Reincarnated as an Energy with a System

Jack went to the school, questioning the dead ghoul’s colleagues and acquaintances. He made sure to ask about the deceased’s lunch. Everyone seemed to know that he was a vegan.

“Oh, he hated being a vegan, but he loved his wife too much to eat anything else. So he would mostly eat fruits and vegetables, with those fake meats that they sell at the market now.”

One of the other bus drivers at the school seemed to know a lot more about him.

“Do you have any idea why he would eat something made of meat then?” Jack asked the man.

“Well, as I said, he did hate being a vegan, so it wouldn’t take much to get him to eat it, I assume,” the driver said. “Maybe he found himself in the cafeteria by accident and couldn’t resist the smell of the meatloaf?”

“Cafeteria?” Jack asked with a confused look.

“Yeah, you said meatloaf, right? That’s what they were having for lunch yesterday.”

* * * * * *

Larissa got off the phone with Jack.

“Looks like our deceased ate from the cafeteria,” she told Ning and Mira. “Jack checked the school cafeteria routine and found yesterday’s meal to be meatloaf. So it’s not the wife.”

“We should let her know,” Mira said.

“Yeah, do that. For now, Jack is still searching for more info.”

Ning tapped on the table before him, looking up at the ceiling in thought. “Yeah, that still doesn’t answer why he ate a bunch of sleeping pills. If the meatloaf was spiked, then everyone would’ve died. It was just his specific portion.”

“Well, let’s see who is out to get him.”

A few minutes later, Larissa got another call from Jack. She listened to it all the way through, taking notes on a paper before ending the call.

“Search Jacob Reese. Studies in the 6th grade.”

Mira quickly searched for him and found more information about him. “Found him. Why are we searching for him?”

“The deceased didn’t get his own meal. This kid gave it to him. According to Jack, the meal was exchanged by this kid. We’ll get footage soon.”

Ning narrowed his eyes. “Was it intentional?”

Larissa shrugged. “We’ll learn soon.”

Jack brought back some evidence along with the footage, which Mira quickly accessed on her computer. Looking through it, they saw a young tabaxi child handing over his lunch to the driver, who was sitting alone in the corner of the cafeteria. Going back a bit further, they managed to catch a glimpse of him sneaking something into the juice alongside the meatloaf before quickly stirring it in.

“Dear god!” Mira said with a horrified look. “It’s a child. A child killed him.”

“How old is he?” Larissa asked with a blank expression.

“12. 13 in 4 months.”

Larissa sighed. That was indeed horrible, but their job was their job.

Now that they had found the culprit, it was time to go capture him.

Jacob Reese’s house was in a quiet suburban neighborhood, where Larissa and Ning arrived around evening time. They walked out of the van and looked at the place, a small house with a decent garden out front and a stone path that led to the door.

Larissa walked through a small wooden gate, arriving at the house. She rang the doorbell a few times and knocked on the door before she heard noise from the inside.

A tabaxi woman in her late 30s opened the door, a confused look on her face. “You aren’t delivery people, are you?” she asked.

Larissa brought out her detective badge. “I’m Detective Larissa. This is my associate, Valen. We’re here to talk to your son about the bus accident.”

The woman blinked for a bit. “Jacob? What does he have to do with it?”

“We just need to ask him a few questions,” Larissa said. “We’re trying to figure out what is going on, and we’ve learned that your son may have been sitting at the front of the bus and was there to witness what happened.”

“Jacob’s dad!” she called out to the back. “Can you come out here for a second.”

A hulking black-furred tabaxi appeared from the side of the house, taking off his dirt-ridden glove. “What’s happening?” he asked.

“These two detectives are here to ask Jacob about the bus accident,” the wife explained.

“I’m sorry, but our son isn’t fit to talk. The accident has left him scared, and he’s been in his bed all day since yesterday. I would rather not have you speak with him at this moment,” the father said.

“I’m sorry, but we have to talk to him,” Larissa said. “We can talk now, or we can come back with a warrant.”

