Chick 203
by Cristae203
The fire in the hearth was lit, smoke curling gently up into the sky.
Kazuki, crouched down and wiping sweat from his brow, exchanged glances with Groo and flashed a gentle smile.
Groo scampered over and clambered onto her sabu’s back.
Kazuki bounced Groo in a playful piggyback.
“Groo will help sabu.”
“Will you?”
A sharp canine flashed between his smooth, smiling lips.
The ‘handsome detector’ Groo had refined at Orchestra was pinging away.
‘Hmm. He really is handsome, now that I look at him.’
It was almost a shame that his tattoos so often made people mistake him for a yakuza.
“Alright, then, Groo-chan. Could you bring me a tamago—an egg?”
Ta… Tamago? What was that?
Groo shaped her mouth into a triangle as she sifted through her memory for a similar word.
“Gudetama?”
“Huh? That’s tama!”
“Huh? Gudetama?”
“Yeah, tama.”
“Huh?”
“Huh?”
Groo and Kazuki stared blankly at each other, completely failing to communicate.
At that moment, a voice cut in between them.
“Egg.”
Joorim, stretched out on the porch, hadn’t moved a muscle, but now his lips moved lazily to correct them. Kazuki nodded in agreement.
“Yes, egg! I’ll make you tamagoyaki.”
“Gasp!”
Dad said something useful!
Groo clapped both hands over her mouth in shock.
‘So Dad can be handy, after all!’
Groo gave a vigorous nod, impressed by her father’s fleeting usefulness.
Was this how a parent bird felt, watching its chick take its first step out of the nest?
“Groo-chan, do you like tamagoyaki?”
“Very, very much!”
Just then, Wooju, late to arrive due to filming, appeared, having just changed clothes.
“Me too. I’ll come with you.”
She kept tugging her shirt lower, evidently uncomfortable in her billowy work pants. Groo burst out laughing.
“Wooju, you’re cute.”
Wooju’s face turned bright red, and atop her head, Mephisto let out a dismissive hiss through his teeth and turned away in a huff.
Unfazed, Groo reached out her hand.
“Okay. Wooju, come too.”
With Mephisto perched on her head, Groo set off with Wooju towards the side yard to fetch some eggs.
They crossed a narrow lane that looked like the center of a rice-cake, emerging into an open yard where a huddle of chickens and chicks clustered around the coop.
“Over there.”
Groo led Wooju over with gentle steps.
Chirp, chirp! Chirp, chirp!
Cluck, cluck! Cluck!
“Chicks!”
“So cute…”
The yellow chicks pecked at grain between the hens.
Groo set Mephisto down amidst the chicks.
Chirp, chirp!
The plump Mephisto looked around awkwardly amongst them, and Groo smiled.
“Mephi, they’re your friends, your friends.”
“Chirp?!”
Thud—!
Startled, Mephisto flapped back up to Groo’s head.
“Chirp!”
One of the chicks stared at him, making Mephisto shiver all over. His nose stung and his eyes brimmed with tears.
Groo was Mephisto’s friend. Not these mindless little creatures!
Watching the chicks peeping up at him, Mephisto bristled.
It was true they somewhat resembled him… But Mephisto shook his head vigorously.
They were a different breed! Mephisto was Mephisto!
“Chirrrp…!”
Mephisto sniffled as he swallowed his indignation.
“Eggs, eggs.”
“Eggs…”
The children hunted for eggs, and a cameraman signaled where to look.
Groo and Wooju followed the cameraman’s gesture—and froze.
“……”
“……”
Groo’s face went pale as she instinctively gripped Wooju’s hand tight.
“The mother hen is cuddling her baby.”
“…Yeah.”
Wooju looked just as unsettled.
To get the eggs, they would have to take them away from their mother.
‘A tragic separation!’
Dun-dun—!
What heartbreak, what cruelty—they would have to play the villain.
But the difficulties didn’t end there.
