In this world, Magic is Everything. All people, all races, are granted with the power to perform mystical and magical feats via grimories, mystical tomes granted to each and every child on their 15th birthday. Those blessed by the mana can have their names written down in legend.
Shattered Grimoires is the work of the mind(s) of Ardere & Shattered Grimoire's staff. All characters and content are copyright their creators, and may not be replicated without their creators' permission. Black Clover is owned by Yuki Tabata and published by Viz Shonen Jump. All images belong to their original owners. The theme you are currently viewing was made by Eliza of ElizaCodes exclusively for Shattered Grimoires.
The fortress town of Babel. It was a sprawling place in the noble region, with magical energy so thick even a totally mana-blind mage like Saki could sense the pressure it gave off. It was a little unbearable, if Saki had to be honest with herself. Combined that with the summer heat rolling in with the rest of the season and it left her an irritated individual. She wasn't even sure why she was way the hell out here in the noble region, having spent most of her time in the Forsaken Region...but she had to cover all of the ground. She was looking for somebody, or rather... three somebodies. There were only so many places they could have been, and towns and cities she knew never existed before had to be the places she could find them. She was honestly close to giving up. The memories she had gained through the shattering had left her a completely different person...
...and she wasn't completely sure she had totally hated the change. Two different sets of memories dominated her mind: Saki the Rogue and Saki the Magic Knight- one set of memories telling a story of a impoverished girl who had degenerated into banditry, and then organized crime as she climbed the ranks towards being the boss of the city. The other? The same initial story, but with different details- she was a thief, not a bandit...and she had a family. One she even went Magic Knight to try and look after. They were both so similar...yet different. What made it worse was that when the Shattering happened she had woken up in the Green Mantis base, wearing Green Mantis gear.
So which one was real? The Magic Knight? or the Rogue?
Saki... didn't have the answer to that. But she had to find her family, which is why she was here in this spirits-forsaken place to begin with. They had to be real, and she could get a definitive answer and finally lay the confusing questions to rest. Saki just didn't know where to even begin. So, she decided to begin where any rogue would- the shadows. That's where she was now, standing in front of some seedy, back alley bar that was covered by the shadow of the massive looming tower overhead. It was a decent enough looking place, but seedy was seedy- everything looked cheap and the alcohol expensive.
It probably wasn't even good alcohol. Whatever. Buy drink, then get information. That's how it worked. So she sat down and ordered the most expensive thing there.
Azure was in Babel for one simple reason, she needed spells, and a good place to perhaps find stronger folk and find them in a way where she can just subtly touch their grimoire and take their spells without them ever knowing was great. With this in mind she had gone to a decently paced up bar, a rather seedy back alley place that was held in the shadow of the looming tower. A decent enough place to start, but the place was cheaply put together and the drinks much more expensive than they have any right to be.
To start Azure sat herself down at the bar watching the other folks there as she ordered herself something to drink, going for a middle expense. Next to her she saw another person, probably a girl, but to her they really looked more tomboyish and kinda aggressive in the expression, but the main thing she looked for was to see where and how they held their grimoire as to hope for easy access.
Azure herself was in her normal get up of a form fitting black dress, black shoes, and rather attention grabbing green hair that goes down to her waist, curling at the end.
The alcohol she bought thankfully wasn't bad, all things considered. It had a strange, cinnamon taste to it that she wasn't sure she enjoyed all that much, though. It didn't matter, ultimately, as drinking wasn't the reason she was here, even if she did enjoy that particular poison. She sat her grimoire on her lap, eying the crowd for anybody who looked like they knew anything about the roguish element. Saki frowned as she took a look at the group of people in the bar, none of them really screaming 'rogue', even with her knowledge and memories of the skill in picking them out from a crowd. She turned to the barkeep, waving down his attention.
"Yo, old man! You heard anything recently 'bout a trio of idiots around town?" She smiled, "Thieves, I mean. They like to use distractions and hit and runs. One has a mop of curly red hair. Favorite ploy is to...argue with one another in front of somebody while the third takes off with the goods?" She'd ask the man, frowning when he shook his head. "Don't know nothin' bout it. Nobody around here with that kind of hair, either. Not of my usual suspects, anyway." The man told her, wiping down a glass. "Did hear about a group of three thieves running around Raque though. Real annoying bunch. I...think one of 'em had red hair, too." The old man explained.
Raque. That's somewhere none of them had ever been to; at least not from a professional standpoint. It could be a place to look...but red hair by itself didn't mean anything. "How about the names? They like to go by Barry, Surly and Poe." That just got another shake of the head. Saki cursed. Well, this was only one bar. She'd probably search around a little more before she just went and gave up, but she filed that little bit of information away in her head for now. She wouldn't go anywhere, just yet. She still had a drink in front of her, and it'd be a damn shame if she left without drinking all of it.
