So… we're going to make sure we state here some of the changes we're specifically making to the Shield Hero canon.

1. If you didn't already guess from the summary: Naofumi is 10 years old. Meaning younger personality, and very likely to have different things happen to him. Like Bitch not attempting to join his party, since we talked about it, and don't think Bitch would attempt to accuse a ten-year-old of rape.

2. We're getting rid of the demi-humans aging with level rule. If you realize what kind of shippers RLTygurr and I are, you'll understand why.

3. Because we're getting rid of the demi-humans aging with level rule, we're obviously going to be changing the ages of some of the demi-human characters in Shield Hero.

4. Because Naofumi is a kid, expect reactions from people to go VERY differently for the most part. Because this awesome kid is going to steal their hearts alongside yours!

If there's any other changes we decide to make, we'll make sure we address them. For now, please, sit back, relax, and enjoy the shenanigans that are about to ensue!

Summary: Collaboration with RLTygurr. Naofumi Iwatani was your typical 10-year-old kid. Young, energetic, and so done with boring old school. Now, he's been summoned to another world as the Shield Hero! Watch as our innocent young hero goes around in this new world. Causing all sorts of trouble on this adventure alongside his kid friend Raphtalia!

Chapter One: A Kid Is Summoned

"Honey! Don't forget your backpack!"

Naofumi, who had been about to run out the front door, immediately turned around and ran back in. "Thanks, mom! I almost forgot!" The ten-year-old spiky black-haired kid smiled toothily up at his mom. He was dressed in a green shirt and jeans.

She sighed, but couldn't help but smile. "You almost forget every day, Naofumi."

"I know. It just gives me an excuse to do this!" Naofumi grabbed the backpack and hugged his mom's waist.

"Aw, I love you too." She said, rubbing his head affectionately. "Now get going. You don't want to be late for school."

"Alright, love you Mom!" Naofumi energetically raced for the door. "Say bye to dad for me!"

"Bye big brother!" Jun, Naofumi's six-year-old younger brother, yelled from behind mom.

Naofumi continued to smile as he ran outside. It was a bright sunny day in September. And it was another day in the small life of Naofumi Iwatani. Young boy extraordinaire!

The bus came early, as it usually did. It stopped just long enough for him to run onboard, along with the few other kids from the neighborhood. Before the doors closed and it continued on its way to the next bus stop.

"Hey Naofumi, have you seen the new manga for School of Heroes yet?" One of his neighborhood friends asked.

"Not yet. But I spent my allowance on this awesome All Fight action figurine." He said with a proud smile as he pulled it from his backpack. "It's the special edition that just released last month with the previous School of Heroes manga!"

"Lucky." The kid looked in awe at the figure.

Naofumi pressed something on the back. "Fear not citizens! Hope has arrived! For I am here!"

"So cool!" The other kids crowded around Naofumi to view the toy. He laughed along with them as they looked it over together.

At age 10, Naofumi Iwatani was just a normal boy from a normal family attending a normal school. He wasn't the best student in the class, but he got along with almost everyone he met, besides the really weird weirdos. He was just one of those easy-going energetic kids people couldn't help but smile at and get along with. In many ways, he was innocent. And brought out the good in those around him.

"Hey, did you hear about Mrs. Yoshino?" The conversation devolved into the usual rumors. Which teacher got in trouble for what, who secretly held hands with whom, and who was failing English class. A couple of kids pulled out small devices and started to play some random game together. Naofumi put his All Fight figurine back in his backpack and tried to pay attention to what was being said and done for the rest of the ride.

That was one thing he struggled with. Sometimes, he'd forget things people said if he didn't think it was important enough to remember. Or he'd space out if he didn't consider what was being said at the moment important. It had landed him in trouble more than a few times with teachers.

Before long, the vehicle pulled into the school parking lot and they hopped off the bus onto the sidewalk single-file. When they entered the large school, Naofumi waved goodbye to his friends before continuing on his way to homeroom class.

'I can't wait till school's over. I like learning, but not about this stuff! It's so boring!' School had literally started again only a month ago, and Naofumi couldn't wait until it was over. 'I'd rather watch a cool anime! Or learn how to play the games my friends were playing on the bus! Who uses math in real life anyway?' He thought.

