Alternate CH16: If Malty Was Confronted Sooner
Spoilers for CH16, you should read the main fanfic.
"Tensions are high and tonight it's going to break."
Misato wordlessly walks out of the store. Facing everyone else.
"Misato, this plan is reckless." Dawn says.
"I know… But how many more people will suffer under Malty? The Queen's shadows can't do all the damage control and we don't know how many victims there are. Malty needs to be stopped now. Besides, getting Malty out of the picture saves everyone a headache. Sure the King will whine but our chances to change his mind might be better without his favorite devilish daughter on his shoulder."
Dawn and Dusk pause, staring at each other, until the male Shadow finally speaks up. "Very well, we will do our best to assist you."
"I'm really sorry for not rescuing you sooner Rino-chan…" Motoyasu says mournfully. The mage girl nods.
"I'm just glad you saved me…" Rino says, she looks down and realizes her hand is clenching Motoyasu's cape tightly. Embarrassed by her own action, she lets go.
Motoyasu smiles, unaware of the Mage's subconscious behavior. "Next time a girl screams for help, I'll check even if it's a brothel. Can't be too careful with situations like that." Motoyasu winces.
"What are you going to do with Princess Malty, after what she just did to me?" Rino asks bluntly.
The Spear Hero flinches. "U-uh, we'll talk to her." He looks at Rino's staff. "How's the new staff?" He asks, quickly moving the subject.
Rino's eyes narrow, she clenches her staff hard. Motoyasu nervously smiles at her.
"The Heroes are delusional…" Misato's voice echoes within Rino's mind.
The memory of her conversation with Misato makes Rino's lips curl down, lessening her grip on the new staff. She looks at Motoyasu with sadness, but then gives him a fake happy smile as best she could. "It's good, a lot better than my old one."
"Good." Motoyasu smiles, his mood leaping up to the night sky.
"Before he became the Spear Hero, he was just a decent guy, a commoner, a nobody, in his world. Now he's in a world where he thinks it's a fairytale book. Like a paradise for him after death." Misato's words echo in the Mage's mind as she watches the Spear-no, the man from behind. She feels sad for Motoyasu.
"Lord Motoyasu~!" Rino gasps, hearing the disgusting obviously fake sweet voice again. She looks up the stone path, seeing her, along with Elena and Lesty. She grips her staff, partially ready to launch a spell or even hit that bitch with her staff. The trio of bitches approach the spear hero with smiles, which now seems incredibly fake to Rino. How did she not notice this before?
"And who is with you- R-rino?!" Malty gasps, judging by her and those other lazy bitches reactions, they are completely surprised by the Mage's appearance.
"Surprised to see me after selling me to slavery?" Rino growls.
"Myne, can you please explain what happened to Rino? She says y-you sold her to slavery." Motoyasu asks.
Malty acts heartbroken "I don't know what you are talking about, Rino left the party-"
"Because YOU knocked me out!" Rino screeches "Stop lying you BITCH!"
"Rino!" Motoyasu yelps, surprised by the small Mage's venomous words.
"How could you say that? I was nice to you!" Malty lies, again…
"I know what I SAW. You smiled at me as I was branded with the slave seal and got painfully burned from it!" Rino growls. She can never forget it, the sight of that woman smirking when Rino felt the seal burn her skin!
"Myne, is that true?" Motoyasu questions.
"No I didn't!" Malty denies, turning to Elena and Lesty "Right?"
"Myne is telling the truth." Lesty says and Elena silently nods.
"Then what could it be…" The Spear Hero ponders
"Aha!" Malty gasps, acting like she discovered something revolutionary. "It was the Shield Demon! He did this to Rino!"
"WHAT?! He wasn't there!" Rino argues.
"You poor girl" Malty says with a false look of sadness, taking a few steps forward but the Mage steps back raising her new staff like a spear, pointing it at the liar. "The Shield Demon must have brainwash to make her see me instead of him selling her!" She exclaims pointing at Rino.
"Why would the Shield Hero even be there?!" The Mage counterpoints.
"The Shield Demon must have done it because she was with you Lord Motoyasu!" Malty says, clinging onto the conflicted Spear Hero's arm, squeezing his arm between her breasts. "He hates you, remember?"
To Rino's shock, Motoyasu nods in agreement with HER?!
"Damn that bastard…" Motoyasu growls, clenching his fist and Malty smiles. To Rino, Malty's smile was the most evil expression she has ever witnessed.
"I KNOW WHAT I SAW!" Rino yells, yanking Motoyasu away from the bitch. "You can't seriously think that's true so quickly after what I said as well! It doesn't make sense!" Rino argues, trying to pierce the logic through the Spear Hero's mind.
"B-but it does make some sense." Motoyasu replies, his eyes shifting back and away from Rino. She notices the Spear Hero looks… Conflicted, and scared?
"Don't worry~!" Malty interjects, grabbing both Rino's hands, nearly crushing the Mage's hands.
