Henri's Headache
Rimuru POV
Just as I thought, he decided to show up, but…
"I was so worried about both of you! Don't scare your grandpa like that again!" Sullivan cries while hugging me and Iruma tightly. But, that's not the issue here; he's brought Ciel with him for some reason.
She's not even meeting my gaze, but still wearing a neutral expression. I can tell she's still upset about something, though.
After a few minutes of fussing over us, Sullivan finally calms down.
"I'll give you more details about what happened later, okay Gramps?" I suggest, aware that he'd want details. He's been told some of what happened already, but we still have a lot to talk about.
Ciel, I can tell you want to talk. Go up to the room I was assigned and I'll meet you up there shortly.
I doubt she wants to stick around all these people that might want to have small talk with her, so I send Ciel up to my room so we can talk in private. She's already grabbing a good amount of attention despite just getting here, eliciting whispers and comments from my classmates and the hotel's staff that I'm picking up on.
Yes, I know that Ciel and I could just discuss stuff internally, but I'm sure there's a reason she came here in person, so talking face-to-face might be what she wants.
Ciel seems satisfied with my suggestion because she nods and quickly takes it, removing herself from the scene.
I look over at my copies, all grouped together and conversing with each other for some reason. They seem to be talking about what they did during the incident, which is funny to me since I know it's pointless considering the fact I'm gonna absorb them all shortly.
But…taking back in that many at once…I don't think it'll be a fun experience for me.
Giving that a bit of thought is enough to convince me to procrastinate on that since I'm sure it'll be an overwhelming experience if I don't handle it smartly. It was bad enough when I removed my clone wearing red as punishment; the rush of memories wasn't terrible, though, but taking in the other five simultaneously is another story.
Well, I can let them hang around a while longer. Maybe I can reintegrate them while I'm asleep tonight, that might help.
Plus, one of them is still out on the field, the yellow-wearing one specifically, so waiting for them all to return first is the best choice, I think.
**Meanwhile**
Third Person POV
Clambering over rubble, eyes darting around to see if anyone has spotted them, a group of escaped prisoners flees the scene as three beasts rampage at Walter Park. Due to the destruction, there was an opening; an opportunity for freedom, and they took it without hesitation.
The fighting has stopped now, so they all know they don't have much time before people start looking for them, so hastily, they are all making their escape while trying to remain under the radar. Flying would immediately give away their positions, so trekking it on foot is the only option, as hard as that is to do with the currently-ravaged landscape of the park, completely devastated by the beasts.
"I still can't believe all this, man…we barely escaped with our lives back there!"
"Yeah, when that explosion went off I thought I was a goner!"
"And then those kaiju…we seriously need to get outta here! I mean, did you see those things?! Like, I'm happy that they smashed the prison and all, but…"
The prisoner stops mid-sentence after noticing something he can't ignore. Up until this point, the group hasn't come across any non-prisoner demons, only some other escapees like themselves. This, of course, is because most have fled to the emergency shelter in the middle of the park, far away from the edges of the place that the now-freed demons are heading toward.
But, now, standing nearby and staring at them with a clearly fearful expression is a child wearing a yellow dress. A little girl, young but still old enough to know what the striped prisoner uniforms they are all wearing mean, evidenced by the way she's staring at them and looking around for a way to get away from the group.
"What's some kid doing out in the middle of this?" one of them mumbles to himself, puzzled why some child would be this far from anyone else.
She's completely by herself; helpless and confused, but she's seen them, and that's a problem.
"What should we do? She's a witness to our escape now."
"P-please don't hurt me…" she begs, her voice shaking with fear. Her eyes are fixed chiefly on the prisoners, her not even taking a moment to push the hair that's fallen in front of her face aside.
"Hmmm…we could take her with us…you know, to stop her from going to the police."
"No, that would be too much trouble. Plus, I'm not in the business of kidnapping children. I may be a hardened criminal, but I have my boundaries." one of them says with a shake of his head.
Really, he just doesn't want to deal with anything along those lines and sees it as unnecessary. There's no reason to think that this girl seeing them will lead to bigger consequences, and if anything, taking her with them would just make things worse for them if they're all caught later.
Best to just leave her here, he decided.
"Get outta here, kid, and forget our faces while you're at it!" he gruffly shouts at the girl, wanting to just scare her off.
"S-so you're letting me g-go?"
"Are ya dumb? That's what I just said, now scram!"
He expects her to immediately flee, hopefully keeping her mouth shut about seeing his group, but the reaction he got from the little girl was much different.
