Author's Note: Alright April fools is here everyone, with this the back door pilot of a potential new fanfic. I will also be setting up a poll on my profile, or if it's still giving you trouble you may let me know what you all think about this train wreck in the making. Mwahahahahahaha! Read, Review, Favourite, Enjoy and Please stay safe!
Chapter 1: A Bad Joke
There have been many heroes summoned into this world over the years, several into this very room, there have of course been attempts made to summon all four of them at once in the past though never successful. It now felt like they were being punished for their hubris. Oh they were heroes all right, no one else could be carrying the four legendary weapons. They were also little girls the oldest among them couldn't have been more than thirteen years old.
"Where am I? What happened?" A blonde girl with bright blue eyes held the Bow, she was also the quickest to come to her senses as her eyes darted around the room and landed on the mages, the fact that she was dressed in a hospital gown did not bode well for their odds of success.
"Uwah! Are you okay!?" The Spear was being carried by a brown haired girl dressed in blue, her clothing resembled that of a nobleman's daughter, even as she helped the oldest looking one to her feet.
"I'm okay but..." The Shield Wielder was also brown haired and dressed in Pink and white, the fact that she was looking at herself confused instead of them or the room did not bode well for their odds of success in this increasingly bad mess by the second. "I think we might be in trouble."
The sword wielder didn't speak at all just looked around the room with bright golden predatory eyes set in a tanned face and framed by white hair and dressed in a sailor uniform, if she wasn't any older looking then the others she might be the one they were most concerned about.
"Uhm..."
"Why have you brought us here?" The blonde stated locking eyes on one of the Mages with blatant annoyance set in her features. "Heroes we beseech you to help save our world!"
The Shield and Spear Heroes simultaneously recoiled with a mixture of surprise and horror.
"You need us to save your world?" The Shield Bearer stated in surprise.
"Well... this world is doomed." The Spear bearer stated drifting off as her eyes went empty.
"Heroes?" The tanned girl on the other hand was much calmer, or at least acting like it, her brows on the other hand were twitching as if they hit a sore spot.
"For the time being, do any of you hold any real authority or is there someone else we should talk to?" The blonde girl at least had her wits about her, that was more then what could be said about some of the others.
"Er..." They could not possibly let the king see this. If they presented these four to the king and told him they were the heroes of legend they would all be thrown into the dungeons until the state of their sanity could be proven, and then likely executed regardless.
"Huu. We should bring you to see our king... maybe." The Court Magician, soon to be former he reasonably expected, sighed and then had a path made for the four of them to exit through.
"Anything to move this train-wreck of a situation along." The brown girl stated as she and two of the others started to walk forward, and then went back and retrieved the shield bearer and dragged her along, muttering something something about a 'VR game'.
Eventually the assembly of future prisoners and kidnapped little girls arrived in the court room, much to their collective gaping shock as horror struck their features. The King looked to the court magician who reluctantly nodded. He double checked the assembled heroes and looked to the Court Magician again as if confirming that no this was not a joke. Of course it wasn't a joke, it would have to be funny for that. As if understanding what the source of the confusion/blatant horror on everyone's faces was the blonde bow hero clacked her shoes together and gave a salute.
"Warrant Officer Tanya Von Degurechaff of the Germanian Kreise Empire." The girl lowered her hand from the salute, though the military gesture did nothing to fix the others confusion. "Might I know to whom I am addressing?"
The King finally managed to regain his senses as he coughed into his hand.
"I am King Consort Aultcray Melromarc the 34th of the Kingdom of Melromarc." As if something had finally gone right that day the rest of the court came to order. "Before we discuss why you are here might I hear your names?" The group of heroes collectively turned their heads to face the muttering Shield Bearer who looked like she was having a increasingly harder time convincing herself she was in a game. The brown skinned girl grinned mischievously as she raised her hand up and brought it down on the other girl's face.
"YYYEEEOOOUUUCCCHHH!" For her troubles the brown skinned girl was on her knees holding her hand that had turned red and numb from the mass of titanium like substance she just hit as hard as possible.
"Next time you might wanna try this." The girl who introduced herself as a warrant officer grabbed the still mumbling girl by both of her shoulders and shook her as hard as she could until she regained her senses.
