Very Serious Bird Research

Fuku disliked the cold. It was rare to see him in a bad mood, but once the fiery-colored leaves and pleasantly cool temps of autumn had given way to the beginnings of frost and chillier weather, he became miserable. He normally woke up before the sky even began to brighten to begin his days, but now all he wanted to do was stay in bed for hours on end, willing his body to hibernate.

Komugi caught on immediately. It was odd for him to wake up before Fuku on any given day, so the first time it happened he had originally thought he was sick. It was only after waking Fuku up that Komugi came to learn about his distaste of the weather.

“Too cold. Walk the imps for me?”

And so just like that, Komugi and Fuku had traded places. Now Komugi was waking up at the crack of dawn to walk the imps and make (barely edible) breakfast for Fuku when he got home. He wasn’t a fan of waking up so early and had even questioned Fuku on how the hell he lived this way for so long, but after a few days he was starting to get used to it. However, that didn’t stop him from voicing his yearning for those few extra hours of sleep he was now missing out on.

Today, Fuku and Komugi were due to run some errands. The day started off as usual with Komugi’s morning imp walk, and everything was going well…until it wasn’t. One run-in with Jackal, and suddenly his simple walk was turning into a wild goose chase….

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After his little adventure, Komugi arrived back home with an impressive pile of books in hand. Kicking the door closed, he waited for the imps surrounding him to disperse before making his way back to the bedroom.

“Fukuuuuuu, I’m home. Are you up yet?”

Ever since the weather got colder, Fuku would sleep in for long stretches of time. He’d stay curled up underneath the blankets until breakfast was ready, and even then Komugi usually had to coax him out. Komugi was unsurprised when he saw a motionless lump underneath the duvets on his bed, and he rolled his eyes.

“C’mon Fuku, you know we have things to do today. You should’ve started getting dressed by now…”

Silence.

“Fuku? Fukuuu?” A pause. Komugi rolled his eyes. “Daifuku, I’m being really nice to you right now you know. I could body slam the bed right now and crush you if I felt like it.”

Still more silence, though he did see movement beneath the covers. Progress! Fuku was usually brought to alertness when Komugi used his full name; the older bun was just relieved that it still worked. After giving his roommate a look caught between exasperation and fondness, Komugi said, “Hey. Let’s stay inside the house for a little longer instead of doing those errands right away. Something interesting has come up.” 

That finally caught Fuku’s attention. He finally showed himself, poking his little head out from under the blanket pile he’d made himself cozy in. Taking it as a good sign to proceed, Komugi held up what he’d been holding in his hands to show his housemate: a stack of books, much taller in height than Fuku currently was in his bun form. Some of them looked new, while others looked remarkably old, but they all held titles relating to the same thing.

“...Birds?” Fuku asked, his voice still thick with sleep.

“Yup. You know Jackal, right? I bumped into her while walking the imps earlier and something weird happened…”

+

“...So yeah, we’re trying to figure out what’s going on with all of this. Exciting, right?” 

In the time it took Komugi to tell his tale, Fuku managed to wake up—though he refused to change out of his bun form and risk getting colder—and make enough space so that Komugi could take a seat and place the stack of books down on the bed. Fuku already had a dusty old tome open in front of him, and his nose twitched as he flipped through its yellowed pages. He hummed in response. “Makes me a little sad that I didn’t go with you, but maybe it’s for the best. With so many of us skulking around, we might have drawn more attention to Misty than needed…”

Komugi nodded in agreement, plucking one of the books from the pile to thumb through it in a noncommittal fashion. He frowned. In theory he loved mysteries and working them out, but in practice…. Now that he had explained his exciting morning to Fuku, he looked less than thrilled to actually have to read something. Tossing the book to the side after a few more minutes of pointless thumbing, he took another one from the stack and perked up when he opened it. It was a picture book full of fantastical artwork of various “birds”, with what he assumed were species names written beneath every picture. A particular bird caught his eye, and he urged Fuku to look at it.

“Oooh, check this one out. No way this is real, right?” He held the book up to show Fuku. On the page was a brilliant blue bird with an impressive train of feathers that looked awfully familiar…Fuku looked at the name of the bird. Pavo cristatus, Indian peafowl.

“It definitely doesn’t look real. I’ve even seen the same design of those tail feathers on some clothes before…maybe the artist got inspired?” Fuku put his own book down and crawled over to Komugi to get a better look at the picture. “Aren’t birds supposed to be able to fly, too? If it had a tail like that, there’s no way it could, right…?”

“Right? That’s what I’m thinking.” Komugi flipped to the next page and cooed as he was greeted with even more colorful birds. On the left page there was Erythrura gouldiae, Gouldian finch; on the right was Phoenicopterus ruber, American flamingo.

“The bird on the left looks like someone just threw a bunch of colors on the page,” Fuku commented.

“And look at that other one, it’s got legs for days! I bet it could run really fast if it wanted to.” And maybe it needed to, if that bright pink color was anything to go by. Wouldn’t they be a target for bigger creatures if they stood out so much…? Komugi could vaguely recall something about survival of the fittest or whatever it was that Murmur had lectured so long ago. “What a weird book, I wonder what was going through the head of the person who made it.”

After looking at the birds a little longer, Komugi turned the page…and immediately broke out in laughter as Fuku sputtered. This next page depicted a pretty bird with deep brown plumage and a white chest, but on that chest were two very round yellowish sacs. Centrocercus urophasianus, greater sage-grouse. “No way. This thing’s got tits!”

“Um, I don’t think that’s right…who made this book? Maybe it’s someone with a strange fetish…” Fuku’s words only caused Komugi’s laughter to increase in pitch, but still he continued, “Let’s move on to the next book now.”

“N-No, this is definitely educational!” Komugi hadn’t managed to stop laughing yet, and was quickly starting to lose his breath. “I’m..I’m learning here, honest!! Ahahaha….”

“Be serious about this, Komugi…”

Komugi squawked out a breathy “I’m so serious right now!” as he fell back onto the bed, tears forming at the corners of his eyes.

Fuku sighed. So much for getting any actual research done…. He decided to leave Komugi to his laughing fit and resume his prior reading. He was incredibly curious about this mysterious feather, after all. But more importantly…

…He wouldn’t have to get out of bed if he kept reading on Komugi’s behalf. It was a win-win!