A/N: Don't plan to do these often, but I wanted to say real quick that I am amazed at how quickly chapter 1 of this story took off. While I would like to upload chapters on a schedule, that's not really an option with me working full time, doing college and fitting in mandatory relaxation(video game) time. So I will work on this story as I can and whenever I make a significant amount of progress I will update the counter on my profile.

As for how I plan on handling the issue with Myne since Homura was the one summoned, well I've already got the scene worked out in my head. Now I just gotta get there, which with my current and expected pacing will be the opening of chapter 4.

With that out of the way, enjoy this chapter! Now on to the story!

S-*-*-*-H

Chapter 2 –

Companion?

Homura woke early the next morning as dawn's light filtered into the bed chambers she was taken to last night after the feast for the successful summoning of the four heroes. Sitting up slowly from the incredibly soft bed she looked down at the silk like purple nightgown she had been given by the maid last night. She softly ran her hands over the soft and smooth fabric. Before becoming a magical girl, even while going in and out of hospitals, she was used to living a comfortable life. Her family, while not wealthy, was pretty well off. Well off enough that they could afford her hospital bills, which said enough she guessed once she thought about it. But the treatment that she'd received here as a [Holy Hero] has been beyond anything she's ever experienced before.

Standing and sliding out of bed, she let herself go through some of her usual routines. Stretching and doing a few basic combat exercises that Mami taught her what felt like so long ago to get her body loosened and limbered up. She knew that her and her fellow heroes were supposed to set out on their journeys to get stronger and develop their [Legendary Armaments] to actually be able to save the world. What that entailed exactly, she didn't know. The other three seemed to have a better idea than she did with the games that they played that seemed to have been at least based on this world.

Thinking that gave her a solid starting point for the day. She had spent a good bit of time asking the king some questions about the world they had been summoned in, getting an idea of the region and some of the general politics.

The country they had been summoned to was called Melromarc, and the nearest major countries that bordered them were Faubley, Zeltoble, Siltvelt and Shieldfreeden. Faubley was a world superpower and the place the queen currently was on a diplomatic envoy with leaders of several other countries to discuss the Waves. Zeltoble was a mercenary country that was known as an economic hub, where it was said that a country's worth of gold flowed every day. Siltvelt and Shieldfreeden were similar countries with different cultures, but they were both countries of what she was told were called demi-humans. Demi-humans were people that had animal features, which immediately brought to mind pictures of cat girls to Homura's mind but could also cover people that were more animals than human. Melromarc had also relatively recently resolved a war with Siltvelt roughly two decades ago, where the King had established himself as a Hero of Magic and Warfare, the Wise Sage King.

Turning to frown at her neatly folded [Magical Girl Clothing], Homura made a few considerations. At first it had felt weird physically removing those clothes. She had never even considered doing it, it was always just transforming in or out of them as needed. When she had been summoned here, they had apparently somehow been converted into permanent clothes, probably by the world. The problem was just how much they stood out here in this medieval fantasy style world, and she didn't care to stand out personally, and as a Hero she figured it would be inevitable. But she figured she could at least stand out in a way that wouldn't seem strange to the citizens that called this place home.

Poking her head out of the door, making sure to keep the majority of her body hidden lest someone see her in just a nightgown. As she glanced back and forth, she saw the same maid from last night walking her way. Her brown hair was in a single long French band that went to her waist, her face and body shape were what Homura would call average. Homura figured she was here presumably to see to her as she saw the maid speed up at seeing Homura looking around from behind the door.

"Good morning Lady Akemi. I did not expect to see you awake this early, as I was just on my way to wake you for a bath before the other Heroes awoke." The maid greeted Homura with a fluid bow. Homura smiled at her softly for her consideration.

"Thank you for that. I was actually hoping to catch you, though I did not expect it to happen this quickly." Homura replied. As the maid straightened back up, Homura tilted her head slightly to the side in thought. "Forgive me, I have just realized that I have not asked for your name." Homura pointed out.

"You honor me Lady Akemi. My name is Amelia, and the Wise King was kind enough to grant my request to attend to you for while you are here in the castle." Amelia answered the unasked questions with another smaller bow. Offering her a fluffy, folded bundle that she had been carrying in her arms, Homura took it, letting it unfold to reveal itself to be a bathrobe of some sort. "If you would be kind enough to put that on Lady Akemi, I would be more than glad to show you the bath house for the morning and take your clothes from last night to be washed."

Giving her a nod, Homura put on the provided robe and slippers. The shield made it a bit awkward, since she was unable to completely remove it, she did learn that she could place it on other places on her body. Thankfully, it didn't have a physical strap, holding itself wherever she placed it with magic.

It turns out that she was not that far from the bathhouse, which was similar to Roman style bath houses she had seen in books in her world. Amelia led her towards the changing rooms, taking the nightgown from Homura so that it could be washed and returned. Before she could leave to do that though, Homura stopped her.

"Before you go Miss Amelia, would it be possible to ask for some new clothes? For my fellow heroes as well? I figure that if we are to meet our future companions today, it would be better if we did it in clothes that fit this world better. It does not have to be something extravagant, as it is probable that they'll replace them later today with armor or such, or if not today fairly soon." Homura explained. Amelia looked thoughtful before nodding.

"That should be an easily acceptable request Lady Akemi. I will see to it that the servant assigned to the other heroes delivers some clothes upon your request. And please, you are a Hero, there's no need to call me Miss, simply Amelia is enough for this lowly maid." Amelia answered.

