I Asked a Plant: Cycad

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Narrator: I was resting, leaning against a cycad in the schoolyard. In the corner over there, I saw a girl handing something that looked like chocolate to a boy. I sighed.

Cycad: Are you envious of such sugary sweets... It's just a trick set up by the candy makers, you know.

Narrator: I felt like I heard a voice.

Boy: That's strange...

Cycad: It's not strange...?

Boy: I can hear a voice.

Cycad: Well, that's because I'm talking to you.

Boy: Huh?

Boy: Huh? A cycad? A tree?

Cycad: That's right.

Boy: That's crazy! Plants don't talk!

Cycad: Sometimes, when our wavelengths match, we can talk.

Boy: My wavelength matched with yours?

Cycad: Is that any way to talk to your elder?

Boy: Then what should I call you!

Cycad: I'd like you to call me Cycad-san. Are you envious of getting sweets?

Boy: ...I'm not envious anymore.

Cycad: ...Why?

Boy: Because that's a different world...

Cycad: A different world? Most boys your age only think about girls.

Boy: ...I don't have the luxury for that.

Cycad: Luxury?

Boy: My older brother has some kind of brain disorder. He can't do normal things. When I get home, I have to take care of him, alternating with my mother who goes out to work part-time... I'm not even old enough to work part-time yet.

Cycad: ...That's tough. But aren't you pushing yourself too hard?

Boy: It's not about pushing myself or not! I have to do it!

Cycad: But you looked like you were sighing and feeling envious.

Boy: I was just tired! My world is different from theirs!

Cycad: A different world? At the very least, you live in the same world as them.

Boy: Cycad-san! Were you listening to me? What do you want me to do! I can't just abandon him!

Cycad: Don't humans have systems to help with those kinds of problems?

Boy: My mom says she doesn't want strangers coming into the house. I guess she's embarrassed that her child is disabled.

Cycad: ...Aren't you also embarrassed?

Boy: Oh, enough! Yes, I am embarrassed! I don't want my friends to see me taking care of my brother who drools and can't move! That's why I have nothing to do with that sweet, sugary world!

Cycad: ...There is something called the Cycad Hell...

Boy: Cycad Hell?

Cycad: I keep microorganisms in my roots.

Boy: Huh?

Cycad: It's called nitrogen fixation. Thanks to those microorganisms holding onto nitrogen, one of the nutrients plants need, we can live even in barren land.

Boy: Huh? Do you want me to say it's amazing that you have the ability to make the nutrients you lack?

Cycad: That's why the people on the southern islands planted us in wasteland.

Boy: Huh.

Cycad: To eat. Our trunks have quite a bit of starch.

Boy: Huh. Can you eat a cycad, Cycad-san?

Cycad: It has quite a strong poison, though...

Boy: Huh? Then you can't eat it!

Cycad: My poison dissolves in water. So, if you soak it in water many times and dry it in the sun, you can eat it.

Boy: Why would you go through such a troublesome process...

Cycad: Because they couldn't make large fields and didn't have major industries, so they often fell into food shortages. It takes days to remove the poison. Some people died because they couldn't wait those days due to starvation. That state of starvation was called the Cycad Hell.

Boy: ...What! Are you trying to say that I should be grateful I can eat at all!

Cycad: That's not it. I just wanted you not to give up on living.

Boy: Huh? I haven't given up, that's why I haven't abandoned him!

Cycad: No... it seems like you're carrying the problem all by yourself and giving up on living happily.

Boy: Then what do you want me to do!

Cycad: The people on the southern islands didn't give up on living, even by using me, who has poison. It might be meddlesome, but is it too much to ask you not to give up on living happily?

Boy: What are you saying, you naive thing! Oh, fine! Then I'll say it! Why is it that those people on the southern islands and I have the fate of having to do such troublesome things! Isn't it unfair! The world is different.

Cycad: I don't know why some people are given such a fate... But I want you not to give up. You haven't done everything you can yet. You haven't cast aside the feeling of embarrassment to talk to others about your sadness and pain, and ask for help.

Boy: Why are you saying such unreasonable things!

Cycad: You live on the same world line as those people. That is certain. I have seen many people who say their world is different from others, build a glass wall, freeze their own hearts, and while their bodies are alive, their hearts have died. I don't want you to become like that. I smell death on you, too. If you close your heart and stay alone, you will truly become a living corpse. But I felt like it wasn't too late for you yet. Look...

Narrator: ...I saw Kyoko Homura from the same class walking slowly, carrying some kind of package.

Cycad: Didn't you do something for her?

Boy: She said she forgot her textbook, so I just showed her mine... But even if I could date her, my world is differ...

Cycad: There are communication devices that make it easy to talk now, aren't there?

Boy: Even if we could date for a long time, if she found out my family is a troublesome one...

Cycad: Why give up before you even try? Isn't it possible there's someone who would understand?

Boy: Girls only like rich, handsome guys...

Cycad: I once spoke to a boy named Masahiro Toda who was trying to give up on living his life like that several decades ago. He also said that he would surely be alone for the rest of his life.

Boy: Huh? ...Could it be... Dad?

Cycad: You had the same scent as that nostalgic boy, so I said something unreasonable. It's exactly the same that you said, "Girls only like rich, handsome guys..." I met you and imagined what kind of life he led. I was happy, but at the same time, I was sad that you are in a situation where you are trying to give up on your life just like he was... It might be rude, but wasn't he not rich or handsome either? It might have been a tough life. There were probably many unreasonable things that made him want to die. But at least, wasn't your father not alone? Now, what will you do?

Boy: I...

Narrator: Kyoko Homura had come right up to me.

Homura: Um, Toda-kun...


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