Legend of the Shounen Heroes (Name subject to change)

[Aix]

[Logo Needed]

 

On an ordinary summer day, a portal opens up in the sky and a girl falls from the heavens into our protagonist's arms. Despite hating these kind of shounen cliches, Cain d'Estragon grabs this opportunity to become a Hero, protected by plot armor and gifted with an unlimited potential just waiting to tapped into, and defend this universe.

 

A deconstruction of the shounen genre set out in an epic battle royale style spanning across the multiverse.

 

[spoiler='Chapter 1: A Hero Born Under Starlight (The Sun Is Also A Star)']Do you believe in destiny? A greater meaning in life? Do you believe that everyone has a special place in this world? I think that’s bullshit and, well, my opinion is really what matters here. Fate is just wishful thinking. You aren’t anyone special. Not just anyone can become someone special, even if you work for it, even if you train, even if you put your life on the line. Effort is not always rewarded. The good guys don’t always win, we are simply lucky. I’m sure in some other universe evil has prevailed and taken over the galaxy while the defenders of peace and justice lay dead with their heads stuck on pikes.

 

On these lazy summer days, I sit on my bed, perhaps given up on reality, and watch my animu, all the while sneering contemptuously at the idealist protagonists, then spitting vehemently as their nakama power pulls them through. That should have realistically never happened. You do not suddenly get an enormous power boost after reaffirming your principles or seeing your loved ones get hurt and don’t even get me started on deus ex machina. I could rant on and on and on, but I'm too lazy for that. Sighing, I closed my laptop and stepped outside to pay a visit to the corner store only to come face to face with my great archnemesis.

 

Oh, the sun. It shines, it burns, it mercilessly stabs my eyes. I must be part vampire or something, a dhampir maybe, and I had chosen the most inopportune time of the day to peak my head out of my Batcave - it was still early in the afternoon. Best option was to keep my head down and avoid it, but I paused mid-step as I realized that something is off here. As I redirected my gaze back up to the heavens, the truth hit me like a punch to the gut and fear erupted from deep within. The sun was much bigger and much, much brighter than usual. A few clouds stood in the way of its radiant splendour but made no difference as the light pierced right through. Sweat began to pour down my face, whether from the heat or from awe I could not tell, likely both. I finally understood why the ancients worshipped the sun as a god. Speechlessly, I watched as reality seemed to warp around this great ball of fire. The sky appeared to distort and become drawn into a swirling vortex. The sun did not hang in the sky, this entire world revolved around it, everything I knew and everything I loved held just went around it in circles unable to escape, bound by both gravity and necessity.

 

Does man truly know the extent of his insignificance? Compared to the infinite expanse of the universe, he is nothing. Even this planet is nothing in the grand scheme of things. I quote Carl Sagan, what we live on is but a pale blue dot, merely a mote of dust suspended by a sunbeam. I felt so incredibly vulnerable, as if my existence were to be wiped out any moment now, and a sinking feeling deep in my gut told me it was possible. Had the sun decided that it would go out billions of years early? Was it going to swallow up the Earth as it blows up to a red giant? Perhaps there was no point pondering about it as there was absolutely nothing I could do. 

 

Through the cracks in my bright red fingers I catch a glimpse of a small black object in the light. As it approached I realized that it was actually a person falling at an incredible speed. A girl, in fact, with long light-colored hair, which I thought was blond like my own, but I then realized it was, in fact, pure white... or silver, whatever you want. Of course, there was no way I was going to try and catch her as was the typical shounen response, she was falling at such an incredible speed that if it wouldn’t matter if I tried. I would probably just die from the impact and not break her fall at all.

 

However, then, the strangest thing happened. The fabric of space warped around me, it felt like like I was high and overdosed or something, and I suddenly found myself standing beneath where she was to land with my hands held out as if to catch her. Before I had any chance to withdraw, she tumbled into my outstretched arms and I miraculously managed to remain standing despite the extreme pain that shot through my legs from shock.

 

“Thanks for nothing,” said the girl. She rolled her eyes as she turned over and stood herself up. Despite the sour expression she had just showed me the moment earlier, the girl was truly a beauty with thin fine features that radiated with elegance and refinery and sky blue eyes without a hint of an end to their depth. “The Lightbringer descends...” Muttering that while glancing up at the sun, she then turned to face me and extended a hand. “There is no more time, what kind of Hero do you wish to be, Cain d’Estragon?”

