Two Years Later- Hage village
Walking down a road in the middle of Hage village, I looked down at my wrist, watching the green number "10" shimmer into view—visible only to me. A small smile tugged at my lips as I reflected on how much had changed since that incident with Asta and Yuno two years ago.
It had been two years since that day when I'd saved them from the drunk man who'd stolen Yuno's pendant. Two years since I'd gained their trust and felt that incredible surge of mana that came with it. Even though my number and mana reserves hadn't progressed much since then—the trust from main characters seemed to be a rare, precious thing—I had made great progress over the past two years in other ways.
After receiving the trust value from Asta and Yuno, my mana reserves had increased drastically, allowing me far more freedom with my powers than I'd ever had before. With the recent addition of my four new younger siblings at the church, I'd also managed to increase my trust value from 6 to 10, making this newfound freedom even more pronounced.
Through careful experimentation, I'd discovered that my mana reserves now stood at roughly half the value of Yuno's—which, considering Yuno had some of the highest reserves in the series, I thought it would actually be quite impressive.
(It was around the amount most nobility would possess, though still less than the truly powerful nobles, and royalty)
I wasn't entirely sure whether this was a lot compared to others, since Asta provided no reference point and my only other comparison had been a magic knight I'd glimpsed four years ago, about a week after arriving in this world, when knights had come to investigate the phenomenon that had occurred with my arrival and the snap. Luckily, they hadn't asked the church directly, so nothing had pointed back to me.
With this substantial increase in mana, I had discovered some frustrating limitations to my powers. I found I wasn't able to affect people directly—my abilities seemed limited to a domain of the environment around me, affecting only objects and materials. I also couldn't manipulate the space around me in any meaningful way. I suspected these restrictions would lift when I received my grimoire, and hopefully that would fully unlock my potential.
But the most exciting development had been my newfound ability to create illusions. With enough mana to finally implement the training plan I'd been thinking about for years, I could now directly create illusions of anime characters I remembered from my past life to simulate sparring sessions.
I'd been surprised to discover that although I didn't consciously remember every move and fighting style of these characters, when I used my technique, I could somehow reach memories I'd thought were deeply buried. The mana seemed to compensate by using my power to directly bring the character I thought of into reality as an illusion, complete with their techniques and fighting knowledge.
Using this method, I'd been able to learn swordsmanship from Yoriichi from Demon Slayer—the only skilled swordsman I could think of from anime, since I hadn't been a huge otaku in my past life and had only watched the popular shows. I'd also managed to bring forth an adult version of X to teach myself hand-to-hand combat, as well as Might Guy for his taijutsu techniques.
That's right, I was learning how to perfect the art of aura farming with X's fighting style of hands in pockets looking nonchalant.
The results had been remarkable. I'd improved tremendously, limited only by my body's age and the fact that I'd only had about a year to train seriously since getting my mana control up to the level needed for this technique.
Asta and Yuno had been joining me for training much more frequently lately since the incident, seemingly obsessed with getting stronger and becoming Wizard King. It made me chuckle to myself, especially watching Asta try to learn swordsmanship from sparring with an illusion of Yoriichi and myself. The muscle brain attempting to learn actual technique was quite entertaining.
I'd also been working with Yuno on mana control, helping him refine his abilities.
Coming out of my musings, I looked around and realized that now I needed to figure out a way to gain more trust points and increase my mana reserves further. I'd been pondering how to go about it when I thought about starting to help the villagers around town with different tasks—perhaps working on their farms or assisting with various problems.
My contemplation was interrupted by a sudden commotion that caught my attention. A woman came running out onto the street, crying and shouting for Ben, asking if anyone had seen him. People started gathering as the village chief approached, asking what was wrong.
She frantically explained that her son Ben had gone missing, and she'd seen bandits running off with other children earlier that morning.
