This morning, I had awakened in a whole ass forest.

When I opened my eyes, there were stems and vines crisscrossing all over my room like a jungle. They were under the bed, in the bathroom, and some of the overgrowth blanketed over me. Unless this dorm was transported to another world during my sleep, I was pretty sure we were still back on Earth.

"What… is going on?" I asked myself, climbing off of bed and brushing away some leaves that had fallen on me. "Ange, wake up! Something crazy happened!"

The succubus stirred after lightly shaking her shoulder. Both eyes snapped open in shock, glancing around the room's new nature make-over.

"Should I be worried?" Ange plucked a leaf from her forehead and appeared to recognize it.

"Why does that look tell me you know what happened?" I raised a brow.

"Please, I am just as clueless as you. I do, however, recognize that this is a Weyeran plant." She leaned in to sniff a flower hanging from a vine that was foreign to me, smiled, and plucked it for herself.

"I'm going to investigate…"

Escaping my room proved to be more difficult than I thought. The floor was covered in root-like growths. They were too soft to be wood, but too thick to be regular stems. Each step was made meticulously so that I wouldn't fall flat on my face.

Once I got to the door, I saw that a lot of it had gotten in because it was left partially open.

The hallway and downstairs were no better. Greenery as far down both wings as the eye can see.

"H-Help! Someone?"

Ines voice reached my ears. I hurried over to her room to find the occupant restrained to the bed and entangled in vines.

"What the hell is going on? Why did I wake up to something like the start of your hentai collection?" Ines yelled.

"I-I don't have any such thing! Hang on. I'm coming over to help!" I said, creeping forward slowly so as to not fall victim like her.

"Oh, don't worry." She rolled her eyes. "I'm not going anywhere."

All these damn roots were making it difficult to keep a stable footing. The rooms weren't big to begin with, but it felt like a whole damn journey.

"Akira—"

My heart leapt from its rib cage. I stumbled forward, got my foot wedged in the roots, and fell on top of Ines. The ensuing struggle left us both entangled in extremely close proximity and faces an inch apart.

"Well, hello there. Is that a vine between your legs, or are you just happy to see me?" Ines squirmed around with what little movements afforded to her to tease me.

"I guess all this isn't the first morning wood I've woken up to— stop moving! If you feel something wet and sticky down there, it won't be my fault!" I fired back.

Standing by the door was Remmy, who had called out to me and was now bowing profusely in apology.

"Geez, Remmy. You scared the crap out of me!"

"S-Sorry! I was about to ask… what's with all this stuff everywhere?" Remmy poked at a vine along the doorframe.

"Beats me," I said. "Can you wake up Cresta and have her cut us out of here?"

The slime girl left the room and was replaced by a succubus whose smile curved into a wicked grin.

"Well, well. What have we here? Bondage play first thing in the morning?" Ange licked her lips.

"No! We have a big problem in the dorm, and now is no time to get into kinky fetishes!" I groaned.

In my struggle, the vines shook loose and detangled me. I fell onto the bed and rolled off, smashing my face into the plant overgrowth on the floor.

"Ow…"

Ange carried me in her arms. Since she was in flight, it allowed her to move around more easily.

"Help me out of this, too!" Ines tugged and pulled to no success.

"Hmm. Okay, why don't you stay here and play with Ines? I'll join you guys after I fix the dorm." I tapped my chin thoughtfully.

"What?!" the college girl cried. "I'm not into rope play either! I have a report due by afternoon!"

"Happily." Ange put me down safely outside the room, and I shut the door to let the succubus have her fun.

Remmy shouldn't have been missing long to wake Cresta up. Just what was taking them so long?

I opened the door to Cresta's room to find Remmy scratching her head over how to get this room's tenant down. As it turned out, Cresta was quite at home, lying on a hammock made of vines near the top of the ceiling.

"She won't wake up," Remmy said.

"Figures." I sighed, then cupped both hands to call the lazy cat. "Cresta, it's time to wake up! We got work to do!"

Cresta's eyes opened slowly, but instead of being surprised like we were, she stretched leisurely and let out a big yawn.

"Morning, Akira! I like what you did to our dorm. It feels like I'm really living out in the open again," she said, flicking her tail with joy.

