Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari (LN) - Volume 22 - Chapter 4

Chapter Four: Quality Check of Heroes

It was the next day. After all our research into accessories, Ren, Imiya, and I were showing off our work, and with Raphtalia and Fohl joining the party, we were trying some of them out to test their effects. Mamoru, Filolia, and Holn were taking part too. The idea of including R’yne and S’yne had sounded too troublesome to Filolia, so they would be testing things later. S’yne had placed a pin on me, and R’yne the same on Mamoru; it was for the purpose of watching over us, but that also meant they heard everything we were saying.

This was a good chance for heroes from both sides to get better acquainted while trying out some items that might help us in our struggles ahead. Melty was still in Siltran Castle, while Ruft and that sheep therianthrope who worked with Mamoru were off acting as envoys to other nations. Mamoru had told me that not showing his face too easily was one method he used to place pressure on the opposite side when negotiating. Eclair had also gone along to keep them safe, but I was a little worried about whether they’d be okay.

“You guys make all sorts of accessories, don’t you, Naofumi?” Mamoru commented. He was doing the same thing I was—trying all sorts of different prototypes on his shield.

“I guess we do,” I agreed.

“Oh, this is a good one. It gives a massive boost to the power and range of Shield Boomerang.” Mamoru proceeded to throw his shield, which flew a long distance at considerable speed. I squinted as it went, noting that the shield was spinning in the air and surrounded by blades of light. It was going faster than before and looked more potent. I was jealous, I had to admit.

“That one’s really for Ren,” I told him. I’d designed it hoping to provide that auto-tracking effect to float skills. I didn’t even have the skill Shield Boomerang. Mamoru had told me that he’d learned it from the Frisbee Shield—a shield that I’d also copied; I didn’t learn any such skill. We were both the Shield Hero, so these differences between us were starting to piss me off.

He also had a skill called Shield Chain, which he could unleash as a follow-up to Shield Bash. I had Shield Bash, but I didn’t have Shield Chain. But I did have Chain Shield. With just a little swapping of the words, the effect was totally different. The fact he could attack at all made me so jealous. Even though we were both the Shield Hero, there were so many differences between us it offered almost no points of reference at all.

“I like this one!” Filolia exclaimed. “Imiya, was it? You have some real skill! You’ve caught the eye of the Maniacal Brave! Can I place a custom order?”

“I’m sorry, what?” Imiya asked, flustered and looking in our direction as Filolia closed in. She was holding the Cross Glawick Third Eye in her hands.

“That was made for Ren,” I told her. It was the one with the eyeball and magic circle motif. The special effect Ren had applied when he equipped it had been to increase the accuracy of his Hundred Swords. He had explained that the skill was the same as Motoyasu’s Aiming Lancer and Itsuki’s Arrow Rain. He said it also offered an effect predicting incoming magical arcs—the weapon allowed you to see, to some extent, the trajectory of incoming magic—and had also speeded up the activation of his magic a little. Maybe it was the eye motif that had created this focus on accuracy and eye-based effects. From the perspective of wanting to add a homing effect to float weapons, it was a failure. On the other hand, offering three effects at once was pretty incredible.

“The effect will probably change if you imbue some magic,” I said. This was one that Raphtalia, Fohl, and I had all tried first to be on the safe side.

“This is all very interesting,” Holn said. “Can I get involved?”

“I can see you making a load of half-animal accessories,” I commented. “Like those plants from before.” Holn had created the leaves for the Raph species. I would have preferred for her to research the accessories that could bind the holy or vassal weapons and find a way to break their hold more easily.

“In a certain light, those could maybe become accessories,” Holn pondered.

“I’m sure they could, but that’s a bit outside my expertise,” I replied. I worked with accessories by processing gemstones and metal; creating them using alchemy was something I had zero experience with. I was interested in finding out what would happen if you crushed a gemstone into powder and turned it into an accessory though, like when making medicine. “If that hammer you gave Natalia works out, maybe you can apply the same kind of techniques.”

“An interesting proposition,” Holn mused.

“Accessories, huh,” Fohl muttered, looking at the one in his hand.

“In your case, Fohl, I think some additional adornment might be better than something like a key holder,” I suggested. Something like metal spikes to wind around his gauntlets. His weapon was not dissimilar to the claws, but it involved more impact, after all. That said, there were some sharp gauntlets available, and the weapon operated differently from the claws Filolia used. “If you’d like to place a request, I’ll do my best to fill it,” I told him.

“I’m not sure how to respond to that . . . It’s clearly better to have something, but I’m not sure what. I haven’t learned float weapon skills like the Sword Hero yet, and the basic nature of the gauntlets means both of my hands are always full,” Fohl explained. It sounded like he didn’t really know what kind of effect would be useful for him. It wasn’t like he really had a go-to skill.

“What about if we connected the two gauntlets together by a chain or rope?” I suggested. It might make them look like handcuffs, at a glance, but I’d be interested to see what kind of effects they would have.

