A Special Kind Of Magic

Chapter 4

Blood leaked out of his mouth, staining his mustache and running down his suit. He continued to cough, trying to pull the dark spiderleg out of his chest. Petra didn't take kindly to his struggle to hang onto life. She stabbed two more of her spider legs into the sides of Beloukas's abdomen, cutting open his stomach wall from the inside.

Lifting his soon to be corpse into the air, Petra's colorless eyes stared into the salver's soul. No longer would she let a single soul be allowed into his grasp. Never again.

He spat up a glob of crimson, giving one last grin towards Petra. "You...you had your crest removed."

She glared at him, pinching the legs inside of him to quicken his suffering. He merely laughed at her!

"Y-your queen won-"

*RIP*

The spider legs ripped him apart from the inside, leaving him in pieces to plop onto the floor. Petra swung her legs, the blood flying off of them. Hiding her features back under her cloak, she walked over to the portal where the other slaves waited. Stopping beside the small bookshelf that rested near Beloukas's possessions. Books, perhaps Naofumi would benefit from some of those.


"Ok, now to add on the best part." Naofumi slowly placed a large marshmallow into the steaming beverage, Raphtalia watching with interest.

She wasn't sure where she was, or much of any of the things that were in the wooden house. But her new master, no, friend he kept telling her, was pretty strange. Raphtalia thought he was the shield hero, the unique magic he used along with the weapon stuck to his arm was very convincing.

But, not to be rude, he didn't act like what she had in mind. While he had cleaned her in a tub that summoned warm water from a metal tube, dressed her in comfy clothing with weird images on them, and brushed her hair, he was constantly rambling about random things.

"You want some chocolate shavings on that?" He asked, looking down at her from the three mugs on the table.

"U-um, I don't mind. Whatever you want."

"What I want, is to make you the best cup of hot coco ever." Naofumi said with an over exaggerated amount of determination. "So, does your best cup of hot coco include chocolate shavings?"

"I-I've never had chocolate."

"Hm." Naofumi turned back to the mug, squinting his eyes at it. "I'm guessing you haven't had sugar either, and there's plenty in this already. I have no idea how hyper you're going to get after even half a cup."

Raphtalia then witnessed the man grab the 'chocolate' and proceed to shave off a lot of it on top of her drink. With a big grin he grabbed the two mugs and walked over to the round couch in front of the fire place. He placed one of the cups on the short table, and patted the spot next to her. Not wanting to upset her new mas-friend, she followed and hopped on the cushioned surface.

"Here." He gave her the warm mug. "Give it a try."

She sniffed the air over it, curious about why he placed bits of floating food on top of a drink. If it was soup it would make more sense. The thought of food mixed with the new smells caused her stomach to growl loudly. Her hunger was greater than her embarrassment, so slowly she raised it to her lips.

Naofumi held in his laughter as he watched her tail smack against the couch as she continued to drink, not even stopping to breathe. In fifteen seconds flat she finished the beverage. "Did you like it?"

"Mhmm!" Raphtalia smiled up to him while chewing on the marshmallow.

"In that case you can have mine." Naofumi gave her his cup, the girl's eyes widening like dinner plates.

"I-I could n-never! T-this is yours."

"As good as this stuff is it is ridiculously cheap to make. Free if you're conjuring the ingredients."

He got up, looking over his fancy attire. "Hm, this doesn't fit the cozy cabin vibes."

Raphtalia blinked, and in that single fraction of a second she wasn't looking his clothes changed. He was wearing a knit sweater, with blue pants and wool socks. Naofumi walked over to the kitchen, grabbing a bowl with a spoon and bringing it over. "Do you want something to eat?"

The girl's stomach answered for her, Naofumi smiling sadly as he sat the empty bowl in front of her. "You weren't fed many times were you."

"I was given a m-meal every three days."

"It should be the other way around." He sat down, holding a cup of hot chocolate she swore he wasn't holding a second ago. Once again, he gave her that bright smile as he gave her his full attention. "You ever had magic soup?"

"No." She said, now wondering if she ever even heard of magic soup.

"Oh you're going to love it! It's tasty, warm, and always helps me whenever I've been sick."

He put his hand over the bowl, swirling his fingers in a rhythmic motion. "Shimmy shimmy, shamwow!"

There weren't any lights, or strange letters, and no soup. Naofumi held a hand to his chin as he hummed to himself. "Hm, this usually works. I must have run out of magic."

Raphtalia looked between him and the bowl in panic. "I'm sorry! I made you use up all your magic! Please forgive me!"

"Woah woah calm down little fuzz ball." He gave her head a pat, her panicked flailing coming to a halt. "Tell you what, why don't you help me cast the spell."

"I-I'm sorry, I can't use magic."

"Nonsense, everybody has magic! Children most of all." He smiled, grabbing her hand and placing it over the bowl. "Now, say the words with me and be sure to wiggle your fingers with a little pizazz alright?"

Raphtalia just nodded, but she wasn't sure how she was supposed to add pizazz.

"Alright, the words are shimmy shimmy shamwow. We'll say them together. Ready?"

"Yes."

"Shimmy shimmy shamwow." They both said at the same time, Raphtalia waving her hand side to side trying to mimic his motions. The bowl jiggled slightly, making the girl's eyes widened.

