Ok so I've been wanting to do a rising of the shield hero story for a while but never really got around to it until now.

I was originally deciding between doing a self insert with the main OC being a fifth hero(which I would have done but hit a very fast snag), one where they're summoned in place of Naofumi as the shield hero(might do that one in the future.) Or one that took inspiration from the story called in the people you trust before deciding on this idea thought the inspiration from the other story I mentioned will kind of still be there.

There were a few other ideas I thought of including a Fitoria X Naofumi fic (that seriously needs to be a thing) but I would rather leave that to someone more skilled than me.

"Jeez this is just my luck, of course the bus would decide to break down now of all times."

A young woman around the age of twenty one with long blond hair that came down to her mid back and had two monitor tails tied of both sides and word black pants along with a thick cotton white border line shirt that left her shoulders exposed who went by the name of Audrey and deep blue eyes walked down the sidewalk.

All she had wanted was to simply wanted to buy more food to store in her dorm the only method of transportation she currently had available became unusable. Seriously she might have to look into getting her own car, the only reason she didn't already have one was because of the time it would take to save up the money required.

Sighing she simply continued on her way. "Mine as well eat out if only to make my day a little better." With that idea in mind Audrey made her way to a fast food establishment. Once she had ordered her food and sat at the table of her choice she began skimming through her smartphone to pass the time as she tried to figure at what she wanted to do once she was done eating.

She might have gone to an archery range she often frequented if it weren't for the fact that it was currently closed.

Maybe the public library might be an ideal option. While it was only open for a limited number of hours due to it being the weekend Audrey would at least be able to enjoy better internet while she was there.

After she got her food and wolfed it down Audrey wasted no time in headed to her next destination. Once she arrived she sat at a vacant desk and began playing an online app game until it came close to the closing time for the library. Seeing as she would have to return to her dorm soon Audrey figured decided she mine as well check something out while she was at it.

Since she was an avid fan of the fantasy genre she decided it would be a good place to start. After about the first minute or two of browsing she stumbled upon a book called record of the four cardinal heroes before shrugging and pulling it out. Judging from the title it sounded like your run of the mill fantasy story and that impression was only solidified even further when she began skimming through it.

It depicted four heroes wielding different weapons such as a spear, sword, bow, and shield and using them to fight off a catastrophe called the waves. The first two weapons were along the lines of what you would expect a protagonist to wield in the type of setting the book depicted with the bow was something that was more to Audrey's personal preference since it was what she specialized in, the shield was something she wasn't really sure what to make of. While it was definitely useful when used alongside the spear or sword the idea of using just on its own wasn't something that could be considered common granted it could still be used in an offensive manner if one really tried be the fact remained that it was primarily meant to be a defensive armament.

One thing that really snagged Audrey's attention was the mention of a princess, contrary to what would likely be popular belief the lady in question was not the usual pure hearted maiden by any means, rather she was a corrupt whore who vied for the heroes attention manipulating them and turning them against each other.

Audrey couldn't help but roll her eyes upon seeing this. 'This princess might fall from the stereotype but it doesn't sound like she's going to be a likable character by any means, if anything it sound like she'll be a villain more than anything.'

Before she could dive further into the novel the intercom system was activated. "Attention customers the library will be closing in five minutes."

Sighing in slight annoyance at the notion of practically being rushed out the door she hurried to the front desk to check out the book before heading back to her dorm room.

Once she arrived back at her room her phone started ringing. Pulling out her phone she saw that it was her longtime friend before answering. "What's up Patrica?"

"Nothing much, I was wondering if you were still up for catching the upcoming movie tomorrow."

"Yeah, my schedule is still pretty much free."

"Good. Anyway anything good happen today?"

"Not really, if anything my luck has been pretty damn rotten."

Audrey heard a snicker on the other end of the line causing her to roll her eyes "The bus decided today would be a good time to break down so I couldn't buy more food for my room."

"That doesn't sound like a fun day."

"It wasn't, honestly I think I'm starting to realize how Kamijou Touma feels."

That earned a bit of laughter from Patrica. "You mean that anime character?"

"Pretty much."

"At least your luck isn't nearly as non existent."

"True but the whole train thing threw off my entire day."

"Well tomorrow will definitely be better and who knows you might even meet your soulmate."

It was Audrey's turn to laugh. "If I were to actually meet a guy that special tomorrow it'll be amazing considering the odds."

