Kazuma Kiryu didn't think he had much left to do in his life in regards to fighting. But as it turns out, he still had a lot more work to do. But this time, he'll be the one to help share the burden with a broken hero.
The Shield's Dragon is a Like a Dragon / The Rising of the Shield Hero Crossover fanfic written by Mugiwara N0 Luffy. It can be read here
on Space Battles and here on Fanfiction Dot Net.
Beware of unmarked spoilers for Yakuza 6.
The Shield's Dragon contains examples of:
- Adaptational Nice Guy: Itsuki is cordial and polite with Kiryu, respecting his decision to continue defending Lute Village and not join his party. That is until he sees him associating with Naofumi and gets angry that Kiryu would befriend him instead of Itsuki.
- Age Lift: An in-universe one, as Kiryu is transported to Lute Village he de-ages into his 20-year old self. Although still keeping all of the wisdom and knowledge he had accumulated throughout his adult life.
- Badass in a Nice Suit: Kiryu again in his iconic gray suit continues to kick serious ass even in another world.
- Bare-Fisted Monk: Being the “Weaponless Hero”, Kiryu relies on his unarmed fighting style, but greatly enhanced by his full metal gauntlets.
- Berserk Button: Slavery in general. Having arrived from a more civilized place and time like the other Heroes, Kiryu does not take any mention of slaves very kindly, even if he begrudgingly accepts its status as the norm in the Kingdom of Melomarc. You will be sorry if you mistreat or abuse slaves in his presence, as the demi-human slave trader convoy passing by Lute Village one day found out the hard way.
- Big "SHUT UP!": Kiryu gives a big one to the nobles jeering at a despairing Naofumi in the aftermath of his fight with Motoyatsu.
- Bully Hunter: Kiryu again has zero tolerance for those who oppress others, especially for their own amusement. For this, the king and bitch princess fall under his radar, threatening to bury them and their kingdom if they ever try anything against those he considers friends.
- Cannot Spit It Out: Naofumi takes a very long time to do something as simple as inviting Kiryu to join his party for the next waves. And when he finally does, it is through a roundabout way of telling Marco and his Royal Knights to convince Kiryu in his stead in a tsundere-like fashion.
- The Casino: One pops up in Lute Village as a form of quick revenue in order to upgrade the village's defences before the next wave hits, as suggested by Kiryu. It starts out as a modest gambling den by the town's tavern but skyrockets in popularity and has to be upgraded by expanding beyond the village's territory. Naturally, the local lords of the region do not take kindly to this new upstart business and begins staking their claims in the surrounding lands as well.
- Combat Referee: During the race between Naofumi and Motoyasu for control of Lute Village, Kiryu acts as the referee to make sure it’s fair. He surveys the race by secretly going about the boundaries of the track where he catches Malty’s knights attempting to cheat and sabotage Naofumi under her orders. Kiryu beats the shit out of every single one of them before they could carry out their orders. There will be no cheating as long as he’s around.
- Death Glare: A specialty of Kiryu's and he gives two of them out. The first time is when Kiryu first discovers that Raphtalia is Naofumi's slave. The second time is when the Slave Trader goes off on a tangent about how much the grown up Raphtalia would be worth on the slave market.
- Dirty Coward: Kiryu uses this idea against Motoyasu to trick him into allowing him to fight, knowing that the King wouldn't allow him to enter the duel otherwise. Motoyasu, wanting to prove he isn't, falls for the trick.
- Early-Bird Cameo:
- The existence of the Seven Star Heroes and their weapons is made known to the audience way ahead then mentioned in any of the other medium's canon, since Kiryu is chosen as the Gauntlet Hero from the very start. King Aultcray even mentions them outright in Chapter 6.
- The Queen's Shadows make an early appearance in Chapter 6, intervening in the King's attempts to arrest Kiryu post-match with Motoyasu.
- Keel appears in Chapter 9, way before Naofumi's company rescues her at Idol Rabier's dungeon.
- Excellent Judge of Character: Thanks to his decades of experience in Japan's criminal underworld resulting in superior maturity in comparison to the Four Cardinal Heroes, Kiryu can effectively tell who in Melromarc can be trusted and able to see through most of the bullshit perpetuated by the Royal family, the Church and the other three useless Heroes when it comes to the Shield Hero's reputation. It does help that Julius Harken, a former Royal Court mage had warned him about all of them in advance, but even then Kiryu doesn't fully take that information at face value until he sees it for himself.
