Chapter 4: Girl, Eats
Chapter 4: Girl, Eats
“SO you should just totally live here forever too, Nichika. I’m pretty sure Master won’t do anything horrible to you if you do.”
“You really think so?”
“I do, I do! That’s for the best. Let’s do that.”
Nichika stayed seated on the sofa in an absentminded daze after her conversation with the witch. She was inattentively petting the cheerful Wolfie at her feet, but it wasn’t like she had given up on going home already.
She had a family who was waiting for her to come home. Just thinking about spending the rest of her life serving such a dangerous and eccentric man made her shudder.
On the flip side, what could she even do? At best, she could make a run for it, but she’d probably end up captured. Even the friendly wolf who had taken to her would likely turn against her if his master ordered it. And was there any guarantee that she’d manage to escape this forest if she did successfully run away? Could she find a way back home just by leaving? How could she survive in a foreign world alone?
“Miiko…”
Tears began to roll down her cheeks when she remembered her younger sister’s innocent smile. What was in store for her? Nichika felt like she had been left alone in a darkness so opaque that she couldn’t even see her fingertips.
***
THE clock hanging on the wall indicated that the date had changed. Stillness enshrouded the room, with little noise other than the occasional squeaks Wolfie made in his slumber.
Nichika was still awake. She couldn’t sleep. Thinking about what the future held for her erased any desire she had to lie down and sleep.
A sudden noise from outside made her lift her head. The window facing the garden was dimly glowing—her eyes rounded at what she saw.
“Wh-What is that?”
It looked as if the sun was shining on a single spot, despite that it was nighttime. An absurdly sweet aroma wafted on the wind toward her.
“……”
Without thinking, Nichika sprung into the garden, skipping over to the light. Once her eyes adjusted to the brightness, she saw a young apple tree standing no taller than her waist. A single tiny fruit hung from the tree branch, glowing as if it were made of gold.
“Aaah…aaah…”
All her worries and anxiety dissipated the second she inhaled the fruit’s sweet scent. It smelled so delicious; she felt like she was in heaven. Somewhere in the corner of her mind, she remembered that she hadn’t eaten anything since lunch.
“It looks yummy.”
A vacant smile washed over her face as she reached out. It was inviting her. The golden apple dropped right into her hand, as if it had been waiting. Once she sunk her teeth into it, she couldn’t stop.
GULP!
For a while after she had taken the final bite, Nichika stood there, still and entranced. But—
“…?”
She jolted back to her senses. What in the world did I just do…?
Tilting her head in confusion, she peered down at the apple tree that should’ve been in front of her. The sapling had transformed into a rose bush, with large crimson flowers swaying from it instead of apples. The divine light had vanished, and gloomy black stems were trembling creepily in its place. Nichika reached for the rose bush to try to figure it out, but the roses withered away right before her very eyes. Faster than its scattering petals could hit the ground, a fierce sensation slammed into her without warning.
“…?!”
Pain—more intense than she’d ever experienced before—erupted in her abdomen. It felt as if she were being punched from the inside out.
Voicelessly screaming, she collapsed. The brutal pain slowly shifted into a searing burn, creeping through her body from her toes to her fingertips. Nichika could only gasp and writhe; something disgusting was crawling around inside her.
“…EEK!” Nichika sharply sucked in her breath when she saw her arm. The skin was bulging as if something inside was trying to break through. Scenes from science documentaries where a tape worm burst out of their host flashed through her mind.
Then, at last, whatever was inside burst through her wrist and shot out—it was a rose vine. Right at that very moment, the same rose vine she had witnessed withering away was sprouting out of her arm.
“N-NOOO!”
The slithering vine snaked around her arm. From it, a giant flower blossomed. Dyed in her blood from where it erupted from her arm, the flower looked vividly crimson even in the dark of night.
Her consciousness gave way to the shock and excruciating pain. Am I going to turn into some plant? Am I’m going to be the seedbed for this beautiful rose?
Had a long time passed? No, it had likely only been a few seconds. Her name was being called in the distance. The sound narrowly brought her consciousness back.
“MASTER! It’s Nichikaaaaaaaaaaa!”
“Oi, what the hell are you doing?!”
Another panicked voice joined the commotion. Cracking her eyes open, Nichika saw a wolf and a man.
