WE HAVE DISCORDS! JOIN THEM NOW! mu1622
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Iruma's POV
"You're really stupid." Hinata told me bluntly.
"Sorry, Miss Hinata..." I let my shoulders fall as I nearly fell from the exhaustion of dodging quite a few attacks.
"No!" Hinata chopped me on the head faster than I could dodge, "That is exactly what I mean. You won't attack anyone directly, or treat them like a real opponent. Look at you, you're exhausted. You've wasted an hour doing nothing." She still seemed frustrated at the way I looked at fights, as something purely to be avoided.
"But! If I can last this long! Maybe I can find another way to resolve it!" I was still determined in my ideals, to a certain degree though. I didn't want to let my ambitions be taken away.
"That is a flawed strategy," Aoki coldly interjected from the sidelines. "You should try what Miss Hinata is trying to teach you."
"Hey, you shouldn't say that. You haven't exactly been fighting with any principles yourself. You have the exact opposite problem." Hinata corrected.
Aoki stared at Hinata blankly, "I've been doing just as you instructed."
"There are a lot of things I thought were common sense when I instructed you the way I did, I suppose I was just wrong. Rimuru has taught you none since he has none himself. It makes sense, but it is problematic."
Hinata looked tired and annoyed, which made me feel a little bad. I knew I wasn't making this easy for her alongside Aoki.
"Wait, what do you mean? Rimuru has a lot of common sense, he keeps me alive every day." Aoki responded curtly.
"That alone proves you don't have any either."
"How? I'm correct."
"That's my point." Hinata sighed, "But we should move on before we're out of time."
"What should we try next, Miss Hinata?" I asked. I still thought she was a really good teacher, even if she was scary, so I didn't mind.
"I'm gonna go outside for a bit, and when I'm back, we'll continue training." After that, she left the room. Leaving me alone with Aoki. I assumed she was frustrated and needed some time to think.
Aoki was even staring at me, looking just a bit annoyed. I wasn't sure how I could tell though since their face is completely blank of emotion.
"Uh? Aoki? Is something wrong?" I asked.
"Nothing is wrong." Aoki paused. "Why aren't you taking this fight seriously though? Do you want to embarrass me that badly?"
"Uh... What do you mean? I wasn't trying to embarrass you at all!"
What could've I done to make Aoki think that?
"Mmmm. You're the same as Hinata. You don't understand my words." Aoki said as they folded their little arms.
"Can you try explaining it differently, then? I want to understand."
"No."
"Um..." I hesitated a little, "Why not?"
"You understanding me isn't important." Aoki paused. "Did you understand Hinata?"
"Not really."
"Mmmm. Well, she did say you didn't understand. I guess you really didn't. I just don't understand what is wrong with following the objective given."
"But... if you only focus on that one thing, you might miss other stuff that's important to you! Like keeping your friends safe, or making sure you're doing the right thing; you can't just ignore everything but winning!"
"If other things become more important you should just change your objective to account for it." Aoki was able to respond immediately, it almost didn't seem like she thought about it for even a moment. I remembered the times Rimuru had mentioned Thought Acceleration as a result.
So I had to guess Aoki just didn't feel the need to make it look like decisions took time for her.
"I guess... But how would you always know what's most important? Wouldn't that kinda thing leave you conflicted?"
"I've never been unable to decide what is most important."
"But, you're a baby! So that isn't that weird..."
Aoki seemed even more annoyed for a moment. "Hinata seems to think I don't always know what is best, but I never got close to killing you."
"Yeah... But maybe it's because she thinks you haven't actually listened to the objective right? I mean, I think when she said you should try to hit me, she meant in ways that are hard. Like, punching, or shooting something at me." I remembered back to how Aoki had intentionally missed me to make me dodge into a puddle of slime they'd left on the ground. I then got badly burned.
"But what will that teach me?"
"Maybe you won't always be able to use the tricks you normally use? I dunno... It could also be an honor thing." I did know Hinata seemed to care a great deal about her own sense of right and wrong.
"What is honor?"
I was at a loss on how to explain it since it wasn't exactly something I was certain about myself. It's just something I'd picked up on secondhand from others over time.
"Well, you know, like... Playing fair? Holding back when you know what you could do isn't right?"
"How isn't it right, if it fulfills the objective?"
"Well, I have a lot of objectives... Or, maybe just one. But I want to do it the right way, because if I did it wrong, it wouldn't really be fulfilled."
Aoki stayed silent at that, although I think I could tell that they were thinking. It didn't happen right away that time.
