A Village of Horn-y People

Shortly after departing Veldora's Cave, Rimuru had wondered where to go.

'Should I go east or west...I learned a lot from Veldora before I swallowed him with Predator and put him in my Isolation Space so he can figure out how to dismantle his prison...' she mused before she saw a twig, extended a slimy appendage to grab it and tossed it up. 'Where you fall, I'll go!' and the twig fell west. 'Yosh, west it is!' and she bounced her way to the direction, leaving sounds of po-yo, po-yo in her wake.

She braved through terrain as she'll never get hurt nor feel pain thanks to her many resistances. So she could move at a fast pace that would have crippled many before her.

As she approaches?

She was not aware that her monstrous aura got a village nervous.

In a small village full of large minka hunts, a large, red-skinned man with two large horns spoke to his people who all have horns. Some have one, some have two. And their skin color depends on what their hair color is!

This race, is known as the Oni Tribe. B-Class Monsters. Powerful, but few in number as in the law of nature, the weaker you are the more prolific you are. But the stronger you are, the closer to sterility you get!

Thus before most monsters pursued power, they wanted to leave legacies behind, first!

'Everyone! I'm sure you all felt that aura!' the Oni Chieftain grimly as his people are nervous. 'But we must all face this foe as a village for the survival of our women and children! Ladies, pack what's necessary and prepare to evacuate with your children! We will determine what this foe is!'

'YES, CHIEF!'

'All able warriors, with me!' and the armed fighters left with their chieftain at their front.

Thus, oblivious to the fear she caused, Rimuru was by the nearby river.

'Its a little lonely out here since getting out of the cave.' Rimuru mused as she looked up at the sky. 'I wonder where and when I'll meet new people?'

She used her magic to recreate music and used her own body as a speaker of sorts for a little J-Pop.

'No one's looking, might as well go Karaoke by myself!' she mused while blushing awkwardly, oblivious that there's an army heading her way.

'Chief, I hear a strange sound.' said another Oni as they were hearing music.

'...its music.' said an elderly Oni. 'I recognize this type of sound. King Gazel had musicians on his coronation day and invited this old teacher here.'

'Where is it coming from though?' a young oni wondered.

'Let's look quietly.' said the Chieftain as they stealthily approached.

They then heard a female cute, child-like voice sing.

Without realizing it, I found myself deep under the ground,
having no idea how long this tunnel really goes.
I reach out to you even though my hands are filthy,
all I was searching for was the feel of your skin.

They followed and the voice was coming from...a larger-than-usual Slime. It was a shiny, glossy sky-blue in appearance. But unusually-shaped too. Slimes are usually round, so why does it have a bumpy head tip?

But the power they felt, came from this...singing slime. So was the music they're hearing. And it really sings well! And how the hell can a slime know music? They have no sentience, nevermind intelligence! Only capable of three simple things! They were however, helplessly entranced and amazed with this singing slime.

As I gathered strength, I could barely show you my courage,
I managed to find all this happiness inside, was all because you're here with me.

Feel it burning, feel it burning,
The scar left on my palms continues to spread.
I will fly away through the dark clouds,
even though these tattered wings refused to let me fly.

Can't you see me? Look how high I am, as I carry your tears away...

'E-Eh? What do you mean Great Sage?' the Slime spoke suddenly, slightly nervous and the music she was making stopped. But to the Oni, they don't see the Great Sage she was talking to. 'I'm alone out here aren't I? That's why I can sing out here without being shy!' then a whimper. 'W-WHAT DO YOU MEAN I'M BEING WATCHED?!' she freaked out, bouncing in anxiety as that got the Oni bracing themselves. 'Kyaaaa! Nooooo! How embarrassing! Whaddya mean 125 people?! I was alone not long agooo!'

Well...for all its power, the slime seems to be...shy? Seriously?

And she knows how many they are?!

The oni nervously glanced at their chief when suddenly, the slime looked at them.

She has a FACE! Slimes don't have faces!

She has round black glossy eyes, a curved W mouth and pink blushes on where the cheeks would be. She's cute for a slime...

'Waaaah! A bunch of horn-y people!'

Dozens of jaws dropped at the word choice. Slackjawed and wide-eyed in shock and disbelief. What, did she just call them?! Wrong choice of words there!

'Er, little slime, what brings you to this area?' the elderly man with white hair asked her, stepping out of the woods. He was still...twitching on his left eyebrow under his strained smile. The little slime knows not what she said just now actually means in society. Her childish nature as she talked clearly referred to their horns, but still...

'Ehh dunno, I was just going where I wanted to go.' said the slime. 'Its nothing but trees so far, you're the first kind of other living being I saw.' she said. 'Its been...a week? I'm Rimuru gramps, Rimuru Tempest.' said Rimuru as she made a blobby 'limb' and can clearly use magic, by conjuring her name in glowing white letters. She could read and write already. 'What's your name?'

This, is the third shock of the day.

