Chapter 370 - My CO Stash #70 - Rise of the Four Heroes by readerdreamer5625 (RiseofTheShieldHeroXSwordArtOnline) (1/2)

-From wood cutter to thot princess slayer! I still cannot get over the fact that they killed off Eugeo and let Alice live like come on, he's legit the best side character I've ever seen from SAO... I guess I'm just living in Spain but the s is silent/

Synopsis: First impressions are amazing. If you view someone positively on the first meeting, chances are it would stay like that for a very long time. First impressions are insidious. In a new environment, in a new culture, your first judgment often colors the rest of your experience. First impressions are terrifying. If you view someone as your enemy on the first glance, then most likely they will never become your ally. In that world, in that timeline, first impressions lead the Heroes to split apart (though the conspiracy doesn't help). What if, due to a different Sword Hero, a man isn't vilified on his arrival and the Heroes' eyes are opened to reality that much faster?

The system might try to pull us apart, but we will fight together. This is the oath of the Four Heroes.

Rated: ???

Words: 53K

Posted on: forums.spacebattles.com/threads/rise-of-the-four-heroes-rise-of-the-shield-hero-sword-art-online-crossover-eugeo-as-sword-hero.872674/ (readerdreamer5625)

PS: If you're not able to copy/paste the link, you have everything in here to find it, by simply searching the author and the story title. It sucks that you can't copy links on mobile (´ー｀)

-I'll be putting the chapter ones of all the fanfics/originals mentioned, to give you guys a sample if you wan't more please do go to the website and support the author! (And maybe even convince them to start uploading chapters in here as well!)

Chapter 1-3 (exceptional)

Naofumi

Naofumi couldn't believe it.

Wasn't being summoned into another world supposed to be just limited to cliche light novels? Yet here he was, subject to said scenario! Really, Naofumi wanted to complain about the entire situation (and preferably, sent home immediately after with at least an apology for being so rudely summoned while he was reading a book) but two of those summoned with him already did most of that for him. Not that he would ever thank them for that though.

Still, the exposition from the condescending King aside, part of Naofumi found some form of excitement over the scenario. After all, true to his core, Naofumi was an Otaku and like any other Otaku before him, to be given one of the leading roles to a(n admittedly cliche) story such as had his heart pumping. The game-like scenario didn't help, easily appealing to Naofumi's past as an online gamer and guild master of a high-ranked guild in an MMORPG.

His attention was then taken away though, when the Spear and Bow Heroes introduced themselves and the rest of the room turned for the Sword Hero to speak. Part of Naofumi wondered why they turned first to the guy who had been quiet the entire time, as opposed to Naofumi who had already contributed to the conversation several times already.

”Sword Hero?” The King rests his head on his right hand as he leans sideways on his chair. Seriously, if you're going to ask for help, at least have better demeanor! ”You've been quiet for a while now. What's your name?”

Naofumi turned his attention on the Sword Hero, only to frown.

The man was clearly someone around Naofumi's own age, but unlike him, his features were that much more appealing. Actually, what was with this group that was summoned with him? Was the summoning spell coded to summon handsome men, only for it to make a mistake with picking Naofumi and go ”Oops, okay, it's too late but we summoned you now~” once it got him? Because seriously, with blond hair, green eyes, and a pretty face like that one couldn't mistake the Sword Hero for a normal person at all!

Still... Was it normal to look that pale? Naofumi's irritation and envy disappeared as a sense of basic concern grew in his c_h_e_s_t. Now, Naofumi wasn't a saint, but he at least had some compassion. And considering they were all basically abducted by those that summoned them here, it wasn't too far off to think that someone from their group wouldn't take things as easily as the rest of them had. After all, Naofumi himself was barely buoyed by excitement from the entire situation.

”Are you alright, man?” Naofumi placed a hand on the shoulder of the Sword Hero beside him. ”You don't look so good.”

His words snapped the Sword Hero out of his trance, and soon the blond had one hand placed over his face, teeth slightly chattering as he answered. ”I-I'm fine. Thank you.”

It took the Sword Hero a full minute to formulate a proper introduction after, but his answer did shock everyone in the room. ”M-my name is Eugeo. No last name, 19 years old. I was... a student of the Sword Mastery Academy before I had to leave due to... extenuating circ_u_mstances.”

There were gasps from the audience around them.

The King's brows were raised in his surprise. ”You were a swordsman already in the world you came from?”

”I am, yes. Circ_u_mstances led me to being taught sword skills by my best friend and mentor, and while I hesitate to call myself his equal, I at least know a few things about fighting monsters already.” The admission of his past as a swordsman seemed to steel Eugeo some as the rest of his response was far more even and polite. Did he have past experience dealing with nobility? ”However, despite all that, I am at a loss over this entire situation, Sir. The last I remember, I was bleeding out to death in my friend's arms after a difficult battle.”

