The next few days were pretty normal, the city was rebuilding and security was heightened, most of the students were called back to the academy as well.
"Seriously Magna? Even I was not that dumb."
"Shut up. Not everybody has the Brutish body you have. Now help me up you moron."
Magna is now again sparwled onto the ground after their daily combat lesson under Yami, as much as he wanted to try but the difference in experience between him and Asta was wider than expected.
Compared to him Asta has been pushing his body to the limits from the day his memory returned while he has just begin.
"ASTA, get you @$$ over here and get beat up. We need to show the kids the difference."
Yami yells from far away in the ring where a bunch of kids lay on the ground with bruised bodies, Asta like always the only who could get Yami some morning workout so he had call for him.
Asta came and stood in front of him and after a bow they both again begin their daily sparing session because no way the students call that a teaching lesson.
Yami rushed forward and slashes at Asta diagonally while using his momentum to maximum
Asta blocks the katana with a vertical guard and lowers his posture before using the force to quickly spin the claymore and attacked with a frontal slash.
Yami steps back and avoids only to be met with a vertical cut straight at him, he ripostes the attack by the pushing it the side while closing it with the edge heading straight for asta.
Asta raises the sword hilt and blocks the stab with the sword's hilt but Yami followed up with a kick to create distance.
Dragging the sword behind him, Asta charges using th heavy weight of the sword to maintain his balance at high speed and slams it down on Yami.
"Fool, you still haven't learnt much." Yami mocks and just like a rabbit jumped high up, he looks at Asta above who lifted the heavy sword and swinged at him in full force.
Yami kicked away the sword which was much slower in a upward attack than a downward one , Asta's posture staggers as the sword gets easily deflected.
He kneels and used the claymore as a shield to block the flurry of cuts coming his way before quickly retreating back but Yami followed up with a heavy cut.
Unable to attack back, Asta retreats but Yami grabs his shoulder and hits Asta's chest with the hilt while Asta fought back with a upper cut.
Both lose their weapons and the fight turns to a unarmed brawl as both charge at eachother while smiling in satisfaction.
A knee to the chest blocked by Asta followed by a elbow to the head which yami dodged, Yami keeps up his rhythm and kicks Asta making him drag a little across the ground.
Rushing in, Asta steps forward in a ghost step and fights back with a strong punch followed by a quick jab to the guy but failed to land a hit.
The back and forth continues as both jump in to attack and the brawl no turns into a wrestling match as they both lock eyes and grab eachother before Yami ends it all with suplex.
"Just wait till I grow up, I will make sure to suplex you back the same way."
"I will be waiting brat, Now go take that barbarian's class. He had something to tell you." Yami grabs his katana and cost and left the sparing ground, most of the boys give Asta a thumbs up before starting their own sparing as well.
" You have better status compared to when you came to the knight recruitment in clover kingdom." Magna arrives from the side.
Magna hands asta a bottle that seems to have a energy drink which Asta gulped down in a instant.
He bid farewell to them and most of the elites left the ground for their next class as well, most of elits have somewhat learnt beginner or intermediate level of stage 3 ki and are learning danger sense.
Asta on the other hand is getting hang of the stage 4 ki and could now maintain the flow for a 20 or so seconds before need to focus again.
*****
Taking a quick snack as he makes his way to the ki class, Asta saw Klaus coming towards him on a broom.
"Oh Klaus, chomp Leaving for your home?"
"Yes, I got the permission from the reach today. Got anything you want me to bring?"
"Maybe a few pieces of areionic steel, my sword broke a few days ago." Asta brings out the broken Mugen which seems to be lacking the auto repair function he had in five clover grimoire.
"Sure, I will be back in a week and so.. a word of advice, Don't go to close to Sol or Mimosa." Klaus said and left without a explanation.
Confused, Asta didn't give it much thought and kept on eating the salted peanuts he had and moved onto the class instead.
Arriving there, he saw the others already arrived and ready to go, he quickly changes into his training clothes which looks like a sleeveless cloth vest and a pair of workout shorts that comes to his knees.
The instructor Tenoch changed their schedule and those learning stage 3 were now to be made to work in pairs and dodge attacks blindly with ear plugs.
Asta was called over to the waterfall but instead of punching it this time, tenoch called him to the top of the water fall where he saw a ring made by elevated rock.
"You work hard but, your style shapeless. It ain't changing nor it is fixed picks up a spear from the rack nearby* Come."
Tenoch went and stood in the middle of the ring and gestures for asta to attack, Asta looks at him all confused and decided to attack with a bamboo spear as well.
"Yamata was never a man of techniques, he would rather let his gut lead him but I won't let you become like him."
Before Asta could even understand what was going, Tenoch quickly closed in and hit him with the spear shaft straight into the chest.
Asta flew back and barely stopped before falling into water but was then had his leg sweeped and thrown down the waterfall.
