Arc 1

The unnamed arc is the 1st arc of Yūki Tabata's Black Clover.

The arc revolves around Asta and Yuno's efforts to enter the order of the Magic Knights, and it also focuses on Asta's first few days as a member of the Black Bull squad.

The Promise
A long time ago, humanity was under attack by a demon but one mage rose and defeat it. He was then known as the Magic Emperor and his title has since been passed down to the next generations.

In present day, a sister of a church in a village called Hage is being proposed by one of the foster children, Asta. The boy keeps insisting on marrying her that he forces her to used a physical retaliation with a magic spell. Other children then interject with one of them, Yuno, gives his opinion regarding the matter. Asta tries to challenge him to a fight but is rejected with another boy reminds him of his lack of magical power. While Asta is trying to prove his worth, Yuno begins to complete his daily chores excellently with his magical ability that Asta starts to feel depressed. The sister tries to cheer him up and resulted on Asta boasting about his dream on becoming the next Magic Emperor. However, the boy who commented on his magical ability once again reminds him about the type of person that could achieve such dream. Unable to accept his argument, Asta leaves to train on his own while the boy is questioning the seniority between them. When the sister is trying to stop Asta, Yuno tells her that there is nothing to worry about, which reminds her of Asta and Yuno's past. Somewhere within the forest, Asta is resiliently trains his body while Yuno is watching from afar.

Sometime after, Asta and Yuno turn 15 years old and they are attending the Grimoire Acceptance Ceremony. During the ceremony, Asta fails to receive a grimoire and is consulted to try again in the following year. On the other hand, Yuno receives a grimoire with a four-leaf clover insignia on it. As everyone realizing the worth of Yuno's grimoire as the similar grimoire that the first Magic Emperor wielded, Yuno declares his ambition to become the next Magic Emperor. Hearing it, Asta reveals his intention to catch up as his rival but Yuno calmly brushes him off. At a corner of the ceremony's venue, a mysterious figure is witnessing the whole scene and being amazed of the discovery. Later that day, Asta is left in daze from the whole experience while hanging on top of a tree and remembering a promise he had with Yuno. Believing that Yuno has forgotten about the promise, Asta tries to dismiss it with sheer confidence when he sees Yuno walking near the ceremony's venue.

While standing in front of the tower where the ceremony was held, a mysterious figure approaches Yuno and begins to bind him with a magic spell. He then subsequently snatches Yuno's new grimoire while introducing himself as Lebuty, a former Magic Knights turned thief. While Lebuty is explaining his plan on putting a price on Yuno's grimoire at the black market, Asta is rolling down the mountain towards them and warns Lebuty regarding his action. Lebuty then reveals the scar on his face while dismissing Asta's threat. Asta then tries to attack him but quickly defeated by Lebuty's magic spell. Lebuty then tries to diminish Asta's fighting spirit by spelling out the disadvantage he has due to his lack of magical power. Asta begins to succumb to Lebuty's words before Yuno interjects.

The immobilized Yuno then begins to remember a past experience where Asta saves him from a thug whom tries to steal his necklace. It is Yuno's memories of Asta relentlessly tried to take back the necklace from the thug which drives him on having the same goal to become a Magic Emperor. As he remembers this, Yuno finally reveals that Asta is his rival in which ignite the fighting spirit back within Asta. Subsequently, a grimoire comes out of the tower's crevice and summons a sword for Asta. Lebuty realizes that the grimoire possess a five-leaf clover insignia on it and tries to stop it before the grimoire puts him in a disadvantageous position. Fortunately, Asta manages to wield the huge sword due to his physical training and unconsciously negates Lebuty's magic attack before sending him flying towards the wall. Yuno then grabs his grimoire back and promises Asta to pay back this debt from being save by him while Asta is still cherishing his new grimoire. Yuno then asks Asta whether he remembers their promise from the past in which Asta responses in the same manner when they made the promise.

