this situation? 

"So...you're the sibling of an Ace?" Inquired Mitchell, saying it more like a statement than a question.

This bit of info would probably spread pretty quickly, there was going to be no stopping that, but I might as well do some damage control and make sure that there's at least a short delay before that happens... 

"Tell anyone and I'll make you regret it," I responded in a cold, icy tone. 

"R-right-...that, uh, almost sounds like a threat-," Replied Mitchell with a nervous laugh. 

"Well, yeah, it is a threat."

"...sure, I won't tell anyone."

I then glanced at the others with the same expression, which caused Seila to flinch, which subsequently resulted in her losing her balance and falling back onto her butt. Uh...was that my fault? As she got back on her feet with an embarrassed look on her face, the other Ace, Johan Grantz, cleared his throat to get our attention, a slightly irritated look on his face. 

"Perhaps we should get started. We'll be leaving for the Teleportation Point in an hour, and we'll be using that time to discuss how to proceed once we're outside the Sanctuary. We will be teleported to a vacant underground bunker to the north of the Sanctuary, and from there, we'll head north for five kilometers and then turn back. It goes without saying that you students will be doing the fighting while the two of us Aces will be mostly observing, and we'll only step in if necessary. The five of you should now discuss how you plan to set your formation once the exam begins. We won't have any input here, so we'll be over there," He explained, before walking over to the sidelines along with my sister, who gave me a small wave as she bounded after him. 

So...it was pretty much the same as the first teamwork exam, huh? I knew most of the other's X-Abilities already, so it shouldn't be too hard to figure out how to arrange an effective and efficient formation for the five of us to move in. At least, it would be if I didn't feel so awkward right now...all four of the others were staring at me intently. Okay, if I start talking about the exam, then hopefully they'll forget about this for a bit and stop staring... 

"I, uh, guess we should get started with discussing our formation, huh? How about we each take turns briefly describing what we can do, and at which range we operate best at?" I suggested, letting out a quiet sigh of relief as they nodded in reply and stopped staring at me with those curious expressions, "I'll go first, I guess..."

We did as I suggested, taking turns in introducing our capabilities. Once that was done, we debated how best to deploy ourselves into a formation. Naturally, I would be hanging around the back and providing mid to long-range support from about fifty meters away. As for the others, they'd be pairing up, Mitchell with Seila and Katie with Lin. It took a while to figure out how to best pair them up, it was important that we didn't pair up any two that'd be too incompatible to fight as a duo. 

Like last time, we had earpiece communicators available, and agreed on simple ways to quickly address each other. If I needed to warn one of the others, I'd say the first letter of their names and the direction of whatever I was warning them about...for instance, if a Mutant snuck up on Lin to her left, I'd go 'L, left'. Oh, and since both Katie and my names started with K, I suggested that they address me as Z. 

After hashing out a few more minor details, we were set. Huh, that took a fair bit of time, we'd nearly used up the entire hour we had before we'd be leaving and heading for the Teleportation Point. Johan and my sister walked over to us after they saw that we had wrapped up our discussion. 

"Hey, everyone! I hope the strategizing went well," Said Kilella with a friendly smile, receiving affirmative replies from the others. 

They all seemed pretty awestruck by her, though they were paying less attention to Johan...it was the opposite for me, I was super curious about what his X-Ability was. Not to mention that this is the first time I'm seeing another Anomaly. How does his X-Ability compare to mine? Is it more powerful? That's a scary thought...

"So, um...are you really Kilzachs' sister? I mean, you really look a lot alike and all, but it's a bit hard to wrap my head around...I can't believe I'm the classmate of an Ace's sibling!" Exclaimed Lin giddily. 

"Yeah, he's my brother...a-and thanks, I'm flattered!" She replied with a goofy grin...she's loving the attention, isn't she? 

"If y-you've trained with a-an Ace, then I-I feel a bit better about that d-duel we had," Seila said to me. 

She probably didn't mean any harm, but what she said basically implied that I was only strong because an Ace had trained me, and that there's no way that I could have pushed her that far in that fight if I hadn't gotten such training...but I really hadn't though, I had only trained with my sister a handful a times, and all of those instances was after my duel with Seila, the training sessions I spent getting used to using my new weapons. And besides... 

"What do you mean, didn't you win that duel?" I replied innocently. 

Normally, I might have had something to say, but given how timid she is, I'd probably look like a total dick if I did that...and besides, I've spent years ignoring way harsh insults, so an unintentional, and pretty minor, insult was no big deal to me. Okay, fine, maybe I was a little annoyed, but it's whatever. 

"Well, y-yeah...but i-it was really close."

"Oh, what's it like, getting trained by an Ace? Bet there aren't many people who can say they've experienced that!" Remarked Mitchell, with a look of intrigue. 

"Actually, until a few months ago, we've never trained together at all," Chimed in Kilella. 

"Really? Why not?" Asked Lin curiously. 

I feel like their questions are starting to get a bit too personal... 

"Well, uh...I was, uh, really busy after Zax went through his Awakening Procedure, so I, you know, didn't have any time to train with him or anything," She replied, making it pretty obvious that she was hiding something. 

"Hey, I just realized...you two have different last names," Pointed out Mitchell. 

Yup, definitely getting way too personal... 

"H-huh, how a-about that? Weird...," My sister deflected...not very convincingly, as she averted her gaze. 

"You guys should stop," Katie spoke up, tapping Lin and Mitchell. 

"Oh, r-right...sorry," Apologized Lin, her eyes widening in realization as she glanced at me...huh, guess my expression right now gave away what I was thinking. 

"Yeah, my bad, that's none of my business, guess I got kinda carried away," Added Mitchell with a slightly guilty look on his face.

Okay, on the bright side, they had FINALLY stopped asking those increasingly personal questions...but on the other hand, the vibe right now was super fucking awkward. 

"We should go now, it's time," Spoke up Johan, breaking the silence and easing the awkward tension a bit. 

So, with that, we began heading out of the training hall...when Seila, who was at the back of the group, tripped on her own foot and fell forward, knocking onto Katie, who also lost her balance and ended up crashing onto Lin, who was in front of her...wow, they're going down like dominoes. 

I won't let myself get caught in the tumble this time! I swiftly got out of the way, ensuring that I was safe from-...oh, crap, I was so preoccupied with trying to avoid getting dragged into the collapse that I was about to crash onto Johan. 

I got out of the way just in time, but in my rush, ended up losing my balance and falling onto my back...goddammit, I avoided the group tumble, but I still ended up falling...this sucks... 

"Are you alright?" Inquired Johan, offering me his hand to help pull me up. 

"Yeah, no harm done, except to my ego," I replied with a sigh, accepting his hand and grasping onto it, and as he began to pull me up... 

Suddenly, I could hear a familiar static sound in my head...wait, what's going o-... 

<Anomaly Recognized, Category: Fairy Tale Authority>

. 

. 

. 

. 

. 

H-huh...? What...what just happened...? I then froze as Johan spoke up... 

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

...uh-oh.

_____________________________________________

Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Don't forget to vote, and feel free to leave a comment, I appreciate any and all feedback and criticism!

Also, check out my Instagram account @aimdaqs for posts relating to this book.