Alright, so I'm not exactly sure what I'm supposed to be saying here. But basically this is my second fic. My first one exploded into a complete mess and I kinda dumped it. So after a few months of doing some thinking, here I am. This fic might divulge from the canon story so it's entirely possible that some things and characters might not happen/appear and that the story changes some mechanics and things. Also, don't be surprised if this fic gets abandoned. This is more of a casual learning session for me so uploading will probably be infrequent.

It was supposed to be a normal day. A simple day filled with nothing but self-indulgence and relaxation. But it turned out to be anything but that.

Every weekend, my roommate Kira Shirogane and I play video games to post videos about. Very recently, a game called SpiritForce had been released into the public and blew up. According to the online forum I frequented regularly, it's "the greatest thing since free porn", so if it's that good, we just had to buy it.

And now, all that was left was for me to wait for Kira to arrive with it and we would see what all the excitement was about.

Oh, and by the way, my name is Hirote Akiyama if you were wondering. If you weren't... well now you know anyways.

"Open up already Hirote! I've got the game!"

As soon as I heard this, I got up from the couch, and went for the door, ready to start playing.

When I opened it, I saw Kira looking extremely tired. I waved him in and we headed to the gaming setup we had poured our hard earned money into.

"This game better live up to all the hype," Kira said to me, sounding exasperated. "Even though it's been two weeks since it's release I still had to wait in a huge line. They really should've made it downloadable."

I smiled. "It's a good thing you went then. Can I see it?"

He nodded and handed me a purple game cartridge. I inserted it into my console and turned it on. Or at least that was the plan. When I tried to put the game in, I ended up receiving a shock. As in, a literal shock.

"!" I shook my hand rapidly in an attempt to get rid of the pain. "What was that?"

Kira looked at me and made a 'what the fuck are you doing' face.

I winced at his reaction and picked up the cartridge to try again. Once again, I was shocked. "!? Why is this happening?"

Kira sighed impatiently at me and grabbed at the cartridge. I contemplated warning him but decided to wait and see what would happen. And just like me, he got electrocuted.

"HOLY SHIT, THAT HURTS!" he screamed. He turned towards me, wide eyed. "Was that what you were surprised about?"

I nodded. He shook his head at me. "Well, I can see why. That wasn't just static electricity, it's how I would imagine being attacked with a taser is like! What's wrong with this thing!?"

"I haven't seen anything about the cartridges hurting people online and it's been out for two weeks. I would have expected issues like these to come up already, so this might be the first case of this happening. " I walked over to my computer and turned it on to do some research.

When I did, a bright flash blinded Kira and I. It was so bright that we had to close our eyes. "Dude! Turn down the screen brightness!"

I grabbed out wildly in front of me in an attempt to do just that. As you might expect, it was very unsuccessful. Luckily enough for us though, the light began to die down after a few moments.

We stood for a bit, waiting until our heads stopped hurting. "Why are these annoying things happening one after another!? I didn't even think that you could make it that bright!" Kira said while moaning.

You can't make it that bright. Or at least you're not supposed to be. I'm going to have to return it later…

Suddenly, a voice cried out. "It was a success! The four heroes were summ- Wait… Why are there five of them?"

How perfect. Now someone's busted into our dorm room. And what are they saying? "Whoever's there, both of us are armed! I advise you to leave immediately!"

As I pulled this lie out of thin air, I heard some shuffling. I slowly opened my eyes, letting them adjust, and to my surprise, we were in some creepy looking cellar with a bunch of other guys.

While my brain was trying to figure out what was going on, Kira warily opened his eyes as well, and then, promptly let out the loudest scream I've ever heard in my life.

"Man! Calm down!" This came from some blonde, overly handsome guy around our age with what seemed to be a… spear? His hair was held back in a ponytail with bangs to the left, and his eyes were a striking shade of orange. He seemed like the type of guy who would get a ton of girls.

Kira looked at him shocked and choked out, "Who the FUCK are you!? And where the FUCK are we!?"

"Well, to answer your first question, my name is Moto-"

"SHUT UP!"

I sighed. It was probably just that I was in shock, but I was actually feeling pretty calm. I turned to the two other guys who were also near our ages, and saw that they were also holding weapons. A sword and a bow.

I decided to put together all the information I had.

So Kira and I were about to play SpiritForce when we started getting shocked. I went on my computer to research this and a bright light blinded us. We open our eyes to see that we've appeared here. 'Here' is a dark cellar and there are three guys holding weapons that are severely outdated along with a bunch of men cloaked in robes muttering to themselves. That wraps it up nicely.

I brought my attention back to the sword and bow wielders. When I did, one of them spoke up.

"He does have a good point," the guy with the bow said. "Where exactly are we?" He had short, curly blonde hair with emerald green eyes.

