Falsely accused, again. Once more a false accusation had ruined his reputation and left him alone. But this time he wasn't even left with a scrap of money, or even a familiar place. No this time he was abandoned and left in another world he knew very little about. Before when he had found another world he at least had his soon to be best friends close by. To think that it all began yesterday...
The boy in question was Akira Kurusu, former resident of Japan and yesterday had started like any other for him. After checking up with his friends he had went to the library to study for an upcoming test and return the books he checked out. While there things had gone weird for him when an old book had fallen on him. The book was titled 'Legend of the Four Heroes'.
The book told the tale of the four heroes: hero of the sword, hero of the spear, hero of the bow, and the hero of shield. The four heroes were summoned to that world to help save the world from doom. It was not very interesting and quite generic in his opinion. Though the princess character agitated him due to her actions. As he got a way into the book Akira found that unlike the other heroes, who all had fleshed out chapters explaining who they were, the hero of the shield had nothing. All the pages that should have been about him were blank. This caught him of guard, to think that somehow this book was released in its incomplete state was shocking. 'Maybe it was a misprint and really rare,' Akira thought to himself.
Oh well if he was really curious he could get Futaba to look it up for him. With that final thought he went to put the book back on the self when a wave of dizziness hit him. It felt like back when he would activate the navigation app to take him to the Metaverse. Akira attempted to stay on his but felt his balance start to give out as someone called his name.
When next he opened his eyes he was in a massive stone room surrounded by robed individuals. When he went to get onto his feet he found a small silver shield on his arm with a light green gem in the center with black lines around the edges. After getting to his feet he saw he was surrounded by three other individuals, each holding their own weapons. Akira would learn later that much like him they each came different versions of Japan. The first and youngest was Amaki Ren age 16, the Hero of the Sword. He stood a petite 165cm (roughly), with delicate, sincere features. In fact, he was so pretty you might even mistake him for a girl if he dressed up in drag. His hair was short, with brown streaks. With his long-slitted eyes and light skin, he was the very image of a cool, slender swordsman. Second was Kawasumi Itsuki age 17, the Hero of the Bow. He had curly blonde hair that seemed to do what it wants, not that Akira could judge. He was on the thin side and had an elegant aura about him. The third and oldest was Kitamura Motoyasu, the Hero of the Spear. Though his features were more traditional, he was easily on par with Ren in the looks department. Akira could easily imagine he'd dated two girls at the same time before, it wouldn't surprise him at all. Even his hair was chic, tied back into a long ponytail. It was a feminine cut, but somehow he made it work. All in all, he seemed like a helpful and reliable guy.
They were soon escorted into a castle where the king introduced himself himself. The palace was not on the level of the one belonging to Kamoshida but very little could compare to the Palaces he had seen. The king had then asked them to save the world and give them a basic rundown on how the new world worked, it functioned like a video game… Yes this world had levels and stats, man if only Futaba or Ryuji were here to help him with this stuff. After that he went on to explain that what threatened this world was Waves that came through holes in dimensions to destroy towns and villages. The king made sure to assure them that once the world was safe they would be sent home.
They were then dismissed to a spare room that had been prepared for them. That was when the four Heroes had discovered that they each came from different versions of Japan and Akira had confessed to them about his lack of video game knowledge. While he had played a large number of older games his knowledge about more current games that this world resembled was largely lacking.
When they were called to dinner they were greeted to the sight of a large banquet of food. After the feast and a night of rest they met with the king again who introduced them to twelve adventures who he allowed to pick which hero they wished to go with. This wound up with Ren having five, Motoyasu having four, Itsuki having three, and Akira zero.
This threw him for a loop, after all you would think that at least one of them would want to help him. Then she came in. The girl had long red hair and a great beauty about her. She said she would join as his helper. She introduced herself as Mine Sphere and with her help he was able to locate the weapon shop where they purchased equipment and Akira learned some more bad news. Besides shields he was unable to use any other type of weapons. Meaning the knife and gun he had on him might be useless, things to check out later.
After the equipment shopping they went to the fields outside the castle where they fought slime creatures known as 'Balloons'. At the time Akira was happy to have Mine with him cheering him on. You have to understand that sense arriving on this world Akira has had little to no kindness because of him being the Hero of Shield and knowing so little about the games this world resembles. The king had ignored him to the point where he nearly forgot to get his name. The other Heroes had downplayed him telling him that shield classes were typically 'low tier'. It really wore down on him so you could see why he would trust someone so quick. That was his mistake…
That night when him and Mine went to sleep he thought about his other friends and how they were doing. When he woke up he saw that his armor was gone along with his money and Mine. As he gathered his gear that he had hidden out of old habit he heard the sound of multiple people coming up. Again acting on old instincts he hid as multiple soldiers burst into his room. As Akira hid he watched the soldiers turn his room over looking for him.
