Chapter 2: Hinata Scary

Aoki POV

I sat on Rimuru's lap silently, he seemed not to want me to leave. I didn't mind that though.

"Didn't you say… Morning is training time?" I looked Rimuru in the eyes, which said that he was seemingly pleading for something. It was unusual.

"I just don't trust Hinata, okay?" He sighed. "Not with you at least, I trust her with Iruma. Not with you though." He held me a little bit tighter.

"That is fine." I didn't mind if I got to stay with Rimuru, especially because Rimuru said that the human that had the really strong aura was Hinata and that she would be the one training me.

As a result, I got to stay that way for several minutes. I can beat that Iruma as I am now…

Eventually, though, the time with Rimuru was ruined entirely by the human with the scary aura. She slammed the door open and spoke loudly. "Where is your kid, Rimuru? You spent all that time convincing me to train Iruma, so I need your kid to show up too. That was the agreement."

Rimuru hid me under what I had realized was called a coat after analyzing it. "You can focus on Iruma for the time being."

"I can still sense the slime." The human sighed and seemed to just lean against the wall and look at the ceiling. "I can wait all day, I am sure your subordinates will try to get you to do something important after long enough though."

"What do you mean? I am the only slime in the room." That was another incorrect thing from Mother, as there were actually four slimes in the room. I would need to deal with the weakest two soon.

"I actually sense two." It seems the human was incorrect as well, but I could forgive them because the other two were hard to sense. I needed to use thought acceleration to notice them.

Mother sighed, as he uncovered me. "I don't have all day for this, but I will be watching you with Universal Perception! I want no funny business…" After saying this he set me on the desk in my slime form.

"Who do you take me for?"

"Someone who nearly killed me in the past and might do the same to Aoki here."

Hinata made a strange motion with her eyes.

"Stop being an overprotective parent. You know I am training them both within the Labyrinth, so there is no risk of that."

"What if Ramiris messed up the bracelet? Or just doesn't have enough magicules and can't revive Aoki? Veldora slacks a lot!" Mother seemed to be making a lot of weird statements.

"Now you are just being irrational, Rimuru. Hand over the slime."

"I'm not giving you Aoki! Not yet!"

"Hand. Over. The. Slime."

"I don't need to do that if I don't want to."

I decided that even if Hinata was scary, getting stronger would still be good. I could learn Hinata's power, allowing me to counter it. At least, that was the plan.

So I hopped off the desk and toward the human, before taking my own human form.

"I understand how much Mother is worrying, but I would like to learn to be stronger." I used all my effort to make sure I didn't slur my words at all.

"Mmmm. I guess being able to speak at such a young age is just a monster thing. Also, Mother?" Hinata did a weird motion with the patch of hair above her eyebrows.

"How many times do I have to tell you not to call me that, Aoki…? Call me Father, or Rimuru."

"Mother is Mother. Why shhould I say ssomething that is wrong?"

"Come on…" Rimuru let his face slam into the desk in front of himself.

I made sure to put on all my clothes based on the instruction of Father, by pulling them from my stomach and onto my body. Although I made a few small mistakes.

"Hmph." Hinata went to pick me up.

However, I dodged out of the way. "No."

"I can't lead you to the labyrinth if I can't carry you, you won't be fast enough." She tried to pick me up again.

"Only Rimuru can hold!" I dodged out of the way again.

I wasn't able to dodge the third time though, as I was picked up by the clothes. It was a deadly trap that I needed to be wary of. "Alright, let's go. I don't think I should keep the Iruma boy waiting."

Hinata looked at Rimuru, "Since your child is being such a problem, mind giving us a shortcut? I'd rather not drag Aoki through your city like this."

Rimuru groaned and motioned with his hand and the path in the air it took warped. I could see somewhere else on the other side.

I stared at it, finding it interesting. I didn't know exactly what Mother did, but it was not something easy.

[Analysis…failed. Analysis…failed. Analysis…failed. Analysis…failed…]

I began to get a little bit angry. So I began to employ more of my skills at once, it may have hurt a little bit but that was fine. I used something called [Fortune's Eye] that seemed to be a subskill of [Magic Sense], alongside my intrinsic skill, [All of Creation].