In a mere moment, the fear fades from the gleaming golden eyes of the girl as she lightly pushes her light blue hair out of her face, revealing an amused smirk. It's clear to them all now that the fear she was showing was all an act, but they don't understand why a child would be so confident now in the face of five criminals.
"Smart choice." the girl smugly replies, throwing the group of prisoners for a loop with her sudden change in demeanor. "Now…keep yourselves out of trouble from now on, understand? This escape is your second chance so don't go wasting it by going off and doing something stupid."
"Excuse me…?"
"You heard me. Oh, and you should seriously start hurrying before the Demon Security Police show up; if they find you, I'm not gonna do anything to stop them, even though I'm letting you go."
"Wait…do you think you can seriously take us all on by yourself, squirt?!"
"Well, teaching that other group a lesson wasn't a problem for me, so yeah. They didn't pass the test like you lot did though, so I had to put some extra effort into…correcting their behavior." she continues, lightly giggling while recounting what happened to the other group of escapees.
The treatment is angering a few of the demons who don't believe this girl's bragging at all, but she's right when she says they don't have the time to stand around. If the police are already on their way, they all really need to pick up the pace!
"Just forget her and let's go." one of the calmer of the former prisoners urges.
"Tch…fine."
Irritated grumbles come from the demons who find that their pride is hurt by backing down and not challenging the arrogant words of the girl, but they all know that they can't spend their precious minutes arguing with her. And somehow…they feel like that attitude might be backed up by real strength.
It's not something they can explain or quantify, but an instinctual feeling deep inside them. Paired with her small, innocent appearance, the eerie feeling she gives makes absolutely no sense to them, but it still lingers, telling the demons that crossing the girl would be a huge mistake. This is further evidenced by the ominous warning about something happening to another group that didn't make the same decision this one did.
They are demons, ones closer to their origins than most, driven by instinct, desire, and impulse. This landed them in prison, causing them to make selfish choices that broke the rules, but at the same time, it's a blessing that they are this way. Some part of their psyche realized that the little girl they stumbled across wasn't what she seemed at first glance, but instead something much stronger and more dangerous. It saved their skins in the end, even though they aren't consciously aware of that feeling's influence on their choice.
…
Henri POV
"Freeze!" one of my men shouts as we close in on a group we detected. It's some of the prisoners that escaped Ouroboros Prison in the midst of the disaster that unfolded.
But, there's something off about them all. The group of strong, dangerous, criminal demons is shivering and huddling behind a broken wall instead of fleeing, as expected. Their eyes are glazed over with terror as they stare at seemingly nothing, mumbling and muttering to themselves.
What in the Netherworld happened to them? They seem to be traumatized by something…
I am aware that some very strong monsters were summoned to the park before my arrival, but that doesn't seem to be the reason for the fear these demons are exhibiting. A mere summoned beast, even one of the power of the ones that terrorized Walter Park, would not be enough to strike mortal fear into demons like this.
"S-she's watching me. Golden eyes…piercing…staring…" He stuttered. "Always watching. Always."
I'm able to make out some of the words of one of the terrified prisoners, so I decided to probe them for more information.
But golden eyes? That immediately makes me think about a certain someone…
I know for a fact Rimuru Tempest is here at Walter Park since her entire class was caught up in this incident, but why and how would she terrify these demons to this degree?
But, I may just be jumping to conclusions; there are many beasts and demons that have golden eyes, not just that troublesome self-proclaimed Demon Lord that has attached herself to the only human residing in the Netherworld. I can't let myself make assumptions without proof after all, so narrowing my view at this point would be a mistake.
"Who is it that's watching you?" I calmly ask, staring the man in the eyes.
He seems to finally notice my presence after I put myself directly in front of him since he jumped back, startled.
"You can't escape! The blackness…it sucks you in and never let's go! Very deceiving…never would think…no, much more dangerous…soooo dangerous!" the man screeches.
He's making no sense, not answering my question at all, which is infuriating but also something I am used to as an interrogator. Though something concerns me, this demon is a hardened criminal who entered the prison sound of mind. It's nothing new to see demons attempt to fake insanity to get out of harsh punishments, but both my instincts as a demon and as an investigator tell me this isn't an act…just what could have happened to cause this?
I'm disrupted from my thoughts by sudden screams and panic of the escapees my team was rounding up, what stood out was "That monster is back!", could there have been a monster that appeared to cause fear instead of destruction? I frantically look around for any signs of the monster, my team and I can't see what is causing the terror, until we follow the terrified gazes of the escapees which land on a small child, wearing a bright yellow dress with silvery blue hair and golden eyes.
