I do not own or maintain any rights to Rising of The Shield Hero they belong to One Piece Books and Aneko Yusagi. I am just playing in their sandbox for a minute.

Chapter 1: Blank Pages

Being transported to another world is really not a good way to start your morning in fact the only way it could be worse is to find out the world you were transported to does not have coffee. My name is Richard James Williamson, I was on vacation in Japan and thought my day was going to be like the rest of the days that I had spent here you know? I was only planning on looking for some interesting novels to bring back home with me to show my friends, but I guess fate had other plans.

I had been looking around the used bookstore for a little while when I realized just how out of my element I was. We have bookstores back home in America but not anything quite like this, the shelves were filled to the bring with thousands of light novels ranging from looking like new to almost falling apart from their age. It just had a feeling to it that I couldn't quite capture. I was perusing one of the shelves holding the older looking books when I bumped into another person.

They impacted the ground with a soft "Oof". "Sorry," I said quickly while doing my best to look abashed. "I was not looking where I was going. I was captivated by all the books they sell here." I explained using my best Japanese while helping the young man I knocked over back to his feet.

"It's okay I can get lost while looking at books myself." He stated with his hand on the back of his head whilst having a gentle smile. "It is nice to run into another fan of books, my name Naofumi Iwatani Mr?" Naofumi chirped while giving a polite bow.

"Ah, my name is Richard Williamson, it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance Iwatani-san," I said bowing back to Naofumi.

"So, what brings you to Japan Williamson-sama?" Naofumi asked politely subtly referencing my age by using "sama".

"I am on vacation right now. I was hoping to bring back some light novels as souvenirs." I explained while gesturing to all the books around us. "There seems to be quite a large selection here and I got a little overwhelmed."

"It happened to me my first time here as well, but I enjoy that they have a large selection. I can always find something I like when I come. In fact, I just found one of the older Isekai novels but something strange about it. It looks like it was misprinted see." Naofumi explained while opening the book he was holding to a section near the middle and stepping beside me so we could look at it at the same time.

"Huh, isn't that something," I said while I supported the other side of the book with my right-hand rubbing elbows with Naofumi while we looked at the book together. He was right a section titled The Shield Hero appeared to be completely blank. 'That's very interesting misprints are extremely rare in books.' I was thinking while turning to look at Naofumi. Only to see him look wobbly on his feet. I dropped the book without thinking and shifted my arm around his back to support him. "You okay there….bud?" I asked as I realized that I was starting to pass out too.

'Could the book be tainted with some kind of fast-acting virus?' I thought to myself has I fully passed out and the world went black.

Well, that is one chapter done! I know it is short, but I just wanted to get something done and posted up to get the ball rolling. I am going to try and update as often as my schedule lets me. I should have the second chapter up in a couple of days though. Thanks for the read! -Sobe Out.

Edited 23-12-19: Spelling and grammar