A New Chance To Restart

Prologue - Rebirth

"Goddamn."

There wasn't much else twenty-two-year-old Naofumi Iwatani could say. For the first time in years, he was stunned. As, the smartest and most adaptable of the Cardinal Heroes, it took considerable effort to shake him. No matter the trauma he went through; events that would push a man to the brink, and far beyond, he always emerged victorious. Wounds, both physical and emotional in nature, were something he had become all too accustomed to. In spite of all that, he was the hero who made the greatest difference in the world. Not by killing the most enemies, but by saving the most people. As such, he was praised far and wide as being the greatest of the heroes of his time.

"O brave heroes, please save our world!"

So why the hell did he wind up back here!?

Naofumi schooled his features and took a deep breath to calm himself. Ignoring the others present, he took a quick glance at his appearance. Sadly, his armor was gone, and he was back to wearing the hoodie he had on when he first arrived all those years ago. Though, judging by the fact that it was bursting at the seams in places, his current physicality remained a constant. That meant he was the exact age he had been, when the final battle occurred-

'That's right! We were fighting Medea! That psychopathic bitch hellbent on destroying reality for her own nonsensical reasons.' He sweat a little trying to recall more. 'I remember we couldn't stop her from appearing. We failed. So we had no choice: we had to fight. It became a war. She toyed with us. We had no real chance. Months of running, hiding, futile training to try and make a difference. I remember... Raphtalia and I, we were among the last of those left. I can recall the spirits calling out to me and then-'

Nothing.

How was it that he ended up here, then-?

"... oi. Oi! Dude, you okay?"

Naofumi blinked. The voice of a concerned Motoyasu broke through his mind and he shook his head to clear it.

"Ah, yeah. I'm fine."

The other three heroes didn't look convinced. The 'holy summoners', on the other hand, looked like they couldn't care less. Not for the first time, he wondered why he was summoned here in the first place other than to just become a scapegoat.

Perhaps that was all it was.

"Let's go. Don't worry about me."

Making a shooing motion with his hands he followed closely behind the other heroes as his mind continued tumbling in turmoil.

'So we fought and then what? Died? Is this the afterlife maybe? Or, more than likely, an illusion, perhaps?' He pondered. 'I guess it'd make sense as a means of giving me hope that things could be changed only to tear it from me at the last minute, but...'

The Shield Hero idly took in the three ahead of him.

'If this is an illusion she could kill me at anytime. The only thing suffering in that case is my pride. But, if I happened to have really gone back in time, then this can only be good.' He concluded to himself. 'I can change things, in a positive way. Not just for me, but for the world-no, it's people. Those I care about. If the only thing riding on this is my pride, then hell, you can have it.'

It had been a long time since he cared about such a thing.

First things first then. He had to create a plan of attack and quick. Though, it wasn't too hard to think of one. He had spent a lotof time in his own world pondering how he could have approached things differently to avoid such an awful start. Perhaps it was time to employ some of those strategies.