"Just remember to keep a positive attitude."

"Right anyway I gotta turn soon so I'll see you tomorrow."

"I'll be holding you to it. Bye." With that Patrica hung up ending the call. Now with nothing else left to do Audrey decided to continue where she left off with the novel.

From the looks of it each hero had a section dedicated to them individually or least that was supposed to be the case but the shield and bow hero sections were completely blank earning a raised eyebrow from the college student.

"Why is this book even available to checkout when it's incomplete?" Audrey could only sigh at this. While was wasn't exactly expecting too much from the novel she would have at the very least liked for it to serve as a means to pass the time. "So the adolescence of rotten luck refuses to go away even at the very end of the day."

Placing the book on a night stand she preceded to turn in for the night hoping that tomorrow will be a better day as she felt her consciousness faded out.

...at least for a minute or two until. "The summoning was a success."

"Wha- where am I?!" Audrey exclaimed looking around frantically before discovering that she was no longer in her dorm room but rather a stone room located god knows where with a man dressed in robes that looked like they belonged to a priest standing across from her.

"Oh brave cardinal heroes we beg of you please save our world from the waves of disaster."

'Heroes? Are they referring to me?' Audrey wondered before realizing the priest was using the plural version of the word hero meaning there were others brought here if that combined with what the priest said about a summoning being a success was anything to by.

Looking around her Audrey saw three others to both of her sides. To her left was a boy with black hair and a surprisingly feminine face holding a sword with blue jewel embedded in the blade, the second person was a young man around her age with blond hair tied into a ponytail holding a spear with a red jewel embedded in the shaft just below the head.

To Audrey's right was another young man who was also around her age with black hair and green eyes wearing a green and white hoodie and black pants who had a shield with a green jewel in its center looked like he was about to take the initiative to respond to the priest's plea but the guy holding the spear beat him to it.

"We refuse."

The guy holding the shield eyes widened at this and looked as if he was about to protest and to be honest Audrey was about to do the same but unfortunately for either of the two the guy holding the sword was the first to follow up.

"You can't just kidnap us from our world and make such demands. Don't you feel any sense of guilt?"

"Yeah it's pretty insensitive of you to try and force us to risk our lives."

Audrey could only look on in annoyance at the spear and sword holders. While what they were saying could be considered morally right it was clear from their demeanor they didn't care in the least bit about any of that meaning what they were really after was more than likely…..

"We should at least get some kind of reward."

Audrey would have face palmed but a distraction from the came in the form of the realization that she like the other three who were summoned was also holding a weapon. In the palm of her primary hand was a metallic bow with a yellow jewel embedded inside. 'So including the other three summoned here with me we have spear, sword, bow, and shield. This is starting to seem too much like that novel I read.'

All that aside Audrey figured that it was something along the lines of money that the other two heroes were after.

The hero wielding a spear leveled his weapon at the priest. "If you can't even do that much than we might have to become your enemy."

Audrey felt her annoyance become irritation. The spear hero had a bit too much of an ego on him which really didn't paint him in any positive light in Audrey. "Speak for yourselves."

This caused the sword and spear hero to look at Audrey in surprise and disbelief. "Yo-you can't be serious. These people our asking us to risk our lives for them." The latter tried to protest causing Audrey to roll her eyes.

'You say that but you're not actually the least bit worried about that nor is the kid wielding that sword.'

"If you want to dig your own grave by picking a fight that could easily end badly for you be my guest but don't drag me into it."

"You can't mean that you're just gonna roll over and do what they say."

"I intend to at least hear them out and find out what the full situation is and decide where to go from there."

"Seriously? Don't you think that's a little naive?" The sword hero inquired.

"Not as naive as trying to force demands and make blatant threats when you might not be in a position to do either."

The sword scowled at Audrey before the shield hero spoke up. "You know I have to agree with her that maybe we should hear these guys out before making a bunch of demands."

"Thank you." Audrey said glad that someone amongst them had common sense, granted the guy was armed with only a shield but still Audrey appreciated the fact that he didn't have the overinflated ego the other two had. "Anyway is there anyone we can speak with this whole arrangement further like a higher authority?"

The priest breathe a sigh of relief probably glad that the situation was alleviated courtesy of Audrey. "Of course I'll take you to see the king of this country."