Painstakingly Asta claimed the waterfall again and reached the top to see Tenoch waiting for him, he climbed onto the platform to see a wave of ki envelope Tenoch.
"Your next training be to learn to fight with the flow and create your fighting style, it must no be rigid or I consider it a failure." (Orc english is funny and fancy.)
And thus begins the hell training, Magic theory and practice at morning, combat practice at noon, ki training at evening and finally extra classes (Runesmithing And GK)
****
–5 days later, evening–
Asta quickly loops a spear and strikes at Tenoch's chins only to be partied but instantly recovered and swooped in with a shaft strike.
The water cutting from his attacks as the waves constantly bounce off the border of the platform.
Tenoch weaves through the attacks as his ki Surges and takes on the shape of a boar and came crashing down on Asta, another part of the platform crumbles under the impact.
Spinning the spear like a staff, Asta takes the opportunity to destroy Tenoch's balance but failed and recieved a quick Thrust.
He redirects the thrust as a formless image forms behind him and fights with the boar of Tenoch without falling back.
For a split-second, the formless ki temporarily shows the image of a giant scaled claw that struck the boar in the chest followed by a deafening roar.
The spear ripples through the air and soon reached Tenoch, the bamboo spear breaks Tenoch's spear and landing straight into his chest and pushing him to the corner of the platform.
"You fail-" Tenoch is interrupted mid sentence as he sees a pair of feet coming his way, he got hit right in the face but didn't budge a inch.
"Crap, why are you not even blushing?" Asta had used all of his strength in this one dropkick but tenoch didn't even move a inch.
They just stood there with the world stopped around them, until the ground beneath broke and tenoch fell into the water on his back.
"I.. I WON, I CAN FINALLY SLEEP" Asta screamed and fell asleep on the rocky platform without a care in the world.
Climbing up the water fall with a jump, Tenoch arrives near Asta, he crouches down and looked at him with a grin before paying him on the head.
"You surpassed my expectations kid, i guess your hardwork does have some merits."
With a turn the instructor threw the broken bamboo spear in his hand and jumped away while Asta lost himself to the sea of dreams once more.
"Are you sure these are necessary? Didn't you want me to not get attached with her?"
Asta questions while looking at the memories of Jassen where he seems to be having some good time in the cabin.
Celesia and the old dwarf who is called coplin are together wishing him happy birthday while taking turns eating from the cake.
Jassen in the memories scold them both for their shameless behaviour before being calmed down by a hug from Celesia and a pat on the back from the old dwarf.
'It is necessary okay? Even if not attached i want you to atleast realise my relationship with her. Can't have you meet her again like a stranger." Jassen scoffs and forced Asta to watch the scene again.
For the past 5 days, Jassen had been using the only time Asta got as sleep as the memory infusion, Asta had no time of mental rest for the past 5 days.
He has now seen memories of Jassen until the 18th year now, Jassen lost his arm in a supposed fight with Celesia's father after he tried to bring her back with force.
He managed to convince him to give her a chance and his overwhelming sense of sacrifice managed to convince the old dragon.
The dragon however made a condition that must be completed at all costs, to bring him a demon's head or become a high elder of the dwarfs.
Having no choice, Jassem spent 3 years 16 to 18 in the battlefield constantly fighting in the frontlines.
"Woah woah woah, you sped it up a little too much buddy, you skipped three years instantly."
"You would understand soon enough, have fun.
Asta couldn't understand what he meant until Suddenly he felt a tremor, a mind numbing headache came as the memories which he was seeing like a movie before came like a vr game with pain sensors.
*****
Gasping for Air, Asta woke up in his room, sweat flowing down his forehead as the memories dig themselves into deepest level of his mind.
"FRIC*** BASTARD, huff huff... Seriously?"
Asta cursed Jassen or rather the shadow of Jassen, there was never a clone or anything but just a suicidal plan.
A tear flows down his cheek as the truth comes into his mind, the shadow had lied to him and forced him to watch the memories on a deeper level not because it would help but because it would make them ingrain deeper in his mind.
The memories which should have been like a extra knowledge that didn't belong to him were now a part of him, he could feel it, the change in his personality and talking and even a underlying urge to meet Celesia.
'So that bastard has such a plan, even I didn't think about this.' a coarse and prideful voice enters Asta's mind.
"Bravery.. why did you come this soon?"
'Why else? I senses that punk disappear and couldn't hold myself from seeing what is going on.'
Based on what Asta had learnt from the memories of Jassen, he was The 6th shadow Kaelum the bravery.
"Can I get a few minutes of silence first? I have learnt enough for today." Asta quickly ends the conversation mid way and lies down on the bed while staring into the ceiling.
The shock of the fact that his literal previous self sacrificed himself to make sure his promise to his fiance was completed.
But asta now fell into a deep thought, who was he? Was he Jassen? Was he Asta? Who was he?
(Short explanation- existential crisis. ≈:> )