Precision Verification (2)
"Hey—! Giraffe!"
I still didn't know its name, so I called the giraffe Giraffe. It sounded ridiculous even to me, but the animal turned at my call and came over at an easy pace. When that bulk—nearly four meters of it—closed in with long strides, a peculiar pressure came with it. Even so, those clear, sparkling eyes did a great deal to take the edge off.
"Whaaat iiis iiit?"
The keeper had warned me it was a dangerous beast, and I'd been a little afraid, but that fear felt foolish now. The giraffe was remarkably gentle. If anything, it lowered its head near me and blinked, with not the slightest hint of wanting to attack.
"Those people over there a little while ago—they did something, didn't they? I'd like to know what."
"Aaaah. I understaaand."
The drawl was odd, but the giraffe told me what it had seen as if it were nothing worth mentioning. Once I'd heard the story, I handed over the slice of white bread the keeper had given me and told it to eat, then turned a cold, sour look on the people from the Superpower Association.
"Why on earth were you doing that ridiculous dance in front of a giraffe? In yellow spandex, no less..."
"Ahem! Kuh-hem! Kuh-hemmm!"
At my words, the Superpower Association staff broke into coughs. Rather excessively. Among them, only Deputy Jang Il-woon was grinning from ear to ear.
So that guy's the culprit.
I shook my head at Deputy Jang Il-woon, who even in the middle of official business was getting his money's worth out of tormenting his subordinates. I couldn't just stand there, though. My precision verification wasn't finished.
"Next is the raccoon. Please see to it that you are not finished off by Raccoon Man."
Deputy Jang Il-woon said it with a light laugh, and curiosity got the better of me. I caught myself looking forward to whatever fresh ordeal the man who used his work to bully his staff had arranged this time.
In any case, the raccoon's enclosure sat right nearby, so I had the animal in front of me almost at once. A creature that looked an awful lot like a raccoon dog was lounging under the shade of a tree, and I beckoned to the utterly carefree raccoon. Whether Animal Communicating did more than simply translate words, it came scurrying right over.
"What?"
"Those people—they didn't show you something, or do something to you?"
"Huh? Those people? Ohh."
The raccoon nodded, as if something had just come back to it.
"They gave me cotton candy. Who do they take me for, a moron? I know by now that the stuff disappears if you wash it in water. Not that I even wash my food these days."
As if it had been through this before, the raccoon let out a long, heavy sigh. Declaring that if there was nothing more to say it would be going, it returned to its spot. I watched it for a moment, then fixed the Association people with that same sour look.
"Why would you give a raccoon cotton candy? That raccoon-washing-cotton-candy thing is ancient history... And besides, this one says it doesn't even wash its food anymore."
"Ooooh..."
At my words, the Association staff even applauded, nodding as though they were thoroughly impressed. I shook my head at the display and carried the verification on.
The zoo had closed, and its animals had been transferred to other zoos, but quite a few still remained. For the otter, the task was to have it retrieve an object thrown into the tank. For the crocodile, it was to pick out the keeper who had tossed it food. I went through bears and lions as well, and with the parrot I had to teach it a specific phrase. In the end, faced with the nonsense the Association people had arranged animal after animal, I found myself shaking my head again and again.
What on earth is in that man's head, that he comes up with something like this?
What the leader of the wolf pack had said, in particular, refused to leave me. They weren't lunatics—so why were humans down on the ground, howling? I couldn't see why I should be more ashamed than the people who had actually done the shameful things, but I carried the verification through all the same, steady and thorough.
And when the verification was drawing toward its end, one of the keepers—who, aside from the giraffe, had been quietly watching—stepped forward.
"This time it's the elephant... Have you heard?"
"Ah, yes."
I nodded at the keeper's words.
"There's some kind of problem with the elephant?"
"Yes... He's always had a bit of the rascal in him, but lately he's been behaving strangely, and we're worried sick."
The keeper said it between heavy sighs, as if the elephant truly had him worried. Hoping my superpower might be of some help, I headed for the enclosure—and even before I arrived, I understood why the animal had been acting strange.
"I— want— to— maaaate—!"
To anyone else it was nothing but a long trumpeting cry, but I caught the meaning carried in that call. There was only one reason for the elephant's strange behavior.
You've got to be kidding me. The elephant's a sex parrot?
The elephant wanted to mate. With not a single one of his own kind for company, left alone at the zoo for so long, his loneliness had exploded.
...Or had his sex drive exploded?
I headed for the enclosure, fretting over how I was supposed to explain a cause I'd figured out before I even got there. And there I found him. An elephant flat on the ground, thrashing...
"Maaate—!"
No. What I'd found, sprawled on the ground and shouting about mating, was a mating parrot.
"It's been nearly a month since he started that. Please look into what's going on. He does eat well, but every single day he lies on the ground like that and yells, and it's worrying..."
Faced with a keeper fretting like a father over his child, I found it hard to come out with the truth. But I couldn't lie, either. My superpower's rank was on the line.
