After the initial questioning, Dr. Zhao invited Necomir back in, who quickly reached out to take Sebi’s hand and rubbed it comfortingly.
“How are you?” he asked, looking for any signs of a reaction to a strange experience on Sebi’s face. Necomir was unsuccessful, only met by Sebi’s usual bright eyes and tender smile.
“I’m okay, it was relaxing,” Sebi answered, squeezing his hand back. Now it seemed like he was the one comforting Necomir, convincing him there were no problems.
“I can’t diagnose any mental condition for now, but based on prior results of tests done by Mr. Yan’s doctors and my initial observations, he has symptoms of a variety of conditions,” Dr. Zhao spoke as she began typing on her computer. “He has symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, borderline personality disorder, psychosis, and schizophrenia.”
Necomir felt his heart drop as he leaned forward and suddenly felt a stifling feeling in his chest. He looked at Sebi, noticing his surprised look. “D-Doctor… how c-could that be so much?”
Sebi pursed his lips and looked down at his hand that was inside Necomir’s large one.
“Don’t worry, please don’t misunderstand. I am only observing symptoms that are related to those conditions,” Dr Zhao quickly said. “I’ll need to request that Mr. Yan should do frequent sessions for the coming days with me. I’ll conduct tests so we can start ruling out physical conditions that may be affecting Mr. Yan. After all, he did have a brain injury before and has been in combat. We’ll examine his brain for inflammation, damage, lesions or tumors. This way we can come to a final diagnosis and come up with a treatment plan.”
“Please do everything to help Sebi, we’ll follow your instructions,” Necomir said, appearing very determined.
Sebi was sick. It just really dawned on him that he was sick, his brain was actually sick. The thing, the entity that kept affecting his life, was possibly the result of damage in his brain or trauma from certain things that the original host might have been through.
It shouldn’t feel exciting, but Sebi was already excited for Dr. Zhao to diagnose his condition. If it was confirmed that the entity was just a figment of his brain, a sort of dysfunction that had occurred, it will prove that the entity wasn’t exactly real or wouldn’t pose a real life threat to everyone.
“Sebi?” Necomir carefully called out. They had been lounging in the living room right after the doctor visit. A movie played on the television, but Sebi had been lost in thought and Necomir was busy worrying for him.
After hearing his name, Sebi broke from his thoughts and looked up. “Yes?” he answered, his voice tiny. He had been taken aback, surprised to see the helplessness on Necomir’s face.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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“Being sick is normal. Sickness in the brain is just as real as any other ailments in the body.”
Sebi felt his body tense as Necomir reached out and gently tucked a strand of hair behind his hair. His eyes were as soft as molten gold, his lips so plush, and Sebi was almost ready to pounce on him at that very moment to forcefully put his claim on him.
Necomir is his and no one can take him from him.
But Sebi quickly erased such thoughts, knowing they weren’t decent. Such deep desires could only be further buried, or he would really end up losing Necomir completely.
“Don’t worry, I’m okay,” Sebi reassured him. “I’m just pondering about… certain things. I’m not too hung up on whatever illness I have. I know I’m going to recover. I have to, for the sake of you and the people who cherish me. I’m also doing this for me.”
I’m not blowing the last chance of being with you. I need to quickly recover.
“Good boy,” Necomir smiled in that charming way of his and ruffled Sebi’s hair.
The following week was spent going back and forth from Necomir’s house to the doctor. As what was planned, Sebi was put through several tests to rule out possible illnesses until they were able to come to a final diagnosis.
Technology of this era had quickened the process. By the Monday of the next week, Dr. Zhao was ready to give them the diagnosis and the treatment for it.
“Mr. Yan is diagnosed to have an ability-related dissociative identity disorder,” Dr. Zhao said. “Mr. Yan has an alternate identity which reflects a more aggressive side of him. It seems to be closely linked to his energy space, which has been observed to greatly fluctuate whenever the alter comes in front. It does not have any effect on his abilities, but rather seems to be born out of the energy space. It is suspected to have emerged after Mr. Yan was injured before his coma as a form of defense mechanism against the stress on Mr. Yan’s young mind. The combination of the trauma from the incident and the dormancy of his powers for years led to the emergence of the alter. It is responsible for handling Mr. Yan’s intense negative emotions, and may come to front unexpectedly whenever he feels agitated, angry, and anything of the like. It aims to relieve you of your suppressed energy.”
