I leave my house and head to where the mini truck is parked. Pochi is still letting out threatening ‘kuah kuah!’ sounds towards Aikawa’s mini truck.
Eh? What? So it’s actually real?
“Ouch!?”
My legs are trembling, and Tama pecks at me as if to scold me for it. I smile awkwardly, because it’s like it’s telling me to get a hold of myself. Sorry for being such a pathetic owner. I look over at Aikawa, and he looks kind of nervous too.
He approaches the passenger seat of his mini truck, and calls out to ‘Rin’. The window is open, and she peeks her head out to see what’s going on.
“I told Sano about you. The chicken is his, so don’t attack it.”
“…Alright.”
She responds with a flat voice. And when the door opens…
“…!?”
I saw it coming. I figured this was what it was, based on what I heard earlier. But hearing and actually seeing it aren’t the same. My head is spinning. I want to think this is a dream or a prank.
Pochi then jumps from the side of the mini truck, and takes position in front of me.
“This is one of my snakes. As you can see, she’s a female, and the other is over in my mountain.”
“I-I see…”
My voice is trembling. My mouth is dry. That long, black hair. That white skin. If you only look at the face, it’s that of a beautiful girl. She’s wearing a long-sleeved shirt, and below…
She comes down from the mini truck with fluid movements, and approaches Aikawa. And then wraps her body around him.
“Rin, that’s heavy.”
“Loud chicken.”
There’s no expression on her face. Her voice is flat too, but I feel like my chicken is annoying her.
“Ah… Pochi, she’s Aikawa’s, so don’t threaten her like that. It’s all right.”
Pochi clucks in response, but stays in front of me, and looks like it’s watching Rin. Well, with that big and long torso…
“Hum… So it was just a normal snake when you bought it?”
“…Yes. The other is male, but it just looks like a big snake. But Rin was like this when I woke up one morning…”
Looks, he says? I don’t want to keep talking outside, but when I prompt them to come in…
“Eat bugs.”
“Ah… Sorry. Can Rin eat bugs around here?”
The fact that he’s asking leads me to think she eats a lot. Wait, do snakes even eat bugs?
I look at Pochi, and it clucks like it’s giving a positive answer.
“I guess so… Ah, but just the harmful ones…”
Would Rin understand which bugs are harmful to the field, and which ones are not? I don’t, without having to rely on the internet.
“That’s fine. I hear water nearby.”
“Yes, there’s a river near here.”
“If there are red swamp crayfish, Rin can eat those.”
“Rin eats invasive species!? That’s great…”
I don’t really know what’s so great about it, but I guess it feeds without really breaking the ecosystem.
“By the way, do snakes eat other snakes?”
I ask that, after remembering that there are a lot of pit vipers around here.
“If they’re smaller, yes. Well… Not that there are any snakes bigger than Rin around here…”
“I see…”
It’d be pretty scary if snakes this big were common.
“There are a lot of pit vipers around my house.”
“Do you want Rin to clean them up?”
“No, my chickens eat them too, so it’s all right.”
Clean them up? He said clean them up. Scary.
“That’s nice. It’d be trouble if you got bit.”
Says Aikawa, looking relieved. He’s a nice person.
Then I remember another thing.
“Are there any boars and bears on your mountain?”
“I’ve never seen a bear, but boars… Rin and Ten caught them before… But apparently ate them…”
He says, while looking into the distance. Did he see it? Did they eat them whole, or…. It’s too gruesome to even imagine.
“M-my chickens caught a boar the other day…”
“Yes, I heard about it in the village. And you shared it with everyone too. I was thinking about taking one there too some other time.”
“I think they’d be happy.”
The way he said take one leads me to think there are plenty of them. Well, they’re pretty harmful animals, so I guess the best solution is to eat them.
“There are a lot of boars around here, uh?”
“There are a lot of mountains. These forests weren’t planted either, the area is just rich in vegetation, so I think they increase their numbers because of that.”
“And I’ve heard that there are less hunters each passing year.”
“Ah, I actually have a hunting license.”
“Eh?! You do? Then do you have a hunting gun?”
“I do. I’ll go hunting if there’s a request.”
“That’s great!”
I’m pretty excited to hear Aikawa has a hunting license. He looks to be about my age, but he might actually be older than me. Then, as we talk near the field, Yuma suddenly starts running fast. It was next to me, guarding me.
“Uwah! Is that a pit viper?”
Yuma raises its head proudly. And yes, that is a pit viper in its beak, but…
“Thanks Yuma. Can I take it? Excuse me.”
I excuse myself to go get a plastic bottle, and I get the pit viper inside it with Yuma’s help. This always makes me very nervous.
“Incredible.”
He says as I poke air holes.
“Yumoto from the village taught me this. It’s bad for the heart though…”
“No no, that’s pretty good. What do you do with them after you catch them?”
“I give them to Yumoto. Apparently he’s going to make pit viper sake with them.”
“Ah… They are used for that a lot.”
We spend a lot of time talking like this. Maybe he just wanted someone to talk to, because he teaches me a lot of stuff. Then we make plans for me to visit his mountain after the golden week, and I see him off.
I was really surprised about his pet snake, but apparently Rin listens to Aikawa, so I think it’s fine.
“Ah… But it really was surprising uh…”
“Uh…”
“Uh…”
“Uh…”
Seriously, what’s with your vocal cords?
Join my patreon to support me and read ahead.
