The Aquarium

It was just another mid-May evening, with Chihiro stopping by Itsuki’s place to drop off some food from the supermarket and finding him preparing to leave.

“Oh, are you going somewhere?”

“Yeah. To the aquarium.”

“Oh? Now?” a surprised Chihiro replied.

“Yeah. I’m writing a scene set in an aquarium, but I wanted to see the real thing first.”

“Didn’t you go to one in Okinawa?”

Chihiro still had the whale-shark charm Itsuki bought for him at the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium dangling from his smartphone.

“Churaumi was a little too fancy for the aquarium I’m trying to depict here. I wanna see something more, you know, pedestrian.”

“Pedestrian…? That’s kinda rude.” Chihiro laughed. “An aquarium, though, huh? That’s neat…”

Itsuki hesitated a bit at the sight of Chihiro’s apparent envy.

“…Well, wanna come with me?”

“Can I?”

“Sure.”

“Let’s!”

His broad smile made Itsuki’s own face flush for some reason.

Once Chihiro had loaded up the cooler with ingredients, the pair headed for the train station.

“…You know, Bro, I don’t think we’ve gone out together like this before.”

“…You’re right. I guess not.” Itsuki awkwardly nodded as Chihiro’s cheeks grew warm.

The two of them had been stepbrothers for three years now. For a while just after his father remarried, Itsuki was spending most of his time holed up in his room, not wanting to look at his new mother, his new younger brother, and (least of all) his father. He’d just spend his days in the high-school library, studying or writing novels, or hanging out reading stuff in the bookstore until late. He never even ate with his family, and he kept conversations with them to the bare minimum necessary.

Chihiro, for his part, was making a bit of an effort to keep his distance from Itsuki, perhaps out of respect for his new brother. When Itsuki began living alone, however, Chihiro began coming over—and that improved things a lot between them. Itsuki never had anything against him, really—in terms of being forced to have a new family out of nowhere, they were both in the same boat—so while it was a bit awkward at first, it wasn’t uninvited. And as they played games together and Chihiro read his books, the two of them broke the ice.

Now they had built the relationship to the point where they were pretty much just like brothers…they thought. To Itsuki, at least, Chihiro and only Chihiro was a valued member of the Hashima family.

They got onto a train, heavily crowded with evening commuters. They were crammed against each other on their feet. Itsuki couldn’t help but notice that Chihiro was blushing all the way to his ears.

“…You all right? Your face is pretty red.”

“I—I’m fine,” he replied, face turned down. “Just a little cramped…”

The sun was already down by the time they reached the aquarium, but they still made it during opening hours.

The place didn’t have any unique crowd-pleasers like the whale shark at Churaumi Aquarium, but there were lots of fish on exhibit in assorted amusing habitats, along with a walk-in glass tunnel through the water, a tank with jellyfish glowing in beautiful colors, and a lot of other impressive attractions. All the events—the feedings, the dolphin shows—were done for the day, but that thinned out the crowds enough that they could take their time with the exhibits.

“Wow… Pretty amazing…”

Chihiro’s eyes shone as he peered into a large tank filled with all kinds of fish big and small.

“Ooh, look, Bro! That’s an iwashi, a Japanese pilchard! I cooked a couple of those the other day! With the hamburger steak, remember?”

“Oh, yeah. That was good.”

“That giant bluefin tuna’s pretty amazing, too… I couldn’t guess how many servings you could make from that. And look how big that sea bream is, too! Wowww… Ahh, and a flounder! And a shark, too! I’d love to cook up a shark someday. There sure are a lot of fish I don’t know, too… Wonder how you could eat them…”

Itsuki grinned as he warmly watched Chihiro.

“You just treat them all like recipe ingredients, don’t you?”

It was just past closing time by the time they stepped out—Chihiro all smiles, and Itsuki feeling a little satisfied himself.

“Boy, that was fun!”

“Sure was.”

Chihiro gave his brother a concerned look. “But that was for your novel, right? I hope I wasn’t in the way of that.”

“No, you’re fine. In fact, I think I got some nice material thanks to you.”

This made Chihiro give him a funny look. “Material?”

“Yeah.”

It was funny to Itsuki, the idea of someone going to the aquarium and seeing every exhibit as tomorrow’s dinner. He could have the novel’s heroine carry on like Chihiro just did, or maybe use the joke to establish a brand-new character.

“…That, and I’m glad to see you get really passionate about something.”

Chihiro’s cheeks turned red all over again. “Oh…I mean, you haven’t really taken me anywhere much before, so…”

“…Yeah.” Itsuki fell silent for a few seconds. “…Well, why don’t we do it again soon? Forget all about novel research for a bit.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

“Wow. Thanks! I’ll hold you to that.”

“Sure,” Itsuki replied, eyes averted out of embarrassment as a smile blossomed on Chihiro’s face.

Before long, they were back at the aquarium’s nearby rail station.

“It’s pretty late, Bro, so I’m gonna go home. I’ll be over tomorrow to make dinner, okay?”

“Yep.”

But when they reached the turnstile, they found it packed to the gills with people.