“I think attaching something like your shield, Brother, would probably offer better effects,” Fohl replied. The original use of a gauntlet was for defense, that was true. Fohl was using them as impact weapons, but they had a defensive side. There were things like bucklers, which I could copy as well. I wondered if it would count as a copy or an accessory for Fohl. It might be worth trying to attach a small shield as an accessory. I wasn’t sure what judgment my weapon would finally make, but if it increased my pool of weapons, then that suited me. Making the distinction between accessory or armor, though, that was something else—and whether it would count as blacksmithing or not was something else too. I’d have to talk to Ren about it later.

“What kind of accessory is Ren looking for, anyway?” Mamoru asked. He knew that all of these had primarily been created for Ren to use, but he didn’t know the reason why.

“He’s trying to improve his abilities with float skills. We’re really looking for an accessory that will work as an aid for him,” I explained.

“Float skills are convenient, I’ll give you that,” Mamoru replied. Both he and I popped out our own Float Shields. It was like having extra arms, making defense a lot easier to pull off.

“You have a pet Dragon Emperor, correct? Why not get him to donate a fragment or two and turn those into accessories? That might provide a different means to control weapons,” Holn suggested. She hated dragons, but she didn’t seem averse to making use of them. That made me think of the Demon Dragon, who at the moment was nothing more to me than a voice that murmured in my mind when I incanted magic. The reduction in casting time was great, but she could be obnoxious.

“In that case, the Water Dragon might be our only option,” I stated. Gaelion was still in the future, and the actual Demon Dragon was in another world completely. Raising a new dragon in this time would be a pain in the ass—and the last thing we needed was more of them.

“I do understand how the Sword Hero feels,” Filolia said, cackling to herself. “A floating sword is a beautiful thing to behold.” She definitely shared the same adolescent tendencies. “Ren, is it? Filolia, the Maniacal Dark Brave, can understand where you’re coming from! Let us both descend into this darkness together!”

“Naofumi!” Ren looked at me, a pleading expression on his face as Filolia closed in. She had a hand covering one side of her face again, her visible eye twinkling, like a hopped-up goth teenager. Ren wanted to move on from this aspect of himself—perhaps seal all memories of it away forever—but circumstances around him were not allowing that to happen. I almost felt sorry for him. He might be in a similar position as me and my rage, wanting to move past it but also still needing to make use of it.

“Okay, I know. Try and use that to help with your forging. I bet you’ll be able to make good stuff even when I’m not around. Think of it as trying to master your own past, okay?” I told him.

“That’s just mixing words! You’re still asking me to dig up my own dark history!” Ren replied. He looked mortified almost as soon as he said it. He’d been keeping his outbursts under control recently, but I’d probably also been mocking him a little too much. He couldn’t stay quiet forever. The whole business with that out-of-control sword had been pretty embarrassing for him. There was only so much a person could take.

“You have to believe that your adolescent angst can save the world!” I replied.

“Brother takes a big swing!” Fohl chipped in. I would’ve preferred he stayed silent.

“Mr. Naofumi, you said something similar to Kizuna, didn’t you?” Raphtalia recalled. “About believing that laziness could save the world. Have you taken a liking to saying things like that?”

“It could also be considered just passing the buck,” I said.

“I don’t think that’s something you should admit to so openly,” Raphtalia chided.

“Please!” Ren extended a hand toward me. I dodged out of the way, while Filolia closed in. “Why can’t I escape my past!” Ren lamented.

“That kind of line is exactly the angst we’re talking about,” I commented. I shook my head but decided to help Ren out. I pointed at Filolia’s keeper, Mamoru, indicating he should do something about his ward—while making sure Ren also saw the gesture.

“Hey, Filolia. Give the guy a break, okay?” Mamoru said.

“Why?” Filolia objected. “If he joins me in working hard at this, he’ll only get stronger too!”

“Sure, but look at him. We guys can be sensitive about stuff like this,” Mamoru told her.

“Seriously? You can’t be a hero if stuff like this makes you embarrassed,” she retorted.

“What’s so embarrassing about being a hero?” I asked.

“You stand out, for one thing! You need to be cool so that others will follow you! You won’t get anywhere if you’re always shy and embarrassed!” Filolia opined. Both Mamoru and I were giving her disapproving looks. But I had to admit, I’d heard making people look cooler with things like military uniforms would boost morale. “This is the time for the darkness inside Ren to awaken!”

“Naofumi . . .” Ren pleaded again, seriously coming to me for aid. Filolia wasn’t listening to anything Mamoru had to say on the subject. I decided to try something else.

“Ren, what do you think of this accessory?” I asked him. I showed him the Cross Glawick Third Eye that Imiya had made.

“Huh? What’s this got to do with anything?” Ren asked, puzzled.

“The design looked kind of embarrassing, maybe, but once it’s actually fabricated and attached to a weapon, see? It doesn’t look all that bad, does it?” I replied. Ren didn’t say anything, just looked at the Cross Glawick Third Eye. “Even if it’s embarrassing for the one making it, when considered objectively, it’s not that bad,” I told him. Imiya’s work was impeccable, that was for sure. The fact the design was right up Ren’s alley—and yet once it was finished, it didn’t look that adolescent at all—spoke volumes about Imiya’s skills. When it came to embarrassing articles . . . those lures that Kizuna had made were far worse.

“I’m not sure,” Ren said, unconvinced.