He followed the crowd of students up the stairs to the second floor, before taking the first left. "2-5, 2-6...2-7. There it is." He mumbled. He would often lose track of which room he had to go to for which class, so he would say the numbers out loud to himself to make sure he didn't accidentally walk by it. That would be an uncool move.

His mom had certainly told him so plenty of times, so it had to be true.

Naofumi took his seat near the middle of the class. According to some of the cooler students, the back of the class was where all the loners hung out. But the front of the class was for the nerds. He thought it was why hardly anyone sat in the front unless they were assigned seats.

No one wanted the title of nerd applied to them. That would be the most uncool thing ever.

8:30 A.M came too quickly along with the morning bell. The entire class stood and bowed as the teacher began to take attendance. With each student responding in their own quirky way.

"Kazuma Satou."

"Yes, I'm Kazuma." The voice was from a high pitched overconfident boy sitting in front of Naofumi. Almost nerd status, but he was still in the middle of the class. So he was somewhat cool.

"Suzuki Satoru."

"Here." The surprisingly deep voice was from a kid sitting on Naofumi's right in the middle. He was definitely a cool kid, and always radiated an aura of confidence.

"Youjo Senki."

"Yep, I'm here." The feminine-looking guy (at least, Naofumi thought he was a he) sat behind Naofumi. Closer to the loners, but still a pretty cool guy… gal? He couldn't really tell, but he(?) was still pretty cool.

"Subaru Natsuki."

"I'm here." This nervous fellow sat on Naofumi's left. The nervousness was likely a front. Which had to mean he was extra cool!

"Naofumi Iwatani."

"Here!"

After hearing his name, Naofumi tuned out the rest of the attendance call. Besides those cool kids, no one else really stuck out in the class. Well, there was that one guy in the back. He thought his name was Kazu-something, but he didn't talk to people much. Naofumi remembered him as Kirito since that was his gamer tag or something like that. Kirito said it was cooler to be called by your gamer tag than your real name, yet he sat in the back like an uncool loner.

What a strange kid...

"Alright, it seems like Saitama is absent again. He really needs to stop being so clumsy and late all the time." The teacher muttered to herself. "Alright, to start today's class, we'll be going over…"

Although it was barely audible, the class groaned at today's topic. Starting the day with math was hard! 'Brains shouldn't function at 8:30 AM!' Naofumi thought, opening his textbook and pulling his notebook from his bag. He honestly didn't know why he had to learn math. It seemed so useless laying there on the page, taunting the students into torturing themselves early in the morning trying to learn its secrets.

Right as they were about to start, the door slammed open. "Sorry I'm late!" Saitama finally rushed in. Jumping for his seat. For whatever reason, he was carrying a small white grocery bag. "I forgot my bag at home!"

The teacher sighed. "Mr. Saitama, need I remind you about my tardiness policy for late students?"

"No, I think I know it by memory."

"Do you feel like reciting it for us, then?"

Saitama was red in the face and nervously sweating as the class silently laughed at his plight. "U-um, I, um, uh…" The laughter grew a bit louder.

Ooh, saying he had something memorized when he didn't. What an uncool move.

The teacher sighed exasperatedly. "For the twelfth time, you must be in your seat and ready for roll call every morning-"

"At 8:30 AM… Sorry..." He finished for her.

"And why do I want you to always be on time?" The teacher asked.

"Because… um… uh…" Saitama started to nervously sweat again. The kids' laughter was close to reaching obnoxious levels.

Forgetting the next part of what you were supposed to have memorized while the students laughed. Even more uncool.

"To learn, Mr. Saitama. You come to school to learn. Your first lesson of the day is to learn to show up on time." She emphasized.

The next half of class was the teacher giving the same old lecture she gave Saitama every other day. Naofumi had heard it enough times at this point that he tuned out, as did the other students. While Saitama might not have realized it, the others looked to him as a hero in these moments. Because the teacher wasn't forcing their brains to do any math the whole time. And only had their brains operate whenever they needed to recite the phrases "8:30" and "Yes Mrs. Takahashi" where needed.

It was one of the only reasons people liked him. Despite his quirks and sitting in the front of the class even though he wasn't smart enough to be a nerd, his tardiness saved them from being tortured so unbearably. Naofumi didn't like how some kids would talk about him behind his back, but he couldn't deny that he hated math. And thus, looked at Saitama's quirk-like qualities in the same heroic light as everyone else.

