WE TURNED MY DAUGHTER BACK INTO A HUMAN
“I never thought it’d be because she slept wrong…”
To be honest, it was a pretty stupid reason.
It was a relief to hear it wasn’t the symptom of a serious disease, but I didn’t think I’d hear such a run-of-the-mill answer.
“Yes, she did indeed. It’s not a joke,” Wizly said with a smile.
The way she said it suggested she was aware of how silly it sounded.
“This slime is typically in the form of a human, but she hurt herself when she slept in the wrong position. I understand that her body cramped up.”
“So slimes get cramps, too…”
“Due to that, it became difficult to maintain her human form, so she turned into a slime. And because she was born in human form, she never knew how to change back. So she’s been like this ever since.”
I had never seen Falfa as a slime before, so “she doesn’t know how to change back” was a pretty fitting answer.
“Then… Then how are we supposed to get the cute Falfa back?!” Beelzebub pressed.
“Instead of searching for a way to turn her back into a human, perhaps it would be more appropriate to say you are searching for a way to keep her human form.”
To keep her human form…
I kind of get it, but I kind of don’t…
“Demon, have you ever had trouble recognizing someone who usually wears heavy makeup without any?”
“Plenty of times.”
Wow, so that happens to demons, too…
I’d thought how different some people looked without makeup, like on girls’ trips and stuff.
“This is similar. This slime’s human form was her makeup. And since she doesn’t know how to do her makeup herself, she can’t turn human again.”
To me, makeup didn’t seem powerful enough to make slimes look like humans, yet the metaphor was easy enough to understand.
But still, how were we supposed to make that a reality?
We could powder Falfa’s face right now, but she would just become a powdered slime.
“Hmm, is there no quicker way? For example, couldn’t you cast a Transformation spell on her to turn her into a human?” Beelzebub asked.
“Yes, I was wondering the exact same thing.”
Once Falfa was in the form of a human and could hold a conversation, all would be back to normal.
“In theory, yes, but once the effects of transformative spells wear off, they must be cast again, and since transformative magic is just changing form, she will need training in order to, say, speak or write with her hands.”
Sure. Her morphology would be that of a squishy slime that just looked like a human, so we couldn’t expect her to speak. Even SS couldn’t hold a conversation.
“But you’re speaking and writing, aren’t you, Wizly?”
“I had to practice for more than ten years to accomplish this. Even when I did change my form, my real self was that of a slime. I couldn’t speak or write as much as I can now. It took me a whole month to be able to walk on two legs. Therefore, it’s inefficient in many ways.”
The more I heard, the more I understood how many problems there were with this solution.
“Additionally, since transformative magic turns the person in question into the form they envision, it’s possible some parts of her could be different from before. She may be shorter than she used to be, or her expression could be different. Various discrepancies.”
I got what she was saying.
They didn’t even have photographs in this world, so it would probably be difficult for Falfa to be exactly as she had been before.
“Even my own face and body are completely different from what they were a hundred and fifty years ago. It’s like an artist whose style changes as they draw.”
Oh, so like that thing where the character images in a long-running manga look one way in the first volume and then totally different by volume twenty.
“I understand very well why it’s no good. So why don’t you tell us what the best possible thing for us to do would be?”
Beelzebub was being unusually forward. Emergencies like this always brought her kindness to the forefront.
“Of course. The quickest way would be for this slime to remember her own form and understand that is how she can return to her old self. In essence, it’s not magic but shaping herself.”
“And how should she shape herself?”
“In this case, it would be best to ask one who has kept a human form learning martial arts. You should ask for instruction from the Fighter Slime.”
“The Fighter Slime?! That exists?!”
How deep did the slime rabbit hole go…?
“Yes. The Fighter Slime obtained its body through physical activity, not magic like I did. I believe you should learn the techniques from it.”
So shortening the Fighter Slime’s name would make it FS.
“So where will we find this Fighter Slime?”
Wizly’s expression clouded over.
Wait, you don’t know?!
“The Fighter Slime is always traveling the land in order to perfect its art, so it doesn’t have a permanent address…”
“I can’t believe this… It’s way too much work to search the entire country… I’ll have to make wanted posters like I did with Halkara…”
So we have to go stirring up panic again…?
“Oh, but the Fighter Slime always vows to train in the street and interact with others, so you may find it if you investigate town by town. It should also have a name for use in human society as well.”
Phew! It had a name; that made this much easier! It would have been much too difficult to ask around after a slime-looking martial artist.
“Its name is actually Fighsly.”
The naming style was practically the same as mine!
And so we took the next step in our search.
We headed back to the house in the highlands to make flyers inquiring after Fighsly.
We also enlisted Flatorte to help, and we pasted them all over different towns.
Falfa’s little sister, Shalsha, would be taking care of her until we found this Fighsly character. To be precise, she would put her in the bath to wash her and all that. “She’s covered in dirt and dust, so we have to clean her,” she’d apparently said. Well, Falfa was typically plopping along on the ground.
And when Shalsha brought vegetables to her for dinner, Falfa absorbed them into her body to digest.
It was unclear where her digestive system even was, but we could see whatever she had absorbed into her body slowly breaking apart, so she was eating.
“It doesn’t have to be cooked food, because she can get nutrients from the dirt and weeds around her. That’s why slimes grow everywhere. They hardly need anything like what we would call a meal.”
“Now that you mention it, Wizly didn’t have a kitchen in her house.”
She probably got her nutrients from the earth around her. At that point, we probably didn’t even need to call it “eating.”
“But eating dirt and weeds makes my sister sad, so I want to feed her,” Shalsha said, placing a salad on top of slime-Falfa.
As I watched the interaction overflowing with sisterly love (?), Beelzebub flew into the dining room, flapping her wings like she couldn’t contain herself.
“We found Fighsly!”
“Yay! We’ve practically solved the problem!”
“Yes!”
I jumped forward, too, and Beelzebub and I shared a high five.
All we had to do next was ask this Fighter Slime.
“Fighsly was spotted in a town in the south called Kerney.”
“Let’s hurry and meet Fighsly!”
“We’ll have Laika fly us there!”
But then Beelzebub’s expression clouded.