"Louder." Naofumi said in a slightly higher tone, raising his voice just a pitch.

"Shimmy shimmy shamwow!" It started to vibrate, moisture building up along the edges.

"One more time!"

"Shimmy shimmy shamwow!" They both yelled at the bowl, a swirling golden broth starting to fill out the bottom. It rose until it just barely reached the top, noodles and bits of meat manifesting into the soup from who knows where.

"We did it!" Naofumi cheered gently, holding his hands up in front of her. "High five!"

"High, five?"

"It's what you do with someone when you, them, or both of you accomplish something awesome. Hold your hands up like mine and you'll see."

Mirroring his arms, Raphtalia felt his hands gently pat against hers with a small clap.

"Enjoy the magic soup!" Naofumi handed her a spoon, laying back on the couch while taking a sip of his hot coco. His shield switched to one that looked like a round window to Raphtalia, and he flicked his finger slightly.

A mesmerizing portal opened near the front door, a woman walking through while bringing her hood down. Raphtalia was frightened by her sudden appearance, but slightly calmed down seeing that she wasn't fully human. Did he invite another demi-human to try magic soup?

"I know it's not a grand meal." Naofumi got up to greet her and pointed towards the kitchen table. "But chicken noodle soup is still good."

"Did you get a new shield?" The woman put her cloak on a coat rack, her black spider legs stretching out behind.

"I got two!" Naofumi switched his shield as the portal closed. "A can shield, and a soup shield. The can one is just as good as the bottle one but the soup shield lets me make better soup."

"You seem awfully focused on gaining new food shields."

"Just trying to improve skills I'm lacking in."

"Clearly."

"Hey! Fine, we'll get takeout tomorrow. Maybe grab a pizza from dominos, or New York."

"Um." Raphtalia gained their attention but immediately regretted it. Naofumi pulled the girl closer to himself, giving her a side hug while smiling to Raphtalia.

"This is Petra! A really good friend of mine I met in Melromarc."

"Hello." Petra gave a nod.

"And you can call me Naofumi!"

"...Is that your name?"

Naofumi let go of Petra, looking at her with confusion. "Wait, have I never told you my name before?"

"You haven't told anyone up until this moment."

"...wow."

Raphtalia's stomach rumbled again, her nose bringing her back to the soup. Slowly, she dipped her spoon in, looking over her shoulder over and over to make sure this was ok for her to do. Naofumi just gave her a thumbs up. All it took was one bite, and Raphtalia abandoned the spoon in order to bring the bowl to her mouth and devour her meal.

Naofumi leaned over to Petra in order to whisper in her ear. "Did things go well?"

"Yes." One of her spider legs lifted up a short stack of books. "I brought these."

"Aw, you do care." Naofumi reached out to them, but the knowledge moved farther away.

"But, I have a condition."

"Lay it on me."

"You don't ask anymore questions about what I did tonight." Petra narrowed her eyes, waiting for the shield hero to-

"Deal." Naofumi grabbed the books, opening the first one to skim over the contents. "So different demi-humans do age at different rates depending on the species. Hmm, and Raphtalia is a Tanuki going based on features alone. Huh, sensitive tails. Good to know."

Petra walked over to the kitchen area, grabbing the bowl already made for her and heading over to sit on the couch. Once she sat down she glanced to the drowsy eyed Tanuki, whose face was covered in broth.

"Looks like someone's ready for bed." Naofumi picked her up under her arms, bringing her to the bathroom door.

"Is this where I sleep?" Raphtalia asked, barely keeping her eyes open.

"No, you're not sleeping in the bathroom." He chuckled, until he realized what she was probably used to. "You're just going to use the toilet before bed."

"Why?"

"Trust me, I learned from experience that going to bed right after filling your stomach with liquid is a dangerous game."


Petra wasn't sleeping, only that she had forgotten. It was only a few years from her youth, but it changed her whole reality knowing about them. She never even knew there was slave crests that could make someone forget. But they existed, and they were being used for that bitch's personal gain.

She just stared at the ceiling while laying on the overly comfortable bed on the second floor. Doing her best not to disturb Naofumi and Raphtalia sleeping below.

"Hmm." Raphtalia was beginning to whine in her sleep, probably also remembering her past. Hers was much more recent compared to Petra's though.

"AAHH! NO!" The little girl screamed, definitely waking up Naofumi.

"Wh-what?!" Yep, he was awake now. "No, shhh, it's ok Raphtalia."

Petra listened to him sooth her as she continued to cry out. While he appeared somewhat childish and disinterested in anything but learning, everything he did was to benefit his own ability to help people. It was noble.

"Here." Naofumi spoke, a light turning on downstairs. "We can just watch this."

Raphtalia sniffled. "What is it?"

"It's my phone, we can watch stories on it. When I was smaller my Dad would put one on whenever I was having a hard time sleeping."

Phone, that was a new term. Out of curiosity Petra rose from her bed, silently moving across the wall and downstairs using the appendages on her back. She saw Naofumi holding a small metal rectangle that was glowing on one side, highlighting Raphtalia and his own face. She heard noises, some music like a symphony as the colors continued to change from the 'phone.'

