The sunlight shining through the window woke me up. After looking through it, I noticed that it was already morning. I got myself ready, left the room and locked the door. I decided to ask the owner of the inn about something.

Y/n: Excuse me, did the knight that came here with me leave already?

Owner: Just a minute ago.

I nodded and handed the owner the key to my room. After leaving the inn, I noticed Cole leaning on a wall.

Cole: Oh, hi there. I didn't want to wake you up so I decided to wait for you.

Y/n: I see. Today is the day the wave strikes, do you want to do anything before that happens?

He thought for a moment before responding:

Cole: No, nothing in particular. What about you?

Y/n: I'd like to meet someone.

Cole: And who would that be?

Y/n: The shield hero, since the wave is about to appear, he should be somewhere around here.

Cole: Let's look for him then.

We walked around the capital for a while, before spotting Naofumi standing in the middle of the city.

He noticed Cole as we got closer, he didn't notice me though. Curse this presence concealment skill.

Naofumi: What do you want?

He said to Cole in a cold tone.

Y/n: Ahem.

He looked around to see where the sound came from, after a moment he spotted me standing next to Cole.

Y/n: I don't think I'm that hard to notice.

Naofumi relaxed a little after that.

Naofumi: Oh, sorry. So you're here to fight the wave too, right?

Y/n: It's going to be my first wave, so I'm not exactly sure what's going to happen.

Cole: Don't worry! I'll explain anything you ask during it as long as I know the answer.

Naofumi: By the way, didn't you say that you couldn't form a party?

Y/n: Once I reached a certain level, I could bring a single party member with me.

Cole realized something important.

Cole: Oh right! I haven't introduced myself yet, my name is Cole.

Naofumi: I'm Naofumi. If I may ask, where did you get that kind of armor?

Cole's dragon scale armor probably interested Naofumi.

Cole: The blacksmith that has a shop around here - Erhard, made it for me.

Naofumi: He never told me he had dragon scales as materials.

Cole: He got them after Y/n took down a dragon on his own, both me and him got the scales from it and gave them to Erhard.

Naofumi was surprised because of Cole's words, beating a dragon alone was no easy task and he knew that well.

Naofumi: I guess you're really overpowered Y/n.

Y/n: Not really, I barely survived that battle. By the way Naofumi, do you know when the wave is going to start exactly?

Naofumi: In a few minutes or so, don't you see the timer on your menu?

Now that he mentioned it, I could see a timer counting down in a corner of my vision.

Y/n: Oh, I didn't notice that.

Naofumi: So, I'm going to explain something to you, since it's your first wave and everything. To end a wave you need to beat the main boss.

The three idiots usually do that.

Y/n: Three idiots? You mean the other heroes?

Naofumi:Yeah, they don't care about the people and rush to kill the boss instead of saving the citizens.

Y/n: I see, I'm guessing you're forced to do that then?

Naofumi nodded.

Naofumi: Hey, could you hit my shield as hard as you can?

I was confused why he would want that, but I did as he asked. I slashed his shield with my knife. He stumbled back a few feet from the blow.

Y/n: Okay, now why did you want me to do that?

Naofumi: I just wanted to check how strong you are, that blow was stronger than Motoyasu's strikes.

Y/n: Motoyasu was the spear hero, right? He had a pretty annoying woman alongside him.

Naofumi smiled widely after hearing that.

Naofumi: Listen, could you help me with getting rid of the monsters that attack the people? If we get rid of them quickly, we can get rid of the boss faster.

Y/n: Of course, I'll help you.

Naofumi: Thanks, the wave is about to start, are you ready?

Y/n: I'm as ready as I can be.

We stood in silence afterwards. After a few seconds we were suddenly teleported somewhere else, I noticed the sky was now blood red. I saw the three heroes run in the direction of the boss, well, I could only assume that.

Naofumi: Raphtalia! Filo! Let's go!

I heard Naofumi yell to his party members.

Y/n: We should follow him.

Cole: Right.

We started running behind them, I shot the monsters that we encountered on the way, they died rather quickly. Eventually, we reached a settlement, I recognized the village as the village of Lute that me and Cole stayed at once.

Naofumi: Y/n! Cole! I'll focus on saving the villagers, can you kill as many monsters as you can?

I nodded as Naofumi shielded a villager from an attack.

Y/n: Cole, get rid of as many monsters as you can! Don't hold back!

Cole: Alright, you can count on me!

Cole slashed his sword at the monsters, while I kept switching between firing my submachine gun and swinging my knife. I noticed a giant undead behind Cole, I took out my handgun and fired at it's head. The lifeless body of that monster collapsed after receiving that blow.

After a few minutes Naofumi and his party ran up to us.

Naofumi: The villagers are safe, let's go to the boss!

I felt as if my body was pierced from my back. I struggled to catch my breath for a moment, I instantly recognized this feeling, I've already felt it once back in my world.

Cole: Y/n! Are you okay!?

Y/n: Cole, can you go with Naofumi? There's something I need to take care of, it's extremely important.

