Author's Note: Hello and welcome to the second chapter of Twist of the Spear! I want to thank each and every one of you that has already followed and favorited this story, and I look forward to sharing with y'all the way that this is going to go. Now, this chapter introduces one of the reasons why there is an M rating here, and it involves one of the core things of Shield Hero. Another main reason for the M is that there will be scenes of graphic violence and combat as things go along, especially during the Waves. I do not plan on making this a smut fic. And without further ado, let the next chapter begin!
I do not own the rights to Rising of the Shield Hero or Final Fantasy XIV, each belong to their respective companies.
Valina took a deep breath as she and her fellow Cardinal Heroes stood in the grand chamber before the king of Melromarc upon his throne, twelve people spread out before him in various outfits and armors, wielding unique weapons to each of them from swords and spears, to axes and staves, and a few with no clearly visible weapons on their person at all. Each of the adventurers before them had a straight face and looked to be judging each of the four Heroes, though the one that caught Valina's eye was one fairly familiar looking woman in partial leather armor and a purple skirt, her red hair bound back in a loose ponytail. "There you are, princess," Valina thought as she looked the woman over, brushing a hand down her borrowed skirt as a few of the adventurers looked towards her with clear judgment, "So, taking a more direct route to fuck us over? Not that we will let you, that is…."
When the four were situated in a central spot upon the great red carpet that lined the center of the great chamber, the king grandly announced, "We have gathered brave warriors who will fight the Waves with you legendary heroes. Now, our future champions! Time to begin your journey!"
With that, the twelve adventurers began to step forward… until Valina did so, as well, a hand held up before her to stop them in their tracks. "You expect us to believe that you so easily managed to gather a dozen adventurers in less than twelve hours, after telling us that you would get the best to join us?" she exclaimed, slamming the butt of the spear still in her hand upon the ground, "What kind of fools do you take us for? And with how they were going forward right away, no introductions, not learning about each, you want us to just… take whoever we get and be happy with that!?"
The twelve adventurers were stopped in their tracks and staring at Valina with shock and awe, and a few with a little bit of frustration as well, though none was as frustrated as the princess with her hands upon her hips. In fact, her look was matched only by the one upon Aultcray as he glared at them in contempt, as though Valina's words had just insulted him, personally. The king opened his mouth to retort when Itsuki spoke up to add in his own commentary.
"I agree with her, actually," the Bow Hero said calmly, one hand waving towards the gathered adventurers, "Are you saying that you were able to get the twelve best adventurers in your kingdom, simply overnight? No, that does not make sense, nor does having them pick who they want to go with."
"It makes more sense for each of us to figure out who would best work with each of us," added Ren as he stepped forward as well, sword pointing towards each of the dozen people in turn, "Who can cover our weaknesses? Who can mesh well with our style of fighting? In fact, we each have yet to even figure out how exactly we will fight!"
"Not to mention that we need to figure out how our weapons work, and what their abilities are," Naofumi said as the last to come forward, arms out to each side and the gem on his shield gleaming as the light reflected off it.
"So, unless you wish for us to go our separate ways, I suggest that you find a place for us to conduct interviews and test not just our own skills, but also the skills of those you have gathered for us and any others we may find," Valina finished, arms folding across her chest where her bust normally would be, something that made the young woman frown.
The king continued to glare at the four heroes, though Valina noticed how much more intense that it was when focused upon the Shield Hero for some reason. But the four held steady where they were, their gaze and stance unwavering as a few of the adventurers actually stepped around to join them, a surprise to the heroes but a welcome one. This stance continued for several tense minutes before the king finally sighed and closed his eyes, waving a hand.
"Very well, then," Aultcray announced, one hand rubbing at his temples, "I shall send my people out into the depths of the city for a week to gather adventurers and volunteers, though do not expect to see too many coming forward. In the meantime, the twelve here shall join you in the arena, where you shall be free to do your…interviews."
Valina smirked before turning around and high fiving her fellow heroes, giggling at their success with this first part of their venture. Next would come the next step, though, in making sure that they could build the parties they would need before beginning their level grinding.
