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In all twelve years of his life, all Masaki Osoto wanted was to feel seen by his parents.
At school, he would study diligently, keeping mostly to himself and reading his textbooks instead of hanging out with other children. It's not like he didn't have friends, in fact he did take a liking to some of his classmates. But unlike them, he didn't have the chance to play after classes or chat idly during breaks.
At home, he would have piano lessons from professionals his parents had hired. It wasn’t easy, but he would try his best to learn so he could show his parents an impressive performance. They didn't have a lot of free time, after all. Their eyes were always glued to something else, and so he wanted to make it matter when they did have their eyes on him, no matter how brief.
All he wanted was to see them smile. Each time, he hoped they would.
And each time, he was met with the same nonchalant look in their faces.
On that fateful afternoon however, Masaki held his head high, hopeful for how his parents would react. He had gotten a perfect score on a test in one of his more difficult classes, and he beamed with pride at how far he'd gotten.
But once he showed them, they acted like it was nothing.
They looked at him like they always did, with an expression of indifference. Somehow it felt even worse than the looks of disappointment he had gotten when he had lower scores, because at least then he thought he could still impress them if he tried harder.
Masaki walked away from his parents, slowly and calmly, as if nothing had happened. Once he reached his room, he tore the paper in his hands. In a way, it was relieving, but it wasn’t enough.
He needed to break something. Gazing around the room, hands shaking and feeling lightheaded, his eyes landed on the little feathered creature in a cage, chirping happily. A sick feeling was welling up inside him. Something vile and putrid.
“Pi-chan, why don’t we go for a stroll?” He approached the cage, opening the door and letting the bird step onto his hand. He held it gently at first, smoothing out its feathers as he walked out into the garden. The sun was still high in the sky and the heat made him feel dizzier. He held the bird tighter, picking up a sharp-edged rock the size of his hand. He knelt on the grass.
Under his shadow, the bird was struggling to escape his grip. He held the rock high above his head and was about to slam it down when—
“Ow!”
A pebble hit him on the shoulder. He lost his grip on the bird in surprise, letting it escape and fly away. The sickening feeling slowly dissipated.
Masaki turned around to see a lilac-haired girl staring at him through the garden fence and holding another pebble. She was tiny, much shorter than him and probably younger too. She was wearing a simple violet dress, a bit muddied at the hem. “What was that for?”
“You were going to hurt it,” the girl replied.
“It’s none of your business,” Masaki stood up, dusting bits of grass off his clothes and turning to go back inside the house. It's not like she would understand how he felt. “Now go away, or I’ll tell my parents that Pi-chan flew away because of you.”
“Pi-chan…” the girl repeated, before running off away from his house without another word.
In truth, he was relieved that the bird had gotten away. He was afraid of what he could have done otherwise. He let out a sigh as he entered the house and closed the door behind him.
He thought it would be the last time he’d see her, but the girl returned the following day.
This time though, she was carrying something with her, a small stuffed toy that looked like a platypus. “Hiya.”
Masaki approached the fence this time, a bit cautiously. He didn’t want to get hit again. “What are you doing here? I told you to go away, didn’t I?”
“I brought you Pi-chan,” she said, holding out the stuffed animal she held in her hands.
“That’s not Pi-chan.” He crossed his arms. “That’s not even a bird, it’s a mammal.”
“Sure. But you can hit it as much as you want.”
Masaki stared at her, dumbfounded.
She stared back, unblinking. Her expression was impossible to read. “Take it. Sorry about your bird.”
“Thanks, but I don’t need it. I can always ask my parents for a toy if I wanted.”
She squeezed the toy, and it made a squeaky noise. “But Pi-chan wants to play with you.”
To be frank, Masaki had zero interest in the stuffed animal. But the girl who held it was strange, and a small part of him was curious. “I have things to do today. You can bring Pi-chan tomorrow.”
The girl tilted her head. “Really?”
“Yes, but… I don’t know if Mom and Dad would want a visitor.” He never really asked them, but he worried that they might not want her around. After all, everything about him had to be perfect, including the people he associated with.
“It’s okay, we can meet up here. The three of us can be secret friends.” She brought up her hand in a peace sign.
“...Sure.”
Masaki was about to head back inside, but he reached out his hand between the gaps in the fence. “Masaki Osoto, by the way.”
“Neko Tsukahara.” She shook it.
