Meeting the First Heroes

Her three lovers show that sign, so Eleonora won't worry about them, but the young bluenette can't. Why? Because she wasn't allowed to help them by any means necessary directly, she still has the help of others, and that is her other lovers besides Gin, Sonoko, and Sumi. The young bluenette's eyes then glanced at Aletia, Artoria, and Chiyuki—shooting them with the look they've understood it.

Aletia, Artoria, and Chiyuki nodded as they immediately knew it. The first two quickly rushed and charged the several Stardust that gave the three girls before difficulty, trying to make any comeback attack. At the same time, Chiyuki went straight to Gin, Sonoko, and Sumi so she could give treatment to them since she is the only one in the party to have some support and healing skills.

The big sister figure also puts the three lying on the ground and gives them some spells to make it, so they have a nice sleep during the treatment that Chiyuki gives them. She is worried and doesn't want Gin, Sonoko, and Sumi to fight further with their current condition.

Aletia, who was proficient in magic and long-range attack, fought with the support of Artoria, that were proficient in the short-range attack. Chanting the spell's name, a huge-sized ball of fire conjured through Aletia's palm and divided as it targeted the several enemies upon her. Much to the blonde loli vampire's surprise, some of those things resisted and weren't ultimately defeated, which is strange to her.

"Eleonora, Artoria—these things seem stronger than we thought. I put a huge amount of mana into the fireball, but not all of them burned to ash. However, something also strange about them."

Aletia informed the two and was heard by Eleonora, who raised a brow in confusion and suspicion. While Artoria slightly nods and tightly grips her hands on the Excalibur, she owns, covered by a wind barrier. She kept swinging the enemies that charged onto her, putting an amount of heavy slash and strength, but—her sword couldn't deep cut them completely.

"Its skin—it's somehow hard, and my sword couldn't correctly cut it. This creature's skin is so hard and thick, making it difficult to cut. Eleonora, it is strange, but somehow… this thing could match up to the opponents they encounter."

The blonde King of Britannia frowned and clicked her tongue, trying to swing the blade she wielded, slashing and defeating the enemies in a second like usual, but in vain, since it didn't do any fatal damage to the monstrous thing that kept coming.

However, Artoria's last statement made Aletia nod in agreement since she felt that. The young bluenette's eyes widened in realization, and she clicked her tongue with a grim expression flashed on her beautiful face.

"I have to agree with her, Eleonora. Because you slashed the big one into pieces before in quick and made us think it's not this hard."

Eleonora rubs her chin, hearing that from Aletia. She could agree since the young bluenette just slashed that evolved Stardust in a second into tiny pieces, which means that thing couldn't adjust its strength in time to Eleonora's.

"I see… then the longer we fight it, the longer it made us difficult to beat it. That is a really terrifying ability to adjust on its current opponent."

"It is, Leo-chan. These girls' injuries are not that can be taken lightly. It is a severe injury and could threaten them to death."

Eleonora inhaled and nodded at Chiyuki before she put the finger on her ear and sent mental commands through telepathy to her party members.

"Everyone, I have something to give. The creature that we fought currently has an ability to adjust its strength to its current opponent, so please be wary if you somehow couldn't defeat them in an instant. Find any way to defeat them quickly, and don't get arrogant against them."

"Yeah!"

After finishing sending the message through telepathy, Eleonora's eyes noticed the blushing and awe Iyojima Anzu next to her. The young bluenette merely smiled her beautiful smile, causing the blonde bookworm hero's cheeks to grow redder.

"Ah. Sorry for startling you, but… we still haven't introduced ourselves, isn't it?"

Anzu shook her head at that question, indicating the question from the young bluenette was correct to her. Eleonora looked to her lovers, then back to one of the first Shikoku heroes, and let out a small sigh with the still discomfort and worry about her teammates as Eleonora introduced herself first.

"Sorry for the… unpleasant situation we have right now, but my name is Eleonora Pendragon—pleased to meet you, Iyojima Anzu-san."

"Heh? You knew my name?"

Eleonora simply nodded at Anzu's confusion and question, a lie then coming from her mouth to cover that up, so the blonde bookworm hero won't suspect her and give Anzu a lousy impression about Eleonora.

