Kazuma's turn

For my 20th birthday, I got a check and an ultimatum to get the hell out of my house.

And it was my house, I'd lived there all my life after all. Probably spent more time in it than even my parents did, especially these last few years keeping it safe for them to come home to.

And yet, the very morning of my legal debut as a grown man, my parents barged into my room at the crack of dawn to drag me out of bed. They'd even called in an excuse for Jiro since it was a school day to help me pack up and make sure I was out before they got back that night.

"How can you stand it?"

"Stand what?" my little brother asked "Moving your ass out? You're the smart one of us, are you really telling me you didn't see this coming?" He stared at me over the box of not at all light novels he was propping on the rail of the elevator. "Ancestors preserve us. You didn't, did you? You really thought that those two were going to just, support you forever or something? Mom and Dad?!"

I growled at him to shut up if he knew what was good for him, but that just made him laugh harder, the bastard.

"You lived with them two years longer than I have, seriously man. That's some funny shit." he nudged his face against one sleeve of his green polo shirt trying to try to wipe his eyes, almost knocking his glasses off. Served him right, I'd told him when I was in the hospital after my accident a few years back he'd need reading glasses like an old fart if he kept studying like he did. So who's laughing now?

"Keep it up, it'll be you that they kick out on your ass before long. See if I cry for you then," I warned him, but he just shook his head after resettling things.

"Nah. I played their game, kept my grades up, didn't nearly get myself sued for breaking a girl's leg trying to play hero." Our elevator reached my floor, and we started down the hall. "I keep it up a few more months, move into an off campus apartment so I can stay over summers, and I'm good. After that, I'll only ever have to deal with them at New Year's" Jiro continued quietly, "I'm good," he repeated. "There's a reason that all the schools I applied for are on Kanto, you know."

"Yeah, I guess you are," I agreed softly, wrestling out my new keys. They'd been efficient if nothing else. In the envelope my gene donors had given me along with the checks for rental deposit and the first month's rent was a pre-signed lease agreement. All I had to do was just sign on the dotted line and I could move right in. Utilities connected by the end of today, even.

Dropping the boxes in the corner with a thump, I surveyed my new domain. It wasn't much, basically one room with a micro kitchen by the front door, a bedroom I could just lay out a double sized futon in, and a sliding door to a bath and shower.

"That's the last of it?" Jiro asked, wiping his forehead with an arm.

"Yeah, that's it. All I'm going to have room for at least." To hell with the rest of it, anyway. Most of my stuff I cared about was digital. Besides, the last thing I wanted to do was go back. It would be getting close to the end of the work day by the time I got back for anything else, and it would be just like Them to come home earlier than usual to make sure I was really leaving.

Jiro leaned against an empty spot on the wall, hands in his jean's pockets. Looking as lost for what to do next as I felt.

He was wrong, I'd seen this coming. I'd just refused to believe it, do anything about it. I'd basically dropped out of the expensive prep school my parents signed me up for four years ago. Hardly a week had gone by since without some sort of cutting, snide comment from my father as he went by when he came home from work that night, or my mother's incandescent fury at catching me raiding the fridge at 3 am again.

I pulled my phone out of my tracksuit pocket, pretending to check the time just to be doing something.

"Hey," my brother said after a minute, looking up from where he'd been doing the same thing. "All the third years are quitting for their exam prep at the arcade we used to go to, I heard. If you put in an app you'd have a shot."

Working. Heaven help me, I'd have to do that now wouldn't I? Sure, I was set until the end of the month, but I was way too pretty to survive living in a cardboard box for long. Not even taking into account my MMO addictions.

"Yah, thanks," I nodded. "You can help unpack if you really want, but if you need to head out I can take it from here."

Nodding silently, Jiro levered himself off the wall and headed for the door. We hadn't bothered taking our outdoor shoes off since we'd been going in and out so much, so it was only a moment before he was heading through the door, pausing in the doorway.

"Later," he called to where I'd started opening a box, and I gave a halfhearted wave in return as the door clicked behind him.

—-

I'd more or less finished up with the easy stuff when there was a rapid, furtive knocking on my door that night.