Crawling along the ceiling, she peered down from over Naofumi to see what the two were looking at while laying on the bed. There were bright orange fish with black and white stripes talking to each other with abnormal human features. She remained in the upper corner, watching the tale unfold on that tiny device.

The phone jolted in Naofumi's hand just when Nemo was being taken away by the human. Naofumi's movement reminding her that the real world existed. Glancing down at the young man, he was clutching his chest and staring up at her.

"Oh, it's just you Petra." He let go of the air in his lungs. "You nearly gave me a heart attack."

"Sorry." She apologized in her typical monotone voice.

Naofumi scooted slightly towards Raphtalia, making enough room on the right side of the bed. "Do you want to watch with us?"

"I already was."

"Over my shoulder." Naofumi grumbled, then opened up the blankets. "Come on, you can see better if you're closer."

Not necessary, she had trained eyes on top of her already enhanced vision thanks to her genes...breeding was a more accurate term. Nevertheless she felt compelled to join them. Crawling down the wall she rested her legs on the mattress, sitting on her legs as she stared at the young man.

He resumed the story, the tale making Petra feel odd. The music in particular, made her feel like it was matching the mood of what the characters were feeling. She never knew it could be used like that. Usually the stories she knew of were either told, or sung. Combining music to carry the weight of the emotions displayed through the story drew her in, invested to know how much this father would do to find his son even if in the beginning he seemed uncaring for Nemo's opinions.

Petra liked Dory the most, the fish retained her innocence whether or not she was focused on what was happening.


"Should we wake him up?" Naofumi heard Raphtalia speak.

"Let him arise from his own strength. He did receive injuries yesterday." Petra replied to the smaller girl.

"W-what?!" Raphtalia was so cute, dressed in a black sabbath t-shirt and fleece pajama pants.

"He's fully healed, but his body may still be tired from healing the wounds so quickly." Huh, Petra was a lot more thoughtful than he gave her credit for.

Naofumi looked up from his book, seeing his still resting body under the blankets of the bed. Most nights he utilized his astral form to continue his research while his body still rested. He had to do some extra studying to better understand the demi-human situation. Yes, slavery of demi-humans was legal and many veiw them as less than human. There was heavy bias against them from those who participated in the war efforts against Siltvelt a few decades ago, a demi-human country. It's not like he can change the mind of an entire country instantly, and simply marching up to the queen and demanding her to change a law that the citizens were comfortable with was a no go. He wasn't even a citizen of the country, if anything it felt like he had a form of diplomatic immunity given he was a foreigner of great importance.

The queen was focused on trying to stop a potential world war right now, to bring up his distaste for a law that no one else was against would be the bottom of her priorities. Even if he really, really hated it.

So, he would do his best to help the slaves in dire conditions whenever he found them, doing his best to stay within the law. Glancing to Petra, he tried not to think about what she did to free those slaves. Yes, he knew. No way did he let her go off without using some form of observation spells tied with illusions. Technically, it was a semi-sentient illusion made to be invisible that followed her. Once it returned it merged back with his mind, giving him new memories.

That was too much too fast. If they reacted that way to every slave they found there was no way they wouldn't be caught. And this time, he wasn't sure he would be able to simply walk away with no punishment.

Closing the astral copy of a book, Naofumi floated back to his body. They had to figure out what Raphtalia wanted to do.

As soon as he opened his physical eyes, he winced at the sunlight bleeding through the cabin window.

"You're awake." Petra came over, standing next to his bed as Raphtalia ran over from looking out a different window.

"Yep." He sat up, feeling pretty hungry. "Want any pancakes?"

"What are those?" Raphtalia asked, her tail beginning to wag slightly if it was anything close to magic soup.

"No." Petra held her hand to block Naofumi from the kitchen.

"I'm getting better." Naofumi whined.

"You said we would get 'pizza.'"

"Not for breakfast." The sorcerer stretched his arms. "How about breakfast burritos? My world."

"We're going to your world?!" Raphtalia beamed up at him.

"Yep!" Naofumi nodded, then looked at the little girl's ears and Petra's spider legs. "But first, a quick makeover."


Petra and Raphtalia watched the car drive by, completely in awe by the common convenience. Damn it was cute. Petra appeared as she always did under Naofumi's illusion spell, while Raphtalia's ears and tail were simply hidden like Petra's legs. The sorcerer tugged their arms, nearly having to drag them through the street as every little thing caught their interest. "I know there's a lot here, and I certainly acted like a tourist for the first couple hours when I arrived in your world, but let's focus on getting some food first."

"What's that?" Raphtalia pointed at a fire hydrant.

"That's what certified people who respond to fires use in order to have quick access to vast amounts of water."

"It doesn't look like it can store much." Petra pointed out.

"It's connected to a pipe that has high pressure water flowing through it."

"What about that?" Raphtalia pointed once again.

"That's a telephone booth. It used to allow anyone who used it to instantly communicate to anyone else across the world. Now it's just for show given that we all carry phones in our pockets."

"And that?"

"That's a homeless person."

"Oh."

Petra grabbed Naofumi's arm, stopping as she looked at a screen in the window. She watched as a video showed a man in red and blue tights swung through the air on a webline. "Is this also a movie? Like Nemo?"

"No, that's real. That's the guy I was talking about, Spider-Man."

