Creation began on 04-30-19
Creation ended on 05-05-19
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Grimoire of Evangelion: The Strength to Mend Wrongs
Walking down the streets of the Noble Region town, Rika Ikari immersed herself in the world her family abandoned in favor of the Forsaken Region where the people weren't so…self-centered or stressed over how the nobility deserved to be at the top of everything. Truth be told, Rika saw some of the people of today's generation of nobles…and found them almost no different from the nobles of her past, the infuriating, the vain, the arrogant and greedy.
"What brings you here of all places, Rika Ikari?" She heard someone ask her.
Turning to her left, she met a man dressed in a rather-elegant suit, with slick hair glossed to make the brown hue it possessed stand out more to others.
"Just…trying to grasp on how much the kingdom has changed since my family's been gone," she expressed; it wasn't a complete lie, as she was doing her investigative research on how far the nobility had grown regarding their arrogance and disgust towards the commoners from lesser villages with no titles or special backgrounds.
"Some of us didn't take you for a…simple woman that doesn't want more like the rest of the nobility do."
"My years in the Forsaken Region have imparted in me a deep appreciation for what I have…and lost. Some people don't understand that the small things they take for granted…are the ones worth having."
"And yet, people should have more because they can never have enough."
Rika sighed and nodded her head in the negative.
"That's greed, and it's a vice that can lead only to grief," she told the man, and then walked away to resume her day.
"Oh, come on, Rika! Surely, you've wanted more than what you already have!" The man yelled.
Except the kind of wanting I think of is forbidden, she thought. It's just not how reality should work for anyone, no matter who they are. If you try to undo something, you might end up doing something more dangerous.
"Aaahh!" Rika heard a woman's scream from down the street.
"Huh?!" She went, looking down the street at some estate nearby. "That house…"
It was quite a large house, surrounded by a small yard separated from the rest of the neighborhood by a spiked fence. But something about this estate drew Rika to it, and it was something that was affecting her heart to its core.
The scream I heard, she realized, it was a scream that happened years ago. Something bad happened here, something that shouldn't have happened to someone that didn't deserve it.
Then she took out her grimoire and the pages flipped over to the desired spell she was after.
"Memory Spirit Magic," she uttered as her grimoire glowed bright pink. "Mnemosyne's Historic Guidance. Reveal to me…what had transpired."
A young woman with brownish hair and wearing a green dress appeared before Rika, holding a book of her own. She was none other than Mnemosyne, the Spirit of Memory, and she was one of Rika's two magical spirits, as she was among the rare few of her family to possess unique circumstances that afforded her access to more than one.
"It has been too long since we last saw one another, Rika," Mnemosyne uttered to her, and then raised her left hand towards the estate as a small cloud of reddish-black dust enveloped the limb. "What transpired here…was of death and greed, heartache and loss, despair…and desperation."
In front of her eyes, Rika saw a family of four, a husband and wife and their son and daughter, happy and content, but then saw the husband and wife fall at the hands of several nobles that took advantage of them, and cast their children out onto the street.
"Mnemosyne," Rika spoke up, her eyes shadowed by the sadness she witnessed as the family before her was ruined by the greed of other nobles, "which family was this one?"
"House Adlai," the memory spirit answered her. "But…you don't know these people of this family that lived to the present. They don't know you, either."
"Still, it's not right, what was done to them," she told her. "They didn't do anything wrong, and these…nobles…ripped them to bits. They didn't even care what happened to their children, just as long as they never came back here. You tell me I shouldn't do what I think is right and resolve this, knowing I should try to, and you know I'll never forget that I did nothing to help those that were still alive and were robbed of what was theirs to begin with because a few people decided to be greedy."
"You know I can't tell you to disregard your own heart, Rika. And it's true, what happened to this family, the descendants of one of your friends that became among the nobles you were lifelong friends with, was unforgivable…and they deserve what was taken from them returned to them. How will you go about this?"
"Excuse me, ma'am," they both heard a man inside the estate speak to Rika as he came over, "is there something I can help you with?"
Momentarily, Rika's eyes widened as she recognized the man from the memories of this estate's history, but returned to normal as she backed away.
"No, sir," she responded, her voice masking her contempt and developing agenda. "I'm afraid there's nothing you can do to help me."
"Oh, my… Are you Rika Ikari of House Ikari?" He gasped, backing away as he realized who she was. "Uh, surely, I can't interest you in simply forgetting about what happened here a few years ago, can I?"
"Have you ever heard of a story about a dragon guarding a small village's treasure? There is a moral to the story…and you will learn of it, eventually."
As Mnemosyne faded away, Rika turned to walk away from the estate, leaving the man pondering what to do.
"Hey, you can't prove what happened here actually happened!" Rika heard him yell at her. "You've been gone for centuries and you're out of sync with today's generation!"