"So you're in the same situation as us?" I asked tentatively. "As in, you just suddenly appeared here?"

He crossed his arms and nodded. Somehow the way he held himself reminded me of those 'symbols of justice' in stories.

At this, the guys with the sword and spear turned their attention towards us. "You guys too huh? This whole thing is pretty crazy, but I'm feeling pretty pumped! We must be here for a reason! And these weapons look sick!" The blondie said confidently.

"Speaking of, where did you get those things?" I asked.

The sword guy rolled his eyes at me when I said this and pointed to my right arm with his sword. "We all had them on us when we appeared here. You didn't notice the shield?"

I narrowed my eyes at him. He had black, short hair that fell flat on his head and sharp blue eyes that seemed like they could drill a hole into people's heads. From his attitude, he struck me as a person who preferred to be alone.

I looked at my arm, and as he said, there was a small, silver-colored shield with what looked like a green gem in the center. After he saw this, he turned his attention to Kira. "And your friend over there has a dagger."

Kira, who had finally calmed down, turned his head up at him. Then he looked down into his hand and was surprised to see that a dagger had somehow gotten into his hands.

I shook my head at him, exasperated and was about to tell him to get up, when I noticed that the group of robed men had turned their attention to us. I guess they were done talking.

One of them, presumably the leader, spoke up. "All of you! May we have your attention, O brave heroes! Please, we beg of you to save our world!"

All of us looked at them questioningly. Heroes?

"What do you mean by that?" asked the bow wielder.

"There is a long and complicated story behind all this, but we've summoned you Four Cardinal Heroes here using an ancient ritual."

I tilted my head in confusion. "I don't really understand what you're talking about, but don't you mean Five Cardinal Heroes? After all, there's five of us."

The man paused, as if trying to figure out what to say. "No. There are only supposed to be four heroes in the legends of old. The Spear Hero, The Sword Hero, The Bow Hero, and the Shield Hero."

Wait, assuming that we're each the Spear, Sword, Bow, and Shield Heroes based on our weapons... wouldn't that make Kira the outlier?

We turned our heads at Kira, seemingly coming to the same conclusion. He looked at us, his eyes darting back and forth. "Are you saying I'm a mistake or something!?"

The Spear Hero stifled a laugh at this. Kira glared at him and then finally got off the floor. He then directed his focus on the man. "Listen, since I'm apparently not supposed to be here, think you can send me back to where I came from?"

The man shook his head. "It would be possible if you were summoned separately, but for whatever reason, you were summoned here alongside the Shield Hero. Because of this, both you would have to go back together, which is impossible until the waves are stopped."

Kira gritted his teeth at this and then, suddenly relaxed. "Not sure what you mean by waves, but all we need to do is help save this world right? And then we can go back home?"

The man nodded. He was about to say something when the Bow Hero and the Sword Hero interrupted.

"No, there's something wrong with that. We were dragged into this world and you want us to help save it, just to be sent back without any reward?" the Bow Hero said, sounding annoyed.

"Not to mention, we may be heroes to you, but we're just regular people. How do you expect us to be able to fight any better than your forces?" the Sword Hero said frowning.

The man seemed a bit surprised at this, then stammered out, "F-First, we'd like for you to have an audience with the king of our country, Melromarc. You can talk about your reward and how to level up, so please..."

They seemed to calm down a bit and nodded. However, strangely enough, Kira seemed to have reacted to the name Melromarc.

The robed man exhaled in relief and then turned to Kira. "And we can also talk to the king about what to do with you."

Kira's eye twitched at the obvious jab, forgetting whatever he was thinking about and he let out a "Tch!"

The robed man led us up some spiral stairs. While we were walking, we were able to see what the outside looked like. It was just like what I would imagine a medieval town to look like, full of life with vendors selling things, children playing outside, and the ocean right beside it, giving off a gentle breeze.

"We really are in another world huh?" the Spear Hero said.

"Unfortunately, it seems so." Kira responded dryly.

After a few more seconds of walking, we reached the surface. In front of us was a huge castle. It was surprisingly plain looking on the outside, but when we went in, it was shocking to see how fancy everything was.

We were led down a hallway, and stood in front of the king, who was sitting on a throne. The king was a middle-aged man, with the first traces of wrinkles forming on his face. He had a short, grey beard and his hair went down to his shoulders. His attire was what I'd expect from a king, royal purple robes and a large crown.

"So these men are the Four Cardinal Heroes of ancient legend?" He asked, staring at the weapons we carried. He then turned to Kira. "And who exactly are you?"

Kira was about to speak when the robed man cut him off. "Your highness, this man is an acquaintance of the Shield Hero. It seems that the ritual, for an unknown reason, also brought him here."