Homura gave her a soft smile, "Thank you Amelia. Will you return soon?"

Amelia nodded, "I will return within a few minutes after I drop these off to be laundered, and I have acquired suitable clothing for you. I will leave them waiting in the changing room for you, and I will wait outside in case someone else comes, as to keep you from being disturbed."

Bowing deeply one more time, holding Homura's nightgown to her chest, Amelia turned and left, her braided brown hair whipping and trailing behind her. Homura watched after her, glad to have met someone with apparently such a kind heart, even if she was only acting that way because she was the [Shield Hero] and not because she was Homura Akemi. It was a nice change of pace from always being seen as the villain by her old friends.

After scrubbing and rinsing off the dirt that had built up from her crash landing on the altar yesterday, the not really there but the feeling of grime from fighting Walpurgisnacht, and the definitely there dried sweat from both sleeping and her morning routine, Homura settled into the bath to soak and let herself relax a bit.

Taking a deep breath, Homura allowed herself a moment to center and calm herself. To think over her situation. 'So, I have managed to somehow end up in another world. As a Hero. What a joke, I am not Sayaka Miki. Why would I want to be a Hero?' Homura sneered to herself before giving out another sigh, forcing herself to relax, not wanting to get worked up again. 'And according to the legends, and apparently left-over records from past heroes, I will be unable to return to my world and save Madoka until this world has been saved. To do that, I am going to have to work with at least three other heroes. These other heroes are nothing more than pretty boy otakus that want to treat this like it's a video game.'

Homura gave out another sigh. Taking several more deep breaths to calm herself back down. 'From the looks of how they were acting and holding their weapons, I doubt they have any actual combat experience. Their knowledge probably begins and ends with "The pointy end goes into the flesh".' Homura mocked out in Kyoko's voice in her head. 'Though I cannot deny that they possibly have information that I can only dream about if their games are even halfway reliable.'

Rubbing her eyes tiredly, she thought back to the previous night, when she was talking with the three heroes before the feast. Motoyasu was a bit of a prick, always calling her "Little Homura", and then making fun of her when she decided to be truthful and admit to being a magical girl. She was trying to be honest and build a good working relationship with the other three. A gut feeling of her's was telling her it was absolutely necessary if she wanted to save Madoka.

With a small flash, she changed her default shield back into the Ribbon Shield. She looked over it intently, a feeling of both intense sadness and longing filling her being. This shield, it reminded her so much of Madoka that it hurt. But it also would serve as a constant reminder of her goal. She knew deep in her heart that Madoka would not want her to fight with her fellow heroes, and that if there was a way she could help out then she would more than gladly do so. It was why she decided to share her ribbon with the others. Even if it was only a few status points and a new skill. It would help, and so help Madoka did.

A soft chime startled Homura out of reverie. She had noticed she was being a lot more emotional than she had been the last several timelines. It was hard to put into words, but it was like everything kept startling her. Like she had become so used to the sameness of repeating the same six weeks for so long, that it was why Sayaka would call her "emotionally dead", because she would watch the same things happen over and over again. It was the same feeling as "this episode again?" While a part of her, the Soldier, was annoyed at the new reemerging emotions, another part, Madoka's Best Friend, was happy about it.

It proved she wasn't emotionally dead like Sayaka called her. It proved she still had something to give Madoka after she saved her if Madoka would accept it. But it was so annoying to have to deal with her annoying senpai.

Shaking her head to clear her thoughts once again, she noticed her [Weapon Book] icon was illuminated. Raising an eyebrow, she opened it and noticed that the flag for her Ribbon Shield was glowing. Opening that window up, she looked it over to see if anything was different.

{ Ribbon Shield

-Abilities Unlocked- Equip Bonus: Defense +3, skill "Bind" }

It took her a moment to realize that she had apparently unlocked the abilities on the shield. Remembering back to what she read last night, did that mean that she now permanently has the bonuses from that shield? Deciding to test it out, she opened her [Status Menu] and looked over her stats. Keeping an eye on them, she changed from her Ribbon Shield back to her starting Small Shield and noticed that her defense start hadn't dropped at all like it did when she first tried the same thing last night.

"So I do not have to actually use my shield in combat to unlock the abilities, I just have to have them equipped for so long." Homura muttered to herself. "Though I think higher rank and quality shields might have a longer time requirement. That would make sense."

Sighing to herself one more time, she decided that she'd been soaking more than long enough and didn't want to leave Amelia waiting too much longer for her. So she stood, letting the hot soothing water run off of her before heading back to the changing room. Homura let out a shiver when the significantly cooler air hit her bare flesh, her eyes zeroing in on a dry fluffy towel next to a neatly folded pile of clothes on a rack. Battle hardened she might consider herself, but a warm fluffy towel is enough to excite anybody.

After thoroughly drying herself, her long hair that she always held with pride especially well, Homura turned her attention to the pile of clothes. Wrapping the towel around herself tightly, she proceeded to sort through the clothes that Amelia had picked out. All of the clothes, while lacking in any sort of ornate decoration, mostly single colored pieces of cloth, the cloth itself was not lacking in quality in comparison to the silk nightgown. Almost like a weird combination of the texture and feel of fine wool with the weight and heft of leather. Clothes that would hold up well to moderate combat.