"Let go of me!" Rino screeches, trying to free herself from the bitch's grasp but the level gap was too much, as Malty was in Motoyasu's party for a long time, benefiting from stat boosts and quick level ups.
Motoyasu frowns, looking at Rino with concern, "Myne what are you-"
"Don't worry Lord Motoyasu!" Malty assures with a fake smile. "The Church will help her from the Shield Demon's brainwash-"
Bang!
Malty's head whips to the side as a thunder-like sound echoes in the area. She lets go of Rino and stumbles to the side, grabbing the side of her head in pain.
Rino turns towards the other direction, where Malty was shot from. Seeing Misato, the man who helped rescue her, with his strange 'L' shaped weapon which has some smoke coming out of it.
She looks at Misato's face and flinches in fear, he looks so much more angry than he was when Motoyasu first denied Malty's terrible deed.
That's it.
Misato has had enough.
This is the last straw.
Everything Malty has done up to now has proven something to Misato.
That Malty is exactly like the disgusting, horrible, narcissistic, selfish, lying, backstabbing BITCH he knows!
Dawn, Dusk and even Matilda may argue about this but it's the only way.
Right now, Malty must not get away-No she is NOT getting away! She is never getting the chance to screw everything up later on!
NEVER!
The Princess groans as a orange rubber bullet bounces on the stone ground and looks at Misato in confusion "Wha-"
Bang!
Malty's head whips backwards from the second shot, followed by several more rubber bullets hitting her entire body.
Bangbangbangbang!
bangbangbangbang!
Misato held the Colt pistol with one hand and the other hand with his pointer finger pushing the trigger. He moves both hands quickly, rapidly firing the gun at Malty. Releasing his rage and frustration on the most infuriating woman in existence.
BangBangBangBang!-Click!
clickclickclick!
Reload!
Realizing his weapon stopped firing, Misato growls like a wolf, sprinting towards the stunned Princess, with bloodlust practically oozing out of his body.
"Fuck…" Misato growls, leaping towards Malty, and mid-air he raises both his feet in front of his body.
"YOUUUUU!" Misato roars, kicking both feet right onto Malty's FACE!
The dropkick launches the Princess to slam head first into the stone wall behind her.
The Gun Hero lands into a push up like position, he looks behind seeing Malty unconscious from the blow, her damn mouth is finally silenced. A sense of relief and satisfaction fills his body.
But part of Misato still felt unsatisfied, since he had to hold back to not kill the bitch. Perhaps if he was at a lower level, he could have kicked her with all his might without any worry of killing her, unfortunately he needs these levels and he is certainly not done with her yet.
"Misato you bastard!" Motoyasu yells, thrusting his spear, trying to stab Misato.
Misato pushes himself off the ground, leaping over the Spear and up to Motoyasu's chest height. Mid-air, he raises the Chimera Goat Revolver at the Spear Hero and fires. The shell sized rubber bullet hits Motoyasu hard, the incredible knock back force causes him to roll backwards over his head and slam to the ground on his stomach.
At the same time, the recoil of the new gun pushes Misato back, spinning him in the air, he falls down rolling on the ground and using the momentum of the roll, he quickly stands up on his feet.
Lesty takes a breath and opens her mouth to scream but Rino smacks her staff into the girl's stomach, knocking out Lesty's air for a few seconds. Allowing Misato to reload and fire a rubber bullet into her skull and Elena's. Both of them groan at the hit, then Rifana and Keel leap in, knocking the two girls out by slamming their weapons on top of their heads.
Motoyasu stands up. "Elena, Lesty no!" he yells and looks at Misato, who has his gun raised. "Damn you!" Motoyasu roars, stabbing his spear at Misato, who dodges the attack with ease.
Since they were summoned, Motoyasu spent all his time with his weapon, trying to show off and look good.
Meanwhile Misato spent his time with his weapon, trying to master the Gun, and was forced to learn combat in ALL ranges thanks to Fitoria.
Motoyasu arrogantly relied on 4 methods of strength.
While Misato accepted new information, using MORE than 4 methods of strength.
Each of their actions have led to making the power and skill gap between Misato and Motoyasu MILES apart.
"I thought you were a good guy for helping Rino, what the hell does Fia-chan see in you!?" The Spear Hero yells, trying to land a hit but couldn't as Misato is so much faster than anything he faced before. "How is he so fast?!"
"Someone who isn't a naive idiot that listens to a liar just because they look pretty!" Misato retorts, no longer caring about trying to reason with the worst hero.
Motoyasu eyes widen and he glares at the Gun hero, the tip of his spear glows.
"Chaos-"
Before the skill activates, Misato copies Fitoria by grabbing the shaft right below the head of the spear and rotates his body to the side.
"-Spear!"
The Spear violently shakes under his grasp as the attack only hits the stone ground and wall harmlessly.
Misato then pulls, bringing Motoyasu up close, letting go of the spear, and uses the same hand to backhand Motoyasu's face.