“Wolfie…and…?” she mumbled nonsensically.
“What the— You ate this?!”
Nichika thought she saw a horrified look on the man’s face when his gaze swept from the withered flower over to her—but she couldn’t be sure, for even he was hidden behind the thickening haze.
“Is Nichika gonna die?! Is she?! Is she?!”
“Wolfie, go fetch some water. Hurry!”
“But, Master, I can’t carry a bucket with my paaaaws!” he howled hopelessly.
“You can hold it in your mouth, stupid dog!” The man redirected his attention from the wolf scrambling away to the collapsed girl. Reaching out, he wrapped his hand under her back and propped her up.
“Have you been baptized before? Received blessings from your parents?”
“I-I’m Japanese! I’ve done no such thingggg!”
“Vomit! Right now!”
So he said, but she couldn’t sit up on her own anymore, much less force herself to vomit.
He suddenly shoved his index finger into her mouth and reached for the back of her throat, forcing her gag reflex. She felt the stomach acid surge back into her mouth, but the apple she should have swallowed didn’t come out.
“It’s encroached fast… Has it already taken root throughout your body?”
Gagging on her vomit, Nichika stretched out her hand, seeking rescue from her fear. The rose had already reached her shoulder.
“Am I…going to…die?”
“……”
“I don’t want to. I’m so…scared.”
The entire world distorted like a warped filter had been placed on it. She didn’t realize it was due to her tears until the sensation of something streaming down her cheeks left a salty imprint in her open mouth. Was her life going to end at only sixteen years in a foreign land so far from home?
“I don’t wanna die…I haven’t accomplished anything yet…”
The man leaned over her—the two moons shone behind him. Taking her chin in his hand, his handsome face grimaced like he was at his wits’ end. The icy blue of his eyes filled her vision as he lifted her chin.
“Just let me get this out of the way in advance…” he muttered.
“…?”
“What I’m about to do to you is an emergency stopgap measure. Don’t go kicking up a fuss about it later.”
His enchanting blue eyes, neither the color of the sky nor the ocean, enraptured her despite the dire situation.
“I’m seriously not into little kids either…”
“Wh-What—”
Nichika felt like he was saying something terribly rude about her. But her words of protest were swallowed whole.
“Mnnh?!”
It took a whole second for her to realize she was being kissed. She instinctively struggled to get away, but he held her right hand captive behind her head, blocking her escape. Slowly but steadily, an airy feeling rose inside her, making her dizzy.
“Haa…aah.”
Saliva trickled down the corners of both their lips. She couldn’t stop choking on the liquid filling her mouth. Yet, the man wouldn’t let her free. He entangled his tongue with hers as if to stop it from escaping.
GULP!
Unable to keep from swallowing any longer, she ingested the saliva—and that’s when he finally released her.
Rubbing his lips with his sleeve, he warned with an indifferent tone, “Don’t spit it out. If you don’t want to die, that is.”
“Wh-Wh-Wh-Wh-Wha…!” Nichika slid back on her butt as fast as she could to get away from him. It wasn’t the most graceful retreat, but she didn’t have the composure to care. “UWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”
Losing her presence of mind, she covered her mouth with her hands. Flames lit her cheeks, likely red enough to see in the dark. “W-Was th-that a k-k-k-k-kiss just n-now…?”
Nichika had saved her first kiss for a future important someone, but now some guy from who knew where went and stole it! She earnestly wished she could chop the last several minutes out of her memory and toss them away forever. She pitched forward from where she sat, slamming her hands on the ground as the horror and despair overtook her.
“This can’t be real. This is a nightmare.”
“Hmph. Would you have preferred to die like that then?”
“What?”
His comment prompted her to check herself over. The rose vines that had coiled around her arms were shrinking, emitting a faint hiss. Blood oozed slightly from the hole that was now pinprick size instead of a massive gash. The bleeding would stop soon enough.
“Is this for real…?” The pain had abated as well. However, her mind, on the other hand, was still reeling with everything that had happened since she’d set foot outside. “Wh-What’s going on?!”
The man’s expression seemed to say he had all the answers. He picked up the lantern he’d set on the ground and approached the withered rose, stooping to pick a petal off the dirt, which he carefully examined by turning it over.
