My Little Slimy Friend

(Alaster POV)

"Not a bad-looking place you got here, very Mongolian." I complimented while looking around the tents making up the village.

"Hahaha~" Rimuru laughed awkwardly. "Well, we are currently in the Shelter phase of the 'Food, Shelter, and Clothing' so I can't say we're too far along. Thankfully I was able to recruit a few Dwarves to help us out. Sorry if the accommodations are a bit primitive."

"It's fine, it's fine!" I said, waving off his concerns as I looked around a bit more.

"It's rather impressive that monsters are able to create something like this at all," Eren commented.

After another few moments of walking, Rimuru led us to a rather large hut and let us inside. He had his Hobgoblin servants start preparing some rather merger rations for us. Grilled meat and veggies mostly, though I added some flavor by pulling out some spices I 'just so happened to have' and definitely didn't create using Primitive Magic.

"This is so good!" Eren yelled as Kaval and Gido also dug in like ravenous beasts.

I smirked and shook my head before glancing outside to see some Goblinas feeding Pizu a large slab of meat served on a bed of leaves while the largest of the Star Wolves looked on with envy and a watering mouth. I smiled to myself as I saw this, assuming that our arrival meant that his normal share of the food was given to the ever-important 'guests'.

"So... what brings you all to the Great Jura Forest?" Rimuru asked.

"Ah, my name is Kaval. For what its worth, I'm the 'leader' of this party, but I guess that was before Sir Hero arrived," Kaval said, awkwardly eying me from the side.

"HERO!?!" Rimuru asked, sounding astonished.

"I'm retired," I muttered, closing my eyes and taking another bite of the meat.

Kaval laughed rather awkwardly at that before continuing on with the introduction. "This is my original party. This is-" He started before being interrupted.

"I'm Eren!" Eren said with a smile. "Thank you for the meat! It's delicious."

"I'm Gido. It's a pleasure to meet you." He said humbly.

"I'm Pirino!" Pirino said rather enthusiastically and making a pose. "And the Spirit Fox outside is Pizu! We're from Foxfire!" She said, motioning to Shizue who was sitting in a seiza position while eating.

Shizue finished chewing and introduced herself. "I am Shizue Izawa." She said in a gentle tone.

"And I am Alaster. Nice to see you aga- I mean, nice to meet you." I said, almost messing up my introduction.

"Huh? Uh... Nice to meet you all. Like I said before, my name's Rimuru. Rimuru Tempest." He introduced himself while looking between me and Shizue.

It was actually a bit cute how his tiny slime body twisted to look at us, and I could tell he was somewhat weary of me in particular. I was perfectly hiding my own Aura and since I had an Ultimate Skill, he couldn't detect anything from me, even if he used the cheat that was [Great Sage].

"I see... so, what was it you were doing here again?" He asked.

I smirked and looked at him. "The Storm Dragon doesn't simply disappear without the entire world noticing its absence, right, Mr. Tempest'," I said, implying that I knew about his connection to the disappearance.

The little slime's body began to morph slightly as sweatdrops seemingly formed out of his viscous mass and ran down his whole form. I decided to stop teasing him and retreated, closing my eyes and sitting back. "We are simply investigating what might have happened and the effects it's having on the forest," I replied.

"I-I see." Rimuru was silent for a moment before continuing. "As you can see. We are in the middle of building our village out, but does the Guild have a problem with that?"

"Don't worry. You're safe from the Guild taking any action against you unless you and your people start attacking humans." I answered.

"Heh? Really?" Rimuru asked. "I thought it was the job of Adventurers to hunt monsters though?"

"Maybe back in my day it was, but for the most part, the Guild doesn't go out of its way like that anymore. My daughters more focused on the business and political side these days." I responded with a shrug.

"I see... daughter?" He asked after pausing for a moment.

"Oh, you didn't know? My daughter is the Grandmaster of the Guild worldwide." I commented.

"Eh!?! Could it be... Alaster, are you perhaps... and important person?" He asked hesitantly.

There was silence for a moment before everyone around burst into laughter. Even I smirked a bit at the question, especially since I saw slight pink spots around where Rimuru's cheeks would normally be.

"Hehehe~ Of course! Master Alaster is the strongest in the world after all! He's beaten Veldora more than a few times and he's tied with the strongest Demon Lord, GUy Crimson for thousands of years now." Eren explained.

