Chapter 1: A royal summoning

At the start of his second semester at UA High, after being released from his suspension, Izuku Midoriya sits in Class not really understanding what he's being taught, mainly because of the increase in difficulty and having missed 3 days of class.

After the Class their Math teacher Ectoplasm, much to the dismay of the class, comments "Hope you all paid attention to the class there'll be a Quiz tomorrow."

He then steps out of the Classroom leaving the class to freak out a bit.

"Man I didn't understand anything!" Kaminary cries out.

Midoriya adds "Yeah it's pretty tough. I didn't understand much either"

"Huh, if you don't understand it how are we supposed to pass the exam?" Kaminary asks worried.

Many of the students go to Yaoyorozu to ask her for Help, as they do Midoriya heads out to go to the library to study.

After a couple of hours of studying he decides to also study for the hero fundamentals class. He heads to a shelf trying to grab a bock on hero laws. He reaches out, to grab it, as the book comes out so do a couple of others falling down onto the floor.

He reaches down to put the books back, but among them he finds a really old looking book about some "cardinal heroes", Midoriya has never heard of these despite him practically being obsessive over hero culture, and so, is intrigued by the prospect of learning about new heroes he's never heard of before.

He looks at it a bit puzzled. He then puts the fallen books about hero laws back on the shelf excluding the old looking book. He heads back to the table and thinking it's a book on some forgotten heroes he starts looking through it ready to take some notes on his hero analysis nr.15.

He looks through the analog of the "cardinal heroes", looking at their character descriptions, powers and equipment, upon reaching the section about the Shield Hero he finds that all pages are blank.

"Did they not finish writing it?" He quietly asks himself.

As he does he's enveloped in a faint light as he feels like he starts falling with his notebook in toe.

After a bit of falling he hits the ground.

"What just happened?" He wonders. He gets back up grabbing his notebook and taking a look around.

He doesn't recognize the place he's in. It's a dark lit chamber with stone walls and a single wooden door aside from some columns there isn't much in there. In front of him are a group of men in robes.

One of the men, the one that looks to be in charge says "Fantastic the summoning was a success!" he pauses for a moment and asks "Brave heroes would you please save our world from great evil?"

"What?" say three other voices along with Izuku's.

He looks behind him seeing 3 other people, each holding a different weapon. One's holding a Bow, one a sword, the other a spear. Looking at them Izuku can't help but make the comparison to the book he was just reading. He then looks down seeing a shield stuck to his arm.

"Who are you? And more importantly where are we? Oh and what is this shield?" Izuku asks, wanting to know more.

"Please oh brave heroes our world is in dire need of saving!" The sage comments wanting help from the heroes.

"What do you mean it's in need of saving?" Asks the guy with the bow, Itsuki Kawasumi, as he plays with it a bit, tensing the string and releasing it.

The head sage answers the heroe "The story behind it is long complicated, but suffice it to say that you are the 4 cardinal heroes, summoned here using an ancient ritual in order to save our world. It's in a very fragile state and titors on the brink of destruction, so we beg you brave heroes please lend us your aid!"

The sages bow down. Midoriya thinks about it for a moment and is about to agree to help, but before he can "Forget it!" The sword hero, Ren Amaki, replies.

"I also refuse!" comments Itsuki.

"You can send us back to our homeworlds right?" The spear hero asks "Do that and then we'll talk!"

Ren raises his sword pointing it at the head sage as he comments. "You brought the four of us here without our consent, don't you feel the least bit guilty about it?"

"Not to mention if you threw us out as soon as we restored peace we'd done all that work for nothing." Itsuki adds.

"How willing are you to accommodate our requests?" Motoyasu asks "Depending on your answer we may end up your enemies instead of your allies."

Midoriya opens his mouth but before words can come out the Head sage interjects, saying "Good sirs, before I say anything we'd like you to have an audience with our King, you can negotiate your requests with him directly, so please follow us."

"All right, fine." says the sword hero.

"I suppose we'll consider their offer." the bow hero adds.

"Sure, it doesn't matter who we talk to, our demands won't change." The spear hero finishes as they are led out of the room.

Not wanting to be left behind Izuku grabs his notebook and follows.

