Ome Quartet of Snow Country

Chapter 72 Anatomy
The autumn wind is getting colder, and the winter is becoming more and more obvious.

Another week passes and October enters the second half.

Monday morning.

Because there is a routine assembly in the gymnasium, the morning shift of Class C of the first year will end in a hurry.

The front door of the classroom opened, and a gust of cold wind rushed in. Zhong Yuanxue shrank her neck and raised her voice: "If you feel cold, you can wear a coat, but you can't wear scarves and gloves."

Hearing this, Naruse could only take off the scarf around his neck.

"Is it cold?" Shangzi looked at him.

"It's okay." Naruse shrank his neck and let out a breath of white air, "Let's go to the gym."

Gather in line, go downstairs to the gymnasium, the sun can't shine here, and the non-stop cold wind in the passage makes people shiver.

Naruse's teeth chattered from the cold, wishing he could hide all his skin in his uniform until he walked into the gymnasium.

"Finally there is no wind..."

When passing by the formation of the third grade, he took another look, and the seniors who gathered here first whispered to each other, faintly excited.

He quickly guessed the possible reason.

"It's been two weeks, it should be about the same."

"What?" Shangzi didn't know why.

"About the school trip... probably some gossip has spread."

Sure enough, after the assembly, the first thing Kobayakawa announced at the regular assembly was to restart the third grade school trip.

And the departure time is tomorrow.

"YES! YES! YES!"

"finally……!"

"Kyoto, school trip, here I come—"

The uncontrollable excitement of the third graders was clearly transmitted even though the second graders were separated.

The students of the two grades looked at the seniors over there together.

Rather than envy, what Naruse saw on the faces of the students in the same grade was more of the blankness after their thoughts drifted away - when it was their turn to participate in the school trip, there were still two full years to go.

There are exceptions.

For example, Takikawa Hikari frowned.

"Let's go tomorrow..."

"It's going to snow if it drags on."

"Just cancel it."

"That's too cruel for a third grader." Naruse understood that she was still not at ease with her delicate elder sister going away.

"Lue should be very happy now..." She stood on tiptoe and looked towards the third grade.

At the end of the rally, Takigawa Hikari did not follow the team back to class, and left halfway.

Naruse guessed that she was going to find Takikawa Tsuki, but ignored her.

After the first class in the morning was over, Takikawa Hikaru took the initiative to find him and Shangzi.

"Let's go."

"Ah."

The second class is biology, and today's class is dissecting squid, so I have to go to the biology classroom.The three of them are in the same group.

The biology classroom is on the ground floor of the auxiliary building, and used to pass through the connecting corridor between the main and auxiliary buildings.

As the cold wind blew across, Naruse tightened the scarf around his neck, and buried his face down.

The scarf was newly woven by Shangzi.Because she felt that the scarf that she had sent him before was a bit crude, she spent two nights reweaving it when she was going back. It was warmer and more beautiful than the original one.

The cold froze the faint smell of hand cream on the scarf, and Naruse wrapped it tighter.

Takikawa looked back, "Harukai is really afraid of the cold."

"Because it shouldn't be this cold at this time..."

She laughed, "This is Northeast China, not Tokyo."

Naruse didn't speak, but another puff of white gas came out of the scarf.

When he was about to reach the entrance on the other side of the connecting corridor, Hikaru Takikawa suddenly said: "Then let's go to some places that are not so cold."

Naruse looked up at the annex building in front of him, "Yes."

She turned her head to look at him, and smiled again, meaning unknown.

When they came to the biology classroom, the three of them found a seat near the front, and the squid specimens to be dissected later were already placed on the experiment table.

Hikaru Takikawa reached out and touched it, the slippery and cold feel made her reluctant to touch it again, "Damn it."

"Of course the specimen is dead."

"It looks pretty fresh."

"If it's rotten, there's no point in dissecting it."

Shangzi lowered his head and sniffed, "It has a strange smell."

"It was soaked in formalin solution before." Naruse pulled her back a little, "Don't smell it."

She smiled, "OK."

Before class started, biology teacher Reiko Kuroda was busy writing the experiment procedure and requirements on the blackboard, and had no time to attend to the following. Several boys suddenly made a fuss.

