Chapter Text
A young boy runs towards the field while many voices of adults call for him to come back. The boy ignored the voices and kept running. He needed to see who was producing those wonderful melodies. The boy's name was Shu Itsuki, the young master of a noble household.
He was just heading home after attending a party hosted by a family friend. As he rode the carriage while two Magic Knights accompanied him, he heard someone singing from the distance. The voice captivated Shu, he thought he just heard the most beautiful voice in the entire world. So he jumped down from the carriage and created wooden dolls using his magic to catch him before he fell to the ground. Then he started to run in the direction of the singing voice.
When he got there, he saw the most beautiful person he ever laid his eyes on. There was a boy with raven hair dancing gracefully under the moonlight as he sang a song Shu was not familiar with. Shu continued to listen to the boy sing, captivated by the performance in front of him.
The boy slowly opens his eyes as he continues to move gracefully. Shu saw the boy had different irises, his right eye was golden while the left was aqua blue. Shu could only describe it in one word, beautiful. He found it, he found his muse, his model, his perfect angel.
The boy suddenly stopped his performance as he noticed that someone was watching him. "Wahh, 'm sorry, I didn't know someone would see me,"
"You, what's your name?" Shu asked him with a bit of a harsh tone.
"M-Mika," he responded meekly.
"Mika..." Shu muttered his name as he came closer. "From now on, you will be my muse!"
"What?" Mika was confused by the situation.
Shu was an artist by heart. He was not like his other family members. He was not like his older brother who was strong and liked fighting. He was not like his older sister who was kind and pleasant to be around. He was peculiar. He spent his time making clothes and accessories. He struts around with the elaborate outfits that he made and uses a rose-themed umbrella to protect himself from the sun. He and his father always fight about this behavior of his.
For the past couple of days, Shu has found himself in a mental block due to a lack of inspiration. All the designs he created, were failures in his eyes. He wanted to create something different and unique. And when he saw Mika, his mind was immediately filled with many ideas. That's how he knew he found his muse.
"My muse! My inspiration! My beautiful angel!" Shu grabbed Mika by the shoulders as he looked at him excitedly.
"M'sorry, ma brain is kinda dumb so I don't understand," Mika said.
"All you need to know is that I'm taking you away and you will live with me from now on," Shu says bluntly.
"B-but ma brothers and sisters will get worried,"
"Hmm," Shu thought for a second. "Where do you live?"
"At the orphanage," Mika pointed at the building nearby.
Orphanage? Shu thought for a second. He didn't expect his beautiful muse would be an orphan. That would be a bit complicated, it would have been easier if he had parents since he could just offer Mika something like a job and have his parents approve of it but being an orphan poses a problem, especially with his father. His father isn't fond of commoners as he thinks so highly of himself and the status difference between nobility and commoners.
"That doesn't matter, from now on I will be your caretaker," Shu declared boldly.
"But..." Mika was happy at first that someone was willing to take him but then got sad thinking that he would have to leave his brothers and sisters at the orphanage.
"You can still visit them if you want, I'll even support the orphanage if you agree," Shu was being a bit forceful but he already decided that he must get his angel no matter what the cost.
Mika thought for a moment about the offer. The orphanage has been lacking funds for the past months and his brothers and sisters barely get to eat anything every day. He tries to get some work but not many people are willing to take a 7-year-old boy to work for them.
"W-will ya really support the orphanage if I go with ya?" Mika asked hopefully.
"Yes," Shu held his angel's hands.
"Okay, I'll go," Mika agrees.
"Perfect!" Shu started to lead Mika back. "I'll have your stuff taken back to my home tomorrow,"
~
"Mika!" Shu slammed the door open. The raven-haired boy opened his eyes and groggily sat up on the bed. "The exam is in three hours, and you still haven't got up?"
A couple of years have passed since Shu 'adopted' Mika. When he brought Mika home, he got into a huge argument with his father. His father asked him to take Mika back to the orphanage but Shu wasn't willing to give up on his muse, so he started to work hard to have Mika stay by his side. By the age of 15, he became a Magic Knight and a member of Golden Dawn. And at 16 he already became a 1st class senior knight. That was enough to shut his father up for good.
Mika was grateful for what Shu had done for him. He thought that he would just be working on manual labor for Shu but he didn't expect that he would be spoiled to oblivion by him. He made his clothes, provided him with his room, and most importantly, kept his promise to support the orphanage.