"WAHAHAHAHA!" The Shield carrying girl cried out as she was forcibly dragged back to reality.
"Your name!"
"Kaede Honjou! My friend's call me Maple!" Tanya dodged the other girl just in time for her to give a rigid bow. "Nice to meet you!"
"And you two?" Tanya asked turning her attention to the other two.
"Chloe von Einzbern, also known as Kuro." The brown skinned girl stated shaking the feeling back into her hand.
"Katarina Claes." The last of the little girls gave a curtsy to the throne room. So she didn't just dress like a nobleman's daughter then.
"You have been brought here because of a grave threat our world faces. The Waves of Calamity." To summarise the king's explanation: Roughly once a month a hole will open somewhere in the sky above the kingdom through which a horde of monsters will pore through in order to ravage the countryside.
Where they don't know, only the when, however when the waves do occur the Legendary weapons, which they have learned cannot leave their sides, will teleport them directly to the battlefield in order to wipe out as much of the opposition as possible and kill the monster leading the enemy thereby plugging the hole for another month. Repeat ad Nauseum until they stop coming and then they'll be free to do as they will. For now the day had been full of surprises, for everyone, so the Heroes were led to their rooms to retire for the evening, at which point in time the four had a meeting, and one of them had a meeting of her own.
Chairman Katarina banged a gavel calling the meeting to order.
"Fellow Katarina's of the Council of Katarina. We have called this meeting to discuss a situation of the most dire of importance."
"What are we going to do!?" Timid Katarina was pulling at her hair as she justifiably freaked out. "We had enough doom flags to deal with when we were stuck in a dating sim!"
The screen showing them the Katarina's point of view was reviewing the contents of the 'help menu' to them revealing video game like terms such as stats, levels and XP.
"This'll be easy in comparison to Fortune Lover!" Excitable Katarina shouted fist pump in the air. "If it's a video game then re-spawning must be in effect!"
"Are you sure?" Logical Katarina asked pushing her glasses up her face. "Does the help menu mention anything to do with concepts related to Respawn such as saving, or checkpoints?" A quick scroll through the help menu revealed that no there was no mention of anything to do with saving the 'game' that was their life. "Come to think of it saving or re-spawning never came up in the last world too." Logical Katarina stated while scratching her chin. "Did we play any games that resemble this world?"
"No but I would've like to!" Happy go-lucky Katarina shouted fist also raised into the air. "This all sounds like it would be fun if we weren't going to be on the verge of death all the time!"
"What are we going to do though!?" Timid Katarina stated as she rail roaded the situation back on track.
"Easy! We have a legendary weapon! It must be a super OP broken doodad that'll let us breeze through this mess no problem!"
'Legendary Spear. +5 Attack +3 Defence.'
"...Uhm. When you ignore what it's called, this is a starting weapon right..." Logical Katarina stated folding hands together. "But then why are we attached to it?"
Chloe was analysing the 'legendary sword' which was so unceremoniously thrust upon her. There was a gargantuan number of seals placed on the sword, and her analysis indicated that it wasn't in existence any longer than she was on this planet. Reluctantly she caved and read the help menu which explained to her that she was suppose to gradually unlock this thing's power by feeding it material which would then give her powers based on whatever she fed it, also like a certain Archer she knows it can copy the forms of swords that she holds in her hands. And her with a massive arsenal of weapons in her own private pocket dimension waiting to be added. Now the question was should she tell her fellow heroes about it?
"Are you feeling better now?" Chloe turned her attention to Kaede, the one that she had been most worried about in all of this.
She had not taken her blatant abduction well, for someone who isn't use to servant cards, magical girls and Rin & Luvia all of this would hit you pretty damn hard. Chloe was only slightly better herself, considering the fact that she was in the process of fading out of existence mere moments before getting here and now appeared to have a completely normal human body instead of a knock off servant body on borrowed time. How was she wearing her School Uniform though? A question for the sages.
"Umm... this... isn't a game right?" Kaede asked though she had been trying to convince herself otherwise for the better part of a day now. "You guys aren't from New World Online or anything like that right?"
"Never heard of it." Chloe stated, which was the honest truth. "Were you playing it when you came here?"
"Before I went to bed. These are my PJ's." Kaede explained pulling on her sweater pyjamas. "Sorry about your hand earlier."