- Face of a Thug: Naofumi says that Kiryu's explanation of his past as a yakuza explains his face. Kiryu just chuckles and says he gets that a lot.
- Entertainingly Wrong: Itsuki praises Kiryu for being a heroic person by defending the village, not knowing that Kiryu was a member of the yakuza whose members are traditionally unheroic.
- Fountain of Youth: When Kiryu arrived at the other world, he was shocked to see himself twenty years old again when he was forty-seven before he left.
- Hate Sink: The bitch Princess Malty, as per usual.
- Headbutting Heroes: A sidekick variant. Filo and Kiryu's black filolial, Nugget do not get along with one another from the very beginning. Even after achieving her human form, she complains to everyone that Nugget basically insults her every time they see one another.
- In Spite of a Nail: Despite Kiryu's presence, several stations of the Shield Hero canon occur. See The Stations of the Canon entry below.
- Loophole Abuse: Like the other Heroes, Kiryu is unable to equip traditional weapons due to his gauntlets. However, he was able to weaponize ordinary objects like a slave cage by slamming it on a slave trader as one of his HEAT actions since it’s technically not a weapon.
- Megaton Punch: Kiryu’s specialty which is painfully emphasized while his fists are reinforced by the gauntlets.
- Mythology Gag: Many story and gameplay elements from Like a Dragon are referenced throughout the fic:
- The fanfic makes lots of references to Yakuza 0:
- Kiryu is de-aged to about 20 years-old when he is summoned to Lute Village, around the same age as he was during the events of the prequel.
- Kiryu gets a black Filolial whom he names "Nugget", after the chicken he won by getting a Turkey at bowling.
- Once again, Kiryu is put into management of several lucrative properties which does not go unnoticed by an existing monopoly of five evil businessmen. He then has to duke it out with these "Land Claim Kings" in order to secure more territory and further the profits of his new business.
- Despite being in another world and leaving the yakuza life behind, Kiryu still finds himself roped into strange and slightly goofy side stories.
- Boss Subtitles still apply to most enemies that Kiryu encounters and fights with.
- Baka Mitai is sung by Kiryu in Chapter 7. He even starts out with the signature "I sing for you!" interjection. Apparently the song is also a classic in Naofumi's version of Japan.
- The fanfic makes lots of references to Yakuza 0:
- Non-Human Sidekick: A black filolial by the name of Nugget is adopted by Kiryu and becomes something of a battle partner to him throughout the story. It's implied that there's more to Nugget than simply being a rare black filolial. At the end of Chapter 11, when Kiryu and Nugget join Naofumi's party, Nugget transformed due to the Shield's party buffs and is revealed to be a Filolial King.
- Outside-Context Problem: While most of the Cardinal Heroes are gamers who have, in one way or another, navigated through their new environment thanks to their familiarity with gaming conventions and tropes. Kiryu is a member of the yakuza who makes up for his lack of gaming knowledge with actually knowing how to fight. Having decades of life experiences and maturity over the other Cardinal Heroes also helps him quite a bit.
- Power Fist: Kiryu's only weapons are a pair of metal gauntlets although thanks to his expertise with his fists they make potent weapons.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Kiryu calls out the other heroes on blindly believing whatever the king and Malty says about Naofumi without even bothering to look into the matter themselves. For that, he views them as nothing but self-righteous pricks who are unable to think for themselves and therefore can’t be taken seriously. Kiryu even calls Motoyasu a moron who only thinks with his dick.
- Stance System: Kiryu is able to switch between his "Brawler", "Rush", "Beast", and "Dragon" styles, just like in Yakuza 0 and Yakuza Kiwami.
- Starting a New Life: Having teleported to another world with nothing to come back to, Kiryu for the moment settles on making a new life for himself by becoming a member of Lute Village, and inadvertently starting another legend as its guardian.
- The Stations of the Canon: Several are followed, but with slight twists to them:
- Kiryu was summoned at least a month ahead of the Four Cardinal Heroes, but wisely spends time preparing himself and Lute Village against the coming Waves.
- Kiryu meets Naofumi and Raphtalia on their way to their first visit to Lute Village. He gives them a ride there, slightly ahead of schedule.
- While out on an emergency run for medicine, the Waves begin and Kiryu returns to Lute Village halfway through the battle, Shield Hero and Co. present. They make slightly quicker work of the undead monsters attacking the village, yet the same asshole knights arrive on time to shower the trio in the fire arrow spell, forcing the same brief altercation with the Royal Knights as canon.