Seeing the clothes that Shu made Mika admired him even more. He was astonished at the beautiful art that Shu produced from clothes to even paintings. It was mesmerizing to see him work on his art and see the final product. Mika asked Shu if he could teach him to make beautiful things like he does which the latter happily agreed to. Mika started to call Shu 'Teach' when he became his mentor.
"Nghh..." Mika rubbed his eyes. "But it is still early, Teach,"
"Non! One should look presentable even if it's an exam," Shu helps Mika get up from the bed. "Come here, I'll help you dress,"
Shu leads Mika in front of the mirror. Mika raised his arms straight as Shu removed his night clothing. Shu opened his closet and chose a white dress shirt. He helps Mika put it on, arranging his arms to fit into the sleeves and buttoning the shirt up. He grabbed a sleeveless black shirt to put on top of the dress shirt.
"Ngh...do I have to wear this many layers of clothin'," Mika grumbled seeing it a hassle to wear this many clothes.
"Yes, I want everyone to be mesmerized by your beauty during the exam," Shu smirked and grabbed some pants. He embraces Mika from behind and starts to fawn over him. "Ahh~ you are so utterly beautiful,"
"Hearin' Teach praised me give me lots of confidence!" Mika cheered.
"After you pass the exam, do you know which squad you want to join?" Shu asked him as he combed his hair.
"I want to join Teach's squad!" Mika says happily.
"Good," Shu patted his head.
Shu trained Mika on his magic since he 'adopted' him. He found that Mika had a lot of magic in him surpassing most royals in the kingdom despite being raised in the forsaken realm. He started to train him when he was 10 when he had just been accepted at Golden Dawn.
Mika received his grimoire last year. Shu was surprised when Mika received a four-leaf clover on his grimoire. Four-leaf clovers signify luck in the kingdom. Shu expects Mika will be able to achieve great things in the future.
Though he would like to have Mika focus on art, he wanted Mika to experience the world so he could create his own 'art'. Mika has an overreliance on him and has very little self-worth. He thought that joining the Magic Knights and having some peers his age would be beneficial for his growth.
~
Shu escorted Mika to the exam area. He could have just asked his Captain to recruit Mika but he wanted to determine his current progress. He parted ways with Mika at the entrance and headed inside. He would be watching with the other Captains and their attendees.
Mika headed inside after having his grimoire checked. There are lots of people inside and most of them look like they come from the common realm. Mika tries to avoid interacting with them as he is not used to talking with strangers. Now that he thought about it, the only people Mika had talked to were his Teach and his brothers and sisters from the orphanage.
He grabbed a piece of candy from his pocket and ate it. Eating candy before an event makes him less nervous. However, Shu forbids him from eating candy before an event as it will hinder his performance.
"Hey Yuno! What are doing at the corner?" Someone suddenly touched his shoulder causing Mika to squeak.
"Hiiiiie!" Mika took a step back still having his back turned.
"Huh? Did your voice change?"
"Asta, I'm right here," another guy appeared.
"Eh? Then who's this?" the boy asked. Mika hesitantly looked at the two of them.
The one who touched him was shorter than him. He has green eyes and messy ash-blonde hair. Mika also noticed that he has a pretty muscular build and there are lots of birds hovering around him. The other person who came had golden eyes and a raven set of hair. He seems to be the same height as Mika but his face reminds him of someone, he just can't put his finger on it.
"M'sorry...I'm not used to gettin' touch by others," Mika says with a flushed face.
The two boys stayed silent as the two of them stared at Mika with shocked expressions. On the other hand, Mika got even more flustered when they suddenly just stared at him. He is a bit conscious when people stare at his face, especially his eyes.
"Yuno...why does he look like?" the shorter boy looked at his friend dumbfounded.
"I don't know..." the other says absentmindedly as he continues to stare at Mika.
"Ngh?" Mika looked at them with a confused look. Now that he has taken a closer look. The other guy's face looks similar to him. Mika shrugged it off as just a coincidence. "I'm Mika,"
"Oh right, my name's Asta and this handsome jerk is Yuno," Asta introduced.
"Nice to meet you..." Yuno still kept staring at him.
"Our young tester, we apologize for the wait," Mika watched as 8 people walked out, each of them wearing a robe with different symbols on it.
"I'll be taking the lead for the test," a man wearing a mask that obscures the upper part of his face announces.
"Oh! The captain of the strongest Golden Dawn! William Vangeance" The crowd cheered.