“…Is something up?”

“Hmm…”

They listened to the station’s PA system. Apparently, the trains on the line the station served were stopped due to someone on the tracks, and it’d be a “little while” until they were up and running again.

“How long is a ‘little while,’ do you think?”

“Who knows…? Probably not five or ten minutes, at least.”

Itsuki thought for a bit.

“All right, let’s take a taxi.”

He immediately turned on his heels, but Chihiro was still focused on the information board. “C’mon, let’s go.”

“Huh? Me too?”

“This ought to be enough to cover you, right?”

Itsuki took a 10,000-yen bill out of his pocket, offering it to him.

“Oh, n-no, I… I can wait for the train to start again, so…”

“…But then you’re gonna be home late. And it’ll be super-crowded.”

“It’s fine!”

“Mmh…”

It would’ve felt super-awkward to leave Chihiro alone and take a taxi home by himself. But he didn’t want to wait for a train when they had no idea when it would be arriving. So Itsuki brought up a map on his phone, checking their current location relative to his place and his family’s house. It was about twenty minutes’ driving back to where Chihiro lived, and while it wouldn’t exactly be the quickest way, both residences were in more or less the same direction.

He sighed.

“…All right. It’s on the way. You should ride along with me.”

“…!”

Chihiro looked surprised for a moment. Then he nodded his “yes” with unbridled enthusiasm.

Inside the taxi, the two of them bonded by talking about stuff from the aquarium.

“What did you like apart from the edible fish?”

“Hmm… Maybe the jellyfish. They were beautiful. Really cute, too.”

“Yeah, the jelly exhibit was pretty neat.”

“The spotted garden eels were cute, too!”

“Those eels…? Yeah, given the visuals, I bet Kanikou would love them.”

Itsuki grinned a bit at his memory of the eels, poking their heads out from the sand.

“Maybe…”

Chihiro’s expression hardened a bit. Itsuki didn’t notice.

“You know, when I went with her to the zoo, all she focused on were the genitals of the pandas and kangaroos and stuff. She’s a total embarrassment.”

“R-really…? Wow…” Chihiro blushed. “It’s weird to think of a girl saying all that…vulgar kind of stuff.”

“Yeah.” Itsuki nodded. “You aren’t wrong there. But I kind of like it, you know? A girl who can get as low-down and vulgar as I can.”

“Hmm…” Chihiro frowned a bit at this. “So do you like people like Kani, Itsuki?”

“N-not like that, no…”

Itsuki turned his reddened face toward the window. The view outside was starting to become familiar. Before long, the taxi made its stop at a three-story residence in a quiet neighborhood—not a massive lot, but still boasting a little garden and garage. “HASHIMA” was carved into a stainless-steel plate on the wall.

This was the house Itsuki was raised in, currently occupied by his father, stepmother, and stepbrother. He gave it a resentful glare. It was the first time he had ever been back since he started living alone.

“…You wanna stay over tonight, maybe? They kept your room exactly how you left it…”

“Nah, I’m heading back.”

Chihiro’s gingerly posed question was met with an instant reply.

“Oh…” It saddened him, but the smile quickly came back. “Well, thanks for taking me over here!”

And just as Chihiro was about to get out of the taxi, the front door to the Hashima residence opened up, revealing a man inside.

“…!”

Itsuki’s face tightened. The man, recognizing Itsuki inside the car, looked similarly grim. He was in his mid-forties, dressed in a business shirt and slacks; every part of him was thin, and his eyes were sharp and stern. It was Keisuke Hashima, Itsuki’s father, Chihiro’s stepfather.

“Oh, Dad,” Chihiro whispered to himself.

“Tch…”

Itsuki lowered his voice.

“Get out of the car, Chihiro. Hurry up, now.”

“B-but—”

As Chihiro hesitated, Keisuke began briskly marching toward the taxi. “Itsuki,” he called, in a voice that left a harsh impression.

“…………”

Itsuki looked silently at his father, a peeved expression on his face.

Then, out of nowhere, Keisuke said:

“Thanks for the souvenirs.”

It was in a flat, businesslike tone, and it confused Itsuki for a moment.

Come to think of it, when he went to Okinawa and Hokkaido, he did give Chihiro some awamori liquor and some Shiroi Koibito chocolate as a souvenir for the family. That had been over three months ago, so it took a moment to remember.

“…Don’t mention it,” he bluntly replied.

Keisuke didn’t raise an eyebrow in response. He turned around. That was all the business he had. Nothing about whether he enjoyed eating or drinking it. Just a quick word of thanks, out of pure duty—that was how it came across.

“H-hey, Dad! You haven’t seen him in a while; why don’t you talk with him a bit—?”

Keisuke ignored Chihiro as he walked back to his house.

“Ugh…”

With a saddened sigh, Chihiro turned back toward his brother.

“…Well, see you tomorrow, Bro.”

“…Yeah.”

He got out of the taxi, the door closing behind him. Itsuki gave the driver the address to his apartment, and the car sped off. Looking behind him, he could see Chihiro watching him go, a look of anguish on his face.