11 The Joben Chronicles

'I remember now, I remember my past. My mother, my father…...their deaths. It's all so clear to me now. But to truly move on from my past and my guilt I must relive those memories. Maybe if I do that….I can finally…..after all these years…...accept that she's gone and can't come back.' It all started 8 years ago when I was still in elementary school. Because of the neglect from my father and my constant bullying throughout those years I put all my time into my smarts. Though this turned out to be a mistake that caused my life to spiral downwards from that point on." Joben's dad was looking over Joben's shoulder as he was trying to translate a scene from hamlet. Considering this was his first time learning the material he was failing horribly.' "I-I think that he was trying to say that his mother was being a form of a thot." His father disappointed in this wrong translation began pacing back and forth behind Joben. "Son, you know that I think you're a smart kid right?" Joben nodded not realizing what was going on at that moment. "And you know that you are ahead of your peers in intelligence, right?" Joben again nodded since he thought he was being praised. "So please tell me why you can't TRANSLATE THIS EASY ASS PIECE OF TEXT?" Joben now scared tried to explain this situation. "I-I never even l-learned Shakespeare before I can't just try too." Joben was cut off by a swift slap to his face which knocked him right out of the chair he was in, leaving a slap mark on his face and him crying. "You have no excuse you little brat!" Joben was on the floor holding his cheek as he slowly tried to crawl away from his father. Luckily for him, his mother soon came into the room and immediately ran over to Joben and hugged him. "Shibo Manada what the hell is wrong with you? Why did you slap our son? He's done nothing wrong." Shibo clenched his fist before stating. "If this little shit is as smart as he should be then he should have been able to translate this piece of text from Hamlet!" Joben's mother continued trying to console her son who was currently crying his eyes out confused about what he's done wrong. Shibo clenched his fist before screaming out. "Come on Rachel can't you see? This little shit is acting dumb to fucking spite me! He should be able to easily comprehend this, why the fuck are you defending this little shit!?" Joben's mom stared down her husband mad at his words. "Our Son is just a child, you are putting too much pressure on him because he's smarter than his peers. If anything your reaction is more childish than our sons. Don't do to him what you did to our daughter, she didn't need to get sent to that place but your expectations were always too high." Shibo is taken aback by what he perceived as disrespect was dumbfounded. "Lili was a child I should have made you abort just like this failure of a son we have here." Shibo turned his attention towards Joben. "Now take your dumbass to your room before I whoop your ass."

After hearing this Joben while still crying ran to his room as fast as he could. '`Things.....they never got much better from there. Now for most kids school would be the place where they had friends and could feel safe. But for

me, it was the opposite.' Joben would be shoved against a locker by someone who seemed very aggravated about something. "Why the hell did you get us a bad grade on this assignment? Now the teacher is suspicious that we're not doing the work ourselves and it's all your fault!" Joben smirked slightly before declaring. "Go on tell her how the four of you are stupider than a bag of bricks and let's see what happens." The bully now more annoyed shoved Joben into the locker once more, his friends then walked up to Joben and each of them punched him in the side. The 4 of them then left Joben on the ground, he was holding his stomach and gasping for air. A few hours had passed and Joben was walking home from school trying his best to get rid of the small amounts of blood on his shirt and the bruises on his face. "I have to get rid of these stains and this bruise, if I don't dad, might ask about them." As Joben continued walking wondering what he could do to get the bloodstains off his shirt, as he continued walking he heard the sound of someone kicking a can around like it was a ball. He turned his head and saw a boy his age or maybe a little older, the kid was in very ragged clothes, he also had many bruises and dirt on him. At first, Joben continued walking but the kid in ragged clothes ran up to him with a smile. "Hey, what's up?!" Joben was taken aback by this but then he responded the best way he could. "U-uh nothing much, w-who are you?" The boy smiled brightly at the question. "My name Leo, what's yours?!" Joben sighed a bit before answering. "M-my names Joben b-but why aren't you at home don't you have a family?" Leo frowned a bit at the question. "I-I don't have a family but that besides the point, do you wanna play?" Joben looked at the sky and saw the sun was still up which made him think he still had some time until he needed to get home. Joben smiled and nodded yes which made Leo smile statically. The two then began playing soccer with the can until it was dark outside. As Joben kicked the can into the wall beside Leo Joben looked at the sky and saw that it was dark outside. He waved Leo goodbye as he began walking home, after around 30 minutes he opened the door only to see his father with his arms crossed tapping his foot angrily. "Son why were you out so late today? You should have been home at 3 o'clock sharp. It's 9 o'clock. WHAT THE HELL WAS YOU DOING ???!!!" Joben realizing he got caught concluded that he should tell the truth unless he wanted to get beaten by his dad's leather belt.

