CHAPTER 9:

ONE STEP AT A TIME

"How are you holding up?"

Harry looked at Ren, who had come back to Lurolona the day after the funeral. Itsuki had demurred from coming, citing (through Ren) that Mald might attack Raphtalia or Rifana or even Rishia. And Motoyasu, after his brief blip of sympathy, had fucked off elsewhere with his party cum harem. Then again, out of his fellow Cardinal Heroes, he got along best with Ren anyway.

L'Arc and Therese had opted to head back home, though not before Keel decided to stay here. Naofumi, Glass, and Hermione would be along to visit some time before long. He wasn't sure whether to anticipate their arrival, or dread it.

"Not well," Harry admitted. "I'm better than I was in the aftermath of that battle, but…my past is catching up with me, I used the Rage Shield again…and Rifana is dead."

"…I know," Ren said quietly. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. Wyndia was left with the Itamis, and it's just as well. If she died…if any of my party died, I'm not sure what would happen to me." He looked to Raphtalia, who was sitting at the same table, in a mirror of what happened before they went to Cal Mira. "And what about you?"

"…About as well as I can hold up, given the circumstances," Raphtalia said. She looked over to where Hedy, Keel, and Rishia were speaking with Ren's party, as well as Wyndia and the Itamis. "About the best thing about that fiasco is that we know the Death Eaters are targeting us now, on behalf of whoever or whatever is behind the Waves. Still…first my parents, along with my village…and now, one of my best friends in this world?" Raphtalia inhaled a great shuddering breath. "I don't want the Waves to take anything more from me, from us…but I doubt they'd be so kind."

"I wish I could say otherwise. I'm sorry, I'm not good at comforting others," Ren said quietly and bitterly. "But…I am glad I got to know Rifana, even if only a little. She didn't deserve what she went through. None of you did. But…you know what really worries me? I mean, apart from these Death Eaters working for the enemy? It's the fact that they freed Malty. She was willing to murder her own sister to get the throne, willing to conspire with the Church of the Three Heroes to commit treason to overthrow her parents. What the hell is she going to do, working with the enemy?"

"I don't know," Harry said. "But this time, I won't make the mistake of showing that bitch any mercy, save for killing her quickly. Not because I don't want to cause her pain or torment, mind you. I just don't want to allow her to cause any more problems."

Raphtalia nodded in grim agreement. "She had her second chance. She's wasted it. Next time I see her, I will take her damned head."

"I agree, and I'm sure the Queen would agree too. Not so sure about the ex-king, but given that she tried to have him murdered, hopefully, he'll be understanding." He looked out to the ocean, towards Cal Mira. "…Still, before we knew the Wave was hitting Cal Mira…I had fun. Did you?"

Harry and Raphtalia nodded in agreement. True, it had been overshadowed by the Wave and the attack by the Death Eaters…but they had a good time at Cal Mira prior to it. And while the grinding was a little tedious, but they had enjoyed themselves.

"Good." Ren turned back to them and smiled. It was a gentle, subtle one, and somewhat lugubrious, but it was still a genuine smile. "And Harry…Raphtalia…you're more than my allies, my comrades. You're my friends, at least that's how I consider it. I hope that helps you both."

"…Thanks, Ren," Raphtalia said, and Harry couldn't help but agree. It helped. Not much, only a little, but it helped…


Their party moved through Lurolona, accompanied by the Itamis, Ren and his party going elsewhere. Raphtalia remembered how they acted once they were told the truth. Youji and Risa were beside themselves with worry. While they could never take the place of her parents in her heart, Raphtalia still loved them all the same. They didn't care that she wasn't human. They only cared that she was a person.

The Itamis only got to meet Rifana briefly on a few occasions, firstly in Faubrey, and then shortly before the Wave. Raphtalia only got to reunite with her friend a few times prior to her untimely death. Rifana was far younger than she was, and Raphtalia had spent nine years apart from her. As much as she could be philosophical and say she cherished the time they had, she felt she could have done more to protect Rifana.

She'd also contacted Sadeena and notified her of the news. Sadeena took it fairly well. Oh, she was upset, and rightly so. But she seemed to be coping better than Raphtalia felt. She did promise that if she ever met Malty or one of the Death Eaters, she would skewer them immediately. No questions asked or answered.

