One Piece: Legend of the Four Heros Chap 2 (Patreon)

One Piece/Rising of the Shield Hero Parody: 

 Chapter 1 https://www.patreon.com/posts/24660905

Chapter 2 Betrayal and Shields

Luffy's excitement had to wait until the next day after a good night's rest the heroes gathered before the king. Adventurers were brought and lined up. 'These guys look strong.' Luffy thinks. “Hmm?”

“What's wrong Luffy?” Usopp asked him.

“Well, in the book I read there are two other species besides humans. Demi-humans and Therianthropes are there no adventurers of that species.” he crossed his arms and looked confused.

“Now adventurers choose the hero you would like to follow,” Linlin says.

“Wait they choose!” Usopp tenses up, looking terrified and shaking like a leaf. Once all the adventurers had decided it was revealed for Luffy to have no one.

“Ehh!” Luffy gasped as Usopp breathed a sigh of relief.

“This is surprising,” Linlin says.

Eneru the spear hero had four adventurers, one was a weird guy wearing mostly purple garments, and he had weird spider leg-like hair, another was carrying a large sword and wearing shades, the other was a round man who looked almost like a ball, and the last was a dude wearing a cap and wielded a spear.

Cavendish the sword hero, had nothing but female adventurers in his party. Usopp the bow hero had the most and in the most variety. “What's going on, your majesty?” he asked.

“It seems rumors have spread, that the shield hero knows little about this world while the other heroes have some understanding,” she explains.

“Was it possible someone was eavesdropping on us?” Eneru points out.

“Either way this isn't fair,” he looks to the other heroes. “You guys said I'm the weak one, so I need at least one party member.”

“I'm more of a loner, if any of these guys intend to slow me down you can take them,” Eneru says, and the four shift to stay with Eneru, leaning away from Luffy.

He looks to Cavendish who chuckles. “Well its so hard being popular.” Luffy wanted to punch his smug face.

“Usopp?” he looked to the long-nosed archer, who refused to meet Luffy's gaze and began to sweat heavily.

“Well uhh...umm I'd love to give you someone Luffy but...uhh...umm...” his eyes were shifting all over. “It'd be bad for morale if we forced it you know!” he grins.

Luffy twitched in mild anger. 'Oi first you guys say I'm the weakest, then you won't give me a party member, I'm the shield I can't fight on my own.' he thinks.

“I'll do it.” looks turn to a girl in Cavendish's party. The girl was wearing red gear and had her hair in a ponytail. “If the sword hero doesn't mind I'll help the shield hero,” she says.

“Are you sure Flampe-chan?” Cavendish asked, and she nods.

“Then its decided, since the shield hero has fewer party members, we'll give him an increased reward from the treasury,” Linlin says, and each hero got 400 silvers except Luffy who got 600. “Do well training for the upcoming waves.”

The heroes left. “Try not to get killed out there,” Eneru says before he departs with his team.

“It sucks we can't travel together but let's all do our best!” Usopp says.

“Luffy, you better take care of Flampe-chan.”

“See you around guys.” he had money and a party member, time to get started. “What shall we do first.”

“Since the Shield Hero doesn't know this world, do you mind if I take the lead?”

“Sure, what do you suggest?”

“Let's get you armor and a weapon, then we can go hunt monsters.” Luffy grins.

“Sounds good!” Flampe said she knew a place that has a good reputation for armor and weapons.

“Oww customers, you two are super lucky for coming to my shop!” the blacksmith was an odd one, wearing only a loincloth and a jacket, showing off his big strong arms, his big pecs, rock hard abs, and his hairy legs.

“We uhh heard you were the best in town.” Flampe stutters as Luffy chuckles.

“This guy seems great!”

“Oww!” he strikes a pose. “You heard right, the name's Franky, from clothes to armor, to beginner weapons to master weapons we have it all. If you bring me materials I can even make you something extra Super!” Luffy laughed.