Kira seemed to be having to use all of his willpower to hold himself back from saying something back. I decided to speak up for him.

"He also has a weapon. A dagger. Wouldn't that make him the Dagger Hero?"

"Now then, I am the king of Melromarc, Aultcray Melromarc XXXII. Heroes, name yourselves!" the king commanded to us.

Did he just ignore me?

The Sword Hero stepped forward. "My name is Ren Amaki. I'm 16 years old, and a high school student."

"All right, I'll go next. My name is Motoyasu Kitamura. I'm 21, and a college student." the Spear Hero announced.

"Okay, my turn," the Bow Hero started. "I'm Itsuki Kawasumi. I'm 17, and still in high school."

Kira looked unsure as to if he should introduce himself as well, so I walked up.

"My name is-"

"Now then, Ren, Motoyasu, and Itsuki correct?"

This is definitely on purpose. First Kira, and now me. What do these people have against us?

"Your Grace, you've forgotten me and Kira."

He looked at me condescendingly. "Ah yes, pardon me. Go ahead you two."

"I'm Hirote Akiyama. I'm 19, and in college." I looked at Kira.

He blinked a few times and then introduced himself as well. "My name is Kira Shirogane, also 19 and in college."

The king nodded and… smirked at us? He then cleared his throat. "Now then, I shall begin with an explanation. This country, no, this whole world is on the brink of destruction."

He then proceeded to tell us what was going on.

To summarize, there was a prophecy that foretold the end of the world. Apparently, these things called 'waves' would appear and devastate the world, over and over until nothing remained. For the longest time, nothing had happened, and many people made fun of the legend, but it seems that the waves had just started up recently. The skies turned dark and monsters came to destroy everything. Knights and adventurers were able to defeat the threat, but the waves were foretold to grow stronger each time. There was a large, ancient hourglass that would predict when the waves would strike. According to it, there's only a month until the next one. So we were summoned to help stop the waves.

Also, the weapons that we held were considered legendary and translated the language of this world for us.

"Wait," Kira started. "Does that mean that this dagger is a Legendary Weapon as well?"

The king looked away, as if he couldn't even stand to look at him, and answered by saying, "It seems so. However, there are many unknown factors as to what exactly you are. And your weapon is just a dagger. I doubt that it has any potential."

Kira just sighed.

"All right," Itsuki said. "We get what's going on now. But you didn't summon us thinking that we'd just do all this for free, did you?"

The king shook his head. "Of course, once the waves are dispelled, you will be rewarded for your efforts."

Ren spoke up as well. "And how do you expect us to fight? We may have these Legendary Weapons but I haven't ever fought. I doubt any of the others have either."

"That is simple." the king began. "The weapons that you hold have many other powers besides translation. They can give you powers known as skills, and your technique improves to the average."

Ren closed his eyes and nodded at this.

"There is one last thing I must have you do. Please check your statuses."

"How exactly do we check our statuses?" I asked.

Motoyasu chuckled. "I also didn't notice it when we got here. Check out the corner of your vision. There should be an icon hanging around there. All you gotta do is focus on it."

I did as he said and the icon expanded into a large screen.

Hirote Akiyama

Class: Shield Hero LV 1

Equipment: Small Shield (Legendary Weapon)

Other-World Clothes

Skills: None

Magic: None

Alongside this, there was a description of myself and a table of my stats. Anyway, LV, skills, stats, this is just like a game isn't it?

"What is all of this?"

"Does this not exist in your world heroes? This is called 'Status Magic'. Everyone in this world is able to use it." the king told us.

"But what are we supposed to do about this? Our stats seem pretty low." Motoyasu questioned.

"You will each need to go on a journey to strengthen the Legendary Weapons and grow stronger. That also includes you." As he said that last part he pointed at Kira.

Kira scowled, and then asked, "What do you mean by 'we will each need to go on a journey' though? Are we splitting up?"

"Yes. It is said that the Legendary Weapons will repel each other. If you work together, it will hinder their development."

As the king told us this, the menu that we were in changed to tell us something.

HELP

When two or more wielders of the legendary weapons operate together, it causes an adverse reaction in the weapons. Working separately is highly advised.

"Looks like he's telling the truth." Ren said. "I'm assuming you each had the help screen pop up as well?"

We all nodded except for Kira, who just looked away.

The king clapped his hands. "Since I have gone over everything, all of you should go get some rest before tomorrow."

A servant walked up to us from the side of the room. "Sir Heroes, please follow me to your sleeping quarters."

So this is the start of my new life? I'm actually somewhat starting to look forward to this.

Little did I know how messed up this world would really be.

So that's the first chapter. I'd appreciate some criticism and such.