While being led to the King, he starts analyzing the castle, even noticing a little icon in the corner of his vision, after focusing a bit on it his stat window appears, surprising Midoriya. He lets out an audible gasp, catching the attention of the other heroes.

"What is it?" Ren asks.

"The, the icon on the corner of your vision." Midoriya mumbles.

Itsuki focuses his attention on it, opening it as Ren asks a bit annoyed "What about it? It's the stat window, don't you guys know anything?"

Motoyasu nods at the comment as Itsuki says "Thanks, I didn't know about it."

Ren gives out a disappointed sigh and they keep going.

They continue walking until reaching the King's chamber, on the way there Izuku starts checking out different things in the status window.

They reach the King's chambers and are let in, where King Aultclay Melromarc the XXXII introduces himself and asks the heroes to do the same.

They each introduce themselves with the situation unfolding like it does normally with the King not wanting to hear Midoriya's introduction. Although he politely manages to introduce himself. After the introductions the king starts explaining the situation to the heroes, giving them the basic explanation about the waves and their purpose to stop them, as he hears the information Midoriya starts writing it all down in his notebook, annoying the king, who finds it disrespectful.

After the explanation the heroes start making their demands for compensation, they are accepted by the King, with a stipend as a temporary alternative.

He asks them to check their statuses and tells them that preparations will be made for a party, since they can't form one themselves.

After the meeting with the King is over the heroes are sent to some chambers to rest up.

A while later in one of the rooms Motoyasu says "I guess if you're heroes of legend you get special treatment. The girl who showed us here was cute too."

"And although it did taste unusual our dinner was quite sumptuous." Itsuki adds.

Looking up from his notebook where Midoriya was taking notes of the Status window, he asks "I'm not much of a gamer myself, but doesn't this all remind you a lot of a videogame?"

Motoyasu responds "That's because it is a video game. It's exactly like Emerald online!"

Izuku looks a bit surprised and comments "As I said I don't play many video games but I have never heard of that one."

Motoyasu asks "Really? It's huge, even normies know about it."

Izuku shrugs his shoulders, giving a never heard of it look. At the same time Itsuki says "What are you talking about? This isn't some online game. It's a console game I'm playing. It's called Dimension Wave."

Ren interjects "You're both wrong, everything about this place is identical to a VRMMO called Brave Star Online."

A bit annoyed Motoyasu gets off the bed, saying "Let's sort this out." He turns to Izuku and Itsuki and continues "First, you two know what he means by VRMMO right?"

Itsuki responds "A Sci-fi game I'm familiar with explored the concept."

Izuku says "I know what a Massive Multiplayer online game is, but I don't know what VR means."

Itsuki says "It stands for Virtual reality."

"It's a game you can immerse yourself in as if you were actually in the world." Motoyasu adds.

"Now that that's out of the way" Motoyasu continues "Let's compare some general knowledge"

They then start asking each other questions, each giving a different answer.

When It's Midoriya's turn he asks "Who's the Number 1 Hero?"

The question is met with confused looks.

"What do you mean hero?" Motoyasu asks "Firemen and Policemen?"

"No I mean actual heroes like in those old comic books, with Quirks and all." Midoriya responds.
"What's a Quirk?" Ren asks confused.

"Is it like my Ability." Itsuki adds

"Well about 80% of people have them... each is special to the individuals... basically superpowers... I don't know what your ability is." Midoriya answers.

"Pretty similar to what I know then, except the amount of people is way smaller. I myself have an Ability, or well Quirk... It's called Accuracy. It allows me to not miss. Do you have one, what is it?" Itsuki says.

Midoriya looks at Itsuki with a twinkle in his eyes.

"My Quirk is called Superpower..." Midoriya starts.

"Pretty simple name." Ren interrupts.

"Well yeah" Midoriya continues "It allows me to enhance my main abilities."
"So its enhanced strength?" Itsuki asks.
The conversation goes on for a bit longer and just like that they conclude that they come from different words.

After a bit more chatter about the situation Izuku asks "So, you've all played video games that are like this world, right? You got any advice?"

Motoyasu says "First things first, you are the shield hero correct? You're going to have it pretty thought for yourself."

Midoriya asks "What do you mean? Why?"

