Chapter 425 |
The One who was an Impostor
There was a person named Kurosawa Touka.
"Touka-chan! Mom's heading out!"
"..."
Sadly, the population that still called her by that name had become an endangered species, with only one person left in the entire world.
In fact, just a few months ago, that population had numbered two.
There had been a woman named Sena. Kurosawa's girlfriend.
And at the same time, the girlfriend of three other women as well.
In her bedroom, Kurosawa muttered while staring down at her smartphone.
No matter how much she thought about it, this was a breach of contract.
Who could have imagined that her first ever same-sex lover, her first lover period, would turn out to be not a bipedal mammal but a quadrupedal reptile?
So this is why people hate Reptilians. As a member of humanity, Kurosawa had gained a profound lesson.
"And I was the fourth one at that...!"
Even harems had limits.
Who on earth would care about the fourth heroine? If you asked Japanese people to name the fourth most popular political party in this country, they'd answer "Um, the, Communist Party?" in an uncertain voice.
Moreover, when evaluated as a heroine, Kurosawa Touka herself came with a truly splendid array of tags like #mentally-ill, #gloomy, #dark, #jealous, h#shut-in,#no-friends, and so on.
She might enjoy cult popularity among the extremely small minority who were afflicted with the incurable disease of sub-heroine worship, but even with their support rallying from their own little league, her chances of winning the election converged to zero.
So Kurosawa chose the method that defeated politicians typically select.
"I'm going to become a shut-in."
Withdrawing from society.
Actually, Kurosawa had expected her choice would create social ripples. After all, wasn't she a victim of a four-way same-sex love affair who'd holed herself up in her room?
And the reaction from those around her was.
"Ah. So it's finally happened."
"?"
Kurosawa's mother accepted her daughter's shut-in declaration with a completely calm face.
"Sure. Rest up. Rest all you want. But after six months pass, you'll need to either return to school or start a part-time job."
"?"
"If you don't get a job, I'm kicking you out of the house. Touka-chan."
"??"
Not the slightest hint of panic!
It was as if, based on physiognomy, she'd determined it was her child's natural destiny to evolve into a room-dwelling, as if she'd predicted this situation years ago.
That's right.
Unfortunately, for parents on the Japanese archipelago raising kids these days, shut-in NEETs were no longer unfamiliar alien species.
The older generation that had been caught off guard and helpless against the "living like human garbage" lifestyle had lost the survival competition and devolved into extinction.
Now only parents who had learned, in a young and MZ way, how to "counter the living like human garbage lifestyle" remained.
"Touka-chan! Mom's leaving for work, so come out and say goodbye! If you don't, no meal money today!"
"I-I'll see you later."
"Yup! Starting two months from now, you'll need to get a job. Better start preparing yourself mentally."
"But Mom, you have plenty of money..."
"That's my money, not yours, isn't it?"
"..."
"The value of labor is sacred. You'll understand once you work. Oh, I'm late for my meeting. I'm off! Love you! Touka-chan!"
*Smooch*, after planting a kiss on her daughter's cringing cheek, her mother rushed out in a flurry.
Ugh. Left alone, Kurosawa rubbed her cheek vigorously and couldn't help but realize.
'Mom's mental strength is way too strong...'
Today too, Kurosawa retreated dejectedly to her hideout, defeated by the combat power of a single-parent household career woman, former underground idol and current VTuber agency employee.
"Hah."
A two-and-a-half-pyeong private room.
Even the sigh she'd just exhaled had nowhere to escape and circled in the air, but Kurosawa had never once thought this room was cramped.
Was it because of her experience during high school when she'd run away from home and hung around with the Toyoko Kids members, falling asleep curled up back-to-back with each other in tiny hotel rooms?
–Anonymous: This is dangerous. The "Rumored Flower" was delivered to me too.
Or was it because whenever she turned on her smartphone, she could easily feel connected to a much wider world?
–Anonymous: Rumored Flower?
She couldn't tell which it was, but today too, Kurosawa casually took the bait on the message board.
–Anonymous: You don't know? It's a flower that gets delivered randomly anywhere via international shipping, with the sender even paying for delivery.
–Anonymous: Isn't that an urban legend? Can't trust what someone says without proof.
–Anonymous: Look, idiot.
Not long after, a photo was uploaded.
Looking at the image, Kurosawa muttered unconsciously.
"Eh? What is this flower?"
It was a red flower too beautiful to exist in reality.
Kurosawa always thought she had absolutely nothing in common with her mother except for their appearance, but there was one thing.
They shared a hobby of liking flowers and plants.