-x-
"…Water Wind Creation Magic," Shinji shouted as he faced off against Asta, Noelle and Luck during another sparring session outside the Black Bulls' hideout to improve their skills. "Typhoon's Unfriendly Maelstrom!"
From the lake, a large amount of water surged towards Shinji and became a whirlpool of energy that turned towards the three adversaries.
"Water Creation Magic," went Noelle, thrusting her arms out towards the approaching attack, "Sea Dragon's Roar!"
A large dragon head made of water appeared and surged towards the whirlpool.
"Lightning Creation Magic," Luck shouted as he unleashed a new spell that was only possible because of the extensive training with Shinji and Suki. "Lightning Armadillo Pinball!"
A ball of electrical energy surged from Luck's hands and assumed the form of a large armadillo, which then rolled into a ball that shot like a bullet towards Shinji's magic attack.
CLASH! The three attacks collided and it appeared as though Luck's was strongest, but then Noelle's Sea Dragon's Roar pushed through the Typhoon's Unfriendly Maelstrom because of the electrical add-on of Lightning Armadillo Pinball, taking aim at Shinji's head.
"Uh-oh!" Shinji gasped, flipping through pages for a defense spell. "Transformation Magic: Soften the Blow!"
A ray of light shot out from his grimoire and bathed the dragon in a strange energy, reducing its very form…into a blue gelatin that doused Shinji completely.
"Whoa!" Asta gasped. "Incredible!"
Shinji, covered in a small pile of gelatin, emerged from it and looked at the three combatants with a smile.
"Yuck!" He spat out some of the gelatin that got in his mouth. "Blueberry… Why'd it have to be blueberry? I should've made it taste like grape."
As he climbed out of the pile, Asta had come over and brandished his Demon-Slayer Sword at him menacingly.
"Do you yield?" He asked him, and Shinji raised his arms up.
"Asta of Anti Magic," Shinji had called him this designation not too long ago, "I admit defeat. That would raise the score to eight wins for beating me and eight defeats for being unable to get to me."
Several clapping hands were heard, and the four mages turned to where several of the other Black Bulls were, applauding their training session.
"It took three minutes and six seconds for you to beat Shinji this time," said Suki, keeping track of their score. "You broke your past record by two minutes and forty-three seconds."
"Let's change the rotation a little," Shinji suggested. "Who's next?"
Gauche got off a tree and opened his grimoire.
"I will defeat you, Shinji Ikari," he expressed.
"Not unless I defeat him first," went Vanessa.
"No way," said Magna. "He's mine."
Shinji brandished his Anti Magic katana at the three and uttered, "A guy with a broom that looks like a custom-made aircraft, another guy that talks about his baby sister a lot, and a…a… Hey, Suki, what's the best word to describe Ms. Vanessa Enoteca?!"
"Uh, a minx," Suki suggested, "or a diva, even."
"Something that's nicer, please!"
"A boozer!"
"Oh, that's wrong, auntie! She's not a (Shinji turns to look at Vanessa, who pretty much represented what Suki said down to the fact that she was still indecent and holding a bottle in her left hand)… Actually, yeah, that works. Boozer, it is. Okay. Let's see where this goes with Fire Magic, Mirror Magic and Thread Magic. I will reduce you to ashes, sever your reflections and stitch you into a quilt."
"If that's supposed to be a friendly threat, you need to work on it," said Magna to him.
"Begin!" Suki yelled, clicking on the stopwatch she had to keep track of the time for each training session. "Go, Shinji!"
-x-
Nean, a commoner's village, didn't seem too wealthy or too poor in the eyes of Rika as she arrived on a broomstick. She sighed as she looked up at the church in front of her.
"What are you doing, Rika?" She asked herself as she stepped inside of it.
Inside were several children helping to tidy the place up, and it put a smile on Rika's face to see them active.
"May I help you, miss?" She turned and saw an elderly woman in a nun's habit, an old scar over her left eye.
"I'm just…trying to decide how I'm going to do something I probably shouldn't, but should do, anyway," she told the nun, bowing her head to her. "Because if I don't do it, who else will?"
"Some would seek forgiveness for a sin that is yet to be committed," the nun told her.
"I…I wouldn't call it a sin, per se; the actual sin was committed long ago. It doesn't have anything to do with me, but I…I feel that it didn't need to transpire just because some people that actually were involved…got greedy."
"Why don't you sit down first?"
Rika sat with the nun and looked up at the three-leaf clover in front of the church.
"Tell me, what is this problem you see that needs to be resolved?" The nun asked her.
"Have you ever heard of the noble House of Adlai?" Rika uttered, and the nun quietly gasped. "I take it you have."
"What do you know of House Adlai?"
"Only what I found out earlier today. Beforehand, all I had were my past memories of a woman who was related to the family. I know that years ago, the parents died, but I just discovered how and why…and am trying to decide whether or not to let the authorities handle it…or if I should."
"Sometimes, it's best to let the authorities handle these things."