That killed the atmosphere for a short while. Not even the King seemed to have anything to say about such a blunt admission of one's close encounter with, if not outright, death.

Still, Motoyasu the Spear Hero somehow managed to salvage the situation by cracking a morbid joke. ”Wow, that's... worse than mine, Eugeo. Getting stabbed by girls is nowhere near the same level as a warrior's death like that.”

Naofumi turned to him in shock. ”You also died!?”

”I guess I just messed with the wrong girls,” Motoyasu's smile became brittle, and though part of Naofumi wanted to hear more about what sounds like a Bad End straight out of a galgame, he then asked, ”What, did you die too?”

”No, I didn't!” Unless Naofumi suddenly suffered a stroke or heart attack while he was reading and just couldn't remember. ”I was just reading a book!”

”I think I died as well.” Itsuki spoke up from behind Motoyasu, making it his turn to have all the attention. ”I was just heading to school when I heard a truck coming in from my side and...”

The scenario of all (but one) of the summoned Heroes having died before they got summoned had everyone quiet for a while. The priests and the King seemed to find the entire discussion out of their control, while the Heroes in question quietly mulled over the circ_u_mstances that led to their summoning. Was this some kind of afterlife then, or did their soul get taken from the hands of death and were revived to become Heroes here? Still, what did that mean for Naofumi who didn't die?

”...I guess, I'm the odd one out then.” Naofumi finally said, not noticing the strange gleam of satisfaction within the eyes of the King before them. ”I don't think I've ever felt so out of place for not dying.”

It was then his turn to be comforted, as Eugeo mimicked his earlier action by putting a hand on his shoulder. ”It's nothing we'll judge you for, plus I assure you, you didn't miss out on anything. If anything, I'm glad that at least one of us didn't have to suffer to get here.”

...Naofumi began to think that he had been too hasty to judge this guy just by his appearance. Sure, he looked like a Hero more than Naofumi, but at least he acted and had the credentials for it as well. Evidently, Eugeo was from a far more dangerous world than Naofumi's, yet this guy didn't hold that against him, remaining humble. Turning towards Motoyasu and Itsuki, the other two seemed to disagree for a moment before they shook their heads.

”Yeah, Eugeo's right. It s_u_c_k_e_d, but at least you didn't suffer... errr...”

Naofumi blinked as he realized that he hadn't introduced himself yet. Giving the King a nod, he fixed that, ”My name is Naofumi Iwatani, 20 years old, college student.”

”Right then, Naofumi!” Motoyasu grinned at finally getting his name.

Admittedly, that got Naofumi to chuckle a little. The guy's smile practically dispelled the weird atmosphere brought about by the subject of their deaths (and Naofumi's not-death).

With the conversation back on track, the King went through the rest of his exposition. The subject of Status Magic both surprised Naofumi as well as led him to feel a bit concerned over Eugeo who probably didn't have the easy cultural references the rest of the Heroes had to fall back on, but to his surprise Eugeo easily copied what the rest of them did. Then came the subject of their weapons, and the limitations of said weapons - Naofumi's ”weapon” was a shield for crying out loud - and soon with the promise of them gaining party members on the next day, the King sends them towards their room where they could rest.

Still, Naofumi wondered as to why Motoyasu and Itsuki looked so excited as the four of them went to their room.

Chapter 2

Motoyasu

Motoyasu was practically shaking in giddiness as soon as the doors to their room closed behind them.

Sure, it s_u_c_k_e_d to die at the hands of his female friends. Momiji, Ikuyo... Part of Motoyasu still couldn't believe that Momoiji, the shy girl he had befriended and flirted with would change so much because she loved him. And Ikuyo too, the girl had been judgmental and bossy sometimes, but she only did that only when it was for the best. She wasn't the kind to stab people with a knife. Neither of them were.

Motoyasu thought he knew them. But now, he wasn't so sure. Was that how much 'love' could change a girl?

Maybe, that was why when Motoyasu had been summoned here, he had jumped straight into acting into the role of a video game hero. After all, when he had played Emerald Online at home, it had been for escapism as much as it had been for excitement. And he had loved Emerald Online, he was one of the highest leveled players in the server, and he had been summoned as a spearman like his favorite character!

Games were safe. They were familiar. It would be easier to think about those than about the circ_u_mstances that brought him here.

”Eugeo, you don't look so good again. Are you just processing things now?”

Motoyasu turned to Naofumi, who had been the one to say that. Blunt the attempt at support that might have been, Motoyasu couldn't forget that it had also been him who noticed about Eugeo's state first between all of them. In all seriousness, Motoyasu honestly felt bad that he hadn't noticed until the Shield Hero pointed it out. He had been so focused on the King's words that he hadn't even realized that one of their member hadn't even spoken once until that moment, and even then, it was Naofumi who stepped forward first to help.

The four of them might have been summoned to be Heroes, but clearly Naofumi was the one who had the instincts for it the most.