'Your sacrifices will not go unnoticed, friend. Godspeed.'

Finally, the teacher's lecture finished, and Naofumi turned his brain back on. With the much-needed break, and with some muttered cursing from the teacher at realizing how much of class had already passed, she got to teaching the kids the most dreaded subject of all. Math!

Thanks to his classmate's unexpected(?) interruption, the rest of the class passed quickly. It wasn't nearly as torturous since the teacher had to rush the lesson. And only called on one student once to do a problem on the board. The weird Kirito kid - whatever his real name was - answered incorrectly with the most confident look on his face. Much to the laughter of the whole class.

What a loser. Not cool at all. At least it meant the teacher would just give the right answer afterward. So he had something going for him.

Finally, the bell rang. Promising a short reprieve from the torture of school. Naofumi immediately put his textbook and other things into his backpack. 'Maybe I'll have time to find a book in the library before my next class!'

His next class was History, and it was taught by the oldest geezer ever. Some guy who survived World War I and II. Like, seriously, the man was ancient history himself! He should have belonged in a museum if it wasn't for the fact he was still breathing. His lectures were always somewhere between boring and naptime. And he never paid close attention to any of the students since he had to squint to see the projector screen, and thus always had his back to the students to look at it as he taught.

Which meant it was the perfect opportunity to catch up on the next School of Heroes Manga his friend had told him about!

He only had a few minutes to find it, so he had to be quick. The librarian would never help him find it since it wasn't school-related, so he was on his own. "Alright. Fiction section. Science fiction section." Naofumi started to mumble the names on the different shelves he walked by. Trying to find the Manga section. The library was pretty large for an Elementary School. It was like they expected all the kids to be bookworms or something, but Naofumi hardly found any other kids in here.

Maybe if they had a larger manga shelf, or video games to check out. That would change everything.

"Nonfiction section. Fantasy section. Isekai section. Fantasy Isekai Novels section…" Naofumi stopped, looking at the shelf in curiosity. "Fantasy Isekai Novels?" That seemed oddly specific for a section in a library. He'd never seen it there before, so he decided to look at some of the titles. Maybe if one was interesting, he'd check it out for the week.

"Let's see. God's Blessing on This Wonderful World… eh." Naofumi moved to the next book. It seemed like a book that'd contain a lot of stupid stuff that'd somehow be plot-relevant.

"The Legends of...Eins All Goon?. I don't even know how to pronounce that name! Booooring!" Naofumi moved on to the next book.

"The Tales of Tanya the Evil… holy crap the front cover is creepy. Next!" The cover was of some girl with a grey background. She had a crazed look on her face, which immediately gave Naofumi the heebie-jeebies.

He'd be lucky if that face didn't enter any of his future nightmares.

"Life in Another World: Return from Zero? Is the main character a bunch of numbers?" He gagged exaggeratedly. "More math! Nope!"

Naofumi took one look at the title of the next book and the two books beside it. Escape from Aincrad. Return to Aincrad. Finding Love in Aincrad. "Seriously!? There's three of them!? One was probably more than enough! Who'd even write something like this-"

"Shhhh!"

Naofumi scaredly turned his head. The librarian, a very old lady who was probably related to the History Teacher, had stopped between shelves to glare at Naofumi. "Quiet!" She hissed at him, before continuing to shuffle her way along with a cart full of books behind her.

Naofumi sweatdropped. It was more than just the lack of quality manga and video games that kept most students away from the library. There were honestly few people Naofumi had met that he was afraid of. But the school Librarian definitely took the top of that list. 'Maybe I should go find that manga section now-'

A thump sounded behind him. Naofumi turned, almost yelling in fright, thinking the school librarian had used her rumored creepy powers to sneak up behind him. However, there was no one down his section of bookshelves. The only thing there was was a red book lying on the ground. The title of it was in clear gold letters.

"The... Records of the Four Holy Heroes?" He'd heard that records were how old people listened to music, but what about the whole Holy Heroes thing? That actually seemed kind of interesting. Four main characters instead of just one overpowered edgy dude dual-wielding two swords. If he tried to imagine someone in that position, that Kirito kid fit a little too well. He was cocky enough.

