Black Clover: Ash and Tarnish

I was nineteen when I died.

I had been a cancer patient since I was ten.

Nine years of slowly mounting agony. By the seconds year of my stay in that hospital, I couldn't move off my bed.

And it only got worse from there.

The doctors said it was a miracle I was alive after year three.

Operation after operation, I was lucky that my family was rich, or else I would never have lived to see past fifteen.

After nine years of being not much more than a burden, I finally met my end, I did not leave with regret that I was leaving my family, but relief, that the pain would stop.

Selfish, right?

Apparently, god thought so too, because it brought me before it after I had entered the afterlife.

It told me of a game the god's played.

Every few hundred years, the gods of each universe would gather, and do what was called a 'universal exchange'

Meaning, three individuals, one with a very high karma, one with a very low karma, and one random individual from one universe, will have their souls sent to another, random universe.

Each individual is given a blessing, a curse, and a random addition that's supposed to 'liven things up'…

The individual with high karma is allowed to choose between the blessings and curses, the low karma individual gets given what the god believes to be the best blessing and curse for that person.

And the random individual gets given a completely random blessing and curse.

The addition is always random,

I was told that my karmic total was one of the nearest to zero, and due to my lack of influence to the plot, I was the chosen for the position of low karma individual.

The god gave me the blessing of Mind Magic, saying that the world I would go to was one where magic power was everything.

The curse I gained was given with a sadistic smile.

He explained that the power of the blessing must be balanced with the power of the curse, or else it simply isn't balanced.

Bad luck. He explained that my curse is simply this.

Wether it be missing an opportunity or being hated for no real reason, my curse is simply bad luck.

The addition came to be more of a curse than anything beneficial, it's known as Utter Remembrance.

It allows me remember everything, basically, perfect memory.

That's why I remember the talk with that god, and why I remember each moment of my last life.

I possessed the body of a four year old who had been killed for reasons unknown to me.

I awoke on top of a small pile of bodies.

All of the memories of that child had left long before I entered the body.

And on aching limbs and an empty stomach, I crawled in a body that felt far too alien, away from that place.

I remember exactly how many hours I crawled.

I remember the night that I felt myself cross some kind of barrier, and I remember the sudden and sheer cold of that place mere moments later.

And I also remember being on the verge of death, nearly unconscious, being happened upon by an old man.

And I remember as I cast a spell on him, to make him think of me as his son, and I even remember as I sealed my memories away, as the old man gathered me up, and carried me to his home.

I even remember the inexplicable pain of everything forgetting everything.

I remember every loving moment he shared with me.

I remember each of the books that I read in my time as a regular child.

I even remember the malnourished orphan who spoke in a barky, alien dialect and seemed insane.

I remembered how I had avoided her, scorned her in my mind, made fun of her for not even knowing how to read behind closed doors.

And I remember waking up in the hospital, my memories restored fully, being told that the little girl I had hated to readily, saved my life.

And I remember as the seemingly alien words she spoke suddenly made far too much sense.

And I remember trying to figure her out, trying to understand her, but suddenly, the awkwardness of my last life, my introversion had made itself known once again.

I didn't think someone like her would notice my staring.

And I remember her helping with the solctice, and watching her do magic for the first time.

I remember being amazed, and scared.

I remember finally confronting her that night, with my… father by my side.

And I remember her disappearance being discovered the very next evening.

I remember my father weeping, though he is a very open cryer.

I remember the sheer beacon of raw lunar magic beaming down from on high, during the peak of the solctice, directly towards one of the grand mana zones.

I have remembered everything I have ever done, ever said, and ever experienced. And more than anything, I remember that I hate my bad luck

But just for a moment, I thought there was someone with worse luck than me, and was for that moment, content.

- - - -

It was with trepidation and a sled for defense, that I walked down the steps deeper into the earth.

I had made the sled sturdy enough to withstand strikes, so it can hopefully act as a shield in a pinch.

As I walked down the steps, the walls slowly changed from sleek stone slabs to cobble stone, and as the light from the outside world finally petered out, it was replaced by a slowly shifting glow coming from the spaces in between the stones.

Like an RGB monitor, it slowly changed to all the colors of the rainbow.

Though oddly enough, there wasn't a single bit of a mana signature coming from the light.

As I continued to walk, the system board once again tried to get me to select one of the three options, and I once again told it I wasn't interested, and it once again disappeared.

It had been doing so since I first said no thank you to the choices given.

Which clearly offended it, but, tough shit, it was a bad time to thrust a something like that on me.

Luckily I didn't trip when it appeared so suddenly and continued to make my way down.

As I continued to walk, the cobble stone suddenly stopped, giving way to a room that was like the other room, but the opposite.

It was flat at the top, leading to a circular dome at the bottom.

Four doorways led into darkness, the light of the cobblestone not coming off the ceiling of the strange room.

The rest of room was smooth stone, just like above.

What was not like above, was the water.

From the floor to about on third up the wall, what would be chest height on an average adult, is nothing but, crystal clear water.

And it also continues through to the other rooms as well.

I hadn't though about buoyancy when making the sled… and I'd really rather not be in a liminal place like this, so, instead of continuing down into the water, I instead walked back up the steps.

I don't want to risk there being something down there.

The thought led a shiver to course through spine, and I began to climb the stairs faster.

Even as I heard something rippling in the water, I did not look back, I just began jumping up the steps three at a time.

I didn't bother to stop and try and gather more meat or parts from the bear, and I even punched the stupid part of my brain thought that there was still something we could get from down there.

No thank you. No. Fucking. Thank. you.

It's less that I'm afraid of water, and more that that place was giving back room vibes, and that shit scares me…

As I vaulted onto the surface fully, and tried tried to get my barings, I heard something behind me.

It was a ding.

I turned to look, and saw the system.

[DING]

[Quest board activated: URGENT QUEST: GET THE FUCK OUT OF THERE. NOW: COMPLETE!

QUEST OBJECTIVE: get out of that dungeon!: COMPLETED

REWARD: (I don't know, anything will do…) a random D- rank reward!

SECRET REWARD: blah blah blah don't get fucking eaten!: random E-rank reward.

SECRET REWARD: fuckin I don't know! Uhh clothe yourself! Or something…:random accessory reward.

SECRET REWARD: uhh uhh uhh fuck shit, ummm get out of here with no physical injuries? Whatever-: Failed.

Find. The. Book.: Failed.]

As I finished reading this, something fell to the hail.

The reflection of what was unmistakably… a very green Compact Disk, or CD.

As I walked over and picked it up, I turned it over, and was speechless to see, that on the other side, the words TM76 - STRUGGLE BUG.

I looked at the system with clear confusion, and said, "what, is this?" A TM76? What the fuck is a struggle bug?

[ITEM NAME: TM76 - STRUGGLEBUG]

[ITEM RANK: E-Rank]

[ITEM DETAILS: a TM containing the move Strugglebug.]

[ITEM FUNCTION: place in a move learning machine and play it to a Pokémon that can learn it, if done correctly, then that Pokémon will immediately learn that move.]

[ITEM FLAW: none.]

I look at the screen with a blankly confused expression, which probably didn't get through my mask and goggles.

"Okay, that's pretty good to know, but," I sighed as I slipped the TM thingy into my backpack.

"What exactly, is a 'Pokémon'?" As I asked this, I heard the groaning of rock on rock, as the spiral staircase began to wind upward, until it fully sealed itself off…

- - - -

Thanks for reading this far into the story, more coming soon.

Remember to comment, if you want.

(This is a part one btw)