"You say that like you have to say that a lot." Chloe stated which baffled her as besides the dense protective aura that shield, just as old as the sword by the way, was giving off there was nothing about her to indicated unusual durability.
"Umm. In the game, I went for a full defence build. Actually got me pretty far, I think I placed... third in the events I took part in. Course I also had a reliable team behind me too. Well most of the time." Good she was calming down.
Chloe could explain the Unlimited Blade works later, after Kaede and the others had more time to process and digest the situation before them. Besides she wasn't the one who needed the focus right now.
Tanya's eyes scanned the room wearily, maintaining her calm as relief slowly, finally settled and a smile tugged at her mouth unbidden. He hasn't made contact with her, hasn't used his omnipotent deity like abilities to snatch her back and throw her back into the hell that he tossed her into the first time around. She was, in a word, free. Free of Being X and his sick little game to try and break her into becoming one of his obedient followers, she dared to let the relief sink in, if she were to jinx the situation it was better to get it over with. But the longer the relief settled in the firmer it became. Now all she had to do was deal with these so called waves and towards that end she looked up the help menu.
"It seems that we get XP when we kill things, which is what causes our 'levels' to rise. More Levels, more power these things give us, provided that we can feed them properly. One tiny hiccup though." Tanya stated as she dismissed the help screen having absorbed it's relevant contents. "Apparently we can't work together." The others cocked their brows suspiciously as they had a gander. It wasn't that they couldn't physically be in the same space, because they obviously could, but rather they cannot acquire XP while they were in one another's presence by at least a mile. Tanya could pull off a shot like that with a rifle, not so much with a bow, and she was the only one here with a weapon that can fight at range. "Is that supposed to be the weapons telling us to spread out I wonder?"
"Um. I heard some of the guards talking about us before." Kaede stated hand raised in the air like she was a student in some classroom. Enviously she probably was still a student, not a overly gifted child sent off to a hellish world war II battlefield expy because literally the entire world was against the idea of her homeland becoming a national super power. "Apparently this is the first time er... Heroes have been summoned together." Kaede explained hand raised in the air.
"So could we all be here as a fluke or something?" The others paused as they looked around.
"That guy back in the room said 'save our world' not 'save our country' right?" Katarina stated hand raised into the air. "Doesn't that mean that..." The whole world was at risk.
"For now let's just get some sleep, it's been a long day full of surprises and I think that we could all use some." Chloe stated as she stretched out languidly.
"Maybe we should all sleep together tonight?" Kaede suggested raising her hand into the air. "The bed looks big enough for all of us."
Yes. When the Crown made their gambit to bring the legendary weapons to bear they didn't expect them to be attached to four little girls, that was blatantly obvious to anyone with half the contents of their skull and a shred of common sense to spare. Also it saved at least one of them from assassination when a clumsy attempt at a break and entering resulted in a was of murderous intent from Tanya making the poor assassin in question shit himself in mind numbing terror and got the point across that no they were not people you wanna fuck with even if they were children.
"I trust you slept well last night Heroes?" The King asked as the four of them were gathered together.
"Someone broke into our room last night. They stunk of poison." Tanya stated prompting Kaede to recoil in shock.
"A most grave situation. I will put my best men on the investigation at once!" The king gave the order to a slimy little man who had been at his side for some time if appearances were any real indication and sent him off.
"Now if there is nothing else. We have prepared a fine selection of companions from our countries adventurers and knights to aide you on your journey." At the king's word the door leading into the throne room opened up.
"Hmm. Too green for my tastes." Tanya mentally noted looking at and dismissing most of the people there, trained predatory eyes instinctively recognising them as being quite green around the gills. In the eyes of the court they were just children, which did not excuse children being sent to protect them.
Chloe's opinion was a note lower, second rate armour enchantments oriented little in the way of actual battle and more directly towards luxury, the history of the weapons and armour told her that they were owned for a long time but barely used.
"Whoa Cool!" Kaede piped out looking at the various soldiers assembled before her.
"Alright! Let's do our best everyone!" Katarina soon followed up Kaede's enthusiasm with her own confident that with this assembly they'd be able to beat back the waves.
"Now brave warriors choose your Hero." To the King's command the adventurers dispersed as they formed lines, three to be exact. "Uwah!" Kaede had been left out of the lot while four people had gathered behind Chloe, Tanya and Katarina.
