"Even without magical powers, I will be the Wizard King! My magic… is never giving up! Aaarrrgghh…" Asta screamed, making the chains strain as they struggled to hold him down.
"Let's see about that." Revchi grinned, realizing he was frightened for nothing, and made the pages of his grimoire flip.
"Asta won't be able to defeat Revchi without his grimoire. But either way, I guess it's time," Kojo said, extending his hand.
Instantly, chains burst out from the ground beside Revchi and bound him!
The chains binding Asta, Yuno, and the yellow-haired brat and his companion disappeared too.
His eyes widened in shock.
"What is this?!" he screamed in horror at Asta, who continued charging at him.
"Asta, stop!" Kojo, squatting on a broom, landed where the others were and simply answered Revchi, "This is your magic."
"You're the other useless brat that got the unique two-leaf clover grimoire. I was going to look for you after this. Good thing you came to me yourself," Revchi smugly said. "You think you can keep me bound with my own magic?"
"Long enough, yes." Kojo dropped his grimoire and took deliberate steps towards the bound Revchi.
"Long enough for what?" the disgraced knight asked.
"This."
Kojo immediately grabbed Revchi by the neck with his left hand and by the face with his right… and activated his magic.
"What are you doing?!" Revchi screamed and writhed, feeling his mana rapidly drain.
"Stop! Let me go!" He fought.
Kojo scrunched his eyebrows and said, "I allowed you to run amok… to justify what I'm about to do to you."
After what the old tower master told him, he started to rethink a lot of things about his magic. He had had this thought before, but there was no way to test it out, as everyone around him was a good person.
That fateful night five years ago, he followed Asta to find Yuno, who had been sent on an errand by Father to deliver a letter to the Village Chief. And when Asta fought the thief, he was beaten dearly, and five-year-old Kojo couldn't restrain himself. He joined the fight and jumped on the man's back. In his anger, he activated his magic, and he felt himself not just take their magic briefly, but sucked mana out from the man's body. The man quickly threw Kojo off his body, but Kojo used the man's magic on him, causing him to run away as people came out of their houses to see what the noise was.
"Stop! Stop it! I said stop!" Revchi screamed while Yuno and Asta watched silently from the side.
"You have… such an amazing magic power, Revchi. You can bind people with more magic power than you in place. I'm jealous. But instead of trying to make something of yourself, you resort to a life of petty thievery…"
Kojo felt his body fill up with Revchi's mana (pause), and he continued, "Do note, Revchi, I'm not doing this out of spite for what you did to my brothers. You simply were just the only person I could do this to that won't cause me many sleepless nights."
"You think this will stop me? When my mana regenerates later, pray I never find you. Because there will be hell to pay," Revchi said.
"I see," Kojo said, and focused, causing Revchi's mana to drain more quickly.
Kojo could see it. He had sucked Revchi's mana pool dry, but he didn't want to stop. He continued, and a light buried deep in Revchi's body emerged, lighting up his face with thin veins connected to Kojo's fingers.
"W-What is this?! Stop! Stop! Stop him! Please! Aaaah!" Revchi could feel it, a part of his soul, a part of his identity being sucked away.
Asta and Yuno looked at each other, unsure whether to help as Revchi looked like he was in pain.
"You seem to have an interest in unique specimens. Well, welcome to the party," Kojo said with a sinister smile, and finally let go of Revchi.
He looked at his hand with a heavy gaze. 'I didn't have to stop after taking what gives him magic. What would happen if I took his life?'
Just then, the chains holding Revchi dispelled, and he fell to the ground weakly.
His grimoire, which was lying on the floor, suddenly activated and floated above him. Revchi quickly extended his arm out, trying to summon some chains, but nothing happened. If his grimoire was activated, why couldn't he use his magic?
"She's not yours anymore, lil bro," Kojo said and made it land on his right hand.
"No! Give it back!" Revchi screamed, but fainted right after.
'Finally, I have a proper grimoire,' he thought.
Suddenly, Kojo's own grimoire, lying on the ground activated on its own and arose, a thin greyish light surroundings it.
Since it was behind him, Kojo didn't know when it zoomed forward and chomped down on his hand that held Revchi's grimoire!
