“Here, Sora, Donald, Goofy. Try this,” Naofumi handed pieces of chimera fur to the other heroes. Even though the fur was burnt, the trio each took a tuft of the fur and placed it over the top of their weapon.

  Sora was the first to take initiative and drop the fur on his Keyblade. The weapon took the offering and absorbed it into its being. Sora’s eyes grew wide, showcasing both excitement and perplexity for the situation at hand. In front of him, a dark blue box with light blue text appeared. It read–

  -Chimera Keyblade Form Unlocked-

  Damage increase (small)

  Fire Damage (small),

  Lightning Damage (small)

  Poison Damage (small)

  Donald and Goofy, seeing Sora bewildered by the new effects that his keyblade unlocked, did the same thing with their weapons. They dropped the tufts of fur into place and–

  -Chimera Wizard Staff Form Unlocked-

  Ability unlocked: Poison Breath, an AOE attack that sprays poison, affecting the location in a cone-shaped area.

  -Chimera Knight Shield Form Unlocked-

  Stat boost unlocked: Defense to all Types of Elemental Damage (small)

  “You three seem very happy about your newfound abilities. Now it’s my turn.” Naofumi looked at the patch of fur that he held in his hand and dropped it into the shield.

  -Chimera Legendary Shield Form Unlocked-

  Stat Boost: Defense Increase (large)

  Defense Boost: Poison Resistance (mid)

  Ability unlocked: Antidote Compounding (mid)

  Ability unlocked: Snake Venom Fang

  Ability Unlocked: Hook

  Ability Unlock: Change Shield

  “Huh?” Naofumi stared at the last ability unlock, trying to figure out what it meant.

  “It was right there in the description, but how did it work?” He let out a sigh and–

  “Chimera Shield!”

  The legendary shield changed its shape to a more lucrative-looking one, adorned with snakes in an arching pattern on the front, and instead of the grey he was accustomed to, it was completely green, with some gold trim.

  Sora was the next to look at his weapon, and without a bit of excitement, shouted.

  “Chimera Keyblade!”

  Requiring words of encouragement, the Keyblade transformed into what appeared to be a totem of animals. There was a lion’s head on top, with its teeth serving as the key part of the blade. There were a goat's legs that made the bottom half of the key-esque area. Right below that, and above the hilt of the blade, there was a snake-like body, and the hilt itself strangely acquired a shielded hand-guard that looked much like the shield that Naofumi had on. Sora, who liked the look and feel of his new keyblade, started to do some shadowfencing.

  Donald and Goofy were astonished to see Sora’s Keyblade change shape in such a drastic way. After they regained their composure, they too looked down at their weapons.

  “Chimera Wizard Staff!”

  “Chimera Knight Shield!”

  The duck and dog combo were ecstatic to see their weapons transform as well. Donald’s staff had become a sweeping hodgepodge of ornate twists wrapping around the wand and coiling upwards into what was a little blue orb. He tried to pull the orb off of it, thinking about how he might be able to make a quick buck and be a rich duck, forgetting all about how his greed got him nothing but trouble in the cave of wonders back in Agrabah.

  The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  Similarly, Goofy’s shield had transformed from his regular equipment into something grander. While King Mickey’s symbol was still plastered on it, three heads popped out of the shield. There was the head of the snake on the left, the head of the goat on the right, and, right in the middle of it all, the head of the lion. He spun it around while throwing it up. Unfortunately, because of the disproportionate weight of the shield, it came crashing down and bonked him on the head.

  The four of them looked toward Raphtalia, and before they could say anything, she leapt up onto the chimera, cut off a piece of fur, and dropped it onto her sword.

  “Huh?” Raphtalia imitated Naofumi’s earlier bewilderment, albeit in a disappointed sense. She was really eager to see if her weapon could transform into anything spectacular, too, but she got nothing. She looked over to the others and started to tear up.

  “Naofumi, I’m sorry for letting you down.”

  Naofumi let out a hearty chuckle.

  “Let me down? Are you crazy? You were amazing out there. No kid could ever do what you did. You helped kick its ass and made it efficient, too.”

  Raphtalia, who started drying her tears with her sleeve, didn’t notice that her tail started wagging. She looked over at Naofumi and caught his gaze. Feeling flustered, she quickly looked away, only to finally see her tail wagging.