Hearing this, the village chief frowned deeply while people around began asking if they could call for magic knights or the hunting party from their village—the group that usually helped drive off magic beasts. But the chief shook his head solemnly, explaining that it would take too long and they weren't guaranteed to come anyway, since magic knights rarely ventured this far out unless there were problems near the borders.
Hearing this, the mother began crying harder. I frowned as well, but found myself thinking that if I somehow managed to save those kids, I might be able to gather significantly more trust points and mana.
Acting on this thought, I walked over to a nearby tree and grabbed a thick branch. Snapping my fingers, I watched as it transformed into a functional broom. Without hesitation, I launched myself into the sky and flew off toward the forest in the direction the mother had indicated the bandits had gone.
After flying around for some time, I sensed a large concentration of mana gathering from a cave up ahead. Frowning, I headed toward it.
Approaching the cave entrance, I carefully masked my mana presence and moved inside stealthily. What I saw made my blood boil: several men were scattered around the cave, with four children trapped inside crude cages, crying and looking terrified.
Taking stock of the situation, I realized I didn't sense much mana from three of the men—they looked like typical slavers or bandits, probably both. However, one of them seemed to have a decent amount of mana, and I could see a bright red grimoire at his side.
Psyching myself up, I thought, "Okay, you can do this. Only four of them. You've trained for four years for situations like this."
Reaching into my pocket, I pulled out four bronze coins. I tossed one high into the air and snapped my fingers, causing the entire cave to erupt in brilliant white light that blinded the four men. They immediately erupted into chaos, screaming curses and covering their eyes.
Unaffected by my own spell, I quickly tossed the remaining three coins toward the three weaker bandits, snapping my fingers again. The coins transformed directly into knives that flew through the air, embedding themselves into the men. They screamed in pain and collapsed to the ground.
The last man, gathering his bearings despite the chaos, saw his companions on the floor and screamed in rage. "You little brat! I'll kill you for this!"
I snapped my fingers again, transforming my makeshift broom into a sword, then wrapped my body in mana to create a protective skin that enhanced my defense, speed, and power. I began running toward the mage.
The man sneered, opening his grimoire. "Fire Magic: Fireball!" he shouted, sending a large ball of flame hurtling toward me.
Cursing internally, I thought, "My defense should hold up against this, but the explosion might injure the kids." I quickly pulled out another coin, flicking it forward and snapping my fingers. The coin expanded into a barrier of mana that blocked the fireball's progress.
Seeing this display of magic, the man laughed. "With magic like that at your age, you should fetch a good price once I capture you!" His grimoire began flipping pages before stopping.
-SNAP-
Seeing Kenji running to the side trying to get away, the man aimed his attack at him pouring a large amount of mana into the spell.
"Fire Creation Magic: Fire Bull's Charge!" creating a massive bull made of fire formed, charging directly at the running Kenji.
The fire bull hit its target and the man heard a scream, thinking he had succeeded. He laughed out loud, celebrating his apparent victory.
But then he heard a voice directly behind him saying "shit, I can't do it." He turned around in shock to see the boy who should be on the other side of the cave burning.
-Snap-
The next thing he new a bat came flying directly into his vision, before everything went dark.
Flashback - Kenji's POV
"With magic like that at your age, you should fetch a good price once I capture you!"
After hearing this I saw the man begin flipping through his grimoire for what i guess would be another spell. Thinking quickly a plan began to form in my head.
-SNAP-
Following the snap in my place stood a perfect illusion of myself, with the real me blending into the environment around me and suppressing my mana signature as low as possible.
The illusion then ran in the opposite direction of the children as to avoid them getting hurt fro the next spell, as the real me ,asked my mana and ran in the opposite direction.
I watched as the bull formed and struck my illusion with tremendous force, before coming up behind the man.
I raised my sword, preparing to strike him down. But mid-swing, I began to freeze up. I became stressed because I wasn't sure I could actually take a life, causing me to hesitate. Feeling the psychological burden of killing, I muttered to myself "shit, I can't do it" before sighing and snapping my fingers, turning my sword into a bat and knocking the man unconscious instead.