"This seems... unfortunate." The king stated cheek leaning on his fist. "It would appear that no one has confidence in young Kaede." Which is what she got for babbling incoherently for most of the meeting the day before.
"Umu." Kaede slapped herself in the face a couple of times. "Right then! I'll just have to go at it by myself!"
"We have arranged for a meeting with the cities best black smith who can arrange for some custom armour for all of you heroes." Which made sense, Tanya would be more concerned if they had piles of child sized armour conveniently lying around somewhere for the four of them to put on than a black smith ready to outfit them with appropriate gear once he came to understand what he was dealing with.
The knights led the four children through the castle town and into the armour shop mentioned that morning. Erhard the Blacksmith politely told the men that he couldn't make anything for their daughters that day as he already had a appointment booked with the castle. The knights then gently explained that they were said appointment and explained that these girls were the ones he was outfitting. He asked a second time just to make sure that no they were not kidding him, the girls waved the weapons around just for emphasis. He didn't believe them.
"Well I'm getting paid anyway let's get the little missuses ready then." By this point in time the armour was just a formality, since Chloe had already laid eyes on everything he had and was ready to manufacture duplicates as she needed to.
"So I've been meaning to ask." Kaede focused on Tanya while Kuro was in the next room over.
"You called yourself a warrant officer when you introduced yourself earlier." Tanya saw the hit coming a mild away, two fellow heroes wearing modern looking clothes while she was from some where approximately from the early 1900's while Katarina's outfit was straight out of medieval Europe.
Being X abducted her soul from her native and beloved Japan of Earth and shoved into a orphan of the Fatherland, she knew of two worlds aside from this one why not more.
"Yes. I graduated from the academy not two months ago." And was still wearing the hospital gown from when she was being used as a guinea pig for the type 95 and nearly vaporised her in the process, may it and the scientist that made it both rot in hell. "I was born with a abnormally high amount of magical power, what's worst I'm also a orphan, and with war on the horizon I found myself facing Morton's fork: be conscripted as a disposable asset, or sign up, attend officer school, and secure a decent chance of staying alive. I chose the latter, and for my efforts wound myself being treated as a disposable guinea pig instead. I just finished recovering from when the last prototype blew up in my face." Tanya pulled out a envelope from her pocket, contained within it's folds was sheer damnation. "And I already received orders to report for more prototype testing."
Kaede walked over and gave Tanya a hug, Katarina soon to follow, Tanya wanted to cry at getting treated with some basic human decently for the first time in a year but held back the tears. Such weakness and luxury was gone from her heart.
"And finished with one little lady." Chloe walked back into the main area of the shop and Tanya pushed the other two girls away as she went into the back room next.
"She looks upset." Chloe stated as she watched Tanya walk away.
"I don't think she wants to go back to her home world when this is all over with." Kaede admitted as she sat back down.
"Well that might make two of us. Cause I'm pretty sure I'm dead." Both girls eyes went wide at the same time as they turned to face Chloe. "I was suffering from a chronic illness back on my world." Which is a funny way of saying that she was a accidental construct wished into existence by a incomplete holy grail and grafted with the memories and powers of a heroic spirit based on a alternate version of her elder brother. "Think I finally kicked the bucket when this thing snatched me up and fixed my body before dumping me here."
"But you can't just stay here Chloe!" Katarina stated waving her arms about all over the room. "You have a family that loves you and miss you don't you!?"
"Yeah." Chloe could admit that much, her brother, her sister slash/genetic donor/accidental creator/person she spent a few days trying to kill way back when. "But we must attend to reality. The king says the waves are a once a month type thing, I am going to be declared dead for at least that long before I can even take the first step to get home, and this could all last for years. With any luck..." Katarina and Kaede both hugged Chloe to them at the same time, the brown skinned girl smiling as she returned the gesture.
Soon the orders were placed for their armours, but temporary arrangements would have to be made.
"This is literally the smallest size I have available. Just putting that out there." Each of the girls were given a identical set of chain mail shirts to wear over their regular clothes, which were just big enough to act as chain mail dresses instead. Equipped with a bare minimal amount of protection it was time to go out and do some work, the world wasn't going to save itself.