I do not own Black Clover or any of the characters.
Better Life
Dane narrowed his eyes as the foot connected with his ribs again and again. He grit his teeth, ignoring the fury roaring inside of his head, louder with each kick and each insult hurled at his hunkered form. Insignificant insects. Worthless trash. They had no idea who they were beating. No idea what he could do to them with a twitch of his hand. Oh, the symphony of screams he could conduct, if only he would let himself loose. If only he would stop cowering like a fool. If only he'd take off the mask of a weakling he kept so tightly affixed to his face. Finally, the trio of physically larger boys grew bored of beating him and walked away, laughing and jeering back at him, as though they'd won some great competition. He stood, dusting off his shirt, and walked away from the village.
He hated this place. This shithole. This nameless town in the middle of nowhere. It was so poor, and so meaningless, that it had actually been named "Nowhere". What a joke of a town to live in. There was nothing for him there. No one would give him work. No one would speak to him, except to insult him. He survived on only what food he could find or animals he could catch, clean, and cook for himself. His clothes were what he could find in a trash bin and clean and repair himself. He bathed himself in a nearby river using soap he stole, and he lived in the hollowed out trunk of a slowly-rotting tree. His dark green hair was messy but short, and his dark eyes carried with them an eternally disgusted expression. And the town was so worthless that even the kingdom's Magic Knights and guards didn't bother to protect it from bandits, simply pretending that it didn't happen.
If ever there was a village that deserved to be wiped out, this was it. And yet, despite the semi-frequent attacks by bandits, it wasn't. And for one reason and one reason only. Dane. Today, as with at least one day a month, he stopped atop a hill off to the side of the village and gazed down at a dozen-odd bandits preparing themselves to assault the village. To raze it to the ground for the pitiful loot they might get from the entire village. Barely enough to be worth whatever length trip they had taken to reach the the village. And as he crested the hill, all of the bandits eyes rose to him and three who had tried before to raid the village stumbled away, their eyes all wide with terror and recognition.
"You're early," Dane said in a loud, clear voice, his eyes gazing down his nose at the filth before him, carrying nothing but disdain, as though surveying insects, or piles of feces. "You all usually show up on a Wednesday."
"Shit!" One of the three that recognized him shrieked. "It's him!"
"I told you three last time not to let me catch you here again," Dane reminded them.
"He's one kid!" one of the bandits said, raising a knife. "We can kill him!"
"No!" one of the three yelped. "We need to leave!"
"Too late," Dane said coldly.
The three of them turned to flee, abandoning their weapons, and one of them their Grimoire, only for Dane to slide a foot forward. As the three fled into the trees, the world around them came alive, a boulder becoming a great, four-legged, monstrous creature with digitigrade hind legs and thick, powerful front legs bursting from one shadow and pouncing on the first, its enormous teeth ripping into his throat. Spears bristled from the ground where another tree's shadow ended, making the second bandit's mind miss their appearance for a half-second, the fleeing bandit impaling himself on them. The third simply stepped into the shadow of a tree and fell, vanishing into the earth as though it were water before it solidified again, cutting off a wail of fear. The other bandits all charged, letting out a yell of equal parts terror and desperation, only Dane to crouch, placing his hands to the ground. In a wail of screams, the slaughter was over. Dane stood, surveying the utterly pristine land before him. No trace of the bandits, not their blood, their corpses, or the weapons they'd brought. No sign that there had ever been anything out of the ordinary. Then, Dane turned, walking into the forest himself to search for food.
After several hours of failing to find any prey for dinner, he returned to the village, ignoring the stares and the insults. Someone hurled a stone, the stone striking him in the back, and he stopped, turning his head slightly.
"You're a monster!" the man who'd hurled the stone shouted. "A freak! We heard the screams! What kind of monster are you!?"
"You're right," Dane said. "What kind of monster defends a town from bandits."
He turned, continuing to walk, only for more stones to slam into him from all sides. A stone caught him in the side of the head, and he hissed in pain, raising a hand to the small cut it had left. He ignored the continued hail of stones, the insults. That was all he could take. That was the last straw. He couldn't take it anymore. He wouldn't. He was sick of them. Sick of them all. He protected them and saved their lives, and in exchange, they cast stones at him. Fine. Then he would leave. He'd finally follow in his mother's footsteps after all. He'd make himself a better life. And then when he returned, he could repay them for their kindness by enforcing the decades of taxes they hadn't had to pay.
He continued walking, passing through town and out the far side, reaching his tree home, and reached into it, withdrawing from it his Grimoire, hidden in a false panel inside the tree's trunk. It was a thick tome, one that was at least four inches thick, and was about a foot tall and wide. Its thick, black cover was decorated by a silver plate affixed to each corner and along the edges of the spine, then a four-sides plate in the center of the front with a yellow gemstone affixed to the center and a silver three-leaf clover decorating the cover just above the gemstone.
"Eighteen years I've been here," Dane breathed, looking back at the city, then spat on the ground, growling in disgust. "Good fucking riddance."