The clothes themselves consisted of a pair of black stockings, a moderate length purple skirt that looked like it would go to just past her knees and shaped like a flower of some kind, an orchid or a lily she thought, a white long sleeve shirt and a white fur lined cloak that was colored a slightly deeper shade of purple than the almost orchid colored skirt. To complete the entire outfit was a pair of black leather boots that went about halfway up her calf with a simple 3 cm heel. Overall, Homura could tell that the entire outfit was based off of her previous set of clothes, but they definitely felt much more natural to this world. On top of the fact they were of far higher quality than the clothes she was summoned in.

Coming to the decision that the clothes were more than adequate, she got dressed quickly to keep Amelia from waiting too much longer. Then she remembered Madoka's ribbon and that it apparently was an equippable item. While she didn't think it would look as good on her as it did her best friend, she pulled the ribbon out of her shield. Looking at it with an almost longing expression for a moment, she decided to tie it around the top of her head like a hairband, tying it into a bow on the side of her head. As she stepped out of the changing room, clasping the cloak into place, she was amazed at how…heroic, she felt. Not that she would ever admit aloud, especially to Sayaka. She would never admit that there might be something to Sayaka's stupid knight in shining armor fantasy.

"Lady Akemi, I'm glad to see that the clothes I picked fit you so well. Did you enjoy your bath?" Amelia greeted her with a bow as she came into view. Homura fought the urge to flinch at the overly formal treatment, just because she understood why she was being treated that way doesn't mean she had to enjoy it.

"It was very nice, especially with the knowledge it might be my last one of that quality for a while if I am to be setting out on an adventure tonight." Homura answered her. Amelia straightened up at the response and gave her a smile. It was almost like Homura's acknowledgment had made her day. Did her opinion really matter that much to the maid? It only served to make Homura even more uncomfortable though she did her best to keep it from showing.

"I understand. Is there anything you would like to do before the King calls for you heroes? As I understand it, the Lords are currently bathing themselves in a separate bath house, and the King does not plan to call for all the heroes until approximately 10 AM. That leaves roughly three hours if you wish to be in place well beforehand." The maid informed the Shield Hero.

Looking at her thoughtfully, one question came to Homura's mind, "Is there a library?"

S-*-*-*-H

A couple of hours later, Homura was walking down a hallway, following the clear and simple directions given to her by Amelia. All of her actual focus was upon the small book in her hand and the chart she was holding to the book with her thumb. Muttering to herself she slowly worked her way through learning the alphabet of the world she found herself in along with some simple words.

When she first arrived at the library, a small part of her had been ecstatic at the sheer amount of books that she seemingly had at her disposal. But she realized an error in her plans when she picked up and opened her first book and noticed that she couldn't read the language.

Once she had processed that, she thought it made sense. After all, it wasn't uncommon for different countries in her world to have different languages, why would it be any different in another world? But that bought up the question of how was she able to converse with the people here. After having that thought, a notification flag, as Motoyasu had called it, popped up next to her [Help Menu]. Navigating her way to the illuminated option, she opened the window to find out what her shield was telling her.

{ Universal Translation (Human):

[Legendary Armaments] act as a translator for their Users with any human based language. This includes translating the Users words for others and others' words for the user. Only languages made by human and human-like species will be translated. Monster languages, if forming a coherent language, must be learned by the User and therefore will not be translated. }

'Convenient,' Homura had thought at the time. But she was quick enough to realize that it would be a lot more difficult navigating this world if she couldn't read at least the language of the country she was summoned in.

"Amelia," she asked, getting the attention of the maid.

"Yes, Lady Akemi?"

"Pardon me if I come across as rude, but are you literate?" Homura asked.

Tilting her head slightly to the side, Amelia looked at her thoughtfully. "I don't find the question rude. I am not nearly as literate as a noble, but I do know the basics of reading and writing. It helps in my duties as a servant. Why do you ask?"

Letting out a soft sigh, Homura gestured to the book in her hand. "It appears in my haste to read that I did not consider that I do not actually know any languages of this world. It is only by the power of my shield we can converse as it is."

Letting out a small gasp, Amelia bowed and spoke quickly, almost seeming excited to Homura. "I would be honored to teach you what I can. Though you will need to find someone far more literate than I to learn [Magic Script] if you plan to go that far in your studies."

"[Magic script]?" Homura asked, making her way towards a table in the library. Amelia followed dutifully, grabbing some paper, a quill and inkwell as she did.

"Yes, Lady Akemi. Spells and magic in this world are normally learned in one of two ways, by breaking a crystal ball and inhaling the powder, or by reading a grimoire. The prior method is much faster and easier, but from what I've heard, tends to result in a weaker spell. By reading a grimoire, one's understanding of the spell is much more complete, resulting in stronger magic. The downside is that grimoires are written in [Magic Script], which changes based on the person reading it. If the reader's understanding is either lacking or incompatible, then the entire book just seems a jumbled around mess." Amelia explained.

Making a sound of understanding, Homura nodded, at the same time hearing the sound she was starting to associate with a [Status Update], in this case her [Help Menu] updating with the new information. "I understand. I will keep that in mind and look to learning [Magic Script] once I have a better understanding of your language."

After that Homura spent the next couple of hours being taught how to read and pronounce Melromarc's alphabet.

"Well would you look at that Ren? Little Homura's reading a book. Totally seemed the type to spend her free time in the library!" Homura heard a loud exclamation from in front of her. She had apparently reached her destination. Without looking up from her book, she kept walking until she was in the perfect position.

"Guh! GAH!"

Then lashed out with a form perfect side kick, hitting Motoyasu dead center of his solar plexus with her heel, kicking him into the wall. A dull sound like something breaking or glancing off of something else rang out.

Gasping as he fell on to his hands and knees, he struggled to catch his breath.

