Chapter 9: After Affects

A few days had passed since Sister Lily's funeral and life was continuing on for the Clover Kingdom. The Black Bulls had resumed their daily tasks and missions.

Most of the members were completing missions and continued to gain gold stars on the board. It seemed like a lot of them had some newly found determination that they were now using in their every-day life.

In a barren part of the Forsaken Realm, a new dungeon had appeared, and two Black Bulls had been sent to explore it. It was an area being ravaged by sandstorms and populated by never-before-seen creatures. It was a wasteland that no one had set foot in before.

"Let's explore this dungeon and gain the gold stars!" Magna shouted at Luck with his normal rowdy demeanour.

"Haha, okay Magna! After this let me fight you!" Luck squealed in his usual excitement.

The two Magic Knights treaded on with one shared thought in their mind.

"Let's bring in these gold stars for Asta".

Towards the edge of the Common Realm, yet another dungeon was spotted. This time there were three Magic Knights from the Black Bulls sent to explore. The area was surrounded in foreign species of plant-life. There were deadly looking plants that looked like Venus Fly Traps. There were also weird eagle-like birds flying in the air, animals that had never been seen before.

"I hate this, but I guess I'll show that stupid shrimp how to be a Magic Knight" Zora whined. "After all, he reminds me of my father, I'll get him out of his rut by getting gold stars" he then thought to himself.

"Let's get this over with" Gauche said impatiently and was there along with Grey and Gordon.

"I will do this to make my best friend, Asta, happy again" Gordon clenched his fist and whispered to himself.

"A-A-A-Asta… I'll h-h-h-help you as you-r-r senior!" Grey squealed in her usual way, but with a sense of determination.

The four teammates headed on into the depths of the jungle to explore the dungeon.

In the Black Bulls base, Finral and Vanessa are speaking with each other whilst Noelle sat on the couch near Captain Yami, and Charmy is preparing meals for everyone. Nero was perched on a windowsill, taking a nap.

"Okay that's that. I've sent the others to their dungeon-exploring missions, phew" Finral exhaled in a tired manner.

"Good, I hope they get back safely. After all, these missions have another motive to them" Vanessa responded back.

Finral stood up and spoke in a serious tone "Yeah… for Asta. He hasn't been the same for a few days since the funeral. He hardly speaks and then goes on missions on his own…" he sighed.

The witch then spoke up "everyone thought that if we could get more gold stars, Asta would see it as some sort of determination and become motivated again…" she sighed too "but it hasn't worked yet…"

All of a sudden, the front doors of the HQ opened and there was the ashen-haired boy walking through. With his Demon-Slayer sword on his shoulder and sweat dripping from his face, he had returned from his daily training, in the woods outside the base.

Noelle was the first to look over at him "B-bakasta! Stop training without me, hmph" she crossed her arms, closed her eyes in annoyance, yet still peeked at him slyly. She was trying to act in her normal way but was still worried about him.

"Sorry… Noelle" Asta responded in a plain voice.

The Silva looked defeated, she didn't know what to do or say anymore. This was the fourth day he basically ignored her.

The others all greeted Asta, but he replied to them in a similar, cold fashion. His eyes looked at his teammates, but it was as if nothing was behind them. The light had faded away.

Everyone then immediately turned around to the thundering footsteps heard from the stairs. It was Captain Yami walking down. It seemed like he was making the noise on purpose to draw attention to himself.

"Asta, Noelle! Get over here" Yami yelled.

The two Magic Knights went up to their captain and greeted him.

"You two, I have a mission for you. You are to defeat the Wild Boars that are just outside the Royal Capital, they made their way in somehow. Get to it" he then drew smoke from his cigarette and puffed.

"Okayyyy…" Noelle was disappointed, she hated this sort of mission. She already did it before at Saussy Village and was bored.

Asta then spoke up, responding to his captain "Captain Yami…"

Everyone stared at him, a cold air filled the base.

"What is it, kid?" he looked at him, taking a break from reading his newspaper.

"Can I do this on my own?" he said, which shocked everyone and upset Noelle.

Yami then put his newspaper down "you do what you're told to do" he looked menacingly towards the Anti-Magic boy, and then sat back down.

"Why doesn't he want to be with his teammates? With me? We're… I'm here for him. Yet…" Noelle thought, with a sad expression.

Asta then, without looking at anyone headed for the door. "Okay, Captain. Let's go Noelle" he said with a defeated tone and left the base.

Noelle snapped back from her thoughts and chased after her teammate "b-bye everyone!"

