With those thoughts, Rain returned to the chemistry lab of the clubroom. Since he had said he was going out to the restroom, how would he explain being gone for so long if asked? Say he was talking with a friend? But what friend’s name should he give?
While pondering such things, Rain opened the door to the chemistry lab.
“A genius!”
“Amazing!”
“This is…a genius!”
“…Huh?”
Rain was dumbfounded. The chemistry lab was in an uproar about something. Those voices weren’t directed at Rain, and he didn’t understand what the commotion was about, stopping at the entrance to the chemistry lab.
“A genius!”
“A genius!”
“Yuki is a genius!”
“Fufufun!”
At the center of the commotion was Yuki. Accepting words of praise from everyone, she had an absurdly boastful look on her face. Her long blue hair swayed happily.
“W-What’s going on? This uproar?”
“Oh, Rain.”
Flip, who was nearby, called out to him.
“See, Yuki here said she made a mini robot.”
“A robot?”
Peering into the center of the crowd, there was Yuki, and some box-shaped thing moving around busily.
It seemed to have rollers, dashing every which way around the table. And it seemed to be wireless, as every time Yuki fiddled with her smartphone, that thing would scurry around.
Rain’s eyes widened. While simple in design and palm-sized, it was certainly a handmade robot moving according to Yuki’s operation.
Yuki had built a robot.
“There’s more to see, just you wait!”
Yuki shouted that, her excited face turning even redder as she operated something on her smartphone. Then the robot bumped into a small obstacle placed on the table, and stopped moving.
…Did something go wrong? Just as the Science Club members were starting to think that, something strange happened with the little robot. Some sort of engine noise started coming from within the box-shaped robot, and its torso lifted up.
The robot had transformed, growing four legs from its bottom. Yuki’s robot had sprouted four legs. It easily traversed the obstacle with its four legs. “Woaaaaah!” Huge cheers rose in the Science Club. Soon after, the robot retracted its legs, returning to its original box form, but the cheers did not stop, and the chemistry lab did not return to its original atmosphere.
“A genius!”
“She built a robot in such a short time!”
“A robotics genius!”
“Genius!”
“Genius!”
“Fufufun!”
Yuki’s chest puffed out endlessly, a supremely satisfied expression on her face.
“Praise me more!” she demanded, and the surroundings erupted into a great festive uproar, satisfying her request. Yuki’s face was bright red, clearly having fun.
///
scene transition
///
“Come to think of it, our Science Club didn’t have a robotics division!”
“Oh no! Does this mean our club will participate in a robotics contest too!?”
Yuki’s small handmade robot was causing excitement throughout the entire Science Club. Yuki’s little robot had brought a gust of fresh air to the Science Club, which didn’t have a robotics research group before.
“Oh! Rain!”
Yuki happily approached Rain, who had been watching the robot from afar.
“Look! I tried making a robot!”
Cradling the robot she made in her hands, she swaggered up to Rain with a beaming smile. The box-shaped robot had eyes drawn on with oil-based markers. Its boastful large eyes stared at Rain.
“I worked really hard on this! I didn’t know anything about robots!”
“…………”
“The main attraction is definitely the robot’s transformation! Going from rolling to growing legs with the mode change was super duper hard! At first it just had two thick, short legs, and it couldn’t get over steps like that, so I made it be four-legged to keep its balance while walking, and that was so tough!”
She gestured wildly, explaining to Rain how amazing the robot was, her face flushed with excitement, talking enthusiastically about the palm-sized handmade robot.
Watching her, it was clear she was having fun, her cheerful feeling coming across directly.
“What do you think!?”
Yuki shouted.
“Isn’t it amazing!?”
Snorting through her nose, she looked at Rain with sparkling eyes and asked him. Rain’s eyes widened as he nodded several small nods.
“Yeah, yeah. Amazing…. Really amazing.”
“Right!? Praise me!”
“Yeah, really amazing. You worked hard, Yuki.”
“Fufuun! Fufuun!”
Praised by Rain, Yuki twisted her mouth into an even more boastful grin. Extremely delighted to have her creation praised so much, she was having endless fun.
“Everyone, look more!”
Saying that, Yuki dashed around the Science Club with her handmade robot, wanting to show it off more. Her thin blue hair swayed as she went around to various people, showing them the palm-sized robot, and letting them operate it with her smartphone.
Each time the robot ran or transformed, the Science Club livened up more and more.
Seeing this, Rain recalled the past.
In the past, he had been the same. Each time he learned something new from a book, he would excitedly get his father to listen to that knowledge. Whenever an experiment succeeded and some reaction occurred, joy would well up in his chest. Watching Yuki and the Science Club now, those memories came back to him.
The joy of gaining knowledge from books, the joy when an experiment succeeded. Watching them, the emotions he had felt each time he encountered science’s depth and intricacy as a boy swept through his chest like wind, and sentimental memories of the past passed by.
