Mr. Quinn

Eager to try out the invention from his dream, Kraft had carelessly overlooked the issue of time. Only after Alice reminded him did he calm down from his excitement, then let out a huge yawn.

"Then I'll go back and get some more sleep..."

With his excitement gone, Kraft's eyelids immediately drooped. He dragged himself toward his room listlessly.

"Come wake me up in half an... no, an hour."

Ever since he had Alice, Kraft had abandoned that screaming-chicken wake-up device. Wasn't it much better to have a soft, adorable robot girl wake you up? Who needed a screaming chicken?

"Got it~"

Alice answered, then slipped back into the kitchen to continue preparing breakfast.

This extra nap passed without incident. Before Kraft could dream any of those unusual dreams, Alice woke him up.

After getting up again and finishing breakfast, Kraft took Alice out to buy pets.

There were quite a few pet stores in Chinatown. Besides the ordinary pet shops that mainly sold cats and dogs, there was also a very traditional flower-and-bird market. Not only did it sell all kinds of birds, but insect pets like katydids and crickets as well.

However, Alice had no interest in those bugs, and they could not wear scarves either, so Kraft still chose to go to a regular pet store.

Following Kraft's usual habits, he tried to recreate everything from the dream as closely as possible for his first test. So naturally, his first choice was a little black cat. He had even thought of a name already: Sakamoto, transliterated from Mr. Sakamoto's name in the dream.

However, after entering the pet store, Kraft's gaze was drawn to another creature. He imagined that face with a red scarf around it and found it strangely familiar.

Had I raised this breed of dog before?

Kraft habitually scratched his hair, then asked the pet store clerk, "Hello, does this kind of dog come in gray?"

"Sorry, little boy, Shiba Inus only come in four coat colors: red, black, sesame, and white. There aren't any gray ones~"

The young clerk shook her head and warmly explained.

"And White Shiba Inus are relatively rare, so we don't have any right now. This little one in the cage is a Red Shiba Inu. We also have Black Shiba Inus and Sesame Shiba Inus, but they're not out front. Would you like me to take you to see them?"

"No gray ones?"

Kraft frowned. He had seen Shiba Inus before, and there really were more of these reddish—or rather, yellowish—ones. He had never paid much attention to it before, but now that he associated them with a red scarf, he could not shake the feeling that a gray Shiba Inu would be more fitting.

"Forget it."

Kraft shook his head. There was no point dwelling on something he could not figure out. If there were no gray ones, he could just find a similar color.

"Please take me to see the Black Shiba Inus," Kraft said to the young clerk.

"Please follow me."

The young clerk led Kraft into the back room, where cages containing pets were neatly stacked. Their arrival startled the cats and dogs inside.

In an instant, meows and barks rose one after another.

"Shh—quiet down. Keep making a fuss, and I'll cut your food rations~"

The young clerk skillfully calmed the noisy pets and brought Kraft to a cage.

"This one is a Black Shiba Inu. The one beside it with the more mixed coat is a Sesame Shiba Inu."

"Hmm... it's a little different from what I imagined..."

The Black Shiba Inu's coat pattern was very different from the Red Shiba Inu's, and it was also far removed from the gray Shiba Inu in Kraft's memory.

"Then I'll take the Red Shiba Inu outside."

Kraft was not one to hem and haw. Compared to the others, the Red Shiba Inu outside felt closer to the dog in his memories.

"All right~"

Having made a sale, the young clerk was delighted. She led Kraft back out, put the Red Shiba Inu into a portable cage, and gave Kraft its pedigree certificate, a small bag of dog food, and a chew stick that she said the dog really liked.

"Alice, have you picked one?"

Carrying the dog cage, Kraft found Alice squatting in a corner cuddling cats. He tapped her on the head and asked.

"Ah! These little ones are just too adorable! I forgot!"

Alice was squatting on the floor with three kittens of different colors in her arms, wearing a blissful expression.

Sure enough, this girl was completely unreliable...

Kraft sighed helplessly, looked over the nearby cats, and picked out a bombay cat that resembled Mr. Sakamoto from the dream by seventy or eighty percent. After having the young clerk put it in a cage, he bought some cat food and pet supplies, then went to the counter to pay.

"Let's go!"

Kraft irritably tapped Alice on the head again, then handed her the cage containing the little black cat and a large bag of pet supplies. He lifted the dog cage in one hand, grabbed Alice with the other, and headed outside.

"Ah~~~ let me cuddle them for five more minutes—"

Alice was dragged out of the pet store by Kraft with a reluctant expression.

"Don't you have a cat in your hands already? Go home and cuddle it all you want!"

"Oh! Right!"

Alice suddenly realized, then held the cage in front of her and gently rubbed her cheek against it. Looking adoringly at the little black cat, she apologized, "Sorry~ I actually neglected you."

