The two Sergeants continued to watch Tsukuru and Amelia.
Every time Amelia successfully wrenched the Haunted Knight's Neodymium sword out of her hands into her own, Tsukuru would take the sword back, and create a new ruler.
He would then place it on the ground, directly in front of the old one, and have the Haunted Knight step up to the end of the new ruler, holding up the sword in front of her.
It was a long, painstaking process.
Around the point that there were twenty rulers between Amelia and the Haunted Knight, she could no longer affect the sword.
No matter how hard she strained, the sword wouldn't so much as wiggle.
Seeing this, Tsukuru nodded.
"Alright, looks like your range is about 20 feet." He replied.
Amelia took in deep breaths.
She felt exhausted from the non-stop activation of her Ability.
Tsukuru narrowed his eyes. He put his hand under his chin, thinking.
'20 feet…that's like, ten feet per Ability Level.' He thought to himself, as he looked at Amelia. 'I'll have to perform this test again once she's a Level 3 to confirm my hypothesis…'
He then turned to Amelia.
"Take a ten-minute break." He replied, causing Amelia to glance up at him. "Let your body rest and your Mutant Cells recharge. Then, we'll move on to the next exercise."
Amelia nodded, and collapsed to the floor.
Tsukuru then walked over to Shizuka and Leo.
When he reached them, he turned to Leo.
"How am I doing?" He asked.
Leo put his hand under his chin.
"It's…not bad." He replied. "Especially for someone who's never given a lesson before."
Hearing this, Shizuka snapped her head over to Leo. She narrowed her eyes.
She then turned back to Tsukuru.
"What I don't understand is why you're teaching her in the first place." She replied, narrowing her eyes at Amelia, recuperating on the floor.
"She's a Graylash, isn't she?" Shizuka asked. "I'm sure someone from a big shot family like that has had plenty of private tutors her WHOLE life."
Hearing this, Tsukuru narrowed his eyes.
"She's 'defective'." Tsukuru spat, using his fingers to make air-quotes around the word 'defective', his tone making it sound like the word gave him a foul taste in his mouth.
Instantly, both Leo and Shizuka turned to him.
Shizuka's eyes widened in surprise, while Leo looked confused.
Leo raised his eyebrow.
"'Defective'?" He asked.
Shizuka glanced over at him.
"You really don't know anything about the world, do you?" She asked.
Instantly, Leo snapped his head towards her, his eyes narrowed.
Shizuka let out a sigh.
"'Defective' is the term used for those who are born with a rare, genetic defect that makes them…incompatible with Abilities." Shizuka explained, her eyes narrowed in annoyance. "Their Mutant Cells develop wrong, leading to them only being able to use their Ability with 10% of it's true potential. People like that are usually discarded by their families. Seen as 'failures'."
Hearing this, Leo grit his teeth.
This world really irritated him sometimes.
Tsukuru narrowed his eyes.
"That's why I'm teaching her." He said, glancing back at Amelia. "Just because she can't use the Ability how everyone expects it to be used doesn't mean she's worthless."
Tsukuru smiled.
"It just means she's a little…special."
The three of them continued to watch Amelia slowly recover.
Shizuka then glanced down at her watch.
"That little measuring thing of yours burned through quite a bit of time." Shizuka replied.
Tsukuru glanced back at her.
"We've already been here for forty minutes." Shizuka continued.
Hearing this, Tsukuru clicked his tongue in annoyance.
"Then I'll show her one last thing before we leave." He replied, beginning to walk back towards Amelia.
When he reached her, Amelia looked up at him with a weary smile.
"Okay, what's next?" She asked between short pants.
Tsukuru smirked.
"Magnetism can be split into two different principles, Attraction and Repulsion" Tsukuru explained.
"We've already gone over attraction." He said, bringing his hands closer together. "Next, let's work on repulsion." He replied, pulling his arms back apart.
Amelia raised an eyebrow in confusion.
"And we're going to do this, how…?" She asked.
Tsukuru smirked, and activated his Ability.
Once again, the sound of electronic interference emitted from his general area, and pixels began to appear in his hand.
The pixels clustered together into the form of a dagger possessing the same dimensions and measurements of his Black Obsidian Dagger.
There was a bright flash.
When it faded, Tsukuru was holding a normal, metal dagger.
Tsukuru smirked, and looked over at it.
"Like the knight sword, this dagger is made out of 100% Neodymium." He explained, before glancing back at Amelia. "I'm gonna throw them at you, and you're going to repel them."
Hearing his words caused the other three people in the room to have…mixed responses.
Amelia's eyes widened, and her face morphed into a look of horror.
Sergeant Leo's jaw dropped, an incredulous look on his face.
And Sergeant Shizuka's face was scrunched up in a way that made it look like she was trying to hold back laughter.
"What?!" Amelia squeaked out.
Seeing her reaction, Tsukuru put on a gentle, disarming smile.
"Don't worry." He replied. "Every edge on this dagger has been blunted."
He sliced the dagger's edge across his open palm to demonstrate.
Afterwards, he held his open hand up so that Amelia could see it.
There wasn't so much as a scratch on it.
"See?" He replied. "The worst that'll happen if you fail is that you get minor bruises."
Hearing this, Shizuka's face fell, her looking greatly disappointed.
"Aw…" She complained. "But that takes out all the fun…"
Instantly, Tsukuru snapped his head back at her.
"Forgive me if I don't take advice from the girl who taught me how to ride a bike by pushing me off a steep cliff and how to swim by throwing me in the deep end!" He shot back.
Hearing this caused both Amelia's and Leo's eyes to widen in disbelief.
They both snapped their heads over at Shizuka.
Shizuka, meanwhile, didn't even look bothered by his outburst.
In fact, she had a wide, mischievous, impish look on her face.
"You learned pretty quick, didn't you?" She replied in response, as if that justified her actions.
Tsukuru rolled his eyes, ignoring her.
He turned back to Amelia.
"Just do what you did before." He replied, walking a few feet away from Amelia. "But instead of pulling the daggers towards you like with the knight sword, imagining pushing them away, like you were flicking away an annoying fly."
Amelia gulped.
Tsukuru turned around so he was facing Amelia.
He then threw the dagger at Amelia at high speeds.
Amelia stared at the dagger like an incoming arrow.
She hardened her resolve, and outstretched her hand.
She activated her Ability, causing electricity to crackle up her arm, and the low humming to be heard.
When the dagger came within an inch of her outstretched hand, it bounced off, spinning through the air, as if hitting an invisible wall.
Seeing it, Tsukuru smiled.
"Perfect." He replied.
A moment later, Amelia's brain finally registered what had just happened.
"I…I did it." She muttered, before she beamed. "I DID IT!" She cheered happily.
Tsukuru smirked.
He held his left hand out to his side, and activated his Ability.
The sound of electronic interference emitted from him, and three groups of pixels began to appear in the air under his left arm.
The pixels clustered together into the shape of daggers.
There was a flash of light.
When it faded, there were three more Neodymium daggers floating in the air under his arm.
Tsukuru grabbed them using his Video Stasis Skill, causing an aura of glitching pixels to envelop each one.
Seeing it, Amelia's eyes widened.
"For the last twenty minutes of our training, I'm going to continue throwing these daggers at you, and your job is to repel them!"
Hearing him, Amelia's face morphed into a nervous smile.
"Sounds…great." She said, her smile twitching.