“I see. So the kid’s an orphan, huh?” Gomenne replied, after hearing an explanation from Star.

The girls had already headed home to Gomenne’s apartment after visiting the strip mall with Muffler in tow, and now learning about Muffler’s situation, they find themselves unsure how to react.

“We really gotta find that Kaara chick so I can give her a piece of my mind,” Gomenne huffed angrily.

“Now, now,” Star reassured, “I understand how you feel, I too want to know the meaning of all of this. But now we should do our best to accommodate little Muffler.”

“Yeah. Yeah, I guess.” Gomenne seemed to suddenly sour, and she turned to walk back into her apartment.

“Gome, wait!” Star called out to Gomenne only for Kiki to stop her.

“Let her go. She’ll be better in the morning.”

“Yeah,” Star sighed.

Kiki took a deep breath before saying with a smile “Thanks Star.” Due to her high jacket collar though, one could barely see it.

Star nodded. She turned to Muffler, putting on her usual motherly smile just for her.

“Come on sweetie. I have an extra room you can stay in.”

And then, the two went off hand-in-hand.

Muffler briefly looked back at Gomenne and Kiki’s apartment door as she was strung along.

She was unsure at that moment what she was feeling at that moment but she knew one thing for sure.

No matter what would happen, she felt she had be there for Gomenne.

Now that they were an established guild they were to be issued ID cards from the committee, but those were being sent by mail and would arrive within 2-3 business weeks.

Technicalities didn’t make them waver. They’re still an official guild.

Until then they weren’t allowed to do gain access to quests reserved for guilds, and even then they probably wouldn’t be able to do anything exciting for a while.

This fact bothered Gomenne deeply but she did her best to keep her cool.

For the next couple of weeks, the girls would be doing the of the most mundane labor-intensive crap they were allowed to do; pick up trash.

It sucked but at least this meant that Star could participate.

The four were working in a public park that wasn’t too far from Gomenne and Kiki’s apartment, and had split up to get the work done quicker.

The park itself was quite large so they did work in sections. It was hilly with trees and foliage spread apart, and every so often you would find an unkept picnic table with one of those equally dirty public grills next to them that they expected people to use. Further in, but not too far away, a playground is visible with a few people inside and a basketball court just feet away from it.

Muffler was the only one dawdling on her work due to the many distractions around her. Until now, she’d not had much of a chance to take in the simpler things in life. The sounds of birds chirping, the bugs crawling in the grass and trees, the docile lesser monsters that’d pass by, and the various people going about their day who would pass through the park.

All of it was mesmerizing to her.

By the time she came back to her senses, she noticed Star was close by and instinctively walked towards her.

Star was quick to notice and flashed her usual warm smile. “Hey sweetie! Did you finish your part already?”

“Oh. I forgot.”

Star couldn’t help but chuckle. “That’s quite alright. Did you forget what you were supposed to do?”

“No. I was looking at everything in the park.”

“Everything? How come?”

“I just never thought to stop and look at everything happening in the world until now, is all. There’s a lot of stuff going on. It’s kind of cool!”

“I...suppose so. You’re right! That IS pretty cool.”

“Hey Star, how come you didn’t help us fight the big bug before? I’m just wondering.”

“Oh. My shell is a lot more fragile than Gome’s, so if I use my powers it’ll break much easier.”

“’Shell’?”

“Oh, how to explain,” Star paused cleaning to think for a few seconds. “It’s basically just my body. My body is a bit special compared to everyone else’s.”

“How is it special?”

“Well, for starters, I can mingle with the common folk much easier with a shell. Not all gods have one but it prevents you from standing out at the expense of not being able to use much of your original abilities.”

“Ohhh, I get it. So you and Gome are gods! That’s really cool!”

“Haha, it’s not that cool.”

The two of them chatted about things for a little while longer, not noticing the small creature approaching them from the bushes.

A little blue slime had managed to hop its way towards them with purpose.

While slimes normally have about as much intelligence as their seaborne cousins, the jellyfish, some have evolved to be about as smart as ordinary school children. Due to the lack of constraints of their comparison, they are often the targets of quests for beginner bravers.

Despite that, this particular slime decided to try their luck.

“Hey!” the slime cried out to Star and Muffler, causing them to pause and snap their heads towards the call.

“What’s that thing?” asked Muffler.

“It’s a slime, a lesser monster,” Star answered, “It’s a little rare to see one that speaks, though.”

As the slime approached, Star instinctively bent down on one knee to properly address them. Muffler followed suit out of curiosity.

“Hey! You guys are bravers right? You gotta help!” The slime seemed to be flustered.

“What’s wrong?” Star questioned with her usual motherly demeanor.

“My friends, they’re getting attacked by that big goop thing!”

“Goop thing? You mean other slimes?”

“No, no! That thing, it can’t be a slime! It’s all black and scary-looking and it tried to eat me, but I got away! Some of my friends weren’t so lucky though.”

The little blue slime looked distraught and exhausted.

Muffler, feeling sympathy for them, lifted it up into her arms and asked, “What’s your name?”

“Mizuki,” the slime replied.

“Okay, Mizuki. I’m Muffler. What did this thing look like?”

Little did they know they would soon have the answer.

Almost immediately after, from the same direction Mizuki came, a pitch-black creature came running. Its body the familiar half-marble shape of your average slime but with the addition of twisted limbs, connected by warped flesh one could only assume looked like tendon and bone barely clinging together.

Its unsightly appearance was a disturbance to the usual peace of their everyday surrounds. Park visitors took notice, many of them quickly running to safety.

Before the black slime could reach Muffler and Star, a familiar friend leaped into their view with the frightening grace of a jaguar pouncing upon its prey.

It was Kiki, who had quickly shoved the black slime aside with an invisible force.

“You guys OK?”

Muffler was the first to answer. “Yeah! But what did you do?”

“Used my other arms.”

“You have other arms? I don’t see them.”

“You can’t, but you can feel them.”

“How come you never used those before? That sounds so cool!”

“Didn’t need ‘em. Plus I get tired if I do too much.”

“Hey!” Gomenne yelled while scrambling towards the others. “What the hell is that thing?”

“That’s the thing that ate my friends!” Mizuki spoke up.

Gomenne and Kiki looked to Mizuki then to each other. They nodded after their quick assessment of the situation.

“So, this guy likes to pick on little guys, eh?” Gomenne tossed aside her trash picker in replacement for her trusty steel bat.

“Normally we don’t mess with nature but people’ll get hurt if we don’t do anything.”

“There’s nothing natural about that thing!” Mizuki protested.

“Yeah yeah, whatever. C’mon Muffy. Star, hold onto the little dude for us.”

Muffler handed Mizuki to Star before rushing off to Gomenne’s side while Star quickly ducked behind a nearby tree, cradling Mizuki against her chest.

“Get ready! It’s coming in hot!”

Thinking this strange creature as nothing more than a powered-up slime, the newly-formed guild of friends faced the danger with the same strategy as the giant centipede—surround, bait, and attack their blind spots, taking turns between each step among the three of them.

Though this particular slime seemed much more persistent than the norm, they didn’t let that waver their morale.

After all, even a strong slime is still a slime.