“Right, we are looking for a weapon, surely you can find something special for him, one of the four legendary heroes.”

“No fooling?” he raised a brow. Luffy showed him his shield. “Ah so you are the shield, it might be tough for ya, but do your best defending us from the waves.” he gives Luffy a thumbs up.

“Thanks.” Franky brought out some swords.

“From left to right, we have iron, to steel, short and long, and those with a magic steel core,” he says.

“So cool,” Luffy goes over to pick one up but as soon as he touched the iron sword, and a bolt of energy forced it out of his hands. “Ahh!” he cursed. “What the heck?” He tried the steel sword only for the same reaction, even the magic steel wasn't touchable.

His status magic reacted bringing up his Icon. “Warning weapon restriction reached!”

“It seems I'm not allowed to equip any weapon other than the shield,” he says.

“That so?” Franky came around and put on some shades. “Hmm?” he looked over the shield with his Appraisal Magic. “It seems to be just an ordinary small shield, but there's a strange power coming from it that I can't analyze with my magic.”

“Strange power?” Luffy looked at his shield.

“Well for showing me something interesting, I'll give you a discount on armor, pick out something nice.” Luffy picked out some new clothes, a red vest, and some shorts. Flampe picked out some nice looking chain mail.

“I think this will look great on you,” she says and he tries it on. “How much will it be on resale?” she asked Franky.

“Resale? Uhh, be about 100 silvers.”

“I see,” Luffy came out of the dressing room.

“Why are you asking about that?”

“Well of course, as you level up you won't need that armor anymore, you'll get new armor and sell the old.”

“Oh right, you are so smart Flampe.” he smiles. With the discount, they saved quite a bit of money and headed out to hunt monsters. The local monsters were known as balloons, and they came in different colors. Red and Purple were the strongest, yellow and blue were the medium ranked, and orange and green were the weakest.

They found a bunch of orange and green balloons first Luffy tried punching one, only to have it fly back and dive back at him. “Alright then!” he tried to fight one but the others soon flew at him and bit at him. “Eh?” he felt no pain.

He noticed a faint aura coming from the shield hero protecting him. Luffy smirked. “Let's go!” he did his best wailing on the balloons with all his might, it took him over 5 minutes to beat 1 balloon.

Nearby they saw Eneru fighting and he took out balloons in a few seconds flat. Luffy frowned but collected the drops. His Icon gave him a tip, of strengthening his shield by giving it some of the materials. A gauge appeared and as the shield absorbed the materials it began to fill up. “Interesting, so is this the power of a legendary weapon?” Flampe analyzed.

“Guess so,” she took out a small knife.

“Leave it to me.” she took out some orange and green balloons and brought back the materials. Luffy noticed that the orange balloons that Flampe killed produced smaller materials than when he killed them.

'I wonder if it's because of my Foraging Skill?' he thinks.

“We should be able to sell the materials back in town as well,” she says, pulling Luffy from his thoughts.

“Really, that's so cool!” Luffy fed half the materials to his shield and stored the rest, and they headed back to town. Flampe wanted to buy some gear so they stopped at Franky's place first.

“So you made it back, how was it?”

“I haven't leveled up yet, but fighting monsters was awesome!” Franky smiled, liking the look in Luffy's eye.

Flampe came over with some pretty high-quality armor. “Uhh Flampe, this stuff is pretty expensive, we still have to pay for the inn and food.”

“Well, we have to spend money to make money, and the stronger I am the further we can go. If I'm stronger we can even take on a dungeon and get lots of loot.”

“Ohh a dungeon sounds so cool!” he says. “Say, Franky, I don't suppose you can give us another discount could you?”

The blue haired man sighed. “I suppose I can, 30%.” that left Luffy with some money, and he even sent them to someone who'd buy the drops from the monsters.