At that moment, Hinata once again opened up the big stone door to the chamber. "I'm back, neither of you caused any problems while I was gone, right?" She seemed to be holding something, and when I focused I realized it was a tiny slime. Not that much bigger than Aoki was when Rimuru first brought them back.
I could feel it, as Aoki stared at the slime from across the room, she badly wanted to cause it harm... It actually seemed like she wanted to kill it. That wasn't really something I was expecting, so I didn't exactly know what to say to calm them down.
"Mhm. Just like I thought. I noticed you had gotten rid of those slimes in Rimuru's office when we were leaving... It was quite devious to use a spell to kill them like that." Hinata did seem both genuinely concerned even bridging on disturbed, but also a little bit happy she was right. "You can't touch this one though, not yet."
Aoki didn't seem to care about what Hinata was saying, as I saw a small black cloud form in front of her and try to strike the little guy with lightning.
Hinata just held her hand out and blocked it, not really seeming that concerned. The lightning simply dissipated on contact.
Aoki got frustrated, but sat down. She was clearly in no mood to talk, so I didn't want to try. I felt I might get attacked if I tried.
"Ok, good. Now we can continue once I tell you both the rooms. Iruma, you have to keep this slime safe. If it dies while under your protection, you lose."
I didn't like the sound of that, I'd need to try my hardest... That tiny slime didn't deserve to die just for me to get some skill or something...
"Its fate is in your hands." She pulled me over to her with some weird golden cloud spell. Then handed the slime to me. "Now, next I'll be applying a spell to you to make this a bit more difficult. Reason being, I want you to learn Magic Sense. You'll need it if you are to survive."
"What do you mean? I haven't needed it until now..." It all was just for a skill.
Hinata sighed. "That is because of Rimuru, but Rimuru won't always be around. I can assure you, Magic Sense is a necessary skill. The spell I'm about to use is one Shizu-sensei used on me to teach me Magic Sense."
A magic circle appeared on Hinata's hand. "You should prepare yourself for this, I heard Rimuru was in a similar state for the first few months of his life, but he didn't have human instincts at the time. So it may be more alarming for you."
"What do you mean? Similar state? What kind of state?" I felt worried she might have some way to turn me into a slime or something.
"You'll see." Hinata placed her hand on top of my head.
Then all my senses, except for touch, disappeared completely. I was only left with three things, my sense of touch, Aoki's anger somewhere behind me, and I could always tell where the tiny slime was and how it was doing.
I knew I was trying to talk, and even yell, and scream, but I didn't hear anything. I was alone, in the dark and quiet of my own head.
I could feel I was moved somewhere else after what felt like almost forever, then I heard a voice in my head. {{I've moved you to the other corner of the room. Try your hardest to defend yourself, and the slime. I've removed Aoki's senses as well, and weakened them with a purification seal. So, you have a chance of winning.}} It was Hinata, and she explained a little more to me before I felt like I was pushed forward.
I stumbled for a few moments for my footing, trying to figure out where exactly in the room I was and how far I'd been pushed. It wasn't really possible to know exactly where... But I felt like I'd been pushed a meter or two.
I cupped the tiny slime to my chest to keep it safe, and tried turning around to try and sense out anything I could.
The air and whatever else was around me was all too fuzzy to really get anything out of... I just couldn't quite get what was intended. Even with Rimuru having explained Magic Sense to me a few times in the past...
I felt a surge of air to my right, so I just jumped all the way to my left on instinct. It almost felt like a gunshot had gone off next to me.
I was in incredible danger.
Holding something Aoki genuinely wanted to kill, it wasn't a good position to be in, but I didn't really know how to respond. So I just stayed low to the ground and tried to creep across the floor quietly... If she couldn't see me either, I just needed to make sure not to make any noticeable movement in the air while this close to her.
Crawling on one hand while holding the tiny slime in the other made me drop to the ground a few times, but eventually I managed to move a good few meters away, I think. It was slow, but I didn't feel as in danger once I was that far away.
I tried to focus on that vague feeling I had from the tiny slime and Aoki, but it was too fuzzy and unclear to really get much more out of than how they were feeling.
I was sure the only reason I knew where the tiny slime was, was because I was holding it. Otherwise I don't think I'd know that either.
It made me conclude... Maybe I just couldn't use magic sense. I wasn't like Rimuru or Hinata, and I wasn't even from this world. So it may just be too hard for me to figure out.
The crazy stuff Rimuru talked about doing with magic and magicules would probably always be out of reach for me... But I could try to do it my own way I thought.