"Hm. I wasn't aware you had demi-humans in this world."

"No, nothing like that. I think? Just a handful of people who have extraordinary abilities."

The spiderling stared at the screen a short moment longer, intaking how the hero moved through the air while using webs as means of travel. Interesting idea, but there were hardly any buildings as grand as what she saw here. Buildings that reached the heavens, truly this world was blessed.

Naofumi brought the two to a small bustling restaurant, the noise with clattering utensils against plates filled the air as waiters and waitresses were speed walking to and from seated customers. The sorcerer talked to one of the men in aprons at the front, the worker grabbing some menus and leading them to a small booth. Raphtalia was looking around anxiously, expecting someone to kick them out due to their demi-human status. Yet when she turned back to Petra, she remembered the magic that was hiding their inhuman traits.

"I can't read this." Petra stated, looking over the words.

"Pick a tasty looking picture then." Naofumi said casually, before leaning over to Raphtalia's menu and pointing at a spot. "This is the kid's menu. Smaller but sweeter meals."

"Are you sure?" The little girl asked, looking over the surely expensive items.

"Positive." Naofumi smiled to her, then he froze, patting himself over as fear rose in his gut.

"What's wrong?" Petra asked, Raphtalia becoming more scared as she watched the shield hero panic.

"I forgot my wallet."

"..."

"It's what I carry my money in!" Naofumi screamed in a whisper as he explained to the two girls.

"W-what are we going to do?" Tears began to prick at the edge of Rapthalia's eyes. Terrified only because of the over exaggerated displays of emotion from Naofumi.

Petra just tapped the disguised shield on Naofumi's arm, the shield currently appearing as a book. "You keep your coins here, remember?"

"Currency is different here, but maybe.." Naofumi pulled out a few silver coins discreetly, putting it in his hands as he focused. A small mandala appeared on the back of his hands, and when he opened them some ten dollar bills were stacked neatly in his palm.

"Is everything ok now?" Raphtalia asked, wiping her eyes.

"Yeah, sorry for the panic." Naofumi patted her head. "Just a little transmutation to equal currency."


Petra didn't realize how simple Naofumi's hot chocolate was until she got to try ones professionally made. Her food was, remarkably clean and well made. It was hard to think that those living off the lowest wages had skills and resources to make such wonderful food.

Naofumi watched with a warm smile as Raphtalia was digging into her kid's 'Thorsday' special. She was shoving a side of frozen yogurt into her mouth with a promotional Mjolnir spoon. Yeah, Thor technically had an axe for the last eight years but the hammer was iconic.

"After this we need to start preparing Rapthalia." Petra mentioned as she took a bite of some buttered toast.

Raphtalia looked up from her sweet meal, glancing between the two with a confused and anxious gaze. Naofumi's smile dropped, reminded of why Raphtalia was even with them. The whole reason they went to the slaver's den was to find a companion, but he couldn't see Raphtalia as a fighter. She was just some poor girl taken away from her family.

"Raphtalia." Naofumi put down his fork, taking a gentle but serious tone. "When I came to that tent, I was looking to find someone that would help me end the waves."

The girl froze, swallowing the food in her mouth.

"You don't have to join us, we can find you somewhere nice to-"

"No!" She shouted, a few people looking over to her sudden outburst. Raphtalia shrunk further into her seat, fiddling with her sticky hands. "I, want to stay with you."

The hero sighed, leaning on his arms as he folded his hands. "If you want to stay with us, that's ok. But that means you'll have to fight the waves with us. We'll teach you, arm you, and prepare you like Petra said. While we will try to stop the waves before they can happen there's a good chance we'll end up fighting a few. You more than either of us. I can have some abilities to fight with but I'm stuck on defense because of my defense. Petra can't fight large groups in the open very well. So in the end, we're asking you to put your life on the front line for us. You, will be the one defeating the monsters the waves throw at us. Is that something you still want?"

Raphtalia stared at her lap, looking back up and back down. The hero rubbed his forehead, why the hell did he have to put this on a kid's lap? It was beyond messed up. Once she says no then he'll do his best to find her family, or people she knows that isn't involved in the slaving side of thin-

"Ok."

He removed his hand, seeing determined red eyes looking at him. "Ok? Like you want to stay with us or-"

"I want to stop the waves." Raphtalia clarified, balling her hands into fists.

Oh, damn. Ok then. How do you train little girls to fight on the front lines? The only reason why he's even considering this is that demi-humans age based off their levels. So by the time the waves happen she should at least be at the end of puberty. But, that means having this child in front of him training with the sole purpose of combat.

That's no way to grow up.

After paying for their meal, Naofumi needed to take the first step in figuring out how to train her. He never did anything like that before, and everyone in Kamar-Taj was already an adult.

"You did well." Petra whispered into his ear.

"Convincing someone so young to use their youth preparing for combat?"

"Giving her a chance to choose." The spiderling turned away from him. "Instead of making her think she had a choice, you truly, let her choose her fate."

That...was very vague and concerning. "Thank you? Is this coming from anywh-"

"Allow me to handle her training." Petra interrupted him. "No offense but while you have impressive magic and knowledge your application in combat is sorely lacking."

"Hey, I think I did pretty well against those monsters!"