Ren says "Sorry, but shielders suck man."

"Why?" Midoriya asks while looking at the shield stuck on his arm a bit puzzled.

"They specialize in defense, meaning they don't have many attack capabilities." Itsuki says.

"They're decent in the early game but as the other classes improve the Shield tends to be left behind." Ren adds.

"But specializing in defense doesn't mean the shield is bad, it means you have different parameters you operate under. Even if I can't attack I can still protect everybody. That's a hero's job right?" Midoriya retorts.

"I guess, but you can't do anything by yourself." Motoyasu comments.

"Good thing we're getting some party members tomorrow." Midoriya responds.

"I guess you're right..." Motoyasu comments, not totally convinced.

"Plus, if worst comes to worst you can always rely on your quirk." Itsuki adds.

"Got any more advice for me? Places I should go to get stronger stuff like that?" Midoriya asks.

"To start out with leveling outside the castletown should be fine, but as you level up it becomes harder to reach the next one, heading away from the castle the monsters will get stronger, but they also award more XP." Ren comments.

"You can also head to dungeons and places like that in order to Farm XP more easily." Itsuki adds.

Midoriya then yawns and heads to his own room to sleep. Before he falls asleep though he spends a bit of time looking into the help menus and the different areas of the shield, learning a lot of information.

The next day after waking up the heroes are summoned into the King's chamber to assemble their parties.

In the situation it's the Party members that get to choose which hero they wish to follow, so because of the region's disdain for the Shield Hero he ends up with 0 Party members.

A bit hurt with the outcome, Midoriya is still unwavering and ready to head out to become stronger even if he is alone... he could make friends along the way he thought. However before setting out a Girl in Motoyasus party asks if she could switch parties to join Midoriya.

There are no complaints so she joins Midoriya. Afterwards the heroes are given their funds and set out on their adventures. After saying goodbye to the other heroes Midoriya turns to Myne and asks "So what should we do now?"

With a smile on her face she says "I guess I should introduce myself. My name is Myne Sophia, it's an honor to meet you and to fight by your side."

"I'm Izuku Midoriya... thanks for choosing to help me." he says.

"Why of course, it's my pleasure sir Hero, where should we head to first?" Asks Myne again, smiling at Izuku.

"I'm not totally sure, we probably need some equipment, so a weapons shop or something of the sort should be our first stop." says Midoriya analyzing the situation.

"I'll take you to the best one in town. They should have everything you need." As she says this, Myne starts walking leading the way, with Izuku following close behind.

As they walk through the town Izuku looks in amazement at all the magic being used, he marvels at this new world.

"We're here." says Mine as they reach the weapons shop.

Walking in Midoriya looks in awe at the place. The owner steps up to the counter and says "Welcome sir, first time in a weapons shop I'd venture." Midoriya nods. "It's written all over your face. You sure know how to pick them." Erhard continues "So what can I do for you today mr..."

"Oh, I'm Izuku Midoriya, the shield hero. And actually I didn't pick it, she did." Midoriya says looking over at Myne who is hiding a bit behind Midoriya.

"You do look familiar Miss. Anyway what can I do for you ?" asks the weaponsmith.

"We are here to get some equipment for , our budget is around 250 silvers." says Myne.

Erhard goes to grab some weapons in the back to prepare a display, while he does Midoriya walks to a bunch of shields and grabs one.

As he does the weapon copy system activates. He then sets it down and grabs another.

Midoriya then starts muttering to himself "The weapon copy system seems to work, but I'm not high enough level to use any of these... the good news is I'll be able to unlock them as I get stronger without having to do much."

Myne walks up to him and asks "What are you doing ?"

Midoriya turns to her and says "Just looking at the shield over here, seeing if I'd be interested in any."

"I see" says Myne.

"Come over here kid, I have some weapons ready for you to see." Midoriya walks over and so Erhard continues "I prepared a couple weapons for you to pick from. Left to right that's Iron, Magic Iron, Magic Steel and SIlver Iron in ascending order of price. All quality swords Guaranteed."

A bit amazed at how they look, Midoriya tries to grab the Magic Iron sword, but when he does an electric discharge is released, making Midoriya drop the sword.