Grumbling, I ignored it figuring nobody I wanted to talk to could possibly want to see me this late. But it kept going, and going, and finally I cursed and went to the peephole.

Greeting me there was a figure wearing an actual, factual, hooded black wool cloak in spite of the Sumner weather. Pulled low to shadow their face in the overhead hall lights.

"You're a long way from Mordor, Ringwraith." I snarked, not bothering to hide a chuckle "And this sure ain't the Shire. Get lost." Turning away from the door with a snort, I started walking back to hooking up my PC when a voice stopped me cold.

"Kazuma Sato?" a clear, pleasantly female voice asked. "I come bearing a message. May I enter?"

"Great." I sighed, "Not even a day and already crazies. Who's asking?" I called louder. Say what you want, this was the first conversation with a woman I'd had that wasn't related or tech support in ages. I was willing to humor her a bit.

"My name will mean nothing to you, but I am Iris Stylish Sword Belzerg, First of her name, Queen of that land."

Oh, I was so glad I didn't chase her away. This was already way more entertaining than replaying Skies of Arcadia like I'd been planning. As long as she stayed on the far side of a sturdy door, anyway.

"Oh, do forgive me, your majesty. I didn't recognize you incognito. Do overlook my impudence." I replied in my best courtly voice, though I admit cracking up in snickers at the end probably ruined it.

"I'd hardly expect any different from you, given your well known foibles, Trashzuma." she replied archly. "At least my undergarments are still intact."

"Lady, I've never met you in my life. I was willing to play pretend for a bit, but if you're looking for a fight I'm not dealing with you, the police can handle your crazy ass."

"Do as you must, but first, let me tell you a story…."

Iris' turn

For my 20th birthday I received the crown of my kingdom, retrieved from my brother fallen in battle, and a dream I hardly dared believe was real.

Starting the night of my coronation, I received a series of dreams, visions of a past that never was. In them I was again 12 years old, still First Princess and living mostly secluded in the palace. One day, I made a trip to reward a group of rising star adventurers in what once was Axel. They had gained fame by defeating Generals Sylvia, Velda, and Hans as well as laying low the Destroyer itself and my father thought it past time such a promising group was recognized for their service and received a suitable reward.

I was just excited to be leaving not only the palace, but the capital itself for the first time in years. The coach ride to Axel was probably dreadfully boring for my attendants and guards, but I couldn't have been more excited at so many new things as they passed my window on the way.

After arriving at the estate of our hosts, the Dustiness', I soon met the quartet who had accomplished so much. It was…an exciting experience, to my chief bodyguard Claire's dismay. None of them were anything like the people I'd met before. Even my long time acquaintance Lady Lalatina, or Darkness as she preferred when adventuring, had her hands full managing such colorful personalities.

From the arch wizard Megumin who proved that every story I'd ever heard about the Crimson Demon Clan was Eris' own truth no matter how exaggerated I'd thought them before. To Archpriestess Aqua of the Axis cult, who embodied both the best traits of her sect in her forthrightness and willingness to extend a hand to anyone no matter their station, as well as their worst. And finally, Kazuma Sato, the Adventurer class whom I'd assumed was merely there to support the amazing people around him. But proved to not only be the leader of the group but a man of accomplishments and skill in his own right.

They, and especially he, were like nothing I'd ever seen before, and I am ashamed to say I abused the power I wielded even then to temporarily abduct Kazuma to hear the rest of his stories.

Scandalized as my attendants and staff were at taking in as guest someone of such insignificant birth, I eventually had to send him home. But even then, he worked his apparently one of a kind magic one last time, thwarting a plot that would have placed an imposter in the line of succession. And sealing his place among the people I cherished most.

