OoOoOoOo

Part IV

Explosions crackled in the air above her. Mary Sue resisted from raising her hands to cover the assault on her ears. Her head whipped around in a frenzy, scouring the area for any other magic knights. She was useless, just as Dreggo had proclaimed. It seemed her Mary Sue nature was limited in its influence. It abandoned her when luck was most needed by others.

She had never asked for this power. She had never wished to be reborn after she had died. She had no such desires in her previous life as Clara Wood.

Clara was an ordinary woman. Not blessed by luck, good looks, wealth, intelligence, or any superior characteristics. She was average.

But maybe that is why she had enjoyed watching the anime Black Clover. About a boy with no magic with the goal to become the Wizard King in a world where magic was everything.

Clara too had her own goal. To live a happy life. She overcame adversity with hard work. She lived by the motto, "hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard." How else could she have graduated top of the class in high school and college? She had lived and breathed to do well, to succeed. In order to obtain the happy life she had desired for herself.

It did not matter that she was an orphan. She made friends that became her family. She worked hard. She lived well. She worked hard. She was happy.

And because of that happiness obtained upon college graduation and her dreams to open up a coffee shop in Seattle with her friends…

She always feared that is why her life had ended. Her life achievement was realized too soon. The pinnacle of what she wanted was the final box to tick to mean there was nothing more there for her.

Her friends…

Her happiness…

Her hard work…

Well, it was all for fucking nothing.

The morning she woke up to being five-year-old Mary Susan Eytch, smoke was billowing from a small building far off in her line of sight. The gray smoke enveloped the sky ahead and Clara Woods blinked rapidly to comprehend what she was observing. She raised her hands to her eyes, giving them a vigorous rub. As she brought her hands back down, she stopped midway. Why were her hands so small and delicate looking? They also looked a touch too pale. And were those freckles dusting her wrist?

Her gaze at her wrist once in bewilderment became unfocused. Pressure began to build in her chest from forgetting to breathe. Where was Whitney? Thomas? Izzy?

Clara shot up from the ground. "Whitney? Whit? Thomas?" She shouted. Her feet shuffled forward, unsure of her unfamiliar surroundings. "Izzy?" She pleaded.

She stepped over and around children who looked worse for the wear. Covered in soot and tattered clothes, sprawled along the grass of where she had woken up. A forest had been behind them, but she was heading the opposite way. To the burning building.

"Where are you guys?" she asked before releasing a strangled sob. "What is happening?" She kept moving forward despite the pain pricking the bottom of her bare feet.

She kept repeating what she last remembered.

Graduation party. Picked up Whitney, Izzy and Thomas. I was driving. Graduation party. Picked up Whitney, Izzy and Thomas. I was driving. Graduation party. Picked up Whitney, Izzy and Thomas. I was driving.

On what had to be the 100th time repeating these events, Clara was intercepted.

"Mary? Mary?! What are you doing out here? Why are you not with the other children?"

It wasn't until Clara felt a pair of strong arms wrap around her that she snapped out of her daze. The familiar feeling snapped a memory back to life.

Clara revisited the moment when a driver ran a red light and wrapped the car she was driving around a light pole. The accident was quick. She barely felt any of it. She just recalled Whitney's horror-stricken face before her mind went blank.

Clara let out a grief-choked wail. Her body soon went limp against her savior's chest as she was returned to the rest of the children that were rescued from that burning building.

After that day, Clara chose to lock away her memories that were tainted with grief and pain from the life she missed out on.

It hardly took much time at all to connect the world she found herself to be either Black Clover or a knockoff version of it. She vowed to just skate by in life and forget that hard work made up the core of who she was. Well, that was until she discovered her unnatural good luck which in her world could have been likened to a Mary Sue character. The worst of the worst.

"Mary Sue!?"

She gave a quick shake of the head, pulling herself back into reality versus reflecting on her past. She locked eyes with Kent, his concern was obvious and provoked her shame.

"I'm fine, Kent," she grunted, putting up a brave front. She waved him off. She had to do something. Anything. Her miss your target spell was a joke but nevertheless she should start casting it on more opponents. She stood up from where she had been cowering behind a boulder. Like a coward.

