Bonds of Fate
By Nevyn Slash
Chapter 00 – Introduction
Disclaimer: I do not own, nor am making any money from this. The Rising of the Shield Hero and its characters are owned by Aneko Yusagi, Media Factory, Kinema Citrus, Crunchyroll–Funimation, and others.
Rating: Teen (T) for mature themes (such as mentions of rape and bullying), and medieval cursing. There is no sex, no modern cursing, no slang such as 'yeah' and 'hey', no time-period inappropriate language such as 'ok', no sexist language such as 'guys' (it's also lazy, derogatory, demeaning, slang, and time-period inappropriate).
Warnings: M/M; mentions of M/F
Fandom: 盾の勇者の成り上がり - アネコユサギ | Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari | The Rising of the Shield Hero - Aneko Yusagi; 盾の勇者の成り上がり | Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari | The Rising of the Shield Hero (Anime); Using material from both
Tags: Naofumi Iwatani/Eiku(The Rising of the Shield Hero); Original Characters; Soulmates; Naofumi's temporary party members; Daughter/Father platonic relationship; Fix-it; world-building; lots of research; courtship; slow burn; Blessed Shield Series; Eiku and Ake are the same person!
Relationships: Naofumi Iwatani/Eiku (Rising of the Shield Hero); Naofumi Iwatani/Ake (Rising of the Shield Hero); Eiku (manga) and Ake (anime) are the same person!
Summary: In an alternate universe where everyone gets a soulmate by age ten, Naofumi and Eiku had lived their entire lives without one. They had both resolved themselves to never feel the warmth such a connection provided. Then Naofumi is summoned to another world and their soulbonds erupt into existence.
In between saving the world, they are going to navigate a relationship that will prove to be exactly what Nafumi needs to heal from the damage the new world has done to him.
How does having a souldbond change Noafumi's fate? Turns out it changes things in a lot of ways.
A fix-it story featuring devotion, eventual love, and the Blessed Shield of Fortitude.
summary: Both Eiku(Ake) and Naofumi grew up without a soulbond and had given up on the hope of ever getting one. Then Naofumi is suddenly transported into another world and their soulbonds bloom into existence. What follows is several months to two years of getting to know one another while also saving the world. Fate be changed! Slow-burn; Naofumi/Eiku; Eiku and Ake are the same person!
Notes: This story is set in a medieval-like time period. To put that in perspective, at one point the legal age of consent in some USA states was seven. Which, to me, was just a fancy way to legalize child rape. No wonder the youngest child to give birth in the USA was merely nine years old. (The youngest ever was a five-year-old in Peru, by the way.) It was also common in the Medieval Ages to marry a child off when she was younger than twelve. Often to a man that was over ten years older than her. Further, in Japan, the current legal consent age is still thirteen (as of 2021). Same as it was 100 years ago.
Let all of that seep in for a moment or two.
I have set the legal age as sixteen in this story but nothing, I repeat, nothing is happening between Eiku and Naofumi until Eiku is at least eighteen. Why? Because I don't live in the past and even though Naofumi apparently does, I am making it so that he comes from a world that has more modern consent laws. Thus, the idea of him engaging in sexual acts of any kind with someone younger than eighteen is abhorrent to him.
That means this story is slow-burn. Seriously, it is glacial! I don't know if this story will even reach two years where kissing would become a thing. In the meantime though, there are going to be several displays of affection via hand-holding, hand-kissing, hair-stroking, face-cupping, etc. If courtly displays of love are something you are craving, then this is the story for you! If you want a story where the characters are getting jiggy with it over every available surface, then you will have to read that elsewhere.
All that to say that I happen to be a big romantic and apparently both Eiku and Naofumi are too. Get ready for fluff. Lots of it!
On fix it: As I was watching the anime and reading the manga, some things really stood out that bothered me. Namely, the amount of plot armour some of the characters have. In the second Wave battle against Glass, the three weapon heroes are tossed around like the weaklings they are and even though Glass wants to kill them, she doesn't. There was no serious trying on her part. Same with the battle at sea. The Vassal Heroes wanted to kill the four weapon heroes but for some reason (plot armour!) they focus primarily on Naofumi. Taking out one of the weapon heroes would have made things easier for them in the long run. Why try to take out the strongest hero when the others are sitting ducks?
Well, in this story, the heroes do not have convenient plot armour keeping them alive. They have Naofumi, who is way too overpowered, protecting them instead. Sure, he may not like the weapon heroes, but he takes his job as protector very seriously. Watch out, Waves. You are in for a tough fight!
