15)What does one need to do around here to remember something?

"Dio Aethereus Wolfriver"

"Dio!"

"Mr. Dio!"

"!!!!!" Dio's eyes shot open, his heart felt tighter as he was brought back to the present. It seems that while he was gone, barely a few seconds had passed by, which made sense considering time was relative.

'What…was that?' he thought to himself as he looked at the girl talking to him.

"Yes..?" he answered in a puzzled tone, he wasn't sure if he was asked a question or not but perhaps the reason behind his voice had more to do with his recent experience.

"You weren't responding so you had me worried there for a second,"

"Worried? You? About me? That is hilarious," he replied with a straight face as he looked into her deep green eyes.

"....I shall choose to ignore that….I want to know if you think you're capable of continuing any further…"

'This fucking guy...' she thought but held back from actually expressing how she felt.

"Of course I am. Is that even a question," Dio stated as he tried to get back up. A slight sting, but that was all he felt, his ribs were back to normal. His elegance was back to normal almost as if he had never lost the match in the first place. Just as he began to look for Hina on the stage, he spotted her unconscious body being carried away from the stage. By the looks of it, it was obvious that there were no serious injuries that she had sustained.

'I see….' Dio thought as he turned to look at the medical student.

"You have been blessed to heal me, you….you are a truly fortunate one," Dio nodded and told her before turning around and walking to his original seat, unfortunately, regardless of his current freshly healed condition, Alex showed him no mercy. She smacked him on the head and grabbed him by the back of his neck.

"Unhand me, woman! At once!" Dio yelped like a little child needing help. They were much like a specific orange-haired kid and a pink-haired girl with anger issues.

"Huh???!" Alex questioned in a threatening tone, "you moron, I literally told you to not be so overconfident, and yet that was literally all you did,"

"Tch," Dio got out from the neck grip and looked at her, "you misunderstand me. I merely allowed her to win, that is all." he nodded in agreement with himself.

"Urgh, whatever. I can't do this right now," Alex stormed off to her seat, leaving Dio behind in his natural element. Why was it his natural element you may ask? Of course, it was because of all the praise he was receiving while he walked back to his own seat.

The students there didn't care about the result, at least for that one specific match. They were very genuinely surprised and overwhelmed by how intense the match between Hina and Dio was.

They were around the age of 13, to show such skill and control, and most importantly, decision making, it was truly impressive. One could even say that the result barely mattered for the selection panel. It only had value on paper.

Of course, there were a few exceptions, such as Dio and Hina. Both of them HAD to win. But at the same time, only one of them put in the effort whilst the other only counter for most of it. It was funny, they were oddly similar but the characters they portrayed to the world and each other were the opposites of each other. Dio, a cocky self-serving genius child, and Hina, a strong-willed and hard-working girl who gave it her all nearly all the time.

Hina's main weapon was her martial arts, even though for some odd reason she focused on wind magic more. She had a strong mentality, or at the least, her claims were as such. Dio, on the other hand, was a prodigy who had the ability to memorize any spell, regardless of element. He wasn't proficient in close combat but was well versed in the basics and refined them. However, his personality was such that it could cause even the strongest of minds to waver, not that it was his intention, he was simply oblivious to certain important elements of life.

As Dio walked back to his seat, he could feel the audience's voice slowly turn into something murky and buzzed, his eyesight got foggy and his senses were visibly slurred. His every step sounded heavy, like stomping in a puddle, it felt like he broke a barrier.

Every look to the side felt quick but slow, it was as if his body was moving at a certain pace and his mind was desperately trying to catch up. Every individual around him erupted into color- blue, green, pink, red, every single color he could recognize.

"Wha..?" he blinked in an attempt to get escape from this feeling, unfortunately for Dio that wasn't the worst feeling. He could feel everything, every part of his body, the blood moving around, his heartbeat, the sound of him swallowing. The hair on his back felt alarmed, more than that, it was as if something was breathing down his neck. Something heavy and exhausted.

It was unexplainable, his name echoed throughout the surroundings, it wasn't prominent but he could feel it. It got clearer and more articulate with every second, he could hear his name but it was still impossible to pinpoint who was calling for him. It was as if every single object there called out for him.

"Dio…" an icy voice whispered in his ears, freezing every part of his body. It felt like the voice had somehow entered his body and gripped his heart.

"Dio….!" another voice called out for him, this was far more distant but it was getting closer.

"You've failed….." The icy voice said again, this time he could feel a cold bony hand on his cheek. He couldn't turn around, there was absolutely no way he would.

"Dio..!!" the voice got closer, it was far more humane and proper than the voice whispering to him at the moment.

"Remember….." A chuckle was the last thing he heard before he was brought back to reality where Alex was seen frowning about two meters away from him.

"You made me get up and walk all this way and now you finally respond? What happened?" Alex asked as she folded her arms and leaned towards one side.

".....Huh?"