“Well…I told it about our situation ahead of time…but it said it didn’t want anything to do with worldly affairs. Apparently, it seeks nothing but strength. It said it’s not a physical therapist, so it can’t help us…”
Wait, wait, hold on. We’re already grasping at straws here, so we aren’t going to just immediately back off after that.
“If he’s in a town hating those ‘worldly affairs,’ doesn’t that just mean he’s being influenced by the world anyway? I don’t see why this isn’t okay.”
“Incidentally, Fighsly is in Kerney to participate in a martial arts tournament.”
“A tournament!”
I could feel a flame erupt in my chest.
When I was a kid, I often read fighting manga that had big martial arts tournaments in them. I read girls’ manga, too, of course.
“Is the tournament still accepting participants?”
“Are you going to join…?”
I nodded right away, just as Beelzebub was finishing her question.
“So if I show Fighsly that I’m stronger than him, I think he might listen to us. If I join the tournament, then we’re both martial artists, right?”
Of course, he was the one making the final judgment, but we should at least get the chance to talk.
Actually, I didn’t really know why Beelzebub was so hesitant.
“If you are victorious, then your name will be known in parts of the world that’ve never heard of you before… You’ll be pulled away from your peaceful life…”
“…Oh, right…”
That was also true…
But it would be odd to send in a substitute for a mission meant to help my own daughter, so I had no choice.
“I’ll do it! To bring Falfa back to normal!”
Falfa hopped up and down.
I was sure it meant something like, I’m rooting for you, Mommy! That was how I interpreted it.
“I see. Then I suppose I’ll join as well.”
“I think everyone will start panicking that the demons have come if you enter, Beelzebub…”
“It’s fine. I’ll join as a mystery fighter.”
And so Beelzebub and I ventured to the town of Kerney and went through the process of applying. The tournament had opened three days prior, but they were pretty lenient about letting us in.
“Be careful when you fill out the form. I hear more than ten percent of applicants are disqualified because their form completion is unsatisfactory.”
“That sure is a lot of people who don’t fill it out properly…”
Additionally, the prize money was three hundred million gold. That was a lot.
But then something came to me.
“Wait, could the Fighter Slime have entered the tournament with the money in mind…? Does it really just want to test its strength…?”
“I can’t say that’s impossible. There aren’t many ways martial artists can earn money anyway.”
That was true—a martial artist couldn’t earn money by perfecting their moves. At that point, it felt like they would become more and more like a merchant.
The day of the preliminaries came.
It would’ve been awful if it rained, but luckily, it was sunny.
The venue was like a coliseum. There were two stages, since there were so many matches, and each one took up its own block.
The place looked like it could fit tons of people, but it was practically empty. Unsurprising, given this was the preliminaries.
In sumo terms, it was the same kind of crowd you’d expect for the third-lowest division.
First, in the prelims, they would narrow the contest down to the best sixteen out of almost three hundred participants.
My goal today was to win until I was one of those sixteen.
I already knew this would be the case, but there were a lot of men in the waiting room. There were very few women. I still looked only seventeen years old, so people were really staring at me.
It was making me very uncomfortable, so I talked to Beelzebub about it.
“I can feel all their eyes on me, too… Men are terribly straightforward creatures…”
So Beelzebub felt the same.
She also wore a hat to hide her horns and used magic to hide her wings. This was how she was tricking everyone into believing she wasn’t a demon. There was no background check, either, so that was probably doing her well.
“And what name did you enter with?”
“Beelz.”
“That’s it?”
“Well, the preliminaries are all just small fries, right? I just need to beat them up however I see fit. We only need to be careful not to forget the prohibition against magic. It’d be stupid if we were disqualified for that.”
It was a martial arts tournament, after all, so the use of both magic and weapons wasn’t allowed. We had to fight with our own bodies.
As we chatted leisurely, it soon came to my turn.
My opponent was a huge guy, way over six feet tall. His bald head glinted in the light.
“This is no place for a young lady, you know. I don’t wanna end up hurting you, so I want you to withdraw.”
He was something of a gentleman, it seemed. My impression of him got a bit better. At the very least, he wasn’t just some dude who would come at me flailing.
“I had no intention of participating, but I have to so that my daughter can once again frolic in the hills and fields.”
“Your daughter…? You already have a daughter old enough to frolic in the fields…?”
Oh no, he’s got the wrong idea…
“No, I shouldn’t input my personal feelings. I have to win this tournament, no matter what. If I don’t—”
“Ah! Please don’t tell me your personal stories, otherwise it’ll be harder to defeat you!”
I would hate to hear he needed three hundred million gold in surgery fees to save his daughter!
“You’re right. First, I’ll defeat you to start this tournament off on the right foot!”
The bald man drew closer, so I countered with an uppercut.
That one attack knocked him right out, and he crumpled over. Well, he was still twitching, so at least he wasn’t dead.
I’d never really hit people before, so I wasn’t sure how much strength I needed. Still, that seemed to be good enough.
There weren’t many spectators, either, so no feverish cheering followed. Great! Hopefully they’d stay this quiet.
I returned to the waiting room, and Beelz (registered name) had her arms folded, a confident expression on her face.
“You used your small physique to your advantage and got close to him quickly, then struck with an upward blow. That was the ideal attack.”
“I wasn’t thinking about that at all, though… I don’t even have any martial arts experience…”
All it felt like was brushing off a spark that happened to fall on me.
“I see… I joined as well because I thought this would be a great opportunity to see how you fight again, but I think the reason you are so strong is because you lack a defined style…”
I felt bad for all the analysis she was doing, because I was pretty sure it was just because of my high stats.
This was the result of gradually killing slimes. It was the very essence of slow and steady wins the race.
After that, both Beelz and I steadily made our way up from block to block and managed to reach the top sixteen.
We were given the real tournament bracket, and I saw that Fighsly was still there. I guess there was no room for doubt—he was an incredibly powerful fighter.
We were on opposite blocks, so if we were to meet in battle, it would be at the finals.
If I did well here, then Fighsly would have no choice but to acknowledge me. Then I was confident he would cure Falfa!
The family came to cheer me on at the actual tournament.
