Another one of these, eh? Yeah, I've had this idea stewing in the back of my mind for a while and only recently did I actually want to at least try to write something out for it. I had one idea going for the longest time, but more recent revelations made me choose this path. You'll find what they are later. Another thing to note is that I've only watched the anime of this series but I have knowledge of some things that go on in the Light Novel, so if it's not entirely true to form, I apologize ahead of time.

With that being said… enjoy!

I do not own The Rising of the Shield hero.

It hurts… it hurts so much…

In a Canadian hospital bed lies a twenty-year-old man named Chazon in immense pain, but still very much conscious. He had been diagnosed with lung cancer only recently, but because it had already reached stage four, it was already too late for chemotherapy treatment to save his life. Once was a man who was well loved by friends and family despite his "otaku" status, now reduced to a quivering mess on a bed.

Hurts to breath… hurts to move…

All Chazon could do was lay there in pain. It was difficult for him to sleep since every breath he took wracked his body in agony. Any attempts at shifting his body were denied by the medical machines and tubes trying to keep him alive. He was little more than a still breathing corpse.

There was a knock at his door before it opened. The nurse in charge of him stepped through with a clipboard in hand. "Chazon, your parents are here to visit, if you're awake." All Chazon could do was nod very slightly, trying not to cause himself more pain.

His mom and dad entered shortly after, their faces immediately melting into anguished looks. Their son, their flesh and blood that they raised as lovingly as possible, was dying and there was nothing they could do for him.

His dad clenched his fists in frustration as tears welled up in his eyes. "I'm sorry, son. If I had a choice in the matter, I'd take your lung cancer so that you could live on. This old man has already lived through too much; the thought of you passing before me is more than I can bear!"

Chazon decided speaking was well worth the pain it brought. "Please, don't beat yourself up over something you can't control, pa. My luck has always been rotten… this is just a culmination of it all at once…"

His mom shook her head. "You've... always had good luck though…" Her own tears started welling up. "My sweet baby… I want to do more for you... but there's nothing more I can do. Not like this…"

The Nurse simply stood by, watching in her own anguish as this close family was torn apart by something the W.H.O. keeps twiddling its thumbs over curing.

His dad inhaled a shaky breath, his tears finally loose from what he's about to say. "Son… do you want to be let go? Let go from your pain and suffering?"

Both of his parents have already discussed that they were suggesting in great detail, before deciding that it was the best course of action. They couldn't bear to see their son suffering like that, and keeping him like that only served to make what was left of his life miserable. They didn't want him to die, but considering the alternative, they chose the lesser of two evils.

The moment death is considered the truest form of mercy is the moment the final light of hope goes out.

Chazon simply smiled as best as he could. "I'm sorry… to make you two… go through this… but please… let me go… I'm tired of this pain…"

Everyone knew that euthanasia was a controversial topic and hotly debated on if it is the right thing to do or if it's just a disguised form of murder. The nurse knew this, but when she sees what's going on in front of her, her mind was already made up.

Chazon was terminally ill and in a lot of pain, pain killers and other such drugs are losing effectiveness, and both him and his family are requesting that they simply let him go.

The nurse approached the family. "I'll do what I can. I'll prepare an overdose of T3 painkillers that'll send you quietly while you sleep. You three have suffered enough; I'll deal with the consequences." Chazon is her first, and likely her last, patient to have no hope of recovery. There was nothing that could have readied her for this, but she was determined to see this through.

Chazon's parents nod at her before looking back at him while she prepares to put him under. He simply smiles at them. "Oh… do not look at me so… after all… a smile better suits… heroes such as yourselves..." He starts closing his eyes as the drugs begin to take effect. "Take… care... I… love… you…"

His dad says nothing as his mom clasps his hand as he goes to sleep for the final time. "Good bye forever… sweetheart… please dream sweet dreams for all of us." After a minute of his parents staring at their son's sleeping body, they left as the nurse administered the fatal injection. Not long after, he had passed away as rain fell outside.

Where am I?

Chazon couldn't tell if he was floating or laying on some sort of ground. He couldn't tell if his eyes were opened or closed, for he could only comprehend darkness. There were no smells, no sounds, and no sense of touch.

Just pure nothingness.

Ah… I died at long last… I forgot what not feeling pain felt like…

Chazon was initially content with that, but soon realized that there was nothing else. He wasn't sure if an afterlife existed or if people who die are immediately reborn as a new person.

