Himawari Wa Yoru Ni — Saku

In the absolute darkness of the sub-level, the sunflower began to glow.

It had been lodged in a crack of the old pre-fall greenhouse, a tiny black teardrop no bigger than her thumbnail. She almost threw it away. But there was something about the shell — a faint whorl, like a fingerprint, like a promise. Himawari Wa Yoru Ni Saku

But as she looked at the child's face — lit up for the first time in her life by something that was not a screen or a lamp — Oriko realized something. In the absolute darkness of the sub-level, the