Chapter 3

Elara, Asta, and the other members of the Black Bulls suddenly found themselves outside the base. A couch was situated outside too, in front of it were Magna and Asta, while the others were either standing beside or sitting on the couch.

Elara was one of the ones sitting on the couch, rubbing her hands against her trousers as they were sweating heavily in nerves. Asta decided he wanted to go first so she had to wait for her turn.

"Hey, hick from Hage!" Magna shouted. "If you want one of these robes, get through this trial I'm about to give you."

"Got it!" Asta shouted back, hyped up.

While the others were either bored, giving their support to Asta, or just wanting to do it too like Luck, Elara, on the other hand, was nervous as hell.

She watched as Asta did five thousand sit-ups and five thousand push-ups. She had to watch him lift a massive boulder, and even try to break it with his own head. Oh she was so dead after this.

I have to do all that too?!

So dead.

Vanessa, who was sitting next to Elara, noticed how nervous and rigid the girl looked and decided to comfort the poor thing.

"Oh don't worry darling, I'm sure Magna won't let you do all those things. If he would, then he's gone totally demented." She said while wrapping her arm around Elara.

This didn't help settle Elara's nerves at all. Instead, she stiffened and got all red in the face yet again.

Get it together Elara! If this is how she dresses everyday, how are you supposed to live with her if you can't take it?

Elara closed her eyes and took a deep breath trying to calm herslef down from both the initiation and the fact that the underdressed woman was so close to her and she could just feel her exposed skin.

"Even I wouldn't be able to do all that with or  without my magic" Vanessa continued.

Elara's eyes abruptly snapped open as an idea suddenly came to mind.

THAT'S IT!

A smirk formed on her lips as the idea gave her the confidence that she needed.

In that moment, the ghost of her past self resurfaced and replaced the somewhat quiet and reserved girl that she became after the incident that happened 6 years ago.

Vanessa looked to her right to see if the short girl was still sweating and shaking form nerves but found herself confused once she'd seen the enormous grin on her face. Shrugging off her confusion, she concluded that maybe her efforts of trying to console the girl weren't put to vain and the girl was just feeling a bit better now.

That was easy. Vanessa thought, smiling to herself as she continued to watch Asta do all the things Magna had ordered him to do with persistence.

"That kid's not bad, though this is pointless." Elara suddenly heard Vanessa say form her left, making her look at her.

Big mistake on her part because as soon as she saw the older woman, her face turned beet red. She internally smacked herself, trying to make herself snap out of it.

Get it together! Get it together! Get it together!

She finally did when she heard another voice speak up. She looked to her right and saw that it was Luck who was speaking, "Not that it matters since magic is everything in this world, but he has a crazy amount of energy."

This caused Elara to turn her attention back to Asta and her brows creased as she started pondering.

"I've seen him in action on the Exam," Elara started which caught the attention of both the people beside her. She suddenly grinned wider and excitment filled her body to the point where there were stars in her eyes, "I don't know what type of magic he does since I can't even sense any mana from him but what he did was really cool!"

Before she saw that guy with the four leaf clover beat up that noble, she saw a bunch of others battle before that, one of them being Asta. (Basically, she arrived just in time to witness the start of the final test in the entrance exam) She saw him pull out that awesome large sword of his and watched him beat his opponent in an instant.

"Ehh? What's gotten you so hyped up, darling? Just a while ago you were so quiet and nervous." Vanessa voiced her thoughts but was unanswered as the girl beside her was too engrossed in her own excitement.

Suddenly Vanessa started to feel the girl's mana heighten at an alarming rate, which caused her to retract her arm from the girl and stare at her in confusion. This ever growing mana didn't go unnoticed by the others as they began to look at the source in confusion as well.

Yami blew smoke from his cigar before hitting the girl in the head which caused the mana to stop growing abruptly.

"OUCH!" Elara exclaimed as she rubbed her abused head, pouting at her captain.

"Calm down Miz Dynamite. Wouldn't want you to blow, now would we?" Yami said nonchalantly, not even sparing a glance at the girl.

"Oh! Sorry..." Elara said sheepishly and tried to keep her emotions at bay, getting what her captain was trying to tell her.

The other members watched the scene in confusion, with a lot of questions going unanswered in their minds. Even Magna and Asta stopped what they were doing for a moment as Magna too, felt the overwhelming mana from moments ago. All the while Asta was only looking at the other members in confusion, questioning why they were suddenly staring at Elara.

"Oi! What are you standing around for? Just get on with it already, I'm reaching my limits here!" Yami bluntly said, indicating that he wanted to take a dump soon.

Magna finally snapped out of his reverie, "Oh! Right.." he said shaking his head and suddenly snapping it towards Asta's direction, startling the shorter guy.