The huge mother hen stared at them, clucking fiercely, her eyes blazing with a terrifying glare.
“Cluck—cluck!”
It was as if daring them to try.
“What do we do…”
Groo faltered, overwhelmed first by seeing the mother hen brooding her eggs, then a second time by the hen’s menacing aura.
She’d imagined they would simply pick eggs off the ground like pebbles.
“The baby chick would be so sad to be taken from its mommy…”
Groo’s nose tingled as she recalled [Gudetama: Rolling, Rolling in Search of Mom], the tale of an egg and chick seeking their mother.
Sniff!
Wooju, too, was lost for words.
The muscular, burly mother hen was far too big to hold, hard even to lay hands on.
Still, Wooju clenched her fists and shut her eyes tight.
If she wanted to taste delicious tamagoyaki, she’d have to overcome this mountain—the giant, scary hen.
Because! Groo loved tamagoyaki!
“I—I’ll drive her off, then!”
Wooju let go of Groo’s hand and took a step forward.
Groo immediately spread her arms, blocking her way.
“Don’t!”
“I can do it, just move.”
“But… without the mother to keep it warm, the baby can’t be born.”
Just then, a line of chicks waddled between them.
“Chirp, chirp! Chirp, chirp!”
The cuteness made Wooju’s lips tremble.
“T-that’s true, but… if we don’t take the eggs, we’ll have nothing to eat. And… if we don’t, the grown-ups will just take them anyway. Even if we don’t take the eggs, the babies will be taken either way.”
Wooju began laying out her arguments logically, and Groo sulked, lips jutting out.
She really hated this, but it wasn’t wrong.
Here, where nothing grew but weeds, there was no way to skip eggs altogether.
“In that case, it’s best to take them before the babies grow any bigger. If the egg waits too long… it’ll be horrible when you crack it open.”
“H-how?”
“…You see it.”
“See what?”
“A not-yet-hatched chick… in the frying pan…”
“Eek!”
Wooju clapped her hands over her mouth, remembering from past experience, and Groo’s face blanched at the thought.
“So I’ll do it. You stand back.”
With grim resolve, Wooju stepped toward the mother hen.
“Cluck?”
The hen cocked her head at Wooju’s approach, clucking again, and Groo hurriedly stopped her.
“Wait. I have a good idea.”
“A good idea?”
“Yeah.”
With a determined nod, Groo opened her inventory.
She hadn’t used this in a while.
Groo withdrew a bright white tricycle.
She tapped the rear wheel with her toe, and it transformed into a two-seater.
“…!”
Wooju gasped.
Groo gave her a sly half-smile.
The real surprise was just starting. Stroking her new tricycle, Groo recited its stats.
“Two hundred percent strength buff, three-horsepower turbo booster engine. And it can transform to fit up to three kids.”
It was a special tricycle that S-rank Amakusa Kazuki had crafted out of S-rank monster Oonamazu bones.
“Transform too…?!”
Wooju clenched her sweaty palms. Any kid would envy such a marvelous machine.
Groo, her baggy pants fluttering, swung into the driver’s seat and jerked her head toward the back.
“Wooju, get on.”
“O—okay.”
Wooju gingerly climbed aboard, careful not to scratch it.
“But where are we going?”
Groo slung her arms across the seat back and turned around.
The awaited question.
“Eggs. Let’s just buy some at the convenience store.”
Groo’s eyes sparkled into crescent moons.
“That way, we don’t need to steal the eggs—we can still have tamagoyaki!”
“What? Well, that’s true, but—!”
Before she could finish, Groo gripped the lever on the handlebars and pedaled, switching on the booster.
Rumble—!
A low sound, like the Oonamazu’s bellow, echoed.
Delighted with her trusty steed’s roar, Groo raised her hand.
“We’ll be back soon!”
Vroooom—
She waved to the crew and zoomed off.
“Hey, kids! Wait up!”
The cameraman and staff scrambled after the children, rushing to catch up.