“But Gamma-san, why did you suddenly come today?”
Having been diverted from his intended path, Mizusaki stepped into the place I least wanted him to touch.
Of course, it wasn’t something I was trying to hide at all costs. I just hadn’t mentioned it yet. But the events of Saturday were somehow hard to talk to Mizusaki about. One reason was that Mizusaki would surely tease me about going out with two girls, but more than that, Saturday’s outing was something difficult to explain—a tangled combination of the delicate relationship between Iwama and Kannabi and my own delicate involvement.
“…The liver.”
“Liver?”
Mizusaki tilted his head at the words Kannabi uttered. I’ve seen this flow somewhere before.
“Because Riō said she wanted to see a formalin-preserved liver, I dragged her here.”
There was a brief silence.
“Did I say that…? Hmm, now that you mention it, I might have said something like that…”
She definitely hadn’t said it, but Mizusaki completely believed it and looked around.
“I don’t see anything like that. Maybe it’s in the prep room.”
Having successfully deflected the conversation, I changed the subject.
“Speaking of which, has the paper been found?”
The four of us looked toward the back of the classroom. Karato-senpai stood with her back to us in front of the cabinet, moving her hands around inside a drawer. Rotgelb on her shoulder was bored and playing with senpai’s hair.
“Shall we help you search?”
When I called out, senpai turned around with a start. Rotgelb swayed happily.
“Ah… no, yeah, I’m fine. I found the hamster one.”
Senpai closed the drawer and came over. She placed a single old B5 sheet of paper on the desk.
“Sorry. I said I’d give you everything, but it’s a bit messy, and I could only find this. I’ll search for the rest gradually, so just forgive me and use this for today.”
We looked at the placed paper. It was handwritten notes on loose-leaf paper. Using colored pens appropriately while also including illustrations, the procedures for hamster care were carefully recorded. The date was April, four years ago. It must have been compiled by senpai’s own senpai. Perhaps from being well-used, the edges were somewhat tattered. The words “DO NOT REMOVE!” written in red felt-tip pen in the upper right corner stood out.
“A secret recipe passed down through generations. It really would have been better to digitize it on a computer, but I’m terrible with digital stuff… Shall we try it together with onee-san today? It’s mostly as written in this manual, but there are various tricks.”
I suddenly felt something was off. It wasn’t because of “dasu”—I knew senpai preferred peculiar ways of speaking. It was more that her atmosphere seemed to have changed a bit.
Until now she’d given the impression of an unmotivated part-timer doing a job handoff, but she finally seemed more like a proper senpai… in other words, for some reason she’d suddenly become gentler.
After stroking Jōnouchi a bit with her fingertip, senpai brought over some newspaper.
“So first let’s start with tearing newspaper. Ah, glasses-kun, could you help with cleaning?”
And so, the five of us got to work taking care of Jōnouchi.
Having cared for them all this time, senpai’s technique was splendid and her instructions were precise.
Perhaps judging that the four of us could handle it, senpai partway through started cleaning the cage of Rokujōgawara (the other hamster) at the neighboring desk.
“They immediately start blood-for-blood fights, so when you let this one out, use a different desk from Jōnouchi’s.”
While saying this, she took Rokujōgawara out of the cage too. Rokujōgawara was a mouse-gray hamster, somewhat smaller than Jōnouchi. Though is “mouse-gray” an inappropriate description for a hamster?
“A mouse-gray hamster…”
I heard Kannabi mutter quietly, and felt embarrassed that our thought processes were the same.
Everything we needed to do was written in the care manual, and with senpai’s appropriate instructions, the necessary care was completed without incident. While senpai fed the other creatures, we were entrusted with the role of giving treats to Jōnouchi and Rokujōgawara.
“Don’t give too many seeds. They’re high in fat and they’ll get chubby. They don’t really eat it, but hamster food is best.”
I thought it strange that hamsters didn’t prefer hamster food, but sure enough, senpai was right. When offered, they’d hold it for a moment but quickly got bored and abandoned it.
Karato-senpai quickly finished all the tasks and returned Rotgelb, who had been perched on her shoulder like a pirate’s companion the whole time, to the cage.
““That’s good, nē.”
“That’s right, Rō-chan, it was good.”
Contrary to the meaning of the words, Rotgelb seemed somewhat dissatisfied at perhaps wanting to stay out longer and was muttering complaints, but senpai locked the cage door with a carabiner.