"Wait a minute…" he managed to gasp out, "That didn't hurt?"

Clicking her teeth softly, she lowered her leg back down to the floor with the grace of long practice, almost as if she did not just kick her senpai into the wall. "Guess that's what an ATK of 1 means." she muttered to herself, casually flipping her hand through her hair, though Ren and Motoyasu heard her. Closing her book, using the character sheet Amelia made for her as a bookmark, she turned to look at Motoyasu. Putting her hands on her hips she leant forward slightly to glare down at him.

"I would appreciate it, Kitamura-senpai, if you would refrain from calling me 'Little' Homura." she spoke clearly, making her point clear.

"Heh." Motoyasu made a small laughing sound as he stood up and smirked at her, like a playful older brother. "Not gonna happen little Homura. You're so much younger than me, not to mention smaller and so cute, so little Homura is little Homura."

Glaring a bit more intently at him only made him laugh more.

"Uh, excuse me Homura, but did you just say an ATK of 1?" Ren decided to cut in. Turning to look at him. Homura took a moment to look over the clothes that were picked out for him.

Ren was now dressed in a pair of light gray pants, a white undershirt under a black pullover with gold fabric lining the edges, instead of a full cloak like what she had he was wearing a simple blue cape, and a pair of black leather boots similar to hers finished the outfit off. The fabric also seemed to be the same heavy heft wool as hers. Overall, it was a decent bit of simple if nice quality clothing.

"Yes Amaki-senpai. According to my stats, I have an ATK of 1 but an STR of 30. So while it appears that I can push Kitamura-senpai around all I want, I am unable to actually harm him." Homura explained.

"That's...interesting." Ren muttered, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "I can see that becoming an issue though. Having your entire damage reduced to essentially nothing…"

"Well...I'm only a bit surprised Ren. She IS a shielder after all. Even if she is cute little Homura." Motoyasu interjected.

Turning to look at him, she finally took the moment to look his clothes over as well. He was wearing black pants, a loose fitting black long sleeve top with a red sleeveless tunic over the top, a cape the same shade of red as his tunic, and the same black boots. Overall, she felt it gave him a fitting "heroic" vibe. "You mentioned something like that last night as well. What do you mean exactly by 'Shielder', Kitamura-senpai?"

Before Motoyasu or Ren could answer, Itsuki came running around the corner. Looking him over, she saw him wearing much more earthy tones: brown pants, light green shirt, brown vest and hooded cloak, and finished off by a pair of brown boots instead of black. "Sorry I'm late. It took me a while to get everything situated." He explained, panting softly from his run.

"It's fine Itsuki. We were just about to explain to Homura about the Shielder class." Motoyasu explained.

"Oh? That's simple then, the Shielder class is useless and Homura should just give up now." Itsuki responded simply.

Homura turned and glared at him angrily, clenching her first tightly. She did not want to admit that he hit several major issues with what might as well have been a sledgehammer. "And what do you mean by that Kawasumi-senpai?"

"The Shielder class was an unpopular and dead class in Dimension Wave. It couldn't do anything besides defend which made it useless for fighting monsters and the few people that would stick with it past the early game would always find their defense lacking to be able to stop attacks from pretty much anything." He answered, smirking. "Completely unlike the bow, which has such a wide variety of long range and AOE skills that let's someone just blow through the game like it's easy mode."

Taking a deep breath, fighting the urge to throttle the boy that was reminding her so much of everything she couldn't stand about Sayaka. She turned to look at the other two heroes. "Do you two agree with him?"

"Well, in a way, I guess. In Emerald Online they were planning to remove the Shielder class entirely, because no matter what they did to try and rebalance it, nobody would play it past the first few missions." Motoyasu answered.

"While not quite as bad, Shielders were almost non-existent in Brave Star Online, but the few we did have would help noticeably in boss battles. But like Itsuki said, for the most part in late game the damage would outpace their defense significantly." Ren answered as well.

Glaring at each of them in turn, Homura gripped the edge of her shield. Taking a deep breath, she let it out very softly before regarding them all coolly. "Well then," she started, "I guess I am just going to have to prove what a True Shielder can do."

The three heroes glanced at each other, before Motoyasu gave Homura another big brother like smile. "Well then, I look forward to little Homura showing us how it's done."

Ren and Itsuki turned to look at Motoyasu with raised eyebrows before Ren shrugged and nodded. "If you can make that class more useful, then please do so Homura. I would hate to have to pull your weight as well."

Itsuki just scoffed and rolled his eyes, obviously doubting that Homura would make any sort of difference.

"Oh yeah, little Homura?" Motoyasu said. "You said you're not really a gamer last night, right?"

Homura regarded him a bit curiously, crossing her arms as she looked him over. "That is right. While I have played the occasional mobile game a few years ago while I was in and out of the hospital, my only experience with the kind of games you boys were talking about last night was through a couple of my...friends. That considered themselves gamers. I picked up a few things just from them arguing back and forth about random things. Why do you ask?"

Motoyasu nodded as if that made perfect sense, which to him it probably did. He didn't strike Homura as the kind to play video games, but she guessed it was a case of looks being deceiving. "Well then, in regard to us getting companions today, it's extra important that you know how to invite them to a party with you!" he exclaimed. "There are a bunch of benefits to being in a party. The biggest is that experience is shared between monsters when one of your party members kills a monster. But there's also support magic that will make your companions stronger! And a bunch of other awesome, useful things like that." he continued on with his explanation. He was reminding Homura of a combination of Mami and Madoka from the earlier timelines. Before she was a veteran. Before she learned more than most Magical Girls. When she was last a kohai.

