Chapter Nine: Humanities Hero And Itysus

"See ya later, Nariko!" The voice of a girl shouted cheerfully as she waved goodbye. "Thanks again." She shouted before then running off, catching up to her other friends.

"No problem." The girl, Nariko, mumbled to herself since the girl wasn't there to hear her.

Nariko had beautiful light brown hair, bright blue eyes and unblemished skin with no scars or bruises.

She was fairly tall for her age and gender, although she wasn't abnormally tall. Which she was grateful for as it meant she didn't have to look down at everything constantly.

Her body was in shape, with no unnecessary fat and some muscles on her. She actually attended the kendo whenever she had time when she wasn't busy with other stuff, such as homework and studying for tests.

And to top it all off, she was one of the most popular girls in school. Maybe it was for her looks, her ability to do seemingly anything she wanted or maybe because she was so kind to everyone. Staying an extra hour behind in school to help out if she was asked to.

Nariko lived by the ideal that if she could help out someone with something then she would as long as it was in her power. And even if it wasn't she would try and help anyway that she could.

If people found out she thought like that they might call her stupid, naive, but she didn't care. As long as she stayed true to herself that was all that mattered to her.

And today after she finally managed to do some training in kendo she was asked by the person that was supposed to clean to clean for her.

Nariko realised that she was probably being taken advantage of. But a voice in her head always posed to be the optimist, which she usually listened to despite a more rational side of her telling differently.

The voice would always say stuff like 'but what if they do need to go home to help their mom with medicine', and 'what if a family relative is coming to visit'. It was always those types of excuses that got her, the 'family' card.

And even though her muscles were aching, especially after not doing club activities after a while, she still agreed to clean up by herself.

While she was cleaning a shinai fell off from the wall it was leaning against. While Nariko just put some of the gear away she decided to put the shinai away as well.

The wind seemed to be coming in through the door. She could start to feel it, and that would make sense why the shinai fell over.

She moved that shinai over to where the others were, in a neat line in an upright position against the wall. They were against each other so that they wouldn't fall over, like the one by itself did.

The wind was really starting to bother Nariko, it was even starting to move her hair. Was a storm coming? If so she should probably hurry up here and get home.

When she moved over to close the door so she could clean the rest she realised that it was closed.

She looked at it in confusion as the wind started to move faster and making her hair whip around.

She opened the door to see if a storm was starting but when she opened the sky was a clear blue, only starting to turn orange with the night.

Nariko then heard what sounded like a cannon in her ears, making her kneel down and clutch her hands over her ears in pain.

While, to the outside world it just looked like Nariko was having strong winds around her before she suddenly disappeared.

With Nariko she was lying on the ground in pain. Her ears were in massive pain and constantly ringing, like it was an alarm you could never turn off.

She felt someone's hand on her shoulder, shaking her as she heard a muffled voice, trying to speak to her? She couldn't tell.

When she opened her eyes, she could see a man talking to her. Or trying to. He had a worried look in eyes as he spoke again, seeing her looking at him.

And she just pointed to her ears and shook her head in 'no' motion.

The man just looked disappointed that he didn't find out sooner and nodded his head before moving her onto her stomach and putting his hand in her ears.

Nariko wanted to know what he was planning to do. But as he did it, the ringing and pain started to go away so she didn't stop him.

Once he removed his hands he spoke again. "Can you hear me now?" He asked.

Nariko spoke. "Yes, I can hear you." She said nicely. She looked around and saw that she was inside of a traditional Japanese house… alone with this man. With a jump back she was against the wall away from him, while he watched her in confusion, scratching his head. "How did I get here? I was just at my school."

"You…" she said lowly as she looked at him. "Are you a kidnapper?" She said accusingly.

The man looked appalled at such a conclusion from the girl, with him exaggerating a gasp. "What?! How could you think such a thing?" He said, obviously faking his concern as he wiped a pretend tear away. "I'll have you know I'm very offended by such a conclusion."

Nariko looked taken aback by it, not really knowing if the man was actually offended or not. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to offend you!" She shouted out while doing a dogeza.

The man looked shocked and started coughing because of that shock. "I'm joking! Joking!" He reiterated.

Nariko looked back up at the man, and could tell her was being serious. So she felt comfortable getting out of her position and sitting in a seiza position in front of him

The man was already in such a position as well, making it feel right for her to do such a thing.

"Say, tell me your name, little one." The man said kindly, like he was talking to one of his own children.

Nariko paused, not really knowing why this unknown man was taking this tone with her before responding. "Nariko Kamata. What about you?" She asked.

The man smiled before answering. "My name is Itysus. And I'm a god." Itysus said confidently while smiling.

Nariko looked confused for a second before nodding her head empathetically to Itysus while smiling softly. "I see. You must be a confused man, it's okay. Do you remember any of your family's names? Contact numbers? Do you know where you are?" She asked, still having that soft smile on her face.

Itysus just had his mouth opened in shock while processing what she was saying to him. She thought he was some crazy old man!

"I'm serious!" He shouted, turning his head away before then pouting. Not really proving his point, which was indicated by how Nariko was looking at him.

Nariko sighed before playing along. Maybe if she went along with it he would eventually tell her where they were?

And the reason she hadn't tried to run away or open the doors to find out was because the man in front of her didn't look that old. And looked like he could pin her down if she didn't get away.

