Sure enough, almost as soon as Hashim had that thought, Xavier's power began to surge.
Hashim tried hard to focus on the instructions, but he couldn't get the body to move. Xavier kept pushing at his senses, making his eyes flick to the side or down.
Eventually, Hashim gave up and stepped back from control, turning himself away from the outside and forming a plan within himself. He wouldn't be able to hold Xavier back forever, and as much as he hated to admit it, if they didn't know what was going on in the class, that was likely worse than letting Xavier have control. Maybe.
Xavier, to everyone else's surprise, made no movements to interact with the older girls, even though he was able to and did easily take control. If Hashim had been paying attention, he would be even more surprised than Jake was right now.
We're going to be the strongest here, Xavier explained smugly. It doesn't fit with our image if I seek their attention like some lovesick puppy like you all seem to think that I do, now does it?
That's... actually shockingly helpful, Jake admitted after a moment.
Xavier held back a retort, instead just broadcasting satisfaction. The voice from the box called again,
"We don't have all day, now!"
Each of the sides of the cube that dominated the room now had a group of three students standing before it. Xavier would have to step back to see the other groups from where he was, because of its size. The two girls that were on his team were standing slightly behind him, as though they either didn't trust him or intended to stab him in the back. Either way, Xavier didn't really care.
For his part, they could try all they wanted, they wouldn't get to him.
The black cube flashed white briefly, then a message appeared on it, simple and concise.
Begin the first stage of campaign planning.
No further instruction, just that.
Xavier definitely should have let Toon handle this, or Hashim. But it was too late now.
He just had to figure this out.
It could be a riddle, but that didn't make sense. If the professor was planning to give them a riddle, then they would have begun by engaging the students differently. The only part of the description of this class that he remembered was that it was very open. After that, Hashim had begun attacking him with mental words, so he had gotten distracted.
No, a riddle didn't seem like this teacher's style, or this class's style.
Which meant technically, no answer would be wrong.
So what was the first step of campaign planning?
It was whatever Xavier wanted it to be.
Now he just had to figure out what he wanted it to be.
What was the first step?
Assessing what you had, that's what it was. And currently, all he had was the girls behind him.
Xavier turned precisely, his eyes scanning their bodies.
One was clearly older. She was taller, though barely, had orange hair, and also nearly twice as many badges as the other one, which was why Xavier assumed she was older. Her face was set and stony, and her arms were crossed, but her expression didn't look dark. There were slight cracks along the edges of her facade.
Xavier nearly grinned. He would have fun breaking that mask.
The other one was a bit shorter and wore a barely-permissible black sash on her upper body that ran down from her left shoulder to her right hip. She had been one of the people sitting on the bottom bench ring of the orientation amphitheatre, so she was likely allowed to get away with it when others couldn't.
Her hair was a deep black color and hung down her back in a ponytail. Hashim had seen it before, and Xavier had remembered, it went down just past her waist.
She didn't have a mask in place. She was openly curious, watching Xavier's movements closely.
That would be fun, too.
But while Xavier was here to play around, he had committed to keeping up the pretense a while longer.
"Names and abilities," Xavier said bluntly. The way he imagined Hashim would do it if he was the one in control and he had thought of it.
"Antigone, sixth tier ice formation," the younger one responded without hesitation, to the older's clear displeasure.
After a moment of glaring, she gave in and said, "Nura. Manipulating shadows."
Xavier waited a moment longer, and she eventually grumbled that her ability was fourth tier.
Xavier nodded then, unsure what else to do, turned back on his heel and placed his hand on the cube.
Immediately, a flash of light emerged, launching at Xavier.
It took him too long to realize it was an attack.
Luckily, he wasn't the only one who controlled this body.
By instinct, the body raised a hand and crushed the light. It stopped, then fell out of the air in a small ball.
This was certainly new. After Xavier's mind caught up a second later, he leaned down and picked up the ball, holding it up. It was shining like an actual light, as though it was a crystal whose power was being pushed out weakly.
Then the cube began to smoke, and a shout came from inside. Xavier calmly strolled backwards, past the two gaping girls, and then the side of the cube in front of them fell out, revealing a short, white-haired man who stumbled out, coughing violently.
In between coughs, he said,
"C-class... dismis-sissed!"
Xavier tossed the light sphere up, then caught it in his hand and tucked it in his pocket before nodding at the two girls who were staring stupefied at him.
Under their gaze, he turned and walked out of the classroom.
Behind him, the other members of the class came around the sides of the cube, puzzled by the noises, and they watched the door swing closed behind him.
Now that was a proper performance.
Xavier ceded control of the body, satisfied. He hadn't had that much fun in a long time.
Hashim picked it up again.
He had no idea what had just happened. Now they had almost half an hour before their next class, and Hashim didn't know what he was supposed to do with it. What did normal people do with their time off? Hashim didn't know, and frankly he didn't care either.
The next class he had was Botany, and Hashim had absolutely no desire to get there any earlier than he had to, and he didn't even know if there was another class going on right now. He didn't want to barge in on something that he wasn't supposed to be a part of.
So Hashim did the sensible thing.
He waited.
On a bench.
On the edge of the field.
It was the one place where there were generally numerous things happening, so no one would know everyone who was supposed to be there at a given time and therefore no one could say that he wasn't supposed to be there. It was also a major gathering place, so plenty of other people who technically weren't supposed to be there were anyway.
And of course, that meant that a large majority of the people there hated him.
It wasn't a novel experience for Hashim to be looked at as though he was a plague or a pest. He had experienced it many times before, mostly from potential foster families or other people that had heard about his past.
He was only ever accepted because the person who was trying to find him a home was owed a lot of favors by a lot of people.
But Hashim never intended to go back to anyone else's home ever again. He was free now, here at the Academy. Even through the stricter regulations, he was free, because power was what mattered here, not age.
And it was time for him to cause some chaos.
Hashim let the smirk inside his mind spread over his face. He crossed his legs, settling one atop the other, and watched.
Because soon, that arena that was set up there?
He would be the king of it. And no one would ever be able to deny him again.
When he showed his power, how could they help but submit?
The world was built on strength, after all. And strength was the one thing that Hashim had the most of, all of him.
Despite his different abilities, none of them were below fourth tier.
Even if he didn't try, Hashim would rule this world. He would rule this Academy, then this loosely-held-together kingdom, and then the continent...
And then farther.
Because even if the other continents got abilities, it wouldn't be enough to stop him. He would never break, he would never give up.
Hashim Kamal does not submit, no matter who was in control.
And he wasn't about to start now, just because the military might of the entire world would soon be against him.