Aoki POV

I am sitting on Rimuru's lap again, but this time, Rimuru has moved onto one of the couches in the office, and has turned one of the walls into a shiny black surface, called a screen.

After doing some magic on the screen, it started playing images that I could tell weren't real because they were just magic illusions, none of the things displayed were actually happening.

Rimuru called it a "movie," but I think it would be more accurate to call it "fake" based on what Rimuru had taught me about speaking the last few days.

"Star Wars is the best option, I think. If you really want a movie that is mature enough for her smarts and also family friendly." Masayuki, or as he wanted me to call him 'Uncle Uki,' was trying to convince Rimuru of the next 'Movie' we'd watch.

"I just don't know if that is right for Aoki, it still has implied death in it." Rimuru still seemed very reluctant.

"Rimuru, I think your kid has killed someone before. I am not gonna lie, she just gives off that impression." Uki shrugged. "I'm sure it'll be fine."

"Hey! Rude! How could you say something like that? How would you even know my darling has ever hurt anyone!?" Rimuru held me tightly and patted my head.

Uki's eye color changed and he seemed to get a little serious. "Let's just call it 'hero's intuition.'"

Rimuru began to grumble loudly, and then huffed. "Maybe, maybe. You could maybe be right, but she probably doesn't see it that way." After that he picked me up and set me up on his shoulders. "But that doesn't mean they need it to be explicit in the stuff they watch."

Uki chuckles. "Well, they should be fine with it either way. Do they even understand death yet?"

"I tried explaining it last week… but they didn't really get it." For a moment it seemed like Rimuru was using Thought Communication on Uki.

The reason I say so is because Uki visibly paled, and looked away for a moment while whistling. "Well… I think that just affirms my point. Surprised that kid is still walking around now, though."

"He'll be fine. I think Aoki has a soft spot for him now." Rimuru patted my head again, but he did need to reach up to do it.

"Whatever you say. I still think Star Wars is the best idea. It is a classic." Uki gave me a thumbs up, before grinning. "Wouldn't you agree, Aoki-chan?"

"I don't know what a star is, but I think the name sounds interesting, because I think I know what a war is. That is when a lot of people kill each other for reasons, right?" I began patting Rimuru's head, hoping for him to be the one to answer the question.

"That isn'- You know. Stars are really cool? They are really big balls of plasma, and they fuse elements in their cores. That's what makes them shine. Those little dots you see in the sky? I'm not sure about the ones in this world, but in most worlds that's how they work at least." Rimuru grabbed my hand so I would stop patting him.

"Can we go see one before we watch the movie, then? I wanna see one really close, so I can analyze it." I also felt the urge to eat it, because it sounded really powerful.

"You look hungry… How about we get snacks? Then I'll put on the movie." Rimuru was getting anxious at my thoughts, somehow. I could tell because we were in contact.

"I win." Uki seemed to smile really bright at Rimuru.

…

"Is that a demon lord?" There was a big dark figure on the 'screen,' and he was levitating the humans around and killing them with a sword made of light.

"No, he isn't a demon lord."

"But aren't demon lords people who are dark and strong?"

"Yes, but he isn't."

"Other people call him a lord though."

"Well, he isn't. He doesn't have any skills."

"Huh? How come? He was clearly throwing people around. How would you do that without skills?"

"He is using the force that they talked about before."

"I thought that was a skill. If it isn't, does that mean I can use it?"

"The force isn't real."

"Then why would they say it is in the 'movie?'"

"Because, the movie didn't really happen. It's fictional. There are things like the force in other worlds, but in the world the movie is from, there is no force."

"So they have skills in that world?"

"No."

"How do they use magic without skills? That sounds really hard."

"They don't use magic in that world either, not enough magicules in that world."

"How do they live then? Shouldn't they die without a lot of magic?"

"They don't need that much, souls and creatures from other worlds are very efficient in their use of magic."

Uki finally cut off our argument, about the lying fake movie. "Um. Rimuru, can we unpause it? It has been five minutes."

"Hey, Uki, do you think I could use gravity manipulation to do that choking thing that fake demon lord did?"

"Hm." Uki paused for a minute. "Probably could, but Rimuru might get mad. So you shouldn't."

"HEY! DON'T TELL MY KID THAT THEY CAN FORCE CHOKE PEOPLE! If you slip up like that again, I'll force choke you!"

That led me to believe that Rimuru had done it before.

I really wanted to know if it was effective or not. "Can you do it? I wanna see if it works."

Uki paled again, seeming to get scared over nothing. Force choking wouldn't work on him anyway, I knew that. He didn't need to breathe. "I don't think Grynd would like that very much."

"Eh, I dunno. Your 'Grynd' tends to dote on me quite a lot."

"She'd still be mad, plus only she can do that kinda thing to me."

