Admittedly, the wiki could have been wrong. TBH, I thought she might have been in her 20s myself.
I'm thinking they might tie Noriko in with the young girl Itami met in the anime opening episode: that Norko would be that girl's mother. If not, it would be an interesting side plot for a fan fic.
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The sword that takes life gives life. -Japanese proverb
Presenting, another fanfic idea I will probably never finish, as a oneshot I wrote for the hell of it:
A Gate/Hai to Gensou no Grimgar crossover:
Preview (or really more likely oneshot) chapter: Deus ex Machina
Spoiler for Fic preview chapter/oneshot:
Ruins of Damaru
The Haruhiro, Yume, Ranta, and Mogozu stood in a circle at the center of a square in the ruined city, surrounding their mage, Chihoru and healer, Mary. For weeks now, they had conducted raids into the city, eliminating goblins and collecting the bounties and spoils. Now, they were surrounded by hundreds of enemies: goblins and orcs, and even several trolls- twelve feet tall and armed with massive clubs.
“I knew we shouldn’t have come back here, this is where Manato died... and now we’re going to die too!!”, Ranta said in a panic as his sword shook in his hand
“Calm down, damn it! What happened to your pride as a dark knight!?”, Haru said, “We’ll make it through this!”
“I find that unlikely”, Mary said, “I can’t believe I’m going to die because of you imbeciles!”
Right behind her, Chihoru was crying hysterically on her knees and clinging to Yume’s waist as she screamed, “NO! I DON’T WANT TO DIE! I DON’T WANT TO DIE!”
Yume placed her left arm around her and tried to calm the screaming girl while holding her dagger in the other hand. Mogozu, meanwhile, simply stood his ground, two-handed sword at the ready.
In spite of their brave façade, all of them were just as panicked as Ranta and Chihoru. As much as they tried to deny it, they knew that they were all about to die.
From the rooftops, a group of orc crossbowmen raised their weapons, taking aim at the group as the foot soldiers readied their weapons. This sight was too much for Yume, who closed her eyes, a solitary tear flowing down her cheek.
Haru did not close his eyes, but simply whispered as tears started to flow down his face as well, “Yume... Mogozu, Ranta, Chirhoro, Mary... Manato... I’m sorry, I couldn't....”
His final monologue was interrupted by a strange, but oddly familiar rumbling sound as the crossbow-toting orcs took aim at something coming in from the south entrance of the square.
There was a massive thud as several orcs were sent flying, killed instantly by the impact as a great green cart which moved with no horse slammed through the horde at high speeds. The bolts of the orc crossbows simply bounced off the front of the vehicle. He was convinced he had never seen one before, and yet, words immediately came to him: “car... vehicle”.
From the top of the vehicle a man’s upper body poked out of the hatch, his hands gripping two handles on the end of a black metal tube. Once again, while he had not seen it before, he knew the name of the object: “machine gun”... and once more, this time, he knew it was a weapon far more powerful than anything in Grimgar...
“Get down!”, Haru yelled, pushing Ranta and Chihoru to the pavement, with Yume and Mogozu doing the same.
The soldier in the vehicle fired the machine gun, .50 caliber bullets tearing apart the orc archers on the rooftops in less than a second, as the machine rolled forward, stopping directly in front of Haru. The machine gun’s roar drowned out all other sound as it tore through goblins, orcs, and even trolls effortlessly, their bloodied bodies falling to the ground in droves before they got anywhere close to the vehicle.
Behind the first vehicle, two more entered the square, as soldiers in mottled brown and green uniforms exited the vehicle, armed with weapons Haru somehow knew as “assault rifles”.
The soldiers surrounded them, standing between them and orc horde coming from the other side. A man whose uniform identified him as “Itami”, who appeared to be the leader of these soldiers yelled, “ Kuwahara, get a frag on the big one, north entrance. Tomita, and Nishina, cover him. Katsumoto, cover the east with the 50 cal. Everyone else, on me, west entrance!”.
Within less than a second, the man who looked like the oldest member of the squad, the one named Kuwahara drew a green metal sphere from his belt... a “grenade” according to Haru’s mysterious intuition. The grenade fell at the foot of the troll advancing on the north entrance of the square and exploded in a flash of fire and a cloud of dust and smoke.
The explosion blew the right leg off the troll and riddled its body with shrapnel, and also shredded dozens of orcs and goblins to the left and right. Body parts flew through the air as street was soaked with blood.
