NOVEL NEXT Chapter Eighty Six
As I dodged the angry hands of my mom in the small space, I kept shouting things back at her.
=Even if you think I’m an idiot, you have to realize that I’m right about that nuke tree, moron!=
“Shut up shut up shut up already!!!”
=But I’m right! What, did you forget about how bad nukes are for everyone when you threw away your past life memories to me, you moron? Did you forget everything they taught you in school, too? I bet you’re not even as smart as a first grader now, are you!=
“You-! I remember the important things just fine, you f-”
=Really? ‘Cuz if that’s the case, then I don’t understand how you could be stupid enough to make a literal nuke in your own freaking home! Not even a toddler would do that!=
Mom’s momentum behind me started to slow slightly, and I could see her face twisting like she was suffering over something.
“Shut up, you don’t understand at all! There’s no other choices left; This is the only way I can protect this land for good!”
=Huh? What, are you really a toddler? You’re gonna break your toys just so no one else can have ‘em?=
Mom grit her teeth, looking like she wanted to strangle me.
“This isn’t some happy-go-lucky fight, you idiot! This is the only way that I can keep this land and the forest that my people cherished and loved safe forever!”
=That’s not keeping something safe, it’s destroying it! This isn’t what the Spirit of the Forest or your people would have wanted!!!=
“...It doesn’t matter what that foolish Spirit or those naïve people would have wanted! Someone has to decide to make the hard sacrifices if we want this war to finally come to an end! If I have to use the Ankh trees to keep the forest safe, then so be it!”
Geez, there’s no way she really thinks, that, is there?!
If so, then she must be crazy!
I mean, if she really did this on all the edges of the Forest, then eventually there wouldn’t be anywhere left for her people to live, right…?
Trying so hard to understand what mom was thinking made my legs slow down, and mom ended up catching up and tackling into me, and pinned me down like she was about to rip me apart. But as her fists futilely (well, maybe not completely futilely, since for some reason I could actually feel a little bit of pain somehow) rained down onto this mental form of mine, I was watching her conflicted looking face, searching desperately for a clue. I’d seen enough of her in the flashbacks that I wanted to believe that I understood what her expressions meant, and for a second there, as I looked up at her and my mind worked overtime, I had a feeling that I didn’t want to believe.
It made absolutely no sense that mom would think something like this, especially since I know that I
would never think it. But looking at her right now… Aren’t all these expressions she’s making on her face things that I don’t normally feel? Mom didn’t give me her fear or anguish for whatever reason, probably to keep herself driven and not let her forget her motivation. Haven’t I only ever been legitimately afraid of something only once in this short little existence of mine? So yeah, of course I wouldn’t be able to understand someone who could feel that way. The base template may be the same, but there’s no way I would ever be able to think in the same direction that mom would when I’m missing so many factors. And the fact that I don’t wanna believe this silly little thought that I just had makes it even harder for me to understand.
=...You aren’t doing all this to save the forest, are you, mom?=
“W… What?”
Mom’s fists stopped against me, and her eyes that had been narrowed in aggression suddenly grew wider.
“...What nonsense are you-”
=Yeah, I totally must be right, aren’t I? It makes sense I guess; If you truly wanted to keep a place safe, you wouldn’t nuke it.=
“N-no, I’m just doing what I-”
=Give it a rest already, please. You don’t seriously believe what you’re trying to say to me right now, do you? I can call you a moron as much as I like, but there’s no way you’re really that moronic.=
“...I…”
Mom sat up straight, looking down at me with a mix of emotions, and after a moment I sat up too, getting face to face with her, and making her flinch.
=Maybe at some point you were doing everything you could to keep your people safe and stay loyal to the Forest Spirit… But c’mon, look at you now. There’s no way you’re doing any of this with your people or the forest in mind anymore. From what I can see, you aren’t doing this because you’re mad that your people’s land got taken away, but because your ‘place’ was taken away from you.=
There’s not a single righteous thing driving mom right now. She’s not doing this for the sake of anyone or anything else but her stupid pride and her selfish revenge. Mom really is just like a toddler screaming ‘If I can’t have it then no one can!’ right now.