After getting Flampe her fancy armor and weapon, selling the materials, getting food and two rooms, they were down to 100 silvers and some coppers. “Not too bad a day.” Luffy dug in eating lots of food. “Ooohhh it's so good, I thought the food at the palace was good, but this stuff is amazing too.”

“You sure ordered a lot...” Flampe sweatdropped, trying to keep up a smile. Flampe tried to invite Luffy to drink, but the boy said he didn't like alcohol.

“I'll be turning in, thanks for joining me Flampe-chan.” he gives her a smile which she returned. “Good night!” he heads to his room.

“Good night, shield hero!” she waves him off. Luffy did feel kind of bad, from what Flampe said men in this country never turn down a drink from ladies, but Luffy liked what he liked, and didn't what he didn't. He hoped to make it up to her tomorrow.

“Oh yeah,” Ace taught him that when traveling its always good to stash your valuables someplace safe. He hid some of the silvers under his shield. He had 30 coppers and a hundred silver outside of what he hid. Luffy decided to test something, he fed one of the coppers to his shield and a new gauge popped up. “Ohh!” he fed 19 more coppers into the shield and his Icon alerted him to a new shield he unlocked.

Coin Shield Copper Unlocked: DEF +1 New Skill Coin Blessing (Low) Can store money with this skill and gain interest over time.

“This is so cool so I can unlock other shields and they can give me skills. I should tell Flampe...wait it's late she's probably already turned in I should do the same.” He set his armor and silver to the side, depositing the coppers he got into the Coin Blessing Skill and turned in for the night. He was so pumped but sleep came quickly to the boy, little did he know while he slept someone slipped into his room.

-x-

When morning came Luffy yawned, stretched to wake his body up, and he got out of bed. Only to gasp as not only was his chain mail gone, so was his money. “I've been robbed.” he went to Flampe's room and banged on the door. “Flampe we've been robbed! Oi!”

Outside knights arrived and entered the inn. Luffy got no answer from Flampe, and soon found himself surrounded. “You are knights from the castle, hurry I've been robbed you have to help me.”

“You are the shield hero correct? Your presence has been requested at the castle.” Luffy was hauled in and was brought before Linlin, the other heroes, the whole court and...Flampe!

“Flampe, so you were okay.” she yelped and hid behind Cavendish. “Flampe?”

He looked to Linlin. “Your majesty, I was robbed if we hurry we can still catch whoever did this and...”

“Silence!” she roared, shocking Luffy. “Flampe, if you would please tell us what happened again.”

Flampe began to weave a tale of how Luffy barged into her room, smelling of booze, telling her the night was still young. She claimed he ripped apart her clothes and pushed her on the bed. 'What is she saying?' She claimed she managed to escape and went to get help, finding Cavendish was staying at the same inn.

“Monster, I never should have trusted you with her. Flampe-chan convinced to wait and call for the knights or else I would have killed you myself.”

“What are you talking about, I didn't drink a drop, and went to bed alone. I don't even like gir...” he was cut off.

“Silence!” Linlin shouted again. “To think the shield hero would commit the gravest sin in our country. The attempt to assault a woman is punishable by death.”

“Death? I'm telling you I didn't do it, if you want to accuse me of this I want to see proof!” Luffy shouted.

Some knights showed up and revealed that they found some of Flampe's underwear in Luffy's room. Flampe gasped and hugged Cavendish. “You bastard!” Cavendish shouted.

“You scum!” Eneru snaps.

“To think the shield hero was such a person!”

“He has no right to be a hero!”

“Scoundrel!”

“Rapist!”

“We should kill him at once!” the whole court was in an uproar. Luffy looked around and everyone was looking at him with such hate and disgust. He looked to Usopp who looked away and said nothing.

'I'm not that kind of person, I know we don't know each other, but come on.' he looked to Flampe. 'Flampe, why are you saying these things?' his eyes widened. While everyone's focus was on him Flampe's scared face shifted to a wicked smirk, she pulled her eyelid down and stuck her tongue out at him.