—
The girl, Neko, came back the next day, as they agreed upon. Pi-chan the platypus was always in her arms too. It became a regular occurence — an odd pair meeting up by a garden fence under the shade of a tree. Masaki lay against the trunk, piles of books beside him, while Neko sat leaning against the fence, scanning the scattered papers on the grass on the other side. There wasn’t really much they could do being separated by a fence, but Neko didn’t seem to mind.
“Wow,” Neko whistled as she looked at his test papers. “Someone’s a smarty-pants.”
A pang. “Not smart enough,” he muttered.
“Hah? Are you kidding?” Neko looked like she was about to throw a book at him. “That’s like double my score in my last quiz. And sixth grade lessons look way scarier.”
“They’re not all hard, but sometimes I just don’t understand some things,” Masaki sighed.
“Well, it’s just a few mistakes. I don’t think it matters.”
“Not for you, maybe. To my parents it makes all the difference.”
He didn’t mean to say that. He had no reason to. She was just a random kid who didn’t know better, after all.
A brief silence. For a second, he was about to pretend that he never said anything, but a loud squeaking noise came right after.
“Pi-chan thinks they’re stupid for that.”
Masaki chuckled, despite himself, perhaps because of how ridiculously she said it. “They aren’t. They just want what’s best for me.”
Neko looked at him dubiously, but didn’t say another word. Not that she had to. He knew he said it more to convince himself than Neko.
“I could help you with your lessons if you’d want,” he offered, mostly to change the topic.
“Thanks, but I’ll pass for now.”
“You’re just lazy.”
“Yep.”
His parents probably wouldn’t like Neko Tsukahara.
But he did.
—
"Do you live nearby?"
A picnic blanket was laid on the grass, with a variety of snacks laid out. The pair had talked about having a potluck-style picnic where they would both bring food and share them. Masaki brought tea and freshly-baked cupcakes. Neko brought carbonated sodas that she was probably too young for, as well as a half eaten sandwich. Masaki didn’t mind.
"A bus ride away,” Neko replied, munching on a cupcake. “But my school is nearby, and there’s a playground just around the corner. It’s where my parents pick me up.”
So that’s why she’s always here, Masaki thought.
“Hey, wanna come play there?” she asked.
He shook his head, picking up a soda. It was refreshing to drink under the afternoon sun. “I’m way too old for that.” He hadn’t gone there as a little kid much either.
“You’re like twelve.”
“Case in point, none of my friends my age would go there anymore.”
“Then we can go in the late afternoon, when most of the kids have already gone home."
Masaki thought it over a bit. “Wouldn’t you have gone home by then as well?”
“I can tell my parents we have school activities after classes so they could fetch me a bit later.”
“You’re a bad influence, you know that?”
“Hey, it’s not my fault you’re such a goody-two-shoes.”
“I am not.”
“Then are you in or are you in?” she pestered.
Masaki shook his head in exasperation. “Just this once.”
The girl immediately perked up. “Yippee!” She squeezed Pi-chan as well.
“There may be a slight problem though,” Masaki glanced towards his house. “I doubt my parents would allow me to play outside instead of doing more productive things.”
“Then Operation: Sneak Osoto-san Out shall commence!”
“You’re an idiot. ...What’s the plan?”
—
As it turned out, sneaking out wasn’t much of a problem. Neko pretended to be some kind of ninja, spying on the house as Masaki walked carefully to the front gate. She initially suggested he climb over the fence, but he refused, telling her it could have been dangerous. As soon as they closed the gate, the pair took off running as fast as they could, laughing when they were finally far enough not to be caught.
Once they reached the playground, Neko had the most bizarre ideas, and Masaki wasn’t surprised. She would scale the slides and climb them instead of using the ladder, try to swing Pi-chan the platypus without letting it fall off, and throw sand at Masaki’s face. He chased her with a whole bucket for revenge.
Truth be told though, it was the most fun he’d had in ages.
As the sun sunk lower in the sky, painting the sky a blazing orange and red hue, Masaki grew tired and sat on one of the lower monkey bars.
Neko, still full of energy for some reason Masaki couldn’t comprehend, dashed up the monkey bars. Despite looking frail, she moved quickly and was agile enough to climb it easily. She sat on top proudly and looked down on him, like it was some kind of throne.
They sat in silence for a while in the golden light, catching their breaths, until Neko spoke up.