The Exams
Six months later, Asta and Yuno sign up for the Magic Knights Entrance Exam to enter the ranks of one of the nine squads of the order of the Magic Knights. As the anti-bird of the exam venues begins to harass the examinees, Yuno is left without a single one of them around him while a flock of anti-birds are circling Asta when he approaches Yuno. While Asta begins his effort on evading the anti-birds, the sister who stayed in Hage is worrying about the two foster children while asking the mage who guards the tower of grimoires about the children's chance on being admitted. Returning back to Asta, he accidentally collides with an ominous man. Terrified by the presence of the said man, Asta tries to lighten the mood by asking the reason a man of his age is still trying to be admitted to the Magic Knights. His decision resulted on him being strangled by the man before his friend interjects. The surrounding people begin to notice the commotion and the people involved where they are surprised as they see members of the Black Bull squad along with their captain, Yami Sukehiro, are among them. Before Yami manages to give further damages, the exam starts and the examiners reveal themselves to the examinees.

The examinees are in awe with the presence of all the captains of the Magic Knights' squads. Their attention then are quickly being averted to the head examiner whom they realize is the captain of the Golden Dawn and the strongest candidate to become the next Magic Emperor, William Vangeance. The said man then activates one of his spell where a magic tree descends from the sky and gives a broom to each examinees. William then explains the format of the exam and reveals that flying on a broom would be the first of many tasks to be completed. While Yuno is easily master the technique to fly on a broom, Asta is still standing on the ground trying to leave the ground. Another examinee then introduces himself to Asta as Sekke. He is planning to put himself as close as possible to Asta so the examiners could compare his performance solely against Asta's. The exams then continues with Sekke never leaves Asta's side throughout the various tasks. At the end, William reveals the final task to be a combat test. As he encourages the examinees to not hesitate during the fight, Sekke asks Asta to be his battle partner. As the fight starts, Sekke reveals his true color while activating his magic spell. He then condescendingly asks Asta to give his full effort in which Asta quickly dashes towards him. Seeing this, William guesses that Asta is using an acceleration magic but Yami believes it to be Asta's physical prowess. Asta then swings his sword through Sekke's spell and smashes him against the ground while declaring his ambition.

When people start commenting about Asta's seemingly impossible ambition, he revolts by telling them to shut themselves up. The combat test continues with every fights are better than Asta's. It is finally Yuno's turn with a man from the Hapshass family requested him to be his partner. The fight ended almost immediately with Yuno delivers a one-hit-kill attack. After that, it is the time to announce the results where William explains that the examinees are considered to pass the test when there is a captain of the squads that would recruit them into his ranks. As all examinees are called one-by-one, it is finally Yuno's turn and all of the captains reveal their interest on recruiting him to everyone's surprise. Yuno then proceeds on choosing the strongest squad, the Golden Dawn, believing that the quickest path to become the Magic Emperor is through the strongest squad. When it comes to Asta's turn, none of the captain raises an interest on him until Yami breaks the silence by giving his thoughts on the result. He reveals that it all comes to the magic that Asta is using on his combat test while emphasizing the importance of magical power to the Magic Knights by releasing an intense wave of magical power himself. Yami then begins testing Asta's resolves for his ambition to which Asta gives him an honest response. Yami bursts into laughter while taking an interest of the boy. He then offers Asta a place in his squad while stressing that it was an order rather than a request.

As the exams ended, Asta quickly dashes out of the venue straight to the toilet. Sekke follows him and without Asta's notice, he tries to send a sneak attack with one of his spells. As he is activates his spell, Sekke is left stunned when realizing that Yuno is standing behind him while activating a spell to obliterate Sekke's spell. As Sekke is trying to find an excuse for his act, Yuno quickly stops him by saying a few threats. Sekke then leaves the toilet followed by Yuno with Asta is still not noticing the scene that was happening near him. Asta then regroups with his new squad with Yami being very annoyed for making him wait. Asta tries explains his reason but to no avails as Yami once again tries to crush his head. The captain the order his subordinate, Finral Roulakes, to open a portal where Yami throws Asta right through it without hesitation. They arrive at the headquarters of the Black Bull squad. The moment they enter, Asta is left in amazement as Yami introduces the other members while giving remarks about them being the worst squad of the Magic Knights.

Fights

 * Asta vs. Lebuty
 * Asta vs. Sekke
 * Asta, Magna Swing and Noelle Silva vs. Heath

Events

 * Grimoire Acceptance Ceremony
 * Magic Knight Entrance Exam