Rimuru? She's a lot smaller than when I last saw her, but undoubtedly the figure of a child before me perfectly resembles her, if only shorter.
"Monster? What makes you think I'm one of those?" she innocently asks. The sound of her voice causes the escaped prisoners to flinch, the fear in their eyes growing by the moment.
It's crystal clear to me that she's the source of their trauma, somehow, but I have no way of knowing what exactly she did to terrify a crowd like this so badly.
But…is this really Rimuru, though? The difference in size is a notable inconsistency…
Despite these demons' reactions to Rimuru's presence confirming my initial suspicions that she's responsible for their current state, I can't throw out the possibility that this figure isn't what she appears to be.
I juggle the possibility of this figure not actually being the person I know, being aware that there are creatures in the Netherworld that can mimic others in order to drop your guard before striking. It's not inconceivable for that to be the case here, so I need to tread carefully and pay close attention to her words to ensure this is really Rimuru.
I gesture for her to come closer, putting some distance between us and our team who's preoccupied with taking care of the prisoners.
"Who or what are you?" I sternly ask them with my eyes trained intensely on her reaction.
She tilts her head to the side slightly while peering at me, looking slightly puzzled by the question.
"You forgot me? I told you before, Mr. Henri…I'm Demon Lord Rimuwu…um, I mean Rimuru!" she cheerily answers, her voice a little higher and more childish in tone than normal.
The apparent Rimuru looks a little embarrassed after her small verbal slip-up, but quickly gets over it and gives me a kind-looking smile as her face flushes, its cuteness accented by her smaller-than-usual appearance.
"You still insist you are a Demon Lord? Well at least there is no doubt about it; you are who you look like. Why are you so much smaller, though…? No, more importantly…" I grumble quietly.
Taking a moment to recompose myself with a voice of authority I raise the question that matters most right now.
"Rimuru, tell me what you did to them," I demand, jabbing a finger at the cowering group of prisoners, too scared to move an inch.
"Uh…I just taught them a little lesson after they tried to kill me, that's all." she breezily answers, waving her arms a bit in what is presumably an attempt to appease me.
"A 'little lesson'?" I question.
"Uh-huh." she nods, not seeming like she's going to give any further clarification, crossing her arms.
I look at the scared demons again, this time assessing their physical condition, but as far as I can tell, it doesn't seem like they were beaten up or anything of the sort; the damage appears to be purely psychological.
The unusual situation made me almost forget something important. Rimuru and her class were here and so was my daughter but only Rimuru is present here.
"Where is Ameri!? Where is my daughter?"
Rimuru seems completely relaxed as she answers.
"She's safe and at a hotel…"
Before I can relax though she gets a cheeky expression, smiling at me as she follows up with the next statement, which as a father makes my blood run cold and then fire up in fury.
"…with Iruma!" she continues.
"...with…Iruma?" I question with thinly-veiled frustration leaking out, my glasses shattering into fragments as mental images flood my mind.
The idea of those two alone together in a hotel room crosses my mind, just making my rage grow further.
"Yup! She was SUUUUPER tired after using her special magic, so I think Iruma carried her up to the room!" exclaims Rimuru.
The words are like a knife to my heart, nearly making my anger burst out, shattering the calm demeanor I've been fighting to maintain throughout this conversation. My imagination is running wild, trending toward the worst possible things that could be going on between those two without me knowing. I'm filled with the urge to immediately go to that hotel, abandoning my job, just to satisfy my burning curiosity about what may be transpiring there between my daughter and that human!
"Just kidding~!" Rimuru's playful, teasing voice interrupts my frantic thoughts, snapping me out of my daze.
"What?" I coldly ask.
"He didn't carry her, but she did use her special magic. Also, the hotel is just where the class went and other people in the park after things calmed down, it's not like the two of them went there by themselves!" Rimuru explains while stifling giggles at my expense.
With how much this girl is teasing me, I can't be sure how much is embellished; the truth is just too intertwined with this fake narrative she's spinning. I really just need an excuse to check out the hotel before making any conclusions…then an idea comes to mind.
"I'm going to the hotel to interview the witnesses! Please handle these escapees here."
I announce this to my team as I rush off in pursuit of Rimuru, who is already heading to the hotel all by herself, not caring about leaving us behind.
