Spoiler Warning: If you haven't seen the anime Puella Magi Madoka Magica, then prepared to be spoiled.

I own neither Puella Magi Madoka Magica nor Black Clover. They belong to their respective owners. For entertainment purposes.


Yuno sat in his room with Asta for quite some time as the other seemed to sort out his thoughts. Asta, both out of a sense of embarrassment and not wanting to disturb the other, stayed silent and pretended to sleep. Since he was such a great actor, he ended up fooling himself. Under Yuno's gentle touches, he was lulled into a light sleep as he dreamed of another time and place. He only woke, stirring slightly, when Yuno had moved to pick him up gently bridal style again. Had he been more awake, he might have protested at being treated like a princess.

When Yuno was sure he wouldn't jostle Asta anymore than he probably had to, he left his room and crossed over to Asta's. Asta felt himself being lowered into his bed as Yuno pulled the covers over him. He brushed the hair from Asta's face one last time, his hand lingering a bit longer than necessary. Then he left nearly soundless except for the closing of two doors, leaving Asta to listen to the pouring rain outside.


Asta returned the umbrella to its holder as Sister Lily and Father Ofai welcomed him home from Noelle's funeral. They didn't question him, sensing that everyone else at the funeral had. He had denied knowing anything with tears in his eyes while he gazed at Noelle's still form one last time. The funeral had sunken everything in for him and made all his friends' deaths more tangible to him. For Charmy and Kahono, whose bodies were lost to the labyrinths they perished in, there was no funerals. In time, his memories could blur to the point it seemed they hadn't existed at all as they left no proof in their wake. But Noelle's changed that. There was a record of her death, and, in turn, that record proved the other two existed. Wanting to be alone, Asta headed to his room.

"Kahono and Noelle are dead," he whispered the cruel truth to himself as he flopped on his bed.

"That's not an unexpected outcome," A devilishly familiar voice spoke in monotone, "The signs were there for a while." Sitting up, Asta faced Nero who was perched at the end of his bed.

"So, you're saying you don't care, then?" Asta challenged, "Even though you're somewhat to blame for their deaths?" The bird sighed, expression unchanging.

"Then, for example," The bird retorted, "Do you feel responsible for the deaths of livestock?" As Asta lowered his guard in confusion, the bird continued, "Do you ever think about the process by which they become food for you?" Asta gasped as they made eye contact, with his own eyes turning red. Nero showed him images of pigs and chickens being butchered in the same indifferent fashion that incubators observed humanity. Asta shook his head in shock and broke eye contact as he tried to cover his face from seeing the twisted images. The bird sighed once more and told him, "That's not a rational reaction." If the incubator could express disappointment, Asta thought it would. "If you think those scenes are cruel," Nero told him, "Then you're missing the big picture completely."

Nero forced Asta to meet its eyes contact once more, transferring an image of cows. The incubator's sight made the vision appear like pictures from a story book. "Livestock are fed and provided for all their lives," Nero said, "And given equal chance to reproduce free from natural selection." Adding to that as the images changed, Nero continued, "Cows, chickens, and pigs have an overwhelmingly higher rate of survival in captivity than in the wild." Without pause, the incubator asked, "Isn't that a rather ideal, mutually beneficial relationship for you both?" Breaking contact, the scene faded like mist. Asta was too stunned to move.

"Are you saying it's the same between you and us?"

"On the contrary, our treatment of humankind is more respectful than your treatment of livestock," The bird chirped before admitting, "Perhaps it isn't perfect, but we do acknowledge your species as sentient and try to deal fairly with you." Upon seeing no reaction, the creature asked, "You can't believe that?" Upon receiving no answer still, it continued, "Then shall I show it to you? The history spent together by mankind and Incubators?"