Rimuru slapped Uki in the face.

After that the door broke open with a small burst of orange flame from the other side.

Rimuru froze up for a moment, before seeming to lose that tension in his back.

"Rudra, why didn't you tell me you'd leave! I woke up without you! And you were spending time with Aoki without me?! How could you?" She began doing what Rimuru referred to as 'pouting.'

This is someone Rimuru had told me about, but I hadn't really seen yet. Rimuru was spot on in describing her. My other Aunt, Velgrynd.

Uki raised his hands into the air. "I'm sorry! I didn't wanna bother you with you being asleep! You were arguing with your sister for days, it really didn't feel right to wake you up over something so casual!"

The true dragon huffed and looked away for a moment, before walking over to us, and sitting next to Uki. A few moments later, she pulled the True Hero into her lap.

Velgrynd's eyes locked onto me, and they flashed a brighter gold for a long few seconds. I could feel the analysis she was using on me, with that same skill Velzard used before. "The little one figured out how to use human form, that must've taken some restraint being born as powerful as they are." She used a rather high pitched tone, so it sounded kinda like when Rimuru 'doted' on me, as he called it.

"Aha. I don't know if it really took restraint for them." Rimuru was incorrect.

"It did." In this case I wanted to correct him, I still didn't like being in human form. It still felt very restricting.

"Mmm. I guess you still don't like how much it holds you back, do you?" Rimuru grumbled a bit again. "I was hoping you'd get over that."

"It is only natural Rimuru, you gave them many traits of a true dragon. Any form but their true one will feel restraining." Velgrynd smiled brightly.

"I think it's just a slime thing. Aoki isn't anything like a true dragon, haha. That'd be a bit far to say, especially when she's so young." Rimuru pat me on the head and pulled me a bit closer, and I got a protective feeling from him.

"Ah. I get it." Velgrynd turned away. "Well, say whatever you like, little brother. For now though, would you mind if I take her out for the day? Me and Velzard finally managed to come to an 'agreement' on how we will approach this. Since she got to see the little one being named, and snubbed me on it. I get to spend time with them first."

"I guess… She doesn't have any training today, so it should be fine. I just don't want you leaving the city."

"Good, then we can finish watching the movie. Is this Star Wars? I still remember the first time Rudra frantically had me watch this with him."

…

The moment the credits ended with that little scene playing after it, my 'aunt' walked over and lifted me out of Rimuru's lap.

Rimuru seemed reluctant to let that happen, but wasn't able to respond to it quickly enough to stop it from happening, or at least it seemed like he couldn't.

Mother sighed and looked over to Uki before looking back at Velgrynd. "You can take her, but make sure you are very careful. Aoki is pretty strong, but she can still be hurt by lots of things in Tempest."

Velgrynd nodded and hugged me to her chest. "Your child will be safe with me, I'd kill anything that tries to harm her."

That word again, 'kill,' the thing I wanted to do to Iruma. I still wondered why Rimuru thought I didn't understand it, it just meant getting rid of something, right?

"Send anyone that's a problem directly to me and I'll take care of them."

"I see… very well, Rimuru, I will do that." After giving Rimuru an affirmative on letting him kill anyone who is a threat to me, my aunt walked out into the hall and asked a question to me. "Would you like to walk for yourself? I can carry you anywhere you'd like, but children tend not to like being carried in my limited experience."

I nodded, and got set down. I stretched out my legs, letting them liquify a bit to make sure they hadn't dried out while I was sitting still for so long. I'd managed to have that happen when sleeping in my human form the night before. I think it is because the human form is so lanky, and not very good at holding water, like my slime form.

Velgrynd seemed to be thinking hard while walking through the halls, the first thing she actually said only coming up right as we got to the main entrance of the palace. "I am not sure what a child like you would enjoy doing."

I think this is what Rimuru called a 'prompt' in my language lessons, when someone is asking a question with a statement.

"Maybe you like fighting, like Veldora? The labyrinth would be the best place for that. I could take you there." She looked down at me, and expectantly waited for a response.

I didn't really like fighting though, so I didn't respond. Fighting is an act of necessity, what is most important isn't the fight itself. It is winning.

"Hm…" Velgrynd frowned softly and looked forward again. "Rudra and I took a group of children to an 'amusement park' that Rimuru created here in Tempest, it was for a field trip from the imperial academy. Children seemed to quite enjoy the simple thrill of the 'rides' even if they were by all accounts safe."

"What is an amusement park?" I hadn't actually heard of anything like that before, but from the description it sounded like something you went to for the experience of specific emotions.

"It is a place with 'rides' which you use to experience something similar to fear, or more accurately. I think it is the feeling of overcoming fear. It is an admirable experience to seek out, so I can understand the feeling." Velgrynd seemed to affirm my suspicion, and provide additional context.

