"."

...huh? A mass of green energy began appearing underneath Kiran as he activated his Secondary Manifestation, lifting him up about twenty...no, twenty-five meters, in the shape of a pillar with a comfortable looking seat at the top, it sort of looked like a giant beanbag...I didn't even know that XFE could be manifested in a soft and elastic form.

​​

"What in the...?" Muttered Instructor Silva with a look of bemusement.

As I watched from the sidelines, Misaki woke up with a dazed groan and glassy look in her eyes.

"Wha-...? Where am I...?" She mumbled dizzily, standing up and stumbling a bit as her knees wobbled.

"Oh, look who's finally awake...congrats, you lasted like five seconds before you got knocked out. I'm in awe of your power, o'great Prodigy," I greeted her with a mock tone of admiration.

"Huh...? Wait, you...tch, I'll rip out your tongue one of these days, you cocky Dud."

Anyway, back to the fight.

"."

His green energy oversized swatter formed in his hand and rapidly expanded, before he swiftly flicked it down, attempting to slam it down towards the instructor. Right before it crashed down on him, the instructor quickly expanded his own Manifestation to counter, raising both his arms above himself defensively, both manifested arms cracking severely, before he grew to his full size of fifty meters, towering over Kiran.

"I'm over this, you guys can leave now."

With that, he dissipated his Manifestation and let out an irritated sigh, wincing as he moved his left arm.

"Cool, I'm going home," Said Kiran, letting out a sigh of relief and heading for the exit.

"Oh, you with the glasses, you stay back. I need to have a word with you about slashing my shoulder and busting up my wrist, you little shit," Remarked the instructor, flashing a glare at me.

"Uh...sure," I replied with a sigh.

"Wait, what did he say? You...you hurt him?" Stuttered Misaki in disbelief.

"Oh, I'm sure it was just a fluke, after all, there's no way a lowly Dud outperformed a Prodigy like you, amiright?" I inquired innocently, before sticking out my tongue at her tauntingly.

She let out a threatening growl but didn't say anything as she turned around and headed for the exit, still looking a bit dazed. Bytra left too, which left me alone with the instructor. This should be fun, sarcastically, of course.

"Grr, this is the worst, I can't believe a Level J student hurt me this bad, even if I was holding back," He frowned, walking towards me with a grimace.

"Uhh...sorry? To be fair, you did tell us to throw everything we had at you," I pointed out objectively.

"On top of all that, you're a normal Paragon, not a Prodigy...on paper, several of your classmates are stronger than you, but none of them can match your crazy intensity...well, except for that one guy who fought like an actual animal...seriously, you seemed to be fighting on pure instinct at first glance, but it was clear that every single one of your moves were carefully thought out," He sighed, rubbing his shoulder tentatively.

"Well, yeah, it's not like I was rushing at you blind...so, uh...why exactly did you want me to stay behind?"

"I'm getting to that, but first...get on your knees, I don't like being looked down on!" He snapped, pointing to the ground.

I wasn't all that tall, about five feet and eight inches, but I was still tall enough to tower over him, who was maybe just barely five feet tall...man, what a pain.

"If it's all the same to you, can I just sit in that case?"

"Doesn't matter so long as you're below my eye line."

...seriously, how was this guy older than me?

"I'll be blunt...I don't like that you managed to injure me, so I'd like to punch you in the face a couple of times."

"...uh, how about no?"

"I'm an Ace, so I can override your 'no'!"

"So...you're gonna assault me without my consent?"

"Exactl-...! Wait, no...hey, don't put words in my mouth! Why, you little-...!" He growled, glaring at me, before furrowing his eyebrows and staring at my face, "Hold on...there's something familiar about you. Hey, have we met before or something?"

"Why, does that matter?"

"It's annoying me...I feel like I've got the answer on the tip of my tongue, I won't be satisfied till I figure it out," He frowned, staring at me closely.

