"Yeah, no doubt about it...heck, I'm stronger than most of these guys."

"I see...in which case...thanks for the input, Hebi," I replied with a sigh.

​​

"Uh...you okay? I don't think you've ever thanked me before."

"Hm? Well, yeah, because you've never given me a reason to before."

It was a few days later, and while the Sanctuary was in a sort of uproar right now, thanks to the X-Warrior Zone deciding to go public with the battle that just occurred. Director Silva and co were being hit with some pretty severe criticism, though the solutions they presented, my robot idea and fortification of the Sanctuary, were reasonably well-received, and kept the outrage from getting too out of hand.

Yesterday, Director Silva had contacted me and given me the okay to show Hebi the footage and to come meet her after I get his thoughts regarding the suspicion I had...and he'd just confirmed it. The strongest of the Wights...hadn't been at the campsite. He did say a few of them that he saw in my recording were kinda strong, but none that were seen in my footage were among the strongest.

"You know, now that I think about it...I vaguely recall our leaders saying something about provoking the Sanctuary to attack us, and let them kill some of us since that'll give us a valid reason to attack the Sanctuary. See, like me, there are lot of Wights who would prefer a peaceful approach and aren't hateful suicidal maniacs. I'm guessing they posted ten thousand Wights at our base camp here in order to deal as heavy a blow to the Sanctuary as possible, and also to maintain the cover of the plan...if there were only, like, a few hundred of them, the Sanctuary might have figured out what they're upto. At least, that's my assumption."

"What do you mean 'vaguely recall', why didn't you tell me this before!? Well, whatever, what's done is done, I guess," I sighed in exasperation...my current Save point was set about two hours before we arrived at the campsite and launched the attack, but I can't be bothered with going through all that again...

"Woah, what just happened!?" Suddenly exclaimed Hebi, pointing at the screen, where the footage I'd recorded was playing.

I looked over to see...oh, crap. Shit...fuck...oh, no...it was the part where I killed the Wight with the XFE hammers...by freezing time. Of course, in the video, it just looked like he was above me one second and then suddenly below me in the next frame.

Uh-oh...next up is the part where I run into the Wight Anomaly and he asked me if I was the one who froze time...fuck. Damn it, damn it, damn it...this must be why Director Silva asked me to come see her after I'm done with showing Hebi the footage.

How...how the hell did I forget about that part!? Damn it, I'm such an idiot, that was something that I absolutely could not have afforded to overlook...shit, this is really fucking bad...

"I, uh...I gotta go," I remarked with a gulp, before rushing out through the door.

This is seriously bad news for me, how many people saw that footage? Should I use Load after all? No, let's not be so hasty...because I really don't want to go through that battle again. Tch, I should have set a new Save point after we got away. Well, whatever, I'll just deal with this and see how it goes, if my abilities end up getting publicly revealed or something equally bad happens, then I'll have no choice but to go back in time...

I reached HQ before long, a growing sense of anxiety around me as I made my way to Director Silva's office and knocked on the door, before reluctantly entering. Here goes...

"Oh, it's you, Kilzachs. You're here earlier than I thought you'd be."

"Uh, yeah...so, what did you wanna talk about?" I inquired, maintaining an even tone.

"Well, I was watching the footage you sent me, and one part was a bit strange...a Wight attacked you, and then, all of a sudden, it vanished and was below you, with its head decapitated."

Shit...

"Huh...you don't say," I replied, struggling not to avert my gaze.

"And after that, when you fought and captured the Wight Anomaly, it asked you if you were the one who 'froze time'...naturally, I was wondering about that."

Fuck.

"Y-yeah, I thought that was weird...I mean, no one can freeze time, you know? And the other thing was probably a glitch or something, uh...the radiation, you know?" I responded with a shrug.

"There weren't any other 'glitches' though," She pointed out with a raised eyebrow.

"Well, that Wight used really large XFE hammers, so the radiation must have gotten concentrated right then."

"Are you...making all this up on the spot?" She remarked with a slight laugh, "That's...actually kind of impressive."

I'm not convincing her, damn it...

"I don't know what you mean..."

"As you know, this room is soundproofed to prevent eavesdropping, and I can also assure you that there aren't any recording devices in here, so you can talk freely. This will all be off the record, so to speak. Therefore...cut the crap, Kilzachs."

I'm obviously not going to convince her, so there's no point in playing innocent any longer...

"...yes, ma'am."

"So, then...are you an Anomaly?"

"...yeah."

"And...your power is to freeze time?"

Let's try one more lie...

"No, it's teleportation...I teleported above the Wight and then decapitated him-."

"I thought of that, but the footage doesn't quite match up. Is your power the ability to freeze time?"

"...yes."

"Any other powers?"

"Nope."

"Are you sure?"

"Yup. So, uh...did you send that footage to anyone else?" I inquired warily.