With that the priest walked towards the exit of the room which lead to a spiraling staircase going upwards with all four heroes following close behind. While the group made their up what was in all likelihood a tower Audrey took a look outside and saw green meadows as far as the eye could see grassfields out in the horizon meaning she definitely wasn't in her city, country, or even the her world for that matter.

Glancing at the other three heroes is she figured it was safe to assume that they were from Earth just like her, well it might have been obvious from the way they were dressed but there was no absolute form of confirmation as things currently stood since none of the three actually said they were from earth. That aside the question that ran through Audrey's mind was where she was now whilst the other three heroes held their own chat which she tuned out for the time being.

After another minute the group made it to the top of the staircase and from there were brought to a thrown which was unsurprisingly by Audrey's standards was filled with members of the nobility upon one of two thrones sat a man wearing regal purple robes who Audrey could only assume was the ruler.

Along with the other three heroes she bowed to one knee before the king as a sign of respect. "Brave heroes please raise your heads."

All four otherworlders raised their heads to look at the King who continued. "I am the ruler of the Melromarc Aultcray the thirty second and the one who has summoned you to save our world from the catastrophe known as the waves."

'That lines up with what the priest told us.' Audrey thought "Is there any chance we could ask you to elaborate further about the situations with these waves?"

"Of course. You see our world has recently been faced with a catastrophic legend in which hordes of monsters appear in the form of waves which will destroy our world if they are not stopped but unfortunately we thought that this legend was little more than a myth until the dragon hourglass began moving and the first wave appeared."

Audrey raised an eyebrow at this information. If that truly was the case than that would mean that these waves began to attack the world before she or any of the other heroes were summoned but there wasn't any sign of the wave in question.

"Our military forces were able to subdue the wave but at far too great cost that we realized we would never be able to stop the waves on our own so we decided to head the old prophecy and summon you heroes to help us in our time of need."

The spear hero stood up and replied. "That's nice and all but are we getting anything out of this? I mean you guys are asking a pretty huge favor of us so I think we should get some kind of reward for it."

"Of course we'd never ask you to partake in such an endeavor for free, you'll be greatly rewarded for your troubles."

The sword hero took a step forward. "And don't think for a second you can tame us, just because you summoned us doesn't mean we're gonna let you control us."

Audrey could only groan at the sheer amount of ego mixed with sheer stupidity of the sword and spear hero. At this point she was all but expecting the king to decide that they weren't worth dealing with and to have them disposed of but a bit to her surprise and relief the king just nodded as if in understanding.

"Fair enough, now I will ask you future heroes all to introduce yourselves."

Upon hearing this request the spear hero eagerly stepped up to introduce himself. "Motoyasu Kitamura, age twenty one college student."

Audrey noted that the spear hero had a Japanese name which immediately caused her to question how she could understand him but she quickly decided that was a question left for later as the sword hero went next.

"Ren Akami, age 16, highschool student." The sword hero said giving off a tough demeanor which really wasn't anything to be particularly impressed by.

"Audrey Alethea, age twenty one, college student."

The shield hero stepped up next but the king spoke before he had a chance of introducing himself earning a raised eyebrow from Audrey.

"Motoyasu, Ren, and Audrey correct?"

"Yeah but why did you just forget the shield hero? You summoned him to save your world like the rest of us so maybe you shouldn't just forget him like that especially if you want his help." Audrey shot off shocking the king.

The shield hero looked at Audrey with a mixture of surprise and appreciation. "Th-thanks for standing up for me."

"There's no reason for you to be treated unfairly especially when you haven't done anything to warrant it." Audrey leveled the king with a stern gaze.

"M-my Apologies, shield hero you may introduce yourself." The king said bearing a hint of annoyance in his expression for a moment which didn't go unnoticed by Audrey who began to wonder if the king had something against Naofumi.

"Right my name is Naofumi Iwatani, age twenty, college student."

The king leaned back in his chair. "Good now fellow heroes please check your statuses.

Audrey was confused by this request and apparently she wasn't the only one, both Naofumi and Motoyasu looked just as bewildered as she herself was before Ren chimed in. "Haven't you noticed the icon in your peripheral vision?"

Audrey and the other two heroes looked within their peripheral vision and sure enough there was indeed a box shaped icon in the bottom right corner of their sight.

Upon pressing at it with her index figure Audrey was met with the sight of what looked to be her basic stats.

