Author's note:
For those who are unfamiliar with X's powers as some of you may not have watched the anime To Be Hero X, here they are:
Reality Manipulation: Hero X can freely manipulate his surroundings to bring his imagination to life, changing the universe around him to suit his needs. He possesses the ability to warp reality, and it does not matter whether it is a living or non-living thing. He can teleport enemies into an alternate reality with a snap of his fingers
Dimensional Control:
2D to 3D- He transforms the entire general 2D World to a 3D World with a snap, or rather changes the perception of the world from being seen in 2D to 3D
Partial 3D to 2D: After he makes the world 3D, he can choose to make certain people and objects 2D within that 3D World
Specific Powers:
Paper: Hero X can somehow manipulate reality in a way that causes whatever he targets to become like paper and be toyed with as such
Shadow: His opponents can be instantly flattened into walls and floors like shadow and he presumably insta-kills them
Teleportation, Immersion (Can immerse himself into any 2D construct, even lights), Dimensional Travel and Dimensional Manipulation, Flight, Self-Sustenance, Time Stop
______
Hage village
In the church dining room, everyone except Asta was seated around the wooden table, enjoying Sister Lily's home-cooked meal. The trapped Asta could be seen displayed on the wall, still running laps around the house in his two-dimensional prison, occasionally pressing his face against the wall with a pleading expression.
While they ate, Sister Lily began the conversation by asking, "So Kenji, how did the ceremony go? Did anything interesting happen?"
Hearing the question, Father Orsi's eyebrows twitched as he remembered the reality-bending chaos he had witnessed at the tower.
As Kenji was about to reply, it was as if floodgates had opened. Everyone started bombarding him with questions simultaneously.
Nash: "Are you gonna be a magic knight?"
Recca: "Can I see your grimoire?"
Ashley (the small black-haired girl): "Why do you look like that?"
Asta, from the wall: "Is your grimoire strong?"
Slightly overwhelmed by the barrage of questions, Kenji answered rapid-fire: "Yeah, of course—you knew that Nash. Yeah sure, here, this is it. Don't I look cool? Nothing really worth mentioning happened."
With a casual snap of his fingers, a mute emblem appeared beside Asta on the wall, silencing his constant chattering. Nobody reacted to this display except Nash, who said admiringly, "Best magic ever."
Hearing Kenji dismiss the events as uninteresting, Father Orsi stood up abruptly, shouting, "What do you mean nothing worth mentioning happened?! You caused a huge ruckus and got a four-leaf grimoire!"
Sister Lily giggled to herself at Father Orsi's outburst, while both Yuno and the muted Asta on the wall behind him tilted their heads simultaneously in confusion.
"What's a four-leaf grimoire?" Yuno asked.
Everyone turned to look at Kenji and Father Orsi expectantly. Kenji played dumb, shrugging. "Don't know."
Father Orsi went on to explain, "It's a type of legendary grimoire that the first Wizard King had! The first three leaves symbolize Faith, Hope, and Love—which are the three leaves on most grimoires—while the fourth represents good luck."
Everyone's eyes widened at this revelation. Yuno muttered, "The Wizard King..." then declared to Kenji with determination, "I will get a four-leaf grimoire too, just like the Wizard King!"
Asta, on the wall, nodded his head vigorously as if agreeing.
Sister Lily then asked the question that had everyone holding their breath: "So do you finally know what your magic is now?"
This had been unknown up until now, making it the most anticipated revelation of all.
Kenji took his grimoire back from Recca, who had been inspecting it closely, and held it up. "Yup."
Everyone waited in tense silence. Kenji paused for a couple of seconds, then said simply, "Reality magic."
This confused most of the kids, including Asta and Yuno, but Father Orsi and Sister Lily, being more knowledgeable, widened their eyes and muttered, "Reality..."
Nash looked at him with a slightly disinterested tone, since he didn't understand what that meant. "So what can you even do?"
Asta and Yuno narrowed their eyes at the dismissive question, and Kenji replied with a casual smile, "Whatever I want."
This answer stupefied everyone at the table.
The kids' eyes lit up as they began rapid-firing questions, listing various things they could think of, while Kenji turned to Asta and Yuno with a smile. Seeing that everyone had finished their lunches, he asked, "Want to go test it out?"
Asta, forgetting his current predicament, nodded excitedly while Yuno went through a myriad of different facial expressions—surprise, curiosity, hesitation, and determination—before answering, "Yes."
Kenji smiled and with a casual snap, Asta materialized back into the room from the wall, looking dizzy but relieved.
"Well then," Kenji said, standing up, "let's clean up and test my new powers out."
_____
Underneath the demon skull out in the forest, Kenji looked at Asta and Yuno and asked, "Do you want to spar to get to know my new magic, or do you wanna watch me test things out?"
Hearing this, Asta and Yuno looked at each other and nodded, saying together, "Let's fight!"
This caused Kenji to laugh. "Great, it's more fun that way anyways."