The rest of the Black Bulls looked at each other, "Asta, that was no way to treat Noelle" Finral spoke out loud.

"He needs to sort himself out" Yami looked towards the doors annoyingly. "I understand his feelings, but this is no way to go about it…" the captain thought with a flurried brow.

The Anti-Magic boy and the Water Magic user reached their destination just outside the Royal Capital where the Wild Boars were sighted. Their journey there was relatively silent. Asta hardly maintained a conversation with Noelle, only speaking in brief sentences.

"Noelle…" Asta finally spoke up, and this surprised Noelle and made her smile slightly. She wondered if he would tell her what was going on or what was wrong.

"Noelle… the boars are here". He stated. And pointed in the direction.

That's all he said to her. "The whole journey here, and the first conversation he starts with me is about the mission…" the Silva was beginning to get annoyed and then crossed her arms. When suddenly…

"Noelle, look out!" Asta immediately rushed in and slapped the oncoming boar away with his Demon-Dweller sword. The animal had managed to sneak up to Noelle and was about to bite her legs. If it wasn't for Asta, she would've been injured.

"What are you doing, Noelle?!" he shouted. There was concern in his voice, she felt this was the first time in so many days that she finally heard his real voice. She was stunned by his actions. Asta looked distraught, he was breathing heavily.

Sudden images flashed in Asta's head. They were horrid. They made him shudder and he stumbled a few steps backwards. His hands shaking as he struggled to grip his sword.

"Huh…?" was all the royal could manage to say before a few more boars attacked.

There must have been around 20 or 30 Wild Boars charging at the pair of Magic Knights, from all directions. They had all been alerted to their direction because of Asta's shouting.

The two were beginning to be overwhelmed when Asta regained his composure and began to draw his Anti-Magic out from his sword.

"Water Creation Magic: Sea Dragon's Roar!" Noelle casted one of her most powerful spells and managed to wipe out around 10 of them. They were about to get them as well. "Water Creation Magic: Sea Dragon's Lair!" She pointed her defence spell to where Asta was so that he could finish transforming without getting interrupted.

Within 10 seconds, Noelle's Sea Dragon's Lair was vaporised by the emittance of Asta's Anti-Magic. He had finished transforming and the shockwave it let out had completely nullified Noelle's defence spell on him. Asta was in his Black Form.

Asta then began to point his sword at the pack of boars "Anti-Magic: Devil's Erase!" from the tip of his Demon-Dweller sword, a black sphere started to form and grew in size after a few seconds. Asta then fired it off into the boar pack and wiped out 15 of the animals just like that.

"H-how does he keep getting stronger? I mean these are just boars, but with him like this, it's no problem" Noelle thought in her head, amazed by her allies power.

"Noelle!" Asta said to her teammate and got her attention.

"Y-yes Asta?" she replied.

"Fire a spell towards my sword, trust me". Asta told her, impatiently. He wanted this to be over and done with.

Noelle was initially confused by this, but then realised what he was aiming to do.

"Very well, it's not my fault if you get hurt!" She then readied herself with an attack spell. "Water Creation Magic: Sea Dragon's Waterball!" Noelle formed a huge ball of raging water from her wand and proceeded to fire it at Asta's direction.

He raised his Demon-Dweller sword and faced the tip of it in the direction where Noelle's attack was coming from. As they made contact, instead of the magic being nullified or erased, the sword began to absorb it until it started glowing a bright blue,

"Yes! This is the same as back then." Noelle remembered how Asta drew out her powers in the battle against Mars in the dungeon when he was protecting Noelle and the others.

"Take this!" the sword had absorbed all of Noelle's attack spell. Asta then swiped the sword in a horizontal motion and the absorbed Water Magic then left the sword at a high speed and wiped out the rest of the boars, immediately.

The entire pack of boars were wiped out by both Asta and Noelle. Noelle started to jump for joy and began to speak with Asta to congratulate him, but then…

"Asta! Asta! We did it, look…" Noelle turned to face Asta. "A-Asta, what's wrong?" she stopped walking towards him.

Asta looked at her, he was crying.

"No-Noelle… You almost got hurt, if I… if I didn't help, you…" he started to cry a lot, much to Noelle's confusion she had no idea why he was crying.

"A-Asta, even if I did get hurt, it was just a Wild Boar that would've gotten me!" she tried to reassure him, but it didn't work.

"No, no, no!" he clutched his head as if he was in pain, something was clearly wrong. He was distraught.

