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Chapter 2: Kindred Spirits

Summary:

Tanya can't catch a break, can she? Thrown into another world, forced to fight monsters... could this get any worse? Wait, is that... no, it can't be... Mary Sue?!

Notes:

And another chapter! This is really fun to write

Enjoy!

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

There are few things I hate more than the times when emotion overrides common sense. If only everyone would just use their reason before acting. Ah, but then I'd never be in this situation in the first place now, would I? In another world, facing off against humanoid monsters… how did my life, or rather, my continued existence, come to this?

Am I doing something wrong? I can't help but wonder.

It's not like I'm the same person I was in my first world. No, that salaryman would not have survived the way I did. Stagnation is akin to death, especially in the world at war I'd found myself in previously. So, I adapted.

I must continue to adapt.

-=-

Late Morning

Forest Clearing Near Sealed Cave

Jura Forest, Jura Tempest Alliance

Tanya dropped backwards, narrowly dodging a horizontal swing from her purple-clad foe.

She landed on her shoulders, quickly twisting her hips to sweep Purple's feet out from under her.

Then, she rolled backwards onto her stomach to avoid a vertical sword slash from Red.

Too close!

Tanya pushed up off the ground with her arms, intending to get enough air to land on her feet with the help of a weak enhancement spell.

But that wasn't what happened.

Instead of popping up just enough to regain her footing, Tanya found herself in the air, her waist at the eyelevel of her Red opponent.

Huh?

Red looked almost as surprised as she felt, but he clearly wasn't letting it get to him. He brought his sword up from the ground in an instant.

Without thinking, Tanya triggered her active barrier. The sword glanced off, metallic and magical sparks flying. Red's surprised expression then became more so, as Tanya twisted in midair and booted him across the face.

He flew across the clearing, narrowly missing a tree and disappearing into the forest. Tanya dropped to the ground, staring after him with wide eyes.

I tried to use a flight spell instinctually... and it worked? Not only that, but my enhancement spell was way stronger than it should have been, and my active barrier deflected that strike easily. My Type 97 and Type 95 are nowhere to be seen, so that means…

Tanya refocused as Purple moved to strike, having finally gotten back to her feet.

She sidestepped a sword swing, swaying left and right to avoid the follow ups.

…when I reincarnated here, I must have lost the need for a computation orb to perform complex formulae. 

She ducked another swing, the wind pressure from the missed strike rustling her hair.

Or rather, I gained the ability to do more magic without an orb.

Yet another strike came, this one cleaving down vertically. Instead of dodging, Tanya activated a mage blade and a reinforcement spell over both arms.

Then, she caught the sword.

The ground cracked under her feet, wind rushing by at gale-force speeds.

I can still see the formulae in my head. But I don't even have to think about them. In fact, it feels similar to how using a computation orb felt back in that other world. That's one of my… "Skills", was it? Right. Unique Skill: Formulaic Casting. That must be it.

The blade trembled between her hands, as Purple tried desperately to pull it away. Tanya quickly layered an enhancement spell with her other active spells.

The sword stopped moving for a few seconds, before it quickly resumed it's escape attempt.

Fuck, even with her enhancement, it was slowly escaping her grip. Purple's raw strength was truly monstrous to behold.

Now, Tanya could tell that her Purple foe wanted her sword back. It was written all over her face. The frustration, desperation both mixed with the slightest bit of surprise and anxiety painting a clear picture in Tanya's mind.

And Tanya, being the good Samaritan that she was, decided that, yes, Purple could have her sword back. Tanya wasn't an unreasonable being. This sword clearly had some value to Purple, so there was no reason not to return it.

With some caveats, of course. She was not unreasonable. She was also not an idiot.

Tanya inhaled, quickly boosting the strength of her enhancement spell several times over.

Once again, the sword stopped dead in place. But this time, before Purple could adjust her strength, Tanya turned her hands over, twisting it out of her opponent's grip.

