The slow melodically tap tenses up Itami as Vanir asks again " Doesn't something bother you? "
Itami looks down trying not to make eye contact but still hearing slow tapping, " What's your real intention on bringing me here? "
Vanir smiles as he responds " I have no real intentions, especially for someone whose soul is tainted as yours"
Itami clenches his fist tightly, looking at his own reflection from the tea. Vanir matched the rhythm of his tapping with his sentences. "Are you tormented by memories? "
Itami grits his teeth as memories slowly flood his mind. "Burden by guilt? Vanir added as he leaned in " Are you not feeling any remorse? ". Itami stands up, slamming his fist on the table " THE HELL YOU WANT FROM ME! ". Itami visibly enraged the calm demon sips his tea some more " Oh can't I just do a good deed from the heart? ".
" Bullshit! Demons love to feast on the negative emotions of humans. " Vanir only finishes his tea as he responds '' So you know I'm a demon? "
" Yeah, the all-seeing demon at that. Now, what do you want from me? "
Vanir laughs as he stands up looking down at Itami " I only want to inform you that I could suppress those memories, helping you in the long run. I've seen the symbol on your cowl and I know the history. Also don't you want to forget, especially her" Vanir smirks at Itami as he is visibly distraught.
Looking away from Vanir, Itami responded " No… she would be disappointed if I agreed to this… " Itami muttered the last part but Vanir heard it all, " You really are an interesting human being, well this ends our conversation here as your other friend has arrived. "
They both hear the door open with Kazuma entering. Both Itami and Kazuma lock eyes but Kazuma looks away and sees Wiz on the floor "uhh… why is she like that? "
" She made poor decisions on purchasing items for the store and I had to punish her" Vanir walks towards Kazuma greeting him at the door " As for your other friend, we were having a chat. ".
"Mmm, it's weird seeing you this early, you sure you don't want to come with us? We can pay for it. "
Kazuma looked at Itami but he waved him off " Like I said yesterday, I'm fine. Now if you can both excuse me, I'll be leaving. " Itami gets up and gets his satchel, before exiting the shop, Vanir gives him a gadget. " Here you can take one, it's for doing your business but with side effects"
Giving Vanir a confused look, Itami puts it in one of the pockets of his satchel leaving Kazuma with him. Leaving Wizs shop he wanders around town for a bit stopping in front of a stand selling liquor.
Remembering what he did to Aqua and what she did for him, he decided to buy her some liquor. He spots a bottle that's high on a shelf selling for a high price, "What's so special about that bottle? "
The vendor stopped unloading boxes as he answered "You see here, this bottle has liquor that has been aging for 60 years in a Perry barrel. " Grabbing the bottle the vendor waves it in front of Itami.
Rubbing his chin he waves off the vendor "sorry old man, maybe next time" Walking away Itami turns to an ally way and puts on his hood.
Feeling movement in the bag he looks down and sees Rurunu staring at him. "What? It's just this once… stop staring at me, we did this plenty of times before... ". Rurunu still staring at him Itami sighs and says " Fine I'll pay half. ". The slime nodded and went back to sleep in his satchel as Itami emptied his coin pouch.
With his hood covering his face he swiftly and quietly went back to the stand and snatched the expensive bottle of liquor, but the stand fell down making a loud crash, as well as the other bottles, crashed making liquor spill everywhere. " Crap… "
" What the- Thief! Someone help! " The vendor shouted as people started to get out of their homes to see what the loud noise was. Itami covered in alcohol dropped his Eris and started to run in the other direction, turning around he saw a couple of adventures following him. "Stop thief! " One of them shouted.
Itami quickly turns a sharp corner into an ally way and jumped over some barrels. Looking behind him he only saw one of the adventures chasing him now as the others crashed into each other trying to get over the barrels. "Your not gonna get away from me that easily! " She shouted. After some twist and turns, he sees a dead-end ahead of him as the only adventurer chasing him shouted " I got you now! "
Itami throws the liquor bottle that he stole up in the air as he quickly scales the building with ease, and before the bottle can shatter on the roof, Itami catches it in the air and continued to run from rooftop to rooftop.
Stopping for a moment he turns around and sees the female adventure still chasing him but a good distance from him. Itami continued to run from rooftop to rooftop and jumped down in an alleyway, losing the adventure. Staying low, he waits in the dark as he hears the Adventure run past him cursing at herself.