"Yes, except that, only from past experiences, those of the nobility have their own way of dealing with problems they don't want others knowing about."
"But…you're also of the nobility. You just live in the Forsaken Region."
"I guess part of the reasons for my family living there is to not be consumed by greed. Why is it that nobody is content with their lives unless they have more of everything there is to be had? Why behave that way? Why…want? Wanting is just…the negative aspect of needing things. It is how greed gets started; the moment you see something, whether you already have something like it or not, you become possessed by the desire to want more."
"Those of the nobility have the power to do as they please."
"But…if one had the power to try and make things right for people that did nothing to deserve the cruel fate they were dealt, even if others did nothing to show them any sympathy or regret…then shouldn't they at least attempt to do so, even if others feel they shouldn't?"
"I'm afraid that's a choice…that only you can make."
"I don't know the House Adlai of today like I did in my past, but that doesn't change the fact that I still care about those related to the people I knew back then. They don't owe me anything, but I… I feel like I owe them what was taken from them. There's no form of magic, no matter how much it's desired by anyone, that could restore their parents, but if they could have back their home, it'd be a start to mending what was done to wrong them."
"And you'd do this for them…because they were wronged…and nobody did anything to get them justice?"
"Yes…I would."
The nun stood up and faced Rika with a stern expression.
"Who are the people responsible for this wrong," she asked her, "and why did they do it?"
-x-
"Graaurgh!" Gauche grunted as he was blown off his feet and sent flying through the air, nearly hitting the ground were it not for the Cotton Magic of Charmy; he didn't expect Shinji to be far stronger than the kid denied himself to be. He shattered my mirror.
"Whoo," went Vanessa as she got up off the ground. "That kid has more fire in him than a bottle has liquor."
As Magna got up and faced Shinji, said Magic Knight was glowing red with intensity as his Guardian of the Void grunted and snarled with ferocity.
"We," they both spoke together, "are the victors of this round."
Suki, unable to click the button on the stopwatch, dropped it and announced, "Game, Shinji, set and totaled."
Shinji then dropped to his knees as his glow ceased, panting.
"Whoa," he went, looking down at his grimoire that showed the page of the last spell he used against Magna, Gauche and Vanessa. "Time Fire Magic: Delayed Explosion. It must be another powerful spell that I just used for the first time. It may be a little too powerful for me to use."
Yami, also present as he watched the squad mates rotate their training sessions against Shinji, who seemed a lot stronger than he had suspected him to be. To get where Shinji had gotten after joining the Magic Knights, and to be capable of defeating a former Magic Knight through a conversation…and then a few rogue mages from the same group, Yami started to suspect that Shinji was more powerful than he knew…but was holding back in order to aid in his squad mates pushing past their limits. It would explain how several of them had gained new spells…and a little more confidence.
"You're…a lot stronger than you know, Shinji," Gordon said to Shinji, speaking a bit louder in order to make himself heard.
"Thank you, Gordon," Shinji responded.
Suddenly, Shinji was ganged up on by Charmy's Sheep Cooks.
"You need to eat more!" Charmy told Shinji as her Sheep Cooks started shoving food into his mouth, despite his attempted complaints that he was going to choke from the force-feeding if he didn't get any air in his lungs.
-x-
Despite being a Magic Knight, it was his day off because of the lack of activity from the Eye of the Midnight Sun, but this didn't keep Tenshi from being active and out in the community. So as he was visiting the village of Sosshi, he received a call from someone on his Communication Magic Tool.
"Who could be calling?" He wondered as he noticed how the village lacked benches outside to sit down on for rest; this probably stemmed from being a small town with few people. "I gotta put in a request for work to be done on these to install different sounds to indicate who was calling who, similar to the cell phone."
"Tenshi, are you free to talk?" Rika asked him as her face appeared in his device.
"Yeah, I'm free," he answered her. "I'm in Sosshi in the Forsaken Region. How can I be of service to you?"
"I'm in Nean in the Common Region. How soon can you get here?"
Tenshi opened a rift in space and walked into it, ending up in Nean, right in front of the church his mother was beside of.
"How's about now because of Spatial Magic?" He questioned.
"Thank you," Rika praised him. "Can I trust you to trust my judgement?"
"I trust your judgement, Mother."
"Thank you, Tenshi."
"I might be a Magic Knight, but my loyalty to my family and friends will always be a constant in my life. What is your situation that requires my services?"
"A past wrong that was committed against another family," said an elderly nun that stepped out of the church. "Thank you for coming, sir."
"Believe it or not, I used to look older than you and wasn't able to walk, anymore. There's no need to address me as 'sir'; I'm not as old as I am right now. Please, call me Tenshi."
"Chronologically, if you are over a certain age, I must address you as 'sir'."
"And if I were to request for you not to, as I feel it is unnecessary?"
"If you can deal with this matter, I will make you the exception."