"Where is the Shield Demon!" One of them yelled as he threw the bed over. Akira ducked further into the shadows as one of the soldiers glanced up.
"He must have run after having his way with the princess!" Another yelled confusing Akira. Princess? When did he ever encounter a princess? He needed more information and he wasn't going to get it here or from them.
"Come on we need to find that rapist!"
WHAT! Now he needed to know more than ever what happened! After making sure they had left he dropped from the rafters and looked out the window. Seeing his chance he left through it making sure to stay out of sight as he made his way to the palace. While heading there he was able to overhear bits of conversation, and what he heard started to paint a picture so bad it would kill Yusuke if he ever saw it.
Turns out that Mine had framed him for raping her and had thrown herself at Motoyasu while crying her eyes out. This lead him to being branded a criminal. Fun fact by the way turns out Mine wasn't even her real name, she was actually Malty Melomarc the princess of the land, he got that from some guards he overheard. Entering the palace was a bit harder but compared to some other things he had done it was shockingly easy, though avoiding the ninjas was a bit harder. Yes there were ninjas, cause why not. It was then a compilation of Phantom Thief vs Ninjas, which he hoped he won. As he got to one of darker parts of the castle he saw one of the guards from earlier burst in. After informing the king of their failure and begging for forgiveness the king dropped the bombshell.
Turns out King Aultcray could not send him home or kill him due to his status of being a hero. New heroes could only be summoned when all heroes were dead so that was out and he was needed to fight the waves so they couldn't imprison him either. Hearing this Akira was tempted to go down and laugh at them and comfort Malty but thought better of it. His punishment right now was for his crime to be spread throughout the nation. It seems that right now the general attitude towards him was to ignore he was there due to how weak he was.
Letting out a tired sigh Akira made to leave only to stop and look around. He could of sworn he felt someone watching him…
This lead to where he was now, few coins to his name, few old tools on him, and nobody to help him. He was lucky that the weapon shop guy was even willing to lend him anything to wear. Now he is left in the field outside the Kingdom trying to find someplace somewhat peaceful to sleep during the rain. He had tried to find an inn to stay at but was turned away due to being the hero of the shield.
"There you are!" A familiar voice yelled at Akira. Turning he was shocked to see a black cat with white tipped feet and tail approach him. Parts of their fur was matted while spots of dirt clung to their ears. "I am so glad to see you!"
"Morgana?" Akira asked not believing his eyes. The cat's bright blue eyes stare back at him with a happy twinkle in them.
"What do you know of another devilishly good looking talking cat?" They teased while joining him under the tree branch to stay dry. "I was surprised it took me this long to find you though." Absentmindedly Akira reached out his hand to start petting his friend while enjoying be close. "... Hey I heard the rumors about you by the way." Of course he did, couldn't expect any less from him. "I just want to let you know that I still believe in you. There's no way a Great Phantom Thief like you could ever do something like that!" It felt nice to hear someone say that.
"I suppose I should tell you what's going on…" So with some confurt restored Akira told Morgana everything, from his arrival to now. This led to them sitting in silence for a good while.
"You're joking right!" Morgana yelled after hearing the tale. "To think this kingdom would hang you out to dry without even a trail!"
"This is how they do it here I guess."
"Stop sounding so relaxed!" Morgana got up and started pacing back and forth. "Well there's only one thing we can do now! If we want to win then we need to make them sorry that they dropped us so quickly!"
"How you want to do it?" This felt somewhat nostalgic.
"Simple my good friend... " Morgana took a comfortable seat while letting there sentence hang in the air. "We become true Heros and show this country how true gentleman behave and we become as strong as possible."
Letting out a chuckle Akira wiped his hand on the shield getting the cat hair off. "Sounds like a plan Mona. But I think we should get some rest first." Reaching into the satchel he pulled out the blanket he bought earlier.
"Huh, sounds kind of funny when you say it Joker." With their piece said Morgana jumped up by him and got comfortable. "Get some rest we got a lot of work to do tomorrow." As they slept neither noticed the cat hair get absorbed into the shield or the new branches open up.