I nodded at her explanation. "Why did you do that, though?"

"Hm? Us escorting the children on the field trip was Minet's idea, and taking them to the amusement park was Rudra's. I didn't expect to enjoy it at the time, but the children impressed me. They can be a flame of joy, in the right situation." I didn't really understand what my Aunt was talking about, but she sounded fond of these memories, so I decided not to question them further.

Instead I decided to look out on the streets, but did take notice of it being stormy outside. I expected this was Veldora's doing. However I didn't fully understand the purpose of the storms at the time.

Noticing my gaze, Velgrynd said something new. "You seem interested in the sky. You should be capable of flight, if you'd like to go see the clouds closer up? That would probably be best too, for you to learn to fly."

I considered the idea for only a moment, as I knew that knowing how to fly would make me a lot safer, if I ever did fall from a great height, or needed to escape quickly. "I would like to learn to fly."

Velgrynd smiled, picked me up, and shot into the air. It was very fast, but she had a good grip on me.

Now, looking around, I saw the clouds. We were now at the same elevation as them. I was close enough to analyze them now.

This is just water and magicules… I was expecting more. I thought there would be a spell behind their creation, but they seem to be a natural phenomenon. With how interesting the clouds initially seemed, I was hoping to learn something useful from analyzing them, but all I figured out was that I was fully capable of making them myself beforehand and that the process was very simple.

What was interesting, though, was what I could see below us. I had never been able to see this much of the city before and it was nice to finally see the scale of it. Mother must have worked very hard to build this.

"Ah, yes, the city of Rimuru is quite beautiful, isn't it Aoki? If Baby Brother wasn't so crafty about protecting it back during the war between the East and West a few decades ago, I would've burned it to the ground! Good times, good times…"

I felt a little bit 'angry' about the idea of that, Mother put a lot of effort into the city, clearly. It was very 'pretty' as Mother would say, and I didn't want to imagine it being destroyed like that.

Velgrynd seemed to see the frown on my face too, even without looking. She must have magic sense too. "Ah, I guess it is a bit of a rude thing to say. Alright then, changing the subject, since you are learning to fly, do you have any powered flight skills?"

I thought over what skills would be the best for flying, and I concluded the best would likely be Gravity Manipulation, since I wouldn't need any specialized body parts to use it. Meaning I didn't need to disgrace my near-perfect form any further.

"I would like to use gravity manipulation." I spoke softly, since it was a bit cold up here.

Velgrynd smiled brightly. "That skill should be perfect, plus it means you won't need wings for this. Good choice."

I nodded. "What do I need to know first?"

Velgrynd smiled a bit more brightly, causing me to get a bad feeling. "First you need to know how to land. Use Gravity Manipulation to stop your fall."

"What fall? We are floating steadily at this altitude." I didn't understand what the True Dragon meant, until I felt the sensation of weightlessness. I was no longer being supported by her arms.

I could see the clouds quickly rush away from me and back into the sky.

I was falling.

I felt my body shake and I tried to reach out for anything I could grab onto, my entire subconscious was screaming at me in fear.

It was the first time I'd felt real fear since I was named.

I could see the ground rapidly approaching me, and I was going to hit it if I didn't do anything. That was a scary thought to me, I wasn't sure what would happen. Not exactly. I knew I could survive it, but having been split up in the past I knew how cripplingly painful it was.

I reached out for my skills, trying to find the one I'd said I'd use, and it took me a while to actually get a-hold of gravity manipulation with how stressed I was. So I used Parallel processing to control it for me without my subconscious screaming. It did mean that I didn't see what was happening with the part of my mind using the skill, but it was almost necessary.

I barely managed to charge the skill with energy and tell it to counter-act gravity on myself as I was a dozen meters from the ground of the street below me. Those damn rocks will always haunt me from now on.

More than that though, I never want to go up that high. Never again.

I was slow enough by the time I got to the ground, that I was caught by someone, right out of the air.

I was surprised to see it was the True Dragon that had dropped me in the first place. "You did a good job, Veldora crashed the first few times I dropped him from that height."

I was still reeling from the feeling of the fall, unable to really speak again for several minutes. It was also painful to remerge the two parts of my mind, with how quickly I had created the split. It wasn't clean. "I… Don't want to learn to fly anymore..."

My aunt sighed and kept a tight hold of me, but I did notice she wasn't standing as proudly as she had been before. "I can understand that, I should've probably said something before I did that. Alright, I'd prefer if you were smiling. So, let's go to Rimuru's amusement park instead."

I nodded, I did sort of like the idea of learning the feeling of overcoming fear after… that.

"Maybe Veldora would like me a bit more if that was an option after his lessons… aha…" She wasn't really able to get the same cheerful tone she had before, so instead she just ended up carrying me to the park in silence.