"Mou, Oishi, look look! Isn't this one cute?"
How could a fish be cute? Especially this fish; it was an odd off-brown colour with long droopy whiskers, curiously examining Eiji's nose from a few centimetres away. The fish blinked.
"Ne ne, don't you think it looks like buchou?"
Oishi choked.
--
At the other end of the garden centre, Fuji was poking absent-mindedly at a cactus. "Tezuka?"
"Yes?"
Fuji twisted the cactus round on its table. It was a dark green, with sparse, drooping spikes, two hanging just below its crown. "Does this – remind you of anything?"
Tezuka sneezed. "No."