At the same time, the rest of the horde was torn apart by fire from the soldiers rifles and the machine gun on top of the vehicle. From a building right flank of the soldiers however, a goblin charged at full speed, armed with a short curved sword. It was unnoticed by the soldiers... or so it seemed.
As the goblin was about three feet from her, a female soldier with short brown hair turned to face it, and thrust the blade on the end of her rifle, which Haru instinctively knew was called a “bayonet”, forward. The bayonet pierced the goblin’s torso. The monster was wounded, but not dead.
With its last strength, the goblin drew its dagger and raised it at the female soldier. Instead of a look of surprise or fear, the soldier’s face displayed a sadistic grin as she pulled the trigger on her rifle. The 7.62mm NATO round blew straight through the goblin, taking a portion of the creature’s back with it. Blood, gore, and fragments of vertebrae sprayed out of the exit wound, as the creature was blown of the end of her rifle.
In all direction, those goblins and orcs that survived the hail of automatic weapons fire turned tail and fled from the square, which was now littered with mangled corpses.
The first sound Haru heard when the gunfire went silent was a soft female voice from above him, which asked, “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine”, Haru replied, turning to see that the owner of the voice was a tall, black-haired female soldier with a name tag identifying her as “Kurokawa”.
Then, it hit him like a strike from a troll’s gigantic club, Haru knew where he had seen the mysterious text he could somehow read before... it was the language of his home... his real home, before he had appeared in Grimgar.... and the patch with the red circle on the white background, the flag of Japan. These men and women were clearly soldiers of the Japan Self Defense Forces, or JSDF.
Suddenly, images flashed through his mind, the empty alleyway between the station and his house he had been walking down when a flash like lighting had blinded him. When he came to, he was in that tower where her first met the others.
One look around the group showed that Ranta, Yume, Chihoro, and Mogozu all had the same look on their faces.
“You’re one the people sent here by the anomalies, aren’t you?”, Kurokawa asked him, “You remember some things, I take it, but there’s still gaps, aren’t there”.
“Yeah”, Haru replied, “I remember that I am Japanese, but I have no memory of my parents, my family, my friends, not even my surname.”
“You should regain your memory eventually. In the mean time, we’ll give you a ride back into town.”, the woman named Kurokawa said, “My name is Sgt. Mari Kurokawa, by the way.”
“Haruhiro”, Haru introduced himself, before “Yume”, “Ranta”, “Chihoro”, and “Mogozu” followed suit. Mary did not introduce herself, but rather said in an irritable-sounding voice, “Will someone explain to me what the hell is going!?”
If I will continue the fic, the Grimgar cast will end up joining a JSDF reserve unit in Ortana (or however you spell it) similar to the reserve MPs in at Alnus. Eventually, I might have them regain their memories, but not before spending enough time in the unit to be chosen as part of the first unit issues the Howa Type 21 Special Region Service Rifle, a single shot 7.62mm bolt-action rifle intended for use by Special Region local reservists, which may appear in other fics (the Grimgar cast will also still have their magic and medieval weapons as well, don't worry). Not really sure beyond that, except for somehow shoehorning in Yume using a C-4 tipped arrow and Chihoro discovering she's actually a very good shot with a rifle.
Also, in case it isn't obvious, I'm assuming that the world of Grimgar is NOT a video game. I might have Itami make a comment about how, "if people abducted here, maybe in the past, a video game designer ended up here and somehow made it back to create a game based on it.
You know what would be great? If someone writes GATE x 40k fic.
Spoiler for Fanfic preview:
At the height of the conflict between Empire under Zorzal's control and JSDF an Imperial strike force was sent, with elements of several Imperial Guard Regiments and one entire company of Imperial Fists, from Terra with a single objective - to retrieve Gray who is in fact Rogal Dorn in disguise.
Well, since Itami and his "party" killed the fiire dragon, the dark elves and the JSDF have a good relationship. So far that the dark elves help the JSDF on missions. At least in the manga.
Well a fanfiction about some kind of dark elves mercenary group, formed by the JSDF sounds awesome.
Anyway, for a crossover, I have Berserk in my mind.
'At this moment, the Death Korps of Krieg have arrived.'
Yup, their entire planet is dead as they are facing the most grimdark of Imperial Guard. Plus for empire the opponent is even more deadly as they can just use stars to determine planet position inside galaxy and just call Imperial Navy for areal support.
