"Look, I'll have the pufferfish perform a few tricks for you."
Seeing someone interested, the fish seller immediately showed off his attentiveness and bent a piece of iron wire about forty to fifty centimeters long, poking the back of a pufferfish twice with it.
The pufferfish that was poked suddenly stopped moving and made a 'gurgling' sound, as if someone was holding back anger.
Right afterwards, its belly started to inflate like a balloon.
Only then could one clearly see that the pufferfish actually had fins, but they were very small. On either side of its balloon-like body, two disproportionately tiny fins flapped comically.
In the blink of an eye, the pufferfish's body ballooned to several times its size, becoming round and plump like a ball, with two little eyes popping out atop the 'ball,' staring at these humans. Its skin was covered with a layer of short, sharp spines, reminiscent of the inflatable rubber toys often seen in tourist spot gift shops.