"You haven't killed anything over level five without my help."

...touche.


Raphtalia was nervously holding a dagger in a wide forest, dressed in heavy padding with plates inside them. It was hard for her muscles to even lift her arms but Petra made it a point for her to get used to the burning sensation when fighting. She constantly corrected the young girl's form, reaching over with her spiderlegs to nudge her footing or loosen her shoulders.

"Good, we can work with this." Petra walked around to Raphtalia's front, her spiderlegs spreading wide into the air. "Attack me."

"W-what?!"

"It's ok." Naofumi stepped out of another portal with his sorcerer attire on, arms full of various pieces of equipment or weapons that Petra had requested. "Not even I can land a hit on her, and that's even when I'm using my magic."

With new found respect for Petra, Raphtalia tensed, ready to-

"Stop." Petra used her legs to correct her stance again. "Don't do that, the enemy will be able to tell when you are going to attack."

"O-ok."

"Now, come attack me."

Raphtalia took a steady breath as sweat dropped down her forehead. It was hot in her outfit, and she was tired before they even began. Petra waited, appearing bored with all of this. But that was just Petra.

"RA!" She took a step towards-

"Stop."

"What did I do now.." The girl whined as Petra corrected her posture again.

"You yelled, it's just as bad as what you did earlier."

"Couldn't she use that as a distraction, or attract enemies to her?" Naofumi pitched, until the glare from the spider woman came his way. "Right, shutting up."

"Ok, again." Petra resumed her own stance, waiting for Raphtalia. After two hours of going over and over with her posture, not ever getting a chance to try to attack, Petra held her hand up.

"We'll take a short break."

"B-but I was-"

"And take those weights off, your body should have a good handle on the posture now."

All that talk about coming to attack Petra, just for stances? Naofumi didn't know exactly how good of a teacher Petra was but she sounded like she knew what she was doing. He read over another line of text from his book, this damn magical theory in it hardly got to the actual source of how the hell the spells actually happen. All it has is a bunch of requirements like level, class, affinity and then when you have a good enough understanding on what the result is supposed to be then you picture the result, say the words, and if you have enough 'mp' then BAM, the spell happens.

Yet what was mp? Some magical storage you carry that grows when you level up, or an item grants more mp? It had to be something else, because when Petra used magic or a skill the natural ley lines of the area pulled towards her. There was obviously an outside source that the books were not accounting for...or not mentioning. He would need to cross this over with Petra's idea about certain functions of their body naturally intaking-

"Naofumi."

"Hm?" He looked up, Raphtalia limply dangling from Petra's spider leg holding her by the back of her shirt. Quickly sending a mental command for his camera shield to capture the moment, he closed his book. "What's up?"

"We're ready to see what kind of weapon Raphtalia has talent for, and what would benefit us as a unit."

"I thought I grabbed them all." Naofumi looked at the layed out pile on a blanket. Bows, knives, scythes, swords, maces, shotguns, nunchucks, spears, snipers, axes, stun batons, pistols, whips, one arm shields, sub machine guns,, everything a girl could ask for and more.

"What's this?" With another spiderleg, Petra held up one of the many things he brought.

"That's a colt." He went back to his book, maybe if he learned one of the spells he had an affinity for and tried it out he would get a handle on how-

"Demonstrate." Petra demanded.

"Ok ok." Sheesh he needed to study dammit! "But not with that, I think I would sprain my wrist."

"And you thought Raphtalia could use it?"

"Train up to it." Naofumi grabbed a less heavy duty glock and took out the magazine. "Quick summary. These are bullets, projectiles that the gun uses. There's a pin in the gun that strikes the back, igniting something like blackpowder held within this casing around the bullet to launch it at wherever you have it pointed. Rule of thumb, don't point it at something you're not prepared to kill, and pull the trigger with your finger here when-"

*BAM*

"WHAT THE SHIT?!" Naofumi was startled by the loud crack in the air, now seeing a chunk of a nearby tree blown apart.

"Huh." Petra lowered the smoking revolver in her hand. "Effective, but hardly stealthy."

"A little warning!" Naofumi rubbed one of his ears. "I didn't even get to the safety release."

"It was easy to decipher." Petra eyed the gun once more. "It's essentially a canon with multiple parts to allow multiple quick shots, easy use, all while maintaining user safety."

"I-it's loud." Raphtalia rubbed her tanuki ears, it being much louder to her than the other two.

"Ok, maybe introducing guns to this world is a bad idea. They're already trigger happy." Naofumi started to pick up some of the guns, but stopped when he saw that Petra was looking back at the one in her hand. Then, she began to chant. "I am one who commands the origin of power. I have read and deciphered a law of nature. Hinder the sounds and let my target be mute."

"Silence." She commanded, a brief magic circle appearing over the gun. Naofumi dropped the guns and dead sprinted over, throwing his arm with the camera shield forward as he reached in desperation to capture the image.

*click*

He collapsed on the grass, Petra taking aim once more at the trees. She pulled the trigger, a brief flash escaping the muzzle and another tree becoming splinters. Yet there was no noise.

"I'm keeping this." The spidergirl stated with no room for argument. "Show me more."

