"About to take off. Are you all ready?"
"We're ready, but Big Bro, why are you crawling into the mangroves?"
Everyone was puzzled when Broly dove into the trees—until the mangrove they were standing on shuddered and, with a tremendous force, was yanked whole out of the water.
Once they rose into the sky and the kids, jolted by the shaking, grabbed for anything solid around them, they finally understood what Broly had meant by "be ready."
Looking at the vines tied around their waists, they were at a loss for words.
"Good thing I didn't fall."
Chubby Losan managed to grab a slick root in time. The vine at his waist had snapped, and he had nearly rolled right off their flying mangrove.
Broly did not fly very fast. Drawing on the experience of flying Taiga Fujimura around in the Nasuverse two years before, he kept the airborne mangrove gliding smoothly through the sky like a little floating island.
After the initial panic passed and things settled, the children fell silent, lost in the spectacular sight of the sunset and evening clouds on the horizon.
Most of them had never had enough to eat or wear, struggling every day just to survive. Once they fell into the hands of slavers, they were shut in cages. They had never had the leisure—or the right—to enjoy a view like this.
"Sis, it's so pretty."
Sitting on a vine, Kurome clutched the girl beside her.
"Mm."
Akame answered softly, agreeing.
"If it weren't for Big Brother Broly, we might never have seen something like this, right?"
She meant watching the sunset from the sky, but also the fact that he had saved them and fed them.
If your belly is empty, you have no mood to admire beauty.
"I think I see Big Bro in the sunset."
Bonk.
Pony's head took a hit.
"Why'd you hit me, Sis Cor?"
"I told you to throw those poisonous mushrooms away. You kept them and ate them, didn't you?"
"I—I didn't."
Pony flailed and clapped a hand over her right pocket.
"You're seeing things and still denying it?!"
Bonk.
Her head took another iron‑fisted thump from the girl beside her.
"Big Bro's right there in the trees flying us. He's not dead!"
The poisonous mushrooms traced a parabola as Cornelia hurled them away.
"My mushrooms!"
On the flying mangrove under the sunset, everyone glowered at Pony.
She slumped to her knees on the roots in front of her, shoulders drooping in defeat, right hand reaching longingly after the departing mushrooms.
…
"Chief, there's a mangrove flying toward us in the sky!"
While the kids were marveling at the sunset above, the tribe on the ground had spotted the airborne mangrove approaching and grown tense.
In this world, only flying danger beasts were known to soar through the air—and the larger they were, the more dangerous.
"For a mangrove that big to be flying, whatever's hiding in it must be terrifying.
"Riparip, summon all the warriors. If the monster in that flying mangrove attacks our tribe, we fight to the death to protect it."
The Redleaf Tribe's chief, Reedril, gave the order. He only hoped that whatever had sent the mangrove into the sky would merely pass them by.
"Chief, the mangrove looks like it's coming down toward us."
Things always went in the worst direction. Reedril's heart sank.
"Prepare for battle."
He drew a knife and ran it across his palm, smearing four bloody streaks across his face.
In their tribe, that meant a fight to the death.
The other warriors followed his lead.
Their weapons were crude, but every one of them had the blood and will to stand between the tribe and danger.
That will held until a familiar voice carried down from the lowering mangrove.
"Papa, Papa…"
It was the voice of his daughter who had been missing for three months.
"Rivarina, is that you?"
Reedril shouted.
Before anyone answered, the mangrove had already dropped low enough for everyone to clearly see the people on it.
Rivarina jumped before it finished lowering, running straight for the warriors waiting in formation and throwing herself into her father's arms.
"Rivarina, where have you been all this time?"
His face showed shock and joy. In truth, he had long since believed his daughter dead.
"I was caught by an imperial slaving squad. They sold me into the Giant Tree Forest—Gifnora Seatre Forest—but I escaped."
She explained.
"And your little sister? And those others?"
Riparip asked, staring at the crowd of children still on the grounded mangrove.
"Second Brother, they're like me—kids sold into the Giant Tree Forest by slavers. Now they're my important companions."
"Hold on. When did I become 'Second Brother'?"
"Because I swore myself to a Big Brother."
Riparip: "Huh?"
"And how did you all come down from the sky?"
"We didn't come down from the sky. Big Bro flew us here. He saved me, saved everyone, and led us out of the Giant Tree Forest…"
Rivarina pointed back the way they had come, trying to describe Broly's feats to her father.
To the Redleaf chief, the idea of someone blasting a highway through the Giant Tree Forest or carrying an entire mangrove through the air was beyond reason.
If he had not personally seen a mangrove flying through the sky, he might have thought his newly returned daughter was babbling nonsense.
"Urk…"
Only after delivering them did Broly finally stagger out of the trees, dry‑heaving. His hands were flecked with mangrove wood dust and sap. The taste was killing him, making the bitterness in his mouth even worse.
"That's Big Brother Broly!"
Rivarina happily introduced him.
"What's wrong with him?"
Reedril was startled to see that the "Big Brother" his daughter spoke of was just a boy. Seeing him dry‑heave, he frowned.
"Big Brother Broly chewed a lot of mangrove branches at noon. Then he got like this."
"You didn't tell him the branches were poisonous?"
"I did. Big Bro said the poison tasted good."
Reedril: "???"
In an instant, his mental image of Broly shifted from terrifying figure who strode unhindered through the Giant Tree Forest and flew a mangrove through the sky to a kid who might not be right in the head.
"Take him back to the village. I'll prep some herbs to detox him."
The fact that the flying mangrove carried only children, plus Rivarina's rough explanation, seemed to reassure Reedril. Wiping the death‑fight blood from his face, he told his son to lead his daughter's new companions to an empty part of the village.
The Redleaf Tribe was small, barely over a thousand people, so an influx of more than seventy children drew a lot of attention.
"Riparip, where'd all these kids come from? Are they joining the tribe?"
Someone asked.
"They're companions my little sister brought back."
Riparip grunted.
"Your sister? Wasn't Rivarina dead?"
Thud.
The speaker went down with a punch.
"My sister's back, safe and sound. She isn't dead."
__________
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