"With all this work, I sure hope we'll have a good harvest this year," a farmer said, using magic to plough the soil.
"Yeah, same here," another concurred, forming a ball of water in the air and bursting to spray the soil.
"Sister Lily!!!"
They heard a scream from a distance.
"What the… What's that about?"
"Must be that runt from the church again…"
At the church, Asta fell to his knees holding flowers. He was a relentless young man.
"Sister! One day, I'll become the wizard king and make you the happiest woman in the world! That's why I'm asking—"
To Kojo, all that was background noise. Asta was at it again. That was an everyday occurrence. Right now, he had bigger issues on his plate. He would soon receive his grimoire and participate in the Magic Knights' Examination. With his knowledge of future events, he knew Asta and Yuno would surely be picked. But that didn't extend to him because that was when the bigger issue presented itself…
He was lying down on a pew, staring up at the ceiling of the church, resembling a man who mistakenly let out the wind in front of their friends and crush, and it was a loud one. He had his eyes closed, wearing a twitching smile.
"My magic is useless!"
Kojo screamed out in frustration. Standing at 5'11", he was lean with dark brown skin, short-cropped curly hair, and brown eyes. He wore a fitted midnight blue long-sleeved shirt, faded black trousers tucked into faded black leather boots. And a long black scarf hung from his neck.
'Ten years ago, I saw those three cards and got my magic ability. I thought it was special, but good lord, what is this trash?'
He opened his palm and conjured a simple flame above his finger, and in a few seconds, it disappeared. That was Nash's flame magic.
'I can touch a person and perform a bit of their magic once. And that's it. I can only have one copied magic at a time; it doesn't matter if I touched two different people without using the first person's magic abilities. And if I want to perform their magic again, I have to touch them again. Even worse, I can only use a rudimentary spell, since it's practically not my magic, and I don't understand it as much as they do…
'This isn't Copy Magic. This is just trash!'
There was no way he could use it in combat effectively, and there was nothing he could do to change his fate.
"That is, unless I get a grimoire that lets me store their spells at least. It will take a while, but I think I can pull off something with that, at least…" he voiced out, but then came another bigger issue.
'What if it doesn't happen that way?! What if my grimoire is even more useless?! I'll be stuck here when Asta and Yuno go for the Magic Knights' Examination!'
Kojo screamed out again, "I managed to transmigrate into Black Clover, but my fate is to take over Father and man the church?! What the heck is my life?!"
With tears already forming in his eyes, he promptly sat up and faced the altar. This was why he was here. He promptly knelt and prayed, "God, you brought me here. Don't take this the wrong way, but please-please-please don't condemn me to the life of a priest! I can do so much more out there! Being a priest after being reincarnated in Black Clover of all things is so lameeeeee~"
"Kojo, you're praying again," Father said, suddenly appearing. "You've been praying quite frequently. That's very admirable. Are you sure you don't want to become a priest like me?"
Kojo's face froze, and he silently stood up. He didn't feel like praying anymore.
"Thank you, Gramps. But no," he answered.
Father heard the commotion outside and was already walking to the door. Kojo put his hand behind his head and followed behind with a sigh. He knew what was coming.
"I honestly still can't believe the two of you are the same age," Nash said after Yuno used his wind magic to chop the wood faster than Asta.
Asta growled and stomped towards them. "Yu—"
Bam!
Father threw the door open, knocking Asta away like a rag doll. With tears rolling down his face, he said passionately, "Yuno is the hope of this church!"
"I won't be surprised if you end up joining the Magic Knights, Yuno. It doesn't sound like a silly dream for you," Nash said.
"And who says it's a silly dream for Asta? You really don't know what he's capable of, Nash," Kojo said.
"Or maybe you think too highly of him. You guys are already fifteen years old, it's time to face reality. Your magic isn't bad, Kojo, but I don't know if it'll help you get into the Magic Knights. But Asta, he doesn't even have magic."
Kojo dashed towards Nash, grabbed his head, and ruffled his hair in a chokehold. "And what makes a ten-year-old kid think he can tell his seniors about reality?"
