Asking the Plants: Spotted Laurel

Happy New Year.
This is my first post of the year.
Thanks to all of you, I have been able to create reading scripts and voice dramas.
I look forward to your continued support this year.

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This is a work I wrote for the HEAR Scenario Department, to which I belong.
Once a month, we decide on a theme and write works for each other.
This is a story that can be used freely for readings and voice plays.
If you use it for streaming or similar purposes, please follow the terms at the end of the text.
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※This work is fiction.

Fugitive Samurai:
Huff, huff...
Good grief, why has it come to this...
If Yohei doesn't return,
won't I just die out here in this cave...

Spotted Laurel:
...Hmm.
I've been listening for a while now,
and all you do is whine and complain...
I'm absolutely fed up with it.

Samurai:
...!?
Who's there! Where are you!
(He looks as if he is preparing to draw his sword)

Spotted Laurel:
...(Laughs)
Oh, a fugitive samurai acting all tough.

I am invisible to the eyes of mere humans.
It seems you lot call me a 'spirit' or 'yokai'.

Samurai:
Huh?

Spotted Laurel:
Yes, there's no need to be so hostile.
I have no intention of harming you.
I just wanted to have a conversation with someone one last time.

Samurai:
...?

Spotted Laurel:
...Say, fugitive samurai,
you are a pathetic sight.

Samurai:
Shut up, you spirit...
The enemy attacked with ten times our numbers.
I... I...
I fought bravely nonetheless!

Spotted Laurel:
What a sloppy strategy.
Fighting an enemy ten times your size is something only a foolish commander would do.
The ones serving under you must have had a hard time...

Samurai:
It was not sloppy!
However,
the heavy rain caused the river to swell, and reinforcements couldn't make it in time.
There was no flaw in my plan!

Spotted Laurel:
My goodness.
So you were the foolish commander!

Samurai:
I am not a foolish commander!

Spotted Laurel:
(Laughs) Then, when you are captured, you should tell the enemy,
'It's just that my reinforcements didn't arrive in time,
it doesn't mean I lost!'
That's a joke they'll laugh at in the end, isn't it?

Samurai:
Don't call it a joke!

Spotted Laurel:
Bark all you want.
You are just a pathetic fugitive samurai.
As you are now, anyway. (Laughs)

Samurai:
Grrr!
............I endured for twenty years.
......(Feeling dejected) To lose my first battle and then be mocked by a spirit...
I never imagined this.

Spotted Laurel:
What?
Are you depressed again?
You're a restless one, aren't you?
...That's right.
Is there no one you care for?

Samurai:
...Someone I care for... Masako...

Spotted Laurel:
So there is someone.
And is this a one-sided love of yours?

Samurai:
Don't say such rude things!
Women enough to fill the castle
are waiting for my return everywhere.
I will not rot away in a cave like this!

Spotted Laurel:
Oh?
Are you really that popular...
To like a fugitive samurai...
There are many women with poor taste, aren't there...

Samurai:
Shut up! Be quiet!
You have gone too far with your rudeness!

Spotted Laurel:
Rude? (Laughs)
Rude, am I? Then, you should try your best to prove it.
Foolish commander?

Samurai:
You've been doing this for a while now...
.........Wait.
In the first place,
would you go out of your way to talk to me just to mock me as a fugitive samurai?

You...
Do you have some ulterior motive
for provoking me?

Spotted Laurel:
Oh?
For a foolish fugitive commander, you're quite clever, aren't you?

Samurai:
I am a commander of an army, after all.
......Come to think of it, you said something strange.
That you wanted to talk to someone one last time.

Spotted Laurel:
It's simple.
It's the same reason as you.

Samurai:
The same reason as me?

Spotted Laurel:
To survive.

Samurai:
I don't understand...
If you are a spirit, can't you live as long as you want?

Spotted Laurel:
No, I was cut by you.
You are my enemy.

Samurai:
What?

Spotted Laurel:
To be precise, your companion, Yohei, cut me.
And with my body that he cut off,
he hid the entrance to this cave.
Because not only the leaves but also the branches are green,
I am called Aoki (Spotted Laurel).
I am the spirit of the Spotted Laurel!
They must have used me because I am strong and don't wilt easily,
but even for me, being cut off is...
I will eventually wither.

Samurai:
Yo, you were a tree spirit!
......That was... a bad thing to do...
But even so, why...

Spotted Laurel:
...If you, who have become a fugitive samurai, still have a heart that cares for others,
would you cut my branches, plant them in clean sand, and water them?
If you do that, I will become a sapling and survive.

Samurai:
It will take root just from that... what tenacity!
I want to learn from that!
I see! Spirit.
You provoked me on purpose
to get my attention for that reason, didn't you?

Spotted Laurel:
Since we are both on the edge, I thought I would take a gamble and ask for water,
even from an enemy.
That is what I thought.

Samurai:
What a bold and clever negotiator.
I like you!
I'd even like to add you to my ranks!

Spotted Laurel:
What a joke!
If you talk to plants, people will say the fool has finally lost his mind.
Besides, you will soon no longer be able to hear my voice.

Samurai:
...?

Spotted Laurel:
Only those with special powers, or those on the boundary between life and death,
can talk to us.
However, you will no longer look back,
or think about death...

Samurai:
............That's right...
Thanks to you, I have made up my mind!
For those who believed in me and followed me...
For those who are alive, and those who have fallen...
I will not lose again!
Spirit of the Spotted Laurel.
Even if I can no longer hear your voice...
I, Minamoto no Yoritomo... when I escape from here,
I swear I will order my men!
To make sure your branches are planted in the soil and take root.
And when I am victorious in the war against the Taira clan,
I will pay you my respects and cherish you for the rest of my life.
I will never lose again!
I, Minamoto no Yoritomo,
will remake this wretched world!

Narrator:
The year 1180 AD.
Minamoto no Yoritomo, who would later establish the Kamakura Shogunate,
broke twenty years of silence and raised an army in Izu.
However, as luck would have it, his army was blocked by a river swollen with heavy rain,
and his forces were stalled.
Because of this,
Yoritomo ended up fighting an enemy ten times his size,
and suffered a crushing defeat in the first battle.
During his escape,
it is said that a Spotted Laurel tree, which does not wilt easily,
was used to hide the entrance to the cave where Yoritomo was hiding,
and that Yoritomo gave the surname Aoki (Spotted Laurel) to the local person who brought it.

Special Thanks! Jingai Nagima-sama

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