Chapter 4: Lorenz’s Spiriting Away
The Austrian ethologist Konrad Lorenz is famous for discovering “imprinting,” where waterfowl chicks follow the first thing they see. There’s even a photo in biology textbooks showing him with just his head poking out of a lake surface, having his hair fiddled with by Greylag Geese from both sides.
True to the impression that photo gives, he was apparently quite the eccentric. Well, I suppose it would be rude to call a Nobel Prize-winning researcher in Physiology or Medicine an eccentric. Perhaps I should say he thoroughly lived life in his own unique way.
When observing behavior, Lorenz disliked confining animals in cages or enclosures. So he kept birds and monkeys roaming freely at his home and surroundings. As a natural consequence, his own life suffered considerable damage. However, he apparently spoke of this both gleefully and proudly.
While not quite to that extent, a woman named Karato Roura was clearly an eccentric.
She said her parents ran an animal hospital. Apparently their home overflowed with rescued creatures, and her uniform was covered in fur. But it wasn’t just that. Her hair was roughly tied up and unkempt. Her black-framed glasses had frames chipped in places. It wasn’t that she was dirty—it was simply that at a glance you could tell, “Ah, this person is no ordinary individual.”
I learned this later, but her hair was coarse because there was no human shampoo at home. Apparently regular shampoo wouldn’t work for bathing together with the animals. Her best friend (a Sulphur-crested Cockatoo) often perched on her shoulder and chewed on her glasses, so she’d given up on replacing them.
The week after that outing, on Monday, a proper activity day was finally set through Tokumura-sensei. Karato-senpai casually appeared in the biology room where the four of us—Mizusaki, me, Kannabi, and Iwama—were waiting.
I think “casually” is an extremely appropriate description. Her first words after opening the door were shocking.
“Eh, who…?”
While thinking “who” was a bit much to say to new club members, we each introduced ourselves.
Senpai listened with her dark-circled eyes wide, nodding “un un,” then said emotionlessly:
“Ahh, so I just need to teach you how to care for the creatures? It’s tough but do your best. I’m Karato. You don’t need to feed me, though I’ll take it if you’re offering. I eat pretty much anything.”
Now it was our turn to stare wide-eyed.
Since the biology club had dwindled down to just one person, I’d been somewhat prepared. Mizusaki and I had discussed how we’d manage things ourselves to some extent. But we hadn’t anticipated being met with no words of welcome, a dismissive attitude, and having creature care dumped on us right from the start.
Especially since I’d been the one to call Iwama into this, I wanted to avoid stumbling here.
Without waiting for our response, senpai strode toward the back of the classroom. She efficiently brought creatures from the area where aquariums and cages were messily lined up, sorting them by species and placing them on the long tables.
“There are lots of creatures, but basically there are three things to do. Food, cleaning, and when necessary, letting them out. Well, letting them out only applies to a few, so don’t worry about it for now.”
“Konichiwa!”
“That’s right, konnichiwa.”
After responding to the voice inside the cage, senpai checked the entrance sliding door, the door to the prep room, the door to the garden, and the glass windows in a circle before opening the cage. A beautiful light blue and white parakeet quickly emerged and perched daintily on senpai’s sleeve. A budgie.
“This one’s Rotgelb. Rō-chan for short. She’s a girl but quite talkative. When there are classes, Tokumura-sensei puts her away in the prep room. At first we kept her out during class too, but after the sea urchin development experiment, she started saying ‘sperm’ and ‘egg’ even during lectures. Come on, say hello.”
“Ranshi…”
How pitiful.
“She’s probably the smartest creature in this room. So play with her regularly. However, she can fly short distances, and you absolutely must not let her escape. When I’m not around, don’t let her out of the cage on your own yet. As for food and cleaning… it should be written on some paper somewhere, so just read that.”
READ THE ORIGINAL TRANSLATION AT LOCALIZERMEERKAT.GITHUB.IO
A care lecture had suddenly begun. We were half dumbfounded, but watching the bird bob her head up and down so cheerfully, we didn’t feel too bad about it.
“Um, senpai.”
It was Iwama who interrupted.
“Hm? Ah, ponytail-chan. Do you have a question?”
“That bird is light blue, so why is she named Rotgelb?”
Instead of a question about the care lecture, it was a comment about the name. I’d thought the same thing when Tokumura-sensei introduced her. Rot is German for red, Gelb for yellow. Nothing matched with a light blue budgie.
“Ah, that. He’s dead now, but there used to be a male called Gelbgrün—yellow-green. A yellow and green budgie. She was named Rotgelb after him.”
That wasn’t an answer at all. Was it a reference to something?
Apparently thinking she’d provided an explanation, senpai moved to the neighboring long table, still with the parakeet on her sleeve.
“Now, this one’s Jōnouchi. Can you see?”
We approached at senpai’s beckoning. Inside the cage, finely shredded newspaper was spread out. The cage was equipped with a food dish, a water bottle, and a running wheel. Jōnouchi himself was nowhere to be seen, probably hiding under the newspaper.