Then, she flung it off to the side. With her boosted enhancement spell, the massive weapon rocketed over the trees lining the clearing and disappeared in the distance.

…Did not mean to throw it that far.

Tanya looked back to her opponent, her hands readied and spells still active.

She blinked. There was no one there.

"Herculessssss!!!"

Tanya turned her head, then sweatdropped as she saw her Purple opponent frantically running off.

Ah, I guess the sword meant more to her than I thought. It even has a name, which I assume is the "Hercules" she yelled about.

She glanced around the clearing again. Now that one of her foes had been dealt with, it was the others' turn.

And given that "Hercules" is Roman, that implies the existence of reincarnates other than me in this world, an issue I didn't run into in my previous one. That, or it's an extreme coincidence, but I doubt that. Everything points to this world resembling a much more typical "isekai" world. Plus, the blue one mentioned the appearance of another large mana signature- no, he said "magical auras". That only adds credence too-

Tanya did a double take. There was no one else in the clearing.

Fuck, the blue one! Where-!?

She activated Magic Sense again, her eyes widening as a presence made itself known.

Several meters behind her.

In an instant, countless white threads snapped into being, surrounding and entrapping her in a huge cocoon.

"Arcane Thread Fetters!" She could hear a male voice call from outside her prison. "Do it now, Benimaru!"

A named special attack? And they're teaming up on me, too. This is bad.

Another voice, "Benimaru", apparently, yelled the name of his own attack next.

"Hell Flare!"

-=-

Black flames engulfed Souei's silk cocoon in a dome, burning them and everything inside them with the full force of Benimaru's strongest magical attack.

"That should be it." Benimaru said, as the flames began to die down. "Then again, that's what I thought about the Orc Disaster."

His statement became self-fulfilling just a few seconds later. The blonde woman they'd been fighting walked almost casually out of the remnants of Souei's Arcane Thread Fetters and Benimaru's Hell Flare, her blue-colored magical barrier shielding her from view.

"Okay, I think I've got it now." The woman wiped sweat off her forehead, her barrier flickering away into nonexistence. "Magic is stronger in this world."

"In this world?" Souei narrowed his eyes, "Are you an Otherworlder?"

"Now that I've gotten a feel for it…" The woman ignored him entirely. "This fight should go more smoothly."

She held up her right arm, pointing her open hand directly at the two of them. 

"This is self-defense, by the way. You attacked me. Anything after that is just a reasonable level of retaliation. In other words…"

Her palm glowed bright blue. A ball of magical energy of the same color formed in front of it, with a ring of magic encircling the ball.

-=-

Art by Me (@tanjaded)

-=-

"Don't blame me for what happens next."

Her aura intensified, allowing no misunderstandings as to the seriousness behind this attack. Whatever spell or piece of magic this was, it would be no joke.

They didn't need Magic Sense to know that.

The air electrified, time itself seeming to slow as she prepared to fire.

Souei and Benimaru braced themselves, ready to act however necessary.

"STOP! STOOOPPPP!!!"

"Huh?" The woman paused.

The two Kijin glanced up at the familiar voice.

"Lord Rimuru!" Benimaru exclaimed.

"Why is it always fighting with you guys?" Rimuru descended in an instant, their wings seamlessly disappearing into their back.

"Lord Rimuru, you shouldn't be here right now." Souei remarked, keeping his eyes locked their blonde opponent.

She hadn't lowered her arm, and thus whatever spell she'd been planning on using, but now her expression bore curiosity, rather than hostility. Even so, her eyes remained calculating, and Souei got the distinct impression that this woman was not someone they could let things slip around.

She appeared far too sharp for that.

"This woman is a formidable opponent. It isn't safe." Benimaru said, nodding in agreement. At the same time, he attempted to push Rimuru back behind the two of them.

Unsuccessfully, as Rimuru simply swapped into slime form to duck under his arm, then swapped back to stride forward.

"I'll be fine. I'm your boss, remember? So just let me handle this."

Rimuru kept moving, stopping only a few meters from the woman that was giving his subordinates so much trouble.

