"Wait, what?"
Mo Ming blinked.
"Are you deaf? I said you have to inject it into one of your vital organs."
Assad looked down at the syringe again.
"...a vital organ."
"Yes."
"One of my vital organs that keeps me alive?"
"That is usually what a vital organ means."
Assad slowly lowered the syringe.
"And that's normal?"
Mo Ming looked very confused by the question.
"Of course it's normal."
"I'm putting a needle into one of my vital organs. How is that normal?"
Mo Ming let out a sigh.
"That's the only way to become a Sionel."
Mo Ming suddenly stopped speaking.
He was now staring at Assad.
"...what do you do?" he asked.
Assad blinked.
"...what?"
"What's your specialty?"
Assad didn't know how to respond to that question.
His first thought was to say hand-to-hand combat. The original Assad had spent years as a street fighter. His body moved like it had been trained through years of brawling and near-death experiences.
But was that really the right answer?
Assad frowned.
It was only after he considered himself that he realized he was not a fighter at all. The best weapon he had ever had on Earth was his mind.
So which one is right?
The answer that his body gave him, or the answer that he himself gave him?
Mo Ming's eyes went up, showing his surprise.
"And," he said.
Assad rubbed his chin.
"I really don't know."
Shuren and Mo Ming both looked at Assad, completely mystified by the fact that someone could not know what they were best at.
Mo Ming was the first to go.
"You have to be kidding."
"I have to agree, that's nothing short of the dumbest thing I have heard in a while," Shuren shot back.
Assad waved his hand.
"Wait, that's not what I meant."
"Explain," Shuren said.
"It's just... I can't make up my mind on which one to choose."
This left them even more confused.
"You have to be kidding," Mo Ming said.
"Why would I lie?" Assad replied.
"How can you have more than one?"
"Because I have two."
"What are they?" Shuren asked, leaning forward.
Assad thought for a second.
"Close range and thinking."
"Are you kidding?" Shuren echoed
"You know, using your brain, thinking your way through problems, figuring out how to handle obstacles and finding solutions to problems all fall under this category."
A tense pause followed between both of them before Mo Ming. Both of them then turned their heads back toward Assad.
"What's wrong ?" Assad replied.
"Congratulations you've just given me a brief description of what it is to be human," Mo Ming said.
Assad's eyes twitched.
"I hate you guys," Assad said.
Mo Ming rubbed his thumb while tapping his fingers against his chin.
"Putting jokes aside."
Whenever I heard Mo Ming become serious I became cautious.
"You have stated that your two only abilities are close combat and your mind."
"Yea."
"Then I would think it would be best for you to inject yourself with Reisu into your brain."
"Are you serious right now?" Assad asked.
Mo Ming nodded his head. Assad looked shocked. Shuren had a disinterested look on her face.
"You think I should inject myself into the brain with Reisu?"
"Mmhmm"
"Why should I shoot myself with it?"
"That's where you should inject because in order to find out what your ability might be it will go by what you're good at in which you said are thinking and close combat, so there are no other organs that fulfill those talents but your brain."
Mo Ming was right. If Assad could repeat in summary to Mo Ming what had just been described to him, he would've been a combat strategy specialist. Assad slowly raised the syringe to his head. He brought it close to the cranium then stopped moving.
'Is this what I should do?'
The brain is the most protected vital organ in the body, therefore, any form of interference could potentially result in death. So injecting the syringe would more than likely result in him dying. If he died at this moment where would the soul of Arjen Jurrien go? Probably straight to hell.
Shuren saw the hesitation in him and became pretty irritated. She walked towards him. When Assad heard the footsteps approaching he simply glanced over to see who it was.
Upon arrival, Shuren forcibly removed the syringe from Assad's hand and plunged it through to his skull. As soon as she realized the tip of the syringe had penetrated into the brain, she pushed the plunger, injecting a dose of Reisu into his brain.
As Assad screamed out in agony, he lost consciousness. Shuren withdrew the syringe from his head and sat it down on the table. Mo Ming was in a state of shock over the entire incident.
"Shuren what the hell!"
"What?" asked Shuren.
"What do you mean, what? You actually killed him when you forced it in!"
Shuren was not interested in what she did, only in taking out another cigarette from the pack and smoking it.
