Chapter 16: Part 1 – Pain, Pain, Fly Away, and Then don’t Ever Return Again 

In order to take Ig back home to Japan, I went through Eduardo Gomez International Airport. However, when I got there, I was taken aside and spent the whole day being thoroughly interrogated about Ig, who had severe signs of abuse. Her whole body was covered in bruises and scars, both fresh and new ones. She had obvious bald patches from her fur being ripped out, possible bone fractures, and a right foot that was broken and then never set properly. She also had an unusually light weight, even taking into consideration her small body size. Truthfully, she’s done well to just stay alive so far.

Eventually, the airport staff stopped questioning me and let me go. I was relieved, though when I finally reached customs, I had to listen to another staff member reprimand me and go on and on in Portuguese with a scary expression, which made me seriously irritated. In the end, once I managed to explain how I had rescued Ig to a staff member who understood English, I got them to agree to not take Ig away from me, since it was obvious that she was depending on me. At the moment the plane started boarding, they called a veterinarian to administer anesthesia to calm Ig down. Once it was done, I put Ig in a cage along with a shirt that had my smell on it, and then they carried her to the cargo bay.

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After returning to Japan from being abroad for three days, I immediately took Ig to see the veterinarian that Kaburagi-san had introduced me to. For a common marmoset, 9 years old is already the age of an old woman, and she’s been further weakened by injuries that aren’t even related to chronic diseases. I decided to not have surgery done on Ig’s crooked right foot, since I didn’t think she’d be able to endure the physical and mental stress it would cause. The veterinarian gave me some advice, in terms of letting Ig pass the last few years of her life happily, but I think Ig still has a chance. Ig has healing abilities dwelling inside her, after all. It’s a superpower that could potentially surpass modern medical science.

I will not let this monkey’s life end on a sad note. Ig – who has lived a more difficult life as a monkey than anyone at Amaterasu has as a human – has the right to live a long and happy life. Amaterasu is a secret organization that fights the world’s darkness. Society is a part of the world. So there’s nothing wrong with getting rid of the darkness of the orphanage – right? I can at least save one monkey!

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Back at Amanoiwato, Kaburagi-san, who I contacted via international call, had already prepared things like monkey food, insects, fruit, and even sleeping areas and perches. But Ig was incredibly wary of Kaburagi-san. Kaburagi-san had to quickly retreat when Ig bared her teeth and made a warning sound that sounded like an angry bird. Kaburagi-san seemed a little sad about it. I apologize on my child’s behalf. Please forgive her.

Kaburagi-san got in contact with our middle-school students to tell them that Amanoiwato would be closed for about a week. During that time, I nursed Ig back to health. I spent the week feeding her, watching over her attentively, talking to her, and making sure she was at ease. This is important. It’s a different environment and climate from Brazil. Seeing so many new things is probably making her anxious. Ig can only depend on me. I have to stay by her side. I won’t leave her. Even when I’m getting ready to go to bed, Ig will come with me to take a bath and use the toilet, and if I try to separate from her she becomes semi-hysterical and frantically cries and screams. It’s my first experience of having a 9 year-old girl depend on me like this.

I decided to do some research, but while I was reviewing the information I gathered on common marmosets from books and the net, I decided to also start Ig’s superpower training. Moving to a new environment then having to immediately adjust to a new schedule is hard, but it’s what’s necessary. Once she masters her healing ability, we can heal injuries a lot faster and more reliably. She could also use it to restore her strength, re-align her crooked right foot, or even possibly solve the problem of her reduced life span. Before she becomes Amaterasu’s healer, Ig first has to use her healing ability on herself… she has to train her [Healinglycogen​]1.

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To start with, Ig needs to become aware that she has a superpower, and then she needs to actually use it. Superpowers don’t grow unless you use them, after all.

Common marmosets usually live in groups, and have a habit of doing things like grooming each other and licking each other’s injuries. They also try to recover from their injuries by moving around as little as possible. In other words, common marmosets are smart enough to not only recognize when an injury has occurred, but also know how to encourage healing, rather than leave it to natural recovery. They can sense when others are feeling bad or injured, and also have the compassion to help them. Ig’s genetics have given her the necessary characteristics for a healer, all I have to do is figure out how to skillfully incorporate her newly acquired healing abilities into that.

Specifically, I used “Pavlov’s law”2A and “operant conditioning”2B for a two-step training method. Pavlov’s law is for developing conditional reflexes. Pavlov used the following procedure to condition dogs to produce a certain response.

