Chapter 48: Fungus Found
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Fun fact: Everything in this world is either a turnip, or not a turnip.

Also, 50 TOTAL CHAPTERS, LET'S GO!

As soon as Nina and I flee to the safety of the rose garden on our way to the dormitory, Nina stops for a quick breather. After everything that happened tonight, I'm rather pooped myself. Beads of sweat have been collecting on my forehead for a little while now because of how stressful I found those dances. Although the sun had already set, the celestial bodies up in the sky illuminated everything around us, so everything was still relatively visible. I look over at my saviour, and see that she takes a grey hair tie out of her ponytail and lets her dark hair fall to her shoulder blades. I do the same, but my hair only drops to my shoulders and over my face. And that is when I realised that my hair was finally at the length I always wanted it to be. After fiddling with my bangs for a few seconds while a confused Nina watches, I finally manage to get my hair to cover most of the left side of my face - the one with the blind eye and burn scars. I finally feel confident enough to show my face to others! Hurray! Although I have to keep my eye shut so my hair doesn't get in it, but it's not like I was ever using it, anyway.

"Hey Nina!" I hear a familiar voice playfully call out from behind Nina and I. As soon we turn our heads around to see who it is, I get hit in the back by a cannonball. The cannonball's arms and legs wrap around my chest and waist respectively. The force of the impact causes me to stagger forward, and because my torso has been restrained I tumble to the ground on my hands and knees with the assailant still clinging to my back like a koala.

"That's not me, Adelaide," Nina haggardly calls out to us from the side. I feel Adelaide adjust her position on my back to look up at Nina. Adelaide then proceeded to slide forward on my back, so that her legs were wrapped around my chest and her stomach was resting on top of my head. She placed her spikey-haired head on the ground and studied my face like an inquisitive child. After a few seconds, she smiled at me.

"Oh, Seraph! Salutations!" She greeted me while upside down.

"Salutations..." I groan in reply.

"Sorry. I thought you were Nina. You both look the same from behind when you wear the same clothes. Girls are usually shorter than boys, so I thought you were Nina, you know? Because you're shorter than her. And you both look the same from behind when you wear the same clothes-"

"Yes, I get it," I cut her off. She fell silent after I interrupted her, but she didn't move. She just kept staring at me and smiling. She only stared at me for a couple of seconds, but they were a very uncomfortable couple of seconds. "Can you get off of me?" I ask, a little irritated that she's still holding on to me.

"Ah!" Adelaide uttered in realisation. "Yes, yes, of course." After saying so, she places both of her hands on the ground and straightened her elbows. The next second, she lifted her head off of the floor and the entirety of her body weight was lifted off of my back. "Move please," she tells me. I quickly crawl back away from her and sit down, watching her. She's doing a handstand. In a scarlet evening gown. But that wasn't it. After she confirmed I made some distance, she split her legs into a perfect 180 degree angle and proceeded to perform a flawless front walkover... In a gown.... What even? After lowering her arms, she looked around her. "Hey Nina?" She called out. She looked around some more, and I do the same. Nina was nowhere in the immediate vicinity. Did she really just make a run for it and leave me for dead?

…Honestly, I don't blame her. That was a smart move.

"Nina!" Adelaide called out for her again while quickly running off in a random, lifting up the hem of her dress like a Disney princess. "Nina, Hey! Nina!"

And just like that, I was left to my own devices. As I watch Adelaide run off, my attention gets drawn to her feet. She's wearing heels! How can she even move like that in heels!? Does that mean she was dancing in heels as well!? She was wearing short heels, but they were still heels. I was very impressed seeing how she didn't even falter once when she ran into the night. As I sit there befuddled and drained of energy, I look over to the bed of roses. I see something on the leaves of the roses that makes my heart stop and stomach drop.  

"Oh no..." I mutter in disbelief. I desperately crawl to the roses for a more close up investigation.

I immediately identify what I didn't want to find. The leaves of this rose bush were starting to turn yellow and have irregular black spots all over it. And so does every other rose in this bed. I inspect every single rose in this garden, and every single one of them was showing late stage symptoms the black spot disease. 

"HOW THE FUCK DID I NOT NOTICE THIS EARLIER!? Wait... the cherry blossoms!" After a shocking realisation, I run to the nearest cherry blossom tree. After a quick look at the leaves... "Okay, the cherry blossoms are - wait, no. FUCK!" I see no signs of any coloured spots on the leave. But on the branches and twigs of the tree I spot large, dark-brown and black swellings. I recognise this poop-like fungus immediately. It's black knot disease. "So the tree that Matilda fell out of this morning..." I hurry over to the tree I hid my egg in. On the ground lay the branch that broke off under Matilda's weight. Sure enough, that branch looked like stabbed a massive turd. Every neighbouring tree was infected as well, and every neighbouring tree of those trees had it as well. The size of the fungus wasn't too big, so it couldn't be more than a decade old. But still, I've been at this school for a month now. Even worse... "I WAS JUST UP IN THIS TREE EARLIER THIS MORNING! HOW? HOW DIDN'T I NOTICE!?" I slam my head against a tree in frustration. "FUCK!" If left alone, I'd give all the flora as it is right now a maximum of two years before they go extinct. And that's being really generous. I can't just let that happen! The girls love these flowers! All of this is my fault. These flowers are dying and it's all my fault, just like everything else that's wrong with the world. I have to fix everything! NOW!

…Actually, I'll take a nap first. All this frustration has got me pooped.

Announcement
Here's the deal lads: I have 3 story events planned right now before the biggest arc yet; a mini gardening arc I just set up (~ 2 chapters) that follows this chapter chronologically and two filler arcs (that are almost finished, btw). I WILL be writing all of them, but the plan is to write one of the filler arcs before the mini arc, then write the 2nd filler arc after the big arc. So the question is...
Which arc did you want to see first?
  • 9 year old Seraph performs a magic trick by indirectly and legally turning a baby into an orphan Votes: 3 27.3%
  • 15 year old Seraph straight up kills a man for money and gets away with it Votes: 5 45.5%
  • Neither; Save them for later Votes: 3 27.3%
Total voters: 11 · This poll was closed on Oct 20, 2021 12:57 PM.
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