Quickly checking the clock on the wall, he took a deep breath. 'Okay, I have three minutes before class. Just one little peek won't hurt.' He thought, picking the book off the ground. He could always take a quick peek and then check it out if it was good enough. If he took too long and it wasn't interesting, he could put it over his face to block the light so he could nap through History and try finding another book.

He opened it to the beginning and skimmed the synopsis. 'Four heroes...summoned to another world, yadda yadda...really mean princess, yadda yadda… Spear, Bow, Sword, and… wait, does that say Shield?!'

A shield was a pretty stupid choice for a weapon. The best you could do is smack someone with it. Still, it was an interesting detail that piqued his curiosity. Why would a shield, of all things, be classified as a holy weapon?

He flipped through about half of the book to see if there were any pictures. There were a couple of really good ones. Like one of the four heroes posing together with their various weapons. But besides that, there wasn't much artwork. His least favorite art was definitely the one of the mean princess laughing into her hand.

He could already tell by looking at her that she was a real work of art.

The type of art that belonged in the dump.

Naofumi finally found the section that detailed each weapon and its hero. The Bow Hero was basically like All Fight. He fought for the people, and dispensed justice on the bad guys like a bad***. Good, but he already had a whole manga to find about justice, so he got a meh from Naofumi.

The Sword Hero fought really hard, but he wasn't good at working with other people. He seemed pretty normal, if not a bit awkward, so Naofumi didn't mind him much. In fact, he actually seemed like the cool version of what a sword wielder should be. His flaws actually made him look cool.

The Spear Hero was dumb as rocks. There wasn't much else Naofumi could say about him. Apparently the mean princess lied right to his face for months and he never knew.

What a moron.

He finally got to the section on the Shield Hero. The reason he'd decided to look through the rest of the book. He quickly glanced at the clock. There was only a minute and a half until the next class. He could either stop here and start reading again in class. Or let his curiosity get the better of him... 'One more quick peek wouldn't hurt-' His thought process stopped as he flipped the page, only to find it was blank.

"Huh?" He said in confusion. He started flipping more of the pages that were supposed to detail the Shield Hero, but there was nothing! "Who leaves a whole section of their book blank?! How did this even get published!?" Even the threat of the librarian appearing wasn't enough to quiet Naofumi.

What an uncool ripoff! The one thing that had snagged his interest and they hadn't even put in the effort of putting in something for it! Maybe it was because the Shield was actually uncool and even the author realized it!

One last glance at the clock told him he was out of time. "Oh well, guess I can use this to block the light-" He was saying as he was about to close the book.

The book flew out of his hands, its pages flipping faster than his eyes could follow. 'Wait, what's-' The shelves around him inverted, becoming massively tall. The lights were going on and off like a horror movie. "What's happening!?" Naofumi yelled, freaking out at what was going on. Was this the Librarian's way of punishing him?! Were the rumors true that she actually was a witch who kidnapped children that were too loud!?

Suddenly, he felt weightless. He looked down. The floor had disappeared underneath him. He tried to reach for the bookcase in front of him, but he was already falling.

"AHHHHHHH!" He screamed, as he fell past the bookshelves into darkness.

"AHHHHHH- Oof!" Naofumi hit a stone floor hard. "Owwwwww…" He moaned in pain.

"Oh… wow… we got all of them summoned."

'What…' Naofumi slowly blinked open his eyes. He was lying in the middle of some kind of… etching? No, wait, it was on the floor. He'd seen one of these at one point in some anime. What was the word they'd used again? Penta… pentasam… pentablam… it was a penta-something.

Before he could think more about it, the people outside the etchings gasped. "Wait, is one of them a kid?"

"Can that even happen?"

Naofumi got on his hands and knees and looked up. He was in a stone-walled and floored room. There were some weird looking men dressed in weird robes in front of him. They looked confused. Good, he was confused about why he was here too! Hadn't he just been at the library a few seconds ago!? Were was the witch Librarian that was going to turn him into stew?!

"What's all this?"

Naofumi looked to the left, and his eyes widened in awe. 'Whoa!'

