When Aono awoke, she saw an odd sight. Tamu was stringing a "YOU'RE NEAT, GIRL" banner across the wall. Around the letters were drawings such as smiling slimes, squirrels giving thumbs-ups, and dancing humans that looked kind of like Sardu. Also, an image of PURITY, a yellow-haired human woman with glowing eyes in a flowing white dress, being spanked by an angry looking squirrel.

Pulling herself out of the hammock, Aono asked, "How long did it take you to do this?"

Tamu winked. "Thirty minutes. I got an ability that makes preparing pranks take less time."

That gave Aono pause. "Wait, pranks?"

Suddenly, pink glitter sprayed from the O on the banner, covering Aono. She stood there stunned, then began laughing even as the glitter faded back into the mana from which it was manifested from.

"Found a loophole in your abilities already?" she said.

"Yeah!" Tamu snapped his fingers. "As long as I make a prank out of it, I can make anything in less time! It's great! I can give people gifts and prank them at the same time! Um, do you like your gift?"

Aono said with a smile, "You were always handy with your hands. Gods, I love it. Especially this part." She pointed to the bit with PURITY getting spanked.

"Goal accomplished! Now I just need to figure out what to do next." Tamu put his finger upon his chin in a thinking pose.

"Anyways, how's that steel-wool sheep thing working out?" Aono took out the fat pork sausage she was saving for breakfast then after a thought took out a second one for Tamu. That, along with some bread, made up breakfast.

Joining her at the table, Tamu dug in. "Not at all. Looked into it, turns out they don't really do well around here. Too much water. Plus just getting started is really expensive. And I haven't thought up another idea, yet. Been thinking about that argument big time. Not sure what to do. Haven't found anything that kept my attention for long so far. Happy you found something that works for you, though."

Aono looked at the pensive look on Tamu's face that was different from the usual expressions she saw on his face. "Oh. Hopefully you'll find something. Maybe comedy?"

He rubbed his head. "Considered doing that, but only so much call for that. Would have to travel a lot and I like the people here too much. I gave it a try before you moved here, you know. Got too homesick."

Aono broke the bread and stuck a piece into her mouth, letting her slime slowly digest it as she sat deep in thought. "Maybe try mixing different things? Some comedy when people want it, quick and short projects, and other work the rest of the time?"

Tamu looked very thoughtful, scratching his chin. "I could do what people have demand for, maybe?"

"I mean, you have a lot of experience doing all kinds of different things, and you're good at figuring stuff out." This time Aono stuck some cut off sausage into her mouth.

"Yeah... I'll have to think about it and figure out what I can do. Oh! I've got to see Sardu about getting my door unlocked before she leaves for patrol or something!" He bolted to the door, taking his remaining bread and sausage with him.

Aono cut off another sausage piece. "Good luck. I've got patrol today, myself. With that cranky fish. Ghei'll probably write a song insulting me if I'm too late, so I'll take care of my slimes early."

"You're the one who'll need the luck, working with Ghei and all! Oh, right, I need to report to Head about my level up too!" With that, he was out the door.

Aono finished her breakfast then sat back, staring at the banner. Gods, it was good to have Tamu back as a friend.

---

Aono was lying in the mud of the slime farm, musing that said mud was really nice and soothing, particularly the moisture, in her slime form. No wonder her slimes liked it. They apparently really liked her slime form, too, always affectionately nudging her, even more so than they did to her regular form. Right now she was covered in slimes.

It was a nice day to lie in mud. She should hear anyone coming and have time to get back into her regular form. Unless like Ghei and Ghaan they were a flying carp. But Ghei wasn't due to come for about a half hour... She suddenly realized a bright orange carp with white patches was floating above her.

"What're you doing, you sleepy-eyed, limp-limbed sluggard! Time to get up and patrol!" Ghei barked.

Aono gaped. "But that's not for half a hour... Wait. How'd you know it's me?"