Audrey Alethea level 1

Weapon: legendary bow "locked"

Equipment: otherworldly clothes

Hp: 148/148

Sp 53/53

Sta: 15

Def: 7

Agi: 22

Dex: 18

Skills: none

'Ok so these are my basic stats.' Audrey noted. From the looks of it her specialty with lie more in her agility than anything which made sense since at least in the rpg games she's played a bow users was usually something of a nimble long distance light hitter which seemed to apply here if her status was anything to go by.

'It looks like I'll have to avoid being directly on the front lines, with the lack of defense I can't afford to tank damage.' Audrey grimaced at this. It's not that the weakness wasn't to be expected but it wasn't exactly comforting either given the situation that was unfolding.

"Ahh level 1, seriously how are we supposed to fight the waves at level 1?" Motoyasu moaned out.

Ignoring the complaint Audrey inspected her menu even further and pulled up a status tree which showed a massive list of different bows and skills all of which were unsurprisingly locked. It was a safe bet to assume that she'd have to start unlocking them but the question was how, was it a simple matter of just leveling up or was there another step involved.

"You will each have to go out on a journey to strengthen your weapons." The king announced.

"Well until our weapons are stronger we should use different ones that aren't this weak."

Motoyasu said causing Audrey to sigh.

Apparently when he was looking through his menu he must have missed the part where it said the weapon he had was "locked" which could only mean fighting with other weapons was not a possibility.

"If we have to go out to power up our weapons I guess we should form a party." Naofumi suggested enthusiastically only for someone that seemed to be an advisor to shoot that idea down.

"I'm sorry but that won't be possible, legends claim that when the weapons are within close proximity to each other they interfere with one another and as a result neither will grow stronger meaning all of you will have to venture out into the world separately."

"That's not very assuring. Are we seriously supposed to go out by ourselves when we're only level 1?" Motoyasu complained.

"Fear not heroes. We will make sure to find worthy adventures to aid you in your endeavors for now please enjoy a grand feast tonight."

With that the four heroes were lead to a dining area where they soon found that the king meant what he had previously said before they had left the throne room. There was indeed a grand feast waiting for them which the three heroes aside from Audrey wasted no time taking their seats with Ren and Motoyasu on one side whilst Naofumi sat on the other.

Audrey simply took a seat next to Naofumi and began eating what she needed to have her fill for the night whilst reflecting on the entire situation.

After having a day that wasn't filled with the best luck she decided to rent a novel and was transported to this world later on. She found it odd that this world seemed to be based off of the novel in question if her weapon along with others was anything to go by along with the situation the four soon to be heroes were presented with.

Another thing that she found somewhat disturbing was how the world had the characteristics of a game which could very easily mislead a great deal of people into believing this actually was a game but Audrey herself knew better, just from the conversations that were held in the throne room she knew that the people were not simply NPCs, if that was the case they'd only be able to say lines that were in a script but what was witnessed previously was an authentic conversation with both the priest and king.

Essentially the world that she and the others were brought to was real which also meant that the danger from the waves would be very real which in turn meant that if Audrey and the others underestimated the direness of the situation they'd lose their lives. While the others were obviously excited by the entire prospect of everything Audrey was much more uneasy, personally she'd rather just be sent home and leave this in someone else's hands but her intuition told her that those responsible for summoning her wouldn't simply be willing to just let her leave especially if the situation was as desperate as the king described.

Weather she liked it or not the underlying truth was that she had no choice but to cooperate. 'Well I'll need to make sure to learn specifics fast to optimize my chances of making it through this.'

"So Audrey." A voice suddenly said snapping the bow hero at of her thoughts and causing to look in its direction to see Motoyasu smiling confidently at her. "What do you say we explore the town together before we start our adventure tomorrow?"

Audrey had to resist the urge to groan in annoyance (at least on the outside) at Motoyasu's antic, it was obvious what his intention was and Audrey was not the least bit flattered in fact she was more disgusted than anything, she had seen the spear hero's type before skirt chasers that didn't have a shred of faithfulness and thought the opposite sex was just a mass of toys for their amusement, needless to say Audrey was not interested.

"Yeah no."

"Re-really?" Motoyasu asked practically stunned by the fact that his advancement had been rejected outright.

"Yeah, I'll look around the town on my own."

"Al-alright." Judging by his demeanor the spear hero wasn't used to being rejected by the opposite gender hell Audrey was willing to bet the thought of rejection never crossed Motoyasu's mind.

"Don't worry about I'm sure the king can find an adventurer that'll go with you tomorrow." Naofumi said trying to console his fellow hero.

