Unfortunately, I’m Not A Hero 51

Unfortunately, I’m Not A Hero 51

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Wordcount: 2500

Commissioned by Shaderic

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Fall seven times and stand up eight.

Or, in the words of Shounen Protagonist Mentors everywhere: you only lose if you give up!

It’s a pretty cruel lie to feed to kids, especially when its usually followed up by telling them that nail that sticks up gets beaten down. 

However, that’s avoiding the point that I want to make, which is the fact that people usually don’t get the chance to fall seven times. Typically speaking, you get to fall once, before you find yourself completely and utterly fucked over. 

The world is unfair, and will take everything from you, if you show any weakness. Your body is getting older by the day, and nothing worth doing can be accomplished without the investment of time. People with more talent, skill, and resources will undercut you, because every niche is special, and everyone needs to look after themselves first. 

While you do your best to support yourself, and maybe even have others supporting you, the entire world will push against you, so that you’ll fail, and it can have less competition. Then, it’ll do its best to keep you down, by marking you a failure, and making it clear to society that you failed. Therefore, you’re forced to live the rest of your life with a mediocre job, with a woman who settled for you, and have kids who get told their father is a failure while they’re in their school.

And, that’s in Japan, a modern country.

Under such circumstances, you can still do your best, and focus on other things. You can pursue a good relationship with your wife and kids, because families are usually off limits. There’s also no one stopping you from moving to the countryside, and just living out a more relaxed existence, and slowly paying back the loans you took from your friends and family. Even if it’s bad, you can still make something of yourself, and pursue something else in end. 

That’s not the case in this world.

Making mistakes, or failing, means losing everything and dying. 

Weakness is a way to invite opponents to destroy everything you hold dear and love, because they want to make sure that you’ll never get up again. If you’ve been kidnapped by the Empire, you’re slapped with collars that’ll kill, and if you’re rescued by the Kindred you either become one of them or a stud they use for their pleasure. 

You lose once and it’s over.

There’s no getting up again, or doing your best to make the most out of your situation, only the darkness of defeat. 

One life.

One chance.

One ending.

So, if you don’t do everything to not lose, you’re doing yourself a disservice. Every cheap tactic is allowed, as long as it lets you survive and see another day. 

To not use everything at your disposal, even if you hate it, is a luxury that most can’t afford.

Such as not taking advantage of a powerful, strong warrior who could honestly do much better for herself and her tribe by serving someone else rather than you. 

…

Ur blinked.

“You are supposed to be in the Villa prepared for you by the Kuzunoha.”

“Yep.”

“But you are here… where you are not supposed to be.”

“I am.”

“Why?”

“To see if I need to rig any of the matches in your favor.” While I heard only good things from Ur and the other Amazons, in regards to the task given them by Kurama, I believed in verifying any information I gained. As a rule, I only trusted information if I saw it myself, or heard the same testimony thrice over from three different, separate sources that I trusted completely and utterly without question. So, really, only when I saw it myself. “Looks like I’m just wasting my time thought. You’re crushing the opposition.”

The site of the Amazonian Tournament Arc reminded me a lot of the Roman Coliseum, if it was much smaller and squatter. The battle arena where the Amazons proved themselves in nonlethal combat against other Warriors could fit inside the average, small-town baseball arena in Japan. The area where they fought was basically just the size of a baseball diamond, and was just packed-down dirt instead of the classic stone tiles that break up to show off super-cool finishing moves.

Whoever’s animating this must have no money, since everyone knows dust clouds obscuring fights is just a way to save cash. 

“I’ll tell my sisters of your praise, Hachiman, but you risk too much for us—

“No. I don’t. You might be fighting Kindred for entertainment, but you’re still risking your lives and injury, so that I means I should at least take a look and rig the odds in your favor.” That’s what I do in every battle. If I send someone out to do something, at the very least, I should be doing something to tip the scales in their favor. Whether that be some tribal idiot who knows how to use a club, or an Amazon brandishing a weapon three times her size and weight, if they’re taking orders from me… I should at least give them what advantages I could. “That’s what I do, remember? Or, did you forget, since you’ve been working under Kurama for a week?”

“…You are my chieftain, Hachiman. I only follow her because you bid me to for the sake of our home.” Damn? Did I sound jealous? The way Ur suddenly started speaking softly and looked at me with concern made me feel like a did. Thankfully, I told A’Bel to fuck off for a little, so that she could cool off and let some of her smugness drain away, so there was no sudden case of oppai-hat to ruin my thought process. “The only one I and my sisters will ever follow is you. No one else can hope to earn our loyalty, no matter how well they treat us, because you are the only one who saved our lives and kept us whole.”

“…Unless I ever go over the deep end, and try to get you all killed.” I finished Ur’s sentence with the words that they should’ve ended with. My short-haired, tan bodyguard frowned for a second, and opened her mouth to protest, but I drew the line and wasn’t about it to let it get crossed. “If I’m ever about to toss your lives away, if I go mad, I want you all to come back here and find a better future for yourselves.”

I expected a shocked reaction from Ur, since she was an Amazon filled with pride, honor, and a bunch of other things I’ll never be able to understand, because I’m me. 

However, instead, Ur suddenly looked lost and afraid.

