Forgotten But Not Lost

2

Memento.

A broad one-hand sword of the kind commonly used by Paladins and Dread Knights due to the five-inch-wide blade, which acted as a surface for which holy or unholy marks could be placed as part of their rituals. The cross guard on this particular weapon curved up more abruptly towards the edges than others of its type.
Its original owner had been a paladin who gave his life in order to protect his party members. It was in his memory that one of the remaining members of the group picked up the sword and became a paladin himself. However, since the owner was originally a mage he had to alter the sword with an Elemental binding in order to allow himself to use magic in the presence of iron.
The two wielders fighting styles differed greatly as the first man had used both a sword and shield when in combat and had been more heavily reliant on the shield and lunging techniques, while his successor became a master of using his off hand for casting spells while the sword was a means of getting him closer to his targets, where even his more basic spells could do significant damage. It was the second user who had eventually became a Commander of the Crimson Moon and had left the sword that headquarters after retirement, where it was made a display piece.
The history of the blade had become plain to Shirou. He knew the method of its making, the wielders who had held it, the monsters it had slain, the story behind every scratch on its surface. More importantly, the skills and techniques of the men who had held it before him. The odd mixture of martial art with some kind of energy manipulation, with the particular set on display in this weapon taught only to the individuals in of the Paladin's Guild.
"Hey, put that down!" Kimura shouted at him, having come back from wherever it was he had gone. Shirou didn't exactly hurry to comply. His eyes moved up to where Kimura was shouting at him from, and fixed yet again on the massive sword he was holding. "Honestly, first the gate, then the oil, and now this? Are you just a thief that managed to slip in with the recruits?" Kimura commented, though Shirou paid him no mind. He was busy learning what he could about the man's sword.
The weapon was what the men and women of the Warrior's Guild called a great sword, though its size exceeded even that. The weapon weighed in at around twenty pounds, quadruple the weight of a conventional great sword. The main purpose of these weapons was to use momentum to plow through enemy armor and incapacitate multiple smaller individuals at the same time.
Just like with the Paladin's Guild, the Warrior's Guild seemed to have teach skills that were a mixture of martial arts and manipulating one's own energy. However, most of the skills used by the warrior's guild didn't really appeal to Shirou, as they usually revolved around using the massive weight of their weapons to their advantage, and he couldn't see himself trying to swing around the larger weapons. But, there were still a few skills that had been used with the blade that Shirou started to commit to memory.
Chief among these was a technique referred to as [Steel Guard], a technique that normally used for reinforcing one's armor with their own energy in order to increase the user's defense, but which could be used to strength the sword as well in order to prevent your sword from breaking. It seemed like a useful skill to have, though Shirou couldn't help but to feel like it was missing something. While the blade would get harder, its edge would remain unchanged.
Luckily, the Paladin skill set could fill in this hole, as the [Saber] skill was able to sharpen a blade using light magic through prayers to their god and a small ritual involving drawing on the blade with their blood. Shirou didn't have a clue whether or not their god, Lumiaris, would assist someone who wasn't an actual worshipper, but he knew the shape and words needed to perform the ritual.
"Come on man, just put it down already." Kimura said uncomfortably, not knowing that even at that moment, Shirou was testing to see if he could perform the Steel Guard skill, opening up the channels in his body and feeding his energy into the blade. Energy… it felt like there was a better, more exact word for it, but Shirou couldn't quite grasp it. Didn't matter. The ability to use it was more important than the name anyways. The strengthen effect was immediate, though it started to slowly weaken over the next hour if not reapplied. Doing it felt almost like second nature to Shirou.
"Forget it, Ki-chan." Someone new who Shirou hadn't notice enter the room said. He looked like… well Shirou wasn't sure what he looked like. He wasn't even entirely sure if it was a guy or not. The low cut, frilly purple top wasn't exactly something you see on guys often, nor was the flush and other makeup products. He looked to be around thirty or so years old, and his hair was dyed a bright green color. "If he wants to touch my sword, then I say, let him." The man gave Shirou the most unusual of smiles that made the boy flinch. "Just be sure to keep a nice, firm grasp on it, kitty cat."