"That sounds...extremely useful." she responded back to him, a bit put off by his enthusiasm, not quite sure how to deal with it. "How do I go about adding someone to my party?"

"Well it's super easy in this world." Motoyasu began to explain. "In your menu, you should have a symbol that looks like two people side by side. That's your [Party Management] window." Opening her menu, she saw the menu icon he was talking about seemingly glitch into existence. She narrowed her eyes at it, remembering last night.

"In that menu, you can add, remove, leave and set the options for a party you're in charge of." he continued his explanation, unaware of her distracted thoughts. "By selecting the add button, you can send people you focus on a party invite. You'll know they've accepted when they're status pops up in the upper left under your's."

Frowning slightly as she considered his words, she decided to experiment and send him an invite. Smiling wider, he accepted. Homura jerked slightly when suddenly an extra bar appeared under her mini status menu as she had personally been thinking about it. It had a picture of his face, his name, and a green bar that she figured was his health.

"Huh." she made a small sound. "I can definitely see why this would be useful. Thank you, Kitamura-senpai."

Giving her a smirk and a thumbs up, Motoyasu replied. "Anytime little Homura! Glad I could help."

Before the conversation could continue, the king's attendant stuck his head out from the throne room. Seeing the four heroes waiting, he stepped out completely before giving them a small bow.

"It is time, oh great heroes. The king shall see you now and introduce you to your companions." He spoke, gesturing us all into the throne room. As he held the door open and the heroes filed in in the same order they had yesterday. "The heroes enter!" the attendant announced as we did.

Looking up towards the king, Homura saw a dozen people arranged below him. Some appeared to be knights, some looked like classical mages, while others looked like stereotypical adventurers. All of the heroes bowed respectfully to the king before standing straight and settling in to listen to his words.

"As we discussed yesterday, I have called for others to assist you in your journey. Apparently, my call did not go unheeded. Now then, gathered adventurer's, please choose the legendary hero with whom you will travel with." The king announced.

Homura furrowed her brows at him. 'They get to choose? But it would be simple enough to just assign three of them a piece to each of us.' Homura could only watch in slightly stunned disbelief, her anger and frustration building.

Five people stood before Ren.

Four stood in front of Motoyasu.

Three stood before Itsuki.

Turning her glare up towards the king, she noticed he looked uncomfortable. Almost as if he himself hadn't expected this. "I did not anticipate anything like this." Homura heard him mutter.

"She's not very popular, is she?" his attendant muttered back. Before Homura could question them, a man in robes bent down and whispered into the king's ear.

"It would appear," the king began, "that there are rumors about that among the four summoned heroes the shield hero knows the least about this world."

"Is that a problem, your majesty?" Homura questioned him. This was all reminding her of being the last kid picked for anything in elementary school. It annoyed her, having to deal with such childness from grown adults.

"The legends say that the four heroes are summoned with an understanding of our land. People are wondering if you will truly be able to fulfill the conditions set out in the legends." the king explained.

"It seems someone was apparently eavesdropping last night, eh little Homura?" Motoyasu interjected.

Homura ground her teeth in frustration. This was all because she hadn't played some kind of stupid game? A part of her found it strange, more like a convenient excuse than the actual reason. After all, even if that's what the legends said, she was still summoned as a hero. It would make no sense to restrict one of the people tasked with saving the world…

Motoyasu turned to look at Ren and made a bit of a motion towards Homura. "Hey Ren, you've got five followers. Think you could convince one of them to follow little Homura instead?"

Homura watched the five adventurers suddenly huddle behind him, almost as if they were afraid to be sent off with her. Ren meanwhile looked kind of conflicted and scratched the back of his head, perplexed. Letting out a sigh, he glanced towards his party to be. "I'm more of a loner, myself. So if you can't cut it, I'm leaving you behind."

He said it a bit firmly, but the people before him just stood straighter, and saluted him. "Understood, Sir Ren!" they all chimed in response.

Motoyasu made a disgruntled face, before looking towards Itsuki, then turning to his own party. "Since Itsuki has a fair amount of three followers, it wouldn't be fair to ask him." He began, looking between all four relatively beautiful women gathered with him. He made a bit of a face, almost as if he didn't want to give one of them up, but really didn't want to leave Homura alone. "Would any of you lovely ladies be willing to accompany little Homura? If only until she can get some more party members, then I'll be more than willing to welcome you back with open arms if you'd prefer!"

Homura made a bit of a face herself towards Motoyasu. She's had very little experience with people like him. She's barely had experience with people at all, especially since becoming a magical girl. While she appreciated his attempt at helping, it still seemed a bit off. Almost as if he was trying too hard to please everyone.

A moment passed, making the magical girl think that none of them would volunteer, and then a red head with her hair in a ponytail raised her hand. While her hair was nowhere near as long as Kyoko's, only going to her shoulders while up, it was a very similar shade of red, and she left her bangs out to frame the sides of her face, contrasting well with her bright green eyes. Homura couldn't help but to think they looked almost venomous, but she couldn't pinpoint why besides her instincts. As for her clothing, she wore a relatively simple if nice quality purple pencil dress with white shoulder covers, and on top of that she wore simple but again good quality leather armor and boots. Completing the entire adventurer ensemble, she had a simple longsword strapped to her hip. Overall, she looked like a beautiful woman, probably somewhere between 18 and 20 years old.

"Sir Motoyasu, if it pleases you, I could serve with the Shield Hero." the young woman said.