“When you consider the production process, it might seem like a joke, but the finished product looks fine. It doesn’t matter how embarrassing something looks—if it works, no one’s going to complain,” I assured him.

“Still not sure,” Ren said, sticking to his guns.

“Okay. How about the weapons old guy? That gruff muscle-head made a costume for Filo to wear,” I told him. There was indeed a costume for Filo that the weapons old guy had made. That was his own dark history. I had often wondered what he felt about making it, but I’d never worked up the guts to ask him.

“Huh? I caught a glimpse of that once. He made that?” Ren asked.

“More accurately, he created it through repeated modifications,” I replied. “Would you like to know more?” After additional work, Melty was now using it as sleepwear.

“No, I’m fine,” Ren said, backing down.

“You get my point,” I said.

“It feels like you really brought that one home,” Raphtalia commented from the sidelines, as sharp as ever. I was currently in the process of negotiating with S’yne—without Raphtalia’s knowledge—for the creation of my own Raph-chan sleepwear. She was busy with her own training, of course, so I had no idea when it would finally be made.

“Hey, Naofumi. What about Mamoru’s special shields? Can you use those?” Filolia asked.

“Special shields?” I asked with some trepidation. Hopefully she was just talking about that shield that looked suspiciously like it came from a certain legendary kingdom.

“Filolia, you’re not talking about the shields I think you are . . . are you?” Mamoru asked. They sounded like something Filolia had been involved with and that Mamoru didn’t want to see the light of day. Mamoru had his fingers cocked like he was shooting a gun—at least one of these shields was clearly so bizarre that just a hand signal was enough to identify it.

“That’s right. A bit of this, a bit of that,” Filolia said, raising both her arms and then swinging them down in a chopping motion. I was getting even more concerned that something I wouldn’t be able to scrub from my memory was about to appear. Sensing danger, I moved to depart, but Raphtalia—and then Ren too—both grabbed onto me.

“What betrayal is this?!” I seethed dramatically.

“There’s no escape for you. You treat us like your playthings all the time,” Ren said.

“That’s right. Now it’s your turn to take one for the team and give us all a laugh. It will only make you stronger!” Raphtalia added. I grunted. I’d only been offering Ren some friendly advice on his forging! As for Raphtalia, I had no regrets there. The filolials should be replaced by the Raph species. We didn’t need that high-strung flock of greedy feather faces for anything.

“Even if Naofumi can copy them, I bet he won’t be able to use them,” Ren said tauntingly. “But I guess more shields are better than nothing.”

“Could you bring them out for us to take a look at?” Raphtalia asked sweetly. Ren and Raphtalia both had their best salesman smiles on, their faces practically sparkling.

“Yeah, okay. R’yne, if you’re hearing all this, can you bring them over?” Mamoru said, addressing thin air, assuming that R’yne was listening. A few moments later, R’yne and S’yne popped in.

“Hey, everyone! I’ve got what you asked for right here!” R’yne said brightly.

“You dare show your face, harlot who spreads filth on the ears of anyone who’ll listen!” Filolia cried out, her adolescent angst at her sister exploding immediately. “Once you’ve delivered what you came for, be gone, sexy strumpet! Go back to the castle and study your magic!”

“Being called ‘strumpet’ almost makes me want to stick around,” R’yne joked.

“Me too,” S’yne said with a nod, but she was probably only agreeing with the part about sticking around.

“Hey, R’yne. Do you think you could take this one off our hands?” Ren asked, indicating Filolia.

“What?! Brave Sword has already fallen under the control of my sex-craving sister? Do I smell a payoff?” Filolia exclaimed as Ren tried to palm her off onto R’yne. Ren clearly wanted as little to do with her as possible.

“Nothing like that! I don’t do that kind of thing . . . anymore,” Ren said defensively.

“Oh really? You’ve taken a step back from that life. Is that what you’re trying to say?” Filolia said with a chuckle. “I see the thoughts in your heart and how they differ from your words! Join me on the side of right and put this sex-starved nympho into the ground!” Filolia wasn’t giving up either. Maybe because she’d found someone like herself. We didn’t need the filolials getting infected with this madness. We would have to be careful.

“Someone, please stop her,” Ren pleaded. He was having a tough time, but mainly due to our own deeds.

“No need to get too riled up,” Mamoru cut in. “R’yne and S’yne have their own accessory-testing planned for later, so if you could just wait until then . . .” he asked, throwing a lifeline to Ren and Filolia.

“You want to swap them out with Filolia?” I confirmed with him.

“Sounds about right. You invited us to do this, after all,” Mamoru replied. There was a lot going on among his allies. Keeping Filolia and R’yne in check looked like a nightmare. The nightmare that we had to deal with—Motoyasu—was still in the future. I was glad that Filo wasn’t a hero. If she had been, we might have needed to swap them around like this as well.

“We can watch though, can’t we? I’m going to casually chat with S’yne and watch you go at it. L’yne—I mean, Filolia—don’t cause too much trouble,” R’yne said.

“You don’t need to tell me that! I’m only trying to awaken the power hidden inside the Brave Sword!” Filolia protested.

