Sévon's smile grew a little bit bigger as he began to leave the medical bay.
As Assad looked at the figure of Sévon walking away from him, he looked at his hand as he thought about how he was about to become Vonessia's bodyguard, and it was an incredible thought. Also, the fact that her boss is someone who is respected so highly in Yorna is pretty amazing.
His reason for being in Kurayamiya is still a mystery to him.
He has so many unanswered questions right now, it is almost overwhelming. But he really needs to focus on preparing over the next two weeks since the auction is going to be happening. In his previous life as a Toon Horst, he witnessed a bad auction where everything went wrong and got a little bit shady, but then again, the specified auction house was raided because of police action, which would lend credence to that line of thought.
Assad turns his right eye toward where Mya had been asleep.
"I know you are awake, so do not play that game."
Mya slowly opened her eyes, and saw him. She relaxed seeing him. Assad looked down and smiled at her.
"Welcome back sleeping beauty. How was your very long nap?"
Mya was at a loss for words and did not have a clue what would be the best way to say something to him. However, she needed to say something, no matter how small that something might be.
"How…long…have I… been asleep?"
Assad's eyes grew wide. The sound of Mya's voice was totally different from what he had expected. The one he recognized from before, was the voice of a girl who had just gone through puberty, while this voice sounded like she was 16 years old. He was unable to explain it since she was 10 years old when they went looking for her sisters and back at the Hot Swan.
"Assad, is something wrong?"
Assad had no idea how to respond to her and just stood there in amazement and confused. The look of confusion that crossed Mya's face was clear when she heard the question was directed to her from out of the blue.
"Assad, are you alright?"
"Who are you? I'm only asking once more and no more."
"Mya, the same girl who was with you last time, the same girl you tried to save, the same girl who you murdered her twin sister."
Assad could feel even more confusion in the eyes of the girl that he was speaking to at that moment, and didn't know if the girl you were speaking to was really the former Mya or still the unknown one.
'Recovering from being a True Failure? This has to be the only explanation right?'
"Why do you think that? A True Failure's effects are not what you're thinking they're like."
Assad didn't move.
"Wait...what did you just say?"
"Didn't you hear me? The effects of being a True Failure are not how you think of them."
Assad stuttered, but there was a flash of light in his eyes and fell back to the floor. Mya was blowing on her fingers as if to get the heat out of her hand.
"Wow, it's a good thing I didn't get caught. They call them monsters for their abilities in fighting and thinking; I almost got caught. Regardless of what happened, I will take this information and use it to create havoc. Praise the one who gives all answers.
After that, Mya resumed falling asleep like nothing occurred at all.
Assad's eyelids opened once again. The overhead lights glared directly down on him in the medical treatment area. His throbbing head was beginning to hurt.
"What happened?"
He slowly pulled himself upright to try to determine what had transpired; the only thing that he was able to recall was him conversing with , then nothing at all. Mya remained in her cot and was sleeping safely and had not moved from her original position.
Assad appeared to be confused.
"Was I unconscious?"
With one hand pressed to the side of his head, Assad rolled slowly out of the bed. The dull ache in his skull throbbed.
"...Tch."
After gaining his balance, he focused on the blurry room to his right and recalled everything up until his meeting with Sévon in the medical bay: The offer—the auction—Sévon would put in a good word to Vonessia...
His brows knitted together as he tried to think back as far as possible to see if anything would spark his memory but it was gone. It was almost like a knife had severed that moment from his brain completely. He pressed the palm of his hand to his forehead.
"This is so frustrating."
There was no reason to keep thinking about it. The last thing Sévon had told him before departing was important. The next auction would be held in two weeks; that alone gave him two weeks to prepare before the auction. He also had to decide if Sévon really was going to recommend him to Vonessia... Thus, this will be his very first successful mission.
Assad sat up straighter and turned around to the door into the medical bay.
"...I don't think I can afford to wait any longer."
That morning, after leaving the medical bay the one thing on Assad's mind was to practice. He realized that merely relying on instinct was not going to be sufficient if he wanted to stand next to people like Sévon in front of a room full of powerful people; He had to take control of his ability.
The training room was very quiet when he got there, an expansive, very wide floor of concrete filled the room, while all that could be heard was the constant hum coming from the room's lights.
Assad stepped into the middle of the training room, rolling his shoulders and stating, "Let's give this a shot."
Assad started practicing the fundamentals of striking. He was striking the air dozens of times with each punch, and while at first his technique was rough due to not having a rhythm; he slowly was able to correct himself until it was comfortable for him.
After striking for a bit, he began adding in kicks and working on improving his footwork. Several minutes of kicking, punching and moving went by, and he was sweating profusely.
Unbeknownst to him, a random thought entered his mind and his mind drifted away as well.
A black raven.
Its feathers, darker than night, and its eyes glowing like bright red coals for a split second caused the image to become very vivid in his head.
FWOOOSH.
Assad opened his eyes when something flapped violently in front of him, and when he did he immediately identified that it had to be the same raven he had just thought of and its red eyes were staring directly into his.
"....What?"