"U-uh I was o-out with a new friend I made." Jobens father shook his head in disappointment. "Friends? Who told you, you can have friends there only going to hold back your intelligence." Joben looked down trying to figure out a way he could get out of this situation. As he looked away his dad saw the bruises that were on his face which made him angry and concerned. "Who the fuck did this to you?" Joben got a little quiet after being asked the question. "I-it was some bullies who were mad that I got them a bad grade on their assignment yesterday." Jobens father rubbed his eyes before pointing to the kitchen insinuating that Joben should get him a beer. Joben ran to the kitchen as fast as he could though he stayed in there for a minute or two longer than he should have. He got his father a cold beer which his father thought tasted a little salty before running back to his room and hoping in the bed with a smile on his face. 'Things were fun for a few weeks from there me and Leo met up every day and we would play for hours on end. And for a while….I was happy but after a few weeks everything had changed…..for the worse.' A week or two after the previous incident Joben was walking home after a few hours of playing with Leo as he had a smile on his face. As he walked into the home something felt off. "Mom dad I'm home!!! Where are you guys!?" He looked around before getting a phone call from his dad. He then picked up the phone confused. "Ello." His father who was in a panicking situation responded. "Son your mothers been shot, she's in critical condition, your grandparents should be outside the house to get you now." Joben walked out and got into his grandparents' car as quickly as he could. "I-is my mom gonna be okay?" Joben's grandparents didn't answer as they continued driving towards the hospital. After a few minutes of driving they got to the hospital, Joben immediately ran into the hospital looking around for his mom. His grandparents came in checking the info and checking everything then took him to his mom's hospital room. Unfortunately for Joben, he came in at the wrong time as a doctor was telling his mother and father about the situation. The doctor was looking over everything regarding Jobens mother and had a sad look on his face. "Her wounds are too severe, the gunshots most of her vital organs and she was already bleeding out when we found her. At this rate, she only has 4 minutes to live I recommend you all say your goodbyes." The doctor walked out of the room with his clipboard when Joben ran over to his mom's side tears on his face. "Mom! No please don't go! I don't want you to die please Mom, please! You can't die!!!" Joben's mom weakly smiled before she rubbed Jobens hair softly. "Don't worry son but you have to promise me something, promise me you'll grow up into a big and strong boy for me okay." Jobens tears grew even bigger and he began crying more and more. "I promise mom I promise!" Joben's mom smiled once more before leaning over to Joben. "And remember your mommy will always love you."

