Evaluation

The time flow between the two worlds was much more out of sync than I had realized. Waking up to the sight of DaVinci hovering above me and the blaring white lights of the hospital room had not been pleasant. Being told that I had been unconscious for weeks had been an unexpected surprise, to say the least.

When I reopened my eyes, I'd hated the feeling. I'd felt so weak, almost as weak as I used to be. The return of gaunt-looking fingers and constant tiredness had been unwanted. Thankfully enough, my reawakening allowed me to direct my qi. Previously all it had been doing was keeping me alive. The lack of head had also confused the doctors as to how they could sustain me.

Having wires linked directly to your stomach is an unusual feeling. That had been a couple days ago. The next couple of days had been spent recuperating. Thankfully enough, my body didn't take all that long to get back into shape.

Currently, I was made to sit at a table as the leading nurse asked me various questions and examined my body to make sure everything was okay.

"Okay then..." she muttered under of voice while flipping through various forms. "... you should be good to go." She looked up from her papers before offering a small smile.

"Thank you," I replied as I got up and grabbed my hoodie. The examination had only taken a couple of minutes. However, with the incessant chatter of the nurse, it had felt like hours. I wasted no time as I made my way out of the room.

The electronic sliding door opened up to the impassive face of DaVinci waiting outside in the white halls. "You don't look like absolute death. That's good." He said before motioning with his head for me to follow him.

His presence at the door came as no surprise to me. I'd seen him from the moment he arrived. Though his timing for arrival was quite spot on.

"Uuh, thanks?"I replied. I shifted my attention to my sight and observed the entire floor. I was greeted only to the site of seemingly endless white hallways with identical doors. The only indicator of difference being the room numbers above the door.

I followed after Davinci, who seemed to be absolutely sure of his directions. It was expected that the man would know a lot of things. However, knowing the hospital's layout is quite strange unless he spent a lot of his time in the hospital.

Though that might be the genius in him acting up. I shrugged off the thoughts before catching up and walking next to him. "Why do you wear hoodies when you don't have a head?" He asked the question without even so much as glancing to the side.

"I have one sometimes."

"Yet, you are headless more often. At least, that's how it seems to me." He picked up his pace slightly as he glanced down at his watch.

"It's complicated." I shrugged as I replied and adjusted my stride to keep up with him. The hallways were still as empty as ever, but nearly every room was taken up.

Strange.

"So, you mind telling me where exactly we're going?" We took a turn to the right before he replied.

"Do you want to work for us?"

"No, I want to keep my memories." he nodded at my reply before taking another right. At which point we arrived in front of an elevator.

"I thought as much. You don't seem the kind to particularly want to work for others. Even if you are rather polite." He was disappointed in my answer, but it didn't seem to be aimed at me.

"I was informed of how you were recruited. It hardly is considered recruitment, but ..." The last of his words could not be understood by me since he spoke in Italian. He corrected himself once he saw my confused gaze.

"Sorry, I tend to speak my language when I'm frustrated." With a loud bang, the elevator arrived, and we stepped in. The button for the 173 floors was clicked.

"Is there a lot to be stressed about in your line of work?" The gaze he gave me was one of amusement. "Most definitely, there is much to be stressed about. Especially since your other anomaly members seem to be acting up."

"My anomaly members?" I knew who he was talking about, but the designation made me interested. Unfortunately, there were no answers given. From the light eyeroll, it was clear that he had figured out that I was fishing for information.

"We'll be meeting with some important people. You'll have an in-person interview with them, and then if you accept, we will need to test your capabilities to see where we can put you."

"That seems rather irresponsible of you people. You might know my personal information, but you don't know me as a person. I could very well be a threat." I had expected some sort of tension. The laugh I received was not expected.

"We know that. That's why we have contingencies."

He chuckled as if he had remembered something rather amusing. "In any case, we need the numbers and the people. But I will advise that you do not think our need for numbers doesn't mean we'll take action if you were found to be a threat. I've met many people who thought that was the case. They currently no longer believe that."

We were only a couple more floors away from our destination. I did not doubt that what had been said. No, my doubt came from what I had seen so far. The security looked to be as complex as most company security.

Meaning that it was good, but any person with a solid plan and some resources could make some headway. It didn't inspire fear or a sense of security. I wasn't entirely convinced of it, but I took his word for it.

It's Better to assume your opponent is competent and makes plans based on that, than think they're a fool and get slammed for it. "I'm guessing you'll want to know about the other anomalies?"

He nodded at my question. Perhaps it was foolish of me to confirm my connection, but I doubted that they didn't already know about it. If I wanted more information, being difficult wouldn't help in the slightest.

"I'll tell you right now that I know little if anything at all about them. The most we've done is see each other. If you're looking for some information to help with the anomalies, then I'm not your guy." Davinci simply nodded before he pulled out a phone from his pocket.

It was one of those ultra-thin ones that were see-through until activated. I thought them to be impractical, but somehow people loved them.

"We assumed as much. After all, one did shoot at you." I made no reaction to his statement. It made sense, after all, if they could track us that they could figure out that I'd been shot at.

"Thankfully for you, you're nature as a Dullahan really helped you out there."

"Thankfully."

The next instant, the elevator doors opened up into another set of hallways. I glance at the floor with my sight informed of its importance. The rooms all had that blurred effect that had been on the van but to a much larger extent.

It still didn't hamper my vision that much, but I did have to focus before I could clearly see what was inside. Unfortunately, most of the rooms were empty. They were meant to be used for meetings. None of the rooms contained any type of object that looked to be vital.

The entire floor was absent of people apart from the guards and one singular room. Which so happened to be we were headed to right now.

Hopefully, this meeting wasn't too long. I wanted to get some personal space and see what exactly was wrong with my realm.

I hadn't gone back to it when I was in the hospital. After all, I'd just arrived, but it hadn't left my mind. If there was a method in which I could escape and not worry about these people until I was ready, I would take it.

The Functionality of the fulcrum was more important to me than whatever was going on here, but until that point, I didn't need to add anything else to my table.

After a couple of minutes of walking, we finally arrived at the door. They were promptly opened by the armed guards. We walked in without stopping. The interior was undecorated, and the walls were completely black. There were hints of technology here and there, but not much.

The most notable thing was the giant semi-circle of seated people. They numbered around 14 in total. Davinci promptly left my side and sat in the last unoccupied seat.

The man who sat in the center cleared his throat before standing up.

"Now begins the Task of evaluating anomaly 01, otherwise known as Benjamin Francis. An American citizen who is currently inhabiting Switzerland. Anamoly 01 first nondirect evaluation was inconclusive, so you've all been brought here to judge and evaluate in person. Are there any questions?"

There was no reply to his question."Then let us begin the session.