…Suddenly Shirou wasn't so sure he wanted to keep holding the sword.
Kimura gave a tired sigh. "Since you're here now, that means my work is done. I'll be going to join the rest of my party." Kimura said to the odd man.
"Ah, that's too bad. It's so nice to have a big strong man like you around." The man replied with a wink.
"Commander, I respect your right to do whatever you want with your life. Please respect the fact that I don't want to have anything to do with it and stop with the sexual harassment." Kimura said.
"Fine, fine. You can go." The man said, waving him off. Kimura did go, leaving the new guys alone with this unusual individual. "Welcome, little kitty cats. My name is Brittany. I am the commanding officer, or 'boss' if you will, of the Altana Frontier Army's Reserve Force, Crimson Moon. You can call me 'commander' or Bri-chan. Whichever you use, make sure you use it affectionately, like a child to his mother. Got it?" Bri said, giving them all a wink. No one replied to his invitation to speak. "So, seven girls and five boys this time. That's too bad. Boys tend to be the better fighters."
"F…fighters?" One of the girls stammered out. A taller girl, nearly as tall as Shirou himself, with straight blond hair that was tied up in a pony tail, and a pair of rather thick glasses.
"So, we are being drafted into the reserve forces. Weird. Militia's usually aren't a standing army." Rin said, not sounding nearly as surprised as the others. Shirou supposed it should have been pretty obvious. Kimura did say that they were being taken there to find work. What other kind of work with the army give other than soldier jobs.
"Well, to tell you the truth, we are more like a mercenary group with direct ties to the army rather than a militia. Though we have always used the name 'volunteer soldiers'." Bri said with a shrug. "And it is volunteer only. You do have the right to decline the offer."
"Bullshit." Rin said with a half laugh. "If we decline then we will be on the streets with no money and nothing but the clothes on our backs. And I saw the faces of the business owner as we passed them by in the streets. They were trying very hard not to get our attention. We are easily spotted because of our clothes and you would think that since we would be obviously despair for money, they would approach us knowing that we would take whatever they would hand out, regardless how shitty. It's almost as if they have been pressured by some organization not to try to hire us."
The others in the group took a step away from Bri, scared yet again by Rin's words. Bri himself just looked at her with a slight smile. "You're being a little paranoid, no?"
"Paranoid keeps you alive." Rin countered. "So tell me, what does this job of yours require us to do? We've already established that this isn't a real reserve army. So what is it?"
"Oh, you think this job is a trap, but you still want it anyways?" Bri asked, seeming even more amused.
"Like I said, our only real options are to take the job or die. I just want everything out in the open." Rin replied, raising one of her hands and flipping back her hair a bit.
"You are going to go far in this business. Though in truth, they were only told to hold off on trying to nab you until after we had a chance to talk. You are free to decide you don't want what I am selling." Bri laughed before continuing his explanation. "Here on the frontier, we humans clash with the other races, and there are lots, and I mean lots, of things we call monsters." The smallest of the girls gave a squeak of alarm as she realized she was being told that she would be having to fight monsters. "The frontier army's job is to kill those monsters and protect our borders. But to be honest, it isn't an easy job. The frontier army has their hands full just maintaining Altana as a forward base. That's where we, the reserve force, come in."
"So while the main force protects the city, the reserve forces serve by performing population control on the enemies. Small units with hit and run tactics, not big enough to cause major damage, but stops the enemy from building up the forces needed to attack." Shirou said, taking a wild stab at it.
"To put it bluntly, yes." Bri said clapping his hands together and tilting his head to the side in an attempt to look cute… it wasn't. "Though if the city does come under attack we would be called on to defend it as well. But the offensive does consist of small operation teams which can move and react far more quickly than a large-scale army. A normal party consists of three to six members, with each group using their own wits, ability to collect information, and judgment when taking on enemies. This is how the Crimson Moon operates."
"I assume the average group of people you deal with coming out of the tower doesn't have any combat experience, since we don't have any memories. What kind of training and support can we expect to get from your organization?" Rin asked.
