shield hero.

naofumi iwatani; shield hero. citizen. citta affiliated.

[iwatani]

In spite of the length of time he’d spent in this city so far, curiosity still got the better of Sheffield when things happened that were out of the ordinary. So far the majority of people spending time on the Hive City beach were acting predictably and devoting their time to typical beach activities. The exceptions, while rare, were the interesting ones—and the young man hefting a large frying pan fit the bill.

Interested in what the man was doing, he drew closer. The scent of cooking meat stirred a more human hunger within him. It was nothing significant compared to the Hunger, but it was enough to catch his attention. He thought he was keeping a safe distance when he peered over the stranger’s work, but apparently not. 

“Oh. Sorry,” Sheffield replied, taking a step back and straightening up. He clasped his hands together behind his back, putting on a friendlier front. “I just thought it was interesting that you were cooking on your own on the beach. In a frying pan, at that.” There were scattered and simple grills around, mostly taken. But no, apparently that wasn’t good enough. “If you’re offering, sure. Can’t say I’m not hungry, thanks to you.”

「No need to apologize. Just eat and enjoy. That’s what people are doing all around, right? Have to fit in with the crowd, otherwise they’ll kick you out.」

  Naofumi was tempted -- more than simply tempted, really -- to tell the guy to cough up some cash in exchange for the food, but decided to make it a point not to. Just for this guy specifically. Maybe it was the fact that he could mess around with someone longer if they weren’t put off by having to pay, and that he was feeling bored.     That the person in front of him was curious about why he was cooking the way he was made Naofumi almost want to answer. He put a raincheck on that for the moment, and instead picked up one of the bits of chicken and jabbed at it with a fork, then tossed it in his mouth.

「Mmm. Totally harmless and tasty.」Joking with a deadpan voice, Naofumi then tossed some more fried chicken onto a paper plate, squeezed it like a taco, and raised it towards the customer. 「As for why I’m doing it this way, the other guy quit. I took over after that. He left his stuff here, so it was an opportunity waiting to happen.」

[iwatani]

.serphs

  The beach; all sorts of anime back in Japan had cliche junk like this as an incentive to buy the super expensive boxed packs -- did that mean that the lives of everyone in this city was just some sort of amalgamation of characters from various series for the purposes of entertaining some sort of higher being?   Nah. Totally not. Most definitely not. Naofumi hadn’t considered Melromarc a game back when he lived over there, and he wasn’t going to act like that was the case here either.   Besides, he had more important things to focus on at the moment. Particularly because cooking was a process that took a lot of care. Which is what he was doing at the moment.   It had been so long since he had eaten something other than instant noodles in his apartment -- but since he’d been kicked out of it after apparently disappearing and reappearing, he had to make use of his culinary skills instead of mooching off the scientists’ supplies.   And since he was already planning on making food, he might as well capitalize on it.   With a very large pan in front of him, Naofumi was cooking fried chicken, and charging a fair amount of money for a portion to whoever wanted it. Of course, with how much skill was put into it -- though it wasn’t the best he could make -- he could have charged more, but he was feeling a bit giving at the moment, and that led to him not being so miserly at the moment.

  Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a shiny head of black hair -- not too uncommon around here, but it seemed like they were interested in the food. Turning his head just slightly, Naofumi attempted to downplay the normal irritated tone in his voice and replace it with a more light one -- which didn’t really come out so good.

「Hey. Watch out. The oil that chicken’s cooking in can take your eye out if you’re not careful. Want some?」

[murderousmorality]

He certainly seemed pleasant enough.

Ryoko stared at him as if she were appraising a dust-covered antique before giving him a traditional salesgirl smile. Some brightly-colored wrappers were in one hand while her other carried a big red bag. The way it bulged at the sides indicted a full set of goodies. Or razor-blades.  

“Like I said, sir, it’s only candy! It may not fill you up, but it’s good for a little pick-me-up. What would you like?”

One of her offered items was a tiny square in red paper, a superficial one in orange, and a purple rectangle. None of them appeared to have any visible brand names on them. 

[iwatani]

  Ugh. If he wasn’t already perturbed enough by the simple fact that, well, she was a girl, that smile didn’t help with that at all. In fact, it made him almost want to turn tail and run the first chance he got. But the back of his mind kept telling him to keep things professional, and that he couldn’t afford to be so rude to just about everyone he met with -- on the rare occasion that he even did meet someone.   With a deft motion, he snatched the red one between a pair of his fingers, unwrapped it with just the one hand, and flicked it into his mouth with his thumb. He chewed on it as he would with any other sort of food -- but if there was some sort of special effect to it, he wasn’t feeling anything.