We had some of the good seats meant for family members set aside for us, so Shalsha sat with Falfa in her arms. I could spot her even from afar because she was the one with a slime.
“Do your best, Mom.” Shalsha’s gaze was sincere.
“Of course I will. I won’t lose.” I could not drop out of the tournament until I came face-to-face with Fighsly.
The event took place inside a packed coliseum.
My first battle was once again with a bald man. His muscles bulged.
“I have tempered this body of steel to repel anything and everything!!!”
I knocked away that body of steel with a swipe of my hand. “Ha!!”
My opponent lost consciousness, and victory was mine. Guess I didn’t fall under anything and everything.
It was a one-hit KO, so the crowd went insane. It wasn’t just the preliminaries anymore, so I guess that was par for the course.
“This Azusa chick is amazing!”
“She jabbed him right in the weak spot!”
“Win your next fight, please! I bet thirty thousand gold on you!”
People are already betting on me…?
I guess I couldn’t tell them to stop looking at me at this point, so I accepted my spotlight and waved to the crowd.
Then I approached the family seats.
Laika and Flatorte had taken each other’s hands to celebrate, but when they realized what they were doing, they immediately let go.
“I am in no mood to be friendly with a red dragon!”
“Neither am I. You have too many problems!”
So close! The excitement of victory was their chance to become friends!
As a ghost, Rosalie roamed to the waiting room and other places as she pleased.
It probably wasn’t allowed, but I doubted there were any rules specifically pertaining to ghosts. No harm, no foul. At the moment, she was floating right behind Shalsha.
Sitting beside Flatorte was Halkara, who flailed an arm at me.
“Madam Teacher, I placed an advertisement for my company’s drink in the coliseum! That will give me plenty of publicity!”
Now that she mentioned it, I did spot a sign that said, NEED A HEALTHY DRINK? TRY HALKARA PHARMACEUTICALS! on the wall. Halkara was really passionate about her business…
But the one most excited was Falfa. She bounded around in Shalsha’s arms, like she was trying to escape, which made Shalsha look like she was bouncing on a trampoline.
“She’s really happy…”
“It’s given me courage and motivation as well. I’ll win for sure next time. If I do, then I’ll be in the top four.”
Yes—glory was closer than I thought.
In my next battle, my opponent was, once again, a bald man. Was it in vogue now…?
“A hairless head is the sign of a warrior of the Grand Style! I have perfected my skills at my hometown monastery!”
I guess it was something like Shorinji Kempo, a Japanese martial art inspired by Shaolin kung fu.
“I will win this tournament and be the first victor from the Grand Style school in fifty-four years!”
He sure was an enthusiastic fellow…
“You may be a woman, but I won’t hold back! Defeat the weak first to control the battlefield—that is the ironclad rule of Grand Style!”
“Your strategy is trash!”
What a despicable way to do things!
“Now I’ll bind my opponent and deal the finishing blow!”
He grabbed my arm. I guess he was serious about that finishing blow.
So I tore away from him.
“Wha—?! You broke out of my grip?! But I was told its bite was inescapable, like a snapping turtle’s!”
Huh, so there were snapping turtles in this world. I’d like to eat one in a hot pot sometime.
The fight wouldn’t end if I just kept evading the enemy’s attacks, so I gave a roundhouse kick in my own style. If possible, I didn’t want my skirt to fly up too high.
Wham!
My opponent flew thirty feet in the air, then plunged back down to the ground.
“Hmm, well, I guess that’s that.”
My opponent was knocked unconscious, so I got to move up to the next round, the semifinals.
If I won the next one, then I’d come face-to-face with Fighsly.
But now that I thought about it, what sort of person was Fighsly? Hopefully not another big bald guy. All the waiting rooms were separate during the actual tournament, so I hadn’t seen what he looked like.
In the match right after mine, Fighsly’s name was called.
At the same time, people started chanting, “The Prize Money Queen!”
Hmm? That wasn’t the kind of response I was expecting for an aloof warrior…
Then, the person who came up on the stage had a martial artist’s air, long hair tied back, and a somewhat skimpy outfit. And was a girl.
Her shoulders and belly button were showing—she was wearing a tank top, essentially. She also wore something that looked like shorts.
And in the other corner, her opponent was…Beelz, who’d won her way to this spot.
Wait, don’t tell me…
In the split second right after the fight began, Beelz dealt a flurry of kicks and punches. Fighsly went right down after all that.
The judge announced the end of the match, and Beelz raised her hands in the air.
“She went down before the match even started?!”
Oh no—what to do?!
If she dropped before our face-off, then it would be much harder to get into contact with her later…
“Ha-ha-ha! With my power, wandering warriors are nothing to be feared!”
Hey! Why are you announcing your victory so proudly like that?! Aren’t you forgetting the whole point of this?!
“Now, citizens, praise me! Call me the Lord of the Flies!”
And don’t say things that’ll give you away!
“Oh yeah, the Lord of the Flies is Beelzebub, isn’t it?” “Maybe that’s where the name Beelz comes from!” “That name she gave herself sure makes her a heel, huh?”
Phew. Looks like she’s still in the clear. If word got out that a high-ranking demon was here, then the tournament would probably grind to a halt.
“Man, I like it when it’s girl versus girl.” “Yeah, all the guys are big bald dudes.”
Looks like the crowd noticed, too.
Fighsly sat up and weakly staggered her way back to the waiting room. She was probably in shock after being beaten to a pulp by a dark horse.
This was bad. If she left, we’d lose our chance to talk to her.
“That Fighsly girl was nothing!”
But before I could do that, Beelzebub stepped off the stage and talked to me.
“Showing off your strength wasn’t the point of this…,” I said.
“Don’t worry—I still have my mission to return Falfa to normal. I’ll keep Fighsly from leaving, so you fight your way to the finals.”
I see. Beelzebub did have time, since she’d just won, after all.
“Honestly? I don’t care about the finals anymore.”
My goal wasn’t the money or the glory. It’d be a nuisance if people started coming to my house in the highlands for a spar.
“We will face off against each other in the finals. I am not running away. It’s been quite a while, and we still have a score to settle.”
I could tell right away that she was serious.
