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“Osomatsu-San, are you in need of our assistance?”
“Is there something that is troubling you?”
Osomatsu jumped as he was pulled from his thoughts by the Rice Balls. Of course out of all times they would start to pay attention to him, they’d choose this exact moment. They’d been ignoring him for weeks, and now they had the nerve to stare him down with that generic expression they always wore and ask him if he was ok?
‘ So much for handling things alone. Damn A.I.’
“We are more than happy to help with anything causing you distress, Osomatsu-San” Ume spoke up, probably trying to get a response from him. Osomatsu did his best to ignore them, as he was hoping that they’d leave so he’d have the house to himself once again. Had it been any other time he’d jump on the opportunity to use the Rice Balls to his heart’s content. However, it wasn’t any other time, it was a time where he let himself break down a bit; let any anger or sadness he’d been bottling up out so he could repeat the process again in a few weeks once he was alone in the house again.
Was it healthy? Probably not, but better than taking it out on anyone.
“Osomatsu-”
“What’s with the sudden want for my attention? What happened to you two giving me the cold shoulder?” Osomatsu spat out, cutting off Shake. It came out a lot more harsh than he meant it to, but in his defense it’s not like he was in any mood to talk to anyone, let alone the two robots that have been ghosting him for a while.
The two A.I. looked at each other for a second before Ume responded, “It is our duty to make your lives easier, and according to the analysis of your behavior, it seems as if there is something making you more reserved and anxious. This isn’t the behavior you exhibited when we first interacted, and as such is a cause for concern”
They were actually able to tell he was feeling pretty shitty this past week? He’d thought he was hiding it pretty well.
‘Technology is terrifying…’
Shake continued from Ume’s last statement. “We are made to provide any type of assistance you may need, as long as it doesn’t inflict harm to yourself or anyone else.”
Osomatsu pondered a bit, thinking about the pros and cons to accepting the Rice Ball’s help. On one hand, it would probably be significantly better than spending his time crying or breaking/punching whatever to vent his frustrations. On the other hand the possibility of one of the A.I.s telling anyone about what he’d tell them...that would be hell.
‘ Perhaps if I commanded them to keep their mouths shut,or made them delete anything relating to what I tell them…’
“Alright, since you wanna know my secrets so badly, I guess I’m gonna have to tell you...” Osomatsu started. “...BUT you’re gonna have to keep this to yourselves, you can’t tell anyone about my issues, got it? Pretend that you never even heard them and ignore me afterwards if you need to.”
The Rice Balls nodded in agreement, giving confirmation that they were gonna do as he said.
‘Here goes nothing, I guess’
“Alright, I guess let’s start with why I’ve been acting weird lately,” Osomatsu took a quick breath and collected his thoughts. “It’s kinda become a normal thing; honestly didn’t think you’d notice, no one else has yet. Whenever I know I have the house to myself I just kinda...let go I guess? Like, I just let any bad emotions I’ve been keeping inside escape. Does that make sense?” Osomatsu waited for the Rice Balls to answer before he continued.
“Is there a reason you do this?”
“Is this for therapeutic purposes?”
Osomatsu sighed. He really didn’t want to explain because that would require him thinking about why he even did any of this in the first place, but he was already this far, might as well give them the reason.
“Well, I started doing this around the time my brothers came back after moving out the first time. I didn’t handle things well, it was kinda my fault they all left. Yeah they came back in the end, but I still basically chased them off after Choromatsu left...” He trailed off near the end. Remembering that moment wasn’t particularly something Osomatsu enjoyed doing even by himself, but explaining it really hit home how awful he was back then.
‘Not that I’m much better now, but at least i'm not lashing out as much, i guess…’
Shake raised their hand to speak. “, So you perform this isolation at home as a coping mechanism?”
“Well, yeah, I guess,” Osomatsu responded. “, I mean I’m not supposed to bother my younger brothers with my problems. I’m the eldest, I should be handling this myself. And even if I did tell them, how are they going to respond? It’s my fault I shouldn’t be making them feel bad. And, in the situation where they don’t feel guilty about anything, I don’t wanna deal with them mocking me for my issues.”
“So you bottle your feelings up to prevent your brothers from ever knowing. Does that mean you bottle your feelings up around your parents as well?” Ume questioned, with Osomatsu quickly giving an answer.
“Of course, do you really think I could tell them about this kind of thing? I’m fully aware I already burden them enough with being a NEET, so why add something else for them to worry about,” He paused a second, thinking about how his parents would react to him telling them about any of his issues.
‘Would they even care? Would they just blame him for it? What would they even say? Would they rather he-’
“-somatsu-San?”
Right, he was still talking to the Rice Balls, he should continue. “Sorry, got sidetracked. Anyways, yeah, I can’t really talk to anyone. Not like I have anyone closer I can tell these things to. That’s why when I have the house to myself I let myself cry things out or punch a wall or something. Get whatever I need out so I can ensure I don’t let any of it come up when I’m around anyone else.”
The Rice Balls suddenly zoned out, as if they were performing some sort of process. Osomatsu sat back and watched their lights flash as they did their thing. After a few minutes the two stood up. Ume moving Shake’s tie out of the way to show their screen.
“According to our analysis of this conversation, it is determined you may be suffering from depression.”
Osomatsu was dumbfounded. “You’re...saying i'm depressed?” The Rice Balls nodded.
“It would be advised you seek professional help-”
“No way I can afford that. Therapists are expensive and so are meds”. Osomatsu quickly dismissed the idea he should see a therapist. There was no way he was actually depressed? Right? He wasn’t like Ichimatsu, he didn’t want to die or anything. It was just him being selfish and unreasonable.
Right?
“It would be best advised you seek professional help as this may negatively impact your well being. We can give you some numbers to call for further assistance.” The two robots spoke in unison, as if trying to beg Osomatsu to take their advice. “Our duty is to make sure your life is as easy as possible, and making sure you don’t cause yourself any harm falls under that duty”
Osomatsu sighed, as he honestly didn’t want to argue with the A.I.s about whether or not he had depression or anything. “Alright, here’s what we’ll do. As I said you can’t tell anyone about what I said, but since you two are so persistent on me getting help, how about every other week or so we have another conversation like this. Easy therapy!” He waited patiently for their response, hoping it would be enough for them to drop the topic.
“Very well, Osomatsu-San. We shall have a meeting every other week to talk about your troubles.”
“Great,” Osomatsu perked up “, it’s settled. Now you two go bother Choromatsu or whoever. I still want my alone time!” He made a shooing motion towards the pair to indicate he was done with them for the time being.
The Rice Balls saluted “Understood.” They turned and began to walk away, but stopped at the door and asked one final question.
“Osomatsu-San, are you happy?”
He didn’t bother to turn to them, he just flatly responded with “What do you think?”
With that, the robots took their leave.