Hero of Darkness

Kahn watched his school bullies beat the young and weak him as Elric. As per his Eidetic Memory, this was the 3rd time he was beaten by these 3 kids in front of him in a downtrodden warehouse close to his school.

"These assholes!" his fist clenched tightly and he quickly lunged at his bullies to beat the shit out of them.

Alas… his body in spectral form passes right through them, unable to do anything to protect his younger self.

"Elric, get up! Fight back!" he shouted and tried to pull up his younger self.

But just like his childhood bullies, he couldn't even touch or speak with Elric either.

With great resentment… all Kahn could do was watch himself from the past getting beaten up again and again until the bullies got tired.

"Next time, bring the money unless you want to get beaten up again." warned the main blonde kid who was their leader in a way.

Kahn was thoroughly infuriated as he relived this old memory, something he wanted to forget for a major portion of his life in the past.

"What the hell is happening? Why am I back in my previous life?

Is this the standard 'go back in past and overcome your fears' sort of trial?" he wondered.

"But the setting doesn't feel right. I should be in the main body and not get separated as a soul form who can't even touch or do anything.

What… is the main objective of this trial?" he asked himself in a confused state.

Because if this was the standard trial of testing one's mental strength… Kahn would've absolutely beat the shit out of these bullies even with his weak body as Elric.

However, things were completely out of the norm.

And now… all he could do is watch the young and weak Elric get up on his feet helplessly while enduring the pain, humiliation and horror no 12-year-old kid should suffer from.

Flash!!

The very next moment, the scenario in front of Kahn's eyes changed and he found himself in his old home.

"Alright, Janice. I'll be coming in an hour. Just make sure all the arrangements are done without a problem.

We can't let anyone complain about lacking preparation. I will definitely win this election to be the committee chairwoman." spoke a silky-smooth brown-haired woman while talking on the telephone.

"Ah… been a while since I saw your face again, mom." spoke Kahn who appeared in the living room of his house.

Sophia Johnson, Elric aka Kahn's mother in his past life was a very gorgeous woman for her age despite having 3 kids, 2 of whom were already more than 15 years old.

Yet Kahn didn't have a good impression of her after he grew up.

What kind of son would abhor his mother?

Well… there was a reason for it.

Clink!

The door opened and the thrashed Elric came into the house.

"Mom!" he spoke with teary eyes and ran towards his mother, quickly hugging her as he was extremely scared and felt like he almost died recently.

"Elric, what happened? What did you do?!" exclaimed Sophia as he noticed her youngest son's sorry state filled with dust and blood splatters here and there.

Elric told her everything about how the kids have been bullying him after school and even the teachers who said they'd intervene didn't do anything about it.

"Hmph! There's no point telling her." scoffed Kahn with a disappointed gaze.

Sophia then cleaned up Elric and put off some bandages in hurry.

"Okay, honey… I will come to your school tomorrow and deal talk with the principal.

But for now, mommy's gotta go. I have an important meeting coming up so get rest and we will deal with this whole thing tomorrow, okay?" she said, showing little concern about the whole thing instead of fuming with rage as a normal mother would.

Like an obedient child, Elric nodded and watched his mother leave the house.

"Seriously… what kind of mother leaves her child behind after he is traumatized and beaten to a pulp just for some neighborhood wives' meeting?

What kind of priorities does this woman have?

Still pretentious just like I remember it." spoke Kahn with a dejected face.

The younger Elric couldn't see through many things because he was just a kid learning from his parents and had no outside-world experience.

But the grown him knew what was the case.

His mother aka Sophia Johnson… was a Poser.

She liked to look good in front of other people in society and always maintain a righteous image of an elite who had a great standing in the community.

She cared more about 'What would people in the Society say' than what was actually happening in the house.

Instead of consoling her son, she went off to a gathering of neighborhood women who only held kitty parties where they showed off how rich and classy they were in front of other women.

Kahn shook his head in indignation, still being resentful of this memory while he saw the young him hiding his fears and anger inside his heart.

Those were the growing years of his life and as he was born with a very weak constitution, Elric was unable to even fight back for his own sake.

And in the following hours, Elric asked for help from his older brother David, who was 17 years old and was on his High School's baseball team. He was also the Pearl of the Eye for his parents since he had a promising talent in his.

And just as Kahn vividly remembered…

"Man the hell up!"

Those were the words his brother responded with.

"Yeah, yeah, sure… you fucking future drug addict!

Such a reliable brother you are." he scoffed as the scene unveiled in front of him.

As for talking with his older sister Synthia… Elric didn't dare bother this emerging Diva who was nothing but an attention seeker.

Finally, his father Robert Johnson came at night from his work.

His father was a sales manager in a home appliances company and was always swarmed with work, leading him to come to the house late at night while being stressed.

The shocked and shivering Elric then told his dad about today's incident and asked for his father's help.

In response… Kahn recited the words his father told him that day.

"Don't bring such small matters inside the house!"