"Ready to go?" Inquired Kilella.

"Yup, ready!" I replied enthusiastically. ​​

It was a week later, the 17th of February. Three days ago was Valentine's Day, and while usually that meant nothing to me, Delectables had done a fifty percent-off offer on all menu items for the day, so naturally, I paid them a visit. I'd have preferred another mind-blowing limited item, but that deal was still something I wasn't going to miss even if the world was ending.

Anyway, today was a Saturday, and my sister had come over to take me to meet her old classmate, the one who made X-Weapons. I couldn't care less about what kind of a person she is, so long as she was good at making X-Weapons, that's all that really mattered to me. That said, I can't deny that I am kinda curious, especially since my sister seemed a bit apprehensive about seeing this person.

"Hey, Zax, teleport me to the outside of the door, I wanna know what it feels like!" She suddenly requested, right as we began heading for the door.

Hm, what should I do? I obviously couldn't say that I can only teleport myself, that'd contradict my 'explanation' regarding how I saved my teammates during that exam. Guess I might as well, it won't cost me much XFE anyway, so whatever. If my XFE was at a hundred percent, I could freeze time for a maximum of six hundred seconds, or ten minutes.

Well, technically it was a little bit more than ten minutes since I would recover about five percent XFE in those ten minutes, my XFE recovery rate is one percent per two minutes. Anyway, freezing time for six seconds takes one percent of my XFE, so this shouldn't take me more than two percent of my XFE. Not that it matters, today's a weekend and a day off, so it's not like I need to spend any XFE on anything today, so I don't need to be too frugal.

"Sure, I don't mind, but it really doesn't feel particularly remarkable. Well, here goes...," I replied, placing a hand on her shoulder for show, before inaudibly mumbling, "."

Okay, let's make this quick. I may not have a reason to conserve my XFE today, but better safe than sorry. I grabbed my sister's arm and pulled her with me as I headed for the door, opening it and walking out before shutting it. Better just make sure that no one's around right now...yup, the coast is clear.

I then turned around to lock the door, before stopping myself just in time. That was close, I almost locked it out of habit, but I can't do that until I unfreeze time, it wouldn't make sense for an unlocked door to suddenly be locked because of a teleportation ability.

"."

"Wha-...woah, that happened really fast! Like instantly, but even faster...what's the right word, um..."

"You had it right with 'instantly', that's literally the fastest you can get. Now, come on, let's go," I replied, tugging on her sleeve with a bit of impatience.

If this old classmate of hers had any real skill, then I can't wait to meet then, and if they were incompetent, then I might as well get this over quickly and save some time. Well, I doubt it's the latter, considering the fact that she made satisfactory X-Weapons for my overpowered sister, she had to have some degree of skill in creating.

"Jeez, chill out, little bro. It's not that far from here, only about a twenty minute ride on a shuttle bus."

The person we were going to meet worked on her creations right here in the Residential District of the North Quadrant, which meant that we had to use public transport to get there. Fortunately, there was a bus stop just in front of the apartment building I lived in. A couple of minutes later, we were in a bus, occupying one of back rows.

"So, what's this old classmate of yours like, big sis? You seem...less than thrilled about this whole thing. You didn't have to force this meeting if you don't get along with her or something, though I do appreciate that you did."

"Hm? No, it's not that I don't get along with her, it's more like...uh...w-well, you'll see soon enough," She muttered, averting her gaze.

Okay, now I'm even more curious than I already was. Just what kind of person was I about to meet...?

...

...

About half an hour later, a bit more time than I was initially told to expect, we arrived at the location. It was a large apartment building, looked like a slightly higher-class place to where I was staying.

"I can't believe you got grumpy just because it took about ten minutes longer to get here than I thought it would...the GPS said twenty minutes, so either blame it or the bus, not me!" Huffed Kilella, ruffling my hair with a pout.

"Hey, cut it out! And I never said I blamed you!"

"Yeah, but you thought it, didn't you?"

"Well, I-...so what if I did?"

After about a minute of this annoying back-and-forth, we finally got back on track and headed into the building, going up to the third floor.