Giving her a bright smile, Motoyasu gave her a thumbs up. "If you're sure, then thank you very much! I hope you two get along."

The king then stood and placed his hands behind his back, looking over everyone gathered. "Are there any others among you that would throw your lot in with Madam Homura?" he questioned.

No one moved a muscle. The king let out a heavy sigh.

"I suppose there is no way around it. Madam Homura, you'll have to recruit others to accompany you while you are traveling. Each month, I will supply all of you with the necessary funds for your journey, though in compensation for today's events, Homura's first payment will be higher than the others."

Homura gave a resolute nod. While she still felt like something was going on that she was unaware of, she couldn't argue that the king's resolution was fair. "Understood, your majesty."

"Now then, heroes," the king continued, "I have set these funds aside for you. Please accept them."

Clapping his hands once, four attendants approached each of the heroes, handing them each a leather bag. All of them made sounds like they were filled with metallic items rattling around loosely, with Homura's being the largest of the four.

"Madam Homura has received 800 pieces of silver to assist with her lack of companions. The other heroes have each received 600 pieces of silver. Please use the funds as you require and began your journey." The king made his final declaration.

"Yes sir!" All of the heroes acknowledged in unison. All of them made their obligatory bow of gratitude before backing out of the chamber with their new parties so introductions could be made.

"Um," the red head began, grabbing Homura's attention, "So it's nice to meet you, Madam Shield Hero. My name is Myne Sophia." Myne introduced herself.

Homura nodded, memorizing the name of her first companion. "Pleasure Miss Myne. My name is Homura Akemi. If we are to work together as a party to help save the world, you may call me Homura."

Remembering her lesson with Motoyasu before they entered the throne room, she navigated her menu and sent Myne a party invite. Myne jerked slightly, probably not having expected the invite so suddenly. Homura figured she'd have to remember to warn people in the future. She was no longer able to work alone, not if her ATK stat stayed at 1. Myne accepted the invite after a moment. Homura nodded slightly once again at seeing that accomplished.

"As I am the Shield Hero, it will be my job to protect you Miss Myne, and it will be yours to kill the monsters." she began. This wasn't an arrangement she was a stranger to, but it had been many dozens of loops since she'd last held the position of [Defender] in combat. Seeing Myne nod at her words, Homura gestured towards the front gate of the castle. "Let us be on our way then, shall we Miss Myne?"

She smiled and nodded before following Homura out of the castle. Homura never noticed her smile turn into a frown and her glare at her back.

S-*-*-*-H

After crossing the drawbridge that separated the castle from the village surrounding it, Homura got her first real glimpse of the village. Cobblestone streets were lined with stone and wooden buildings, many of which were furnished with wooden signs. Many various smells, most of them delicious wafted out of several of the buildings. The streets were filled with merchants advocating their wares to passersby, the laughing of children playing and the grumbling of adults. It was all reinforcing to Homura that she really was in another world.

"What do you think we should do, Miss Myne?" Homura decided to question her party member. While she knew she could just run everything herself, that would not build companionship. Plus, Myne knew far more about the world and adventuring than she did.

"I think it would be wise to try to get some better equipment and armor." Myne suggested. Homura was slightly impressed. Her idea had been similar. On top of that it seemed like Myne wasn't shy and spoke without reservation. Depending on the rest of her personality, Homura figured she could get along well with her, but there was still that doubt in her mind. 'Why does she have such poisonous looking eyes?'

"I was thinking the same thing." Homura responded. "With all the money the king gave us, we should be able to get some good quality equipment." 'Though I doubt with my ATK value, that equipping a sword or any weapon for that matter will actually help.' Homura thought to herself. Glancing at Myne's leather armor, that did give her an idea. Considering all the effort these people had gone through to summon her, she felt that she didn't have any right to try to slack off. Even if she had wanted to.

"Well, I know of a good store if you're ready to go." Myne gestured down a different road that was not much smaller than the one that led up to the castle.

Homura gave a nod. "Please lead the way, Miss Myne."

They walked along the road a good way away from the castle, maybe for about 30 minutes. Homura noticed that Myne walked as if she was skipping. It reminded her of going to the mall with Madoka in the earlier timelines, before she had started to keep her distance from her best friend.

Myne finally slowed her pace and stopped in front of a good size stone building. Over the wooden door hung a large sign in the shape of a sword. "This is the shop I was talking about."

"Impressive," Homura muttered, glancing at the interior through the door. Weapons and armor was displayed in a neat manner all over the store, on shelves and on the wall. From this distance, none of it really seemed to lack in quality.

"Welcome!" the owner greeted the girls from behind the counter as they entered the store. The owner fit the exact kind of image Homura had for a Weapon Shop owner. Tall, thick with muscle, tanned from the heat of the forge, bald and wearing a simple blacksmith apron over just as simple linen clothes. "What can I help you ladies with today?"

"We're here to buy some equipment for me and the Madam Shield Hero here." Myne explained before Homura could answer. Homura turned to look at her intently, slightly annoyed at being cut off, but deciding it wasn't worth starting a fight about it right now.

"This little lass is the [Shield Hero]?! Ha! Now that's a good one if I've heard one! She looks like a stiff breeze will knock her down!" the old man exclaimed. Homura turned her glare on to him. But she held back her initial wave of snark because the look in his eyes told her that he was mostly joking. He seemed like a good man, if only one that couldn't keep his rude jokes to himself.

