Chapter 26
Every so often, roots burst from the ground and beckoned me—not with hands, but by waving their roots—and led me to Tokyo Bunka Kaikan.
More precisely, it was the site where it had once stood.
Moss of vivid green covered the concrete pillars despite it being winter, and a large beehive had formed above the Tokyo Bunka Kaikan sign.
Every one of the huge glass windows had been shattered, and in place of the transparent artificial material, thick curtains of vines kept out the wind and rain.
The camellia saplings planted at the entrance had quietly bloomed with red flowers, but several blossoms had opened facing me, as though watching and monitoring me, which made me deeply uncomfortable.
It was obvious even from a distance that this was the Flower Witch's stronghold. An enormous tree of unknown species, seemingly anywhere from a thousand to two thousand years old, had burst through the roof from inside the building. It might have reached fifty or even sixty meters in height. Its thick foliage was white as snow, standing out against the blue sky. It clearly was not a tree from Earth. Flocks of small birds perched on its branches and chirped busily back and forth, their droppings staining the roof of the building.
Tokyo Bunka Kaikan was the only place in the surrounding area where vegetation flourished, and surrounded by the branches, leaves, and floral scent, it felt like a natural sanctuary that had appeared alone in the concrete jungle.
At the entrance, I followed the root that was beckoning me, parked the bicycle and handcart, and hoisted the Blue Witch onto my back.
The Blue Witch's body was frighteningly cold. I had wrapped her in blankets again every hour along the way and checked that she was alive, but her heartbeat was weak. It seemed as though even a slight jostle might stop it, so I headed toward the back of the building as quickly as I could while handling her as gently as possible.
The Flower Witch was waiting for me in the center of the building.
The Flower Witch I had heard about was even more beautiful than the rumors claimed.
Her throne lay in the shadow of the great tree, and there she bloomed as a huge flower.
In the center of the collapsed and scattered rubble, leaves and vines, each large enough to wrap around a person, formed a foundation, and atop it bloomed a crimson flower unlike anything I had ever seen.
I had never seen a red so beautiful.
It was like fresh blood, like flame, and like a jewel all at once. Every petal was overflowing with vitality, creating an eye-catching, beautiful red. The beauty formed by nature's harmony was so exquisite that it hardly seemed of this world.
And from the center of that huge crimson flower grew a person. She was a beautiful woman in the prime of her life, with a well-proportioned body that was completely naked, though vines and leaves were wrapped around her like avant-garde art.
Compared with her lower half, I honestly couldn't say much about the beauty of her human-shaped upper half. All pretty women look the same to me.
Well, at least her green hair was a nice, vivid shade. I dunno.
"Welcome to my sanctuary. I have been waiting for you for a very long time."
The Flower Witch smiled seductively and extended a vine toward me, letting it slide along my cheek.
Uh... this is scary. Why are you stroking me? Is this a taste test?
This really is all arranged, right? You're not going to strangle me with these vines, are you?
"I will grant your wish. I will heal the Blue Witch. The Future-Seer told you about this, didn't she? I will also give you enough special medicine to distribute throughout Japan."
"B-but...?"
"That's right. But you will have to pay me a price."
The Flower Witch smiled elegantly and opened the petals that spread around her like a skirt.
Beneath them was a mass of vines, roots, and stems tangled together in a grotesque mess. Each one pulsed and writhed faintly. Someone with trypophobia would probably faint five or six times at the sight.
"My first offspring couldn't be born. I'm trying to give birth to a second, but it has become tangled with the corpse of the first. If this continues, it will die."
The Flower Witch spoke sadly.
"There's nothing I can do myself. I tried to untangle them, but only made them more tangled.
"Not a single one can be cut, or the offspring will die.
"Time is running out, too. It should have been born on the night of the full moon.
"You're the only one who can untangle this and save my offspring.
"Save my offspring, and I'll give you the special medicine."
"Oh, is that all?"
I was so relieved that I let out a breath.
The Flower Witch's lower body was a truly disgusting tangle of vines, roots, and stems, but, for all its ugliness, the knot itself was simple. One look was enough to tell me how to undo it.
Seriously, she can't untangle something this easy? The Flower Witch is incredibly clumsy. Poor thing.
But thanks to that, I could easily get the special medicine for mushroom disease. I had been afraid of what sort of price she might demand, but this was a cinch. What a relief.
