Leo was currently laying in his hospital bed, connected to a device that constantly checked his vitals and IVs were connected to his arm. He still laid unconscious since the terrorist attack that happened last week.

“Jake, Julie. We need to speak about your son. In private.” said Doctor Paul.

Leo’ parents took a break from work to spend as much time as possible looking over their son. For last few days his condition was critical and his life was constantly in danger.

The pair followed the doctor to his private office. Paul sat behind his desk while they sat in front of him.

“What is his condition?” asked Julie first.

“Physically he is alright right now, he had some second-degree burns in and on his body, the rest of the wound was easy to heal. His mana circuits are different though. It seemed he tried to overuse the whatever spell he used and he fried his paths. But that is not main concern right now…” said Paul.

“What is wrong?” asked Jake.

“I, well…” Paul was not sure how to continue. The pair stared at him. “His soul fluctuation are in red.”

Julie covered her mouth with her hand while Jake asked. “Does that mean that Leo is…?”

“Not exactly, we don’t fully understand at what point demons take over child soul, it seems to happen even before the birth where we can’t examine. Right now he is in an unknown state, there is a chance that it’s just some leftovers residual memories or he is already gone. Usually, we take no chances in situations like this but I pulled some string and we will perform more detailed psychological and soul examination.” explained Paul.

“How will it go?” asked Julie.

“He will need to answer some questions when we watch his soul for any strange fluctuations. That is the basic of it.” Answered the doctor. “Still we need to wait till when he wakes up.”

-*-

It was three days later when Leo finally opened his eyes. His mind was groggy and he couldn’t tell where he was. It was a middle of the day from what he could tell by seeing the sun outside of the window.

It took him a while to remember what happened, he tried to get out of the bed but as he tried to move he felt IV in his arm, stopping him.

Before he could do much a few male nurses entered the room together with doctor Paul. It was possible to sense some kind of urgency from them.

“How are you feeling?” asked the doctor.

“Weak, what happened to everyone?” said Leo.

“Your friends are alright but you don’t need to worry about it now. Still, do you think that you could answer us few question?” He said before beckoning to one of the nurses.

“Yes, but could I get something to drink? My throat is dry,” asked Leo.

“Yes, of course, sorry it is so sudden.” He said, one of the nurses passed him some kind of device. “Could you bring us some water?”

The nurse just nodded without looking at Leo and moved away. It took some time before he returned with a cup filled with water. Leo took it and drank it vigorously.

“Now I will ask you few simple question. I just want you to answer them to the best of your abilities. I will need to put this on you.” said Paul as he took the device and connected some cords from it to Leo’ head.

“First question: what is your first memory?” asked Paul.

Leo wondered a little and answered. “It would be my birthday, I think it was my third one, I got a toy, a flying car as a present.”

Paul looked at the device and noted something. “Okay, good job, now, what is your most precious memory?”

“First day of school, I made new friends and started learning new things. I liked it.” said Leo.

Paul smiled, looking at the device he asked next question. “What is the memory you hated the most?”

For a second Leo’ mind wandered to the red-haired woman he saw but it was that he was hurt by it the most. He answered, “It would be yesterday.”

“Yesterday?” asked Paul. “Ah you slept for a while, right yes, don’t worry I understand.” He looked at the device his smile disappearing a little.

“Now final question, do you know who it is?” Paul showed the boy a picture, it was big long-haired figure wearing black armor that looked almost human outside of his crimson eyes and horns that followed from where his ears should be to the behind of his head.

Leo just looked at the figure but couldn’t tell who it is so he shook his head. “No, I don’t.”

The doctor looked again at the device this time his smile returned. He passed the picture to one of the nurses who took it and placed it in a black bag. “Please take care of it.” He said.

“Now that is everything we wanted, for now, you should rest some more if you want anything to eat just say so. Your parents are already on the way here.” said Paul moving away.

“Ah, what happened afterward?!” asked Leo.

“Hmm? All I know that after the vice principal apprehended the attackers a lot of wounded was brought here. It seems that the school will only resume once the vacation end.” said Paul. “Your parents will be able to tell you more.” He said avoiding the topic.

Leo was left to his own. Thinking about what has happened that day. He remembered Miles making his eyes tear a little, then he thought about the dark figure that questioned him and what it said at the end.

He wondered whatever he should talk about it with anyone, he guessed he had to but how much he should say, he probably shouldn’t say anything about the fact that he called him reincarnated.

“Leo!” said familiar voice. His mother jumped at him with a hug with tears in her eyes.

“Mom!” Leo returned the hug, he was crying too.

“It’s alright now.”

“Leo…” his father joined the hug.

It took a while for Leo and Julie to calm down. Now that Leo had his dinner he decided it was time to ask.

“So what happened?” asked Leo.

His mother face frozen not sure how to proceed, so his father answered. “After everyone was rescued everyone injured was transferred to one of the hospitals in this city. But I guess it’s not what you are interested in… David has been hospitalized but other then his leg injury he was alright, he was quite terrified but he told us more or less what happened. And I can say that both I and your mother are not happy with what you did.”