The Spear Hero coughs from the hit, stumbling back but Misato grabs his arm, which is holding the Spear, and punches his nose. Misato then punches Motoyasu's cheek, knocking the blonde's head to the side and then immediately back hands him again, making Motoyasu face forward.
"You…"
Misato mutters, uppercutting Motoyasu, rattling his brain.
"Are…"
Misato knees Motoyasu in the groin. The pain sends a tingling wave through the lower half of his body.
"A fucking…"
Misato grabs Motoyasu's ponytail.
"COWARD!"
Misato roars, slamming Motoyasu's head into his steel plated knee pad knocking Motoyasu unconscious.
The Gun Hero breathes in and out, observing the unconscious hero. He turns to see Malty, Lesty and Elena tied up thanks to Rifana, Keel and Rino.
Malty is heavily bruised, most of her face is purple with a large red boot mark. Lesty and Elena's head had bruises from the Demi-girl duo knocking them out.
A familiar Shadow appears. "Dawn, Sir Itsuki, Lady Matilda and Sadeena are distracting our enemies but a Cult Shadow got away. We must move now!" Dusk says with urgency.
Misato nods, facing Keel. "Call him." He says.
The wolf girl nods and whistles.
Ace appears, pulling a wagon. "Ready to go Big Bro! We finally got the bad guys!" He says glee.
Misato shakes his head "It's not over yet. Now we need to escape."
Ace resists the temptation to run with all his might out of the town, as his big brother said they would only make everyone alerted by the noise. But it's hard as Ace knows the bad woman is in Ace's wagon, Misato said if they get out, then the bad woman will not hurt anyone again like she did to Rino, and like she tried to do with those nice people at that village.
But Ace must not run, not yet, not when they are in a place filled with bad people and good people that are confused on who's a bad guy.
However, Ace feels something bad is happening around the town. He doesn't exactly know why. His instincts tell him he should run and get everyone out. "Big Bro…" Ace mutters.
"Yes Ace?" Misato says.
"Ace feels something is wrong…"
"Bad guys are near?"
"No, but Ace thinks we should run now."
Misato eyes narrow, looking up ahead, seeing the gate and shakes his head. "We're close but at this distance you're not fast enough to get all of us through before the gate shuts, maybe we'll run when we get close."
"Ok…" Ace says with uncertainty.
Ace pulls the wagon in a somewhat brief pace, equivalent to speed walking, closer and closer to the gate. Misato crawls back inside the wagon in case guards are informed of his appearance, so Matilda instead, takes the front seat.
The guard in front of the gateway raises his hand, motioning Ace to stop.
Sensing the guard's neutral intentions the Filolial calms himself, and slows down, trying to look natural.
"Kind of late in the evening to leave Castle Town Miss." The guard says to Matilda.
"Well-"
"Lock down! Shut the gate!" A knight says running down the street. "Princess Malty and the Spear Hero is missing!"
The iron gate immediately falls, blocking their path.
A guard nearby points at Ace "That Filolial has red and black feathers like that demi-human boy-Gah!" A blunt arrow hits the guard's head, knocking him unconscious.
"Its-AHH" A guard yells as a large gun is thrown at him and another guard, hitting both their heads.
The knight stops running, drawing his sword, opening his mouth to roar but a hand with some wet cloth covers his mouth, and in response he instinctively breathes. The knight passes out from the sleep potion soaked cloth. A Shadow stands from the unconscious man, walking towards the wagon.
Misato, his team and Itsuki's team hop out of the wagon, each holding Motoyasu's party. All of them are wearing disguises to hide obvious traits, especially Itsuki.
Ace takes Lesty and Elena into his wings. Misato takes Motoyasu and Itsuki grabs Malty.
"Let's get out of here" Misato says, firing his grappling gun over the Town wall. Itsuki does the same with his rope arrow.
The hook and the arrow flies well above the wall but the projectiles suddenly bounces off of nothing, like they hit an invisible wall.
"Shit they activated the magic barrier already?!" Misato whisper-yells.
"Well considering how blind the King's love for his family is, it makes sense he would make the entire castle and town go on a major lock down for his daughter." Itsuki deduces.
"Over there! Check that wagon!" A soldier yells in front of the platoon running right towards them.
"Get back in the wagon!" Misato commands, tossing Motoyasu into the wagon like a bag of potatoes. Itsuki and Ace do the same, tossing the girls.
Ace then books it, pulling the wagon. Everyone inside the transport yells in response to the sudden movement.
The filolial turns the corner, and gasps "Uh oh!" He says, seeing a spike barricade in his path.
"They already got spike barricades out?!" Rifana yells as Ace takes another turn.
Misato sees his Gun is alerting him, telling him that someone is trying to call him through a crystal ball. He answers the call, seeing a Shadow on the screen.
"They are starting to surround us! Quickly cover yourselves and head north east!" Dawn says through the projection.
The Gun Hero nods "Right." He turns off the projection, moving to the back of the wagon.
Matilda looks up ahead, seeing a stable nearby. "Turn left to those stables!" She says.
