I was left alone in the hospital room with the strange, big man.
He sat on the chair next to my bed and looked at me with a serious face, "How are you feeling? Young Master."
'WHAT NOW?! Young Master?'
"Ymm... I... I think I had a bit of a memory loss." I said.
The big man's reaction was comical, like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar. His eyes widened in panic, and he rushed closer to me, softly grabbing my cheeks.
"Oh my god!" he exclaimed, his voice trembling with concern. "Have you informed the doctors? They didn't tell us about this! Did you really forget? How much did you forget?"
At this point, I needed to acknowledge that whatever happened in that light chamber after I seemingly died must have been real.
I have transmigrated, just like in the novels that I have read. Although, no. This was a bit different. I was still on Earth. I was still the same Graham Maxwell. My interests seemed to have been the same too, but some events seemed to have transpired differently than in my previous world.
While I retained memories from my previous world, my recollection of events here was clouded. Somehow, I could recall Emily from high school, even though I never knew her in my previous life. I wondered if I would remember more soon.
The man sat back down, his expression now more subdued. There was a small red highlight on the side of his hair and a scar along his neck.
"Do you at least remember your name?"
"Yes," I replied, "I'm Graham Maxwell. I also remember my mother and lots of other things, but I can't seem to remember you."
He seemed saddened by my words.
"I'm Richard," he murmured. "But Young Master always called me Rick."
'Was I the son of a king or something? No one in the modern world calls someone Young Master.'
"Why do you keep calling me Young Master?" I asked.
Richard looked at me quietly for a couple of seconds, his expression unreadable. "You really forgot a lot. This complicates things."
"I mean... no shit it does," I replied.
The man sighed heavily before speaking, "I hope that your memories will come back to you, but at the moment, we don't have the time to wait for that. Graham, you turned eighteen a couple of days ago. Your Kainen will start developing. For an average person, that's fine, but your genes are not normal. Your father is the leader of the Maxwell Mafia and you inherited his genes. You can't sit still or you will die soon. And I don't want to see Young Master die a stupid death like this."
Richard seemed very emotional as he spoke and I could see the genuine concern he had for me. But what he said made no sense to me.
"Wait, what do you mean by 'Kainen'?"
"Don't tell me. You forgot about the most fundamental thing that makes humans better than other animals?"
"Wouldn't that be intelligence? Technology? Guns?" I thought about how the USA was always proud of its well-prepared and ready-for-anything army. Hell yea!
Richard seemed baffled by my mention of guns. "Guns?" he repeated, raising an eyebrow.
"Yeah, guns," I replied casually, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
He looked at me incredulously and then flexed his biceps. "You mean these guns?"
I shook my head. "No, I mean guns that you shoot with. You don't know what guns are?"
Richard blinked at me in confusion. "I think you'll need some time to recover, Young Master," he said with a sigh. "However, there's no other way. Tomorrow, we'll pick you up from the hospital and you'll go through the ceremony."
"What ceremony?" I asked, feeling even more bewildered than before.
"I already told you that your father is the leader of the Maxwell Mafia. And you are his only son. It's your destiny to succeed him. You were given the time until you were eighteen to do whatever you wanted, but this is where it ends... I know that this is hard for you to process, as you have forgotten about lots of things. But you must understand that this accident has made things more difficult for all of us."
I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Becoming a mafia boss? But as I looked into Richard's serious eyes, I knew he wasn't joking and he kind of looked like a mafia member too, not that I believe in stereotypes.
Richard waited some time before continuing, "You will need to train, Young Master. Having a powerful Kainen doesn't automatically make you a skilled fighter. You need to be able to take care of it."
As Richard spoke, my brain worked overtime trying to make sense of his words. "Please," I interrupted, feeling utterly lost, "can you explain what Kainen is? I'm very confused."
Richard sighed. "Graham, this is something people learn in middle school. But... well, maybe if I start explaining, you'll remember something." He paused, composing himself, before continuing.
"Kainen is a special force within every human," he began, placing his palm over his heart. "It builds up around the heart and spreads through your body like blood. The more fights you have, the more intense Kainen gets and the more of it you can produce. However, in some cases, for people with the right mutation, it's produced in excess and needs to be controlled and wielded properly."
He looked at me gravely. "It's really a double-edged sword. It's what makes some people become leaders, like your father, but for others, it can mean death before they even take their first step."
After Richard's explanation, I couldn't help but feel overwhelmed. "So, how do I even begin to tap into this... Kainen?" I asked, hoping for some clarity.
"You'll find out tomorrow," he replied cryptically.
"And I won't be able to go to school?" I pressed.
"Oh, no. You can still go to school. Things just won't be the same anymore," Richard assured me.
"Well, that's great... I don't even know how things were before all of this," I muttered under my nose, feeling increasingly lost.
Resigned, I closed my eyes.
When Richard got up from the chair, I saw something strange: a bunch of colored flashes and blue squiggly lines to my left, right where Richard had been sitting.
Opening my eyes, I looked at him, but there was no trace of the strange lights or lines. Perplexed, I closed my eyes again, and sure enough, the flashes and lines reappeared.
This time, I observed more closely. There seemed to be a source of green flashes and blue lines swirling in a circle around where Richard's heart would be. Additional blue squiggly lines spread from his heart to his limbs and head. The lights weren't particularly bright, and the lines were faint, but they were unmistakable.
Even with my eyes closed, I could sense Richard bowing his head in my direction.
"Till tomorrow, Young Master," he said softly before slowly making his way out of the room.
With the description that Richard had given me, I was fairly certain that what I was seeing was Kainen. But was it natural to see it like this?