"Teacher, Tuchuan ate the squid!"

Kuroda was shocked, and walked down quickly, the squid specimens on the table were gone, "Are you an idiot! Spit it out!"

And before she could reach the pouting Tu Chuan, the squid slipped out of his sleeve.

"..."

The result was of course a reprimand.

The farce ended in a hurry, but it also delayed some time. When the class bell rang, Kuroda Reiko hadn't finished writing on the blackboard, so I had to speed up and write quickly.

After one or two minutes, she put down the chalk and started class.

"We're going to dissect a squid this class, but before we start - put the squid down!"

Following her gaze, Naruse turned his head, and the boys at the back of the classroom started to play with the stuffed squid again.

"Boys are all idiots..." In the noisy classroom, the girls huddled together and whispered, "Except for Naruse."

Naruse, who was unexpectedly praised, could only laugh dryly.

"...The purpose of the squid anatomy experiment is to understand the characteristics of cephalopods adapting to a lively and active lifestyle, and to grasp the internal organ structure of molluscs."

Reiko Kuroda pointed to the words written on the blackboard, "Before starting the experiment, I need to explain the experimental equipment."

After introducing dissecting scissors, tweezers, and dissecting wax trays, she asked the students below to formally observe today's experimental subjects.

Seeing Naoko and Takikawa Hikari looking at him, Naruse had no choice but to take the squid into the dissection wax dish with the darker side facing up.

"Now observe the external form of the squid, distinguishing the head, foot, neck, and trunk, and the main features of each part."

Naoko handed the magnifying glass to Naruse.

"The neck is so short." He bent over and observed for a while, then handed her the magnifying glass, followed by Hikari Takikawa.

"Is this squid caught in Mutsu Bay?"

"do not know."

"I'm craving some seafood."

"You can't eat this."

The homework was assigned before this class, and it was required to draw the outline of the squid and the sketch of the internal structure. Naruse compared it while writing, and soon had a rough prototype.

Hikaru Takikawa painted it several times, but it still didn't look good, so he simply drew it according to his painting.

"Well...at least it doesn't look so strange."

Shangzi draws very well, some parts are more detailed than Naruse.

After a while, the external observation part is finally over, and the internal dissection will begin next.

Reiko Kuroda pointed to the picture on the projection screen and raised her voice:
"The dissecting scissors come in from here, first cut open the mantle on both sides, and then remove the ventral mantle to expose the viscera inside... Pay attention, I will demonstrate it first."

She operated a few times, and the projected content became her real-time operation on the experimental platform above.

"Enter from here, be careful when cutting..."

After watching her operate completely, Naruse looked at the two people beside him again, "Should I do it?"

"Let me try it," Shangzi said.

So he gave up his position, and stood beside Takikawa Hikaru, one on the left and one on the right, watching her operate.

Picking up the scissors, Shangzi didn't even look up at the projection screen, and lowered the knife accurately and neatly, removing the mantle of the squid's torso in two or three strokes, and the incision was still very smooth.

"Shangzi might be able to become a surgeon in the future, and these hands must be very stable holding the scalpel." Hikaru Takikawa praised.

Naoko smiled and looked at Naruse.

"It's a nice cut."

"uh-huh."

The students below were operating, Kuroda Reiko came down and turned around, and also gave Shangzi a very high evaluation.

The squid used for the experiment are all female, so after the mantle is uncovered, the raised white oval ovoid glands and a larger number of paravertebral glands can be seen at a glance in the exposed viscera;

Due to the limited time of the course, the last step of today's dissection is to remove these glands for further observation.

Hikaru Takikawa was still not interested in doing it, so Naruse picked up the tweezers.

"Be careful when removing..."

The biology teacher issued a reminder on the stage. Naruse lowered his head, held the squid with one hand, and carefully separated the internal organs from the body with tweezers with the other hand.

"—By the way, Chun Hai will go to Kyoto with me tomorrow."

Pfft!

The sudden tearing caused the gland to detach directly, and the cold liquid also splashed on the face in the flick, Naruse was stunned, and turned his head to look at Hikari Takikawa.

"what?"

(End of this chapter)