"Let's see...third floor, door number three-zero-nine...ah, here it is," Said my sister, as we found the place.

"Great...so, uh, you gonna ring the bell, or...?"

"Right, I guess I should," She sighed reluctantly, before hesitantly reaching for the doorbell and pressing it.

Before the bell even finished ringing, the door swung open swiftly and a blur of red and black shot out towards my sister.

"Kilella! It's been too long, I missed you!"

"H-hey, Ruby, how's it going?" My sister replied awkwardly, as the person who burst out the door embraced her tightly.

So, this is her, huh...she certainly seemed energetic. She was on the short side, and while she probably was the same age as my sister since they were classmates, she kinda looked closer to my age than my sister's age. She had medium-length red hair that was slightly parted to the left in front and the back was tied in two tails that were both in front of her shoulders. She had bright yellow eyes with dark bags underneath them, a silver ring around the top of her left ear and wore a baggy black hoodie that went down to halfway down her thighs...she was probably wearing shorts under them...I think.

"Hehe, you still have the same scent as before...and your body feels more toned, have you been working out?" Inquired the girl, squeezing my sister's side with a glint in her eyes.

Huh, now her reluctance earlier make a lot more sense.

"C-cut it out! Well, a-anyway, let me introduce you," Kilella said with a clearing of her throat as she seperated herself from the girl, "This is my younger brother, Kilzachs. Zax, this is my old classmate, Ruby O'Sullivan."

"Uh, hi, nice to meet you," I nodded at her with awkward politeness, as she scanned me up and down with narrowed eyes.

"Mm...wow, you're like a guy version of Kilella, this is amazing, you're pretty much the same height and build too," She muttered with a gulp, looking back and forth between my sister and I with a glint in her eyes.

What's her deal? And is that...a hint of drool on the side of her mouth? Nah, I must be imagining things...right?

"Snap out of it, Ruby...you haven't changed at all, have you?" Sighed Kilella, flicking her forehead.

"Ow! Oops, hehe...sorry, maybe I got a bit carried away, hope I didn't freak you out, Kilzachs," She remarked with a grin, holding her hand out.

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't at least a little bit caught off-guard by this, but I'll play it cool.

"No worries, you're good," I replied in a friendly tone, shaking her hand.

"Well, what're you waiting for, come on in, both of you," She invited, gesturing to the open doorway.

We entered after taking our shoes off, I looked around as I did...it was slightly bigger that my place, but the layout seemed kinda the same, the front door opened into a bedroom, with doors on either side of it, presumably leading into a kitchen and bathroom. The main difference between my place and this one was that...this place was really messy.

And I don't say that lightly. Sure, I prefer to keep my place neat and tidy, but a little mess doesn't bother me at all...this was a lot more than a little mess though. Clothes, empty food containers, junk food wrappers, and a whole bunch of other litter were strewn all over the room. The bed was the only spot that was clear, the rest of the room was a huge mess.

Huh, there was a refrigerator and a water dispenser in here, no wonder it felt cramped despite being bigger than my room...why didn't she just keep them in the kitchen? This was a pretty overwhelming mess, is she even comfortable living like this? I mean, seriously...

"Wow, you really haven't changed...messy as ever, I see," Kilella said with an exasperated tone.

You mean she's been living like this for years?

"Well, I did tidy up a bit since you were coming," Replied Ruby, nodding at the bed.

...so then, her bed was usually just as messy as the rest of the room was?

"R-right, I-I see," My sister stuttered, averting her gaze.

Huh, what was that about?

"You okay, sis?" I inquired curiously.

"Y-yeah, totally f-fine! So, a-anyway...why don't we get down to business?" She suggested a bit forcefully...what is she hiding?

"Sure, let's talk in my workspace," Responded Ruby, opening the door on the right side of the room and gesturing for us to follow after her.

Woah...this was kinda cool. And now I get why she had her fridge and water dispenser in her bedroom...she'd converted the kitchen into a workspace. There were several tools and parts all over the place, a large desk, mapping paper to draw up blueprints...looking at all this, I could tell that she knew what she was doing.

