Noire, as a proper workaholic goddess, has a very strict timetable (any day she isn't going to other countries' Basilicoms to goof off with her friends, especially Neptune), that includes her waking-up time, which is pretty early, about 6 AM.

It isn't 5 AM because her secret cosplay hobby robs her of time to go to bed early and she doesn't want to become a morning zombie, no matter what Kei, Uni or even K-Sha say. She won't sacrifice neither her cosplay time nor sleep schedule. Seriously, it took a lot of negotiations to convince them that even goddesses need their own free time, which they admittedly couldn't deny. Of course, they never knew what she was doing in her free time and they must never discover it.

… should we tell her that her cosplay is hardly a secret? We even know that she's into voice acting by the way.

So when waking up and noting that she was in a medieval-looking room and not her Basilicom, the first thing she did in her still sleepy state was groan that everything that happened yesterday was real.

Why not? After all, her life was all but normal. Ah, how much she would like to settle for a relatively simple idol or voice actress life, even an uninterrupted pure bureaucratic career would be more relaxing than the chaotic 'save the world' situations that she periodically finds herself in. She even encounters more weirdness than normal when one of those happens!

… Is she the only one that finds her own world too weird to be real sometimes?

"Good morning, Noire." Tomoe's voice greeted her.

Tomoe was wearing the same clothing as yesterday though she removed some layers from her upper torso, leaving her with a sleeveless black top as well as her pants. From the sweat on her face and clothes, it seemed she was doing some intensive morning exercises.

"Mmm. Good morning, Tomoe." Noire yawned "How long were you awake?"

"I believe it was dawn when I got up, though just a while ago the sun rose up."

"I see." Noire stretched in order to fully wake up "Urgh. I think we need to know how day and night work here. I don't want to mess up my future schedule."

Tomoe chuckled "Are you not a morning person?"

"Well… not completely but that's what coffee exists for."

"What's coffee?"

Noire blinked for a moment "Wait, you don't have coffee where you're from?" At Tomoe's negative head shaking, Noire explained "It's a stimulant drink. Though it's bitter, you can drink it with milk or sugar to make up for it."

"I see." Tomoe's expression became thoughtful "It seems my world may be more different from yours."

"Meh. Probably." Noire shrugged "Though from what I heard from Gene and Danny, it is possible that you haven't discovered it yet. Their societies seem similar to mine and there's the high probability of the three of you coming from similar versions of the same world but different time periods. Besides, we still don't know what to fully expect from this world, with only bits of history and fiction to guide us."

"Talk for yourself." Tomoe sighed "While I was able to recognise some familiar elements by comparison, everything is so different here that I may lose myself from culture shock alone."

"Well, you can ask anything, whether in person or by chat." Noire then remembered something "Uh, Tomoe… before you were summoned, you said you were in a battle."

Tomoe's mood turned grim. After a few seconds, she spoke "We were running away. The Minamoto clan was hunting us down. And all because of Yukiie's fault." Tomoe's fists and teeth clenched, not taking notice of her growing canines, her glowing slitted pupils and increased temperature in the room "If he hadn't betrayed us, Lord Yoshinaka would still be… be-!" "Tomoe, calm down!"

Noire's voice pulled Tomoe out of her dangerous spiral of hate, though that still didn't stop all the overwhelming emotions that she was repressing the day before. Her eyes became flooded with tears and broke down crying, Noire quickly coming to her side to support her but the tears couldn't be stopped.

Tears for a lost love.

Eventually, Tomoe calmed down, with the occasional hiccup and sob, but at least she let it out.

"Lord… Yoshinaka… told me to… run. Run and live. We both knew that we would die if we were to continue the fight, so he sent me off. And when I was going to battle one last time before retreating in his honor… I found myself in this strange castle, tasked to fight for a land that isn't even remotely mine, worlds apart from what I loved and knew."

"Tomoe…" Noire said with great horror and guilt "I'm sorry! I shouldn't have asked something like that! If I knew how much it pained you…"

"Don't worry, Noire." Tomoe dried her tears "You said it, you didn't know. Besides, that would have become a heavy weight in my heart if I let it build up." she brought her hand closer to her heart "I mean, it's already heavy to begin with but I think I can bear it better."