"No, I'm the only who's seen it, so far anyway. The way you asked that, you'd prefer if it remained that way, correct?" She stated with narrowed eyes.

"Yeah...correct."

She then let out a long sigh and slumped back into her seat, before shifting her gaze back towards me.

"I can't deny that I understand why you would want to keep such an ability hidden, but it would have be useful to know about this...I thought that maybe your incredible accuracy with shooting was because you freeze time, take aim and then shoot, but that's highly unlikely...you'd look like your body was glitching, especially your arms."

"Yeah, and the way my ability works, it'd be harder to shoot someone while it's active, stuff like momentum is negated while time is frozen. I haven't really used it that often, I haven't needed to much," I responded with a shrug.

"Hope you haven't been misusing that ability," She said half-jokingly, before adding in a more serious tone, "I have to admit...honestly, it's a little terrifying to know that someone can freeze time like you can."

"It's not like it's foolproof, you know...other Anomalies don't get frozen in time when I use it. Anyway, could you keep this to yourself?" I requested sheepishly, "I really don't want too many people finding out."

"Hm...very well, I'll agree to that...for now, anyway. Does anyone else know?"

"Only Johan and Sakura, the other student Anomaly, really know, though it wasn't my intention to let them know, it was that annoying Anomaly resonance upon physical contact thing...my sister and Kumar know that I'm an Anomaly, Kumar found the incident where I saved my classmates during my first teamwork exam kinda fishy and grilled me about it...but I told them that my ability was teleportation, which fit pretty well as an explanation as to how I saved them."

"Very clever...and considering the fact that you even tried to keep it from your sister, whom you're clearly very close to, then you're pretty serious about keeping it to yourself. If you don't mind me asking, did Minister Floence disown you before or after you awakened as an Anomaly? From what I've heard from the other Anomalies, they didn't awaken immediately like Prodigies do."

"Well...at first, I thought I was just a regular Paragon, and that old bastard was furious when I told him. I had a really bad headache that kept getting worse, so I went to the bathroom to wash my face, blacked out, and woke up as an Anomaly. I decided to first find out what he really thinks of me before revealing that I was an Anomaly...but after I found out how he felt, I decided against it...proving him wrong had been my main reason, I was looking forward to seeing the look on his face after I rose to the top as a 'Dud'...that said, killing him was more than a little satisfying, I have to say."

"You, uh...probably shouldn't tell me that, you know."

"I thought you said that this is all off the record."

"Well, yeah, that's true, but...never mind, it's fine. You certainly can be very, very blunt sometimes, but I suppose that isn't a bad thing. Now, then, I agreed to keep the fact that you're an Anomaly a secret, I'll even trim out the footage that proves that fact too...but, on the condition that..."

This is technically blackmail, right?

"...on the condition that...?" I prompted with a wry smile.

"Well, as you already know, we cover up a lot of the crimes in the Sanctuary. And after all the deaths we suffered, we're quite significantly understaffed...your ability makes you perfect for this. I'd like you to investigate and resolve crimes in the North Quadrant. This will likely involve you having to get your hands dirty, we've recently discovered signs of organized crime, you see. At worst, you may be asked to kill people. It likely won't be very often...crime may not be as non-existent as we have the public believe, but it is still pretty rare for major crimes to pop up."

Oh, is that all?

"So, I'll be like your own personal assassin or something? I'm not against that, but how busy will that keep me? Just so you know, I can only continuously freeze time for a few minutes at a time," I remarked in reply.

"Don't worry, you are still a student X-Warrior, so I'll make sure that it won't compromise your Academy work much."

Much?

"Fine, I agree," I relented reluctantly.

"Glad to hear it, and you needn't worry, your secret is safe with me. I see merit in keeping an ability like yours hidden," She assured me with a smile, "Well, that's all I wanted to talk to you about, so unless there's something more that you want to discuss...?"

"Nah, I'm good. I should get going anyway, classes start up again tomorrow, so I want to do everything I need to do for the day so that I can finish early and go to sleep."

"You really aren't much of a night owl, are you?"

"It's not that, it's more that I'm really, and I mean REALLY, not a morning person, so I go to sleep extra early whenever I have classes the next day. Well, anyway, I'll be taking my leave, if there's nothing else."

"Wait...could you show me your ability? I'm rather curious to see it..."

I really don't feel like putting on a show for her right now...

"Uh...maybe next time?"

"Fine...but I'm holding you to that."

"Sure, go ahead. Well, see ya later, Director."

"Alright, then, I'll contact you later with more details regarding the deal we made."

You mean when you blackmailed me?

Anyway, with that, I left. So, then, that makes five people who know about my ability...so far, I've managed to keep my time traveling ability hidden, but three people now know about my time stopping ability...how much longer will I be able to keep the fact that I'm an Anomaly a secret...?

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