The Guide is Actually a Body-Switching Esper [BL]-Chapter 210: Figuring Things Out

When Lane finally arrived at the school - their school, even though he rarely was seen attending it these days, even rarer than he used to before his awakening - most of the students were already gone. But Ava was still there, leaning against the metal railing and reading some biology textbook (which wasn’t a school textbook. She had already started studying more advanced materials in her free time!), as she waited for Lane. She was so absorbed in it, that she hadn’t even noticed when the boy jumped onto the railing, and leaned over her.

"Hey! Your brain is going to explode if you keep reading so much!"

Ava lifted her eyes, glancing back at the grinning Lane. "I see you’re fully recovered already, since you can jump around like that."

"Oh, no, absolutely not! I’m still injured! Ah, ah, I’m in so much pain!"

Ava’s brows shot up, as she stared at Lane’s ridiculous performance. Right after, though, her expression grew more serious. "I’m sorry that I didn’t come visit you in the hospital, but your parents..."

"Yeah, yeah, I know, don’t worry about that," Lane waved his hand dismissively. He already knew that his parents barred anyone from coming to see him. Why? Who knows. Maybe they wanted to punish him, or more likely, they were afraid someone might take some photos, and publish the story on social media or something... The Guilds’ situation was still far from stable, as the government constantly tried introducing new laws restricting them, so they couldn’t afford any hiccups.

"Either way, let’s go! I have a lot to tell you!" Lane said, barely surprising his excitement, as he took the textbook from Ava’s hands, hid it in the girl’s bag, and then threw said back over his shoulder, dragging his friend toward the car.

"Where? To the ice parlor or..."

"Nope, straight to your place!"

"...Huh." Ava paused, surprised. If Lane said ’no’ to ice cream, then whatever it was that he wanted to talk about must have been serious!

The whole way, Lane was visibly agitated, barely able to sit in place. It seemed that if he could, he would shot through the roof of the car! And as soon as they arrived, he pulled Ava out of the car, practically dragging her along, barely bothering to give the housekeeper a nod, even though they usually got along well - Lane spent so much time at Ava’s house that he was treated almost like a family member - before dragging his friend up the stairs.

"Alright, alright," Ava sighed, as they got into her room. "Are you finally going to tell me what..."

She couldn’t help but stop in the middle of the sentence. Because as she turned around, she saw Lane. Standing with his hand stretched up. And with a yellow flame dancing on top of his palm.

"You... awakened an ability?" she muttered, once she finally recovered from the initial surprise.

"Well, not exactly." Lane withdrew the flame, and plopped down on one of the bean bag sofas. "What happened was..."

He relayed everything to Ava, from how he got injured by the venomous spine, through how he was saved, and the instinct that suddenly kicked in, to how he possessed the man and escaped, making sure not to omit any detail, as anything could potentially be important while trying to figure out how his ability worked. He ended at describing his time in the hospital, and what he learned about the man afterward.

"...But all this time, I had this odd feeling," he said at the end. "A weird, pleasant tingling in my veins. So, as soon as I was back home yesterday, I locked myself in my room, and tested it. And this is what came out." Lane turned his hand, and the little flame came to life again.

"A fire-type ability, huh?" Ava rubbed her chin, staring intently at the flame. "Do you think it might have anything to do with your father?"

Both Lane’s father, as well as his Aunt Gracie, had fire abilities, after all, so it was a plausible conclusion.

But Lane shook his head. "No, not quite. I mean, I get where you’re coming from... But this fire, it’s exactly like that man’s ability."

"...Is that so?"

They both went silent for a while.

So Lane possessed a man. And now, that man was dead, while Lane was back in his body, with the deceased’s ability. That’s what it all boiled down to.

"I didn’t have any re-awakening, though," Lane added after a while. "It wasn’t painful at all, activating the ability, I mean. In no way similar to what I had experienced back at that fast food place..."

"...Give me a moment." Ava pulled out a notepad, and started writing things down, creating a mind map of sorts, as she organized all the clues she had.

"Alright!" She exclaimed eventually, putting her pen down. "This is what I’ve got. First of all, your ability is to possess people and copy, or steal, their abilities."

Lane nodded his head. That much was kind of obvious.

"Second! It is just a theory... But I think you might have had this ability from the start. The moment you awakened, I mean."

"...How?"

"Using abilities is intuitive, right? But it doesn’t mean that people KNOW what their ability is right after they wake up. It’s more of a hunch, a feeling of sorts. From what I’ve read, they just instinctively know what to do, that they need to flick their hand and something will appear, for example. That’s how it was with your new fire ability, right?"

"Well... Yeah."

"Right! But that’s because there are no set conditions you need to fulfill to activate it! What if their ability wasn’t so simple though, and for example, they needed to dive deep into the sea to use it?"

"Think about the Guides!" she continued, not even giving Lane a moment to respond. "Their ability wasn’t understood at first either, was it? Because they needed to touch an Esper to use it!"

Lane opened his mouth to say something, but then he closed it again. The argument made sense. So what, all this time he thought he was powerless just because he didn’t meet some stupid activation conditions? Besides, even if that was the case, his ability was still...

"So!" Ava clapped her hands, snapping Lane out of thoughts. "Let’s test it out!"