Ash's panic kicked into high gear as the adventurers closed in, clearly mistaking him for a wild, exotic monster. This is so not how I wanted today to go, he thought, inching backward ever so slightly.
The girl knelt down with a gentle smile, reaching out a hand. "Hey there, little guy. Are you friendly?"
Ash considered his options. He could reveal himself and risk blowing his cover—or do nothing and maybe get scooped up and taken to a guild like a weird little trophy. Not ideal.
Then Gido, the taller of the two men, stepped forward, hand already drifting toward his sword hilt. "Just to be safe, we should subdue it before it gets aggressive."
Okay nope nope nope, Ash thought, inwardly screaming. He bounced once, then twice, and took off rolling in the opposite direction as fast as his slime-body would carry him.
"Hey! It's running away!" Kaval shouted.
Ash zigzagged across the field, dodging spells and startled squirrels alike. I am not getting bagged and tagged like some shiny Pokémon today!
Suddenly, a tree root tripped him—or, well, as much as a slime can trip—and he tumbled head over blob into a shallow ditch. He sat there for a second, stunned, then slowly started oozing back up.
"Ugh… this day just keeps getting better," he grumbled, voice bubbling slightly through his slime form.
A second later, he sensed the adventurers closing in again. Alright. Time to end the act. He reformed into his human shape in a flash of dark light, standing tall (and very mildly dirt-covered), arms crossed with a sheepish but sharp grin.
The three adventurers skidded to a halt, eyes going wide.
"You—you were the slime?!" the girl gasped.
"Yep," Ash said, brushing some dirt off his hoodie. "And uh… sorry for the scare. Misunderstanding, I swear."
Kaval blinked, stunned. "Wait. Aren't you… Ash Ketchum? Like, the one Rimuru named recently?"
Ash gave an awkward chuckle and a thumbs-up. "That's me. Still figuring out the whole shape-shifting, power-slinging part of the job."
The group looked between each other, jaws slack. Gido was the first to regain his composure. "Well… you're really good at pretending to be a monster."
Ash smirked. "Yeah, and hopefully I'll be just as good at not getting kidnapped by surprise training sessions." He muttered the last part, glancing off toward where Milim had taken his clone.
The girl laughed. "Tempest is wild. I love it."
Ash nodded, sighing as he ran a hand through his hair. "Yeah, welcome to my life."
He paused, then added with a wink, "Hey, next time you see a rare slime out here… maybe don't try to capture it?"
Kaval scratched his head. "Noted."
Ash stretched, glancing toward the horizon. "Alright, I should probably go rescue my double before Milim accidentally suplexes it into another dimension."
"Need help?" the girl offered, half-joking.
Ash laughed. "Nah, this one's on me. But thanks."
And with that, Ash took off toward the training grounds—hoping his clone was still in one piece and very much not regretting his life decisions… too much.
Milim was laughing like a maniac in the middle of the clearing, fists flying through the air with terrifying speed. The ground around her was absolutely wrecked—craters everywhere, shattered rocks, even a few trees leaning at unnatural angles.
"Come on, Ash!" she beamed, eyes sparkling with joy. "You're doing way better than last time! You've almost dodged, like, three punches!"
The Ash clone—completely silent and visibly cracking at the edges—sidestepped another shockwave-infused fist by sheer instinct. Its copied hoodie was torn, its copied expression stuck in a permanent wide-eyed look of please someone help me. But still, it didn't speak, didn't break character.
Just kept dodging.
Barely.
Milim twirled once and sent a sweeping roundhouse kick that narrowly missed the clone's head and obliterated a nearby boulder.
"Yeeeeeee!" she shouted, fist-pumping into the air. "Isn't this fun?! We're bonding, Bestie #2!"
The clone stumbled backward, tripping over a small rock and tumbling down onto its back. It didn't get up.
Milim blinked, walking over and crouching beside it. "Huh? Are you tired already? That's okay, we can take a break. I brought snacks!"
She plopped down cross-legged next to the clone and pulled out a bag of sweets from her dimensional storage. "Here! I got honey buns, dango, some weird spicy chips Veldora likes, and—oh, look, Ash, your favorite!" She held out a chocolate-covered éclair with a huge grin.
The clone stared at it.
Milim tilted her head. "You're awfully quiet today. Usually by now you're doing your whole 'Whoa! Milim, slow down!' bit or telling me I'm crazy strong." She narrowed her eyes in mock suspicion. "Wait a minute... you're not secretly mad I beat your dodge record, are you?"
