Chapter Text
It was dark and early morning. The snow covered the houses and streets of Tempest. The town was quietly snoozing after the banquet last night, the giant cauldrons in the city square still out. The scent of booze still faintly lingered in the morning air, as a hobgoblin was quietly brooming away broken glass from the squares tiles.
Rimuru had just dropped the drunken and snoring Shion back at her house and was now strolling through tempest. It would be a little bit before the sun would rise, but looking at the horizon, you could tell that the dark sky was slowly turning a gentle shade of light blue.
The slime was in a nostalgic mood.
Rimuru decided to get a birdseye view of his city and so they teleported up into the sky above Tempest.
Looking down onto the city still alight with the gentle orange glow of its street lamps, Rimuru felt… weird.
“We sure do go all out when it comes to partying” Rimuru mumbled a small smile forming
Something was missing, Rimuru wasn’t sure what. Maybe they had gotten used to the excitement of constantly being on edge and under threat. This was the longest period of peace Tempest had ever experienced, yet Rimuru couldn’t help but feel like… like something was missing.
<”….”>
There was no excitement anymore. Nothing to get stressed over.
“I must be bored, my hard working instincts are telling me to stop playing and start working, but there is no work. Sorry instincts!!”
Rimuru flew down onto a nearby hill looking out over the town and the horizon. The sun was slowly starting to rise, the earlier gentle blue light had now conquered more than half the dark sky.
Looking at the sun slowly rising, Rimuru had a thought.
What if I just took a little nap here, I cant remember the last time I completely switched off.
<”Would you like for me put you into a sort of pseudo sleep?”>
With Ciel, you had to be careful, Rimuru knew this very well.
“Pseudo sleep? What do you mean?”
<” I can induce a state of sleep onto you by putting you into a mode similar to hibernation”>
“Hmmmmm”
Rimuru pondered for a bit
“I only really want a couple of hours, I don’t want to worry anyone, but I do want to be a bit selfish”
<”I can put you to sleep for six hours minimum, i will let them know not to bother you during this time”>
He felt bad, he rarely took time off. Despite the town not really needing him as much as it once used to, his presence still helped calm the minds of his friends.
<”Starting hibernation”>
!?
“H-hey I haven’t given you the go ahead” Rimuru complained as the slimes conciousness slowly drifted away.
……………………………………………………………….
(- -)
Rimuru woke up
Or well, that’s to say, they were woken up.
As Rimuru slowly came back to his senses something seemed weird.
Ah, he was put to sleep by Ciel!
“Hey Ciel, that wasn’t very nice you know, what if I happened to change my mind, you cant just do whatever you want”
Rimuru sighed, taking his anger out on Ciel wasn’t so bad once in a while. The thing had a mind of its own, so giving it a little discipline was necessary from time to time. Rimuru nodded to themself. Yes, that’s right, Rimuru was the one in control and-
*Poke*
?
That was weird, the slime could have sworn that Ciel had said that she was going to keep everyone away from him for the time being.
Maybe they had just come back the instant they felt Rimuru was awake again, who knows, they’re probably capable of that, they were strangely sensitive to the slimes presence after all.
“Ahem ahem” Rimuru cleared their nonexistent throat. Turning to look at the presence next to them
“You know it’s good to see you’re this excited to see me, but is it too much to ask for a little time alone? You know it’s---”
*Poke*
“Oy”
Rimuru was greeted with a reflection of themselves.
“Hmm, that’s strange”
The reflection moved to poke Rimuru once again
*Poke*
….
A… Slime?
….
Awkward
“Hehehe…” Rimuru laughed, rubbing the back of their imaginary slime neck
Good thing no one other than the slime was around to have heard Rimurus outburst or embarrassing statement towards the slime. As they all knew slimes weren’t very smart. That was part of what made Rimuru so unique, not only were slimes not smart, they were rarely smart enough to be capable of speech, never in a million years as capable as what Rimuru had managed to accomplish.
“Oy” a distorted sound replied.
Rimuru stared.
The slime seemed to stare back.
“Ciel what is this” Rimuru asked.
<”A slime”>
They weren’t blind.
“Really, can you give me some more info?”
<”Your slime”> Ciel announced.
“Ahh okay my slime, right right”
It seemed Ciel was in a jokey mood today, maybe the rest I had, had put me in a particularly good mood, because I decided to play along.
“What was the name of my slime again” I asked.
