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worldweaverofmediocrity · 3 months ago

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Isekai Heroes Progress Report 6/28/24

An adorable murmur passed through Rapthalia’s lips as she stirred. Her ears twitched and curled into themselves as she pushed herself upright, her nose wiggled as Ainz withdrew a magically preserved bowl from his Inventory and held it in front of her until she was coherent enough to grab it under her own power.

Ainz turned his attention to the chat as he waited for her to eat her porridge.

[Ainz: good morning everyone.]

[Kazuma: Jeee, good morning to you too, I thought I had left these early mornings back with Tanya at Tabula Rosa.]

[Tanya: what exactly is wrong with waking up at 5 am to do morning drills?]

[Kazuma: Well for one, I’m not in the military.]

[Tanya: but you are a Cardinal Hero.]

[Kazuma: secondly, its an ungodly hour to wake up at. I need my beauty sleep.]

[Ainz: there’s a reason why there’s a betting pool in the school on when we will catch you sleeping with Aqua.]

[Kazuma: OI! Subaru, back me up! Five am is a terrible time to be awake AND do exercises.]

[Subaru: Radio Calistethics come for us all. Also, if you wanted to succeed at escaping from Tanya, maybe try some exercises.]

Ainz bit his nonexistent tongue. “Sheesh, I guess Subaru is suffering from Emilia withdraw.”

{Ainz to Tanya: Say, do you have an idea on how long it took Naofumi to be summoned to this world and then to the school? I don’t know if Subaru can be away from Emilia if it’s more than 4 more months. He’ll go insane. …or his insanity will worsen.}

{Tanya to Ainz: I remember Filo talked about a island where the XP was boosted, so who knowns how long that will be. Genesis should be achieving her humanoid form soon, if Kazuma’s luck rubs off on Subaru.}

{Ainz to Tanya: Doubtful considering I got nerfed hard and your Isekai Bonus corrupts your mind.}

{Tanya to Ainz: Yeah. So next time I see Subaru, I’m going to sit on his lap and let him massage me. That should be at least a bandaid to his mental health, if the title Julius bestowed upon Subaru is anything.}

#writing #my writing #progress report #isekai quartet #overlord #re:zero #saga of tanya the evil #konosuba #rising of the shield hero

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shieldherostuffs · 2 years ago

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Cold Despair

TheRuFumi, Angst (with a bittersweet), MCD,

Inspired by this:

During the last Wave, before everything is finally over, L'Arc and Therese die. Naofumi watched as they were both killed during the fight against the Boss Monster, before Motoyasu, Ren, and Glass finally got the final hit.

Naofumi, as the giant monster's body hit the ground, screamed as he ran to their bodies, sobbing and crying. However, because of the number of residue monsters left after the wave, and the poisonous spores released by the boss monster's corpse, they have to leave immediately. Especially now that their biggest defense is unable to help.

What was supposed to be a heroic victory of saving multiple worlds together with all their allies, turned into a heartbreaking one as Motoyasu has to drag Naofumi away as Itsuki and Ren force him to let go of the bodies of his lovers before the poisonous spores reach them. Naofumi screams and cries until he passes out from physical and mental exhaustion.

When they're finally far enough away for the spores to stop following them, unconsciously, Naofumi unlocks the Shield Of Despair; a metal plate with sharp bolts around the edges, a key-hole beside the green gem, and black frost-like patterns with icicles from each bolt reaching towards the gem in the middle. The gem is also covered in green frost patterns.

As they finally stop to catch their breath and take a break, snow starts falling. Regular white, frosty cold snow, and the temperature drops.

It's an almost wonderful and beautiful sight as everyone processes the end of the Waves, their survival, and the deaths of those lost.

Finally, Motoyasu notices something different about Naofumi, who's still unconscious.

His hair is completely white, his skin is paler than ever before, looking sickly, and his unconscious tears are dragging frosty tracks of thin ice over his cheeks. His breaths come out as little puffs of steam.

As Motoyasu calls for help, he lays Naofumi on the ground, but as soon as he does so, the ground below them all, in a large radius around the, becomes covered in frost, and any small plant that survives the wave is frozen solid.

As Kizuna hurries over to help, she checks Naofumi over, but as soon as she touches his skin, the flinches back,

"He's cold as ice!"

Something is definitely wrong.

When they can't wake him up, nor do they have any way to warm him up (as everyone is exhausted and need to spare all their energy for the travel home), it's decided that Raphtalia and Kizuna will take Naofumi back first on Filo, once they'd rested enough. So everyone decides to make camp there.

After getting back, Naofumi didn't wake up for four months, staying in bed in a room warmed by a large fireplace, covered I'm multiple thick furs and covers, looking almost peaceful if it wasn't for the now permanent tear tracks running down his cheeks instead of frost and ice.

The capital, however, was not as peaceful. Ever since coming back, there had been a steady and peaceful fall of snow over the capital and surrounding forests, and the ponds and lakes within the area had been frozen over enough to skate on.

Snow and ice. In the middle of summer.

When Naofumi finally woke up after four months, he was unresponsive for a while, until given something to eat and drink when Rapthalia, Filo, and Melty came to visit. The sky outside had stopped snowing, but the clouds were dark grey as if there was a storm incoming.