This slime who possesses a monstrous aura so powerful they all mobilized, is a Named Monster. Who's the whimsical power who named this slime that changed her to this unusual cute sight before them and gave her power? Moreover she was named...as an equal if she has two names?!

(in Rimuru's stomach, Veldora sneezed)

'I don't have a name like most monsters do, Rimuru.' said the old man, picking her up.

'Eh? Oh...this is gonna be hard...will it be 'hey, you' for a long while?'

'Hoho, we're long used to it.'

'Geh...' Rimuru melted a bit in his hands.

'So, what do you plan on doing after this?' the old man asked before Rimuru seemingly inflated back after a short time of dismay.

'Well, I was going west since Veldora said I won't find anything good in the east when I asked him where I should go.' the Oni did a spit-take. 'He says the east is nothing but trouble only people as strong as he is can deal with them and I was just a newborn slime after he named me.'

'I see...and who is Great Sage?'

'He's my Unique Skill. He answers all my questions about the world.' Rimuru piped up. 'A voice only I can hear when I wanna know something.'

'That's pretty handy for you isn't it?'

'Yeah, there's lots I don't know, I'm just glad I have a teacher even if I can only hear, not see him.' said Rimuru. 'So why are horn-y people all out here grampa?'

'Well, we thought a disaster is coming, but it appears we were just wrongly tipped off.' said the old man kindly. 'And we are Oni, not...horn-y people.'

'Oni...ah, is that what you guys are? OK.' Rimuru nodded thoughtfully. 'Are you guys nice?'

'As long as nobody attacks our village, we are pretty hospitable.'

'OK. I hope I meet more nice people.' said Rimuru. 'The others I met so far wants to eat me. I had to fight and eat them back. I can't taste anything though.'

xxx

As they talked, Rimuru felt acting all childish and cute was the correct choice. They let their guard down around her. Had she acted mature, they'd be more guarded around her and she's not even a bad slime! But still, how's she gonna explain why she can sing?

Upon deciding she's harmless, she was left alone by the Oni.

"Maybe I should make a temporary shelter here for now." she thought as she dug a hole by the river, and used her Sticky Steel Thread to make a lid cover, like Trapdoor Spiders do and shut herself in.

xxx

'She did that, huh?' the Chieftain looked at the young, blue-haired man. To his left was his son. To his right was his daughter. And lined up in left and right, are village elders. The young man knelt ANBU-style by the end of these lines as he was there to report.

'Next actions are unknown after burying herself where we found her and just kept on singing again.' said the young man. 'It seems she's just content with...singing in her burrow till she got tired. But her next actions depend on us. She thinks positively of us as we treated her well. But given how strong she is in terms of magicule...and we don't know about her fighting capabilities. Her levels are horrifying, as expected of being named by Veldora before his disappearance. She can use magic if she can write her name using magic. And with her Unique Skill, she's learning under her Great Sage.'

'Great Sage, is it?' an elder mused. 'How far, can that skill go?'

'If it can teach a Slime music and literacy, possibilities are potentially, endless.'

The council discussed some more...until a consensus was made.

xxx

The Forest...

'Rimuru, are you here?' a different young man approached the burrow this time. He has red skin and hair this time.

'I'm in, who is it?'

'I'm one of the oni. Can you come out?' the lid to the burrow opened and the slime came out, flowing out like a fluid, before becoming a monster again.

'Oh, what can I do for you?' Rimuru asked him.

'Father, the Village Chieftain sent me as an envoy.'

'Hah?! I'm not a country, I'm just one slime!' Rimuru sputtered as she went all wavy amoeba on him, flustered. 'A-anyways, what for though?'

'The village council talked about you.' said the young man. 'They want to know about your Unique Skill, Great Sage and how far it can go. As you know, monsters don't have education yet you're an exception.'

'Ehhh probably veeeeery far...he always answers all I ask.' said Rimuru. 'He always answers. Sooo what do you want to know?'

'I want to know if there's a way for us to have children while still being strong.' said the young man. 'A monster...the stronger they are, the less fertile they get. Our Oni Village is very small that we compensated with strength and power. How can we have children far easier?'

'Ehm, wait a bit...' "Er, Great Sage, can you possess me just to answer him in person just to prove you really exist to them?" Rimuru asked her skill.

/Temporarily. As you are now, possession will take great mental strain. About three minutes max./

'Because I'm a Slime, Great Sage can only possess me for three minutes.' Rimuru told the young man. 'We heard your question. 3...2...1...' they then heard BREEEPBEEPBEEP like a computer as Rimuru's eyes turned glassy-red and got bigger.

Not that the oni would know what a computer is, anyway.

'Report.' its a man's voice, but otherworldly and lacks ego and tone. 'Answering to the inquiry of the Oni, the solution so far that has been done is daily copulation until the spouse conceives, correct?'