Getting up beside him were three other individuals. A tall blonde guy with his hair held back in a ponytail. A light-haired teenager who looked like he fit the part of a cool kid. And a raven-haired individual standing next to Naofumi. It was like he was seeing Kirito from class, except older. And actually cool!

Also, they were each carrying a different weapon. The tall blond was wielding a spear. The short blond was holding a bow. And the cool version of Kirito was holding a sword! Bonus!

"Where are we?" He asked. He then looked down at Naofumi. "And why is this kid here holding a shield?"

"What-" Naofumi looked down, finally noticing one other detail. There was a Shield attached to his arm. 'Wait… Bow, Sword, Spear, Shield- Oh no!' He tried to tear off the Shield. But it wouldn't come off.

It was official. Somehow, that weird crazy book had kidnapped Naofumi! And made him into the Shield Hero that the Author had been too lazy to detail!

'No! I can't be the Shield Hero from that book! The Shield's totally lame!'

The weird robed individuals in front of them all recovered from their surprise and bowed their heads reverently. "Oh Holy Heroes, please save our world!"

The black-haired man narrowed his eyes. "You brought us here and expect us to fight for you? That seems a little presumptuous, don't you think?"

The bow-wielding boy nodded in agreement. "Yeah! What do we get out of all this?"

Naofumi looked at them weirdly. It wasn't because they were bad-mouthing the weird guys in front of him. 'How can they act so cool after just appearing here randomly?!' He thought in awe. Naofumi wanted to freak out! He wanted to run home to his mommy, yet they were standing there being all cool and stuff! Like this was just another day for them!

"Worry not, oh holy Heroes, everything will be explained in due time."

But Naofumi couldn't just not worry. Where was he!? Who were all these people!?

What will his mom think when he doesn't come home from school!?

... Wait, he just realized something. He wasn't at school anymore. He didn't have to worry about his History class!

Jackpot! Take that, boring old museum man!

"Come, oh great Heroes! The king has requested an audience with you, and he shall explain the situation in further detail." the strange man said, turning to leave the room. The rest of the robed men followed him.

What situation? These men hadn't told them anything! So uncool! But hey, as long as he didn't have to worry about History anymore, that was just fine with him!

As they followed the robed individuals, Naofumi looked the raven-haired older teen over. "Hi, I'm Naofumi. What's your name?"

"It's Ren. Ren Amaki." Ren said, a calm look adorning his face. Holding his sword, Naofumi couldn't stop thinking about the Kirito kid from his homeroom class. Except this guy actually looked cool! Like the new and improved version of what Kirito could have been!

"The name's Motoyasu Kitamura! Nice to meetcha, kid!" the tall blond said with a two-finger salute. "Let's meet this king guy and see what he has to say, yeah?"

"I agree. We may as well do as they say for now. By the way, my name is Itsuki Kawasumi." the shorter blond man introduced. His tone made him sound disinterested as if he didn't care much for introductions.

No way, he was already focused on dispensing justice! So cool!

Naofumi and the other three Heroes followed their guides through the castle. The boy couldn't help but stare in awe at all the decorations, head snapping back and forth so he didn't miss a single detail. Everything looked so old and weird but in a cool way! The air smelled clean too! Very much unlike the boring plain city, he lived in!

They soon came upon a window looking out to the horizon. "Woah..." Naofumi whispered, eyes wide. "It's so cool!"

Although the older men's reactions were tamer in comparison, they too were amazed at the view. A whole walled town was spread out beneath them, and the sky was the clearest blue Naofumi had ever seen. Mountains rose up in the distance. A river of water ran past one part of the city out into a forest.

This was definitely not his home city. 'Where are we?' Was he trapped in a Librarian's book somewhere in Japan? Was this even Japan he was looking at?

The robed men allowed them a few moments to soak in the scenery before urging them to continue.

Finally, they approached a set of large doors. Two men dressed in armor pulled them open, revealing a large room. People dressed in more weird clothes crowded the sides of the room around ornate pillars. More men dressed in armor were positioned throughout the room.

"Welcome Heroes, to the great kingdom of Melromarc!" An individual in front of a pair of large ornate thrones at the end of the room stood. "I am-" He stuttered, and Naofumi could feel the man's gaze on him. "uhh...King Aultcray Melromarc XXXII." He was clothed in even fancier robes than the people to the sides. He had lots of jewelry too, so he definitely looked like royalty.