Maybe, it was a long shot. Rimuru talked about how most monsters have an aura, which is like a field of magic forced out around them.
Rimuru also explained that humans didn't really have anything similar unless they forced themselves to emit one, because of something wrong with them or something. I didn't really understand that.
Hinata was able to learn it though, and I didn't really know how she could do that... She's human too, isn't she?
There had to be something different about her, I concluded.
I began trying to crawl in a different direction, that way I'd be harder for Aoki to trace back to. I didn't want her just following my path to me in a straight line.
Maybe it is like controlling other skills then? I've done that... It may hurt sometimes, but I can do it. Water Manipulation is a ranged skill too... I've done that, and it must mean that I have some weak aura, right? Otherwise how would I use the magicules outside my body like that?
My thoughts were cut off by Aoki, or at least what I think must have been. I felt another gush of air, this time to my left. So I rolled sharply to my right.
I could feel my hairs standing up as sweat creeped onto my forehead and cheeks, so I gripped the tiny slime just a bit tighter.
I tried to crawl away again, but I felt myself bump into a tiny body of some kind. I must have been facing her.
A tight grip was placed onto my shoulder as I felt myself get dragged upward, Aoki's other tiny hand began grabbing at me all over looking for the slime.
So in a last ditch effort to keep it safe, I threw the slime away from the both of us, and then tried to kick out of Aoki's grasp myself.
Instead though, I found myself being pressed against a wall with no way to kick away from her.
{{You're being troublesome. This isn't between the two of us.}} It was Aoki's voice this time, but it sounded very sharp. A tone I didn't really expect from a little child like her, it was honestly more frightening coming from her than it would be someone my age.
I was then kicked in the gut, or at least I think it was a kick. I could barely tell as all the wind was knocked out of my lungs and pain surged throughout my entire body. Aoki had held back, but it was only enough to still leave me gasping for air when I fell back onto the ground face first.
After that I felt her stepping away, it was in the direction I had thrown the tiny slime too! She had realized what I'd done!
I tried to crawl toward her, but I just found myself falling to the ground again, it was too painful to move around. Way way too painful to move around.
I just couldn't let that tiny slime get hurt! Me losing wasn't really important, but I couldn't let them get hurt just for some dumb training exercise.
So, I just tried what I had in mind. I focused on the mana inside my ring and tried to reach out with it, reaching toward where I had felt Aoki walking.
I hoped that it would be simple enough, just like Water Manipulation. I needed it to happen, if I was to save the tiny slime too.
I didn't know where Aoki was, and she could already be right next to it!
Please work... Please just work...
I thought for just a moment that I could feel Aoki's anger again. It was like I had bumped into her, but not physically. I was able to make out a fuzzy idea of where she was, but it was clearly not the right way to do this. Cause the moment I tried focusing on her, it all fell back away again.
I gritted my teeth and tried again, focusing on pushing the mana out of my ring...
No... It shouldn't be the mana in my ring, should it?... I can use that, but I should use my own if I want this to work... Like Rimuru said, a skill is just part of you...
I tried to... Instead of focusing on the mana in my ring, I focused on the mana in my body. It was a while after I'd gotten my skills that I noticed it, I could feel it. Couldn't really do anything with it though. Just kinda move it around for Body Boost.
Instead of that though, I tried to push it out of my body, while keeping control over it.
I carefully kept track of it as I did it, soon I was feeling the floor in front of me with my mana, and I was able to creep it forward across the floor.
I found this mana a lot easier to control than the mana in my ring, so it only took a short time to get to Aoki again.
I was even able to go past her, while still seeing the slime.
{Notice: Acquiring basic skills, Lesser Aura and Aura Sense... Sucessful.}
I got a little notification from the voice of the world, but it wasn't what I needed or wanted. That alone wouldn't be good enough.
I noticed that my perception of Aoki and the area around her improved a tiny bit, but it didn't let me affect Aoki.
Instead, I tried moving this ranged sense further, just a meter or so... I found them. The tiny slime, right there, in front of Aoki. If I didn't do something soon she'd find them.
So... I tried something stupid, I tried to use the other part I remembered from using skills in the past, manipulating things with them. Like water, or air... Instead though, I wanted to move to Aoki.
I'd settle for moving the tiny slime, but moving Aoki would be better. I could make it so she would turn away from them completely.
I just tried to do it. I attempted to have the mana I had creeped across the floor grab hold of Aoki.
It stopped in a moment and an even more searing pain shot through my body, Aoki had noticed. She retaliated immediately with her own Aura and I could not take it.