[Skill name: [Spatial Domination]]

What is that? Explain.

[Unknown.]

I huffed and pouted a bit. However, I didn't know that was what it was called at the time.

And soon after I was dragged through the portal to a stone door with weird engravings and dropped onto the ground. In front of me, I also saw Iruma. "You."

The human made a weird motion with his arms, before doing that smiling thing. It was oddly endearing, however, I would not be fooled. "Hello, Aoki!"

I attempted to hide my intentions, so as not to scare him away like many of the things I chased in the past. "Hello." I parroted his word, trying not to stumble with it.

"I heard over the phone that you'd be joining me… Just go easy on me, alright? I'm only human. I'll try to teach you everything I know though!" He made a wider smile while turning to Hinata. "What room in the labyrinth will we be using?"

"The same one we used yesterday."

"Alright. I suppose I'll meet you there." Iruma tried to walk off ahead, almost going into that weird door before Hinata grabbed one of the pieces of his clothes on the top of his back.

"No, don't walk out ahead. You'll need to get used to the child's presence. She isn't the most dangerous monster you interact with regularly." Hinata then made a weird exhaling noise before turning to me. "Come on, I don't have all day for this, unfortunately. I'd have liked more time."

She? Is Hinata referring to me with that…? Is that accurate? I was puzzled for a few moments before following along while lost in my thoughts about it.

I followed them to the door and got a little confused when I got to it. I couldn't see the other side using [Magic Sense], even once it was opened I still couldn't see the other side. I had to use the Human eyes to see the other side.

That was immensely unusual.

And as I stood there, and shortly after Hinata yanked me through it by the top part of my own clothes I realized it was separate somehow.

The inside was completely different from the solid behind the door before, it was a large tunnel of stone and bits of vegetation.

It seemed very useful for hiding, I wanted a skill like that of my own. I couldn't find who had made it though, so there was no way to figure out the name.

Instead, I just ended up silently following Hinata all the way to another room, which seemed to have an assortment of things that held other things. Analysis told me they were weapons, of various kinds.

In the center of the room was a small area shielded with a cube of magic energy.

"I had the labyrinth staff turn this on, just in case things get out of hand. I didn't need to worry about that yesterday, but today is different." Hinata paused for a moment and looked at me. "First of all, I want you to demonstrate your skills, at least the ones you'd find yourself using often."

"Does Aoki really have so many skills to not need to use them all often?" Iruma seemed to not have many himself if he was speaking like that.

Hinata did the nodding thing. "Knowing Rimuru, his child likely has hundreds of skills they haven't used yet."

Iruma looked at me with a little glow in his eyes, or at least what sorta looked like one. "That's really impressive! I only have a few skills, but I hope to learn more if I can. Do you think you could help me with that, Aoki?"

It was more endearing than I was expecting… And it lent well to my own curiosity, I wanted to learn more skills myself to get stronger. So seeing that in someone else gave me mixed feelings.

I couldn't process them at the time though. "I." After saying that I went quiet, and just closed my eyes to use [Thought Acceleration]. However, I didn't really come to a conclusion like I was hoping to.

"Sorry! I didn't mean to make you anxious!" Iruma stepped back a bit and pressed his fingers together. "You are here to learn too, so I shouldn't expect so much of you. I just think you are a lot like Rimuru, so I kinda assumed."

Being compared to Rimuru and complimented, if I knew the word right, both felt really nice and oddly made me feel a little bit stronger.

"That's enough, you'll both just confuse each other more." Hinata stared at me for a few moments after saying that but then looked between us again. "So, show me your skills."

I raised my hand to get Hinata's attention again. "Rimuru told me not to use most of my skills without his permission…"

Hinata did the sighing thing and relented. "Fine, give me a moment to think of something else.

After that, she led us both into the barrier. "Alright, I've got it. I'll stay inside the barrier with you for now, but I want to see you both just pick an attack that you'll be practicing today. Pick something you know you are allowed to use, Aoki."