"What the?" He exclaims surprised at what just happened. He tries grabbing another one, but it again jumps out of his hands, with an electrical discharge being released, the sword ends up sticking to the roof.

"What's going on?" Izuku asks, not understanding the cause of the events.

Both of the others with him don't know either. Then a help screen appears in Midoriya's field of vision saying "A hero can not hold, with intent to fight, any weapon other than their assigned legendary weapon."

"Just great." Midoriya says along with a sigh of defeat.

"What's the matter ?" asks Myne, appearing concerned.

"Apparently I can't use any other weapons other than the shield in order to fight." Midoriya responds.

Curious Erhard tries using his appraisal skills on the Shield, he probes a bit asking some questions but doesn't learn much.

After analyzing it, Erhard says "Thanks for showing me something interesting. Wanna buy some armour?"

Midoriya thinks for a moment and responds "It's one of the few things I can actually use so it might be a good idea, got any more shields I can take a look at too other than the ones on display?"

"Sure." Erhard responds, going into the back.

Midoriya has a look at all the shields in the shop using the weapon copy system to at least save them into his shield.

Erhard asks "Wanna buy any?"

A bit flustered Midoriya says "No, no, thanks. It seems my shield is stronger than the ones you have here..."

Erhard asks "Seriously, some of these shields are pretty good and come from some pretty far off places, that small thing is more powerful?"

"Well it is of legend." Midoriya answers.

After that exchange he tries on a couple of different armours settling on a chainmail armour that allows for plenty of mobility and defense.

They pay for the armour and a thought crosses Izuku's mind. "Can you do any custom orders?" he asks.

Erhard thinks for a moment and responds "As long as you bring the materials I can make you just about anything Kid."

"Great, see you soon then." Izuku says as he and Myne leave the shop.

They then head to the fields right outside the castle to level up a bit.

They walk to a tree and set down their stuff.

"How should we proceed?" Asks Midoriya.

"These fields are filled with a lot of low level monsters such as orange balloons, how about you show me what the shield hero is all about." Myne says smiling at Midoriya.

"Sure." Midoriya says.

He spots some balloons and runs after them, once they engage him he tries to activate one for all full cowl, but the moment he does, he feels a jolt of electricity throughout his entire body and flies back, hitting the ground. Myne walks to his side and asks "Are you okay ?"

Midoriya gets up and says "I'm fine."

"What happened?" Asks Myne.

"I'm not sure. "answers Midoriya."

He looks at his hand and thinks "It activated for a moment. I still have one for all inside so why didn't it work?"

As the thought enters his mind a glitched out version of the warning appears before him " hero ca ca can not hold,with intent to fight, a a any we we weapon other than their a a assigned legendary weapon."

"So it counts as a Weapon?" Midoriya murmurs.

"What's that?" Myne asks curiously.

"Nothing!" answers Midoriya. "I'm going to try again." he continues.

He jumps back at the balloons, evading some attacks and hitting them back.

He pops a couple after hitting them over and over again. He even discovers that they can't hurt him. But he only gets 1XP by killing them because of the inefficient use of the shield. SO doesn't get anywhere.

After a while he walks towards Myne a bit tired.

"Your turn." He says as he sits down to rest. Looking at his shield a couple green sparks seems to come out of it. Midoriya just ignores it.

"I'll do my best!" Myne says, while smiling at him and pulls her sword from her scabbard and goes to kill some orange balloons.

Some time passes and after she's done they feed a bunch of the materials to the shield. The small orange shield is unlocked but not much more.

Midoriya says "Huh, seems like they don't drop anything then apart from the actual parts, guess that's because it's a balloon and didn't leave a body behind..."

Myne asks "What are you talking about sir hero?"

"Oh ignore me, I tend to ramble on, I was just mentioning that the drop function of the shield doesn't really work with the balloons." Midorya responds.

"What's a drop function?" Myne asks.

To which Midoriya answers "It's a skill that the shield and the other weapons have. I can apparently feed it dead monsters and it will turn them into items and such."

NIght starts to set in and the two head back to the castletown. On the way to the Inn they pass by the weapons shop.

While Myne looks around selecting some pieces of equipment Midoriya talks to Erhard asking him a bunch of questions and taking notes.

