The healing light faded. Her body relaxed, the tension draining away. Aching muscles, paralyzing numbness, the raw pain of exhaustion and despair – my Shield took it all and reset her physical form back to zero. Perfect condition. Ready for... well, for whatever came next.
I knelt there for a moment, looking at her. The Shield Hero of this world. Naomi Iwatani. Physically, she was the complete opposite of the broken, emaciated figure I'd found Raphtalia as in my world. She was beautiful. Objectively. Even covered in dirt, with tear tracks on her cheeks and her clothes in tatters, she was one of the most beautiful girls I had ever seen. Her features were sharp, refined, utterly lacking the haggardness and fear that had defined me after Myne's betrayal.
And the world... it felt wrong. Twisted. How could she be the Shield Hero here? How could she endure this suffering, this betrayal, when she looked like... like this? Like someone who should be protected, cherished, not hunted, abused, threatened with violations that turned my stomach? When I... when I had become the walking embodiment of cynical despair and brutal pragmatism, looking like... well, like me. It didn't fit. It was a perversion of the Shield Hero's suffering.
It clicked into place then. Myne. This world's Myne. The male one. The one who had hounded her. In my world, Myne went after the other heroes too, tried to manipulate them, but her primary target, her obsessive focus, was always me. Because I was the Shield Hero. Because I was convenient. Because I was broken. But in this world... maybe Myne hadn't bothered so much with the Sword, Spear, or Bow. Maybe this Shield Hero, beautiful, vulnerable, and easy to isolate, was enough. Enough to satisfy his depravity. Enough to capture his cruel attention.
Yeah. That tracks. Makes a sickening kind of sense.
She was physically healed now, but her eyes were still wide, filled with the raw terror of what she'd just endured and witnessed. She didn't move, didn't speak. Just stared at me, breathing shallowly.
I couldn't leave her here. Not like this. Not with soldiers searching, with Myne knowing exactly where she was via the System. She was a magnet for trouble, just like I had been. Just like I still was. But unlike me, she didn't have the hardened shell, the cynicism, the sheer, brutal willpower to just... keep going. Not yet, anyway. And I wasn't about to leave the Shield Hero of any world to face that alone. Especially not this Shield Hero.
I reached out a hand. Not with healing light this time, but a simple, physical gesture. Towards her.
She flinched violently, squeezing her eyes shut again, her body tensing, expecting a blow. Right. My methods with Myne probably didn't instill a lot of confidence. Trauma response. Quick and sharp.
I ignored the flinch. Pragmatism. No time for comforting words or gentle reassurances that would probably sound hollow coming from me anyway. I needed to get her somewhere safe. Now.
My fingers closed around her hand. It was small in mine, trembling. Still cold despite the healing. Without hesitation, I initiated teleportation. Focused on the coordinates of the hidden clearing. Ryu. Safe.
The world dissolved into that familiar, disorienting rush of swirling colors. The feeling of displacement, the tear in reality. Her small hand felt fragile in mine, but I held firm.
Then, the jolt of arrival. The scent of pine, the feel of damp earth under my boots. We were back. The clearing.
Ryu.
He was curled up, exactly where I'd left him, a massive, dark shape in the gloom. My companion. My ride. My current best option for a dragon-shaped babysitter.
"Hey, Ryu," I called out, keeping my voice low. He was awake instantly, his massive head lifting, glowing eyes fixing on us. "Take care of her while I'm gone."
Myne's men were still out there. Ryu was hidden, but a sudden scream...
She saw him. Ryu. Standing up. His immense form, scales catching the faint light, his ancient power radiating outwards.
She gasped, a sharp, terrified sound. Her eyes went wide, fixing on the dragon. Her mouth opened, ready to scream.
Problem. Immediate threat assessment: Potential scream attracts soldiers. Solution: Stop scream.
My hand shot out, covering her mouth. Not roughly, not with Myne's cruel intent, but firm. Enough to stifle the sound.
Her eyes, wide with terror at the dragon, snapped to mine. She struggled for a second, muffled sounds against my palm.
"Listen," I whispered, keeping my voice low and urgent. "Soldiers are still out there. They'll come if you scream. That dragon... he's with me. He won't hurt you. Just... don't scream. Nod if you understand."
