Uncanny Valley | Rimuru x Arifureta

「 ✦ Rimuru Tempest ✦ 」

The full moon was beautiful tonight.

I sat on the piled ruin of what used to be the Water Sprite Inn, staring up at that perfect silver circle hanging in the star-filled sky. The lake stretched out in front of me, its surface like black glass reflecting the moonlight in shimmering ribbons. It was peaceful. Serene, even.

Too bad I was broke as hell and sitting in the ruins of what had been a perfectly good inn.

Daisy had claimed my lap as her personal bed, curled up in a little white loaf with her silk scarf still somehow perfectly arranged around her neck. She was purring softly, completely unbothered by the fact that we were now homeless and probably famous homewreckers—literally.

Lucky her.

"Seriously, what is their problem?" I muttered to the night air.

Don't get me wrong—I understood being upset about the labyrinth thing. That whole encounter had been a mess from start to finish. But the way I remembered it, they'd been just as hostile to me as I'd been to them!

It wasn't like I'd jumped them for no reason—they were suspicious as hell, clearly dangerous, and in a place where everything was trying to kill everything else. We were all trying to survive in that hellhole, we all made questionable decisions, and we all walked away alive.

Case closed, right?

Apparently not.

"Equal opportunity hostility, right?" I said to the moon. "We were all in survival mode."

So why couldn't they just let bygones be bygones? I'd even tried to be friendly tonight! A simple hello, maybe catch up on what they'd been doing, compare notes on surviving in this crazy world. Instead, I kept getting blasted to the face.

I ran my free hand through my hair, messing up the ponytail and probably making myself look like I'd stuck my finger in an electrical socket. The silver embroidery felt cool against my fingers as I tried to work out the knots of frustration building in my chest.

"They thought of me as a wall that needed to be overcome," I said to Daisy, who opened one blue eye to give me a look that clearly said are you seriously talking to me about your problems right now? "A ceiling, apparently. Treating me I'm some kind of final boss they need to kill before they can win the game."

The logic was... well, I could understand it, I guess. Somewhat. If you're trying to get stronger, you naturally want to measure yourself against the strongest thing you've encountered. And if that thing kicked your ass once, you probably want a rematch to prove you've grown. Basic human—or whatever they were—psychology.

But that didn't make it acceptable. Or sane. Or even remotely logical.

"It's bullshit, Daisy," I said, earning another judgmental look from my baby. "Just because you can understand someone's motivation doesn't mean you have to put up with them trying to murder you over it."

I leaned back against the rubble, staring up at the stars. The night was getting cold, but I barely felt it. I had bigger problems to worry about.

Like the fact that I was completely, utterly, spectacularly broke.

The food had been expensive. The carriage ride had been expensive. Hell, Daisy's designer cat carrier had cost more than a decent house. And now I was sitting in the ruins of a building I'd paid repairs for, with no immediate source of income and a lifestyle that required a steady flow of funds.

I sighed and scratched my hair again, probably making it look even worse. The frustration was building, that familiar itch of annoyance that came from dealing with people who refused to be reasonable.

The idea that they were out there somewhere, training and preparing for another confrontation with me, was unsettling. Not because I was worried about losing—tonight had proven that gap was still astronomical—but because it meant they weren't going to let this go.

If they were still this hostile the next time we met, I'd have to kill them.

The realization sat in my stomach like a chunk of ice. I didn't want to kill them—hell, I didn't really understand why I was so reluctant to kill them when it would clearly be self-defense at this point.

Any reasonable person would consider that grounds for permanent solutions.

Maybe it was because they were the first people I'd been able to have an actual conversation with in this world. Even if that conversation had mostly consisted of violence.

But that seems like a pretty flimsy reason to keep sparing people who were actively trying to murder me. I shrugged, trying to push the thought away.

Whatever the reason, my patience wasn't infinite. If they kept this up, if they kept putting trying to fight me just to satisfy their weird power fantasy, then sentiment wasn't going to save them anymore. Sentiment was a luxury I couldn't afford.

"This world is exhausting, Daisy. Everything's either trying to fuck me, fuck with me, or use me to fuck something."

She purred in response, which I chose to interpret as sympathy.

"Whatever," I said out loud, the word carrying all the exhaustion and frustration of the evening. Daisy had gone back to sleep, and the lake was still and silent under the moonlight.

Tomorrow would be a lot of work. But tonight, I was just going to sit here with my cat and watch the moon. Sometimes that was all you could do.

··—–—⚜—–—···

「 ✦ Hajime Nagumo ✦ 」

My hands were still shaking.

I tried to hide it as I checked Shea's injuries, but the tremor in my fingers gave me away. Three hours passed since we'd escaped, and I could still feel the phantom pressure of his presence coiling around my throat.

"How bad?" Yue asked quietly, floating just above the rocky outcrop we'd taken shelter behind.

"Couple of cracked ribs, maybe a concussion," I muttered, running my hands over Shea's skull. The rabbit girl winced but didn't pull away. "Nothing that won't heal, but she shouldn't be moving around too much."

"I'm fine," Shea said, though her voice came out strained. "Really. Just... really sore."

We'd made it to a cave at the foothills of the northern mountain range, far enough from Lake Town that we could breathe again. The rocky terrain provided decent cover if that monster decided to track us down, though I wasn't sure it would make much difference.

"Fuck," I muttered, setting the gun down harder than necessary. The metallic noise bounced off the cave walls in an echo.

Shea huddled herself against the far wall, her ears drooping in a way that made her look smaller than usual. Yue sat cross-legged near the cave entrance, staring out into the darkness with that expressionless mask she wore when she was thinking hard about something.

"Are you two okay?" I asked, though I could see the answer written all over their faces.