Right, he knew my sister...well, if he figures it out, fine, but if he doesn't, I'm not going to tell him. I wouldn't say that I'm hiding the fact that Kilella is my sister, more like I'm letting that fact fly under the radar. If someone found out, I wouldn't bother hiding it, but if no one did, then I had no intention of informing anyone about it. Tairo knew about it, and Bytra probably did too.

"Figured it out yet?" I inquired a bit uncomfortably, as he continued inspecting my face.

"Hold on, that blonde streak by your ear and your eye color, where have I seen those before...oh, that's right, Kilella!" He exclaimed, his eyes lighting up as he figured it out, before his expression darkened and he warily asked me, "Hey, what's your name?"

"It's Kilzachs."

"And your last name?"

"Light...though that's not the last name I was born with, changed it about five years ago."

I mean, I might as well throw him a hint, right? Besides, when it comes down to it, I don't mind all that much if people know who my sister is or not, I just figured I'd keep that detail to myself to avoid being put in her shadow. At the end of the day, I couldn't care less what other people think about me, so either way, it doesn't matter that much.

"Do you know someone named Kilella Floence?"

We're still doing this?

"Yeah, she's an Ace, right?"

"No, I mean...do you know her personally?"

"Hm, I don't know...I guess if being her younger brother counts as 'personally', then...yes?" I replied with a shrug.

"You're her brother!? No way-...no, now that you said it, I can definitely see the resemblance...so, uh, the stuff I said about punching you in the face, I was just kidding, h-hope I didn't scare ya! Well, anyway, I should get going, gotta, uh, report how today's session went in the staff room, so...bye!"

...talk about a change in tune.

"What did you do to that guy, big sis?" I muttered to myself, as he rushed out the door.

Oh, well, doesn't matter...time to go home...

...

...

The next day, while I was in the classroom waiting for the first session to start...

"Hey, Loner Tramp!" Greeted Misaki, as Bytra walked in.

She practically yelled that, getting everyone's attention as she did...if I had to guess, she wanted Bytra to be at the bottom of the food chain again. After all, she had a lot of pride, and probably couldn't stand seeing someone she'd bullied in the past being treated like an equal.

"Morning entertainment, huh? What a treat," I smirked to myself.

"You're the type who'd watch and laugh as the world burns, aren't you?" Remarked Kiran from my left.

"Oh, definitely, I'd be watching with a bowl of popcorn, so long as I'm not burning along with it, of course."

Ooh, looks like Bytra is about to respond...I hope she cries or something.

"Hm? Oh, I remember you, you're the girl from my old school, right!" Exclaimed Bytra with a smile.

Huh? Well, that's disappointing...looks like she was fighting back. Boring.

"Huh, what is this, what are you-?" Misaki responded uncertainly.

"That's right, you were the girl who lost your self control and fucked like five boyfriends of our classmates at the time, only to blame it on me...right?" She inquired with an innocent smile.

...is she copying my mock innocent act? That bitch! Though I had to admit, Misaki's expression was hilarious. Fine, I'll let it slide.

"Wha-!? It was three, not fiv-...no, I mean, that was you, not me! Y-you bitch!"

Wow, that could not have been more unconvincing if she tried. As much as I hated Bytra, I had to say...well played. She expected Misaki to do this, and to counter, she decided to strike back hard and catch her off guard. Bytra wasn't a naturally confident person, but she must have picked up a few tricks after spending over five years with Tairo. No, confidence wasn't quite the right word, it was more like arrogance. Arrogance to match Misaki's own overflowing reserves of arrogance, in other words, fighting fire with fire.

Yesterday, it was clear that Bytra was afraid of, or at least intimidated by Misaki, so this had to be pretty nerve-wracking...I guess that emphasizes just how desperate she is to protect her 'popular' status, which was the whole reason she'd fucked me over five years ago in the first place. Before the argument, if that's the right word, could escalate further, the door opened and Instructor Joan Anderson walked in.

"Please take your seats, students...um, we'll continue from where we left off yesterday, so please go to the page we stopped at yesterday," She instructed a bit shakily, as she headed for the front of the room.