She sat in her chair and waited. Mo Ming did not understand her reason for doing this. He glanced over at Assad, who remained passed out. There is a possibility that he is dead, given the 60% risk rate of people wishing to be Sionel’s and also the fact that when they inject into a vital organ, there is an additional 36% risk.
Time went on with nothing occurring. Mo Ming began to lose his faith. He checked the pulse on Assad's wrist and found it weak, but there.
"This is not normal."
Shuren continued to sit comfortably in her chair, smoking a cigarette.
"What is?"
"He should've already responded."
"He might just be dead."
"That's not the ‘might I wanna hear right now!"
Shured shrugged her shoulders. Assad's body suddenly jerked. His eyes opened suddenly with a start.
"Aghhhh!"
He put both his hands on his head and fell out of the chair and onto the floor in a pain like he has never experienced before.
Mo Ming stepped back suddenly.
"It's starting."
The room was filled with the sounds of Assad screaming in terror as he shook violently on the ground. With every second that passed, the nails on his fingers dug into the stone floor and he kept digging deeper, until finally, things began to change in a very strange way.
Assad's black hair began to change colors.
At first, the roots of his hair started to turn from a jet black to a very bright silver/white. As the roots turned light, the rest of his hair followed suit, with the front of his hair becoming a bright silver/white and the sides turning ash grey/black. This transformation continued until all of the sides of his hair became two completely contrasting colors. He continued to writhe on the ground, he started to remember pieces of his past, remembering being back on Earth with his family and friends, having fun, playing like a regular teenager and living the type of life he had always wanted.
Many memories came flooding back into his mind as he continued to lay there, gasping for air. Then after all of this began, it all stopped at once when the pain in his body suddenly stopped.
Assad was on the ground breathing heavily.
"Haa..hhaa"
Salty sweat covered his body, and he could feel his heart beating out of his chest. He slowly raised a shaking hand to touch the top of his head.
"What.. What the hell just happened to me?"
Shuren took a drag of her cigarette and blew smoke into the air.
"There, he's still alive."
Mo Ming looked between Assad and Shuren.
"Still alive? That's your reaction?" he said.
"The kid survived the eighty-six percent death rate, what do you expect me to say?"
As Assad lay on the ground gasping for air, all of his muscles were like jelly. The events that transpired earlier had left him in disbelief and wonder. The only thing he had going for him was that he was still alive, however; the pain he endured earlier felt unreal and temporary. He remembered how many times he screamed out in agony and the feeling of having your skull shattered into pieces from the inside out.
His memories of those events were truly bizarre; lay there in disbelief of having gone through so much at once. Eventually, he managed to push himself over onto his elbow and swept his eyes around the room searching for something familiar. He could no longer see clearly though as his vision was clouded and blurred, and had red and black shadows all over the place. He rubbed his eyes repeatedly but it did nothing for his vision.
"Don't fidget." Mo Ming voiced calmly.
Confused about the location of the voice, Assad concentrated on finding Mo Ming.
"Quit turning your head this way and that, you are only making things worse, especially after receiving the needle injection into your brain. Just lay still for a few minutes.”
Assad listened to Mo Ming's advice and stayed completely still. Mo Ming pointed towards Assad with a grin and said to Shuren
"He's like a loyal dog."
Shuren ignored what Mo Ming said and carried on smoking. Mo Ming walked over to Assad and looked down at him. To Mo Ming, Assad looked like a confused puppy trying to find its mother except instead of crying it was first adjusting to its surroundings.
"Now that you are calm, I will start with a few tests for you. Are you ok with that?" Mo Ming asked.
Assad nodded.
"Good, now your eyesight should be somewhat blurry right now?" Mo Ming asked.
"Yea, and I can also see red. outlines, does that mean anything?" Assad asked.
Mo Ming shed a smile.
"Of course it does; the way your Reisu is set up is simply red; therefore, you will be seeing red and black outlines as well," he said.
Assad understood this completely, well at least he thought he did, but it was still about the same.
"So you're saying that the reason my eyes can see colours is because some magical fluid was injected into my head?"
"That is a simplified explanation of what is happening."
"Can you give me a more straightforward one?"
Mo Ming pointed.
"You are now a Sionel."
"That doesn't explain anything."
"It actually does."
"No it doesn't."
Mo Ming sighed.
Shuren took another puff on her cigarette.
"Welcome to the conversation with Mo Ming."
"Thanks, but I already hate it."
Except for the purpose of talking to Assad, Mo Ming continued to hunch next to him.