Kojo's eyes widened in horror. "What the f**k?! Get off me!"
He swung his hand in the air, and his grimoire let go, but Revchi's grimoire was nowhere to be found.
His face twisted with anger, and he pointed at his grimoire, "Spit it out! Now!"
However, Kojo's grimoire chomped down like a mouth. And when it was done, the grey light surrounding it grew fiercer, and it drew closer to Kojo.
Despite not understanding what on earth was happening, Kojo let the grimoire land on his hands.
At that moment, the greyish black cover shed its darkness and became a lighter grey color with crimson red patterns surrounding the edges of the book in a square.
Kojo focused on the dark red two-leaf clover. It tore away before him, revealing… a three-leaf clover as red as crimson!
And then it hit him, "My magic was never to copy… it was to devour."
His grimoire floated up again and opened, pages fluttering. Revchi's spells were there, along with a plethora of empty pages.
"A grimoire that grows by eating other grimoires. A devouring grimoire…"
Kojo sneered. "Heh. I'm amazing."
Hr grinned, grabbed the grimoire, closed it, and turned to face Asta and Yuno.
"Wh-What did you do to him?" Asta asked Kojo.
Kojo answered straightforwardly, "I took away his magic. Now he'll never oppress anyone with it ever again."
"Man, that's harsh," Asta said. "I don't think I'd like anyone to be magicless like me."
"He'll get his magic back… someday, I think," Kojo said in an attempt to placate Asta, using the fact that the kid didn't know how his magic worked.
"You guys—" Yuno called out with a smile.
But just then, a black, shabby grimoire covered in dark red light arrived from above in front of Asta.
"A… grimoire?" He voiced, and it opened.
Yuno smiled. 'I knew it. There's no way Asta wouldn't have been chosen.'
As we all know, an enormous sword arose from its pages and stomped itself into the ground.
Kojo looked at it with annoyance. 'You sure took your time.'
Revchi would've been long gone by now if he hadn't intervened. Kojo didn't know what caused the delay, but this proved one thing: things were changing as compared to how they happened in the original story. 'I should've known this simply because of my presence here.'
Asta grabbed the sword before him and strained his muscles to pick it up.
"I built my body since I couldn't use magic. Seems like it's finally paid off."
Kojo activated his grimoire and released his chains against Asta.
Asta didn't ask why Kojo suddenly turned on him; there was no time, but he raised the sword and slashed forward, instantly nullifying the chain magic.
"What did I tell you?" Kojo smiled.
"Asta," Yuno called out.
"Yuno! Look, I got my grimoire! It's insanely shabby, but I'm gonna take good care of it for the rest of my life, anyway! Ahahaha~," Asta rubbed his face on the grimoire.
Yuno walked forward with a smile.
"Well… you and Kojo saved me yet again. I will repay my debt to you guys one day."
He halted and voiced, "Asta, we made a promise. Do you remember it?"
Asta wore a bit of surprise and walked forward, too. "I actually can't believe that you remember it. The way you've been acting lately, I was pretty sure you had forgotten."
Yuno continued, "I have no interest in being too friendly with my rival. But you're the one who gave me hope… that even though we're poor orphans, commoners, we can become greater than anyone else in this world. And to prove that…"
Asta added, "To make Sister Lily and everybody else happy…"
And they both said in unison, "We'll fight to see who will become the Wizard King. Whatever it takes."
Kojo placed his hand on their shoulders and sighed. "I really can't take you guys out anywhere, can I?"
He walked forward with them.
"Anyway, I'm just happy to be here. I'll always be stronger than both of you, so as the best big bro that I am, I will protect you both with my life."
"But you hung back and watched that creep take Yuno's grimoire…" Asta argued, making Kojo wear an embarrassed expression.
"I could only use his magic once. I had to wait for the perfect opportunity," Kojo explained.
Yuno thought and added, "That means you watched as he beat Asta, too."
That, he couldn't justify. He just wanted Asta to be the savior of the day, not him.
"H-Hey now, forget the past. All is well that ends well. Who wants some tatoes? On me."
With that, their story began. Each had a unique number of clover leaves: Five, which held a demon, Four, which held immense power and good luck, and Three, formerly Two, which held faith, hope, and love… but was SSS-Rank!