"Absolutely none at all." Bri said cheerfully.
Apparently, this was the straw that broke the camel's back for Rin, as she practically growled at the man. "Are you shitting me!? What the hell is this!? Never mind what I said before, the only thing you are offering is death! You crazy perverted bastard..!"
Bri's move was sudden. So sudden that Rin barely had time to react. The only hint of his intent was the fact that the smile had disappeared from his face. She jumped back, raising her arms as he lunged forward towards her, drawing a knife that had been hidden in his sleeve and thrusting it out towards where her throat had been.
Rin went for the wire concealed in her sleeve, not sure how much help the thin piece of brass would be in a situation like this, but more than willing to try anything to protect herself.
Though before she had the need to, Shirou was already between her and the called-out perverted bastard. Sword drawn, he caught man's thrust with the blade of the knife between the cross guard and the blade. Before Bri could react, Shirou's free hand shot up, striking the flat of his sword, twisting the knife out of the man's hand and sending it flying through across the room. Then, Shirou tried to bring the sword back around to slash at the man's midsection.
Luckily for Bri, disarming the knife had put Shirou's sword out of position, giving him enough time to recover his feet and jump backwards out of range of the blade. The man reached his right hand into his shirt's collar drawing a second knife concealed there, while the left-hand extended outwards, retrieving a third that had been up the sleeve. With the weapons in hand, he looked up at Shirou, grinned and moved on the offensive.
Shirou's eyes went over the blades in the man's hands, adding them to the rapidly growing pile that existed on that beach in his mind. The daggers were of a set of five that Bri had bought back in his days as a thief. The commander had been in the volunteer army for fifteen years. More than enough time to move from guild to guild, picking up skills and techniques everywhere he went. Though he finally settled on Paladin due to the tradition of the organization's leaders being as such, he was more than capable as a thief, warrior, priest, and mage as well. And by more than capable, Shirou meant a master.
The final two daggers were also on his body. One was in his left boot, while the other was in a second holster underneath his shirt. Apparently, the purple clothes that seemed both loose and tight at the same time made it easy to conceal weapons on his body. Shirou couldn't see the final two blades, but he could sort of perceive their existence to an extent.
As the weapons were added to his collection, he gained knowledge of how they were used, and how Bri would attack him with them. So, while the man was fast, and a master of dual wielding, Shirou was still able to hold his own against the rapid attacks. However, with the man's polished attack patterns, it was hard to get out of the defensive rut. It wasn't until Bri tried to lung forward in a simultaneous high and low strike with each blade that Shirou spotted his opening.
[Reverse Thrust]
A fairly standard technique used by both paladins and warriors who wield one-handed weapons. Thrusting out the blade while performing a retreat, breaking off the attacker's momentum while using the thrust to shoot off some energy which propels them further back in order to make distance. It wasn't a complex skill and was only meant for retreating. However, it acted as the set up for a much more devastating technique.
As Shirou landed a few feet back, his body twisted up, storing all of the backwards momentum up like a spring as he changed to a two-handed grip. Adding more energy into his muscles, he released all of it at once, lunging forward fast enough to rip the air. The point of his sword extended outwards, targeting a difficult to guard spot on Bri's lower stomach.
[Double Thrust]
With his footing compromised by the counter of his earlier lung, Bri couldn't avoid. He barely even had time to cross his blades in front of where Shirou's attack was going to land. The force of the boy's lung knocked him off of his feet, sending him tumbling backwards, but he had still managed to block it. Shirou kept moving forward, intent to finish it before the man could recover.
Trying to stop Shirou's forward progress and buy himself time to recover, Bri threw his knives straight at the boy, one aimed for each shoulder. If Shirou twisted his body right, he could have dodged them both, but that would have been giving up his opening. So instead he simple leaned a little to his left side. He used [Steel Guard] on his shirt sleeve, reinforcing the fabric until it was hard as steel, he swatted at the left-hand knife as the right hand one passed him by. The knife was of an extremely high quality, made from a metal that could only be obtained from a rare type of monster in the far north, and easily cut through the reinforced cloth, even though Shirou had avoided the edges as much as possible. However, the wound wasn't deep and Shirou hadn't been made to give up his advantage. Bri was on his back, no time to even try to roll to either side and Shirou's final one-handed thrust came towards him.