“Please, enough,” Ren begged. I personally couldn’t pick which of these sisters was more annoying, the sex-obsessed older one or the angsty and dark younger one. Not a choice I would relish being faced with. I had a lot of sympathy for Mamoru.

I was reminded for a moment of another pair of sisters, one older and hard to get a handle on and one younger who loved card games and was a bit ditzy. All you had to do was keep them liquored up and things never got too bad. That did give me an idea. I could drink these two under the table and take them off the board for a while.

“Mamoru, why don’t we teach these two the joys of drinking (until they pass out)?” I suggested.

“Did I hear some extra words on the end there?” Raphtalia cut in, always the spoilsport. We understood each other so well now that it was like she could read my mind just by meeting my eyes.

“You two need to rein it in a little or you’re going to make Mamoru collapse. Have a little more awareness of what you’re doing. Otherwise, you’ll pass out like Ren did! Like Ren did!” I said.

“No need to emphasize that part,” Ren said forlornly.

“Oh my. Did your poor sword go all floppy?” R’yne jibed. “I’m the big sister, so I’ll be the adult. For Mamoru’s sake, I’ll leave you to get on with things.”

“Now you play the responsible adult card!” Filolia raged. “I’ll never forgive you for giving Mamoru permission to have his way with me!” There was literal fire coming off her wings as she shouted this. It sounded like R’yne had always been hard to deal with. I could see why her younger sister might hate her. When I thought about S’yne putting up with all of this, it really made me appreciate how incredible she was. Incredibly tolerant, maybe. R’yne was a lot like her own sister, however, so I hoped S’yne was keeping her guard up a little.

“Whatever. See you later!” R’yne handed over the items Mamoru had asked for and then left again.

“These are your strange shields?” I asked Mamoru. I lifted one of the items, which was wrapped up, and started to check it out. As soon as I touched it, I knew it was a shield, just from the shape. But one side of it was larger than the other. It had a silhouette almost like a surfboard.

“Yes. Take a look inside,” Mamoru prompted me.

“Thinking about it now,” I said wryly after sitting through all that banter, “it might have been better for you to just change to the shield and show it to me.”

“I considered it, but I think getting your hands on the actual thing is best,” Mamoru replied. He obviously wanted to try and surprise me with whatever this was. I wondered what kind of crazy shield I was going to be looking at, either made for or by Mamoru. I took off the wrapping to answer that question and found a round shield with a hole in the center . . . and a gun attached. This was what they called a “shield pistol,” if I recalled correctly. The shield could be taken on and off like a kind of attachment. Maybe a crossbow could be attached too.

“This is definitely a strange weapon,” I said. Mamoru seemed to be conducting some serious research into all sorts of potential shields. I relied entirely on the weapons old guy, meaning I’d never had a chance to use something like this. “What happens when you use this?” I asked him.

“Exactly what you’d expect. I can attack by pulling the trigger. I made it as an experiment, so it only fires one shot,” Mamoru explained.

“Okay. You didn’t try using a more powerful gun, like a rifle, or try to increase the rate of fire?” I asked him.

“If you take things too far, it won’t recognize it as a shield anymore. The gun becomes the main part of it. I switched the gun for a crossbow and I couldn’t copy that either.” With heroes being summoned here from various other worlds, weapons such as guns did exist. However, even firearms were affected by the status of the user, meaning at a low level they were far weaker than one would expect. I would have liked to make a shield machine gun and give it to Itsuki to copy. Most likely it would register as either a gun or shield, and neither of us would be able to copy it. I gave the shield pistol a try.

 Weapon copied!

 Conditions for the Iron Shield Pistol have been unlocked.

  Iron Shield Pistol

  <abilities locked> equip bonus: accuracy + 2

  equip effects: magic bullet, shield transparency

Stats-wise, it was really crappy from my current position. But I had been able to copy it. I switched to the Iron Shield Pistol to try it out.

“You managed to copy it, Naofumi,” Mamoru said.

“Barely,” I replied. Mamoru changed to the Iron Shield Pistol as well. He pointed over at a nearby rock, then took aim and pulled the trigger. There was a light-sounding pop and a shot was fired from the shield, flying over and hitting the rock dead-on.

“There you go. The main issue is that it’s not even as strong as Shield Boomerang or Shield Bash,” Mamoru revealed. He had the advantage over me in that he was a Shield Hero who could actually fight back. This might be a useful means of attack. I hoped the bullet damage was fixed; that would mean I’d be able to injure assailants regardless of my own status. While mulling these things over, I pulled the trigger myself to hear a far less exciting sound than when Mamoru did it. My shot hit the rock at a lethargic speed.

I had nothing to say. The rock didn’t move at all. No one else had anything to say either. My lack of attack power was being reflected after all, just as I’d expected. The awkward expressions of the others only made me feel worse. This was why I had wanted to run away!

“What was . . . Hey, try not to feel too bad, okay?” Filolia gave up her normal chuunibyou act and tried to console me. That only made it worse! I didn’t want their pity! I didn’t need salt in my wounds!

“That’s all I can do? Even with the ‘magic bullet’ equip effect?” I bemoaned.