"Okay!" Ace responds, following Matilda's command. The Wagon hits a large bump, Misato leans too far out of the transport but Rifana and Keel grab his jacket, pulling him inside.
"Thanks." Misato says, leaning up he raises his hand, and it glows with golden light. "I am the one who commands the origin of power. I have read and deciphered the laws of nature. Encompass us in dark clouds! Smoke Screen!" Misato casts the fire and darkness spell, and a stream of smoke covers them and their surroundings, blinding the chasing guards and soldiers.
"I can't see anything through this smoke!" A guard yells coughing.
The guards outside of the smoke wait in anticipation.
The filolial pulling the wagon pushes through the smoke from the side.
"After them!" A knight commanded, before chasing the wagon with their horse.
They ride past several buildings, a mage up ahead raises her staff, charging up a spell, she fires and hits the wagon's wheel, causing the Filolial to stop as the wagon suddenly crashes into the ground. The filolial breathes heavily, laying down on the ground, still attached to the wagon.
The knights and soldiers quickly surround the transport and filolial, cutting off any pathways to run through. They slowly approach the wagon.
"We have you now scum!" The leading knight says, removing the cloth. Only to find it completely empty.
"W-what?" A guard stutters.
"Wait, is it just me or is that filolial seem to have red feathers only?" Another guard points out, the filolial's feathers are much brighter, and are purely red.
The leading knight gasps, recalling that smoke appeared when the filolial went to the stables.
"Quickly back to the stables!"
The Gun, Bow team along with the unconscious Spear team take refuge inside one of the Shadow hideouts stationed in Castle Town. Since the lockdown procedure is active, they must wait for the moment the Mages casting the spell reach their limit and then leave Castle Town to continue with their plan to break Motoyasu's delusions.
They can't do it in the hideout as it's designed to look like a normal home and while their prisoners are in the basement, it's not sound proof, they can't interrogate Malty in there or all of Melomarc will come in breaking the door because that bitch has a pair of lungs.
Ace sits near the front door, keeping an eye out for guards or anyone with malicious intention in the area. The others were resting and some were prepping for more encounters.
Meanwhile, the Gun Hero and the Female Shadow went to the small kitchen. The Shadow gets the drinks, as she knows what is non lethal to drink. The Gun Hero grabs the meat from his inventory to cook on the stove.
"Sir Misato… You have been very reckless" Dawn says.
"How so?" Misato 'asks'
"No doubt our foes will point the blame on to you now, especially the amount of people hearing your voice when you took down Malty and the Spear Hero. The King will leap to the conclusion quickly."
"Can't the Shadows watching the King explain that Malty is with his wife's loyal spies and assassins?"
"When our Mistress's allies confronted him, I personally have seen our foolish King claim that his intentions are his wife's before threatening them." Dawn replies, while her voice was monotonous, Misato could tell there was a hint of dryness.
"What's the Queen's plan then?"
"You'll have the honor of officially becoming the Crowned Princess's bodyguard. If you lay low, we can make up an alibi saying you were with the Princess."
"A bodyguard for Princess Melty… Doesn't sound so bad, she and Ace could play." Misato points out.
"That is true." Dawn agrees. "However, the Royal Degree will be more effective IF you low if and when Princess Melty returns to reprimand the King.:
"I will lay low until I have broken the Sword Hero's delusions, he shouldn't be as difficult as Moron-yasu over there." Misato nods his head towards their unconscious prisoners.
"This is very risky." Dawn says, putting the drinks down. "There's only so much the Queen can do for you."
"A lot of assholes are doing risky things at the price of the world. The Church is willing to risk the world to make themselves 'right'. Malty is doing whatever she wants without any care. If we want to effectively take down the Waves, we need to form bonds between the Heroes, and people like Malty and the Pope are in the way of that." Misato says, raising his voice. "Besides, all of the shit I might take can be cleaned up, Heroes dying or never trusting each other ever? That is a mess beyond anyone's capability to fix."
"The church will most likely panic and become desperate. A cornered rat is still dangerous."
"I know but at least it only makes them look worse and the sooner the Church reveals their true colors, the sooner we can kick their asses out, the more time we can focus on the unity of the Heroes."
"There is another reason why you wish to unite the Heroes as soon as possible isn't there." Dawn states. "It's why you have taken reckless actions recently…"
Misato pauses, moving the pan from the stove and faces the Shadow's general eye area. The two stare at each other for a whole minute.
The Gun Hero breaks contact first. "Yes… But the information is incredibly dangerously sensitive that I rather the Queen hear it in person in a VERY secure area, and she's already got a lot on her plate doesn't she?"
"Correct."
"I'd rather explain it to her when most of our messes are dealt with, I don't want her mind to explode from stress adding the stuff into the pile."
"I see." Dawn mutters. "How thoughtful of you, no wonder why you are one of the Seven Star Heroes…" She teases. Misato rolls his eyes and faces away from the Shadow, hiding his smirk.