Noelle ran up to Asta and gave him a hug to make him know that she's there for him. "Asta… I'm fine. Nothing will happen" she tried her best to comfort him.

"I-I-I don't want to lose anyone else…" Asta mumbled.

This got Noelle's attention.

"I've lost Sister Lily, I don't … want to l-lose you" he sobbed.

Noelle now realised what was happening. The way Asta was acting here, it reminded her of herself.

"Asta, I'm fine. I'm a lot stronger than you're giving me credit for! Hmph" Asta looked up at her. "Asta, I'm – We are a lot stronger than you think. Us Black Bulls are a team and we have the strength to look after ourselves and each other. Stop underestimating us!" she said with a stern, yet caring voice.

"Pl-please don't leave me… I don't want to have to go through that… ever again" Asta was beginning to calm down. Noelle now knew exactly what he meant, and why he was acting this way for the past few days.

"Don't worry, Bakasta. No one is going anywhere" the royal said in a soft voice, as she loosened her embrace on him.

Asta's eyes widened, as the light started returning to them. Noelle's words meant so much to Asta. He admitted to himself that he greatly underestimated his teammates and was pushing them away. Noelle was the one who made him see that and he was grateful to have her by his side. The familiar, warm feeling he had when he looked at Noelle had returned. He felt his heart jump.

"Th-thank you, Noelle" he tried to smile and all he could pull off was a weak one.

The two started to stand up and make their way back to the Black Bulls HQ. They had finished their mission and the Wild Boars were stopped from terrorising the area. They slowly made their way back. The journey was yet again silent, but it was different. It was calmer and Asta was calmer too. However, there was something on Noelle's mind the whole time.

They managed to get back to HQ just as night fell. The two opened the doors and saw that everyone had returned from their missions. Zora was laying down on a couch and Gauche, Gordon and Grey were sat at a table speaking with each other. Magna and Luck were back, but the Flame Magic user's body was crackling with electricity. You could tell Luck used his magic to do the 'Crackling Magna Typhoon' the two were chasing each other around the base.

The two young Magic Knights walked forward and much to everyone's surprise Asta was the first to greet everyone. It was different to how he had been these past few days and his teammates were happy he spoke to them.

"Hi everyone. Noelle and I finished our mission too, but I'm tired so I'm going to bed a bit early" he smiled weakly and waved at everyone as he walked up the stairs.

"Well, the shrimp is back talking again, ay?" Zora started. "Oi Royal, did you kiss him or something" he sneered.

This made everyone laugh, including Captain Yami. Although, it made Noelle blush like hell. Her face was all red and it seemed like steam was coming from it due to how embarrassed she was.

"N-no! W-why would I k-k-kiss someone like h-him? Hmph" she tried to compose herself and flicked her ponytail. "K-kiss him?" She trailed off in thought wondering about the possibility before regaining herself.

As everyone calmed down and began to resume what they were doing. Noelle walked up to the middle of the room and grabbed everyone's attention.

"Everyone, I have something to tell you and it's quite important. It's about Asta" she said seriously.

The Silva then told everyone about what had happened with the Wild Boars, with him being distraught and crying. She told them what he had said to her and what she thinks is the reason for this.

"I-I think he's scared to be with us on missions. If something happens to us and he's with us, he feels like he won't be able to forgive himself" Noelle spoke. "He remembers Sister Lily and a part of me thinks he blames her death on himself…" she trailed off in her thoughts, worried about her teammate.

Everyone was concerned for Asta's well-being, but they all agreed that they should give Asta some space for now, considering what he's going through.

A ball of smoke blew through the air "Noelle. It seems like you're the only one who he's talked to about this, be there for him… or I'll kill you" he said in his usual, serious tone.

"O-o-okay, Captain" she was startled by his orders to her but accepted them hoping she could make a difference to her teammate.

Upstairs, Asta was sleeping in his room tossing and turning in his sleep. He was sweating and he looked very uncomfortable. Asta was dreaming, or rather having some sort of nightmare.

Asta then heard that same, distorted voice that he's come to recognise. This time though, the voice had come to talk with the boy…

Notes:

Hello, guys. I felt like if the Sister Lily death did happen in the actual manga/anime, Asta would've reacted in a similar way to how I described, or he would've just lost control. Lol.

I wanted to kind of show the emotional side of Asta, as we don't see it too much in the manga/anime, as far as I can remember?

Next chapter, I hope, is going to be a good one. Asta and his devil will finally talk with each other and perhaps come to an agreement…