Where's My Grimoire? || Black Clover

4 - Do You Think Caterpillars Have Feelings?

Startled awake, he found himself freezing. How had he woke up again?

The memories of the dream were barely starting to fade away. It was eerie, the picture of a black creature staring at him still fresh in his mind.
He was tempted to start training immediately, even when his head was pounding and his vision blurry - he put a hand on the ground to try and lift himself up but his legs were shaky. He jumped when a warm hand touched his shoulder.

Who was it this time? Didn't Nash just leave a second ago? Or - well - last night, he thinks.

He noticed dark hair on the person, golden eyes-
" Yuno? What are you doing out here? You're gonna get cold... "

The tiredness in him slurred his speech and reaction time, but he still recognized when the grip on his shoulder tightened.

" Why won't you come back to the church so I can help you? At least take care of yourself when you're away. " Yuno said.

" I have been, though. "

" Training isn't doing anything to your body but hurting it if you don't sleep and eat enough to compensate for the energy you lose. "

The shorter teen tried to stand up again but his childhood friend didn't release the grip on him. " Yuno, please let go of me. " He shrugged the hand off of his shoulder.
Yuno crouched in front of Asta. " Why aren't you listening to me? "

Asta's head fell. Yuno already knew why Asta didn't want to go back to the church. It was supposed to be a holy place, he wasn't supposed to think it was hell! But part of him knew the whole village of Hage was already hell. Asta felt tears welling up in his eyes.

His throat became tight. If he was going to leave, he needs to make it easier to. It's so hard to leave Yuno when he's the one closest to him.

He felt gentle arms wrap around him, though he also felt a pang of nausea at the feeling. It didn't feel right when Yuno had been distant these past few weeks.

Asta spoke up.

" I don't want to leave you, but I'm not living like this anymore. It hurts just being alive, and I want to be in a world where more people like you exist. How do I keep moving forward to find them if I'm stuck in hell? "

Asta rested his head on his friend's shoulder.

" I'm running away. I'm not leaving you, but I'm leaving this place, " Asta said, his breathing shaky.

Yuno sighed.

" It's hard to ignore the way they treat you. I've tried to for so long, but it's... It's been hurting you a lot, hasn't it? "

The dark haired boy pulled back his arms and looked solemnly to the side.

" You used to vaguely tell me what they'd do to you, and I would never be able to cheer you up. I'm so sorry. I- As we grew older, we- you- the things you went through sounded horrible, and I couldn't deal with hearing it anymore. I'm sorry that I left you alone. "

He sat there in silence, Asta staring a hole into the ground.

" I stopped talking to you, stopped bringing you things because... I thought I wasn't helping you at all. That made it worse, in the end. "

Asta wasn't used to hearing Yuno talk so much before.

" Though I never stopped caring about you. Stop assuming no one cares about you, because I do. "

Asta sighed shakily as a weak smile formed on his face. " Th-That clears a- a bunch of things up. I... I'm glad. "

Yuno's necklace sparkled in the moonlight.

" But... I don't know what I'm supposed to do. I keep trying to get stronger, but I end up getting nowhere. I probably wouldn't even survive if I ran away, haha, " He laughed. " But whatever's out there can't be worse than this. "

Even if the voices in his head are screaming so loudly now that he can hardly talk, he can't bring himself to scream with them. Not like this. He could control it for now.

" I want to be in a better place. One that resembles how I feel when I talk to you. "

Yuno glanced at Asta solemnly.

" So... Where do you plan on going? "

" I don't know. I was honestly just going to wander. "

" That... Sounds like a really stupid plan. Well, I'm going to leave before Sister wakes the others wake up. The sun's going to come up soon. " Yuno said, " By the way, fair warning, it's not going to get any warmer today. "

Asta had forgotten about his runny nose and shivering body until Yuno reminded him of the weather.

" I saw you holding this when you were asleep earlier, by the way. Did you... Want to keep it? "

Yuno showed Asta the shiny stone he found yesterday.

" Ah, no, you can have it. Think of it as a parting gift. "

" Thanks. I'll... I'll see you. "

Asta nodded.

He heard rocks crunching underneath the taller boy's feet as he watched him walk away.

Asta wondered if that would be the last time he would ever see Yuno. He dreaded it.

What was the time again?

Since Yuno told him the sun was about to come up, he guessed it was around six in the morning. Since he woke up, his first thought was to train. He stood up as his legs started to wobble, but gained his balance when he tilted against a tree by accident. The stick he used last night was still laying on the ground peacefully until he stepped on it when regaining his balance.
His headache from this morning had worsened as he rested his head against the a tree. It was hard to ignore a caterpillar crawling into a crevice in the bark. It reminded him of a time in the past.

The lack of sleep and too much exertion appeared when he attempted to stretch his back as pain coursed through his muscles.

He closed his eyes for a brief moment, feeling a twist and churn in his stomach and a growl accompanying it as he looked around the forest to see if there were any bushes.

He has been eating a few things, like some berries that made him feel inexplicably weird and left his stomach upset, but they tasted good, and he was, well... He was hungry, but in no mood to go back to the church.

He pushed himself off of the tree and tried to find the direction he originally found the berries in. Asta kicked a broken stick out of the way and began walking into the direction he thought was right.
After a few minutes of searching, he found a tree that held them and eyed every single one. From a white, red, then to a deep purple, he found himself drooling over the different variations of them. They almost resembled blackberries. Munberries? Dullberries? He didn't remember what they were called, but it was something along the lines of that.
He was about to walk forward to grab a few when he heard a light footstep and looked behind him.

Their eyes were a golden yellow, their grimoire glowing the same color, indicating that it was a four leaf.

Only this time it wasn't Yuno.