"Consider the matter dealt with, then. What is the matter?"
-x-
"…Aw, man," sighed Shinji as he collapsed on his bed after dinner. "I just want to sleep off my aches and pains until the next mission, should it ever come."
"All that you need is a few hours to recuperate," Guardian stated, crouched down against the right wall be the door. "You are improving with your skills in the magical arts, as are your fellow squad mates."
"Thank you."
"Also, the way you encourage them to become stronger, without so much as boasting your own abilities, it isn't entirely different from those of your predecessors, the members of House Ikari that wielded the grimoire you now possess. They, too, never boasted of their abilities, but were undeniably strong, as were their friends and allies."
Shinji got up in his bed and looked at Guardian, needing to ask a question that was serious.
"The people that once had my grimoire before it came to me," he went, "just how many were there? I mean, how many predecessors before I was chosen to wield the grimoire?"
"Before you were chosen to wield the False Destiny Breaker, there were twenty-four owners of the grimoire. You are the twenty-fifth."
"What were they like? Did you know any of them?"
Guardian raised his head up slightly higher and said, "I knew all of them, and each one, men and women, were able to do things they never thought they could do. They all had several things in common, but one thing they had above all was that they were bound by a fate they were doomed to fulfill unless they deviated from it by another course of action or desire."
"What do you mean?"
"Break the ties of a fate undesired by you, and you embrace the true power of destiny. Destroy the chains of the hopeless reckoning, and the future becomes one of unknowns, the possibilities…and impossibilities…become endless and yours to decide upon."
"I…I don't understand."
"You will in due time. You're still learning the ways of magic, and like all lessons, the mind must be trained to grasp the teachings. It's okay if you don't understand it all right now. You…have all the time you need to understand everything. Sleep now."
Then Guardian fell to sleep.
Sometimes, I forget that I'm a long, long way from where I used to be, Shinji thought, and turned in for the night.
-x-
"It looks like Shinji's helping his squad mates get stronger at what they're able to do," suspected Misato as she saw the picture of Shinji and Guardian talking in his room.
"And his uncle is helping his grandmother take care of a problem," added Asuka, looking at a picture of Tenshi and Rika looking down upon a man that didn't look like he was going to walk away from something serious.
Rei then turned the page, and saw a picture of Shinji with the strange man that had a mirror with him in front of the leader of the squad they were in, who appeared to be reading a letter.
"What's going on here?" Kaji questioned as he looked at the picture underneath to see Yui in her personal space, building something that was obscured from sight. "Why is nearly every picture that has her in this different dimension has her doing something that we can't see?"
"You make it sound as though she's up to something," Gendo stated; from the looks of things, he suspected that his wife was trying to build another Eva through the use of magic, but it followed the sense of science that originally led to its creation, only at an accelerated pace.
"Well, we haven't seen her exactly being…social in the same way that the rest of her family appears to be," went Misato, stating what had to be the truth; despite their only seeing small glimpses into the world the Ikari family was in, when it came to socialization, it appeared that Yui herself was at a position beneath her mother, who spent her time socializing with people from the lesser-known villages than the larger ones that seemed more popular and well-known. "If anything, she seems to want to spend as little time as possible around others unless there's a situation that requires her attention."
"Sometimes, that's the life of a scientist," said Ritsuko; sometimes, the life of a scientist alienated them from other people that simply didn't understand them.
"Maybe that's part of how Shinji developed his respect for his uncle when he was older and in a wheelchair," Kaji suggested, looking at an old photo that had a little Shinji with the elderly Tenshi looking through old manga of the science fiction category. "The guy's like an otaku or a fan of fiction more than science."
"He is an otaku," Gendo spoke; he rarely spoke with the three elderly people, but Yui had mentioned how her brother wasn't a person of science, even in the slightest, like they were. "How does any child gain respect for an old man that spends the majority of his time accumulating nothing but make-believe?"
Asuka wanted to answer that Shinji was clearly the type that had respect for his uncle in that regard, but focused more on the next picture on the right side of the pages, which had Shinji and the guy with the mirror flying somewhere in the air.
"That creature that comes out of his book," she uttered, surprised by what it was doing. "It can fly when it has wings?"
-x-
Shinji was worried about why a church in the village of Nean requested his presence alongside Gauche as they flew across the wilderness to the destination. He had gotten a map of the kingdom so that he could memorize the locations of towns and villages, but hadn't been to them all just yet, so he hadn't a clue as to what Nean was like.
"Hey, Mr. Gauche Adlai," he spoke to his squad mate on the broomstick on his left, "have you been to Nean before?"
"I have," he answered him, sounding detached.
"What is it like?"
"It's a commoner village. My sister lives there."
"What about your parents?"
"They're dead."
"I'm sorry."
Guardian, sporting dragon wings on his back for flight due to a magic spell, looked at Gauche and wondered what was going on in his head.
"It is probably nothing, but nothing is for certain," it uttered to them.
