Nanako overflowed with happiness. During the previous day, one of big bro's friends, Kanji Tatsumi, had invited her to see his collection of plushies. If you fancy one of 'em, he had said, I'll make you one like it.

She walked from her house to the Textile Shop, entering it without further ado – since it was a store, there was no need to ring a doorbell. Kanji's mother greeted her with a smile and took her to their house, at the back of the shop.

"Yo, Nanako!"

The little girl barely heard Kanji's welcome; she was too absorbed by the various plushies in the room. So many, and so pretty!

"Hello, Kanji-kun," she said, sounding less shy after being exposed to his collection.

One of them, a super cute yellow rabbit resting on top of Kanji's bed, caught her eye.

"Can I touch it?" she asked, pointing at said plushie.

"Hands off!" Kanji growled as his eyes flashed dangerously.

"Waaaaah!" Nanako blubbered, taken aback by the sudden display of aggressiveness.

Kanji's eyes lost their fire, and he looked down at his feet.

"Huh, I mean… I'm sorry, Nanako-chan…" he pleaded softly.

"It's… it's ok," the girl guaranteed, having regained her composure. She beamed in order to reassure him.

The young man sat on the bed, and patted the spot next to him, signaling Nanako. She understood, and sat there.

"Y'see, that plushie's very important to me… Care to hear me out?"

Nanako said yes, and Kanji told her his story.

When Mrs. Tatsumi became pregnant, both future parents were exhilarant. They decided that each one of them would gift their child one thing they made by themselves. Mr. Tatsumi settled with knitting a plushie from scratch.

Having a job and the ambition of knitting something great required that he carried out an early start. Because of that, there was no way to know if the unborn child would be male or female ahead of time. In order to solve that issue, he went with an animal that would work for both sexes: a yellow rabbit. Boys and girls alike loved the adorableness of rabbits, and yellow was a cute colour everyone could appreciate.

For the next few months, whenever some free time was available, Mr. Tatsumi would work on knitting the plushie.

At last, on the day his boy, Kanji, came home from the nursery, Mr. Tatsumi gave him his first gift, the yellow rabbit plushie. Since then, Kanji treasured it, even more so following the passing of his father.

"Oooh, I see!" Nanako exclaimed whilst she clapped her hands, "This rabbit is like your guardian!"

Kanji cast a swift smirk and patted Nanako's head.

"A guardian… do you think… he's still watching me?" he wondered.

Nanako nodded with a smile on her lips.

" 's a nice way to look at things…" Kanji admitted, "Hmm… want a rabbit like that one?"

Nanako nodded again. This time, both she and Kanji were smiling strongly.