“Huh?” Mamoru raised an eyebrow. “It has that effect for you? It’s called ‘single shot’ for me.” It sounded like the same shield could have different equip effects, depending on the user. That seemed worth investigating. I imbued some magic into the shield—this was a “magic” bullet we were talking about—and pulled the trigger again. It made the same clicking sound, but nothing else happened. It didn’t look like simply providing some magic was enough to make fresh ammo. My first shot hadn’t consumed anything either. Maybe I needed to add some actual magic. I decided to try with some simple magic . . . and at that thought, the Demon Dragon infesting my mind popped up.

“My time to shine!” she quipped. “First Heal!” That was minor enough that the effect wouldn’t really change whether I incanted or not. I felt the sensation of the magic being transmitted into the center of the shield. I decided to give it a try and found myself pointing the shield at Fohl. The resulting sound was far more promising this time and my magic bullet was fired off toward Fohl. I thought I heard a very quiet voice say, “Experiment time!”

Fohl gave a shout as magical light scattered over him. The shot was fired too close for him to avoid it. He didn’t seem to have suffered any damage, but that was probably a given since the “attack” had come from me. It seemed more likely that he had been hit by First Heal.

“It looks like a shield that can turn magic into bullets and then fire them off,” I surmised.

“You didn’t hesitate to shoot me, did you, Brother?!” Fohl complained.

“I actually didn’t pull the trigger,” I replied.

“Maybe it was Atla playing a prank,” Raphtalia suggested.

“I think . . . I’d quite like that,” Fohl said. His feelings were definitely complex when it came to Atla! I couldn’t say outright that it hadn’t been her. I even heard that unexpected voice. I had to wonder about a sister who would just shoot her brother without any hesitation at all.

“Turning magic into bullets and firing them around. That’s pretty impressive,” Mamoru said.

“The issue there is that I can only use healing and support or buff magic,” I said.

“I can’t see much need to turn those into bullets and shoot them—at least not in this little old time period,” Holn said, providing analysis already. Healing magic in this world could be activated by selecting a target and incanting; so long as they were within range, you didn’t have to be able to see them for the magic to still work. It wasn’t like attack magic, which you needed to actually aim with.

“I guess not. There might be ways to use it, but I doubt situations quite so specific will ever come up,” I said. I recalled working with the Demon Dragon to turn some support magic into a ball that we bounced off my mirrors before activation. There might be some applications like that, but they would also be a pain to set up. Ren provided more powerful support magic than me. My own enhancements weren’t reflected in my magic at the moment. It wasn’t even really a candidate for weapon fusion—too finicky to use.

“Can you have someone else charge it with magic and then use it yourself when you need it?” Mamoru suggested.

“Let me give that a try,” Ren said. He reached toward my shield with one hand and incanted some magic. It didn’t feel like it loaded into the chamber like before.

“Doesn’t look like it,” I said.

“It’s never been the easiest shield to use,” Mamoru replied, exasperated. I wondered if we could make a few modifications to it ourselves. When I saw the Shield Spirit again, I was definitely going to complain about Mamoru being able to attack when I couldn’t.

“Best just not to worry about it, Mr. Naofumi,” Raphtalia suggested.

“I guess. Let’s check the next shield,” I said. I unwrapped the second shield that Mamoru had got R’yne to bring over. I could tell this was a big one even when it was still covered up. But once revealed, it really demonstrated Mamoru’s hard work. The big shield had three swords attached to the top and bottom, a weapon known as a “sword shield.” It was used by swinging it around and mashing it into enemies. It could be used defensively too, of course, but it was mainly about bashing stuff. Filolia picked it up in both hands and started swinging it around.

“This should count as a shield,” Mamoru commented.

“I think I saw one like it in Siltvelt,” I replied. I hadn’t copied it—to be more precise, it had been so decorative that I hadn’t been able to. The one in Siltvelt had been used more as a kind of riff on the idea of a national flag. I picked up this new one and checked it out.

 Conditions for the Iron Sword Shield have been unlocked.

  Iron Sword Shield

  <abilities locked> equip bonus: defense + 2, strength + 2

  equip effects: enhance Shield Bash, Wild Swing, reduce impact

The equip effects seemed good, but I wasn’t sold overall. It might give the shields the old guy had on display in his store a run for their money, but that was about it. No matter the enhancements, it wouldn’t be worthy of any of my current shields. Equipping it didn’t even change my attack, meaning I could swing it around all I liked but I wouldn’t be doing any damage other than to my pride. Just to make sure, I used some iron ore to enhance it via the bow power-up method. It had an upper limit but couldn’t fail. And as expected, that increased defense but not attack power. That was to be my lot in life.

“My attack power isn’t increasing,” I reported. I changed to the shield and swung it around a bit. I focused on Wild Swing and it did feel like a skill with the motion appearing in my head. I gave it a try, but my pathetic attempt to attack just sliced through the air. It was so big I needed to hold it with both hands, which was a pain. Also, Wild Swing—as the name suggested—left the user completely exposed. I liked the enhancement to Shield Bash, but when I used that skill, I could only stun for a brief moment. It might be worth using if it boosted the length of that stun. Some weapon fusing might eventually make it useable, but I doubted the effect would be that great even then. Yeah, I didn’t need this either. It was going to just bolster my stats and that was it. “Based on the shape, I might make use of it as a surfboard or canoe,” I joked sardonically.

