Chapter 36: Chapter 36: Eat Fewer Poisonous Mushrooms
"Are you ready for takeoff?"
"We're ready, but why are you going into the mangrove forest?"
The children were puzzled by Broly's sudden dive into the mangroves, until the patch of mangroves they were standing on began to shake violently, being forcibly uprooted from the water by an immense force.
Once they were airborne, the children, who had hastily grabbed onto anything sturdy during the shaking, finally understood what Broly meant by "being ready."
Looking at the vines tied around their waists, the children were speechless.
"Good thing I didn't fall."
The chubby boy, Lozan, had managed to grab a slippery root just in time. The vine around his waist had snapped, and he had nearly rolled off the flying mangrove patch.
Broly wasn't flying too fast. Drawing from his experience two years ago in the Fate world when he flew with Taiga Fujimura, he kept the floating mangrove patch steady in the air, like a small floating island.
After the initial panic subsided, the children began to relax and were soon captivated by the breathtaking view of the sunset and the evening clouds on the distant horizon.
In the past, most of them had struggled to survive, barely having enough to eat or wear. After being captured by slave traders and locked in cages, they had never had the luxury or opportunity to enjoy such a sight.
"Sis, it's so beautiful."
Kurome sat on a vine, tugging at the girl beside her.
"Yeah."
Akame softly agreed with her sister.
"If it weren't for Broly, we might never have seen something like this, right?"
This was about seeing the sunset from the sky, but it was also about how Broly had saved them and given them enough to eat.
After all, when you're starving, you don't have the leisure to appreciate beauty.
"I think I see Broly in the sunset."
"Thud!"
Bony's head got a light smack.
"Cornelia, why did you hit me?"
"I told you to throw away those poisonous mushrooms you picked, but you kept them and ate them, didn't you?"
"I-I didn't."
Bony panicked, quickly covering her right pocket.
"You're hallucinating, and you still say you didn't?"
"Thud~"
The girl's head got another light punch from the girl beside her.
"Broly is flying us through the forest. He's not dead yet!"
The poisonous mushrooms were flung away in a parabolic arc by Cornelia.
"My mushrooms!"
Under the sunset, on the flying mangrove patch, everyone glared at Bony.
Bony, in a defeated posture, knelt on the mangrove vine.
Her right hand reached out longingly toward the flying poisonous mushrooms.
---
"Chief, a patch of mangroves is flying in the sky!"
While the children in the sky were admiring the sunset, the tribe on the ground grew tense as they noticed the flying mangrove patch heading toward their village.
In the world's common knowledge, only flying dangerous beasts could soar through the sky, and the larger the creature, the more dangerous it was.
"If such a large patch of mangroves is flying in the sky, whatever's hiding inside must be terrifying.
Riparip, gather all the warriors in the tribe. If the monster inside the flying mangroves attacks our village, we will fight back and protect our people."
Chief Riddriel of the Red Leaf Tribe issued the order, hoping that the unknown being that had lifted the mangroves into the sky was merely passing by.
"Chief, the flying mangroves seem to be descending toward us."
But things always seemed to take a turn for the worse, and Riddriel's heart sank.
"Prepare for battle."
The chief cut his palm with a small knife and smeared four blood streaks across his face.
In their tribe, this signified a fight to the death.
Seeing their chief do this, the other warriors followed suit.
Their weapons weren't sophisticated, but they had the courage to protect their tribe against powerful enemies.
This courage lasted until a familiar voice came from the descending mangroves.
"Dad, Dad..."
It was the voice of his daughter, who had been missing for three months.
"Rivalina, is that you?"
Riddriel called out.
No answer was needed, as the mangroves had descended to a height where the people on them could be clearly seen.
Rivalina jumped from the not-yet-fully-landed mangroves and ran toward the waiting tribe warriors, throwing herself into her father's arms.
"Rivalina, where have you been all this time?"
The man's face was a mix of shock and joy. He had almost given up hope, thinking his daughter was dead.
"I was captured by the Empire's slave traders. They sold me into the Giant Tree Forest (Gifunora Sea Tree Forest), but I escaped and came back."
The girl explained.
"Then, sister, who are those people?"
Riparip asked, pointing to the many children on the mangroves that had just landed in the water.
"Second brother, they're children like me who were sold into the Giant Tree Forest by slave traders. Now, they're my important companions."
"Wait, why am I the second brother now?"
"Because I've found a big brother."
Riparip: "Huh?"
"Then how did you come down from the sky?"
"We didn't come down from the sky. Big brother flew us here. He saved me, saved everyone, and led us out of the Giant Tree Forest..."
Rivalina pointed in the direction they had come from, trying to explain Broly's incredible abilities to her father.
Chief Riddriel listened, feeling his brain couldn't quite keep up. Whether it was blasting a path through the Giant Tree Forest or flying a patch of mangroves through the sky, it all sounded too unbelievable.
If he hadn't seen the mangroves flying with his own eyes, he might have thought his long-lost daughter was making up stories.
"Yuck~"
After flying everyone over, Broly emerged from the mangroves, looking a bit nauseous. His hands were covered in mangrove wood chips and sap, the smell of which was unbearable, making the bitterness in his mouth even worse.
"This is Broly!"
Rivalina happily introduced the boy to her father.
"What's wrong with him?"
Riddriel was surprised that the "big brother" his daughter spoke of was also a child. Seeing Broly's nauseated state, he frowned and asked.
"Broly chewed on a lot of mangrove branches at noon, and then he became like this."
"Didn't you tell him mangrove branches are poisonous?"
"I did, but he said the poison tasted good."
Riddriel: "???"
His impression of Broly shifted from the terrifying figure his daughter described—someone who could move freely through the Giant Tree Forest and fly mangroves through the sky—to a child who might have something wrong with his brain.
"Take him to the tribe. I'll get some herbs to detoxify him."
Perhaps because the flying mangroves were filled with children and his daughter had explained the situation, Riddriel wiped the blood streaks from his face and had his son arrange for the group of children, his daughter's newfound companions, to be accommodated in an empty area of the tribe.
The Red Leaf Tribe wasn't large, with only a little over a thousand people. The arrival of seventy children still attracted a lot of attention from the tribe members.
"Riparip, where did these children come from? Are they joining our tribe?"
Someone asked.
"They're my sister's companions."
Riparip replied gruffly.
"Your sister? Rivalina? I thought she was dead."
"Thud~"
The person who said this was punched to the ground by Riparip.
"My sister is back, safe and sound. She's not dead."