Raphtalia didn't blame Harry at all. She witnessed Rifana's final moments, diving to intercept the Killing Curse aimed at Harry's back by those bastards, even if Raphtalia hadn't realised the Death Eaters were behind them. Rifana chose to sacrifice herself to save the Shield Hero. Rifana would certainly have seen it as a worthy sacrifice.

But to Raphtalia, it was an unnecessary one, and not because Harry was not worth saving, or because the Shield would have saved him (she wasn't sure whether the Shield could protect against an Unforgivable). Those bastards shouldn't have been there in the first place. Instead, their spite towards Harry and the offer of a being claiming to be a god allowed them to bring the fight to Harry.

She wanted revenge. Not just on the Death Eaters, but on the forces behind the Waves that had recruited them. They had taken her parents, her home, and now one of her best friends from her. And they had caused countless deaths and untold miseries on at least two worlds if not more.

And for what? Power? Territory? Resources? Ideology? Or was it just sadistic amusement? Whatever reason it was, it could not possibly be worth it. These forces clearly showed themselves willing to recruit the likes of the Death Eaters or Malty, the scum of the worlds they were born on. They would have recruited the likes of Idol Rabier in a flash, she felt.

She wondered if Kyo was a member of this faction, or whether he was out for his own gain. Little matter if he was or was not. His own end goal was the same, causing death and destruction for his personal gain.

She wasn't going to seek revenge recklessly. She wasn't an idiot. Besides, she had Sirius Black to act as an example of how revenge could mess up one's life, to say nothing of The Ex-King Formerly Known as Aultcray. One sought revenge for righteous reasons, one sought revenge for self-righteous reasons, and in the end, both fucked up their lives something fierce, leaving their loved ones in the lurch.

The same could be said about the rulers of Q'ten Lo. Sadeena had discussed more about that country with her, about how the power behind the throne was Makina, the royal advisor to her grandfather. Sadeena had compared her to what she had heard about Malty, so basically Malty as an evil vizier. Makina and her underlings let her suffer, hoping she would die, and thus remove a potential threat to the puppet they had as emperor. One day, she would go back, and stop Makina. Perhaps she could help her cousin Ruftmilia, as well as the younger sister Sadeena had alluded to, who had only been newborn when Sadeena fled Q'ten Lo(1). But Makina would die, by her hand. One day, anyway. But not yet.

No, the priority had to be stopping the Waves, and stopping Kyo. Everything else was secondary, at least for now. And that meant training, to ensure they were strong enough to face what was to come.

But was that all? No, no life worth living was spent purely in pursuit of power above all else, whether it be physical strength, magical power, or political power. She needed more reason to live than just that, and she knew she had many reasons.

She had all those she had bonded with, from the dizzying heights of royalty to the grounded commoners, from Cardinal Heroes to the ordinary people. Across three different worlds, she had bonds with so many. They would keep her from falling into the abyss, and she would do her best to stop any of them from doing the same.

Especially Harry. She understood why he was hurt. Because he cared about Rifana, about others' lives, as much as she did. And he felt guilt and self-loathing at surviving when others perished, starting with Cedric Diggory…no, perhaps even with his parents. She knew the feeling well herself.

She would not let Harry, the man she had fallen for, fall into the darkness, any more than he would let her fall into that same darkness. Time would tell if she would succeed. It always did…


Was he strong enough to protect those he held dear? Harry wasn't sure, even as he and the others took a walk through Lurolona. He'd barely prevailed against Voldemort, and that was all down to luck and Dumbledore's advance planning. Here, he was more or less on his own, having to feel his way through this situation.

True, he had had Ignotus Peverell's journal as an aid, along with Raphtalia's own knowledge, which was better than what the other Cardinal Heroes had. But he had been dropped into a country where the Shield Hero was despised. He was familiar with being despised, despite being expected to help save the world, but it didn't mean he liked it.

And now, a spectre of the past had reared its ugly head. The Death Eaters seemed to believe that the deity they served would resurrect them if they died. They were already fanatics made worse, and even the children of the Death Eaters had decided to take part. All to spite him.

And just when it seemed like the only real enemy was the Waves, too. The world where L'Arc, Therese and Naofumi came from were not a threat now, even if Kyo was, but they couldn't do anything about Kyo until they found the bastard. The remnants of the Three Heroes Church could be dealt with, and most issues and enemies were relatively mundane by comparison. Q'ten Lo was a danger, but as long as they avoided their attention for now, they could get stronger until they were ready to take them on.