Here's an idea, it may seem a cliche, but what if other nations get involved with Japan inside the gate? Some of them want to take over, others believe they should introduce technology, science, and abolition of slavery, and say when it is revealed Zorzal had taken slaves, the other nations don't take it lightly and they do worse. Tyruule would get what she wanted, the American and British forces justify their actions denouncing the prince and the empire as savages, but they end up doing worse when they bomb the areas and kill multiple innocents, Tyruule realizes she had opened a Pandora's box, as the modern technological forces just colonize and make it their goal to civilize this world.
Worse case scenario, some corrupt politician from the US, China or Europe steal a magic artifact to become powerful and seek conquest in both worlds.
More on my Gate/Grimgar crossover from a while back, in the event I ever write it.
Presenting my latest project:
A Gate to Ash and Illusions (working title)
Yes, that's right, Gate: Thus the JSDF Fought There meets Hai to Gensou no Grimgar. First an formost, obviously, this fic will be based on the interpretation that Grimgar is NOT a video game, in spite of the similarities, and any MMORPG-like features are artifacts of magic or the seemingly cult-like behavior of most of the guilds (so it would not be too unusual for them to have rules like "wizards can't wear armor or wield melee weapons"). Also, in Grimgar, there exist real-world problems ranging from having to lug around assault ladders during a siege (in the LN) and dying of blood loss, suggesting it is a real place.
Plot synopsis:
The implication is that it starts off like Gate- a portal from Grimgar to Japan appears, bunch of orcs etc. come out, only to get curb stomped by the JSDF, who counter invade. It will be assumed that this portal (obviously) works differently than how Haru and the rest were summoned, and does not erase the memories of the traveler.
But as the story mostly follows Haru, his first meeting with the JSDF is sudden, taking place immediately after he avenges Manato and gets the dagger back. Essentially, they get surrounded by a bunch of orcs in Damoru, only for the JSDF (specifically Itami and the Third Recon Team) show up to shoot their way out of the problem.
From there, it's I intend to have Haru's party somehow decide to remain in Grimgar even after regaining their memories (most likely by the simplest would be for it to turn out that, by the time the JSDF invades, they are over 18 and thus have the agency to make such a decision).
Eventually, they are recruited into a new project which involves training former militia who served in Grimgar to act as auxiliaries for the JSDF, equipped with bolt-action rifles (I was thinking a modified Howa M1500 rifle, as it is already mass produced in Japan, chambered for 7.62mm, and has a detachable magazine), as well as their old weapons.
Notes: As magic exists in Grimgar, as well as some larger creatures which could presumably soak up multiple bullets before going down, it will not be as much of a curb stomp as seen in Gate. The JSDF will have an advantage, sure, but staying true to the Grimgar theme, the main characters will still sometimes get ambushed in places like dense forests, the inside of castles or ruins or caves where the JSDF tanks and air support are useless, and both auxiliaries (i.e. Haru's party members) and JSDF regulars WILL die.
Also expect (if I ever complete this) some changes in the Grimgar characters resultant from regaining their memories, as well as their interactions with the JSDF, including Shihoru discovering a talent for marksmanship and becoming more confident, and Ranta regaining his memories and becoming horribly embarrassed by his "chuuni" antics (though he is still a cocky, kill-crazy bastard who starts to get along with with Gate's resident crazy bitch, Sgt. Shino Kuribayashi.
Also, in addition to slaying monsters, expect some tensions between the JSDF and the human locals of Grimgar- the guilds won't take kindly to some new force coming in, providing an alternative source of combat training, and undermining their power over the Grimgarese militia. Also, expect tensions and potentially conflict with the human kingdoms as well. Not to mention, I don't think the Japanese government will be too pleased about a Ortana's habit of summoning Japanese teenagers to another world to use as militia!
Previews
Notes: The JSDF refer to Grimgar as the "Special Region", as they do the fantasy world of Gate.
Spoiler for First Encounter with the JSDF:
Ruins of Damaru, Grimgar
Haruhiro, Yume, Ranta, and Mogozu stood in a circle at the center of a square in the ruined city, surrounding their mage, Chihoru and healer, Mary. For weeks now, they had conducted raids into the city, eliminating goblins and collecting the bounties and spoils. Now, they were surrounded by hundreds of enemies: goblins and orcs, and even several trolls- twelve feet tall and armed with massive clubs.
“I knew we shouldn’t have come back here, this is where Manato died... and now we’re going to die too!!”, Ranta said in a panic as his sword shook in his hand
“Calm down, damn it! What happened to your pride as a dark knight!?”, Haru said, “We’ll make it through this!”
“I find that unlikely”, Mary said, “I can’t believe I’m going to die because of you imbeciles!”