"Red spider lily... no way. A peony subspecies? No, no. It's too thin. And why is there purple mixed into the petals? Eh. This is definitely an AI photo, right?"
The opinions of the message board users were generally similar.
–Anonymous: Again... Don't you ever get tired of this?
–Anonymous: Stop forcibly importing memes popular overseas like Italian brain rot. It's neither funny nor moving.
–Anonymous: That's impossible. Yesterday a VTuber publicly said on stream they received the "Rumored Flower" too, so it's been noisy everywhere.
–Anonymous: Don't spread around what was said in a members-only stream!
–Anonymous: After animals, now plants. I laughed seeing the thought process of these idiots.
She felt slightly intrigued.
Kurosawa soon browsed various communities using search terms like "Rumored Flower" or "Udumbara."
She even logged into X for the first time in ages, having cut herself off from it completely when she broke up with her girlfriend.
"Wow. What the. It's actually famous?"
Indeed, perhaps she'd been a bit late to the news, as the "Rumored Flower" was already a hot topic everywhere.
"It doesn't seem to be AI... I think."
She murmured.
"Too many different angles for an AI photo. There are quite a few people who've shown their faces to verify it... This is really strange."
Normally, this would be the time she'd dive into the ocean of the internet and devote all her energy to slandering VTubers from rival companies to the agency her mother belonged to, her mother didn't know about this.
"But this flower is so pretty..."
For some reason, Kurosawa found herself focusing all her attention on finding information about the "Rumored Flower."
It was as if she'd been enchanted.
'There must be kids like me who are interested in this.'
She put down her smartphone and turned on her computer.
She dove a bit deeper into the information ocean. Feeling around the tip of the iceberg, she descended to its base.
A little trick she'd learned during her days as a runaway youth.
'Ah, this refreshing sensation.'
It was time to return to being Kuro, the internet detective.
How many hours passed like that?
–Anonymous: They say it's international shipping, but apparently all the sending locations are from Korea.
Found it.
–Anonymous: Korea?
Kurosawa held her breath and tapped away at her keyboard.
–Anonymous: Yeah. Busan in Korea specifically. My lover is Korean, so I asked a local to check, and they found an identical-looking flower at a flower shop somewhere in Busan.
–Anonymous: Proof photo?
–Anonymous: That's impossible. More importantly, it seems like a big-shot Korean politician is involved in this. The mayor of that city called Busan. It's shadier than I expected.
"A politician?!"
What is this? This is really an urban legend.
–Anonymous: I don't understand. Why would a Korean politician be delivering flowers to Japanese people?
–Anonymous: Agreed.
–Anonymous: Maybe it's a bioweapon terror attack or a cult or something?
–Anonymous: As far as I know, no cases of harm have been confirmed. It's too early to be certain, but I think it's safe to say there's no adverse health effects.
–Anonymous: Do you know which flower shop it is?
A slight time lag.
–Anonymous: Dang Flower Garden.
Another time lag.
–Anonymous: It's not just being shipped to Japan. America and China have it worse. Cases are being reported simultaneously all over the world.
–Anonymous: In my personal opinion, the phenomenon itself of fresh flowers spreading this quickly without going through quarantine is strange.
–Anonymous: So my conclusion is that while they look like fresh flowers, they're actually artificial flowers.
Artificial flowers.
Even though they're this beautiful, they're fake flowers?
–Anonymous: Literally the Rumored Flower. No, the Phantom Flower Udumbara.
"..."
That was the end of her information gathering.
"Hah."
*Thud*. Kurosawa collapsed her upper body onto the table, powerless. The energy she'd spent investigating non-stop for hours had vanished somewhere, and a deep sense of exhaustion wrapped around her entire body.
"So they were just artificial flowers that looked like fresh ones... What a garbage ending."
So that's all it was.
A bitter smile emerged from somewhere.
'It's an ending that suits a person like me perfectly.'
She had no dreams.
Despite having a parent who'd lived harder than anyone searching for their dreams, she herself felt like the wick of a candle that had already burned out despite never having blazed.
She'd wondered if something might change if she experienced love. Thanks to that, she'd probably gained a relationship experience that would never be ordinary, but had her life changed because of it? Well.
Garbage.
'I'm hungry.'
She wanted pizza.
Recently, the genes inherited from her mother had started preparing a rebellion in her belly fat, going "Hmm, the previous owner would burn calories practicing dance and singing around this time, but the new owner doesn't?" But still, pizza was hard to resist.
She ordered Domino's Pizza with the money her mom had deposited that morning.
After a while, confirming that the delivery person's presence had faded, she opened the front door and.
"...?"
