The Rising of the Shield Hero Vol 09 Read online

  Prologue: The Waves of Another World

  “Pwaoooooo!”

  The inter-dimensional Ganesha Shadow roared and swung a weapon that looked like oversized Buddhist prayer beads at me.

  “Heh!” I blocked the attack with my shield, then grabbed his prayer beads out of the air. His weapon immobilized, the monster raged and roared even louder than before.

  “That was awesome! I guess that’s why they call you the Shield Hero, eh Kiddo?” L’Arc grunted next to me while he fought another ganesha.

  “Awesome? I’m the Shield Hero. If I couldn’t block an attack like that, what good would I be?”

  I didn’t feel like I had to explain myself to him, but it was true. Since I came to that new world , my main role in battle was to use my high defense rating to block the attacks of enemies. I guess I was sort of an exception.

  I should mention that I was currently in yet another world, one that lay on the other side of the dimensional rifts that accompanied the waves of destruction.

  “Don’t let your guard down! Pay attention, will you, Boy?”

  “Hey Kiddo, you better stop calling me ‘Boy’!”

  “If you keep calling me ‘Kiddo,’ I’m going to keep calling you ‘Boy’!” Just then I got an even better idea, based on what I knew about his background. “Maybe I should call you ‘Nobunaga’ instead?”

  “Hey! How did you know that Kizuna used to call me that ?! ”

  I guess it fit pretty well. I’d have to remember to compliment Kizuna on her nicknaming skills.

  “Mr. Naofumi, maybe you should stop with all the nicknames.”

  “Ahaha!”

  “Don’t just laugh it off!”

  “Then let me be more clear about it. Aren’t I the one who named a king and princess ‘Trash’ and ‘Bitch’?”

  “You’re worse than I thought, Kiddo.”

  “This is why you’re so often misunderstood . . .”

  “It’s true though, isn’t it?”

  “But you should tell him the circumstances around it, or he won’t understand.”

  “I know, Kiddo, well enough, to figure that they had it coming.”

  “You think you know everything!”

  If he was going to understand something about me, I wished he’d start with something else. It was kind of depressing. Why did we have to talk about things like this?

  We were enemies up until a short while ago, but now we were on the same team and already acting like old friends.

  But we were getting too comfortable, and I had to make sure we didn’t forget the reason we were here in the first place. I’d better go over it all from the beginning.

  My name is Naofumi Iwatani. I was a typical otaku, college student back in Japan. One day I went to the local library and found a book called The Records of the Four Holy Weapons. I started reading it, only to find myself actually summoned to the world it depicted, as one of the characters in the book: The Shield Hero.

  The people that summoned me asked me to lend them my strength to help save the world.

  And, well, a whole lot of stuff happened after that.

  “L’Arc, you understand Mr. Naofumi so well!”

  “I know all sorts of people, so right from the get-go I could tell that he wasn’t a bad guy.”

  “I’m the worst kind of guy!”

  “Oh yeah, you think you’re really tough, don’t ya?”

  “Shut up!”

  What was WITH this guy?

  By the way, the guy that was pretending to know all about me was L’Arc. That was short for L’Arc Berg. I still didn’t know his last name.

  He was an experienced adventurer in his late twenties. Generally, he was a pretty charming guy. He knew how to get people on his side. Sometimes he was a little childish, but that was probably just part of his charm.

  When we first met he was wearing a set of light armor, but when we met up again, in this new world, he was dressed—I don’t know why—like a member of the Shinsengumi. The style suited him, but I wondered which one was his usual look.

  After all, Glass wore a kimono, and Kizuna wore a haori over a lolita-style dress.

  He probably chose the clothes based on their effects. Maybe the Shinsengumi clothes he had picked up while sneaking around in this world were actually better than the light armor.

  Why did I care so much about his clothes anyway? Alright , enough of that. Moving on.

  “Just hurry up and kill the thing, will you? I’m tired of holding it down.”

  I’d kept my grip on the inter-dimensional Ganesha Shadow the entire time we’d been talking. It was one of the larger monsters in the area. It might have been a boss, but I wasn’t sure yet. Its attacks were intense, but nothing we couldn’t handle. The reason I was able to withstand its attacks so easily was related to the legendary shield I’d held since the moment I was summoned to the new world.

  I couldn’t take the shield off. It was like a curse. But I could absorb all sorts of items and materials into it, and doing so unlocked different versions of the shield. And those new versions all came with new abilities.

  I became stronger by unlocking those abilities.

  All of that was well and fine, but it came with a significant drawback: I wasn’t able to deal any damage on my own. So, I needed party members that could handle all the offensive duties in battle.

  “Mr. Naofumi! I’m going in!”

  “Then I leave it to you.”

  “Okay!”

  The girl that just rushed forward to attack the monster I was restraining was Raphtalia, a demi-human girl that used to be a slave. Demi-humans looked like humans, except they tended to have animal-like features, too. Raphtalia was a raccoon-type demi-human, and she had ears and a tail that looked like a raccoon, or maybe a tanuki.

  She was also my most trusted companion. She was sort of like a daughter to me.