"Listen up here, shield lass," he began, Homura bristling almost like an angry cat at yet another new nickname, "If you don't get yourself some decent equipment, the other adventurer's will wipe the floor with you. Especially since it seems you drew the short stick."

Homura let out a huff, before tossing her hair over her shoulder dismissively. "We shall see about that." She kind of liked the old blacksmith. He seemed honest, if gruff. "I am the Shield Hero, Homura Akemi. I expect for things to get rough from here on, and my companion recommended your shop. So please treat me well." She introduced herself with a small bow.

Scratching the back of his bald head with his large, heavily calloused hands, he looked Homura up and down appraisingly. "Miss Homura, was it? Well then, here's to hoping that you become a regular of sorts around here. While I don't normally stock gear for smaller, younger folk, I'm pretty sure I got some stuff you can use. Let's see what we can do. Though, it would help if I knew what your budget was like."

Homura made a sound of understanding before turning to look at Myne. "What do you think Miss Myne? I don't have a good understanding of the money system in this world yet."

Myne tilted her head to the side, looking like she was doing some mental math. "Well, I think maybe 300 silver or so should work to get us started." She answered after a moment. Homura furrowed her brows at that response. 'That's almost half of our funds. I understand that proper gear is important but is it seriously that much just to get started.'

After a moment of thought, Homura turned and looked back at the blacksmith. "We will go with 150 silvers a piece for some armor. Myne already has a sword for now, so she should be fine for a while. I might spend a bit on an affordable starter sword depending on how much they are with our remaining budget."

Rubbing his chin thoughtfully, he suddenly stopped and snapped his fingers. "I think I got something you can use in the back. Why don't you and your friend take a look around, see if you girls can't find her some armor she likes on the floor?"

The two girls nodded at his words, turning away to wonder around the shop. Once both Homura and the blacksmith turned their backs to her, Myne let out a small scowl but taking a small deep breath and heading towards the armor section. Homura had made her way towards the short swords.

While she wouldn't consider herself a proficienado, Homura had developed an eye for weapons over her many repeats. Stealing from the yakuza, JSDF and police had given her experience at looking over weapons for the quality of both materials and craftsmenship. While her main weapon of choice had been firearms and ordinance, she did keep swords and other melee weapons for when they would come in handy and had likewise developed at least basic profficiency with them.

All of that experience told her that even the swords made from cheaper materials had excellent, she would almost say materful, craftsmanship. Looking some of them over, she noticed that some of them looked to be made of the exact same materials but had a faint shimmering shine over the blades. Her senses said it was some kind of magic, but it was magic that she had never encountered.

Homura cast her eyes around her immediate area, looking for a sign that warned against handling merchandise that was so common back in her world. When she didn't see one, she reached out to grab one of the more affordable looking display models. However, as her fingers touched the hilt a strong shock sparked around her fingers and the blade, making her jerk her fingers away. At the same instant, she received a pop up in the style she was becoming used to, what was different however was this one had text that was bright red.

{ WARNING : Legendary Armament Contract Violation! Contact was made with an unauthorized weapon class with the intent of combat.

Users may only wield weapons of their assigned class for the purposes of combat. }

Homura narrowed her eyes at the new message. 'That...complicates...matters. Significantly.' the magical girl was far from amused. Turning her glare to the shield she found stuck upon her arm, she tilted it so she could focus on the green jewel. 'An ATK of 1. Complete inability to use a different weapon. My time magic, sealed. This world...it summoned me to protect it, and then takes away almost the entirety of my combat power. Wait…. protect….'

That word, yet again.

'Protect this world from the [Waves of Destruction]!' the King's words.

'I wish to redo my meeting with Madoka! But this time, I want to be the one protecting her!' her wish.

'I will find a way to save Madoka! I will find a way to save(protect) everyone if it means spiting that rat!' her desire.

Homura took a deep breath and let it out, doing her best to release her anger and frustration as she does. 'I understand now. The shield is a Weapon of Protection, not Attacking. My purpose in this world is not to Fight the Waves, no that job belongs to the boys. My job is to Protect the World from the Waves.' Homura watched the Shield's Jewel glow softly before dimming, seemingly confirming her words. She scowled, 'Why can I never receive the easy jobs? Kill Madoka to keep her from turning into a Witch? Keep her from becoming a magical girl? Now this."

Lowering her shield arm back to her side, she let out a sigh. She'd find a way to make it work. Like she has always worked towards. That just meant she HAD to trust someone to fight for her. If she was to be the Shield, then she would need a Sword. Turning around to look for Myne, she noticed her eyeing up an awfully expensive looking piece of...rather slim looking armor. It looked more decorative than functional, while still trying to be somewhat useful. Homura's scowl deepened farther. Somewhere in her heart, she did not feel like Myne would be able or willing to take up the role. But she'll reserve her judgement for now.

Before she could make her way towards her party member, she saw the blacksmith stepping back into the shop proper, so she changed her direction. As she approached, she saw what looked like pieces of armor under a black cloth on the bar of the shop.

"Ah, shield lass! Perfect, I was just about to call for you. These look to be around the right size for you, with maybe a little adjustment." He announced cheerfully. With a cheerful flourish, he pulled the cover off of the pieces. On the counter sat a set of armor that looked similar to what Myne was looking at, but a bit more substantial. There was a breastplate that didn't cover all the way down the belly, but didn't expose the chest at all really like the one Myne had been looking at, some simple pauldrons to cover the shoulders, a pair of leather gloves with a metal plate on the back and a pair of shin guards that looked like they could be attached over her boots.