”Y-Yeah. I think I was just hit with the idea that I was ripped away from my friends again, right as we were finally all united.”

All of the other three in the room, Motoyasu included, flinched at those words. Right, that was the case, right?

Setting aside the circ_u_mstances of their states immediately before being summoned, all of them were ripped away from their past lives without any warning. Nothing would change that fact. And while Motoyasu doesn't know what to feel about the two girls that he thought he knew, he still had family. Other friends. All of whom he had now left behind.

Motoyasu doesn't make a wheezing noise, but it is a close thing.

”...yeah, I know the feeling.” Naofumi clearly tried for a smile, but it was an anemic thing. ”I had parents and a younger brother back in my world. Honestly, it's all I can do to not think about it.”

Behind Naofumi, Motoyasu saw Itsuki nodding along. So it wasn't just Motoyasu who was trying to run away from the thoughts, huh?

”I can't. I can't stop thinking of them.” Eugeo's face grew worse, the Sword Hero holding his face in his hands as he began hyperventilating. ”For the longest time, we fought to get Alice back, I wanted that to the point that I was willing to sacrifice my life for it so I was fine with dying, but... I'm not by their side now. I'm here, in another world that I can't understand, summoned in a way that reminds me all too well of Integrity Knights, and now I'm being told that I'm supposed to be a Hero! How am I supposed to not think about this!”

(But in the end, he was just voicing what all of them really thought.)

”...I can't really say that I can understand how your life was like.” Naofumi sat down beside Eugeo, his voice in a soothing baritone. ”In comparison, my life was just boring. I had two parents who were more interested in my younger brother than with me. As for said younger brother, the best thing I could really say about my place in his life was that I helped motivate him by teaching him the ways of the Otaku when he was at his worst, and not much else. But boring or not, it was my life too... So I suppose, like you, I can understand being forced to leave them behind.”

It was Itsuki who spoke next, sitting on Eugeo's opposite side. ”...I had a family too.”

As Itsuki described a fairly normal life of a model student in his past world, Motoyasu followed suit behind the rest of them into sitting on Eugeo's bed, their backs leaning on the wall behind them with their shoulders all brushing with one another. And as he did so, Motoyasu threw away the thoughts of treating this world as a game. How could he, after so many cold doses of reality back to back?

This world wasn't a game. It was reality, fantastic in how it was filled with fantasy, terrific with how it filled them with existential terror.

And so, for the rest of the night, all of them just talked back and forth on how it was like in their previous world, careful to not touch s_e_n_s_i_t_i_v_e subjects too much just yet. And while it soon became clear that Naofumi, Itsuki, and Motoyasu came from different versions of Japan, Eugeo's descriptions of his previous world had them all reeling in sympathy.

”Your world sounds like a dystopia, Eugeo!”

Itsuki, as it turned out, was someone who believed a lot in justice. And when Eugeo described how his childhood friend had been taken away years ago by an Integrity Knight, he had been incensed on Eugeo's behalf, to the surprise of the blond who was telling his tale.

”Uh, what's a dystopia?”

”Right, different world, probably different vocabulary.” Naofumi places a hand on his forehead before explaining for Eugeo's sake, ”Okay, so first there is its opposite, a utopia. A utopia is what we call a perfect society. No one breaks the law, no one is left hungry, the likes. Earlier on, when you described your world, it was almost like that to us... but it's not really perfect, isn't it? That's basically what a dystopia is, something that looks like a utopia, but isn't.”

Eugeo nodded slowly, understanding what they were talking about. ”Yeah. People still died of sickness, a lot of the nobles thought of themselves beyond most of the citizenry, and the Axiom Church...”

Motoyasu spoke up, ”No, it's not just that. Eugeo, from how you described it, literally no one broke the laws, right? Other than your friend Alice?”

Eugeo seemed as though to say something else, only to hold back for now as he placed a hand over his right eye. ”...Yes, at the time, that was what we thought. Nobody could break the Taboo Index.”

The other three exchanged looks over that, recognizing a story behind it, but nodding along anyway as it was clearly a s_e_n_s_i_t_i_v_e subject. Motoyasu continued, ”Well, in our worlds we also had laws like that, telling what was right or wrong, but... a lot of people didn't follow it.” The two girls that killed Motoyasu certainly didn't. ”It was there, but it wasn't immutable. People still broke laws left and right, depending on what they felt. Even if everyone knew that the law was right, in the end it was still their choice. Heck, sometimes the law was just flat-out wrong.”

Eugeo's eyes go wide at that. ”...everyone in your worlds had a choice?”

”And then there's the subject of jobs in your world.” Itsuki still looked incensed over the entire thing. ”From how you've described it, literally everyone had no choice in what line of work they wanted to do right? It was all picked for them, and for you, it was to be a woodcutter for a tree that couldn't be felled?”

Motoyasu wanted to know the story behind that. If Eugeo was supposed to be a woodcutter, then how did he become a swordsman? Clearly, something happened there.