She kissed Joben on the head before she was beginning to flatline. As doctors came rushing in clamoring to save Jobens mother Joben stood there as time began to freeze and something began to awake inside him. Something dark, something sinister something not noticeable, something like his shadow. Jobens face went from one of sadness to one of seriousness as he ran out of his mother's Hospital room yelling. "Why her! Why did they have to take my mom! Why did she die over everyone else!" Joben continued running until he was caught by his crying father who hugged Joben tightly. 6 years later Joben now 12 was bringing his father a cold beer on a tray. His father was now depressed, and abusive, and drowned his sorrows away using Alcohol as his only support. Joben walked into his father's room and gave him the beer. Joben's father clenched his chest and fell backward seemingly dying of a heart attack. Joben began maniacally laughing at this thinking it was finally over. "I-I did it! That bastard is finally dead! After years of poisoning him, he finally died. Today couldn't be better." Joben was cut off by two hands who gripped around his neck and slammed him into the wall. "You little shit! I knew my beer tastes salty a few times but this! You dare poison me when I cared for you after her death!!!" Jobens father punched Joben in the stomach which made Joben slightly gag. As this happened something strange was happening to Jobens' shadow trickled down the back of the wall and went behind Jobens' father. It began wrapping around him and slowly began sucking the energy out of him until he got weaker and weaker eventually making his father drop Joben which made Joben grasp his neck. "What the hell is happening." Jobens's father's skin began becoming wrinkly as it slowly dissolved leaving nothing but his bones. Joben looked around before finding the house phone and dialing 911 which came to his house almost immediately. 'I still don't know what happened that day but I'm glad it happened because if it didn't then I wouldn't have met everyone I know now.' The police were taking Joben away in handcuffs, a few days later he was convicted of first and third-degree murder but was only sentenced to two years in prison. 'Life in prison wasn't fun, being the only child there led to some things that I don't I don't wanna think about right now. But things were even worse when I got out.' The now 14-year-old Joben walked out of prison with a box full of all two of his belongings and his clothes. Realizing he had nowhere to go Joben took to the streets to try to get some money so that he could provide for himself. After a few weeks, he was reduced to this. "Spare change? Spare change please does anyone here have spare change?" People walked by with disgusted looks on their faces except for one man who seemed familiar in fancy clothes. He looked down at the now horrible state of Joben and looked confused. "Joben? It's been so long since I've seen you." Joben looked at the man confused as to why he was saying this since Joben and didn't recognize him. "Don't you remember me it's Leo from all those years back!" Jobens face lit up as he jumped up and hugged Leo very tightly. "Leo I can't believe it's you!!! It's been so long I missed you." Leo chuckled before leading Joben to his car which then took them to his hideout. Joben looked around confused. "What is this place." Leo rubbed back his hair a smile on his face. "This is HQ and this is the rest of the gang, were called shadow casters buddy." The others looked at Joben with a welcoming smile. Joben looked around his eyes bright. 'Leo and the others trained me, brought me in gave me a living. I owe them my life so I can't die here!!!!' Jobens eyes lit up as he woke up in the real world his hair now turning red and his shadow now evolved. Raided turned his head confused as to how Joben was even able to move. "How are you able to move? You should be dead. I punched a hole right through you. No normal human should be able to do that, not even the average shadow caster can move after that injury, stop acting like a god there's only a few in the world that can play such a role but your just a child that was lucky enough to unlock your shadow! " Ren smiled at the sight of Joben up and about even though he was injured. "Joben I'm so glad you're alive!" Joben turned to Ren and smiled as he continued walked towards Raiden while looked at his hand as his wound was slowly healing. "I mean playing god can't be that hard I mean I used to be in the top 10 no 5 most intelligent children on the planet so I think this isn't that out of the ordinary. And you may think that all this time I've been playing god but really I've been playing human."

Jobens hair fully turned red as his eyes turned a bright yellow. Joben got into a running stance then dashed at Raiden aiming a punch for his face which was caught and Joben was thrown back but caught himself midair and landed safely. He looked around before creating wings made of shadow energy on his back and dodged one of Raiden's punches. Joben then landed a punch right in his stomach sending him backward. Raiden kicked up a large amount of debris and launched it at Joben which Joben took to the face while smiling. He dashed again as Raiden tried to launch a giant blast of shadow energy at Joben but Joben was already at Raidens location and grabbed his arm and absorbed the shadow energy. "I'll be taking this." Joben had a smirk on his face as Raiden looked at Joben in anger and confusion. Raiden tried to move but he couldn't which made him more confused. "W-what did you take?" Joben chuckled and closed his hand a bit. "Everything." Joben threw Raiden high in the air before jumping up and slamming him downwards through a few cars. He then dashed behind Raiden and punched a hole through his chest as he hit him in the air. "Here's the big one!" Joben fired out a giant blast of destructive shadow energy from his hand which slowly vaporized Raiden as he let out a giant scream of pain. Joben rubbed some blood off his lip as his hair turned back to its usual color. "That's what you get you piece of shiiiiiiiit " Joben began losing consciousness until he finally fell over but before he could hit the ground he was caught by a blood Ren who was holding the comatose Ito. Joben looked at Ren while smirking slightly. "You owe me for this one asshole." Ren chuckled as he began walking back to base with Joben and into his arms. "Yeah, I know '' At this point, Joben had completely lost consciousness as Ren kept walking to base. 'When you recover we can have that rematch you wanted the best buddy. You can bet on it.' Far on the other side of the world in the Shadow Troupes base, Arkin was leaning against a lance as he had just finished training. His eyes widened as he sensed a jump in Jobens' strength which made him laugh. "Things just got way more interesting, Zalvozeth may have more trouble than we thought. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!" He jumped away from the staff and walked out of the room. "I wonder if I should tell Zalvozeth about it or not because if I don't tell him he would get his ass beat. Now even though that would be hilarious it would also look bad on our part. Pride or comedy, pride or comedy such a hard decision. Nah it'd be funny if he got his assbeat." Arkin walked away chuckling to himself.