An hour later, and the four Cardinal Heroes were standing in the middle of a large arena that reminded Valina of the Roman colosseum in how grand it was, though there were still plenty of differences that stood out with how the seating for spectators were all not just high up but also behind plenty of pillars. Around them were spread out the twelve adventurers that the king had scouted for them, as servants worked to bring a set of four desks to an area that Naofumi had picked as being the most likely to not get in the way of any sparring or testing. Ren and Itsuki moved over to help with getting the desks into place, leaving Valina free to go and pick the first four to interview for each of them. Right away she knew who she wanted first, a big man hefting a large, heavy two-bladed axe seemed right up her alley, actually reminding her much of a Marauder or Warrior from Final Fantasy XIV, while the armored knight seemed like he could possibly be a good fit for Itsuki.
"Hey there, big guy!" she said boldly, giving the spear in her hand a few twirls while bouncing a bit on her feet despite being in heels, "Would you be up for a bit of a spar, to test out what you are capable of?"
The large man just smirked and nodded, taking his large axe and moving forward. "You're pretty gutsy, I like that," he said, following Valina as she backed further into the arena, "The way you stood up to the king, a lot of respect. And claiming to be a woman, too? Well… good thing I'm not afraid of hitting a woman!"
With that, the large man charged, axe raised high for an overhead swing. At the last moment he pivoted, bringing the axe down for a slash towards her midsection, a smirk playing across his lips. The young woman pivoted herself, unsteady but learning, suddenly jumping clear over the head of the axe with a flourish, managing to keep her skirt from fluttering about and showing off her panties. The Spear Hero launched herself over the axe's return swing, thrusting her weapon forward. He staggered, forced to feint from the faster threat. She was at it again, jumping with another thrust, aimed towards his center. On his back foot now, he deflected it away with the hefty large axe.
The large man would once more take the offensive, bringing his axe around for a great cleave towards Valina's head. But a deft twirl to the side had the spry young woman avoiding the strike with one of her own aimed towards her opponent's knee. That in turn would force him to catch the shaft of her legendary weapon in the bottom bevel of his own weapon to redirect the thrust. Then came the surprise as suddenly two hundred plus pounds of mass and muscle barreled at the inexperienced woman, a shoulder check slamming into her chest and sending her sprawling back onto the ground.
"Fuck!" Valina cursed loudly as the back of her head collided with the arena floor, a decent chunk of her HP being reduced from the bar that represented it.
"Sorry about that, lass. I got caught up in the moment," came the gruff voice of her opponent from somewhere around the three of him leaning over her.
"No, you're good, I'm just… more fragile than I was expecting… stupid floor tanking curse…." The young woman quietly muttered that last part, thinking about what her husband would say if he knew that she had been summoned to another world in a role that she detested playing in their favorite MMO.
Valina accepted the hand back up with more grumbling, brushing dust and dirt off her skirt as he lifted her with ease. The pair smiled at one another, each having accepted the other as a member of their new party even without the interview process that was to come up next.
"Shall we head over to my desk to discuss you coming into my party?" Valina asked, indicating the one that was empty as the other three had already started talking with others.
"That sounds good, little lady," the man replied, bringing his axe up over his shoulder.
And that cemented Valina's choice in her new tank, the fact that he so easily accepted the fact that she was female despite the body she was cursed with.
"So, what makes you want to join my party in particular?" Valina asked as she sat across from her latest applicant, a young woman in an elegant emerald gown with a white robe draped over it.
The interview process had been going on for a few hours at this point, each of the Cardinal Heroes having interviewed the twelve original adventurers that the king had gathered for them and dismissing most of them outright after just interacting with one of them. The knight was the first one to be removed when his personality clashed with Itsuki, the Bow Hero disgusted at how self-important that Mald made himself out to be and the clear arrogance at declaring himself the best suited to stand at the frontlines for any of the Heroes. Rojeel, the large axe wielder that had joined Valina's party, had taken quite a bit of insult at that comment and challenged Mald to a sparring session to prove himself.
The less said about that one-sided fight the better.
The final interview was that of the princess, herself, exasperated at having had to wait so long for a position she believed should have just been given to her right away. Myne sat before each of the four Cardinal Heroes and attempted to build herself up, telling each one a different set of skills and adventuring history. Each claim was bold but spoke of someone who did not truly know what she was talking about, with so many small details either missing or clashing with what she would tell them. By the end of all four interviews it was a unanimous decision to dismiss the woman for her constant lies and lack of any evidence for anything that she claimed to have done.
