The Guide is Actually a Body-Switching Esper [BL]-Chapter 211: Activation Conditions

"Huh?" Lane blinked, staring at Ava, whose eyes were shining like a kid’s unpacking their dream Christmas present. "Test it? What? How?"

"The activation conditions of your ability, of course!"

"Yeah, but..." He wanted to say something more, but Ava had already grabbed his hand. "Wait, with you?"

"Who else?" Ava rolled her eyes.

"...Have you lost your mind?"

Lane wasn’t even joking, but Ava was undeterred. "How else are we supposed to know how your ability works? What we have just discussed, no matter how believable it sounds, is nothing but an unreliable theory until we find the evidence to support it!"

"Yeah, but! That’s the point, we don’t know how it works! What if I can only revert once you’re dead, or something like that? Do you want to die?"

Impatient, Ava clicked her tongue. "Who’s telling you to possess me? We’re only looking for the activation conditions for now! Test things out until you feel that instinctive feeling again. It’s not like you can’t stop yourself from acting on it, right?"

"Well... That’s true," Lane agreed, but he still couldn’t stop eyeing his friend. Scientists (-to-be) could be quite terrifying, now that he thought about it! He trusted Ava, though, and he needed to understand his ability more, so he decided to go along with it. "Alright, so what am I supposed to do?"

"Let’s just hold hands, or hug, for now. You said it took a while for your instinct to kick in, right? So perhaps a prolonged physical contact is needed," Ava suggested, but Lane almost immediately shook his head.

"If it were that, then I would have felt it multiple times before. I mean, making out is physical contact, no?"

"That’s true... But who did you make out with? That Guide of yours?"

"Well, yeah."

Lane didn’t get to go hang out with people much these days, as most of his time was spent either in dungeons or in recovery. And when not, then he was forcefully sent to school by his parents, to keep up the pretense that he still had a ’normal life’! Thus, the only people around his age he had close private interactions with were Ava and his designated Guide. They were paired up together because they were both boys and minors, even though...

"Isn’t he an A-ranker?"

Right. Their ranks were far apart, and once they were adults, they would undoubtedly be split up.

Not that Lane minded. He didn’t like his Guide, Ethan, all that much. It was just that he was available, and making out during their guiding sessions felt great.

That was not the point, though. "Yeah, he is, so?" Lane lifted his brows.

"Well, then it could be that he outranks you. Psychic abilities can’t be used on people who have a higher rank!" Ava explained. "The Esper you possessed was a C-ranker, right? Perhaps you might be a B-ranker, then?"

"...Huh. That... makes sense," Lane agreed. But, right after, he lifted his hand together with Ava’s. "Still, it doesn’t seem to work right now either. Unless you’re secretly a high-ranker?" he joked.

"Hmm." Ava looked at their joined hands. "Do you think enough time has passed?"

"Honestly... I don’t know. I was barely half-conscious back then, so I don’t know how long it took..."

They sat in silence for a while longer, but nothing happened.

"Let’s watch a movie while we wait!" Lane suggested, bored of just sitting still and quiet, and turned on the TV, pulling Ava closer in case more physical contact was needed.

However, the whole movie ended, and there was still no change. Not even a sliver of the feeling Lane felt back in the dungeon.

"Do you think it might be possible that I can only use my abilities inside the Gates?"

"Hmm. I don’t know. Maybe?" Ava furrowed her brows, thinking. "There hasn’t been any such ability yet... But then again, your ability generally is unique, so who knows?"

Although he was the one to say it first, hearing Ava agree with his suggestion caused Lane’s shoulders to drop in disappointment. "Well, then we won’t be able to confirm it, I guess."

"Not necessarily. There’s one more thing I’d like to try..."

Before she could explain what it was, though, there was a knocking on the door. The housekeeper.

"Kids, dinner is ready!" she called through the closed door.

Lane and Ava exchanged glances, after which, Ava got up with a sigh. "Let’s go eat first. I need to go pick up something from the kitchen anyway."

They went downstairs, and sat down by the dining table, just the two of them. Ava’s parents were both scientists, and were rarely home, spending most of their time in their labs, so the house was always pretty empty and quiet, with only the single housekeeper busying around. Both Lane and Ava were used to such an environment, so they hardly paid attention to it, they just sat down, grabbed their knives and forks, and dug in.

Ava waited until the housekeeper went away to the laundry room, before she quickly got up and sneaked to the kitchen. A moment later, she returned...

With a kitchen knife.

"What, you got tired of me already?" Lifting his brows, Lane joked.

"No, I’m just going to turn you into my first experimental subject," Ava stated matter-of-factly, and just resumed eating.

That only made Lane’s brows shoot even higher, but he didn’t comment on that, just chuckled, as he was more than glad to oblige. He needed some answers, and while Ava was only a high schooler, and not some experienced scientist, he’d still much rather leave himself in her hands!

They finished the meal quickly, and fled back upstairs, grabbing a first aid kit on the way.

"To the bathroom," Ava commanded as soon as they locked themselves in, "I don’t want any blood to get on the sofas or the carpet!"

She put the bath rug away, prepared the bandages and the antiseptics, rolled up her sleeve, disinfected the knife... And then, made a decisive cut on her forearm. Not too deep, but enough for the blood to start trickling down her arm, and drip onto the bathtub she held her arm over.

"Your turn." She handed the knife to Lane.

Lane took it, and without even bothering to clean it up, slashed his own forearm. Not that cleaning up would make any difference, when the next thing Ava did, was to grab his arm and pressed their injuries together, their blood mixing. They waited for a moment, all tense and quiet...

"Ah." All of a sudden, Lane flinched. He lifted his eyes, staring into Ava’s. "I feel it again."

"Well then," Ava smiled, "I guess we have the answer?"