“I will absolutely find a way to save Falfa, so you must make it to the finals at all cost.”
Now that she mentioned it, I realized we had never had a proper competition to settle our score.
In my last face-off with Beelzebub, she’d gotten injured when she slammed into the barrier I put up around us, and that was the end of that.
In short, it was an accident.
It was a match that really left a bad taste in my mouth. Heck, Beelzebub was down for the count before the match even began.
From that point onward, she would mention a rematch at every chance she got, but over time we also grew closer, so there really was never a good opportunity for it.
“Sigh… Fine, but you absolutely have to solve Falfa’s problem.”
“Never fear. Fighsly and I are in the same block, so her room is close to mine. I’ll make sure she cooperates with us.”
Beelzebub rushed off to the waiting rooms. I guess I just had to trust she would do it.
There was a bit of a break until it was time for the semifinals, so I waited, wondering if Beelzebub would bring back good news.
But that good news wasn’t going to just land in my lap right away, no matter what I did.
At that point, my mind started imagining worst-case scenarios.
What would we do if even Fighsly couldn’t turn Falfa back…? I was all out of good ideas…
I was still in a funk when it was my turn in the semifinals, and I joined the fight with my unease still plain on my face. I threw a punch and won.
My opponent seemed to think I was fainthearted, destined for a loss, but I wasn’t so weak that a little anxiety would close the skill gap between us.
Then Beelzebub clinched her own victory and earned her ticket to the finals.
That was all fine and dandy, but I still hadn’t heard anything about Falfa.
Well, Beelzebub seemed energetic enough, so that must’ve meant she came upon a good clue. If not, then she should’ve looked down, too…
This is no good. My whole brain is a mess.
Then, it was time for the finals.
I never thought my rematch with Beelzebub would take place in public.
The cheers in the arena were deafening now. No one expected it to be a fight between women.
And both of us were surprise contenders, neither the favorite for the championship, so we garnered a lot of attention.
“Witch of the Highlands!” “The rumors that she was the strongest were true!” “Beelz, the Lord of the Flies!”
I slowly stepped onto the stage.
Then, Beelzebub did the same.
It was a slow and deliberate show that stirred up the audience slightly.
“What, we finally get our big moment, and you’re all cranky?”
“Of course I am. Falfa’s problem hasn’t been solved yet. My fight with you is a distant second on my list of priorities.”
I’m not a fighting machine that thinks only of victory. I’m just a normal mom, worried about her daughter.
In fiction, you’d hear stories of baseball players promising to hit home runs for a fan’s child who was combating disease, but to be frank, it didn’t really matter if I won or lost.
I might as well want to win, since slime-Falfa was watching, but winning wouldn’t restore her to normal.
I tried not to look over to the family seating area. I felt like that would just make my gloom worse.
“Sigh… Don’t say things that take the excitement out of everything. Have some appreciation for what we’re doing, at least. Proclaim, I’ll avenge my previous loss! or whatever.”
It seemed that Beelzebub didn’t like that I wasn’t into it. I understood how she felt, but I couldn’t trick myself into thinking I cared about winning.
“Sorry, but I can’t take it seriously like this. If you want me to come at you with everything I have, bring me Falfa and her bright smile.”
Then I’d use every skill and technique under the sun.
Beelzebub grinned. She really was starting to look like a wrestler playing the heel.
“I’ll hold you to that.”
“I’m sorry, but did I inadvertently commit myself to something?”
“Let me give you a surprise before we start our match.”
Beelzebub turned around to face the stairs leading up to the stage and walked toward them.
There came jeers from the crowd. “Are you running away?!” “Is she surrendering the match?!”
But that wasn’t it. Beelzebub was holding someone’s hand.
The one following her up the stairs was—
“Mommy! Falfa’s been restored!”
—my beloved daughter!
“Falfa! Falfa! Falfa! You’re back to normal now!”
I immediately ran over, hugging her like a rugby player scoring a try.
Unlike when she was a slime, I could tell how warm she was.
And the way she felt in my arms was totally different, of course. I could feel her human heat, and her gelatinous texture was nowhere to be found.
“Yeah! A person named Fighsly helped me!”
Beelzebub’s face said, Gotcha!
I see—she kept quiet so she could time the announcement…
No, wait, I think I would rather you just told me normally. You’re really a lot like Pecora, you know that?
When I looked over to the family section, Halkara and the others were waving at me. They’d definitely already heard that Falfa was back to normal. I’d been totally duped. I could cheat in many other ways, but I still couldn’t read people’s minds.
“Sigh, I wish you’d told me right away, but it’s not like you kept me waiting forever, so I’ll forgive you.”
The audience wasn’t really sure what was going on, but they seemed to recognize the happy ending. I could hear a few Awwws.
But at the same time, I also heard, “That Azusa chick sure has a big daughter…” “I’m shocked…”
Wait, I know I look seventeen, but you’re acting like I’m an idol. I can’t do anything about these demands…
“Mommy, good luck! Falfa is cheering for you!”
“And now Mommy’s motivation is maxed out!”
I was sure if I had an instrument that could measure power levels, it would have shattered.
“Okay, then Falfa will watch you win from a safe place.”
I really didn’t want to let her go, but I had to. Then, I turned my gaze to the mastermind.
“Beelzeb…Beelz, you’ll regret showing me as much kindness as you did. Because now I can fight with more concentration than ever before.”
“That’s why I did this. I would hate to hear any excuses about how you were too distracted worrying about your daughter to fight.”
The words of a worthy opponent.
This was going to be a serious match. Well, we couldn’t use magic, so I wasn’t sure if we’d be truly going at full strength, but it wasn’t a bad place to do it.
After making sure Falfa was a safe distance from the stage, I took a makeshift stance.
I didn’t know if the stance meant anything; I was just showing off.
I could feel the bloodthirsty waves coming off Beelzebub.
The judge signaled the start of the match.
I’ll show you!
Then, Beelzebub slipped her overcoat off her shoulders. Wait, you can’t strip in front of all these people!
Her breasts were covered, so that was a relief.
But now everyone could see her wings.
