However, before Raten and Sil could switch seats, a commotion occurred in the real world that caused Raten to stay in control.
Instantly, the doors of the assembly hall were flung wide open, and Sergeant Faye and Sergeant Shizuka could be seen in the doorway.
Behind her, Peter could be seen taking deep breaths.
He felt as if had been running a marathon trying to keep up with the two Sergeants.
As soon as the two Sergeants had entered the room, everyone froze.
Sergeant Faye scanned the room, and then cleared her throat.
When she spoke, she spoke in the same authoritative voice she used when training cadets.
"I command everyone in this hall to cease all actions right this minute!" She announced.
"Any insubordination shall be met with swift punishment!"
Instantly, Shizuka's killing intent flooded the assembly hall, causing a deep dread to fill everyone.
To them, they felt like prisoners walking towards their own execution.
Seeing Sergeant Faye, Mono's eyes widened.
"No, not her." He muttered. "Anyone but her."
As a powerful second-year, Mono knew who most of the teachers and staff were due to his previous year.
And he knew exactly who this woman was.
Sergeant Faye Dallum, the instructor in charge of training the new recruits.
And when she said that 'any insubordination would be punished', she meant it.
On top of that, her Super Speed Ability was the abject worst possible opponent for his Future Sight Ability.
In fact, he had hands-on experience of that fact, from last year when he had arrogantly tried to oppose her, when she had only been a private.
Sergeant Shizuka then began frantically scanning the room for Tsukuru.
Seeing he looked fine, she let out a sigh of relief.
That was, until he noticed her, and turned around to face her.
Shizuka's eyes widened to the size of pinpricks.
Tsukuru's face had deep gashes running across it. It looked as though a feral Beast had tried to maul him.
Seeing it, Shizuka's anger skyrocketed.
Almost robotically, Shizuka's face snapped to Mono, a look of deep rage on her face.
Mono saw the look, and his blood ran cold.
He still had nightmares from the last time he and Shizuka had been in a room together.
Almost instantly, he loosened his grip on his Beast Whip and deactivated his Soul Weapon.
The whip dropped to the floor, and the energy whip dissipated out of existence.
"I didn't do it!" He yelled quickly, putting up his hand in complete surrender.
Meanwhile, standing behind a nearby pillar, hidden from sight, the same blonde-haired girl from earlier watched Tsukuru from afar.
She gulped, and began to walk forward.
Meanwhile, while Tsukuru was talking with Shizuka, who had come running over to his side upon seeing his face, he heard footsteps approaching him from behind.
Turning around, he saw the blonde-haired girl.
"Oh, it's you." Tsukuru said, before letting out a gentle smile.
He reached out his hand for a handshake.
"I don't think we've been introduced." He replied. "I'm Hikiko Tsukuru."
Meekly, the girl extended her hand as well, accepting the handshake.
"Amelia." She replied, glancing away. "Amelia…Graylash."
Seeing Tsukuru made Amelia's face feel warm, her cheeks flushing.
As Tsukuru looked at her, his System's "scanner" function auto-activated, displaying her information.
[Name: Amelia Graylash
Race: Human
Ability: Lightning Element
Ability Level: 2.3]
Tsukuru narrowed his eyes, and more information began to appear below her basic information.
There was a noticeable space between the two sets of text, indicating that it was separate information.
[Notice: A genetic abnormality has been detected in individual Amelia Graylash. Detected abnormality is interfering with the target's Ability.]
Seeing this, Tsukuru's face softened in sympathy.
"Genetic abnormalities" were nothing new to humans, and they had long predated the introduction of Abilities.
Varying wildly, these abnormalities were categorized under the colloquial term "birth defects", and were usually a result of a mutated gene in one of or both of the parent's lineage.
However, ever since the introduction of Abilities, and the "Mutant Cells" that came with them, a new set of rare birth defects had appeared.
Sometimes, the Mutant Cells a person's body would produce would come out wrong, deformed, greatly hampering the use of their Abilities.
It was like if a large rock was jammed in a water pipe.
Only a trickle would pour out, even if the water was on full blast.
People like this were usually disowned by their families, being labeled as "rejects" and "defective".
Tsukuru took a deep breath, and then spoke.
"You're a Graylash?" He asked.
He noticed that Ameila stiffened from his question.
"So, you have the Lightning Ability, then?"
It was then that roaring laughter filled the room.
Tsukuru's eyes narrowed, and he began looking around the room for the source of the noise.
Eventually, he found that it was coming from one of the second-year students near the front of the assembly hall.
It was the same second-year student who had picked her to come up and throw the Beast Stone.
In Tsukuru's vision, his System's "scanner" function activated automatically, displaying his information.
[Volt Graylash
Race: Human
Ability: Lightning Element
Ability Level: 3]
"Oh please." Volt sneered in a condescending voice. "That defective reject? Possessing the Lightning Ability? Yeah, sure. When pigs fly!"
Hearing Volt's words and continuous laughter, Amelia's head slumped down.
She let out a sigh.
She lifted her head back up.
She now had a defeated, depressed look on her face.
"I…I can't use the Lightning Ability."
She replied, glancing away.
"At least not how it's intended to be used."
To demonstrate, Amelia brought her hand up, and activated her body's Mutant Cells.
A small amount of electricity covered her arm.
But what really stood out to Tsukuru was how a low-pitched hum filled the air, and the air around her arm seemed to be disturbed.
It was as if being physically pushed away by a strong force.
Amelia closed her eyes.
"All I can use the Ability for is creating an electro-magnetic field."
She winced, waiting for the outburst of rejection that followed whenever she explained how…defective…her use of the Lightning Ability was.
However, what came out of Tsukuru's mouth greatly shocked her.
"That's awesome!" Tsukuru exclaimed, an excited look on his face, as his face lit up.
Hearing this, Amelia's eyes shot wide open.
Her head snapped towards Tsukuru.
"Wait…what?" She asked in confusion.
Amelia looked at Tsukuru in confusion.
She was certain she had heard him incorrectly.
Meanwhile, Tsukuru's whole body was trembling in excitement.
Through his vast knowledge of the old world's entertainment media, he had seen electro-magnetism be used in millions of different and interesting ways.
In the anime "Naruto", the Third Kazekage had used "Magnet Release" to control iron sand, forming it into numerous shapes and weapons.
In the old TV show, "Hot Wheels Battle Force 5", a character introduced in the show's second and final season, "Tezz Volitov" was a genius who specialized in it.
And his personal vehicle, the "Splitwire" could use it to do amazing things like electromagnetically latch to metal surfaces to drive STRAIGHT UP a wall, and even UPSIDE-DOWN, to even being able to hover in the air.
And in one of Tsukuru's all-time favorite games, a "sand-box" style platforming game from the early 2000's, "InFAMOUS", the series protagonist, "Cole MacGraph", a "Conduit" with lightning powers, used it in multiple ways.
He could lob grenades of kinetic energy held together by electromagnetism at enemies as concussive force grenades.
He could use it to bind enemies to the ground in electromagnetic cuffs.
He could use it to anchor himself to live powerlines and train tracks to use them as rails.
Hell, he could even glide through the air using it.
The sheer fact that the Graylash family had overlooked Amelia's unique talent made Tsukuru think that they were a bunch of idiots.
Meanwhile, Amelia was looking at Tsukuru like there was something wrong with him.
"Didn't you hear me?" She asked. "I said that I can't use the Lightning Ability the correct way!"
Hearing this, Tsukuru let out a snort.
"Oh, please." Tsukuru replied. "There's no one, 'correct' way to use an Ability."