"You finally made it back and judging by your expression… you have something to discuss with me."
Sévón said nothing, he didn't nod nor did he deny it. He simply looked at her. Shuren leaned back slightly. Her eyes moved and landed on Esme. The temperature in the room dropped.
"And you," Shuren said.
Esme stiffened.
"Why are you not at school? Did you ditch again?"Her voice didn't rise.
With no idea how to react, Shuren was intimidating to Esme all alone. Esme flexed her fingers at her side. Her throat was constricting. She instinctively checked for some kind of support from Sévon.
Esme needed something from him, but when their eyes first made contact she could remember the moment Sévon made a remark to her about how he would report to Shuren on why she ran away from school.
There was no other option for Esme other than to tell the truth.
"Yes," Esme said, very softly.
Shuren let out a slow breath. "You don't listen to anything."
Esme gave a wince.
"Do you not know how your father feels about your schooling? Or do you just not realise that you are repeating the year?"
Esme's jaw became tense with every measured word from Shuren.
"I..."
"You didn't attend school, why? I don't know; perhaps because you weren't there." Esme glared.
Shuren glanced at Esme for a moment longer before she exhaled.
"We'll discuss your punishment later."
Her tone was so final that it did not give any chance of hope. Shuren turned back to Sévon.
"Now we can talk about the mission."
Sévon gave her a small nod.
"Yes, but first I have one question. How did we not catch him?"
Esme looked in Assad's general direction and was shocked to notice that he was reading the book about which Vonessia gifted to him.The more disturbing thing was that he was just sitting there doing nothing but listening, even though that was only a brief amount of time.
"Who..."
"You don't need to know."
Esme was confused, why would Shuren suddenly cut her off when she tried asking a question about the guy who was sitting on the chair like he belongs there. What was the meaning of it?
"Alright then Sévon, we can have our chat. The both of you,get out of the room and give us some space."
Assad did not say anything to that and simply closed his book. He then stood up from his seat and straightened himself before taking his slow steps to the door. He walked past Sévon and stood there for a moment. Sévon saw Assad stand next to him and smiled.
Taking out one of his hands from his pockets he flicked Assad on the forehead. Assad felt the slight pain and grabbed his forehead.
"It's been a while since you arrived at the agency. We haven't had any small talk yet, right?"
Assad stopped grabbing his forehead and looked down on the ground for a moment. A smile came as he looked at Sévon's direction.
"Hey Sévon and yea it has been a while."
Sévon also grinned as well.
"How about this, meet me at the octagon in ten minutes."
Assad was bewildered and wondered why he would ask that. If they wanted to have a chat, wasn't it best to just talk at a random place.Why would he choose the place for training out of locations?
He couldn't put his mind to it and just let it go. Assad nodded to Sévon's request and left for the door. Esme just stared, still filled with confusion on who Assad was and why was she not allowed to ask questions.
Esme also left for the door as Sévon asked her to leave as he wanted to talk with Shuren privately.
"Someone straightened up.You've only been here for a few days," "But you now have a different posture."Sévon said calmly.
Shuren gave Assad a quick glance before giving him a single nod.
"He's adjusting more quickly than anticipated."
"Give me a clear explanation for what happened." She phrased the question.
For a fraction of an inch longer than what he needed, Sévon nodded his head and was ready to begin with his logical explanation. The chair that hosted Sévon was identical in style and size to the one that contained Assad's body before his departure.
"I really don't need to be rushed by you, so pay attention,the culprit for the murder that we were investigating.was a female named Esyn Lantana,which you already know off" said Sévon.
At that moment, Shuren paused, then nodded her head.
"To recapitulate, we were taking the necessary steps, as previously planned by us, to take her in for questioning, so we could figure out the reason why she killed Masao Shirai."
"We approached her compound at night; it was quiet when we entered her bedroom, she appeared to be sleeping, however, that was not the case as she had in fact been awake the entire time and sent me flying to a wall with some sort of force.
"What do you mean she used some sort of force?" Shuren asked.
"She weaponized her blood. And whatever launched me wasn't physical."
He paused.
" So that means that she had Dynamokinesis, combined with blood manipulation."
Shuren didn't say anything, she was just listening to Sévon continue on with his mission report.
"Oh before I forget,at first I thought that she was connected to The Puppeteers, however, that was my mistake because they do not have any combat training, so that leads us to another group."
Shuren remained silent as she went to her cupboard to retrieve a pack of cigarettes before taking one out and placing it in her mouth. She then retrieved a lighter and ignited the cigarette, exhaling the smoke while continuing to ponder about Sévon's report until she reached her conclusion.
"The Scarlet Wolverine Sect."
Sévon agreed, and after that conclusion there was a period of silence.