"Shirou, stop!" Rin shouted. Shirou did stop, his blade just two inches from the center of the commander's chest.
"He attacked you." Shirou said simply.
"He was only trying to humble me before. Not kill me. That would have been counterproductive for him." Rin said, sounding fairly calm about the whole thing. Shirou still didn't remove the tip of the blade from pointing at the man's chest. "If you kill him, it will complicate matters for all of us."
Shirou considered this. She did have a point. Giving a sigh, he withdrew the blade and took a few steps back, giving the man some room. "Sorry about that. Instinct." Shirou apologized and gave an honest attempt at a sheepish smile.
Bri stared at Shirou for a moment in disbelieve, before he broke out in a laugh. "My, my, it's been so long since I have had on my back with another man's sword in my face. And here I thought I was dealing with a bunch of harmless kitty cats. I didn't know there was a lion in their midst." He said as he pushed himself back up to his feet. "I know see why Kimura was so nervous about you. You really are different than the others. We always get one or two new recruits who are more aggressive than the others, but usually they are all bark and no bite. Nothing like you. I never thought I would ever be humbled by a rookie."
Bri smiled at him, with a hungry smile that made Shirou reconsider not killing the man. "She said your name is Shirou. Is that right?" The man asked, to which Shirou nodded in response. "Well then, that sword you're holding. Keep it. As a show of no hard feelings."
Shirou was genuinely surprised by that. From what he could tell the sword would be considered an extremely expensive item. Worth enough money for a man to live off of for years if he was careful. Well, if Bri was willing to give it, than he would be more than happy to take it. The blade was already growing on him, though he would have to find something to do with his left hand, since he wasn't going to be casting spells with it like the previous user had.
"Shirou, come here." Rin said, picking up one of the knives that had been thrown. "We need to take care of that wound before you lose too much blood." She was right again. While it was only a flesh wound, it still bled quite a bit. She took the knife to his sleeve, cutting it off and using it to make a sort of bandage around the cut around his lower arm.
It was funny. He was pretty sure he would never had let anyone get this close to him such a sharp knife. He had considered burning Kimura for having a sword in his presence while he had been unarmed. But for some reason he didn't feel any need to defend himself from Rin. Was it simply because she was a girl?
She tied the cloth tight around his arm, the pressure stopping most the bleeding for the moment. It wasn't the best of jobs, but considering the resources on hand it could hardly have been better.
"Well, not that that excitement is out of the way, where were we?" Bri said moving back towards the bar table. "Oh, right. You were asking about resources and training. Well, while the reserve forces won't give you any training or preparations itself, there are several places in town where you can get training and equipment. Figuring that stuff out will be your first task. If you can't manage that little bit of information gathering, than you aren't worth anything as a volunteer soldier anyways. The only thing that the Crimson Moon will be giving you if you join are these."
Bri produced a bag from under the counter and tipped its contents out onto the table. Ten silver coins fell out of the back onto the table top along with a sort of red coin on a string. "Ten silver coins will be enough to help you get started, so long as you are careful, and the red coin will be proof that you are a Crimson Moon trainee, so don't lose it. It will allow you to exit the city freely and will get you discounts at several of the establishments that you will need to get started, as well as housing discounts. These kinds of discounts will become better once you become full-fledged members of Crimson Moon, but the official badges will cost you twenty silver."
"You give us ten silver and then hope that later on we will pay you back twenty. You're gambling over whether or not we live long enough to play you back. And if you are only asking for twice as much as you are giving, then our chances of survival until we make the twenty silver can't be that bad." Rin commented, rubbing her chin.