"I like starting early. Also, there's only one person with that class around here and only one person those slimes like that much." Ghei turned away with a flick of his tail. "Don't care what you're doing in that shape with that name. Get ready to go hunting."

As she hurried up the ladder and let the mud slough off her as she oozed enough slime to get it off, Aono had the thought that Tamu was right about Ghei's reaction to her.

They proceeded in silence, Aono walking on the ground and Ghei floating through the air. Finally she said, "So this is the real me. And, no, it's not another prank. This is important to me... I guess you don't really care about that."

"Hm. Good for you," Ghei said with a sincerity that surprised Aono. Then he continued, "Now keep your eyes out for monsters," and Aono felt the moment of caring had passed.

As it turned out, the four monsters they ran across were all level one and no match for two level twos. Each time, Ghei would sing a song praising Aono's hunting progress to increase her strength and insulting the monster to the point where they broke out crying even as they tried to attack Aono. One monster even outright curled up and died from the barrage of insults.

"Wow. Didn't know you could insult monsters enough to kill them," Aono said as they walked away from the monster corpse.

"Comes with practice. A lot of it," Ghei said dismissively. "When you're as old as me, you get to really refine your abilities."

"Mmhmm," Aono said. Ghei might be only one level higher than her, but it got harder and harder to find suitable challenges the more you leveled up. Unintelligent monsters were only as dangerous as the intelligent equivalent one level lower, because their tactics tended to be somewhat simple, and intelligent monsters were very rare.

The head had managed to get to level four, but only because he ran into a level four monster which was virtually an once a lifetime occurrence around here. To get a higher level than three, you generally had to travel far and wide, like Thoy.

But Aono still had nearly died twice to the monsters around here and she... she wasn't sure how she felt about that. She liked her normal life at the slime farm, but she had to admit testing her abilities against that monster human she had gained a level from had been exciting in a small way. More terrifying than exciting, though.

The patrol soon ended, once they were back at the slime farm, Ghei turned away, but Aono quickly called out to him. "Don't tell anyone, alright? At least not until the community meeting tonight."

She had decided. She was going to tell everyone.

"Sure," Ghei said briefly and flitted away.

---

Having a whole hall of people Aono knew staring at her was enough to make her wonder if she had made a mistake. But she had claimed her turn to make an announcement and now it was time to carry it through.

She could see Tamu and Sardu giving her encouraging thumbs up and Ghaan had an kind look in her eyes. The green carp's strange faintly glowing sliver fairy eye slowly winked. Drawing in a deep breath, Aono said, "So this is the announcement I want to make."

She stood before them as Gara. But this would be the last time. She cleared her throat and said, "You knew me as Gara and I thought that was who I was. But... it was a person I didn't really like being. I... am not a man. I am a woman. And I am Aono."

She let the shield hiding her true name drop, and she could see a system message informing her that the Status Concealment ability had been discarded. She didn't need that ability anymore. With another deep breath, she activated her slime form and said. "And from now on, I will only be in this form. It's... the one that truly fits me."

A purple slime woman with generous curves and long flowing hair-blob. Her face round and cute. That was her, what she would be for ever. She found herself smiling at the thought.

Immediately, Aono felt the steady mana drain of Slime Form cease and her slimy body felt slightly but perceptibly more natural. But before she could finish processing her thoughts, multiple people stood up and began asking questions. There briefly was a confusing babble of voices before Phylu spoke, "Quiet."

The command was not loud yet it could be clearly heard over all the talking. This was one of the reasons why Phylu was the Head: he could make himself heard no matter what. That and his general levelheaded leading style factored heavily into why he had been voted into the position multiple times.

"Aono," he spoke, "Do you wish to take the time to answer a few questions? You can refuse."

"I... I'd be okay with that," Aono said. After all, explaining things once here with so many people was better than having to explain them many times to individual persons.