“Man, it really is good though. That you guys came.”
Karato-senpai smiled at us.
“I have no lingering attachment to this club. Rise and fall—there are unavoidable reasons it declined. But, you know, humans can quit the biology club, but these guys can’t.”
Rotgelb was chomping at the cage as if wanting to touch Karato-senpai. Jōnouchi and Rokujōgawara scurried across the long table. Tortoise-something-Huxley (a Reeves’ pond turtle) was making splashing water sounds as if wanting something.
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“…Um.”
Iwama spoke up.
“Are there any records of observations or behavioral experiments done using these animals?”
“Hou, experiments?”
“Just taking care of creatures won’t work as club activities. Besides the methods of care, I want to know what kind of activities you did.”
Well said. We joined the biology club, not signed up to be creature caretakers.
After thinking for a bit, senpai clapped her hands.
“Ah, now that you mention it, just earlier I found something like this.”
Returning to the cabinet at the back of the classroom, senpai brought back a wooden board about the size of a Go board.
On the board, thin wood materials were stood up to create an intricate pathway. A transparent acrylic sheet was attached on top. A maze. For small animals—a false labyrinth.
“Is that a hamster maze?”
“That’s right, brown-haired-kun. Hamster learning ability is not to be underestimated—Jōnouchi could probably still clear it without getting lost even now.”
Senpai placed the maze on the long table we’d been surrounding. Jōnouchi, who had been wandering around on the desk, began showing interest in the maze.
“Oh, shall we try it?”
Senpai scooped up Jōnouchi and placed it at the maze entrance. But perhaps because it was quite old, part of the maze’s outer wall pathetically crumbled and fell at that moment. Jōnouchi toddled away in the opposite direction from the maze.
“Oops, this won’t work.”
She opened a shelf beside the classroom and brought over a roll of duct tape. Mizusaki received it, frowned slightly, and placed it next to the maze, peering at us through the hole in the roll.
“There’s almost nothing left on this.”
Looking at it, the tape was nearly gone. Basically garbage. Clearly not enough for repairs.
“Sorry, that’s probably all there is in the biology room. You’ll need to get more from Tokumura-sensei or the student council.”
Well, there was no need to force ourselves to do the maze today anyway. The reward would be food, but we’d given Jōnouchi quite a bit of treats already, and its motivation to clear the maze was surely low.
Just as I was thinking this, the sliding door at the biology room entrance rattled. The door was locked and wouldn’t open, then was rattled again.
“Ah, please wait a moment!”
Senpai trotted to the entrance. The sound of unlocking. The door slid open with a rattle.
“Hm, first-years? Sorry, we had the parakeet out earlier so I locked it to keep it from opening. Please, come in.”
Were they new prospective members? I was an idiot for even being slightly interested.
The ones who entered were very familiar faces. It was Tomare Jō, who had sneered at us in the physics room during the new student welcome. Followed by two more. Ōsawa, a lanky guy who’d apparently dyed his hair bright blonde since entering high school, and Fujito, with his usual scruffy black hair and thick glasses. The three had hung out together often since middle school, all three were in the physics club, and had a cat-and-dog relationship with Mizusaki and me, who’d been in the chemistry club.
Mizusaki often called them the “oto-to trio” using the first characters of their surnames, but I liked it too because of its dopey sound.
I’d heard all three had already submitted their club application forms to the physics club. They’d come here to mock us, no doubt.
“Are you interested in the biology club?”
To Karato-senpai trying to welcome them kindly without knowing anything, Tomare Jō curtly shook his head.
“No, we’re physics club. Today’s a day off, so Mikage-senpai told us to go observe other clubs. Chemistry club and biology club.”
“Ah… I see.”
Shameless bastards. They passed by senpai and came all the way to where we were surrounding Jōnouchi.
“Ugh, a rat?”
Fujito (black-haired glasses) recoiled at seeing Rokujōgawara.
“It’s not a rat, it’s a hamster.”
In front of Iwama, Kannabi, and senpai, I didn’t want to get into it, but I ended up saying it anyway.
“It’s the same thing in the end—I’m bad with rats and stuff.”
Then don’t come to the biology room, you Doraemon—I thought, but with the girls present, I didn’t say it out loud.
Tomare Jō (brown-haired long hair) glanced at Fujito keeping his distance from the long table, then walked toward us.
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