Takeshi finally came home after an hour and a half of commuting from Chiba University. Sliding open the front door, he stepped inside and called out, "I'm home," before bending down to take off his shoes.
Soft footsteps approached, and Misaki appeared, reaching for the shoulder bag he carried.
"How was your day?" Takeshi asked, straightening.
Misaki let out a long sigh. "I don't even know if it was good or bad."
Takeshi raised his eyebrows. "Why? Did Ryu do something?"
She shook her head. "No… not exactly. He didn't do anything other than read books and…" She trailed off, looking at her husband with hesitation.
Finally, she added, "I asked him some questions. Even the difficult ones. He answered them so clearly—even more than I could understand. It was like he already knew everything he was reading. Not just the theory, but how to apply it too."
Takeshi froze, staring at her in surprise. "Are you serious?"
Misaki nodded, but instead of relief, worry filled her face. "It's true. But… it doesn't feel normal. This isn't how Ryu was. What's happening to him? Is this bad? Should we take him to a doctor?"
Takeshi slipped on his house slippers and exhaled slowly. "No… maybe not yet." He started walking further inside, motioning for her to follow. "I've been looking into it at the university. I think I might know what's happening."
Her eyes widened with a flicker of hope. "Really?"
He nodded. "There's a phenomenon… very rare. Almost unheard of. The trigger is often… an injury. Specifically, being hit on the head."
"Hit on the head?" Misaki repeated, frowning in confusion.
"Yeah." He looked at her seriously, his voice heavy. "It's extremely rare. But what I've found is that Ryu might have developed something called Acquired Savant Syndrome."
"Acquired… Savant Syndrome?" she echoed, the words strange and unfamiliar on her tongue. "Is that a good thing or a bad thing? He won't… have problems in the future, right?"
Takeshi shook his head. "I can't say. There aren't many recorded cases, not enough to know for certain. But from what I've read…" He took a deep breath. "It can be both. He might develop extraordinary abilities, even genius-level knowledge. But at the same time… he won't be the same as before. His personality, the way he interacts—it might change. You'll have to get used to who he is now."
Misaki's throat tightened as her eyes dropped. Her child wasn't supposed to be this serious, this detached—he was supposed to be playful, laughing, making mistakes. A part of her grieved the thought of losing that.
Sensing her fear, Takeshi placed a steady hand on her shoulder. "Misaki… no matter how much he changes, he's still our son. He might have lost some of his playfulness, but he still needs us—his parents. Okay?"
Her eyes wavered, then she nodded, her voice soft. "Okay. I understand."
A small smile tugged at Takeshi's lips. "Good. I'll take a bath first, then have dinner."
"Alright," she said quietly, carrying his bag toward the bedroom.
Hearing the sound of the TV, she paused in the living room doorway. The screen flickered softly with the colors of an anime, and there was Ryu, sitting cross-legged, eyes fixed on the show as he munched on a snack.
Seeing this scene, a faint smile tugged at her lips. 'Maybe… he's still just a child after all.' For the first time that day, she felt a fragile sense of relief.
But Misaki didn't know the truth.
Though Ryu looked like he was quietly watching anime, it wasn't really the case.
Ever since the change, he had begun to hear the chaos in everything—even within himself. The sudden shift in his own being, the strange awakening of memories and knowledge, carried its own turbulence, and though he had Dave's memories, he was not an old man who knew how to act in every situation.
If anything, he was still a child—lost, improvising.
In the dead of night, he awoke, his body brimming with energy, sleep no longer possible. His equilibrium body made long rest unnecessary; two hours were more than enough. The rest of the night stretched endlessly—silent and suffocating.
So he wandered into his father's study, pulling out book after book, devouring knowledge. At first, it was only to fill the empty hours—but soon, he was caught in a feverish rhythm.
By the time Misaki discovered him in the morning, he was already too deep in study to consider how it might look to her. Their feelings never crossed his mind—at that moment, he was completely consumed by the words on the page.
But during the day—over meals and in the small moments together—he began to notice the growing weight of her chaos. Her worry clung to him, thickening with every glance, her unease tugging at his senses. That was when he realized—he was doing something wrong. Yet what that wrong was, he didn't know.
So he turned his gaze inward, peering into the flow of her chaos, trying to untangle the knot of her feelings. And then he understood: it wasn't the fact that he was reading—it was the way he was reading. To her, it wasn't normal. It wasn't how her child should be.
But realizing this didn't make things any easier for him. After all, it wasn't as if he wanted to drown himself in knowledge. He wanted—no, needed—to finish every book he could before turning fully to the Book of Everything.
If he first absorbed the world's knowledge, then he would know how to use the greater knowledge properly—how to ask the right questions. Without that foundation, he feared he might misuse it.
Still, he couldn't let his mother's worry grow unchecked.
So he came up with a plan. He would pretend. He would act as though he were still the child she remembered.
So, in the evening, while Misaki was busy preparing dinner, Ryu settled in front of the television. An anime flickered across the screen, its bright voices and music filling the room. He let himself sink into the familiar sounds, a small comfort amidst the storm of thoughts.
When Misaki glanced his way, her chaos softened, the worry around her loosening just a little. She believed he was still just a child, laughing at cartoons. For her sake, he allowed that illusion to live.
But it was only partial truth. After a while, the anime blurred into noise. Boredom pressed in, and with a flicker of golden light only he could see, the Book of Everything materialized before him. Hidden from her eyes, its pages turned in silence.
Ryu tested the knowledge he had gathered during the day against the Book of Everything, asking questions, cross-checking facts, confirming whether what he had read in the study was true. Some answers aligned perfectly. Others, however, were wrong—or merely fragments of a larger truth.
The book revealed truths that existed in this world—truths absent from the education system. Many discoveries lay buried, locked away by hidden factions or government organizations, far beyond what the world openly admitted, concealed completely from public eyes.
So while Misaki smiled faintly from the doorway, reassured that her son was still a child enjoying anime, most of Ryu's mind was elsewhere—taking in knowledge, weighing truth and lies, walking a path far removed from what she could ever imagine.
***
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