All they really knew was that Shinji's grandmother and this Sister Theresa Rapual had sent a letter to the Black Bulls requesting the presence of himself and Gauche as soon as they could get there, but Yami didn't disclose anything beyond that. It was probably because there was nothing else to disclose until after they had arrived in Nean.
Barely two months into my occupation as a Magic Knight, and already the sense of dread is looming upon my shoulders, thought Shinji as a few buildings came into view. That must be the town. That must be Nean.
It seemed like a quaint place to live for anyone that sought to carve out a small life there. There was no indication that there was a degree of crime of any sort here, whether it was assault or kidnapping, meaning that you could live here without much trouble.
"It's…really nice here," Shinji expressed as he and Gauche arrived.
"Yeah," Gauche responded as they walked towards the church where they noticed four people standing around outside.
"Uncle Tenshi?" Shinji went, confused at why his uncle was here with his grandmother.
In front of the two members of the Black Bull squad were Sister Theresa, Rika and Tenshi Ikari, and a little girl with blond hair and purple eyes, wearing a purple dress.
"Hey, Shinji," Tenshi greeted his nephew when they got close enough. "Look at you. That robe looks better on you than that crazy plugsuit."
"Thank you," Shinji replied. "What are you doing here? Some sort of mission?"
"I wish. I was requested to help resolve a matter that needed to be dealt with, and now that you're here, it can be dealt with in its entirety."
The little girl looked up at Shinji and gave him a smile.
"How are you today, Mr. Magic Knight, sir?" She asked him.
"Uh, fine. People just call me Shinji. What's your name?"
"Marie Adlai."
"Adlai? You mean…you're Gauche's sister?"
"That's right."
Shinji then bowed his head to her.
Theresa led them inside the church, where she took them to a small room where a man was waiting, tied to a chair with a piece of tape on his mouth.
"Who's this?" Shinji asked them.
"Shinji Ikari, meet Jacob Scorpio of House Scorpio," Theresa introduced him. "It would seem that, due to unfortunate circumstances, House Scorpio had a rather depraved history with House Adlai that extends back over five years ago."
Gauche looked at Jacob Scorpio, recognizing his face from years before, feeling a measure of anger at him more than he did at the other nobles of that time.
"This is the man that took everything our family had," he expressed, wanting to hurt him right there and now.
"We know what he did, why he did it…and who he had to help him to do it," Rika told Gauche as she sat down in a nearby chair. "He's confided in us a lot after Tenshi brought him here a few hours ago to make him confess his sins."
"He actually thought his position as a noble would protect him from me," Tenshi explained, "but unlike some Magic Knights, I don't let any crimes committed slide, even old ones that were never fully documented, or accept any bribes. He actually tried to buy my silence…so I asked for Sister Theresa's forgiveness after I punched him in his gut."
"Mmm…" Jacob mumbled through the tape, still feeling the residual pain he was under from getting punched by Tenshi.
"And why ask us here?" Gauche asked them.
"Trying to mend a great pain and rectify a greater injustice that was committed against your family," Rika answered him. "I don't know you or your sister at all, but I knew someone from your family from a long time ago. I respected them greatly, so I respect House Adlai just as well today as I did back then. House Scorpio hoarded away the wealth belonging to your family along with three other noble houses with assistance from ten noble houses affiliated with them…and now Mr. Jacob Scorpio here…is going to give it all back to the people he helped to take it from."
Tenshi then approached Jacob and removed the tape from his mouth.
"House Scorpio," he uttered, "House Wendell, House Solaris, House Rispetto, House Oro, House Bestia, House Bourne, House Tennyson, House Ceres, House Webs and House Trios deceived and stripped the wealth of House Adlai, House Granite, House Aether and House North. We would steal their wealth and divide it amongst ourselves, leaving the families, children and all, destitute. When trickery didn't work or people refused to cooperate with us, we would stage accidents and falsify the transfers of inheritances."
"Meaning, you killed Mr. Gauche and Ms. Marie's parents," Shinji stated, "just so you could take everything that they worked to obtain or simply inherited from their families?"
"Yes," he answered. "House Ikari, you people are a legendary pain in the butt of the nobility. Anyone that's heard of you feared your return and what you could do, whether you were still remnants of the nobility and royalty yourselves or reduced to being peasant descendants. And anyone that still held out on the hope that you would return were the ones that still held the greatest respect for you and your wretched…family losses."
