Reincarnated in a Shounen Manga - Chapter 1

Chapter 1 - Even My Clan’s Name Sounds Evil

...

The smell of herbs, antibiotics, and a metallic tang filled the small medical room with no windows.

There were only two people in the medical room, an old man, and a young teen lying on the bed.

Doctor Aki was a man of medicine. He stared at the sleeping youngster who had a black eye and a bandage around his head.

The boy was his most recent patient. Despite his looks, he wasn’t heavily injured. He was just another kid that picked up a fight with someone at the Entrance Ceremony.

‘Since it was the first day of school I didn’t think some Junior Exorcist would get injured.’ Doctor Aki sighed and leaned back on his blue recliner chair.

The youngster was dark-haired and could be considered semi-good looking. But what stood out most was his background.

He was from the ambitious Dark Sword Clan. An Exorcist Clan that wanted to get a place on the top four Great Clans. There were many shady things behind the scenes with that clan.

Though the Dark Sword Clan was also known for being arrogant, youngsters who came from it always had a rough temper—using the name of their clan to try and take advantage of others and the system.

‘Why does Exorcism have to be all about politics? Their job is just supposed to be to get rid of monsters.’ Aki scratched his bald head. He couldn't help but reminisce about the good old days when he had hair.

Well, he wasn't old yet. He was only eighty-five, in the prime of his youth. He could live a couple more decades with his medical and supernatural knowledge.

There was still time to have a wife and some kids.

Though that life would be cut short by the Dark Sword Clan, if one of their clan members died in his hands.

'Damn it, why do I have to get involved with that shady clan? I knew I should have followed my dreams and become a barista!'

While crying internally, Doctor Aki kept a calm outward appearance. It was still working hours, so he had to be professional.

But really, he was doing the work of ten men here. Couldn't those stuck-up upper brass send him some cute nurse? Who knows, there might even be a workplace romance in development.

Doctor Aki imagined himself with two kids, one in each arm. With his wife confessing her love in his ear.

Though knowing the headmaster, he would probably send an ugly male nurse. He could imagine the older man cackling like a madman at the distress he would cause his employee.

That headmaster bastard was so annoying!

"Ugh," the youngster opened his eyes. "Where am I?"

"Seventh Exorcist Academy, hospital room. You tried bullying some commoner, and got punched in the face and knocked out. Possibly got some brain damage too." Doctor Aki leaned back on his chair, getting a better look at the young man.

Just from how he hadn't woken up angry or annoyed, he didn't seem like the kind of guy who would pick on someone weaker than himself.

In his sixty or so years of working here, Doctor Aki has had the ‘pleasure’ of working with the Dark Sword Clan members, and they weren’t pleasant people.

'Did someone use an Exorcist Ability on him to entice his emotions?' Doctor Aki wondered. But he doubted any of the brats, even those from the clans, were at such a level that they could have developed an Exorcist Ability so young.

The teachers wouldn't do something like this, and none of the teachers in attendance as far as he knew had an ability like that.

Oh well, not like it was his problem.

Doctor Aki had more pressing matters, like getting the academy's headmaster to hire a cute assistant.

Doctor Aki looked aside as the brat absentmindedly clenched and unclenched his fist.

He continued doing that for a couple of dozen minutes.

Did the Dark Sword brat really have brain damage?

***

It was unreal. I couldn't believe it. The only reason it was too wild to think it was just a mad hallucination was due to another set of memories in my brain.

I felt, saw, and heard everything clearly and ran calculations in my mind. The latter of which couldn't be done if I was dreaming.

Knowledge that should have been forbidden poured into my mind like a hurricane.

I had tried to bully the main character and got punched so hard that it knocked out the soul of the previous occupant of this body.

The first feeling that hit me was excitement. (Not at getting hit.) Who wouldn’t want to learn some cool shounen magical powers? Some places and creatures only existed in mythology or fantasy books in my last life.