"Of course, we are, Iyojima-san. After all, you are one of the heroes trying to save humanity from the brink of collapse with your teammates."

Anzu's face flushed in embarrassment when she realized her mistake.

"E-Eh… that's right. I have no idea, though. To think we are really that famous as heroes."

"You should be aware from now on, Iyojima-san. In the future, you and your teammates will be swarmed by the media, interviews, etc. Ignorance sometimes isn't bliss, but I am also aware of the difficulty of keeping that in mind with the condition we have right now."

Eleonora muttered and closed her eyes, causing Anzu to have a grim face when she was reminded of that. She nodded and understood what the young bluenette meant by this world's current condition they have.

However, Anzu felt a hand on her shoulder, causing the blonde bookworm to look and find it was Eleonora who did that and had an apologetic look on her face.

"I'm sorry for you to hear that, Iyojima-san. I didn't mean anything offensive."

"E-Eh?! N-No, no! It's alright! That is not your fault!"

"Thank you for that. Anyway, I believe that we owe you an explanation, but considering our current situation now—it seems we have to wait for the right time and place for that."

"T-That's right. I believe it's better to put it aside for now."

At the same time, after Eleonora finally sent the message through telepathy to her party members or teammates, Aletia and Artoria could be seen still doing their best to fight their current enemies made of monstrous appearances. It is difficult since those hideous things had adjusted their strengths to match their opponent, and because of the newly found twist, those two had a hard time quickly delivering defeat to these creatures.

As Aletia thinks [Fireball] isn't enough, she casts another spell, a flame in the shape of a spear, capable of piercing through her opponent and spreading the fire over it upon direct contact. The flame-shaped spear materialized from her hand while the user adjusted its position to find its target. However, the blonde-haired vampire didn't settle with just one; but several flame spears suddenly appeared behind her.

"Go, [Crimson Javelin]."

Under Aletia's commands, the fire javelin accelerated itself. It pierced the targets at such speed that the blonde-haired vampire had already calculated before—dealing several massive damages as its flames spread over their bodies, causing them to cry in pain as their bodies slowly disintegrated into light particles.

Meanwhile, at the same time, the blonde king of Britain is currently dealing with her opponents. Being in Saber Class, which mainly wields a sword as the primary weapon, she had such disadvantages; unlike Aletia, she could maintain her distance and didn't have to move too much.

Her sword kept swinging, slashing her opponent to no avail as the skin was too thick and hard to be sliced and pierced with only a sword, even though what she wields is the legendary Excalibur. But that is useless since the creatures strangely adjust their skin to withstand the Sword of Promised Victory that Artoria Pendragon wields.

Upward. Downward. Artoria kept slashing the white-skinned monsters with her concealed Excalibur. She wasn't always showing its true power against many enemies unless it was an emergency or deemed worthy enough to withstand the full power of Excalibur she held.

'I can't prolong this battle further! Eleonora and others' safety are must!'

Artoria thought as she decided to use one of her trump cards. She closed her eyes, focusing and infusing Excalibur and her whole body with magical energy, causing the sword she held to radiate dim light as it glowed. Opened her eyes; the blonde king of Britain then sent a horizontal slash infused with her magical energy towards the barrage of enemies she faced—upon making contact, the several Stardusts' bodies blew up in an explosion, leaving none as it disintegrated.

Seeing both of their enemies eliminated, Aletia and Artoria released relieved sighs as they were glad it was finally over. The blonde king dismissed her magical sword and walked closer to Eleonora as she was accompanied by her fellow blonde. They also could see Chiyuki had done treating the three heroes by healing them and sighed in relief.

Eleonora noticed that they were finally done and congratulated her lovers with a smile.

"Congratulation, everyone. Good job at eliminating those creatures, even though I could help you with it."

But Artoria, Aletia, and Chiyuki shook their heads in response. Eleonora's predecessor wore her usual expression but directly at the young bluenette with a soft smile as she spoke of what was first on her mind.

"Nothing of the sort is your fault, Eleonora. It's an unforeseen event, and we couldn't know of it. However, if you say that you can see the future or sort, you're also not at fault since it happens instantly, and you might not be able to quickly use it that time."

