“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.”