The Guide is Actually a Body-Switching Esper [BL]-Chapter 267: Air Manipulation

"...Right." Lane gulped loudly, shifting his weight from one leg to the other and back, his fingers fumbling around, restless without anything to play with. Unlike the relationship questions, this part he was actually prepared for...

Well, somewhat. As well as he could, considering his ridiculous tale of discovering his abilities years after his awakening, which had no proper justification.

He was prepared... At least as far as his excuses were concerned. He was still reluctant to go through with it, though...

Because that would be the first time he would actually straight out lie to Diana. Before, he had just omitted the truth. Diana had heard that Lane was an F-ranker, and he didn’t correct her. He always avoided the topic, dismissed and dodged uncomfortable questions, and used half-truths. Which wasn’t all that difficult, considering they had hardly any contact with each other over the years. It was mainly the emails sent every now in then, in which Lane had told Diana about things that had happened... All while hiding his involvement.

But now? Now things were a bit more complicated...

Still, he had to do it. Or else, if he registered himself as an A-ranker, and then the news reached Diana somehow, then he would surely regret not telling her first. Which was why he was so determined to come here on this trip.

He took a deep breath, and then announced, "I’m an A-rank Esper now!"

Diana’s eyes momentarily widened in surprise. She stared at Lane for a moment... As soon as her initial shock subsided, though, she curved up her mouth in a smile. "Congratulations! When did that happen?"

"Well..." Lane scratched his head. "A while ago, actually. I just didn’t have any good opportunity to tell you..."

"No matter," Diana just waved her hand dismissively. "I’m happy for you! So, what is your ability?"

"...Hmm?" Lane blinked a few times.

Just this? No more questions? Where and when did that happen, or how? Diana always made sure to keep up with the current events and all the dungeon-related discoveries and the Awakened technology development, so there was no way she didn’t notice anything odd about Lane’s... unusual case. So why didn’t she ask? Was it because she believed Lane just suddenly re-awakened or something, even if that had never happened before...

Or was it that she knew Lane was hiding things from her, but she trusted him, so she decided to just let it slide, and go along with it?

Either way, Lane couldn’t help but feel guilty...

"Is it still the same? A form of physical enhancement?" Diana asked again.

"Ah... no," Lane shook his head. He would just apologize for it later... Once the whole truth was out. There was no point thinking about it now, not unless he wanted to change his mind, and reveal his real ability to Diana...

"Don’t worry about it," Diana reassured Lane, noticing his hesitation. "You don’t need to tell me anything, if you don’t want to. I may be your grandmother, but that doesn’t mean you can’t keep any secrets from me."

"Ah, no, no, that’s not it," Lane quickly said, even though that was EXACTLY it. "I was just thinking about... how to explain it. See, my ability is a form of air manipulation, but it’s kind of all over the place..."

But of course it was, since it wasn’t a real ability, but rather a few abilities bundled up together! Abilities operating on different principles, which stopped from actually merging together. With Damien’s help, Lane just picked up a few that seemed similar enough to be able to pass as a part of one ability. It was all so that he could have more combat options, but blending it all together so that it looked cohesive took a lot of effort, and was still rather rough around the edges...

Which was why showing it to Diana, whose ability was wind manipulation, was particularly risky. As someone with a similar type of ability, there was a risk she might notice something off.

Thus, he couldn’t help but tense up even more than he already was, when the dreaded question finally fell. "Would you mind showing it to me?" Diana smiled at him.

"...Yes, of course," Lane forced his facial muscles to move so that he could return the smile, before stepping out into the open garden space. He took a deep breath...

And jumped up, quickly moving higher and higher with his Sky Step. He used a combination of this ability, together with his Wind Blades, Force Shield, then supporting himself with his C-rank telekinesis and a few more minor abilities he had to smooth it out as much as possible... It was still rather awkward - after all, while Lane was used to handling multiple different abilities, he had never tried to make them look like they belonged together before - but he still tried his best. Although he knew that something like that wouldn’t be enough to impress an SS-ranker such as Diana, and he didn’t find it impressive either, just barely passable, he still wanted to look as good as he could in front of his grandmother.

Even though the main reason why he never told her about his abilities before was because he didn’t want her to see him through the prism of his usefulness and power. But all those contradictions at the heart of his relationship with Diana... He had never really stopped to consider them.

And he wasn’t about to start now. He just landed softly on the lawn, in the garden that was now full of slash marks from his Wind Blades... Try as he might to preserve Diana’s favorite garden, Lane had to cause some damage, or how else was he supposed to show his combat power? Besides, it was just a garden, it could be restored. And Diana had never minded chaos...

And that was true up to this day, it seemed, because she barely spared the destroyed trees and flowers a glance. "Not bad, not bad. Then what are you planning to do now?"

Lane bit on his lip, a smile that had just blossomed on his face immediately faltering. "Well..."

Diana probably wasn’t going to like it, but there was no use in hiding. So, Lane honestly told her about how he was going to join the Association, and work under Damien. Diana nodded her head in response...

But Lane still couldn’t help but feel uneasy about it.