"There are some fierce fish in mangrove waters. Some of them will spit water at creatures in the trees. As long as you're ready for it and grab the vines around you so you don't fall in, you won't be in danger.
"And up in the mangroves, there are always mimicking creatures, like dead-branch snakes. They pretend to be twigs and prey on passing small animals or insects, but they won't attack creatures bigger than they are…"
As Rivarina listed the things to watch out for in the mangroves, Broly surfaced from the water. Fish hung all over him. He climbed onto the bank and gave himself a shake, flinging the fish into a basket they had woven from vines.
There were no danger beasts here now, but the fish underwater were even dumber. All Broly had to do was swim a bit and they would come right up to him. He barely needed to grab them.
Broly flicked his tail, sending the fish biting onto it flying into the vine basket as well.
"Of course, if you all had a body as tough as Big Bro's, you could just go down and grab fish like that too. Normally, though, the way you fish is by slapping the surface to attract them, then spearing them with a sharpened stick when they come close."
Rivarina demonstrated as she spoke. With one thrust of a sharpened branch, she skewered a fish as thick as her forearm and lifted it.
"Pff, pff, pff!"
The fish thrashed on the branch and spat three jets of water at her.
"That's a spitting fish. The bigger they are, the more powerful their spit."
She shook the water off her face as she explained.
"Hee-yah!"
The other kids quickly copied her, stabbing at the water with their sharpened sticks. Only a few hit anything; most missed. One unlucky one even fell in, but Broly was right there and yanked him out.
"Things under water are actually a little deeper than they look from the surface. Aim a bit lower than you think when you thrust."
One of the kids who had landed a fish passed on the trick. With that in mind, the more agile ones picked up the spearing technique quickly.
"These branches are too wet. We can't get a fire going."
When they stopped at noon to eat, everyone ran into the same problem: in the damp, they could not start a fire. Since leaving Gifnora Seatre Forest, the kids who had experience surviving outdoors had drilled into the others how important cooked food was.
If you did not want diarrhea, both food and water had to be boiled or cooked. Some plants' toxins could also be boiled out.
"If we really can't make a fire, we'll have to eat sashimi."
"Won't there be parasites?"
"What are you talking about? Oh, and these worms in the fish taste pretty good."
They all turned to see their Big Bro pulling out something obviously parasitic from a fish and eating it.
No one needed to answer the earlier question now. Yes, there were parasites. As for the taste, those had just gotten Broly's approval.
"Don't worry about it. Worms aren't a big deal. My tribespeople and I used to eat raw fish all the time.
"After the fish, we'd eat water leaves to deworm ourselves. The worms don't stay long in our stomachs—they get flushed out."
Rivarina did not mind raw fish at all.
The kids: …
All of them pictured worms being "flushed out."
"Sis, I don't want to poop worms."
Kurome tugged Akame's sleeve.
"I don't either. But if you don't want to go hungry, you have to eat something."
Akame could accept it better. Between worms and hunger, she thought hunger was worse.
"I'll try lighting the fire again."
"It's useless. The branches are too wet. They just won't catch."
"We should've brought some dry wood…"
"Big Brother Broly, do you have any ideas?"
Out of tricks themselves, someone thought of him.
Broly considered, then aimed his hand at the pile of kindling.
Boom.
In an instant, the branches were gone.
"Guess Big Bro has no solution either."
"Just like with the shoes—Big Bro has limits."
They glanced at Broly's tumbleweed shoes and silently agreed with Natara.
Seeing their disappointed faces, Broly thought again.
"I'll try one more time."
He said, then adjusted the flow of ki, gathering a tiny amount into one fingertip.
He touched a mangrove twig.
Sss—
Smoke rose where his finger met the branch.
"Eh?!"
Everyone stared, suddenly tense.
Catch. Please catch.
As if hearing their prayer, the spot he'd touched dried quickly. When the last of the moisture steamed away, a tiny flame popped up on the twig.