 

That’s right. That’s my name. Cain d’Estragon. A pretty badass sounding name, at least to me, but it never seemed like I’d live up to it. Seeing the abnormality of the circumstances, I decided to ignore the fact that this girl who just fell out of the sky knew my name and asked a more sensible, if that is even possible in this situation, question.

 

“What do I need to know about what’s going on?”

 

The girl raised an eyebrow at this while I merely looked her in the eye, waiting for her to explain. “You need to defend me from the enemy that’s going to come down from the sky any minute now or the universe will end. I will grant you power to defeat this foe,” she said.

 

With everything going on, I was not entirely surprised and the grave and sincere look in her eyes made me fully believe her, she seemed to know what was going on a lot more than I did, but my head still hurt from the genericness of this development. However, how could I possibly turn this down? For one, the universe was apparently going to end if I did and, two, you could not understand nearly how much I wanted to have magical powers.

 

“The Lightbringer, huh?” I said casually despite the fact that I was literally trembling from an odd combination of fear and anticipation. “Very well, grant me the power of the darkness that devours everything.” It was a futile attempt to remedy the cliché, but I then realized that great number of stories now had protagonists with demonic or evil abilities. There was no more time, however, at least according to what she said earlier, and I reached out to accept her hand.

 

“The enemy is powerful and experienced while you have never actually been in a fight in your life,” she said and I paused. “It would be better, rather, to have an ability that will instantly take them out and require little actual combat.”

 

I pondered this, what she said was true, but then a few ideas crept into my head. “But that’s incredibly risky, isn’t it? You can grant me other powers, right?”

 

She nodded. “However, the first power you accept with this contract will forever be the foundation of the rest of your abilities,” she said. “Make your decision now.”

 

There was no need to say more. I grabbed her hand and felt the power course through me. It was an incredible feeling, similar to adrenaline, and my heart started to pound extraordinarily fast. Never had I ever felt so alive. But, then, I felt the torrent from within me, it writhed and honestly felt quite disgusting. A wry half-smile appeared on my face as I realized perhaps “darkness” was not such a good choice. Nevertheless, there was no turning back from this. Both the girl and I directed our eyes to the sky and with my new-found power I no longer feared the sun.

 

There was a sudden flash of light and I recognized that something was bursting towards us. That must be it, the Lightbringer, whatever that meant. I moved on instinct, reacting at superhuman speeds, shoving the girl under my arm and blitzing out of the way while at the same time releasing my trap. A sphere of absolute darkness, a substance neither solid nor liquid that defied all laws of physics, swallowed the Lightbringer up sealing it inside.

 

“You have fallen into my trap, Lightbringer!” I announced grandly. “I have sealed you in my dimension of absolute darkness and there is no escape! Rot forever in this boundless prison!” With a smile, I realized that my bluff worked and I felt the being, a humanoid clad heavily in powerful armor, stop moving temporarily. I got the opportunity to properly apprehend the Lightbringer’s form feeling the shape obscured in my darkness. A girl. I thought. And with a sizeable rack!

 

A voice broke me out of my excitement. “What are you even thinking?” spoke the girl I still held under my arm as she broke herself out. Not understanding the real meaning at first, I took this as a prompt to go on with my attack. Even if the Lightbringer were only a girl, the universe was at risk here, I will strike now when she’s vulnerable. The Code of Honor meant nothing when everything I cared for was at stake, I wasn’t one of those cheesy shounen heroes who would blatantly refuse to use underhanded tactics. The ends justifies the means, in the end, only one girl would be dead instead of the entire universe. I whispered this to myself and breathed in and out to calm my nerves.

 

Condensing the rest of my energy in my hands, I materialized a magnificent pitch-black bastard sword, and I raised it high into the air before striking towards a kink in the Lightbringer’s armor with insane strength. There was no hesitation in my stroke, perhaps I was too scared for my own fate to even care any more.

 

The Lightbringer must have sensed something, perhaps ripples and vibrations in the fabric of darkness as the sword sliced through and she moved at the last minute even though she could not see the sword itself. With a resounding clang on her gilded helmet, she was knocked unconscious instead of being decapitated instantly. I felt her limbs go limp and the metallic sound of her armor as she collapsed onto the ground.