“You bitch!” Luffy shouted causing the guards to point their weapons at him. “You set me up, why?”

“Ah Cavendish-sama!” she hugged him, and he wrapped his arms around her. “He's scaring me!”

“Don't worry, I'll protect you.” Luffy noticed that Cavendish was wearing his chain mail.

“You...you are in on it, you stole my stuff!” he snapped.

“You are crazy, Flampe-chan gave me this as a gift for looking after her,” he says.

Luffy realized, Flampe was calling the sword hero by his name, but when she spoke to him it was always, shield hero, shield hero, shield hero. 'They are in it together.' Luffy replayed her story in his head, and while he wasn't the brightest bulb he noticed her statement didn't suit the evidence presented. If he ripped off her clothes how is her underwear perfectly intact in his room. 'They set me up, why because I'm the shield! Ace...Sabo...you'd believe me right?'

As he put the pieces together, the other heroes minus Usopp who was staying quiet continued to egg Luffy on. Calling him a liar, an eyesore, trash. They didn't believe his words and felt he was just making excuses.

Luffy felt the joy he felt shatter as dark emotions welled up inside him. He wasn't the trash, they were, they looked down on him because he was the shield. They didn't believe in him and were just kicking him while he was down. Why should he fight for them when they didn't want him.

“Enough...just send me back.” he surprised everyone. “If you don't want me here just send me back, send me home and summon another shield hero for all I care.”

“Running away when things get tough you truly are trash,” Eneru says.

“Go ahead send him back, who wants to work next to a racist.”

“Shut your mouth!” Luffy snapped giving him a look of pure rage. The knights tried to stop Luffy but he forced them away. His shield radiating with power.

Linlin sighed. “We can't, a new hero cannot be summoned until the current heroes are killed.”

“What?!” the other three heroes gasped. A robed figure came up and whispered something to Linlin.

“As much as you deserve execution, you are one of the four heroes and legends say we need you to stop the waves. So long as you help fight against the demons you'll not receive execution. Know this, word of what you've done has spread through the country, that will be your punishment, you will not know a moment's peace.”

“So that means we have to work alongside him?”

“No, to hell with you, I'll figure out how to stop the waves myself!” Luffy snapped. “This is what you wanted right? Take it and shove it up your ass!” he took the silvers he was hiding under his shield and tossed it at Cavendish's feet. He left having lost his honor, his money, his equipment, and more…

-x-

As he walked through town looks of disgust were thrown at him. “Oi Shield Boy,” he was called by Franky, the man pulled Luffy out of the street and into an alley. “I heard what you did to that girl!” he looked ready to punch Luffy. “Allow me to hit you once myself!”

“What, you too?” Franky froze, looking into Luffy's eyes. Those weren't the eyes of a criminal, those weren't the eyes of a joyous adventurer he was before, he was broken. He'd seen a lot of people in his time, good guys and bad, and Luffy was not a bad guy.

He released him. “Not gonna hit me anymore?”

“Nah, don't feel right.” he goes inside his shop and brings out a cloak for Luffy, it was red and had a hood, he also gives him a bag to store his stuff. “Here take it.”

“How much?”

“I know your broke you can have it for free.”

“How much?” Luffy asked again.

“Five copper for the cloak, five for the bag.”

“I'll pay you back,” he says and heads off to go hunting.

“Don't die kid.”

-x-

Luffy spent all day and night fighting balloons, he barely made it to level 2 by fighting the orange and green balloons. Though the drops were larger and higher quality. The higher quality helped fill the gauge faster and Luffy gasped as he unlocked the Orange Shield and the Green Shield, both giving him a boost to his Defense + 2.

His Icon told him his stat boosts stacked, the shield unlocking also helped Luffy remember about his other unlocked shield and the stored coppers he had. He had put 10 in and he'd gained an additional 2 from the skill. 'I earned that money from selling the drops, so I'll keep it.' he thinks.