She was kinda timid and soft-spoken, and her lessons were a bit boring, but she taught well enough, so I had no real complaints about her teaching.

Anyway...that was the only notable event during the day, the first and second sessions both went uneventfully, and the third session was canceled since Instructor Silva was busy with a personal matter. Wow, absent on his second day on the job, after he'd missed the first couple of weeks no less...I had to wonder, what the heck would the teamwork exam for the end of January even look like?

That was a concern for later though...

...

...

A few hours later, I got a message from my sister, saying that she was coming over. It was just past 8:00 PM, and I was currently in bed, resting after having finished a few hours training at the gym. Huh, weird, she usually only came over on weekends, wonder if something's up. Well, no sense in speculating, especially since she'll be here in less than half an hour.

As it turned out, a lot less than half an hour, my doorbell ringing about ten minutes later. I like to go to sleep extra early on days which I have classes the next day, since I'm not a morning person. So, this had better be worth it...in other words, she'd have better brought some sweets with her. I stood up with a sigh and headed for the door, opening it as I let out a stifled yawn.

"Hey, little bro, how's it hanging?" She greeted me cheerfully.

"Fine, I guess. What's this about, sis? And did you bring any sweets...?" I inquired, looking down at her hands, when I saw for the first time that she wasn't alone...Kumar Silva was with her...nah, probably just my imagination, "So...no sweets?"

"Hey, don't ignore me, you little-...I-I mean, uh...never mind," He began to yell, before backtracking as my sister glanced at him.

Just what did she do to him to get him this afraid of her?

"So, mind letting us in, Zax?" She grinned expectantly.

"Fine, whatever...but you can't stay for long, and you owe me double the usual amount of sweets next time, Ella."

"You got it, little bro!"

"Why am I even here?" Muttered the instructor, as my sister dragged him in.

Yeah, I was wondering the same thing.

"What's this about, sis? You don't usually show up on weekdays."

"Hehe, well...I just found out that Kumar here is gonna be teaching you during your Level J classes, and I kinda got excited, you know, worlds colliding and stuff...it's a small world, huh?" She replied with an easy-going laugh.

"Yeah, it literally is a small world, considering the Sanctuary to planet ratio in terms of size-," I started to reply.

"Jeez, you can be such a little buzzkill sometimes, Zax! Let me have this, it's a cool coincidence nonetheless!"

"Uh...you're weird, Ella. So, wait, that's why you're here, because you thought it was a 'cool coincidence' that two people you know happened to meet?"

"Well, I...yup, pretty much!"

"Are you kidding me, Kilella, that's why you made me call in absent on my second day!? When you said it was an emergency, I thought it had something to do with what I did yester-...! I-I mean, tch, this is s-stupid, can I go?" He began angrily, before stuttering as he not-so-subtly changed the subject.

Ah, so that's why he seemed a bit on edge. He was overthinking it though, even if my sister knew about his, uh, training exercise yesterday, I doubt she'd care too much.

"Hm, yesterday? Did something happen?" She asked curiously.

"N-nothing!" He stammered, averting his gaze.

"Okay, so something definitely did happen...Zax, do you know? Come on, tell me!" She shook my shoulders eagerly.

She had the curiosity of a cat, and once she wanted to know something, she'd get all restless and impatient till she found out.

"Nothing much, really...the instructor here just-."

"Just call him Kumar, no need for any formalities. Right, Kumar?" Interrupted my sister, glancing at him.

"Uh...right, sure," He replied with a sigh.

"Okay...well, as I was saying, Kumar gave us a sort of...training exercise, I guess you could call it," I said briefly.

It might be fun to watch Kumar squirm a bit, but maybe better not risk it, he is going to be one of my instructors for the next five and a half or so months.

"Hm, you're not lying, I don't think, but...there's something that happened that you don't want me to know, huh, Kumar?" She inquired, turning her gaze towards him and staring down at him intensely.

"W-well, I..."

