The Guide is Actually a Body-Switching Esper [BL]-Chapter 203: Still Useless

When Lane opened his eyes again, he was no longer in the fast food restaurant. Instead of the dirty floor, he was greeted by a pristine white hospital ceiling. His clothes were changed into a hospital gown, and he was connected to the monitoring device that measured his vital signs.

Which were all normal. As if him dying in unbearable agony hadn’t happened. Well, the ’dying’ part obviously didn’t, since he was still ALIVE, but the ’agony’ part? It was an experience Lane would never be able to forget.

He lay like that in silence for a while, just staring at the ceiling as he tried to process all that had happened. In his confused state, he didn’t even notice that all the noise coming from behind the door was too loud, too clear, as if his hearing had suddenly improved.

Then, the nurse came, checked his condition, asked a few questions, which Lane seemed to have answered... His identity had already been identify, thanks to the student ID in his wallet, and his parents would be there shortly.

Well, of course they would. Normally, Lane wouldn’t have expected anything of them, but now that he might have awakened...

It took them two hours, but they did show up in the end. In person, both Miles and Catherine. With another man, dressed in a cheap suit, in tow.

"Lane Nicholas Allen, right?" the man asked, approaching Lane’s bed. "How are you feeling right now?"

"Uh... Fine?"

"Good, good... First of all, congratulations on your awakening. Could you tell me how it happened?"

So he really did awaken. Trying to hide his excitement, Lane quickly started relaying all the earlier events (omitting the reason why he was in that area, of course).

"Mhm... Mhm..." The unknown man - a government officer from the newly-formed organization managing the Gates and the Awakened, it seemed - nodded as he listened to Lane, scribbling something in the file in his hands.

"I understand, thank you," he said when Lane finally finished talking. Just this. No explanation or anything. Well, he probably didn’t know much himself. "Now, the next thing... What is your ability?"

His ability, right. Lane was curious about that as well.

"How do I check it?" he asked, all tense and nervous before the big reveal...

But he was met with widened eyes and confused expressions.

"Uh... What do you mean?" the government officer furrowed his brows. "You don’t know your ability?"

"...Am I supposed to just know it?"

The officer tapped his pen on his clipboard. He wasn’t an Awakened, so he didn’t know it well himself, but based on what he had heard... "Ugh, try to focus on your body. Do you feel any strange, new power flowing in your veins?" he tried instructing.

And so Lane focused. And the power was indeed there. Tingling and exciting, rushing through his body, begging to be released. "Mhm, I feel it," he nodded his head.

"Now try to activate it."

Lane tried...

And nothing happened.

"Uh... But how?" he lifted his head, biting his lip anxiously as he met the officer’s eyes.

"Well..." freēnovelkiss.com

"...How useless," Miles scoffed, cutting in. "Abilities are intuitive. The moment your awakening is complete, you already know. If you still can’t do anything... Then that can only mean one thing - you have no abilities."

Miles’ words were like a bucket of ice-cold water poured over Lane’s head. He froze for a moment, just staring blankly at his father, then shifted his eyes to the officer, silently begging him to say something, deny it, give Lane some hope...

And, well, he did, although not quite in a way that Lane was hoping for.

"Perhaps he is one of the supporters," he suggested.

"Supporters?" Miles lifted his brow. "Ah, right. There was something like that," he scoffed, his cold voice full of contempt. He didn’t even try to hide how little he thought of this type of Awakened.

It was no wonder. After all, the role of supporters - or Guides, as they were later called - was still unknown. They could help the other Awakened - or ’Espers’, as some referred to them - relax. It felt good, yes... But that was about it. Their endurance was a bit better than that of the unawakened, but in other aspects, they were still the same.

In other words, useless.

It was a huge blow for Lane. To have his awakening, and yet still be powerless... He could barely register as his parents discussed his rank assessment appointment, his mind completely blank. Even the fact that he awakened before Nyla, thus ruining his parents’ plans, didn’t bring him any satisfaction.

Not that he could have at least that. The world seemed to be bent on bringing him down in every way, because when the officer finally left, his mother said,

"Nyla has awakened with a telekinesis ability. She fainted at school, and was brought here a few hours before you."

Hah. If she fainted at school, then it was around the same time, or maybe Lane could still be the first... But he wouldn’t be recognized as such, since he was trapped in the fast food restaurant, and got to the hospital later. And with his lack of any useful ability, how could he hope for anything? Becoming a celebrity? Being like Grandmother Diana?

...Yeah, right. It was nothing but a pipe dream.

"So she’s the youngest in the world, huh?" he muttered, staring at his hands.

"...She’s not. A fourteen-year-old awakened in country T last night."

Heh. So the Allens didn’t get their ’the youngest Awakened in the world’ achievement at all.

After that, Miles and Catherine just left. They only came to check whether Lane had finally become useful to them in any way, and now that they confirmed he was nothing but an utter disappointment, there was no reason for them to stay. One of their assistants would be more than capable of handling the hospital discharge on their own.

And thus, a new Chapter of Lane’s life began. After the groundbreaking change... Everything remained the same.

Except his pierced tongue, which was no longer swollen.