The Rising Of The Anomaly - Chapter 187

Today’s the 30th of December, and I was currently in bed, lazing about. A couple of days had passed since my date with Katie, and I’d spent all day yesterday training hard, before deciding to take it easy for the last two days of the year.

I mean, I usually train almost every single day with a break only around once every two weeks or so, therefore, a couple of extra days off might do me some good. I won’t get complacent, but overdoing it isn’t going to benefit me either.

As I stared up at my ceiling and let out a quiet sigh, I recalled everything that had happened this past year…it sure has been a wild ride, to put it lightly. No, but seriously, way too much has happened this year. And yeah, not all of it was bad, but while the good parts of this year were great, the bad parts were an absolute nightmare.

A ton of people died, and while the majority of those deaths haven’t really affected me emotionally, there are a number of those that did. I know that I should probably feel a lot more guilty than I actually am, considering that I indirectly caused a lot of the deaths that occurred this year.

But even if it was my fault, I feel absolutely nothing over the deaths of random strangers…at most, I’d feel a fleeting sense of ‘my bad’, but I definitely wouldn’t go so far as to call that guilt.

Well, like I said, this year wasn’t all bad, so maybe I’m better off focusing on the good. Like…girls. Before this year, I’d snuck off to the red light district every now and then, but this year, I actually hooked up with girls normally. Considering that I got along with absolutely no one before, let alone girls, that’s a big deal.

Okay, it might be kind of a stretch to call my thing with Ruby ‘normal’, but…actually, never mind, I can’t think of a ‘but’, it’s just straight up not normal. Then there’s Suri…though lately, I haven’t seen much of her, it’d felt like we were slowly but surely getting closer and closer for a while, but now, that seemed to have stalled.

And then, or course, there’s Katie. I’d been considering her to be a good friend ever since the X-Warrior Championship, but after the last few days, that’s kinda not possible anymore. I’ve been agonizing over it ever since our date, but the more I think about it, the more confused and flustered I get.

I definitely don’t dislike her, but I still don’t know if I’m even interested in getting into a serious relationship. And I’m not really sure what amount of affection is necessary to be ‘in love’ with someone…I’ve got no prior experience with romance until this year, so I have no idea what to do.

Therefore, I called my sister, and asked her to come over tonight because I wanted her advice, but I didn’t give her any of the details. She seemed surprised, but also happy that I was turning to her for advice, and immediately agreed. She said she’d be here around 7 PM…which is still five hours away.

And I’ve got nothing to do in the meantime, so…I’m kinda maybe sorta really bored. Yeah, I’m starting to have second thoughts about taking two whole days off from training, back to back.

I let out a sigh and got out of bed, getting dressed. I think I’ll head out for a while and roam around, just to kill some time. Should I call someone else? Nah, maybe another time, I’ll just spend today solo till it’s time for Kilella to come over.

I then headed out after getting dressed, not even sure where I was heading to. I mean, obviously I was going to start with a trip to Delectables, that’s a given. But I probably won’t kill much more than half an hour there, maybe an hour if I count the amount of time it takes to get there.

I should get back home by around 6 PM, so I’ve got at least three whole hours to kill after I’m done with Delectables. Well, no need to think too hard on it, I’m sure something will come to mind by the time I’m finished eating…

…

…

Nothing’s come to mind, and I’ve already finished eating…I should have figured as much. I mean, when I’m eating top level desserts, I’m obviously not going to be thinking about anything else! How could I have overlooked that?

It was a few minutes to 3 PM right now, and I’d just finished eating at Delectables, my stomach feeling pretty satisfied. But as for how I was going to spend the next three hours or so, still no progress with that.

Maybe I could go drinking by myself? Nah, I don’t care for alcohol all that much, so I shouldn’t drink alone, it’s not worth it. How about going to watch a movie? No, I don’t really enjoy the movies that are made today, I’m better off going home and watching a movie that came out before WWIII on my laptop.

Yeah, you know what, I think I’ll do just that…I can’t think of anything else to do out here, so there’s no point wracking my brain over it, I might as well just head back home. What was I thinking, leaving the apartment was probably a mistake in the first place, I should have just-…

“Hey, you’re Kilzachs Light, right?”

Hm? Ah, crap, I thought people had forgotten about me at this point…come on, that stupid tournament was ages ago, give me a-…

“Yeah, uh, that’s me…and you are…?” I responded, playing dumb as I turned around and saw who it was that had addressed me.

A freckled face with black eyes and shortish, straight black hair…a familiar face, but one that I’d technically never interacted with. I mean, in my memories, yeah, I’d interacted with him…but in the current timeline, that never happened…

“So sorry, let me introduce myself…my name is Grey Cintor, currently the only student in the Level J class at the Academy-…well, technically speaking, I’ll be in the Level Q class in a couple of days. Mind sparing me a moment to talk? It’s rather important, you see,” He remarked with a smile.

I’m getting a bad feeling about this…don’t tell me he figured it out, that I’m the one who helped him back then? If that’s the case, then I’d rather no one else overhear him….

“Sure, that’s fine by me. But first, let’s go somewhere that’s less crowded,” I responded, before spotting a narrow alley between two buildings and making my way towards it without giving him a chance to reply, as he followed suit and walked behind me.

I entered the alley and headed in, looking around to make sure that there weren’t any security cameras or open windows…alright, seems to be clear. It’s also kinda dusty, so I’m guessing not many people go through here.

“This place kinda stinks,” Remarked Grey, as I stopped and turned around.

“Let’s cut to the chase, shall we? What do you want to talk to me about?” I inquired, getting straight to the point.

“About that, it’s kinda complicated…see, this has to do with something that happened about two and a half months ago. Do you remember when a whole bunch of people suddenly fell into comas in a single day, seemingly with no explanation or cause?” He responded, an innocent look on his face.

This little…! He’s definitely figured it out. And well, I guess that’s not too surprising. When I took the detonator from him, my actions would certainly have made him realize that it was an Anomaly’s power that thwarted him.

The moment he figured that out, the rest became easy…with so few Anomalies in existence inside the Sanctuary, the suspect list isn’t very long, and from there, narrowing it down further based on what he experienced would be child’s play. Still, I’m not just gonna come out and admit it…if there’s even a hint of a doubt in his mind, I need to exploit it…

“Yeah, I remember, that was crazy. What about it?” I replied in a nonchalant tone, not giving anything away.

“Well, you see…on that day, I’d been planning on doing something, but right before I could, someone showed up and stopped me, claiming that they’d come back in time to stop me…and then approved of my actions, despite stopping me. Weird, huh?” He said in reply.

“Weird? Sounds more like you just made that all up…there’s no way that time travel’s possible,” I scoffed in a tone of disbelief.

Okay, I think that was reasonably convincing. Did it work, though?

“Huh, I see…hey, I gotta say, you’re a pretty good actor, man,” He smirked in response.

“Uh, I’m not sure I see what you’re getting at-,” I began, but it looks like he had no doubts about this right from the beginning…

“Just admit it…the guy who stopped me back then, that was you, wasn’t it?”

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