I looked down at Rimuru sweating profusely as he looked up at me in terror. His body seemingly melted under my gaze into a puddle. It got my Sadist side tingling a bit, to be honest, and I let out an unintentionally evil smirk.

(Rimuru POV)

"The Storm Dragon doesn't simply disappear without the entire world noticing its absence, right, Mr. Tempest'," Alaster said, his voice dripping with suspicion.

'Holy crap, he totally knows I had something to do with it! Was 'Tempest' too obvious a choice of name!?!' I yelled in my mind.

<<Answer. It is possible.>>

'Well thanks for that, [Great Sage]. Have you been able to tell what's up with this guy yet?'

<<Negative. Individual Alaster does not appear to be radiating any aura at all, even passively.>>

'Well if even [Great Sage] can't see anything, then that means I might be in trouble. Didn't Veldora say he was sealed by a Hero 300 years ago!?! Do the humans of this world ever age? He looks no older than his early twenties!'

<<Answer. It is likely, that Individual Alaster has evolved past the basic human race into a Human Enlightened or a Human Saint.>>

'Humans can evolve? Man, that really is different from my previous world.'

"We are simply investigating what might have happened and the effects it's having on the forest," Alaster said, retreating a little.

'Ahh, he's given up. Maybe his suspicions have been satiated? I'm just a harmless slime after all.' I thought with slight relief.

<<Negative. The probably that Individual Alaster suspects you are involved is 100%>>

'Damn it!'

...

I was standing atop a hill nearby the village later that afternoon. Rimuru had called Shizue and I for a private meeting. Kaval's party was resting in the village and Pirino was playing with the goblin children using a bit of magic. Pizu and Ranga were play fighting at the bottom of the hill as we looked down upon them.

"You said you wanted to speak with us?" Shizue said after picking up Rimuru and carrying him close to her chest.

"There are some questions I wanted to ask from you two." He started. "Are you guys otherworlders?"

Shizue and I looked at one another before looking back at him. "Yes, we are," I replied. "I get Shizue, since her name is clearly foreign, but why did you ask me?" I asked curiously.

"You mentioned 'Mongolian' style, yet if this is another world, I doubt there would be Mongolians around here," Rimuru answered me before turning to Shizue. "And your name is very Japanese-like and you sit in seiza and used the chopsticks like a pro."

I smiled. "Looks like I was caught huh?"

Shizu also smiled. "I suppose so."

"Really? I was an otherworlder too! From Japan!" He said with a bit of enthusiasm.

"I see!" Shizue said with a bit of happiness in her voice.

"Still, how'd you end up a slime of all things? I have a friend who died and became a Demon, and another one who reincarnated from being a Dragon into a Human, but I've never heard of someone becoming something like a slime before." I asked, pretending not to know all about him.

"Ah... well, you see. I was stabbed to death and next thing you know I'm in this magnificent form!" He joked.

Shizue giggled. "I see, so you were reincarnated then."

"Yup? Was it different for teh two of you?"

I smirked. "Not for me at least. I'm also a reincarnator and I gotta say, I'm a bit jealous that you got to at least know how you ended up here," I said, sighing slightly. "I just woke up as a baby one day, though I can't say growing up with a beautiful Elf Childhood friend didn't make it worth it," I said, teasingly while ignoring the raging Velzard inside of me.

'That's what you get for taking too long!' I teased in my heart.

Rimuru gained a tick mark on his forehead and almost shouted back at me. "Damn it! Living the dream isekai life!"

Shizue giggled, drawing our attention back to her. "Sorry about ignoring you like that, Shizue-san. Were you also reincarnated?" Rimuru asked.

Shizue's face drained of emotion. "No. I was a summon."

"Oh..." Rimuru paused and looked at Shizue with some pity. "When were you summoned?"

"A Long time ago. My hometown was engulfed in flames and bombs rained from the sky." She somberly said.

"I see... I'm sorry for bringing it up." Rimuru replied sincerely

Shizue smiled gently and began stroking Rimuru like she was petting him. She shook her head. "No. It's fine. I've come to terms with it a long time ago." There was silence for several seconds as if everyone was given a moment to collect themselves. /1\

"Oh! I know! I'll show you something! You too, Alaster." Rimuru said and extended a part of his slimy body to me, which I held in my hand.