Ren pointed his sword in the king's direction. "Great, now tell us why we're here."

"Of course, but I believe introductions are in order. Please introduce yourselves, Heroes. It's important that we know who our saviors are." The King leaned over and whispered something to some scrawny dude that looked like an advisor.

"Are you sure we got the right ones?"

"I believe so, your excellency."

"Then why is one of them a child!?" The whisper was loud enough that Naofumi could hear it, and he sweatdropped.

"I-I don't know, sire. Perhaps something went wrong with the ritual?"

*ahem* Ren cleared his throat. Grabbing the King's attention. "I'm Ren Amaki. 16 years old and a high school student."

The tallest among them stepped forward confidently. "Motoyasu Kitamura. 21 years old, and second-year university student." He leaned his spear lazily against his shoulder.

"I'll go next, I suppose," Itsuki said as if bored to be there. "My name is Itsuki Kawasumi. 17 years old and also a high school student. A pleasure."

"I, uh...guess I'll go next?" Naofumi said, nervously. "My name's Naofumi Iwatani, umm, 10 years old..." He trailed off with a gulp. "I'm almost done with Elementary School." He offered.

The King was looking at Naofumi oddly. Not addressing any of the heroes for their introductions.

"Sire? The Heroes have finished introduced themselves." The King's advisor whispered in his ear.

Aultcray shook himself out of his stupor. "Right! Ren Amaki is the Sword Hero. Motoyasu is the Spear Hero. And, uh, Isushi-"

"Itsuki." He said in an annoyed voice.

"Of course, Itsuki is the Bow Hero. And…" The King trailed off as he looked at Naofumi again. "Naofumi... is the Shield Hero?"

"Yes. Now that we're introduced. May we get down to business?" Ren asked.

"Right, of course." The king cleared his throat to recover from his awkwardness. "As you may be aware, our world is in great peril-" He continued in a calm voice.

"Um! Mr. Aultcray sir!" Naofumi raised his tiny hand up in the air. Interrupting the King.

The king sighed. "Yes, Shield Hero?"

"What do you mean by, your world? Aren't we in Japan?"

"No. According to our legends, the Cardinal Heroes are summoned from other worlds to our own." The King answered.

"But...you're speaking Japanese right now. I don't know any other languages." There was an English class taught at his school. But the professor had such a horrible accent, it made understanding his explanations in Japanese difficult. Some people just didn't know how to speak correctly.

"I believe that is because of the power of your weapon. Which I can get to explaining-" The King was saying.

"So wait, does this mean you're really the King here!?" Naofumi interrupted again.

The King sighed once more. "I can already tell he's going to be a problem-" He was muttering quietly to his advisor.

"That's so cool!"

The King was rather surprised by little Naofumi's words. "Cool?"

"Yeah! The Kings I've read about in any story are always supposed to be the best people in the kingdom!" He continued excitedly. "They're usually super powerful and smart!"

Some of the nobles on the sides of the room were looking in confusion at Naofumi and muttering to themselves. But the King slowly started to smile. "Oh really. And what else do you know about these great kings?"

"Well, they're well-loved and respected by the people. Oh! And they help keep everyone safe and happy!"

It had originally looked like Aultcray was a little distrustful of the boy when he'd first walked in. But now, he was really warming up to the young Shield Hero. Faith aside, his excitement was contagious and adorable. "Well, if you must know, I was also a Hero before I became King."

Naofumi's face brightened. "Really!?" A hero and king combination! That was double cool! It almost broke the cool scale!

"Can we please get back on track?" Ren asked, arms crossed. "Although I'm curious about your past as well, you still haven't told us what 'danger' this world is in."

Naofumi pouted at Ren. Boo! The cool guy was stomping all over his fun now! 'I wanted to learn more about the King's heroic deeds! It's like reading a book, but I'm in the book!' Whether the librarian had trapped him in here or not, this was like a dream come true!

The King flushed in embarrassment. "Yes, I'm sorry Sir Ren. Naofumi, was it?" The King asked the young boy. He nodded in response. "I promise to speak to you personally at a later time. For now…" And with that, the King resumed speaking to the heroes in general.