Next to the familiar pizza box, an unfamiliar box sat there alone.
"What? Mom's package?"
Can't be helped. Just as she was about to perform the ultra-premium act of filial piety of bringing her parent's package inside herself, Kurosawa's hand froze.
[Dang Flower Garden]
Because those characters were unmistakably written on the box.
"........"
*Thump thump thump thump.*
Her heart pounded like crazy.
She'd have to start part-time work soon, so she couldn't completely forget how to talk to people, which is why she'd deliberately cultivated a habit of talking to herself, but right now even that habit had its pause button pressed.
"Eh."
Kurosawa quickly brought the box inside as if someone might see. *Thud!* Then, belatedly realizing she'd left the actually important pizza outside, she hurried to bring in the pizza too, thud.
"Eh."
Pizza wasn't good when it got cold. Hardened pizza cheese was truly the worst crime imaginable. But was pizza important right now?
"Eh."
Kurosawa quickly grabbed scissors and carefully tore through the cardboard box with a crunching sound. Carefully, so that whatever might be inside wouldn't get damaged, with trembling hands.
"Ehhhhhhhh?!"
And she saw it.
"No way?!"
There, a single red flower.
It was modestly inserted in a transparent plastic bottle.
"No way! No way, no way! This can't be! Wow. Is this real? Is it really a fresh flower?! No, no. They said it was artificial."
She touched it.
"It's a fresh flower?!"
She smelled it.
"It smells good! Eh, amazing! What! Did they forcibly add fragrance? No, but... This can't be. I've never seen a flower with a scent like this before!"
It was a perfume crafted from seven colors, a fragrance that had once been permitted to only one person in this world.
But the current Kurosawa couldn't possibly know that.
"Woooow..."
She placed it on the table and, forgetting to eat the pizza, Kurosawa stared blankly at the Udumbara.
"So pretty..."
Why was it?
"Ah, right! A photo! I need to take a photo!"
From the moment she first encountered it in a photo on the internet today, why did her heart keep fluttering whenever she looked at this flower?
"...Huh?"
She didn't really know.
It felt like something very sad had happened.
She'd gone missing somewhere. She'd be unable to meet her beloved mother again. Forever, forever.
Unable to meet forever.
"..."
Unable to say sorry or thank you.
Even though Mom said those words to her every day.
Unable to give back anything similar.
"Um, uh... If I do this, the photo..."
No one could save her.
Even if they wanted to, it was too late.
She wanted to become someone who wasn't embarrassed to say "I love you" to her.
That feeling.
That truly strange feeling, Kurosawa Touka felt it.
"..."
She put down her smartphone.
She took one photo, but didn't brag about it anywhere. Come to think of it, all the friends she could have bragged to had disappeared anyway.
'My flower.'
Kurosawa stroked the petals.
'It doesn't even exist in the world. People call it fake, artificial. But still... this is a flower that came to me. So I can call it whatever I want, right?'
For some reason, Kurosawa felt like she knew the name of those red petals.
'Touka.'[1]
That day.
"Mom."
"Mm. I saw the pizza box, so on days when you eat such heavy food, it's better to exercise. Otherwise you'll gain weight in an instant."
"I want to return to school."
"..."
"And I'm going to study abroad in Korea."
"Eh?"
"Ah, actually I don't necessarily need to study abroad. Um, if you want to work part-time in a foreign country, exchange study is the most convenient. Or I could just get a work visa and go, that's fine too."
"Eh?"
"There's a flower shop there that I really want to work at. I didn't know either... but if it's work related to flowers, I feel like I could really focus on it."
"Eh."
"But first I'm going to check if the flower shop I want to work at actually exists. So I bought a plane ticket to Korea. Departure in one week. Ah. My savings are really in danger now..."
"Ehh."
"If it doesn't work out, I'll just debut as an idol like Mom did when she was young. Your agency is recruiting VTubers this time, right? How about a mother-daughter VTuber? This could really work."
"Eh?"
Kurosawa Touka didn't know.
That she wasn't the only person who had found a red flower in front of their front door, there were several others as well.
One week passed.
Time moved forward.
That day, no one died from their head exploding because they foresaw a future they couldn't handle.
That day, Kurosawa Touka pulled her hood down low and boarded the plane while avoiding eye contact with the flight attendants as much as possible.
That day, the mother saw bright red petals falling in her traveling daughter's room and instead a single plum blossom blooming, and went "Huh?" tilting her head.
That day was…
June 17th.
---
Footnotes:
[1] The name "**Touka** (灯花)" uses characters meaning "lamp/light" and "flower," which becomes significant when she names the Udumbara after herself.
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