I awoke at that point, with no idea whatsoever how to interpret what I'd seen. Axel had been gone for years, leveled by the Destroyer, though the Hero Kyouya Mitsurugi had indeed later vanquished it. I knew Lalatina had briefly been an adventurer before she grudgingly married, and had been acting head of her family for years though the Duke was still far from feeble. Arcanretia was a shell of what it had been. The combined efforts of the Axis cult barely enough to purify the once famous hot springs enough to make it livable again, never mind a health resort. The Crimson Demons as a whole had fared better, they seemed impossible to kill off and thank the Goddess for it. Chief Yunyun was shocked to hear I'd even heard of her lost childhood friend when I discreetly inquired about her, though it was easy enough to dissemble as a search for casters of Explosion magic. Likewise, the Adventurer's guild had no records of all of any adventurers registered under the name Aqua ever. Likewise anyone with the full name Kazuma Sato, though several over the years had had one name or the other.

I'd been prepared to write the whole thing off as a grief induced escape from reality, but later that week I received another dream.

This one picked up where the previous one left off, detailing the further accomplishments of the unlikely heroes. From thwarting a disastrous marriage for the heir to the Ducal house of Dustiness. To saving a border fortress on the brink of destruction and turning the tables on General Wolbach in the process. To assisting me in securing Elroad's continued support for the war. Again and again they brought to heel one general after another.

One could almost think the hand of the divine was at work in their, his, success against any sane expectations, but here the proof stood for all to see. And when in desperation the Demon King's field army set out on one last campaign to settle the war once and for all, he and his companions took advantage to set out on a daring mission far into enemy territory. To the fiend's lair itself to bring him down at last. Disposing of one final general on the way for good measure, a trifling affair by that point apparently.

And once again, in spite of all that should have made success impossible, unthinkable, even laughable, they triumphed.

He triumphed.

The Royal Family of Belzerg has long had a tradition that the greatest heroes in the land are offered the chance to wed into the line. After besting the Demon King in single combat, that title belonged to Kazuma Sato both by weight of deeds and general acclaim. And by that time he had gone from a curiosity, to my first and best friend, to my first love. I would have skipped down the aisle if he was at the end of it.

But I was only 13 at the time, and he had someone else besides. Betrothals could have been made and the wedding postponed. The power of the Royal family meant 'arranging' for my supplanting any other claimant would be barely an inconvenience.

I never even considered it.

His intended was a dear friend of mine and sometime party member. Breaking faith with her would have ruined too much between us, even if she might have publicly swallowed her discontent and cheered the union for the good of the realm.

So he married the year after the war ended and did his best to fade into an obscure, quiet retirement with his by then substantial business interests to keep him occupied. And I married for reasons of state a few years later, making it my goal to be content with the life Eris had given me, and called any lingering regrets the price of the peace won at such cost.

I awoke again, this time convinced that either I was truly going mad, as sometimes happened in times such as these. Or that I was in the grip of something far greater than myself.

Hoping against hope for the latter, I tasked the archivists with unearthing anything relevant to the strangers that sometimes appeared among us, usually carrying tools or abilities of immense power. With those results in hand, I summoned the greatest magical adepts in my service and set them one priority for the next three years.

Find the Hero we so desperately needed, and deliver him to his true home.

—

There was a long, long silence from the other side of the door, then I heard a bitter laugh.

"Lady, you're in the wrong business if you're using THAT as an opening pitch for your cult. Do it L Ron Hubbard style, maybe hire a ghostwriter to polish it up, and get it published. You're sitting on a gold mine."

"I'm flattered you approve. But I believe I've stood outside long enough. So unless you would rather discuss why you think 'Holo' is overrated as a waifu, or I demonstrate the Secret Sato Technique for carving a Bamboo Dragonfly, I'd much prefer we continue this indoors."

I was slightly afraid I'd pushed too far there in my excitement. I did have several more tidbits to prove my bona fides if need be, but the man was clearly, rightly, suspicious and evading the town watch here would be a chore. Not to mention a waste of my limited time in this world.

Finally, the lock clicked. The door cracked open, a chain between it and the frame preventing it from opening more than a handspan. And so, I got my first look at what had become an achingly familiar green eye and jawline in one life, and a patch of brown hair I decided I'd like to finally run fingers through at some point in this one.

Flipping back my hood I gave a curtsy befitting my training, and enjoyed his wide eyed surprise at seeing my face for the first time.

He unlatched the door and opened it all the way much more quickly this time, then gestured me inside.