From an investigative view, my decision is a valid action; the witnesses will still have a fresh memory of what just happened and are conveniently gathered in one place. This way, I can do my job as an investigator and my job as a father at the same time. More importantly, It's highly likely Rimuru has been interacting with the other escapees, she is one of the most important witnesses right now.
I catch up to her, leaving the captured prisoners to my team, and it doesn't take long to reach the entrance to the hotel. Rimuru opens the door herself, and I follow her inside. Upon entering there is a look of confusion on the staff's faces as Rimuru enters but she doesn't even pay them any mind and continues without pause. Then, as if she perfectly knows where to go, Rimuru confidently walks to a specific large room in the hotel; what looks like a communal area. It's filled with all of the students resting after the disaster.
But it's not just the usual students of the Misfit class…or I suppose it actually is, but there's still something amiss. Sitting together in a small circle on the floor is multiple small Rimurus, wearing an assortment of outfits. Five in total; six after the one I accompanied here joined them.
"So, how'd it go?" The Rimuru in black asks the one in yellow as she stands up from her cross-legged position.
"Mission accomplished!" the one in yellow enthusiastically replies, smiling and giving a double thumbs-up. "Oh, and I found Mr. Henri snooping around, so I let him follow me here. He's all worked up about Ameri."
She glances at me before returning her attention to her double.
They start chattering casually among themselves, not paying me any mind. This goes on for a few minutes with me growing less patient by the second as I wait for them to finally address me.
"Can someone please explain to me what is going on here?! I knew you were capable of making a copy of yourself, but this many?! And why are you all so small?!" I burst out after finally losing my patience.
It's exasperating to be ignored when such a crazy situation is unfolding before your eyes.
"Please allow me to explain, sir."
Alice Asmodeus calmly approaches me after noticing my consternation.
"To explain why Rimuru looks smaller than usual, it is a consequence of the number of copies she has running around at the moment. During the crisis, Rimuru did this so she could help the most people." Asmodeus explains with as much politeness as he could manage.
He then gives Rimuru a worried glance as if he isn't as sure of his own words as he may have seemed a moment ago.
"That is correct, right, Rimuru?" he cautiously asks the girl, specifically the Rimuru in black.
"Close enough," she responds uncaringly.
Something I made note of after entering this room is the absence of two people; Iruma and Ameri.
They better not be alone together!
I'm again getting riled up at the thought.
"Oh, they are," Rimuru seemingly answers my internal query out of nowhere.
"...What?" I ask, surprised and confused.
"What?" she asks back with a blank expression.
We just stare at each other for a moment, dead silent.
Did she read my mind just then? There's no other explanation!
"Did you just-?" I start to ask.
"Nope, that goes against my principles."
I suppose I wasn't hiding my thoughts as well as I first surmised…
It's embarrassing, but something I can live with. I will just need to be more careful about hiding my thoughts on this specific subject. I'm normally not someone to show my intentions on my face, but when it comes to thoughts of Iruma taking my daughter from me…
"Don'tcha want me to tell you where Ameri is? I know you do!" Rimuru continues, looking amused by my consternation.
"Fine," I reply, deciding to pretend what just happened never happened.
After that concerning interaction, Rimuru shares the number of the room where my daughter is. If I go off of Rimuru answering my internal question, those two truly are spending time alone together, which is a horrible thing to consider.
Reaching the designated room, I can hear voices from the other side of the door; two of them, to be exact. It seems that they are in there spending time together, doing who knows what.
I grasp the doorknob, about to enter, needing to know what's actually going on inside, but I stop myself, needing to collect my thoughts first.
Calm yourself, Henri…it truly cannot be as bad as you're imagining…you are letting your feelings get the better of you.
But as I'm taking a deep breath, I hear a desperate rustling and then a crash, causing me to immediately throw the door open, tossing out any self-restraint in the face of something happening to my daughter!
"What are you-?!" I shout, but what I see causes my words to fail me.
The room is a mess, items scattered about as if a fight just happened, a table flipped on its side, and things in general disarray, but that's not the main issue.
Before my eyes is something even worse than I pictured…on the floor are both teens, with that accursed human lying on top of my precious Ameri, pinning her to the floor!
Both stare at me with wide eyes that know they've been caught red-handed, we all stand there speechless for a moment, unable to get any words out because of shock.
**A Little Earlier**
Ameri POV
"Really? Here? What if someone finds out?!" I ask incredulously, honestly thinking that it's a bad idea to do such things in a public place like this.
"C'mon, Ameri! It'll be fun!" Iruma urges, wearing his usual warm smile.