"That's enough." I could see Hinata standing in front of me holding the tiny slime again, with a little green light buzzing around her.
"Don't do something like that with them again! She could've killed him before I saved him!" It was Ramiris I realized.
Hinata was also holding Aoki by the collar of her shirt, meanwhile the young slime was trying very hard to fight her way out of Hinata's grip.
"H- Wh ha-p-n-d?" I tried to walk over but found myself falling forward again. I was really exhausted.
{Notice: Acquiring Extra Skill, Magic Field... Successful. Integrating skills Lesser Aura and Aura Sense into Magic field.... Successful.}
I fell unconscious, for what I concluded was the second time. Though I may have died physically the first time I had blacked out too.
...
I felt like I was flicked on the head. "Hey, get up."
I remembered that voice, it was Rimuru. I sat up immediately and looked around. I was fine, my body was fine.
Aoki was also sitting at the foot of my bed looking a little bit dejected.
"You got pretty banged up, and I don't mean physically. You grabbed onto Aoki with a spiritual attack... And uh... She responded in kind. Probably one of the worst things that could've happened, and Ciel gave me an extensive list too!" Rimuru sighed and leaned back into the chair next to my bed.
"Am I okay now?..."
"Hm? Oh, yeah. You got a new skill too. I had to do some magical surgery on you, but that is no problem for a demon lord like me! Hell, I am pretty sure Frey could've patched you up too." Rimuru seemed to be losing the subject.
"Wh- No that isn't important... Where is Miss Hinata? She saved me, didn't she?"
"Yeah, she did. She needed Ramiris' help though. Just please don't tell Sullivan or Opera about this, otherwise I don't think I'll get any sweets for a whole month when we get back." Rimuru seemed to get sweaty, which didn't really make sense considering I knew Rimuru couldn't sweat.
"I need to thank them then!" First though, I glanced back over at Aoki. "H-hey... Sorry about that?... I didn't mean to scare you.. That is what happened, right? For you to do... That."
Aoki looked back at me with a pouty face, which is the first time I'd seen that much expressiveness from her. "You hurt me! I just hit back..." Then she turned away. "Mother told me to say sorry to you too..."
"It is alright..." I wasn't one hundred percent sure if it was, based on what I remembered happening. It wasn't her fault though.
Aoki's POV
Mother and Father won't let me cling to them for a whole week now! They were talking about it forever, about how to punish me cause not much can really do that, according to them.
Somehow they settled on the worst thing! I blame Mother!
I guess I had hurt Iruma, and I didn't mean to... I just wanted to make him let go of me. It really scared me when I actually felt him grab onto me, not my physical body either. He had grabbed onto magic body, Mother calls it my spirit. It caused the same kind of pain that I felt when being named, just a little bit of it.
So I think that my response made sense. I wanted to make him let go as quickly as possible, so I grabbed back at him.
Mother disagreed, since that hurt him badly.
I was really exhausted too. I only had half of my normal magicule count, so I really needed to cling to Mother, but he wouldn't let me. Instead I ended up following Mother around all day... Then we had to go to Iruma's room for when Mother would say he should wake up.
Mother scolded me again, telling me not to be rude, and to apologize to him. After I said I didn't know how, Mother told me to say 'sorry.'
I didn't really know what it meant at first, so I analyzed the word to find it meant something along the lines of 'I regret my actions.' Which is true, but only in retrospect.
So it may have been insincere when I actually said it.
"It is alright..." Iruma responded oddly, though. He just seemed to forgive me entirely, as if I hadn't hurt him.
I knew I wouldn't do something like that. So it didn't really make much sense at all.
I tilted my head at him. He was genuine, I could tell from the faint aura he had started giving off since he got that skill...
Still, I turned away for now. I would return the favor later. Even if it made me a little happy, for just a moment.
Iruma was too good of a person, and it had rubbed off on me a bit. He was really stupid.
"Alright then... I guess that's it for your training, Iruma. Did you get everything you wanted?"
"I– I think so? I got a lot of skills... What exactly is Magic Field though?"
"Hm?" I could see Mother inspecting Iruma with his own magicules. "I dunno, I haven't really seen it before. Ciel could analyze it real fast if you want... But it could maybe evolve into a unique skill I know that much. You could also figure it out yourself, you made it, so you'd still be able to understand it better than even Ciel if you put the time into it."
"I think I should figure it out, since it is my skill... I've already asked enough of you." Iruma seemed insistent.
