Mimicry

"Good work."

"That was fun!"

A tentacle high-five. Our tentacles stuck together with a boing, and Miitei-chan and I merged back into one Slime.

The red rod I set up as a fun little gimmick didn't get to shine much.

We even practiced the whole "gyahhh" death act for when we got hit.

I was hoping they'd fight each other over the red rod, but making it stick to the hand might've been a mistake.

For the record, the dummy red rod had glass shards embedded in it, with just one instruction: "If a hazmat glove grips you, tear a hole and stick on."

Even dummies I'm not controlling can handle simple commands and actions like "eat that". That's about their limit, though.

As for the real Red Horn, that's safe in the inventory. Things you can't eat go in the inventory. A basic rule Penpen taught me.

… I really want to regroup and eat some tasty meat already. I'm so done with human flesh.

The mission cleared successfully.

The underground servants? Ate 'em. That's 25 people, mission complete.

As a reward, I learned the skill Mimicry (Human).

Mimicry. Nice. The dummy red rod I set up as a gimmick earlier was just separated Slime kneaded and stretched into a long thin shape, after all.

So, first I used Predation to clean the red blood off Miitei-chan's surface, and then: Mimicry, activate!

"Oooh…!? This is amazing, my hands have skin color!"

Unlike the makeshift imitation from before, the coloring was proper this time. Judging by the feel of the hands, they really did look and feel like a girl's hands, skin and all.

But bending a finger could make it bend with a squelch, ignoring the joint entirely, and squeezing the arm firmly made the fingers sink in with a squishy give, so the Mimicry was probably surface-level only.

With enough effort, she could probably make herself firm enough to pass as human, though.

The blue hair was technically individual tentacles, but too fine to move without concentrating. Clumping strands together let them move like proper tentacles, though.

"Wow, I look just like Annette!"

"Oh, really? Let me see too. Switching to Auto Mode, and…"

Viewing from the Halo's first-person perspective, she did indeed look like a different-colored Annette. No Red Horn, normal limbs, and both cat ears intact, though.

"You really do look like Annette."

"Yep! So I won't forget about Annette's sister. Annette said she was a twin, remember? And look, I'm Annette's little sister too!"

I see. How sweet of you, Miitei-chan.

She could probably change her hair color freely, but this would likely be her default whenever she took human form.

"… This way, Annette is still with us, right, Spirit-sama?"

"Yeah, she is."

"And so Annette won't be lonely, I need to make lots of little sisters too!"

"Hm? Sure?"

"First, let's make those beastkin kids my little sisters!"

Huh? She just said something a little off, didn't she?

"Miitei-chan? What do you mean by 'making lots of little sisters'?"

"So, listen? Annette has a little sister, right? So if I'm Annette's little sister, and I make little sisters, then Annette gets more little sisters too! A sister's sister is a sister! I'm so smart!"

"???"

Uh, I don't quite follow.

"If she has lots of little sisters, Annette won't be lonely anymore!"

"Ahh, like that? A memorial kind of thing?"

"Huh? Spirit-sama, Annette is right here. I ate her, remember?"

Ah. I might've let her emotional development go a bit too far.

"Alright, let's go collect the dummies and make those beastkin kids my little sisters! Sister hunt!"

"Hm? Mm, hm????"

Uhh. Maybe I'm too dumb to follow what Miitei-chan is saying. She sure is smart.

Oh, Zord-kun's gonna be confused, so I'll handle the talking.

Also, maybe I should teach Miitei-chan the concept of an otokonokofemboy sometime.

We collected the dummies on our way down to the second basement floor and headed for the room where I'd hidden Zord-kun and the other beastkin. Zord-kun had already made it there.

"Good work, Zord-kun."

"! Annette! … No, you're the Slime."

"Aw, you saw through me right away? And I was using Mimicry, too."

"The way you talk, and the Halo…"

Ahh, right. That's what gave it away. Well, she wasn't trying to hide it.

"By the way, these things are really safe, right…?"

"Yep. Collecting this room's Slimes was the last step. Man, we made the kids cry though. Sorry about that."

"Spirit-sama! Sisters! Let's make sisters! I'll be the big sister!"

"Yeah, we'll put that on hold for now."

Shpopopon. She stretched out finger-tentacles to snag and reel in the dummy red Slimes one after another. A flick of the wrist like throwing a yo-yo sent the fingers stretching out with a whoosh.

Each red Slime she hit got slurped up and vanished on contact. Kind of fun.

"Whoa, that's kinda creepy…"

"You might not want to say that where she can hear you."

"Ah, sorry. It's just… seeing fingers stretch out from Annette's body is, uh, really unsettling."

I get it.

"Spirit-sama! Let's make that one a sister! And that one! And that one! Oh, males don't count. They're not sisters."

"Yeah, we'll put that on hold for now."

"Alright, let's head outside the lab. We can't stay here forever, so let's break out! No idea what's out there, but we'll just have to wing it and see what breaks!"

"I'd prefer nothing breaks, if it's all the same to you."

"Well, I'll take point on that front. Check this out—clone no jutsu!"

With a ploop, she split into two.

"For now, let's head outside the lab. If there are any traps, this clone will trip them."

"R-right. Yeah. Thanks… Everyone, this is our chance to make it out alive. Ready?"

And with that, we led the beastkin out and escaped the lab.

There were no survivors inside the facility besides the beastkin, and we'd already checked the crawl spaces beneath the floors and elsewhere for traps, so we knew there were none. We made it past the outer walls without a single obstacle.