And now that her wings were free, she could no longer hide the fact that she was a demon. Sure, the rules forbade magic, but there was nothing keeping demons from participating.
“I can’t fly my fastest without my wings! I never planned to fight you pretending to be someone else!”
“That’s not against the rules, but the arena might panic when they see a demon. The match could be canceled, you know.”
“Hell’s bells, does it really matter? We completed our goal of turning Falfa back to normal, after all.”
“Oh yeah, not really.”
Whether the tournament was canceled or we were breaking the rules, it was all entirely trivial.
“—Then let’s do this!”
Beelzebub launched herself at me with furious energy.
Whoa, whoa, a head-on fight right off the bat?! Then I’ll counter!
But that said, I didn’t have any fighting experience, so I wasn’t exactly sure what a counter was. All I really knew was—hit back when she comes to hit me.
But Beelzebub skimmed the top of my head, flipping in an arc above me.
“I can’t beat your speed head-on! I have to get behind you!”
“You’re saying your strategy out loud!”
“That’s not part of my strategy!”
I see. For me, I was just thinking to attack her when she got close. “Freestyle” was one way to call it.
It looked like Beelzebub was aiming for an opening as she spun in the air.
I’m ready when you are!
But she didn’t attack me at all. Like a serious fly, she flew in circles above me.
“Shoot… This is bad…”
“You really can’t find any openings?”
Could the amateur stance really have sealed the deal? Did I have some sort of hidden talent in martial arts, too?!
“You’re nothing but openings… Your stance is a mess, but you’re so strong for some reason… Ah, the magic of stats…”
I was so looking forward to this, but it’s turning out to be a total waste of time!
“If you see the opportunity, then come at me!”
“Typically, one aims for openings because they are so rare. If you’re open all the time, then it’s just even harder to attack!”
What a demanding opponent.
Then I guess I should attack her— I thought about it, but she was flying.
I had magic that let me fly, but it couldn’t compete with an opponent with wings that let her zip around without assistance. What I could do was float straight up in a line.
“Nothing will happen if you don’t come to me, so come. Actually, you should say you’re going to attack when you do. I’ll be waiting.”
“…I feel like you’re mocking me, so I’m coming!” Beelzebub pulled her hands back, stuck her face forward, and descended at top speed.
That’s one way to cut down on air resistance!
For a moment, I thought about how she would break her neck if her face-first attack landed wrong, but she probably wasn’t that weak.
“I’ll blow you away!”
And in response—
—I extended both my arms and waited.
When Beelzebub came, I’d catch her!
This was how you dealt with a fly!
But I definitely would not want to smack a fly with my bare hands in real life…
“Yaaah!”
And with a clap, I stopped Beelzebub’s face with my hands.
“Abuuuuh! Don’t shqueeze my fashe…”
“It’s your fault for attacking face-first!”
But of course, I couldn’t stop the entire force of Beelzebub’s charge.
Skrrrrrrrrrrrt.
I slid backward across the stage.
But after about fifteen feet, I finally stopped.
A great tremor vibrated through my body, but it didn’t knock me down or render me unconscious.
“Urgh… Shtop shquishing my fashe…” Her face was contorted in a strange way.
“We’re fighting, so I’ll do what I want!”
“Thish ishn’t an attack or anything!”
Beelzebub thrashed about, trying to get free.
I was starting to take this seriously and kept my hold on her face.
In battle, the one who fights dirtier wins. So this was probably the right answer!
“Bwah—!” Beelzebub suddenly broke free. “I never knew you’d use such an absurd defense against me… I knew such a strong amateur was bad news…”
“I’m giving you a good match! At least compliment me!”
But now Beelzebub was in point-blank range.
“I’m coming!”
I stepped forward.
Balling my fist, I aimed for her shoulder.
Even though it was a tournament, I didn’t want to punch her in the face. I could probably heal it with restorative magic, but she would resist it.
Beelzebub stopped the attack with her hand.
There was a loud wham that echoed around us, and the arena stirred.
Not minding it at all, I threw another one.
Again, there were several great echoes.
“Shoot, just stopping you with my hand is so loud… And it hurts; it hurts so much…”
“I’m not done yet! But wow, I’m impressed you can stop my punches.”
“Don’t think I haven’t trained for this day! I came here to win! Rain, wind, or shine, I do long training runs before and after work!”
That’s the first I’ve heard of that!
“I wake up early and exercise for about an hour before going to work.”
I guess she’s a morning person.
But I hadn’t expected her to do this much for our rematch. I guess she thought of us as rivals, even though it didn’t seem like that at all when we saw each other.
It might be weird to say this, but I was kind of happy.
“All right! I won’t lose, either!”
Beelzebub threw a series of punches and kicks at me, but I guarded with my hands and legs in my own style.
“You have great thighs,” remarked Beelzebub.
“Keep the weird comments to yourself!”
“Your arms are so skinny, but you’re rather tough! It’s almost unfair!”
Yeah, but what can I do about it?
I could hear more cheering from the stands than I expected there to be.
“Amazing! What an exchange of technique!” “Neither one is backing down!”
To me, it felt like I was just making up the fight as I went, but it apparently looked like serious fighting moves to the spectators. Was I defending and attacking at a high speed? I wasn’t aware at all.
“But you’re pretty strong, Beelzebub, to go toe to toe with me!”
“Of course I am! I’m a high-ranking demon! Why wouldn’t I be strong? It’s far stranger that a human can stand up to me! If it was anyone but you, I would’ve won a long time ago! You shouldn’t be able to guard against me with just your hands and legs anyway!”
Right. She was constantly coming at me, so I was starting to lose feeling in the parts I’d been guarding with. I didn’t really know any demons in the neighborhood anyway.
But boy, this was tiring…
If I fought while avoiding her face, then this battle would never end.
Hitting her shoulder and stuff wouldn’t put her out of commission.
How should I end it? I at least had to knock her out somehow.
But it didn’t seem this fight would last forever.
Beelzebub’s breath was starting to grow ragged.
“Pant, pant… Your guard is so tight… I’m using all I have, you know! I’m not going easy on you!”
I must have had more physical strength than her. I didn’t feel tired at all.
“Why don’t we just call this my victory right now?”
