Cogito Ergo Sum
I think, therefore I am
[The gates are smiling at me, too many teeth, too much iron. Painted green as if that shade of rusted optimism could trick anyone into believing that nature wasn't trapped here by humans]
The zoo's gates loomed like the teeth of some smiling beast. Iron, black and jagged, wide enough for families, couples, and lonely wanderers to walk in.
"Why are we here again"? Audrey asked, arms crossed. Her golden hair caught the morning sun but her eyes remained unimpressed.
"Because," Hoshimi said, "you wanted to go outside".
Audrey arched a brow. "I wanted outside. Not…this." She gestured at the gates with a flick of her wrist, like one might at a cheap street performance.
"What's more outside than going to look at nature"? His eyes flickered at the ticket booth. "Or would you have preferred if we went to a botanical garden instead"?
"Yea no thanks". Audrey looked away, disinterested.
Kira looked around, her eyes wide open and blending in with the line of children."I like animals, I thought it would be fun'" she said, her voice slightly trembling. "I even made a whole plan".
Audrey sighed, her shoulders rising and falling with exaggerated reluctance. "Fine, I'll come with you, don't expect me to have fun though, I've never even been to the zoo".
The admission came out flat, but it revealed more than she intended. Her arms crossed tighter, her steps small and stiff, as though she were entering a courtroom rather than a recreational space.
Her eyes were downcast, like she was walking on trial rather than pavement. "What the hell are those pink birds?"
"They're flamingos". Kira responded, she was ten steps ahead, a smile rested on her face.
Audrey's face stayed blank, not from a lack of emotions but an expression of boredom, her tone sharp. "Why are they pink? They're so vibrant that it gets to a point".
"They're pink because of carotenoids in shrimp," Kira said.
"Shrimps aren't pink, they're more gray rather than a bright pink," Audrey's eyes narrowed. "Unless they're cooked".
"The proteins hide the carotenoids, making them seem more gray". Kira replied, "when you cook a shrimp, its proteins break down and the carotenoids become more visible, the same thing happens in flamingos when they eat them. They then deposit the carotenoids in their feathers, skin and beak giving that strong pink coloration".
Hoshimi, watching the exchange, suppressed a chuckle.
[She sure does talk a lot. She's completely absorbed.]
His gaze lingered on Kira's bright expression, her cheek pressed against the warm railing like it were part of the adventure.
"They're weird, like ballerinas. Or drunks. They act like they're not trapped in an enclosure, they act as if they have all the freedom in the world". Audrey leaned against the railing beside her.
Her words hung heavy in the morning air, more observation than complaint. She turned suddenly, her sharp gaze landing on Kira.
"Say, if they're fed only grain in captivity, what color would they turn into"?
"Grains lack carotenoids, so they would lose their pink coloration and slowly turn pale whitish or maybe gray". Kira whirled around, she pressed her cheek against the warm railing. "Basically the same color when they were chicks".
"Do you think they're happy"? Audrey asked, she immediately shook her head, denying the idea. "Who am I kidding? They're birds".
Kira pouted. "You're no fun".
The flamingo nearest to them tilted its head, its black eyes pinning her like a question. Audrey stared back.
The three moved deeper into the zoo.
The tiger enclosure smelled like wet stone and old meat. A glass wall separated us from the striped predator pacing back and forth, clearly bored out of its mind. Its large bulging muscles rippled like coiled ropes, and every so often it paused to stare at us and immediately go back to its own business.
"You really do know a lot". Audrey said, slightly smiling at Kira" You're really impressive".
"I know what I know, and I don't know what I don't know. But one thing is for sure". Kira smiled. "I do know that I know nothing".
Hoshimi glanced at Audrey. "I thought you didn't like the zoo".
"I don't, I don't really like just staring at them but I don't mind Kira being here with me".
Kira smiled back.
"I used to be the top student at my school before the government forced me into the academy".
Audrey stopped, staring at the tiger blankly, wondering what it was doing. "Y'know? I really thought it would be more vicious and angry, a predator in its natural form. Raw, unashamed".
"Natural form?" Hoshimi titled his head. "It's in a glass box".
"Of course it's not vicious". Kira had one hand on her hip and a smug expression slapped across her face, she knew living things like the back of her hand. "Every single organism is born the same way, it's the environment that shapes them, this tiger was raised here, there was no need for hunting or fighting with another organism, it's no different from a big muscular cat".
"Imagine if it escaped". Audrey pondered. "Do you think that we would be able to fend it off"?