<”You have not yet named your slime child”>
Hahaha Ciel was funny when she tried to be. She had clearly been bored while I was asleep so they must have decided to find a slime to experiment on. Well not that Rimuru had anything against any of the funky experiments Ciel like to run, it seemed to be her hobby so Rimuru tended to let it slide.
“hmmmm, what should we name them”
<”….”>
“I got it! What if we combined our names”
“hmmm, Rimuel?, Cimuru? Ciemu?”
He looked out onto the snowy town, hobgoblins and human kids playing in the early morning snow.
Snow….
“Ah, I got it! Yuki!”
“Your name is Yuki!” Rimuru said towards the little slime.
“Yup yup that’s perfect” Rimuru said looking very proud. It had been quite a while since they had last named anything, the familiar feeling of magicules being drained was a nostalgic feeling.
Whilst the slime was emitting a white glow Rimuru decided to probe Ciel further
“Say Ciel, where did you find this slime? I thought slimes only migrated during the summer times?”
<”It does not come from anywhere, this is your slime”>
Again with the incomprehensible answer, how do I even respond to that
“Right right, you’ve already said that, but where did it actually come from” Rimuru asked
<”The slime was made from your magicules and my ability to manipulate particles of the souls you’ve collected”>
Rimuru stared at the slime that was now emitting a weak light.
“Hahaha what are you even saying Ciel, it sounds like you’re saying this is a slime we’ve made together, almost like a child, you really need to stop messing around with me!! Well ill let it slide since im in a good mood”
<”Correct this would technically be our child”>
….
Huh
“Wait wait wait wait, WHAT?”
“Havent you gone and done something outrageous here???” Rimuru couldn’t help but yell, shocking the little slime.
<”Correction I was simply acting on your desire last evening”>
“HUHHH? MY desire? When have I ever said I wanted a child??” Rimuru exclaimed.
<”You were displaying signs of aimlessness and per your own words missing purpose, based on the conversations overheard in the town, having a child would solve both of these issues”>
She is clearly just dumping the responsibility of this whole thing on me, Rimuru thought.
“YOU CAN’T JUST DO THAT, people talk about these things before doing it. What if I hadn’t been ready? What if I didn’t want a child?” Rimuru yelled at Ciel
<”My estimations say you are ready”>
This was an insane situation. Rimuru had somehow created life, that part weirdly enough wasn’t that shocking. Having lived among monsters and magic for years at this point, it would take more than this to surprise the slime. I mean Rimuru had even travelled to the end of time. Yet Ciel had somehow managed to surprise them.
What annoyed Rimuru was Ciels seemingly lax attitude towards the whole thing. It was one of those cases where if Rimuru was the one who had the idea of having a child, they wouldn’t be as stressed out as they were now.
The idea itself wasn’t nececarrily bad, but they were annoyed that they weren’t the one to come up with it.
Not to mention, Ciel had clearly misunderstood something, somewhere along the line.
Letting out a big sigh Rimuru looked down at the slime. It felt like it was looking back at Rimuru. They weren’t quite sure, but it felt intense.
Besides where were its eyes.
Rimuru melted, flattening out his slime form.
The slime in front of Rimuru had grown to a little over half Rimurus size, it was a little lighter in its blue shade than Rimuru.
As Rimuru looked at Yuki, they felt strange to say the least. It was obvious what the right thing to do was, or that’s to say, what they should do. Rimuru now had the responsibility of a new family member, whatever that meant.
“What do I doooooo….” Rimuru said.
<”You should probably stop them for now”>
Rimuru was jogged out of their thoughts by the little slime. It was currently in the process of digesting a little slime necklace that had slid off Rimuru when they melted earlier.
“O-Oy you can’t do that, that’s a gift from Shuna” Rimuru said forcefully grabbing the necklace from the little slime.
The little slime let go, seemingly confused as it started moving towards Rimuru.
“Ciel give it something to occupy it while I think this over”
<”Certainly”>
I held out my hand as a piece of Magic ore manifested, throwing it at the slime.
“I suppose the first thing I should do I consider… ahhh I don’t even know, where do I even start” Turning back into their human form, Rimuru sat cross legged. The slime was happily absorbing the Magic ore, which seemed to be keeping it busy. It seemingly didn’t care that Rimuru had picked it up and put it on their lap.
“Help me out here, where do I even start”
<”…”>
“OY”
<”I suggest planning which subordinate to tell about this first”>
There was that as well, Rimuru had to keep the little slime for now at least, the thought of abandoning their new slime child seemed too heartless. If only we could communicate with it. It did seem to mimic some sort of speech earlier.
