5 – Dealing with Trauma, Jonny Style

Almost dying was traumatic. Jonny had never felt so helpless. His would-be killer wasn’t even strong. It was just a regular-ass woman, and he couldn’t even begin to fight back. Of course, that wasn’t his fault, since he literally couldn’t control his body properly, but it still left a big impression on him. He never wanted to feel like that again.

I’ve gotta get strong again.

Even beyond just not feeling helpless again, it was something he needed to do. Jonny understood why he couldn’t stay with his parents anymore, but that didn’t mean he liked it. In just a few days, he had lost everything. Sure, being a baby kinda sucked, but he would grow out of it. In the meantime, he was the son of a duke, set to inherit a castle and learn magic. Then, it turned out he couldn’t actually use magic, which meant that he wouldn’t be able to inherit, and then someone sent an assassin after him, and now he wasn’t even the son of a duke anymore.

Screw magic, he thought. Who even needs it? I was the strongest without it once. I’ll be the strongest without it again. Then I can go back and get my damn castle.

He felt resolved, but sadly, his resolve meant little at the moment. Despite everything that had happened, he was still a one year old child with negative independence.

As the months flew by, and Jonny got used to his new living situation, he realized that he never knew how good he had it before. His baby skin was a lot more sensitive than expected, but he had never known because he was always wearing luxurious fabrics. Wooden furniture could have splinters in it sometimes at the orphanage, something he never had to worry about before, but that was a huge pain for his little baby fingers. And toys that he had to share with other kids were… gross.

The only good things was that he was a lot less supervised than before. Back at the ducal household, he had multiple maids with him at all times, watching his every move, but here, there were six other babies around, and only two nuns tending to them all. And since he was the best-behaved of them all, they paid him very little attention, since they constantly had to deal with the others. And that left him free to train.

Well, “train” was probably a bit of a strong word for it. In reality, he was just repeatedly standing up and getting back down to work his agility, grabbing things to improve his dexterity, and walking, running, and crawling until he was too tired to do any more to train his endurance. To the nuns, he was just an unusually active baby, but Jonny knew better.

They’re not gonna know what hit ‘em, he thought with a smug smile.

Months turned into years, and before he knew it, it was his fifth birthday. His new fifth birthday, which was the day the nuns found him, seven days after his actual birthday.

“Happy birthday, Jonny!”

The voices of dozens of children and nuns hit him all at once, and in the meantime, Jonny stared at the cake they had gotten him, practically drooling. Birthdays weren’t exactly uncommon in the orphanage, but they couldn’t really afford sweets for all the kids all the time, so only the birthday kids actually got to eat the cake. And since he couldn’t really get his own food, he was stuck on the lame, bland diet that the orphanage provided for its kids, and his birthday was the one day each year he could have a “cheat day” and eat something good.

“What do you wanna do this year?” asked one of the nuns. Lucy was her name.

“I’m gonna be the strongest five year old in the world!” Jonny announced, flexing his biceps.

This got a good laugh out of all the nuns, as it always did. Jonny knew they didn’t take his declarations seriously, but he wasn’t joking at all. He was serious. And he was pretty sure he was doing well at his goal. He was stronger than most of the six and seven year olds already, and he was pretty sure he could beat the eight year olds in a fight if it really came down to it. He had been doing pushups, situps, and even pull-ups using the dining room table as a bar every single day since he was physically able to do so.

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I doubt there are any other five year olds who can do seventy eight pull-ups in a row.

The nuns gave him a few more well-wishes as the other kids eyed his cake greedily, and then as soon as they gave the word, he devoured the entire thing. He had learned his lesson about taking his time last year when Tommy managed to sneak around behind and grab a chunk with his grubby hands.

Fuckin’ Tommy, thought Jonny, glaring at the other boy as he slowly slid around to the side. No wonder you’re getting fat.

Luckily, his experience of maintaining a high maintenance calorie lifestyle in his first life lent itself well to stuffing his face. He knew exactly how to eat quickly, making sure that no one else could touch his food, and by the time Tommy got into position, Jonny was licking his plate clean. He turned and gave Tommy a triumphantly smug look, and the other boy had the audacity to start sulking.