## Chapter 2 – Please Let Me Be a Flower Hikikomori
Three days had passed since my silent scream echoed.
Of course, I was now a furry flower bud that was cute, if you could call it that, but not exactly pretty—more like strangely ugly.
It wasn’t blooming, just a bulging flower bud, so I guess you could say it hadn’t flowered yet.
Still, compared to other flowers, it was a relief that I was short and not very noticeable.
Buried among the other flowers, I could enjoy a flower hikikomori life similar to what I had before.
The only reason I knew three days had passed was because I felt the sun rising and setting repeatedly.
After standing blankly in the flower bed for three days, I felt somewhat satisfied.
I could feel my body growing little by little, and I was even thinking about striking up a conversation with the plants in the neighboring pots soon.
But the important thing was this.
‘There are too many people around…’
My height kept increasing, but the surrounding flowers weren’t growing as much as I was.
It was an unexpected development in my pursuit of a peaceful flower hikikomori life.
Before I knew it, my height started to catch up with the other flowers, and the time was fast approaching when I would clearly surpass them.
From tomorrow, someone casually glancing at the flower bed would definitely notice me, and that meant someone would look at this ugly, furry flower bud with disdain.
‘This isn’t what I was told…’
Wasn’t the reason I was living again as a tree, standing alone in a place where no one was, to avoid being subjected to unwarranted hatred and hostility?
‘If I was going to be reborn as a flower in such a crowded place, they could have at least made me a pretty flower.’
The woman who had turned away, sobbing as if she regretted not leading me to a brighter path, now seemed like a complete fake.
And at that moment, a bright light flickered in front of the flower bed, and my body began to feel warm. I was bewildered by this sudden situation and, as always, waited patiently.
“Have you been well? Kim… no… I should call you Enic now.”
The flickering light faded, and the woman appeared before me.
Looking as if she still wore that sad expression from before, the woman, with a slightly husky voice, looked down at me, the flower bud.
‘Why am I Enic?’
“That’s the name of the flower… no, the creature.
It’s an ancient species called ‘Enic’ that’s on the verge of extinction…
There are probably only two left in the world.
I didn’t want to burden you with such a fate, but…”
‘Extinction…? Wait… what do you mean by creature?’
“Just as it sounds.
Enic is a plant, but it also has animal functions, so it’s a ‘creature.’
Right now, you’re just growing there because you haven’t grown enough.”
‘You said it right. Stop my growth here.
I’m getting too big, and now…’
“Enic can grow to be a giant with stems over 50 meters tall at its maximum size.
There’s no way to stop its growth…
Trying to reduce its height by force would mean stopping its growth as a plant, which means it would die.”
‘Then what am I supposed to do? If this keeps up, I’ll be back to…!’
Back to that hateful life.
“I… I tried my best to grant your wish.
I went around looking for ways, followed precedents, and tried to find better methods…
And the conclusion I came to… the only option left for you is… still this…”
‘Becoming a crazy, gigantic Rafflesia?
Becoming a tree that’s worse than a zoo monkey is the best option?
Do you really think that makes sense?’
“You also thought about… doing ‘that’ with a woman, didn’t you?”
The woman’s sudden shocking statement made me freeze, unable to even think.
“It’s what you were thinking. There’s no way I wouldn’t know.
So, I worked hard to find something that would satisfy both of your desires.
And the conclusion is Enic.”
As if trying to emphasize how hard she had worked, the woman smiled beautifully and gently stroked my flower bud.
“I wanted to make you a normal animal or human, but your desire was so strong that the ‘tree’ part was fixed.
So, I had to struggle to find something within the tree category that could fulfill your second wish.”
Her smile gradually changed.
Showing a somewhat affectionate, mournful expression, her breath gradually turned into a breathless pant as it tickled the flower bud. I couldn’t help but be surprised by the change that was happening in my body, or rather, in the flower bud.
The flower bud slowly began to open, as if it were about to bloom.
As the bud opened, a beautiful and large flower like a sunflower began to unfold, but it was different from a sunflower.
“Enic is an endangered ancient species… the reason is…”
Unlike ordinary flowers with fixed forms of pistils and stamens inside the petals, there was a jelly-like substance that was somewhat fixed and squishy, but without a definite shape.
Moreover, as if proving that it was a creature as the woman said, the opened bud rippled its petals like raising antennae towards the woman who was caressing it, and glared at her warily.