I steadied myself, then gestured for the keeper—who was gazing anxiously at the elephant—to bring his ear closer.
"Was there something you wanted to say?"
"Mmm... There's only one reason he's doing that."
"And what's that?"
"...Mating."
"Sorry?"
"Mating. He wants to mate."
At my words, the keeper's mouth fell open, and he couldn't manage a single reply. But he pulled himself together quickly and looked at me as if he couldn't believe it.
"Th-that can't be... He isn't in musth..."
"I don't know what musth even looks like in an elephant, but he's been yelling this whole time. That he wants to mate... He's practically a high school boy."
The keeper dragged his hands down his face, as if this situation—impossible to believe, and yet something he had to believe—was giving him a headache.
"Then the solution would be..."
"Well, there's only one way to solve it."
"Haaaah..."
The keeper sighed as if this were an enormous headache. The zoo wasn't even open, tied up in one problem after another, and bringing in a new elephant under these circumstances would be extremely difficult. Sending this one to another zoo was no better. There was nowhere that would gladly take him.
Then, as if he'd heard me talking with the keeper, the elephant that had been lying on the ground sprang up and came over.
"Humans! It's been forever! I knew it—you came because you couldn't forget me! You bastards! You should've shown up sooner. I thought I was going to die of boredom!"
"...Bored?"
"Yeah! Do you have any idea how boring it is, being stuck here alone? Rolling a tire is fun for a day or two, and then it's nothing! Roll it all you want—there's no audience to cheer!"
"Then what was that just now, you yelling that you wanted to mate?"
At my words, the elephant lifted his trunk and rubbed his own forehead, looking somehow bashful. He even bobbed his head, as if he were laughing from embarrassment.
"Haha, you heard that?"
"Yeah. You really should've shouted it a little louder."
"But what am I supposed to do? I'm alone, so I'm bored, and the humans don't come. That's when I get desperate to mate. Can you imagine how boring it is to put on your whole act with not a single human around to watch?"
I had no answer for that. A small sigh escaped me. On a second look, he wasn't a sex parrot crazed for mating. He was an attention hog slowly going mad from loneliness.
I looked at the keeper, who was watching me talk with the elephant, hope written all over his face.
"This one isn't in musth or anything. He's just bored."
"...Sorry? Bored?"
"Yes. You know how people talk about attention seekers? That's him. Nobody's around to watch him, so he's bored. And being alone has piled loneliness on top of that... which is why he says his thoughts turn to mating."
"Ahh..."
The keeper looked at the elephant as if he were truly sorry. He seemed to feel the elephant's loneliness was his own fault.
"Well, we've got people gathered here anyway... Why don't we have him show off a trick? He ought to be fine for a while, don't you think?"
I turned right around and told the elephant that if he was that bored, he ought to go ahead and do whatever it was he could do.
"Great! Just watch!"
As if he'd been waiting for exactly that, the elephant went to a corner and rolled over a tire blanketed in dust. With his solid tusks and thick trunk, he rolled a dump-truck tire across as if it weighed nothing at all.
"Whoaaa!"
Yeongji, seeing it, plastered herself to the railing and shrieked her way through the elephant's one-man show. Ordinarily, carrying on like that would stress an animal. The elephant was different. If anything, he preened at Yeongji's cheers and showed off even harder—setting the tire upright and sending it rolling with one thick foot, flipping it a full turn on his tusks the way you'd flip a pancake.
"So it's true... It's been so long since I've seen him this happy..."
The keeper was moved, watching the elephant trumpet with delight and spray water he'd drawn up through his trunk high into the sky.
"Thank you! Truly, thank you. Thanks to you, I can set at least a little of this worry down!"
He seized my hand and thanked me over and over, bowing until he bent at the waist. I could feel how sincerely he treasured the elephant, and a soft smile rose to my face before I knew it.
Still, I wish he'd let go...
Even so, holding my hand and shaking it for three solid minutes was a bit much.
"Well, well... That really is a remarkable ability. The elephant, too... I never imagined you would identify every last thing we prepared, and get them all exactly right."
The one who saved me was Deputy Jang Il-woon of the Association. The moment he came close and spoke, the keeper finally let go of my hand.
"For now, I believe this much verification will suffice. In point of fact, we didn't prepare anything further. Haha!"
I gave a light laugh at Deputy Jang Il-woon cheerfully admitting they had nothing else prepared, then shook the hand he held out.
"At any rate, thank you for your trouble. The detailed results will take a few days."
"Mm. How long will it take?"
"As a rule, it's handled within four days. However, our report has to reach the higher-ups, so even at the fastest it takes two."
I nodded. I wasn't the only person in the world undergoing a superpower precision verification, so I could understand it taking two days or more.
At that reaction, Deputy Jang Il-woon said he would contact me once the results were in, then swept off with the Association people in tow.
I watched them disappear for a moment, then walked over to Noona and Yeongji, who were still watching the elephant.