"Um..."
"Lay the Blue Witch down over there. You won't be able to do what needs doing while carrying her."
"Oh, thanks."
I gently laid the Blue Witch on the bed of dead leaves and dry branches that had been prepared for her, moved the hair away from her face so she could breathe more easily, then turned back to the Flower Witch and rolled up my sleeves.
"Be careful, okay? If you fail, I'll kill you and the Blue Witch and suck you dry."
"Ha ha, no need to joke. That's like saying you'll kill me if I fail to build a house of cards."
"...Wouldn't that be difficult, then?"
"I have no idea what you're talking about."
I'm saying it would be harder to fail. Why doesn't she get that?
I slipped beneath the Flower Witch's petal skirt and untangled everything with a few quick, neat movements.
"There, all done. This is your offspring. She's a healthy little girl! Now, give me the special medicine."
"Huh?"
When I held out the offspring I had removed, the Flower Witch's eyes went wide.
The offspring that had been suffocating deep among the roots was safe. I handed the miniature Flower Witch over to her and held out my hand. Give me the special medicine.
Yet as the Flower Witch accepted the squirming offspring, she seemed oddly taken aback.
"I see. My offspring is safe. Yes. It was that easy for you, was it? I see..."
"Um, the special medicine?"
The Flower Witch had been agitated, but the instant she cradled the offspring in her arms, her expression became gentle.
She began to soothe the offspring with a sound somewhere between a cry, a song, and the melodious rustling of trees.
I've asked for the special medicine, but she isn't giving it to me. Well, she just gave birth, so I suppose the baby takes priority.
She was so utterly absorbed in her own little world with the baby, and looked so affectionate, that I decided to amuse myself for a while. I dug a grave for the other offspring I had removed—the one that had died and become mummified.
With my bare hands, I dug up the leaf mold in a corner of the throne room, flipped aside a broken tile, and laid the corpse in the hole I had made.
This one had a human-shaped upper half too, but I felt no fear of the silent corpse.
"Amen. Namu Amida Butsu. Rest in peace."
I pressed my hands together, made the sign of the cross, silently recited the scripture verses I knew, and covered the corpse with soil.
What a tragic story. It hadn't even been able to be born.
It had died without ever having the chance to love anything.
This child hadn't even been able to live, yet it had nearly killed its little sister.
At least from now on, may you sleep in peace. It's nothing much, but I'll make you a grave.
After covering the corpse with soil, I brought over a stone that looked light enough from the rubble and set it up as a grave marker. Then I found a piece of broken glass among the dead leaves, shaved it with a sharp stone into the shape of a flower resembling her mother's form, and offered it before the grave.
Well, that'll do. Goodbye in the next life. Rest in peace!
Surely the touching reunion between mother and child after the birth ought to be over by now.
I brushed the dirt from my hands and turned around to receive the special medicine. The Flower Witch, cradling the peacefully sleeping offspring, was staring intently at me.
I went pale and started trembling in terror.
"Eek! Um, I'm sorry for doing something unnecessary. I-I-I'll put it back right away. I'll dig it up right away. Right now!"
Oh crap!
I screwed up! All I was asked to do was help with the birth. Who asked me to make a grave?
Nobody asked me to do this—it was completely unnecessary! Ahhh, what's wrong with me?!
I hurried to dig up the grave and restore everything to its original state, but a tree root seized my arm and I froze.
Oh no.
I'm going to be killed.
I was filled with despair, but when I peered at the Flower Witch's expression through a half-open eye, she wasn't angry.
She was staring at me intently, as if she had encountered a strange exotic animal for the first time.
"I've spent all this time looking only into this child's future. All I wanted was for this child to be born safely. But you saw that child—the one I had never tried to see."
"Huh? Um... is that so?"
The Flower Witch's voice was gentle. The tree root gripping my arm wasn't applying much force, either.
Maybe she isn't going to kill me...?
"I am grateful. Thank you. I will give you the special medicine now."
"Oh, thanks."
I had been forgiven, and the Flower Witch seemed to be in a good mood. I must have struck a chord.
Maybe she liked the design of the offering? It pays to study design, after all.
The Flower Witch released my arm, then twisted and joined roots and vines together, making a wooden bucket and cutting it free from her body.
She held the end of a branch over the bucket on the ground, and transparent liquid began to drip from it.