"Now! For the final trial in the initiation!" He shouted which snapped the other members out of their own reveries, making them turn away from looking at Elara, who was trying to make herself sink into the couch because of all the eyes that were directed at her until that moment.

Phew! That was close...

She then, like the others, put her attention towards the two guys in front of them, anticipating the events that will happen next.

"You can use magic or whatever else you want..." Magna started as his grimoire flipped open and a ball of flame appeared on his palm, "to either block or dodge my attack magic!"

"If you're able to do that, you'll officially be one of us Black Bulls. You'll get your precious robe!"

I'm keeping this robe. Elara thought to herself in determination with an excited grin on her face.

"G-got it! I'll do my best!" Asta shouted, determined as well.

"Hold up your grimoire, you stupid shrimp!" Magna shouted as his own grimoire kept flipping.

"Yes sir!" Asta shouted with as much hype. He stick his hand over his grimoire and pulled out his giant sword from it.

There it is! So cool!

Mana started building up inside her again but was quickly stopped when Yami's fist collided with the top of her head.

"I said calm down, you brat!" Yami said in irritation.

"Ehhhh!? Sorry..."

Luckily, the others were too fascinated by Asta's giant sword to notice the interaction this time.

Elara turned back to watch the battle going on in front of her and watched as Magna summoned his flaming bat from inside his grimoire.

"You ready!?"

"Yup!"

"Here I go!" Magna threw his back bat, getting ready to hit his flaming ball.

"Bring it on, sir!" Asta said in his own stance.

Magna then started hitting a bunch of flaming balls towards Asta at high speed. Asta was able to dodge all of them which Magna acknowledge, "Not bad!"

"Yes sir!"

"But the true test...starts now!" Magna's bat disappeared and his grimoire started flipping again. He then summoned a much larger flaming ball compared to the others.

"It's so hot" Vanessa commented, fanning herself while all the others just watched on intently. Though, Finral had his grimoire open just in case he needed to save the newbie.

"Flame Magic: Exploding Fireball!" He then threw the ball of flame towards Asta.

"Die!"

The attack was as fast as it was intense, that was for sure. At first it looked like the kid was done for, but to everyone's surprise, Asta pulled through. Asta swung his sword and hit the flaming ball. Elara's eyes widened as she saw that Asta's sword didn't cut through the attack, but instead it rebounded the attack.

The flaming ball went straight back to its original caster and exploded before anyone could see it coming.

Woah... Elara thought with wide eyes, a childlike sparkle of wonder present in it, just like how they used to before the tragic incident happened.

"Waaahhhh! He hit it! He hit it!" Luck chanted excitedly.

"Wow" Vanessa awed.

She was not the only one as basically everyone who was a witness became in awe at the display, although some weren't so keen on actually showing it.

"It's been a while since we didn't have to save a new recruiter's hide." Finral said, sounding impressed as he shut his grimoire close.

Elara watched in double wonder as Magna walked out of the explosion zone, on fire.

He survived that? I thought he'd at least be knocked out.

"You little bastard." Magna muttered as he walked straight towards Asta who was also in shock.

"I was able to nullify it in time, so I'm fine, but I was almost offed by my own magic."

Ooh! That's why. Good job living Magna senpai!

"You little bastard!" Magna then went into a sprint and suddenly stopped in front of Asta, gripping his shoulders as Asta was frozen in shock.

Or is it terror?

"You're not half bad!" Magna suddenly exclaimed and started laughing which obviously caught both Elara and Asta off guard.

Eh? I thought for sure he was about to take revenge and kill Asta right on the spot.

He then started patting Asta on the back aggressively, "Not only were you able to block my magic, you actually sent it right back at me!"

"I like you, Shrimpsta!" Magna said in delight.

Ehhh! I wanna be acknowledge too! Elara sulked in jealousy, pouting.

"I-it's Asta!" Asta tried correcting.

"Sorry I made fun of you for being a backwoods hick with little magical power. I'm actually from out in the country myself. I'm from Rayaka Village, just above Hage."

"Whoa, seriously? Rayaka Village is way out in the sticks!"

"Like you can talk!"

"Actually, it's not that I have little magical power. I don't have any at all." Asta said which caught everyone's attention.

"Huh? You don't have any magical power? And yet you were able to hit my attack back at me?"

"Y-yeah.." Asta replied back, nervously.

"That's even more awesome! So that means you're a real man..." Magna said in acknowledgement.

Then suddenly, some of the Black Bulls' members left the couch, leaving Elara, Finral and Yami to watch as they bombarded Asta.

"All right. Let's start the second initiation!" Luck said and started punching the air in front of Asta whilst laughing, "Let's try to kill each other!"

