Side Chapter — Rei’s Naming Sense

Rei was going through immense internal debate. Her Master, Keima, had entrusted her with the customization and summoning of a Fairy. With the DP he’d given her, filling her with motivation, Rei scrolled through the DP Catalog’s customization menu with an intense look, at which point she found the Body Split option.

Body Split. This power would allow a single Fairy to split into multiple Fairies, much like a Slime. With each split, the Fairy would weaken, but as long as they didn’t split too many times they would still listen to orders. Worst case scenario, they could reform into a single Fairy, and if she dedicated all the DP they had given her to one monster, it would end up superior to most humans.

“Hm? On second thought, that will require me to buy skills only once rather than three times for each Fairy! This is the kind of money-saving principle that Master loves so much! We will only need a single scroll per skill!”

I can’t forget to give it the Magic Aptitude that Master mentioned... And then, Body Split. Ideally it will have a large body to make splitting easier... Oh no. Now it costs 50,000 DP. Is there anything I can remove... Mm, I don’t think so.

There was a mysterious elasticity column, but Rei knew it was best not to touch things one didn’t understand. It would be a big problem if the Fairy ended up not being of any use. After all, Rei herself was a living example of what could happen if one played it too loose with the customization bars—her zero attack power was like a curse.

“...Well, I suppose I can cover the extra 5,000 DP with some of my own savings,” Rei said. All that meant was she would have to put off buying that scroll she wanted. Rei added 5,000 of her saved up DP, then summoned the Fairy.

“And there it is,” Rei said aloud. Before her was a Fairy bowing her head, and although she was only the size of a human child, that was fairly large for a Fairy. She had purple hair and mysterious, iridescent eyes. From looks alone it was clear she had an aptitude for magic.

The Fairy smiled at Rei. “Are you my Master?”

“No, I am your commander, Rei. I summoned you at the orders of our shared Master. If we may get straight to the point, please show me your body splitting.”

“My commander... Understood, Rei.” The Fairy bowed, then split into two right in front of Rei.

“Is this acceptable?” both of the fairies asked.

“...Your colors seem to be different,” Rei observed. One had blue hair while the other had red hair. Both were a bit smaller than the original fairy.

“We also split our traits,” they both replied simultaneously.

“I see. Can you split more? And only one of you needs to talk at this point.”

“Understood.”

And so the Fairy continued splitting. She went from two, to four, to eight, and then... to sixteen. At that point some of them were just balls of light with wings, some were wingless little people, and so on.

“This is my limit. If I split any further I might not be able to return to normal,” said the representative Fairy.

“I see, very good. You may return to one,” Rei said, and the Fairies started sticking to each other again. In the blink of an eye, they had returned to being just one Fairy.

“For now, you will assist in the management of the dungeon. There is one other dungeon manager at the moment; please work well with her. Lastly, I shall give you a name. It is only temporary, as Master will be performing the proper naming ceremony.”

Now then, what name should I give her? Rei pondered.

“There are so many options to choose from. Hmmm...”

The first name that came to mind was Echo. After all, Rei had given her Body Split to save DP.

Alpha could also work. Rei was the leader of the monster administrators, and the team she led was of course known as the Alpha Team. Not that Master was aware of it, nor had approved that name. Ahem. Oh, but overlap between the names might cause some conflict, so Rei added Re from her own name to make it Re Alpha.

That said, she would be supporting the dungeon from the shadows, so Phantom could work too. And she was so big for a Fairy that was, in a sense, a Queen of Fairies. But she was smaller than Kinue.

Chris was a cute name, though. Rei didn’t know what it meant, but she knew some humans had names like that. Though the Fairy was superior to humans, so maybe add Tia to it. Crystia... Mm, not quite.

What about combining ‘fam’ for ‘family’ with ‘rade’ for ‘comrade’ to make Famrade—but maybe that was just too cool? Ideally, she would be strong enough to kill a Troll, so maybe Troll Killer would be perfect... Though actually, a dungeon manager didn’t actually need that much power. She just needed to be better than Goblins, so maybe Hob Gob, as a callback to Hobgoblins being the superior goblins? Wait, were Goblins a kind of Fairy?

Stuff like the moon and the night sky seemed to go with Fairies. There was a knife shaped like a crescent moon called a Mezzaluna. But, well... that wasn’t cute.

Music, then. The Fairy could split on a dime, so maybe Quintet to reflect music with five parts? Or, well, if that was the direction to go into, maybe Cell Division would work all on its own. Rei had read about that in one of the books at the church.

But no. That was getting far less cute.

Cute things, cute things... Babies? Oh, right, there was a baby named Netero in the village. Mm, well, that was fine for a human. Oh! But maybe a demonic name would actually go here? The contrast might make her even more cute. Bazalzus, Driano... Dreano? Huh. Rei couldn’t quite remember how the names went.

Oh, maybe Polka? Not that the name meant anything.

Well, one of those names had to be good. The Fairy herself could just pick which one she liked. It was a temporary name, after all.

Rei turned to the Fairy. “I shall now state a list of names. Pick which you like.”

“Understood.”

“Echo, Re Alpha, Phantom, Queen of Fairies, Crystia, Famrade, Troll Killer, Hob Gob, Mezzaluna, Quintet, Cell Division, Netero, Bazalzus, Driano, Dreano, and Polka.”

“I would like all of them.”

“What?”

“All of them.”

Rei was so surprised she asked for confirmation, but got the same reply.

“That would make your temporary name be Echo Re Alpha Phantom Queen of Fairies Crystia Famrade Troll Killer Hob Gob Mezzaluna Quintet Cell Division Netero Bazalzus Driano Dreano Polka, though. Are you sure you want this...?”

“Yes.”

“You... You don’t think it’s too long?” Rei asked, blinking in surprise. The newbie Fairy shook her head.

“These are all names you thought up for me, Rei. I must not waste a single one. They are all precious.”

“Echo Re Alpha (etc) Polka...! You are such a wonderful person...!”

“Thank you, Rei! From this day forth, I am Echo (etc) Polka...!”

“Echo (etc) Polka...!”

“Yes! I am Echo (etc) Polka!”

“Echo (etc)ka!”

“Yes! E(tc)ka! I will never forget this, Rei!”

The two of them high-fived. They felt like they were on top of the world, like their feelings had joined together and they had become an inseparable pair.

“Now then! Let’s practice your body splitting until it’s time to show it to Master, E(tc)!”

“Yes, Rei! I am your humble servant, (etc)! You may count on me!”

And so (etc) practiced her Body Splitting while going out of her way to say her name alongside Rei. But ultimately, Keima said the name was too long, and they had to settle on using the beginning and end of the name to form Elka.