I decided to make an attack off the top of my head since I wanted to use some of my magic skills. For the time being, I used one of my intrinsic skills, [Demon Magic], as it was called. It has a lot of things it can do, including some stuff regarding souls. I didn't really care about any of that though. I just wanted to see what would happen if I did the opposite of what Auntie had done.

Auntie Velzard had made the air really cold, and that seemed pretty effective, but I have the idea that maybe I can do the opposite of that and turn it into an attack too.

So, that's what I ended up trying to do, using my aura and Demon Magic to make the air really really hot. Immediately, I saw the air begin to crackle in front of me as a small orb with black wispy tendrils rising off of it forms out of the hot air.

What Analysis told me was fire, and to be specific Black Flame, had some weird properties to it. I attempted to use one of my other intrinsic skills, All Of Creation, to see what else it could do.

What I ended up with, was knowing that it was created from lower-level elemental magic, storm magic, and demon magic attributes. I also knew it could damage spiritual entities like demons and spirits.

I didn't really get the implications of all of that, but I did know that it was sorta dangerous based on what Rimuru had told me, since I was a 'spiritual entity,' or at least that is what I was told by him, and by my own analysis.

"This is an attack, correct?" I looked up at Hinata.

Hinata's expression changed to something I had seen before only when we were fighting with our auras. "Yes, but please be careful. Dissipate it now."

"Woah…" Iruma was also staring now, but with an expression I had never seen.

"I can try." I attempted to tell the magicules to stop making fire, trying to put in more magicules to get them to stop.

Apparently, that was incorrect.

The entire barrier was immediately filled up entirely with the Black Flame as the magicules ran away without me giving them specific instructions.

And it… hurt. Properly hurt. Not a normal sensation, actual pain. It wasn't as bad as being born, but it was real pain. It immediately caused me to fall to the ground and grab at my face.

I felt after a few moments that my face got wet and I wanted to just curl up and turn back into a slime.

After that, I felt myself getting picked up. "Mmm. You aren't badly hurt at least. Don't do something like that again." It was Hinata, holding me, she had seemingly destroyed the fire herself, as all the magicules inside the barrier were gone now.

I couldn't sense Iruma in the barrier anymore either.

"What happened?" I asked tentatively, as my magic sense had been completely overtaken by a buzz of unintelligible information.

She did the sighing thing, before setting me down. "Don't do something like that again. You expended a lot of power, much more than that and I am sure your parent will notice, and I'd rather not that happen."

I looked around the room with my eyes and saw Iruma was back in through the door with a smile. "Haha! I guess I got knocked back out of the room. You are really strong, Aoki."

I tilted my head to the side and looked at where he had been standing before. "I guess."

I wasn't entirely sure he could get out the door at that angle, but then again I wasn't sure what happened the moment the [Black Flame] exploded.

"Get over here, Iruma. I want you to show me what you have in mind before Aoki learns better control." She spoke softly but it seemed like she may have still been angry.

So for the time being, I just looked away and focused on a different way to dispel magic. Specifically, I made a small black flame on my fingertip that seemed harder to lose control of. Then I pulled all the magicules from it.

That seemed much better at making it smaller, and soon it disappeared completely.

"I could try to do martial arts, like punching and stuff. My Body Boost skill should make me good at that." Iruma began speaking to Hinata from the other side of the square barrier.

"That wouldn't work very well against what she just did, would it?" Hinata's tone changed again, but I couldn't place the meaning behind it again.

My senses started to come back as magicules seeped into the room, and I was able to clearly see Iruma again, even while facing away.

He scratched the back of his neck. "I guess not, but would attacking Aoki really be the best idea?"

"Aoki is the only sparring partner you have at the moment, so you'll need to find a way to do that, yes." Hinata nodded, before turning back to me. "I told you to stop, but at least you figured out how to turn it off." She huffed, before walking back to where she had been standing in the middle of the barrier area.

"Uh… Well, I don't know any magic like that here… I could try to throw rocks though? There is a lot of rubble in here from the past couple of days, and that seems better than trying to punch someone who is on fire." Iruma walked back into the barrier and started collecting some of the stones on the ground.