"Do you believe in destiny?"
"That's a terribly cheesy question."
“That’s a terribly boring answer.”
Masaki shot her a look, but she just raised her eyebrows. “Well?”
“I don’t think so. I think everything that happens is just a coincidence.” After all, he didn’t want to think he was destined to be the average son of two geniuses. It would have been too cruel. “What about you?”
“Oh, I thought it was a stupid question?”
“Shut up.”
Neko snickered. “I don’t know.”
“Then why did you ask it in the first place?”
She shrugged. “I was just curious. And I learned the word in school yesterday.”
“Ah, that explains.”
“But if it did exist,” she continued, “I think it would be cool if we could change our destiny.”
Masaki looked at her in surprise, not expecting she could say something insightful. He wondered what kind of destiny was laid out for him, if it did exist.
Their conversation was interrupted as a middle-aged woman called out Neko’s name.
“Well, that’s my cue,” she said, but just as Masaki expected her to jump down, she hung upside down from one of the bars and stopped in front of him.
He froze in place. His brain didn’t have time to process when she placed Pi-chan the stuffed toy upside down in his hands, or how close she was. Just as quickly, she swung back up and jumped down beside him.
“See you,” she stuck her tongue out and ran to her mom across the playground.
Masaki stood wordlessly under the setting sun, watching them walk away, before he turned and headed back to his own house. Holding the toy in his hands, he felt oddly light.
—
The scenario he walked into at home was the opposite of pleasant.
Masaki knew something was wrong as soon as he entered the door. His mom and dad, usually too busy doing something else to even notice his presence, had all eyes on him.
“Where have you been?” his father asked in a tone that made him flinch.
Masaki looked at his feet. “I’m sorry, I was just… out with a friend. I didn’t mean to worry you and Mom—”
“You were supposed to have piano lessons today, and you missed it,” his mother added.
Masaki balled his hands into fists. That’s what they were concerned about? Not even their own son missing? The vile, putrid feeling started taking over him again, from his stomach to his lungs, suffocating him. He was tired of keeping it in. He needed to let it out.
Tears of anger welled up in his eyes, threatening to fall as he ran into his room, ignoring the shouts of his parents telling him to come back and slamming the door, sitting on the floor with his back against it. He needed to break something.
His gaze landed on the very thing he held — Pi-chan. He had gotten away before, but Neko did say he could hit this one as much as he wanted.
He thought about the various things he could do. He could punch it. He could throw it. He could tear it to bits with a pair of scissors. He could hit it with a rock over and over. He could stab it with a knife.
He could. He could.
But he pulled it near his chest and wrapped it in his arms, burying his face and letting his tears seep into the soft fur-like fabric. Its subtle scent reminded him of Neko, and somehow that calmed him down just a little.
—
Time flew by quickly, and more than a decade later, Masaki Osoto found himself sitting in his very own office as a private detective.
He specialized in solving criminal cases, and today he was working on a case about a phantom killer. He found that he could easily understand the murderer’s behavior in a deeper sense than what he had studied, and he wondered if he could have been on the other side of the investigation under different circumstances.
He thought back to the day when he almost killed a pet and met an odd girl in the neighborhood.
Someone who can change destiny is the right destiny.
Did she change his destiny? He wondered what path he could have taken if he didn’t meet her that day.
How much would have been different? Would he still have known her?
“Oi, what are you thinking about? You’re being spacey.”
An annoying voice snapped Osoto out of his thoughts. He looked up at the girl with lilac hair and dead fish-like eyes, wearing the same uniform as him.
“Nothing,” Osoto waved. “I was just trying to figure out if we have any new leads.”
Recently, his parents had met this young man named Atori. They adored him, and sometimes Osoto still felt the urge to break something, and maybe someday he would. But Neko always arrived, and the feelings dissipated whenever she was around.
She came into his life when he was on the verge of breaking. And for some reason, she stuck around.
“Well, are there?”
“Nope.”
Neko groaned. “We’ll never get anywhere with this. Why don’t we go to a café for a bit and brainstorm?”
“Your treat?”
“Of course not! You know what, whoever makes less progress next time has to pay.”
“That would be you, Tsukahara-san.”
Neko started protesting after that, and there was no one who could stop her when she started blabbering, even as they walked out of the building and into the streets. But Osoto didn’t mind.
After everything, she was his fate.