As the exam grounds began to clear, with participants either celebrating or sulking in defeat, a small group stood near the exit platform—Yami, Finral, Asta, and the ever-restless Saru.
The Monkey King was slumped against Yami's side like a bored child stuck in a lecture, his head tilting back and forth with exaggerated groans.
"Yami... Yami... when are we going back? I'm bored. Everything here's too slow," Saru whined, tugging lazily at the man's cloak.
Yami didn't even glance at him. "First you cause a damn circus the whole day, and now you're bored? You stupid monkey."
The word hit Saru like a trigger. His eyes snapped open, and a comically serious expression crossed his face. "What'd you say?"
In a flash, he scrambled up Yami's side like a squirrel and perched on his shoulder, yanking at the captain's thick black hair with both hands like he was trying to uproot a tree.
"I'm not stupid! Say that again and I'll throw your stupid katana into the sun!"
But Yami simply puffed on his cigarette, completely unfazed. "Yeah, yeah, go ahead and try. You're buying me a new one if you do."
Saru growled, his cheeks puffing in frustration, but he didn't jump down. He just sulked on Yami's shoulder, muttering under his breath and occasionally tugging out a strand of hair in revenge.
Meanwhile, Finral scratched his head awkwardly, glancing at the stunned spectators around them who had no idea how to process what they were seeing.
"Captain… you should really scold him for what he did earlier," Finral said, his voice hushed but clearly nervous. "Dropping a pillar the size of the arena wasn't exactly subtle."
"If I scold him, he'll just try to prank me again," Yami muttered, flicking ash to the ground. "Open the portal, Finral. If we don't take this monkey home now, we'll be explaining a crater to the Wizard King."
With a reluctant sigh, Finral extended his hand and opened a swirling spatial gate.
"WOOOOAH! A spatial portal!" Asta exclaimed nearby, eyes sparkling as he leaned in with excitement. "That's so cool! You guys just… go through it? Like whoosh?"
Finral smiled. "Yup, express service for Magic Knights."
Saru peeked over Yami's shoulder and squinted at Asta. "Hey, shorty! You actually did pretty good back there. That punch was BOOM! Even I felt it, and I was half-asleep!"
Asta beamed, pumping his fist. "Thanks, monkey dude! I'm gonna become the Wizard King, just you watch!"
Saru tilted his head. "Wizard King? Huh… that's a lotta work. You sure you're ready to carry all that responsibility? Seems boring."
"No way! It's my dream!" Asta said with fiery conviction.
Saru grinned. "Well, if you ever get bored of it, you can come be my sidekick. I promise chaos, snacks, and punching annoying nobles."
Yami sighed, stepping through the portal first. "Stop recruiting sidekicks and move, damn it."
Still chuckling, Saru leapt off Yami's shoulder and followed him into the swirling gate, arms stretched lazily over his head.
"Alright, alright, I'm coming. But I better get snacks when we get home!"
"Hey, wait for me!" Asta shouted, sprinting toward the spatial gate just as it was beginning to shrink.
He dove in headfirst—arms flailing—just in time for the portal to flicker and seal behind him with a snap.
As Finral's portal shimmered open, Yami, Asta, Finral, and Saru stepped out onto the grassy hill overlooking a crooked, towering structure that looked like it had been patched together by a drunk carpenter and held upright with spit, magic, and sheer defiance.
Asta's jaw dropped. "W-Whoa… This is it?! The Black Bulls' base?! It's like a giant treehouse… but it's also a fortress… and maybe cursed?!"
Saru was already climbing Yami's back like a squirrel. "We're hooooome! Time to cause pranks and mild public destruction!"
Finral looked exhausted already. "Please don't."
Asta pointed toward the base. "Is it always this—"
BOOOOM!!
The front wall exploded in a violent burst of flames and smoke, launching wood, bricks, and someone's laundry into the sky. Asta nearly dove for cover.
"AAAAAAAAAAHHH!!! THE BASE IS UNDER ATTACK!!"
"Nope. Just Tuesday," Saru said casually as a flaming sock landed on his head. He picked it off, sniffed it, and threw it at Finral. "Here. Catch."
"WHY WOULD YOU—?!"
From the smoke, Luck Voltia burst forward, crackling with electricity and grinning like a kid with fireworks. Beside him, Magna charged out with flames around his fists, yelling, "YOU CALL THAT A SPELL, SPARK-HEAD?! I'LL SHOW YOU A REAL BLAST!!"
Luck laughed wildly. "Ooooh, let's see if you survive this time!"
"MAGIC KNIGHTS?! THESE are Magic Knights?!" Asta shouted, trembling. "This place is INSANE!!"
Just as Magna and Luck were about to unleash another round of chaos, Saru suddenly appeared between them, smacking both their heads with a broom he conjured from seemingly nowhere.
"HEY! Don't blow things up without me!! Rude!!"
Both Magna and Luck blinked.
"SARU?!" Magna yelled. "Where the hell did YOU come from?! Weren't you missing this morning?!"
"I left a note!" Saru said proudly. "It was on a rat. I tied it to its tail. Thought you'd find it."
"THAT EXPLAINS NOTHING!!"
"Hi Luck!" Saru waved. "You didn't save me a single explosion, I'm disappointed."
Luck tilted his head. "I'll zap you later if you want."