- During the celebration at the Royal Palace following the second Wave, Motoyatsu still challenges Naofumi to a duel for Raphtalia's 'freedom'. Kiryu however takes the fight for Naofumi in his stead and gives the Spear Hero a good thrashing, despite the same level difference as canon. Princess Malty still cheats though, forcing Naofumi to intervene saving Kiryu's life, and as a result, the King forfeits the match to Motoyatsu since Kiryu's side 'cheated'. The slave crest removed anyway with Naofumi almost losing himself to despair (and unlocking the Rage Shield), but like canon, Raphtalia comforts him snapping him out of it, with Kiryu watching on the sidelines.
- The Spear Hero challenges the Shield Hero to a race for lordship of Lute Village, but with the addition of Kiryu officiating the match to make sure fair play is maintained... with his fists.
- Keel is rescued from slave traders by Kiryu in Chapter 9 while en route to Idol Rabier's mansion. This saves her from even further abuse then she would have already suffered at this point.
- Naofumi's company, now joined by Melty stop by the village on their route back to the capital to get Holy Water for Raphtalia's cursed wounds. Turns out Kiryu had some pure samples of Holy Water on hand, so he willingly sells it for chump change to Naofumi since they're pretty much friends at this point in the story, therefore avoiding the unpleasantries of visiting the Church at the capital.
- Later, Melty's true identity as the incumbent princess of Melromarc is still discovered, but in Lute village instead when Julius recognizes her, causing Naofumi to rebuke her alongside the royal family and then push her away anyway.
- Kiryu official joins the Shield Hero's party in Chapter 11, right before their 2nd Wave.
- Sudden Game Interface: Like the Four Cardinal Heroes, Kiryu has to contend with the new and confusing game interface that exist for all denizens of that world. Unlike the others, he is much slower to take in all the features as he has no experience with such comparatively complicated video game interfaces aside from old arcade games and occasional glances at console JRPGs played by the kids at the orphanage.
- Thinking Tic: Kiryu still has a habit of stroking his chin, just like his "deep-in-thought" animation during dialogue cutscenes across the Yakuza games.
- Thou Shall Not Kill: Kiryu maintains his policy of not killing anyone, or even common monsters if he can help it. He will still brutally beat the living hell out of anyone or anything that deserves it though. The undead hordes and creatures summoned by the Waves are an exception, though a reasonable one seeing as most of them aren't technically alive in the first place.
- Trapped in Another World: While this applies to Kiryu who was unwillingly brought into the land of Melromarc by Julius Harken, its revealed that Goro Majima is in this world as well.
- Unskilled, but Strong: This is what Kiryu summarizes of Motoyasu during his duel with him. He doesn't know how actually fight with his spear, and mainly just relies on his spear's powers and abilities to fight.
- Weak, but Skilled: Kiryu, though weak is only in comparison to the Heroes and the gauntlets are, again, comparatively weaker compared to the Legendary weapons. Both are made up for by Kiryu's many years of fighting hand to hand to the point he mops the floor with Motoyasu in the duel and only loses due to interference from Malty.
- Wham Line: The identity of a newly introduced character working under Queen Mirelia Melromarc is given away with what he has to say:Queen Mirelia: You have that much faith in him?
Goro Majima: I ain't got a doubt in my mind. Trust me when I say that ain't nobody better to have the guy's (i.e. Shield Hero) back than ol' Kiryu-chan. - You Are Fat: To Filo's frustration, Nugget loves to call her "Fatty" whenever they meet due to her larger size as a Filolial Queen.
- You Are Not Alone: Kiryu shares this sentiment with Raphtalia when Naofumi is at his lowest point in Chapter 6. While it was mainly Raphtalia's declaration of loyalty that finally breaks Naofumi out of his defensive shell, he also begins to accept that there are other people like Kiryu in the new world that truly believes in him."No matter what people say about you, I don't care. I've seen the kind of man you are, and I'm not turning my back on you. So know that there's always going to be someone who knows the truth, even if the whole world tries to tell them different. So try and find it in yourself to believe in us too."
- You Can't Go Home Again: Kiryu is hit with this double whammy; not only was he forcefully summoned to another world without his permission and no clear way of teleporting back, but even back in Japan, he is unable to return to his old life at Sunshine Orphanage after the events of Yakuza 6.
- You Fight Like a Cow: When Kiryu fights against Motoyasu in Naofumi’s place, he correctly deduces that the so-called Spear Hero doesn’t actually know how to fight with a spear since a real spear user would have been able to counter barehanded strikes like Lau Ka Long. He calls Motoyasu a poser who is nothing without his weapon.
