Miyagi and I had promised to go somewhere together, but I still couldn’t decide on the right place.

         I wanted it to be enjoyable for her, so I asked if she had anywhere in mind, but she only said she wanted to stay home, and we ended up spending the day together without choosing a destination.

         Home was a place to stay, not a place to go.

         Miyagi always had a way of giving answers that didn’t actually answer the question.

         Because of that, something that would’ve been easy to plan with anyone else ended up getting stuck in the “still deciding on a destination” phase.

         I lay down on the floor, dragged the platypus tissue box toward me, and rested it on my stomach.

         「Do you know of any good places to go?」

         I asked the platypus as I held its little hand.

         The platypus sitting on my stomach was something Miyagi had picked out when we went shopping for an electric kettle together. Staring at its expressionless face, I started thinking that maybe it would be good to choose somewhere with a lot of cute things like it. But the only thing I could imagine was Miyagi immediately saying, “I’m going home,” the moment we arrived. She didn’t seem to dislike cute things, but she’d never admitted to liking them either.

         「Hmm, cute things, huh… platypuses… crocodiles… Oh, what about a zoo?」

         It wasn’t just the platypus tissue box cover—Miyagi had a crocodile one of her own back when we were in high school. And she’d known what borzois were even though I’d never heard of them before. I’d asked her if she liked animals because of that, but she denied it at the time. Still, Miyagi probably did like them.

         She was likely fond of cute things too, but animals were probably what mattered most to her, so a zoo seemed like a pretty decent place to go. Crocodiles weren’t exactly rare at zoos, and seeing a platypus would probably make her really happy.

         But there was one problem—zoos were unbearably hot in the summer. Getting Miyagi to walk around under the scorching sun would be difficult, so somewhere cooler would definitely be better. And honestly, Miyagi would probably turn the idea down immediately, saying it was too hot.

         「… I wonder if there’s anywhere you can see platypuses besides a zoo?」

         I picked up my phone and started searching for places where you could see a platypus indoors.

         But I was quickly met with disappointment.

         「There’s nowhere to see platypuses in Japan at all, let alone indoors, huh.」

         Realizing I was back at square one, I sighed.

         If there wasn’t a single place in Japan where we could see platypuses, then I couldn’t think of any other place that would make Miyagi happy.

         「Platypuses, crocodiles… platypuses, crocodiles… Hmm…」

         I wasn’t trying to play a word association game with myself, but as I stroked the platypus’s head, I searched for something the two had in common.

         Oh, wait.

         Suddenly, I realized what those two things had in common.

         Both platypuses and crocodiles lived near water.

         「An aquarium.」

         Considering how it was related to other things Miyagi liked, it didn’t seem like a bad idea at all.

         Unlike zoos, aquariums were mostly indoors, and even if they were a little crowded during summer break, at least they weren’t as hot as being outside. There might not be crocodiles there, but I doubted she’d mind not seeing them. I wasn’t sure whether Miyagi liked fish or not, but I’d never heard her say she didn’t. It could be something she was interested in—and besides, there weren’t many other places I could take her where she could enjoy herself without needing to talk to me.

         I sat up and placed the platypus on my lap.

         Then I started looking up aquariums on my phone.

         So many came up that it was hard to pick one, and I gently tugged on the platypus’s hand.

         I couldn’t choose anything that would require an overnight trip. Miyagi wanted a day trip at most, which narrowed down my options.

         「I wonder if there are any good ones nearby.」

         I searched for aquariums that fit within Miyagi’s preferences so she wouldn’t complain. I found a few that matched what she’d want and checked their official websites.

         If we were going to an aquarium, I wanted to choose the one I thought Miyagi would enjoy the most.

         Asking her directly would’ve been the ideal way to decide, but I doubted she’d pick one herself. If I asked, she’d probably just say something like, “I’ll leave it up to you, Sendai-san.”

         Large fish, small fish, dolphins, seals, and penguins.

         There were plenty of other animals too, but I wanted to take Miyagi to an aquarium where she could see all of them in the best environment possible.

         「Which animals are the most fun to see at aquariums, anyway?」

         I wondered as I kept holding the platypus’s hand.

         To be honest, I couldn’t even picture Miyagi being happy at all.

         But if it were me, what would I want to see?

         I’d been to aquariums before, but only when I was little, so my memories of them were vague.

         And they weren’t memories I particularly wanted to revisit anyway—because they reminded me of my family.

         I’d been a few times back then, but the last clear memory I had was from when I was in second grade.

         That time, I went with my older sister, who was two years older than me.

◇◇◇

         「Onee-chan, what’s this weird looking fish over here?」

         I said, standing in front of a tank while tugging on my big sister’s arm.

         「Which one?」

         「That long, thin-looking one.」

         I pointed toward the long, shiny silver-colored fish.

         「Hmm, let me think… that one seems to be a hairtail.」

         「What kinda fish is it?」

         「Well, I heard they’re pretty tasty.」

         「Really?」

         「Yeah, that’s what it said in the book I read.」

         My big sister explained with a grin.

         「Then what’s that one?」

         I pointed at a tank where a bunch of little fish were gathered together to form what looked like the shape like a big fish, just like what I saw in my picture books.