Ten minutes later, she managed to wring it out of him with a minimal application of pressure. Huh, I'd never seen this intimidating side of my sister...no wonder he was so afraid.

"So, what you're saying is...you let your stupid size complex get your emotions riled up, over a perfectly reasonable misunderstanding about your age, and you then went on to unleash the full extent of your Primary Manifestation upon a class of Level J students? And after that, you split them up into groups of four and tormented each group one by one?"

"W-well, tormented is a strong word, Kilella-."

"Don't make excuses, you temperamental man-child!"

"Y-yes, ma'am!"

She was younger than him, twenty-five years old to his twenty-nine, but this scenario right here looked like an adult scolding a little kid...it was kinda funny.

"Zax, you didn't get hurt, did you?" She asked, concern in her voice, before her tone turned colder as she turned to Kumar, "You didn't hurt my little brother, did you?"

"Come on, Ella, you're being overprotective. I'm fine, nothing a quick trip to the infirmary couldn't fix," I replied with a shrug.

The Academy's infirmary had all the basic first-aid items, along with Healing Pods. They were special pods that you get into for about fifteen minutes, what it does is stimulate and consequently increase your body's healing processes drastically, thought doing so drains your stamina in proportion to the increased self-repair. But since my injuries were minor, they healed up within fifteen or so minutes and didn't cost any significant amounts of stamina.

"In other words...you were hurt," She remarked coldly, flashing a death glare at Kumar, "So, you bullied my baby brother, did you?"

...I really didn't like being called 'baby brother'.

"N-no, wait...sure, I suppose you could say I bullied the other Level J students, but one of your brother's injuries was self-inflicted, and the other was done in self-defense! He left a deep cut on my shoulder and busted my wrist, so I kinda panicked and struck out because I thought he was about to blast my wrist off!"

"Well...yeah, I was planning on firing again, sorta got caught up in the heat of the moment," I replied sheepishly.

"Is that true...?" Remarked my sister with a look of surprise, before breaking out into a wide smile and pulling me close, hugging me and ruffling my hair, "Way to go, Zax, I'm so proud of you! I can't believe you held your own against an Ace, that's so awesome!"

"I mean, he was holding back, so it's really not that big of a deal," I replied with a shrug.

"Still, you nearly crippled him for life, that's so cool!" She grinned with a thumbs up.

"Hey, that's not very nice-...whatever, I'm leaving, so-," Began Kumar, standing up.

"Not so fast...you still need to apologize to Zax for hurting him. Oh, right, what were your injuries, little bro?"

"Nothing major. The first was a few punctures on my palms from when I threw one of my classmates at him by grabbing her Primary Manifestation, a thorny whip, and swinging it towards him. And the second was when he flung me away before I could blast his wrist, I got a few bruises on my back. Like I said, nothing major, and I'm all healed up now."

"Oh, that really is nothing major...but wait, you seriously threw your classmate? That's pretty resourceful! Also, I kinda got nervous for a sec there when you said 'by grabbing her...', hehe," She replied with a suggestive smirk.

"What are you, thirteen?" Inquired Kumar with an exasperated sigh.

"Shut up, or I'll duel you again," She growled threateningly.

"No way, I'm never dueling you again."

"Oh, you beat him, Ella?"

"Yup! His X-Abilities are strong and all, but I'm like way faster, so I blasted his Manifestation around the center, yanked him out of it, and then got caught up in the rush and ended up slamming him down to the ground. No permanent damage done though, so all's well that ends well."

"No, not 'all's well that ends well', I was in the hospital for a week!"

As they began snipping at each other, I patiently waited for them to leave, dropping several hints like glancing at my watch and gasping at the time, I even said 'it's getting pretty late, I need to get some sleep' multiple times, but...as it turned out, they didn't leave till a whole two hours had passed, only leaving when my patience ran out and I bluntly asked them to get out. It's almost 10:30 PM, I just wanted to sleep early, I'm going to be so tired during class tomorrow...next time my sister comes over, she better bring me a generous amount of sweets to make up for this...

_____________________________________________

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