Rimuru and Iruma's Adventures in the Netherworld

What Comes Down Must Go Up

Author's Note: Again, thank Bellatrix for her hard work writing most of this chapter (and the one before it)! She's the best! :)

**The Next Evening**

Ameri POV

"D-don't you think this is a little too soon for us?" Iruma stammers in a girlish voice through flushed cheeks.

"In this moment, you look more beautiful than ever," comes a deeper, more confident voice. "I wouldn't be able to sleep at night if I didn't kiss you right here and now."

His face gets a shade redder. "Then... then let's do it!"

"I love you."

"I love you too..."

...

"You've gotten really good at acting, Iruma!" I praise, impressed at how much effort he's put into this pivotal scene of Rin and Kakeru's romance. It outshines all the previous First Love Memories reading sessions!

"Really? I'm glad, I actually decided to rehearse this one. It's hard switching voices like that!" Iruma replies with a delighted smile.

"Well, your 'girl voice' has gotten really good. You must be well prepared for your debut at the Demdol Games."

"N-no way! Not in a million years!" he squeals.

"I was joking, just joking!" I laugh, but in reality, I don't know how I'd feel if my boyfr– I MEAN if Iruma made being a demdol a serious part of his identity!

"A-anyway, here's them kissing under the moon..." Iruma murmurs as he turns the page, almost too embarrassed to function.

It's quite the delightful picture, one I found myself staring at many times back before I had Iruma translating the series for me.

"I didn't really notice until now, but there's only one moon in the background, and it's weirdly huge. Do you think the moons in this setting orbit separately from each other? Or is it just one moon with an eccentric orbit that gets really close sometimes?" I ask, hoping he's paid enough attention in astrology class to know what I'm talking about.

The 'setting' is of course the place Iruma comes from, but he hasn't realized that I already know that he's a human, so asking about First Love Memories' setting is a convenient proxy.

"The artist just decided to make the moon really big for dramatic effect, it's a kinda common thing to do," Iruma replies like I asked a silly question.

Well, it's not common here, it'd look just messy if you drew two really big moons. Artists who want to draw dramatic moons like to draw them with big crosses of light that bend into each other, faintly suggesting a far larger circle made of the space between the moons.

Iruma then starts to look uncomfortable as he realizes that the conversation is drifting to the topic of where he's from, so he suddenly changes the subject.

"O-oh! There's something I wanna ask, Ameri! Do you know what it was that happened over the weekend?"

"What do you mean?" I ask, not understanding the vague question.

"Um, the day after the Harvest Festival, Rimuru was called to the school for some kind of 'emergency'. She wouldn't talk about it afterward but she seemed kinda upset."

"I haven't heard of any emergency. I... I have seen something similar happen with a classmate before, but I don't think it applies here."

"What happened?"

"Well, life in the Netherworld is dangerous, and it's not unheard of for a student to get called in by the principal after a tragedy in the family. But that's obviously not it given that you two live with the principal."