The Guide is Actually a Body-Switching Esper [BL]-Chapter 188: Amnesia? Or Aftereffects?

Countless people trashed back and forth, doctors, nurses, the Awakened Association’s office workers, patients and visitors, wandering between the rooms, filling the white hospital hallways with endless clatter, chatter, and other noise, making this already unbelievably busy place seem even busier than it was. And it was BUSY, with all the patients stuffed in wherever there was a bit of space to set another bed. As it frequently was after dungeon breaks.

On one of the plastic chairs mounted to the wall sat a man, holding a paper cup with black coffee, already cold, in his hardened, calloused hands. His eyes were tired, his dark brown hair messy, and his uniform carried traces of blood. He’s been at the hospital for hours now, not leaving even to refresh himself or get some sleep. He knew he wouldn’t be able to fall asleep anyway, not after the shock he had suffered the night before.

The shock when his boyfriend woke up after suddenly fainting on the battlefield, and he didn’t recognize him at all.

Well, if it even still was his ’boyfriend’ at all.

Damien let out a heavy sigh, finishing the remaining coffee in two gulps, and crushed the cup in his hand. It was already his fifth one, if he remembered correctly... But they didn’t seem to help at all.

Probably because what he needed help with was not his physical exhaustion, but rather the emotional one.

The doctor said that Oscar was suffering from amnesia, based on his initial assessment. However, Damien had a different theory. Said ’amnesia’ caused Oscar to lose his memories of the past few weeks... With the last thing he remembered being him fighting dinosaur monsters in the S-rank dungeon in the country K.

His memories ended exactly when ’Jonathan’s’ consciousness took over the body.

Coincidence? Damien didn’t think so! Rather than an amnesia... It was far more likely that ’Jonathan’ was gone.

But if he was no longer possessing Oscar’s body, then where was he? Completely dead and gone, or...

An image of the pink-haired man flashed in front of Damien’s eyes, dodging the monster at a supernatural speed, and swiftly landing on the icy ground...

All of a sudden, the door next to Damien opened, and an Awakened doctor stepped out.

"How is it?" Damien urgently asked, before the doctor had time to even open his mouth. "Anything new?"

"Well." The doctor tapped his tablet, hesitating for a moment. He shouldn’t reveal any medical information without the patients consent... But Oscar Morales was hardly in a mental state to give conscious consent to anything. He also had no next of kin, while the man in front of him was an S-rank Esper working for the government, and he had been waiting for hours... And there were so many questions regarding Oscar’s condition... So, eventually the doctor gave in. "It is an unprecedented case. I have never seen a disorder like that, so I cannot give a diagnosis yet... However, my theory is that he is suffering from the aftereffects of an ability."

"An ability? His ability?"

"That... seems unlikely. Based on the description of his ability I had received, no such complications should occur. While there is a possibility that he had attempted to use an unsuitable and dangerous material for his transformation, I think it’s more likely that..." The doctor paused, tapping his fingers on his tablet once again. "If I may ask, have you noticed any change in his behavior recently?"

"...A change in his behavior?" Damien repeated blankly, even though he had a feeling he knew exactly what the doctor was talking about.

And sure enough, the doctor elaborated, "Yes, any odd behavior, doing things he normally wouldn’t do. Or perhaps, acting dazed, as if he was under hypnosis or something similar..."

"I’m sorry, Sir, but are you suggesting someone might have used a mental ability on him?"

"...That’s just a theory. I am mainly concerned about his wavelengths, which are unbelievably unstable, in a way that cannot be fixed by guiding. This is the reason behind his diminished mental and physical capacity, as the atypical Mana flow affects his nervous system. While there had been no reports about such side effects after being influenced by a mental type ability, it is within the realm of possibility that..."

The doctor’s words sounded more and more distant, barely reaching Damien.

It all added up. He already knew that ’Jonathan’s’ ability was possession of sorts, which was far from an ordinary mental ability. Other similar abilities, such as hypnosis, also allowed to control another person, but it was more like a puppet on strings. The aftereffects were just memory loss and disorientation, not something like this, when Oscar was left... partially incapacitated. But possession was far more invasive, where ’Jonathan’ entered someone else’s body, and controlled it as if it was his own, without any limitations, as far as Damien knew... So it was understandable that the side effects could be more devastating.

’Jonathan’... or Lane Allen.

Paying no more attention to the doctor, Damien buried his face in his hands, a heavy sigh escaping his lungs, his shoulders slumping helplessly.

He had suspected it already, yes, of course, but he still HOPED he was wrong. Well, at least part of him hoped he was wrong. The rational part, the part that knew that such actions were wrong, and if he were to be correct, Lane should be turned in to the authorities...

But part of him was still glad. Glad that his boyfriend was actually alive, and not just a deceased soul wandering from body to body.

...If Lane was even still his boyfriend. Because who knew what was going on in the man’s head? He hasn’t reached out to Damien yet, and as much as Damien wanted to believe there was something deeper between them... The truth was, he wasn’t sure how Lane felt. Perhaps now that his lies were out, he would just bolt.

Damien said like that for a good hour or so, just drowning in his thoughts. Nothing good would come from feeling sorry for himself, and Damien wasn’t free enough to do so in the first place, so eventually, he dragged himself up to his feet, and entered the hospital room to pay Oscar a quick visit before returning to the Association Headquarters. There was a lot of work waiting for him.

As for Lane... For now, he would give the man some time, and wait.