"Our family losses?" Tenshi questioned, and Shinji heard the shift in his tone go to bad. "Our family losses?! We didn't lose anyone that night the other noble families decided to attack us. They stole our loved ones away through murder. We can't really lose people unless it's to natural causes. People that are murdered, that's no different from kidnapping, except they're taken and sent back to their maker way before their time. And you know the agonizing part of having survived that for over fifteen-hundred years? The people responsible for their deaths have been dead and gone for as long as we've been in exile, so we can't exactly get any closure by seeing them get dealt with to the fullest extent by the law, and that's a bit of a drag. But we don't have any grudges against their descendants, even if some of them are nothing more than a bunch of jerks that prefer to hold meaningless grudges or nurse senseless vendettas that don't have anything to do with them. For all I know, you could've been a distant relative of one of those families…and I wouldn't come after you for the deaths they caused…simply because you had nothing to do with them. That would be guilt by association; you hold one person of a family responsible for a wrong they committed, you hold the entire family responsible, and it wouldn't matter if they are or were elders on their deathbed…or babies yet to be born. We don't do that. How do you live with yourself, knowing the lives you harmed? How do you sleep at night?"
Tenshi then walked away out of the room.
Shinji sighed and excused himself from the room to follow Tenshi.
"Just so that you know how fortunate you are that my son decided to step out," Rika told Jacob, displeased with his choice of words, "he came close to putting his hands on you violently. Maybe too close, and you would've saw a side of him that was extremely unpleasant. So…my piece of friendly advice to you the next time you speak to anyone…is that you watch your mouth."
As of right now, Jacob wasn't sure who to be more afraid of regarding the Ikaris. Should he be afraid of Rika…or her son? To him, both current leaders of the noble house's survivors and intermediary descendants…were frightening.
-x-
Shinji found Tenshi on the roof of the church, sitting on the ledge, looking depressed.
Tenshi turned to look at him and sighed as he turned away.
"I wanted to reduce his head to pulp with my bare hands," he told his nephew, needing to be honest with himself about how close he came to harming the nobleman. "A black eye or bloody nose just wouldn't have been enough."
"Personally," Shinji responded, "I wouldn't have blamed you if you did go too far on him. I must've noticed at some point in the past, but I never brought it up because I never thought much on it. Whenever I would see you three on my birthday, on Suki's birthday, you and Rika would sometimes have this look on your faces that seemed hurt. You hide the hurt by thinking about other things, other people. It hurts a lot to be reminded that they're all gone, doesn't it?"
Tenshi nodded and said, "It hurts more than any physical blow ever could. Before any of it ever happened, it was just a happy day. Everyone was excited when Suki was born, everyone that was there wanted to see her. We didn't just suffer the loss of family that day, Shinji. We lost friends that day, too. Kana and Mana, your twin aunts, they had friends from neighboring villages over to see Suki. Friends of our parents were there to give their blessings. Our grandparents' friends were helping to keep other people's kids calm, and I…I…"
"Who were you with?" Shinji asked when he saw his uncle's hesitation to continue.
"I was with my girlfriend," he answered. "I had invited her over not only to see Suki, but because I wanted to ask her something. We…we knew each other for eight years, and it was serious. If any other noble ever asked me if I was content with the fact that she was just a commoner, I'd answer that love conquers all, regardless of one's status."
"What was her name?"
"Lilia. Lilia Yuki. She was a… Well, she was the equivalent of what you could call a snow hippie's daughter, but that was only because her mother gave her a last name of her own."
"What were you going to ask her that day?"
"I'm pretty sure you can guess by now what I was going to ask her."
"I could be wrong, though."
"Just guess, then."
"You were going to ask her if she'd marry you afterwards, weren't you?"
"Not bad for your first guess, and yes, I was going to ask her that."
Shinji sighed and sat beside him.
"How'd she… I mean…what happened that night you were all attacked?" He asked.
"Fire Magic turned violent on the trees and our home, Steel Magic made disastrous wherever steps were taken, and Poison Magic spreading through the air to limit our actions. Mages from noble families that didn't agree with our beliefs that commoners would eventually be just as powerful and adaptable as we were out to get us, and anyone that just happened to be with us were to be treated as nothing more than collateral if they were in the way. Lilia and I were separated, but I never saw what happened to her. I never even heard her scream. My only prayer was that she survived that night, even if she was the only one. I would've been content with just that; nobody that had no direct involvement with us deserved to die that night."
"I think if I had been alive during that time, I would've liked her a lot."
-x-
"…Hey, Gauche, I… There are no hard feelings about over what happened all those years ago, right?" Jacob asked as Gauche looked down upon him like a diseased being that couldn't be human. "I mean, uh…nothing…that is…personal from you and your sister, right?"
"You killed our parents, sir," he responded, unable to mask his contempt, even for his sister's sake. "You killed them for their wealth, threw Marie and I out onto the streets, and you dare to think that I don't have any hard feelings over any of it? If Marie weren't in this room, I'd make you run for your life. But instead, I'll let House Ikari decide how to deal with you. Your presence now disgusts me."
Gauche then left out the room, followed by Marie, who looked at Jacob and nodded her head in the negative at him before leaving.
"May the kami have mercy upon you and the other families that hurt others for your selfish greed," said Rika to him.
