I, the plant monster young girl Alraune, was currently practicing my very first reproductive activity as a flower.
I caused an Alraune male flower and an Alraune female flower to bloom upon my vines. Then, I generated a long, slender vine to transfer the pollen from the stamen to the pistil.
With that, the pollination was complete.
I used light recovery magic to accelerate the growth process. Like a video being fast-forwarded, the female flower ripened into a fruit and then a seed in the blink of an eye.
An Alraune seed—just like me.
I immediately planted it in the soil before me and waited for it to grow. Since I had showered it with plenty of light magic during the pollination, it should sprout in no time.
As expected, the seed sprouted, and a tiny Alraune grew from the ground.
The human body served as the pistil, the hair was green, the corolla was red, and she even had the bulb of an insectivorous plant.
Yep, it was definitely me.
Or rather... this child was absolutely adorable!
Her appearance was a mirror image of my childhood as a Saint. Furthermore, the fact that I was the one who had produced her made her seem even cuter.
I wanted to see if we could communicate, so I tried speaking to her.
"Hell, o."
"...Mama?"
In that moment, it felt as if a bolt of lightning had struck me.
—Mama.
Could it be that I had become a mother at this age?
I mean, in Alraune years, I was still only one year old. Well, for a plant, pollinating at one year old was probably standard. But as both a former Saint and a former high school girl, I wasn't at the age where I should be making children yet.
While it was true I had produced her, she felt less like a child and more like a clone. After all, this young girl Alraune and I likely shared identical faces.
Since she was a clone, I wanted her to call me something else if possible.
"A, different, name, than, Mama, please."
"Papa?"
"Please, stop, that…………"
Technically, the components for both her parents came from me, so genetically, either term would apply. But please, anything but that. As a former Saint, I didn't think I could endure being called "Papa."
"Big Sister?"
Yes, that was significantly better!
But wait... what was this feeling? A development where a clone sister calls her original "Big Sister"... I remembered reading stories like that back when I was an otaku high school girl. As a former Saint, it was acceptable, but as a former otaku, it triggered too many memories of those works. Maybe something else.
"Milady...?"
Ah, that was nostalgic. There was a time when the servants at my family's estate called me that back when I was a Duke’s daughter.
"Mother...?"
That meant the same thing as Mama...
What was I to do? I couldn't think of a good title. For now, I decided to put the matter on hold and let her use whatever name she liked.
"Call, me, what, you, like."
"Okay, Mama."
In the end, it was Mama.
I was still a young girl myself, though... To be a mama while still a young girl, what kind of logic was that?
Shaking off the thought, I decided to conduct a "mother-child interview" since we were capable of conversation.
"Are, you, me?"
"No. Not, every, thing, is, the, same."
"Meaning?"
"Even, if, I, inherit, your, abilities, I, might, not, be, able, to, do, every, thing, Mama, can."
So she was essentially a slightly weakened version of me. It seemed I couldn't produce a hundred percent match, but I supposed this was a success. Considering I had grown her from a flower on a vine, it was a more than adequate result.
"Do, you, remember, your, previous, life?"
"I, remember. Both, the, Saint, and, the, high, school, girl. My, memories, are, shared, with, Mama."
With the contents of our heads being identical, she really was more of a clone than a daughter. It was strange. I never dreamed I’d end up having a conversation with myself like this. Besides, it was my first time seeing an Alraune’s form from a third-person perspective, which felt bizarre in its own right.
After that, I conducted several experiments with the Child Alraune.
It appeared she could create the same plants I could. Nectar even flowed from her mouth.
Wait... if there were two of me, wouldn't nectar squeezing become much easier? With double the production power, our efficiency would skyrocket!
Then again, making this Child Alraune endure that grueling ordeal felt a bit heartless. One of me was enough for such painful work. Besides, on the off chance that Little Witch started doting on the Child Alraune instead of me...