"Artoria's right, Eleonora. It's not your fault, and we've decided to fight them ourselves without your help."

"They were right, Leo-chan. Don't feel down and guilty for it, okay? We can just take this as a lesson and experience to deal with them easily next time we encounter those monsters."

"But—Gin, Sonoko, and Sumi…! They became like that because of—"

A finger on Eleonora's lips, and it was Chiyuki's, stopped her bluenette lover from speaking any further about blaming herself. She then held Eleonora's cheeks with her hands and kissed the bluenette's lips, causing Eleonora to be surprised but return the kiss before it separated.

The only ones who are surprised are Iyojima Anzu. She covered her reddened face with both hands as the blonde bookworm felt embarrassed and didn't expect that kind of thing. Artoria and Aletia smiled in relief, seeing Eleonora calmed down by Chiyuki's kiss.

"Don't blame yourself over something like that, Leo-chan. Really, it's not your fault, or if you kept doing that, we would punish you—not just me."

Chiyuki tells her bluenette lover with her kind and soft smile. Eleonora, who was still stunned and couldn't say anything, nodded in understanding and slightly chuckled. She scratched the back of her head and nodded again before releasing a relieved sigh.

"I think I don't want to make it happen."

Eleonora released a relieved chuckle in a joking manner.

"Of course, Leo-chan. You absolutely don't want to make it happen."

"But, well… that is a surprisingly bold move, Chiyuki-nee."

Eleonora touched her lips and referred to the kiss her brown-haired older-sister figure did earlier to her. When Eleonora mentioned that, a storming blush appeared over Chiyuki's face, making her look down with hands covering her reddened face.

As Eleonora realized something, she blinked and shouted "Ah!", causing everyone's attention to shift to her as the young bluenette turned to Anzu and stared at the blonde bookworm, causing the latter to blink in surprise as she slightly jolted.

"Sorry for that, Iyojima-san. We almost forgot you because we got caught in something."

Eleonora bowed politely to Iyojima Anzu, who still had her reddened face, waving off to the bluenette.

"I-It's okay! Please, don't worry about it."

"Thank you for that, Iyojima-san."

The young bluenette smiled gratefully and turned to her lovers while saying something.

"Alright, everyone! Let's move to another place to discuss this current situation and explain everything with Iyojima-san."

Hearing that, Eleonora's lovers and Anzu nodded; however, Chiyuki stopped and questioned the young bluenette about something before they departed to find another safe-look-like place to discuss the current condition.

"Leo-chan, how we brought Gin-chan, Sono-chan, and Sumi-chan? Do we use the teleportation spell?"

"Since we know nothing about this place, I don't think it's wise to use, and we also promised to gather with everyone at the specific proposed place the third team found. So… maybe we should get in contact with them before departing."

Eleonora looked around and got an understanding nod from her lovers. Artoria crossed one of her arms while the other rubbed her chin as she thought of the idea her bluenette's lover proposed just now.

"That's true. We should contact the other teams. Since Eleonora gave them that task, the third team should be responsible for that part. Also, we couldn't leave them even if we could take them with us as their effort would turn into a waste."

"Mmm. We should wait for them, but not here. Even though we just defeated those creeps, it would be bad if the new batch came here and brought many more in the amount we most likely couldn't handle since they somehow could adjust their strength to match us."

Aletia voiced her opinion and got everyone's approval nod, even from Anzu.

"Then, we should help Iyojima-san with something in return. Right, everyone?"

"Eh?"

"That's true! Have you about do something here, Iyojima-chan?"

"Eh… erm… we, the heroes, have a task to find any survivor here. Originally I partnered with someone, but we somehow got separated and left me alone. As for the rest, you… um, already know that."

"Good. Then, we will assist you in that."

Artoria replied to Anzu.

"Then, it's decided, and I will contact them during it. Also, please wake up Gin, Sonoko, and Sumi when they regain their consciousness. Please keep them safe too."

Chiyuki, Aletia, and Artoria nodded at Eleonora. The young bluenette then placed a hand on her ears, trying to call the third team of their whole party that was already decided from the start they chose to save the first heroes.

As a feeling of curiosity hit Anzu, she went closer to Chiyuki and asked a question politely.

