When Asuka opened her eyes returning to the real world. She then clutched her lower jaw swinging left to right as if checking to make sure it was still there.
"I didnt actually think she was serious when she said that. She really needs to restrain herself little."
It was dark outside and Amelia was sleeping on the couch on her back with her mouth hung open and a bit of drool dropping out at regular intervals. Asuka couldn't help but chuckle at the sight.
"It's good to see that she still the same even after what happened."
Asuka then quietly stood up and went to her bag to grab a snack. Even so, she wasn't exactly hungry. In fact, even after several hours of losing limbs and having her inwards ripped out, she wasn't very hungry at all.
"I've never noticed how I don't really get hungry. Weird."
"It's because your body is adjusting to your contra," Annie responded, "Demons, especially the weaker ones, find it very difficult to find food. We're a very picky race. We'd have to be extremely desperate to eat any ordinary human. They are usually are pretty repulsive. Not mention, they weren't very filling. But humans which were capable of manipulating anima, for whatever reason, they always tasted amazing. But naturally of course, any human who can manipulate their anima can more than likely fight back. Might even be trained as well. And seeing as the strength difference between demons is exponential, there are a lot more demons too weak to fight. And for the strong ones, weak humans could never fill us. So we'd have to risk our lives just to fill our stomachs. In order to balance out that discrepancy, our bodies adapted and became a little self-sufficient so we don't need to eat as much as humans."
Asuka noticed how Annie had used words like 'we'd' in her explanation but decided not to bring it up.
"I see. If that's the case then why did demons attack humans so often? In the stories granny told me she said that demons used to hunt humans often. It was only around when I was born that they seemed to hold themselves back."
Annie thought for a moment then responded as best she could.
"It probably has to do with status or just for fun."
Asuka didn't respond, absorbing what Annie had said. She then looked up and stared at the sleeping girl on the couch. She watched her resting face sleeping peacefully with an expressionless face. The image of her piercing Amelia's chest with her hand flashed in her mind. Her expression darkened as she remembered in grim detail what had occurred in the dream.
"She never mentioned it, but I'm guessing that might be the reason why she asked me to train her."
Annie at first was confused at what Asuka was talking about but quickly took note of who she was looking at and immediately connected the dots.
"That is possible. But all this training is useless if she can't control her anima."
"Yeah. But, I'm sure after training her body, getting her to control her anima will be easy. I give it a couple months."
An audible single laugh was let out by her companion.
"What's so funny," questioned the girl.
"You really think it'll take a couple months. Not everyone is as special as you Asuka. It usually takes years to feel your anima. You're an anomaly."
"Wait, but didn't it take Martha six months."
Annie rolled her eyes and scoffed at Asuka's cluelessness.
"You're really are out of touch. I thought I already told you that she was a prodigy. You're both massive outliers who surpassed all expectations. Being honest, from the stories Granny Thalia said, you and Martha are both around the level of the strongest royal guards. That kind of growth for anyone, especially for people without the resources the royals have, in the time frame you both did it and at your ages is simply unheard of."
Asuka had always known that she was special. It was obvious from the way how Thalia and Martha had been training her hard from such a young age. She had at first chalked it up to her simply being a trinity. But she had never truly known just how special she was. To hear it now was quite the shock for the girl.
"Wow. I...never really thought about how gifted we were."
"Yeah. But don't let it get to your head. You both still trained very hard to get to where you are. Don't let anyone tell you differently."
Asuka smiled a little knowing she was trying to keep her mood up.
"Don't worry. I know how much I've worked. And even though I've got no scars anymore to show for it, anyone worth even a little in battle would be able to tell that I'm strong."
"That is true. You definitely have an intimidating presence. Especially for someone so young. But anyway, you should get some sleep. Remember, we've got two days before Ichigo comes back. Let's make sure to give him a real shock when he comes back."
Asuka smiled at Annie's words.
"I can't say I disagree."