"Well, umm…" the young woman's voice was soft, but brought Valina's attention back to her and the matter at hand, "I don't really have a lot of experience as an adventurer, but as a member of the Royal Physicians I have access to many spells of healing, some of which are quite advanced and so many others are unable to use part of which is because of the medium that I use for casting my healing and strengthening spells and the barriers that I am able to produce are able to reduce the amount of damage that one can take from most simple monsters but I am sure that if I get the chance to get out into the field for some hands-on experience I'll be able to do a lot more and -"
As the young woman continued on without pause, making Valina wonder how good her lungs were, she looked about to see that the other interviews had actually paused to focus on the pair of them. The Spear Hero gave a nervous chuckle and rubbed at the back of her head as the others all began to laugh, Rojeel not helping in the least as he wound up doubled over with a harty belly laugh. That seemed to be enough to get the young woman to finally halt her rambling, a blush coming across her face that she tried to hide in her gloved hands.
"Hey, boys, I think I found my healer!" Valina called out with a giggle, indicating her current applicant, "What was your name, again?"
"Larissa," she stammered out.
"Larissa, welcome to the party. I am glad to have you, and look forward to seeing what you are capable of. And we will work on that little nervous tick of yours, as well."
A blushing Larissa just nodded slowly and moved to take one of the empty chairs behind her chosen Hero, still looking down but a smile evident on her face.
"Look, I don't know what you heard or where you heard it, but I am not mentally troubled," Valina said with an exasperated sigh, glaring at the young man sitting across from her.
For the past two hours her interviews had been starting to extremely decline in quality, as those few who did come to her desk were mainly intent on asking how a "handsome young man could ever call himself a woman". It was starting to get on her nerves, leaving her with just the two people behind her giving their support and looking at those coming by just to insult the Spear Hero with dark glares. The only person having worse luck than her was Naofumi, who had found that no one actually wanted to work with him and only humored the idea of talking with the "Devil of the Shield" just to berate him.
"But I mean, what other reason is there?" he proclaimed in return, hands thrown up in the air, "Why else would a man pretend to be a woman if not because of something being wrong with his mind?"
"I think that is enough out of you," Rojeel said with the darkest glare that he'd had yet, "Your time here is done, so you can see yourself out, now. And make sure that it is known, anyone insulting Lady Valina shall be answering to all of us here, not just her party members."
"Thank you, Roji," Valina said after the young man made himself scarce in his retreat, "But at the same time, you really did not need to do that. Hell, I'm still surprised that the two of you do not think the same of me."
The large axe wielder scoffed with a shake of his head, hands on his hips, but his face told a story of conflicting emotion. "I'd be lying if I said I didn't, at first," he said slowly, "But in the time that I have gotten to know you sitting here and in our couple of spars to refine your fighting style, I have come to see you as the woman you are."
"I never doubted the moment that I met you, even after hearing from the king about how delusioned that you supposedly are for calling yourself a woman," Larissa said, the effort of holding herself back from going on another breathless tangent clear on her face, "But when I sat down across from you, I right away knew, and when all of my medical spells came up confirming that your soul is very much female, I just… kind of…"
"Let your word vomit take over?" Valina asked with a small chuckle, remembering a term that she had picked up from a fan fic she'd re-read multiple times over a few years, "Well, I thank the both of you for standing with me."
"Any time," Rojeel said, clapping Valina on the shoulder, "Now, how about we go and put that stipend from the king to some good use and go get us some food and a place for the night?"
Nodding at the thought of the bag of silver attached to her skirt, the Spear Hero stood up from desk and stretched with a roll of her neck. Before the second set of potential party members had arrived, four servants had shown up with a bag of silver for each of the Heroes to aid in their battle against the Waves. From what Rojeel had explained to Valina, the seven hundred coins that each one of them now had was not a small sum and should help with getting each of them properly equipped with armor and clothing fitting of the world. Valina knew already what her first stop was going to be, after entrusting her companions with a hundred each to get themselves anything that they would need in the short term.
"You know what, food sounds great right about now," the Spear Hero said with a twirl of her weapon, then paused with a small frown. "When did I start thinking of this as my spear?"
She brushed that thought off with a sigh and a shake of her head, instead focusing on her two companions who had already earned her trust with how they had stood up for her. She was quite happy with her choices, and was looking forward to seeing just what the pair of potential new friends could do. The three of them met up with her fellow Heroes and their few companions, trading small talk and pleasantries as they left the arena to begin exploring the whole of Castle Town and visit some of the shops that they would come to frequent during their time in this world.