“This rose is a rare species known as Fake Lover. It has a habit of parasitizing living creatures that happen to pass by. ”
“Parasitizing?”
He answered her seriously up to that point, but he had a twisted personality, and he wasn’t going to pass up the chance to pick on her. Not to mention that he wanted to vent his annoyance over having been smacked awake in the dead of night.
“Ha! I never thought there’d be a human in this day and age who’d be stupid enough to fall for that sorry excuse of a hypnotic illusion. It mostly parasitizes animals that wander by. The only people who fall for it are vulgar ones who haven’t been baptized like you—”
He glanced over his shoulder, expecting her to snap back at him again, and froze—tears were filling Nichika’s eyes, shimmering like a lake’s surface at night.
“H-Hey, why are you crying? I’m just stating the facts…”
Nichika hung her head, her shoulders quivering. She had been sent flying into some weird world to be a victim to one thing after another. She was at her limit.
“I want to go home…send me home.”
“……”
A gentle breeze stirred the surrounding trees.
Nichika cried and cried, until she could only sniffle. Out of nowhere, something heavy patted her head. Wiping her tears, she lifted her face to find him looking down at her with a perplexed expression.
His lips parted slightly, but he only breathed out a single syllable that didn’t form any words. The hand he was awkwardly stroking her head with betrayed his previous callousness with its kindness.
Is he trying to comfort me? Surprise stopped her tears. But just as she was about to say something to him, a brown fluffball suddenly leapt at the man, shoving him out of her view.
“MASTER!”
“WHOA?!”
“How’s Nichika? Is Nichika okay? I fetched the water! AAAH, save her, Master!”
The man, now drenched from the bucket of water that had spilled over his head, glared fiercely at the wolf panicking in front of him. Angrily, he growled with a deep, vibrating tone, rumbling from some deep pit within, “…Is that water you fetched what just doused my head?”
“Oh nooooo! The water!”
“You should apologize to me before you worry about the water!”
Nichika watched them in astonishment. They’d completely forgotten about her and had started their routine master-servant scolding time.
“Where’d all this energy even come from?! You normally never move this fast. Have you’ve been slacking on the job all along?!”
“N-No, I haven’t! I was just desperate this time! It’s not like I always take naps, chase after pretty butterflies, take a break to go around snacking on gooseberries—”
“You mutt!”
“WEEH!”
“…PFT!” Nichika couldn’t help but giggle.
“Huh?”
“OHHH!” Spotting the laughing girl, Wolfie leapt at her. “YAAY! It’s Nichika! Nichika! Are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere? Are you? Are you?”
“Thanks, Wolfie. I’m okay.” She pet Wolfie on the head as he licked away her tears. Then, her face growing serious, she asked the man, “Why did the rose vine disappear?”
He was squeezing the water out of his dripping robe with a grim face. “It didn’t disappear. Fake Lover is still residing somewhere in the pit of your stomach.”
“Ugh.” Her hand shot to her abdomen. She was on pins and needles thinking it could burst out of her again. “Then why did it go away just now? Was it because you did…you know what?”
Remembering what they had done turned her face red again. However, taking the sequence of events into account, that kiss couldn’t be anything other than something that had halted the growth of the rose.
He watched Nichika for a minute before sighing. Looking away, he curtly replied, “…Although this species germinates when nourished by the host, it’s known that the growth can be suppressed if given a certain something.”
“What?”
“Bodily fluids from the opposite sex.”
Bodily fluids—in other words, tears, spit, blood, or even—
“Huh? HUUUUUUUUUUH?!” Nichika jolted backward as she turned bright-red.
He continued his explanation, completely unconcerned with her reaction, “I heard this rose was extinct, so I haven’t actually witnessed it myself either. They say it used to be an ingredient for love potions though.”
“Is there any way to cure it?! Is there?!” Desperate, Nichika clung to his clothing.
The man coldly shot her down. “Beats me.”
“No way!”
“I told you, I’m no doctor. You should be grateful I at least knew the stopgap measure.”
Nichika’s head drooped in front of the man folding his arms at his chest in exasperation. She wished she could wake up from the nightmare this situation had become.
“Anyway, I’m heading to bed. Just you try to disturb my peaceful sleep this time, and…” With the utmost irritated expression, he flipped a thumb toward the ground. “I’ll squash you.”
“…Yes, sir.”