BONUS:
Amiche and Luffie Are Slowly Making Friends
LUFFIE’S PERSPECTIVE
I PULLED BACK THE CURTAINS and was greeted by another sunny day. Opening the window with a yawn, I stretched my arms high to the ceiling.
“Ooooh…feels good.”
I loved the feeling of stretching my back.
“Peh!”
I turned to look at Ponyu, who was doing the same yawn-and-stretch movements from the basket it slept in.
“Good morning, Ponyu.”
“…Peh!”
I wandered over to Ponyu and gave its head a gentle pat. “We’ve got work today, so let’s both make it a good one, okay?”
“Peh!”
Today marked the three-month anniversary of me working on my relationship with Ponyu. Progress was slow, but things were moving in a good direction. I’d been so lost and bewildered at first, but now those early days were fond memories.
“Okay, let’s eat breakfast and get ready for work.”
“Peh!” Ponyu followed me to the kitchen. “Peh! Peh!”
“Okay, okay, hold your horses.”
I shot a sheepish grin at the overly excited slime and filled a pot a bit larger than Ponyu with hot water. Once the water was the right temperature, I picked up Ponyu and put it in the bath.
“Pehhhh.”
I chuckled softly at Ponyu’s contented cries. Its favorite thing lately was baths in the pot.
About half a month ago, Ponyu had gotten all muddy from the rain. I was going to wet a cloth and wipe it clean as usual, but Ponyu was just so filthy that I filled a pot with hot water and put the slime in instead. And Ponyu seemed to love it, because the next day, it hopped into the pot and looked up at me expectantly.
“Does that feel good?”
“Pehhhh.”
After a simple breakfast, I wiped Ponyu dry and we left the house. I checked out the town as we made our way to the dump. It looked like another ordinary, peaceful day.
“Good morning.”
Amiche and her tamed slime Lulu weren’t there today. She had to take the day off to help her family.
“Hi, Luffie.”
“Good morning, Ashra.”
Ashra, a tamer ten years my senior, glanced to my side inquisitively. “Where’s your girl?”
My girl? Oh, he must mean Amiche.
“She’s taking the day off to be with her family.”
“Oh, okay. You’re not usually by yourself, so I was surprised.”
Am I really with Amiche that much? Yeah…I guess I am. We’re always together at the dump.
“So, um…how’s it going?” Ashra asked.
“Huh?”
I tilted my head, confused about what Ashra meant. He leaned over and gave the slime next to me an awkward look. Was he asking me how my relationship with Ponyu was going since I changed the way we interacted?
“Ponyu didn’t respond well to me at first, but now we’ve become great friends.”
“Huh, interesting.”
Ashra looked at Alulu, the slime by his feet. Maybe he wanted to change his relationship with it, but twenty years was a long time to walk on a path. It didn’t seem like taking a step away would be easy.
“You can start with little things, like a gentle pat on the head,” I said.
“Are you sure about that?”
“Yes.”
Ashra moved his hand cautiously toward Alulu, who stared intently at it.
When Ashra’s fingers were almost touching the slime, his hand froze in midair.
“My seniors told me first impressions were really important,” Ashra explained. “So I did as they said and disciplined my slime from the first day…”
I’d heard the same advice the day I received my taming skill. Hitting your tamed monsters from the very first day was the best way to get them to obey you. That method had never seemed right to me, but I knew no other way, so I treated Ponyu terribly.
“Ponyu is incredibly compassionate,” I insisted.
“What?” Ashra gave me a shocked look.
“So Ponyu forgave me for all the stupid things I did before—well, maybe forgive isn’t the right word. I think I’m still on probation? I don’t really know, but Ponyu is openhearted enough to be with me in spite of it all, so I’m sure that Alulu is also a very kind, forgiving slime.”
We’d heard about a tamed slime that suddenly disappeared from a village somewhere. Conventional wisdom said that tamed monsters never ran away, but that wasn’t true. They only stayed with us because they were kind, nothing more. So surely, they could abandon us anytime if they chose to.
“Huh…maybe you’re right. If Alulu is sticking it out with me, it must be very forgiving.”
“That’s right. So the best we can do is to apologize for the way we’ve behaved and thank our monsters for staying with us.”
“S… I’m sorry, Alulu.”
Alulu looked up silently at Ashra as he apologized. There wasn’t a bit of emotion on the slime’s face, so it was unclear what effect Ashra’s apology had. All Alulu did was stare intently up at him.
“Ah…”
Ashra stood there and stammered, not sure what to do. Alulu just stared back.
“Alulu…can I touch you?” I asked.