"Not yet." Naofumi looked over his shield, switching to the screen. He pulled up the most recent image, the magic circle. It was precise, no sparks in its manifestation with several components intertwining with one another. Zooming in on the outer ring, he recognized some of the symbols being used. "The spell you used, it has transmutation elements to it."

"My spell hardly classifies as transmutation." Petra quirked a brow at Naofumi.

"No, it acts as an illusion spell. Here!" He pointed at another section of the spell towards the center triangle. "This is the part that actually silenced the bullet, but there is so much here organized in a way of some high level stuff. I can see how I could perform part of this spell in order to carry the same effect, but what is everything else for?"

Petra sat Raphtalia down as she listened to Naofumi rant as he found yet another thing to look into. The child's legs wobbled as she wanted to lay down and try taking a nap while they were busy. Something caught her eye, a shimmering blade with a ribbed handle. She picked it up, her wrist balancing the weight automatically. Her eyes looked up and down the blade as she held it directly in front of her body.

Taking a step forward, she swung like Petra was showing her. It flowed through the air, gliding along with her arm. It made her limb feel stronger, reach farther, do more than she could alone.

"How does it feel?" Petra spoke from right behind her, crouched to speak into her ear.

"Eep!" Raphtalia jumped, twirling around with the blade on instinct. Once she processed who she was swinging at she stopped, the blade about to collide with the spider woman but hovering inches from a spider leg.

"You have natural control." The woman stood up, looking towards Naofumi. "She's found her weapon."

"A sword? That's kind of basic." The sorcerer brushed himself off, coming over. "There's already a sword hero, but maybe you can show him up."

He switched to his portal shield, putting the various scattered weapons to where he stol-borrowed them from. Yet left a few guns and sword for Petra and Raphtalia to practice with. "Ok, I'm going to find a way to get Raphtalia a good sword."

"Why can't we ask Erhart to make a custom one?" Petra asked.

"Because if his best shields couldn't match up to this-" Naofumi switched to the patriotic shield. "-then maybe the best sword can't be found or made here. Plus, if there's any enchantments going to be made on our best stuff I want to know it does to the last detail."

"Fine." Petra gave in, knowing how unyielding Naofumi could be. "But take into account her growth."

"Understood." He nodded, looking back down to Raphtalia. "Good luck training, I'll be back for lunch and we'll go back to the cabin for dinner."

"Please no." The spidergirl half heartedly begged.

"I won't cook it, don't worry." Naofumi opened a new portal, looking back to the two one last time. He was leaving them in their own world, at least fifty miles from the nearest civilization. This was only what, his fourth day in this world? And he only knew them for only a part of it. Yet he felt like he would do pretty much anything for them.

Taking one last step he entered the famous library where he did all of his studying for his years of training. He came forward to the librarian, who was reading with headphones in his ears.

"Are you here to return those books?" Wong asked without looking up.

"One of them." Naofumi pulled out the illusionary one Wong had him study in more depth. "But I need to find something for a project."

"And what do you seek?"

"The best metal ever created."


The shield hero had stacks of history books around him, flipping through the many pages as he kept going on and on through forges, smithing techniques, and so many different things. Nidavellir was regarded as the best forge throughout creation, making the famous gauntlet used by Thanos, the axe that Thor used to slay the first Thanos, wait but the other one wsa from the past so was that one technically first? Whichever one snapped.

Naofumi shivered as he recalled the feeling, fading from existence unexpectedly. In his last moments, he saw Kamar-Taj in a panic, every sorcerer trying to cast some kind of protection spell or watching with disbelief as some of them just...vanished. Then he was back, along with other panicking sorcerers that were looking at him like he was a ghost. Wong ran up to them, telling them to arm themselves as he opened a portal to a battlefield in New York state.

Honestly, fighting in an army with the largest gathering of superpowered heroes ever known was what Naofumi thought was going to be best thing he ever did with his life. Now, he had a shot to save a world from interdimensional waves, being one of those heroes. He wasn't an Avenger by far, but maybe he could be enough. So long as he gave it his all.

Yet right now he felt like giving up on getting Raphtalia the best, because everytime he looked towards anything made by the dwarves it was provided by Asgard, which was gone, all of it besides the forge itself and one dwarf who spent isolation there.

"Having trouble?" Wong was behind him, putting away one of the books just returned to him.

"The best stuff I can find is always made with Uru, but with Asgard gone there's nothing I can bring to the Nidavellir to forge. Given I can convince Eitri the dwarf to let me use it."

"Asgard isn't a place." Wong corrected Naofumi. "It's a people, at least what's left of them."

Naofumi's eyes shot open, now knowing his first destination.


Raphtalia was sprinting through the shadowed forest, training had gone very south very fast! Petra was gone, left her alone after they had gone to slaying monsters. At first it was scary, but the balloons were easy once she realized there was no blood. Then rabbits, which was much harder. But Petra dissected it in front of her, showing that blood was just one part of a whole. She explained each part, how it functioned to keep the living to keep on living.

It made her want to vomit, but the sight of blood was easier to deal the next time. After five more dissected monsters Petra told her to aim for the vital areas. They gave her targets, something to focus on as she dug the blade into something. Of course they were alive, but she understood why even more.

After Raphtalia took down a haunted boar by herself, stabbing it quickly in the side of the neck as it charged her, she felt some pride. That's when it all fell.

