Chapter 2 Part3 (2/2)

“Wow” said Mamizu, her eyes sparkling. “It’s a turtle!”

Was it alright to bring a turtle into a hospital room? No, no matter how I thought about it, it wasn’t, but… I’d put it inside my bag and snuck it in.

“Amazing, you remembered!” Mamizu said.

“Because I received my pay from my part-time job early,” I said.

But isn’t Mamizu the only person in the world who would be this happy about a turtle? I thought.

“Hey, hey, what’s its name?” Mamizu asked.

“Name? A turtle is a turtle, right?” I replied plainly.

“Are you serious…?”

“Yeah.”

“That can’t be!” Mamizu shouted, sounding angry. Happy, angry, she was a hectic person as usual.

“Even Natsume Souseki1 just called his cat ‘cat’ without giving it a name,” I said. “It’s fine for this guy to be ‘turtle,’ right?”

“You’re not Souseki, are you, Takuya-kun! You’ve never studied abroad in London, and you’ve never become ill at Shuzen Temple!”

Mamizu was knowledgeable about strange things.

“Well then, you name it, Mamizu,” I said, finding it too bothersome.

“Huh? Can I? Can I?” Mamizu looked kind of happy.

“I’m antic.i.p.ating that you’ll have a good naming sense.”

“Kamenosuke2.”

“You have no sense!” I was surprised by how terrible it was.

“It’s fine, right? It’s cute. Isn’t it, Kamenosuke?”

It seemed that ‘Kamenosuke’ had become established as the turtle’s name in Mamizu’s head. And so, the pet of my house was auspiciously named.

TLN:

1. Natsume Souseki was a famous j.a.panese novelist whose portrait appeared on the 1,000 yen note. He is considered the greatest writer in modern j.a.panese history. He studied in London and vomited blood due to a stomach ulcer (which he later died of) at Shuzen Temple.

2. “Kame” means turtle, while “nosuke” is a common ending to a j.a.panese (male, if I’m not mistaken) name.

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