After escaping the massive flood of park guests, we all retreated to the on-site hotel owned by the same man that runs Walter Park.
I'm both exhausted and stewing on a lot of things, and sweet Iruma is concerned about me, even though he's clearly just as tired as I am.
"Honestly, I'd love to, to release some stress, but I don't have it with me."
"Oh…yeah, I didn't think of that…wait, let me ask Rimuru!"
"Why would Rimuru be carrying around a volume of First Love Memories?"
But Iruma's already running off, suddenly brimming with energy at the idea of helping me.
He runs up to the group of Rimurus (for some odd reason she hasn't dispelled those clones of hers, so they are just grouped together, sitting on the floor) and taps the one in black on the top of her head from behind.
Rimuru stands up and follows him over to me. Without another word, she reaches into her coat and pulls out the exact volume that we stopped on last time Iruma and I had a reading session together.
"Go have fun, kids," she says with a smirk while discretely passing the book to me.
"Why do you have this?!" I ask in a harsh whisper, holding the volume up in her face. It's already crazy that she's somehow been able to copy it from my secret stash, but the fact that Rimuru just happens to have the exact forbidden text on her person is just insane!
"If you don't want it, I'll just take it ba-" Rimuru starts to say.
"I never said that! You just…today, you have done so many inconceivable things that I'm struggling to deal with it all." I quickly explain.
"Oh woooow…look at this, Ameri, this one has color!" Iruma exclaims after somehow taking the forbidden text from me while I was preoccupied.
And he's right, all the illustrations on the inside are vibrantly colored instead of being in the normal black and white.
How?!
I give Rimuru a piercing, questioning glare, but she just lightly chuckles and smirks in response, thinking my exasperation is amusing, I'm sure
"I spruced it up a bit for you, as a favor, so you better appreciate my hard work!" Rimuru quips.
With that, she just walks away and sits back to her spot on the floor, done talking with us.
Iruma then excitedly pulls me out of the room so we can find a spot to read. We can't have anyone else seeing us, after all, so going off on our own is a necessity.
We end up in the hotel room Iruma was assigned. I was a little hesitant at first, but he reassured me that it was fine. It's probably for the best since nobody should bother us while we're in here.
After getting comfortable sitting on the bed in the room, Iruma sits next to me and begins reading. We had pulled a small table closer so he could rest the book on it, making it easier for him to position it in a way we could both see.
His voice fills me with happiness and I latch onto every word, completely engaged in the story. Just being with Iruma is blissful enough, but this alone time is especially enjoyable. This really is my favorite pastime, one that I'm glad to engage in after such a trying day.
But, just when I've almost put today's events out of my head, filling it instead with Iruma's words for the moment, I hear something. It's footsteps, which isn't unusual considering where we are, but those footsteps are recognizable to me.
My father is here, and not only that but he's headed right for this room!
"Iruma, hide the book!" I urge him desperately since he's the one holding it.
"What?"
"Someone's coming!"
"But…I locked the…oh no, I forgot to lock the door!" Iruma says, a horrified expression spreading across his face.
That just makes this situation even worse!
I'm truly panicking now…what if he finds out I've been reading the forbidden texts, let alone reading them with someone else! What will happen to Iruma?!
I scramble to my feet, intent on locking the door, but as I do, Iruma stands up at the same time. The table in front of us gets knocked over, toppling at both of our feet, which I wasn't expecting. So, the next thing I know, I'm falling, tripped by the table, and about to hit the floor back first. And, in my desperate attempt to catch myself, I grabbed onto Iruma without thinking!
He goes down with me, landing on top of me with our faces mere inches apart, pinning me to the floor accidentally with his hands. The closeness of our faces makes my face turn hot, remembering the last time I was in a similar position.
While helplessly lying on the floor, the door to the hotel room flies open and both of us immediately look in the direction of it, still stunned from the fall.
"Hello…Father." I sheepishly greet him as he stands in the doorway, staring at me with a horrified face.
"H-hi Mr. Azazel…" Iruma shakily greets him too, looking very embarrassed.
*CRACK*
The sound of shattering glass fills the room and visible cracks form in the glasses of my father. This only happens when he's very upset.
Oh no…
And not just that, but the window to this room as well; all have broken after taking the brunt of his shock and horror.
"Iruma…" Father says in a scarily dark tone, clearly furious with him.
"It…it was an a-accident! I'm so s-sorry for falling onto Ameri! I didn't mean to!" Iruma desperately apologizes, looking to be on the verge of tears.
