It's been 30 days since Yoshi, Belle, and Alice enter the Castle Anomaly. As of now, Taiyo was measuring Alice's nails.
"You're nails are like claws. They can extend an extra 9 centimeters. Even when short like normal nails, they can still effortlessly cleave through diamond like a hot knife through butter."
"Sensei, can humans see anomalies?"
"No. Normal humans can't see anomalies. They're invisible to them. However, one interesting thing about them is that even though anomalies aren't visible to humans, anomalies can still be detected by cameras. And if they're caught on camera, humans can see them through the pictures."
"Taiyo-sensei, I have a question."
"Ok. Fire away, no American school."
"Why did no one ever come after me? If we keepers must stay hidden from humans, why was I just allowed to exist in society? Why didn't you nor the humans ever come after me?"
"I wondered when you were gonna start asking those questions. I'll put it like this. There are 100 known active skills in keeper history. Do you know what the all-time strongest is?"
"What?"
"Probability Outcome. It allows the user to treat reality like a script and they can alter any aspect they want of... well, just about anything. The power is omnipotent, only limited by the user's imagination."
"Ok... what does that have to do with anything?"
"There were only 2 keepers in the 200-year history of the Skyfall Dance to have this ability. The first was the first and strongest keeper in history. The second was your mother."
"..."
"My guess is she made it so you could go to school without being hunted. Although, if she wanted to, she could have manipulated the minds of every human on earth to perceive you as human. She probably has a reason for not doing so. If you want, I could contact her to ask her why-"
"No... That woman... that creature abandoned me and my father. I only have negative memories of her. I have no want, need, desire, or any other related verb to see or even hear from her."
"... Whatever, bitch."
"What did you just say to me?"
"Nothing, nothing. I'll stop fucking around like Cardi B and get to the main point. You just awakened your active skill. It could take most keeper years to unlock an active skill, but you did it in just a few months. Not only that, but you got one of the strongest; null. It allows the user to terminate anything from existence, even matter and energy itself. This has the higher-ups shitting their boxers, so to put it lightly, you have an even bigger target on your back now. Combine the already extremely deadly passive skill of an anubis with null, and you have a terrifying combination. Don't be surprised if they send assassins after you to give you that Shinzo Abe treatment. For that reason, I decided to keep your null ability a secret till you become strong enough to defend yourself. The higher-ups won't come after you so long as I'm alive."
"You love to hear yourself talk, don't you?"
"How could I not? My voice makes me moist like the air in Miami. But, back to the point. Null is extremely powerful... Who knows, maybe you'll go on to kill The Cyber Demon."
"The what who now?"
"Well, remember when I said that zenith class keepers and anomalies are on a whole different level. Well, all Zenith and Paradox classes get their own classification. The Cyber Demon is 1 of the known 2 zenith class anomalies that are currently still in the Japan. We have an actual reading on the other one, we just haven't found a way to kill it yet because we've been unable to find its core. On the other hand, The Cyber Demon is, as its name suggests, a digital being."
"Like an ai?"
"Kinda. It has the ability to control every social media-related thing. It gets stronger from toxicity on the internet. Spend a minute on Reddit or Elon Musk's cancer site and you'll quickly see why this thing is zenith class. We don't even know how to beat it, let alone track it down... I've been tracking this creature down for nearly 5 years now, but have come no closer to making it meet Micheal Jackson. The scariest part is how dangerous it is. If it wanted, it could start a war with just a few social media posts. And despite how powerful the Skyfall Dance Academy and Keeper society is as a whole, we can't exactly take down every since social media or stop humans from being toxic."
Later that day, Alice had fallen asleep at her desk while she was drawing.
Alice started having flashbacks in the dreams of her father taking drugs. He started after his stress became too much. Alice had an event at her school. He had missed her first flute recital in school because he was too busy buying crystal meth. Later that day, Alice came home and found her dad overdosed on the ground, barely clinging to life.
Alice woke up from her nightmare. She shook her head and looked down at her paper. She was still trying to draw Pinoy's picture. While she drew several pictures of Belle and dozens upon dozens of pictures of Yoshi, she never once drew one for Pinoy. It's because she couldn't.
Despite them being in the same class, and even occasionally going on missions together, she never once struck up a genuine conversation with him. She didn't even know where he was from or why he was at the academy. When she thought about it, she couldn't even remember a single full sentence she said to Pinoy in the 4 months of them knowing each other. She kind of wanted to get closer to him, but it was hard for her to just talk to someone to get to know them.
Suddenly, she heard a knock on the door. She initially ignored it, since she thought it was Taiyo, and she didn't want to talk to her right now. But then, Alice heard a soft, masculine voice on the other side. "Alice, are you in there?"
The voice was Yoshi's. Her ears perked up with excitement and her tail started wagging rapidly. She couldn't control her body. She hated how stupidly happy she got whenever she even thought about Yoshi. It got to the point where she could barely control her body whenever he was around.
"I brought you dinner. If you don't want i-"
In the next instance, the door swung open, not even letting Yoshi finish his sentence. Alice grabbed Yoshi and hugged him tightly. Yoshi was surprised and flustered. He felt warm inside when Alice hugged him, pressing her soft body and large chest against him. Still, through his embarrassment, he embraced his girlfriend with one of his arms. In the other hand, was Sashimi for Alice and Shabu-shabu for him so they could eat together.
They sat down on her bed together and pulled up a foldable table. The two couldn't stop smiling while sitting next to each other. Though, Alice couldn't see Yoshi's smile due to his mask.
"You know you can take it off around me, right?"
"I know but what if someone walks in on us?"
"They'd be dead... And don't say it like that. It makes it sound like we're porking. Don't give Belle or Taiyo any ideas."
"Me... give them ideas? Were you the one who yelled, 'give me your meat' when I made you wagyu stake?"
"Well... fair point."
"So, do you have any new recommendations for anime for me to watch?"
"Oh my gosh, yes! There's this one anime I picked up recently called- *20 minutes of yapping later* -and that's not even considering when he flipped her over and slammed her through the table! But I can't stand him! Watching him put his old friend on a pedestal like some inhuman superhero just makes me swell with anger! She may be physically insanely strong, but can he say with confidence that she's mentally that strong too?! Clearly, she's mentally breaking down from the stress of searching for him continuously and he's just happily messing around with his newfound WAIFU!!! No, I have not forgiven his betrayal of his childhood friend. He's not as bad as the scum who betrayed him and left him to die, but he's also tainted in my books. Not until they meet again and he makes up for leaving her behind without a single effort spared to at least tell her he's alive and well. I just bash this guy's head. This guy needs a wake-up punch. He projects his inferiority complex upon himself too much! Ah, it just got me... h-how long have I been talking?"
"About 20 or so minutes. Maybe more."
"M-My bad. I didn't lose you, did I? You didn't respond. Was I boring you?"
"No, of course not. Hearing you speak... this is gonna sound pathetic. Hearing you speak brings a smile to my hidden face. I love how passionate you are about anime and manga. Even when I see how much you love to draw and how much you've improved... it makes me overjoyed to have you as my girlfriend."
"Oh, ok Casanova."
"Hearing someone talk about hobbies they love is very attractive. Plus, I love your voice. Every day, when I hear you greet me at my door, it... great, no I'm doing the same thing."
"I bet I could yap about how much I love you for longer." Alice said while smirking.
"Nope. I can list off way more things I love about you than you can me."
"Oh, really. Wanna bet?"
"Yeah. The winner gets to kiss the loser."
"Wouldn't we just both kiss then?"
"I stand by what I said."