In which Zenkichi met Kumagawa instead of Medaka

One of the great advantages of being four, Kumagawa had discovered, was that you could hide in a bunch of places adults could not hide and subsequently would not think to look. Though in all fairness, he had not had to do much hiding. Just so long as he stayed out of the way, the hospital staff did not even notice him. They were much too frantic trying to find their star patient.

Medaka Kurokami.

Kumagawa remembered her. She had been sitting next to him on his first day at the hospital, with the most hopeful little smile on her face. He couldn't very well have left that alone, could he? He had gotten her attention with a bit of pessimistic defeatist drivel, and she had just eaten it right up. That wide, dull-eyed stare she had given him as he'd been led away to be examined … it gave him shivers just thinking about it!

Sadly, breaking one little girl had been the high point of his day. After that he had been called in to see Hitomi-sensei, and while she had been fun to tease for a little bit, she had caught him by surprise. It seemed she would rather be a worthless mother and abandon her son then be a worthless doctor and accept a bribe. Seriously, he was four years old. Couldn't she appreciate how difficult it was to get a hold of all of that data? And without his parents finding out about it no less?

Well, a long story made short, she had refused the floppy disk and promised he would never get near her son. He had smiled and nodded and let himself be led away. He knew how to be a patient. All it took was a few weeks. Now Medaka-chan had gone missing, and no one could be bothered to watch one creepy little four-year-old boy when there was a prodigy to be found. Kumagawa would bet his precious stuffed rabbit that no one could be bothered to watch one cute little two-year-old boy either, even if he was the famous Hitomi-sensei's son.

And he was right! A somewhat roundabout trip (even in times of crisis, a four-year-old wandering around by himself would have caught someone's attention) brought him to the hospital's staff nursery, and in it, Kumagawa found a blonde-haired, blue-eyed little two-year-old boy. Zenkichi Hitoyoshi. Hitomi-sensei's son.

Zenkichi did not notice the other boy come in, which Kumagawa was thankful for. He would have just botched any attempt at a dramatic entrance anyway. Zenkichi was too engrossed with the object he held in his hands: a toy puzzle. For children, though if Kumagawa were to take a guess, for children a few years older than Zenkichi or himself. An impossible puzzle. A puzzle that could not be solved. A puzzle whose only possible solution was for the puzzler to fail, to give up, to stop trying.

Kumagawa smiled. He had only suggested becoming Zenkichi's friend to upset Hitomi-sensei, but now the idea had become an attractive one. It could be fun to turn this happy little Normal into a Minus. And hadn't Hitomi-sensei decided to be a good doctor and a worthless mother? This could make for the perfect case study for her. The doctor who managed to convert a Minus. And her son no less! Why, that was just the sort of heartwarming story about the triumph of cold reason over human frailty that the scientific community adored. Hitomi-sensei would win a Nobel Prize, write a book about the experience, then sell the movie rights for a small fortune.

Well, if she could fix Zenkichi, of course. Kumagawa wouldn't give up one of his precious fellows in joyful misery that easily. And that could make for a modern epic too! The doctor and mother, fighting the child and monster, for the very soul of an innocent boy. Now that was drama. Kumagawa could see it now…

"Hey, um, how long are you going to stand there?" Zenkichi stared at him from beneath his orange hood, eyes curious and unafraid.

Kumagawa blinked. He'd let that daydream get away from him. He smiled wide. 「Sorry. I was lost in thought.」

Zenkichi smiled back, a small, shy, hopeful thing. "Re-Really? Okay. Sorry for disturbing you."

Kumagawa waved a hand. 「Nah, don't worry about it. I'm glad you got my attention.」

Zenkichi nodded, then started. "Oh! Oh, I'm Zenkichi. Zenkichi Hitoyoshi. What's your name?"

「Misogi Kumagawa.」

"Okay. Um, Kumagawa, you're older than me, aren't you? Um…" Zenkichi trailed off, then burst out in a rush: "Would you help me solve this?" He held out the puzzle.

Kumagawa examined it. Yep, no way a child of two should be able to solve this. Kumagawa might have been an idiot, but even a smart four-year-old probably couldn't solve this.

Time to get started.

「Sorry, Zenkichi-chan, but I can't help you.」

Zenkichi looked confused, though whether at the rejection or the choice of honorific, Kumagawa couldn't be sure.

"Why not?" Zenkichi asked.

「Because,」 said Kumagawa, 「this puzzle is for older kids. We can't solve it.」

"Oh." Zenkichi frowned and looked down at the puzzle in his hands. Then he dropped it on the floor. "Okay!" he said, smile already back in place. He grabbed Kumagawa by the hand and pulled the older boy further into the nursery before he could protest. "Let's try another one!"

Kumagawa let himself be pulled along. In patient tones, he explained why each puzzle Zenkichi presented was too difficult for either of them to solve. At last, Zenkichi dropped the last puzzle to the carpet and frowned. This time, his smile did not return. "So there's nothing we can solve?"

「Right,」 said Kumagawa. 「There's no point even trying.」

Zenkichi's frown deepened. "Why not?"

「Why not what?」

"Why not try?"

「These puzzles are too difficult for us,」 Kumagawa repeated. 「They were made for older kids.」

"So we can just try when we're older," said Zenkichi.

「No, because— Wait, what?」 Kumagawa fumbled.

Zenkichi's frown had not gone away, but it had turned thoughtful. "If these puzzles are for older kids," he said slowly, working his idea out as he went along, "then we'll be able to solve them when we're older." Zenkichi gave him a pointed look. "You're four, aren't you? So you should be able to solve them before I can."

Kumagawa wasn't sure what to say to this, but when someone went off script, he found it best to fall back on self-deprecation. 「Oh no, Zenkichi-chan, I'm pretty stupid. I'll never be able to solve puzzles like this.」

"Sure you will," said Zenkichi. "You get smarter when you're older, so you'll solve them when you're older. You just have to try." He smiled. "I believe in you."

No patronization. No ulterior motives. No false promise. To Zenkichi, it was a simple truth: keep trying, and one day you would succeed. He had told Kumagawa, 'I believe in you' and meant it. No one had ever said that to Kumagawa before.

Medaka was ultimately found (in the hospital director's office, go figure), and Hitomi came to check up on her son. To find him and Kumagawa together probably shaved ten years off the poor woman's life. There was a great deal of fuss raised, several doctors and one nurse got a pay cut, and Kumagawa was sent back to his room, forbidden to see Zenkichi again.

After Kumagawa's fourth successful illicit visit to the nursery however, Hitomi gave up on the ban and resigned herself to keeping a close eye on her son's new friend.

Eventually, Hitomi stopped treating Kumagawa like a primed grenade, though she never gave up on the close eye. Even if he was not a trouble maker, Kumagawa was always a trouble magnet.

For Zenkichi, Kumagawa was the older, cooler—well, maybe not cooler—friend and partner in crime. Their antics rarely succeeded, but Kumagawa was always right there with him when trouble caught up to them.

And for Kumagawa, Zenkichi was the person who believed in him. Who always believed in him.

Having someone believe in him was a small, really big thing.