Mika looks awed by the appearance of the different squad Captains. He only ever met the Captain of the Golden Dawn once when he visited his Teach at his house for a mission. Mika found him kind and considerate.
"Magic Tree descend," the Captain of the Golden Dawn summoned a large tree that sprouted brooms from its roots and handed it to every examiner.
Shu stands beside his Captain as he observes Mika. Mika noticed him and began to smile happily like a child as he waved both his arms. Shu gave him a small smile and then gave him a look that said 'Concentrate on the exam'.
Vengeance explained the process of the exam to the examiners. He stated that there would be several tests and after that, the Captains would choose who could be in their squad.
"Your first test is to use that broom to fly," he instructed.
Mika grins as he has plenty of practice with this. His Teach trained him how to fly in the broom a more elegant manner. He struggles at first and he keeps flying in different directions but he manages to control it eventually.
Mika sat sideways on the broom as it floated high above. When he got high enough, he started to fly faster into the sky. His Teach is watching so he has to put on a performance that is up to his standards.
He flew elegantly in the sky as he made a couple of loops and turns. From the audience below, the scene looks like he is dancing above the sky. The Captains saw that Mika already had great control over his magic.
Shu watches Mika flying as he mutters to himself. "His movements are 0.26 seconds later than usual, and his speed is 0.5% slower..."
"It seems your cute little protege made a lot of progress since I last met him," Captain Vangeance laughs softly.
"Non! This is not his absolute best performance," Shu quickly denies. "He must've eaten something he shouldn't have before the exam, I'll scold him later for that,"
"Now, now, don't be too harsh on him," he chuckled.
Mika flew down and landed safely on the ground. He looked at his Teach happily expecting to get praise but he saw him glaring at him. Mika panics as he doesn't know what he did wrong. Did he make a mistake somewhere?
The next couple of tests were simple, hitting floating targets and destroying a wall with their magic which Mika easily managed to do. During the test where the examiners need to create something from their magic, Mika created shining ravens that majestically fly around in the sky before blowing up into shining white lights. He looks at his Teach who gives him a smile of approval. Mika giggled happily after making Shu proud.
"And we've come to the final test of the exam, this will be a spar. Pair up any way you want. You'll fight it out with whomever you pick," Captain Vangeance explained the next test. They basically will just fight each other with their magic to put it simply.
Mika is too nervous to ask around to partner up with him. He is not good at dealing with strangers. He could ask one of the two boys he met earlier. He looked around for them but saw that they already had someone to pair up with. Teach would scold him if he didn't find a partner and failed the exam.
"Excuse me, would you mind if you pair up with me?" someone asked Mika. It was a girl with beautiful vermillion hair and yellow eyes. Mika could already tell from her appearance alone that she came from a noble household like his Teach.
"Wah, sure! Was just lookin' fer someone to pair with," Mika smiles at her. He is a lot more comfortable talking to girls than guys due to the orphanage he grew up in mostly consisted of girls. "Nice to meet ya! Ma names Mika,"
"I'm Mimosa Vermillion, nice to meet you, I look forward to fighting with you," she gave a little courtesy which Mika recalled an upper-class citizen only does.
"Yeah," Mika nodded happily. At least he found someone kind enough to pair up with him.
Mika sat on the sideline to watch the other fights before him. The first fight he watched was with the person he met before, Asta. He was paired up with the over-flamboyant guy. Asta's opponent seemed to not take the fight seriously as he seemed to belittle Asta as his opponent.
His opponent created a barrier around himself and looked confident about it. Asta rushed towards him at an immense speed and struck him with a huge sword that easily broke the shield instantly striking his opponent down.
"He is so fast!" Mika looked at him in awe.
"I don't just want to be a Magic Knight to make some good memories, call me insane but I'm going to be the Wizard King!" Asta boldly proclaims.
Mika has learned from his Teach that the Wizard King is the most powerful Magic Knight in the kingdom and the head of all the Magic Knight squads. Becoming the Wizard King requires hard work, trust from the people, and more importantly merit. However, his Teach also told him that becoming the Wizard King doesn't automatically mean one can do whatever one wants as the nobles interfere with decisions relating to the kingdom.
Mika watched the next couple of fights before it was his turn. He went to the center field and took a deep breath to calm his nerves. He reminded himself that his Teach was watching him so he had to give it his all.
"Begin!"