"As I was saying, the world is threatened by Waves of Destruction. Once a month, the skies open up and monsters pour out. They were dormant for some time, but have recently started appearing again. The last one was a week ago, and struck an outlying village at the edge of our kingdom..."

Naofumi, for what it was worth, was desperately trying to pay attention to the cool King Hero in front of him. But as the King went on, Naofumi's eyes glazed over. 'Ugh… more History again…' He'd been summoned to another world. And he was still being given a history course.

...

"And that's why you dragged us here?" Itsuki said with a roll of his eyes. Him speaking dragged Naofumi out of his stupor. "We'd better get compensated for this."

"Why of course! We will provide you with regular payments for your contributions, and I'll do everything in my power as King to support you. In return, we ask that you grow strong enough to protect us from the waves." The king said.

"Hmmm, fair enough."

"Now Heroes, the time has come for you to check your status."

"Status? What's that?" Naofumi asked.

Before Ren could say something, the King smiled and spoke. "Why, status magic is something unique to our world young Naofumi. You can see what I mean if you look in the bottom right corner of your vision."

He did as he was told, noticing a small icon in the corner of his peripheral vision. His eyes widened in shock when a menu appeared in front of his face. 'Whoa!' It was an old-style stat screen like in a video game his friends had just been playing on the bus!

All sorts of information was available to him, from primary stats like HP, ATK, DEF, and AGL to less obvious ones like MP and SP. With a quick glance, he realized that his DEF stat was incredibly high but his ATK stat was 1.

'What?' he thought worriedly. 'How am I supposed to be a super cool Hero if I can't hurt anything!? That's dumb!'

He then saw a question mark and focused on it, bringing up a help menu of some kind. Naofumi sighed in relief. 'At least I have something to help me out. I've watched some friends play games like this, but I never owned one myself. I'd better take a closer look at that later.'

It was looking less and less likely that he was here because of some old librarian trapping him in a book. He doubted the old hag even knew what a game was.

"I understand that this is a lot of information at once. So I suggest you all enjoy the feast we have prepared for you, and worry about your duties tomorrow. I have already sent out requests for the most talented adventurers to join your parties tomorrow morning. Rest assured, they will do everything they can to assist you in these trying times." Aultcray said.

"Umm, Mr. Aultcray?" Naofumi raised his hand again.

"What is it, young Shield Hero?" The king's voice lacked the edge that it did earlier.

"I...really need to use the bathroom."

...

The men all sweatdropped, and Aultcray waved one of his knights over. "Show the boy to the washroom."

"Sir!" The knight saluted, then approached the boy. "Come with me," he said, not waiting for a response before turning and walking quickly away. Naofumi, with his short legs, needed to run to keep up with him.

"We shall look forward to your participation at the feast."

After relieving himself, Naofumi joined the other heroes at the dinner table. It was, in one word, massive. There was more food there than he had ever seen in one place! The festivals his parents had taken him to were nothing like this!

He was so excited to eat, but each dish looked tastier than the last! Naofumi tasted a slab of meat that looked like steak, but it tasted totally different. Still, his eyes widened at the burst of flavor. 'So good! It's like mom's cooking but even better!' If he didn't stop to pace himself soon, he was going to explode.

"So, Naofumi, do you understand what's going on here?" Ren asked.

"I thought you understood?" Naofumi asked.

"No, I do understand. I just want to make sure you do too." Ren said calmly.

"Um… I got that we're supposed to get stronger to fight something… but I'm not sure what it was." Naofumi said innocently. "What was it called again? The caves of, no. That wasn't it…"

"..." Ren sweatdropped. "The Waves of Catastrophe."

"Yeah! That was it!" Naofumi said excitedly, remembering the detail. "We're supposed to get stronger to fight that! And the King is going to summon some people to help us with that tomorrow so we can kick the Waves of Catastrophe to the curb and be heroes!" Naofumi said happily.

Ren still looked calm and aloof, but he gave Naofumi the slightest smirk at his optimism. "Yeah. We'll kick this mess to the curb for sure."

"By the way, you remind me of someone I know," Naofumi said.

"Oh? Who was it?" He asked curiously.

"Some kid from homeroom. He was annoying, but you're not so bad. You're actually cool and don't try to act it." Naofumi said happily as he got back to eating.

