Translator: Flowingcloud Editor: Arocks141
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A Baby Bird’s Dream
If you are reading from a pirate or aggregator site, please read from the translator’s site: yado-inn (dot) com I have to put the link like this or else the bots will remove it, sorry 🙁
A young girl walked into the small, cozy room. She looked very tired, and when she reached the bed, she fell and lay down.
“Uwa~ I’m so tired, I wanna go home~”
This was her ‘home’, but Youko was so tired that she was rambling thoughtless remarks. She was mentally exhausted because she and her father were meeting with various ‘bigwigs’ in order to obtain patents around the world for (soon to be) Nylon 66 and the interfacial polymerization method which she had ‘discovered’.
(In this day and age, there aren’t any patent cooperation treaties, so we have to file individual Paris route applications to countries around the world… Ahh, what a pain in the ass…) 1
Youko had applied for patents several times in her previous life, and she was confident that she could manage. However, this time, the effort required was much higher because of the need to patent the product in all Western power nations.
(Nonetheless, if I didn’t convince Father that I was a person of age right here and now, I wouldn’t be able to intervene in the Russo-Japanese War in time… If that happened, many thousands and tens of thousands of soldiers would die of beriberi and in front of machine guns. I can’t just endure it and sit and watch that happen.)
Therefore, Youko took the gamble of bashing her father with the synthesis of an unknown substance, which is something that a toddler could never accomplish, and imprinted on him the fact that she came from the future while he was shaken.
(…This is no time to be discouraged. Father has responded to my trust. Now, I have to live up to his expectations.)
Of course, Youko didn’t execute this plan without any chance of success. She did this because she trusted her father after living with him for four years as his daughter—as parent and child. If it was her father, she knew that he would accept her even if she said something strange out of the blue.
“Up we go.”
As Youko bounced up from her bed in high spirits, someone knocked on the door of her room.
“Youko, I’m coming in.”
“Nobusuke-oniisama.”
It was Takatsukasa Nobusuke, who was eight years older.
“I heard you had another meeting today to discuss the patent application. You must be tired. I got some manjus from Mother. Let’s eat them together.” 2
“Wow! Thank you, Onii-sama!”
Youko’s face lit up and she thanked him. Nothing revitalized the brain better than sugar when one was tired.
“But man, it’s a synthetic fiber that’s completely different from rayon… How did you find it even though you’re only four years old?”
“Well, there is a saying: ‘You’re only good at things you love.’,” Youko deceived him nonchalantly.
It was a secret between her father and her that the Nylon 66 is the product of her “cheating”.
“Speaking of ‘love’, I believe that there is not a bird lover as much as Onii-sama in this wide world. I’m looking forward to when you surely become a world-famous ornithologist that’s made a name for themselves in the future.”
“You’re exaggerating…”
“But, that’s what you’re aiming for, isn’t it?”
“Of course. However, I’m the eldest son, so I have to take over this family in the future. I don’t think a guy like that should be wandering about everywhere searching for birds…”
“I think it’s a good idea, you know?” Youko said as she stared into Nobusuke’s eyes.
“‘Let me ask you this then. The only people in Japan who can afford to travel all over the place searching for birds are the eldest sons of noble families, right?”
“Hmm…”
“For example, Onii-sama could raise fowls such as turkeys, as well as wild birds such as mandarin ducks. I believe that would be quite difficult for a commoner to do… I’ll feel sorry for the turkeys, though.”
“Ah, yeah, well, Fusako-oneesama was often annoyed by it, and in the West, the turkey is considered food…”
Youko was referring to the incident where the turkey Nobusuke had kept while he was at school was shipped to the butcher.
“Also, the look in Onii-sama’s eyes when you were staring at birds. Your younger sister believes that those eyes are the so-called ‘true passion’.
“…Haa.”
“Thus.”
Youko turned back towards Nobusuke and stared into his eyes.
“I will become the leading chemist in Japan—no, the world—so Onii-sama, please become the leading ornithologist in the world.”
Nobusuke looked at his sister staring at him for a while, then sighed and said, “You’re right. Youko is right. From now on, I will not hesitate to become an ‘ornithologist’. I’m sure Father will forgive me.”
“Yes, Onii-sama, that’s the spirit.”
Takatsukasa Nobusuke. No one knew yet, including Youko, that he would later be called the ‘Duke of Birds’ and become the leading ornithologist in Japan.
If you are reading from a pirate or aggregator site, please read from the translator’s site: yado-inn (dot) com I have to put the link like this or else the bots will remove it, sorry 🙁
Author Notes: It seems that Nobusuke actually kept a mating pair of turkeys and mandarin ducks during this period. However, they didn’t last very long, as the turkeys were “(´・ω・`) ‘shipped’ off” and the mandarin ducks didn’t last very long as the male killed the female.
References
“Living with Birds” Takatsukasa Nobusuke, Chitose Bookstore, 1943
Most of the pages are devoted to birds from around Japan, but there is a bit about Nobusuke himself at the end.
Nevertheless, when his father Hiromichi visited his son when he was hospitalized due to diphtheria, he gifted a stuffed bird toy to the boy. What’s up with that… (Nobusuke himself seemed to be happy about it though.)
- Flowingcloud: Youko has to file individual patents to each country that is a Paris Convention country (one of the Member States of the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property) via the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property (1883). The ‘Paris route’ is where you file the patent in the country that’s a member, then file a patent within 12 months of the first patent in other countries.
- Flowingcloud: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manj%C5%AB