"U-Uhm… could I ask something…?"

"Oh? But forgive me, we still haven't properly introduced ourselves, Iyojima-san… is it?"

"Y-Yeah, my name is Iyojima Anzu, and you…?"

Chiyuki merely chuckled and replied to the question.

"My name Kuwayama Chiyuki, nice to meet you, Iyojima-san."

"Nice to m-meet you too, Kuwayama-san."

"It's alright, no need for the formality, and now, what is the question you want to ask?"

As Chiyuki asked that at her, the blonde bookworm hero opened her mouth and shyly said something to the brown-haired woman.

------

At the same time, in another place, the second team of Eleonora's group, which consisted of Kurumi, Yasaka, Akame, Miyuki, Medusa, Neptune, and Eri, encountered some girls that they guessed to be the heroes. They are three girls with some cool-looking outfits they wear. One of them is a young girl with long black hair that is semi-tied up into a bun on the left side of her head and deep brown eyes. The second girl has shoulder-length red hair tied up with a white and pink ribbon, a white barrette with pink cherry blossoms, and a small ahoge. The third and the last girl has short brown hair with two shoulder-length bangs and two tiny buns tied with an orange and black hair tie.

The first girl showed a fight stance upon seeing Eleonora's second team. She narrowed her deep-brown eyes with hostility and suspicion towards them. The second and third girls also ready-ed themselves in a similar stance, but without hostility to the unknown group, they had just encountered.

"Who are you? What is your intention?"

The girl with long black hair asked Kurumi's group with cautiousness. She wields a weapon; it's a long red and gold scythe that is much larger than the average person's and points the sharp toe of the scythe at the unknown group of people while she holds the grips.

Seeing that reaction from the heroes, especially the black-haired one—Kurumi and others decided to raise their hands while the black-haired time manipulation user replied to the girl's question and flashed a friendly smile at them.

"Oh my. We have no ill intention, so… could you please… lower that dangerous-sharp thing from us?"

Tokisaki Kurumi, the Spirit with Nightmare as her codename, asks politely to the person who is currently pointing her weapon. Not only did Kurumi raise her hands, but her teammates also followed her, even for someone like Neptune.

"Yeah, nepu! We're not some cheap and knock-off antagonist or villain! We are the good guy here, nepu!"

"Neptune-san, that won't help us at all…."

Miyuki whispered to Neptune with worry visible on her face and voice. This caused the light blue-haired loli to blink in surprise when being whispered like that by the heiress of Yotsuba's family. Although they could beat these three heroes, it won't be wise if the impression they got is bad. After all, this is not a chinese martial arts story where everything is settled with just killing, punching, or endless misunderstanding.

"Nepu! That's right…! I made a mistake, nepu…."

"It's okay, Nep-nep. Don't worry about it."

Akame said, trying to comfort Neptune, who looked behind and stared at the black-haired assassin and former wielder of Murasame Sword back at her homeland with slightly tears of joy. She felt touched and happy when her friend did that.

However, as confusing as it, the black-haired girl with that big and long scythe kept hostile and asked the same question to the unknown group in front of her since she didn't really care about Kurumi's group matters and was only worried about her teammates' safety.

"As I said, who are you guys and what is your intention?"

"Gun-chan! Put down your weapon first! They won't be able to properly answer your question if you don't."

"Takashima-san, that would be impossible since they're an unknown to us. What if they use that chance to do something that could harm us?"

"But we will never get the answer if you threaten them like that. I'm sure they are indeed good guys, as that blue-haired girl claimed, and as heroes, we should listen properly to their pleas, right?"

The one known as 'Gun-chan' went quiet and lowered her weapon when she heard the words from the girl known as 'Takashima-san.' The black-haired girl with a scythe as her weapon then released a slightly frustrated sigh and stared sharply with narrowed eyes at Kurumi's group.

Seeing that, Kurumi and her friends lowered their hands, assuming it was already 'safe' and they didn't get threatened by the heroes' group. The red-haired girl stared at Kurumi and her friends, giving them a widened friendly smile, and apologized while scratching the back of her head.

"We are sorry for that, everyone! We didn't mean to harm you or anything, but… Gun-chan has always been like this, which is unavoidable for her."