Everyone eats dinner and rest. Sleeping in rotations.
Ace lays on the bed, his body twitches, and he gasps, waking up. "Bad guys!" He yells.
"What! Where?" Misato says.
"Downstairs!" Ace says and they both sprint down to the basement. Everyone else wakes up, shaking off their fatigue and follows the two.
Misato sprints towards the corner that leads to the basement stairs, "Duck!" Ace yells and Misato slides. Dodging a cloaked figure leaping over him with a knife. Ace transforms into his Adult Filolial form, kicking the assassin. "Bad Shadows are here!"
The Gun Hero leaps down the stairs and lands rolling. He recovers, resting on one knee, raising the Chimera Viper Pistol. He sees a Shadow near the prisoners. He fires the viper fang, hitting the Shadow in the throat. The Church Shadow stumbles from hit, gurgling. Misato fires the second fang, finishing off the Shadow.
BOOM!
Misato flies into the wall from the explosion, he groans from the hit and the heat he felt from the blast nearly burning his skin were it not for the fire resistant jacket. Ace runs over to Misato.
"Are you okay?!" Ace asks and Misato gives him a weak thumbs up.
Dusk and Dawn leaps into the basement, observing the area. "They caved in both tunnels. Hideout Nine and Seven must be compromised if they came from those tunnels!" Dusk exclaims.
"Where do we go?" Sadeena asks, gripping her trident.
"There is hideout Two. It's the closest hideout but it's still very far from here, we have to run in the streets again immediately." Dawn says, grabbing the prisoners. She uses a syringe filled with sleep potion to put Motoyasu's party back to sleep.
The group walked upstairs, only to hear loud thumping from the single door in the house.
"Open this door, we know you are hiding the Spear Hero and the Princess there!" A man yells.
Ace immediately slams his body into the door, holding it.
"What do we do?!" Keel yells, running over to a shelf with Rifana, pushing it to help Ace hold the door.
The soldiers outside are slamming against it. "Get a battering ram!" A woman outside yells.
A window shatters but the guard behind it gets hit by a blunt arrow and a blast of webbing covers the window immediately after.
"Web shot!" Misato yells, covering every window.
"Dawn, Dusk, are there any other ways to escape?" Rifana asks, grunting from the door taking hits.
"No, we might have to force our way out to reach the next hideout!" Dusk answers
"Or we might have to teleport out of the place without our prisoners…" Dawn says
"No, we've gone too far to quit here!" Itsuki yells, moving his hand on his screen. "If I can just get Motoyasu's party into mine, I can teleport us ALL out of here!"
"Should I wake him up?" Rino asks. Since invitations likely only work if the person receiving it is aware.
Sadeena shakes her head. "The Spear Hero would only make things worse." She says with a frown. Misato sighs in agreement.
The Bow Hero raises his eyebrow in confusion. "What the hell?"
"What is it?" Misato asks.
"The invitation was declined, not timed out, Motoyasu is unconscious right?"
The Gun Hero turns, poking Motoyasu, Dawn opens his eyelid and closes it, nothing happens.
"He is unconscious." Dawn confirms.
"So is the bitch and the others." Rino confirms and Misato frowns at the answer, thinking.
If Motoyasu and the others are unconscious, then who declined? Misato then looks at the Spear in Motoyasu's hands, noticing the red gem is glowing.
Could it be?
The Gun Hero grabs the spear. "Hey Spear, accept the invitation to the Bow Hero!"
Itsuki sends the invite and groans "I got declined immediately!"
"Keep trying!" Misato says, and faces the Spear's gem. "We're trying to help, you stupid stick!"
Red electricity suddenly hits Misato's hand "GAHH!" The Gun Hero yells hopping back from the sudden shock, grasping his hand.
"Misato!" Itsuki yells as he and Sadeena check on him.
"What happened?" Sadeena asks. "Where did that red lightning come from?"
"The Spear…" Misato answers.
"What?" Sadeena says, looking at Motoyasu, who is still unconscious.
"Maybe because Misato isn't its wielder?" Itsuki inquires.
"But it didn't shock me when I asked for it to accept the invitation from Itsuki or when I fought Motoyasu…" Misato mutters, standing back up.
"Why did it shock you just now?"
"It shocked me when I called it a stupid stick…" Misato's eyes widened. "It shocked me because it knew I insulted it… Its truly sentient…"
"What?" Itsuki says, surprised, looking at his Bow.
But his words go deaf in Misato's ears as he stares at the crystal gem on the spear.
Misato recalls the the first episode with Motoyasu quickly agreeing with Malty that Naofumi raped her, despite the lacking evidence and knowing that Naofumi had no way to fight back, especially with Malty's level at the time.
It knew…
Misato remembers Motoyasu seeming to forget how Malty cheated in the duel and the race. And how wrong the taxation was for the villagers and her intention to force their silence of her ownership of them.
It knew…
Misato remembers the third duel where Motoyasu tries to genuinely kill Naofumi, their fight distracting them from the Pope preparing to incinerate them with the Judgement spell.