Death… if you're out there… could you at least talk to me? It's a lot lonelier here than I thought and, while I never minded peace and quiet, this place makes me feel… scared and alone.

There was no response. As he floated(?) in the vast nothingness of presumably purgatory, his life flashed by before him, everything he's done and hasn't done. His friends, family, co-workers, he remembered them all vividly. But the thing he remembered most vividly… was that he didn't do anything with his life before he died.

It was meaningless. He wanted to go into university in order to attain a higher education so that he could support his parents, but their financial situation didn't allow it. He wanted to try and attend university without the worry of student loans constantly nagging him after it was done due to hearing constant horror stories about them when he was younger. He took up a dead-end job to save up for a tuition, but he wound up giving a lot of his money away to help his parents keep their heads above the water.

He was never able to allow his parents to live a stress free life. All he did was cause them agony because of his death, regardless if they were fine with it or he was fine with it.

No… I was fine with it in the moment because of all the pain, but if this is all that death really entails, I… I don't want to die anymore. Bring me back to life! Please give me a second chance to live how I want!

If there was an entity who was listening to him at that very moment, it chose then to let him suddenly start feeling. Unfortunately for him, it was one of the last feelings you would want: the feeling that you're falling to your death. WHAT IS THIS, SOME KIND OF SICK JOKE?!

Before he could comprehend anything else, he felt himself hit a cold, hard surface. At that instant, all of his senses flared to life, including the mild amount of pain from the presumed fall he suffered. Even his voice came back to him. "Ow… did somebody just drop me off a bed?"

"We… we did it? The summoning was a success!"

Hearing checks out too. Does this mean…? Chazon's eyes flutter open, comprehending what was in front of him. The first thing registered was the glowing teal symbol surrounding him, presumably as some sort of neon lighting effect. What shook him was when he registered the group of cloaked men standing outside of the glow.

As Chazon got up, the only unhooded man started speaking, "O great heroes, please save our worlds!"

"What?" Chazon didn't say it out loud, but when he heard that word spoken anyways, he chose then to test his motor skills and look over. Beside him were three other guys; one was a young blond, one was a young and dark-haired, and the last one looked about his age also with dark hair. Guess we got 2 blonds and two black hairs. Oddly symmetrical…

Chazon suddenly noted that he was holding something slender. When he looked down, what was in his grip was a silver spear with a red jewel near the blade. It looked like it was shooting for something in-between fancy and simple, only to come off looking kind of awkward.

The blond-haired boy, revealed to be holding a similarly designed bow with a yellow jewel, spoke up, "What do you mean by that? Where are we?"

The unhooded man lifted his hands with an awkward look on his face. "There are many things in need of explaining and I'm willing to bet you all have many questions. To wit: you four were summoned as Cardinal Heroes using an ancient ceremony because our world teeters on the brink of destruction."

Chazon crossed his arms while still holding the spear. Makes sense that if they're on the brink of destruction, they would take their chances at summoning heroes at random. Sadly, for them, one of the four here is definitely a dud, AKA: me. Still… I guess I could see this as my second chance at life, even if it's in another world entirely.

"We beg of you, o brave heroes. Please save us from our fates!" The man had clasped his hands together as if he was begging.

Chazon was about to find his voice again when the black-haired youth wielding a sword with a blue jewel curtly said, "we refuse." The blond kid agreed with him, with the two older guys looking on in disbelief.

Chazon finally found his voice again. "Hold the phone here! You're not even going to even attempt to care about what their plight really is? They've already gone to the trouble of summoning us here, we might as well hear them out."

He was suddenly struck by something. I… I can breathe and talk without fear of pain now? Can I actually-

"They might as well have brought us here against our wills. If they can send us home, then we can talk about their plight." The back-haired kid said curtly.

Jeeze, what crawled up YOUR ass and died, Mr. hotshot?

"Besides, if they just sent us home after peace is restored, then all our work would have been for nothing." The young blond reasoned. Chazon raised a finger to object, but lowered it when he admitted to himself that he could agree with that if he was being honest with himself; charity work wasn't really his thing, even if you did get a good feeling from it.

Chazon decided to look at the one guy who hasn't spoken up yet, only to find that he was looking astonished at the other three for being able to speak their minds already. The unhooded man decided to awkwardly try and diffuse the situation, "P-perhaps an audience with the king of Melomarc will help clear things up? You can talk about your rewards with him as well as any information you need!"

"I suppose we could consider their offer." Chazon rolled his eyes at that. He was already getting the feeling that he wasn't going to get along with the two younger men. The jury was still out on the guy his age, though he was slowly getting a good feeling from him.