"Didn't you hear Kira? Listen to the animal expert". Hoshimi stared at her, his mouth slightly agape. "It probably won't attack us and would rather just…try to find home".
"Unless it was hungry".
Kira commented
"Then I'd just push you two and run away".
Audrey crossed her arms.
"Natural selection.
Kira gasped, clutching her chest like she had stabbed her, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "Betrayal!"
The tiger paused, its amber eyes meeting Audrey's. Something about that gaze—it wasn't hunger. It was an accusation.
It was the look of a prisoner staring at another prisoner through mirrored glass.
"This really is boring". Audrey's voice was flat. " The tiger probably doesn't even care about us, I would've preferred if we went to the city instead".
[I'm glad that she's becoming more comfortable with us. The first time I met her, she was reserved. But I guess the emotions really are spontaneous]
Hoshimi walked past more enclosures–monkeys flinging themselves from rope to rope, owls blinking under artificial shade and a bear sprawled like a drunk in a hammock.
Audrey became slightly more and more interested, the more they passed the enclosures. Kira pressed her palms against one of the tanks, her breath leaving faint circles on the glass. Inside, a massive python the size of a log coiled lazily, its scales gleaming like wet stone, its eyes glowing with a hint of mana.
Audrey's eyes slightly widened. "Animals can use magic"?
"Yea, all organisms can," Kira cheerfully nodded her head. "As long as they are able to control more of their soul than the average person, they are able to use magic. But there seems to be a correlation in an organism's intelligence and their magic, though it isn't absolute".
Audrey's brow furrowed. "So, intelligence isn't the only factor"?
Hoshimi smirked as he looked at Audrey from the side of his eye. "Come on Audrey, look at you, you are the prime example of that".
"Hey"! Audrey punched his shoulder, a sharp pain went through his arm.
Kira replied softly. "If it was just intelligence then all humans would be able to use magic, every single witch descended from one of the primordial witches, giving them one of the four types in which mana can manifest–intangible mana, tangible crystallized mana, elemental control and mutations. Unless you were cursed by their blood, you can't use magic".
Hoshimi watched Kira, noting the way her eyes reflected the swirling water patterns.
[This is something. I guess, I never took her for the smart type. Intelligence comes in forms I never considered…repetition, focused interests, sensitivity, observation. Maybe…neurodivergence, not just intellect. She must really like animals]
Audrey leaned back slightly, watching the python's body coil and uncoil like a living river. Her lips parted in surprise. "Hey, this is cool, can't I get one"?
"Isn't it illegal to own a wild animal"?
Hoshimi asked, slightly tilting his head.
Hoshimi stayed quiet, letting the moment linger. Audrey, despite herself, touched the glass lightly, leaving a faint handprint. Kira mirrored her, but her fingers hovered slightly above the surface as if feeling the essence of the python rather than the cold reality of the tank.
The aquarium sat at the far end of the zoo, a low, dome shaped building with gray glass panes that reflected the glow of the afternoon sun. It didn't look like a home for marine life, more like a bunker, swallowing visitors into a cool, dim underworld.
The moment they stepped inside, the air shifted, it suddenly became cooler, damp and tinged with salt with the faint musk of algae. The blue hues of the light lit up the dark room with an ambient tone. The sounds of the outside world dulled into whispers. The darkness made it seem like the three of them were alone, only the hum of circulating pumps, the low throb of filtration systems, and the occasional splash of unseen creatures moving through the water.
Kira's face lit up instantly. "Finally! The aquarium!" Her voice rang with the enthusiasm of a child, though her words tumbled over themselves with nervous energy.
Hoshimi watched her play around, her blue eyes staring cheerfully at the creatures. [She seems more happy seeing these fish rather than the animals]
The aquarium engulfed them whole. Rows of tanks stretched into the dark blue mist, quietly shining with drifting schools of fish. Water rippled beneath gentle lights, their reflections gliding along the ceiling like tormented ghosts.
Kira moved forwards, her palms flattened against the cold surface of the first tank. A cluster of small, silver fish swirled together within, curling and coiling like liquid mercury.
"See? See these guys?" she said, bobbing up and down like a child at the toy store. "Th-they're sardines–clupeidae, technically. They form bait balls when they're attacked, and the way they swim in unison? It's like–like thousands of synapses lighting up at the same time! They can hypnotize predators just by being coordinated".
"Huh"... Audrey gave an uninterested lift of an eyebrow. "So… they're fish that swim in a school."