She stared at me for another moment, caught between fear of the dragon and the immediate physical reality of my hand covering her mouth, the memory of Myne's threat perhaps still echoing. Then, slowly, hesitantly, she nodded against my palm.
"Good," I said, releasing her mouth. She gulped, sucking in air, still trembling, but silent.
Okay. Phase one complete.
I turned away from her, towards the edge of the clearing.
"Where...?" Her voice was a raw whisper, raspy from screaming earlier, but she spoke. Asking.
I kept walking. No need to explain. No need for complications. My path wasn't hers. She was safe with Ryu. My goal was elsewhere. Pragmatism.
She didn't stay silent. I heard movement behind me. Footsteps, hesitant but following.
I stopped. Turned. She was getting up, stumbling slightly, but trying to follow.
Exasperation surged. Seriously? After all that? After being rescued from absolute hell, her first instinct is to follow the terrifying stranger?
Alright. Time for a different tactic. One she might understand. One learned recently.
I stopped, turning to face her fully. My expression must have shifted. I didn't consciously try to make it menacing, but thinking about Myne, about his threat, about the sheer depravity of it... something must have bled through.
"If you don't stop following me," I said, my voice flat, cold, echoing Myne's earlier words, "I'll do what Myne was going to do with you."
It was a low blow. Using that threat. Replicating his cruelty, even if just in words. But I needed her to stop. To stay. To be safe with Ryu. And I didn't have time for drawn-out arguments or appeals to logic.
She flinched, her eyes widening further, the terror returning. My brutal efficiency with Myne was fresh in her mind. She knew I was capable of violence. But then, something flickered in her eyes again. Not just fear.
"You... you wouldn't do that," she whispered, her voice trembling, but holding a strange note of certainty. After seeing me heal, after seeing the difference between my casual bluntness and Myne's depravity... maybe she saw something else.
I sighed. A real sigh this time. A sound of weary frustration. "Alright," I muttered, running a hand over my face. "This won't work."
Threatening her with that was crossing a line, even for me. And she saw through it anyway. Great. New tactic needed. One she couldn't dismiss.
I reached for my belt, pulling out a dagger. Not one of my shield skills, just a standard, physical blade I'd picked up. I held it out, the point aimed loosely towards her.
"You're right," I admitted, the cynicism returning. "I wouldn't do that." Not Myne's plan. Not the sexual violation. "But I can hurt you just fine." I twirled the dagger in my fingers, a small, sharp glint of steel in the dim light. "I'll just heal you to perfect shape right after. Again and again. Until you stay put."
Her eyes fixed on the dagger. She remembered Myne's limbs being broken. Healed. Broken again. The cold, methodical process. This wasn't Myne's specific horror, but it was a promise of pain and control, delivered with the same chilling pragmatism she'd just witnessed. She was terrified. Utterly.
But she still didn't flee. She stood there, trembling, but looking at the dagger, then at me.
"I... I don't have anywhere to go," she said, her voice small but steady now. "The soldiers... they're still after me."
Yeah. That was a problem. A major one.
"Also," she continued, her gaze returning to mine, a flicker of that surprising pragmatism I'd glimpsed before. "If I'm around you... you can easily save me from them, right?"
She was calculating. Weighing the terrifying unknown (me) against the known, pervasive threat (soldiers, Myne). And concluding I was the better shield.
"That dragon can save you just fine," I said, gesturing with my head towards Ryu, who was watching the exchange with apparent interest. "He's with me. He'll protect you."
She glanced at Ryu. His massive form. His glowing eyes. She shuddered slightly. "It's scary."
Right. Big dragon. Scary. Valid point.
"And I'm not scary?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. After what she'd seen me do?
She looked at me again, her gaze lingering on my face, on my eyes. She saw the coldness. The capability for brutality. The lack of easy comfort.
"No," she said, the word quiet. "You're rather... Leave it."
Leave it. Don't ask. Don't articulate the contradiction. The man who just tortured someone without flinching, who threatened her with violence, who radiated something cold and dangerous... he wasn't 'scary' in the way a dragon was? Or maybe he was scary in a different, more complicated way she couldn't put into words.