Ren sweatdropped. 'Are you kidding me? I'm a nervous wreck inside!' He thought, maintaining his calm and aloof exterior. "Glad to know I'm not annoying." He awkwardly got back to eating.

Now he really wanted to show that he was calm and aloof from anything. If it only meant that little Naofumi would continue to look at him as a Hero.

The rest of dinner - or was it lunch? - was relatively quiet aside from Motoyasu hitting on every single maid that entered the room. Naofumi focused on eating his food, but couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at the older man each time he flirted with one of them.

'Why does he want girls to like him anyway? Girls are gross and all they talk about are makeup and boring TV shows about princesses.' He wondered, stabbing some kind of vegetable and stuffing it in his mouth. He never loved vegetables back home, but these ones tasted a lot better so he didn't mind.

His mom had already warned him about the danger of girls. One wrong move and their cooties could rub off on you! His mom had to have him stay at home to treat him for it once before in third grade. Or had that been chickenpox? Either way, it was contagious and he didn't want it!

Eventually, the feast ended, and Naofumi was stuffed! He almost wanted to lay back in his seat and enter a food coma. However, before such a thing could happen, the King walked by his chair. "Young Naofumi, I trust that the feast was to your liking?"

Naofumi sat up in his chair, looking energetic and excited again. "Oh yeah! It was awesome! I've never tasted food so good in my life! It was even better than my mom's!"

The King let out a hearty laugh. "Yes, I made sure to hire only the best chefs in the kingdom!" He said happily. "You have but to ask and they shall serve whatever it is you desire!"

"Ooh! Ooh! Do they know how to make chicken nuggets?!"

"…Chicken...nuggets?" Aultcray's eye twitched. "Is that some kind of delicacy from your homeland?"

"Oh yeah! They're delicious and crunchy and suuuuuuper easy to make!"

Aultcray thought to himself. "I have never heard of this delicacy before." He nodded determinedly. "I shall do my best to have my chefs make some for you young Naofumi."

Naofumi continued to smile happily, which brought a smile to the King's face. "Come along now. I am sure it has been a long day for you. And I get the feeling the other heroes want to speak with you as well." The King said, looking up at the three other heroes waiting in the doorway.

"But I want to hear about when you were a hero," Naofumi said in disappointment.

The King laughed in delight at that. "Don't you fear young Naofumi. I promise when I have the time, I'll tell you all the grand stories of my adventures."

"Okay!" Naofumi was easily convinced.

A short walk with the other silent heroes and the king stopped outside of a door. "Here's your room for the night. You'll be staying together, so make yourselves comfortable." Aultcray said with a smile.

"Wahoo! It's like a sleepover!" Naofumi cried as he ran into the well-furnitured room. "This is awesome! Thanks, Mr. Aultcray!" Naofumi jumped onto the couch. "Wow, it's so soft!" He started rolling around on it like a goofy little kid.

The king huffed but smiled. "I'll leave you all to rest, then." He said to the other heroes. And with that, he left.

After he'd walked a short distance from the door, his advisor came out from behind a curtain, stopping him. "My lord. Are you sure you should be acting so friendly to that devil?" He asked.

The King looked to his advisor with a frown. "The devil I imagined is that of a man of power seeking to cause all sorts of havoc to the kingdom and to my family. Young Naofumi does not fit that description." He continued on his way.

"Are you saying that my lord, because this devil happens to think you're cool?"

"Good night." The King said without looking back.

The advisor sighed but continued on his way. The King was right anyways. The Shield Hero was only a kid.

How much trouble could one kid possibly cause?

Author's Note:

The answer to that question is "A lot"!

Allen: This was an idea brewing around for quite a while. I mentioned it on Discord, and quite enjoyed it. I didn't know if I'd ever get around to it though. Until I talked with RLT here about it. He has some of the most amazing stuff written in here. Not sure how often we'd update this. But it's a hell of a lot of fun writing it!

RLTygurr: Allen and I really enjoyed writing this, and it's just as ridiculous as it is satisfying. Once we sat down and started writing, everything just sorta worked out. I'm sure this was originally going to be a oneshot idea, but at this point it seems like it'll be a bit more than that.

Also, if you're a big Kirito fan… We're not sorry. XD Ren 4 lyfe.

Till Next Time

Allen