"Maybe but it better be a hot woman." Motoyasu declared causing Naofumi to chuckle and Audrey to roll her eyes whilst the heroes continued eating.

'This guy seriously needs to learn to see past the point of his dick before it gets him killed.'

XXXXX

"Here's one of the rooms we've prepared for you tonight and the other is just the next door over." A maid said leading the heroes to one of two bed rooms prepared specifically for them.

"I could get used to this type of VIP treatment." Motoyasu said taking a seat on one of the beds.

Naofumi simply stood at the entrance and placed his hand on his chin. "This world feels a lot like a game."

"That's because it is a game, haven't you all noticed the resemblance to emerald online?"

This earned confused stares from Naofumi and Ren whilst Audrey just remained stoic until the sword hero decided to break the brief silence.

"Seriously? I think you're mistaken, if anything this game is based off the famous VRMMO brave star online."

"Huh? I've never heard of it."

"You're kidding right? You know about some game that hasn't even made it into the mainstream but you have no idea what the biggest online game is?"

"That's my line, there practically isn't a soul that hasn't heard of emerald online."

Motoyasu turned his gaze to the other two occupants. "You two know about the game right."

Naofumi just were an awkward smile."Actually I haven't really heard of either of the games you mentioned."

"Neither have I for that matter." Audrey said offhandedly.

"Seriously? Is everyone here from a different world or something?"

Ren shrugged at this. "Maybe, who's the prime minister of Japan?" Motoyasu and Noafumi both gave different answers before the sword hero divulged a third name.

"Ok whose face is on the one thousand yen bill."

Again all three came out with different answers. Audrey meanwhile slumped her shoulders before adding her impute. "I guess that settles it, were all from different versions of japan as well as the US if you consider me in all this.

"True but I still want to know how we all got here?" Ren replied.

"Is there anything you can tell us about yourself coming here?"

"Well believe it or not I was with my friend when against all odds we somehow managed to run into a serial killer of all things."

All three of the other rooms occupants were taken aback by this new info. "Yo-you serious?!" Naofumi exclaimed.

"Yeah both me and my friend basically got into an altercation which lead to me getting stabbed to death before I suddenly found myself here."

Motoyasu whistled. "Damn that sound as gruesome as what happened to me."

"Were you stabbed to?"

"Pretty much. By two cute girls I knew."

Noafumi wore a look and envy whilst Audrey's opinion of Motoyasu dropped significantly more.

"Two timing?" Ren inquired casually to which Motoyasu scratched the back of his head in embarrassment.

"Pretty much, woman can be scary." The spear hero replied shivering a bit whilst Audrey could only roll her eyes thinking 'A shame you had to come back to life.'

Motoyasu then turned to Noafumi. "So how did you end up here?"

"Well you see…" the shield hero trialed off.

"Yeah?"

"I basically read a light novel depicting the four cardinal heroes before being transported here."

This earned full blown laughter from the spear hero. "Seriously how lame. So how about you?" He inquired directing the question at Audrey.

"The same as Naofumi actually."

"Well...it's good that nobody hurt you before you came here."

'And I guess Naofumi's wellbeing is irrelevant to you?' "Right, so anyway tomorrow we might want to try getting a feel for our weapons."

"Fair enough, cutting down level monsters auto be a good place to start. Though I don't know how Noafumi will fair." Motoyasu said glancing at the shield hero with pity.

"Wh-what makes you say that?" Noafumi inquired.

"You have the worst weapon out of all of us here. In Emerald online shielders were only good at the start of the game since all they can do is block and that became obsolete when players encounter stronger monsters so there were never any high level shielders. To be blunt, the shielder is a useless class that only losers use."

Naofumi turned to Ren. "What about your game?"

"Same, the shield class was useless since it couldn't attack."

Noafumi sighed before walking out to the outer balcony. Audrey was about to become worried for the shield hero being too discouraged thanks to his fellow heroes using the opportunity to put him down for the sake of making themselves look superior when his enthusiasm suddenly returned.

"Aright I just have to get through this in spite of my situation."

Audrey genuinely smiled for the first time since she had been summoned to this world at the sight of Noafumi's outlook on things. While it may have been on the naive side since like the other two he thought that this was a game it was genuinely heartwarming to see his spirit restored.

Walking up to Noafumi Audrey placed a hand on his shoulder to gain his attention. "It's nice to see you stay positive but why don't we get to our room for the night."