Alulu looked at me. No reaction.
Hmm…I’m not sure if that’s a yes or a no.
“Um, if you don’t want to be touched, can you wiggle a little? Okay, here we go.”
I slowly reached out to Alulu. Then I gave its motionless head a soft pat.
“Thank you for letting me touch you,” I said.
Alulu was still staring intently at me. Ashra looked back and forth between us, an anxious expression filling his face.
“Alulu didn’t respond to me, but it didn’t object to my touch, either. I think we can assume that’s a good thing.”
Since Alulu hadn’t jiggled in protest, I knew that it was okay.
“Pehhh!”
I felt a shock in my head when I heard Ponyu’s voice.
“Agh! Huh? Ponyu, what’s wrong?”
Ponyu, who’d jiggled over to Alulu’s side, looked angry.
“Pehhh! Peh!”
Yeah, definitely angry. Um…what do I say?
I felt a slight jiggle under my hand on Alulu’s head. I looked down to see the slime was jiggling.
“I’m sorry. Did you not like that?”
“Pehhh.”
Huh?
Ponyu’s gaze moved from Alulu to my hand.
Wait a minute… Is this what I think it is?
“Ponyu, are you upset that I was petting Alulu?”
Ponyu’s gaze darted away from me in a huff.
I was right!
“Oh, Ponyu, you’re so cute.”
I picked up Ponyu and held it tight, but something felt strange. Amiche’s slime Lulu never acted like this.
“Aha!”
Then I looked at Alulu and noticed the slime’s expression had changed a little. A closer look revealed a little smile. It looked…satisfied?
“Peh?”
I looked down at Ponyu in my arms. “I can tell your Alulu is a very sweet slime,” I said.
Ashra gave me a bewildered look.
“Ponyu got mad at me because I was petting Alulu’s head, so Alulu picked up on that and signaled for me to take my hand away.”
That was why Alulu had jiggled after the touch. Though the slime had spoken without any emotion in its voice, I could tell Alulu was a compassionate one.
“You think so?” Ashra asked. “Huh… So Alulu is kind…”
Alulu’s gaze shifted a little when Ashra said that. What emotion was that? It had been so subtle I couldn’t tell.
“Thanks, Luffie.”
I looked at Ashra in shock. With a stern crease in his brow and a solemn look in his eye, he gently petted Alulu. It was a very strange sight to behold.
“I’ll put in the work to make our relationship like the one you and Ponyu have…no matter how long it takes.”
To make their relationship like ours?
“What does our relationship look like to you?” I asked him.
“How should I put it…?” Then he suddenly cut himself off in a quiet chuckle.
Huh?! What’s so funny?
“I think you’re Ponyu’s plaything, Luffie.”
I was dumbstruck.
“Peh!”
I looked down at Ponyu in my arms. It stole a coy glance at me and looked away, then it jiggled.
“Ponyu.”
Ponyu seemed to understand Ashra’s words perfectly.
“Are you laughing at me?”
I’m not entirely sure, but it looks like laughter to me… Oh, and now it’s stopped.
“Do slimes even laugh?” Ashra asked.
“I’m not sure, but that looked like laughter to me.”
“Yeah, I saw it, too.”
Ponyu looked at Ashra and me, then bounced out of my arms and onto the ground, looked at us, and jiggled.
“Are you laughing again?” Ashra asked.
I nodded faithfully. “Yes, I just think it looks like laughter, don’t you? But that means Ponyu is laughing at us, doesn’t it?”
We silently stared at the slime. I was happy to get to know a new side of Ponyu, but I had mixed feelings about being laughed at.
“Pfft!”
I looked at Ashra… Now he was laughing.
“Nobody’s ever given a serious thought to the inner workings of a slime. And here we are, pondering over whether or not slimes laugh.”
“Pfft! Ha ha ha!”
I had to admit it was a ridiculous thing to ponder.
“Hey there. Today makes three months, right? How’s it going with Ponyu?”
I looked up in surprise at the question to see Chase, my senior tamer, with a solemn look in his eye. He was holding his tamed slime, Izu.
“We’re getting along very well,” I told him.
Chase nodded faithfully in reply.
I looked at Ponyu and smiled. Little by little, more and more tamers were changing the way they interacted with their monsters, and it made me incredibly happy.
“Peh!”
I looked over at Ponyu just in time to see it jump into my arms. I fumbled to catch my creature, and Chase and Ashra looked at the two of us in awe.
“I’m jealous. Hey, Izu, you should… No, it’s me. I’ll change for you.”
Both Ashra and Chase would change starting now. I would have some good news to give Amiche on the way home from work today.