Mr. Turtle by Yusaku Kitano

Author:Yusaku Kitano [Kitano, Yusaku]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Cyborg turtles!, Japanese literature, JLIT, Science Fiction, Nihon SF Taisho, alienation
ISBN: 9784902075922
Publisher: Kurodahan Press
Published: 2019-11-16T20:00:00+00:00

Kame-kun avoided going out for drinks after work, despite Tsumiki’s invitations. Kame-kun only ate with him. “What gives? You haven’t been very social these days,” Tsumiki said. “Could it be you’ve got a girlfriend?” With these words ringing in his ears, Kame-kun ran to the station and, after exiting the ticket gate, headed straight for the butcher’s to buy more chicken on his way home. He didn’t go to the library except to return books that were due, and even then he only put them in the book drop and left. Neither did he join Miwako when she invited him to the second crane-raising ceremony.

Kame-kun made better use of his time feeding Cat her favorite chicken breast, changing her litter, playing with her tail, and doing nothing more than stare at her. He inferred many things from these daily rituals, including why Cat had come to Jellyfish Manor in the first place.

Near the apartment complex was a corporate research facility called Biotech, which had ceased operations not too long ago.

The name led Kame-kun to believe that biological research was being conducted there. His suspicions had been confirmed one month before when he heard an alarm such as might be used in a disaster movie involving a submarine, spaceship, or nuclear power plant. The moment the alarm stopped, military trucks and trailers, along with an array of service vehicles, blocked the road with their hoses, tubes, cables, and parabolic antennae. A flurry of soldiers in electricians’ uniforms arrived on scene. As had happened with the air conditioner, a supervisor came to Kame-kun’s door. “Excuse me, we’re terribly sorry for the disturbance. Rest assured, there’s nothing to worry about. Just a minor computer glitch is all.” He then gave Kame-kun some gourmet rice crackers in a golden tin, the very one he was now using for Cat’s litter box.

The next morning, the research facility was blanketed in layers of vinyl. Workers wandered the premises, their golden hazard suits rasping as they came and went through two tubes sticking out of the tarp.

Because the building had been completely covered, Cat could no longer access the roof or the rear pathway as she had before, leaving her no other recourse but to make her way to the ceiling plenum of Jellyfish Manor through a crack in the floorboards at the edge of the second-floor hallway, then jump to the neighboring roof from an attic vent and descend to the path below. In this manner, she’d altered her nightly route, leading to her encounter with Kame-kun.

But Cat didn’t stay with him for much longer.

At one point she started nervously pacing his room all night, crying in desperation, apparently in heat. Cats mated not only in spring, but also in winter. This he knew, but nowhere did the library book in which he’d found this information explain what to do about it.

This behavioral development made it impossible for him to hide a cat in his room.

Courtship behavior.

Kame-kun typed this on his laptop as he watched Cat raise her seductive cry.

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