She couldn't find Petra, and the smell had attracted more of the boars! All she could do was run, the heavy training this morning, the constant in between from one to the next, it was exhausting.

It finally dawned on Raphtalia, she was going to die at this rate. Jumping over a tree branch, her legs didn't have enough strength to land as she tumbled along the ground. Rolling onto her butt, she looked up in fear as the monsters approached rapidly. She scooted back, her head hitting the tree behind her. Three of them, three heads, blood, her parents.

Her adrenaline was spiking through the roof as her fingers were going numb. Raphtalia's was out of control, inoutinoutinoutinout.

*clang*

Her hand let go of the sword, the hopelessness of it all settling in. It was hopeless, hopeless, death was coming for her, going to bite down on her. No one was here to save her.

She didn't choose this, her parents didn't choose to be dead. What choices did she ever make for it to come to this?

The monsters, the waves would kill them all-

She chose, chose to fight the waves, chose to kill the monsters. Before she never chose that, but she had made the choice with Naofumi, she was making it now. Her shaky hand reached out, grabbing the fallen blade. Never taking her scared eyes off the target, no, targets. Three heads, four natural openings to the brain for each one. She knew how to kill them.

Raphtalia chose her legs to stand, she chose her arms to move the sword forward, she chose to kill the monsters, she chose to fight the waves, she was choosing save the world.

They bursted forward, all jumping at Raphtalia at once.

"RAHHHHH!" A primal scream escaped the little girl's mouth as she demanded her body to take a strong stance against them.

Blood exploded underneath the haunted boars, three long black appendages sticking out through them from above. Raphtalia paused, looking up to see Petra's form hidden in the shade of the branches.

A painful wheeze escaped one of the boar's mouth, the creature barely hanging onto life.

"Finish them." Petra told her. "You need to level up as fast as you can."

"I..thought you abandoned me."

"I never did. I was waiting for you to learn."

Raphtalia looked back to the monsters that hardly had the strength to fight their entrapment. She frowned, the creatures were hardly as scary as they were a second ago. They were wounded, scared, and dying. "What did you want me to learn?"

The spiderling didn't respond, pointing back to the boars with a lazy hand. "If we treasure life, we must be prepared to take it."

Raphtalia wasn't sure what exactly she meant, but it made sense as cruel as it was. She stepped towards the monsters, raising her sword. Pushing her weight in to the hilt her sword sunk into the neck of the boar, it's life ending. It was sad, she knew that but she had made her choice. She wanted to protect this world, the lives on it from those who would do it harm.

A swirling orange portal opened up, Naofumi stepping through to see the bloody scene. "Hey, uh, let's get you washed up. Then we can go get some pizza for lunch ok?"

"Naofumi." The little girl said with a more mature tone than he expected.

"Yeah?" He cautiously asked.

Raphtalia turned around, holding her red stained sword to the side. "I will be prepared for the waves."

"...yeah...Did you get taller?"


Ren, the sword hero was testing his sword against the balloon monsters. Swinging away he let the fiery skill burn at their rubber like material. After killing two more he looked back towards Myna, who was standing behind him with her arms crossed.

"Why aren't you killing monsters?" He asked with some annoyance.

"I pick off the ones that I feel would do damage to us." She placed a hand on her chest, taking on a much too 'I know what I'm doing' attitude. "You are at the front and-"

"I don't exactly know what Motoyasu let you do in his party, or any of his members." Ren discarded his furnace sword, letting the default take its place. "But you were assigned to my party because you weren't trusted with him. Now, we need to level up. All of us need to actively do our part to-"

"But I'm actively waiting for a chance!" Myne whined.

She did not just seriously say that.

"This was your choice." Ren groaned. "You either carry your weight in my party, or you can sit in the castle doing nothing but ask for approval to do anything. Unless of course you want the third option of becoming the shield hero's slave?"

Myne slumped backwards, whining more and more as she stepped forward to finally participate to Ren's relief. That was until a balloon monster managed to sneak up and bite her leg. "AHH! KILL IT KILL IT!"

Ren really, really wanted to kill more than just the balloon. Switching to the furnace sword again, the cast iron material with flames spilling out of it ignited the monster, along with Myne's outfit.

"YOU DID THAT ON PURPOSE!"

He did, but he needed to master this sword. It was currently the one with the best attack stats alongside it. They might have to look out of town or spend money to get him a better one. Perhaps he could talk to some of the more experienced adventurers and manage to get a copy of their swords.


The tanuki girl sat on the porch of the cabin, listening to the breeze rushing through the leaves. A gentle symphony of nature played as Raphtalia took it all in. Naofumi changed the winter to fall here, which she thought was impossible but apparently when you make a 'pocket dimension' you can control mostly everything in it. She was dressed in baggy blue pants and a sweater, the crisp air flowing through her hair.

Naofumi said he was coming back for dinner, but with how late it was Petra believed he was making food to bring over. So she was in the kitchen, fixing up something she personally liked from the monster meat. Raphtalia was comfortable skinning the animals, separating flesh from bone from something that was alive an hour ago.

Holding up the sword in her hand, or what was left of it, she felt bad. It was a good sword, it served her well on her first day of training. By the end she had broken it though in her fight against a dark unicorn. Petra stepped in and slayed the beast before it could gore her.