"Oh, right, big brother, we need to give them names first."

After apologizing to the little black cat, Alice hurried a few steps to Kraft's side and reminded him.

"Mm, call him Mr. Quinn."

Kraft lifted the cage in his hand and blurted out the name that had suddenly appeared in his mind without hesitation.

"What about this little one?"

Alice raised the cat cage.

"Ummmm..." With the name Mr. Quinn already taken, Sakamoto, the name Kraft had come up with before, suddenly did not seem so suitable. "How about calling him Mr. Bane?"

"But... this little one is a girl."

"Uh... then call her Bear."

Kraft hurriedly took out Quinn's pedigree certificate and looked at the gender listed on it before finally breathing a sigh of relief.

He was a male dog.

Then there was no need to change his name. It was a small victory for Kraft's obsessive tendencies.

The two brought Mr. Quinn and Miss Bear to Kraft's private workshop. After tossing the two pets to Alice to look after, Kraft plunged headfirst into the studio.

Unlike when he made Alice, Kraft could not understand a single piece of technology used to create the Talking Scarf. He could not comprehend any of it, either. So he did not try any clever tricks and simply followed the steps Dr. Shinonome had used in the dream, mechanically replicating them.

Because it was not difficult to make and required no thought from Kraft, the scarves were completed quickly. By the time Alice had lunch ready, Kraft had finished both scarves.

"Can they really make them talk?"

Alice stared expectantly at Quinn and Bear, who still had no idea what was happening.

"They should..."

Kraft was not actually very confident. Compared to Alice, a robot, scarves that made animals talk seemed more like mystical items than scientific products. So far, none of the mystical creations he had replicated had succeeded.

"Let's try it first. They're only scarves, after all. They won't hurt them."

As Kraft spoke, he handed one scarf to Alice, then the two of them tied them around the pets' necks.

"C-can you talk now, Bear?"

As soon as Alice had tied the scarf around the little black cat, she impatiently asked.

The little black cat, Bear, first scratched at the scarf around her neck with a paw, then vigorously shook her head twice.

"You tied it too tight, meow, idiot!"

A slightly shrill female voice came from Bear's mouth.

"Ah, s-sorry! I'll loosen it right away!"

Alice hurriedly adjusted Bear's scarf.

"Is this better?"

"Mm, much more comfortable~"

Bear stretched lazily and wagged her tail as she spoke. Her formerly shrill voice had become languid as well.

"Whoa!"

Quinn, who had been staring blankly at Alice and Bear's exchange, suddenly jumped up.

"You can talk!"

Then, belatedly realizing something, he jumped again.

"Whoa! I can talk too!"

"Uh... why does this dog seem kind of dumb..."

Kraft rubbed his nose, quickly took out his phone, and began searching.

"Dog intelligence rankings... Shiba Inu... outside the top seventy-nine... they're actually lower than even the three dumbest sled dogs..."

"Slander! This is naked slander!"

Quinn pressed his nose against Kraft's phone screen, wrinkled his snout, and bared his gleaming white fangs.

"Hahaha, dumb dog."

After hearing Kraft read it out, Bear could not help laughing.

"You want to fight?!"

Quinn immediately turned his furious gaze toward Bear.

"Don't bully Bear! She's a girl!"

Alice immediately rushed over to support Bear.

"Big brother! They're bullying me!"

Quinn found himself a backer so quickly that he hardly seemed like a breed ranked seventy-ninth in intelligence.

Looking at the dog frantically wagging his tail at him, Kraft's mouth twitched. Still, he had picked this dog himself, and since Quinn had come asking for help, he should lend him a hand.

Kraft tapped his phone a few more times.

"Bombay cat intelligence... one of the three dumbest cat breeds..."

Kraft's mouth twitched again. His luck at picking pets was truly something else. He had casually chosen two creatures with questionable intelligence.

"What?! That's impossible! This lady is very smart!"

Now Bear was unwilling to accept it too. Screeching, she pounced at the phone in Kraft's hand.

"Cut it out!"

Kraft quickly raised his hand, avoiding Bear's pounce.

"Hahahahaha! Didn't expect that, did you? You're even dumber than me!"

Quinn stuck out his tongue and laughed gleefully at Bear's misfortune, only for Bear to turn around and smack him across the nose with a paw.

"You dared to sneak-attack me! You beast!"

Naturally, Quinn was unwilling to let the attack slide. He turned and bit at Bear.

"Take this! RUA!"

"Ahhh! No fighting! Stop fighting already!"

Alice frantically tried to break up the fight.

I had a feeling the house was going to be very lively from now on...

Watching the cats and dogs wreak havoc before him, Kraft's mouth twitched wildly.