Harry needed to be better, faster, stronger. He needed to protect the people he cared about. And he needed to be stronger than the damned Cursed Series. He got lucky the few times he used the Rage Shield. He was able to stamp out the rage, to shove the genie back into the bottle. But one day, he might use it…and couldn't stop it, not by himself. And if someone he cared about got hurt or even killed in the process…

Well, at least this time, unlike with Cedric or Sirius, he wasn't facing the grief alone. True, after the Battle of Hogwarts, he did shut out others to some degree. But in a way, becoming Raphtalia's friend had helped knock that out of him a little. Despite being conscripted into becoming the Shield Hero as an accidental and indirect result of meeting her…she had swiftly become his best friend outside of Magical Britain. And unlike so many, she understood him pretty quickly, helped, no doubt, by Hermione coaching her.

He was still trying to sort out the feelings he felt towards her, not helped by Rifana's death. But not only was a strong bond there, but, potentially, something else. Maybe, once the grief around Rifana's death was over, they could try finding out whether it could go any further. They'd certainly began to feel it out on Cal Mira, until Hedy found that Hourglass.

And it wasn't just Raphtalia. There were so many he had bonded with during the past several months. People he could count on to have his back…or at least be someone he could talk to.

He was no hero. He never was, nor would he ever be. But he always had his saving people thing. That would never change. He would save this world, and the others affected by the Waves, with his allies and friends, together…

THE END

CHAPTER 9 ANNOTATIONS:

So…here endeth Not Your Kind of People: Postcards from Cal Mira.

As mentioned in the foreword, which I wrote after finishing this chapter, I actually first began this fic soon after finishing Not Your Kind of People back in September last year, but the motivation wasn't quite there to finish it, not helped by my not generally doing sequels these days. I worked on it piecemeal over the past year, but it was only over the past few weeks that I decided to try and finish it. It's a bit of a rushed job, but this was always going to be one of my shorter works anyway, an interquel that covered the events of the fifth light novel, as well as setting up new foes and conflicts for Harry to face in upcoming fics. After all, many of the conflicts from the series have been resolved thanks to communication and a few butterflies.

It was always my intention to eventually bring in the so-called 'former' Death Eaters as new foes, recruited by the World Eater and the Army of the Waves. Rifana's death wasn't originally on the cards, but I needed to make them a credible threat, as well as to guarantee Raph-chan. I also always intended for Malty to be freed by the Death Eaters, though originally, that was going to be part of the Spirit Tortoise arc rather than the Cal Mira one.

I debated with myself whether to keep this story aside for my December update as a sort of Christmas present, but I recently purchased the second season boxset for the anime adaptation, and while its reputation isn't that great, I still intend to watch it. It might help get the juices flowing for a potential sequel. Of course, the original light novels will be the primary basis for such a sequel, should it get written, but the anime could help things along.

Of course, no sequel is guaranteed, especially how I deal with those lately. But if one does come, it may come with the December update. Usually, I post darker, horror-related stories in October, as part of Halloween: so far, I have posted a Nasuverse/Baldur's Gate crossover oneshot called Vermiform Ceremorphosis (where Shinji Matou gets an Illithid Tadpole in his eye, with predictable results) and a Bloodborne/Arifureta crossover oneshot called Good Hunter Hajime (the plot should be fairly obvious). But why not post an exception to the rule anyway?

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it. Oh, and thanks to whoever posted that rec on TV Tropes for the original Not Your Kind of People. I'd really appreciate it if someone did an actual tropes page for that fic, as it's one of the fics I am truly proud of. But for the rest of you…I hope this was entertaining enough.

Also, exciting times ahead, given that the third season has just begun, and it may be an improvement on the second season at least. Here's hoping…

Oh, and the sequel, if I do write it, has a tentative name. Given that I took the name from a song by Garbage, I thought it would be apt, especially considering Kyo's ambitions, to name the next fic in this series after another Garbage song: The World is Not Enough.

1. Having read the 14th volume of the light novels, I was embarrassed to learn that Shildina was apparently born after Sadeena left Q'ten Lo, and thus Sadeena shouldn't have any knowledge like she did in Not Your Kind of People. Here, Shildina was newborn when Sadeena left.