“I hate to say it, but you’re not wrong,” Mamoru admitted—and this was the guy who made the thing, not to mention a Shield Hero who could actually attack.

“It’s just bizarre, that’s what it is,” I said.

“It increases your attack quite a bit, right, Mamoru?” Filolia confirmed. “You relied on it a lot when we were starting out.” I bit my lip in frustration. Mamoru and his balanced approach to combat pissed me off! I was so focused on defense I couldn’t do anything alone! I blamed the shield too. Why did it allow Mamoru to attack but not me?

“Well, Raphtalia? Ren? Are you happy now?” I gave my best unhinged laugh.

“You sound so sad . . .” Raphtalia sympathized.

“I’m feeling a little bad about it,” Ren admitted.

“Being unable to attack has allowed you to defend us from all sorts of things, Mr. Naofumi,” Raphtalia reminded me.

“That’s right! The very fact you can’t attack is what makes you the toughest! You’re more durable than Mamoru too, right?” Ren said, picking up from Raphtalia.

“I’m jealous of that myself, it’s true . . . but still . . .” Mamoru stopped for a moment. “No, that’s enough about this. Saying anything more will have the opposite effect, so I’ll keep my mouth shut.” His consideration of me actually only pushed me further into the corner. I knew all too well that everyone pitied me for being unable to attack! I didn’t need their sympathy!

“You two had better remember this!” I warned Raphtalia and Ren.

“I was starting to regret forcing this on you, but that threat has removed those feelings,” Raphtalia said pointedly.

“You mess with us all the time! This makes us even,” Ren added.

“I’m not sure we should be fighting among ourselves,” Holn said, watching our exchange with a sigh.

“I think this is how they show their affection for each other,” Mamoru told her.

“A bond of trust, yet constantly picking at each other at all times . . . I like it,” Filolia said.

“I guess we do tussle like this quite a lot,” Fohl admitted.

“Everyone, I’m sorry to interrupt, but what about the accessories?” Imiya had been quiet up until now, but she tried to get things back on track—as much for my sake as anything.

“You’re my only ally, Imiya,” I said. I hugged her from behind and stroked her head. She moaned uncomfortably and stiffened up in my arms, embarrassed. It might be worth calling in Raph-chan and Ruft to bolster my forces. If I toyed with Raphtalia too much, she might turn against me.

“Mr. Naofumi, please don’t make too much trouble for Imiya,” Raphtalia said. But I decided to ignore her calmly delivered request.

“You’ve always got a quick retort, Raphtalia,” I bemoaned. “I miss the time you were more like sweet little Imiya here.” I continue to stroke her.

“I’m sorry . . . I went too far,” Raphtalia said, backing down. It was all the stuff with the Raph species that had made her more prickly toward me. Before that, Raphtalia had been better at matching the general atmosphere and was more conscientious in her replies.

“Please, Raphtalia,” said Imiya, still moaning.

“I’m not angry, don’t worry,” Raphtalia replied. “Mr. Naofumi, please stop causing trouble for Imiya,” she said to me again after taking a calming breath. Imiya did seem close to passing out. She was very shy about pretty much everything. Raphtalia wouldn’t be jealous of Imiya over just this. If she was willing to compromise, so be it. Our Raph species research would continue.

I stopped stroking Imiya and checked the accessories. We’d found some good ones. I was pulling my weight.

“Okay, everyone. Can you split the accessories up into those you want to keep and those you don’t need? I’ll try reworking the ones we don’t need and see if I can bring out a different effect,” I said.

“Understood,” Raphtalia replied.

“Hey, could you make a special accessory exclusively for me?” Filolia asked Imiya, her eyes sparkling. Accessories were always very sought after in video games.

“Ah, I’m not sure . . .” Imiya said.

“What do you mean by exclusive, anyway?” I asked. Since I was an accessory maker myself, that seemed like a legit question. In games there were accessories that only specific characters could equip, but I had no idea what an exclusive accessory would look like in real life. Exclusive to a profession, maybe—or to a weapon. For my shield, that could be a cap to cover the crystal on the shield, but with a little work, it could be a hilt for a sword too.

“I mean . . . make it knowing that I’m going to be the one using it!” Filolia replied.

“That’s one way of doing things,” I admitted. “That could be an exclusive accessory. But you could only make such a thing with a good understanding of the person you’re making it for.” Imiya or I probably didn’t know enough about Filolia to pull that off. To me, she was just a chuunibyou bundle of mouthy angst. “You might get an equip effect from a wedding ring, if Mamoru made one for you,” I suggested. Filolia’s face turned bright red instantly, and she started to stammer. Mamoru was looking embarrassed too. Two twittering lovebirds. Holn was fanning herself with an annoyed look on her face. “Exclusive equipment though. That might be quite a thing,” I pondered. The leaf that Holn had given me felt like an exclusive accessory. It was something easy for all the Raph species to use. I remembered Raph-chan using it like a throwing star. She played by tossing multiple leaves around. It had been made using the bioplants and sakura lumina. I had no idea how it worked, but somehow it could multiply. There was a main leaf, the actual accessory, but that could multiply, allowing you to throw the extra leaves like ninja stars or ofuda. The clones would wither away after a while, but they kept their shape until they hit a target.