New images spanning beyond comprehension, like watching the universe unravel, ran through his mind like a raging river. He could see all the eras of history span before him starting at the very beginning, the caveman era. "We have intervened in civilization's development since prehistoric times," Nero's voice echoed in his mind, "Countless children throughout time have made contracts with Incubators, had their wishes granted, and then ultimately succumbed to despair." An image of the great pyramids and of a child making a contract. That child becoming a ruler. That child dying by their own hand. Asta gasped, but Nero's "lesson" continued.

"Beginning with a hope and ending with a curse, that is the cycle that countless Magical Knights have repeated to this day."

Contract. Wish. Death.

"There are some who have wrought revolutions that changed history, or elevated human society to new stages of development."

Rinse. Dry. Repeat.

Asta couldn't take it. Watching countless people make wishes, only to be betrayed and die in the end. The static in his mind was screaming. He curled into a ball, trying to hide from all the painful images.

"Stop it!" he exclaimed, "They all trusted you, and you betrayed them!"

"It wasn't we who betrayed them, but their own wishes that did. After all, anything that doesn't match reality is bound to create a distortion. So why is it surprising that these things always end in disaster?"

Something in him was snapping. Pushing past the static.

"If they considered such a natural outcome to be a 'betrayal,' they were wrong to have made wishes at all."

Asta lowered his hands. He couldn't tell what it was, but the rain echoed loudly in his ears.

"I don't think of them as foolish though. After all, it was thanks to their sacrifices that human society has developed as far as it has."

His breath was leaving his body too fast. Was his heart still beating?

"All the tears shed throughout history have laid the foundations of the life you have now."

A tear of his own slipped past his eye as Asta looked at his hand. Why did he feel a phantom sensation of warmth, like someone was holding his hand?

"If you understand now, why do you still hold the fates of a few individuals to be so precious?"

Asta opened his mouth and asked Nero, "After all the time you spent watching over those children, do you really feel nothing for them at all?" He could see Charmy, Kahono, Noelle, and Yuno over and over in his mind. But the pieces didn't align quite right. They never seemed to. "Did you never try and understand how much they were suffering?" he wondered.

"If we had the capacity to comprehend such things, we wouldn't have had to come to your planet in the first place," Nero explained, "In our society, the phenomenon known as 'emotion' is only considered a mental disease."

A boy building up his mental walls piece by piece, having listened to the incubator countless times.

Adding to its previous thought, Nero continued, "That's why, when we discovered humankind, we were quite surprised. We never imagined a world could exist in which every individual had its own set of emotions and still somehow managed to coexist with each other." If Asta didn't know better, he'd say Nero sounded impressed.

"So, if you never had come to Earth…"

"Most likely, you would all still be living naked in caves."

"I see…"

Perhaps it was done saying its piece or it had sensed the shift in Asta's mood, but Nero faded from his presence. The static hadn't died down, but Asta could now see a single form in the haze that reoccurred over and over. Shifting, he slid off his bed and to his door. He needed to see Yuno.


Asta knocked on the door directly ahead of his for the first time, though it didn't feel like it. Yuno opened it, eyes widening as he recognized Asta's form. He made a "come in" gesture and retreated back. Asta walked inside and closed the door. The room appeared as it had the last time he had been here, right after Kahono's and Noelle's deaths. Yuno stood ahead, parallel to Asta's spot, the center ring of cushions and table separating them. Yuno wasn't facing him though and seemed determined to face the candles away from the wall displaying information on a particular creature. The static in Asta's head hummed.

"Is that Walpurgisnacht?" he asked distracted, looking at a hauntingly familiar form in pictures cycling through the wall he had seen in his dreams several times now. "Kahono told me about it and about you two teaming up," he added while leaving out that he shouldn't be as familiar with it as he felt. "A demon so strong that no person could beat it alone," he murmured, the words feeling like they had been on his tongue thousands of times. Trying to break through the haze he felt, he turned his gaze to Yuno. "So, you've been preparing for that all this time?" he asked, remembering countless days where Yuno's room stayed lit even in the dead of night. Yuno looked over his shoulder at him, and Asta wanted to wince at the expression Yuno gave him. Pressing on, he questioned, "Will the city be in danger?" Another phrase that left his mouth so easily. He couldn't help but flashback to Charmy and Noelle, each beaming respectively with pride as they talked about protecting the people of this city.