  Oh no! This couldn’t be any more embarrassing.

  Naofumi, who didn’t notice anything about the event, started talking to Sora and co.

  As the moments went on, Motoyasu sat up and smiled.

  “I got it! I defeated the boss!”

  Naofumi let out a thunderous sigh, his expression like that of a hefty hurricane rampaging through Motoyasu’s ego.

  “Look. All I’m saying is that there’s no way that a shield user would be able to slay that monster.”

  Itsuki got up and dusted his pants.

  “Yeah, I bet you were cheating, too. Like he said, there’s no way that a defense build could ever beat a DPS such as myself.”

  Almost as if on cue, Ren got up. Cleansed his sword and gave a sigh that nearly rivaled Naofumi’s in gumption. His eyes darted back and forth, trying not to let the others discern that he felt second-rate.

  Naofumi wondered why he even bothered with the other heroes.

  “You’re all useless!” He shouted to the three, his anger rising to its absolute pinnacle.

  “You’re the villain here!” Ren retaliated.

  “And villains can never be heroes!” Itsuki followed up.

  “Screw you guys. We’re out of here!”

  “Wait, Mister Naofumi, are you actually going to let them treat you like that? You’re just going to run away? After all that they put you through?”

  Naofumi sought deeper into Raphtalia’s words for the first time.

  She’s right, he thought. How can I defend my party if I can’t even defend myself?

  “Your girlfriend’s right, Naofumi.” Motoyasu mocked, his hair flowing wildly through the wind. He put his spear head-first into the ground, almost as if to issue a challenge to the Shield Hero.

  Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Raphtalia all drew their weapons, waiting for a fight to break out between them and the other heroes. The other parties followed suit, ready for a battle to ensue.

  “Wait!” Naofumi exclaimed.

  “You’re right. I’ll never be a hero— I’m nothing but a villain. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go and train. I’m very weak, you see, so I don’t have the time to waste like you three seem to be doing.” Naofumi gritted his teeth, took Raphtalia by the hand, and left.

  After Naofumi and his party left, the three remaining heroes looked at each other in what could have escalated into a triple threat match. Motoyasu was the first to break the deadlock.

  “Do you think they’re a couple? I bet they’re a couple? How did he even end up with someone as beautiful as her anyway? There’s a bro code against going after another man’s woman, which I would never break, though I’m not saying that I couldn’t win her heart, just that it’s wrong. You know?”

  Malty couldn’t believe what she was hearing. She was used to being the centre of attention in every man’s world. To listen to the Spear Hero praising another woman’s beauty was enough to make her scream, but she didn’t. Instead, she went up and whispered something in Motoyasu’s ear.

  “No way!” Motoyasu shrieked.

  “Even he wouldn’t stoop that low!”

  The other two heroes just looked at him, not sure what to think of this serious Motoyasu.

  “Like I said, I don’t go after another man’s flame, but this changes everything! I have to help her.”

  “What are you two going on about, Motoyasu?” Ren questioned. His head tilted to the side with both annoyance and skepticism glued onto his face.

  Motoyasu signaled for a huddle between the three heroes, and he let them know what was going on.

  “That bastard!” Ituski shot up, his eyes looking toward where Naofumi set off with his party, ready to hunt them down.

  “What about that Sora guy?” Ren asked. He thought that Malty might know since she is a princess of the world, and as such, must have been partially responsible for summoning them here.

  Malty looked around, then started to whisper to the three heroes.

  “It all makes sense.”

  “Yeah, the king called him an ‘apologist’; he must be in cahoots with the Shield Demon.”

  Myne looked away from the heroes and put her hands to her mouth to conceal the smile that crept on her lips.

  “And that’s that. Naofumi is clearly making a habit out of this, but he is going to pay for everything this time, for I, the great Motoyasu, will see his reign of terror come to an end.” Then Motoyasu ran off to farm some more to defeat ‘The Shield Demon.’ The other two heroes were left there with just their parties.

  “He’s such an idiot.”

  “But he’s not wrong. Naofumi’s got to be stopped. He’ll go on hurting people if somebody doesn’t do something about it.”

  The heroes of the bow and sword then took their parties and departed to train. And somewhere around the kingdom of Melromarc—

  Ahchoo!

  “Bless you, Mister Naofumi, in more ways than one.”