<”The slime is still young, I suggest giving them sight as the first thing”>
Ciel had a point, I knew the feeling of having no vision at all, being at the mercy of whatever you could feel. Luckily, I didn’t have to be without sight for long, but maybe it would be different for the slime. It hadn’t had sight to begin with, so it would have no idea what it might be missing out on.
Could you miss something you never had?
Assuming it was a bit too early to give the little slime an entirely new way of observing the world, the best thing would probably be to wait at least until they had figured out a way to communicate, consent is important after all!
Having decided to wait till the little thing could at least speak in whatever way slimes communicate, Rimuru moved onto the next problem.
However.
Rimuru felt something weird.
They felt vibrations coming from the little slime.
The slime was… shaking?
“Shaking? Why are you shaking?” Rimuru looked at the slime.
<”It does not have any resistances towards cold or heat, as of its young age, the slimes magical storage, memory storage and physical abilities are still weak, any attempt at transferring skills would have a high chance of either failing or hurting the slime”>
“O-Of course that’s right, you’re not a weirdly strong slime like me, of course you would freeze”
Rimuru decided very calmly, not at all in a panic, to teleport back to their little home.
After landing in their house Rimuru quickly materialized a soft blanket from inside them, which was wrapped around the little slime.
Holding the shivering slime close to their body, Rimuru decided they would probably need some way of keeping the slime warm for the winter. What temperatures were even good for slimes?
<”Unlike humans, a slimes body temperatures can vary, between 20-50 degrees”>
Rimuru definitely needed some sort of help. Who could they trust not to blow this out of proportion, at least for now. They would want to introduce them to all of them but not straight away, as they hadn’t even gotten used to being with just Rimuru yet.
A sudden thought struck Rimuru. What if the little slime didn’t recognize Rimuru as its parent? What if they never learned to communicate at all? What if they hated Rimuru for creating them? What if they wanted to be with other slimes. What if when the annual slime migration came to Tempest they decided that they would rather be among them? What if-
Rimuru felt a movement.
Looking down at the slime, a little shaking slime tentacle was reaching out through the folds of the blanket to touch Rimurus chest.
Oh.
Rimuru felt a small smile creep up on their face, as they hugged the slime.
(- -)
As Rimuru sat with the slime in their lap, they looked out onto the little frozen pond In their garden.
Rimuru did have work to do, but before that there were some things they needed to consider.
Firstly, should they introduce the little slime to their subordinates now, or secondly wait until Ciel was able to give it some sort of ability to communicate.
If Rimuru introduced them now, they would be able to give a great deal of help, plus any knowledge they might have would be very welcome. Something was bothering them however.
Am I nervous?
Rimuru could normally gauge what reaction his friends would have, at least to some degree.
Rimuru was feeling… apprehensive.
It’s not like they had cared in the past, introducing the Veldora to the hero, or Rimuru and Milims friendship to the king of the dwarfen kingdom. Much to both the hero and the king’s shock.
Maybe that was it, maybe it was because these people were so dear to Rimuru that they cared so much about their reaction this time.
Rimuru felt the second way was probably the best way to go about it. They knew that while their friends were kind and had the best intentions in mind, they could be a bit… overwhelming at times. Being able to at least signal their discomfort or dissatisfaction to Rimuru or the others would help a lot.
Rimuru sighed, looking at the weird moving blanket dragging itself towards the frozen pond.
The way to go about this wa-
<”You should stop the baby slime”>
“Huh?”
OH
Rimuru jumped up rushing over to pick up the slime, scooping it up in their arms.
“I really don’t have the mental bandwidth to deal with this” Rimuru said, materializing another piece of magical ore, before presenting it to the slime.
The most responsible thing to do would probably be to introduce the little slime to just one person, so that Rimuru would have someone that could help out in this first little vulnerable period for the slime.
Two people came to Rimurus mind instantly, Benimaru and Diablo.
Benimaru would definitely keep his mouth shut if Rimuru asked him to. The problem was the people around him. He definitely can’t keep a secret from his sister.
Depending on the amount of time the slime would need to grow, in order to be able to communicate, Benimaru would need to sneak around to help Rimuru. If the time needed was too much, people would definitely catch on and become suspicious.
“How much time do you think our little friend here needs?” Rimuru asked Ciel, absentmindedly stroking the slime in his arms.
<”With his current growth it should take around 2-3 days, the magic ore seems to be speeding up the process somewhat”>
Hmm
Diablo might be the best bet, he wouldn’t say a word, and people didn’t really know what he went around doing anyway. Plus people would rather stay out of his business anyway. He is definitely the safe choice.