-x-
"…Looks like justice was served," went Fuyutsuki, looking at the picture of Rika looking down at the man tied to the chair as the man with the mirror and the little girl left.
"Yeah," agreed Misato as she turned the page to the next series of pictures. "Looks like this…Gauche Adlai and his sister have regained their family home and wealth that was stolen from them."
The new picture at the top of the left page showed the two siblings resettling into their home for the first time in many years. The second picture underneath showed various people behind bars. One the right page, there were four pictures that showed Shinji resuming his training sessions with the other members of the Black Bulls, Suki in a kitchen with Charmy, Tenshi walking through a wood, and Rika sitting alone with a cup of tea in front of her, respectively. It appeared that some time had passed since that day in the town, and people were trying to get back into their routine.
"Looks like the people behind bars were once people of power and means, but they lost everything because they got too greedy," Fuyutsuki deduced on the people in one of the pictures.
Gendo then turned the page and saw a picture of Yui engaged in conversation with a man in a tacky mask that was the captain of the squad she and Tenshi were part of.
-x-
"…I was surprised to hear that more than five noble families were involved in such a horrible series of crimes against other noble families," William told Yui, "and that your brother was requested by your mother that day this was brought to people's attention. It's also a surprise that your mother didn't call you."
"I'm not the least bit surprised, sir," Yui explained her explanation. "Tenshi is older than I am and is familiar with the nobility. Plus, I don't know any of the noble families, including the ones my family was said to be on stable ground with prior to and after leaving the Noble Region to live in the Forsaken Region. I'm still studying the list of nobility that reside within the kingdom during my off days. It would be understandable that our mother would request the assistance of my brother rather than I or another Magic Knight."
"And how goes your history course regarding the nobility?"
"The nobility here aren't entirely different from the people of my world are. The upper-class men and women, these so-called elitists, members of the aristocracy, even those that come from old money or come into new money, people that come into power that spans generations."
"And your family, House Ikari, has been said to come from royalty that spanned at least eighteen generations before the Clover Kingdom was even founded. If any were to try and compare them to the other royal families, such as House Silva or House Vermillion, they wouldn't get past the base due to this Infinity Affinity that you all possess."
"I believe there is more to my family than a mere attribute that enables us to use multiple forms of magic, sir. There are only five of us, but I don't believe we're at all special because of this variety of magic that exists."
"Why is that when over fifteen-hundred years ago, there were over twenty of you?"
"As much as I believe in magic today, I still consider myself to be a woman of logic; whatever does not make sense must be forced to make sense, otherwise what is the point in trying to justify what may or may not be true about it?"
William got the feeling that Yui was unlike the other Magic Knights that were around, including Yuno, but because she was still starting out, he allowed her the benefit of the doubt.
"Anyhow, this revelation of the corruption within the nobility has been split between the Golden Dawn and the Black Bull squads," he informed her.
"Why is it split between the two squads?" She asked him.
"A member of House Adlai, one of the noble houses that was stripped of their wealth by the corrupt houses, is affiliated with the Black Bulls, and this revelation was also witnessed by your son, who was also present when this discovery was made."
Shinji was most likely needed to vouch for whoever this House Adlai member is that's affiliated with the Black Bulls, Yui suspected, believing that it was nothing but a coincidence that Shinji was involved.
"Do your best to protect the people and reveal the hidden truths, Yui Ikari," William told her as he dismissed her. "There is greatness in your future."
-x-
"Come on, Asta!" Shinji yelled, watching as the Anti Magic aura being generated by his squad mate was very low, barely emanating from his body. "I know you can generate a larger aura than that! Frighten me!"
Asta, wielding his Demon-Slayer Sword in front of Shinji, growled as he concentrated harder on his Anti Magic. The purpose of this sparring session was to unleash more magic as a form of intimidation without consuming too much mana, or in Asta's case, since Anti Magic was the negative to the positive of other forms of magic, too much of his energy and leaving him unable to defend himself later against an enemy. If they could all increase their magical levels by a substantial amount, they would be able to fight on par with other Magic Knights that were of higher ranking than their own.
Shinji found it a bit odd that out of the majority of the Black Bulls, only Finral, Gordon, Charmy, Gauche and himself were First Class Junior Magic Knights. Everyone else was either a Fifth Class or Third Class Junior Magic Knight. It might've explained why the Black Bulls weren't so popular or in the same league as the other squads, like the Golden Dawn or Crimson Lions. It might've been mere luck and skill that enabled them to face a handful of mages from the Eye of the Midnight Sun, but if they were going to face the Third Eye again in the future, and all three of them were a force to be reckoned with due to their reversals of faith, hope and love, they needed to be stronger and tap into deeper pools of mana. They didn't need to be the best, only better than they were the last time.
Asta gripped the hilt of his sword and tried his best to be intimidating towards Shinji, whose Guardian of the Void behind him clearly had a look of an unimpressed individual.
"Grrr!" He growled.