  ‘This better not be drugged. I bet it is. Definitely.’

  Thoughts like that entered his head as he moved his focus from staring at the ground, to the sky, then back at the girl who offered it to him. With a swallow, he sighed and reluctantly spoke.

「Well...that seemed to go better than expected. What’s all this for, anyway?」

[murderousmorality]

“Excuse me. Do you like candy?”

“If the answer is yes, then what would you say to some free samples?”

[iwatani]

  It was with a slow movement that Naofumi chewed on the gum he’d bought from a convenience store a few blocks down, eventually coming upon what was seemingly some sort of advertisement campaign.   Free handouts? In this city, it wouldn’t be surprising if it turned out to be poisoned, but Naofumi mentally shrugged and glanced at the girl with eyes that made it clear he wanted to take the offer. He spat out the gum he was chewing onto the ground, and spoke up after a quick breath.

「If this is a joke, it better not be as tasteless as that gum. The food you’re offering even less so.」

[engekibushacho]

He’s seen worse. Working with a team of amateurs, – excited about what they do, all there by referral because they want to make stuff. – It takes a lot of precautions. 

But you take one dim light and figure out what’s wrong with it, - and you get accidents like this. 

Same as going back to 0 days since somebody got smacked in the face with a plank, - walked under a ladder the wrong time, …a saw goes off and clears the entire back (and front) stage until somebody can figure how to figure it off. 

That someone is him. More often than not he’d like to admit. 

Hori holds his tongue as he reaches over to extract the fire cracker out of the stunned guy’s hand. 

“You know these are meant to go off. They’re designed that way.” Hori holds the fire cracker at arms distance away from him.

“…If you want to learn how to set them off they can be fun. I can teach you how.”

[iwatani]

  Naofumi might have flinched were it someone else who came up to him, but he didn’t get the feeling that the guy meant any harm. Regardless, after the man had removed the blasted firework from his hand, Naofumi pulled his arm back and hid it under his cloak, and then listened to what the person in front of him had to say.   While Naofumi couldn’t help but admit that those words were entirely right, the offer of a quick lesson on pyrotechnics wasn’t something he exactly approved of. After all, he had a fair amount of skill in crafting back where he came from -- the sort that could net him loads of cash. It was fair to say he didn’t need the lesson.   Despite that--

「Sure. Go ahead; I’ll follow you.」

  With a stare of mild boredom on his face, he decided that it would be better -- and easier -- to simply go along with the man instead of denying his offer. Besides, Naofumi wasn’t exactly unprofessional, especially in regards to daily situations like this. There wasn’t a reason to act unruly, after all.

[iwatani]

    There’s a Japanese guy sitting in the middle of a road, holding firecracker the size of an arm. The fuse is lit. Obviously, to any onlooker, this would look ridiculous and dangerous. But it’s the 4th of July, and this is Hive City -- there’s odder things that happen.     Even after it explodes in his face, creating a sound loud enough to leave anyone’s ears ringing for minutes (which oddly enough, it doesn’t), and he simply looks at the mess of smoke in front of him unfazed -- yeah, there’s really nothing especially odd with this image. Nothing odd at all.

「These fireworks suck.」

[furentescanis]

Carnage in tandem with the alluring aroma of blood leaving nothing but destruction in its wake fueled a shit-eating, toothy, mile-wide smile on the mad dog’s face. There wasn’t any place in the world he’d rather be. Such an atmosphere thick with promise for action made it hard for Azrael to contain his blood lust. And so, the mass of anxious muscles prowled through the first sector searching for anyone that would show themselves to be worthy. With an impatient flaring of the nostrils the canine huffed. To say he was excited was an understatement. 

“What a beautiful hunting ground… but there’s a severe lack of prey in this area.” He sauntered over to the nearest vehicle with his hands pocketed, oddly casual before reaching it. All movement halted and his eyes narrowed to squint at the automobile before him, as if he were pondering. It seemed so unnaturally calm here for what had become of this city recently. What if–

“Certainly you can’t mean to tell me that there’s no one worthy here!!” The level in his volume raised enough shake the area, depicting an emotion that would seem to be akin to anger. A murky, crimson aura rose from the beast in the spike of his vicious intensity, and not a minute later would his hands slip beneath the car to inevitably launch it. The huge and now all-too-lethal hunk of metal hovered like a chandelier promising death to all who stood below it. 