While the group went through the stone halls and stairways, Chazon decided to do some breathing exercises to fully take in the fact that he was no longer plagued by his lung cancer. The same-age guy took notice. "Are you okay? You started breathing funny."

"Ah, sorry about that. It's just been so long that I've been able to breath freely like this that I'm just... taking advantage of it, I guess." When Chazon got a confused look, he rubbed the back of his head. "I'll explain later." In the meantime, I should be glad whatever sent me here sent me in my standard outfit of red long-sleeve and blue jeans.

After some more time, they found themselves in front of a king at the end of a massive room. "So, you are the Cardinal Heroes of legend?" The king spoke with authority in his voice. "I am Aultcray Melomarc the thirty-second, king of this fair country of Melomarc." Chazon wondered why royals always took the name of their country, since all it did was make them sound conceited. "Name yourselves," was the flat order from the king.

The Black-haired youth stepped forward first. "Amaki Ren, sixteen years old, highschooler."

Someone as young as him was chosen as a hero? These guys must have been extremely desperate if they're willing to employ what is almost a child soldier…

"I suppose I'm next then. Kawasumi Itsuki, seventeen years old, highschooler." Chazon noted the order and managed to quickly swap places with the last hero besides himself to yet introduce himself.

The guy noted that and stepped forward awkwardly. "My name is Iwatani Naofumi. I'm twenty, and a college student." The king looked disinterested at that as he looked at Chazon, causing Naofumi to look a bit dejected.

Chazon wondered how he knew Naofumi was his age before stepping forward. "In my world, I was referred to as Alistor Chazon, but just call me Chazon. Twenty years old and… nobody of importance." It wasn't a lie.

The king let out a soft sigh at that before readjusting his gaze. "Now… I owe you heroes a proper explanation of things. Our fair kingdom of Melomarc and the rest of the world is headed toward complete destruction." The king launched into an explanation about the world, the calamity known simply as "The Waves", the dragon hourglasses that can predict when they hit, the fact that one wave has already hit, and the fact that they needed to summon heroes after barely weathering one.

Chazon folded his arms in contemplation. This sounded like a very elaborate video game backstory to him. In fact, the dragon hourglass sounded like something that would count down when world-wide raids would happen in a game world. However, my gut is telling me that I shouldn't treat this lightly. I'm not about to test if there are mercy mechanics in this world.

"Well, I guess we get the gist of it now." Ren spoke up. "Anyways, surely you don't expect to be saved for free, correct?" Chazon rolled his eyes, but didn't comment as the adviser confirmed that rewards will be issued.

Naofumi had to resist facepalming at Ren's, and presumably Itsuki's, attitudes. I know we're heroes, but I wish they weren't so high-and-mighty. Hopefully Chazon agrees with me.

The king spoke up again. "I presume we have an agreement, then? Moving on, please check your statuses."

"Wait, what?" came out of both Chazon's and Naofumi's mouths.

Ren sighed at that. "That should have been the first thing you checked out in this world." Chazon held back a snarky remark as Naofumi rolled his eyes. "See the icon in the corner of your vision? Focus on that."

Chazon focused for a bit before a literal status screen popped up in his vision, making him jump. Before his eyes was everything laid out for him:

Chazon Alistor

Age: 20

Level: 1

Weapon: Legendary Spear (locked)

Otherworldly clothes

ATK: 15

MAG: 9

DEF: 12

MDEF: 12

AGI: 15

Huh, so my agility and attack are tied for my highest, both defenses are middle, while my magic is my lowest. He was slightly disappointed in how low his magic capability is; he really wanted to start flinging spells around. He still could, but it would be less efficient than just attacking with his spear. Also, my spear is locked, huh? Does that mean its spirit-bound or something like that?

One worry he got that was shared by all 4 heroes was their level. Starting from the bottom when one wave has already passed and not much time before the next one was deeply concerning. The advisor explains status magic as something everyone has in this world, but heroes have a special variant. Afterwards, the heroes were told to go adventuring to develop and grow their legendary weapon.

As the heroes talked amongst themselves, Naofumi gave the helpful suggestion that they party up together. At least it would have been helpful, if the adviser hadn't said, "You must form separate parties, as the legendary weapons seem to repel each other by nature. It seems working together outside of a wave should be avoided at all costs for good growth."

