The lady of time?

“I think I know exactly what just happened,” said a tall, slender boy with long white hair.

The students immediately gathered closer to the mysterious boy.

“Should I explain the whole thing from the start?” he asked.

“Yes, yes!” came the voices of boys and girls from all around.

“All right. So. At the beginning, David, the brown-haired boy, used his passive ability. He somehow affected his rivals’ thoughts, and they bowed their heads in pain. Seizing the moment, Ksyu, David’s teammate, touched him on the shoulder and changed his appearance into hers. And she herself turned into David. At first you might think this was a transfer of consciousness into another body, but since we later saw two Reias, the situation is clear. Her ability is impersonation.”

Everyone listened in silence, trying not to miss a single word.

“When Aram and Reia got up, they didn’t notice anything strange. David and Ksyu were running at them. For this battle they’d chosen defensive tactics - that was clear from the very first second they were in the arena. Before attacking Aram, Ksyu touched David’s hand to ‘transform’ him into Reia. And she herself, transformed into David, deliberately let herself be captured quickly. Their goal was to trick Aram into defeating Reia.”

“And why did she turn into David and turn him into herself? It only made the whole thing more complicated, didn’t it?” one of the boys asked.

“Good question. I wondered the same thing at first. I think it’s because impersonation is Ksyu’s active ability, and if something had gone wrong, it would have been harder for her to fight Aram and Reia than for David. Although we still haven’t figured out what David’s active superpower is.”

“I see,” the students nodded.

“So there it is. The hardest part of the plan was getting Aram to believe that David was Reia. As you saw, he managed it, and Aram chained the real Reia. I’d guess the real Reia isn’t very strong physically and had no fighting experience, especially against a boy throwing chains. And she fell to the floor. David, taking advantage of the situation and of the fact that Aram had his back to him, struck him from behind and struck a victorious pose.”

“But what happened at the end? There was only a fraction of a second left. What kind of superpower does Reia have, that she got up off the floor at such speed and knocked David to the ground? And what’s more, we saw nothing. If it were super speed, she’d have had time to dodge Aram’s blows. Or, say, if she reacted late and couldn’t dodge in time, then at least we’d have seen her knock David down.”

“Yes. What happened could point to several things. Option one: Reia is skilled at creating hallucinations, and Aram never actually chained her. She hid somewhere and struck David from there. But this option is unlikely, since in an open arena she could hardly have hidden anywhere.”

“Could her ability be invisibility?” one of the girls asked. She had a long, dark braid and large, green, catlike eyes.

“That was the second option I considered. But here too a question arises: at what point did she become invisible? When she was thrown to the floor? And how did she then manage to get up in such a short time and knock David down?”

“And what’s the third option?” another student asked.

“Well, the third option is that she can somehow control time.”

“What? Time?” A heated discussion broke out among the students. “Is that even possible? Time control is a very rare ability, and not everyone can handle it. And if someone our age had a superpower like that, he or she would have been recruited into the Military Ministry long ago, right under Oswald’s wing. No one would have let her study at our academy.”

“I agree with that too,” said the blond boy. “But I can’t think of any other explanation either.”

“I think we need to be careful with our assumptions and speculation,” said the green-eyed student. “If word about this so-called lady of time gets out, then not only will this girl have problems - all of us will.”

“What problems could we have?” another girl asked.

“The least that awaits us is interrogation. The military will come to our academy and question everyone who has ever seen even the tip of her hair, for a long time, and with suspicion.”

“And her hair isn’t short, either,” one of the students said.

“Right. But they’re not fools. And no one will believe you on your word alone. They’ll bring along people with ‘lie detector’ superpowers and find out everything - not just about Reia, but about you, too. And in the end, they’ll take her away with them and erase all your memories of her, yours and mine both.”

“Don’t scare them like that, Riza,” said the long-haired boy. “It’s not that bad.”

Riza clearly disliked his remark.

“Do as you like. I won’t say another word. But remember what I said, just in case. In the world we live in now, it’ll definitely come in handy,” she said, and walked off to the other side of the arena.

“Don’t be afraid, please. She just takes it very seriously when it comes to someone’s safety.”

Alert smiled and hurried after Riza.

“Wait a minute. Why are you in such a hurry?”

“Let go of me!” she shouted, shoving Alert, and sank wearily onto a seat. “You don’t understand. I don’t want anyone else to suffer because of those beasts.”

“I’m sorry. I understand. But we won’t accomplish anything by scaring everyone. Try to be a little less emotional.”

Riza raised her huge, tired eyes and looked at Alert.

“Go to hell.”