"Unlike other demons you've seen," Yuno said, finally speaking, "This one is powerful enough that it doesn't need to hide in a labyrinth." Continuing on without a hint of change in composure, he added, "If it manifests even once, thousands will die." Like they were discussing the weather, Yuno said, "Since ordinary humans can't see it, they'll think the destruction was caused by an earthquake, tornado, or some other disaster."

"Then it absolutely has to be defeated, right?"

Yuno turned to face him fully on his words, closing his eyes in what seemed like either contemplation or pain.

"Now that Kahono's…dead too, you're the only Magical Knight left that can fight it."

Hadn't he said those words to himself once, a long time ago?

"I can do it on my own," Yuno cut in, his tone leaving no room for arguments, "While Kahono Sakura, Noelle Silva, or Charmy Pappitson couldn't have defeated Walpurgisnacht on their own, I can." He shifted away from Asta again and said, like an afterthought, "I actually never needed her help." Pausing slightly, he added, "I just agreed so she wouldn't lose face."

"Honestly…?" Asta pressed skeptically, but Yuno wouldn't answer him. Asta took a couple steps forward. The static buzzing louder in his ears. "I don't know why I really want to believe you, Yuno," Asta admitted, "That I don't want to think you're lying." He covered part of his face with his hand, static making his vision blur. "And yet," he whispered as the words tumbled out, "I just can't believe you're really going to be all right." Shaking his head slowly, trying to make the buzzing stop, he repeated, "I can't believe you when you say it's true." Yuno twitched like Asta had punched him.

"How can I tell you what I'm really feeling?"

"Yuno…?"

"After all…I'm…"

Yuno was shaking slightly as he tried to finish his sentence. "I'm not," he whispered before apparently deciding to bite the bullet. He turned back to Asta and cried out, "I'm not even living in the same time as you!" Those words must have broken the dam in Yuno completely because next thing Asta knows, the other had tackled him into a hug. They landed, sprawled out, on the floor with Yuno keeping him pinned to the ground. He hid his face in Asta's shoulder and squeezed him like he did at the park all that while ago, like Asta was the one thing keeping him together. Asta's eyes widened as the static barrier broke inside his head. A memory that wasn't his played in his mind, and all the puzzle pieces in his head connected together.


They lay there, two broken bodies on the ground, in the shallow bay water. Their arms intersected closely between them as their hands that held their blackened soul gems lay side by side. Rain was pouring all around them, soaking them further, but Asta couldn't feel it anymore. It wouldn't be long before he turned into a Demon like Noelle. But he wouldn't let the same happen to Yuno.

"I guess," Asta whispered slowly, trying to get the words out as he turned his head to look at the other, "This is the end for us too." This was end of his and Yuno's time together. At least, this version of him if his plan worked. His face slipped into a fond expression. Either way, he was going to miss him.

Yuno looked back at him and gave him an exhausted smile, amber eyes warm as they met his. Even with his glasses cracked from the battle and a body littered with wounds, he was still as tragically beautiful and handsome as he'd always been to Asta. Yuno took a painful breath before forcing out, "You don't have any more chaos jewels…?"

Asta couldn't look Yuno in the face as he lied so he shifted his head upwards at the stormy sky. He couldn't find it in his voice to lie either, so he slowly shook his head "no." Part of him felt guilty, but Asta knew that Yuno wouldn't have accepted the chaos jewel if he had known Asta had a chance to use it instead. That's just how selfless Yuno could be.

"I see," Yuno breathed out as he smiled and turned his own head to look up at the sky. He closed his eyes, and Asta turned back towards Yuno. Making sure Yuno wasn't watching him, Asta used the last bit of his magic to summon Noelle's chaos jewel in his other hand. Even though Yuno and Noelle had their differences in the past, he hoped she wouldn't be mad at him in the afterlife for saving Yuno.