"It caught!"
"Yeah!"
"Big Brother Broly, you're amazing!"
The sight of fire set off cheers. It meant no raw fish—and no worms.
Broly was happy too. He had figured out how to light things with ki. But as his excitement spiked, so did the energy at his fingertip. In an instant it flared into a beam, punched through the mangrove twig, turned it to ash, and left the flame without fuel. It went out.
As the little tongue of fire died, the cheering cut off. Every eye turned to Broly.
"I'll light another one."
He scratched his head, tore down a fresh viney branch, and said.
This time he held the ki steady and did not let it turn into a piercing beam. The flame rose and stayed.
Fish roasted over mangrove wood tasted different from forest fish.
"A little spicy."
"That's the mangrove."
"Is it poisonous?"
"A bit. It's the tree's own bug-repelling toxin."
"Eh?"
"Relax. As long as you don't eat too much, it's fine."
They all relaxed.
"Hey, why are you chewing the stick too?"
Kurome's voice drifted over.
"This part's got flavor. Kind of tingly."
They turned and saw Broly chewing a mangrove stick.
"Big Brother Broly, the branches are poisonous."
A bunch of them rushed over to warn him.
"Poisonous?"
Broly smacked his lips, then nodded.
"The poison tastes good. You guys should try it."
He tossed the stripped stick behind him as he spoke.
Only then did they notice the pile of wood pulp at his back.
"You okay?"
"What could be wrong?"
He grabbed a skewer and crunched down fish, bones and all, then started chewing the roasting stick again.
The worried kids could only exchange looks and decide his body must just be different from theirs. He could eat a lot of things they could not.
Roasted mangrove sticks tasted a bit like very spicy cinnamon. Broly found them oddly addictive, but the more he chewed, the more nauseous he felt.
All afternoon, he plodded along with his tongue out, like he had drunk a pot of Vampa spider essence. His whole mouth was bitter. Even rinsing did nothing.
The toxin could not kill him, but it made him miserable.
"Disgusting."
After the Vampa spider series and similar foods, mangrove wood officially became Broly's second most hated thing to eat.
For the record, the boiled green peppers Rin Tohsaka had once mentioned were number three. Broly had never actually eaten them.
"Rivarina, we still haven't reached your tribe?"
The marshlands were huge. They had walked south all day, but the horizon was still nothing but mangroves.
Patches of mangroves formed islands in the water, and they had crossed at least a hundred of them.
"It should be this way, but I still haven't seen our tribal marks."
Perched in a tree, Rivarina scanned the distance and found nothing.
"Think we went the wrong way?"
"Maybe."
"But since we're looking for a settled tribe anyway…"
Naha Shu glanced at Broly, who was hovering nearby, looking a bit sick.
"Big Brother Broly, you can fly. Could you go up and look for smoke or lights?"
Broly still felt off, but he agreed and shot up into the sky.
From above, it did not take long to spot people moving around on a big mangrove island seven or eight kilometers off to the right.
He dropped back down and described what he had seen. Rivarina immediately threw herself at him, arms around his neck, begging him to take her up for a look.
"That's my tribe!"
Distant as it was and with dusk coming on, she still recognized it. Long ago, she had seen the shape of her tribe's mangrove from afar. It looked like a giant leaf.
"Traveling at night's not realistic. We probably won't reach them until around noon tomorrow."
Estimating the distance and comparing it to their pace through the swamp, Naha Shu worked out the timing.
"Tomorrow…"
Rivarina's shoulders drooped. She was in a hurry to go home.
"We don't actually have to wait. I can carry you all over there."
Broly said suddenly.
"Eh?!"
The kids all snapped to attention.
"But Big Brother Broly, can you really fly that far while carrying people?"
"Probably."
Broly was not sure. He had never tried a load that heavy before.
__________
(≧◡≦) ♡ Support me and read 10 chapters ahead – patreon.com/Mutter