After a while Midoriya runs out of questions, he turns to myne and asks "Why are we here again?"

"To get some new gear for me of course." Myne responds.

She comes out of the changing room wearing a brand new armour and with a new sword in her scabbard.

"How do I look?" She asks, wanting to hear him complimenting her.

Midoriya paying more attention to his status window wanting to find out more secrets of the shield answers "You look pretty good."

He turns to Erhard and asks "How much will this cost?"

"With a hero's discount let's go with 480 Silvers." Erhard answers.

Midoriya thinks "With the 120 that we gave him this morning that'd only leave us with 200 of what the king gave us."

He turns to Myne and asks "Mind buying a bit less, we still need to account for other expenses."

"Think about it sir hero, with better equipment, I'll be able to kill more monsters tomorrow."

Myne responds.

Midoriya thinks for a moment and says "Keep the sword and get another armour. I agree that it's an asset but still we should keep some for meels, time at Inns and to pay passage through places. Right?"

Erhard nods. And Myne with a bit of a mad look goes to put the armour back.

"That'll be 180 Silvers for the sword kid." Erhard says.

Midoriya pays the man, then he reaches into his shield grabbing a piece of the orange balloon.

"Is there any way we can sell these?" He asks.

Erhard looks at the piece of Balloon for a moment and answers "There are some shops around town where you can sell monster drops, but here it's only armor and weapons I'm afraid."

"Thanks anyway." says Midoriya as he leaves the shop.

They then head to a nearby Inn, where they have dinner together. There Myne offers him some wine, but Midoriya says "No thanks, I'm actually underage."

Myne looks at him confused, so Midoriya clarifies explaining that he is not a legal adult in his world and thus not allowed to drink alcohol.

Myne says "The rules of your world don't apply here though, you're free to drink as much as you'd like."

Midoriya says "I guess you're right, but I still don't really care for the stuff. Have to stay fit for tomorrow."

He then heads to his room. On the way though he bumps into Itsuki exchanging a couple lines between themselves, where Midoriya again comes out as useless since he didn't gain a single level, but Itsuki still sympathizes with him.

When he arrives in his room Midoriya exercises a bit more while contemplating on his next move, he starts thinking about all the events of the day and decides to use his Hero analysis notebook as a sort of diary.

After finishing the notes for the day he sets everything down, takes off the armour and goes to sleep.

While sleeping he has some pretty strange dreams of heroes, such as All Might and others he doesn't recognize fighting a sort of spirit, an orb of light, holding a shield, with him watching from the side lines. In the end the heroes managed to win the battle though.

While he's sleeping a small group breaks into his room grabbing his armour, school uniform and money.

One of the "robbers" asks "What about this notebook?"

Another "robber" looks at and says: "What even is this, it's just some dum pictures, not even proper writing, leave it."

The next day Midoriya wakes up early in the morning full of motivation, he goes to grab his armour only to realize that it's gone, he starts looking around his room only to realize that all his belongings excluding his shield and notebook had been stolen.

He thinks for a moment and then goes to the Innkeeper downstairs to report the robbery.

The Innkeeper is about to say he'll inform the guards just as some castlegaurds come in.

Midoriya says "Perfect timing, I was just reporting a robbery."

The head knight stares at Midoriya in silence for a moment and then says "Shield Hero, the King has issued a summons for you boy! You are to come with us."

"What's this about?" Izuku asks.

"You are to come with us as ordered by the King of Melromarc Shield Hero." the knight says.

"I heard you, can't you tell me what it's about?" As he asks he is grabbed being dragged to the carriage.

"Hey what are you doing?" He asks confused as to what is happening.

"We are to take you to the castle at once Shield Hero! Please do not resist" The knight says.

Thus Midoriya is taken to the castle. Upon reaching the Kings chambers he is thrown on the floor, his notebook being thrown beside him.

He looks up and spots Myne.

He mumbles "I didn't even think about her."

"Are you alright Myne. Did they hurt you?" He asks, but Myne just hides behind Motoyasu some tears in her eyes.

"What's wrong, What happened?" Midoriya asks, confused at the situation.

He turns to the King bows and says "Your majesty, it appears that my belongings have been stolen, while..."

