Tap. Tap.
Han Seori levitated a floating something in mid-air, and with her finger, she tapped it gently. The tapped object wobbled and released jelly-like substance from its back while flapping its adorably tiny tail.
Seeing what seemed like an angered reaction, Han Seori drew back her hand and hid behind me, softly gripping my shoulder.
…So,
A fully grown woman had irritated something and then hid behind me.
It was a somewhat discordant scene, but if the floating, angered something were a small… Jelly Whale, it would make some sense.
No… Doesn’t she realize she shouldn’t have poked it at all in the first place?
Regardless, the small whale that had been furiously reacting to Seori’s touch calmed down and curled up on my palm.
The small whale, seemingly asleep, was, frankly, a bit cute.
I could somewhat understand why Han Seori unknowingly tapped it.
…Well, all the creatures we’ve encountered so far haven’t caused any harm, so it’s natural for Seori not to think much about it.
Or maybe…
I saw Han Seori shake her head awkwardly and stand up. Her forehead was wrapped with a clean white bandage.
It wasn’t tightly wrapped and appeared more like a fashion accessory at first glance, but I could see the bandage around her head.
…Was her head injured?
That can’t be…
In any case,
The small whale currently gurgling on my hand reminded me of something I expelled from my body just moments ago.
I emitted it with a palpable feeling of intense anger.
Perhaps that’s why it reacted so irritably to Seori’s touch.
It wasn’t intentional, but it ultimately led to the birth of a young whale unable to control its emotions.
Although it was troubling, this also felt somewhat right in a vague way.
What would have happened if it had just left me without such a transformation?
If the origin of that emotion had only gone outwards and transferred to someone else, such as Han Seori when she entered as I expelled it, she might have become someone unable to control her anger.
Thinking on a larger scale, could something as terrifying as an anger virus spreading around the world have occurred?
…Well, the latter sounds like I’m exaggerating too much.
The idea that just the emotion enough to boil a jelly could put the world in danger doesn’t really make sense.
I have to be reasonable.
The most likely outcome would be Han Seori becoming more short-tempered.
Overthinking about jelly…
As I lightly shook the jelly, I placed the sleeping whale on the floor and reached for the food Han Seori brought.
Crackle.
Something was strange.
The platter that was supposed to be filled with seafood was now empty, except for a few small bits and pieces remaining.
Looking around in confusion, I noticed Sosik crawling up behind Han Seori.
Han Seori looked excited about something and stared at it.
…And the creature that usually didn’t stick to anyone else was now attached to her back.
Why was it different this time?
I approached to see the small creature attached to Han Seori’s back.
And there, I saw various pieces of seafood floating around the small body of Sosik, who was clinging to her.
Had he eaten so quickly that some of the food still retained its original form?
As Sosik, who was attached to Han Seori’s back like the whale lying on the floor, was suddenly still, I felt a sense of accomplishment in separating them.
Had I not separated it earlier, I might have torn open Sosik’s jelly and retrieved the seafood.
After boiling the jelly, I decided to forgive him for now, as I had accidentally shocked him by reducing him from a 2D character into a 1D character.
Moving past Han Seori, who was awkwardly smiling at me, I approached Daesik.
His jelly was also bubbling as he had yet to digest everything.
However, since he was almost done, there didn’t seem to be anything left worth salvaging.
…Not my seafood.
Since I left Sosik alone, it wouldn’t be fair to bother Daesik today either.
…For the young ‘babies,’ newly born not too long ago, I decided to hold back.
That’s what it meant to be an adult.
Daesik, having finished digesting, went into Alice and collapsed next to the whale.
…What is he thinking? If the whale wakes up and attacks, what will he do?
No?
He might be confident that, as the oldest of the three, he could easily subdue it?
Whatever the outcome would be, it amused me.
Isn’t one of the things that excites a man the word ‘VS’?
In this situation, would it be Daesik (in Alice) VS the baby jelly whale unable to control its anger?
Since I had no intention of actually instigating a fight, as I imagined them mentally,
…I somewhat felt a sense of yearning.
It had been such a long time since I tasted seafood that I didn’t want to remember the whale’s flavor.
Realizing they had eaten it all while I was preoccupied, I regretted slightly loosening my discipline.
Shaking an empty bag in disappointment, Han Seori, who had been awkwardly fumbling with Sosik dangling on her back, came up to me.
“I’ll buy you more… um, let’s cheer you up?”