"So, you're the source of one of those new magical auras we felt." Rimuru glanced around. "It looks like you gave my subordinates some trouble. Did you not want to talk it out first or…?"

The woman gave Rimuru an incredulous look at that, and the slime found himself with an unfortunately familiar sinking feeling in his gut.

"I was perfectly willing to talk things out." She began, with one of the most deadpan expressions Rimuru had ever personally seen in either of his lives, "Until your purple-clad friend decided to try and cleave me in half."

Now Rimuru was sure his expression mirrored hers.

He turned to face his subordinates, who were beginning to look like they'd rather be anywhere else at the moment. That was all the confirmation Rimuru needed.

Oops.

"Maybe I should start with an apology, then?" The slime spun around again so he was facing the now remarkably less hostile-looking woman… actually, she was really a teenager, now that Rimuru thought about it.

Double oops.

"That would be an appropriate response." The teen eyed them curiously, still aiming her spell at them. "So, you're the Head Brass around here? 'Lord Rimuru' of the Jura Forest Alliance, I presume."

"That's right. You've heard of me before?"

The teen, rather than answering outright, glanced pointedly at Benimaru and Souei.

"No, I haven't." She responded a few seconds later.

"Right…" Rimuru sweatdropped. He definitely needed to have a talk with his subordinates later. Using words and phrases like 'patience', 'jumping the gun', and 'think before acting'.

"So, you're a slime." It wasn't a question.

"Yep."

The teen's gaze was cutting. It was like Rimuru was being dissected on a fundamental level.

Admittedly, it wasn't an altogether unfamiliar feeling, given that Great Sage knew everything about him and made use of this fact when they conversed. But it was still uncomfortable, nonetheless. Especially from a stranger.

"And who might you be?"

"I am Tanya von Degurechaff." The teen, Tanya, answered after moment of contemplation. "And you're Rimuru the slime. In other words, a monster. A monster leading other monsters."

"I mean, that's true, but…" Rimuru was slightly taken back by her blunt assessment and the manner in which it was delivered. On the bright side, it wasn't unfriendly, merely a cool statement of fact. "Well, I'm not a bad slime, you know!"

Tanya blinked. "...Dragon Quest?"

She finally dropped her arm, her hand closing around the ball of magical energy and crushing it. Rimuru watched with more than a bit of interest as the shattered remnants of magic seemed to absorb back into Tanya's hand, rather than dissipate in the air.

Intriguing.

"I get it now. You're like me. Okay, Rimuru. Let's talk."

Very intriguing.

And talk they did.

Tanya explained what she knew. How she'd presumably died and been carted off in a great ball of light alongside a voice she initially thought was the beginnings of schizophrenia. That she'd then lost consciousness, and woken up in a crater in this clearing, where she'd been almost immediately accosted by "Purple", "Red", and "Blue".

"Where is Shion, anyway?"

"Shion? That must be Purple. I tossed her sword as hard as I could somewhere in that direction."

The conversation wrapped up shortly after that, with Tanya describing the double attack from Souei and Benimaru along with an offhanded remark about "Magic feeling different in this world". Rimuru made a mental note to ask about that later. That implied that Tanya's previous world had magic, yet she somehow still understood Rimuru's Dragon Quest reference.

That had more than a few interesting implications.

It would have to wait though.

The three monsters and one human snapped their heads to the side in unison, as a powerful magical aura appeared – or rather, reappeared – then disappeared in nearly the same moment.

Rimuru glanced around, noting their similar reactions with an ever-increasing interest regarding one Tanya von Degurechaff.

"You can sense that as well?" He asked.

"I learned a 'Skill' called Magic Sense recently." Tanya replied. "By the way, you and your subordinates mentioned another magical aura appearing around the same time as mine. Unfortunately, I might know their identity."

"'Their, huh?" Rimuru echoed.

"Yes. Sorry about this, but we should go clean up the mess first." Tanya started strolling in that direction, her feet slowly leaving the ground until she was floating slightly above them. She looked back with a raised eyebrow, "Well? Shall we be off?"