“Hachiman? What are you saying?” A side I’d never seen in Ur suddenly appeared before me, in a foreign place I’ve only stayed at for days, and in a shadowed hallway of a shitty arena. Her brow was furrowed, and her fist was clenched, just like they were when they were whenever she was angry. But this time she was also biting her lip, and tears were gathering in her eyes. She looked as though she was stopping herself from crying. It was a miracle she didn’t stutter. “Hachi—

“Tch. Don’t cry, you idiot. I’m saying this to take care of you, in case something terrible happens, and I make a mistake I can’t fix, which I’m already doing my best to stop from happening.” I felt a little panicked, so I said more than I needed to. I just wanted to make sure Ur and the Amazons came to the Kuzunoha Valley, instead of doing something stupid, if I died or told them to charge the Empire without a plan. I didn’t expect Ur’s reaction in the slightest. “I won’t let you or any of the Amazons go, as long as I’m sane. I’m just telling you to come here, so you can keep fighting, if something happens.”

I thought my words would mollify Ur, instead they turned the bubbling sorrow on her face in anger. 

What the hell.

Go back to being sad, woman. I’ll take that over you being angry any day of the week!

You’re tearing my shirt with your grip, dammit!

“You NEVER plan for defeat, Hachiman. So… who has put such thoughts in your mind? Tell me. I wish to speak with them. Now.” 

“It’s not planning for defeat, dammit. It’s me being careful, because I don’t want you dead. Use your head.” Did Ur talking like Yakuza scare me? Yes. It did. However, I’ve had a lot of practice in dealing with scary people, and making them do what I want. It comes with having to control a slave army gathered from dozens and dozens of different dimensions. I wouldn’t even be able to talk to Ur, if I couldn’t stare down a seven-foot, smelly caveman made of muscle, let alone actually command her. “I have… problems that I need to handle. Personal problems I don’t want you or anyone else caught up in. I’ll ask you for help, if I need your help with it, but if I don’t you do what I tell you and stay safe.”

Ur didn’t seem to hear me. In fact, her grip on my shirt tightened to the point that the fabric began to tear, and I was feeling lighter than usual as she began to actually life me up. However, I knew that was just her response to not getting the answer she wanted, and that it took her time to think and understand.

So, I just matched her gaze, until she looked away and put me down, once she realized I was telling her the truth and not suddenly fucked in the head.

“I… I don’t know what you mean, but you are not lying to me. So… I shall trust you, Hachiman.” What Ur gave me, as she shook her head and took a shaky, calming breath, was more than I deserved. I wouldn’t be alive at this point, if I didn’t save her life the day we first met, and stumbled towards commanding the Amazons. By all means, I didn’t deserve their loyalty, let alone the skill and power they provided without any question, but I won’t be letting go of it, or giving it to someone else. Including me, if I ever go crazy, or die. “You are the chieftain of my tribe, so… it’s difficult for me to hear such words coming from you. If you perish, then I do not know what I or my sisters shall do, besides perish beside you.”

“If I die, your mission is to take the people of Ylstu somewhere safe, and work on remaking your tribe. No arguments.” Ur turned to me in shock at my words, but this time it was my turn to act. I took hold of both her shoulders and made sure that she looked me in the eye while I spoke. She wasn’t kindred, so she actually looked a little frightened by what I did, instead of getting the over ready. I appreciated Ur for a second, before moving on. “That’s what any Chieftain would do for the Tribe, right? They’d put the Tribe above themselves, take care of the Tribe, and lead them to prosperity… so, that’s what I’m doing by giving you that order.”

If I die, I don’t want people to go screaming my name, and committing their lives to killing those who killed me. Maybe, if it’s just one dude who stabbed me for being better than him, I’ll be okay with that asshole getting ripped to shreds. Unfortunately, my most likely death is going to come from an organization that I’ve pissed off by being me.

And, I don’t want a war waged for me, especially by Ur and the Amazons.

They’ve already done plenty, and if I were a good person, I’d told them to go find some lucky guy and find somewhere safe to settle down. 

But, even though I’m not that nice of a person, at the very least I can make sure that they don’t get themselves killed.

No matter how much Ur hates me for the order, it’s something that I have to give her.

…

I underestimated how much Ur disliked my order.

“Goodness, she’s just out there destroying her foes today, my Master.” A’Bel, naturally, arrived at the worst possible time and draped herself over me, while I watched Ur throw an opponent into the air, and perform an air-juggle in real life to thunderous applause. I mean, I wouldn’t be mad if I was beaten with such skill, but have a little empathy for your opponent—and she’s pile-drivered the poor Wyvern into the dirt. “It makes you wonder if what you see is truly just pride and honor, no?”

“I don’t want to hear it, A’Bel. Ur and the Amazons don’t get it.” They lived in hellhole where humans became natural killers and hunters in order to survive actual monsters. Men existed to let babies exist, while women developed into the roles necessary to make a society. “Whatever they feel for me is less fucked than what the Kindred feel, but it’s still fucked.”

Ur and the Amazons don’t run off of hentai logic, but their ideas and beliefs aren’t exactly sane. They loyal to a fault, almost simple minded, and practically predators in human clothing. They see themselves like a pack, easily keep their culture within themselves, and aren’t afraid of death as long as it helps the tribe.

They’re more like a pride of lionesses than humans, including the part where their males just fuck and feed all day, and are eventually ditched like trash. 

“So, you won’t accept them, because of who they are and where they came from? Is that not too cruel, my dear Master? Especially when you care for them so much that you’d give up Ylstu for them?”

“Be quiet, A’Bel.”

“Of course, my dear Master.”

I spared Ur one last glance before leaving the arena. 

No matter what she thinks, it’s better for her to have this place to fall back on, if I ever die or go insane. This is a place where she and her sisters can shine, can live, and thrive. It’s a place where she can easily be loved, and remake her Tribe, and pursue whatever plans she has once that’s accomplished. 

Knowing that Ur and the Amazons can find a home, once they finally get rid of me someway and somehow, let me breathe a little easier.

Still, it goes without saying, but as long as I’m sane and alive, I’ll never get rid of them, abandon them, or give them the chance to get rid of me.