"Alright."

XXXXX

"Say Audrey?" Naofumi asked from his bed.

"Yes."

"Do you think the shield is as useless as Motoyasu and Ren made it out to be?"

Audrey had to do a double take just to make sure she heard Naofumi correctly. After the enthusiasm he had previously shown she honestly wasn't expecting her current roommate to actually be harboring doubts about his situation.

"Even if it proved to be inadequate in their respective games doesn't mean it will here."

"Re-really?"

"Yeah. If it does turn out you can't attack then just focus on what you can do which would be defending your teammates."

"Ri-right." Naofumi replied weekly.

"Attacking isn't absolutely everything, just as it allows you to take out an opponent defending keeps you alive. You can have all the attack power you want but if you have no defense to endure anything then all it takes is a couple well placed hits to take you out. Shields are a lot more vital then some might think so do don't let what the other two said define you."

"You're right and….thanks. Also there was one thing I was a bit curious about?"

"I'm all ears."

"Was your light novel the same as mine? You know with the whore princess and each hero except the shield having their own section dedicated entirely to them."

"Actually yeah but in my version there was no section for the bow hero either."

"Really? In my version it said the bow hero was dedicated to the pursuit of justice or something like that."

"I see." Audrey replied unsure of what else to say. If the bow hero was indeed supposed to embody some kind of ideal sense of justice then the weapon probably should have chosen Patrica as a candidate, she would have fit the criteria much better the Audrey ever could.

"Are you someone who's dedicated to justice?"

"Not exactly. I have a friend who would probably have met that particular expectation. She's definitely been there for me during some hard times back when I was still in high school."

"How'd she do that if you don't mind me asking?"

"Well I had one perverted asshole who you could say was basically the western version of Motoyasu in a lot of ways at my school who basically wanted to screw anything he thought he could get his hands on and he eventually set his sights on me."

"And what happened?"

"I rejected the asshole but he wouldn't get the message through his head until I gave him a bloody lip."

"Wow!"

"You shocked?"

"It's just a little hard to imagine."

"I'm stronger than I look but to be fair under normal circumstances I wouldn't do something like that but this guy was someone who wouldn't back off otherwise."

"So where does you friend come into this."

"Well it has to do with what followed. Basically the asshole went around telling his fanclub that I knocked him out for no reason and naturally this lead to two things."

Naofumi listened intently. "First my reputation plummeted and the fanclub tried to exact revenge by ganging up on me."

"I'm guessing your friend stood up for you?"

"Yeah even though it caused her to lose the better part of her other friends she didn't care, in her mind helping me out when I needed someone on my side and doing the roght thing was more important than her own self image."

"She sounds pretty admirable."

"She is. She stood up for me in a situation where most others would have simply left me or anyone else in a similar enough situation to mine to the wolves."

Noafumi thought about what Audrey had just told him and realized it was indeed true. During his high school days he had witnessed a fair share of situations where a fellow student would have a bad rumor started about them and even when it was obvious that the said rumor was a lie if one would think about it students would simply leap at the chance to believe whatever was said and the subject of rumor would lose all their friends, to have someone who is willing to stay by your side in a situation like that was truly a rarity and a blessing.

"Sounds like you had it rough, at least you're better off than I was in some ways."

Audrey raised an eyebrow upon hearing this. With her social life being what it was at that point in time it would take something pretty dramatic to top it in terms of hardship. "How so?"

"You see I'm kind of an otaku."

"You certainly seem like one but what exactly does that have to do with you potentially having a harder life than mine?"

"In japan Otaku's aren't exactly viewed in a positive light by most."

"Really? I've seen a few anime shows that have depicted people not caring much for them but I never knew that they were actually hated."

"Well I wasn't an outcast by society but I was by my parents."

Audrey became slightly nervous believing she had brought up a sensitive subject "Oh, sorry I asked."

"It's fine. Basically since I was a run of the mill otaku my parents basically lost any hope in me doing anything worthwhile and focused their attention on my younger brother."

"It must have been hard on you."

Noafumi scratched the back of his head. "You're not exactly wrong, I was practically disowned by my parents but it wasn't much better for my brother believe it or not."

Audrey raised an eyebrow. "Seriously? I would have thought that with how your parents treated you they would dote on your brother."

"They did but they also put a great deal of pressure on him."

"I'm guessing they were trying to push him to make achievements?"