"Most of the deaths actually come after that point. Overconfidence is a slow and insidious killer after all. Though occasionally rookies get rather unlucky even when they are trying to be careful, but usually people die from biting off more than they can chew. Out of the two thousand people to join the reserves in the last fifteen years, around one thousand five hundred as still alive." Bri admitted openly that one in four parties tended to die. "Though your odds of survival are much better with the Reserve Forces than without. Jobs are not easy to come by and you won't find one that pays nearly as well. Nor would they give you money up front. You can turn my offer down, but then I won't be responsible when you turn up dead in a ditch somewhere."
"Well, at least you're being honest about the choice thing being bullshit." Rin said with a sigh. "Even in another world, you still can't get anywhere without money."
"Alright, I've said all I need to. So now make your choice." Bri said with a grin as he brought out twelve bags, each containing ten silver coins and a red coin.
"If the choices are between gambling my life or dying for sure, I think I'll take the gamble." Rin said, walking up to pick up one of the bags. Shirou was the next one, though several of the others were right behind them.
The bag felt rather light and Shirou just shoved it into his pocket. Ten silver didn't seem like that much money, but he was working with an advantage due to the sword and his odd ability to copy people's techniques. He was pretty sure that he could handle himself in a scrape with a bunch of monsters but… how exactly did this job work?
He didn't know where the monsters lived. He didn't know how to exchange what he killed for money. Even with all his advantages, he still didn't have enough information, though Bri made it clear he wasn't giving anymore handouts as far as information went.
While Shirou was pondering this, one of the girls in the group, a curvy brown-haired girl, latched herself onto Shirou's arm. "Please! I'll do anything you ask, just please let me be in your party!"
"…Huh?" Shirou said, not realizing what was going on at first. He had no idea what this girl's name even was and yet she was begging to be in a party with him. Then he realized that he had probably showed off a little too much when he had been trying to kill Bri.
Looking up at the other occupants in the room, most of them seemed to be staring at him with a mixture of fear and hope. Most likely scared of what he could do but hoping that he would party with them and they their futures would be slightly more secure.
"No one is going to be splitting up into parties." Rin said in her commanding voice, gathering everyone's attention. "Not yet at the very least. For now, information is the most valuable resource we can get, and it can best be obtained by everyone working together to gather it. How we are supposed to get our training, how we exchange services for money, where we can find housing and food, and what we can expect to face while fighting, until we answer these questions we shouldn't even consider dividing up into smaller groups. There is safety in numbers."
People exchanged glances before starting to nod in agreement. Though some waited until Shirou himself nodded his agreement. Knowledge was the most important aspect of all of this. Without it, there was no way any of them would survive.
By this point, everyone had grabbed on of the bags of money. Everyone except for the smallest child. However, it wasn't until she started to cry that anyone noticed. The blond girl with glasses approached the child and put and arm around her. "There there, Megumin. It's alright." She said to the smaller girl, whose name was apparently Megumin. Shirou didn't know how the blond knew this but it could have been that the small girl introduced herself earlier. He hadn't exactly been paying attention.
"No it's not! I can't do this! I can't!" The ten-year-old child had shorter brown hair and reddish-brown eyes. While the rest of the group was all wearing what Shirou would describe as casual clothing, this child was dressed in what appeared to be pajamas, as if whatever event that had spirited them all away had snatched her out of her bed. This all must seem like some kind of nightmare to her. The girl's parents must be horrified, wherever they are.
…The girl didn't even cry for her mother and father, because she couldn't even remember them.
It drove something home for Shirou. That beyond Rin, he had hardly even registered the existence of the rest of the group and hadn't cared for them in the slightest. He had only had thoughts for personal survival, barely considering the survival of others. A sense of guilt overwhelmed him and he wondered why he hadn't noticed it sooner.
He had an advantage over the others. That's what he had thought, but why the word advantage? Why had he been thinking that it was every man for himself?
Walking over to Bri, he took the final bag of money, surprising the man, before turning back and walking over to Megumin, he put a hand on her head, comforting her before holding out the bag for her to take. "Don't worry. If the monsters come, I'll keep you safe."
"R… really?" Megumin asked, looking up at Shirou with tears still rimming her eyes.
Shirou smiled down at her gently. "Yes. I promise."