Alright, here we go.
“Hey Diablo”
Rimuru had hardly finished his name before the demon appeared before them.
“Yes my lord” Diablo said, taking a bow
This guy and his weird worship
“I need you to do something for me”
Diablo looked up
“Gladly, whatever it may b-“ Diablos eyes fell on the slime in Rimurus arms, narrowing slightly as his mouth opened slightly.
Diablo taking brisk steps walked over towards Rimuru and sat down on his knees in front of them.
“H-hey Diablo whats wron-“
“I see you’ve chosen to produce an heir, my deepest and utmost heartfelt congratulations” Diablo interrupted.
Ah this whole act again. Really not in the mood for this.
He leaned in closer
“I see, this our masters child, and quite young aswell” Diablo muttered
“The young slimes form seems very fragile…” Diablo drew a quick breath, his eyes opening fully for a moment before asking.
“Did you perhaps create this soul yourself?”
Had Ciel gone and done something incredible again?
<”……”>
Shut up I’m not in the mood to praise you right now, you’re definitely still on my bad side!!
“Y-yea I guess I have hahaha…” I said gingerly rubbing the back of my neck
A smirk appeared on Diablos face.
“As expected of my lord, being able to create life, the hallmark of a god, truly magnificent, I once more stand in awe of you.”
Diablo leaned back, giving me back the personal space he had stolen earlier
“Does the slime have a name yet?” he asked, his eyes not moving from the little slime in my arms.
I looked down at the slime.
“Yuki, it means snow in the world I came from. It seemed fitting as it was born on a snowy tempest hill.”
Yeah I know my sense for names is great, cut me some slack
<”I like the name”>
Hush.
“Yuki…”
“Truly a great name, Yuki Tempest, the young heir of tempest” Diablo said.
Heir? Ughhhh…. I’ll ignore the blatant obsession for now, I really do need his help here.
“Diablo, I called you here for a reason.”
“What is it my lord” Diablo said
“I need some sort of way to keep our little slime here warm. Slimes don’t do well in winter, can you somehow get us a piece of equipment, maybe an article of clothing or an accessory that would keep the slime, or its surroundings at a constant 20-50 degrees. Just until it develops some sort of natural resistance.”
Diablo thought for a second.
“Certainly, I’ll get on it right away”
“Oh, and one more thing, I need you to keep all of this a secret from everyone.”
Diablos eyes moved away from the little slime onto Rimuru.
“Why would you nee-“
His eyes widened
“A-am I perhaps the first one to know of our young Yuki here?” Diablo said brighteyed, tears threatening to drop.
“How magnificent that you would grant me that honor, I will certainly live up to your expectations and plea-“
I sighed, my brain tuning out Diablos chatter.
Rimuru should have gone with Benimaru, in hindsight the risk would have been worth it. At least he would have been easier to deal when they were alone.
"I will not let you down, i pro-"
“Yes, now go on” Rimuru interrupted Diablo.
Diablo barely holding back tears vanished into thin air, leaving Rimuru and the little slime alone once again.
This was going to be a busy couple of days.
(- -)
After Diablo left, the day went by uneventfully. Rimuru managed to set up a little barrier around the house making it warm enough for the little slime to move around without its blanket.
The slime had taken its time, seemingly feeling out the layout like a mini robot vacuum. Rimuru had watched amused as the slime tried consuming a stack of scriptures, not quite succeeding, giving up halfway through, before seemingly falling asleep mid consumption.
I wonder if its safe to leave it now, this place isn’t really slime proof. How do you even slime proof a place. Rimuru pondered
Around midnight Diablo visited once again, handing Rimuru a small red crystal.
The crystal would keep a constant temperature of 30 degrees in a 1 meter radius around it. He also explained that the crystal had been charged with magical energy, which would slowly decay over time meaning that in a weeks time, its effects would stop working.
Rimuru grabbed the crystal from Diablo and tied a piece of sticky wire to it, which they then attached to the slime.
Rimuru couldn’t help smile a little at the sight of the slime, looking similar to a child holding a little red balloon at a fair. Except this balloon was melting the snow around the slime.
This would work, they grinned.
The next couple of days went by, as Rimuru and the little slime explored the forest surrounding the town. Yuki seemed to have a fascination with trees for whatever reason. They were either attempting to climb the trees or to dissolve them, Rimuru couldn’t quite tell what exactly they were trying to do. Not that it mattered, they seemed to be having a good time, and as a child that was very important Rimuru told themselves.
(- -)
Back in the town however, rumors were starting to spread.