"Listen," Yuno whispered, "How about the two of us become monsters?" He took a shaky breath and continued, "And really mess up this whole, awful world, huh?" As Asta rolled on his entire side towards Yuno, it pained his heart to hear the other say that. True, the world was awful at times, but there were good things about it too. He was looking at one.

"Until there's no more evil, no more sadness," Yuno murmured, "Nothing left at all." A tear slipped down his face. "Let's just break, break, break it all to dust…!" He exclaimed. Taking another breath as an additional tear once more fell down his cheek, he asked with a wavering voice, "Don't you think…that would be great?" His expression betraying his words. He didn't want to die and become a Demon either.

Asta brought the chaos jewel to Yuno's soul gem with a light clink, cradling them together between Yuno' s and his palms. He heard the other gasp, no doubt feeling the cleansing effects, and turned wide-eyed to Asta. Asta closed his eyes with gentle laugh, not wanting to show the pain in his soul gem was beginning to create in his eyes. So instead he smiled and said softly, "Looks like I still had one left, after all." Not wanting Yuno to feel guiltier than he probably was, Asta excluded to mention it was Noelle's.

"No! Why would you…?" Yuno questioned, failing to understand, "On me?!" He rolled his body toward Asta. He cupped Asta's hand with his free one, cradling it between both of his own. His expression was split between desperately trying to comprehend what was happening and concern for Asta.

"Because I want to ask you to do something that only you can do," Asta finally answered. "Yuno," he confirmed, "You can go back in time, right?" The other had once explained it to him that as long as his grimoire had pages to flip, he could stop time. But once all the pages were gone, Yuno wouldn't be to able freeze time anymore in exchange for one special ability. "You can change history, so that it won't end up like this, right?" Asta added, vainly trying to keep his voice from breaking. Recounting the 'pages,' he would go back in time to the beginning of his 'book' and restart time anew. And Asta knew Yuno had used up all his pages in their last battle together.

"Yeah…" came back Yuno's broken reply.

"Then would you," Asta asked as the pain receded back enough for him to open his eyes without showing Yuno the true agony he was feeling, "Go back and save the stupid me before I get tricked by Nero?" He didn't want his time with everyone, with Yuno, to end. But the only way he could see having a future with them was if he never became a Magical Knight in the first place. A few tears escaped his eyes, despite his best to hold them in.

Yuno gripped his hand tighter. "I swear it!" Yuno vowed as he himself began to cry again, "I promise I'll save you!" Raising his voice as if to show Asta his determination, he added, "No matter how many times I have to go back and try!" Focusing on Asta, he finished with, "I swear, I'll protect you!"

Didn't Yuno know he already did that? Asta couldn't count the number of times Yuno had saved him. He wondered if he had expressed gratitude to the other enough for it. It didn't feel like it so Asta whispered, "Thank you." He didn't know if Yuno caught his full meaning, but he hoped he would. Asta's soul gem flared as Asta felt it crack.

Remembering Yuno's story of Asta becoming a Demon, back when he was telling them that Nero had tricked them all, Asta tried to damper his cries of pain. He didn't want to become a Demon, and he didn't want Yuno to see him become a monster again either. There was only one way to fix that, one selfish way.

"Can I ask you," He gasped out, "For one more thing…?" Yuno's eyes widen before he began to cry more. It seems he knew what Asta was about to ask, but Asta had to confirm it. "I don't want," He whispered, "To become a Demon." Yuno had recovered enough to sit up at this point and was now hovering over him, gazing down at him with such sorrow. Asta wished he could have wiped those tears away. But more than that…

"There are awful, sad things in this world," Asta told him, making sure to maintain eye contact even as his words came out slower and slower, "But there are…lots of things…worth protecting too." He wanted to tell Yuno that he was one of those things, that he didn't want Yuno to give up on the world. But he didn't have the energy to anymore.