Right behind her, Chihoru was crying hysterically on her knees and clinging to Yume’s waist as she screamed, “NO! I DON’T WANT TO DIE! I DON’T WANT TO DIE!”
Yume placed her left arm around her and tried to calm the screaming girl while holding her dagger in the other hand. Mogozu, meanwhile, simply stood his ground, two-handed sword at the ready.
In spite of their brave façade, all of them were just as panicked as Ranta and Chihoru. As much as they tried to deny it, they knew that they were all about to die.
From the rooftops, a group of orc crossbowmen raised their weapons, taking aim at the group as the foot soldiers readied their weapons. This sight was too much for Yume, who closed her eyes, a solitary tear flowing down her cheek.
Haru did not close his eyes, but simply whispered as tears started to flow down his face as well, “Yume... Mogozu, Ranta, Chihoru, Mary... Manato... I’m sorry, I couldn't....”
His final monologue was interrupted by a strange, but oddly familiar rumbling sound as the crossbow-toting orcs took aim at something coming in from the south entrance of the square.
There was a massive thud as several orcs were sent flying, killed instantly by the impact as a great green cart which moved with no horse slammed through the horde at high speeds. The bolts of the orc crossbows simply bounced off the front of the vehicle. He was convinced he had never seen one before, and yet, words immediately came to him: “car... vehicle”.
From the top of the vehicle a man’s upper body poked out of the hatch, his hands gripping two handles on the end of a black metal tube. Once again, while he had not seen it before, he knew the name of the object: “machine gun”... and once more, this time, he knew it was a weapon far more powerful than anything in Grimgar...
“Get down!”, Haru yelled, pushing Ranta and Chihoru to the pavement, with Yume and Mogozu doing the same.
The soldier in the vehicle fired the machine gun, .50 caliber bullets tearing apart the orc archers on the rooftops in less than a second, as the machine rolled forward, stopping directly in front of Haru. The machine gun’s roar drowned out all other sound as it tore through goblins, orcs, and even trolls effortlessly, their bloodied bodies falling to the ground in droves before they got anywhere close to the vehicle.
Behind the first vehicle, two more entered the square, as soldiers in mottled brown and green uniforms exited the vehicle, armed with weapons Haru somehow knew as “assault rifles”.
The soldiers surrounded them, standing between them and orc horde coming from the other side. A man whose uniform identified him as “Itami”, who appeared to be the leader of these soldiers yelled, “ Kuwahara, get a frag on the big one, north entrance. Tomita, and Nishina, cover him. Katsumoto, cover the east with the 50 cal. Everyone else, on me, west entrance!”.
Within less than a second, the man who looked like the oldest member of the squad, the one named Kuwahara drew a green metal sphere from his belt... a “grenade” according to Haru’s mysterious intuition. The grenade fell at the foot of the troll advancing on the north entrance of the square and exploded in a flash of fire and a cloud of dust and smoke.
The explosion blew the right leg off the troll and riddled its body with shrapnel, and also shredded dozens of orcs and goblins to the left and right. Body parts flew through the air as street was soaked with blood.
At the same time, the rest of the horde was torn apart by fire from the soldiers rifles and the machine gun on top of the vehicle. From a building right flank of the soldiers however, a goblin charged at full speed, armed with a short curved sword. It was unnoticed by the soldiers... or so it seemed.
As the goblin was about three feet from her, a female soldier with short brown hair turned to face it, and thrust the blade on the end of her rifle, which Haru instinctively knew was called a “bayonet”, forward. The bayonet pierced the goblin’s torso. The monster was wounded, but not dead.
With its last strength, the goblin drew its dagger and raised it at the female soldier. Instead of a look of surprise or fear, the soldier’s face displayed a sadistic grin as she pulled the trigger on her rifle. The 7.62mm NATO round blew straight through the goblin, taking a portion of the creature’s back with it. Blood, gore, and fragments of vertebrae sprayed out of the exit wound, as the creature was blown of the end of her rifle.
In all direction, those goblins and orcs that survived the hail of automatic weapons fire turned tail and fled from the square, which was now littered with mangled corpses.
The first sound Haru heard when the gunfire went silent was a soft female voice from above him, which asked, “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine”, Haru replied, turning to see that the owner of the voice was a tall, black-haired female soldier with a name tag identifying her as “Kurokawa”.
Then, it hit him like a strike from a troll’s gigantic club, Haru knew where he had seen the mysterious text he could somehow read before... it was the language of his home... his real home, before he had appeared in Grimgar.... and the patch with the red circle on the white background, the flag of Japan. These men and women were clearly soldiers of the Japan Self Defense Forces, or JSDF.