“I will not allow it! There’s no time-out rule or anything!”
Of course she’d say that.
But we couldn’t keep going forever. We had to find a way to settle who the stronger one was, but I didn’t know how to do that.
Then what about a judo technique? Nah. The only move I knew was osotogari… I’d study more groundwork techniques next time.
For now, it didn’t seem like I would lose, so I decided to strengthen my defenses.
If it came down to punching her in the face, then maybe I could go for her legs. I would just wait for an opportunity to make her give up.
—But that was the moment I heard the best call from the stands.
“Mommy! You can do it! Don’t lose!”
Falfa had her hands raised above her head, waving at me as she cheered.
“Where there’s a will, there’s a way, Mom. Where there’s a will, there’s a way.”
Shalsha’s cheer was a little lackluster…
But it gave me energy.
Everyone else in the family was praying for my victory.
Even Flatorte was cheering at the top of her lungs. “You have to win!”
“I watched Mommy run around to help me the whole time I was a slime! I was so happy! So I’m gonna cheer as hard as I can in return!”
I was in the middle of a fight, so I couldn’t respond, but— Thank you, truly.
Sometimes too much cheering could create a lot of pressure instead, but that didn’t happen to me. It all became my strength.
“I’m sorry, Beelzebub. Now that my daughters are cheering for me, I have to show them my cool side.”
“Wh-wha…?”
My body was brimming with energy.
“I’ve now evolved into my second form!”
“What nonsense are you talking about?! You haven’t transformed at all!”
Well, of course. I’m not going to sprout horns or anything.
“Here comes a punch!” Beelzebub was growing hasty. She probably hadn’t expected all of her attacks to fail.
Seizing the opportunity, I stepped forward.
Time for the counter!
Beelzebub must have been more on guard at first, but her defenses grew more haphazard over the course of the battle.
First, I just barely dodged her fist.
At the same time, I shifted my weight forward.
For a moment, I paid no mind to my own defense and concentrated only on my offense!
But I didn’t punch with my fist. I spread out my right hand just below Beelzebub’s face and used my palm to send a shock straight to her brain.
“Take that!”
I think that’s called a palm heel strike.
My right hand slammed into her chin.
Her face shuddered.
And just like that, she collapsed onto the ground.
That drew the loudest cheer of the day. It almost felt like an earthquake.
“How about that? I heard that move can cause a concussion and knock people unconscious,” I called out to the collapsed Beelzebub.
Knockdowns didn’t factor into the rules, but I took the first down anyway.
“I’m pretty sure we can call this my win already, okay? Or can you not stand for a bit?”
Beelzebub still hadn’t responded when the judge came over to check on her.
“Beelz is incapacitated. The winner is Azusa!”
Along with the call, cheers of “Azusaaa!” and “She’s so strooong!” enveloped the stadium.
I did good work. I didn’t mind embarrassing myself in front of total strangers, but I couldn’t lose in front of my daughters. Of course, that didn’t mean everything was over and done with.
Beelzebub still hadn’t gotten up.
“Hey, Beelzebub, are you okay? No, you’re not okay, and that’s why you’re on the ground…”
She still lay on her back, unmoving. She couldn’t be dead, could she…?
It really had been a long time since I was in a serious fight, and since I didn’t need to use all of my power, I had no idea of the limits of my own strength. I didn’t think it was enough to give her a life-threatening injury…
I lightly shook her.
“Heeey, it’s over. You can get up now. You should be sleeping in your bed not on the ground. Hello…?”
No response.
A chill ran through me.
I couldn’t have killed her. Even though Falfa was back to normal, I couldn’t be happy about it like this.
“Hey! You know the saying all’s well that ends well? This is the opposite! We can’t have it all end on an unlucky note, for multiple reasons! Understand?! Come on! Open your eyes!”
“Er, Azusa, you shouldn’t shake her too much. I’ll have a stretcher prepared right away,” the judge called out to me from behind. I guess it would just make things worse.
“Hey, come on, get up…”
In the old romances of long past, my tears would have revived her, but I was more panicked than sad.
Well, if water would have sufficed, then there was a way.
I cast a bit of Frost magic onto her face.
That might be a good enough substitute. In terms of power, it was even better than water.
Casting it directly onto her face might make it an attack, so I cast it on the ground to make ice, then snapped off a piece of it and stuck it on her face.
“Here ya go; this’ll cool you off! It’ll cool you right off!”
And after ten seconds—
“B-brrrr! That’s cold!”
Beelzebub woke up!
“Oh, good morning, Beelzebub!”
“That was too much! I had a dream Her Majesty the demon king froze me in ice!”
“What else was I supposed to do? Nothing else was waking you up. But I’m so relieved!”
I lifted Beelzebub up, bridal-style. She might faint again if she tried to walk, so I decided to carry her to her waiting room at least.
“Hey… This will really attract attention… And there’s a big audience, too…”
“You’re injured, so no complaining. You’ll stumble around if you try to walk after getting a concussion like that. I saw that when I was watching martial arts on TV.”
“TV? There you go with those made-up words again…”
“Oh, don’t worry about that.”
I nimbly carried Beelzebub off the stage. It was times like these that high stats really helped.
“I can’t believe I lost to you again. It was a total defeat.” Beelzebub looked invigorated.
“If you want to give it another shot, we can have a rematch sometime soon. It’s a pain, though, so I don’t want to.”
“You’re so strong, but you have no desire for blood.”
That’s because I didn’t get stronger for the sake of strength.
“It’s my way. It’s just what I do. I take things little by little and enjoy life as it comes.”
“I wonder if I would get stronger if I lived like that, too.”
“Why not just kill slimes and only slimes?”
“Hmm… There aren’t any aggressive slimes around my workplace to begin with…”
I see… She must have felt bad going out of her way to kill slimes, since they weren’t attacking her first.
“But your peace may crumble again with this.”
“Hmm? What do you mean?”
Don’t just go and jinx me like that!
“Now word of your strength has spread to the southern part of the kingdom.”
“Uh-oh…”
The entire stadium was facing me with applause.
It’s an honor, but I sure hope they forget about me tomorrow!
