A gift that had awakened the moment he died.
Traveller.
That was its name.
The ability allowed him to travel between different worlds.
More importantly, it was the reason he was still alive.
When his soul had been on the verge of disappearing after the truck accident, Traveller had finally awakened.
Using the last of its power, it had searched for a suitable vessel and transported his soul across realities.
Into this world.
Into the body of a recently deceased child.
Ash slowly absorbed the information.
The more he understood, the stranger his expression became.
He had actually died.
Completely and undeniably died.
Yet somehow, instead of passing on, he had ended up in another world.
'...Well,' Ash muttered after a long silence, 'that's certainly one way to avoid death.'
Despite the absurdity of the situation, a grin slowly spread across his face.
'At least I won't be at the mercy of those so-called systems,' he thought as he laid back on the bed.
'Maybe that's the reason I'm not getting any of this body's memories,' he thought as he sighed, wondering what kind of world this was.
'I hope it's a magical world... Well, even if it's not, my ability does allow me to travel to two worlds simultaneously,' he grinned at the idea.
'Not to mention, both of my current bodies will be of equal strength. So if I get stronger in one world, my other body will become equally stronger too,' he thought as he almost whistled in joy, but controlled himself, keeping his thoughts to himself.
He didn't want to test whether his ability would automatically work again if he were to die now.
Before Ash could think further, the door opened again.
The woman returned, this time with a middle-aged doctor following behind her.
The doctor looked surprised to see Ash sitting upright on the bed.
"Well, that's certainly unexpected," he said as he walked over.
Ash remained silent and watched him carefully.
The doctor began a quick checkup. He shined a light into Ash's eyes, checked his pulse, asked him to follow his finger, and tested a few simple reflexes.
Meanwhile, the woman stood beside the bed, nervously twisting her hands together.
"Doctor, please check if something is wrong with him," she said anxiously. "He doesn't remember me. He looked at me like I was a stranger."
The doctor nodded calmly.
"Mrs. Parker, please relax."
"How can I relax?" she asked. "He's my son. He woke up and asked who I was."
The doctor gave her a reassuring smile.
"Ash is still a child, and he has been in a coma for two years. Memory problems are not unusual in cases like this."
"Two years?" Ash blurted out before he could stop himself.
The doctor looked at him.
"That's right, Ash. You've been unconscious for two years."
Ash almost choked.
Two years?
This body's owner had been in a coma for two whole years?
No wonder the body had died.
No wonder Traveller had found an empty vessel.
The doctor continued speaking.
"It's possible that you've forgotten some things. It might be temporary, or some memories may never return. We won't know until we've done a few more examinations."
The woman looked relieved by the explanation, though she was still worried.
Then the doctor turned back to Ash.
"Do you know your name?"
Ash hesitated for a second.
Fortunately, that answer was easy.
"Ash."
The doctor nodded.
"Good. Do you know how old you are?"
"...No."
"Do you know where you are?"
"A hospital."
"Do you know who she is?" The doctor pointed toward the woman.
Ash looked at her and slowly shook his head.
The woman's face immediately fell.
The doctor quickly stepped in before she could panic again.
"That's alright. Memory loss is common in situations like this."
He wrote a few notes on his clipboard.
"From what I can see, his condition is stable. In fact, physically speaking, he's doing much better than I expected."
The woman let out a long breath of relief.
Ash, however, barely listened.
His attention was focused on something far more important.
Parker.
The doctor had called the woman Mrs. Parker.
And if she was his mother...
Then his surname should be Parker as well.
Ash suddenly had a very bad feeling.
A very, very bad feeling.
Surely it couldn't be that Parker.
Right?
The doctor finished writing on his clipboard before turning to the woman.
"Mrs. Parker, I think the best thing you can do right now is help him rebuild his memories."
She immediately nodded.
"How?"
"Start with simple things," the doctor said. "Tell him who you are. Tell him who he is. Don't overwhelm him with too much information at once. Let him adjust slowly."
Mrs. Parker nodded again.
"I understand."
The doctor looked at Ash.
"Don't force yourself to remember anything. If the memories return, they return. If they don't, that's alright too."
Ash simply nodded.
A few more minutes passed before the doctor left the room, promising to return later for additional tests.
The moment the door closed, silence filled the room.
Mrs. Parker pulled a chair closer to the bed and sat down.
For a few moments, neither of them spoke.
Then she took a deep breath.
"My name is Mary Parker."
Ash blinked.
Parker.
Definitely Parker.
"You are my son," she continued softly. "Your name is Ash Parker."
Ash remained quiet.
"So I really am Ash," he thought.
At least he hadn't stolen someone else's name.
"You are six years old," Mary continued. "You just turned Four a few months before the accident."
At age four he fell into coma, so two years later he is truly just now a six year old child,
Ash almost groaned internally.
He had gone from being an adult office worker to a six-year-old child.
Talk about bad luck.
"You have a father too," Mary said with a small smile. "His name is Richard Parker."
Ash's eyes widened slightly.
Richard Parker.
Mary Parker.
His heart skipped a beat.