Look, I get it. Didn't I say that mom would have thought of herself as being the 'chosen one' or something for reincarnating how she did? Keeping her memories, having humble beginnings in a fantasy world with stronger than average magic power… There's no way mom wouldn't have felt like she'd hit the jackpot and become some kind of protagonist from a book. And I'm sure that when her life ended so abruptly with nothing to show for it, mom must have felt incredibly cheated, and like the world owed her more than what she got. People make poor decisions when they're in a crisis, even a plant like me knows that. But dumping everything for this silly revenge path she went down was obviously the wrong choice, no matter how robbed she must feel. If anything, it was downright childish, like flipping over a board game and ruining it for everyone else, just because it didn't go the way you wanted.
Mom, unable to tell me that I was wrong, just looked at me with her face reddening and her eyelashes trembling, making me want to sigh. Honestly, having her wordlessly confirm it all like this was a massive let-down. Here she kept chiding me for being the immature one, but what the heck is all of this, if not way more immature?
=...I know I was made from the leftovers you threw out, and I know that in a way I’m a copy of you, mom. But you know, even if I had 100% of your memories, and not just the past life ones that you didn’t want anymore, I think I still wouldn’t make the same decisions as you did. And do you know why that is? Because I’m not you, Cythia. I’m the new, better, brighter Mellily. And I don’t need some childish, vindictive past-me ruining my beautiful forest life!=
It doesn’t matter who mom was, what deal she cut, or what her memories were! Wrong is wrong and right is right! And as a plant of love, justice, and protection, I’m gonna enforce it!
And so, for that reason~!
=I’m sorry mom, but I don’t need you in my way anymore!=
“W-What are you saying?! Even if you just say that and decide on all of this, it doesn’t change the fact, that-”
=Oh, but it does mom, it does. Maybe you have all the rights to my body right now, but the deal you cut with the Forest Spirit won’t favor you anymore if you’re out of the picture, now will it?=
“You… You can’t mean-”
Mom grimaced as she realized the intent behind my words. She tried to get up and put some distance between us, but my tentacles were already wrapping around her and holding her in place on top of me.
=Yup. That’s exactly what I mean! I was getting tired of having to compare myself to you anyways and feeling like a second banana, so this is gonna be much better! Don’t worry, I’ll take care of your people’s lands for you, and I promise to protect any of your people that I come across too, so don’t worry~!=
“No! No, you can’t do this! How are you-? Stop, you useless, idiotic-!”
=Shhh mom, food doesn’t talk.=
And with those words my mouth opened up wide, wide enough to force all of her inside. My tentacles squeezed around her, crushing mom in half before violently shoving her directly into my stomach. And as her screams began to die down, the mental space that we’d both been confined in slowly began to collapse away, back to the previously gloomy space that I’d come from before. Once more I could feel the presence of the Forest Spirit hovering around me, and soon its voice spoke to me once more.
[...I’d like to congratulate you for what you’ve managed to do, of course, but… I’m still very confused how you were able to do whatever you just did in the first place.]
Mmm, well… It’s pretty simple actually. If I eat Cythia and she becomes a part of me, then doesn’t that make me the only ‘Cythia’ left to fulfill your contract?
[I… suppose that would be true? But how were you even able to eat her in the first place?]
If mom is able to knock me down and hit me in there, then why wouldn’t I be able to eat her right back?
[But that’s not how the mental plane works! Nothing physical can-!]
That’s just it though; Mom is dead, and the only thing really left of her is her mentality. It’s too bad for her that her mentality was too weak to resist mine, now wasn’t it?
See, maybe I was made out of the things that mom discarded, but here’s a little something interesting to stew over: Even though mom never gave me some of them, I can still feel hints of a few of the missing emotions sometimes. Doesn’t that make me more complete than mom, who’s still missing everything that she gave away to me? Doesn’t that make me better than her?
I’ll never be beaten by someone as inferior and incomplete as mom!!!
_____
AN: who says you can't eat your problems? ;]