“COME OUT AND ENTERTAIN ME!”

[iwatani]

  Naofumi was no stranger to the battlefield. He himself had loads - years, even - of experience handling wars and the like. Was the duty of a hero to fight, after all - not that he, with a shield and nothing else, could do such a thing.   First of all, a shield wasn’t a weapon in the first place - despite that, Naofumi could be seen casually walking through the middle of the streets, every now and then getting pelted by bullets - but not a one went through even his clothing.   Whilst picking his nose, he made gestures with his free hand, muttering “Fast Heal, Fast Heal,” under his breath while doing so. This, of course, healed people who were shooting at each other. Naofumi actually didn’t quite care to focus on who he healed. So the effect was him getting shot at by people on his own side.   He was tired of this shit.   And as a result - he opened up a portal to a random place, hopped in, only to find that said “random place” was a few dozen meters in the air, and on an empty street. After landing flat on his face and making a crater in the ground, Naofumi stood up, brushed himself off, and looked forward.   He was not pleased by the sight, or the words that he heard.

「......Uh. You know, if you’re looking for entertainment, a penny arcade’s not too far away. There’s also a Build-a-Bear shop on the way there. I imagine you’re into that sort of thing.」

[iwatani]

.vixvirex

  Only a few hours in and Naofumi was already sick of hero-ing. Could you really blame him? He had been out of practice for several months, and plus he had no one really urging him on to help. With the shonen protagonist type characters out there, screaming and fighting for their lives, there was little conviction in Naofumi to continue tanking the hits of whatever was out there.   Especially considering his durability was his only defining trait, and that had been pushed down a notch, he wasn’t really feeling up to fighting anymore.   Having been standing in a street and projecting shields in positions to defend people, he let out a large sigh and decided to go back to his room.   Turning, Naofumi began to use his teleporting shield to head back home - but got stopped by having nearly slammed into a kid a tad shorter than him.   A bit disgruntled, Naofumi frowned while he felt the continuous pelt of bullets on his back. Of course, they wouldn’t get through to him, but if he moved, he was going to let this kid get a load of lead through him...and that wasn’t a particularly savory image in his head, so he decided to give the kid a chance.

「Oi, you. Keep quiet and move when I say so. Otherwise you’ll be dead in a few seconds.」Naofumi pointed his thumb behind him.「So, I’m gonna lead you to cover. Unless you wanna die. In which case, go ahead.」

[iwatani]

  Points at the sky. That’s right, straight at all you motherfuckers flying around and shooting people. To all of them, he shouted:

「YOU CAN’T HURT ME, DICKBAGS--」

  Suddenly, he saw a missile headed straight for him. And, in an instant--

「--AIR SHIELD!!」

  There was an opaque shield made of compressed air floating above the ground. Naofumi could have wooped for joy. It seemed like all his shields had been unlocked. Once more he could return to being the shield god that he was--   Well, his joy was short lived, as after Air Shield returned to normal air, he took the missile straight in the small of his back, but that was no matter. His defense was still crazily high. It’d take a nuke to even damage him, he assumed from the Def value in the corner of his vision.   This was going to be a good day.

[iwatani]

  Seems to be, funnily enough, that my currently least active muse is going to be the only to be getting an altSelf. Right, well, let’s get down to it, shall we--

shield hero.   He’s far from altruistic, especially in this city where all but his durability have been stripped from him. He’s been happy to spend all his time in his apartment room, eating ramen and browsing image boards.   However, having had his powers returned to him means that he’ll be feeling a bit obligated to make use of them. He’s severely capable in the area of support, and while he has only a handful of shields that have offensive attributes, he’ll mostly just be focusing on setting up barriers so people can be protected wherever they go.   Note: he’ll be particularly strengthening the underground shelters that Simon built, considering that they were publicized on the internet and he predicted someone might try to mess with them if he didn’t protect them quick enough.

shield devil.   Now, this is a totally bad end Naofumi. You ever listened to a Five Finger Death Punch song? That’s basically all this Naofumi is. He’s seething with anger. For being falsely accused of crimes he didn’t commit, eventually coming to find himself entirely alone and without a single person to trust him.   He’s pretty insane, to say the least--dead set on the concept of survival of the fittest, he’s a very edgy person, even more so than normal. It’s easy to get on his nerves, and to make it easier on himself, he’ll likely just burn your muse up if they start aggravating him.   This song basically sums him up pretty well.

