There was a thread attached to Tezuka Kunimitsu's pinky finger. A red thread. It was unusual; he'd never really noticed it, so it seemed like it had snuck up on him. He just happened to look down one day and there it was. Perhaps he was a bit confused by it at first, but he accepted it. In fact, he actually came to kind of like it, even if he never outwardly said as much.

Sometimes it got caught on things. He was graceful, of course, but sometimes threads snag. Especially red threads; especially when they're tied to pinky fingers. But when it did catch, he'd carefully untangle it and smooth it out. He didn't want to break his thread.

His family didn't care for the thread. They didn't think their only son should have a thread such as this tied to him. If he was going to have a thread at all, it should be one they picked out. Tezuka didn't want a different thread, but his family was important to him, so he opted to just remove his red thread. It made his pinky finger feel too bare. But his family was pacified with it, so he kept it off. He kissed it one last time, then put it in his heart-shaped box, where he stored all his important things.

He missed his red thread. Sometimes he would take it out of the box and gaze at it, but never did he put it back on. He would smile at it, then carefully wind it back up and put it back.

But then came a day when he looked at the thread for a long long time. He remembered how lovely it was, and how well it fit, snug around his pinky finger. And he remembered how it gave every little movement he made new meaning, because he had to move with the thread. So as he looked at the thread and remembered how much he loved it, he came to a decision.

He put the red thread back on.

How wonderful it felt! It still fit so perfectly, perhaps even a little tighter than before. His pinky finger no longer felt empty, it had its dazzle back. And though it took a little time to get used to wearing it again, he worked carefully at it, until it hardly ever got caught at all.

His family protested, not pleased that the thread had returned to their only son's finger. But Tezuka was stronger now, and he told them he would wear his thread if he wanted, because it was his decision as to which thread he'd wear. Then he tied a knot in the thread, so that the only way it would ever come off of him is if it were cut. And everyone knows that a cut thread isn't nearly as useful as a whole thread.

So Tezuka kept his thread for all days, and whenever anyone asked about it he told them it was very important to him. And that was good enough.