Chapter 9 - A Year Later

It was currently the 6th of September in the year 2111, the day of my sixteenth birthday. It had been a year since I was disowned and kicked out by my own father, and as expected, I'd been pretty busy since then.

Where to start?

The apartment I'd moved into was a decent enough space, small but plenty spacious for one person. The front door opened into a bedroom, which had a single bed, a closet, desk, window and air-conditioner. There was a door on the left side of the room leading into a bathroom and a door on the right side leading into a kitchen with a small dining table.

I didn't have any trouble settling into my new place, in fact it was pretty cozy, and school was fine too. Unlike the Regal Campus high school, where most of the students were stuck-up rich kids, the students at the Prosaic Phrontistery high school were a lot more grounded and down to earth. Even so, I didn't bother making any friends or getting particularly close to anyone, it just wasn't worth the risk after everything that had happened at my old school. I did make a minimal effort to appear polite and civil to avoid any crap, small stuff like saying good morning or whatever.

When it came to school work, I studied enough to make sure I'd be able to pass my exams with a reasonably safe margin, and spent the rest of my time training and making money.

Just like I'd planned, my source of income was casino slot machines, I already had a fair amount of money saved up from my monthly allowances since I rarely bought stuff before, so I just multipled that bit by bit every month. I made sure not to go overboard, while also making sure to lose every now and then to avoid attracting any attention. The last thing I wanted was people taking notice of my unusually high success rate.

As for training, I got memberships at a bunch of training gyms, for both combat training and training to use X-Weapons.

For combat I opted for training in martial arts that emphasized kicks, namely capoeira, kick-boxing and taekwondo. I also extensively trained on my own, combining and modifying the moves I learnt from each style to form and suit my own unique style. For X-Weapons, I trained with handguns called X-Pistols, wrist-blasters called X-Blasters and sword type weapons called X-Blades, specifically two long daggers, about fifteen inches each in terms of length.

Oh, and as for my last name, I didn't want to mull over it too much, and simply decided to pick the name Light, after my favorite anime protagonist. So, yeah, my legal name is now Kilzachs Light.

In order to enroll in the X-Warrior Academy, there were five requirements in total. First, you needed a high school diploma, you had to be older than twenty, you need to have gone through the Awakening Procedure and, finally, you'd have to pass the entrance exam. I'll turn twenty in 2115, so I'll be able to apply for the entrance exam in December of that year for the January 2116 intake of students.

I've already gone through the Awakening Procedure and I shouldn't have any trouble graduating high school. That leaves the entrance exam as my current biggest obstacle, so I should train hard. I may be able to do-over using my ability if I messed up, but using that power would be pointless if I was just too weak to pass.

I also got a membership at a regular gym to strengthen my body, focusing primarily on flexibility and agility, and a more secondary focus on muscle strengthening. I decided that prioritizing speed over strength would be better, since I'd likely never be able to match most Prodigies in terms of raw strength, so I'll just have to be faster and more agile that they are. And besides, raw strength on its own was pointless if you couldn't hit your target.

I had also gotten more familiar with my ability and it's limits. I still hadn't figured out how to unlock any of the locked tiers of my Anomaly X-Ability, but for now, the Save/Load ability was plenty. Okay, so I might be getting a bit impatient in my desire to unlock those abilities, but since I have no idea as to how to go about unlocking them, there was no point is stressing over them until I do. As for the limits of the Save/Load ability...

The maximum amount of time I could go back in time was one week, any longer than that and my Save point would simply disappear. And whenever I created a Save point, any previous Save points would disappear, in other words I could only have one active Save point at a time.

And I mentioned this before, but my ability can't undo death, it's not completely omnipotent. If I go back in time after someone had died, their body would be left in a vegetative state. It was entirely possible that somewhere in the Sanctuary, my ability had inadvertently left some people in such states if they'd died in between my Save point time and the time I used my Load ability.

Using Save didn't consume any of my XFE, but using Load did, about five percent each time. In other words, I could use it about twenty times in quick succession if I didn't expend any XFE on anything else.

Speaking of XFE consumption...

Using the X-Pistols consumed about two percent of my total XFE per five shots fired, the X-Blasters consumed one percent per two shots fired and the X-Blades consume about one percent per minute each, though it would have been a fair bit more if I used longer X-Blades. Oh, the consumption of the X-Pistols and X-Blasters I'd mentioned were on their minimum output setting, the output setting on the handguns could be doubled at most and the output setting on the wrist-blasters could be increased to five times the minimum setting.

My XFE capacity was pretty decent for a non-Prodigy, I had only fallen short of the Threshold by a small margin, and I should be able to fight freely at absolute full throttle for about half an hour before my XFE starts running low. And if I fight more conservatively and focus more on physical attacks, that amount of time expands significantly.