It knew…
He remembers how Motoyasu still believed in Malty even after the trial in the manga version. Along with how Malty tried to poison the Shield Team during the party and meeting. He really thought it was a lie when it was brought up…
It knew…
And now, after everything that has happened… The Spear still did nothing about its Hero's foolish actions after Rino's rescue.
IT.
KNEW!
Misato grabs the Spear but red electricity zaps his hand, and he whips back his arm from the pain. Itsuki, Matilda and Sadeena grab his shoulders, they speak but Misato hears nothing, only remembering every instance Motoyasu screwed up.
Misato snarls at the memories, the feeling of frustration seeing Motoyasu act ignorant by his own will in the story is coming back to Misato hard. He looks down at his gun, noticing the yellow gem is glowing. It might be due to adrenaline and rage but for a second, it felt like the Gun had the same feelings as its wielder.
Misato turns to look at the Spear, then back to his weapon, and an idea forms in his mind. He grabs his Gun and slams the Legendary weapon into the Spear.
The two powers of the Legendary Weapons collide, Gold lightning clashes with Crimson. An orb of yellow and red light forms around Misato and the still unconscious Motoyasu.
"Malty LIED to Motoyasu, tricked and manipulated him to make things worse! He attacked ME and NAOFUMI. And despite the fact he was wrong and refused to learn, you still did… NOTHING!" Misato roars, enraged by the Spear's passiveness. "But you shocked me when I insulted you? HOW FUCKING PETTY ARE YOU?!"
"Misato stop!" Matilda yells, seeing Misato's health bar slowly drop. Sadeena reaches out to the Gun Hero but the lightning hits her, pushing her back.
"I can't get through!" Sadeena yells, her resistance to lightning is worthless, this lightning is different! Itsuki tries the same but gets shocked as well.
"We are trying to expose the fucking bitch to help your stupid hero! But you declined You FUCKING DUMBASS!" Misato yells.
The Red Lightning from the Spear seems to intensify, slowly pushing back the Gun's Gold Lightning.
Misato groans from the shocks, but he pushes through the pain, looking into his customization window and crafts a new shield attachment.
The Gun transforms into a rifle with a rubber orange shield attached to it, lessening the pain of the shocks.
"I am trying everything I can to unite the damn heroes, and break their delusions of this world TO SAVE IT! You know WHO I am! You knowvery well what WE are up against!" Misato says
"We can't hold this door much longer!" Keel yells as she, Rifana and Ace struggle to hold the door, while it's more durable than common doors, the people outside are breaking it piece by piece. Itsuki fires a blunt arrow into a hole on the door, knocking out one of the soldiers outside but it does little to stop them from ramming the door. Sadeena, Matilda and Rino grab more furniture to buy them the precious little time they all have.
The Gun Hero shakes his head. "BUT it's not just the Waves! IT'S People who DON'T CARE ABOUT THE WORLD!" Misato recalls the King and the Church and Malty, people willing to kill or cripple the heroes for their own selfish goals.
The line of thought gives Misato an idea "Which I guess includes YOU."
The Spear makes a whining whale-like sound.
Misato glares at the Spear's gem. "Because all I see is a STUPID LAZY STICK that does the bare minimum to help their hero! So much is at stake and you can do so much MORE! And yet you chose to do NOTHING! Some great 'protector' of the world you are!"
The Spear's volume increases in response. Likely protesting at Misato's insults.
"Oh? You don't like that?" Misato mocks. "THEN…
PROVE.
ME.
WRONG!"
He roars, unaware his amber eyes are glowing so bright that no one could see his pupils.
Itsuki gasps seeing a pop up appear in his vision.
M0toya5u, Ma1ty, e1ena, and l3sty have j0ined y0ur Party!
Itsuki checks if everyone is in his party and nods. He transforms the bow.
"Teleport: Northern Forest!" Itsuki commands.
The entire group's body is covered in golden light and they disappear.
A few seconds later, several soldiers break through the door, only to find no one inside the room.
A blast of water splashes into Motoyasu's face, waking him up to sputter and cough.
"Agh…" Motoyasu groans at his bruise throbbing on his forehead. "What?" He says, checking his surroundings, notices Elena and Lesty gagged and tied up to one tree, struggling against their binds. Then he sees Misato and Itsuki with their parties, with two shadowy cloak people next to a tied up Malty with a slave seal?!
The Spear Hero gasps.
Misato raises his hand "Motoyasu, I need you to listen-"
"SHUT UP!" Motoyasu
Motoyasu Kitamura has left the Bow Hero's party.
"Hurry, girls, join my party quickly!" The Blonde Spearman yells, sending invites to his teammates.
"Don't!" Itsuki yells
"I don't see the invite!" Malty screams.
"What?!" Motoyasu yells, looking at Elena and Lesty, who both nod.
Why aren't his invites working?!
Rino stares at Motoyasu's party members in confusion.