As he walked away from the village, he reached into his shirt and pulled out his one and only worldly possession. A necklace bearing a black bull skull as a pendant. His eyes narrowed. Finally, it was time. He was leaving the village. He was finally going to undertake the Magic Knight Entrance Exam. And he was only three years late.
Dane walked into the arena in silence. No one payed him any mind. He'd broken one of his personal rules. He'd stolen enough money to get new clothes for the first time in his life, and enough to stay at an inn for a single night. He was clean, he was dressed in a black shirt, grey pants and shoes, and a black traveling cloak. No one payed him any attention. It was an unusual feeling. He wasn't used to it. In fact, he quite liked it. However, as he stepped into the arena, he stopped. All around the arena, Anti-Birds were bothering those with weak mana, and a full swarm of them were bothering a boy with pale hair and clothes nearly as shabby as what Dane was used to wearing. However, as Dane stepped into the arena, a startled cry echoed from the nearest birds, and all of them fled, scattering into the sky. He stared up at them, then shook his head, lowering his gaze to where the boy who'd been being bothered by a full flock was being held up by the head by a tall, powerfully built man with a Black Bulls mantle over one shoulder with a black rope wrapped around him to hold it on. However, before the man could crush the boy's skull, a firework went off in the distance and the man dropped the boy.
"Finally, the exam is starting," one of the two Magic Knights accompanying the powerful man said.
The two of them and the third Magic Knight with them all left the arena, only to return a few moments later along with the rest of the Magic Knight Squad Captains, all of the captains overseeing the exam, as always. And so, the exam began. The strongest of the captains, William Vangeance, used his World Tree Magic to form each of them a broom. The first test was simple. Fly. Most of the examinees rose into the air unsteadily. Those among them who were royals flew fairly easily. Only two caught Dane's attention. One was the pale-haired boy, who was standing hunched over his broom and clenching his whole body, shouting in effort, only to fail to move an inch. The other was a tall boy with black hair and a brightly-colored, four-leaf clover Grimoire who stood atop his broom and effortlessly rose into the air. Dane himself also showed up everyone except for the boy with the four-leaf clover by holding his own broom by his side and standing with one foot against the top end of the bristles, leaving him his left hand free as he rose up beside the boy.
"What's your name, four-leaf?" Dane asked.
"Yuno," the boy said. "That's not how you ride a broom."
"Neither is standing on it," Dane pointed out.
Yuno huffed, turning to stare down at the boy who couldn't fly.
"He has no mana at all, does he?" Dane asked.
"No," Yuno said. "Asta never did have mana. But he's far beyond your league."
"We'll see," Dane said.
After a bit, the test was ended and the next began. There was a test of power where they were blast a wall, a test to hit a target on a sheet of paper thrown into the air, a test to pour magic into a seed to make it grow. Then, finally, the main test. A test of combat potential.
"Hey," a noble called out to Dane from behind. "What kind of tricks have you been pulling? Have you been cheating?"
He gestured to the wall Dane had reduced to rubble and the tree Dane had grown from his seed, whereas most had gotten only small sprouts. Dane ignored him, but the noble didn't seem to like that answer. He shoved him from behind, Dane's eyes narrowing dangerously. However, just as he did, the pale-haired boy who'd failed literally every test so far pulled a huge sword from his Grimoire, then charged his opponent. His opponent had been pretending to offer Asta advice during every test in order to make himself look better, but when it came to a fight, he chose Asta, only to form a glowing, ethereal shield around himself like a ball of coral with several pores around it. However, Asta's charge, even with the massive, rusty sword, took less than a second, and a moment later, the sword had smashed through the shield and crashed into his arrogant opponent, flattening him to the ground in an instant.
"Don't you have anything to say in your defense?" the prick behind Dane demanded.
"I have nothing to say to an insignificant piece of filth like you," Dane snarled coldly.
"Excuse me!?" the noble snarled, then shoved Dane hard, sending him stumbling into the arena before following him. "Someone needs to teach you some proper respect, you filthy commoner trash! So watch and learn!"
Dane turned to him as their match was called to begin, but as the man pulled out his Grimoire, Dane immediately lost interest in the fight. The noble began to prattle on about his own importance as a ball of fire began to grow above him, growing to be wider than either were tall. But as it did, Dane crossed his arms.
"You're pathetic," Dane finally cut the noble's rant off.
"EXCUSE ME!?" he seethed instantly.
"You've been charging your first attack for ten seconds," Dane said. "Your magic is slow, which makes it worthless in a battle. And besides, even after this long, it won't reach me."
"We'll just see about that!" The noble shouted, swiping his hand forward. "Die!"
The fireball surged forward, but the entire pass to him took nearly another three seconds, by which time Dane had slid his foot forward, the stone below him rushing to heed his call, flowing from the ground as though liquid and forming a half dome around him. A full second later, the fireball impacted and erupted into a massive explosion. Dane's shield cracked but held, and Dane reached out, brushing his hand along the inside of it. It once again flowed like liquid, compressing together into a spear, which he held under his arm casually.