“Jō-nō-chi, is it?”
To Iwama tilting her head, Karato-senpai answered nonchalantly.
“I think it means Inside-the-Castle. I don’t know why it got that name though.”
I figured they’d understand from the running wheel, but I added a clarification anyway.
“It’s a hamster’s name.”
“Ah, I see!”
“Yep. A golden hamster. The finest animal God created for the pitiful animal lovers of the city. Cute, smart, and above all, easy to care for. Ah, that’s right. Today I’ll have you guys take care of this one.”
“Sounds good. Let’s do it!”
Mizusaki looked full of enthusiasm. It would be fine to show a reluctant face in this situation, but since Karato-senpai is also female, his peacock mode must be activating.
“Oh, that’s great. The care is simple—take Jōnouchi out, clean the cage, put in torn newspaper, and change the food. The details should be written on some paper somewhere. If you read that, you should be able to do most of the care yourselves. For the aquatic creatures, basically you just feed them. There’s filter and gravel changes of course, but only occasionally is fine, I think…”
If she explained everything verbally, I didn’t think we’d remember it all.
“Could we have that paper you mentioned?”
When I said this, senpai and Rotgelb looked at me with identical expressions.
“…I thought it might make things smoother if we saw it first.”
“Hmm, you’re absolutely right. Wait a sec, I’ll give you everything then.”
While saying this, senpai put Rotgelb on her shoulder and opened Jōnouchi’s cage. She dug through the spread newspaper with practiced hands and plopped the hamster onto the long table.
Perhaps still sleepy, the hamster sat on its bottom and looked around like a rice ball fairy. Besides the golden brown color befitting its name, it had a calico cat-like coloring mixed with black and white.
“I’ll go get the care papers, so watch this one. You definitely won’t get bored, I guarantee it.”
Senpai started to leave the long table. Mizusaki called out in a panic.
“Uh, um, excuse me!”
“What is it, brown-haired-kun?”
“Won’t it run away if you leave it on the desk?”
Jōnouchi seemed to have finally come to its senses and began lumbering across the long table.
“No need to worry. These guys are smart—when they get close to the edge of the desk, they always turn back.”
Senpai went all the way to the cabinet at the back of the classroom and, with Rotgelb still on her shoulder, began rummaging through drawers.
Since we were told to watch, we sat around the long table encircling Jōnouchi. The scurrying hamster was adorable. Well, I figured we’d get bored after a few minutes of watching.
“It’s a convenient instinct that they don’t get off the desk. This way they won’t escape, right?”
When Mizusaki said this admiringly, Kannabi murmured,
“Just like pitiful high school students trapped on school grounds.”
What perspective was that comment from?
“Sometimes I want to jump out, but you absolutely can’t escape from school, can you?”
I hadn’t known Iwama harbored such desires.
While chatting quietly, we gazed at Jōnouchi trapped on the long table. It scurried about, but sure enough, when it reached the edge it immediately turned back. It must properly understand that falling would be dangerous. A clever fellow.
“We’ll have to divide up the care duties, but we also need to think about what our main activities will be.”
When I brought this up, Iwama was the first to nod.
“I want to investigate and research, look into what the previous senpai did, and try things out even if it’s just imitation at first.”
Iwama hadn’t submitted her club application form yet and today was technically just a trial visit, but she was the most enthusiastic. She spoke as if she’d already joined.
Mizusaki put his hand to his chin, making a show of thinking seriously.
“With all these different creatures here, we might even be able to do research using them. This is the prestigious Tsunagai High School—they couldn’t have been keeping them meaninglessly.”
“Maze experiments are famous for hamsters, right? They’re supposed to have high learning ability.”
“A false labyrinth…”
Ignoring Kannabi’s cryptic comment, I pointed out:
“If it’s learning or cognition experiments, we might be able to use the budgie too. But there are only two hamsters including Jōnouchi, and just one parakeet, so the n might be insufficient.”
“We could try it first as a test with a small sample. For example, if we’re just measuring learning speed within one individual, with several repetitions we might be able to get somewhat meaningful data.”
“Repeating causality…”
“That’s right!”
Is it…?
“Man, I’m really glad Gamma-san came. It’s so reassuring.”
To Mizusaki suddenly calling her by his own improvised nickname, Iwama reacted a beat late.
“Ah, me?”
“Yeah yeah. Look, if you read Iwama with jūbako reading, it becomes Gamma.”
“I see… same as Delta then.”
“Delta isn’t jūbako reading though.”
Both ‘de’ and ‘ta’ are kun’yomi.
“Well well, it’s fine isn’t it? Isn’t it amazing? Your attendance numbers are next to each other, and your Greek letters are next to each other too!”
“It’s true! Mizusaki-kun, that’s well thought out.”
“Hehe, well, it’s nothing for someone like me.”
Iwama’s deflection was masterful. Mizusaki had undoubtedly wanted to steer the conversation toward how fateful the meeting between Iwama and me was, but by praising Mizusaki’s creativity here, Iwama skillfully avoided that path.
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