Before he can finish his sentence the King interrupts saying "Silence you filth." Leaving Midoriya stunned.

The King then says "Myne I'm sorry to ask my dear, but would you mind repeating your testimony for us again?"

While whimpering Myne says "It happened last night, the shield hero forced his way into my room. He grabbed me and pinned me down. He said something like 'the night is still young' and then the next thing I knew he was tearing my clothes off. Somehow I managed to escape. I ran down the hall for help and found Sir Motoyasu who happened to be staying at the same Inn."

Midoriya looks stunned hearing these words not knowing what's happening.

Motoyasu then says "If she hadn't asked me to wait until dawn and wait for the knights I would have gladly cut you down myself."

Midoriya looks at Motoyasu, noticing he's wearing his Armour. Midoriya thinks for a moment and asks "May I speak freely?"

The king replies "I will not allow such filth to utter a single..."

Before he can finish his sentence Ren says "I think we should at least hear him out, get his side of the story"

The king quiets down for a moment regains his composure and says "Very well, the floor is yours Shield."

Midoriya stands up and continues "Firstly I would like to say that I am being falsely accused of a crime I did not commit. Yesterday I had dinner with Myne, she offered me some wine, but I declined since by my world's rules I am still underage and not allowed to drink. Afterwards I went to my room running into Itsuki on the way. He saw me go to my room, he even teased me on how weak I was. I did not leave the room afterwards. I even wrote about it all in this book."

At this point the king tries to retort his defense, but Midoriya just continues "Secondly, that armour that Motoyasu is wearing belongs to me and I would like to request it be returned."

Motoyasu outraged retorts "What are you talking about, this armour was gifted to me by Myne. She gave it to me as a gift at the Pub yesterday."

Midoriya says "I talked to the Weapon shop owner yesterday, I was pretty curious as I usually am so I asked how they kept track of all those weapons. He told me that they categorized them, they keep detailed records. If she did in fact gift you the armour where did she get it?"

Myne says "Oh I'm the princess, so everything in the castle belongs to me, I grabbed it out of an old storeroom!"

"There you have it!" says the king wanting to move on, but before he can itsuki says "We should probably still check the records just to make sure!"

The king asks for the records to be taken to him and he says "Indeed they come from the castle storeroom. Now can we move on, he did commit a great sin."

Ren says "Hold it. I agree that we still need to discuss that, but it does seem like having the father of the one who supposedly stole the armour read the records is a bit unfair. You could be setting him up."

"Nonsense what reason could I have for such a thing." The king comments "Regardless we will table this discussion until later, for now Mister Midoriya, we must decide on your punishment. If you weren't a hero, then death would be your penalty, however we may still need your aid to defend against waves."

"I'm telling you I'm innocent. I committed no crime that I know at least. If I did there'd be evidence." Midoriya says.

A knight comes in saying "Sir, while examining his quarters we found this." He pulls out a single piece of women's undergarment.

"Huh. What that wasn't in my room when I was there, my room was completely empty." Midoriya says.

"The evidence could have been planted." Ren admits.

"What are you talking about, he's guilty." Motoyasu screams out outraged.

"You have to admit that all this seems very convoluted, like a conspiracy almost." Itsuki says.

"But he did it, I know he did. Otherwise why would Myne be crying like this."Motoyasu says.

"Rumors about your actions are already being spread about your heinous acts. That'll be your punishment." The King says.

"But I didn't do it." Midoriya reaffirms, he then continues "If you're so adamant that I did just send me home and summon a new shield hero."

"I would love nothing more, but the legends say that once all the heroes have been summoned, no new heroes can be summoned until the waves have been defeated." The king says, giving a disappointed sigh.

"Now cast him out of my sight" The King orders after a moment of silence.

The Knights go to grab Midoriya, but before they can. Ren says "Hold it. Don't think we'd forget"

"We still have to discuss about the armour and about his equipment being stolen." Itsuki adds.

The discussion goes on a bit longer. Not wanting to upset the other 3 heroes too much, the King ends up pitying Midoriya giving him some weak armour from the armory, instead of the one Motoyasu is now wearing.

He thanks Itsuku and Ren for their help and is then thrown out of the castle town to fend for himself.