Despite her protest, Kent landed on the ground with his broom next to her. The edges of his grey cloak where singed and he was missing a good chunk of his brownshirt. Unlike Mary Sue who had a pristine appearance as if she was a citizen they were protecting and not an actual magic knight.

"Trust me, you can handle this," he encouraged her. And of all the times for dead memories to be stirred up, she saw Thomas in his face. Of all people, Thomas. Then Whitney and Izzy popped into her brain. All their bright and beautiful faces that could haunt her in this life – if she let them.

"But I am the reason you might be dead," she confessed, imagining it was Thomas in front of her. She didn't avert her eyes even as her guilt manifested, once long ago buried and forgotten. "Why am I here though? Where did you guys end up?"

Her thoughts were filled with self-loathing. She could tell by his expression that Thomas could see how beneath it all she was haunted.

Kent grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her with rough force. "Mary Sue, snap out of it!" he ordered her, panic more then fury in his voice. "We are in the middle of-"

Mary Sue hit the ground with a large thud, Kent had pushed her away. When she caught sight of the steel rod penetrating his stomach, Mary Sue was no longer a prisoner to her past.

Without thinking, Mary Sue moved to protect Kent who fell to his knees.

"Luck magic: miss your target," she whispered, a tautness to her voice. She needed to defend them first, that much she knew from her training. "Luck magic: fortune favors healing," she casted, pointing her fingers behind her to Kent while her eyes remained focused on the enemy. There were two approaching, both men.

Was Kent her friend? She asked herself as the enemy approached, taking slow and deliberate steps for the build-up. They mocked her spells, recalling that when their comrades used close range physical attacks, her spell wasn't as efficient.

Will I doom another friend from my incompetence? I didn't intend to make friends here. Real friends. Is Kent my friend? She asked herself.

Whether he was or not, she would save him. But there was always something more personal to it when it was your friend.

"I will save my friend," she announced, proud and brave. Perhaps a bit foolish too. "Kent, hold on there. I won't put your training to waste, okay?"

Dreggo was busy in another sector of this town taking care of the scum. Reinforcements were still absent. She was it, for her, Kent and the towns people hiding in the vicinity.

"I will save everyone," she insisted, summoning courage into herself along the way.

"Oh, and how will you do that girlie with your weak magic? What is the point of luck magic if-"

Mary Sue's grimoire raised into the air as the pages and spine of the book lit up in a golden light.

A page became escribed with words as she read the name of her newest spell, defense god.

"How did the temple raid go?"

Mary Sue rubbed her eyes. It was too early for Julius to be bothering her as she sat up from her bed.

She yawned. "Go ask your vice-captain." She stretched her hands above her head, still waking up. The moment her brain did wake up…

"What the hell, Julius? Ever heard of knocking?!" She screeched before tossing her pillow at him. "Get out!"

Julius's eyes crinkled when he laughed but he stayed put.

"After you finish your report," He teased her with a grin. But knowing Julius, he really would not leave until she did this.

"It was fine. We were successful. Kent turned over all the magical items to the Wizard King."

"Oh yes, I know. He told me that." He casually leaned against the door frame to her bedroom.

Mary Sue fumed, not understanding Julius's intent then.

"I heard you liked-" Mary Sue caught the silver bead, the size of her thumb nail, that Julius tossed over to her. "This."

Mary Sue stared at the precious bead in awe. How did he have this? Was it not a magical item?

"No, Mary Sue, it is not a magical item," he answered her unspoken question. "It was appraised and found to be just an ordinary bead. Kent mentioned you liked it. So, here you go." His words were so carefree and simple, as if there was nothing to his gesture at all.

"But in the room we found it in, the scripture said-"

"It was bogus, a fantasy." Julius chuckled but Mary Sue could not help but feel there was other intentions with his words and actions. "Can someone really harness the magic of a rainbow for this object to work? It is the making of a fairy tale. All it is an ordinary bead. Not a magic item created by the God of Luck. Doesn't that sound over the top?"

Mary Sue giggled. It did. Even though she was living in the world of Black Clover, there were limits to the magic here of course.

Or so she thought.

She acted on impulse, already understanding how to make this spell work.

"Luck magic: Defense God," she shouted in the air with her arms raised. The light blue sky soon vanished behind a veil of darkness and clouds appeared and the sky rumbled with thunder. Rain began to shower around Mary Sue.