Kira looked at her, eyes wide, voice solemn. "Not just! Think about it! They're tiny, fragile, easily consumed by literally anything bigger than they are—and yet, through the coordination of movement, they become something else entirely. It's cooperation for survival. It's. poetic."
They went up to the next tank. Weird looking yellow fish drifted by, their lips pouted like a bee stung them and a black stripe went down their face like a raccoon's black mask.
"Those ones! The reef triggerfish!' Kira blurted like a bullet train. "It's a fish native to the Hawaiian Islands, I can't believe they managed to bring it here! It's the official state fish of Hawaii also known as the humuhumunukunukuapua'a".
Audrey raised an eyebrow, she rubbed her temples like her brain had been fried."The w-what"?
"The humuhumunukunukuapua'a". Kira raised a finger and smirked. "The direct translation being the triggerfish with a snout like a pig, they're not just fugly though, they're also dangerous, they have extremely strong jaws, especially during nesting season and can inflict painful wounds".
Hoshimi grinned at witnessing Audrey blink, caught off guard by the solemnity in Kira's tone.
Tank after tank, Kira's voice rang out in the cold air.
She pointed at a lionfish, its striped fins laid out like a spiny crown.
"This one's toxic! Its spines are full of neurotoxins that are strong enough to send a human to the hospital. And the irony is—humans introduced them to foreign waters, and now they're an invasive species. They eat anything. They're destroying ecosystems because they don't have natural enemies here. Isn't that tragic? One miscalculation remapping entire oceans."
Audrey leaned closer to the glass, watching the lionfish flare its fins. "So, it's like… a pretty serial killer."
Kira's eyes sparkled. "Exactly!"
The next tank held jellyfish, their bodies pulsing with eerie grace, translucent domes glowing faintly in the blue light.
"These are man o'war. They may look like jellyfish but they aren't!" Kira's hands gestured wildly, her excitement spilling over. "They are actually siphonophores, colonial animals made up of individual specialized organisms.There is even a Pokemon made of them, they're known for it's hat shaped bladder"
[This really is getting kind of repetitive]
Audrey crossed her arms and stared up at the sky.
They moved on. Sharks glided behind thick glass, shadows cutting through blue water like living blades.
Then she suddenly stopped walking, her eyes widened as she bumped into what seemed like a person, but she felt them, their hands were cold, Kira's throat closed tightly, her body spasming back as if shoved into a nightmare. Her chest heaved with desperate gulps of air on tiny breaths as her gaze gradually concentrated on the figure before them.
It was a child.
Fewer than a dozen, but time itself seemed to have lost him. His hair was wild, hacked short in uneven clumps, matted strands protruding at awkward angles as if hacked off by him with rusted scissors. His flesh was not pale, but bleached, as if blood had never really penetrated more than the surface. The blue light of the aquarium clung to him unnaturally, lighting up the dark circles under his eyes.
Too wide, too round, too unblinking for a child's. Darkened sockets made the whites look cloudy, and his irises were lit up with a greenish maroon sheen, like clots of dried blood bubbling inside, stitches ran across his arms and legs like he was rashly put together. He did not blink. He did not change position. He just stared—through Audrey, through glass behind her, through everything simultaneously.
His tiny fists clenched around something large.
The severed human body dangled clumsily in his hand, his limbs stiff, head hanging at an impossible angle. Flesh appeared to be half-chewed, bitten, the edges of the wounds rough as if bitten by teeth too blunt to finish the job. Fingers were missing, bones protruding where flesh should be, and yet there was no blood splatter behind him, no prints on the wet ground. The body simply existed, impossibly sanitary in its horror.
[I can't let Kira become overly emotional, she could kill everyone in the whole building with her mutation]
Hoshimi's eyes widened at the sight of the child, immediately taking a defensive stance and standing in front of Kira and Audrey, putting his back to them.
[I've seen him before! It's the child from the basement!]
Kira's tears ran harder, sliding down her face, her lips trembling soundlessly as she tugged onto the sleeve of Hoshimi's shirt.
"It's all my fault isn't it"!
She gripped harder onto his sleeve.
"I caused this! If I didn't want to go then…then".
She muttered under her breath, "I want to kill myself".
The child stared at Audrey and raised his blood stained hand towards her.
"I am here to take you back to the estate".
Audrey's brows furrowed as she clenched her fists, this wasn't the first time she had seen blood, not even a dead body could phase her. She stepped forwards confidently, preparing to fight.
"Don't do anything Audrey, I was tasked to be your bodyguard, I can't let you get in danger".
Hoshimi's eyes narrowed.
{Doubting one's own existence disproves the idea that one is able to doubt their existence}