Cole: I'm not going to just leave you, I'll go with you!

Y/n: While I appreciate it, it's something I have to do it alone. Cole, please do me a favor, and go with Naofumi.

Cole wasn't happy about this, but he agreed.

Cole: Fine, just don't die out there, okay?

Y/n: Of course.

They all ran towards the direction of the boss, I went into the direction of where I felt the feeling from. I lied when I said I had to do this alone, I simply didn't want to put Cole into any sort of danger for no reason.

After a few minutes of walking and killing monsters, I was in front of a large entrance to a cave, after looking at it for a while, all my instincts in my body were telling me to run.

I ignored them and walked through, after some walking I was in a large room, everything seemed perfectly normal. Until I looked up.

I was completely frozen in fear, I couldn't blink or move at all.

Y/n: That's... that's impossible!

In the sky, above me, was a giant red circle. The same one from that day.

----------12 Years Ago----------------------------------------------

Me and Shirley were walking through Fuyuki City, despite of what people said, I thought that the city was really great.

It was already getting late, we were walking for a while now after all.

Shirley: Hey Y/n, why don't we go look around the city like this tomorrow, too?

Y/n: Of course, I'd love to!

Shirley smiled widely at me.

Shirley: That's great! But I think we should go home now, it's late.

Y/n: Yeah, everyone is probably worried.

Just as we started walking we both felt a paralyzing fear, as if something pierced us both.

Shirley was looking in horror at the sky, I didn't understand why, until I looked up as well...

In the sky was a giant Circle, some sort of liquid was falling out of it. I couldn't move no matter how hard I tried, I thought that this would be my end, although it wasn't.

Shirley pushed me outside of the way, moments later the liquid fell down on her to the point, that I couldn't even see her.

Y/n: SHIRLEY!

I wanted to save her, but my body moved on it's own, I was already running away from there, with tears in my eyes.

--------------------Now-------------------------------------------------

The same one from that day, when Shirley died.

I quickly started running outside, After leaving, I shot at the entrance in hopes of it collapsing, thankfully, exactly that happened.

I was completely shocked, why? Why did that thing follow me all the way here? Haven't I suffered enough? Did it have to remind me of that painful day?

Among all of those thoughts, I realized something. The wave hasn't ended yet, which means Cole and everyone else are fighting the boss on their own.

I quickly rushed in the direction of the boss.

After about ten minutes of running I saw a floating ship, I assumed that's where the boss was.

The question was how was I supposed to get up there? I saw the ship flying in the direction of a mountain. An idea came to my mind. I quickly ran up to the mountain and started climbing, when the ship was flying next to it, I jumped down onto it, without making a single noise.

I guess presence concealment is useful at times.

I saw Naofumi, his party and Cole fighting some woman dressed in black clothes, Naofumi had some kind of black shield, I wasn't sure what to think of it. Naofumi noticed me jumping in, the same couldn't be said about the woman.

I gestured to Naofumi to keep quiet, he got the message.

I started getting closer to the woman, doing my best not to get noticed and readied my handgun. Naofumi had a plan.

Naofumi: I didn't want to use this, but you're forcing me to do it. I'm going to use my secret ability.

Everyone was looking at Naofumi surprised, I quickly understood what he was trying to do.

???: Oh? You're hiding something else? Interesting.

I pointed my gun towards the woman and counted down with my fingers for Naofumi to see. In response, Naofumi held his hand up.

After I counted down to 0, I silently muttered:

Y/n:

At the same time, Naofumi snapped his fingers and I shot the woman in the back.

Everyone, surprisingly, though that it was Naofumi who did that.

The woman yelled in pain.

???: Such an ability is not fair! Zero-Stance Rondo: Reverse four seasons!

The woman was beyond shocked when nothing happened.

???: You... what did you do?!

I got closer to the woman and stabbed her in the back, she yelled out in pain once again, this time, she noticed me.

Before she could do anything, I emptied a whole magazine of my submachine gun at her from point blank range.

Naofumi looked a little terrified at the scene, after I was done, she just fell to the floor.

???: This... is... not... over...

She was suddenly covered in a bright yellow light, she vanished afterwards and the sky went back to normal.

Naofumi and Cole walked up to me.

Naofumi: You know, that was kind of brutal.

Although I don't think it was wrong, we can't afford to have mercy on our enemies.

Cole: That aside, did you take care of what you had to take care of?

Y/n: Yeah, everything is fine now.

I lied yet again, I was beyond scared about the fact, that the circle thing, whatever it was, arrived here in this world.

???: Hey!

I turned around and saw the spear hero, Motoyasu looking at me.

Motoyasu: You're the guy I met back then, how do you have guns! You're probably a cheater just like Naofumi!

Y/n: You know, I think I understand why you called them the three idiots.

Me and Naofumi shared a laugh.

Motoyasu: Hey, don't ignore me!

Before any other heroes could complain, me and Cole left the ship the same way I entered it.

We began climbing down and after completely descending, we started walking towards the capital.