         「Sardines, probably?」

         「Sardines! I know those. You can eat them too, right?」

         「Yep. We had them for dinner the other night, remember?」

         「Yeah! They tasted really good.」

         「We should have them again sometime.」

         My sister said with a smile, and we stared at the sardines for a while.

         Then we kept walking until I stopped again.

         「Onee-chan, what’s that?」

         At the bottom of a tank, I spotted an interesting fish I’d never seen before.

         「Oh, that one’s a cat shark.」

         She answered immediately.

         I didn’t know much about fish, but when we came into the aquarium, onee-chan said, “I studied up on fish before coming here,” and now she could answer every question I asked.

         Onee-chan was amazing.

         She always taught me anything I wanted to know.

         And she was almost never wrong.

         「Is it called a cat shark because it looks like a cat?」

         「I read it’s because the bulges above their eyes look like cat ears.」

         「Really? They don’t look like cat ears to me.」

         「Maybe they can make their “ears” move and meow just like cats do.」

         「Fish don’t make any sounds!」

         I retorted, and onee-chan laughed and said, “Yeah, you got me there.”

         I laughed with her, but since we weren’t supposed to make much noise in the aquarium, we laughed quietly for a bit before walking over to a tank that looked like a coral reef.

         There were fish swimming there that were more colorful than any we’d seen so far, and even some whose names I knew.

         「Onee-chan, look! Those are clownfish!」

         I tugged on her arm again, and she happily replied,

         「You’re right. They’re so cute.」

         「Are clownfish edible too?」

         「Hmm, I wonder. Well, I’m not sure, but…」

         「But?」

         「You seem to like them a lot, Hazuki, so even if they are edible, I’ll make it a rule that no one’s allowed to eat them.」

         She said with a smile, patting my head.

         Not only was my big sister knowledgeable, she was also incredibly kind. That’s why I felt so lucky to be her little sister. There was another pair of sisters walking a little ahead of us, and the older one seemed to be teaching her younger sister something too, but my big sister was definitely more amazing. And nicer, too.

         「So clownfish are fish you aren’t allowed to eat, then.」

         I smiled back at her, and she pointed at the tank next to us.

         「Hazuki, there are some cute fish over there, too.」

         「Oh, you’re right! Let’s go see them, onee-chan.」

         「Hazuki, wait. We’re going to get lost like this. Should we hold hands?」

         Just as I was about to run toward the next tank, my big sister held her hand out to me.

         The inside of the aquarium was about the same color as the tanks around us, and it was a little dark. There were lots of people too, and if I wasn’t careful, I knew I’d get lost and wouldn’t be able to find my big sister. So I grabbed her hand tightly.

         「This should keep us safe. It’d be pretty bad if we got separated, so let’s make sure to stay together.」

         My big sister said in her calm, gentle voice.

         I really wanted to run from tank to tank, like I was diving straight into the ocean myself, but we weren’t supposed to make much noise in the aquarium, and running was dangerous too. So my big sister and I walked slowly together as we waited for Mom and Dad to catch up to us.

◇◇◇

         「Cute looking fish, huh.」

         I squeezed the platypus’s beak as tightly as I could, then let out a small sigh.

         After that, I reached over, pulled a tissue from its back, and sighed again.

         I hadn’t meant to bring up those vague memories, but once the past slipped into my mind, it took over my mind on its own, and suddenly I was thinking back on the kid I used to be.

         I clenched my hand tightly.

         The past didn’t matter anymore.

         My sister and I weren’t the same as we were back then.

         Our parents’ attention had shifted entirely to her, and the conversations we used to have when we were close had disappeared. I tore up the memories we’d shared, like shredding the pages of a notebook filled with secrets.

         Even so, pieces of those memories still surfaced sometimes—just like today—from somewhere deep inside me.

         I pushed those fragments aside, trying to bury them under new memories instead.

         「Hey, little platypus.」

         I said to the platypus Miyagi had brought into my room, and hugged it.

         This tissue box cover was something Miyagi found when we went to buy an electric kettle together.

         The fluffy platypus we brought home that day had even witnessed me piercing Miyagi’s ears.

         It was full of memories of her, and I knew we’d only keep adding to it.

         And the crocodile tissue box cover that was probably in Miyagi’s room right now had its own memories too.

         That crocodile had watched over the two of us back in high school.

         「The aquarium sounds perfect, doesn’t it?」

         It was a bit crude to lump platypuses and crocodiles together with fish, but they did have one thing in common—they lived in or near water—so it wasn’t like they were completely unrelated.

         As I was now, I probably couldn’t find a better place to take Miyagi—one that would make her happier than an aquarium. I doubted I could pick out the best one to go to either. Miyagi and I didn’t talk about these things enough for me to know.

         But there was still meaning in going together.

Making a new memory with her might let me learn something new about her, too.

         I continued scrolling through different aquariums on my phone.

         There was one with glowing jellyfish tanks and even options to feed some of the animals.

         Even the penguins there were arranged to look like they were flying through the sky, which I found fascinating.

         The old me never would have chosen an aquarium on my own, but when I thought about Miyagi, I found myself wanting to go to one with her.

         Rather than the hazy memories of my family, my heart was drawn to a future with Miyagi.

         「Thanks.」

         I softly kissed the platypus’s beak, grateful it had led me to the idea of going to an aquarium.

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