A bell was rung
At the same time, food was put in front of the dog. This caused the dog to drool.
Repeat steps 1 & 2 (the process is called conditioning)
Eventually, when the bell is rung, the dog will start to drool even if there’s no food present
If you listen to the background music from a climactic scene in a movie, you’ll remember the excitement of it; or you’re scared of water because you almost drowned in the ocean; everyone has experiences like that. Roughly speaking, those follow the same concept3.

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When I massage Ig, I stroke her head, and when I give her her pain medicine, I gently stroke her Healinglycogen with my psychokinesis. Because I’m not trying to rip off a piece, there’s no pain. But she definitely can feel it being touched. At first, Ig was surprised by the strange sensation, but by repeating it again and again, she gradually became used to the timing of when I did and didn’t stroke Healinglycogen.

Thus, within Ig, “Healinglycogen = a feeling of being at ease” conditioning was born. While she was becoming more and more aware of the existence of her Healinglycogen, she was simultaneously recognizing that it was a good thing. Since I can’t explain it to her using human speech, I have to use such a roundabout method. I wonder if monkey trainers also teach their monkeys using a similar method?

Once Ig became aware of the existence of Healinglycogen, she next has to understand what it is and how to use it. I used operant conditioning for this. Roughly speaking, it’s using praise to develop her abilities. When Ig uses her healing ability, I’ll praise her and give her a reward. If I do it like that, then Ig will want to use her healing powers even more so she gets rewarded again. The more she uses her healing powers, the more I reward her. The more I reward her, the more she wants to use her healing powers. This feedback loop uses positive reinforcement to encourage her to use her healing abilities. I want to get her to eventually reach the point where if someone is injured, she’ll immediately use her healing ability on them. For that, it’s probably a good idea for me to create various signals with different meanings, like ones for “cure” or “hand” or “wait”.

If I touch Ig’s original source of superpowers, she notices and instantly becomes eager to use it. If she quickly uses her ability after I touch Healinglycogen, I make sure to praise her. However, I don’t know how to get Ig to use her healing abilities to actually heal herself or others. If the ability is based on self-healing, I’m not sure if it’s possible to expand it to apply healing to others. If the ability is based on healing others, then it may not be good for healing herself. Since there’s insufficient data, it’s difficult for me to fully analyze the extent of Ig’s healing abilities from touching Healinglycogen.

Ig already has injuries from being abused. If her healing ability is based on self-healing, then it should kick in once she begins using it freely. If she starts to feel better after using her healing ability, I’ll no longer need to use operant conditioning. However, if her healing ability is based on healing others, I’ll have to train her to use it in response to a trigger.

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I temporarily dissolved the psychokinetic barrier around my fingertip, then made a “mistake” while cooking and cut it.

“AAHHHH! IT HURTS! OWWWWWWWW! I’M GONNA DIE! WAAAHHHHHH!”

I over-exaggerated how much pain I was in. Ig became confused and chattered, *chichichichichi*, while coming down from my shoulder. She squeezed my cut finger as hard as possible. There was no change in Healinglycogen. She wasn’t using her healing abilities.

Ig, your response was incorrect. It’s the wrong answer… but thanks anyway.

After that, I “accidentally” jammed by pinkie toe on the corner of a chest of drawers; “carelessly” slipped on the stairs and landed hard on my ass; and “inadvertently” burned my hand by touching a hot frying pan. But though Ig seemed to be trying very hard each time, she just couldn’t use her healing abilities. Well, it’s fine. It’s fine. After all, Ig grooms my hair every night before bed, so I know that she cares about me. She has the right idea. She’s just doing it wrong…

I have no choice but to take my time training Ig to respond to the trigger. If I try to force it, it won’t go well. Once she uses her healing ability I can continue training her, but I’ll have to put it on hold until then.

Footnotes:

1: ヒーリングリコーゲン = Healing + glycogen = Healinglycogen

2A: Pavlov’s law (also known as classical conditioning) ⇒ Simply Psychology: Pavlov

2B: Operant conditioning states that different consequences have different effects on behavior, and that “reinforcement” can increase the likelihood of behaviors being repeated ⇒ Simply Psychology: Operant Conditioning

3: If you still don’t understand Pavlov’s law, when I was studying for my psych major, my professors liked to use this clip from the TV show “The Office” to explain it ⇒ YouTube: “The Office: Classical Conditioning”