"The invites aren't working?" Matilda mutters, confused as everyone else. The group did plan for Motoyasu teleporting with the party to escape, so they are using teleport jamming spells in the area but for some reason Motoyasu can't bring anyone into his party.
Misato's eyes narrow, looking at the Spear, the gemstone is still glowing.
"Proceed as planned, Dawn, give me the needle…" Misato says, removing his glove. The Shadow nods, holding up a tray with a needle in her hand.
Malty gasps and glares at Misato "Don't you dare! I am the Princess of-Ah!"
Misato shoots the viper fang, cutting some of Malty's hair.
"Shut up or I'll make you wish you were dead…"
"What the hell do you think you are doing?!" Motoyasu yells, trying to free himself.
Misato faces Motoyasu, his cold piercing gaze causes Motoyasu to freeze up. Giving the Spear Hero a sense of fear similar to what he felt when he died.
"What should have been done a long time ago…" Misato states, remembering every problem Malty has caused, especially the ones after she 'paid' part of her price. All of it could have been solved so easily. Were it not for some people who did not have the will to do it…
Screw waiting for her trial, this needs to happen now. Misato pokes his finger into the needle, sealing the contract and faces the Princess.
"By the power of the slave seal, you are to only follow my verbal commands, so I cannot use the seal to harm you with my mind or wish unless I say it outloud." The Gun Hero commands.
"Malty, you must speak only the FULL truth! You cannot do any half lies or partial truths." Misato commands.
Misato pauses for a few seconds, letting the command register into everyone's mind "Malty, did you sell Rino into slavery, if yes, explain why." He asks.
"No I-GAHHHH!" Malty screams as the seal electrocutes her. "YES I DID!" Malty admits.
"W-what?" Motoyasu dumbly stutters.
"I-I d-didn't want Rino to convince Motoyasu to have everyone fight alongside him…"
"Keep going." Misato commands.
"But that's all-GAHHH!" Malty screams once again for lying. "I was disgusted when Rino hit me and that's why I sold her to s-slavery."
"Because…" Misato says
"She deserved it." Malty admits with a disgusting grin. But a staff hits her in the mouth, breaking her expression.
"Because you accuse me of using Motoyasu for fame, you hypocritical bitch!" Rino yells smacking Malty with her staff again. "The same goes to the rest of you! Always complaining that you need food or water while Motoyasu DID EVERYTHING!" Rino yells pointing at Lesty and Elena.
Lesty shakes her head in denial but Elena simply stares to the side in shame.
"I told you not to blow out the candles but no… Since you are the Princess, apparently you are smarter than me. Even when I was right! We nearly died because of you!" Rino yells with righteous rage.
Itsuki walks over to Motoyasu's view "Do you finally get it? Malty is a terrible person!" He says.
"NO, that bastard is shocking her whenever he feels like it!" Motoyasu accuses, glaring at Misato. Just like his fictional counterpart during Malty's trial with the Queen as the judge.
Misato glares back, and the Spear Hero falters. Then he and Dawn walk over to Motoyasu, placing the contract on the Spear Hero.
"You ask her then!" Misato says.
"Myne, did Naofumi rape you?" Motoyasu asks.
"Yes he d-did-GAHHH!" Malty screams as the slave seal painfully burns and shocks her for the heinous lie. The reaction of the seal was quite similar to the Anime.
"N-no, Naofumi did not rape me…" Malty whimpers from the aching pain left behind by the seal.
Motoyasu becomes silent to her answer.
"Why did you frame Naofumi for that crime?" Misato asks.
"For a scheme to take the throne with the church…" The Princess says, finally stopping herself from trying to lie, since the alternative is too much for her now.
"Even if you have to kill the Queen, King and your sister?"
"Yes…"
"Did you enjoy having Naofumi suffer like that?"
"N-" Malty pauses and answers "Yes…"
Misato spits on Malty "Of course you did…" He mutters in disgust
Meanwhile everyone else is disgusted by the Princess. Itsuki feels enraged by Malty, reminding him of the bullies he suffered from. While the Demi-humans in the group scoff at the woman, reminding them of the slave hunters that attacked their home. Matilda and Sadeena frowned but weren't as angry as the others, since Malty was similar to a typical wasteful 'Noble'. Ace was growling at Malty, all of his instincts tell him that Malty is pure evil.
The Gun Hero faces Motoyasu, snapping the blonde out of his daze. He speaks to Motoyasu and reminds him of Malty's actions in the duel, threatening the village, cheating in the race, Rino being sold to slavery and now this.
"I-I…" Motoyasu mumbles. "I s-still believe…"
Misato turns around, and continues his interrogation.
"Malty, do you care about Motoyasu?" Misato says the final nail to the coffin.
"I do not care for Motoyasu."
The Spear Hero finally shuts his mouth with a loud click from his teeth.
"What do you actually think of Motoyasu? Describe it."
"I think… He is the easiest Hero to manipulate…" Malty admits.