Afterward, Beelzebub and I received our award money and medals and whatnot at the award ceremony.
“The strongest witch!” “The Witch of the Highlands!” “You earned me over a million gold! Thanks!”
I waved my hand slightly in response. I do not accept consultations that will cause trouble for me, so please don’t.
And by the way, Fighsly was at the ceremony, too. She was also receiving money, since she’d reached the higher ranks.
“Thank you so much for curing my daughter!” I bowed my head deeply. Without her, Falfa might have been stuck as a slime forever.
“I thank you, too—I was glad to have helped my own kin. It is unfortunate that my loss along the way prevented me from winning a lot of money, though.” Fighsly spoke with the bright smile of an athletic girl. There was nothing slime-y about her looks.
“But I will earn more money! Even if it is just one more gold!”
“Er, um, yeah. Good luck with your earnings. Money is important.”
“And if there is anything you want to know or any trouble you’re having with slimes, please let me know. And please tell me if you encounter any fighting events where I might be able to earn some money.”
“I thought you were supposed to be an aloof fighter, but you’re pretty obsessed with money.”
“My apologies, but I do have my reasons.”
I wonder if she’ll say it’s for medical bills for her sick sister…
“Saving money is a hobby of mine.”
That’s so shallow!!!
Fighsly seemed a bit hesitant when she told me. It was the most worldly of worldly affairs.
“But Beelzebub told me that you didn’t ask for a single coin when you cured Falfa. You’re a good person, after all.”
Even if she’d charged a hundred million gold, I still would have paid.
“Because we are both people in need. And…I do have something to ask of you…”
Fighsly’s eyes widened as she looked up to me.
That’s when I first noticed that she was rather on the short side among girls.
“And what might that be…?”
To be honest, I couldn’t tell what she wanted. If she wanted money, then all she had to do was request payment for the treatment to begin with.
Because of everything that happened in the past, I did have a good amount in savings—the factory Halkara ran also played a big role in that—so I could pay what she needed of me, even if it was something ludicrous like a billion. In that case, I would end up taking a loan from Halkara, though.
Then, Fighsly bowed to an exact ninety-degree angle.
“Please, Miss Azusa! Let me be your pupil!”
“What?! Pupil, as in, a martial arts pupil, right…?”
Fighsly spoke, still bent at ninety degrees. “Yes! I have never seen anyone perform a series of such wonderful moves before! I seek the strongest fighting techniques; please allow me to study under you so that I may perfect them!”
“You know I don’t have any fighting experience, right?! I’m serious when I say I don’t have anything to teach you!”
Fighsly quickly stood up straight, this time at attention. Every limb down to her fingers was straight and tense.
“That can’t be true. Your forms are unique. I have never seen them before!”
“Like what? I’m genuinely curious.”
“Though at a glance it seems like you are full of openings, Beelz couldn’t even find an opportunity to attack you in the finals. It was my first time seeing such a peculiar form. I’m certain it’s because you have never allowed it to be seen by the public, yes?”
*I actually was full of openings.
“You seem completely vulnerable to attack, yet present no opportunity. This must be the ultimate fighting skill. The natural posture truly makes you the strongest—it’s very deep! It isn’t just me; anyone who continues to hone their skills would deem it something to strive for!”
Fighsly’s eyes glistened.
What to do…?
I don’t think she’d believe me if I told her it was just because I had high stats…
That was all I had to say, though…
“Beelz also has incredible power. It was almost like a high-ranking demon had come right to the stage. At first I thought about asking her to take me in as her pupil. But even Beelz was rendered completely helpless! You are a goddess, Azusa!”
*A high-ranking demon actually was here.
“Erm, I think you would be fine studying under Beelz…”
My strategy was to put everything on her desk.
“See, well, if I’m going to be anyone’s pupil, it has to be the strongest one’s!”
She’s just a fangirl!
“Please! Please allow me to be your pupil! Please let me call you master!”
Oh, there she goes again with the ninety-degree bow…
“I will try my best to endure the most severe training!”
“I’m not doing any severe training at all…”
How was I supposed to make her believe me?
“Erm, I’m not saying this out of spite. I really only became strong leading a slow, lazy life. That’s why I looked like I was full of openings, because I don’t know any of the fundamentals. Not a single word of this is a lie!”
“…I understand.”
Finally. She gets it now.
“Then please allow me one battle! Then I may truly feel for myself how powerful you are, so I may think about it on my own later!”
“You didn’t understand a thing!”
Why did I end up having to fight the person I owed for the huge debt of curing Falfa?
Life was much too short to spend punching and kicking. Wouldn’t I just bring suffering on myself?
But if that would make her give up, then so be it.
We decided to fight in the corner of the arena, now that most of the audience had left.
It didn’t seem like there’d be any problem if we had one little match here.
“All right, let’s do this, then. But just don’t start worshipping me or get disappointed because I’m not what you thought I was, okay? I haven’t been bragging or anything, you know.”
“Yes! Let us begin!”
She was supposedly weaker than Beelzebub, so I would just take this easy.
Fighsly immediately took her stance.
Just what I’d expected to see from someone who trained their whole life in martial arts—her posture was perfect.
Her stance and the air about her were different from people who just got in petty fights. I could tell from her aura that she was a pro.
“These skills have earned me plenty of money, you know. I’m not that weak, either.”
I see. It was just as she said.
Without much of a choice, I made up my own stance in my own style.
“Yes, it is indeed an amateurish stance… So full of openings… Rather, it is all openings, and now I’m not so sure what is and isn’t an opening…”
“You’re making fun of me, aren’t you?!”
But she was so serious when it came to her own stance, so it was probably inevitable that she made fun of me.
“I fought my hardest among my slime peers in order to become the unbeatable slime. And before I knew it, I was winning in battles against level-twenty adventurers.”
“Poor adventurers!”
“From then on, I continued my training, and at some point, I was able to take the form of a human. After that, I spent every day training earnestly in the martial arts.”
I see; she had been living with a truth-seeking mentality.
“There, I learned the importance of money in the human livelihood, and collecting money became my way of life entirely. One cannot live without money. Those without money are trash. Money can even buy love!”
“That’s just twisted!”