“A warrant?” the father grew angry now. “Who the hell do you think you are? What has my son done to need a warrant?”

The wife tried to appease him, but the husband grew more angry, drawing sharp claws that could cut through any flesh.

Ning grabbed Larissa and pulled her back.

“Let’s not get too heated,” Ning said. “Let me handle this.”

He stepped forward and started speaking. “The bus driver died because he overdosed on sleeping medicine, and based on our investigation, it was shown that your son was the one who gave it to him.”

“What?” the wife’s face paled. “That can’t be true. My son is a good boy.”

“If we can talk to him, it would be easier to understand what happened. I’m sorry, but we must talk to him. Is there any way he could get his hands on some sleeping pills? Do either of you use them?”

The woman shook her head. “No, we don’t need sleeping pills. We sleep just fine,” she said. “Our son couldn’t have gotten to them.”

“The school recording shows him mixing something into the driver’s drink. If it’s not sleeping medicine, then your son will need to tell us what it was. If it shows up on our toxicology report, it will help your son.”

The father turned around, walking into the house. Within seconds, a house-erupting roar sounded inside.

“JACOB! GET DOWN HERE!”

It wasn’t long before the young tabaxi child came out the front door. Ning looked at the young child, remembering him from the bus. He was at the back of the bus.

“Did you put something in the driver’s drink?” the father asked with a stern voice.

Jacob’s face fell. His entire body started shaking.

“Answer me,” the father said.

“Jacob,” Larissa said gently. “We just need you to tell us what it was that you gave the bus driver. Was it really sleeping pills?”

Jacob’s eyes widened. His breathing caught, becoming ragged. He looked toward his father, his eyes tearing up. “I… I didn’t mean to.”

His mother gasped. His father took in a deep breath. “What did you do?”

Jacob’s face crumbled. “I didn’t know he would die! I swear!”

“What did you do?” his father repeated.

Jacob started crying. “We… we thought it would be funny if he fell asleep before the bus was out. So we put sleeping pills in his juice.”

The adults went silent.

“How many?” Larissa asked.

“I-I don’t know. A lot. We wanted him to fall asleep quickly,” the young tabaxi boy said. His entire being was shaking violently at this point, struggling to keep himself from looking at any of them.

Larissa knelt down. “Where did you get the sleeping pills?”

“My friend Casey got them from his father’s cabinet.”

Ning narrowed his eyes. “Whose plan was it?” he asked. “Did you come up with the idea?”

“Me and my friends did,” the young boy said. “It was just supposed to be a prank. We didn’t think he would die. I promise.”

The mother started sobbing silently on the side, the father failing to show a single other emotion on his face.

Ning stared at the boy. He was twelve. Just a kid who made a stupid, terrible mistake. And for that, he was going to have to be punished.

Larissa stood and pulled out her handcuffs. “Jacob Reese, you’re under arrest for involuntary manslaughter.”

The mother started crying even harder, and now the father was starting to show tears too. As Larissa took the young boy toward the van, the father was already bringing out his phone, calling a lawyer.

Jacob didn’t resist as Larissa cuffed him. He just kept crying, repeating the same thing over and over.

“I didn’t mean to kill him. I didn’t mean to.”

Ning watched the whole thing with a strange look on his face. None of this had to happen, and yet it did. A cruel joke.

This was meant to be nothing more than a prank. And yet, it was now a prank gone wrong.

A man was dead because of this, and who knew how many more would be implicated.

Jacob may have put the actual sleeping pills in, but he wasn’t the one who had brought them. But since there was no evidence just yet of anyone else being involved, the other parents would have an easy way out.

They could just claim that their children didn’t know or that they were coerced, and they would get out with nothing more than a slap on the wrist.

Ning sighed as he got into the van. He could hear the young kid crying in the back.

“Don’t you just hate this sometimes?” he asked.

Larissa looked behind for a moment and nodded. “I do, but what else can I do? I took this job knowing that all I would see is tragedy.”

Ning nodded and turned around, going silent for the rest of the ride back to the station.