"I had nothing to do with this. Get down here! I need you to start trimming the hedges, because you're the only one who can!" I shouted up.

"Ehhh? But I don't wanna. Having my room like this is nice!" The assassin laid back in the hammock and let her legs hang off the side of it.

That damn cat.

If Cresta wasn't going to help, I just needed to find someone who would. I left her room and knocked on Irapesha's door which appeared mostly untouched by nature's grasping reach.

The dragonewt opened the door to a wave of scalding hot air blasting my face.

"Should have figured this stuff wouldn't survive in such an inhospitable room," I said, wiping the sweat already beading on my face.

"Calling my room inhospitable is a bit rude." Irapesha put a hand on her hips and finally noticed the jungle behind me. "What's happened?"

Remmy and I stepped aside so that Irapesha could come out to see for herself.

"I see. All of this can easily be removed with my breath. Shall I?" She spat out a geyser of fire to my panic.

"NO! DON'T DO THAT!" I screamed, startling Remmy and causing Irapesha to stop. "California's got enough wildfires, and we don't need the dormitory burning down."

A breath as powerful as the time Irapesha had to purge her body temperature put the fear of hell in me.

"Can't you… I don't know, use your claws or something?" I asked.

"Cresta would be more suited than I. Where is she?" Irapesha responded with a question of her own.

I threw a thumb behind me.

"Insubordination, is it? Allow me to fetch her." She marched into Cresta's room and emerged a few seconds later, carrying a dejected and pouting cat girl under her arm.

"If I'm doing this, we're not touching a single leaf of the stuff in my room!" Cresta bargained.

"Deal," I said.

Cresta brandished her claws and whirlwinded down the hall. She returned to us clapping her hands of the dust for a job well done. All the vines and roots on the ceiling came crashing down. I briefly heard Ines scream, presumably from falling down after everything was cut.

"Hmm… I think you left a spot though." I pointed to Valeanor's room where roots, extending from underneath her door, were still connected to the same growth leading into Cresta's room.

"Oh, I left them untouched on purpose. Cutting them would sever the main roots, and my room would lose all the vines and stuff," she said.

Irapesha, Remmy, and I traded glances.

"Which means the culprit is…"

We went straight to Valeanor's room to find the dark elf queen on the bed, mummified from head to toe by plants. Only her eyes were visible, throwing us a pleading look for help. When Cresta and Irapesha cut her loose, Valeanor gasped for air.

"Thank goodness! I thought I would never be able to escape those wretched bindings."

I crossed my arms and glared. "All of this was your doing, wasn't it?"

"I-I would never!" Valeanor gasped and recoiled at my accusation.

My gaze turned to the potted plant at the balcony that was the root of it all.

"I… may have requested Levidear seeds and plant growth serums from the catalogue…" she confessed in an uncharacteristically meek fashion.

"Oh," Irapesha uttered with realization.

"Did you figure something out?" I asked.

"Levidear is a gargantuan woodland in Weyera. It's long since been decimated from the war, but back then it was nicknamed 'Jungle of the Titans' for its sheer size and splendour. Their leaves and vines are actually rather delectable," she explained.

I squinted at Valeanor in particular, who shrunk and hung her head shamefully.

"It's fine if you want to grow these, but do it outside so our dorm doesn't turn out this way again," I scolded the green thumbed elf.

"Of course…"

We began to pick up the mess, and I had to call a landscaping company to help remove masses of plant matter. It came to my attention later that there was one tenant unaccounted for. I returned upstairs and knocked on Tamara's door.

"You okay in there, Tamara?" I called.

"Onf shecond!" someone with a mouthful said.

Tamara threw open the door to the same scene of plants overgrowing in her room. However, the little sheep girl and Rakka appeared to be dealing with it just fine. Their mouths were stuffed full, having a feast and gorging themselves on the plants

She gulped down the leaves and her eyes glittered with glee.

"You won't believe what happened this morning!" Tamara began. "Rakka and I woke up to Levidears plants everywhere. They taste sooo good!"

The sheep girl lifted a bunch of leaves to show me.

"Looks like we're going to be having salad for the next couple of days," I said, pattting her on the head.