The city was a very lively and bustling place, with shops and stores lining the streets and people constantly moving about in their daily lives. Valina paused once at a tailor to look over the wares that were on display in her window, making a note of stopping in at some point to see about getting herself a wardrobe and possibly a bag of holding of some kind if that was possible. Apothecaries, Magic shops, arms and armor, so many things that caught her eye, though all of the signs were written in a language that she was unable to read. Then something caught Valina's eyes that had her frowning and worrying, as she witnessed a rotund man whipping at a pair of children with animal features. But before Valina could step forward to do anything she felt a hand on her forearm.
"Don't," Rojeel said with a shake of his head, his other hand holding Naofumi back, as well, "We will explain in a bit, just please… patience and calm."
Valina nodded slowly and allowed her party members to continue leading the rest of the way to an inn, where they all gathered around a large banquet table as a servant approached and began taking their orders. When the food was set before them and each began digging into their meals, the conversation began.
"So, why did you stop us?" Naofumi was the first to speak up, looking towards Rojeel with a small glare.
"Because what you saw was an unfortunate and legal part of our society," the large man said with a sigh and shake of his head, setting down his utensils, "Slavery is a legal thing here, and there are many laws protecting the rights of slave owners. And the most prominent of slaves that one can find are Demi-Humans, who are treated as lesser beings with less rights than us humans."
"It is a truly despicable act, one that many of us would like to see changed but know that will not be with the way that society is right now," Larissa added in with a sigh and shake of her head.
Valina shared glances with each of the other Heroes that spoke of their discomfort at such a topic, and one that the Spear Hero most definitely had many solid opinions about given the history of her own country. And from what she was coming to understand, as Rojeel explained a few more things in-depth about the protected rights of slave owners and the penalties of forcibly freeing the slave of another, there was not going to be much that she could do to make a change in society at large without turning the entire kingdom upside-down and torn apart in a personal crusade. And if she was to go about with that, then it would make her a lot more enemies than it would allies, in the long run.
"Inari as my witness, I will do whatever it takes to make things better for these Demi-Humans," Valina proclaimed, noticing the looks that she got from the others, "Look, I may be American, but that does not make me a Christian by default. I'm very open in my religious beliefs, and it took me a long time to settle on choosing Lady Inari as my patron… though I do still curse at Loki from time to time."
The boys just chuckled at that while the natives to this world continued to look lost and confused, leading to a small conversation about the various religions back on Earth and what they were like. Valina made sure that her point of being open was evident in how she talked about each one, emphasizing various things about the ones that she knew while her Japanese companions helped to fill in gaps of knowledge. Then came their companions to explain about the Church of Three Heroes and how worship of three of the Cardinal Heroes was the norm while the Shield Hero was seen in more of a negative light for reasons that were never properly explained.
"So, that explains all the dirty looks and insults that I was getting during the interviews," Naofumi said with a shake of his head, "Is there anyway that I can get myself a companion if no one is willing to work with me?"
Rojeel shared a look with Larissa before saying the one thing that Valina was afraid of. "A slave may end up being your only choice."
"But if I do that," Naofumi started, just for Valina to interrupt with her own commentary.
"Then I will, as well. With how everyone else I interviewed was belittling me over my being a transgender woman, I do not think that I will be able to recruit anyone else any other way… so, I will join you, and we will each find ourselves a suitable companion or two."
"Just make sure that you treat them with respect, and not like what we saw earlier today," Itsuki said with a frown starting to spread across his face, despite the efforts of his companions at keeping the boy from falling into depression.
The table fell silent for a while as everything began to really settle into place, the way that their reality had been so suddenly changed in such a short span of time. Valina was so very tired, for a moment even wondering if she was hallucinating Myne standing across the inn and staring at their group with distaste etched on her face. But that surely was just her imagination getting to her after a long and stressful day dealing with so many people, and all that she needed was a good night's rest. So after paying for the meals of herself and her party members, the young woman bid good night to everyone and retreated up to the room that she had booked for herself, Larissa going along as the pair of them had elected to share in the name of saving money. Before too long, the girls had gotten themselves changed and climbed into their beds, the candles put out, and sleep claiming them both.
None of them were quite prepared for what the next day would bring.
Closing Notes: And there you have it, the second chapter for your reading and enjoyment. Now, I will be taking and changing some cannon characters a bit, and I apologize for nothing. I'm improving the companions and those that go with the four Heroes, and adding a few more new ones in during the process. And, you are seeing the first sneak peek at how some of XIV is being mixed in, via Val's fighting style with the spear. Yes, all those jumps and flips... the Floor Tank is real. Plus, you may see a few Job Stones in the future... Mwahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah!