I’ve never raised a pet in my life.
In this life, I obviously couldn’t have one because I grew up in an orphanage, and in my previous life, I just found it a hassle.
I understand that they’re cute, but the things I would need to do to take care of the animal were more than I expected.
I’d have to feed it, clean up after it, trim its fur, and take it on walks every day at set times.
Some animals don’t need walks, but other than that, everything else was something I’d have to do.
So, when I was a child, I used to think, wouldn’t it be great if animals were incredibly smart and could wash themselves, eat on their own, and even go to the bathroom by themselves.
But thinking about it again, if that were the case, they wouldn’t be any different from raising children, and if the animals were that smart, they wouldn’t need to live under my care in the first place.
In the end, I reached that conclusion and completely stopped imagining it.
“…A talking hamster.”
“No, no.”
But right now, in front of me, there’s a hamster that can talk and think.
Of course, when I said that, Jiguppa shook his head with a serious expression.
“It’s not that. It’s a Squeakian species.”
…Isn’t it unnecessary to get into details since the species was named Squeakian because it couldn’t understand words in the first place?
They called themselves a civilization, but they didn’t seem very civil.
No, I do have some basic common sense.
In webtoons, that pink hamster was an alien, and it could talk.
It was an alien species with intelligence so advanced that it could create circuits.
Thinking about it like this, it makes sense.
The reason James could casually hand me a new circuit was probably because it was a circuit he himself had made.
On the flip side, that means he was probably using me for some kind of experiment.
“…”
“First, can you put him down…”
I learned today for the first time that James’s true identity is a Squeakian species, but I was aware that he was an executive at a company, as Jiguppa mentioned.
Following that, I carefully placed James on the blanket.
Small animals like hamsters usually have a higher body temperature than humans, and James was the same.
However, I couldn’t tell if it was because he was in pain or if that was just how he naturally was.
For now, his body seemed like that of a hamster.
“…Should we take him to a vet?”
“…A vet?”
“No, because of how he looks.”
“Don’t you think what you’ve been saying is a little too much?”
Hearing such things from Jiguppa makes me wonder if maybe I’m being too harsh.
I looked down again at the unconscious James.
His fur was entirely black.
It was clearly designed to be something like the “evil executive mascot.”
In the webtoon, he only appeared in the form of a robot body, so I didn’t really know his true identity, but it might have been revealed after I left.
Though his fur was black and shiny, not his entire body was black.
Do you know of a creature called a panda mouse? James’s fur was mixed with both white and black, just like that pet rat.
The white fur around his neck especially looked like the collar of a business shirt.
And for some reason, he was even wearing a real tie there.
Besides that, his hands and feet had white fur.
It definitely gave the impression that a webtoon artist designed him.
He looked like a hamster a little larger than a fist, with big ears and a fluffy tail, dressed in a suit.
Honestly, he was cute.
I’m not sure if calling him cute is a discriminatory term, but that’s why my words have been harsh from the start.
The reason I’ve been speaking like this is because I don’t have very good feelings toward James.
Though I was partly at fault, isn’t it true that people tend to notice the harm they’ve received rather than their own mistakes?
I could accept that I was being punished, but the fact that he tried to use my friend’s future as collateral honestly made it hard to accept.
But the real problem is that this person, who did such things, showed up looking like this, and it made me feel weird.
The scale of his actions was probably the same, but somehow, now that I thought of him as this cute creature, he seemed a bit insignificant.
That is, unless I looked at the human-shaped robot sitting in the corner of the house.
“…”
I lifted my head and stared at the robot for a moment before getting up from my seat.
“Should I clean up the robot?”
“Is your body okay?”
“No, it’s because of me that it ended up like this.”
In many ways, that is.
Whether it’s James or Jiguppa’s room.
At my words, Jiguppa nodded.
We both left James as he was and moved the human-shaped robot he was riding.
Using a bit of the circuit’s power, we managed to move it, though it was still a bit tricky.
I squeezed its body as much as possible and stuffed it into a large trash bag, but unless you looked at the cross-section of its head, it could only be seen as a corpse.
And it was clearly the victim of a grotesque murder case, to anyone who saw it.
We both stood there silently, staring at it, before I laid down a plastic sheet on the floor and carefully placed it there.
Then Jiguppa went outside and brought back a box, which he placed over the body.
Yeah, it’s better to have trash in the house than a corpse.
I decided to avoid looking at the red liquid soaking the box as much as possible.
After disposing of the “body” (?) appropriately, James, who had been lying on the electric blanket, started to stir.
“Ugh…”
He looked cute, but his voice was anything but cute. It was an uncle’s voice.
Objectively speaking, you could say it was a voice like that of a voice actor, deep and resonant.
According to Jiguppa, the tie around his neck was probably a translation device.
All Squeakian species lack vocal cords like humans, so, to us, they can only make noises that sound like squeaks from a rat.
The reason Squeakian species especially seem like animals might be the same on other planets, and it seems they always wear those devices to prevent unnecessary communication in urgent situations.
Jiguppa and I quickly approached and stared down at James.
We stood there for a moment, tense, staring, until James’s eyes suddenly popped open.
They were round and black, like a hamster’s.
He’s really incredibly cute.
Like a golden hamster.
“Where am I?”
He spoke in a charming middle-aged man’s voice, but his mouth moved like he was lip-syncing, which was unbelievably cute.
“More importantly, the person next to you is Chikchik. Chikchikchik? Chikchikchikchik!”
I pulled on James’s tie while he was talking.
The tie stretched like an elastic band, and as it slightly detached from his neck,
James’s voice turned into squeaky chikchik sounds.
Wow, it really sounds like a chikchik.
Of course, since it was their language, there was some tone and nuance to the squeaking, but it was definitely a sound that people from other planets wouldn’t be able to understand.
When I kept pulling the translation device, James quickly jumped up as if he wanted to attach it to his neck.
Then, flailing with both hands, he hopped around with his short little legs.
Considering his size, his jumping ability was surprisingly good.
“Chik, ! Give it to me! Give it to me now! What do you think you’re doing!? You little brat!”
When I let go of the translation device, James’s voice returned to that of a human.
It seemed like he was really embarrassed by the fact that he had been jumping around while yelling.
James stood there for a moment, flustered, and then took a deep breath, trying to calm his voice.
“I’ll warn you, but if you—uhhhhhh?!”
I lifted James with both hands and made him go high, high.
James screamed, flailing his legs.
I carried him up and down while walking around Jiguppa’s room, then sat back down and put him down. James yelled in frustration.
“What are you doing, you bastard!? You mindless Earthling! I saved your life, and this is how you repay me!?”
After yelling for a while, it seemed like James ran out of energy.
He slumped his shoulders…
The tips of his large ears were trembling.
It seemed like he was trying to be angry, but honestly, the way he was shaking with that anger was also cute.
And right after feeling that, I also felt an overwhelming sense of awkwardness.
“What on earth do you think you’re doing?”
Seemingly embarrassed by his earlier behavior, James quickly spoke again, as if trying to act nonchalant.
“Seeing you say that, you must be the real James. You yelled like that when the magical girls beat you up, too.”
“Wait… were you testing me?”
“Well, if that’s the case, wasn’t there a better way?”
At my words, both Jiguppa and James spoke at the same time.
No, honestly, it was just something I did because I thought it might help a little with my depression.
And it seems like it actually helps.
It’s not like he shows me affection the way a pet cat or dog might, but he’s cute, and we can communicate.
A talking hamster? If he were sold on Earth, he would definitely be incredibly popular.
Oh, right. He’s an alien.
In that case, it wouldn’t work.
“So, what’s going on here?”
I sat down, crossed my arms, and asked.
The unease still hadn’t completely faded.
My depression hadn’t fully gone away either.
But for a brief moment, I had forgotten about my worries, and more than anything,
I felt it was much better than being alone.