Rising of the Shield Hero: Another Version is a crossover fanfic between The Rising of the Shield Hero, Fire Emblem: Three Houses, and Monster Hunter on Archive of Our Own, published on December 29th, 2021. The story takes place in the same kingdom of Melromarc as of current writing, but with a few differences. Several towns and villages from the world of Monster Hunter, such as Dundorma and Kokoto, exist within the kingdom, and monsters from the mainline games exist in this world as well, which means that Hunters and the guild exist as well. The story follows Naofumi as he, along with the Death Knight, who ran away from Fodlan before the events of Fire Emblem: Three Houses took place, as they go through their journey to stop the Waves of Catastrophe from destroying the world like in canon Shield Hero. Early on, it’s revealed that the Death Knight is not just a Hunter, but also a Rider from the spin-off Monster Hunter Stories.
According to the author, Eruzerion_of_Mezeporta
, the name for this fic is not final and is looking to readers to help them come up with a good name for it. The story can be found here.
Currently stands at twelve chapters and is ongoing.
The Rising of the Shield Hero: Another Version contains examples of:
- Adaptation Expansion: The story still takes place in Melromarc, but it’s also a fusion with the world of Monster Hunter and Fodlan is about three days away from the kingdom (with good weather as pointed out in chapter eight). This technically could mean that Melromarc is even bigger than in canon.
- Adaptational Nice Guy: In this fic, Naofumi’s slightly nicer given that both him and Emile (Jeritza) were betrayed by Malty, so they equally share the pain of it together.
- Age Lift: In Fire Emblem : Three Houses, the Death Knight (aka Jeritza) is twenty one pre-time skip. Here, he is only eighteen.
- Alternate Universe: In this fic, Raphtalia’s World is different in a lot of ways, such as having towns and villages from Monster Hunter, monsters from the aforementioned game existing in this world, and a couple of minor differences too.
- Animalistic Abomination: In chapter eight, it’s revealed that the Death Knight has a curse, in which he starts Hulking Out into a monster when angered enough (which is probably why he usually tries to act like The Stoic despite his Blood Knight status in his home game). He can willingly control it, but it’s implied that when the gem in Naofumi’s shield glowed red from unlocking the Curse Series, it caused him to go berserk when he transformed. Julius, leader of the Ace Hunters even says that it was like the Death Knight went apex (like monsters who were able to suppress the Frenzy Virus and become more powerful in Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate) when he transformed and went berserk. So far, the only monster he’s transformed into in the current events of the story is Furious Rajang. The author has said that he won’t be limited to just the form of a Furious Rajang, however.
- Anti-Hero: The Death Knight comes off as this more so than a Blood Knight, as he is trying his best to control his murderous urges.
- Ax-Crazy: The Death Knight subverts this trope surprisingly, even though he tells Naofumi and Raphtalia about all of the trauma he’s had ever since he killed his father at age twelve .
- Battle Couple: Naofumi and Raphtalia as of chapter nine, despite the fact that they have yet to fight their first battle as a couple.
