Atomic CritterS
Volume I | Part I
Chapter 5: “The Bridge”
The bridge cut across the koi pond
like a shortcut no one thought about. Its boards flexed with a tired creak, worn smooth by boots, paws, and wheelbarrows that never stopped long enough to linger. Kagen wiped it down every morning. It was always dusty again by afternoon.
People crossed it without noticing.
Which was why they kept ending up there.
It was a place for passing through—paths intersecting, conversations thinning out mid-step. Renji treated it like a pause. Kagen treated it like a problem to be managed. Neither of them noticed how often they met there. Only that they always did.
Kagen was mid-instruction.
“No, Coop. Sit.”
Coop vibrated in place, tail wagging hard enough to rattle the railing. He barked once and spun in a tight circle.
“Sit,” Kagen said again. Firmer.
Coop stared back, eyes bright, brain clearly somewhere else.
Fin padded over and pressed against Kagen’s shin, curling there like ballast.
“Almost,” Renji said, leaning on the railing. “He’s considering it.”
“I don’t need consideration,” Kagen said. “I need compliance.”
Coop attempted something between a sit and a bounce.
“That doesn’t count.”
Renji crouched. “Hey, buddy.”
Coop sat. Perfectly.
Kagen blinked. “…That was the same command.”
Renji smiled. “Different delivery.”
Coop barked triumphantly and launched forward, knocking Renji flat.
“Okay—wow—strong sit,” Renji laughed.
Fin immediately climbed into Renji’s lap, settling like he belonged there.
Kagen exhaled through his nose.
“Positive reinforcement,” Renji said.
“I was reinforcing,” Kagen replied. “You just—overrode it.”
“I supplemented.”
Below them, the water shifted.
Murder Otter surfaced, red eyes fixed on the bridge.
Kagen noticed instantly. “…He’s watching.”
Renji glanced down. “He does that.”
“That’s not curiosity,” Kagen said. “That’s assessment.”
The otter didn’t blink.
“Tell me that’s not premeditation.”
Renji grinned. “He waved last time.”
As if on cue, the otter raised one paw.
Renji snorted. “See? Polite.”
“That’s how it starts,” Kagen muttered. “Trust-building.”
Coop barked at the otter.
The otter stared back.
They held eye contact too long.
Fin nudged Coop’s side with his nose. Coop immediately forgot the otter and attacked a stick instead.
Renji softened. “He listens to Fin.”
“Everyone listens to Fin,” Kagen said.
The otter slipped under the water without a sound.
Renji stood. “You don’t have to be so rigid.”
Kagen opened his mouth—then stopped.
Coop trotted back, dropped the stick into Kagen’s hand, sat, tail wagging.
Kagen hesitated. “…Good.”
Coop tackled him.
Renji laughed. “Progress.”
Kagen didn’t laugh. But he didn’t pull away either.
Fin pressed closer.
“This isn’t how it’s supposed to work,” Kagen said.
Renji was already walking off. “It is here.”
Kagen watched the animals follow Renji without effort.
“…Figures.”
The pond rippled.
Red eyes blinked once.
“I see you,” Kagen told the water.
The bridge creaked beneath him, indifferent as ever.