Suddenly, images flashed through his mind, the empty alleyway between the station and his house he had been walking down when a flash like lighting had blinded him. When he came to, he was in that tower where her first met the others.
One look around the group showed that Ranta, Yume, Chihoro, and Mogozu all had the same look on their faces.
“You’re one the people sent here by the anomalies, aren’t you?”, Kurokawa asked him, “You remember some things, I take it, but there’s still gaps, aren’t there”.
“Yeah”, Haru replied, “I remember that I am Japanese, but I have no memory of my parents, my family, my friends, not even my surname.”
“You should regain your memory eventually. In the mean time, we’ll give you a ride back into town.”, the woman named Kurokawa said, “My name is Sgt. Mari Kurokawa, by the way.”
“Haruhiro”, Haru introduced himself, before “Yume”, “Ranta”, “Chihoro”, and “Mogozu” followed suit. Mary did not introduce herself, but rather said in an irritable-sounding voice, “Will someone explain to me what the hell is going!?”
Spoiler for Cyrene Mine Recon Mission: Stealth Compromised:
Cyrene Mines, Fifth Level, Grimgar
Haruhiro crouched behind several wooden crates on a set of scaffolding standing above what looked like a steel foundry, complete with a river of molten metal flowing from a massive furnace on one end of the room and a hole on the other end, which flowed into a great vat on the floor below. Above them, more vats of molten steel stood suspended on a crane powered by several kobold workers running a wooden wheel. Heat emmenated up from the molten metal, making the room feel like a sauna.
All around him were his five comrades, first in his Volunteer Militia party, and then as members of the JSDF Special Region Auxilliary Unit, Ranta, Yume, Mogozu, Shihoru, and Mary. His attached JSDF unit, the Third Recon Team, were on a slightly lower set of scaffolding below them.
On the floor below the group of roughly 20 stood at least 50 kobolds, most of them workers feeding coal into the blast furnace, but also about at least two dozen guards armed with swords, spears, and crossbows.
“Roughly 50 tangos below”, Staff Sergeant Shino Kuribayashi said, “Do we take them out!”.
“Negative, our primary objective is to recon the Cyrene mines and get an estimate of enemy strength. Avoid unnecessary engagement.”, 1st Lieutenant Youji Itami replied.
Shino made a sound that made her disappointment evident- cementing he reputation as the “kill-crazy bitch” of the squad.
“Recon... Recon... is that all we ever do?!”, Ranta whispered, echoing Kuribayashi’s sentiment, “When do I get to kill something!?”. Clearly, though he toned down the “chuunibyou” since he regained at least some of his memories of Japan, Ranta was still enjoyed killing things way too much.
“Quite the set-up they have here- looks like they are capable of at least basic industrial metalworking- a lot more impressive than the smiths in Ortana”, Sgt Akira Tomita observed.
On that pronouncement, Itami ordered, “Tozu, get a photo of the foundry and the crane mechanism”.
“Got it, Lieutenant”, Private Daisuke Tozu replied, getting out a small digital camera issued for this purposes by the JSDF- the amateur photographer’s prized SLR was safe back at the base in Ortana.
As Tozu liked up the viewfinder, he did not realize that the light of the glowing steel and the many torches lining the wall was reflected off his camera lens. This was made evident when a kobold guard pointed his sword at him and started shouting in their loud, barking language.
A second bipedal canine-oid was alerted to the threat and took aim with his crossbow. The bolt was loosed with a loud “CLACK!”. With as sound of shattering glass, the bolt embedded itself in lens of Tozu’s camera.
“We’re compromised!”, Tozu yelled as he dropped the destroyed camera and seized his Howa Type 64 battle rifle from the scaffold floor.
“Go loud, fire at will!”, Itami yelled.
Tozu fired a three-burst from his Howa, avenging the digital camera putting two rounds into the kobold crossbowman as he reloaded. At the same time, the rest of the unit fired. Itami’s rifle struck down a kobold spearman with a well-placed burst.
Meanwhile, Haru, Ranta, and Mogozu started shooting with their bolt-action Howa M1500s. While the rate of fire was slower than the fully automatic Type 64s, ammunition from the Special Region Auxiliaries’ rifles proved just as deadly, blowing through armor like it wasn’t even there.
“HEADSHOT!”, Ranta yelled triumphantly as he picked off a kobold with a shot between the eyes.