"Define okay," Shea said quietly. Her voice had a tremor in it that she was trying to hide. "Because if you mean 'are we alive,' then sure. If you mean anything else..."

She trailed off, wrapping her arms around her knees. I'd never seen her this shaken up before, not even when we'd first met and she was being hunted by both men and monsters.

"We're alive," Yue said simply. "That's what matters."

"Is it?" Shea looked up at us, her eyes wide. "Did you see how easily he handled us—all of us—at the same time?"

"Yeah. He barely tried," I said, the words tasting bitter. "Both times. In the labyrinth and tonight."

"I really thought we were going to die," Shea's voice cracked. "I mean, he threw you through a district, Hajime-san."

"I know." I rubbed my ribs where the impact had nearly cracked them. No, my ribs really are broken. "Trust me, I feel it."

Yue turned to look at us with her golden eyes. "He didn't use any of his more dangerous cards. Nothing that could have ended the fight instantly."

"You mean he has more?" Shea squeaked.

"Much more," Yue said calmly.

There was a silence, and I found myself thinking back to every moment of the fight, analyzing it like I would any other tactical situation.

"He looks so delicate… so adorable," Shea said, her ears twitching nervously. "Like a strong wind could blow him over. But when he grabbed my hammer, it just shattered like glass."

I remembered that moment. The sound of Shea's weapon—forged from the strongest materials we'd found—breaking like it was made of crystal.

"Appearances don't mean shit when you're dealing with someone like him," I said, managing to stifle an awkward laugh. "I should have known that from the labyrinth."

"At least we lasted longer this time," Yue offered.

"Did we?" I asked. "Or did he just let us think we did?"

That was the question that had been eating at me. Had we actually improved, or had Rimuru simply been more patient this time around? The fact that I couldn't tell the difference left me uneasy.

The cave fell silent again. Outside, I could hear the wind picking up, carrying the scent of snow from higher up the mountain. It would be dawn soon, and we'd need to figure out our next move.

"Hajime-san," Shea said quietly, "why didn't you use Limit Break? I mean, I know it's risky, but..."

I was about to answer when Yue spoke up instead. "Because we wouldn't have been able to escape if he had."

Shea looked confused, so I explained. "Limit Break triples my physical abilities for a short time, but when it's over, I'm completely drained. Can barely move, let alone fight or run."

"And if Rimuru had been serious about killing us," Yue added, "we would have needed every second we could get to escape. A few minutes of a power boost wouldn't have been worth being helpless afterward."

"Besides," I said grimly, "I'm not sure it would have made a difference. I don't think Limit Break would have been enough to keep up with him either way."

Shea shuddered. "Right. How fast was he? I couldn't even see him move."

"No idea," I said. "You know what the really fucked up part is? If there hadn't been civilians in that inn, we wouldn't have lasted thirty seconds."

"Half that," Yue corrected.

Shea made a small whimpering sound. "This is insane. How is anyone supposed to fight something like that?"

"You get stronger," I said simply. "You find weaknesses. You adapt."

"But what if there aren't any weaknesses?" she asked.

"There are always weaknesses. Even for that thing. We just need to find them. We've faced impossible odds before. This is just another wall to break through."

"Another wall," Shea repeated, her voice hollow. "Hajime-san, that wasn't a wall…"

I stared at her in silence. Maybe she was right. Maybe Rimuru was so far beyond us that it was pointless to even try. But I'd never been one to back down from a challenge, no matter how impossible it seemed.

"We'll figure it out," I said.

Yue gave me a small smile. "That's why I love you."

"Both of you are insane," Shea muttered, but there was fondness in her voice. "Completely, utterly insane."

"Yeah, probably," I agreed. "But we're alive, and that means we haven't lost yet."

"Is that really how you see it?" Shea asked. "After what just happened?"

"That's how I've always seen it," I said. "You only lose when you're dead or when you give up. As long as we're breathing, we can still win."

"Even against someone like Rimuru Tempest?"

"Especially against someone like Rimuru." I picked up Donner again, feeling the familiar weight of the weapon in my hand. "He's the ceiling. The absolute limit of what's possible in this world. Which means if we can beat him..."

"We can beat anything," Yue finished.

"Exactly."

Shea looked between us, her ears slowly starting to perk up again. "You really think we can do it? Eventually?"

"I know we can," I said. "It might take months, or years, or whatever."

"He seemed different tonight though," Yue said thoughtfully. "In the labyrinth, he had this... murderous thirst for vengeance around him. Like he was genuinely angry about something. Tonight, he seemed almost confused by our aggression."

That was something I'd noticed too. In the Orcus Labyrinth, Rimuru had felt dangerous in a way that went beyond his power. There had been something cold and merciless about him. That's what made us certain that he wasn't human.

"He even tried to talk to us."

"Which is why he probably held back even more than last time," Yue said. "He didn't want to kill us."

"Why not?" Shea asked. "I mean, we attacked him first."

"Good question," I muttered.

"Maybe he's changed?" Yue suggested.

"Does it matter?" Shea asked. "Either way, we're still outclassed by about a thousand levels."

"It matters because it means he has limits," I said. "Emotional ones, if nothing else. And limits are something we can work with."

I leaned back against the cave wall, feeling the cool stone against my back. My body ached in places I didn't know could ache, and my pride was in tatters, but my mind was already working on the problem.

Rimuru was powerful, yes. Probably the most powerful being in this world. But he wasn't perfect. Tonight had proved that much. He'd let sentiment affect his judgment, had held back when he should have ended things quickly. That was something we could use.

"Next time," I said quietly.

"Next time," Yue agreed.

Shea sighed. "You two are going to be the death of me."

"This is what you signed up for," I said with a grin. "But at least it'll be interesting."

We were still alive. Which meant we hadn't lost. And as long as we hadn't lost, there was still a chance to win.