“Because it takes the form of a female of a different species, not another Enic… Ugh…!!”
Then, as if it existed solely for that purpose, the contents of the flower’s center stretched out forward, and, like lightning, began to wrap around the woman’s neck.
The part that would be like a pistil in a normal flower wrapped around the woman’s neck with a thin tentacle like a fishing line.
The woman, slightly surprised by being strangled, widened her eyes but tried to maintain a smile, and began to plead with me in a voice that sounded like she was being strangled.
“Plea… Please… Contwol… the tentacle…”
Her request to control the tentacle.
My thoughts began to become increasingly complicated.
‘What…? Tentacle?’
I clearly asked to be reborn as a tree, but a tree with a tentacle?
But the scene before me was all too clear.
The tentacle wrapped around the neck of the woman who was kneeling gently in front of me, tightening so tightly as if it were a piano wire, as if it would cut off her neck at any moment.
It was extending from my, or rather, Enic’s flower.
However, unlike pulling her in with all its might, judging from the feeling that something was gradually being cut off from below, it seemed that the roots were still weak and had not properly taken hold in the ground.
Perhaps that’s why she was telling me to control it.
If she struggled and pulled on the tentacle, my roots would surely be pulled out like weeds.
A plant that has lost its roots will just wither and die, even if not immediately.
But she didn’t seem to want that, and while her neck was being strangled, she struggled to maintain a smile, waiting for me to do something.
As the woman’s face turned blue as if she was gasping for air, I tried to concentrate.
‘Haa… Tentacle… What I need to move is the tentacle…’
Until now, I hadn’t thought about controlling this plant’s body, thinking that I was just standing still.
But if someone was dying in front of me, and I could do something, it would be natural to do it.
As my mind touched every part of the plant and slowly felt its entire body, I was able to understand a little about how this creature moved in a different way from humans.
‘This is a leaf. This is a stem… This is…’
And when my mind touched something that was being given a tight pressure, I was finally able to realize that it was the tentacle.
The tentacle, which had been unconsciously tightening with all its might on what it touched, slowly began to move, reflecting my will, as my consciousness began to touch it.
As the tentacle, which had been full of strength, slowly loosened, the woman, who had been struggling to breathe, gently stroked the tentacle that was still wrapped around her neck with one hand, as if expressing that I had done well.
“Haa… Haa… Goo… Good… job… That’s… how you do it…
Right now… Hng… it’s still weak… Haa…
When Enic grows more… you’ll be able to do other things…”
Even though she had almost died because of me just now, the woman was still maintaining a difficult smile.
The woman’s appearance, encouraging me as if comforting a sulky baby, made my heart swell for some reason.
A strange human, or perhaps a god, who turned me into a ridiculous tentacle plant.
Perhaps it was because of her unwavering kindness and inexplicably affectionate attitude towards me that my emotions were wavering a little.
Not wanting to reveal it, I started to move the tentacle again.
It might be similar to the feelings of young boys who get cranky and want to tease the girls they like.
But in some sense, I extended the tentacle that had been wrapped around her neck and began to stroke her face with the end of it, which caused the woman to look flustered.
“T-There… There… Wait… Mmph…”
The tentacle that had been stroking the woman’s face was sucked into her mouth, and roamed freely inside, rampaging as it pleased.
Because of that, her red inner mouth membrane, which had been unable to close her mouth, was exposed as it was, and her pink tongue was entangled with my tentacle and suppressed.
But despite the clear threat or act of teasing, she just quietly accepted my tentacle.
Rather, with the tentacle now as thick as an earthworm since I could control it, she carefully opened her mouth as if trying not to hurt it with her teeth.
Her eyes, as if trying to fill the tentacle with affection, were so ecstatic as she intertwined the slippery tentacle with her soft tongue.
The woman, who had seemed like a saint in some ways, had instantly fallen and become a lascivious woman accepting the tentacle, a sight that stirred a bit of lust in me as a man.
In the end, unable to understand this woman in front of me at all, I pulled the tentacle out of her mouth and asked her one last question.
‘Why are you doing this?’
“Yes. That’s right…”
The woman, who had gently closed her lips that had been teased and caught her breath, blinked her eyes and looked at me with a benevolent expression.
“I want you to be happy.
Just like I was.”
In her eyes, which had become even deeper, but for some reason felt so sad, a small furry flower bud was reflected.