"If you say so." Noire sighed "Remember that there are people you can count on. None of this 'keeping down destructive emotional baggage' crap, you hear me?"

Tomoe smiled "Thanks, Noire. That means a lot to me."

"W-Well, it wouldn't be right if one of the saviors of the world were to be unable to fight in conditions, right?" Noire stammered, attempting to deflect in a tsundere-ish fashion, making Tomoe chuckle in mirth "Though seriously, that is what friends would do for each other."

"Yeah, that's true." Tomoe affirmed.

They heard someone knocking at their door "Heroes, it's time to get up. Your Majesty is finishing the preparations for your training adventures."

"Uh, time sure flies." Noire blinked "Let's get ready. The regent is waiting for us."

"So you also caught on to that?"

"Yeah, working in a theocratic government with hundreds of years of history to adopt different models of ruling does make you knowledgeable in the intrinsics of politics and bureaucracy."

"Woah. I thought you were a noble or an equivalent, not a state official."

"Well, you didn't ask." Noire shrugged, conveniently leaving out that her being the centuries-old ruling goddess of her nation is what made her so experienced at her job.

Four Heroes Saga

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[̸̰̼̾S̷͍̞͇̓̓̈́͝p̶̢̹̪̒̾͆e̵̮̓̍̆́a̵̝̘̳͗͌͒r̸̳̜̖̋ ̶̧̎͒̀ó̷̞͕̝͆̓̉̅f̴̱̰̺͒̂̕ ̶̲̠̺̘͕͂͂W̵̛̛̲̰̥̬͐͛ͅr̸͖̥̮̿͋̅͝a̸̬̱̎̈́̀t̴̜̤̯͔̿̾̐̈́h̵̭͕͕̽̒ ̷̮̓̉̋͝u̵̹̙̖̺̽͝ͅn̸̻̜͈̜̲̂̓̾͌l̸̬̮̬͙̥͋o̶͈̱̙̩̹͋̇͂̎͌c̶̃̒̄̿͜ķ̸̙̦͋e̵͈͐́d̴̫̃͂̅]̸̨̲̫̺̬̊

Four Heroes Saga

Unlike the girls, the boys were still completely out until they received the same call.

"Yeaaah, we're going, we're going." Gene yawned. Being a freelancer meant that your work schedule was laxer than most which meant that he nearly always ended up drinking late at night and woke up at noon, a habit that Jim has been trying to curb. Something about professionalism and more productivity. Meh, he's always professional and productive, no matter what time he goes to bed.

Though he has to admit. After returning from that showdown at the Galactic Leyline, he's been trying to quit some of his vices. Huh, maybe he's finally maturing. Or just wanted to demonstrate to Melfina how much of a role model he can be.

Though it seemed Aisha is the one with a really screwed up sleep schedule. Jeeze, she's like a cat. Oh, wait, her species evolved from alien felines, nevermind.

At least, Suzuka's meditation exercises compensated somewhat to regulate his body clock.

Remembering that he wasn't at his bed in Sentinel III, the Outlaw Star or any other place of his universe, period, he sighed.

Being summoned to a fantasy world in order to save it. Give him a break. That sounded like the plot of an old novel, which in an era of commonplace space travel would sound redundant, though now he's the one who's living it now.

… Why couldn't his life be a little bit less weird? Sure, the thrill may be part of why he became an Outlaw though sometimes, he wished to relax for a week or two.

Nevertheless, he had a job to do and his first step was to wake up his coworker.

"Hey, wake up Danny." he nudged the sleeping teenager who soon got up suddenly, surprising the older man.

"I am awake, Mr. Lancer! Oh wait, another world." Danny realised "Nearly forgot about that."

"Well, let's hope you didn't forget that we had a meeting with the king."

Danny groaned at that "You know what? I don't trust the king or anyone else here, for that matter."

"Tough luck." Gene sighed reciprocally "But who else could we count on? He's our main employer and I guess he'll be monitoring us any moment, like what they attempted yesterday."

Danny, remembering that, frantically looked to all sides and gestured to Gene to come closer.

"I think we should be wary of the Church, too. I have a feeling that the king and they don't have the best of relationships, especially when they're demanding a lot from him." he whispered.

Gene finally opened his eyes completely "And how did you know that?"