The clone just blinked.
Milim leaned forward until their noses were almost touching. "Aaaaash... are you being all emotionally distant again?"
The clone—knowing full well it was about one more punch away from ceasing to exist—slowly shook its head.
Milim squinted at it. Then she gasped, springing back in horror. "You're sick, aren't you?!"
The clone nodded quickly. Oh thank the heavens, she bought it.
"Oh noooo! My bestie is sick and I was punching you!? What kind of friend am I?!"
The clone looked skyward as if whispering a quiet, grateful prayer.
Milim scrambled to her feet. "Don't worry, I'll fix this! I'll go find Rimuru, or maybe Shuna, or bring you, like, a hundred recovery potions! Or—wait! I could try that healing spell I saw once in a manga!"
Wait, what? The clone jerked up, suddenly worried.
"Okay, stay right there!" she said brightly. "Don't move! I'll be right back!"
And in a boom of air pressure and sparkle dust, she rocketed into the sky, heading toward the main town.
The clone slowly collapsed back into the grass like a broken puppet, twitching gently.
Moments later, real Ash arrived at the edge of the clearing, huffing, his hoodie half-zipped and slightly damp with panic sweat.
He saw the destruction.
He saw the scorch marks.
He saw the half-buried clone staring dead-eyed at the sky.
"…Oh my god," Ash whispered. "She broke you."
The clone slowly turned its head and fixed him with a look that somehow said never again.
Ash winced, helping it to sit up. "Okay, okay, I get it. My bad. I'm retiring you after this."
The clone nodded, very firmly this time.
"Also, we need to get out of here before she tries 'magic healing'."
They both looked toward the sky.
"…Run?" Ash suggested.
The clone stood up and started jogging off before Ash even finished the sentence.
Ash rounded on the clone, pointing an accusatory finger. "You traitor!"
The clone, who had just plopped down on a rock trying to emotionally recover from its near-death bonding session with a Demon Lord, didn't respond. But if it had a voice, it'd probably be yelling, "You threw me to the wolves!"
"Don't give me that look!" Ash continued, hands flailing. "You nodded! I saw you nod when I told you to stall her!"
The clone tilted its head, silently judging.
Ash sighed, raking a hand through his hair. "Okay, fine, maybe I should've expected Milim to go full Ultra Instinct on you. Still, next time I need you to commit just a little less to the bit."
Suddenly, a sonic boom cracked through the air as Milim re-entered the scene like a comet, landing with a wild gust of wind that blew back Ash's hood and nearly knocked both him and the clone off their feet.
"There you are!" she grinned, holding up an armful of shimmering potion bottles. "I got seven different kinds! One of these has to cure your weird quiet sickness thing!"
Ash froze mid-scold, his eyes locking onto hers with a deer-in-headlights look. "Milim! Uh—hey! You're back!"
She jogged up and squinted at him. "Wait a sec… you're feeling way better now." Her eyes narrowed, suspicious and sharp. "Did you fake being sick to get out of training?!"
Ash laughed nervously, stepping back a little. "Whaaat? Me? Fake it? Nooo, I was just… uh… temporarily… emotionally overwhelmed."
The clone took this moment to quietly dissolve back into a puddle and retreat behind a bush.
Milim gasped. "Wait. There were two of you?!"
Ash flinched. "Look, Milim, I can explain—"
"Nope!" she grinned, cracking her knuckles. "You tricked me, Bestie #2! That means DOUBLE training!"
"W-Wait—Milim, I—"
"Time to work off that guilt!" she declared, stepping into a battle stance. "Let's goooo!"
Ash panicked.
Without a second thought, he melted back into his black slime form and launched himself like a skipping stone across the clearing.
"BYEEEE MILIM!" his slime voice echoed as he bounced off a rock and flew toward the trees. "SORRY NOT SORRY!"
"OH NO YOU DON'T!" Milim yelled, her eyes lighting up with glee. "YOU'RE NOT GETTING AWAY THAT EASY!"
She took off after him, explosions of wind and dirt marking her every step as she blitzed across the field at absurd speed, laughter echoing behind her like a sonic boom of doom.
Ash zigzagged through the forest, dodging branches, squirrels, and existential regret as he bounced wildly in pure survival mode.
"NOTE TO SELF," he muttered, barely dodging a rock she threw with terrifying accuracy. "Never mess with a Demon Lord who thinks sparring is a love language."