Shihoru and Yume, meanwhile, had put away their bow and staff, and switched to the bow- while they were sneaking through the caverns, the silent bow and arrow and Shihoru’s “Phantom Sleep” spell had been assets. Now that stealth was no longer an issue, the superior firepower of the rifles came into their own.
The entire room was filled with the roar of the Type 64s carried by most of the squad, the crack of the reservists M1500s as well as the softer chattering of suppressed Minebea PM-9 submachine guns carried by Nishina and Tomita.
As some of the kobold workers seized spears and swords from fallen guards or simply charged the recon team with picks and shovels. Katsumoto’s M249 Squad Automatic Weapon filled everyone’s ears with unearthly roar, drowning out even the other weapons as it sent 5.56mm rounds shredding through kobold flesh, cutting down the outmatched creatures left and right, their armor and shields proving useless against the Recon Team’s firepower.
Shihoru and Yume turned to the right, and started firing on a group of kobolds hiding behind shields. These proved useless, and several of them were cut down as
Shihoru yelled “More of them, flanking right” in a voice quite at odds her usual quiet personality.
Shihoru fired another shot, picking off a crossbow kobold across the chamber, about 50 meters distant, with a shot right between the eyes. Since she had gotten her hands on that M1500, she had proved a surprisingly good shot.
Meanwhile, Master Sergeant Kuwahara, the oldest member of the Third Recon Team, and formerly the NCO charged with training the first group of Special Region Auxiliaries, yelled “Frag out!” as he removed an M67 grenade from his belt.
Kuwahara tossed the grenade amongst the flanking kobold guards that survived the hail of gunfire, which were now taking cover behind an un-used metal vat. The grenade detonated about a second after it hit the ground, tearing apart the bodies of five kobolds in a flash of fire and shrapnel.
As the explosion fell silent, the cacophony of gunfire was punctuated a second time as the massive double doors on the opposite side of the large chamber opened with a thud.
A massive kobold, perhaps 20 feet tall, armed with a sword that had be seven feet long burst into the room, followed by more guards.
“It’s him! See the spots on his back!?”, Mary yelled, her hands trembling as she held her rifle, “It’s the one they call the “Death Spots”. Before the JSDF arrived, kobold known as “Death Spots” had earned his nickname by slaying countless militia, including the rest of Mary’s old party.
“Looks like the final boss has shown up!”, Itami yelled, “Focus fire on the big one!”
Katsumoto’s M249 SAW and the rifles of the rest of the squad layed down a withering curtain of fire that quickly chewed apart the rest of the kobolds. The massive beast, however, seemed resistant to the fire- the bullets clearly hit him, but they didn't seem to penetrate far enough to cause any significant damage.
“If only I had a Panzerfaust”, Katsumoto said as he kept firing, referring to the German-made Panzerfaust-3, the JSDF standard-issue anti-tank rocket launcher, named for the World War II weapon of the same name.
“Death-Spots” grabbed one of the unused stone vats on the floor of the foundry and raised it over his head. The giant kobold hurled the roughly six-foot wide cauldron through air at their position, intending to crush his attackers.
“Shit!”, Ranta yelled as the vat flew towards them.
The vat dropped as it fell through the air, missing the top of the scaffolding by several feet, but hitting the supports, which snapped like toothpick. Shihoru tried to grab on to Yume, as Haru reach in vain for anything to grab onto.
Haru and the other’s screams were drowned out by the crashing of the collapsing scaffolding, and the guns of the Third Recon Team, which had pinned “Death-Spots” down behind a large column.
Haruhiro’s world was consumed by pain. For several seconds, he was convinced that he had to be dead. Mary’s voice yelling, “Haru!” dispelled that notion.
“I’m still alive, anyway”, Haru said, as he felt Mary’s healing magic deaden the pain as he numerous wounds on his body disappeared, “Is everyone else OK?”
“I’m fine, and so are the others”, Mary replied.
“You didn’t think that could kill me!?”, Ranta yelled.
As Haru got up, a second grenade blast rang out. Haru turned to see that it had landed several meters away from “Death-Spots”. At that distance, the blast and shrapnel served only to anger the colossal beast.
“Death Spots” shielded his face with his the massive broad blade of his sword, which proved thick enough to survive multiple gunshots, which glanced off in showers of sparks. With his face covered, the massive kobold charged forward with a howl that filled the room.
It was that Haru saw it, the mysterious line that had appeared when he killed that goblin and avenged Manato. This time, however, it glowed red, and pointed straight at a vat of molten metal suspended from the treadmill crane on the ceiling.