"It's okay, you don't have to apologize. I think it's normal to be cautious since we are indeed 'unknown' to you, and we most likely would do the same if we didn't know any of you."

"Heh? You know us?"

The red-haired girl asked in confusion when she heard that and got a confirmed nod from Kurumi and her friends. It's normal for Kurumi's group to know them since Eleonora already told them about the details beforehand. However, this made the three heroes confused, especially the black-haired hero with the scythe as she squinted her eyes in suspicion again.

"Of course, since you're the heroes that fight for humanity's sake, right? You are the heroes Taisha and Shinju-sama chose to protect humankind from those monsters."

"I thought heroes only exist in fictional, but this is really surprising."

"Akame-san, didn't you remember we have heroes as friends?"

"Oh. Yeah, I forgot that, Yasaka. Sorry for that."

Takashima's cheeks reddened in embarrassment hearing that from Kurumi as she took it as a compliment because she and her friends somewhat became famous without her realizing it. However, not only her but the third girl with short brown hair also has her cheeks flushed in embarrassment from hearing it.

"E-Ehehe… we're that famous? I didn't know of it."

"Takashima-san, that is not the case."

"But Gun-chan—isn't it great that people recognize our hero jobs to protect them?!"

What Takashima said struck Gun-chan's head, causing the black-haired hero to be taken aback and think deeply about it. She couldn't refute that since one of her reasons determined of becoming a hero was to be recognized.

"That…"

As Kurumi's group saw that, one of her friends—Yasaka, the fox youkai in her human form as a young woman with a voluptuous figure and very long blonde hair with matching eyes—whispered something to her teammates with glasses and long purple hair.

"Should we… say anything to that?"

"We're not their friends, even acquaintances, so there is no need. That black-haired girl with a scythe would be suspicious of us anymore."

Medusa replied with a whisper to Yasaka, who nodded as she finally understood it. While it's good that the fox youkai wanted to ask what is going on with the black-haired girl with that scythe, it's not really good to suddenly ask something private to her.

"True… we don't want our first 'real' impression painted in a not good way by them. It would be rude to suddenly barge in when we have no permission from them unless we have a close relationship."

"Hey, what is with this whispering, nepu?"

"Neptune-san, please mind your words and don't say anything rude. Leo-nee-sama would be disappointed when she knew it."

Miyuki and the other party members could hear a quiet gasp sound from Neptune, which should be questioned how that could be possible, but they ignore that and focus on the current matter. The light blue-haired loli let out that gasping sound and wore a shocked expression on her face.

"Yuki, that's not nice, nepu! You are blackmailing me!"

"Because I don't want Leo-nee-sama to be burdened again. She is so kind and always deeply cares for us, Neptune-san. We should be the ones who lessen the burden and not cause any trouble for her. Isn't that right?"

Neptune's face squirmed, and she felt guilty when she heard that from Miyuki since she was right. She reluctantly nodded and was followed by the same from the other members of Kurumi's group. The young bluenette futanari profoundly cares for her lovers, friends, and family since they are precious to her.

"Mu, mu, mu…! Y-You're right, nepu. Noura has already done many good things for us."

"Indeed. We shouldn't give any more trouble for Eleonora. We should help her and pay for her kindness, letting her do whatever she wants without being in trouble."

Eri nodded as she agreed with her fellow glasses wearer about it.

"Medusa-san is correct, Neptune-san. Eleonora-san has done many good things for us, even going further to willingly train us to get stronger in the most comfortable method possible but giving us a good result."

"True, but… how could what we talked about not be discovered by those girls?"

Akame asked her friends the real question, causing Kurumi to chuckle along with everyone, and she answered it.

"Because I already slipped to cast some spell, so whatever we talked about won't be easily discovered by anyone but us, Akame-san. I have learned some spells from Nora-kun despite having different energy sources."

Akame nodded with an 'Oh' face as she began to understand it. Yasaka, Miyuki, Medusa, Eri, and Kurumi simply chucked at Akame's reaction from hearing that. It couldn't be helped since the former assassin of Night Raid sometimes dozed off and was distracted when given the magic lesson from Eleonora and others.