Every day, they sat in this place.

"Thanks again, Misaki!"

"No problem! Come again!"

Every. Single. Day.

Bells jingled as the fisherman left the little fishing shop, exchanging smiles and waves with the cheery shopkeeper girl. Hemingway, the shop was named - the place where the alien boy and his friends often visited and mapped out their plans to catch a mysterious "big fish" in the oceans of Enoshima. Their mission was to find out the alien's true plan and stop it, but lately, well, someone had been getting sidetracked.

"Are those the new Twin Power reels?"

"Oh, yes. The Ci4 4000SFA, the newest model incorporating advanced Ci4 technology-"

"Let me see."

Akira stood up from the table and strode over to the box beside Misaki, observing the reels with intense interest. Meanwhile, Tapioca, his trusty duck sidekick (boss), had been dispensed from the human's arms and onto the floor, completely forgotten.

It wasn't right.

They were supposed to be focusing on their mission, supposed to be tracking the alien and company right now - but instead they were here, mucking around with such frivolous things as fishing rods and shiny new reels. Where Akira's fascination with such things originated was a mystery, and Tapioca couldn't care less. Whatever the reason, they were wasting valuable time, and he would stand for none of it.

Tapioca honked at his human, but Akira was too immersed in shiny-new-reel fascination to take the slightest notice. It was just plain rude.

Tapioca honked again, and again Akira divided none of his attention (what a stupid human) - but he did receive an unexpected answer from the opposite side of the store. It was a hiss.

He turned, and behind him was a massive, fat, orange cat, giving him quite the scowl.

Tapioca did not like the look he was receiving, so he hacked out a harsh quack at the cat to chase it off. It didn't budge, but started again to hiss, its hair standing on end and its back arched in a curve. What a stupid, cocky cat; it thought it could frighten Tapioca off.

Well, two can play at this game.

Tapioca fluffed out his feathers and opened his wings, staging himself for a showdown. The cat may have been a monstrosity in girth, but it looked so fat and slow, Tapioca was certain he could take it on in a fight if the match got ugly. Besides, he had wings, and his trusty human who would surely help him-

"These are the ones with the tri-drag system, right?"

"That's right! This series of reels are the only ones in the world to have three drag systems on a single reel -"

Forget Akira.

Tapioca gave one final honk, warning the cat of the evil it was about to unleash upon itself. The cat arched even higher and Tapioca spread his wings wide, and in the blink of an eye, they pounced.

The next few seconds were spent in a flurry of fur and feathers, the clash of claw and beak as the cat snagged off a couple of Tapioca's feathers and the duck claimed revenge with a sharp peck in the nose. The cat's yowl of agony pierced through the air; its eyes glittered in rage, and it rounded on Tapioca so fast that the bird was nearly knocked off its feet. Tapioca fluttered his wings in a frenzy, trying to deter the cat from laying its final blow - he could feel the hot, fishy breath of his foe on his neck. He kept his eyes on the sway of the cat's tail, watching and waiting, maneuvering just enough to come within reach of the long stretch of orange fur. It swayed towards him, just inches away from his beak, now centimeters, and then -

"Boss!"

"Tapioca!"

Suddenly arms were thrown around him, and he was whisked out of the heat of battle - but not before he heard the satisfying yowl of his adversary as he landed his final blow.

Akira held Tapioca tight against him, Tapioca trashing and fighting every step of the way, and struggled to remove the furry tail from the duck's beak. Beside him, Misaki held the cat, soothingly petting its head until it calmed enough to stop struggling. Eventually, the tail was released.

"Ah, they must not like each other..."

Akira sighed and made a slight noise in agreement. He sent a contemptuous glare down to Tapioca - thanks to this dumb duck, his front was covered in feathers and he'd been battered with wings all over.

"Are you okay?"

"Ah," Akira looked up with a surprised smile. "Yes, I'm-"

Misaki bent down to Tapioca's level. "Poor thing, that big cat must have been scary."

Akira's smile dropped. Of course she was talking to the duck.

"He'll be fine," he said curtly. "I think we'll take our leave now."

"Oh, okay. Bye bye, Tapioca!" She waved to Tapioca, and then turned around to scold her cat.

Tapioca could hear Akira grumble as they turned to leave the store, and the grip of his hands got progressively tighter, but Tapioca didn't pay him any mind at all. He was too busy staring down that orange cat, snuggling up in the arms of the shopkeeper girl, playing innocent, until the girl walked away and a pair of slit eyes glared right back at him.

Akira was no longer the only one getting sidetracked.

A/N: First Tsuritama fic FTW! *ahem* Yeah, anyways... This is gonna be a bunch of shorts centered around little Tapioca, because he's awesome and I love him. I haven't been doing fanfiction for a whiiiile and I've never been good at keeping up with multi-chapter fics, but since this one is just a bunch of one-shots, basically, with no real plot, I think I can do it. And I've been in a real Tsuritama loving mood since it started airing, so I'll probably have a lot of inspiration.

Thank you for checking out my story and I hope to see a few who stick with it! :)