At once, a refreshing fragrance like walking through a forest spread through the air, and the mushroom growing from the Blue Witch's head, pulsing as she slept, blackened and withered from the scent alone.
"What?! Just the smell did that? She didn't even drink it!?"
It's like a healing aura! How does this work?
I rushed over to check on the Blue Witch and saw the skin that had looked almost corpse-like beginning to regain its vitality. Her breathing had steadied, becoming the soft, peaceful sound of sleep.
As I stared in shock, the Flower Witch explained while dripping more liquid into the bucket.
"Plants like us can secrete special substances to protect ourselves from fungi and insects. Essential oils, as they're commonly called. Essential oils have antiseptic properties. Ordinary essential oils aren't effective against that mushroom, but mine is. None of the residents in my district were infected, were they?"
"Oh, no. I was looking down at the ground as I walked, so I didn't notice."
"I see. You're shy around people, aren't you?"
She said it in a way that sounded like she was trying to be considerate.
She definitely figured out I'm socially inept. So what if I am!
"This essential oil kills mushrooms simply by contact with its volatile components, so even a thousandfold, ten-thousandfold... no, a hundred-thousandfold dilution should be enough to wipe them out. It will kill magical fungi and insect monsters as well, but you don't mind, do you?"
"Of course not."
I nodded.
There might be people who did mind, but however I looked at it, killing the mushroom came first.
"This is just my personal impression, but I'm sure this mushroom is the type that grants immunity once you've been infected and recovered. You won't have to worry about a second or third pandemic. Of course, you'll need research and countermeasures, but leave that to the Future-Seer or the eyeball. There, that's enough."
While we were talking, the bucket had filled to the brim with essential oil. The Flower Witch covered it with a lid made of vines and branches.
Just as I reached for the bucket containing humanity's hope, the Flower Witch suddenly seized my hand with a tree root and yanked me hard toward her.
"W-w-w-what is it? What's going on? What—? Mmph!"
As I staggered, the Flower Witch seized my mouth, pried it open, and tilted my face upward without answering.
Smiling beautifully, she dripped three drops of golden liquid secreted from the tip of a bundle of petals into my mouth.
It was pure terror. Eek! What the hell am I being made to drink?!
I tried to spit out the mysterious liquid, but a thin vine was inserted into my throat and forced me to swallow it.
Once the Flower Witch confirmed that I had drunk the golden liquid, she let me go.
I dropped to all fours on the ground and coughed violently.
It wasn't unpleasant—if anything, the golden liquid was sweet and wonderfully fragrant, and it felt as though the power of nature was filling my body—but it was simply too mysterious for comfort.
I drank it. What was that? What did she do to me? Explain!
"W-what was that just now?"
"You'd be better off not knowing. But it wasn't anything harmful."
"No, I want to know. What did you make me drink?"
"There must be countless people who would kill you just to learn what you drank."
"Eek..."
She's been terrifying me this whole time.
Could you not make me drink dangerous substances like that?
The Flower Witch merely smiled as she gently rocked the offspring in her arms, showing no sign of explaining further.
The Future-Seer is a liar! You said the deal was safe!
Wait, did she actually write that? She did write that it would be neither painful nor difficult, but I don't think she ever said it was safe.
Damn it, I was tricked!
Looking on the bright side, whatever I had been made to drink was probably harmless.
I had helped with the birth just as agreed, so it would be insane to poison the midwife after the job was done. Even for a witch with a tendency toward skewed ethics, I wanted to believe she wouldn't go that far.
Whatever she made me drink was probably safe to consume.
But what does she mean, there are so many people who would kill me just to learn what I drank?
It is dangerous, after all!
I wanted to press her about what I had drunk, but she looked as though she'd get angry if I intruded too much on her time alone with her child. Besides, people were dying of mushroom disease even now.
It could be the Future-Seer, or Professor Ohinata.
Whatever I had been made to drink, the prudent thing would be to believe it wasn't life-threatening and leave.
I had to get the special medicine to Bunkyo Ward Office as soon as possible.
I carried the Blue Witch, who was breathing peacefully in her sleep, on my back, firmly tied the heavy bucket to my belt, and left the plant sanctuary. Behind me, the Flower Witch called out in a friendly voice.
"I hope we'll have a long and pleasant relationship. Come visit me now and then, all right? You will always be welcome."