  Right. Well, if anyone wants to interact with him--let me know! I’m up for anything. Probably.

[helpingthelongrain]

     Rinnosuke didn’t quite know the nature of this city, just yet. Buildings restoring themselves? It sounded far-fetched to him. As such, as Naofumi spoke after making a perfect hole through his roof– landing on a few items as well– the merchant stared at him, at a loss of words.

      Mostly because of the sheer suddenness of it.

“… Fixed…? Wait… hey– what the hell?!”

“Why are you so calm?! You just broke my roof and, and– and you landed on my merchandise! What if you broke something!? What were you thinking?!”

     Rinnosuke knew the people of this place were… borderline derange, at times. But crashing down through one’s roof was just criminal! Standing up, he rushed over– not to Naofumi, but to the general area where he was laying.

“This is an antique store, you know! For whatever’s broken, I’m expecting you to pay me back– and let’s not forget about the roof, also! Understand me?!”

     He was angry– practically red in the face. Of course, it was only natural. His prized goods– and his lovely store– had both been assaulted. … This certainly was something to dial the nine-one-one over, Rinnosuke thought.

“Of all the things…! Move, move! You might be crushing something!”

[iwatani]

「Whoa there, glasses dude. I would have expected a guy like you to know that most things just repair themselves at midnight. There’s no need to worry over--well, the roof, for one. 」

「...I’m not so sure about your merch, but I’m sure it’s just the same. Probably, at least. No need to get so riled up over something that’ll be just fine in a few hours.」

      Despite his words, Naofumi wasn’t quite confident enough to say wholeheartedly that everything would be all right. Still, he had to defend his actions somewhat. He didn’t want to owe this guy any money, especially considering that the pockets of this shield hero were empty.       There was an undeniable amount of experience that Naofumi held within him that could have easily allowed him to fix that monetary issue, however, mostly because it wasn’t exactly...necessary in this city, there wasn’t much that was pushing him to do so. He was fine with just spending his time on imageboards and on the internet in general, freeloading off the scientists--if only to spite them.       With a sigh, though, Naofumi decided to posit a bit of courteousness to the strange-looking salesman--they’d met once before, and things hadn’t gone particularly wrong there, so he felt mildly obligated to stand and take a bow. Which he did--though reluctantly.

「Sorry about the damages. If you’d give me your name, I’ll bear it in mind when I can make some cash to repay you for any lasting problems. I’m currently empty-pocketed.」

[iwatani]

      As a skilled practitioner in the art of alchemy and crafting in general, Naofumi knew the necessity of resources and the like in order to get anything done in that area. That said, he wasn’t exactly in need of doing anything with his skills in this city. Wasn’t like he required a job when he could just sit on his ass in his room, enjoying himself on Hivechan. Still, though, even the most antisocial of people needed fresh air from time to time.       Having jumped out of his apartment room’s window, landing pristine on the concrete after having fallen four stories. Granted, the concrete right where he fell this time was the very same spot where he’d fallen plenty of times before, so it had a bit of an impression. Either way--within a few minutes, he’d crossed over the border between Sector 5 and 6, headed towards a very certain outlier District.       Wasn’t long until he’d crossed into that, either, and having carried a large woven basket in order to store whatever he needed to grab, he started to repeatedly lean down, pick whatever he saw to be useful, and tossed it into the container.       To anyone looking at him as an outsider, this might have seemed pretty rampant--even unconsciously, Naofumi still knew that it was pretty weird to be grabbing so much rare vegetation off of the ground, but still--he didn’t really feel much remorse for any of it.       That was, until he saw someone who was pretty...vibrant, comparatively to her surroundings. A girl, somewhat petite and with a weird umbrella--ugh. Naofumi mentally groaned and avoided direct eye contact with her. Supposing it was best to shake her off as quickly as he could, he spoke out to her in a rough voice.