But reality was harsh, and I remembered there were monsters in this world who could easily blow up mountains.

The third thought that came to mind was how useless I was.

Anyone who has read a shounen manga would know that unless you were the main character or the rival, your chances of becoming anything more than a stepping stone were close to zero.

Background characters always died in droves!

It was scary!

This world is a manga world from my last life, where logic and probably the laws of physics aren’t the same.

No, no, I must think about the positive. Agonizing about how much in deep shit I was wouldn’t help anyone.

I had read the manga up to chapter four hundred.

Though I didn't know the ending of the series, even by then one thing was for sure; the world got messed up. Demons swarmed from that mysterious place. It was the so-called climax of the story.

Many characters died. Of course, they were side characters. A group that I’m a part of.

Back then, I didn't mind how the story would end too much. Since I trusted the Author to make this an entertaining read. He had created an amazing story until now.

Now that I was in it, my heart shook at the thought of a bad ending. There was nowhere to go or hide!

"Have classes started yet?" I asked, trying to remember the beginning of the Manga. It had been a while since I read it.

Keeping my mind occupied was better than the alternative.

I knew the general story. But small details like—what happened in the days between the entrance ceremony and classes isn't something most readers would remember, and neither did I.

"They start on Monday," the doctor stared at me with an unreadable face.

When the hell is Monday? What date is today?

As soon as I thought of that, a new memory popped into my head from the original owner of his body. Today was Saturday, and it was the entrance ceremony.

From how hungry I felt, it didn't seem like a whole day had passed.

My eyes wandered around the medical room, trying to take in every small detail.

The doctor looked old as hell, with wrinkles all over his face. So many of them that his eyes looked droopy. Could he see anything like that?

His name was Doctor Aki. How did I know the name of a side character who barely appeared in the manga? The nametag on his white doctor's mantle definitely helped.

He was a helpful old man in the manga. Who had an Exorcist Ability that helped with healing? It was never really stated directly. Maybe the characters healed freakishly fast because… Well, it’s a shonen.

He must be at the rank of Expert Exorcist to work here. Usually, Exorcists of that rank were quite powerful at the beginning of the story.

"Since you're alright. You can go to your dorm room," Doctor Aki waved me off, and went to write something down.

Nodding, I went out and tried to remember where my dorm was.

The original memories of Kon rushed to my head. They were somewhat spliced up but still usable.

It didn't matter who I was, the modern man, Kon, or a fusion of both. What mattered was to find the dorm room where I had to stay.

Kon, of the Dark Sword Clan. My clan wasn't in decline or a bad state, nor did it have some ancient history. So it was clear that I wasn't the main character or a major villain.

The Dark Sword Clan was an Exorcist Clan created around three hundred years ago. Which was quite young for an Exorcist Clan, but they had thrived and used their newer traditions to grow in power exponentially and were almost considered equal to one of the Four Great Clans.

Kon, that name was familiar. Well, actually it wasn't. But I remembered what happened to a guy like me in the Manga. He was the first bully of the Main Character, bullying him about his commoner background. He was bullying every other commoner too.

I was the punching bag to show that the main character was still strong, despite his background.

The Dark Sword Clan got eliminated later when they tried to challenge one of the four great clans. They tried kidnapping one of the great clans' heirs and got slaughtered.

Wait, now that I think about it. Whether it was the Dark Sword clan or me, weren't we just stepping stones to show how strong other people were?

I'm not going to be anyone's stepping stone!

I walked through the maze-like hallways of the academy. Its cold stones reminded me that this building was ancient. At least there was good lighting with the electric lamps. There weren't windows or much sunlight.

The whole place had this creepy vibe as if it was haunted. Knowing it was an Exorcist Academy, it probably was.

Though the thought of living under the roof of something probably haunted was nerve-wracking, there were so many other terrifying future dangers on my mind that getting haunted by a ghost didn’t seem like a big deal.

In about a week or two, Kon in the manga dies.