Others from the Raph species had borrowed it from Raph-chan and played around with it themselves. Some of the tricks had been fun to watch, like turning the leaf into a fireball in midflight. Raphtalia hadn’t been so impressed. When I suggested using it like an ofuda to see if it might be able to activate the magic of Kizuna’s world—the world her katana vassal weapon came from—she had made a strange face. That was what you called “exclusive equipment.” So we had a template.

I immediately found myself fantasizing about exclusive equipment for Raph-chan. Raph-chan was very tanuki-like—just like her origin, Raphtalia. Thinking of a tanuki turning into a human made me think of fairy tales and the kind of items they used there. Mt. Kachikachi wouldn’t be any good. Putting her next to Ethnobalt would paint quite the picture, but in that story Raph-chan would be the bad guy, killed by the rabbit. She wasn’t a nasty tanuki who caused trouble for nice old people. I thought for a moment longer about other such items from fairy tales.

I took out some paper and started to sketch designs for my next accessory. One looked more like work for a blacksmith. I scratched it away with my pen. I was just getting my ideas down. First, I drew a Raph-chan shape. Then I added a fairy-tale bewitched teakettle and teakettle-style armor. I expanded it from there, working to make it suit Ruft as well. He was big, so I could use a teakettle for his armor. For Raphtalia, meanwhile, the miko priestess outfit suited her so well I made the kettle from wood taken from the sakura lumina.

“Mr. Naofumi? What are you thinking about over there?” Raphtalia asked. I snapped back to myself as Raphtalia placed a hand on my shoulder—a murderous feeling in her hand.

“Exclusive equipment for you and the others, Raphtalia. Something like this,” I said.

“I understand you want to make equipment for Raph-chan and the others, but why does it look so strange?!” Raphtalia exclaimed.

“The enchanted teakettle,” Ren guessed.

“Yeah, I thought so. From that fairy tale,” Mamoru agreed with a nod.

“It might suit Ruft,” Ren said, “but it might be going too far for Raphtalia.”

“A different tanuki-based spirit that might suit Raphtalia . . . how about the Akadenchu?” I pondered.

“Never heard of that one,” Mamoru said. Ren was tilting his head too.

“It comes from around Tokushima. Not especially ghoulish in nature, it’s about a tanuki in a red jacket that turns into a little kid and then asks to be piggybacked around. Doing so makes it happy,” I explained.

“It doesn’t, like . . . get heavy and squash you?” Ren asked.

“Nope,” I said. It was just happy at being carried around. Mamoru and Ren didn’t seem especially impressed.

“So it doesn’t do any harm . . . but not much good either,” Ren finally said. I was going to put little red jackets on Raph-chan and the whole tanuki gang. They’d look so cute, I knew it. The perfect piece of fairy-tale lore to apply to Raph-chan. “When you weren’t here, Naofumi, Ruft wore something like that when we were going to play in the ocean with Keel,” Ren explained. It sounded like Ruft had already worn something like it, but it hadn’t been tailored for him. The experiment could go ahead.

“Raphtalia, which do you prefer? The fact our model is wearing nothing but a jacket might cause some titillation,” I pondered.

“I don’t want any part of any of this,” Raphtalia replied. Fair enough. That was exactly the answer I expected.

“Whatever. I’ll have S’yne make a simple red jacket . . . No, anyone who can sew could do it. If we choose materials carefully, it could have some good effects. Ren, you handle the teakettle,” I said.

“Why? And what do you mean by ‘whatever’?” Raphtalia was fighting back hard, her tail big and fluffy. I’d hoped to muscle this through, but maybe not.

“I’m talking about testing some exclusive equipment,” I said innocently.

“You can’t expect that to work!” Raphtalia shot back.

“Raphtalia, be sensible,” I said persuasively, massaging her shoulders. “I won’t allow you to give up anything that could make you stronger.”

“I’m worried that if I back down here, you’ll realize it works on the Raph-chans, and then I won’t have any escape,” Raphtalia said. She really had grown up so much. I couldn’t just steamroll her anymore. She was fighting back with some intense logic. Of course, that didn’t mean I was going to back down. I had shouldered an important and mighty purpose—to power up the Raph species. Maybe I didn’t have to shoulder it, strictly speaking, but I loved the idea of “exclusive equipment.” The experiment would continue!

“You do have it hard, sister,” Fohl sympathized.

“You have an outfit from your species, right, Fohl? Does that give you some kind of equip effect?” I asked him.

“Some of them do have effects that only work with hakuko,” he told me, speaking honestly. Of course they did. That had to be a thing. Which meant weapons also had to exist with species-exclusive effects. “Sister, you could obtain something like that from Q’ten Lo, couldn’t you?”

“I know we have Natalia here, but we can’t borrow things from this time period,” I said.

“I’m sure Natalia will happily lend us whatever we need. It’s better than running the risk of whatever you might create,” Raphtalia said.

“Natalia isn’t here right now,” I countered. “What you’re looking for might not even be in Q’ten Lo in this time period. Rather than waste time finding out, wouldn’t it make more sense to just make some new exclusive equipment? Even if you have some for yourself, the Raph-chans have nothing but that leaf,” I argued.