"Focus more on drawing your connection to the Anti Magic forces out of you through your sword," Guardian uttered to him. "There are layers upon layers of Anti Magic energy asleep deep within you…and ever since you acquired the Black Clover grimoire, all you've done is scratch at the surface of the first layer. The layers are like armor comprised of solid stone, and when you break through the layers, the energy unleashed flows through you unchecked. So long as it flows through you without restraint, you can call upon it at will. Again, I shall demonstrate."
Guardian raised his claws up and conjured a sword of his own, large and glistening like dark glass, unlike Asta's swords, which retained their dark coloring while the rust and dirt was cleansed from them.
"Your Guardian of the Void seems to demonstrate a lot of personality for a being summoned through a spell!" Asta told Shinji.
"Yeah, but that's the thing that keeps surprising me about him," Shinji responded. "The spell just summons him. What happens afterward is entirely up to him."
"Is that right?" Noelle, who was among the other squad mates present, including Suki, Charmy, Vanessa, Finral and Gordon, watching the sparring session take place, asked.
"Intelligence," Shinji stated. "Independent thought and action. Because Guardian is able to think independently like people can and therefore control himself, his own power has no boundaries."
"That is because I am alive, the same as any of you," Guardian stated. "I'm just not the same as any of you. I have no connections to magical spirits or ties to those of royal blood. My ties are to House Ikari…and whoever is chosen to wield the grimoire that came to Shinji. Therefore, my ties are to him more than anyone else."
Guardian's aura grew massive, becoming purple and shaped like a larger version of himself in front of Asta.
"Reach deep within!" He roared at him. "Pull that energy out of your heart! Control the magic that lies within you and bend it to your very will!"
Suddenly, Asta's sword started to glow a dark red…and dark markings began to spread across his arms up to his face.
"Aaaaurgh!" He howled, feeling a measure of energy surge through him the likes of nothing he had ever felt before.
His aura was dark red, as well, and had grown to a considerable range of two feet around his body, adding a measure of increase to his toned muscles.
"Whoa," Shinji gasped quietly, feeling intimidated by this new form that Asta had unlocked just now. "How do you feel, Asta?"
Slamming his right foot into the ground, Asta made an indent into the soil and uttered, "I feel incredible! Is this how it feels to have unchecked energy flowing through you at all times?"
"Well done, Asta of Anti Magic," Guardian congratulated him. "You've managed to unleash your power from within…but can you control it as good as you unleashed it?"
Clash! Their swords collided, and Shinji felt the minor strain Guardian felt from Asta's brute strength, like it was actually him getting the brunt of it instead of Guardian.
"You're strong," Guardian praised Asta, "for a human that most underestimate because of your degree of magic. If you keep this up, you may one day realize your ambition to become the Wizard King."
"What about Shinji? Doesn't he want to be the Wizard King, too?"
"There's no chance of Shinji being that ambitious, even though he could if he wanted to. His ambition is more towards his ancestral background than the future. A powerful mage, he seeks to become, but not the Wizard King. To become a part of the pantheon of the strongest of mages in his family, that…is his goal. They were all good, the best of their generations, and he seeks to be like them."
"How do you know this?"
"I know everything I need to know about Shinji. His fears, his desires, even the limits of his ability to be disgusted by certain things and people…and you're among those that don't disgust him, which makes you very lucky."
Then Guardian dropped his sword and grabbed Asta's, pulling it from his hands and tossing it aside before grabbing Asta by his right shoulder and lifting him off his feet.
"Are you more than just your swords…or are you dependent upon your swords?" He asked him.
Asta, still glowing with the markings on his arms and face, grabbed Guardian's wrist and managed to flip him off his feet.
Slam! Guardian went down like he weighed only as much as a small child did…and smirked at Asta's minor victory over him.
"You're good," he praised him, "unfortunately, I'm better."
Swat! Asta was struck in the back by Guardian's tail, knocking him out.
"Ooh!" Suki gasped, not expecting Guardian to use a sneak attack.
"Expect the unexpected," added Finral.
Shinji came over to Asta and helped up to his feet, his face and arms free of the dark markings.
"Not bad, Asta," he told him. "Next time, we need to be prepared for sneak attacks. Don't ever expect your adversary to fight fairly."
"You're tough like Yuno," Asta told him as they walked back to the hideout, "but you're more talkative than he is."
"Yeah, I guess I am."
To be continued…
A/N: Well, there's your answer to what was to happen regarding Gauche and Marie Adlai, along with at least three other noble families harmed by at least eleven other noble families. Gauche and Marie have all that was taken from their parents back in their possession and the people responsible are going to be in prison for the time being. And then, there's Tenshi revealing that he had a girlfriend in the past prior to House Ikari's survival exile; this was in case some of you were wondering why it seemed like the guy never settled down with anyone…and now you know why. As always, read and review. I look forward to the next chapter, whenever it'll be.