"But… She's supposed to be-"
Misato grabs Motoyasu's tunic. "Do you finally get it? Stop avoiding the facts! Malty doesn't care. Stop lying to yourself just because it's easier to swallow than the truth! Stop being a fucking coward already!" He yells, shaking Motoyasu.
But the Spear Hero doesn't respond.
"Motoyasu?"
The Spear Hero disappears in a flash of gold light.
So… For a while I have been writing this, and imagining this chapter but as I continued I realized, this is a very bad move, that even Misato clouded by his emotions can't really justify the giant mess he caused with his recklessness by confronting and exposing Malty early, or at least exposing her like this compared to the official chapter. However I definitely don't want to throw this major chunk away.
Especially when I attempted to make Misato in this part represent the fandom's rage against Malty. I figured Misato emptying the clip and then drop kicking Malty would feel good. I might still make that a thing in the actual story. Kazuma would be proud.
I hope you also like the idea of Misato vs Motoyasu where Misato is pissed off and calls out Motoyasu while beating the shit out of him.
I mean think about it, Motoyasu before he broke his mind, deep down is a coward. He ignores things that upsets him, and runs away when things get difficult, come on! (He gets slack if he decided to run the moment the girls pulled out the knives but not before!) I don't care if he's a 3rd choice or something, the Spear seriously thought it was a good idea to have him in its list at all?! Why bother making a tier list of candidates of best to worst?! Just make a list of ONLY GOOD candidates! Candidates that would have been Number 1 if they were in a group of bad candidates!
I mean in the official chapter, Arrival Motoyasu definitely has different noticeable better qualities compared to Canon Motoyasu. Because canon Motoyasu is more hopeless than Itsuki. The Guy is stubborn despite the mountain of evidence. Frankly I initially didn't know how I would redeem him after reading his personality in the wiki fandom (I thought Itsuki would be harder to pull off. Until a fanfic author told me Itsuki isn't hopeless if Misato deals with him sooner) No wonder why the moron goes insane.
About the topic of Misato confirming the weapons being sentient.
He had some idea they were aware but his confrontation with the Spear confirmed it. Anyway, there might be canon reasons why the weapons seem questionably passive, but I get the feeling it's because…
1. they can't directly "talk" to their heroes. Without some sort of consequence we do not know.
2. the weapon's never thought of trying to "talk" or make indirect attempts of communication. Outside of the Void vision Naofumi experiences in Volume 16, they can't speak.
In this case, Misato insulted the little pointy shit stick and it shocked him because it didn't like the insult.
The "Misato & Legendary Gun Vs Legendary Spear '' moment was something I wanted to do for a while, to have an example of how the Weapons seem… Really inefficient in hindsight. Or how the weapons don't really do a whole lot by themselves.
Like they are waaaay too dependent on the Wielder's mind and perspective. From what I get, from the beginning, It's like everytime a Hero is summoned, the weapon seems to forget (or maybe they got hindered by a certain someone. That would make sense.) their own methods, the ones they were likely born with, unless the Hero knows about them and that's if the Hero BELIEVES in it.
No wonder why first Hero candidates who are probably like Naofumi keep dying so early… They aren't strong enough to deal with betrayal from assholes that want to control them. Because maybe like Naofumi, those heroes didn't know HOW to get strong!
That's if the strengthening method works on that weapon because the weapon can't actually adapt ideas and create new ways to gain strength. Nope, Misato can't make an OP system of unlimited strengthening methods.
Plus most fans know There are Spirits within the weapon, so knowing they are aware of their surroundings and possibly choose to do little… It's kind of infuriating if you think about it.
I mean ifIwere any of the weapons, under the hands of the worst heroes I would be zapping them until they started using their heads:
"Stop trusting obviously evil people!"
"NO stop attacking the other hero, he isn't wrong!"
"Stop being a simp!"
Unfortunately the weapon's words are deaf to the Hero but the electrocution the Hero suffers from is FAR from quiet.
Of course, after watching season 3 with Rishia vs Shit-suki (Itsuki) the Bow helped Rishia, so it does imply the weapons can disagree and find other ways to go against their foolish wielder. (If you ask me, the Bow should have done something a lot sooner… Same with a certain Vassal Staff/Wand) So maybe the Spear knows how Bad Motoyasu is but it thinks it doesn't have a good way to tell him that. Until a certain Gun Hero gave him a punch to the face metaphorically and literally.
In the case with Misato and the Legendary Gun, the Gun doesn't really need to waste energy trying to communicate or convey to Misato about certain things, since Misato is competent and perhaps the most ideal Hero it has chosen.
Anyway, this will be an archive of ideas or cut content from the main Fanfic.
I do have an idea of a story where instead of being summoned by Fitoria, what if Misato was dragged into the same summoning as the other heroes? The summoning spell used for all the heroes was unorthodox… The summoners probably had every intent to summon ALL the Cardinal Heroes, they just didn't know there were FIVE of them. What would happen and what would Misato do?
That idea gave me a lot of exciting scenarios.