Chapter 49 - 48 - Attention

"Isn't this great, Zax? You're totally going to get recognized as someone skilled!" Exclaimed my sister with a grin. 

Yeah, ordinarily, that would be great, but...I didn't have a good feeling about this, who knows what'll happen if they find out that I'm an Anomaly? While it wasn't something I'd planned on hiding forever, I wanted to at least wait until I'd unlocked one or two more tiers before revealing it. If they question me about the Two-Headed Serpent incident, they might get suspicious if my answers don't add up. 

"Hey, sis, you didn't tell them that I'm an Anomaly, did you?" I inquired warily. 

"Of course not, give me some credit, I wouldn't betray my baby brother's trust like that! Only Kumar and I know, I haven't told a soul!" She insisted indignantly. 

Good, it sounds like she didn't know that Johan knew. 

"So, what time are we supposed to go there anyway?" I asked her, glancing at my I-Watch. 

"In about two hours, so let's leave for the X-Warrior Zone in an hour, 'kay?" She suggested, after checking the time. 

"Yeah, I guess that's fine by me."

I was kinda dreading this, but it wasn't all that surprising...all the current X-Warriors were either Prodigies or Anomalies, and since I'd hidden the fact that I'm an Anomaly, I was currently the only regular Paragon who could potentially become an X-Warrior, on paper anyway. And given that I'd been involved in two major incidents in the past few months, it was only natural that I'd attract some attention. 

"You look worried...I thought you'd be all excited about this. You okay?" Asked Kilella with a look of concern. 

"Don't worry, I'm fine. I just don't want to reveal that I'm actually an Anomaly, that's all."

"Hey, it's not like you're obligated to answer all their questions, you know. I mean, you're not in any trouble or anything, this is something that happens pretty often actually, whenever students with promising potential reveal themselves, they get called in for a sort of interview. See, HQ doesn't want to let any talented students go to waste, so they put in effort into motivating and grooming such students to ensure that they live up to their potential and have a smooth transition into becoming an X-Warrior when they graduate," She explained assuringly.

Huh, if this whole thing was just a formality, that might be the best case scenario. I really don't want to get too much attention until I'm a lot stronger... 

... 

... 

About an hour and a half later, we were in the X-Warrior Zone, taking a bus to the X-Warrior headquarters. It was a large building that also served as the point for X-Warriors to take on Missions and then later report back regarding the result of the Mission, sort of like a guild in fantasy worlds. 

And in addition to that, any and all other matters regarding X-Warriors were primarily conducted here. We soon arrived outside the building and got off the bus, and immediately, my sister started getting a lot of attention. Many of the X-Warriors outside the building were staring at her and whispering...I think I'm invisible to them right now. 

Well, she is widely regarded as one of the strongest, if not the strongest, X-Warrior in the Sanctuary, so this is hardly surprising. Fortunately, no one mobbed her or anything, so we were able to make our way through the building's sliding doors and into the elevator without a problem. 

"I was kinda expecting a bunch of people to crowd you, the way they were all staring at you it's kinda surprising that they didn't," I remarked, as the elevator went up. 

"Oh, well they used to...but it started to annoy me and I began attacking anyone who tried to mob me, one time I even left fifteen or so X-Warriors in pretty bad condition...to be fair, I was having a rough day," She explained sheepishly, "I was then asked to stop attacking people after one of the higher-ups tapped my shoulder to greet me but I flipped him over my shoulder out of reflex...he was like, sixty, I ended up breaking his back, poor guy."

...as I kid, I always preferred playing video games and watching stuff over going outside and playing, while my sister enjoyed both digital entertainment and playing outside, and she often called me to join her whenever she went outside, but I almost never did...I think I might have dodged a real bullet by choosing to stay indoors... 

"If you weren't so powerful and valuable, you'd have probably gotten into a lot of trouble for that."

"Yeah, well, I'm valuable because I'm powerful, and due to being powerful, I'm also kinda famous, and that's why they mobbed me in the first place...in other words, if I hadn't been valuable, I wouldn't have had to deal with getting crowded by fanboys to begin with!" She declared in exasperation. 

"That's...true, I suppose."