Haru knew at once what this had to mean. He raised his rifle and aligned the barrel directly along the line, sights directly over the hook of crane. Haru slowly pulled back the trigger.
“The now-familiar crack of the Howa M1500 filled Haru’s ears as 7.62mm NATO round was propelled towards the crane and impacted the hook of the crane with a spark. The great stone vat of molten steel fell from the crane, turning on its side and pouring out molten steel.
A cry of pain and a stench of burning fur filled the air. The vat itself had missed “Death-Spots”, but the left side of the kobold, including part of his face has been covered in molten steel.
But the old kobold was not dead yet. Even mortally wounded, Death-Spots kept charging, determined to cut his tormentors to pieces as a final act of vengeance. As he closed in, however, the weapons of the Third Recon Team began to have more of an impact.
Less than twenty feet from Haru, “Death-Spots” stumbled, only barely regaining his footing as his burned and bullet-riddled body finally began to give out. But he was still close enough to Haru to exact his last act of revenge upon Haru before he succumbed.
“Death-Spots” gave a roar of fury as he raised his sword, prompting Haru to raise his rifle in front of him, though he know the gigantic sword would almost certainly cleave through the weapon.
It was at that moment that Mary stepped forward, rifle in hand. The Grimgar-born healer-turned JSDF auxiliary struggled to steady the otherworldly weapon that had become her best chance at avenging her former party in her sweating palms. Mary pulled back the trigger as she heard the report and felt the recoil of the alien weapon that had become so familiar in the last year.
The bullet flew right into the gaping, tooth-lined mouth of “Death-Spots”, easily piercing the soft palate and burrowing through the kobold’s brain. The 7.62mm round bounced off the inside of the great beast’s skull, causing yet more damage.
Even before “Death-Spots” hit the ground, his sword impacting the stone floor with a “CLANG!”. The great kobold was dead.
Spoiler for Seige of Capomorti Fortress (from the Grimgar LN). It goes very different when the JSDF get involved.:
Outside the Fortress of Capomorti, Grimgar, 1 and a half years since JSDF arrival, 0558 hours.
The JSDF Third Recon Team and the First Special Region Militia Squad took cover the mound of logs and debris from the orc logging efforts surrounding Capomorti fortress. They among 300 infantry, including about 50 Special Region auxiliaries, as well as six Type 74s tanks, 12 APCs, and a battery of 81mm and 120mm infantry mortars. The army had been dispatched to the fortress after the orc attack on Ortana (Author's note: A fanfic-specific element not in the LN)), ready to give the latest unfortunate group of medieval-level Grimgarese an in-person demonstration of 21st century warfare.
About 500 meters away, the fortress, named for an Aravakian phrase meaning “dead heads”, a reference to the severed heads of the dead animals that decorated the walls, loomed, silhouetted against the rising sun.
The fortress consisted of a 13-foot stone wall topped metal spikes surrounding a rectangular courtyard. At the corners of three of the walls were three tall stone watchtowers, each one no doubt filled with archers. A massive red symbol, no doubt a character in the orcish language, was painted on the main keep of the fortress, a massive stone structure with a rectangular footprint like the walls that surrounded it.
Surrounding the fortress were ten camps of orc sentries, surrounded by a smaller timber palisade and guarded by wooden watch towers, acting as guard outposts.
“Can’t we get on with it!?”, annoyed Ranta asked to Haruhiro’s right, “I want to kill something!”
“Damn it, Ranta, even without the chuunibyou, you’re still a kill-crazy bastard!”, Haruhiro responded.
A few meters away, Lt. Youji Itami, the commander of the Third Recon snickered, “You know, Kuribayashi, I think you and that Ranta kid will get along great!”
“You’re comparing me to that amateur!?”, Sgt. Shino Kuribayashi, the hot-headed, bayonet-loving “crazy bitch” of the Third replied angrily. Her retort, however, was interrupted by the roaring of a jet engine, which drowned out all other sound.
The distant dark images of orcs in the fortress and camps looked up at the mysterious flying object which glinted silver in the early morning sun. Little did they know that it called an F4 Phantom, and that in less than a second, it would reduce their fortress to rubble.
As the F-4 Phantom released its deadly payload- a single laser-guided bomb, whistling sound filled the air. The bomb impacted about half way up the fortress, exploding to a flash of fire and a cloud of black smoke as the thunderous roar of the blast drowned even the jet engines. Even at several hundred meters away, the noise was loud enough cause Haruhiro’s ears to ring as the impact shook the ground like an earthquake.