In other words, I don't have an unlimited amount of do-overs. Any physical injuries and even fatigue were undone when I went back in time, but any XFE I used up wouldn't get restored. My XFE recovery rate was about one percent per every two minutes, in other words, if I used up all my XFE down to zero, it'd take around three hours and twenty minutes for it to fully replenish.

These days, I didn't have a whole lot of free time, but when I did, I usually spent it watching old anime and other digital entertainment. For food, I bought cheap yet nutritional options, though it was admittedly a bit hard to get used to at first, since my limited options mostly consisted of food that didn't particularly taste good.

I let myself have a sort of cheat day once every two weeks, which also worked as a day off from training in order to prevent myself from overworking my body. I treated myself to fast food and desserts during my fortnightly days off. With fast food, I opted for something different each time, be it pizza, burgers, fried chicken, etc. As for desserts, I stuck to the place my sister had gotten the cake and eclairs for my fifteenth birthday from, a bakery known as Delectables. It was a little expensive, but totally worth the price, their sweets were to die for, I would literally kill for them...

Since today was my sixteenth birthday, I decided to take a half day off. It was a Saturday, so I had no school, I got in some gym workouts in the morning and a few hours of X-Weapon training in the afternoon. After I was done with that, I headed to Delectables in the Shopping District and got myself a few choice desserts, before heading back to my apartment room.

And now, here I was, stuffing my face with sweets while watching old episodes of Code Geass. Man, I love myself a ruthless protagonist, aren't they just great? They're so inspiring...

I picked up a slice of brownie as my mouth began salivating, and slowly bit into it...it was so soft, my teeth cutting into it like a hot knife through butter, but it wasn't so soft that it was falling apart, it had the perfect texture and amount of softness. The chocolatey goodness covered my tastebuds, it was warm and gooey with a slight sugary crunch, and had molten dark chocolate chips inside it. After the first bite, I uncontrollably wolfed it down and again reached into the box of treats I'd gotten myself.

I had picked eight different desserts, and I'd already finished half of them. Next up was a fruit tart, it was tangy and sweet, and the crust was buttery and flaky, complementing the sweetened fruits perfectly. I still had a sugar-glazed cruller, an eclair and a slice of chocolate cake. Oh, man, this tart is incredible, it was an absolute bombshell of flavors, the different fruits, the glaze, the crust, they all combined to form an incredible symphony of flavor-...I'm getting a little carried away, no one cares that much about desserts besides me.

Anyway, it gave me another reason to limit myself to once every two weeks...I'd get out of shape real quick if I let myself buy and eat sweets whenever I felt like it, because I always felt like eating sweets.

This moment right here, is my personal bliss. Just kicking back and relaxing, re-watching a good series along with some incredible desserts...it doesn't get much better than this, it wasn't far off from my perfect ideal in terms of how to spend my free time.

Tempting as it was though, I couldn't let myself become overly indulgent. Not just for health reasons, but also financial reasons. I had set myself a limit on how much I should earn each time I gamble using the slot machines, if I go beyond that limit I was liable to attract unwanted attention. My ability meant that I could eliminate the risk of losing money, but that doesn't mean that I could just go crazy with it-...

...hold on a second, what have I been...

.

.

.

The realization hit my like a bolt of lightning, and I sat up with a start, nearly dropping my dessert box as I did. How...how did I not think of this before?

I could easily buy a ton of sweets and gorge myself on them whenever I felt like it...and then undo it using my ability. That way, I get to enjoy the experience to the absolute fullest, while saving all the time and money it would cost to do so! Heh...hehehe...I'm literally trembling with excitement over here.

"Alright! <Activate Anomaly, Tier One: Save>!" I exclaimed giddily.

Sweet, time to go back to that bakery and get as many sweets as I can possibly carry, return home and enjoy them, and once I'm done...I'll use Load to come back to this point in time. Yes...yes...YE-!

My internal celebration was interrupted as, for the first time since moving into this apartment...someone rang the bell.

Huh...? That can't be right.

Hm, maybe I was just hearing things since I got so excited. Yeah, that's probably-...nope, it just rang again.

"Uh...who is it?" I called out, feeling annoyed that my door didn't have a peephole so that I could see who it was.

I should get one installed.

"...it's me."

Wait, that voice...

Before I could think, I found myself unlocking the door and opening it, my eyes widening with surprise as I saw who it was.

"Huh? What are you doing here?"

"Gosh, that's a stupid question. I'm not going to completely miss my little brother's birthday, Zax," She huffed, before smiling tenderly and pulling me into a tight hug.

Well, this was a surprise...it was my sister.

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