  At the moment she was dressed in a miko outfit, and it looked great on her. L’Arc had encouraged her to wear it. She looked so good in it, in fact, that I hoped she would keep wearing it after all the business in this world was behind us.

  “Hya! Instant Blade: Mist!”

  Raphtalia flashed by the inter-dimensional Ganesha Shadow, her katana cutting deep into its flesh as she passed.

  That was all it took to defeat the monster. It split into two pieces and disappeared.

  “Alright! On to the next one! This wave’s monsters seem stronger than normal!”

  “I agree! They seem stronger than the monsters in our world, too.”

  Raphtalia was holding a special katana. Perhaps it was part of her mysterious destiny, but she had been chosen to wield the katana of the vassal weapons in the world on the other side of the wave’s dimensional rifts.

  I’ll explain it all later, but it meant that she had become far more powerful than an ordinary person could ever hope to become.

  “Watch out, master! Another monster is coming!” Filo called down from the sky above us.

  She was a young monster-girl, and she loved to pull carriages. She used to also be a large, ostrich-like monster called a filolial. She had the ability to transform into a young girl with angel wings on her back, and she fought alongside me—or rather, under my leadership.

  She was actually extremely powerful on the battlefield. Anyone deceived by her appearance would quickly come to regret it.

  But, after we came to this other world, her monster form had changed. She was no longer a filolial, and that meant that her fighting style had changed too. In this world she was a humming fairy, a type of monster that turned into dramatically different things as it matured.

  There was one point in particular that was very dif
ferent between filolials and humming fairies—filolials can’t fly, but humming fairies can. So now that Filo could fly, she had taken to the skies to observe the movements of the battle.

  Of course the wave’s monsters were throwing things at Filo and trying to hit her with magic, but she was very quick and had no trouble dodging whatever they threw at her.

  “Let’s do this!”

  “Feh . . .”

  That was Rishia. She was running towards me with a horde of monsters in tow. That must have been what Filo was trying to warn me about. I thought Rishia went to join Glass and Kizuna.

  Her full name was Rishia Ivyred, and she was a human girl. She came from a ruined noble family back in Melromarc. She used to be on the Bow Hero’s team. The Bow Hero was one of my fellow heroes, Itsuki Kawasumi. Then one day she did something in a wave battle that enraged him. Out of spite, he kicked her out of his party. That’s when I found her, in trouble. So, I put her in my party.

  She was very timid, but she came from a good background and had received a good education. Had this been a game, I’d say she was the sort of character whose status points had all been assigned to a stat that I couldn’t see yet.

  “Air Strike Shield!”

  I used a skill that caused a shield to appear in mid-air, blocking the attacks of the monsters that were bearing down on Rishia as she ran.

  Skills were a special kind of technique that only heroes like myself could use.

  “Rishia! Are you alright ?! ”

  “Feh? Y . . . Yes!”

  “I thought you were with Kizuna! What happened ?! ”

  “Kizuna and Glass are on the verge of being overrun by monsters, so they asked me to come get you!”

  “Oh. Well, they are on the front lines, so I guess they need some help.”

  I’d sent Rishia to fight with them, because I thought it would be good experience for her. I guess she’d been in a little over her head.

  As for what I’d been up to? My team had been focused on evacuating anyone caught in the monsters’ path.

  The wave had arrived close to a village, so we were very busy trying to save as many people as we could. Come to think of it, the waves always seemed to occur near villages. But, then again, I’d only fought in three waves so far. That probably wasn’t enough to start drawing conclusions.

  Anyway, the other group of teammates on the front lines, at the moment, was led by Kizuna Kazayama, who was one of the four holy heroes of this world—another world separate from the one that had summoned me.

  She was called the Hunting Hero, which wasn’t one of the four heroes back in the world that had summoned me. She fought with a wide variety of tools and weapons, all of which were loosely related to hunting or fishing in some way. She could use a wide variety of weapons, but she was also subject to a strict limitation: she was only able to fight against monsters and animals. She was useless in a battle against other people. Like myself, she probably also had some way to deal damage to people when she really had to, but it wouldn’t be easy. It wasn’t something she could just make happen whenever she wanted.

  She appeared to be a young girl who wore her hair pinned up on the side, and she wore a haori over a gothic, lolita-style dress. But she said that she was eighteen years old.

  I met her just after we came to this new world. We chased our enemy, Kyo, through a dimensional rift, only to fall into his trap and find ourselves imprisoned in a never-ending labyrinth.

  With Kizuna’s cooperation, we were eventually able to escape. After getting out of the labyrinth, we also found a way to sneak out of the enemy country that had imprisoned both of us in the labyrinth to begin with. Lots of things happened along the way.

  It turned out that soul-healing water, a medicine that replenishes spent SP, didn’t exist in this world. So, we made some and sold it for a high price. We used the money to buy earth crystals, which were an ore that actually gave experience points to people from the world that summoned me. Finally, we ended up fighting and defeating an obnoxious guy that was trying to kill Raphtalia. He was trying to kill her because he didn’t like that the katana of the vassal weapons had chosen her over him.

  Something about that guy had really reminded me of Kyo. He acted a lot like him. I guess this new world was full of jerks like that. No matter what world I found myself in, there was always trouble to deal with.