Souei had gotten a strange report from his subordinates. A trail of melted snow and weirdly damaged trees in the forest surrounding the town.
There were no rules regarding being or even staying in the forest if one wanted to. The forest around Tempest didn’t belong to anyone as such, and lots of people enjoyed spending time there. The forest was a bit scary however if you weren’t at least capable of defending yourself to a certain level.
Most people who did hang around in the forest did so in the summer, not during the brutal winter times, where you would have to deal with hungry monsters looking for scraps of food.
According to the subordinates who had tried following the trail, it would often suddenly just stop, seemingly randomly, leading them to believe there was something or someone trying to throw them off.
Souei found the whole thing weird. His instincts were telling him to check it out for himself. He could of course if he wanted, just use his Universal Perception to check the forest.
But.
If whatever was moving around in the forest was able to avoid his subordinates, they clearly had some sort of ability to avoid detection. Maybe they had stealth abilities of their own.
This foe could be dangerous.
He decided to avoid possibly alerting it by using Universal Perception.
Teleporting into the forest where he had been told the “thing” had last been seen, he started surveying the area. He very quickly noticed the trees.
Most of the trees had damage done near the stump.
He approached one of the trees and lowered himself in order to get a closer look. There were very faint signs of magic still lingering in the air. As he focused on the magic, he realized that the remnants were fire magic.
Some sort of creature with the ability to seemingly disappear. Those abilities by themselves weren’t rare. There were some stealthy creatures in the forest.
There were also some creatures with the ability to use fire around here, not during the winter however, most if not all had the tendency to migrate.
So.
A creature that uses fire magic that hasn’t migrated during winter, with the ability to use stealth. With seemingly enough intelligence to know that getting caught was dangerous.
This could very well be a unique monster of some sort. Souei thought.
“How mysterious” Souei said quietly to himself, following the trail that seemed the longest.
(- -)
Inside the forest Rimuru had finally figured it out. Yuki had spent a good 10 minutes in front of this big tree. Looking like a repeat of the past many trees they had chewed on, Rimuru didn’t think much of it.
Rimuru headed over towards the slime however before they could grab the slime...
It disappeared.
“Huh?”
The creaking of a branch was heard above them.
Above their head, the slime was sat on a tree branch
“
You.. jumped?” Rimuru said hesitatingly
“How did you even learn to do that? You can’t even see. Has munching on trees finally broken your brain?” Rimuru quipped.
<”Slimes view things through mental images they share with their pack, images are created by shared memories”>
I see, I see… well I don’t really, but it seems like Yuki had somehow realized that they could jump, and had decided to do so up into the tree. It’s a bit of a miracle they didn’t hit their head on any branches.
<”Correction I steered them away from one before that was possible”>
…
Fast as always when it comes to taking credit.
“M-maybe our child is just a fast learner!” Rimuru said, a slight blush forming on his face.
From the cold of course…
Nothing else…
It felt weird still.
Having learned to jump, the little slime and Rimuru picked up the pace. Rimuru letting the slime lead the way, mostly because they were curious as to where they would be led.
As the snow slowly turned from blue to orange, they started coming across more and more trails of dry forest ground.
In other words.
“Ah, I think we’ve been here before” Rimuru said looking at a tree missing about a third of its trunk.
They were running in circles.
I guess it is getting late. Rimuru thought to themselves, looking at the slime that seemed to have stopped to examine the remains of a dead bush.
“Let’s head home shall we, you could give that manga collection another try.” Rimuru giggled to themselves, picking up the slime and with a woosh, teleported away.
(- -)
*Crunch*… *Crunch*… *Crunch*…
The sounds of footsteps in the forest snow sounded as a figure stepped out of a trees shadow.
*Thunk*
Souei sat cross legged down on the ground.
This was unexpected, Souei thought.
“Hm, I suppose the right thing to do would be to report this to Rimu-“
Souei stopped.
A cold evening winter wind could be heard whistling through the forest.
….
Wait
A child?
….
Rimurus child?
….
Rimuru has a child?
…..
Hmm
…
Huh…?
…
The normally professional Souei was in conflict.
Rimuru had not told him about this.
Nor did it seem like anyone else knew.
…
So the right thing to do would be..
To not tell anyone.
Right?
…
Yet…
He REALLY wanted to tell someone.
Ah… that was it.
He felt lost.
Souei smiled.
Benimaru would know what to do.
As long as only Benimaru and him knew, there would be no problems.
Right, they could just keep it their secret.
Souei stepped back into the shadows having made his mind up.