Raphtalia hoped it wasn't expensive. While there were a lot of swords Naofumi kept somewhere, at least she presumed they were his, even the smallest inconvenience to him felt awful. If only she could get one that wouldn't have to be replaced every day.

Orange lit up in front of her, a portal opening ten feet up this time in the air ahead of the cabin.

*Shing* A sword dropped from the sky, stabbing into the ground. It was big, with the guard of it being made of the same metal of the blade itself. It had a leather handle with silver rings running down it until it ended at a strap. Some marking with interwoven curved triangles sat right above the hilt, only the blend into the metal like it wasn't there.

Another portal up beside her, Naofumi stepping out with some bags of food. "Oh, sorry, didn't realize you were out here."

"It's fine." Raphtalia didn't take her eyes off the sword, Naofumi looking with disappointment at the blade.

"Sorry, there's still a few Asgardian seals on it that I can't remove. Guess reforging the fragments of mjolnir wasn't the best way to get my hands on Uru." Naofumi opened up the front door to the cabin with his foot, frowning again when he saw Petra cooking. "I said I was bringing home food."

"Did you cook it?"

"It's burger king! And what's up with Raphtalia looking twelve now? How many monsters did you two kill?"

Raphtalia got up, walking to inspect the sword. "Did you get this sword for me?"

"Um, yeah." Naofumi glanced back to her, then back to the sword. "If I can't work it out the magic on it I'll get you a vibranium one at least. Somehow."

The blade itself was close to five feet long, the handle being closer to eight inches. It was way too long for her to think there would be any balance to it. Wanting to try it before judging it, she grabbed the hilt of it, pulling it out of the ground. "It's light."

"Vibranium is pretty light, but I guarantee it's-" Naofumi dropped the food on the ground, seeing Raphtalia doing a few test swings with the new sword.

"I always joked about wanting our own Thor but...Hot damn."

Raphtalia swung the sword behind her back, smiling towards Naofumi. "I love it, thank you."


READ NOTES BEFORE POSTING REVIEW

While I have juggled the idea of getting Raphtalia her own super armor, or even giving her a bunch of guns, it didn't feel right. Even if I had Naofumi and Erhart work together to make an enchanted set of armor to operate like that it would feel too sci fi. But, guns are too good to pass up so Petra could use some smaller ones when she feels like it.

The first idea I had about Raphtalia was her swinging a massive sword with lightning crackling around her as she charged into a hoard. Inspired from Next Avengers, heroes of tomorrow.

Some have talked about how I'm not following the stat rules of the Shield hero Universe, or that certain things wouldn't work as I've written them.

THIS IS CANON DIVERGENCE!

The waves do NOT have the same function or origin as the ones in the show, I have my own explanation for them, the hour glasses, and the weapons so they'll be different.

As for Eclair Seatto, the queen was only there for a brief moment and did not have time to look into everything that was going on. I'm not even sure if I'm going to write her into the story, because I don't want to have to make a huge list of 'things Naofumi needs to do.' We'll see though.

Amy grammar mistakes please point out and I will fix them ASAP.

Let me know how well you like it and if you want to see more.

please be gentle:

No, he can't just tell the queen to change a law he personally doesn't like while she's busy preventing war.

MaxPrime:

I don't really need material ahead of the anime, I don't see myself making the fic that long.

M.J. :

Some of those things I threw out for my story, while others we will get too eventually.

JAKEkenstein:

I don't think I'll do any vassal heroes.

alicemisuzu:

In the story I stated Erhart couldn't get a good stat reading off it, that was your first hint. Second hint, was Naofumi mentioning how the shield had stats beyond just defense. Third hint from canon, the shield hero has shields that can deal damage.

flamegod310:

While that would be awesome, it would be way too OP.

FoxOnPie:

Aultcray was not directly responsible for the shield hero being stabbed. He just said stop, and Motoyasu decided to take that to attempted murder. Also, only so far Myne was obvious in trying to accuse Naofumi of rape. They certainly got punishments, as you can see more of in this chapter, but again they were stopped early on before things got really bad and Naofumi didn't enforce harsher punishment.

Also, are you talking about Erhart? The guy that went to find Naofumi, drag him into an alley, and was ready to beat the tar out of him until he saw his eyes? No, the dude clearly was ready to beat the shield hero right then and there. He only stopped when he realized he was innocent.

The Queen obviously doesn't want to do a lot of harsh things, including killing her family, but she also willing to do what was necessary.

YES! There are places where rape is way too common! IN OUR OWN WORLD!

Austin:

I don't know if I'll have Doctor Strange involved again, at all in the story.

She didn't have time to do anything like that.

Maybe one I've had in mind, but I am significantly more busy so don't expect it.

Reishin Amara:

Yes, but I haven't written that far yet to actually feel the need to explore it.

GrandmasterRed:

As I was contemplating what to do for Raphtalia, your review finally got me to make the decision. That was the first idea that popped in my head for the tanuki girl but I also loved the idea of a chick loaded with guns and blowing everything up.

GREAT CELESTIAL-DRAGON:

Itsuki will get to see some elements from the marvel universe in the future. It is, inevitable.