"Pathetic," Dane said. "Your magic has no power, and is disgustingly slow. And you think you deserve to be a Magic Knight?" He spat on the ground. "You're nothing but worthless trash."
"Why you..." the boy snarled.
He extended his hand, but as soon as he had, the back end of Dane's spear's shaft cracked him across the knuckles, breaking two and knocking his hand away. The boy shouted in pain, and Dane swiped a hand along the staff, which flowed into a ring behind him, constantly spiraling around behind him. Then, Dane whipped a hand, and the ring became a stone fist the size of the noble's abdomen, which he verified by introducing the two, lifting the noble into the air. The fist shifted consistency again and returned to the ground in its original position before Dane knelt, setting a hand down. A pillar burst up from below the noble's foot, sending him staggering away as the pillar dropped back into the ground seamlessly, only for a second to burst up behind the noble, colliding with his rear end and hurling him as making him yelp in pain. As the noble crashed to the ground, Dane stood. The noble pushed himself up unsteadily, and Dane huffed, crossing his arms.
"You're too slow," Dane said.
"You insufferable insect!" the noble roared. "I'll make you p-"
Dane slid his foot forward and a pillar burst from the ground between the noble's feet, exploding into the underside of his chin and sending him crashing to the ground in a heap. Dane huffed, turning and walking back to the outskirts of the arena. The rest of the battles were huge and showy, everyone who competed using huge, slow, flashy spells to try and curry favor among the captains. All except Yuno. His opponent tried to use a massive blast of lightning, only for Yuno to counter it with an enormous tornado, canceling the spell and robbing his opponent of oxygen as well before dropping the opponent to the ground unconscious but unharmed. Then, finally, it was time for them to be called. Very few were chosen, but in a turn that surprised everyone but Dane, all of the captains, every last one, raised their hand to signify their willingness to accept Yuno. He chose the squad whose captain was the closest to being the Wizard King. The Golden Dawn, led by William Vangeance. Then, it was Asta's turn, and he stared numbly as not a single captain raised their hands. None of them.
"I...can't be," Asta breathed.
"Come on...outta the way!" someone shouted. "I'm up next! It's over!"
"I'm not done!" Asta argued. "Not yet!"
"Have some pride!" someone else shouted.
"I...I'm not..." Asta began.
"It's no real surprise, is it?" Yami, the captain of the Black Bulls squad, called down to him, standing. "No matter how great your skill in battle might be, no one wants to touch a power that mysterious. People aren't fond of the unknown. It boils down to this: what the captains are looking for here is magic power. That simple."
Waves of magical power began to flood off of him, shaking the world around them. Fear began to spread through the examinees, but Dane narrowed his eyes, watching as Yami dropped into the arena, stalking toward Asta.
"What would anyone ever want with you?" Yami scoffed down at Asta. "A kid with zero magic. You might as well face the facts. What you said before. That you took the exam 'cause you want to become the Wizard King. You get what that means, right? If that's really your goal, you're gonna have to prove that you're better than all nine Magic Knight Captains. And now, standing here magicless and pathetic, can you really say you have what it takes? That you're strong enough to be the Wizard King?"
Asta's fists clenched. "Yeah, fine. So, maybe I won't be able to join a Magic Knight squad today. But no matter what anyone says, and no matter how many times I may stumble, I won't give up! I will become the Wizard King!"
He glared defiantly up at Yami, whose magic settled as he stared down at Asta. Then, Yami began to laugh.
"You know, kid? I like you. Come join our crew."
"Wha..." Asta blinked in surprise.
Dane sighed, shaking his head. True to his reputation. Yami's squad was known as the worst-of-the-worst and a crew with no one but weirdos with unique personalities, to say the least. Now, there was one more.
"Quit gaping like a fish," Yami said. "I'm sayin' I'll let ya into the Black Bulls." His tone dropped from friendly to threatening. "By the way, you don't get to say no, got it?"
"What?" Asta asked, still stunned.
"And it won't be a picnic," Yami warned. "We're gonna put you through the wringer 'til you don't recognize yourself. So get ready." He laughed harshly.
"What!?" Asta shrieked, still too shocked to comprehend.
"And then, once we're done, you go and become the Wizard King," Yami finished.
For a long moment, Asta merely stared at him. Then, he nodded, raising his fists excitedly. "Right!"
Yami nodded, then turned, leaping back up to his seat. The next number was called, and Asta stepped back, Dane stepping forward. Slowly, hands rose. Nozel Silva, captain of the Silver Eagle squad. Charlotte Roselei, captain of the Blue Rose squad. Fuegoleon Vermillion, captain of the Crimson Lion squad. Kaiser Granvorka, captain of the Purple Orca squad. And then, finally, almost grudgingly, Yami Sukehiro, captain of the Black Bull squad.
"Five hands!" the announcer called out unhelpfully.
"Black Bulls," Dane called, his gaze not leaving Yami's whose gaze was calculating and bordered on a glare.
Dane wondered if he knew who Dane was. If he recognized Dane's eyes, so much like his mother's. Then, Dane turned, taking his place with the rest of the examinees again.
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