The two smaller ones gathered around and jumped on Kojo in an attempt to join the play.
Sister Lily had just told Asta something, prompting him to jump up and yell at the distant stone statue atop the demon skull, "That's right! I'll get a grimoire that's more amazing than anyone else's, get into the Magic Knights, and once I make a name for myself, I'll follow in your footsteps and become the Wizard King!"
Nash had wrestled out of Kojo's grip and was fixing his hair when he walked closer to a sheepish-looking Sister Lily and muttered, "He'll never give up this nonsense, will he?"
"...And then, I'll come back and fix up this shabby, ugly, crumbling dump of a church!" screamed Asta some more.
Suddenly, veins popped out on Father's face, and his eyes darkened. He sharply turned and pointed, screaming in return, "Brat! Shabby, ugly, crumbling dump of a church?! That's taking it too far!"
Asta turned to Yuno and stretched out his arm, adding, "Isn't that right, Yuno?"
Yuno glanced at Asta, and he repeated, "Right?"
Yuno simply turned and walked away. A dark shadow fell over Asta's face, and is shoulders shuddered.
"Just you wait…" he muttered before jumping over the wooden fence and running away as Sister Lily called out for him.
"Really, how am I younger than him?" Nash lamented.
Kojo looked at the scene with despondence. He already knew how this would turn out. Asta would get the amazing Anti-Magic and five-leaf clover grimoire, while Yuno would get the four-leaf clover grimoire and the Wind Spirit, Slyph, later down the line.
'I'm the one who is actually dreaming silly, thinking I can get to join the magic knights and become someone of importance too,' he sighed.
Ever since they were little, Kojo had steered clear of the conflict and rivalry between the two, not because he wanted to preserve the original story as he knew it, but because it was Asta and Yuno. They were two orphans from a village on the outskirts, but the world saw them struggle, saw how they fell but kept on getting up, saw how they pushed on regardless of the situation, and inspired others to do the same. They were more important than the Wizard King, even now as nobodies living in a shabby church. They were the main characters of Black Clover.
'How could I ever match up to that?' he muttered.
Even here, he wasn't even given enough importance to be put down like Asta, talkless of being propped up like Yuno. And the reason was evident, he was just a passerby in their journey to the top.
'I guess… it's because this isn't my story.'
Just then, Sister Lily turned to look at Kojo, and reading her face, he already knew what she wanted to ask.
"Don't worry, Sister. I'm on it," he said and went to look for Asta.
***
March…
When the firefly dandelions flew through the air, once a year throughout Clover Kingdom, children who had reached fifteen years of age gathered around for the grimoire award ceremony, a rite of passage that would increase their magical power.
At the Grimoire Tower, young mages looked about the grand structure, their faces beaming with awe and splendor.
"Wow!"
"A-Are all these shelves filled with grimoire?"
"I wonder which is mine!"
Kojo stood a head taller beside Yuno and Asta, and a dark shadow hovered over his eyes. He glanced at Asta pitifully, he could already imagine the embarrassment he was going to face. He told Asta that he would receive his grimoire today, but not at the Grimoire Tower, yet the dude still had a hopeful look on his face.
The sound of crisp footsteps was heard, and a yellow-haired young man in nice clothing said with a smug, "Hmph. I guess today's the day that I become a full-fledged mage."
"Hey, look over there," his companion said, looking at the trio. "Pathetic, aren't they? They shouldn't have to give grimoires to dregs like them."
"Makes me sick to my stomach," the yellow-haired young man said, smiling.
"Do you think they're foolish enough to try and take the Magic Knights' exams?" his companion asked.
"Only high-ranking nobles and royals born with immense magical power stand a chance of passing the exams. See the shrimpy one? I heard he can't even use magic at all."
"Oh-ho-ho, wow. Then we'd better take extra care of him since he's one of a kind. The only person in the entire kingdom who can't use magic."
Kojo was far, but he shot them a glare. 'Those fools.'
Just then, the grand maester arrived and immediately began, "Welcome to Grimoire Tower, young ladies and gentlemen…"