Back in the wasteland, Tsukuru smiled as he walked back to the group."Hey." He replied, pointing to his watch. "Looks like I have the highest Ability Level out of the three of us 'Level 1s', huh?" He said with a smile.
His words made Quinn and Peter instinctively look down at their wristwatches. While theirs displayed the number "1", his displayed "1.3". Hearing his words, Erin scoffed dismissively, catching their attention.
"What are you celebrating for?" She huffed. "You're still all Level 1s. That's nothing to write home about." Tsukuru's gaze hardened.
"Ability Levels aren't everything." He replied in a steely tone. Erin's gaze remained emotionless.
"They're everything that matters." She replied, folding her arms. Tsukuru gritted his teeth.
'Typical high-Ability level.' he thought bitterly. He was broken from his musings when he felt a hand on his shoulder. Looking over, he saw Vorden smiling at him.
"Hey, that Ability was super-cool!" He said excitedly, holding out his hand. "Can I try?" Tsukuru looked down at the hand, then back up to Vorden. Vorden smirked at him.
"You said 'it's common courtesy to ask first before copying somebody's Ability', right?" A smirk crept across Tsukuru's face.
"Right." Tsukuru agreed. The same System message as before appeared before Tsukuru, asking if he wanted to block the Ability. However, this time, Tsukuru thought 'No'.
Instantly, a vortex of swirling, translucent pixels enveloped Tsukuru's arm. The vortex swirled downwards, traveling down Vorden's hand, and up his arm. As they did, the pixels shattered into smaller, square pixels. As Tsukuru looked at Vorden, he noticed that the Ability shown for Vorden in his vision had changed, from "Ice Element" to "Video". He also noticed that the "Ability Level" had plummeted from "5" to "1", due to the drastic difference between Tsukuru's and Erin's Ability Levels.
'Huh, looks like he can only hold one Ability, and taking a NEW one overwrites the old one.' Tsukuru thought in interest. 'It's like overwriting an old save file in a game with a new one.' Meanwhile with Vorden, he felt a strange rush of energy as his Copy Ability mutated his body's Mutant Cells into the new ones from Tsukuru's body.
"Woah." Vorden replied, taking a step back. "This feels weird." He looked at his hand, before turning back to Tsukuru. "How do I use it?" He asked. Tsukuru smirked. He brought his hand up to his face.
He figured he could at least tell Vorden how to use the Video Creation Skill. However, he didn't intend to tell him how to use his Video Summon Skill. After all, at this point, he had no intention of using the Skill in public.
"You just imagine what you want to make in your head." He explained. As he did, the sound of electronic interference appeared again, as did the translucent pixels. The pixels began to cluster together, and soon, a cylinder began to form. There was a bright flash of light, which temporarily blinded everyone.
When it was gone, Tsukuru was holding a can in his hand. The can was blue in color with a circular symbol in the center. The circle was red at the top and blue at the bottom, with a wavy white line in the center, separating the two colors. The group looked on in amazement, as Tsukuru pressed his finger against a tab at the top. A hissing sound was heard.
Tsukuru flipped the tab back, forming a small hole on the lid. Everyone stared in shock, as he brought the can to his mouth, and began to drink a strong, caffeinated, brown liquid from it. A glimmer of wonder could be seen in Vorden's eyes.
"You can make food and drinks, too?!" He said excitedly. Tsukuru wiped his lips.
"I can make anything, as long as it's small to 'moderate' size, and is simplistic in design." He explained. "So as long as it doesn't contain multiple, complex components or moving parts, I can make it." He continued. "So, I can't make something like a computer or a firearm." Hearing this, Vorden beamed with excitement.
"Ooh, let me try!" Vorden's outburst caused the group to turn to him. He held his hand out in front of him. Like with Tsukuru, the sound of electronic interference could be heard, and translucent pixels began to appear in his hand. The pixels clustered together into the form of a small blade. There was a bright flash, blinding them. When it faded, Vorden was holding a metal shortsword with a black handle.