We then reached the top floor and got off the elevator, heading for a doorway at the end of the hallway. She knocked on the door and entered, the door opened into a large office, where a bunch of people were waiting inside. Seated at a desk at the back of the room was a woman who looked like she was in her early thirties, with long raven black hair tied in a ponytail, purple eyes and wore a fancy-looking suit. 

"Hey, Director Silva, how's it going?" Greeted my sister with a grin. 

Wait, Silva? Huh, now that I take another look, her hair and eye color resembled Kumar's...

"Good afternoon, Kilella, you're in high spirits as always, I see," She replied with a smile. 

I looked around at the rest of the people in the room...two random old men and...my biological shithead of a father. And he had a pretty sour look on his face. Nice. 

"This is my brother, Kilzachs, you asked me to bring him in," She introduced me, patting my shoulder. 

"Uh, hi...nice to meet you," I greeted her awkwardly. 

I'm not good at this kind of thing... 

"Yes, nice to meet you, Kilzachs. I'm the director of the X-Warrior Zone, my name is Ziva Silva. Now, then, let's get straight to business, shall we?" She responded in a polite tone. 

"Sure, that's fine by me," I replied with a nod. 

"We took the liberty of investigating you since we prefer to know what we're dealing with, I hope you don't mind. You had a pretty uneventful, if not somewhat lonesome, childhood till middle school, where you were accused of killing a dog and then nearly beating a group of girls to death...you've maintained your innocence though. I'd like to hear your side of this story."

How does she know about that? I thought it got covered up. Well, guess it doesn't matter how... 

"Yeah, sure, I don't mind. I wasn't friends with any of my classmates back then, the only one I interacted with was that dog. On that day, he messed up those girls' paintings or something like that, I don't really remember, and after school, they beat him to death, with the intention of putting the blame on me, since they knew that no one would stick up for me. I walked in on them right as they finished killing the dog, and they told me their plan...and then I lost it and beat the crap out of them. That's my side of the story, but it doesn't matter if you don't believe me, not many people did."

Crap, got a bit heated towards the end there...that memory was one that infuriated me to this day. I cleared my throat and took a deep breath to calm myself. 

"Wow, you should see the look in your eyes right now, that's a lot of hatred and rage, but more importantly...that's not the look of a liar. If you ask me, your actions were completely justified, and it's good to know that you aren't an indiscriminately violent psychopath. Now, then, let's get back to the findings of the investigation...after that, things were uneventful again till the day of your Awakening Procedure, your fifteenth birthday."

That's a relief, she doesn't know about what happened with Bytra...good, that's definitely a memory I don't want to recall. 

"You didn't turn out to be a Prodigy, and a few hours later, you were disowned. You were transferred to another school, moved out to an apartment and changed your last name from Floence to Light. If you don't mind me asking...why exactly were you disowned?" She inquired, after a quick glance at my cunt of a father, who averted his gaze. 

"Sorry, but I thought that was obvious?" I responded in an innocent tone. 

"Maybe so, but I don't know for sure, so I'd like to hear it straight from the source."

"Well...since I wasn't a Prodigy, I was told that I was worthless and trash, and to leave the house."

"And the person who told you this...was your father?" 

"Hm, that's a tough question to answer...see, as far as I'm concerned, I don't have a father."

"I see, that answers my question perfectly. Minister Floence, we'll have a talk later," She remarked with a cold glance at the asshole, before turning back to me, "After that, you sort of flew under the radar for a while, so to find out more, we checked the logs on your I-Watch."

...in other words, an invasion of privacy. Well, whatever, I had nothing to hide, it's not like I've done anything illegal, and there's absolutely nothing incriminating in my I-Watch. 

"Huh, that's not the most encouraging thing to hear," I frowned, acting a bit more annoyed than I actually was. 

"Yes, I suppose this would anger anyone. Still, I have to say, your logs are a bit...strange."

Huh? What's she talking about? 

"Strange how?" 

"Tell me, what's your training schedule like on a normal day?" 

My training schedule? What's so strange about it? I told her how many hours I usually spend training in each aspect of my fighting style, along with taking a day off every couple of weeks. 

"Then the logs were correct, I thought there might have been some kind of mistake...you spend an abnormal amount of time training, it's almost scary...even after reducing the workload on weekdays when your classes at the Academy began, this is still-...how are you not overworked!?"

I did not expect for this aspect of my life to get so scrutinized... 