"Wow, this is way more organized than your room," Remarked Kilella with a look of surprise.

"Is it? I can't really say, they both seem equally tidy to me," She shrugged as she took a seat on a computer chair by the desk at the back of the space, before turning to me curiously and asking, "So, what's this about, Kilella told me there's something you want to talk to me about?"

"Yeah, I do. It's like this, I'm currently a student at the X-Warrior Academy, and I'm not a Prodigy, so-."

"Woah, hold the phone, you passed the entrance exam as a regular Paragon? That's awesome!" She exclaimed with a spark in her eyes, "I'd expect nothing less from Kilella's brother. I tried to get in a few years ago, but I failed the entrance exam pretty hopelessly, so that was that. Oh, sorry for interrupting, I was just surprised and couldn't help myself."

"No worries, I don't mind. Well, as I was saying, I'm not a Prodigy, so there's a limit to what I can do. But with the right weapons, I believe that I can push those limits. Unfortunately, the options available for public retail aren't quite enough to cut it, the ones that are powerful consume too much XFE, and the ones with more reasonable XFE consumption rates aren't powerful enough...I have a few ideas on how to better balance power and XFE consumption, but I don't have the know-how when it comes to tinkering with or creating X-Weapons, so I was hoping that you take customized requests...I'm willing to pay for your trouble, of course-."

"Hm, I think I get the gist of it...and I can appreciate that you have your own ideas instead of leaving everything to me with nothing but a vague specification of what you want. I think we can definitely work something out, Kilzachs," She stated with a smile, "Tell me what you need and I'll whip 'em up as soon as possible!"

"I appreciate that, but you can work at your own pace, there's no need to rush," I replied politely...this is going pretty well, and considering that I might form a working relationship with this woman, since I'd need maintenance and upgrades on any weapons I commission from her, I may as well make it a friendly and amicable relationship, things were bound to go a lot more smoothly that way.

"Yeah, don't you have that job at the-," Began Kilella.

"Nah, I quit that over a year ago. These days, I come up with useful inventions and sell them on this auction site whenever I'm low on my savings. I may not be allowed to advertise that I make X-Weapons and XFE gadgets, but I do pretty well for myself by auctioning my creations online! I've currently made enough money off that auction site to keep me going for the next ten years, so I don't ever need to have a regular job again!" She exclaimed triumphantly.

"That's pretty cool...what kind of things did you auction off?" I inquired curiously.

"Well, let's see...there's the Taster, a helmet you put on your head, and once activated, it'll modify the signals your tastebuds send to your brain based on your specification...basically, it'll make absolutely anything taste like something you specify. For example, if you specify that you want to taste pizza, and eat broccoli or bread or anything really, they'll taste exactly like pizza. Of course, the texture of what you're eating won't change, but with the taste modified, you can eat healthy food you don't like a lot easier. Also, it can only modify the taste into something you've actually tasted before, as in you can't specify pizza if you've never tasted pizza before. I auctioned that off about a three months ago, and I'm thinking of making another one since it sold for so much!"

What the heck...that was an incredible invention! Wow, the law against private creators advertising their creations was a pretty stupid rule, it was only keeping potentially ground-breaking inventions from thriving. Okay, that settles it, she's an absolute genius and I must have her as my weapon designer.

"Ooh, and there was this other creation I was super proud of, I called them Cheat Glasses. It's extremely useful during exams that have calculations like math and physics, you just have to look at the question and let the glasses scan it, and a few seconds later, the answer will pop up on the glasses, which only the user will be able to see. The glasses scan the user's DNA signature, so to anyone else who isn't the user, they just appear as a regular pair of glasses...pretty neat, huh?"

Are you kidding, that was more than just 'pretty neat', holy crap! She carried on for a while, listing off several of her inventions, and I was way too fascinated to interrupt, talking about my X-Weapons can wait...still, how interesting, the Sanctuary's laws made it difficult for private inventors to prosper, but after hearing all this, it's obvious to me that these laws are detrimental to the Sanctuary. Well, in that case, the Sanctuary's loss was my gain, I had just found myself a genius inventor to work with...

_____________________________________________

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.