As Quinn sat in the seat, a million thoughts began to race through his mind.
'Had they found out about my Ability? Were they going to force me to give it up, and hand it to them?' Quinn thought, before glancing back. 'Or, did they think that I was the one who killed Brandon, and they're going to punish me for it?'
Although Quinn was trying his hardest to calm down, it was nearly impossible.
As he sat, he could feel his heart beating so fast, it was as if it was trying to burst out of his chest.
"Boy, calm down." Leo muttered from behind him. "Your chest's pounding so fast I think even they can hear your heartbeat!"
The sergeant cleared her throat, causing both Quinn and Leo to turn back to her.
"Now, before we begin, I would like to inform you of a few things." She replied. "A student named Brandon Richardson passed away last night. Now, your teacher here has informed us that he and a student named Fei Lan had attacked you during combat classes yesterday. Now not only is Brandon dead, but Fei was also admitted to the hospital last night."
Hearing this, Quinn raised his eyebrow in confusion.
'The hospital?' He thought. 'I only hit him ONCE, and he was in such bad shape that the school's nurse couldn't heal him, and he had to be admitted to the hospital? Hell, I turned Loop into mincement, and he's perfectly fine!'
Though, this did put Quinn somewhat at ease.
This was indeed about Brandon's death, after all.
The sergeant continued.
"We currently have no leads to what happened to Brandon, so that eventually led us to you. Although it's hard to believe someone like you, a weak person with no Ability, could do this, there is always a chance." The General replied.
Quinn had to restrain himself from showing any facial expressions.
Even here, while they were actively interrogating him, they still looked down on him for perceivably "having no Ability".
The General gestured to the woman sitting at the table.
"This woman sitting across from you has the Ability to detect if someone is telling the truth or not. Please, proceed with her demands."
Quinn looked at the girl.
'There's an Ability that makes one a human lie-detector?' He thought, before inwardly snorting. 'Bet that's about as popular as the base Transformation Ability.' Quinn thought sarcastically.
Tsukuru had put it best himself during the Ability Level Placement Test, when he and Vorden had been talking about Layla's Telekinesis Ability.
People tended to flock towards flashy, combat-oriented Abilities, completely IGNORING, as Tsukuru had put it, "Support-Time Abilities".
The lady looked at Quinn with a gentle smile.
"It's okay." She replied. "I just need you to place your hands over mine."
As Quinn did as he was asked, he felt a calming sensation enter his body.
Instantly, a System message popped up in front of him.
[Use of an Ability has been detected. Attempting to block the user's Ability…
Attempt failed.]
"Now, tell me." The woman replied. "Did you kill Brandon Richardson last night?" She asked.
The calming sensation allowed Quinn to answer naturally.
It felt like he was suddenly floating on the top of clouds.
"No." He replied. "I didn't."
The woman smiled, and eventually let go of Quinn's hand.
"He's telling the truth." She replied.
The General nodded at her, before turning back to Quinn and Leo.
Leo narrowed his eyes.
"As I said before, I didn't believe he would do something like this." He replied, looking down at him. "I mean, how could he?" Leo asked. "He is only a Level 1, after all…"
Quinn grit his teeth in irritation.
He had to admit, Leo's words stung. Especially coming from him.
Leo was one of the few adults in this school he actually TRUSTED.
Hearing this, the General let out a sigh.
"It looks like we no longer have any leads. It's a shame, but accidents like this happen from time to time. It's an expected result of the way things are." He replied, turning to Leo. "I'm sorry for wasting your time, Sergeant Leo. You and your student can return to class."
With that, the two guards reappeared, and grabbed Quinn and Leo.
In a flash, they reappeared in the Beast Weapons Hall.
"Boy, your heart was beating so fast, it was starting to give me doubts that maybe you were hiding something." Leo replied, as he began to walk around the room, Quinn by his side. "But, I'm glad that you weren't the culprit. I would have lost such a promising student."
At Leo's words, Quinn let out a nervous laugh.
Then, as Quinn looked around, he noticed something.
"Hey, nobody's fighting today." He replied.
Looking around, he saw that everybody was also using their Abilities in conjunction with their weapons.
Leo glanced over at him, and was about to speak, when he saw someone approaching him and Quinn.
Leo's fists subconsciously clenched at the individual approaching them.
