Friend of the slime

13. Shizu's Fate

By the time Shizu and I had returned to the village it was long since dark and most had gone to bed. Felling tired myself I led her towards my hut. It had been decided that the girls would sleep here since I had the biggest hut.

I awoke sometime later that night, confused as to why when I noticed the sun had yet to rise. Shrugging it off I decided to just go back to the sleeps sweet embrace. That's when I felt a spike of power causing a chill down my spine. I didn't have to look over to know it was coming from Shizu. I had felt her energy before but never this intense. I heard her shift around letting out a grunt of pain as she fought to quell the energy inside her. After a moment the energy lowered and I felt her relax again.

"Are you ok?" I heard Eren ask waking up.

"Everything's fine." Shizu reassured her, earning a nod from the smaller girl who promptly returned to sleep.

Shizu made sure Eren was alseep before exiting her bed. I felt her gaze on me for a moment checking the see that I hadn't woken up. Then she dressed herself and left the hut. Once she was gone I sat up in bed looking at the place she had retreated from. It was obvious she was fighting with whatever was inside her and that she didn't want anyone to know. It did make me sad to see her suffering like this though. But even if I wanted to help I wasn't sure what I could have done. Looking back I wished I had rushed out after her instead of doing nothing.

Shizu returned later that morning after Eren and I had finally woken up and I began helping to get the two ready to send off. Eren was sitting down at the small vanity while I combed out her hair, and Shizu was putting some lotion on her face using a small pocket mirror.

"Why don't you come back to Blumund with us?" Eren asked, directing the question at Shizu who looked over in surprise. "It'd be awfully sad to say goodbye here." She said glancing over at Shizu through the reflection in the mirror.

"Your all exceptional adventures." The dark haired girl replied. "I'm sure it would be lots of fun adventuring with you." I noticed the sadness in the girls eyes that Eren seemed to miss.

"Then!!" She cried out turning around happily in the chair only to be cut short by Shizu shaking her head.

"Travelling together has shown me how nice it is to be part of a group. I'm truly grateful my last journey was made with all of you."

"Shizu?" Eren said with a bit of apprehension in her voice. "What do you mean by, last?"

"I've been around for decades, you know." She replied with a playful edge to her tone. "I'm not as young as I look." She finished placing the mask over her face.

"Huh? O-oh, you were just joking!" Eren's smile returned to her face. "Gosh, don't scare me like that!"

The girl returned to her preparations but my gaze lingered on Shizu for a second langer. I considered myself to be a fairly dedicated movie lover. And I didn't like how Shizu had sounded like a movie character right there, specifically one that was about to met their end in some way.

3rd pov

Once they were ready the three girls began making their way out of the village where their two male companions were waiting with Rimuru, Rigurd and Rigur. Ananta didn't see Ranga so she assumed he must be chillin in Rimuru's shadow.

"There they are, what took you so long?" Kaval called out, annoyed that they had been made to wait so long in the hot sun.

"Sorry about that!" Ananta yelled back, waving over to the group. She froze abruptly when another power spike caused chills to shock her body. She turned around quickly just in time to see Shizu fall to her knees in pain, clutching her chest.