Even though reality was difficult and work was harsh, he had genuinely liked science. [What’s important for you is learning to like science] the Chief had said. Cradling the robot in her hands, Yuki looked to be having a lot of fun. She was genuinely enjoying club activities.
I’m still immature, Rain felt.
He took a flask and chemicals from the shelf in the chemistry lab and lightly lined them up on the table. Preparing the necessary materials and equipment, he started making preparations for a small experiment in the corner of the chemistry lab.
Picking up a dropper, he slowly dropped chemicals onto the materials. As if recalling the old enjoyment, unhurriedly, not worrying about speed at all, he watched the state of the wetted substance.
[Even if I watch the color of chemicals change, it’s not interesting at all] Yuki had said, but Rain found the phenomenon of the substances changing before his eyes interesting now. While thinking about what kind of chemical reaction was occurring, what the principle was, theoretically mapping out chemical formulas in his head, he slowly watched the material’s changes happening before him.
Rain smiled slightly.
He felt it might be good to participate in the research paper contest, enough that he was enjoying watching the substances change color.
“No.”
Anya flatly said that. Hearing those words, Rain’s expression froze. It was an incident at Zeke’s house on a slightly sunny day.
After Yuki’s robot production success, a few days had passed. Seeing Yuki’s delighted appearance, Rain had come to think he might be okay with participating in the research paper contest as a Science Club activity. Rain hypothesized theories and conducted experiments. Though the equipment wasn’t as complete as a university lab, he repeatedly experimented as much as he could using the tools in the chemistry lab of the private middle/high school.
And the scientific paper was completed. Due to the lack of equipment and the short timeframe, the theory was still in the realm of hypothesis, but Rain believed that he had produced something reasonably convincing. So, he wanted to show the paper to Anya, a university associate professor, and get her to review it. However, that’s when Anya uttered a single word, “No.”
“W-Why not…?”
With a tense expression, Rain asked in return.
“This paper can’t be submitted to the contest.”
“W-What do you mean…?”
Rain’s head spun, wondering what was wrong. Certainly, for several reasons, the completeness of this paper was low. But he still thought the idea was not unreasonable, and he had some confidence in the concept behind the theory.
“You see…”
Seeing Rain’s puzzled expression, Anya was thoroughly exasperated.
“The middle school research paper contest is not about writing papers to experiment with something that hasn’t been researched before.”
“Eh…”
As Rain looked bewildered, Anya let out a deep sigh.
“The middle school research paper contest is essentially an extension of independent research. It’s about using a scientific approach to investigate everyday questions like observing plants or studying the surrounding environment. It’s not a place to propose and verify new theories.”
“R-Really…”
Rain opened his mouth with a vacant expression, taking in Anya’s words. The paper Rain had created was based on an idea that had struck him during a class bathed in the warmth of spring, and that idea was something that had left the Science Club’s advisor completely in the dark about what it was.
The paper Rain had planned to submit to the middle school research paper contest was a study that could be presented and discussed at an academic conference, in an entirely different realm from the middle school research paper contest.
Rain’s eyes widened. There was a big mistake here.
“Did Rain-kun do something wrong?”
“Zeke, take a look at this. It’s this.”
Zeke came into the living room, and Anya handed Rain’s paper to her husband. Zeke placed his hand on his chin, frowned, and stared at Rain’s paper.
“…I have no idea what’s written here.”
“Ugh…”
Rain drooped upon hearing the words of the active teacher. To hear that it was not a middle school work was another blow for Rain.
“Just go ahead and publish this. You could become a sensation as an extraordinary middle school student who proposes and verifies new theories at an academic conference. You might even become the center of attention not only in the field of research but from other areas too. There might be bad people among them, right? You don’t like that, do you?”
“G-Gosh…”
“Many media outlets will come to you, and numerous universities and research institutions will be eager to have you. And not just that, being a 12-year-old genius boy, it sounds appealing, so you might receive attention from areas other than research. Among them, there might be unpleasant individuals, right? You don’t like that, do you?”
“……I don’t.”
Intimidated by Anya, Rain shrank. His basic stance was that he didn’t want to stand out in a bad way. He had had enough of entanglements related to research.
“…In that case, put that paper away somewhere. Until you get older and can conduct research properly at a university or research institution… No, even as a university graduate student, it might be a bit early…”
“…………”
Anya twisted her neck slightly while thinking. Rain, with no common sense, had no choice but to hang his head in disappointment.
“You’re quite foolish…”
“Ugh…”
Anya was flabbergasted. The unparalleled genius was called foolish, and Rain couldn’t say anything in response.
Rain was still far from being a normal person. The genius dropped his shoulders as the warm spring sunshine mixed with the summer warmth began to shine through the window.
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