"O-oh-- I just meant--" He'd actually meant it rhetorically. Would he even be able to reach the level of mastery and power that Koumyou had displayed up here?

"Shit, no, I'm sorry," he says, actually sitting up again. "You've told me that before. I wasn't actually asking you to, I just--

"I guess I'm still pretty nervous about this mission thing." It's got to be coming up, right? Any day now, if the pattern holds.