  “Hey L’Arc, think Kizuna is having trouble? Is she asking for help because she can’t attack?”

  “Hm . . . Good question. To be honest, I don’t really know.”

  The enemy had the word “shadow” attached to their names, which made me think that they would still be considered monsters. But who knew if Kizuna’s weapons would agree with my judgement?

  As for myself, it didn’t matter if I was attacking a person or a monster, because none of my attacks did any damage to begin with. I thought that I might be able to get around the issue by using a tool, so I once tried throwing a bomb at an enemy. It just bounced off of them and rolled harmlessly to the ground. And yet, I was able to use weed killer to kill a plant-type monster once, so the rules were sometimes confusing.

  Kizuna had a similar problem. Her ability to deal damage to an enemy depended on whether or not it was considered a person or a monster, and sometimes that line was hard to distinguish.

  “Let’s go then, quickly, L’Arc!”

  “Right, I’m worried about Kizuna, too. Therese, let’s finish this!”

  That was Therese Alexanderite who was fighting side by side with L’Arc. She was a crystal-person, a Jewel. Jewels were a type of human that only existed in this new world on the other side of the wave’s dimensional rifts, which I’m going to start calling “Kizuna’s world” for the sake of brevity.

  Jewels were a race of people that were born with a gemstone that served as a kind of magical core. They were skilled with magic, and were known for their dexterity. They were also known for being very sensitive, and based on the way that Therese had reacted to the bangle I made her, I agreed.

  She had been hiding out with L’Arc, so she was wearing hakama, too.

  “Great power in these stones, hear my plea and show yourself. My name is Therese Alexanderite, and I am your friend. Give me the strength to annihilate them!”

  “Shining Stones: Ruby Flame!”

  “Fusion Technique! Ruby Disc!”

  A spinning wheel of ruby flame shot from L’Arc’s scythe and slammed into the monsters that were chasing Rishia.

  Skills could often be combined with the skills of other party members to make combo skills. I’d used them a few times with Raphtalia and Filo.

  “Come on, Kiddo! Let’s go!”

  “You make all the decisions now, do you? Fine, let’s go!”

  “Although if Kizuna and Glass are fighting together, I’m pretty sure they’ll be just fine.”

  I should tell you about Glass next. She looked like a ghost, wore a kimono, and fought with folding fans. Her hair was jet black, and her skin was so white it was nearly transparent . . . it actually might have been a bit transparent.

  Her fans were one of the vassal weapons.

  Kizuna was close friends with Glass, and she was really upset when she found out that Glass had been trying to kill me. Glass was very cold and sharp—she looked like she could kill you just by looking at you. But, she was different around Kizuna. She relaxed , she smiled .

  Because of Kizuna’s mediation, Glass and I now fought together.

  L’Arc and I ran to help Kizuna and Glass.

  Monsters poured from the dimensional rifts in the wave. This time they looked like monsters straight out of Indian mythology. Wasn’t Ganesha basically an elephant-human hybrid?

  There were also inter-dimensional ifrits, which looked like fire spirits. I saw some other monsters called inter-dimensonal nagaraja.

  There were a lot of human-like monsters, too. They didn’t seem to understand language, so I figured they were probably monsters, not people—even accounting for
the wide variety of human-like people in these other worlds. They were pretty powerful.

  Most of the monsters were powerful, actually. This wave was quite a bit more difficult than any of the other waves I’d fought in.

  Over the past few days of training I’d managed to get to level 75, and I had powered up my shields considerably, but the enemy still had attacks that nearly broke through my defenses. I still hadn’t recovered the sort of abilities I’d had in the last world, the world that had summoned me. It was a bit like playing an away game.

  L’Arc had said the same thing.

  “You don’t think someone with a vassal weapon came with this wave, do you? Like Glass did?”

  “That’s not funny, Kiddo!”

  “I wasn’t joking!”

  We went on yelling back and forth as we held off the monsters. Eventually, the dimensional rifts closed.

  High in the sky above our heads, an enormous ship hovered and was engaged in battle with flying monsters that looked like garudas. The battle was fierce.

  A lot of people had joined us in our fight against the wave.

  “Looks like it’s pretty much over.”

  “There were tons of monsters this time. I guess it just took some time to get rid of them all.”

  “Kiddo, you really had me worried there for a minute.”

  “Well, it’s what you were doing. Don’t forget that.”

  “I haven’t forgotten, but it isn’t something to make light of.”

  He’d crossed over to another world to kill its heroes, but now he was afraid to even think of the same thing happening to him.

  “Hey!” Kizuna shouted, running over to us. Glass was right behind her.

  “You asked for help, but it doesn’t look like you needed it.”

  “Yeah, well, I asked Rishia to get you, and a bunch of the monsters followed her when she left. We ended up handling the leftovers ourselves.”

  I was impressed that Rishia had done as well as she had, especially considering how weak she was. Her stats never seemed to match her level, but at least she’d managed to stay alive this whole time.

  “We were going to help her, but we had too many monsters to deal with ourselves. Besides, Rishia took off screaming and running.”