Vanessa then got into Asta's face yet again, making him flustered, "You looked great out there, little boy."

"Uh, thanks.." Asta replied, still flustered.

"Here." Asta then looked over and saw Charmy presenting him a cupcake, "Try it. It's yummy. Okay?"

"Oh, thanks." -Asta

"Here! I'm being generous. You can have half!" Charmy said, now presenting him half the cupcake instead of the whole thing. But then she started staring at the half eaten cupcake and started drooling.

"Actually, half of half!"

"Thanks!" And that's how Asta ended up eating only the half of half a cupcake.

"Yummy!" Asta and Charmy both exclaimed with stars in their eyes after taking a bite of the delicious pasty.

Then before anything further could've been done, Finral came with Yami in tow, clapping his hands to get their attention, "Now, now Magna, did you forget something?" He said pointing towards Elara, who was sulking in jealousy the whole time Asta was being praised.

Elara looked up as soon as she felt stares directed on her, "Oh?"

"Are you still getting her initiated, or are we just letting her in?" Elara suddenly perked up at that, grinning.

"Oh! I prefer the latter please!" Elara chimed standing up from the couch in excitement.

"Oh no you don't, you brat!" Magna said, pointing at her accusingly.

This caused Elara to droop playfully, "Awwww! Welp, I guess it can't be helped", she shrugged, still smiling.

"What're you grinning for, you brat? You should be cowering in my presence. Now cower!" Magna ordered.

"Ehh... but I can't if I'm already this excited." Elara stated while scratching her head.

"Why do you look so smug, huh? Do you want the robe or not?" Magna was getting irritated because of the girl's easy going attitude, which was the total opposite of how he left her earlier.

"Yes please!" An irk mark appeared on his face at the chipper reply.

That's it! Magna thought in agitation.

"Then do five thousand sit-ups!"

"Now, now virgin delinquent, let's be reasonable here and go easy on the excercises" Vanessa tried to reason with the guy but it only irked him more.

"Who are you calling a delinquent!?"

This only made Elara's grin grow wider, as she watched in amusement. Then while they weren't looking, she silently casted a spell, immediately putting her plan in motion.

Having enough of bickering with Vanessa, Magna turned back to Elara, who was still grinning in her place, "You! Why aren't you doing what I told you to do!?"

"Oh yes!" Elara said in an unusually delighted tone, bewildering the rest of the squad.

She's actually going to do it?!

Then to their astonishment, they witnessed as Elara complied the five thousand sit-ups that Magna asked for.

Ehhh!? Wasn't she just nervous about this earlier? Vanessa thought, baffled.

In complete confusion, the squad watched as Elara complied to everything Magna has told her to do, in an alarming speed, without even breaking a single sweat. All while a smile was present on her face. This caused Magna to become flustered and irritated as hell to the point where he kept adding exercises and things to do left and right until he was out of breath.

"How..are you...doing that?" Magna said in between gasps, looking as if he was the one complying the exercises instead of Elara herself, who was by the way, still completely fresh and smiling. Not a trace of exhaustion showing on her face.

This isn't right. What did the kid do? Yami thought.

As if on cue, hysterical laughter was suddenly heard from behind all of them. They all looked to find the source and was even more bewildered than they already were.

"EHHH!?" They all exclaimed, except for Yami of course, as they stared at Elara, who was laughing so hard that she was practically rolling on the ground a couple of meters away from them.

And as if the situation wasn't strange enough already, they suddenly felt the overwhelming increase of mana from her and before Yami even had the chance to stop her, a loud explosion came from the girl, making the members shield their eyes as a gust of wind and smoke surrounded Elara. Once the smoke cleared, they sweatdropped, watching Elara, who was still laughing hysterically on the ground, but now with a huge crater underneath her.

What just happened? The whole squad questioned in their minds, while as Yami just had a deadpan look on his face.

They turned back to the front to see Elara, who was still in the same position when they looked away. In utter confusion, the group looked back and forth between the two Elaras. The other one with an excited smile, while the other was on the ground, laughing.

"Tch" Yami's lips twitched.

This kid. He thought.

Then the group turned to look at Yami, bewildered when he also started laughing, joining Elara.

"Oh...all of your faces!" Elara wheezed as she slowly tried to stand up, "you were all 'huh?' and 'ha?', I just can't!" She said while doing faces in between, trying to imitate the members when they were all watching 'her' do everything Magna said.

"You got us fooled kid!" Yami laughed as he started patting Elara on the back, rather forcefully, but she was too busy laughing to feel the pain right now.

At that statement, the others started to put two and two together and decided on a conclusion. She was obviously using her magic. This brought on mixed reactions, from amusement to irritation, the irritation being Magna. Although Gauche just went back to staring at Marie's picture.

