Awakening Moment/Soft Serve Cone

## Bud of Survival

File:Sprite-Awakening Moment Soft Serve Cone.png

"A newcomer?"

"I'm Soft Serve Cone. Professor Westminster of the Academy of Magic recommended me for an internship here at the seed bank."

Soft Serve Cone presented the recommendation letter with two hands and stood meekly awaiting the results of the approval process.

At the reception window, a fat woman wearing a white lab coat took the letter between her fingers and looked at her through the glass.

"Are you sure you're ready to intern here?"

"Yes. I've been yearning to work at the Garden of Eden seed bank for a long time."

"The last intern employed here said that too. Ended up frozen stiff in a matter of days."

"I'm not scared. I naturally enjoy ice-cold places."

"Alright. I hope you can last for a while. Please wait here."

She muttered rapidly.

Then, she scooted over, took a deep breath as if reluctant about something, and hopped off the chair. For a split-second, Soft Serve Cone seemed to see a tail-like object flutter behind her, but in the blink of an eye, it disappeared.

Soft Serve Cone looked around left and right, pretending she hadn't seen a thing.

Before coming, she'd heard that Midgar's Garden of Eden was a mysterious botanical garden, home to lots of bizarre Food Souls. When coming here on an internship, one had best stay on their good side and not be too nosy.

And anyway she was coming here entirely for the advanced research environment. It was said that this place had the most authoritative and most complete ecological database, a veritable heaven for researchers, and so for that, she could put up with odd work colleagues and surroundings...

"Put this on and follow me."

Just then, the fat woman walked out of the room with the reception window and tossed her a white lab coat.

Soft Serve Cone scrambled to catch it and obediently put it on.

She walked along following the fat woman, soon arriving at a small one-storey house.

"We're here. Don't go forward."

The fat woman called Soft Serve Cone to a halt as she tried to keep walking.

"...What?"

Soft Serve Cone batted her eyes and looked confusedly at her, then looked back down at the place where they'd stopped.

This was a swathe of forest. Aside from the house before them, there wasn't anything.

"Here?"

"Right, this is the place."

The fat woman reached out with both hands, which both appeared quite slender. It was then Soft Serve realized the woman wasn't fat after all, but rather that she was wearing a bunch of large sweaters.

She pushed open the door of the little home, exposing a cramped space on the inside with nothing in it.

"Come in."

Soft Serve followed her in hesitantly.

Before she had a chance to express any reservations, the sweater-wearing woman quickly closed the door shut. Then, she must've pressed a button somewhere, because suddenly the floor under their feet sunk swiftly downward--

"Ah!"

Soft Serve Cone failed to stifle a shout.

But the fall ended quickly.

The door of the little house opened again. A gust of cold air hit her face, and an intense artificial light dazzled Soft Serve's eyes.

"Come on out. This is the seed bank."

Soft Serve Cone rubbed her eyes and stepped forward.

There were aisles all around, running off in every direction. Many people in white lab coats like her were coming and going busily along the aisles.

--It was an entire research center built underground!

"Follow me this way. Stick close. If you get lost here and end up somewhere you're not supposed to be, you're on your own."

After the initial shock wore off, Soft Serve Cone hurried off in the footsteps of her guide.

Her inquisitive nature was piqued by her companion's warning.

"What do you mean by somewhere I'm not supposed to be?"

"An area where ancient elf plant seeds are stored, of course."

"They have those here?"

The fat woman gave a look of surprise to Soft Serve. "You didn't even know that?"

"Sorry, back at the Academy I was always researching Food Soul zoology... It was Professor Westminster who said that my weakest area was natural science, so really I don't know much about this..."

"Alright, then for the sake of Professor Westminster." The fat woman shrugged, "At any rate, those are very dangerous things, and it is forbidden to go near them by decree of the garden director."

"But they're just plant seeds. What could happen just by getting close to them?"

"Those seeds aren't like the seeds you're thinking of. If a person is infected by one, it could cause a disaster of unimaginable scale."

The fat woman squinted her eyes, as if recalling some incident from long ago.

"Did something happen before?"

The fat woman shook her head.

"It seems you really don't know much, do you?"

"I'm truly sorry. Teacher, can you tell me about it?"

Soft Serve's use of the word "Teacher" put the fat woman in a good mood.

A grudging look came over her face.

"Oh, alright. It's not like it's some big secret."

"Garden of Eden back then didn't have these advanced facilities and research center. Nor did it have so many employees, so the director had to go out himself to gather seeds and perform experiments."

"One time, he obtained a plant from the age of the ancient elves. The plant was called "Flower of Evil", and he grew one with the intention of collecting its seed to enrich what was then a barren seed bank. To his surprise, during his experiment, the seed was stolen by a Food Soul. The Flower of Evil became a parasite within that Food Soul and turned him into a murderous, bloodthirsty demon that wreaked havoc in Midgar... From that time on, the director hasn't allowed anyone near these seeds."

"Something like that actually happened in Garden of Eden before?"

"You bet it has. Which reminds me, if it wasn't for that Food Soul hosting the Flower of Evil being connected to Ark, after such a big mess that it caused, who knows how badly our director would've been chastised... What's with that look on your face? You mean you don't even know about Ark?"

Soft Serve Cone smiled apologetically.

"You really have been living under a rock or something! This is a really long story. If you want the detailed history, you'll have to find all that out on your own time, but basically, Ark is a charitable organization that actually assembled together a cabal of extremist humans that have secretively performed Food Soul experiments. They use Food Souls bought on the black market as their test subjects, modifying their bodies into weapons, even wanting to create artificial gods, which they say is for defending against the apocalypse. Don't you think that's so laughable?"

"Using Food Souls to create gods? That's just too foolish!"

Soft Serve Cone exclaimed.

"Who said it wasn't?"

The fat woman started off on another rant.

"That Food Soul that was infected with Flower of Evil, he was a test subject that had escaped from Ark, so after he had the Flower of Evil parasite within him, he used it to get revenge on Ark, and caused a whole mess of trouble. Fortunately the director and his friend fixed all of that up, although, they say that they paid a heavy price for it at the time..."

"And sooo...," the fat woman halted her steps, pushed open a corridor door, then turned sideways to let Soft Serve Cone enter, "...in the future, you are not to go near those plants. Even if you are a Food Soul, those seeds are extremely dangerous. Understand?"

"Right, I won't. I'm just going to do the work that you all assign me."

The fat woman nodded in satisfaction.

"Alright, this is your laboratory. Your work is to analyze seeds gathered from various locations, and to ensure the viability of the normal seeds in the seed bank. As for the specifics, your teacher will teach you all that when he comes."

"Thank you for your guidance."

The fat woman waved a hand, then turned and left.

Soft Serve Cone was left by herself in the laboratory, and her expression relaxed as she looked around curiously at all the various equipment. In her left hand, she picked up a microscope; in her right, she opened a glass case, examining them in boredom as she muttered something inaudible to herself.

"Use Food Souls to create gods? What an inferior method... What my Attendant is hatching is a brand new god..."