On editing: I reread and reread each chapter and I still find mistakes each time. Words that are switched, improper titles, tense alignments, punctuation, spelling errors, etc. If you notice any glaring mistakes, do not hesitate to point them out for me to correct. The major ones that need addressing, should they arise, are inconstancy errors. Such as if an event or conversation happened a certain way from one chapter to another. Or clarity issues. Such as a word that is unfamiliar (likely made up or archaic) and I fail to address it or explain it. If something is confusing, please point it out. If it is confusing to you, it is likely confusing to others too. Please keep in mind that this story is written using Canadian English. Meaning words such as 'armour', 'travelling', 'honour', 'defence', and 'grey' are not spelled as 'armor', 'traveling', 'honor', 'defense', and 'gray'.
On traits (added 19 March 2022): Naofumi: 170cm (5'7"), Blood type O, Birthday 29 October, Scorpio; Eiku: 163cm (5'4"), Birthday 12 Vaisis, Taurus
Height: Officially, Naofumi is 163cm (5'4"). I'm 5'3". He does not look 5'4" to me. If he is 5'4" then everyone in that world is super short. Thus, I have changed his height to the average height for men in Japan which is 170cm (5'7"). This makes him as tall as Motoyasu – which he looks to be in Season1, Episode 01 of the anime. Naofumi does officially get taller over time in the series. Eventually he grows to 175cm (5'9").
Blood type: Naofumi does not have an official blood type that I could find. Prior to arriving in Raphtalia's World, Naofumi had a very different personality. He was trusting, positive and easygoing. He was also initially optimistic when he was summoned. Raphtalia's World brought out the leadership qualities that had always been there but he hadn't used them in his own world. Based on these factors, I have given him blood type O.
None of the blood-type personalities seem to fit Eiku well. Maybe he'll develop a blood personality type in the future. For now, he doesn't have one so I'm leaving his blood type blank.
Birthday: When I started this story, I had to create a calendar to keep events straight. I gave the months unique names, scratched the idea of making the months 46 days long and kept them at 30 days each, and went with it. When I got to Chapter 07, I assigned Eiku's birthday as 12 Vaisis. When I got to chapter 11 (only up to chapter 07 posted as of this section's update), I assigned 20 Vaisis as the start of summer. Then Nightshadegirl asked a question in the comments of Chapter 07: "What is our world's equivalent to Vaisis?"
Which got me thinking. If I correlated the months to our calendar, that would make Vaisis June. I checked Eiku's horoscope and got excited. Taurus? Ohh! He sounds like he fits half of that! Awesome! Then I double-checked. I had clicked on the wrong one. Gemini? He is not a Gemini! At all! He certainly fits Taurus better. Especially with 12 being one of Taurus' lucky numbers. I did not know that when I randomly made his birthday the 12th! How do I fix his sign then? I could make the world's spring last four months and the winter two months. I could make the year longer by giving it thirteen or fourteen months and then make new horoscopes. (Which was a lot more work than I wanted to do for a story I am not getting paid for.) Or I could simply edit Naofumi's arrival from springtime to wintertime and make the start of spring 20 Kepar and the start of summer 20 Umesk instead. Which would place Vaisis as May and make Eiku a Taurus.
So I did that and edited Chapters 01, 02, and 03. Only afterwards did I check for Naofumi's official birthday and discovered he was a Scorpio. … Which is highly compatible with Taurus!
I did not plan this! That is serendipity at its finest. I cannot help but be very amused by all of this. Seems they genuinely were destined for each other after all.
On names: Most of the characters go by their family name – as is common in Japan. Some characters go by their first-name because they are on a first name basis as friends or family – such as Eiku's group. There are some characters, however, that only have one name – such as the four envoys from Shieldfreeden.
Here is a list of names of all the original characters I have created. Or the names of characters that are in the anime and/or manga but did not have a name. Some of the names have not been used yet but they may be used later. This list will be updated as the story progresses.
First names
Daichi 大地
大 "big"
地 "ground"
Eiku 永空
永 "forever and ever"
空 "sky"
Hikaru 流星
流 "flow"
星 "star"
Hina 暖
暖 "warm"
Kai 芥
芥 "garbage"
Kazane 風音
風 "wind"
音 "sound"
Obito 紳人
紳 "respectable person"
人 "human."
Reki 玲輝
玲 "a tinkling sound"
輝 "bright"
Renji 廉侍
廉 "a pure heart"
侍 "samurai"
Ryuu 竜
竜 "dragon"
Yuna 夢
夢 "dream"
Yuriko 百合子
百 "hundred"
合 "fit"
子 "a word that comes after a woman's name, child"
Family names
Enomoto
"(one who lives) beneath the hackberry tree"
Hokama
"other", "space"
Ishida
"Rocky rice paddy"
Koda
"rice paddy of happiness"
Morino
"Forest field"
Nagai
"Long and well"
Ozaki
"end of the cape"
Sazama
"(One who lives) amid the bamboo grass"
Shoji
"(One who lives near a) small road"
Takara
"Treasure", "precious object"
Beastfolk names
Brightfang
Cindermane
Keenspine
Moonbraid
Enjoy!