"Uhm...Can somebody please explain to me what's happening!? Why are there suddenly two Elaras!?" Asta yelled in confusion with smoke coming out of his head.

Oh bless the kid.

Yami's laughter stopped and he suddenly grabbed Asta by the head, "How stupid can you be shrimp? She obviously used magic!"

"Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow!" Asta exclaimed in pain.

"So what type of magic did you use?" Vanessa asked, curiously when Elara finally regained her composure and stopped laughing, "Was it Illusion Magic?"

Elara only shook her head with a smile and walked towards her double, "You're only partially right" she said, reaching for her double.

The others watched as her hand just passed right through her double, "yes, she's an illusion, we can't touch it and she can't touch us, or anything at all actually"

"I use Lunar Magic. This illusion is made from the light of the moon, luckily for me, it's a clear sky tonight" Elara explained as she looked at the sky where the stars and the moon could be seen shining brightly.

By that time, Asta was already released from Yami's death grip. Elara watched, amused as Asta marveled at the illusion with stars in his eyes.

"Wow!" He even went as far as trying to touch it and moving his hands through it to see if he actually couldn't touch it.

"Wait, so if she can't touch anything then how did she lift that boulder from earlier?" Asta asked, his attention going back to the real Elara.

The others who were also curious looked at you, awaiting your answer.

"Oh! That's only because the boulder itself was also an illusion!" Elara answered with a smile, waving her hand towards her double.

The others watched as a huge rock suddenly appeared beside the illusion Elara. She then proceeded to lift the rock effortlessly into the air.

"I conjured them up when you guys were too busy listening to Magna senpai and Vanessa senpai's bickering" The real Elara explained, waving her hand again, making the illusions disappear.

Vanessa chuckled in amusement, wrapping one of her arms around Elara's shoulders, "You really had us fooled, darling."

To Elara's surprise, she wasn't as fazed as she was before about Vanessa's closeness. Only a faint tint of pink that was barely noticeable was present on her face, making her smile in accomplishment. This only meant that she was getting used to Vanessa and her choice of clothing.

"That was so funny. I can tell we're gonna be great friends." Gordon inaudible mumbling came, making Elara sweatdrop.

I still can't understand what he's saying.

"Can you make an illusion of my angel, Marie?" Gauche demanded, making Elara turn towards him, the drop of sweat still present.

"Yup! Magna's face was so funny now that I'm looking back at it." Luck said, cheerfully laughing as he reminisced the look on Magna's face when they thought that Elara was actually doing all the things he ordered.

"What did you say!?" Magna, who was fuming the whole time Elara was talking, finally spoke up in irritation, pointing an accusing finger towards Luck with an irk mark on his forehead. He couldn't believe that he was tricked and by his new kouhai no less!

He then twisted his body so he would be pointing to Elara this time, "And you! How dare you make a fool out of me in front of Mr. Yami!" He exclaimed, now with a lot of irk marks on his face.

Yami just watched with a deadpan expression, blowing smoke as usual. Wasn't he already a fool? He thought.

"This time, I'm not holding back anymore just because you're the new recruit, so be prepared!" Magna declared, his grimoire now floating in front of him, ready for the final part of the initiation.

Elara was about to take out her own grimoire but was stopped when Vanessa once again put her arm around her shoulders, "There's no need virgin delinquent! I like her, so she's in! She already has a robe anyways!"

"Yup! Hey, there's something familiar about you! Wanna fight?" Luck suddenly popped up in front of her with an excited grin.

Elara didn't know what he meant by 'there's something familiar about you' because she was sure that she hasn't met anyone named Luck before but she was glad to accept a fight since Vanessa stopped her from fighting Magna.

"Sure! I'd love to-" but then she was pulled away by Vanessa, "No, she won't!" Vanessa cut her off.

Charmi then offered Elara a cupcake and just like Asta, she ended up only eating a half of half. "Yummy!"

"That's great. Now we can be best friends." Gordon murmured and once again, wasn't heard by anybody.

Grey just grunted and blew smoke from his mouth.

"That means we'll be newbies together, Elara!" Asta exclaimed in excitement, "Let's work hard together!"

"Yeah!" Elara said with an equal amount of excitement.

"That's right, our new cuties!" Vanessa said, slinging her other arm around Asta. She then dragged them towards the base with the others following, happily welcoming their new members.

Meanwhile Magna was left behind with his mouth hanging open from disbelief, "Hey! She can only join when I say so! Come back! We're not done yet!"

His shouts were either unheard or ignored as the others entered the base, leaving him outside.

And this, ladies and gentlemen, was how Magna found himself another member who liked to tease him.