"Uh… Hearsay!" Danny put on an innocent smile which couldn't fool anyone, with the exception of his parents and most of Amity Park.

"Okayyy." Of course, Gene didn't buy the bullshit but any piece of information, no matter how questionable it was, is always welcome, so he let it slide "Anything else?"

Danny just simply watched his Shield "I think this country has something against the Shield."

"Yeah, no shit Sherlock. Everyone could see that." Gene retorted sarcastically. During their brief stay in the castle, the Heroes took notice of how the people there treated the Shield. It may not be as obvious as with the king, but most of the servants and soldiers tried to ignore Danny or be as far away from him as possible.

"Seriously, I don't think it's just political." Danny nervously scanned his surroundings and whispered in an even lower voice "But religious, too."

Gene frowned "You mean there's a possibility some cultist zealots would be behind something? And if this is like the Middle Ages, then the Church may probably have a lot of power… Geez, this became much more complicated. We should be more alert then." He opened up his Chat interface in order to send the warning to the girls "Will you be okay? If I remember, the king is assigning us adventurers for our parties."

"If there's anything I definitely learned from school is that people don't want to be associated with unpopular, weird or just plain creepy kids. So, there's a possibility no one would want to come with me."

"That's… oddly specific. And worrying."

"Haha. Yeah…"

Four Heroes Saga

"That's ridiculous" Noire complained over their telepathic bond, courtesy of Chat "Sure, it's possible that there could be some sort of conspiracy. But to expect people to hate him so much that they wouldn't go with him… that's...that's!"

"Ridiculous? Unlikely?" Tomoe ended for her "You shouldn't underestimate discrimination, even rational people would fall into prejudice."

"... Yes, on that, I cannot disagree."

"Talking from experience?"

"Quiet everyone, or we will end up like idiots if we don't follow what they're saying."

At the same throne room, there were now more people present than yesterday. Not to talk about them being armed, whether as warriors or mages.

"Heroes!" Aultcray began "These are the adventurers that will help you on your trials, just as promised! Adventurers! These are the Heroes who you shall support, now choose which Hero will you travel with!"

"Wait, we don't choose?" Noire telepathically questioned.

"I guess it would make sense." Gene reasoned "The state was the one who made the job offer, not the Heroes themselves. And having the freedom to choose which one you'll be working with may be one incentive to attract people."

"... But that would mean we'd probably end up with people with a lower quality skillset." Tomoe countered "Noire, didn't your Adventurers Guild have a system of sorts to classify their reliability?"

"Well, we have a ranking system but I don't know how it works here. And we don't know if the kingdom itself employed a different screening process for this occasion."

"Or some rich person paid for a chance to be with the Heroes." Danny rolled his eyes when a thought struck his head "And how about spies? Maybe they're disguised, just like in the movies!"

"Calm down. We'll deal with that in time. It looks like they finished sorting themselves." Gene said.

Indeed, during the time the Heroes were silently discussing between themselves, the adventurers have already grouped themselves behind their respective Heroes… with the exception of Danny, whose only follower may as well be a tumbleweed for there is no one.

Noire's eye twitched.

"Danny?"

"Yeah?"

"I didn't expect THAT to truly happen."

"To be fair. Neither did I. Well, at least not completely."

One thing was clear, something strange was definitely happening around the Shield and it wasn't good.

"Uh." Aultcray said. It seemed as if he wanted to express surprise but the bland tone and unchanging face demonstrated he either was uninterested in the Shield Hero's predicament or completely expecting that "Strange. The Shield Hero seems to be completely alone."

"Bah." Danny negated "It doesn't matter. I was always somewhat of a solo player. I can deal with it."

"Can you really deal with it?" Tomoe asked concerned.

"Of course! In fact, it's better that no one comes with me. That would help me with fighting at my best without worrying."

"Just why being alone helps you fight better." Noire asked suspicious.

"It's… complicated."

"I could go with him!" A redhead girl with green eyes in Gene's group offered herself.

What no one noticed was Aultcray becoming rigid for a few seconds.

As well as Danny's inward panic, which he unknowingly transmitted to the chat group in the telepathic equivalent of high volume.

Gene decided to take extreme measures, for Danny's sake and that of the auditory areas of his brain.