"Oh, that's right." A feminine voice replied from behind Quinn, causing him to turn around.
When he did, his eyes widened.
It was Tsukuru's sister, Shizuka.
"You weren't here when I played Leo's little recording." Sergeant Shizuka stopped right in front of Quinn, and adjusted her cap. "Today, students are figuring out how to use their weapons and their Abilities together for the portal outing tomorrow."
It was then that Leo gave Shizuka a slight bow.
"Sergeant Shizuka, thank you for watching over the class in my absence." He replied.
Shizuka waved her hands dismissively.
"Please, you gave me an excuse to spend more time with my little Tsu-Tsu." She said, looking off in a certain direction.
Instantly, both Leo and Quinn turned to face the same direction that she was looking at.
There, in the far-side of the Beast Weapons Hall, there were two large, thick pillars of ice erupting out of the ground, and standing roughly ten feet away from each pillar was Tsukuru and Layla, respectively.
Well, Layla was standing.
Tsukuru was sitting on the floor, legs crossed, with his hands clasped on his lap.
The left ice pillar was skewered with around thirty replicas of his Black Obsidian Daggers, while the right had several puncture holes, and currently had roughly twenty arrows stuck in it.
As the group of three, two Sergeants and one student, approached them, they watched as Layla used her Telekinesis Ability to grab each arrow individually out of the ice pillar, and float them back towards her.
Once they reached them, Shizuka looked towards Tsukuru, and spoke up.
"Yeah, he started doing that a little while ago." She replied, turning towards Leo. "One second he was perfectly fine, firing off daggers like they were arrows. The next, he just sat down, and started doing that. He's been like that for around…fifteen minutes."
As Leo looked at the boy, he saw a strange energy within the boy's wireframe slowly and gradually filling up his body, like a vase slowly filling with water.
"He's regenerating his body's Mutant Cells." Leo replied, causing both Shizuka and Quinn to turn to him.
Shizuka smiled.
"Yeah, I figured as much." She replied.
Leo continued looking at Tsukuru.
His body looked like it was about three-fourths filled with the strange energy.
Instantly, a System message popped up in front of Tsukuru.
[1 MC Restored. MC: 30/40.
Estimated Time to fully restore MC: 5 minutes.]
Quinn looked over at Layla, then back at Tsukuru.
"Why doesn't he just reuse the old daggers like Layla is?" He asked.
His question made Tsukuru's eye twitch in annoyance, and a smug smirk to appear on Layla's face.
"My 'Telekinesis' Skill has a range-limit." Tsukuru muttered bitterly. "To initiate the Skill, I have to be within 5 feet of the thing I'm targeting. That means I'd have to walk up halfway to the pillar, and then activate the Skill."
He kissed his teeth in annoyance.
"It's easier to just make new daggers each throw."
Layla smirked, as her latest dagger returned to her hand.
"Fortunately, I don't seem to have such a restriction." She said, reaching her arm behind her and putting the arrow back in her quiver with the others.
Tsukuru's eyes darted at her, giving her a side-ways glare.
It was at that point that Shizuka stretched, her arms flying above her head.
"Well, I'm going to return to my office." She replied, before heading towards the door.
Leo nodded, and began walking around the class to check on the other students.
This left Quinn alone with Tsukuru and Layla.
He watched Tsukuru continue to sit on the floor, and Layla continue to fire arrows at her ice pillar.
He then reached into his bag, and brought out his Black-Horned Gauntlets.
Quinn put the gauntlets on, and looked down at them.
''Combine my Skills with my weapon', huh?' He thought.
Currently, Quinn was at a loss.
He had no idea of what to do.
His only combat Skill, Blood Swipe, was easy to use, and there wasn't much to do with it, other than swing his hand.
But what Quinn wanted to do more than ANYTHING was learn how to fight.
"I wish there was someone who could teach me how to use these things." Quinn said with a sigh.
Instantly, a System message popped up in front of him.
[Request of Combat Lessons has been acknowledged.
A suitable weapon has been detected. Hand-to-Hand Combat Lv. 1 will now be shown.]
It seemed as if Quinn's words had activated something within the System.
The previous System message disappeared, and was placed with a larger System screen.
Static appeared on the screen, and soon, a video began to play.