"Alright then. Are you fine returning to the Netherworld tomorrow? I can split parallel existence and send them with you, since I think it'd be best for me to stay with Aoki... I don't know what kind of trouble they'll get into without me here." Mother turned back to me. "You heard that, right?"
"Yes, Mother..." His tone was still stern, so I didn't want to try to think of a different way to interpret it at that moment.
"Alright then. Iruma, you can go see Sullivan and Opera in the banquet hall for a feast before you leave. I'm going to take Aoki to bed. They need to sleep."
"Thank you, Rimuru!" Iruma tried to get up, and ended up almost throwing me, but I ignored it.
He scuddled up and quickly put on a shirt before running out of the room. I guessed he was hungry.
After that, Rimuru kept up my punishment. I floated into the air, and couldn't really fight Rimuru's skill as I was levitated alongside him back to his office. "You are a handful."
"Mother, please! Hold me!" I really wanted to regain the magicules I'd lost to that accursed purification seal.
"No, instead you'll sleep." Mother opened the door to his office, and walked to his desk to sit. Meanwhile he made me sit on the couch, a lot further away than I'd have liked to have been from him.
"Slimes do not require sleep! Instead I simply need to absorb magicules..."
"Quiet down, I need to talk to... Your... um, Father..." Rimuru really didn't seem to like saying that.
"I am here." Ciel was sitting on the couch across from me a moment later. "What do you need to talk about?"
"Since Aoki is being punished, they need to sleep."
"I do not wish to sleep!" I didn't really care about the pronoun thing Rimuru wanted to talk about, instead I just didn't want to be forced to sleep, it was unnatural.
Rimuru sighed out loud, fall face first onto his desk. "How about this, Ciel, can you modify the skill to give Aoki a little reward if she goes to sleep?"
"Do you mean you want me to add a feature for simulating dreams?"
"What are dreams?" If I was going to be rewarded with something I wanted to know what it was.
"Yeah. I think little kids need to dream, it's good for them."
"I can do something like that..." Father looked off into space for a tiny bit, before nodding. "I did it."
"Good." Rimuru lifted his face up and turned back to me. "Dreams are like... Something that shows you the things you want, or helps you deal with your emotions. Sometimes they will be really nice, and sometimes they are bad. The bad ones are still good for you, though."
Considering it, I let myself fall into silence. I didn't really know quite what all that entailed, and it was difficult to plot it out... If Mother said it was good though, I did want to experience it. "Yes."
"So you'll sleep if you can dream while doing it?" Rimuru finally seemed to perk up again, getting a bit more cheerful in aura.
"Yes." I didn't think I needed to try and amend my response.
"Good night, Aoki Tempest." Rimuru smiled after saying my name. "Alright, go to sleep."
"Hm?" I suddenly felt I couldn't hold my form anymore, as I reverted into a slime. After that, all my senses faded out and I found myself drifting off.
Rimuru's POV
I found myself in a stare-down with my beautiful wife, who looked exactly the same as me. The topic of discussion? Who gets to hold our Aoki while she sleeps.
We were punishing them for having attacked one of my friends, and that meant we wanted to deny them the experience of being held for a whole week, as it is something they enjoy the most.
However, now that they were asleep, Ciel and I could hold her. The problem was, we couldn't decide who was allowed to do it.
"I believe it should be I who holds Aoki. As I can more carefully control her magicule intake." Ciel took on a very emotionless Raphael-like tone to throw me off.
I tried to think up a retort. "But you can just experience my memories, so having me hold them would work better for us both."
Ciel knew I was being facetious though. "This is incorrect. You too can experience my memories if you so wish, as a result, if I was in control you would experience it in the same way I do."
I sighed aloud. " I guess that is true, but it isn't just like we can switch places for a day or two. Someone would notice."
Ciel looked at me quizzically for a few moments before responding. "Are you certain?"
"Yes." I knew Ciel had a fairly hard time replicating my mannerisms on her own, even if she'd never admit it.
"Then I must take your place for a day while our daughter sleeps. In this time I will increase what you refer to as 'people skills,' meanwhile I wish for you to improve with two things while within our imaginary space, you shall improve your skill controlling Null Energy, and you shall improve your skill with modifying skills." She stared at me with a plastered on resolute face. It was cute, and I also couldn't really argue against that.
She was right in saying that would all be good. I sigh loudly and dramatically. "Fine. I guess a mini vacation would be fun... I wanted to hold Aoki though..."
Ciel grinned. "You will simply have to figure out how to experience my memories then." After that she raised her hand to open a portal to imaginary space, then got up and moved to the other couch to pet Aoki.
I'd lost another argument with my manas.
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