He then proceeded to show us some of his memories, which boiled down to a documentary of Japan's post-war miracle as well as showing us the sights of Modern Japan. Shizue smiled happily the entire time as Rimuru told us his goal of making the world into a place where everyone could live in peace.

I smiled at this, remembering Rudra's dream being the same and deciding to go see him soon. After showing us everything, Shizue seemed to be more at ease. As though a massive weight had been lifted from her shoulders. She gave a deep hug to Rimuru and kissed him on what should be his slimy forehead before we all decided to retire for the night.

As we began to walk down the hill towards the village as twilight fell, Shizue turned to me and smiled. "I was wondering why you dragged me all the way out here when I was so busy teaching the class, but I guess I now know why. Is this the Hero's Clairvoyance?" She asked, to which I only smiled lightly, which she took to be confirmation and walked a bit ahead of us so Rimuru and I could talk without interruption but still close enough to hear everything.

Shizue was actually quite nosy like that.

Rimuru looked over at me. "Did you know this would happen? That I was a Japanese reincarnator?"

"Who knows...~" I smiled wryly at him.

"This old guy..." Rimuru grumbled.

"Hey Rimuru, do you miss your human form?" I asked him, completely changing the subject.

"Huh? Well yeah, I guess I do..." He muttered.

"How about I make you one?" I said with a smile, this caused Shizue to glance back at us slightly and stop in her tracks.

"You can do that?" Rimuru asked.

"Sure. You get strong enough, and you can do basically anything." I said with a smile as I waved my hands in front of me.

'Is it ready?' I asked Velzard.

<<Yup. I made the tweaks you requested too.>> She responded.

'You're way too good for me!' I smiled as I opened up my spatial storage and the body of a human appeared in front of us... no actually, it was the body of an elf.

"It kinda looks like me..." Shiuze noted. "But there are differences."

I smirked. "Hope you don't mind, but I used you as a model."

"Aw- Geeze! Don't go around doing that to other ladies! Velzard is going to hate you, you know!" Shizue pouted.

I smirked and gave the body a once-over. It vaguely resembled Shizue, but it also had a small resemblance to another beautiful human I knew well. It also had short stubby elf-like ears as an inside joke Velzard and I thought he'd enjoy. /2\

This clone, however, wasn't JUST a body for him, it was an almost perfect copy of Shizue's powers, complete with all the data needed to recreate her Unique Skill [Deviant] as well as the data of all of the Ifrit's Skills. Hell, since it was made out of MY magicules, it even had a magicule count equal to the current Rimuru, meaning eating this would double his strength, in theory.

"A-are you sure I can have this? It seems like quite a bit of your magicules went into it?" Rimuru seemed uncertain.

"Don't worry about it. You remind me of someone who I owe a lot to, so think of it as more of a selfish gift of me to you." I proposed.

"W-well ok," Rimuru said before instantly swelling up to dozens of times his original cute size and swallowing it down whole.

After a few moments, the clump began to die down before dispersing, leaving a naked young-looking girl behind.

Seeing my success, I smiled to myself and turned to walk away while Shizue was looking a bit distressed at the whole situation.

"Hey! At least provide me with some clothes!" Rimuru shamefully begged as I walked away.

I snapped my fingers, using some {Material Creation} magic to wrap his body in his first outfit from the show, and continued on, not looking back.

<<You just wanted to walk away looking cool, didn't you?>> Velzard asked.

It's a good thing I was facing away from them, because my red face at being caught would have completely ruined my dignity.

.~.~.~.

/1\:

Shizue doesn't hate this world in my AU since she didn't have all of the horrible experiences from canon. She got to meet Pirino, her best friend, and she didn't die. Chronoa left, but told her she'd be back. Velgaia is still there for her, plus since Alaster was always looking out for her at Chronoa's request, he became something of a father figure to her, though closer to a cool uncle, so she had good experiences with this world.

/2\:

In case you didn't know. It's a mixture of Shizue and Veldanava's human appearance. It looks a bit like both, but not enough that someone like Guy would think he was plagiarizing Veldanava's appearance. Anyone who'd see it would think it was a coincidence.

Alaster can feel Rimuru's Aura with his [Clairvoyance], and knows Rimuru is Veldanava's reincarnation without his memories or Dragon Factor.