If my place was stolen by a clone and Little Witch treated me as unwanted, I’d never recover. I never wanted to be discarded again.
No, I would stick to handling the nectar squeezing alone.
"Well, then, Mama... I'll, return, to, being, a, seed, now."
"Eh!?"
"You, made, me, with, that, intention, from, the, start, right?"
I was stunned. As expected of my clone, she understood exactly what I had been thinking when I created her. If I left her blooming here, Little Witch would undoubtedly be thrown into a panic. That was why I had planned to have her return to a seed using the Tahina ability.
"I, was, born, from, Mama, but, I, am, also, a, part, of, Mama."
"A, part, of, me?"
"Mama, is, special. I, cannot, be, Mama."
The Child Alraune caused a single red flower to bloom from her vine. Then, she wrapped her tongue around the stamen and licked it up.
She had performed self-pollination.
"This, was, just, an, experiment. So, I'm, going, back, inside, Mama."
The Child Alraune's small belly began to swell.
—Wait, hold on a minuteeeeeeee!
I was witnessing my young girl self... pollinating!
Whaaaaat? Observing the sight of myself pollinating—no matter how I looked at it, this situation was beyond bizarre!
Ah, her belly had become so large... So it looked like this when I pollinated the other day, too. I had been in my adult form then, though. If I ever pollinated again, I’d end up bulging like that as well.
Oh, she’d already become a fruit.
Gazing up at the sky, the Child Alraune turned into a fruit, and then a seed. By using the Tahina’s ability to wither, her main flower and bulb rapidly shriveled away. Since she was a clone who shared my memories, she seemed to have no attachment to life.
That Child Alraune was a part of me—my clone. Following her wishes, I decided to take her back into myself.
I used my lower mouth to consume the Alraune seed that had fallen to the ground. In that instant, images came flooding into my mind.
Was this... the Child Alraune's memory?
Apparently, by consuming the seed, I was able to share the scenes she had witnessed. It was incredible that such a thing was possible.
In the vision, a young girl Alraune was growing from the ground. But wait—normally, one can't see themselves objectively. That meant the Alraune visible in these images was actually me.
I finally got to see my own face. I hadn’t had a mirror until now. As expected, I looked just like the Child Alraune. In other words, I looked like I did during my childhood as a Saint.
However, something was slightly different.
The eyes of the Child Alraune I had been facing were red. But the eyes of the "me" in the vision were gold. It seemed there were physical distinctions between the clone and the original.
Regardless, I was shocked. My eyes had been gold when I was a Saint, and it seemed they remained gold even as an Alraune—though the color was deeper now. Even though my hair had changed from pale gold to light green, likely due to plant chlorophyll, my eyes had stayed the same. It made me a little happy to know that a part of the Saint in me remained.
The Child Alraune's memory played out like a video. I could even understand the contents of our conversation. Then, the memory reached the pollination scene.
Because she had been facing upward, the forest trees filled her vision. I noticed something then—the shadows of large birds perched on the branches overhead.
And it wasn't just one.
Ten, twenty... there were over thirty of them.
A flock of green bird monsters was staring down at us fixedly, as if sizing up their prey.
The Child Alraune turned into a seed, and the memory cut off there.
—You’ve got to be kidding me!
This memory was of something that had happened just dozens of seconds ago.
If my clone’s memory was correct, the creatures overhead were large mejiro-type bird monsters. They were roughly the size of a human adult. Furthermore, mejiro were birds that fed on flower nectar.
And since they were also pollinators that carried pollen, any flower they fed from would be forcibly pollinated without exception.
If I could, I would have hidden in the bushes immediately. But I couldn't run. I was a plant.
As if in prayer, I turned my eyes upward. Please, let it be a mistake on the Child Alraune's part.
But as I looked up at the forest canopy, I fell into despair.
I might be about to have my nectar passed around and drunk by an entire flock of birds.
Thank you for reading.
Next time: The case where my younger sister figure was an Amazoness.