"Heh, this is kinda cool!" Vorden said in an excited tone, as he began swinging the shortsword in his hand, acting like an excited child who had just gotten a new toy.
As Vorden was swinging the shortsword, Susan and the cloaked figure approached them.
"Your test is complete." Susan replied. "Peter Chuck, Quinn Talen, Layla Munrow, Erin Heyley, Vorden Blade, and Hikiko Tsukuru, it's time to go." She motioned to the cloaked man. Like the man on the elevated platform, he placed his hands on the ground, and activated the Teleportation Ability.
This time, the group was teleported in front of the academy where they would be staying. The academy was huge and was the tallest building, located in the middle of the city. It was as if somebody had put three hotels together. There were ten different teachers in total who stood in front of the academy. Once in a while, a group of students would be teleported in front of one of the teachers and told to wait until all the students had completed their tests.
When Tsukuru and the others had appeared in front of their teacher, a middle-aged man with blonde, curly hair and wearing glasses. He looked at them, then looked at his tablet, then back at the students.
"Hey, aren't you supposed to be in groups of five?" He asked.
One of the nearby teachers laughed.
"Hey, look." He jeered. "Del's the one stuck with the extra kid!" The teachers began to giggle. Del's eye began to twitch in annoyance. After all 51 students had appeared in front of Del, he let out a deep sigh.
"Alright, let's get this over with." He muttered. However, it was at that point that the watch on Del's wrist began to beep erratically, its screen flashing. Confused, Del brought it up to his chest, and looked down at it. When he did, his eyes widened, and he stiffened. The name shown on the screen was that of the Head General of the base, Paul Snelleart.
Del gulped, and pressed his finger against the screen, answering it.
"Y-Yes, sir?" He asked. After a moment, Paul's voice crackled through the screen.
"Teacher Del Rowan, be advised. Sergeant Hikiko Shizuka is on route to your location to take over the school tour for your group." Hearing this, Tsukuru's heart jumped, and he felt a cold chill run down his spine. With his warning given, Paul ended the call. Del's watch dimmed, and it returned to being in stand-by.
Instantly, they all felt a heavy presence engulf them. It was similar to the feeling of being in a horror movie when in the presence of the killer. Looking ahead, Del's eyes widened, as he saw a figure approaching him.
"Oh my god." He muttered. "The rumors are true. She really is on the base."
Having a bad feeling, Tsukuru turned around, and looked to where Del was looking. A nervous smile crept across his face. He began to laugh. A nervous laugh denoting one in a state of fear and panic and not knowing what else to do, rather than genuine humor. Erin narrowed her eyes at him.
"What's with you?" She asked. However, Vorden knew that look. He had lived through it multiple times. It was the same way he acted around his older sister, Vicky Blade.
"My big sister." Tsukuru replied, looking as though he had a lump in his throat. "My big sister, Military Sergeant Hikiko Shizuka, is here."
Quinn looked ahead, as he saw Sergeant Hikiko Shizuka approaching them, her having a smile on her face that for some reason filled him with great terror, despite having never met this woman before in his life. Shizuka stopped in front of the group, smiling at them all.
"You must be little Tsu-Tsu's classmates." She replied, causing them all to turn to Tsukuru, making him feel like he wished he could fall into a hole in the ground to get out of this situation. "My name is Sergeant Hikiko Shizuka, and I am the one who will be in charge of disciplining misbehaving miscreants." She licked her lips as she said the last part, making every student there inwardly hope they never broke any rules during their stay here. "And I will be showing you around the school." She turned her gaze towards Del. "You don't mind, right, Mr. Rowan?" She asked in a sweet, honeyed voice.
"Sure." Del squeaked out, suddenly feeling small under Shizuka's gaze.
"Wonderful." Shizuka said, putting her hand on his shoulder and squeezing far too hard than needed, causing him to wince in pain. She turned back around to the group. "C'mon, kiddies!" She said in an excited tone. "Let's go!"