"Uh...not sure what to say about that...but whenever it feels like I'm overdoing it, I stop even if I haven't fully used up the hours I planned to. Though I haven't had to do that for a while, sometimes I can even go an hour or so longer, until I start to feel like I'm too fatigued to continue."

"So that means you push yourself right to your limits every time you train? The level of discipline it would take to work that hard on a near daily basis is incredible...what motivates you?" She inquired curiously. 

"Well, in the start, I was just determined to prove those words wrong, that I'm nothing but worthless trash...but lately, I find myself enjoying sharpening my skills, and I want to keep getting stronger...that said, my original objective is still very much intact."

"I see, a simple yet effective driving force. Getting back to it...you applied for the X-Warrior Academy shortly after your twentieth birthday, passed the entrance exam quite comprehensively, and have consistently been among the top of your Level J class in all three subjects. You were involved in an impressive feat during your first teamwork exam, where you successfully escaped from two Two-Headed Serpents while literally carrying the rest of your team, and more recently, you were the reason why we were able to capture one of the Wights. And let's not forget the XFE Takeover technique that you discovered."

Okay, it doesn't look like she's planning on questioning me about the teamwork exam incident, that's a relief. 

"When you put it that way, you make it sound like I've done more than I actually have," I replied, a bit awkwardly.

"No need to be modest. After all, now that we've investigated you, I think you're exactly what we need. Regarding the Wights, nothing has been confirmed yet, but it's highly likely that we'll be attacking the base they set up here in Russia, several miles to the south southeast of the Sanctuary. Currently, drones are being manufactured in order to confirm their exact location, after which, the best option is to strike them with an aerial assault."

"How, exactly? As far as I know, there aren't any aircrafts in the Sanctuary," I pointed out skeptically. 

"Right, hence the drones being created. That said, we do have about half a dozen prototype jets that are being made, they should be ready by the time we decide to attack. Manufacturing any more aircrafts that those would take too long too, so we need to explore other options."

Huh, she seems pretty competent, she's clearly thought this through a fair bit...

"From what I've heard, you have excellent marksmanship. That particular skill is far more scarce than you might think. We've been considering making drones that double as sort of jetpacks or hovercrafts that can be ridden, and we've tested that out with a few prototype drones, but of all the X-Warriors who've done simulations using these drone-jetpacks, the best we got was a seventy percent accuracy rate with long-ranged attacks."

They already had prototypes ready? It had only been two days since we captured that Wight, there's no way they could have made that so quickly, especially since drones big enough to hold a person weren't a thing in the Sanctuary, the only drones I'd seen were small ones that projected out advertisements and virtual billboards in the Entertainment District, and the drones used to create the Duel Field. Which means that she must have had them start manufacturing these drones shortly after the intital reports of Wight attacks... 

"Okay? I'm not sure I see where you're going with this."

"Well, it's quite simple, really. Once the drones that double as flight gear are made, we have two options in how to use them...first, to strap X-Warriors onto them and have them ambush the campsite and shoot down the Wights, or second, to drop bombs on them...making bombs that use XFE for fuel is certainly possible, but very expensive, especially for objects that are single-use, and we can't know for sure how effective XFE explosives would be in the first place."

Fair enough... 

"Therefore, if your aim and accuracy is as good as I've heard, I just might ask you to spearhead the operation. Any objections to that? If you're against killing or have any other moral issues, you're free to refuse. After all, you're not an X-Warrior yet, just a student."

Were my shooting skills really that much above what anyone else was capable of? 

"No, I don't have any particular objections, and I have no qualms about killing people, especially if I can gain something out of it...I will get paid, right?" I responded with a slight smile, after mulling it over. 

"Why, you cocky little-...!" Began one of the men seated next to Director Silva, before trailing off as she gestured for him to be quiet. 

"You're an interesting one, aren't you? And yes, we'll compensate you depending on your performance. Well, let's not get too ahead of ourselves, none of this is set in stone yet. Instead, how about this...I'd like to see firsthand just how good your accuracy is. Would you mind demonstrating?" She inquired with a gleam in her eyes. 

"No, I don't mind at all."

"Good...then let's take this to a more suitable location, shall we?" She suggested, standing up and nodding at a Teleportation platform in the corner of the room. 

I had to say, I was intrigued and curious to see how this would go, so... 

"Sure, I don't see why not." 

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