"Asta!" Yuno sobbed above him. This was the first time Yuno had called him by his first name. A small part of him felt lighter in an ironic sort of way. He had always wanted to hear him say it. Wanting to convey that to Yuno, he summoned the last bits of his strength.

"Yuno," he rasped out, "You…finally called me…by my first name…" His time was ending, he knew this. A couple more tears fell from his eyes. But he could go peacefully with the knowledge he had died by Yuno's side, even if he didn't want to leave him like this. Slowly, he raised his hand with his soul gem in it. "I'm so…happy," he whispered and felt Yuno's magic as the other transformed into his Magical Knight form.

He begged fate as Yuno grabbed his gun.

Please, let us meet again and be together once more.

Yuno pointed it at his soul gem.

Please, let us find our happy ending.

With an anguished scream, Yuno pulled the triggered, and Asta had one last thought before he thought no more.

Please, don't let Yuno lose hope.


"You see," Yuno whispered against him slowly, "I'm from the future." Asta could feel tears from the other beginning to soak his shirt. "I've met you over and over," he admitted as his voice wavered slightly, "And each and every time, I've had to watch you die."

Tightening his hold on Asta like the boy in his arms would disappear the moment he let go, Yuno wondered out loud, "What do I have to do to save you?" Trembling slightly, he continued, "What do I have to do to change your fate?" Asta laid motionless, processing everything Yuno was saying and the memories filling his head. "Searching just for that answer," Yuno told him, "I've kept redoing these past few months over and over."

Asta wrapped his arms around Yuno at those words, returning his hug gently. "I'm sorry," Yuno whispered, "I'm not making any sense, right?" Asta began to rub gentle circles into his back, trying to soothe the other. "I must seem horribly creepy, right?" Yuno laughed hollowly, the sound muffled by Asta's shirt, "After all, I'm just some transfer student you barely know." Asta missed the light laugh he had heard from Yuno in his distant dreams. It hurt to know he was the reason for that change so Asta tilted his head against Yuno's, trying to make up for a little by giving him some silent support. The words "That's not true" stayed at the tip of his tongue, never leaving. "But to me," Yuno murmured, "To me, you are…" Yuno didn't finish that thought. Behind him, the walls began to reflect the memories Asta saw in his head.

"The more times I redo all of this," Yuno admitted as if it pained him to do so, "The further in time we drift from one another." Burying his face deeper into Asta's shoulder, Yuno pressed on, "Our feelings drift further and further apart, and even my words no longer reach you anymore." Pausing to take a shuddering breath, Yuno whispered, "The truth is, I think I've been lost for a very long time now."

"Yuno…"

"I will save you," Yuno said, repeating the vow from long ago, "That was the feeling that I started with all of this, and now it's the only thing I have left to guide me." Untangling himself from Asta, Yuno looked down at him with tears prickling at the corner of his eyes. He gave him a tired smile that didn't do his true exhaustion justice. "It's okay if you don't understand," he said, "But please…please just let me protect you."

Yuno wiped his eyes on his arm as he moved to let Asta get up, chuckling to himself. "And I said, 'I won't cry anymore,'" Yuno murmured to himself, "I can't even keep that promise." As Asta sat up, Yuno repeated, "Please, let me keep one. Let me protect you." He gave Asta a sad smile and finished with, "After all, not giving up is the magic you showed me."

It was those words that made the truth die on Asta's tongue. Swallowing it like a bitter pill, Asta slowly nodded that seemed to give Yuno some relief. It just added to the guilt festering in Asta's gut. How could he tell Yuno, whose suffering he caused, about what he was planning to do? About going to break the vow between them, a vow he shouldn't remember, himself? Looking at the boy in front of him, broken from chasing an end that might not exist in time loop after time loop, Asta knew the truth would have truly shattered him.