Ima finally woke up, his eyes opening slowly. The potent white light entered, making him blink rapidly. His nostrils felt ticklish, but he didn't sneeze, as an acrid, bitter odor of fabric filled the air.
Before he could utter a single word, a familiar voice said beside him:
"Nurse, he's awake! Quickly!"
Ima remained silent, breathed deeply, and sat up. He was on a hospital bed, his senses still somewhat dulled. He mumbled, his voice still working.
"Hello, Mom, how are you?" he asked with a smile on his face.
In a matter of minutes, Ima learned the situation. The plan had worked as he expected. The teacher, who had spoken with him days before and with whom he was strengthening his relationship, was the first to disperse the hallway crowd. Upon seeing who was being beaten, she ran to his aid. Hours later, a complaint was filed against Barry, and his lackeys were given a strong warning. The teacher had fiercely defended Ima. Ima had fallen into a coma for 4 days due to a severe, but non-fatal, concussion. Barry, well, he was still free, but with social and legal pressure weighing down on him.
Everything had turned out, somehow, positive for Ima.
With everything being more pleasant and calm, Ima asked his mother for his cell phone. She took it out of her personal bag and handed it to him. As soon as she did, the phone began to vibrate. He quickly unlocked it and entered the application.
The menu opened again, and now there were slight changes: it maintained the same sections, but now each one had a flashing question mark symbol next to it. Ima pressed the first one, in the Character Stats section: a white box with a short text explaining what the section consisted of appeared on the mobile screen. Ima was disappointed that something so intuitive had to be explained.
He ignored the second section and went directly to press the symbol next to the Save/Load Slot section. Unlike the previous two times, this time he did get information:
[Continue progressing in the story to unlock this section!]
"Is that all? Won't it tell me how to activate it? If it is as I suppose, I could save as if it were a checkpoint or a special slot. I don't know what difference that would make. If the one who offered me this deal is aware of how saving works in a video game... there must be some consequence or a very evident limit. Save by accessing the mobile? Save at will? Load only in specific areas? There are many possibilities."
Ima saw a pair of nurses approaching, but he didn't give them the necessary attention due to his anxiety about checking his progress.
"How are you, sweetie? How do your face and head feel?" one of the nurses asked, moving closer to look at his face.
He set his cell phone aside and addressed them. As he began with an "I'm sorry," the card appeared above both nurses, but this time the data it displayed was different:
[ Lie |60%|—Neutrality |80%|—Truth |80%| ]
"What is this? Where did the other card go…?" Ima thought, his mind working as fast as possible to deduce what he was seeing. "Is this the new ability? What am I supposed to say if I don't know the nature of the percentages?" Ima thought, as the seconds passed. The nurses and his mother waited expectantly, hoping something would come out of his mouth.
"Uh... I'm sorry, I was thinking about some things," he finally replied, shaking his head slightly. "I still feel my body somewhat sore, but I guess it's from being on a hospital bed for so long." Ima smiled, although evidently, his body was the least of his worries; his face felt burning, and even moving his head slightly caused him pain.
The nurses returned his smile and continued checking his condition. His mother, with the classic worried face all mothers have, waited sitting beside him.
"Well, we'll give you a couple of painkillers for your pain and an antibiotic to prevent your wounds from becoming infected—even though there's no sign of it, it's important," the nurse adjusted her chignon. "Perhaps you can be discharged tomorrow. You would only need to take care of the wounds and apply gel or cream for your scars."
Both nurses finally left; an onomatopoeia appeared above their heads:
<<+ Neutrality, +12xp>>
Ima turned his head toward his mother, and seeing her clearly finally, he smiled.
"What happened, Mom? How is Dad?" he asked, embarrassed to see his mother's teary eyes.
"Nothing, son, calm down... It's just that…" his mother began to lower her head, in an obvious sign of sadness. "When the school called us, we rushed over as fast as we could, and seeing your condition... Knowing they would list you in a coma... I'm sorry, son, I never thought you were going through things like this at school." His mother finally began to have spasms, a more than evident sign of the anguish that had invaded her in recent days.
"Calm down, Mom, look at me," Ima stroked his mother's hair and gently lifted her head. "I'm here, I'm fine. Don't you see your son here?"
His mother got up from her chair and hugged him with extreme warmth that made Ima feel drowsy.
"Everything is fine now, Mom…"
II
Three hours after the last check-up and medication, Ima was already outside his house, getting out of a taxi. His mother, who was with him, was protecting him and helping him walk as if he were disabled. Ima felt ashamed because it wasn't necessary, but he wouldn't dare reject his mother.
Upon finally arriving inside the house, his father came out to greet him with a big hug and let out a huge sigh. Perhaps he was proud that his son chose not to fight, as his father never raised him to be aggressive.
"I'm glad you're well, son," he commented, and cleared the way for Ima to reacquaint himself with home.
Ima sighed and felt at peace again. The plan he had to get rid of the trio hadn't gone as expected; it was too abrupt, and now he was suffering the consequences even physically. But he felt fulfilled knowing that he had left an indelible mark on Barry at the last moment and that he had achieved the goal of directing the greatest amount of shame toward him and not Vanesa.
He found his room tidy, but he didn't express concern as on other occasions when his parents found strange things; he even felt detached from his liking for video games. The consciousness he now had about his awakening, his abilities, and the existence of a greater force than others could know had slowly been changing him. In retrospect, the responsibility, which was once so circumstantial for him, had now been imposed without being sufficiently perceived.
He sat on his bed and took out his cell phone. Now that no one was there to interrupt him, he noticed his own name in a bluish box in the upper left part of the menu. He tapped it, and the application immediately threw him into a personal HUD:
<
<
<
"Well, this is clearly a very fundamental and specific analysis of my progress, and apparently also of some social karma effect... It's useful, but it's better to just keep going without guiding myself by this and take advantage of the fact that I now have another ability."
Ima's curiosity led him to open the Character Stats section to stay updated on any changes that had occurred in recent days.
<
[Accessing...]
He tapped Barry's profile.
<
Ima was impressed by this and repeated the action a frantic number of times until exhaustion.
"Well, it seems the bastard is holding the same position," he said aloud, frowning.
He tapped Teacher Alexandra.
<
[Relationship: Teacher and confidant]
[Status: Pressured]
"Thank you for your help, Teacher…" Ima brought the cell phone to his forehead and let out a sigh.
He finally tapped Vanesa, despite the remorse, and smiled.
<
[Relationship: Classmate and romantic interest]
[Status: Anguished]
"Everything is fine now. I have achieved my goal, Vanesa," he reflected, and smiled serenely.
"All that remains is to continue experimenting with these abilities; that, and prevent something like Barry's incident from happening again." He shuddered, and a pang of pain across his face made him touch his wounds. "Damn it…"