"That sounds fine, but do at least try to put a bit of your aura into them. Otherwise, they won't do a thing." Hinata pointed at me again. "Monsters like them usually can't be hurt by physical attacks."

"I can't do it! How could someone throw a rock at such a cute face…" Iruma fell to his side on the floor.

Hinata had been trying to convince him to throw the rocks at me for two hours after he had practiced channeling his aura into them so they'd actually be able to hurt me.

Once actually getting to the part where we'd start fighting each other though, Iruma couldn't do it.

On the first sparring attempt, he just ran away the entire time. On the second attempt he just ended up leaving the barrier and refusing to come back in so that he didn't need to attack me.

There were a few more after that, but they all went about the same way, with small differences.

"How will you actually learn skills that are useful for defending others if you refuse to fight? I understand that Aoki looks like Rimuru, but sometimes even people you know well can become your enemies." Hinata yanked him back into the barrier so that we could try this again.

"Well, I can't just hurt someone innocent! Aoki has never hurt me on purpose." Iruma said something that wasn't exactly true. I'd tried to hurt him on purpose. Many times.

Hinata looked back at me again. "I don't care anymore. Aoki, come and try to hit him with your fist until he fights back." She then stepped away from Iruma after giving me permission to attack him.

It was my opportunity to prove I was better and more deserving of all of Rimuru's attention. So I wouldn't let it pass me by.

I ran straight toward him and tried to punch him in the face while he was still on the ground.

I wasn't expecting him to be able to dodge, even if I was holding back.

Still, I only managed to scrape him. He had managed to dodge, just barely.

It made me feel a little bit angry.

"Aoki! What are you doing?" He looked pale in the face, as it had gone from a pinkish color, to almost white.

I just smiled though, as Shuna had before when telling me not to do something.

His face paled even more as he tried to run away while dodging more of my punches. Soon I added some kicks to try and immobilize him.

Eventually, I did manage to catch his heel and send him spinning onto the ground.

"Aoki! Please stop!" He began to frantically grab around him while trying to scurry away.

So, I approached slowly, not wanting to twist Hinata's instructions. I knew I did need to give him a window to actually 'fight back.'

I began to get ready though, to punch him in the gut, as hard as I could tell his body could take without doing a lot of damage.

I stopped though.

When a rock hit me in the face.

He had actually thrown one at me.

"Alright, that is enough. Stop now, both of you."

A few hours later, we were finally back in Rimuru's office. I was sitting in Mother's lap, clinging to his clothes.

Rimuru patted me on the head while speaking to Iruma and Hinata. "So, how did it go? Ramiris told me that she sensed a lot of fear inside the first floor of the labyrinth earlier."

"Sorry about that," Hinata spoke quietly enough that I was sure they were talking about Iruma.

"I was a bit scared, but it wasn't that bad. I think we both grew a bit." Iruma was also quiet, even if a lot less quiet. "I learned how to use my skills a bit better, and finally managed to attack someone without flinching away like I normally do."

"Oh! That's good… Though I do know you probably mean Aoki, I'm fine with that." Rimuru clenched his fist under the table. "I know you can't hurt them."

"Ah…" Iruma seemed to be able to sense Rimuru's anger like me for a moment. "Yea… Definitely didn't hurt Aoki though. They are way too strong for me!"

At least he knows his place.

"What else happened, Hinata? If Aoki didn't get badly hurt, I'm hoping Iruma didn't either?" Rimuru looked back over at Hinata again.

"To be frank, I am impressed he only died once," Hinata spoke flatly.

I peeked my head over the desk, to see Iruma completely pale.

"I… Died?" He looked completely, what I would later learn is called, mortified.

"Ah… Yeah. If she saw it, you definitely did. Guess it happened too fast for you to notice. That's for the best though." Rimuru shrugged. "Also isn't nearly as bad as real death. The labyrinth seriously reduces the pain. Makes dying more like getting an arm cut off, or even less if it's fast. Kinda like a game over screen, and you even respawn like you would in a game."

"Rimuru!" Iruma stood up immediately, his eyes wet. "That's not the right thing to say right now!"