"I figured you might be the kind to value agility over absorbing even more damage. Plus these should work well with them fancy clothes you're wearing already, which look to be made of griffon hide. So with this [Air-Wake Steel Half-Plate Armor] and your fancy clothes, you should be set on armor for a while, maybe even until level 40!" he explained.

Homura looked down in slight shock at her current pair of clothes. She was wearing clothes made from the hides of actual griffons? She knew this was a fantasy-esque world, but griffons? Not only that, she didn't imagine that griffon hide was cheap. That made her realize she never actually checked their status, nor the status of the armor the blacksmith was presenting. So she decided to check them both.

{ Homura Akemi

Class: Shield Hero LV 1

Equipment: [Small Shield] (legendary armament)

[Madoka's Ribbon] Equip Bonus: Magic Defense Up (small)

[Griffon Hide Fairy Dress] Equip Bonus: Fire Resist Up (medium), Wind Resist Up (medium), Defense Up (small), Magic Resist Up (small), Night Vision Up (small) }

{ [Steel Half-Plate Armor]

Equip Bonus: Air Wake, Defense Up, Slice Resist Up (small) }

'Fairy Dress? Really? And what is this [Air Wake]?' Homura thought to herself. "Pardon me, Mister Blacksmith, but what is this [Air Wake]?" she asked aloud, "And I apologize for my rudeness, but my I also get your name?"

The big blacksmith gave a loud booming laugh. "Not a problem at all lass, the name's Erhard, best blacksmith in Castle Town! As far as what [Air Wake] is, it's a special smelting process that creates an alloy with a special kind of magic ore that reduces the weight of the armor down to as little as 5% of the weight it would be." he explained, smirking at the look of shock on her face. "I know, it's extremely useful, but obviously more expensive. Though since that piece has been sitting in the back of my shop for a while after the family that commissioned it died on the road and never picked it up, it used less materials than it otherwise would've since it's for a small person like yourself, I can afford to give it away for 150 silver. At that price, I'm practically giving it away!"

Homura looked at it with slightly conflicting feelings. But she could understand where he was coming from. Stock sitting around wasn't making a profit after all and was taking up space for other things that could be making him profit. She also found that [Air Wake] feature to be amazing. That would mean despite wearing what should be an easy 10 kilos (22 lbs) of steel, she'd only be wearing what was effectively only a half kilo (1lb) of armor. She could barely begin to imagine what it should cost in full.

"Excuse me Mister Blacksmith!" Myne called from behind her, interrupting their conversation. "How much would this beautiful armor cost?"

Erhard looked over Homura to see what Myne was asking about, Homura herself turning around to see herself. Turns out it was an even skimpier version of what she had been looking at earlier, plus it looked to be made from something shiny and high quality, almost like silver. "Ah, that thing." Erhard made a bit of a face, almost like he was ashamed that thing was in his shop.

"That's more of decorative armor for court ladies who want to accompany their intended on a hunting trip and just look good rather than being functional. Hardly fitting for the companion of a hero, don't you think?" Homura could understand exactly where he was coming from. She agreed completely.

"I am sorry Miss Myne, but I am going to have to say no to that 'armor' myself." the young girl said, giving the not really armor a scathing look. "It does not fit with the image of a hero. While I would normally not be one to care, but as the youngest of the four heroes I have to take extra care to present myself properly. Otherwise it will only cause more issues that I would prefer to not deal with."

For the first time, Myne openly made a disgruntled face at the younger girl. "But Madam Shield Hero," she began to argue, "if you're to be there to protect me from damage, then what does it matter how effective the armor is or not?"

Homura turned fully and crossed her arms as she looked intently at her party member. Not quite glaring, but close. "I believe you are missing my point Miss Myne. It is not appropriate appearance wise for a member of a hero's party. Plus, while I intend to protect you from everything I can, I do not doubt that there will be times that I cannot do so. I would like for you to be able to handle yourself as well as possible in the case I am not around or otherwise occupied." Glancing at the price tag that was listed with the armor, it took her a moment to put the characters to numbers from this morning, but when she did, she knew it was even more out of the question. "Plus, the price on that armor, even if you haggled it down by half, is still way over our budget. By itself, it would take most of our current funds. Absolutely out of the question. You may either stick with your leather armor, buy some kind of half plate armor as I have or some chain, or you may leave my party entirely Miss Myne. While I would hate to have you leave on the first day, I would rather find someone I can work with reliably. So far, you are not fitting that idea."

The two young women had a small standoff in front of the older blacksmith. For a moment he thought that they might come to blows. He was no stranger to that happening when party members wanted to spend over budget and couldn't agree on a compromise. Finally, the red head let out a huff. "Very well, Madam Shield Hero. I will stick with my current armor for now. However, I must ask, are you intending to buy a sword?"

Homura relaxed her muscles slightly, knowing that a fight had been avoided for now. "There is no point. When I tried to pick up a sword moments before Mister Erhard came back from the back, the shield shocked me and provided me with the notice that I cannot wield any weapons besides my shield. I figure the other heroes will have the same limitation with their weapons."

Myne made a shocked expression at the hero's statement, even as the hero turned to the blacksmith. "Do you have a changing room where I may put on the armor to make sure it fits? And while I do that, can you retrieve for me a hunting knife? While I cannot use it to fight, I do not believe my shield would argue about me disassembling corpses." After being pointed out to the dressing room, Homura grabbed her new armor off the counter and proceeded to get dressed. She was expecting it to be a long afternoon if Myne was going to continue to be...difficult.