"Tell me something when you look at me, what do you see?"
Assad took some time to focus on Mo Ming and see that he was bright blue.
"You are bright blue."
"Correct; that is how you identify a Sionel. Your colour will be your identification, a Sionel will be identified by their colour."
Assad groaned and then out of morbid curiosity turned to look at Shuren and he saw she was white, and the brightness of her made it even harder to see, then he had to close his eyes because of how brightly she was glowing.
Mo Ming saw this.
"That is another thing as well, if you look at a Sionel who is much stronger than you will be blinded by their colour.
'Blinded by their colour, huh?'
That explained everything to him. The woman in front of him was a powerful force but the question is how strong and what's her ability?
Assad squinted at Shuren for a moment, then looked at him again, and again everything was pure gold.
He quickly turned away again. Mo Ming chuckled.
"Good thinking."
He rubbed his eyes.
"Let me get this straight... I'm able at this moment in a blurry state to distinguish Sionel’s from one another."
Mo Ming nodded in agreement as well.
If Sionel’s are determined by color, then what about ordinary humans, should they have any color at all? It wouldn't make the slightest sense but also a bit wrong at the same time. For it to make sense it's because they haven't injected themselves so there was no way for them to be identified.
"Now, I know looking blind is annoying so if you want to deactivate it, just make a cross on your forehead that'll do it." Mo Ming instructed.
Assad did as he was told, slowly lifting his finger up to his forehead and making the cross. After he did that his vision began to return to normal.
"It worked."
"Of course it did, next we need to find out your ability and we'll be done for the day, you okay with that?" Mo Ming asked.
Assad nodded.
For the next few minutes they began running tests to find what ability did Assad have in his arsenal, they tested everything from normal elemental abilities that included his color but nothing.
"Well that's a bummer, we tried every imaginable ability from the red category but nothing came out."
Mo Ming scratched his head trying to think of what Assad's power could be.
'Wait, no f**king way.'he thought to himself.
Mo Ming looked over at Shuren, whose expression suggested that he didn’t quite understand the thought process behind this.
"Assad, you are actually very lucky," said Mo Ming.
"What does that mean?" replied Assad.
"If I'm correct, you would have one of the most broken powers ever," Mo Ming stated.
Assad looked back at Mo Ming in disbelief and remained silent. Shuren looked at both of them as though she was completely confused as to what Mo Ming was saying.
"Okay, Assad, think of anything," said Mo Ming, while pointing at Assad.
Assad just stared at him.
"....what kind of test is that?" asked Assad, with a look of confusion.
"It’s a test where you think of something," replied Mo Ming.
"That's really not helpful," responded Assad.
Mo Ming pointed again at him.
"Just do it," he told him.
After a long sigh and with no clue as to what Mo Ming was trying to do, Assad finally decided to follow through with this test of "thinking something."
After about a minute of complete silence, Assad finally opened one of his eyes.
"See, nothing happenin'. Assad said.
Then, suddenly, came the sound of a raven flying overhead. The raven had dark, beautiful colored plumage, fierce looking eyes, and flew through the air like an arrow.
"Did I do that?" Assad asked.
Mo Ming was grinning so wide it looked as though it could hurt. He went to slam both of his hands down on the table.
"Let's go! I was right!"
Shuren raised an eyebrow in response. Mo Ming pointed straight at the raven.
"Your ability is broken, you have the ability to imagine!"
"...What?"
"You have the ability to create things through your own imagination."
Assad blinked in confusion.
"...The ability too...what?"
"Imagination."
You could see the look of excitement on Mo Ming's face like he had just stumbled upon buried treasure.
"Anything you create using your imagination, if you know how to do it right, then it has the possibility of becoming a real thing."
"Why are you so happy about that?" Assad asked.
"Well, because today it's just a bird, but tomorrow it could be so much more horrible!"
"... Great"
He then turned to Shuren. Shuren had noticeably darkened in the last few moments and she took a long drag of her cigarette. Her cigarette almost bent between her fingers. Mo Ming noticed immediately.
"Oh!"
"Yeah," Shuren replied with a flat tone.
Mo Ming coughed awkwardly while looking back and forth between them.
"What?"
Shuren pointed her cigarette at him.
"People who have abilities like yours are usually a pain in the ass."
Exactly at that moment, the raven hopped up onto Assad's shoulder, but Shuren's personal darkness increased.