After a bit more time Itami puts his hood down and spots a riverbank with kids playing in the water. Walking down to the river he knees down and puts his satchel and bottle next to him. Splashing water on his clothes he continues to hear the kids have fun, turning to them for a moment a wave of nostalgia came over him as he chuckles to himself. " So stupid, their gonna catch a cold"
After splashing water on his clothes, he hears someone yelling and complaining in the distance, getting up Itami gets his things and investigates. After a bit of searching, he hears Kazuma yelling. Itami finds his party with Aqua crying and Kazuma buying tickets, he walks up to them and hands the whining Aqua her gift. "Here, this is for healing me and an Apology for smacking you. "
Aqua wipes her face as she grabs the bottle " Wait, really? "
"Yeah…" Itami answered. Aqua was quickly back to her cheery self as she hugs the bottle thanking Itami but he was already walking away waving them off with a single hand. Before leaving Darkness stopped him asked, " You sure you don't want to go?"
Itami looked back at her with an annoyed look " Like I've been saying, I don't want to go." Before Darkness can say anything else Itami continued to walk away from them, they lose sight of him as he blends in with the crowd.
Arriving home he sets his stuff down and sits on the couch while Rurunu wakes up and gets out of the satchel." Do you even need sleep? " Itami questioned as Rurunu only starred at him. " Oh…why am I even asking? "
As night falls Itami leans against the balcony railing with Rurunu next to him. With the night only filled with the sounds of bugs, he sighs and looks at Rurunu. " It's quite without them. "
The slime only looks at Itami but looks away staring at the full moon. The light of the full moon faintly illuminates Rurunus body with Itami looking up with him. " Am I worthy of starting again? "
He looks at Rurunu again but the slime jiggles itself as a response. Then looking at his hands, slowly clenching and opening them, memories slowly start to flow in as Vanirs words fill his mind.
*Burden by guilt?... no remorse?*
He then starts to hear faint roars of a creature and the cries of agony, his right eye starts to emanate a purple glow with his sword doing the same. Purple electricity starts to flicker out but before it can continue, Rurunu slams against him.
After the collision Itami gasps for breath looking around on the floor, getting on his knees his eyes start to fill up with tears as he grabs his hair then covers his right eye. His heavy breathing slows as he calms down, looking at Rurunu he wipes his tears softly smiling at him "thank you… "
After some time he gets up from his knees and gets back inside with Rurunu, after entering his room he collapses onto the bed with the slime hopping in next to him.
*I need to leave before it happens again*
After falling asleep he wakes up at the break of dawn, with the little amount of sunlight hitting his face. Getting up he changes into different clothes and goes outside in the cold early morning. Running around Axel he kept his mind blank only focusing on running, after a while, he made it back to the mansion.
Entering the Mansion he stops and looks around as the area is filled with silence until he hears water splashing. Investigating he looks around for the noise, he then opens the balcony door and sees Rurunu folding his clothes.
Speechless Itami looks at the slime with confusion as it only looks back at him. " How?" is the only thing Itami uttered as the slime continued to do laundry. He watches the slime drop his cowl into the soapy water, then moving to the other side of the bucket. Rurunu inserts a long brush inside his body as he scrubs the piece of clothing.
Rurunu then picks it up with the brush and puts it on the rim of the bucket and spits out the brush as he gets another stick to pick it up. After swinging it around he hangs it to dry over the balcony using the railing. The slime then turns back to Itami with a prideful look, "You have to show me who taught you because I don't remember teaching you this."
After watching Rurunu wash his clothes they both go to the back yard with Itami breaking off a branch from a tree, after cleaning it off he points it at Rurunu. " Ready?" he exclaimed as he sees the slime bouncing as a response.
With a deep breath, he focuses on Rurunu, lunging at him with speed. The slime dodged his swing with Rurunu bouncing off his head but Itami uses the missed swing to push off the ground to backflip and kick Rurunu. His attack made contact but the slime bounces off the ground to hit his face, but with quick reflexes, Itami manages to only get scraped by it.
With Rurunu up in the air, Itami crouched down readying his stick. Slowing his breathing his body flickers small purple sparks then he locks on to Rurunu. With great speed he jumps to the falling slime leaving a crater on the ground, Itami's stick started to flicker with the same sparks as he hits Rurunu. The strike made Rurunu fly through the air as Itami started to fall down, after landing back on the ground he looks up and tries to spot Rurunu only then realizing what he did. " Oh, I've gone too far..."
After a minute of waiting, he hears a big crash in the front yard with a scream of a girl, " That's not good...might need a shovel…".
After getting a shovel, Itami goes in the front yard as he sees a young girl on the floor with whole roasted pork next to her. He then looks across from her and sees Rurunu hopping out of a crater. Crouching next to the fainted girl he checks her pulse and recognized who it is "huh, she the girl from the other day"
"She's alive at least, probably fainted-" Itami then sees Rurunu eating the roasted pork that was on the ground " You know that's not ours right?". The slime stops and looks at him but continues to eat the pig. " Just hurry up before someone else comes". Bringing the girl inside he puts her on the couch and lets the bone-filled slime in after closing the gate and door.