Iruma not-so-gracefully stands up, nearly falling again in the process and I do the same, minus the almost falling over again part.
"He is right, Father, we both just tripped," I explain in as calm of a voice as I can manage.
He eyes us both suspiciously, not seeming to be convinced by my explanation, and after a moment of tension, he just sighs and pushes up his now miraculously-fixed glasses.
"I suppose I can believe you… I just came to verify your safety, Ameri. After seeing all that devastation…I was concerned you got injured."
"Other than being tired, I am perfectly fine, I promise."
"As long as you are unharmed…" he trails off, looking conflicted. "I will leave you alone to rest…just don't do anything ill-advised."
"Of course."
And with that, he leaves, causing both Iruma and I to breathe sighs of relief.
"Thank goodness he didn't see the forbidden text…"
I know that this copy isn't one of the ones I was entrusted with, but explaining how I got my hand on a separate copy is even worse. The idea that I copied one, or that I allowed someone else access and asked them to copy it for me…both are horrible things that I wouldn't want my father to think I did.
But, I don't see the book on the floor.
"Where did it go?" Iruma asks out loud, also seeming to be looking for the book.
He quickly gets down on the floor while I pick up the fallen table, not wanting to leave the room in this state.
"Oh! Hahaha, it's probably a good thing it ended up under here!" Iruma exclaims as he reaches under the bed and pulls out the book. It must've slipped under there, hiding it well enough that it wasn't noticed by my father a moment ago.
"Yes, I was very worried just then…maybe we should call it a night with the reading."
"Yeah, maybe. Uh…I'll make sure that manga gets back to Rimuru, alright? See you later, Ameri!"
"See you then, Iruma."
Henri POV
After that…encounter, I'm feeling a headache coming on, but I still have a job to do.
Damn that Iruma…using my daughter to catch himself after falling! The audacity!
Even if the situation wasn't what I thought it was at first glance, I am still irritated by what I saw. It was extremely hard to walk away, but I don't have the time to be meddling when there isn't a huge problem. Either way, my daughter is safe, despite everything that happened earlier, and with that, I'm relieved.
After reaching the common area I was in before, I approach the circle of Rimurus, intent on questioning her.
"Oh look, Mr. Henri's back!" the Rimuru in yellow cheerfully states.
"I need to ask you some questions about today's events, Rimuru," I say, sweeping my gaze across the group, not really sure which Rimuru to address. But, I swear I counted six earlier, yet there are only five standing in front of me now. Yellow, green, blue, purple, white…but I'm missing the one that's wearing black.
"Sure."
"Yeah, okay."
"Aw, man…I don't wanna!"
"But we have to, right?"
All of them answer differently, talking over each other, making it hard to understand.
"Wow, Mr. Henri looks a bit flustered! I wonder what happened~!"
"Maybe it has to do with Ameri!"
"Yeah, she's all alone with Iruma right now. I'm surprised he left those two alone again!"
"Stop!" I shout to stop them, knowing that if I didn't they'd just all keep going.
"Ooooh, now he looks mad."
"Yup, he's definitely mad."
"Mad at you, yeah."
"Wait, me?"
"No, you!"
"Hey, you're the one being annoying, not me!"
"But annoying Mr. Henri…it's kinda funny, isn't it?"
"Yup, I think it's funny."
"I do too."
"He's all tomato-faced with anger!"
"I said…STOP!" I again stop them with a loud command, and they all go quiet.
"Now…which of you is the real Rimuru? All but one of you are just clones, yes?" I ask since I think that is how her ability works. Ameri told me a bit about it at one point or another, but neither of us completely understand it.
" " "Me!" " " all five answer in perfect unison.
I don't have the patience for this…
"But can we just talk tomorrow?"
"Yeah, tomorrow is better."
"I think so too. I wanna eat first."
"Dinner is soon, I think."
"Oooooh, food!"
"I hope it's yummy!"
"I'm sure it is, this place is all fancy-schmancy, so I bet the food is too!"
They all start talking about food, ignoring me completely now.
My head is now pounding from dealing with all this nonsense; maybe it's for the best to just wait until tomorrow.
"Yes…we can talk tomorrow…" I grumble as I walk away from the group of Rimurus.
"Wow, we scared him off."
"No, I think he's just tired."
"Super tired…can you blame him, though?"
The babbling continues, but I stop listening to it all.
With all this nonsense from multiple Rimurus, I think I'll just call it a night on my investigation. My team is still out there capturing escaped prisoners and the questioning that I plan on doing can wait until the witnesses get a little rest, I think.