The doctor handed them a full folder of all the documents related to the diagnosis, along with a treatment plan. Necomir took it and quickly shared it with Sebi so they could have a look together.
“The prescription should be followed very carefully. The therapy sessions can be held online or face to face, so we can talk about it prior to the schedule. And about your alter…”
Sebi pursed his lips, but he didn’t feel embarrassed about it. His chest was filled with lightness and relief, finally happy that the thing that had been bothering him was now something he was able to understand.
“You won’t be able to get rid of it quickly. You’re a powerful ability user, you won’t stop using your ability, but you will still live with a damaged energy space due to your stunted development during your coma. On top of that, you need to come into terms with the fact that you are allowed to release your pent-up emotions. Only then will your alter start to fuse with your primary consciousness.”
Sebi nodded. “I’m going to do my best, Dr. Zhao.”
“I like obedient and determined patients,” Dr. Zhao smiled approvingly. “They are always the ones who can recover quickly. Healing starts with you, after all. No person will heal if they don’t want it for themselves.”
After finalizing everything and picking up the prescribed medicine, Sebi and Necomir went back home.
“I want to hang around more, but I really don’t want to prolong our leave further just because of me,” Sebi timidly said. “We should just go to Helldrum, get my case study done, and come back. Or maybe you can go back first?”
“Out of the question,” Necomir firmly said. “I’m going to escort you and keep you safe.”
Although his words were enough to make Sebi’s heart melt, he knew Necomir was only doing this because he respected the headmaster.
After resting for two days, the pair set off to Helldrum. Sebi felt great excitement, knowing that they were going to one of the most dangerous planets in the star system. His case study will definitely be pretty interesting.
The travel to Helldrum would take a whole day since it was even farther from Vuturn. It was night when they finally boarded to ship, so Necomir quickly fell asleep while Sebi scrolled through his lightband, acquainting himself to the culture in Helldrum.
“Oh? Decebal Yan is being quite spicy,” Sebi heard his entity – or alter, as what it was supposed to be called – snarkily speak out.
Dr. Zhao had mentioned that he should start actively communicating with his alter so he can understand it further. Sebi knew nothing about his alter, just that it had the worst aspects of himself and seemed to love messing with him and Necomir.
“I like danger, it’s weird. It’s exciting to me,” Sebi amiably responded to it as he stared at the info on his lightband’s screen. “See? Crime rates in Helldrum is high, but no one dares to blindly commit crimes because everyone wore face-tight masks. Who knew which big person they would accidentally offend. Lots of interesting things happen there due to the almost non-existent laws.”
“You’re talkative today, that therapy seems to be good,” the alter commented sarcastically.
Sebi rolled his eyes. “Whatever. I’m not talking to you anymore!”
“Stubborn as always. The doctor already told you that I am you, and you are me,” his alter chuckled. “You might as well start treating me a bit better. Maybe your life will be better.”
“Are you blackmailing me?”
“I’m not, silly Decebal. I’m speaking the truth. Whenever I come in front, I’m not doing it on purpose. If I had, I could have taken over your body long ago. I am simply triggered, so I am deployed by your mind to take over to keep us both safe. Understand?”
Sebi pondered over it.
“And now that you’re actively acknowledging me, I feel a bit more solid and sane,” the alter added, his tone a bit hesitant. It also felt a bit strange being civil with this host. “I used to only feel emotions and power, now I can make sense of your thoughts a bit more. I feel more… disgustingly human.”
Dr. Zhao did say the only way to get rid of his alter is for it to successfully fuse with his primary consciousness. Sebi had to work on accepting that this thing inside him was a part of him…
I am glad it is an alter and that he has an actual diagnosis and a plan to fuse the two personalities together!
and Sebi, Neco is already head over heels for you! It’s okay to slowly explore beyond friendship!
thanks for the chapter <3
Thank you for reading ❤❤❤❤
Wow… never thought I would see DID in a novel XD
Good job and all the best !
Actually I think DID is pretty common, it’s just people still use it as “multiple personality disorder” ahhahaa
Thank you for reading ❤❤❤
Yay!!!!
Then I saw that there’s no chapter updated yet. 😔
Ms. Author, I love your story and the characters, thanks for the update! ❤
YES! YES! YES!!!! LET ALTER AND SEBI BECOME ONE!!!!!!