When the smoke and dust cleared, the keep of Capomorti, as well as one of the towers had collapsed. Practically as soon the bomb has landed, smaller explosions lit up the ground around the fortress and the orcish camps. The mortars had begun firing.
At the same time, a Type 74 tanks about 100 meters from the Third Recon fired its main gun. A high explosive shell slammed into one of the surviving watch towers, blowing away the top of the tower and causing it to collapse.
All around Capomorti, mortars and tank shells shattered stone, collapsing walls and gates and hurled orc bodies, or fragments thereof, around like ragdolls. The JSDF had reduced the most feared humanoids in Grimgar into mere cannon fodder.
The bombardment died down after about 30 seconds. The calm after the storm of fire and steel, however, lasted less than 30 seconds. The tanks and APCs advanced first, sweeping their machine guns across the orcish camps, cutting down many of the survivors of the bombardment.
As the regular JSDF infantry moved forward behind the tanks, firing shorts bursts from their Howa Type 64 or Type 89 assault rifles at the dazed and confused orc survivors.
“Third Recon, on me!”, Itami yelled, getting up from behind cover, Type 64 battle rifle at the ready.
“About fucking time!”, Kuribayashi yelled as she advanced with the rest of the team, armed with a Benelli M3 combat shotgun she had been issued for close combat inside the fortress.
Ranta stood bolt upright and ran after Third Recon, gripping his rifle by the barrel in one hand, while raising the saber he had used since before the JSDF arrived in the air, yelling, “CHARRRGE!”
While he was talking a lot less about his service as a Dread Knight of the Dark Lord lately, it was clear his chuunibyou was far from gone. Haruhiro, Yume, Chihoro, Moguzo and Mary ran to keep up with Ranta.
Like the rest of his comrades, Haruhiro still carried his old dagger, however, since he had joined the JSDF Special Region militia, he had mostly stuck with his Type-19 Special Region Auxilliary Rifle, a variant of the Howa M1500 Axiom bolt-action rifle chambered for the same 7.62mm NATO round, fed by a ten-round detachable magazine and modified to accept an M9 Bayonet.
The Haruhiro and the other four Special Region auxiliaries in the squad caught up with Ranta and managed to prevent him from running ahead of the JSDF infantry and potentially causing a friendly fire incident.
The first objective of Third Recon, as well as their attached auxiliaries was one of the smaller orc sentry camps on the east side of the fortress, or what was left of it after the mortars, tank shells, and three grenades thrown by Itami, Kuribayashi, and Kuwahara had taken their toll.
To Haruhiro’s right, Yume fired her Type 19. The 7.62mm round crossed the distance of roughly 50 meters in less than a second, catching the roughly seven-foot tall creature in the back and blowing out its chest. The orc stumbled and fell face down on the ground.
“Hey, washboard, he was mine!”, Ranta yelled, annoyed that Yume had scored the first kill of the battle.
“Really now, looked to me like you were too busy waving around that sword!”, Yume retorted.
“Cut the chatter and get back in formation, both of you!”, Kuwahara yelled in a voice that suggested that, had he not been in the middle of a battle, he would have demanded they drop and give him 20 push ups.
As it was, after telling Ranta off, he turned back to the task of firing on the dwindling number of orcs that remained around the camp.
Less than a minute after that, it was over. The JSDF entered the ruins of the camp, now consisting of a mess of shell craters, ruined tents, and blood-stained bodies of about 20 orcs.
Almost as soon as they had entered, Ranta’s obnoxious voice rang out.
“Got one!”, he yelled, having thrust his saber into the neck of a mortally wounded orc, finishing off the beast.
“Killing an enemy that was already dying is nothing to brag about”, Mary replied, “In fact, I almost feel sorry for them...”
Not sure whether my question should be here, or in the Rory Mercury thread, but here goes.
I'm working on a fanfic concerning Rory, and her beginning. And was wondering if there was already any material out there concerning her origin story, and how she came to get her axe. I've seen the anime, and read the manga, and there doesn't seem to be much info in those, except hints. I haven't read any of the light novel though, so I might be missing something there.
I think I read somewhere that the axe was made by a dwarf demigod, but haven't found anything about how she got it. And while I like the scene I have written in which she picks up the axe for the first time, I want to keep within the established story as much as possible, so any hints or leads will be very much appreciated.
Takes place after the anime. Major countries began pressuring Japan to stop restricting access to the gate. Then a major incident happed on the Gate world that involved certain major powers. Factions began to form and take sides, a powder keg waiting to explode...
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. "All that is left for us is to fight to our hearts' content."
2015-10-24, 03:53