It was finally when Kizuna and Glass came to visit him after the three girls left, that something happened. When Naofumi asked if L'Arc and Therese were alright, the two ladies shared a pained and sad looking, before reminding Naofumi of the deaths of his lovers.

Naofumi stared into nothing for a few moments, as he was forcefully reminded of watching his lovers die in front of him, how he couldn't save them, couldn't protect them, and couldn't even mourn before he was ripped away from them.

He became erratic and hysterical, screaming and sobbing wildly, shouting when someone came too close and moving to curl up in a corner, hands tugging harshly at his snow-white hair. Despite the fire raging in the fireplace on the other side of the room and the multiple lanterns and torches, frost started spreading from beneath his bare feet.

The frost spread across the floor, reaching the fireplace where the flames were snuffed out in an instant, turning to sharp icicles. The same happened to the torches on the walls and icicles spread from all corners of the room and hung threateningly from the ceiling.

Outside, and raging storm had formed, harsh winds blew around snow and hail, and people were forced to seek refuge inside the closest building.

Ice and frost started lining Naofumi's cheeks again.

After a while, Raphtalia, Filo, and Melty are finally able to calm him down enough for him to fall asleep again and be moved to another room.

When he wakes again a few days later, asking about L'Arc and Therese again as if he didn't remember his outburst, and has the same reaction, everyone starts worrying.

It's like his mind is keeping away the memories of L'Arc and Therese's deaths until he's outright reminded.

(It's his mind's unconscious self-defense and trauma response, to forget their deaths until he's ready to accept that it happened, and let go of the guilt he shouldn't have. The downside, however, is that all the energy used to make him forget those memories makes him emotionally and mentally vulnerable and tired.)

Everyone comes to a consensus to make up a story together, to let Naofumi process what happened at his own pace. They have no more waves to fight, only homes and live to rebuild. They can spare Naofumi the work for the time being.

They spin together a story about where and why L'Arc and Therese aren't there, including back-ups and various reasons they could be taking longer. They even make a journal together, where they write down everything they'd told Naofumi, and were to tell and not to tell him, and any small notes they may have let slip so others know.

However, the snow outside continues to fall, slowing the rebuilding and resettling of everyone and everything. Whenever Naofumi becomes hysteric, the gentle falling snow becomes raging storms of snow, ice, and hail.

After months of this continuing, and countless complaints from the public, it's decided that they'll move Naofumi to a more remote location both for the sake of those around him, and his own. (They've had one too many instances of people unknowing of Naofumi's condition accidentally telling Naofumi about L'Arc and Therese, causing yet another hysteria and snowstorm.)

Naofumi moves to a remote manor owned by the Crown in the countryside, near the sea with a large garden and forest surrounding it.

Raphtalia, Filo, Melty, and a few others stay with him there until he can start taking care of himself. But, they give him a lot of space when he becomes quiet and withdrawn.

After a few weeks, Naofumi says he needs a few weeks alone to work on something, and they all decide to come back in a month to check on him. As they leave, they watch the interesting sight of dark clouds delivering snow over a specific area, looking weird on the otherwise cloud-free blue sky.

A month later, not much has changed, Naofumi is eating enough, but otherwise stays holed up in the manor, usually in his room.

After months of this back-and-forth every month, during the winter, Naofumi asks them to wait six months this time, promising not to do anything drastic and says that he's not feeling constantly feeling guilty for no reason anymore.

They're worried he'll try to do something drastic again, like hurting himself or even slitting his wrists which he only tried once, but was easily stopped because he didn't even realize or know why he was doing it.

Six months later, on the one-year death anniversary of L'Arc and Therese's deaths, they all come back to a clear, sunny sky over the manor, with nature and life around it thriving. It must have been relatively recent, as the ground is still muddy from the unnatural snow that has melted, and the corners and crooks around the manor, there's still ice and snow.

At first, they're overjoyed, before they fear the worst, rushing in. They search through the manor but don't find Naofumi. Then, they rush to the garden, and after searching, find him laying on the ground near a clearing of trees, with a few bunnies nibbling on the leaves in his hand.

His eyes are red and swollen, with tear tracks on his cheeks and his lips bitten red.

And, his hair is black once again, and his skin is a healthier color.

They're immediately worried, but at least find no obvious injuries. As they call out, Naofumi grumbles before waking and sitting up. As he sees the group, a few tears roll down his cheeks again, and he gives them the first smile in a year, though resigned and bittersweet.

"I'm sorry I lashed out so much at you all, but, thank you for trying to help."

With the resigned, drawn back, and closed off he's been since moving to the manor, even that little emotion in his eyes is a blessing, and everyone rushed to hug him.

"Oh, and you all probably don't wanna go into the living room right now. It's a bit of a mess."

They do so anyway and see just how much Naofumi trashed it as he tried to accept the grief and anger he felt. The furniture is smashed and overturned, multiple plates and cups are thrown about in pieces, and there is water, ice, and snow everywhere.

Now, he can finally grieve and mourn and hope to meet his lovers again in another life and he continues his own here, trying to get better with the help of those around him.

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