 

"That was the most ridiculous and risky plan I had ever seen," said the silver-haired girl.

 

As I removed the darkness field, I looked up to see the aberrant sky slowly revert to normal.

 

"Ah, but everything's alright now, right?" It was such a cheesy response and I felt gross for saying it. As well, I berated myself for concocting such a foolhardy plan, but there was no real other way, right?

 

Looking back down, I came upon second gorgeous babe I had the fortune to see today. Unfortunately, the elaborately crafted gold and silver armor revealed nothing except her dazzling face, but I suppose that was reward enough for taking her down.

 

“Why did you not kill her?” the girl behind me demanded.

 

I thought about this for a few moments. “I don’t entirely trust you,” I finally said. It was a lie and the girl narrowed her eyes.

 

“I don’t believe that,” she said with great resolution in her tone.

 

If she were not someone to be trusted, she would not have said that, she would’ve likely been more wary and paranoid, but I decided against saying anything further on the matter. “Why must she be killed?” I asked instead.

 

“So she can’t try to destroy this universe, again,” replied the girl.

 

“Could we not imprison her? With your great power, it should be possible to contain her,” I said. “I’m sure we could benefit somehow from letting her live. Does she have comrades? Could we not hold her hostage?”

 

The girl bit her lip. “She does.”

 

“Don’t take me for one of your cheesy shounen heroes who refuse to kill, I know it would’ve been too risky to just try to knock her out. She moved at the last second and I hit her helmet instead,” I said.

 

“It seems her plot armor is rather strong to be even active in this world,” said the girl. She crouched down to look at the Lightbringer in the face.

 

“Plot armor?” I asked.

 

“I believe someone like you would be familiar with the term,” she said, standing up and looking me in the eyes.

 

“Ah, yes,” I said and I shut my mouth as I thought about the implications of that term. “Does that mean that this entire world is just a story then? An elaborate tale? Are we all just actors on a stage destined to carry out predetermined lines?”

 

“In a way,” replied the girl. “But, it’s not entirely true. I just like the term ‘plot armor’, it sounds like it’s a physical object, but rather, it’s the influence on Fate that Heroes like Lightbringer and yourself have. The blessing of Fate, the proof that the multiverse loves you.”

 

I felt like rolling my eyes at the way which these terms came that needed to be properly explained and developed. I thought about it and had a certain idea from piecing together what had happened thus far, but I was under no illusion that what I hypothesized was bound to be correct. “I suppose it’s time you explained everything to me.”

 

“You are... a Hero!” she declared.

 

“Why, thank you, my princess,” I couldn’t help but say. I also couldn’t help but feel the animesque vibe that this entire premise gave off.

 

She glared at me before continuing on. “Each and every one of the millions of universes in the multiverse designates a Hero to defend the life force potential of the universe. As universes are born all the time, space in the multiverse becomes limited and the universes with the least life force potential naturally collapse as they are unable to withstand the pressure. The life force potential of a universe slowly depletes as time passes and so a universe is always under the threat of destruction. In order to accumulate life force potential, one must steal it from others by destroying another universe’s life force core.”

 

"As the Hero of a particular universe, you are blessed by fate, you are one out of many billion or even trillion sentient beings, granted with plot armor and an infinite potential for growth," she said. “And thus, you are given the duty of defending this world and your inner powers have been unlocked!”

 

I stood still for a moment as I absorbed this. It was more or less what I thought, but there were still some holes in the story. I looked back at the girl. “And who are you to appoint me as the Hero?”

 

The girl smirked. “I am the Goddess of this universe, born at the dawn of time, this universe’s conception. Worship me for I am this world’s life force core and the guardian of causality. I have gone by many names in the past, such as Deus, Fate, Destiny, but at this moment, you may call me Elizabeth Serendyne the First!”[/spoiler]

[mitchermitcher]

Hm, how should I say this...This is...surprisingly good. The protagonist is overly aware of the genre to the point where his narration feels as if he's cramming in as many references to the fact that the story plays out like a shounen as possible, but it does kind of work. The entire premise of having a story that's self-aware of being a shonen and trying to deconstruct it often ends up being too pretentious, but so far this is pretty good. Looking forward to more.

[legendhiro]

Awesome so far. Good writing and characterization, a genre savvy MC, and a promising story direction. I'll be checking back in on this one for sure.