第１９００堀：ヒーローに必要なモノ (Part2)
"There's no romance in it, is there? You’re just bustling about putting on a suit—it’s basically a mascot costume."
Haha, I understand that sentiment.
It’s a classic, effective trope to have someone transform in an instant with a belt or a wand. But given the risk of that process being interfered with, it’s just not practical. We have no choice but to eventually develop the technology to bypass anti-magic interference and make that kind of transformation a reality.
"No, wait—what if we intentionally used bizarre mascot costumes? At the end of the day, no matter what they look like, they’re just magic items designed to compensate for the wearer's physical shortcomings."
"Come to think of it, the outer shell was designed to have anti-magic properties imbued into it, right? But wasn't the problem that it prevented the user from releasing magic from their arms and such?"
"We already made it so that parts of it can be deactivated, didn't we? It’s hard to be a real hero without any ranged options, after all."
It’s true that the mascot costumes apply the same technology as the hero suits, designed for anyone to wear comfortably. But when it comes to the purpose of concealment, wouldn't they be effective?
"Firia. Yuki said there were no specific requirements for the hero suits, right?"
"Yes. So, I don't think using mascot costumes would be a problem, but..."
"Hm? You sound a bit hesitant. Is there an issue?"
"Well, these heroes are meant to save the demi-humans. If they look too eccentric, I worry they won't be trusted."
"Ah..."
They were right. We had been talking about mascot costumes, but the primary goal was the rescue of the demi-humans. If the costumes were too absurd...
"They might actually be feared instead."
"No, wouldn't it be a viable tactic to use a bizarre costume to intimidate them? You know, like that deformed zombie thing... the 'Zom-bee'?"
"That sounds like something the Church would mobilize its entire force to crush... though, it might actually work as a diversion."
"...Um, sisters? A cute, two-headed, deformed zombie mascot hero is impossible. At the very least, please make them resemble demi-humans."
"..."
Firia was right, of course. We needed to change our approach—or rather, shift our perspective.
"Let's calm down. First, what Yuki-san is looking for is a hero suit. This is to ensure that Vilia-san and the others don't have their identities revealed while conducting rescue operations. And there’s no requirement for them to be uniform, is there? Right, Firia-chan?"
"That is correct."
"Then, listen to my proposal. This could be considered a testing ground for rare hero suits, or perhaps power suits. Therefore, we should have a wide variety. In fact, we should use a different suit for every rescue mission to evaluate their performance in real-world scenarios."
"Oh!"
My proposal seemed to be well-received, and the conversation moved forward.
"Then we just need to decide what to hand over now and what to send later."
"In that case, there’s no need to agonize over it. There are plenty of different genres. We can just choose based on the level of completion. Firia, you have some you want to test, don't you? You should choose those."
"Yes, I do!"
And so, we began to sort through the various hero suits. But in the process, we realized something important.
"Firia-chan, we forgot something crucial. Are they allowed to bring the weapons that heroes use?"
At that question, Comet-san and Agil-san looked surprised, waiting for Firia-chan’s reaction.
"Of course! While hand-to-hand combat is the flower of a hero, a signature weapon is the mark of one!"
"Excellent!"
I felt relieved. It would be unthinkable for a hero to be unable to use the weapons that unleash the finishing moves that define them.
"Then, we must prepare the weapons immediately as well."
"There are so many we want to test."
"Which ones... which ones should we take..."
I could already picture the joyful faces of Vilia-san and the others when they saw the hero suits and weapons we had brought. Would they be happy to see piles of hero suits and mountains of strategic-grade weaponry?
Well, at least we know they won't lose. That much is certain.
As long as we turn a blind eye to the question of how much they’ll need to hold back.