They positioned themselves across from each other in the clearing. As if remembering something, Kenji grabbed a twig from the ground and snapped his fingers transforming it into a wooden sword, and tossed it to Asta. He had been training Asta in swordsmanship since they began training together, knowing his future abilities, so Asta's skills were considerably better than they would have been originally.
Asta caught the sword with practiced ease, immediately falling into a proper stance that showed years of training. Yuno raised his hands, wind already beginning to swirl around his fingers with impressive control for someone without a grimoire.
"Ready?" Kenji asked, his own grimoire floating beside him.
"Bring it on!" Asta shouted, charging forward with the wooden sword held high.
Yuno moved more tactically, sending precise wind blades toward Kenji while staying at a distance.
Snap
Suddenly the world around them shifted. The forest floor became like a two-dimensional drawing, causing Asta to stumble as his footing became unstable. But Kenji's control wasn't perfect yet—the effect flickered, returning to normal before he could capitalize on it.
"Whoa!" Asta managed to regain his balance and continued his charge, adapting quickly to the shifting terrain, causing Kenji to frown It seems my control is still lacking a bit. Giving more of his focus into his control.
Yuno's wind blades approached, but Kenji snapped again, attempting to turn them into paper constructs. The technique partially worked—the wind attacks became visible, fluttering sheets that lost most of their cutting power, though a few still had enough force to make Kenji dodge.
"Not bad, but try this!" Kenji called out,
Snap
This time, Asta suddenly found himself flattened against a nearby tree like a shadow.
Asta found himself stuck 2 dimensionally again, this time in the tree and shouted out "HEY THIS IS UNFAIR!" then staring laughing as he moved along the tree surface.
"This is so weird!" Asta laughed
Yuno took advantage of the distraction, sending a concentrated burst of wind that caught Kenji off guard, knocking him back a few steps.
"Nice one, Yuno!" Kenji grinned, then attempted a more complex technique.
Snap
He snapped his fingers and transported himself onto the 2d tree surface with Asta. To Yuno it looked like paintings were inside fighting each other (like the street fighter video game) but to Asta the world changed from 2d back to normal with bright orange and yellow colours painting the entire landscape.
"Damn that took quite a bit of mana," Kenji said while Asta ran towards him, sword in hand.
Asta swung his sword in a vertical swing shouting "HAHA I DONT GET WHATS HAPPENING BUT YOU'RE RIGHT INFRONT OF ME NOW"
Kenji seeing the sword coming towards him, coated his body in mana and casually stepped to the side and landed a blow to Asta's kidney, then chopped his wrist making him drop the sword, before spinning to Asta's back delivering a kick to his back sending him flying.
Snap
Suddenly from outside Yuno who could do nothing but watch Asta and Kenji from outside, saw Asta come flying out of the wall towards him, causing them to collide and fall to the ground, as Kenji casually appeared with a hand in one pocket and a coin dancing between his fingers in the other.
Yuno on the ground was not amused, and shoved Asta aside before getting up and concentrating a large amount of mana into wind and sending it towards Kenji.
Seeing the approaching wind, Kenji casually tossed the coin in front of him while walking forward.
Snap
The coin suddenly became a barrier of mana in the shape of the coin, preventing the wind from hitting Kenji.
Snap
Kenji then turned the coin into a board, and the grass around him took an orange hue resembling waves as he started riding towards Asta, who just got back up bruised, and Yuno, hand still in pocket. As he approached, Asta launched forward at an extremely fast speed, swinging his sword at Kenji, while Yuno started preparing for a spell gathering a large amount of his mana.
Snap
The board suddenly turned back into a coin flying over Asta's head, and Kenji jumped over the sword swing, body parallel to the ground, and grabbed the coin, landing behind Yuno who had a blade of wind ready.
"Let me show you how much I've improved, " Yuno said, launching the blade at him.
Kenji, seeing the blade coming, wrapped the coin in his hand in a thick hue of mana, and threw it at the blade.
Snap
The coin turned into a knife and cut through the wind heading towards Yuno, who saw the knife approaching and panicked, not having enough time to react.
Asta: "YUNOO!"
Snap
The knife suddenly turned into a ball and hit Yuno in the forehead, knocking him to the ground.
Snap
Kenjij then abruptly disappeared from Asta's view, until not even a second later Asta felt a hand wrap around his shoulder and heard "well I guess i win, so what do you think"
Upon hearing this Asta replied "Your magics awesome Kenji! But I still don't get it"
While Yuno just stood up rubbing a red mark on his forehead and said "its pretty strong but your almost out of mana"
"Yup that drained me, probably because im not used to using my magic like that yet. If I had more mana I would have been able to do way cooler things." Kenji said, smiling.
"Well that was fun, but you guys aren't looking so hot so lets get you to Sister Lily"
Snap
And just like that they disappeared from the forest.
____
Author's note: Well what did you guys think of the fight, first time writing one with his new grimoire so hope you enjoyed it. His fights will get more crazy in the future, but right now he is still trying to get used to the powers so only used basic abilities. Let me know in the comments what you think.
Hope you enjoyed the chapter.