“Eeh!? Habu!?”
“In the western mountain, apparently…”
Katsuragi is panicking. She’s making too much noise over the phone to even hear what I’m saying. And as I wonder what to do, Yuma walks over and takes the phone from my hand.
“Yuma!?”
I told you not to press that!
It lets the phone fall on the tatami, and presses the touch screen with its foot, ending the call.
“Yumaaaaa!”
Why!? In the middle of an important call!?
And as if that wasn’t enough, it skillfully grabs the phone with its beak, and runs to the back of the house.
“Yuma, wait wait. You’re going to break the liquid crystal…! Please give it back!”
Yuma gets to the room furthest back, and drops the phone.
“Yuma… How could you…”
I fearfully pick up the phone. It’s supposed to resist shocks, so it should be fine even if it dropped it. And sure enough, I don’t see anything wrong with it. I’m relieved, and then glare at Yuma.
“I told you not to grab the phone.”
Yuma then snuggles up against me. Cute.
No!
“I’m mad!”
Snuggle snuggle. It’s like it’s doing it on purpose, saying ‘come on, don’t be mad anymore’. It’s so cute. But now’s not the time!
“…Don’t do that again.”
Snuggle snuggle. I pet its feathers. I can’t win. I know I’m being too soft, but my chickens are so cute.
No, I said no.
“I’m going to call Katsuragi again, so don’t interrupt, okay?”
Yuma is still snuggling against me, so I pet it, and call again. Sorry for being a bad owner.
“Hello, it’s Sano. Sorry, the call got cut off…”
“Sorry Sano. I panicked earlier… When that happens, I don’t listen to anyone.. I’m really sorry.”
Apparently she calmed himself after the call cut off. Just because it was fine in the end, it doesn’t mean you’re forgiven, Yuma.
Well, I understand why she’s flustered. Habu are scary. I’m scared too.
“…So it’s possible that habu were released around here?”
“It’s just a possibility. But one was found in the mountain to the west, so be careful.”
“But this area doesn’t have habu, right?”
“Not that I’ve heard of. Do you think Tatsuki could do something about them if you told it what they’re like?”
“Yes, probably…”
That’s not a very reassuring answer. I tell her I’m going to pops’ place with Aikawa tomorrow to show the habu, so it might be nice to gather everyone there. Of course, with Aikawa’s permission.
“Then, tomorrow I’m going with our western mountain neighbor to show the habu to Yumoto. Do you want to come along?”
“Ah, yes! I’ll go!”
“I’ll ask.”
Ask first, I tell myself as I finish the call, and call Aikawa.
“Hum, I was thinking about showing the habu to Katsuragi’s big lizard…”
Aikawa is still avoiding young women.
I had a period when I thought it must be nice to be handsome and popular, but apparently there’s more to it besides the stalking situation. I think the stalking really gave him a fear of young women. He even said he didn’t want to show his face at work anymore, with a distant expression.
“Hum, and I think you just have to say hello.”
“…Rin is coming along. If anything happens, can you just say that Rin gets jealous, so I can’t go near women?”
“All right.”
Rin can protect Aikawa like that. It might be rude to Katsuragi, but there’s nothing else we can do. Aikawa’s wounds haven’t healed yet.
But I doubt anything will happen.
Then I call pops, to tell him Katsuragi is also going to check out the habu.
“But that really is impressive. Aikawa caught it?”
“No, one of his big snakes did.”
“They’re smart like your chickens, uh? Big snakes? I wanna see that…”
“Eh? They’re probably over three meters long. I don’t think he can bring them.”
“I see. Then ask if I can visit the western mountain. I wanna see how big they are!”
“Please ask directly tomorrow…”
“Yes!”
I can hear how excited he is. Japanese rat snakes are about a meter long, but we can’t really call those big snakes. (Wikipedia says they’re between a hundred and two hundred centimeters long, but they’re so thin, that they don’t look big).
I get wanting to see Ten, but good fences make good neighbors. Actually, Aikawa and pops are pretty much strangers. That gets me a little concerned, so I call Aikawa again.
“My mountain?”
“Apparently he really wants to see Ten. You can say no, there’s no problem. I just thought it might catch you off guard if he just told you tomorrow.”
“Thanks for calling me to tell me.”
I can somehow sense that he’s smiling on the other side of the phone.
Then I tell Katsuragi she can come tomorrow too through Line, before I forget.
I feel like all I’ve done today is talk over the phone. And as I wonder what else I have to do, I hear what sounds like something kicking the front door.
It’s probably Tama, who went out to patrol. I was distracted and accidentally locked the door.
“Sorry sorry, but don’t kick the door. You’ll break it!”
“Breakit.”
“Breakit.”
Say Pochi and Yuma in a choir. Please don’t actually break it.
