Chapter Text
My name is Iwatani Naofumi, I am 20 years old, and a university student in the United Kingdom, though I lived in Japan until age 8.
and five seconds ago, I was at the library.
It was a cold February the 25th, and I had visited my local Library in search of a few books to take out, and had picked out a few, and sat down to give them a read. First, I started with this strange, ancient looking book, and was surprised to find it was in Japanese, and about some kind of heroes related to different weapons. But after a few pages, I lost interest and started reading a book about nuclear physics instead I thought looked interesting. But when I was twelve pages in, suddenly I heard a noise. The other book I had placed next to me had opened on its own, and strange glowing patterns had appeared above it. In a panic, I thrust the book I held into the the patterns. With a mighty KAZATHOOM the patterns turned glowing red instead of the prior yellowish white, and I found I could no longer move the book I was holding, or the hands holding it, out of the pattern. In a state of shock, I was unable to even speak as the book warped into what looked like a black hole or some kind of wormhole and pulled me inside...
Now, I stood in a dark room.
Staring at my still outstretched hands, I noted something on my right arm, so I turned my arm to look at it.
Somehow magnetised or otherwise stuck to my arm, was a weightless shield like object. It was a little longer than my forearm, and about as wide as my waist, seemingly composed of metal painted bright yellow, with a large radiation symbol emblazoned on its middle, in the dead center of which, was a green gemstone, with a tint of red and yellow to it.
"What the..?" I murmured as I examined it, before I got ahold of myself and decided to look around.
Standing beside me, were three others, with weapons in hand, after a moment I realized these were the same combination of weapons from that book that sucked me in, and dawned on a realization. I must be in the book somehow, after all, it sucked me in.
as such, I instantly freaked out.
"AAAAAAAAAAGGGHHHHHHHH" I howled as I clutched my head with my hands and flailed around, as can happen when I become too overwhelmed, possibly due to my autism, but in this instance, I believe it to be reasonable.
A few minutes or so later, I was able to calm down, to find the other three supposed heroes attempting to calm me or otherwise uncertain of what to do. At which point someone in robes nearby cleared their throat.
"Ahem, now that I see you have calmed yourself, may I ask that I explain the situation?" "Ah, um, yeah" I said in response, the man was speaking Japanese and English at once, somehow, but neither sound overlapped the other, it was as if both were just inside my head, I wondered if I was going insane. "Excellent, allow me to explain then" the man said "We welcome you, oh heroes from other worlds, you have been summoned in order to allow us to defeat the Waves, that threaten to destroy us, I understand that this is erm, a lot to take in, but we would like to take you to meet the king of this country post-haste!"
After I prepared myself, we began walking, I decided to try and figure out my situation later, when I had time.
We walked through several corridors and a spiral stairway, at which point, I was certain that we were in a castle, in some kind of medieval town. However, I had to stop this line of thought as we had now arrived at our destination.
We were gathered into a large throne room, with knights or soldiers of some kind along the walls, and at the opposite end from us, several thrones, upon one of which sat an elderly man wearing a crown. Several other people also stood around, varying greatly in appearance. The presumable king began to speak.
"Greetings heroes, I am King Aultcray Melromarc XXXII, the King of Melromarc." He coughed, before continuing "Im sure you have been informed of your status as heroes and why we have summoned you, but for now please simply enjoy the banquet we have prepared and get some rest, since you have just been summoned, also, I suggest you take a look at your status by looking in the far corner bottom right of your vision." I did so on reflex, and was surprised at what I saw.
Appearing before me was what looked like a videogame UI, however it seemed.. glitchy, the borders flickered at frequent intervals, and covering the information was a popup that stated:
'ERROR, SHIELD IS CURRENTLY EXPERIENCING MERGE CORRUPTION, PLEASE SELECT A RESOLUTION OPTION' and below that, two buttons, which stated 'finalise merge' and 'reboot and purge merge data' respectively. Thinking that I should attempt to change as little as possible, I selected 'finalise merge' and the yes on the further popup to ask if I was certain, at which point the UI vanished.
I blinked, and the UI was back again. However, it now had a hazard yellow border instead of green, and in the center was a spinning radiation symbol with the words 'loading...' underneath. After a moment the spinning ceased and my status was displayed:
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Name: Iwatani Naofumi
Age: 20
Class: Nuclear Shield Hero
Level: 1
Standard statistics cannot be displayed due to installed modifications. Modded statistics will be displayed instead.
HP: 35/35
MP: 10/10
SP: 10/10
NP: 10/10
STR: 1
AGI: 1
VIT: 10
INT: 1
MND: 1
CHA: 1
DEF: 100
NUC: 1
Skills:
Standard Skills:
N/A
Nuclear Skills:
- Nuclear Release
- Radiation Shield
Shield Menu
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Upon selecting the 'Shield Menu' I was displayed a complex three-dimensional tree of icons for shields, branching out from the central 'Small Nuclear Shield', and several blacked out options for 'powerup options.'
I closed the menu, and looked up, it seemed the other heroes had finished as well.
"Well then." Said King Aultcray "Now that you have finished, please introduce yourselves." I began immediately, accidentally cutting off the spear hero at whom they had gestured, who gave me an irritated gaze
"My Name is Iwatani Naofumi, Iwatani is my last name, I'm twenty years old and the Nuclear Shield Hero." I heard several murmurs after I finished, at which point, the spear hero coughed and began his introduction;
"I'm Kitamura Motoyasu, age twenty-one, the Spear hero", he was taller than me, but only average height compared to the people of Britain, he looked Japanese and had blond hair. Next went the short brown haired teenager with the bow;
"My Name is Itsuki, and I'm the Bow hero." He also looked Japanese, he seemed very confident. Finally, the short black haired teenager with the sword spoke;
"I'm Amaki Ren, age seventeen, the Sword Hero."
With our introductions done, we were taken to a banquet, the food was pretty normal, some of it was quite spicy though, but overall it was delicious, I was rather busy eating and ended up not talking to anyone during the event. Finally, we were taken to our rooms, and decided to gather in Itsuki's for a discussion on our circumstances...