Where Are My Vines?

In the year 741 of the Star Calendar, the war between humanity and alien creatures had already dragged on for years.

To obtain superior genes and produce stronger descendants, the Tomorrow Alliance was founded. All members of the upper classes joined, willingly becoming test subjects. Their experiments successfully cultivated a new element, which was injected into the wives of pregnant subjects.

The first batch of test subjects grew up successfully. Every one of them, male or female, lived to adulthood. They were strong and muscular, with even more powerful mental abilities. The only difference was a black thorn tattoo behind their ears.

The second batch of experiments was soon underway, growing from the original two hundred to two thousand. But some members of the first batch had mental powers so strong that they went berserk, developing animal forms and turning into mad beasts that attacked everything indiscriminately.

At the same time, some gradually grew weak. Their mental powers became like still lake water, devoid of ripples, and roses sprouted from the thorns behind their ears. They, too, developed animal forms, usually those of herbivores or plants, and had no capacity for violence.

At first, the researchers believed these two types could not coexist. Otherwise, the roses would inevitably be strangled to death by the thorns. Later, after the war ended, a group of people with bestial forms were imprisoned on a barren planet. Someone proposed sending the roses there as well.

To be cautious, they sent a person whose animal form was a rose to the barren planet. Only one tiger approached the rose.

As the researchers watched in terror, the tiger lowered its head and gently sniffed the rose. Both gradually calmed down from their frenzied states and returned to human form.

Eventually, all two hundred members of the original batch found their matches. Roses blossomed among the thorns, and everyone finally realized they were rose vines, not thorns.

Records of the Rose Vines

Year 798 of the Star Calendar

At sixteen, Guan Rusui differentiated as a rose. Unlike ordinary roses, his differentiation brought endless pain. Every sharp sensation felt as if someone had scattered shards of glass through his bloodstream, stabbing him with every breath.

The night before graduating from Saint Elias Academy at seventeen, he received a photograph of his own vine form.

The photo showed a postwar scene on a barren planet. In the center, a black wolf's paw was restrained by a human hand. Dried blood on the wolf's clawed foreleg stained its snowy-white fur red, with some patches almost black.

He also learned that he was engaged to a prince. So he submitted an application to the Interstellar Alliance Military Academy and went to study on Blue Star.

To find his vine, Guan Rusui returned to the barren planet every year, searching for clues in a futile effort.

In the year 801 of the Star Calendar, Guan Rusui encountered an attack by a new alien creature and found a mysterious officer.

It was the first time he forgot to visit the barren planet.

Even more unexpectedly, from then on, the officer accompanied him on every trip there.

Character dynamic: a gentlemanly officer with off-the-charts fighting prowess, clingy top x an independent, soft-hearted researcher with an unconventional way of thinking, bottom

Animal forms: Florida black wolf and French Lop rabbit

Reader's guide:

Mutual devotion, one-on-one pairing

This story contains a privately created world setting. Please don't nitpick the details.

All sorts of elements are made up by the author, so don't take them seriously.

Theme: Humanity chooses its own future