Chazon had to force down an irritated scoff. Talk about an ass pull. Poor Naofumi doesn't even have a weapon, meaning his progress is very likely tied to how competent his party is.

Due to the setting sun, the king orders the heroes to rest for the night. He mentioned gathering adventurers for the heroes to form parties with tomorrow. A maid showed them to the dining room for dinner before showing them to their rooms.

As it turns out, they decided to gather again in Chazon's room for one more talk before sleeping, much to the spear hero's chagrin. Naofumi looked through his status screen again. "Doesn't this whole world feel like a game?"

Istuki spoke up, "You mean it IS a game? I've noted plenty of similarities to the console game Dimension Web." When he saw the confused looks, he was baffled. "You guys do know about Dimension Web, right?"

"Well I know you're wrong about one thing. It's not a console game, but a VRMMO like Brave Star Online."

"Wait, VRMMO? I thought VR was still a budding technology!" Chazon said incredulously. When everyone didn't know what to say, he sighed. "Let's get our facts sorted out before we continue down this rabbit hole. I'm assuming everyone here knows what VR, and by extension VRMMO, stands for?" He got a round of nods. "Then let's get some other facts straight here, though this part might be awkward."

Naofumi raised an eyebrow. "How so?"

"I'm from Canada, while you guys look like you're from Japan, though I'm still not sure how we're able to understand each other. As such, we should try to keep things to a global scale."

What followed was a bunch of different questions being answered four different ways, though Naofumi and Chazon's were the closest compared to the others. At the end of it all, they concluded that they were from four different Earths. Naofumi and Chazon, due to their worlds being the most similar, felt an odd sort of companionship with each other.

Ren let out a sigh as he looked at the shield hero. "I apologize, Naofumi, but you might have the roughest time of it out of all of us. One of the classes in Brave Star Online is the Shielder… which nobody plays due to it having nothing going for it late-game."

Naofumi looked dejected as Itsuki agreed. Chazon decided to side with the shield hero, not just out of connection with his new friend, but because he had a rebuttal to Ren. "If there is a class that nobody plays, the fault lays with the developers for not appropriately balancing or developing the game for it. The MMO I played, aptly named Final Fantasy 14, had a system in place for instanced content. Unless you go in with unsynched, pre-formed parties, you always, ALWAYS, have a tank, a healer, and two DPS for standard dungeons. The DPS CANNOT take hits to save their lives unless in solo content, meaning a tank like a shielder is a necessity for clearing dungeons and the like."

Ren suddenly looked slightly insulted. "I get that they should have balanced the class better, but-"

"Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that there was a little mechanic in most boss fights called "The Tank Buster"; a high-power attack that can even wreak tanks with their high HP and defensive stats. Imagine being a DPS and taking one of those to the face."

Ren blanched at that before conceding to Chazon. "Perhaps if there were mechanics like that tailored for shielders to deal with, they'd be a lot more popular. That, and better balancing."

"I still think being a defensive class is boring," Itsuki stated flatly with his hands behind his head.

Chazon shook his head at that. "Being a tank is a lot more involved than you think… and a lot more fun in certain situations. Though I think we can all agree that playing a healer is the most stressful role ever." He got a round of nods from everyone at that as he shuddered. I'm always in panic mode whenever I heal. I can't imagine being a healer in this world...

Ren just thought of something. "I'm curious… how did all of you get summoned here? When I saved my childhood friend from a serial killer and died, I suddenly found myself here."

Chazon blanched as Itsuki sighed. "At least you went out doing what's right. I got hit by a truck and… that's it."

Naofumi shook his head. "All I did was read a book on the Four Cardinal Heroes before it warped me here. I think I got off easy."

"Ya think?" Everyone looked at Chazon, who let out a suffering sigh. "My answer to this is also the reason why I was breathing funny earlier. I had lung cancer."

That was all he needed to say and the other heroes had horrified looks. Ren spoke up in a shaky voice. "I think out of all of us here, you went out the hardest… In my world, cancer was still a thing but as long as it could be caught before stage 4, it could be cured."

"At least one of our worlds could cure cancer. Sadly, I would have been screwed anyways because I had stage 4 lung cancer, so it was inevitable." Chazon got sympathetic looks before he shook his head, "Hey, let's not think about that anymore."

The four heroes chatted a while longer before everyone decided to head for bed. Naofumi waited until the other two weren't in Chazon's room anymore. "Chazon-san?" The spear hero jumped at the added honorific before reminding himself that Naofumi was from Japan. "Thank you for earlier when you defended my class. It made me feel better about this whole thing."