"Now, now. Why would you want to go with that loser, precious?" Drawing on his womanizing side, Gene's suave voice, combined with a one-sided hug, made the woman blush. That provoked reactions to everyone else: jealousy, eye rolling, disgust (especially Noire and Tomoe) and relief (Danny). Surprisingly, the king seemed more irritated at this moment than when dealing with Danny.

"But, what if he were to be in trouble?" she tried to convince him but his own charisma combined with her lust are making her plan fall apart.

"Trouble, you say? Hey, Danny!" Gene called out "You said you didn't have any problem going solo, riiiiight?"

"Of course not!" Danny replied happily, perhaps a little much "In fact, I am sure I can save the world by myself!"

"Danny…" The girls thought worried.

"Don't worry, go along with it."

"If the Shield Hero is so sure of his 'strength'." Aultcray said in a somewhat condescending note "Then why not listen to his desires?"

"Thank you sir!" Danny mock saluted.

Aultcray sighed in aggravation.

Due to Danny not having any companions, he was given 800 silver coins in contrast to the 600 that his fellow Heroes received.

With that finished, the Heroes and their parties exited the castle and in Danny's case, the town entirely.

From a certain perspective, he looked like an overconfident teenager wanting to live out his own isekai power fantasy the sooner the better.

In reality, the ghost superhero Danny Phantom wanted to be away from curious and interested eyes and ears. Spies, of course.

Once he was far away, he hid near a conveniently placed bush. Though he had to kick out, literally, the monster balloon that was already hiding there.

Some people testified seeing weird floaty white shining rings around that bush though when they searched, they couldn't find anything, like if a white haired, green eyed, monochrome-bodysuit-with-stylized-D-wearing ghost vanished at a flight speed of more than 112 mph.

"Finally!" Danny sighed "I thought I'd die from a heart attack. I should probably give Gene anything more than a simple 'thank you'."

The halfa concentrated and a copy of him appeared and another and another. There were now four Phantoms though with their power divided between the four of them, which wouldn't be a problem due to their connection with the original, who possesses the Shield (which he couldn't replicate) and will gain enough levels and stats to compensate for the power borrowed by the clones.

"Okay, does everyone know the plan?" Shield Danny asked.

"We must research this world, especially its dangers."

"We must not let any spy or assassin near us."

"We must buy peanut butter!"

The other Dannies turned to the last clone.

"What? Don't say that you're not having a craving for it right now."

Ignoring that, the original Danny turned up to his shield "And we must also test the Shield as well as the mechanics of this world." When he turned ghost before, he noticed that his stats were incredibly higher than in his form, even if Physical Attack was still his weakest stat and the Defense ones, his strongest. So not only he has to test the shield but also the rest of his ghost powers and if their efficacy changed, especially the offensive ones "We'll split here. We'll return to the city at nightfall."

"Roger roger."

AN: I've finished Outlaw Star yesterday and it was a blast! It may not have been the best but it was still a memorable one. Now I wish there was a continuation despite being finished decades ago! I'd probably check out its sister series Angel Links as well as the Drama CD. If you need more information about Outlaw Star, check its wiki or search in Youtube for this channel Mantis: Mega Outlaw Star Fan. It seems that it's part of a project to recopilate any piece of trivia, media and animation possible. While it may have triumphed in the West, in Japan it kind of… flopped so there's not too much new content produced and it's already difficult to search for old one apart from the anime itself.

Anyways, Tomoe still has the fresh trauma from the Battle of Awazu that made her unlock the Spear of Wrath. According to my research, Minamonto no Yukiie was supposed to be an ally of Yoshinaka in his war against the Minamoto clan though it seemed Yukiie spilled the beans to the emperor, Go-Shirakawa, who Yoshinaka just dethroned for a few days and consequently, the rest of the Minamoto clan was in the know, making them thirsty for Yoshinaka's blood. If Tomoe hated someone else from the Minamoto clan like Yoshitsune, it would be Yukiie. That part of Japanese history is incredibly interesting. There's even an epic called the Tale of Heike that can explain it better, you can also search it on Youtube though I'd recommend you to know some Japanese first.

With Tomoe's first Cursed Weapon revealed, what Sins would the other Heroes represent for their own Cursed Series? Especially since they have their own emotional problems more or less solved before being summoned.