Crossover Fan Fiction ❯ Ranting of a Shield Hero(ine) ❯ Second Alternate ( One-Shot )

[Kumamiko]

“Success! We have summoned the Four Cardinal Heroes!” said the priest mage.

“Wait, there’s a bear! A BEAR!” Machi looked around. Her friend Natsu was beside her, and Machi held a familiar naginata, a kind of spear used for home defense. It was generally made from a broken Katana or wakizashi blade, affixed to a long sturdy pole, usually 8 feet long. There were a few other high schoolers. One had a sword, another a bow. And there was one man a bit older with a serving tray or shield on his right arm. They all looked Japanese like her. Machi had been doing a Kagura in her usual garb, and the spinning dance with bells generally induced a fugue. Natsu said that she often was possessed by a mountain god then.

“Machi. We seem to be somewhere else. I told you that not wearing the correct garments for Kagura would anger the gods,” said the bear. Everyone blinked and the shouting stopped just as suddenly.

“Okay. That’s new,” said a Priest.

“He’s with me,” said Machi. She adjusted her headband. “Hey, did you notice I can’t put this naginata down? I can shift to my other hand. I can lean it against my neck, but I can’t actually drop it or put it down. That’s very strange.” The guy with the shield kept trying to release the shield on his arm and admitted he couldn’t put his down either.

“This is really going to make sleeping or going to the bathroom awkward,” said the guy with the bow. The sword guy had a sheathe, which he used successfully.

“Can you unbelt that sword?” asked the guy with the bow. The guy with the sword tried, and couldn’t do it. The bowman and shield guy smirked. Then they turned to the priests.

“What is this?” the heroes asked the Priest.  

“Would you like some dinner? We have prepared a feast to welcome you, heroes!” said the Priest, who seemed to be grimacing his welcome because a bear talked. And one of the heroes was still a rather young girl.

The Shield Hero introduced himself as Naofumi, from Tokyo.

“Ayamadori Machi,” she said, introducing herself. “And this is Natsu. He’s a bear.”

“I noticed he talks. Bears don’t talk in the Japan where I lived. Are you a shrine maiden?” he asked.

“Yes. I was just about to start high school today, and now I’m here.”

“I was just getting back from the convenience store with some snacks.”

“Are convenience stores open all day and all night in Tokyo?” asked Machi, curious.

“Yes. That’s normal. They wouldn’t be convenient otherwise,” said Naofumi, as they walked through some hallways.

“The conbini in our village was closed most of the time. It wasn’t convenient. And our streets weren’t paved, just game trails. And we had no reception for cellphones, but we had wifi at the temple, and some of the shops.”

“Well, wifi is something at least,” agreed Naofumi.

They ate a lot of food at the feast and then went to a throne room with big windows. The king, and she knew it was a king because she played lots of 16 bit games on her Bitendo console, asked for names of each of the heroes.

“I’m Machi, this bear is my friend Natsu. He talks. And this is Naofumi the Shield Hero,” she said before the king could interrupt her. There was some sleazy looking Yankee princess leaning around in the throne room, peering between the guy with the sword and the one with the bow, then the guy with the shield, before turning back to the archer.

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It was a few days later that Natsu told her that the Archer had fled the country after strangling the princess. She was expected to recover, though her voice was raspy and now matched her personality.

Naofumi had adopted some furry girl and had her killing stuff for him, because he couldn’t do it himself. He sold her some healing potions, and some for upset stomach because Natsu didn’t like the food here very much.

During their battle with the First Wave monsters attacking the village of Lute, Machi started spinning in fugue state, a god of battle possessed her, and she did the moonwalk while smiting monsters several times her size with swings and stabs and cuts with her Naginata.

“Natsu, would you say that Machi is magical?” Naofumi asked Natsu.

“Well, in a sense, that is so. She is able to be possessed by the mountain gods in our shrine, and sometimes when she gets startled,” the bear admitted in very clear Japanese.

“It seems that battle also qualifies,” said Naofumi, casting heal on his girl, who was twice as big as when he first got her. She’d grown to a full adult in a few weeks.

A bit later, some guy with a funny mustache showed up and tried to take credit. Natsu growled at him. The blowhard peed his armor suit, and then ran away. The sleazy princess showed up the following day, trying to seize the village of Lute for herself, this time while accompanying the Sword Hero. Her croaking voice was not very impressive, and swayed no one.

“Why are you with her? She sounds like Doctor Girlfriend,” Naofumi asked the sword hero.

“I always liked that character. Besides, aggravating her is fun,” he admitted. Natsu looked back and forth between them mouthing the words: “doctor girlfriend?”

It turned out that the claims by the royal family that the weapons of the heroes would repel each other was just a stupid lie, and Machi and Naofumi enjoyed adventuring together. The two of them were able to fight off the waves of demon attackers with the help of new friends, including a giant talking bird who turned into a cute little blonde girl. There was probably some drama or something, but being young herself Machi just soaked it up, though big crowds continued to give her anxiety.