She took another sip of the drink, settling into the bar stool as she thought about what to do next...
Azure listened to the girl who was now her focus as she talked to the bartender about some thugs or, well, thieves by the names of Barry, Surley, and Poe. It took a fair amount for her not to laugh at their names out loud. Azure now figured this girl would be fair enough to try and steal some spells from.
In an act as if moving to the other side of Saki as to talk to them she moved to bump her hand against the other girl’s grimoire while talking an introduction “Yo. So you are looking for some thieves? Did they take something from you or something?” she tried to talk as if she knew who the other girl was talking about, making it seem like she might be able to say where they are. Though of course Azure did not know who the guys were or where they might be.
“Yo. So you are looking for some thieves? Did they take something from you or something?”
Saki jumped, taken out of her thoughts by a new voice. It was from the girl sitting right next to her. Saki turned her head to get a better look and found what looked like a really young girl, staring back at her with a curious expression. "...something like that. Why? You know something?" Saki pressed, immediately aware of the hand reaching for her grimoire. 'What the hell is this kid doing? She doesn't seriously think she can pass one on me, does she?' Saki thought to herself, not letting the fact she'd caught on to whatever the kid was about to do show up on her face.
She was kind of interested to see where it went, the ballsy kid. Saki would stretch then, lifting her arms up behind her head as she yawned, "Nah...they're just a bunch of idiots that'll get themselves hurt without me." she'd say.
This kid...Saki still had memories of being a thief- hell, she had TWO different versions of her life as a thief floating around in her head now, even. Either this was the first thing she had ever tried to poach or was ridiculously bad. Or ballsy. It was probably the third one, if Saki was being honest about it. You weren't going to get by stealing something underneath her unless you had...illusion spells or something or were much, much faster than she was.
“Well maybe, maybe not, but if you don't really need to find them I guess I don't need to say anything about it right?” as she spoke she kept up her subtle attempt to touch the other girl’s grimoire.
“Well, if they just messed up and got hurt wouldn't you already know about them and where they would be? I mean you make it sound like they are your friends, but yet you have no clue where they are. Also you say that like you being there would have made the difference in helping them and yet you seem rather weak to me. Hardly anything worth anything OH but yet you are a magic knight so that must make it ok to be weak, you can just use that status to push people around right?” A grin slowly crossed the girl's face as the mantis girl seemed to stretch and get relaxed a bit she chose right then to fully reach and try and touch it, less of a grab and more of a slap at the book. Hoping both them choosing to relax and the insults maybe making them more distracted by insults would help in achieving this or so she hoped.
Saki cocked her eyebrow at this new girl, surprised at her dismissive attitude. It was something she was actually unused to, given the amount of good-hearted people that were out and about. She wasn't really sure where the girl was going with this, either. "Alright...play your games, then." Saki would say, taking another sip of her alcohol. Saki didn't really care about much, but she also didn't get the impression that this girl knew where her family was. And why was she still reaching for that damn book? She was wide open, her hands were away from the book and everything. Did she have to just give her the damn thing?
"You don't know these bozos like I do, girlie." She'd say as she let the girl's insults slide off of her with a smile. Saki was never in the business of strength, power or caring about either- it didn't really help in the long run. Well, that wasn't exactly true, but the most powerful man in the world still fell asleep some time. That was when those types usually became nothing more than a really powerful corpse. "Still, pretty fuckin' bold of you to assume weakness on my part. You don't got family to worry about?" Saki asked as she quirked her eyebrow. If nothing else, it'd provide some insight on the girl. "Or did they just 'hold you back'?" Saki said in a mocking voice.
Those types were ridiculous. Everybody had a weakness, for some that was their families. It sucked, but that was just the way of the world. You could go without it and just become a monster only in it for the power...but those types didn't last long, either. They were always fighting against the little guys and while those guys could probably stamp the 'weaklings' out a bunch of times...they only had to lose once before it was over. Well... that and people like those didn't curry much favor from the shadows, anyway. Dangerous, unhinged and monstrous weren't good combinations if you wanted to go anywhere that wasn't six feet under.
"'Sides, you don't have to be strong to notice people trying to pull fast ones on you." Saki would say as she patted her book, before holding it out to the girl. "You want to take a look at my book, yeah? Not sure exactly why, but you know... I'm not in the business of caring." She'd say as she waggled her book out in front of her. Still, it'd be pretty interesting to see what happened next. Well, it'd be boring if all she was gonna do was steal the damn thing, but she was pretty confident in her ability to catch up. Wasn't there a type of magic that could copy other people's spells? That'd be pretty neat. It'd be a point of pride than anything, having a spell copied from a lowly no-leaf like her.