-=-=-=-

A Few Minutes Later

Incomplete Road North of Tempest

Jura Tempest Alliance

Geld eyed the unconscious teen warily.

"She's a fighter." He said simply. His companion nodded.

"She has spirit, I'll give her that." Hakurou agreed, stroking his beard idly. "But her skill is abysmal."

"True. No technique behind this one." Geld responded. "Just emotion."

Hakurou hummed, acknowledging his comrade's point whilst keeping an eye on the teen girl.

He'd left Tempest shortly after detecting the magical aura, trusting Benimaru, Souei, Shion to deal with the other. And by the time he had arrived, the fight was already over. 

Geld had been standing near the girl's unconscious body with a confused look on his face upon Hakurou's arrival. Apparently, the teen had appeared in a flash of light, and upon waking had attacked Geld on sight.

Luckily for her, the Orc King had noted the wild yet glazed look in her eyes the moment they'd locked gazes. She clearly wasn't in her right mind.

Also, she appeared to be human. That was important. Lord Rimuru liked humans.

As such, he'd limited himself to knocking her across the head, causing her to collapse like a sack of potatoes. Whoever this girl was, she'd chosen a rather unfortunate – or fortunate, some might say – spot to appear in, whether intentionally or not.

This only became more obvious when she woke up and attacked again, only for the recently arrived Hakurou to knock her out again with the handle of his sword.

It was the result of this scene that Rimuru and Tanya arrived too, with an unconscious teen face first on the ground while Hakurou and Geld chatted and watched over her.

-=-

Tanya resisted the urge to pinch the bridge of her nose. It most likely wouldn't help her burgeoning headache anyway.

"Headache" is one way of putting it. I suppose showing up alone would have been too easy... I should know better.

The slime and, seemingly, a fellow reincarnate, shoots her an amused look.

And isn't that just a kicker? Meeting another reincarnate less than an hour into her new world, when her previous one had none other than herself.

"I'm guessing you know her?"

"Unfortunately." Tanya walked forward, Rimuru at her side, before stopping next to two other monsters she didn't know.

"Lord Rimuru, I'm glad to see you well."

"It's always great to see you too, Geld. How's the road coming along?"

"Work is steady and on schedule." Geld glanced to the side as the unconscious teen stirred somewhat. "It is lucky this girl appeared ahead of our current construction. Otherwise, there might have been a setback."

Rimuru nodded. "That's good to hear. Nice work!"

"Lord Rimuru, who is your companion, may I ask?" Hakurou said, eyeing Tanya curiously.

Tanya did a double take at his voice. For some reason, the old monster sounded exactly like General Zettour. Like, it was uncanny how similar it was.

"The source of the other magical aura, perhaps?" He continued.

"That's right. Turns out she's an Otherworlder, not an enemy. It's a good thing too; she's pretty strong!"

"I can tell."

"You all might want to step back." Tanya warned, as the unconscious teen on the ground slowly regained consciousness. "Mary Sue and I have a bad history, and as such she tends to get violent around me. I wouldn't want to burden you with my problems, so just let me deal with her."

"Sure thing." Rimuru agreed easily, stepping back and gesturing for Geld and Hakurou to do the same.

The now identified Mary pushed herself up with her arms, glancing around blearily.

"Also, you said her name is Mary Sue?" Rimuru raised an incredulous eyebrow. "You're kidding, right?"

"There's no reason to." Tanya watched as her 'mortal enemy' – according to Mary, not her – slowly became more aware of her surroundings. "Though I wish I was."

Mary seemed to have arrived here the same way she did, and her state reflected that. She had her usual outfit: her white button up shirt with a dark blue tie, overlayed by a dark blue overshirt and sitting untucked from her matching dark blue pants and grey boots.

There were also no weapons or computation orbs in sight.