She might’ve ended up with an extreme view because she was born into a world where money wasn’t necessary. Poor thing…
“I’ll fix that attitude of yours!”
“Then here I come! Feel the Fighsly-style slime fist!”
All right, I’ll counter her like I did with Beelzebub!
She was closing the distance!
But on her way, Fighsly stopped in her tracks. Was she having a hard time attacking me because I had so many openings, like Beelzebub did?
But upon a much closer inspection, I saw Fighsly’s legs shaking.
I heard samurai used to tremble in excitement like this, but I didn’t think there would be any samurai in this fantasy world.
Wait, she was going pale, too. Was she not feeling well? I saw on the news once that a sumo wrestler suddenly got diarrhea during a match. It was awful.
“I—I’m…s-scared…”
Even Fighsly’s voice was shaking.
She’s scared?
Well, a regular person would probably be afraid of facing the tournament champion in battle, but she had been a participant, too, and she was the one who challenged me.
It was pretty contradictory, so I wasn’t sure what she meant.
“I feel an overpowering thirst for blood looming over me like a mountain… So this is the strongest warrior…”
“Thirst for blood? I’m not like a hit man or assassin or anything…”
I’m literally just a witch taking it lazy and slow. I haven’t spilled a drop of blood in my life.
“No, the aura about you is of one who has taken an unimaginable number of lives… If I draw too close… I’m going to die…!”
“Now you’re just making things up! Don’t talk about an innocent witch like a serial killer!”
…Hang on a sec.
I wasn’t a people killer…
…But I was a slime killer.
And my opponent had originally been a slime.
“My slime spirit urges me to stay away from you if I value my life!”
I solved the mystery.
I was the natural enemy of slimes. People didn’t usually spend three hundred years killing slimes, so there was a very high possibility that I had killed the most slimes out of anyone in existence.
It seemed Fighsly had sensed that very quickly. I guess one of the reasons she could fight so well was because her senses were so sharp.
I took a step forward.
Sweat was dripping down Fighsly’s cheek.
Even though our battle hadn’t truly started yet, she was in a cold sweat.
I took another step forward.
Fighsly started to lean back slightly. Her instincts were telling her to run from me.
I rushed right up to her.
“D-don’t kill me…”
Fighsly collapsed on the spot, her eyes still open.
It looked like her fear made her give up trying to comprehend me.
“A true warrior strikes her opponent down without even touching her… Pfft, yeah, right.”
I won, but only because I’d become some kind of indefinable monster to her. As a girl, I fell into a very complicated frame of mind.
Boy, was that rude…
Thirty minutes later, Fighsly woke up.
“Huh? This is…my dressing room…”
“Yes, I carried you here for the time being.”
“—Wah! If it isn’t Azusa, the strongest creature on the planet!”
Sheesh, I might have to report this to someone as harassment soon…
“I didn’t think it would end before we even made contact. I don’t think you gained anything from it, but I’m not taking responsibility for that, okay?”
“Yes… I still lack training. I have learned that I cannot even draw close to something so terrifying. I must temper myself even more.”
Okay, but treat me like a woman. Or at least like a human!
I only look seventeen years old, okay?! If I were still in Japan, people would see me as a high school girl!
“Oh! Miss Fighsly is awake!” There came an adorable voice from behind me. It was Falfa, and with her were the other members of the family. And Beelzebub. “You’ve been waiting all this time alone, so I called everyone here!”
“The match is already over. I’m leaving,” Beelzebub said.
Fighsly looked to Beelzebub, and the color in her eyes changed.
It was, without a doubt, a gaze of admiration.
“Aaah! It’s Beelz! Thank you for such a spectacular tournament! I will work my hardest and earn more money than you next time!”
Can this girl not get through a conversation without mentioning money?
“It’s thanks to you that Falfa is back to normal. We should be thanking you,” Beelzebub said generously.
“Thank you again, Miss Fighsly! Falfa’s got her body back now!”
The polite Falfa gave her thanks with a smile. Good girl—she said a proper thank-you. My teachings are very thorough!
“Oh, no. This was nothing special. But your mother is an extraordinary person, Falfa.”
“Yeah! Mommy’s the strongest in the world!”
Her excitement and wording were just like a regular child declaring their mommy was the nicest in the world, but in my case, it was very possible that I was actually the strongest person in the world. I wasn’t particularly proud of that, though.
“I see your words are pure and truthful. I must hone my skills even further…”
I was glad to see she had aspirations. I hoped she wouldn’t die during her training, just in case either Falfa or Shalsha turned into slimes again.
“And so, Lady Beelz, would you accept me as your pupil?” Fighsly bowed her head before Beelzebub.
“What? Why must I do such a thing?! I have no intentions of taking in pupils!”
Beelzebub lightly brushed her away. It did seem like a big pain, after all.
“In this tournament, I have learned of demon-like strength! Please allow me to train under you!”
“Indeed. Those like demons are never surpassed. Yet they don’t take pupils. Should I put my all into training them, I may find myself beaten to a pulp by my own underlings.”
“What? Your day job is something completely different, yet you’re that strong?! When do you train?”
Thinking about it normally, that was surprising.
“I train a bit when I can. Though I neglected it up until I met Azusa. I’ve been training in order to even the score, but it hasn’t been enough.”
“Please! Please take me as your pupil!”
“Not my problem! I’m not one to be teaching others anyway!”
I was surprised to see how firmly Beelzebub was refusing. Her instinct must have determined that this girl was a nuisance.
“Aw, you should take her on as your pupil.” (Meaning, if we kept track of where she was, it’d help if either of my daughters turned to slimes again.)
“Your ulterior motives are way too obvious!”
“Please! I will wash dishes! I will do anything!”
As I watched the exchange, I gave Falfa a hug.
“Falfa, you can ask for anything you want today, okay? Is there anything you want to eat?”
“Mommy, Falfa wants to eat candy!”
Eventually, Beelzebub allowed Fighsly to be her pupil after much pestering.
I was excited to find out what Fighsly’s reaction would be when she went to Beelzebub’s home.
But a slime was a monster, so she would probably be fine.
No Comments Yet
Post a new comment
Register or Login