Luffy tried to fight a yellow balloon. While the weaker balloons took him five minutes to kill, these took an hour to kill. Luffy was exhausted after beating just 1 yellow and 1 blue balloon. He fed the materials from them to his shield and unlocked the Yellow Shield and the Blue Shield each giving him a Defense + 3.

To his shock, another shield was unlocked. Rubber Shield 1 Agility + 3 Defense + 3 Special Skill Rubber Body 1. “Special Skill?” His Icon activated and gave him a Tip. Special Skills could only be used while in that shield, while you use that skill a mastery gauge will increase, once mastered you can use it in any shield form. Luffy tried it transforming his shield into the Rubber Shield and activated the Rubber Body. His attack range was boosted by 1 and he gained a blunt attack immunity.

Luffy decided to call it a day, and take his materials to town and sell them. Before he packed up though, he ran across a few orange balloons and green ones and got an idea.

He went to the material shop, to sell his bounty. The guy before him sold his orange balloon pieces for a copper per pair, but when Luffy got up to the counter and placed his materials down. “Oh my orange and green balloon materials, bout 20 of each. I'll give you two copper for the lot.”

“I believe you gave the other guy 1 for the pair.”

“Did I? Well, I'm the one who sets the price after all.”

“Is that so?” Luffy lifted his cloak to reveal living balloon monsters happily clinging to him with their teeth. “How about these, they're fresh!” he hauled the guy under his cloak and let the balloons chomp on him a bit. “Listen, I'm not trying to rip you off, I just want a fair deal got it?”

“I got it, I got it!” he says and Luffy releases him, the monsters don't leave his side, quickly going back to him. “I'm a businessman, when it comes to money it knows no sin after all.” he pays Luffy properly for the materials.

“By the way let all the vendors know if they try to cheat me, they'll pay with their bodies!”

“I will,” the shopkeep says. Luffy puts 5 copper into his Coin Blessing Skill, he stops by Franky's shop and pays him back for the stuff he gave him. Franky found it when he brought some stuff from the back.

As Luffy walked around he saw some herbs in the window. He found the same herbs outside, he collects them and the quality was increased. He feeds some to his shield and unlocks the Leaf Shield, it boosted his Foraging Skill to level 2.

He changed the Rubber Shield to Leaf while he was collecting plants, boosting the quality as he “farmed” and he was able to find a patch of mushrooms. With his plant identification skill, he was able to tell which mushrooms were edible and which ones were poisonous.

He fed some to his shield and unlocked Mushroom Shield, it gave him a passive skill that increased the recovery of stamina when eating mushrooms. He fed the poison mushrooms to his shield. Poison Mushroom Shield: Poison Resistance Low, Sleep Mushroom Shield: Sleep Resistance Low, Parasite Mushroom Shield: Body Control Resistance Low, Hypnosis Mushroom Shield: Mind Control Resistance Low, the four shields unlocked Spore Shield it gave Luffy a Unique Skill he could only use in this form. Spore Counter: When struck will release a status spore that can poison, stun, or put to sleep an enemy, if it takes several hits the gauge will fill up and release a parasite spore that will cause vicious invading mushrooms to sprout from an enemies body.

He finished farming and brought his herbs back to town to sell. The person who ran the shop was an old woman with a scary young body. “This is some high-quality herbs, where did you get it?”

“Near the forest, its pretty close by.”

“Hmm, you don't say.” A crash was heard from the back. “That's just my assistant/apprentice ignore him he won't bother you.” she bought the herbs and Luffy got some decent silver out of the deal. As Luffy left he didn't notice a blue-nosed beastman watching him as he left.

Luffy's stomach growled, and he ate mushrooms and camped outside not wanting to waste money. Oddly enough the balloons he tamed actually protected him, keeping watch over his body as he slept.

To be continued...Cycle and Contracts