【T.C.】【Turning Rare Species into a Bouquet】T.C.-16

It was still early morning.

Gunjo went out for his usual run.

Whenever he stayed in Japan, his stamina always dropped.

As a former soldier, training was second nature to him.

While running, he thought of Kiryu and Akemi.

What will happen to us from now on…?

He turned the corner of an intersection.

There, he noticed a newly opened flower shop.

A small sign read Fleur Cache.

Beautiful flowers lined the storefront.

One flower caught his eye—more beautiful than the rest.

Gunjo’s expression clouded.

—Sarlicoperia?

He remembered it well.

A flower that once wreaked havoc in a small Asian country.

Without thinking, Gunjo opened the door.

—A dazzling light.

A woman stood in the soft glow coming through the window.

She’s beautiful… Gunjo thought instinctively.

For a moment, time stopped.

“Is something wrong?”

The woman—likely older than Gunjo—asked quietly.

A small mole beneath her left eye.

A calm, collected voice.

Gunjo glanced toward the flower at the entrance.

The woman’s face changed.

“You… know that flower?

Sarlicoperia…”

“It was a moment of weakness,” she admitted.

“I thought… no one would recognize it.”

Gunjo was invited into the back and sat down.

The woman quietly brewed coffee.

Her name was Kaede Ichinose. She was forty-three.

She once worked in biotechnology. Her specialty was plant hybridization.

Day after day, she created new breeds of plants.

One day, she produced an extraordinarily beautiful flower.

That flower was Sarlicoperia.

Its beauty was striking—

but soon, a possibility emerged:

the flower might produce a new type of alkaloid.

In other words… a narcotic.

Gunjo spoke:

“That’s the alkaloid that ravaged the Asian front.”

Kaede nodded.

“I learned that later.”

“The research institute sold the data for the seed I created.”

When she discovered Sarlicoperia had spread as a drug across Asia and Africa,

she erased all data and seeds… and fled the research institute.

“And now,” she continued,

“The flower outside—

it’s a modified species with the alkaloid removed.

Its name is Jirlicoperia.

It looks almost identical.”

“It was careless of me…

I’m hiding.

The institute will never forgive me for deleting the data.”

“I’ve thrown everything away.

That flower… ruined countless lives.

Even now, it blooms somewhere in Asia.”

ーGunjo returned home and looked at old photographs.

Images from the battlefield.

Many had never returned because of that drug.

He flipped through them.

Halfway through, photos of Kiryu and Akemi appeared.

Gunjo’s cheeks softened.

ーーA few days later, Gunjo visited Fleur Cache again.

Kaede greeted him calmly, with a gentle smile.

“Um…

We only just met, but…

can you drive?”

“…Gunjo.”

“Hmm?”

“My name. Gunjo.”

He drove for thirty minutes.

To a deserted autumn shore.

There, Kaede took out a small bag of seeds.

“I have a request…

Please burn these.”

Gunjo asked softly:

“And these are…?”

“Jirlicoperia seeds.”

“This will be the end of them.”

She held a bouquet of flowers as well.

“I cut all the ones that were blooming.”

Gunjo thought:

How can something that ruined so many lives… be so beautiful?

Kaede walked to the cliff’s edge and threw the bouquet toward the sea.

The bouquet unraveled mid-air, scattering petals.

The light caught them as they drifted.

“And now… only the seeds remain.”

Gunjo slowly opened his bag.

“Burning them outright felt… wasteful somehow,” he said.

Inside was a small balloon.

“I’ll fill it with helium, attach the seeds,

and add a tiny ignition device.”

“And then… what?” Kaede asked.

“I’ll let the balloon rise into the air.”

“That’s dangerous. The seeds could drift away.”

“It’s fine.”

Gunjo pulled out a compact rifle.

“When it rises to a hundred meters,

I’ll shoot it.”

“You can do that?”

“I was once called a genius marksman.

…Though I could never shoot people.”

After a while, the balloon floated upward.

Carried by the wind, drifting over the sea.

Gunjo quietly prepared his rifle.

“Haven’t looked through a scope in ages…”

“But—I can do this.”

He pulled the trigger.

A fraction of a second—

An explosion. A brief gust.

The balloon burst above the sea,

quietly burning.

It was like watching a fleeting dream.

“Amazing…” Kaede whispered.

“I was… a failure. Someone who couldn’t shoot people.”

Gunjo murmured.

“You didn’t need to,” Kaede replied gently.

“That’s a good thing.”

“Why…?” Gunjo asked.

“Because—

I realized Sarlicoperia might contain a narcotic.

And yet…

I couldn’t give up the seeds or the data.

It was too beautiful.”

“That is my sin.”

Gunjo listened silently.

They drove away together.

Gunjo asked,

“Will you be all right?”

“I have nothing left.

I just want to live quietly.”

“I’ll come buy flowers sometimes.

I’ll be your bodyguard if needed.”

Gunjo said with a faint smile.

Kaede smiled softly.

“Thank you.

That would help a lot.”

“I’m counting on you.”