Chapter 58 - Party

"You brat!" Magna laughed wrapping his arm around Grim's shoulder. "Learning a new magic while we were getting our buŧŧs kicked by that Vetto guy eh?"

After finishing his dance and having his senses return to normal, Grim felt the ki of his squadmates being much closer than they were when he left. Turning his head, he saw all of them watching him from the window.

Not to long after that Yami came back with a huge sack filled with food and alcohol.

Due to them saving the Seabed Temple and retrieving the magic stone there, Yami decided to throw a party. He also revealed that they no longer had any black stars (negative stars) and now were actually able to compete with the other squads.

Sitting by himself and watching everyone dance and enjoy themselves, Grim couldn't help but smile.

"Not bad for a squad that you didn't want to join huh."

"Yami?"

Turning his head to look at the large muscled foreigner, Grim fell silent before nodding.

"Wanna play?" He asked showing Grim a deck of cards.

"...Sure."

---

"So what happened at Kiten?" Grim asked while looking at his cards.

"You heard about that?"

"You know that Yuno kid right?"

'Yuno?'

"Yeah." He nodded.

Smiling at his cards, Yami continued.

"Well it seems like that guys gotten pretty powerful."

"How powerful?" Grim frowned.

"Strong enough to beat a Shining General."

"Beat a Shining General..."

'Shining Generals are the Diamond Kingdom's version of magic knight captains... I guess I underestimated the growth of someone with a four leaf grimoire.'

"Anyway forget about that." Yami said placing a card down. "Why don't you tell me what you're doing with your mana."

"You noticed?"

"With as much mana as yours, it'd be hard not to."

'And here I thought I was being sneaky.'

*Sigh* "Do you remember you saying that guys with mana could do all sorts of things?"

"Did I say that?"

"Yes! It was on the day I passed out remember?"

Rubbing his chin, Yami thought back.

'Seriously? It was like a week ago.'

"Doesn't really sound like something I would say... But what does that have to do with what you're doing?"

"Lets just say I'm putting your little theory to the test."

"You tryna learn healing?"

"What? No! What's with you and healing?"

'Wait a second! How does he remember that specific part but not the conversation itself?'

Pausing for a minute, Yami looked at him like he was looking at an idiot.

"I thought a battle maniac like you would love the ability to heal yourself so you could keep fighting."

"Battle maniac? I'm n-

"You are." Yami cut him off. "I don't know if you've realized it yet, but you really seem to enjoy fighting."

"What! No, I just like stepping on people weaker than me."

"I'm not saying you don't."

"Then-

"But that doesn't mean you can't enjoy the process either, they're not mutually exclusive, you can enjoy one thing and enjoy another just as much."

"..."

"Don't sweat it kid." He comforted while taking a swig out of his bottle. "So what if you enjoy fighting? Luck's the same, at least you have a goal at the end of it. Luck just wants to fight forever."

"My goal?"

"Don't tell me you've forgotten? You said you wanted to be the strongest right? To look down on everyone else and do whatever the fuċk you like with no one being able to stop you."

Falling silent, Grim thought back to his time in this world. So much had happened in these past 5 years. From living in a forest to working in a restaurant and then becoming a protector of the kingdom. From all the people he's met to all the foes he's fought. It really was a wild ride. If someone ever made a book on his life, he was sure it'd sell well.

"Why are you so nice to me?" He looked at his captain. While Yami was nice in his own way, the way he treated Grim was different to everyone else. He could even say that there were subtle differences in the way he treated him and Asta.

Illuminated by the nearby fire light, Yami's expression was hard to read. Sitting in silence for a minute, he closed his eyes slightly before answering.

"...I guess you just remind me of home."

'Home... I wonder if you miss your home.'

As if reading his thoughts, the bird looked at him with a neutral expression before turning away.

'...Now I'm curious if there's a Talk to Animals type magic out there.'

"Hey guys." Asta suddenly said drawing everyone's attention.

"Asta?"

"I'm a bit tired, I'm gonna head to bed."

'Already?'

"See you guys tomorrow." He waved.

Watching him leave, Noelle suddenly said something worrying.

"Don't you think Asta's been acting a bit strangely?"

"Hmm?" Magna hummed. "Now that you mention it, it is kinda weird that he's going to bed, that guy never gets tired."

"Yeah."

"True."

"It is weird."

Nodding and confirming each others thoughts. Finral looked at everyone before deciding to speak up.

"I... I think I know why."

Grabbing everyone's attention, the Black Bulls all turned to look at him.

"I overheard him and the doctor today when they were fixing his arms... The doctor... He said Asta's arms could never be returned to normal."

"What!"

"You're kidding right."

"Apparently, that Vetto guy hit him with an ancient curse and now his arms are..."

Hearing him, everyone's previous joyful faces fell.

"So what." Grim suddenly said surprising everyone.

"What?!"

"We know that he's being afflicted by a curse right? Then all we need to do if figure out how to reverse it."

"Its not that eas-

"Its better than sitting on our ȧsses and moping about, do you think Asta would really want that?"

"..."

"..."

"..."

"We're the Black Bulls right? The worse squad in history, nobody would have thought that we'd able to get that magic stone or recover from our negative star counter. They probably said some shit like it'd be impossible for us. But we did it didn't we?"

Hearing him, people started nodding.

"So what if its a curse or an illness, if we actually try, I'm sure we'll be able to find a way to fix it."

"He's right." Magna suddenly said. "We're the Black Bulls yall! If we actually try then who could stop us?"

"Yeah! We can beat this!"

"Asta wouldn't want us to mope!"

"Lets do this!"

"Yeah!"

"Let's kick that curse's ȧss!!"