'Yeah.' said the young man with a blush. Its no news to him that married couples do it every. freaking. day. Just to conceive! Hell, he grew up long knowing it out of necessity but hey, who wants to keep hearing their parents go at it every night?!

'Oni children are born with C-Class Strength but as they grow and train, they reach B-Class power. But before they get to that point through training, while Oni are C-Class, they must marry and copulate. Being a C-Class in strength raises the chances of conceiving by 50% as opposed to a B-Class' 20%.' the Oni choked at that. 'The easiest part is through Rimuru herself.'

'Rimuru?! And how?!' the oni squawked out, eyes literally popping. He cannot see anyone copulating with a slime any time soon!

'Rimuru can turn into anything she eats through her Unique Skill: Predator.' said Great Sage. 'She can devour a humanoid majin or human, and with her Mimic Skill can recreate the necessary parts, attuned to her genetics. Thus she would be indeed, the mother, not the form she took. Thus upon conceiving, the child will inherit traits of which parent has a stronger lineage. She has a Unique Skill: Universal Motherhood. She can have offspring with any man of any race, as long as requirements are met and she is very fertile disregarding her strength.' the oni gasped at this and so is the young spy from earlier.

'T-then!'

'Rimuru so far has consumed countless monsters that attacked her. She has yet to consume a female majin suitable for the task. Female must be of marriageable age as a reminder. Time is up.' and Rimuru's eyes went back to normal.

'Well?' Rimuru piped up. 'What did he say?'

'Great Sage has been very...informative.' the oni face-palmed as he groaned in misery. 'I can just imagine telling the oldies back home without blushing! This is awkward!' he howled, imitating Johnny Bravo in dismay.

'Er, you're red as it is, I don't see the difference.' Rimuru giggled, making the oni facefault. However, she felt another person picked her up. 'Nyah?'

'Can you come home with us, Rimuru?' the blue oni asked. 'How about you stay with my family in the meantime?' the blue guy offered.

'Huh? I can?' Rimuru gasped. 'Is it OK? Well I'm low-maintenance anyway, little space and magicules in the air and that's pretty much it. But is it OK with your folks?'

'It'll be OK since you sing and you're pretty friendly.'

'Well, still talking won't hurt, so I'll come with you guys.' Rimuru decided.

And so...

'Your son invited me home.' Rimuru bowed politely. 'I hope you don't mind me as a guest.' blue-guy's parents are just as blue as he is! But mother has two horns, father one.

The parents looked at their son, and at Rimuru.

Rimuru was the controversial slime that spooked their village with her aura, thinking a powerful disaster is headed their way, but it's just a singing, carefree cute slime!

'Well, our son will keep you company in the meantime, little one.' said the father. 'Once everyone is at ease, you can walk on your own in the streets afterward.'

'Ehehe, inviting different monsters sure is rare.'

'Indeed so.'

On the other hand?

'That's what her skill told you, son?'

'Its freaking embarrassing, but yes.' the young master's face was redder and he was utterly embarrassed. 'Some of the younger boys and girls around my sister's age are Class C. If they marry now and...get on with it...5 or 6 out of ten tries, a result will happen for sure.' he squirmed. 'Its embarrassing to say it.' he moaned, face-palming.

'You've suffered enough.' said the Chieftain wryly and the council was amused at his son's expense before sighing glumly. 'Sigh...why must nature strip us of our fertility as we get stronger? Does this mean to preserve our race, we place our burden on the youngsters now?'

The hall fell in somber silence.

'...if its the only way, however...disturbing.' said another elder.

'Weaker monsters give birth quicker due to high death rates, like the Goblins who evolved to compensate...and the Lizardmen are Class C Monsters yet as a society they are more prolific than us. Perhaps we should follow that example from now on.' sighed another. Marry first, before becoming a B-Class Monster.'

There's another way, but the young man dare not say it.

One, its against his morals and he doesn't want to see his sister marry before her time and two, he doesn't want to see that slime angry. His people are few enough as it is, struggling with repopulation!

xxx

The two oni boys met up.

'Well, did your parents welcome Rimuru in your house?'

'Yeah, though until everyone is used to her, I have to be with her always.'

'Where is she now?'

'Well, mother was interested in her singing skills...so how did the old folk react?'

'...they're still talking about it.' said the young master. 'Our younger peers who are still C-class in strength will marry and have kids before they become B-class. We're a warrior village after all.' he said. 'But...I didn't tell them Rimuru's secret. Its appalling if they go that route and I don't want to see it happen. Moreover, what if they beg Rimuru to be the mother of everyone's young without giving her a choice? We'll all die in her anger. We don't know how strong her spells are.'

The blue youngster paused at that. '...there's that.'

'For now, that one bit is forever between us.' the young master sighed. 'We're desperate, but that doesn't mean we lose what dignity and honor we have left. And she's like, young. Too young by voice alone.'

They could imagine a CHILD, had Rimuru been human.

A:N- the song is Amano Tsukiko's 'Chou', the ending song of Fatal Frame 2