After the confrontation ended, I found myself breathing heavily, staring at my shaking hands and sweating profusely. I stood there for several minutes, trying to process what had just happened and gather my composure.
When I finally walked over to check on the other three men, I was shocked to discover they were on the floor, bleeding and no longer breathing.
"What? I didn't mean for this to happen," I thought shakily. "That was supposed to incapacitate them, not..." I began to internally panic for several minutes before forcing myself to calm down. "They were slavers," I reminded myself firmly. "They deserved it. Suppress this feeling right now and deal with what's at hand."
Yes thats definitely healthy but screw it
I went to the crying children, letting them out of their cages and doing my best to calm them down. Snapping my fingers, I created a wagon from a large rock beside the cave entrance and gently placed the children inside, telling them everything would be alright.
I tied up the unconscious mage and secured him to the back of the cart. Using my broom to pull the makeshift wagon, I began the journey back to the village with the children safely aboard and the captured bandit dragging behind us on the ground.
When I reached the village, I immediately drew looks from the villagers. Seeing the children and the man being dragged behind, I could see the shock and curiosity on the faces of a lot of them.
"Whats going on"
"Is that Kenji what is he doing"
"Who is that man he's dragging"
Ignoring the looks for now
I pulled up toward the village chief and the mothers of the missing children. Both the children and their parents called out to each other, running forward and embracing tearfully.
The village chief approached me, shocked. "Kenji, what the hell happened?"
I explained the situation—how I'd found the children being held by slavers in a cave, and that the man tied up behind us was one of the kidnappers. The crowd that had been forming listened intently as the village chief's expression shifted from grim to shocked, and then he began scolding me
"What the hell were you thinking running off alone like that! You could have got hurt or worse! You should have waited for the hunters to get back to deal with this"
Finally after about a minute of harsh scolding, the village chief began to calm down.
Kenji: "Careful old man, calm down or your gonna give yourself a heart attack"
Hearing this the Chief gained a tick mark before sighing to himself. Smiling he patted my head saying "You did a good thing though, Kenji. You're a hero." He mused aloud, "Who knows? You might become the first magic knight to come from Hage Village."
Hearing this, I smiled confidently and said "of course I will old man leave it to me" giving him a thumbs up."
The mothers and children then approached, thanking me profusely. I smiled somewhat embarrassedly, rubbing the back of my head and telling them not to sweat it.
Suddenly, I noticed green lights flowing from the villagers surrounding me toward my wrist. When I looked down, I saw my number had increased dramatically—from 10 to 45.
I smiled to myself as I heard someone shout, "Let's celebrate Kenji, the future magic knight!" The crowd cheered enthusiastically.
As the celebration continued around me, I found myself thinking that I had finally discovered my path forward to getting stronger. By helping people and earning their genuine trust and admiration, I could continue growing in power while making a real difference in their lives.
Finishing this though I heard a loud shout and looked over to once again see father Orsi flying towards me yelling "KENJIIIII!!! What were you thinking? Are you trying to get yourself killed!"
Seeing this I muttered "uh-oh" and wanting to escape the coming lecture, yelled out to the villagers around me "Gotta go!" and hopped on my broom flying away, making everyone laugh seeing father Orsi yelling trying to catch me on the way back to the church.
_______
What do you think of this chapter let me know in the comments.
The next chapter we will see skip forward a bit to see Kenji heading to get his grimoire. With it you will see him be seeing him do a lot more cool stuff with his powers. If you have any thoughts or anything you wanna see him do with them let me know.
Also im torn between having him join the Black Bulls because he wants to live a fun and free life (I know the joining black bulls is overused but it best fits his character) or the choral peacocks as I feel the captain there could show him ways to use his power.
Vote here what squad you wanna see him join:
Black bulls-
Choral Peacocks-
Crimson Lion-
Silver Eagles-
Green mantis-
Azure Deer-
Blue rose-
Purple orcas-
Golden Dawn-