Megumin wiped the tears away with her pajama sleeve before taking the bag of coins. "Thank you, onii-chan."
It felt like he was kicked in the stomach. 'Onii-chan'. Something told him that he had been called that before. Had he ever…
Shirou mind momentarily returned a blank as whatever force was surprising his memories acted again, trying to stop his train of thought. But with the girl staring up at him with her reddish-brown eyes, the thought finished anyways.
Had he had a family before? The ideas of mother and father felt mostly foreign to him, but when the girl had called him onii-chan it had felt familiar somehow. Had he had a little brother or sister before?
"Alright, now that that is taken care of we should all get to work. We'll split up into teams of two and go ask around for information. Since the sun has only just risen, most shopkeepers' businesses should still be relatively slow. While you should ask anyone you can for advice, focus on shops that sell weapons and outdoor equipment, any place that looks like it exchanges goods, and any tavern where soldiers might gather. Best questions involve training, housing, and equipment. Ask about five or six people and then come back here." Rin started, giving people a run down of what to look for. "Remember that we all look different than everyone else, and that this isn't the first time this has happened. Everyone will know that we are completely clueless, and they will also know about the ten silver. So if anyone offers you can kind of deal, don't take it. If you get scammed, you might end up completely screwed and I don't know if we would be able to help you at all without just going down with you. Understood?"
Some of the others swallowed hard and nodded. They broke into their pairs, no one seeming to complain that Shirou had paired up with Megumin, and they all started to move out. It wasn't until they were exiting that Bri noticed something.
"Hey, my knives!" The commanded said, finally noticing that Rin had taken the three knives that he had been using earlier.
"Consider them payment for me stopping Shirou from skewering your ass, commander pervert!" Rin shouted back as she left the build.
Bri was momentarily stun before he broke out laughing again. "That little kitty cat sure does like to hiss a lot." He said to himself. He didn't really feel that much attachment to the old things, and while they were valuable, he could afford to replace them.
Perhaps he was just still giddy from his earlier scrap. How long had it been since another man had him on his ass? Akira could, but he hadn't wanted to play with Bri ever since he got married.
Sure, Bri hadn't had his sword and shield, which would have served him far better than the knives, but that didn't change the fact that the boy had been unusually skilled. He had fought more like a trained Paladin with a few years under his belt and a willingness to kill, rather than a bleary-eyed and squeamish recruit. Bri had lost to a day one rookie, fair and square. He supposed it was only natural that they get to grab his junk. That was pretty close to the way life worked for a volunteer soldier.
"I'm going to need to keep an eye on this bunch." The odd man said to himself with a smile. "Who knows, maybe I'll be able to go another round with the cute red-head another day."
I tried to bait Farra Gate into updating his Fate of Fantasy and Ash story, but instead he rebooted his Game of Thrones crossover. Sad days.
Hey, GradationAir87, while you give into the bait?
Someone asked if all of the twelve are going to be characterize. The answer is no. Only the people who are going to stick around and the trouble makers will be. The rest of them will just remain mostly blank individuals. After things are set up there will be a time skip to when the more average party members start their own group, leaving Shirou and Rin to take care of those who were falling behind.
For those of you who haven't already guessed, Megumin is a reference to another anime, and will be loosely based on that character. Meaning that she will be a mage who early on with see another mage casting the Blasting spell (A magic spell that creates a large explosion somewhere within the line of sight of the caster. Starting at an explosion with a radius of four feet, but can have more mana sunk into it to increase it to something like a twenty foot radius.) and finds that it is the only variety of magic that she is really good at.
Explosion magic will be just as effective as you would assume. Meaning lots of friendly fire, completely destroying all the loot, creating the threat of forest fires, making an extremely loud noise that attracts every enemy within a mile of its position, and of course it is too expensive for a new mage to use so that the girl can only cast it once a day before having to be carried home. Plus the problems with using it in places like caves where you could collapse the ceiling.
Anyone who plays D&D will tell you that fireball is an extremely powerful spell, but using it is likely to kill you and your party due to unforeseen consequences.