"Not a problem at all. I mained a tanking class in my MMO, so I'm more willing to defend (tee hee) the playstyle more than most. Honestly, I kind of wish I got the shield instead of you. Then again, it doesn't matter which weapon I got, I'd still be the most useless hero…"

"Wha- surely you're joking, right? I'm certain you'd be of great help!"

Chazon scoffed at that with a sad smile. "Naofumi, I'm the most unfit of us four, I've never wielded a weapon of ANY sort even as cosplay, and I'm somewhat lazy to top it all off. I'll at least TRY, but don't expect anything grand from me."

Naofumi gave Chazon a reassuring pat on the back. "Hey, I'm sure you'll be able to do great things like the rest of us!"

Chazon gave him a small smile. "Thank you for the vote of confidence, and I don't mean that sarcastically. I think it could have been better used elsewhere, but I'll do my best to live up to it… just like how I… I…"

All of his memories of his parents suddenly came flooding back to him again. While they had expectations, they always did their best to keep them reasonable and he always did his best to meet them.

And yet, there were some things that he was never able to do for them. How he couldn't get into university because of their financial situation. How he was working a dead-end job trying to make enough to pay for tuition without relying on student loans.

That he never properly said goodbye to them and his friends when he died.

"Chazon?! What's wrong?" The spear hero has suddenly broken down in a sobbing fit and Naofumi rushed over to him.

"I-I m-miss them… I miss my parents… I miss my old friends… I-I don't know what I should do…"

Homesickness. Naofumi hadn't really put any thought into it since his relationship with his family was shaky at best, but he could tell Chazon was extremely close with his family. He berated himself for not realizing that one of them could be suffering from homesickness this badly and felt especially guilty when it's from the one he felt the strongest connection to.

All the shield hero could do was give Chazon a comforting hug, which he reciprocated. After a long pause, Chazon let in a shaky breath. "Pathetic, is it not? Twenty years old, yet I'm mewling out for my parents like a five-year old lost in a supermarket…"

"Not pathetic in the slightest! I can tell you loved your parents deeply, so it's only natural you'd miss them dearly."

Chazon smiled past the tears. "Thank you, Naofumi. I'm glad you are who you are." Separating from Naofumi while drying his face, Chazon smiled a bit more widely at him. "You know, you gave me your vote of confidence, I'm gonna give you all of mine right now; I see you being the most competent hero of us four, calling it now!"

That made Naofumi blush a bit. "A bit over the top, but thank you. But just remember that I see you being similarly competent by my side, Chazon-san. I hope we can be good friends."

"Good friends? I'd go for great friends!" The two shared a laugh before Naofumi bid Chazon goodnight and left. Chazon managed to maintain the happy mood until he lay down and tried to sleep. Too much time to think and he found himself silently crying again.

Finding himself unable to fall asleep, Chazon decided to get back up and study his help guide to see if there's anything he could know about his set-up. The first thing he learned was that the legendary weapon must remain attached to his body, but it doesn't have to be his hands. He tested out putting the spear on his back and it worked.

He dug through the help guides a bit deeper and found out a way of strengthening his weapon; a process known as refinement, which uses special ores randomly dropped by monsters. Because he's yet to start fighting, he decided to wait on looking further in until he gets one of the mentioned refinement ores.

He also looked up information on his stats, curious on how it actually affects him on a physical level. Attack was straightforward; it increases how much damage you do, but has the side effect of increasing your overall strength, meaning you can do more stuff like lift heavier things. Everything else was exactly what it said on the tin except for agility. It seemingly increases both movement speed and attack speed, though it might also depend on the weapon you use.

Chazon accidentally activated a map-like window on his status magic during this time. It wasn't heavily detailed, but it would suffice for identifying where he was, as well as places he's been to before. Heck, his current location has marked out "Melomarc Castle" as a landmark.

Putting away the help guides, he found sleep still eluding him thanks to his memories and his own self-doubt.

I'm sorry, mom… dad… I'll do my best here, so that I can go home as someone you can be proud of.

And thus, does chapter 1 come to a close. Hopefully I didn't insult anyone with how I interpret lung cancer; I had a grandfather pass away from it in my life, but I don't know the nitty-gritty details. Additionally, I was going to have my OC replace Ren in the story and had some good ideas with that, but information that I've learned made me change course.

Also, for those of you who are reading my other stories, I apologize but I'm putting them on ice for now. Maybe one day I'll finish them, but for now, this is my current craze.