"Plant Magic: Magic Cannon Flower!" Mimosa creates a large flower and, from an opening of the petals, starts to power up and release concentrated mana.
The cannon releases a beam of Mana towards Mika. Mika reacted quickly and jumped high above. Mimosa quickly aims her cannon toward Mika and prepares to fire again.
"Moon Magic: Moonlight Blades," Mika swipes his arms sideways as he fires crescent blades made out of moonlight toward the cannon.
Mimosa fires at the same time as Mika to hopefully negate the blades but the blades manage to cut the beam in half causing it to swerve in the two directions instead of a straight path. Mika's blades cut down the flower cannon and manage to hit Mimosa which causes her to fall on her knees.
"I...I'm not done yet..." Mimosa panted as she used her magic to heal her wounds. Mika felt a bit guilty of hurting a girl like this. Maybe he should have held back a little more when he cast his spell.
"M'sorry about this but I halfta show Teach how much I improve!" Mika says wholeheartedly. "Moon Magic: Moonlight Palm,"
Mika raised his arms forward as a blast of moonlight headed towards Mimosa. He made sure to tone down the power of his attack even more so as to not cause serious injury to Mimosa. The blast landed on her and threw her across the wall.
"Wah! Mimosa!" Mika panicked and rushed towards her. "M'sorry! I should have held back even more!"
"I...It's fine...it was a fight after all," Mimosa smiled at him gently.
"I'll help ya get better, Moon Magic: Moon's Recovery," Mika put both his hands towards Mimosa as he began to heal her. "M'sorry, ma healing is not good during the day..."
"Hey, can you see that?" One of the examiners pointed at Mika's grimoire. "He also possesses a four-leaf grimoire,"
"Yeah, he also looks a lot like that other kid with the four-leaf grimoire, could they be related?" the other examiner whispered.
"He says he was holding back his magic against her as well..." A female examiner stated.
While Mika was helping Mimosa, Yuno was still keeping an eye on him. He still finds it weird that Mika looks a lot like him. The only difference he could find was his eyes and some facial structures. Could it just be a coincidence that they look alike?
After Mimosa got treated, the next battle was about to begin. The next fight was with Yuno. He was fighting a man with long blonde hair. The blonde man created a huge ball of lightning but Yuno easily countered it with his tornado and easily beat his opponent. Mika was impressed by how strong Yuno is.
It was now time for the results of the exam. Mika waited nervously as they called one examinee at a time. What if he didn't pass? Will his Teacher throw him away for being such a failure? He slapped his cheeks to stop thinking about that.
"Next, #164," Mika looked who was up and saw that it was Yuno. Mika looked at the Captains and saw that every one of them raised their hands.
"Everyone raised their hands!" Mika says in awe.
"Please allow me to join Golden Dawn," Yuno days as the Golden Dawn Captain smirked a little.
"#165," It was now Asta's turn.
Mika noticed that none of the Captain's raised their hands. He kind of feels bad for him but he did notice that he didn't fare well during the other tests. However, one of the captains suddenly jumps down towards Asta.
"You said earlier that you wanted to
become the Wizard King, didn't you?Which means you're going to surpass
the nine captains here, right? Now that I'm standing before you,
do you still have the nerve to say that you're going to be the Wizard King, even without any magical powers?" He gave off an intimidating aura around him.
"E-Even if I can't join the Magic Knights today...No matter how many times I fall, no matter what anyone says to me, I'm still going to become
the Wizard King someday!" Asta proclaims.
Mika couldn't help but admire Asta for that. He was right, if he failed today, he should not give up. He will become someone worthy to be called an artist like his Teach and be able to stand beside him with dignity.
"You're funny!" the Captain laughs. In the end, Asta ended up joining the Black Bulls.
Mika felt a little bit confident after the whole ordeal with Asta. The choosing continued after that. Mimosa got accepted to the Golden Dawn even if she was defeated by Mika at the last test. Mika took deep breaths until they called his number.
"Next, #198," It was now Mika's turn.
He nervously walked the Captain's. He closed his eyes shuts still feeling anxious about the result. After a few seconds, he opens one of his eyes to see if anyone wants to have him in their squad. His eyes widened when he saw every Captain have their hands raised.
"Every Captain raised their hands as well..." one of the examiners says.
"Unbelievableable,"
Mika couldn't believe that so many were willing to take him to their squad but there was only one squad he wanted to be a part of.
"Please let me join the Golden Dawn," there is only one option for him, the squad where his Teach was.