"Pretty much, they were basically trying to mold him into the idea model child with every academic achievement possible so they could flaunt it."

Audrey felt a sense of growing disgust at Naofumi's parents for viewing their children the way they did as the shield hero continued his story.

"But things didn't go the way they had hoped."

"Did they push him too far or something?"

"Pretty much. They basically put so much pressure on my brother that it lead him reaching his breaking point and beginning to rebel against them via doing things he shouldn't."

"Things like?"

"Failing classes, drugs, gang affiliation, you name it."

"So your parents practically disowned you and drove your brother off the deep end. For whatever it's worth I hope your family situation gets better."

Naofumi smiled temporarily confusing Audrey until his next reply came. "You don't have to worry it already did after I stepped in."

"Really, how?" Audrey inquired genuinely curious as to whatever Naofumi may have done to remedy his family's situation.

"My brother eventually came to me with his problems so I decided to help out the only I could think of. I basically introduced him to the world of anime and video games."

"And that helped?"

"Yeah having the chance to unwind for once in a long time he almost instantly became infatuated and the world of otakus gained a new member."

Audrey couldn't help but giggle when she tried to imagine a delinquent instantly transitions into a haedcore anime lover.

"Thanks to that he stopped doing things he shouldn't have and made up with my parents."

"But what about you. I think after what you did to help him you deserve for something good to have come of it for yourself."

"I did, my parents thanked me and apologized for disowning me and backed off when it came to my brother and just let him be himself."

"I'm glad."

It was Naofumi's turn to be baffled. "Wh-why? It's not that big of a deal."

Audrey gazed at Naofumi with a smile that held such sincerity that it caused the shield hero to inadvertently blush.

"Think I might have to beg to differ, what you done was something so selfless that it's actually amazing."

"I don't think it's all that." Naofumi try to deny not used to receiving such praise, especially from a girl as beautiful as Audrey. Wait Beautiful? Well actually she was attractive but for the life of him Noafumi couldn't figure why he was suddenly taking much notice in that fact.

"But it is. It's one thing to do a simple favor for someone. But it's another when you go out of your way to help them at the lowest point of their lives even when your own situation wasn't so good, I'd even go as far as to say most people in your position at that time probably would have refused to do anything for your brother out of sheer jealousy of the fact they were being so favored."

"Maybe but that wasn't his fault, it was just the way my parents were, they wanted overachievers that they could brag about to their friends and coworkers. A lot of adults in Japan are like that so I couldn't blame my brother."

"Fair enough, but I still think you have a lot more worth than your parents believe."

"You really mean that?"

"Yeah, there aren't a lot of people like you and Patrica who are willing to go out of their way to help others even when it either cost them something or their own situation is already bad, that's why I can say without a single that you guys show the best parts of what people are truly capable of being. Honestly I hope that I get a chance to lend someone my support when they need it the most."

Naofumi scratched the back of his head. Honestly he really wasn't used to someone holding him in such high regard for one little selfless act, still Audrey did have a point when she pointed out that a lot of people wouldn't have done what her friend Patrica had done for her or what Naofumi had done for his little brother considering the circumstances behind both situations. "Well who knows you might get the chance to help someone through the lowest point of their life while were here."

"Maybe. Anyway let's rest up while we can." Audrey said whilst laying on her bed and stretching out her.

"Alright. We have a long day ahead of us, I can't wait to see what teammates I'm gonna get."

'Hopefully some that it'll help keep you safe through this whole thing.' Audrey thought to herself. While she wasn't sure what to make of Naofumi at the beginning of the day after learning more about him Audrey realized that in spite of being something of a gaming nerd he was truly a generous person much like her best friend, while the shield hero wasn't someone she was close to especially considering they had only just met each other today she could at least say with complete honesty that she wanted him to get through this situation safely even if like the other two heroes he was mistaking this world for a game.

Alright that's it for the first chapter of this story sorry if not much happened this chapter was mostly just introducing the main OC and establishing her relationships with the other 3 heroes and some of her general character.

It's pretty self explanatory but for starters, Audrey isn't going to like Itsuki. She has a genuine desire to help those in need as shown by her final conversation with Naofumi as opposed to Itsuki who's sense of justice amounts to nothing but self serving delusional Bull$#!+.

Also if you want a better idea of what Audrey looks like facially she's modeled after Alisa Reinford from trials of cold steel.

Until next time.