Did she get any Skills when she crossed over? It'd be foolish to assume otherwise. But even still, she's been knocked out most of her time here. Meanwhile, I've had time to adjust the slightest bit to my own Skills, though not by too much. 

Mary brought a gloved hand up and rubbed at her eyes, before looking up once more. Tanya didn't see it, being deep in thought and all, but it was exactly then that Mary noticed her for the first time.

I'm not quite sure what some of them even are. Unique Skill: Tetrabattery Limit Enhancement is a good example. What even is that? Like, just a battery or something? And "tetra" means four, so there's four of them? Ah, wait. "Four", "Battery", "Enhancement". That's familiar.

"Rusted Silver!!!"

Now, Tanya may not have seen when Mary noticed her, but she definitely heard it.

Mary burst to her feet. Tanya braced herself, ready to use as much power as necessary to put her foe down…

Only to blink, as she realized Mary was moving towards her a bit slower than expected.

Don't get her wrong, it wasn't slow, per se. In fact, it was incredibly fast by normal human standards.

But Tanya had been expecting, like, flight, or an optical spell, or something else magic related.

The surprise at her opponent's lack of expected speed, ironically enough, almost led to Tanya getting hit anyways. She managed to snap out of it though, sidestepping Mary's wild right hook at the last second.

She can't use magic.

Tanya turned around, and easily dodged another wild swing.

Probably. Unless she's phenomenal actress.

Mary stumbled past her, Tanya shifting around to keep her foe in her line of sight.

"You damn Devil!" Mary spat.

"Ironic, with who you worship."

Tanya stepped back, avoiding a turning kick.

"But your God... he's not here right now, huh?"

"Shut up!"

Mary charged once more, throwing out unrefined punch after punch. Tanya dodged them with ease, swaying and backing away as necessary.

All power and no precision. Boring.

It looked practically effortless on the Argent's part, though to be fair she did have an enhancement spell active.

That flash of aura we felt from her must have been an involuntary reaction. A spark of rage expelled via her magical aura, perhaps. That's not a problem I have, but she clearly doesn't understand what's happening. I almost feel bad.

Mary switched it up, bursting forward with a left side kick.

Almost. But not quite.

Tanya stepped inside the kick, then again behind Mary. Quickly, she swept her right leg back, knocking her foe's supporting leg out from underneath her.

Mary fell like rock, busting her tailbone on the unforgiving ground below.

"You want to fight me, to kill me. But you don't even know what's happening." Tanya shook her head, "You can't win this. Surrender."

"I don't know the meaning of the word surrender!" Mary snarled, readying herself for another assault.

Tanya didn't give her the chance.

"You should consider learning."

In an instant, she was behind Mary.

Tanya's eyes shone a vibrant blue, a similar glow surrounding her hand as she chopped the back of Mary's neck.

Mary collapsed, her face going blank as she fell to unconsciousness yet again.

It was quiet for a moment.

"Right, that went better than expected." Tanya dusted herself off, some dirt having gotten kicked up from the brief scuffle.

"That was better than expected?" Rimuru said, moving to stand next to her.

"Well, apparently we killed each other the last time we fought." Tanya remarked, "So, yes. I'd say this was a reasonable, win-win outcome compared to that."

They stood in silence for a moment.

"You should restrain her before she wakes up again." Tanya pointed out. "Then, we need to talk."

"Good point." Rimuru nodded. "I want to hear more about your reincarnation. We can talk back at Tempest."

"Tempest?"

"The city of monsters." The slime in human form smiled, pride evident in his voice. "In other words: home."

-=-=-=-=-=-

Known Skills List

Tanya:

Extra Skill: Magic Sense

Extra Skill: Magic Aura

Extra Skill: Voice of the World Communication

Unique Skill: Formulaic Casting

Unique Skill: Tetrabattery Limit Enhancement

Mary:

Skills Unknown

Notes:

Hakurou and General Zettour have the same Japanese VA, which is where that little reaction form Tanya at his voice came from.

I actually added a reference one of the comments from last chapter. Thought it'd be a funny bit

Thanks for reading!