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I’m an Alraune, a plant monster child.
Right now it’s an emergency, my vines are burning, and as if that weren’t enough, I’m being attacked by a moth monster that’s trying to eat me.


W-what should I do?

Even though I’m already facing a life-or-death crisis with my vines burning, I never imagined I’d also be about to get eaten by a giant fire moth! I definitely didn’t see this coming when I decided to start a fire!


Will the fire burn me first, or will the light-loving fire moth eat me first?


This moth-type monster, the Nachtfeifalter, is huge. Its wingspan must be at least three meters.


Maybe it’s the size, but it kind of reminds me of the old kaiju movies in my past life.
Out of all of them, I always liked the moth monsters the best.


And yet, what’s with it scattering scales like this?
It seems Ms. Fire Moth only sees us as prey.

I’m going to protect the little witch and show her what a great big sister I am!


A rain of scales poured down.
But I’m fine.

After all, I’m a plant.
I don’t breathe with lungs, so I won’t inhale the scales.


Unfortunately, there are two people behind me who do breathe with lungs.

The little witch and Fairy-san started coughing.
This powder might be harmful to humans.
If I don’t deal with this quickly, those two could collapse.


Unlike the little witch, who was trembling with tears in her eyes, Fairy-san tried to fight back against Ms. Fire Moth.

“Take this!”

Fairy-san threw something like a pebble at the fire moth.

She probably picked it up when she brought the eucalyptus sapling.
But a pebble is no match for a Nachtfeifalter.
It fell with a plop onto the ground near me.


As I thought, Fairy-san is completely useless in combat.
That means I’ll have to handle this myself.


Oh, right!
Since my vines are already on fire, I might as well make proper use of them.


With my flaming vines, I burned away the falling scales.
I was worried for a moment about igniting a dust explosion, but thankfully the scales weren’t dense enough for that.
Once I burned them all away, it was time to go after the main body.
I swung my flaming vines straight at the moth.


Maybe because Ms. Fire Moth was so large, it couldn’t dodge in time and took a direct hit.
The flames spread from my vine to its wings.


Ms. Fire Moth panicked as its wings caught fire.
I understand how it feels.
After all, I’m also in the middle of burning right now.


Salutations, Ms. Fire Moth.
Since we’re both on fire, let’s get along nicely.

Seeing you ablaze like this actually makes me feel a bit of kinship.
Let me give you even more of the flames you love so much.


As a token of our friendship, I shall invite you to a dance.

Gently, I wrapped my vines around its body.

Now, let us dance a passionate, fiery dance together.

Just because we’re burning doesn’t mean we’re performing the Atsumori dance¹.
This isn’t the Honnoji Temple². It’s just an ordinary forest.

To make things burn even faster, I grew eucalyptus leaves along my vines.
Like adding oil to a fire, the dance between Ms. Fire Moth and myself reached its climax.


But it seems that Ms. Fire Moth burned out before I did.
Having lost its wings, it crashed down to the ground.
It must have danced itself to exhaustion.
Lying down in the middle of a ball like that, honestly, how unladylike of you, Ms. Fire Moth.


Goodness, what can you do?

I suppose I’ll tuck it in with a nice blanket of burning vines.
After all, it came all this way because it was drawn to the fire.
So I’ll let it rest under this warm, fiery blanket and let it recover from its exhaustion.


The fire blanket must be nice, because Ms. Fire Moth has completely stopped moving
It seems it’s gone to sleep.

Please rest there peacefully.



All right, that takes care of the problem of summer insects flying into the fire.
Now the only remaining issue is that I’m still on fire.


“I’ll get you to the river right away!”

The little witch ran towards me.

Right now, I’m a potted Alraune.
Even if I’m burning, I can still move, so putting out the fire should be possible.


That said, after finishing my dance with Ms. Fire Moth, my vines were burning with terrifying intensity.

At this rate, the flames might reach my bulb at any moment.
Even if it was to defeat the moth, maybe adding more eucalyptus leaves, the so-called gasoline tree, was a bad idea after all.


Actually, I didn’t just use one vine to restrain Ms. Fire Moth.
To wrap around the massive moth compared to little me, I used about ten vines.
Which means now, it isn’t just one vine burning.


Ten branching vines have turned into fuses.
And thanks to the eucalyptus leaves’ oils, the flames are burning at full strength.
At this pace, I’ll probably burn up before we even reach the river.
I catch on fire much faster as a young sprout than when I was fully grown.


I never imagined I’d end up burning because of a fire I started myself.
In a way, this feels even sadder than when Fire Dragon-sama burned me.


If only I had the minotaurs’ axes here, I could cut the vines off immediately.
But the axes were melted by Fire Dragon-sama.


Is there anything that could replace an axe?
I looked around.
Then, I noticed something lying on the ground nearby.


It was the small stone Fairy-san threw earlier.

A pebble can’t cut through vines.
If it were just a bit bigger, I could use it as a stone tool, but…

──Ah.

It looks like Ms. Fire Moth has completely burned out.
Its body has turned into pitch-black charcoal.

I wonder if I’ll be like that soon too.


“Alraune!”

The little witch hugged me tightly.

But no, this won’t do.
At this rate, she’ll get caught in the flames too.

If we tried to fly away like this, she’d be swallowed by the flames along with me in no time.

I can’t let the little witch get hurt.
If someone has to burn, it should be just me.

Using my remaining vines, I wrapped them around the little witch and pulled her away from me.


“Alraune, don’t burn!”


The little witch’s cry pierced straight through my heart.


“I never want to see you burning again! And if Alraune burns up… no, I don’t want that… Please don’t leave me alone again…”


Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the little witch collapsing in tears.



It’s okay. I’m not planning to burn to death here.
After all, I still have one last resort.

Yes. If it comes to it, I can self-pollinate again.


Using the Banksia’s ability, I can turn into a seed once more and escape the flames.
That said, it’s only been a few days since the last time I pollinated.
I’m still just an undeveloped sprout.


If possible, I really didn’t want to use this method until I’ve grown bigger.
Or rather, if I could help it, I really never want to become a seed again, even if it was self‑pollination.

From a former saint’s perspective, pollination is still… well.


But if the alternative is death, pollination is better.
Resigned to going through it a second time, I readied my vines.

That was when something caught my eye at the edge of my vision.


It was that small stone from earlier.
Just an ordinary stone Fairy-san had, right?

But now that I look at it again, its shape seems a little strange for a stone…


──Ah.

I think I know this stone.
Or rather, this isn’t a stone at all.

I grabbed the object that was mimicking a stone with my vine.

Burn here as I am.
Or pollinate again and start over as a little girl.


And then—

I realized there was a third option.

***

Author’s Note:

Thank you very much for reading.

Next Time: Shedding Skin


TL’s Note:

1: The Atsumori is a dance-drama written in the 14th century, based on the story of a young samurai killed during the Genpei war.
2. The Honnoji Temple is the place where Oda Nobunaga was betrayed and died. It is said Nobunaga recited the Atsumori shortly before his death.