「What. You’ve got something to say? I’ve, uh, gotta keep my foraging skills ranked up, you know. This is the best way to do it. Don’t judge.」

seasonalfloraldisplay

[iwatani]

      Perhaps Naofumi had a bad habit of abusing his power. And abusing himself, as well, but it’s not like it mattered a lot when said power could stop whatever effects that came from his lack of self-care. “Fall damage”--as any sort of gamer might put it--was included in that.       Stepping off a high rooftop and falling immediately, he looked at his wrist while descending at speed, attempting to check the time, but failed due to the fact that he wasn’t wearing a watch in the first place. 「......I forgot about that.」       --Moments after saying that, his head struck tile. With the sound of cracking, Naofumi broke through the roof of a shop. It wasn’t painful at all, but--well. It was destructive. After a long pause of silence, he eventually fell from being held up in the ceiling’s supports and opened his eyes, before coming face-to-face with someone just barely familiar.

「Oh, you. Sorry about that. Shouldn’t be too long before it’s all fixed up, right?」

helpingthelongrain

[praecentor]

         an eyebrow raised as he heard his question, was he aware of his own words? ?  she wondered. & she knew { one } thing, nonon knew that the kind of questions he  shamelessly kept making would be taken them more as a c h a l l e n g e than anything,  that was her nature & it couldn’t be helped ! ! 

❝ because you fucking asked. really…will this boring chat going to be just you talking  in circles showing that you’re just an idiot or——? because so far i can see you are ! !  & as i said i don’t have any in this place & they do exist in where i am from. anyway, i  have no obligation to prove anything to you of course, but if you want you could always  take the place as one of them, you would be a low level slave, though ❞

[iwatani]

「Oh, really? Did I? You sure about that? Because if I recall correctly, the only thing I asked about was why you’re such a damn brat. Oh, wait, excuse me--so short, rather.」

「The only one going in circles here is you, with that “idiot, idiot” of yours. Not got any better words to describe someone that gets on your nerves? A lacking vocabulary’s the only area where you’re on a different level than me. Unlike you, I’m not expecting myself to offer my time and efforts up as a lap dog to you--or anyone. You’re wasting your own time and effort trying to get me to do so, because--protip: there’s not a chance in hell that I will. Piss off, brat.」

[praecentor]

               there wasn’t a day when she didn’t get surprised by the low capabilities of thinking    that people could have. a m u s i n g herself with the incoherent comments that were made.    a record on being disliked? how { f o o l } of him ! ! anyone can get to be disliked by others,    but being FEARED…that’s something to be enjoyed! how fun was seeing him talk like an    expert with just empty and pretentious words.

         ❝ i always thought it was kind of cliché but now I can see how fascinating              it is to see that someone with such a tiny brain like yours can count to ten!             and no, I haven’t found worthy people that can be assigned to that role. ❞

[iwatani]

「Why bother mentioning them in the first place if they’re not here? Just seems like cocky arrogance to me. Or, hey, they might not have even existed in the first place. Might be that you’re just telling one big lie.」

「Sounds appropriate for a little kid like you.」

      Naofumi chided her for being conceited--at least to the point where he could garner a reaction. It was just the sort of thing he liked doing to pricks who thought themselves more “worthy”--or whatever the hell that means--than others.

[praecentor]

              beautiful rose hair swinging around, one of her more outstanding attributes,       a gift from h e a v e n that only a shit head wouldn’t appreciate. little did she know      she would meet one of that kind sooner than she expected and wished? accompanied      with the most ridiculous question she had heard since she got in the hive, giving      him the deserved answer opposing the other’s tone of voice, { contrasting } it with      melodious & louder words. 

     ❝ to allow my servants to carry me around whenever i want of course ! !          i am glad i get to meet someone with your size though, it gives me more         of you to dislike. ❞

[iwatani]

「Did I say that out loud? ...shit. I need to work on not...doing that.」

     Mentally swearing at himself for having broken his usual absolute stoicism, Naofumi frowned, disappointed in himself for becoming so lax. He wasn't going to let this little kid get on his nerves, but it was annoying to see that over the months he'd spent in this city, he'd become almost casual again. 「Oh, already disliking me? On sight? --Damn, that's a first. Gotta be a new record, really. Let me ask, though--any of those "servants" of yours in this city? Bet ya ten bucks that's a no.」

[iwatani]

      Naofumi didn’t like brightly-colored things. He also didn’t like little girls much. So, pink-colored little girls were his bane. When one who fit that bill crossed his path, he couldn’t help but stare momentarily. And, without thinking, he muttered--

「Why the hell are you so short...」

praecentor