L'Arcfumi

"We just met, but I can tell that much. I can tell you're not a bad guy, kiddo"

- L'Arc, upon meeting Naofumi for the first time, Chapter 35, Episode 22

L'Arcfumi is the slash ship between L'Arc Berg Sickle and Naofumi Iwatani from the The Rising of the Shield Hero fandom.

Canon
Naofumi meets L'Arc on the ship to the Cal Mira Islands, with the latter overenthusiastically inviting the ravenette into his cabin. Naofumi introduces himself, but L'Arc laughs at his supposed "alias". He doesn't believe that Naofumi could really be The Naofumi Iwatani, because he had heard that the shield hero was evil and willing to manipulate anyone. With that, he says that even though they had just met, he could tell that Naofumi wasn't a bad guy. L'Arc invites Naofumi to level up together because fate put them in the same cabin. Naofumi reluctantly agrees, on the pretense that they don't slow each other down.

Naofumi's group meets L'Arc and Therese again the next day when they're setting off for their second day of adventure. L'Arc confides in him that the four holy heroes were on the island, and fills him in on what each hero was doing.

While Naofumi, Raphtalia, and Filo were staying out later. L'Arc and Therese came out to specifically look for them. He claims that he was worried for them because he didn't want any of his friends to die. Naofumi starts to get up and thanks L'Arc for his concern. They arrive back at the ship and L'Arc cheers a glass of beer to their safe return. He catches Naofumi on the side of the festivities, watching the girls play. They see Motoyasu try out a fruit that Naofumi had been eating for a while, and the spear hero promptly passes out from one bite. L'Arc laughs and explains that it was a potent fruit that needed to be diluted first. The next day, L'Arc goes looking for Naofumi and discerns his whereabouts by asking Filo. The redhead invites him to finally go level up together. On the boat to their destination, they discuss their levels, tactics, and their stop. Naofumi dictates the roles; he grabs the enemies, while everyone else attacks them. He assumes that there will be a boss nearby due to the name of the monsters, and is proven correct. Naofumi tells everyone to step away and uses "Hate Attraction", while L'Ac and the others watch. Naofumi seems surprised by the fact that L'Arc can use his scythe to absorb the EXP into his weapon, thinking that only the four holy heroes could do that. He then wonders if there are more heroes other than himself and the trio. At the end of the day, L'Arc and Naofumi congratulate each other on their fighting, and plan to meet up again.

Naofumi offers for L'Arc and Therese to join his party, but is turned down. Apparently, after that, the group stopped bumping into L'Arc and Therese for whatever reason.

During the third wave, Naofumi grins when he spots L'Arc and Therese on the bow of a ship, helping to fight against the wave as well. L'Arc sees Naofumi struggling against the giant whale, and jumps off the ship in order to give him a hand. With his scythe, he slashes the whale multiple times while the people on deck watch in awe. When Naofumi looks up, he sees the man attacking the boss with powerful slices, easily killing it. He praises L'Arc's ability, as the other asks him, "It must be frustrating, right, kiddo? ...Being unable to defeat trash like this on your own as the shield. Despite being so ridiculously strong!" Naofumi accepts that as a compliment from him, but when he reaches over to shake his hand, L'Arc has a dark look in his eyes. They're interrupted by the other three heroes, trying to claim the items from the boss as theirs. L'Arc smirks when they call themselves heroes, claiming that heroes couldn't be that weak. Naofumi asks what L'Arc is trying to do, and the latter repeats the question back at him, berating himself for thinking Naofumi might actually be the shield hero. He stands there menacingly with his scythe, hovering over Naofumi who is on the ground. L'Arc swings his scythe down, but Naofumi shields it. He shouts aloud why he had to be betrayed by him, and then angrily pushes the scythe away with his shield. The redhead explains that he had to kill the holy heroes of this world in order to save his own world. He says that he has nothing against Naofumi personally, but he wouldn't hold back. L'Arc quickly deals with the remaining contenders with bolts of electricity, and reasoning that because the ravenette was still standing, the attack wasn't much. Their attacks start getting more and more violent, with L'Arc managing to injure Naofumi. During the midst of the battle, Naofumi realizes that although they are enemies, he just couldn't bring himself to hate them. L'Arc speaks to an unknown person, saying that it took him so long to find the shield hero because he thought that they were an evil person, unlike Naofumi. The scythe-user and Therese are revealed to be a part of Glass's trio, someone that had attacked the four holy heroes before. L'Arc keeps saying that he wants to continue the fight with Naofumi, but Glass ignores him and tells him to take care of the other fighters. They're both smirking as they continue their fight, just as Naofumi entraps L'Arc in his shield prison.

In a chapter extra, Naofumi is soaking in a hot tub when the other three heroes drive him out. As he's returning, he meets L'Arc and the ravenette suggests for him to come back later because the men are trying to peep on the girls. Hearing this, L'Arc attempts to bring Naofumi to peep as well, but the latter refuses. All the heroes start speculating that he's probably seen Raphtalia naked before and that she definitely liked him.

Quotes
"You sure have it tough, shield. Let me give you a hand hero."

- L'Arc helping Naofumi, Chapter 39

"I like you Naofumi. So let's do this fair and square!"

- L'Arc before attacking Naofumi, Chapter 40

"He's just the type L'Arc likes to fight."

- Glass, commenting about Naofumi's abilities, Chapter 41

Fanon
L'Arcfumi is a small ship in the fandom that doesn't have a lot of popularity. Since L'Arc turned out to be the enemy, people think that they would be seen as more of rivals than friends. Raphumi is Naofumi's most popular ship, while most people tend to ship L'Arc with Therese. Some people also like Motofumi, the ship between Motoyasu and Naofumi.

The idea of their friendship-turned-enemies lead to some angst storylines, where L'Arc betrays Naofumi. Trusting someone and then being backstabbed again seems to be something that triggers Naofumi, and some people reason that's why the two aren't a good ship. Happier stories have them working together in a team, like the betrayal never happened- usually in AUs or set before the Wave of Destruction when they were still good friends. People think they could've been a great duo in another world, if only their roles were different.

Naofumi's personality is more strict, but upon meeting L'Arc, he loosened up slightly. L'Arc comes off as more of the flirty type, and slightly airheaded, while Naofumi could be seen as a tsundere. Because L'Arc's first impression of Naofumi was that he was a good person, he didn't believe that he was the "evil shield hero" at first. Working together, they are a formidable duo. Both Naofumi and L'Arc have said that they enjoy fighting each other.

Fandom
FAN FICTION

TWITTER

Trivia

 * L'Arc called Naofumi "kiddo" at first because he assumed Naofumi was younger than him. Even after Naofumi corrects him, he continues to use the nickname.
 * Naofumi is 20 years old, while L'Arc's age is unconfirmed, though likely around 20 too.
 * As they're sharing their levels, Naofumi is at level 63. L'Arc is on level 56.
 * L'Arc managed to be one of the only people that Naofumi genuinely trusted, but he ended up betraying him as well