Falling in Love with an Unknown Poison [Weekly Short-Short Note: Theme "Manjusaka Falls in Love"]

Taraha-san, thank you for the prompt. Following the linked article, here I go.

(493 characters)

Manjusaka, the red flower that blooms in the celestial realm. If it is said to bloom in the heavens rather than on the earth where humans live, then perhaps it is a scattered flower. More than the lotus, the spider lily, the Manjusaka, is far more fitting for that.

The heat has not yet cooled, and I am trapped in the prison of summer. Unable to stare at the blazing sun, I walked along sluggishly, casting my gaze toward my feet. I arrived at the very back of a dead end, with no prospects for the future anywhere to be found.

The setting sun hit the sweat dripping from my chin onto the ground. The liquid, which should have been transparent, looked as if it were tinged with the color of blood.

The Manjusaka is a sinner.

A line from a popular song I remembered hearing somewhere long ago brushed against my earlobe and vanished.

The person who named that flower Lycoris must have been a great liar.

Where could the person who whispered that to me have disappeared to? They were someone who suited the red sunset. They were someone who said they liked spider lilies.

The Manjusaka, a mysterious flower with the scientific name Lycoris, eventually harbors a bulb at its base. It hides a plump poison underground, as if quietly waiting for me to swallow its lycorine.

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A few years ago, I took photos of Manjusaka in a botanical garden greenhouse, other than the one in the header article. Here in Hokkaido, I think it is rare to see spider lilies in person (other than commercially sold bulbs).

©Harunaga Mutsuki