Saru's eyes sparkled. "Deal!"
Just as another fireball was forming in Magna's hand, a long pink thread suddenly snared Saru's ankle and yanked him backward like a sack of potatoes.
"WOOAAH—!?"
WHACK!
Vanessa landed a hard slipper smack to the back of Saru's head as he flopped onto the wooden floor just inside the entrance of the now partially exploded base.
"You little rat!" Vanessa snapped, arms crossed. "You went to the Magic Knight Exam by yourself this morning?! Are you TRYING to give me a heart attack?!"
"I left a note!!" Saru whined from the floor. "It had a banana drawing!"
"THAT'S NOT A NOTE!!" she shouted and smacked him again with the slipper.
Asta stood in the entryway, completely stunned as the weirdest, most dysfunctional team he'd ever seen bickered, shouted, and zapped each other like it was a regular day.
A little behind him, Grey stumbled out in her large transformation, squeaking in panic and trying to hide behind some rubble. Gauche walked by uninterested, flipping his photo of Marie.
"I don't care who he is," Gauche muttered. "If he's not Marie, he's not important."
"RUDE!" Saru yelled from the floor.
Then Charmy suddenly popped up beside Asta and shoved a rice ball in his mouth. "You're skinny. Eat."
"MMF?!"
"That's Charmy," Saru said, voice muffled under Vanessa's foot. "She once baked bread that could knock out an elephant."
Asta finally looked around, dazed, jaw open, and took a deep breath.
"…This place is amazing."
Yami leaned against a broken beam, puffing his cigarette. "Told ya."
As the dust settled, Vanessa finally let Saru up from the floor and ruffled his hair. "Next time you run off, I'm gluing your feet to the floor."
"But then I can't sneak into the kitchen at night!" Saru pouted.
"Exactly."
Later that evening, the Black Bulls' dining hall looked more like the aftermath of a battlefield than a place to eat.
Long, roughly built wooden tables were cluttered with plates stacked high with meat, rice, soup, and more bread than should ever exist in one room. Empty mugs clinked against each other, spills stained the floor, and bits of food flew through the air every few seconds like edible shrapnel.
In the center of the madness, Saru and Asta were arm wrestling on the table while Magna counted down.
"Three… two… one… GO!"
"RAAAAAAAH!" Asta screamed, veins bulging.
"PFFT—this isn't strength training, this is just flailing!" Saru cackled, one hand on the table, the other casually holding a skewer of grilled meat that he munched on mid-match.
THUD! Both of them collapsed sideways off the bench with a crash, Saru landing face-first into a tray of mashed potatoes.
Luck immediately jumped on the table. "Now fight ME!! No arms! No legs! Just headbutts!"
"YEAH!!" Saru shouted, potato dripping down his face. "That's my kinda battle!!"
Vanessa snatched the back of his shirt like a misbehaving kitten and dragged him off the table before the chaos could escalate.
"Not before you eat something normal," she said sternly, plopping him into a chair and putting a bowl in front of him. "No more fighting before dinner."
Saru blinked. "You didn't say after dinner, though."
Vanessa gave him a withering glare.
"…I'll be good," he mumbled, poking his rice with a spoon.
Across the table, Charmy was surrounded by what looked like her own personal food fortress. She grabbed an entire roast chicken off a platter and stuffed it into her mouth with frightening speed, chewing like a monster in fast-forward.
"FOOD IS LIFE!" she shouted, spraying crumbs at everyone.
"FOOD IS WEAPON!" Saru replied from the side, pelting Asta with a rice ball.
"You're dead!!" Asta yelled, chucking a loaf of bread that bounced off Finral's head.
"HEY! Do NOT throw bread at me—OW! WHO THREW THE CHOPSTICKS?!" Finral yelled, flinching as another fork embedded itself in the wall behind him.
Gauche, sitting a few seats away, muttered darkly while staring at a framed photo of Marie in his hand. "She's too good for this filthy room… Marie eats gracefully… like an angel."
"Is that guy okay?" Asta asked.
"No," said Saru and Vanessa in perfect unison.
At the far end of the room, Yami sat in his usual chair, legs kicked up on the table, reading a newspaper and ignoring the chaos—until a flying bowl smacked him in the face.
Silence fell. Everyone froze.
Yami peeled the bowl off slowly. "…Who threw that?"
Saru pointed at Asta. "Him."
Asta pointed at Saru. "HIM!!"
Yami growled. "You brats better get stronger fast, or you'll be peeling potatoes for the next six months."
Suddenly, Grey, still transformed, knocked over a pot by accident and yelped. "S-S-Sorry!!"
"IT'S OKAY GREY!" Saru shouted from the mess. "I dropped a whole barrel once and got chased by wild geese for an hour!"
"Why were there geese in the base?!" Asta asked.
"I… might have invited them in through the window."
Just then, Magna slammed his mug on the table and stood up, pointing a thumb toward his chest. "Alright! Now that we're full, it's time for the official Black Bulls Newbie Initiation Ceremony!!"
"Oh no," Vanessa groaned. "Here we go again."
Magna grinned at Asta and Saru. "You two are gonna have to prove you've got what it takes to roll with the rowdiest squad in the Clover Kingdom!"
Asta pumped his fist. "I'M READY!!"
Saru raised both arms. "I was BORN ready!"