Her enemies momentarily confused looked at each other before laughing.

"That's it, little girl?"

"What are you defending? You are nothing. Your magic is nothing," the scarier of the two taunted upon his approach.

Mary Sue just graced them with a knowing smile, submitting to her luck without a second thought for once. It would not fail her.

As the rain eased up the dark sky returned to a light blue with the sun reappearing. The rays from the sun refracted through the rain droplets, making a rainbow that landed in front of Mary Sue.

"Say hello to my new favorite spell, defense god. It can't be used often, you need the right items for it. But what luck I am having today. A rainbow and this little fellow here." Mary Sue ripped the leather cord necklace off her neck and thrust a broken thread attached to a silver bead into the air. When the bead collided with the rainbow that only Mary Sue could see, an eruption of light broke out from the bead. Mary Sue witnessed a rainbow wrap itself around Kent and all the houses in the area. Mary Sue shed a tear understanding everyone was now protected.

"Looks like your spell left someone out," sneered one of the men. "But don't worry, we will break through that barrier after we finish with you."

"Don't you know God's protect their people and not themselves? Hence why I have remained out here."

"Ha! So, you're some god now because you got lucky and used a magic item?"

"Lucky? Maybe. But didn't you know that I command luck? That is my power. What is yours again? Being a murderous jackass with no spine? I mean, you both have to take me on at the same time in order to defeat my so called weak magic? Pathetic." Mary Sue was aware she was digging her own grave with her words. But either way, she was done for. So, buying time was all she could do for herself and those she chose to protect.

"Mary Sue," she faintly heard Kent call for her. She could not bear to turn around. He had to be okay. He would survive this. She made her choice. She saved them. Maybe her luck magic wasn't so pointless after all. At least for today.

"Look at you acting all ballsy! Where did this come from, Mary Sue?"

Mary Sue echoed a small cry in relief when she heard Yami's voice. She had only met him once, but his 'foreign' accent was so distinct that it was hard not to remember.

"World tree magic-"

Mary Sue stopped listening to everything going on around her as she sobbed. Help had arrived. Yami and William had arrived. She was safe. As were Kent and the others. She was not a failure.

"Mary Sue," a gentle voice called to her. Mary Sue opened her eyes and found warm, purple eyes staring back at her. "Good job today. Excellent." She closed her eyes as a hand rubbed the top of her head, soothing her. "I need you to open your eyes. I need you to focus." Mary Sue fought to keep her eyes open again, the resistance by her eyelids was difficult to match. "Good. Thank you. Mary Sue, we can't get through your shield. Can you take it down?" Julius coaxed her. She was surprised it was still intact. Her tongue was heavy, she didn't know how to respond so she nodded her head. She raised the bead into the air, still clutched in her hand. But nothing happened. She blinked, realizing the rainbow dome still encircled those who were in harm's way.

"Is it over? Are we safe?" She choked out, her voice thick with emotion.

"I am here, how could we not be?" Julius reassured her, yet his smile didn't reach his purple eyes.

"I am glad everyone is safe. Saving people is a lot nicer than killing them." Mary Sue patted Julius's cheek, the bead now pinched between her right thumb and index finger. "Hey Captain, my first fortune wasn't a lie you know? I hope you know that. Maybe I kept some people safe today by fluke, but you will save this whole kingdom and make great changes."

With the last bit of strength she could muster, Mary Sue held up the bead in the air again and the rainbow shield swirled into a ball of light that vanished once it grazed the surface of the silver marble.

"I guess that was the more preferable of the two fortunes you gave me, right, Mary Sue?" Julius asked softly to the sleeping girl in his arms.

Note:

1. The line breaks in the chapter were supposed to signify a flashback.

2. Yay for long awaited minor Mary Sue history.

3. So...if her new spell/item use it SUPER dumb, let me know. I was iffy but couldn't find another way to rewrite that scene haha I mean...she is a Mary Sue. Of course, the odds are stacked in her favor. This time she accepted it though and embraced it. She reflects on this in the next part which is taking some time to write due to my transition of time/relationships :) This next part was what was the rest of Part 4 but it is taking a long time to complete so I decided to make it it's own chapter.

If I get no comments, I will assume you didn't hate it enough to comment or you will just unfollow haha

~pixelephant