“But I wanted to help! I couldn’t let Miss Anna die!” protested Leo.

“Yes we know, and I don’t want to say that what you did was bad, I just want to say it was stupid. You could have just gotten yourself and someone else hurt.” said his father.

Leo could just look at him, he couldn’t disagree with that. “But… Is everyone in class alright?”

His father looked away at that, betraying that something was wrong.

“You can tell me, I know about Mr. Miles.” said Leo with sadness in his voice.

His mother continued instead of his father. “It’s not only teacher Miles, Leo, a boy from your class, Max too…”

Leo was shocked hearing that, he knew he was out of class at the time of the attack and despite the fact that he didn’t like the boy he was sad to hear that someone more has died. “And the rest of the teachers? We heard some of them talking that they killed them.”

“Most of the teacher are alright, just some are still in the coma and we don’t know what is causing it outside of the fact that it’s magic.” lied his Father a little, his son had already enough. “Now let’s end this topic, you still have a lot of time till you will be able to function again. Whatever magic you used it caused your inner pool to take heavy damage and may not be able to use magic till rehabilitation ends. We had heard from David that you used something to beat that wolf.”

“Ah! That, I’m not sure how it happened but I suddenly knew how to use it. Like make my fire magic flow through my whole body like BOOM! and then with the light magic to mix with it and then make my whole body shine in light to heal!” explained Leo while waving his hands around. “But why do you say I won’t be able to use magic?”

“Well, you shouldn’t use your magic till doctors say that you can. You fried your mana circuits and every time that you will now want to use magic you will fill pain.” said his Mother “But don’t worry it will heal, it will just take some time, and you should forget the magic you used, it clearly is a strain for you. Promise me that you won’t use it again.” Said his mother with a stern look on her face. She was sure that learning suddenly a new magic was sure to be a part of the reason why his soul fluctuation grew.

Leo couldn’t say no when his mother looked at him like this. “I promise, Mom!”

”We will stay with you until the night but you need to stay in the hospital for some time. Tomorrow also people will come to ask you what happened but don’t worry we will be there with you.”

They spend the rest of the day speaking casually, Leo trying not to think about what happened anymore.

-*-

Next day Leo was woken up early and taken to an examination room. They put him through scanners and he heard it was used to locate where his mana circuits were damaged.

Then he was connected to therapy device that used mana to support his regeneration. The only thing he was said to do was to lay down and not resist the mana flow because it would lower its effectiveness.

Afterward, his parents have come and a short time after he was introduced to a person wearing a black uniform with a gold badge with letters D.I.I. written on it. It composed of a long black coat and perfectly fitted pants and shirt.

“I’m on an officer from D.I.I. I would like to ask you some questions.”

“What does D.I.I. stands for?” asked curious Leo.

“Demonic Influence Inquisition, now let’s not waste time.” Answered the man in a hoarse voice.

Leo could only nod.

“Right, then I would like if you could describe to me what happened that day.”

“Yes, well at first it looked like a normal day, then when that wolf destroyed the door and it…” Leo started recalling the whole incident, including Miles but skipping that he saw the red-haired woman, but when he got to waking up in the room with the dark person he stopped.

“Yes, afterward we heard from captives that you were taken to their boss. Could you describe him? For some reason, he was not seen on any of the security cameras.” asked the investigator.

Leo gulped. “He was clad in darkness, I don’t know how he looks.”

“What do you mean by clad in darkness.”

“He looked like dark, starless night, he was covered in that dark matter, he said it was a trick he learned in a past life…” Leo stopped realizing what he said.

“Interesting, do you know why he wanted to talk to you?”

“No…” said Leo unsure if he should tell them.

“You shouldn’t lie.” Said the investigator. Leo’ mother looked at him scornfully. “Just doing my job. So say why would he want to talk with you especially.”

“He… he had a recording of me fighting the wolf and he said that I must be like him, but I’m not, I’m sure I’m not!” shouted Leo.

“Yes, we already know that you are not… for now.” said the investigator. Julie stood up looking at him.

“You will not say things like that about my son.” she said

He looked unmoved. “Well, the last thing. How did he escape?”

“He disappeared, into the air, as if he was never there.” said Leo.

The man raised his brow but seemed to accept it. “Well that’s all kido, I hope you return to full health soon, and that we will never have to meet again.” Leo’ mother glared at him. “Since you know I’m always dealing with the dirty business.” He finished before walking away.

“I don’t like him!” said Julie.

“Honey, he is just doing his job” said Jake earning himself a glare “Though he could have been more delicate about it.” he followed. “I need to get back to my office at the gendarmerie. Your mom will stay with you today.” He said before running away.

For now, all that Leo could do was stay at the hospital and wait for when he would be healed. From what he heard David already left the hospital as did most of the people. Since healing people become more effective long visits in the hospital were a rarity. It seemed like the time would be boring.