He had long white hair that had tinges of blonde, maybe gold, with yellow eyes that had a pattern in them and was wearing a yukata.

… he was pretty weird looking now that Nariko thought about it. But that didn't mean she believed he was a god.

"If you're god, why don't you prove it?" Nariko said gently. Maybe if he saw he couldn't do what he thought a god could do he would snap out of this trance thing he was in.

Itysus just sighed, already knowing what she was thinking. "Fine." He said begrudgingly.

He opened the palm of his hand where a ball of water appeared, with him making it wrap around his hand before having it fly around the room. Having it come close to Nariko as she watched it in shock.

Then the water dispersed with a snap of his fingers and Nariko looked at the man with her mouth wide open.

Nariko didn't say anything for a while, still processing it before speaking. "... Who are you?"

Itysus smiled before once again introducing himself. "My name is Itysus, a god."

Nariko gulped and nodded her head. "... and that was all real, right?" Itysus nodded his head. "No cameras? Projectors?" Itysus just shook his head in denial.

Nariko let out a shuddering breath. Things suddenly just got more real. "If I'm here… does that mean I'm dead?!" She asked in shock.

Itysus quickly denied that. "No, you're still alive." He said, and seeing Nariko was going to ask more questions he beat her to it.

"I'll explain everything to you now. I didn't realise how much energy this little meeting would cost, and those guys are getting impatient." He was honestly stumped. How the older gods did this with no trouble was baffling to him.

"I'm sending you to another world, as a hero. Your… 'job', I suppose, is to kill the Demon Lord Zerad, he is terrorising the world and plans to kill thousands in a bloody war, although he already has. It's your job to help humans fight back against him and to stop this war, or at least get it to a point where it no longer endangers the whole world." He explained to Nariko who nodded her head, although it was a lot to take in.

Itysus hesitated for a bit before speaking. "Normally that would be it, and after it was over the god overseeing that world, which at the moment is me, will give you the choice of staying there or going home, on that note as well, if you do go home no time will have passed. But something has happened that escaped my notice…" Itysus said deprecatingly to himself.

"What happened?" Nariko asked, worried. And Itysus smiled seeing as she was already worried about it, a world she was being sent to that she knew nothing about, but for some reason she was worried about it.

"Zerad, who if you don't remember is a Demon Lord, summoned a hero of his own. I didn't notice this spell being used and he managed to snatch a person out of your world into this world. Normally this wouldn't be a problem, heroes have to come to me to get powers that would qualify them as a hero. But it seems he didn't want that, and gave his hero powers of their own. Powers that without a hero to face them, will cause destruction throughout the world."

Nariko gulped before speaking. "You… want me to kill them as well?" She asked hesitantly.

Itysus paused before speaking. "Not necessarily, you could try and change them. Get them to do good. But I fear by the time you two meet it will already be too late. In the worst case scenario for you, you will have to kill them."

Nariko nodded her head, in that case she would just have to avoid the worst case scenario. "But… you said that heroes would gain powers from you. If your running out of time then we better do this quick. It would be bad if I went to that world without any powers to help them." Nariko pointed out.

Itysus agreed with her, but couldn't help ask something. "You don't know these people. You don't even know this world. Why are you agreeing to help them? For all you know I could be trapping you wherever I send you."

Nariko nodded her head in agreement. "I just live my life trying to help people however I can whenever it's in my power. So if you give me the power to help them, I'll try. And even without it, I would probably still give it my best shot." Nariko said honestly. "And for you tricking me…" Nariko paused, considering her answering before speaking. "I don't think you seem like the type of person to lie about this."

Itysus just smiled at that trust, blind trust in someone she hadn't met before. "Well, thanks for putting so much faith in me. Not like there's pressure on me or anything now." Itysus said jokingly.

Itysus, while Nariko was distracted with his little joke, boinked the top of her head. Nariko looked up at him in confusion before he spoke. "Well, it seems you are really compatible with the powers I gave you. They are called the Seven Virtues, unfortunately I don't have time to explain them, but the people of the world I'm sending you to will. We're on our last seconds together for now I'm afraid."

Nariko looked confused at that. She got powers… just like that? She didn't feel much different, and it didn't hurt. She expected a pinch or something like that at best, and her feeling like a bone broke or something at worst.

"And before you leave, here's some advice. Although you would probably already think this." Itysus said honestly. "Don't hold onto hate, no matter how much you might want to. Don't be afraid to take risks, no matter how many people oppose it, believe in yourself. And make sure to take care and love yourself, because without that you can't do anything else properly or without being a hypocrite." Itysus said honestly.

Nariko nodded head and smiled, promising to take his words to heart. "Don't worry, I'll remember what you said." She said, proudly. Why proud, you might ask. Well, she had just talked to a god. He gave her advice, of course she was going to be proud of it.

In a flash of light she disappeared and everything around them did as well, with her light turning into something like a star and heading towards the planet she was destined to save.

While Itysus now stood in the middle of space, looking down on the planet with sad eyes. Knowing that tough times had only just gotten started, especially considering there were now two such powerful players on the board.

"You've got a tough future ahead of you Nariko Kamata, Humanities Hero. And whoever the other hero is, I hope your prepared for the coming trials, Demon Lords Hero." Itysus whispered to himself.

They would both go through tough trials. And neither one would remain the same. Or at least, they would learn things about themselves. How would they deal with it. By themselves? Or perhaps together? Itysus wondered.