“You aren’t going to back down, are you, Naofumi?” Ren stated.

“An exclusive ring for me . . .” Filolia said, still looking cowed, face red. This could be a good way to make her shut up in the future.

“Would it still work if you wore the red jacket over the top of your miko priestess garb?” Ren said, proposing a compromise to Raphtalia.

“Hey, I wasn’t expecting her to wear nothing but the jacket!” I clarified.

“I would certainly hope not!” Raphtalia shot back. I had meant the jacket over her current outfit from the start! It might be too many layers, but it could work as a jacket. “This entire exchange reminds me of Natalia from the other day.”

“I can see that,” I agreed.

“Overlaying my interaction with Natalia on this farce is very rude!” Holn interjected. Raphtalia gave a deep sigh.

“Okay, I give my consent,” Raphtalia finally said. “Just don’t take things too far. I don’t want to end up practically naked.”

“Of course not. Just what do you take me for?” I said, offended. Certainly not the kind of creep to raise a slave girl and then make her wear nothing but a red jacket. And wasn’t that a short and sweet summation of Raphtalia’s life!

I took a moment to recall what we had been discussing. Right. Exclusive equipment. We might be able to apply that term if an accessory was made for a particular individual to use. Just keep things simple, then. Put your heart into making something for that person.

Making an accessory for Raphtalia would be great training for me. I counted on her the most out of everyone. That was where the Raph-chans and my love of them came from. That made me think of that arm band I made for Raphtalia. The direction of the piece, as well as how to combine the materials to get the most out of them, was important to consider. Raphtalia might like something decorative, with gemstones, but that didn’t suit my image at all.

“Mr. Naofumi?” Raphtalia stammered. I had taken her hand and was checking the size of her wrist. The last time, I’d simply made something I thought she could get the most use out of. I needed to consider a size that would make it easy to use and ensure it wouldn’t get in the way in battle. I’d have to choose the materials carefully based on these points. Something with a strong connection to Raphtalia too . . . like a sakura stone of destiny, sakura lumina, or emergency medicine. It felt like my ideas were taking shape. The only issue was I didn’t expect it to enhance skills even when it was completed.

“Hey, Raphtalia. What happened to that ball I made from those balloons for you?” I asked.

“That ball? I keep it safe on a shelf in my room,” she replied. The memories of when we first met brought a smile to her face.

“And you have some more balloon materials in case it ever needed repairs, right?” I confirmed with her. I knew what a precious treasure that ball was for her. I hadn’t given it much thought when I made the gift, but for Raphtalia, it was a super important memory.

“I do,” she replied.

“If you have some to spare, could I have them? It should be auspicious to make use of those materials,” I explained. That was exactly what this item was going to need.

“Okay,” Raphtalia finally replied.

“I often sympathize with you when Naofumi is giving you the runaround, but I can see how close you really are,” Ren said quietly. I considered this to be business as usual.

“It looks like you’ve had a good idea or two,” Holn commented.

“I noticed that too,” Imiya added, the pair of them looking at me with smiles on their faces. I just wanted everyone to stop staring at me.

“I’m not going to use the balloon materials to make a thong, if that’s what you’re thinking,” I said.

“And I wouldn’t give them to you if you were!” Raphtalia fired back. I wondered how we always got off topic like this. All I wanted to do was practice making some powerful exclusive equipment.

“Finding the right combination of exclusive equipment and weapons could be a lot of work,” I stated. I’d practice making exclusive equipment for Raphtalia and the Raph species first and then narrow down the search to something suited to their weapons.

We continued to spend the day testing more accessories. At the end, we had quite the haul. I walked away with enhanced durability for Shooting Star Shield, longer range for Float Shield, and the ability to choose reflect magic up to Zweite class. I could add some life force to increase the output of the magic reflection, but after too many boosted reflects, the accessory itself would be destroyed. Ren had increased accuracy for Hundred Swords, night vision, and early warning for magic activation. Raphtalia gained additional stars that scattered from her Stardust Blade—swinging her sword, making flower petals appear for slashing follow-up attacks—and a boost to magic. Fohl and Filolia got visible critical points when attacking, easier charging of life force, and increased speed. S’yne and R’yne took home enhanced attack power and tensile strength for their thread attacks and boosted stats for their familiars. Mamoru got enhancements for Shield Boomerang, additional strength for Shield Bash, and auto Shooting Star Shield. Holn got increased length of time for the whip binding skills, a paralysis effect added to her attacks, and a reduction in compounding time.

I was especially impressed with Mamoru and his automatic deployment of Shooting Star Shield on a fixed cycle. I even gave it a try myself, but it didn’t work for me like it did for him. I cursed the Shield Spirit again. That annoying ball of light seemed intent on dragging me through the mud. I was seriously thinking about changing full-time to the Mirror Hero.

Mamoru did say he was jealous of my magic reflection, but I wondered how honest he was being. It was probably a case of “the grass is always greener” for both of us. Holn’s items were pretty run-of-the-mill, but she seemed to like them. I could easily imagine the kind of things she had in mind to use them for.