Phylu nodded, much of his front body moving with the motion. "Very well. I will open the floor to five questions, one from one person each. We do have other matters to discuss tonight."

Hoou stood, his ever-burning body straightening up. He was a bipedal-shaped being consisted entirely of fire, though he had enough control to keep it from burning things unnecessarily. "Is this one of your and Tamu's pranks?"

That... was one of the questions Aono had mentally prepared herself for. Her answer was simple. "I swear upon OATH that I am Aono and this is not a prank."

Swearing an oath upon OATH was not something to be done casually. Only the most deadly serious oaths involved OATH because of how seriously the god took those oaths. To break such a oath was to gain a mark upon ones face for life declaring one an oathbreaker and usually a curse was also bestowed.

Hoou's astonishment was clear as his fire flared up a little. But he said, "I am satisfied by that answer," and sat back down. Aono couldn't avoid noticing that fewer people looked like they wanted to ask questions. It seemed Hoou's question had been the most common one.

Then Hamu rose. Tamu's sister, with red fur, more noticeable muscles, and half an tail, the remaining half lost to a monster. She was the local blacksmith and a rather good one. She asked, "Do you need someone to help you adjust to a life as a woman?"

"Maybe," Aono said. "I appreciate your offer." With a nod, Hamu sat back down.

The next couple of questions were about why she wanted to be a woman, which Aono answered by saying it simply was who she was, and about what brought this on, to which her response was that it was her own personal business. Many people still looked somewhat confused, but not severely so.

Finally, another squirrel, this one a distant relation to Tamu stood up with an angry expression and said, "Why is everyone going along with this tomfoolery? There's no way--"

At this point, Tamu dumped a bucket full of mud and pink glitter over his distant cousin.

There was a brief hubbub as the cousin angrily tried to wrestle Tamu down before Phylu said, "Cease! Gamu, I'm disappointed in you. Tamu, I commend your loyalty but please don't dump buckets on people in the community hall and especially during a meeting. Sardu, Kilnu, could you see the two of them out and make sure they don't get in a fight? Naturally, this will not count against the five questions."

"Only reason why I didn't do something like that is my job's to keep the order," Sardu said and gently took Tamu by the arm.

As the two Guardians escorted Tamu and Gamu out, a person with a blade for a head and a metallic body in a ruffly dress asked, "Is there a reason you didn't reveal this before?"

"I was afraid of how people would react," Aono said simply. She didn't feel like going into further details, but apparently that was enough for Jamiin to sit back down.

"Well, then," Phylu said, "Onto the next announcement. Who will be next?"

At this point, a dog woman stood with a shy expression and walked to the front as Aono took her seat. Aiio just stood there for a fair while before finally speaking. "So... I don't think I'm a woman. But being a man doesn't feel right. So... I guess I'm neither? ...Thanks, Aono, for giving me the courage to say this."

Now that was a result Aono hadn't expected. A warm fuzzy feeling that her announcement had helped someone filled her heart. For the rest of the announcements and the first few motions of the proposal phase, she was lost in thought.

Then what Ghei said snapped her out of her thoughts. "I motion that a fund jar be set up for Aono to get the things she'll need."

"Uh, why?" someone in the audience said.

Ghei's response to that was to flick one of his fins at Aono and say, "Look at her, you blind-eyed numb-minded nitwit! Just look at her! She'll need clothing that she won't just soak through. New furniture, too, most likely."

Aono could only stare as Phylu turned to her and said, "Do you accept this proposal?"

Refusing such generosity would be only rude, so she could only nod. The rest of the meeting passed by in a blur and she ended up watching as the fund jar Phylu set upon a table began to slowly fill up with coins, one or two at a time. When she tried to thank Ghei, the carp had just snorted dismissively and said, "You were in need, that's all."

This meeting had definitely gone better than she had expected. A thought occurred to her and she tossed the stat point she had just earned into Luck. A little more survivability wouldn't hurt.