“P-, pichi…?”

Oh, damn it all!

I throw the detested little creature to the side. It bounces over the sands for a bit before coming to a stop, where it digs itself back down into the sand. Great, I just lost part of my breakfast. What a waste.

My eye falls to the sand in between my claws.

Internally growling, I kick off and swim away. Fine, I guess I’ll just try to catch the fish. I would’ve needed to do this eventually, anyways. This just happened to occur a bit earlier than expected. Besides, I actually have a bit of a plan for how to do it. Grumbling to myself, I swim towards the reef of seaweed.

There, I find Bukamon greedily stuffing his face with them. He looks up at me, not appearing even a bit embarrassed by how full he is. “Huh? Innomon?” He takes a big swallow. “What’re you doing here?”

Not answering his question, I swim over to a piece of seaweed and cut it off at the base, leaving me with a long rope of seaweed. I repeat the process with a few more, and after a few minutes, I have a pile of them. By this point, Bukamon has stopped trying to eat and simply started following after me, watching my every move with big, curious eyes. “I thought you couldn’t eat the dataweeds?”

I can’t. That’s not why I’m doing this. But I can’t say that, so I let my silence speak for me. Now that I have a bundle, I settle down on the seabed.

I have mentioned this before, but I don’t have arms. My legs are surprisingly agile, but nowhere near what my arms would be. Furthermore, I only have three claws on either foot. No opposable thumbs. If this is the form I have to live in for the foreseeable future, then I might as well get used to it.

Feet trembling, I begin to tie the weeds together. They’re actually pretty tough, all things considered, which suggests that Bukamon has pretty good jaws to be able to eat them so effortlessly. Tying them together is far from easy. Finesse is not the name of the game when it comes to feet, but I still try my best. My best isn’t enough however, and on several occasions, I slip, at one point even slicing one of the weeds completely. At another point, the whole bundle of seaweed almost got swept away by a rogue current, only saved by Bukamon’s quickness. I gave him a nod of appreciation for that one.

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And I guess Bukamon must have noticed my difficulties, because he started trying to help. At first I tried to stop him, but since he had no idea what I was trying to do, he actually didn’t contribute to any great increase in speed. So, I let him.

And by the end of a long and gruelling hour, it was complete.

I hold up my seaweed-net. It’s scraggly and has its loose parts, but all and all, it is indeed a fishnet. Whether I can actually use it is unsure, but as long as I catch a few fish, I should be alright.

I swim away from the clearing, holding the net with my feet while my tail propels me forward. Bukamon seems to have forgotten all about the supposed game, because he follows after me out of pure curiosity. Let’s see, where did those fish hang out again?

After a few minutes of searching, I find a suitable spot.

…How do I hang up this thing? Fishnets are obviously not used like spiderwebs, so… How?

Have I always been this stupid?

After a while of considering my own IQ, I decide to place it above a spot, each edge of it tied to a rock. This way, if a group comes swimming beneath it, I’ll be able to just drop it down and then collect the rewards afterwards. Since fish also explode into pixels, all I have to do is crush them. So, it should be fine. Probably…

With the trap ready, I take some distance and hide behind a rock. Bukamon, despite not understanding what I’m up to, follows suit. I kind of didn’t expect to actually get anything, but after a few minutes, a small school of the colourful fish begin poking around my net. A few are even trying to nibble at it, but before they bite through anything, I’m able to work up enough indignation to loosen the stones, making the whole net fall over them. At least most of them. Quite a few succeed in dodging it, but a lot get captured.

I stare at it in silent disbelief. Huh. I actually caught them?

“Whoa, it’s a bunch of fish!” Bukamon says as he slides up behind me. I glance at him before returning my attention to the fish.

I poke one of the fish with my claw. After two more pokes, it explodes into pixels. It has less in it than the Pichimon, but considering how many I have, it shouldn’t be any issue. I reach out towards another fish, struggling against the net, but I’m distracted by Bukamon.

H-, hey! What are you doing, lifting up the stones?!

I fly towards him, grabbing a hold of one of his flippers, a single fish being able to escape before he has no choice but to drop the rock again, sealing the rest of the fish’s fates. His flipper trembles in my grip and he looks at me with wide eyes. “Th-, the fish, um…” He gulps, and for some reason, he seems to be on the verge of tears. “You shouldn’t hurt our friends.”

…Friends? Fish aren’t friends, they’re food.

I let go of his flipper and he draws it back, holding it close to his body. I turn back to the fish and press my foot into one of them, feeling it pop under my claws. Bukamon flinches.

“Hey, Innomon?...”

I turn to look at him.

“You are a data-type, right?...”