Although she didn’t necessarily offer to buy it for me, still…
…This is why I end up making unnecessary worries, isn’t it?
But since there was no real reason to decline, I silently shook the bag.
Hey kids, come here and shake the bag with me. If you shake this bag, seafood comes out.
Just as I thought the same joke in my mind,
Kim Cheon-soo entered with a tired look on his face.
Sometime later.
I have no idea why I ended up coming down here again, but I got back into the vehicle.
Although this place by the sea seemed like their secret base, there were quite a few people interested in me.
I found the gazes from people dressed in similar gowns to Han Seori unpleasantly prying…
Feeling those stares made me once again appreciate how gentle Seori is.
Han Seori, protecting me from such gazes, seemed rather cool at this moment.
Even though, just a while ago, she had been frightened by the flying baby jelly whale and hid behind me.
In any case.
Since I didn’t seem to be doing much and felt like I’d stayed too long, I started eavesdropping on the conversations of those who approached me.
Apparently, some argued that the jelly whale was born by eating a ‘sky whale’ and insisted that it should be left behind.
As I hovered on the whale, I didn’t quite understand what they were talking about, and neither did Han Seori, if her reaction was anything to go by; the conversation didn’t seem to progress further.
Though it seemed they roughly came to an agreement. We carried out a few experiments with the jelly whale, Daesik and Sosik.
There wasn’t much that stood out, so we ended up just idly spending our time.
When we returned, the vehicle was sturdier and larger than the one we arrived in.
Inside, as Han Seori and I prepared (or at least seemed to) to go back, it was filled with seafood Kim Cheon-soo had apparently just bought.
Feeling the corners of my jelly quiver, I silently savored the seafood.
I then noticed something truly dissatisfying.
Chewing.
This was truly… unbearably unsatisfactory, wasn’t it?
Isn’t the texture of chewing sashimi equally important?
After briefly contemplating, I recalled how I’d once made my jelly firm and decided to create some teeth.
I didn’t intend to keep them permanently, just when I wanted to chew something.
However,
…How many teeth do people actually have?
I couldn’t exactly remember.
Well, who actually remembers the count? It’s not like they fit perfectly anyway because of wisdom teeth.
Still, I thought I should try to get the general shape right, so I approached Han Seori, who was drinking coffee through a straw instead of starting on the seafood.
Han Seori greeted me with a curious gaze but also a slight hint of warmth as she drank her coffee.
Approaching her,
“Eh?”
I grabbed her jaw.
Since we can’t communicate anyway, she’d understand through actions, right?
We’ve established a certain bond, haven’t we?
I pressed her cheeks to make her open her mouth, and roughly examined the structure inside.
How many teeth there were…
The cavities… which weren’t important.
Just how they were positioned and how they roughly clenched together.
I needed to carefully observe things I’d previously used subconsciously when I had a human body.
“…What are you doing?”
“I donno…”
Soon after, Kim Cheon-soo’s surprised and somewhat outraged voice came from the rearview mirror.
Hm.
Do I need gums too?
I can probably feel的味道 when chewing, but what purpose do they serve?
Hmm…
If I imitate vocal cords, could I speak?
It might not work.
Heard that vocalization was a more complex act than I thought, so…
Firstly,
Let’s make some teeth.
Having finished examining Han Seori’s oral structure, I went back to my spot to start forming them mentally.
With tentacles that can come out and harden, and some transformations possible, it should be doable.
With focused concentration, a gurgling sound echoed, and my face, specifically my mouth area, started shifting.
Before long,
A blue “oral cavity” formed.
Initially just a hole where jelly came out, this was now quite mouth-like.
…Although it looks a bit…
Maybe it could appear creepy externally.
Considering my transparent body, it might look strange.
Nevertheless,
I grabbed a piece of seafood and put it in my mouth.
The seafood wobbled into my mouth and reached my teeth.
And shortly,
Crunch crunch.
As if chewing underwater, a vague sensation of chewing reached me.
That’s it.
“Hoh…?”
Han Seori seemed to be observing me with glittering eyes, but I ignored it and kept chewing.
Even if what I made from examining her oral structure might be somewhat clumsy,
it’s been so long since I last chewed, that this alone left me completely satisfied.
I’ll probably improve it later.
To really chew like a human, breathing and eating simultaneously.
With Han Seori looking at me in awe,
it felt like I had returned to my usual spot,
yet the scenery looked unfamiliar.
The only familiar thing was the glint of our supervisor’s shiny head, which I hadn’t seen in a while.
