Don’t expect speed with this. I’m gonna be slow and lazy af.

Prologue (volume 2, pages 7-16)
Those who Forgot Time

It was a small eating house that she took over, left to her by her grandfather.

It was located in a low lying part of town, squeezed between two business districts, and its yellowing wooden fences and narrow stone-paved alleys still preserved the feeling of the good old days, making for a scenery where time itself came to a halt. If one took a stroll around those parts at leisure, one would find basins with water-lilies in which killfish swam lively among the water plants, lush willows with their many weeping branches, shrines with small bodhisattvas in red bibs, and whatnot else. On the whole, it was a tidy and well-ordered district.

The small eatery, leading a quiet low-key existence, fit into the scenery of the district extremely well. If one wasn’t careful about observing one’s surroundings, the modest signboard with the name of the eatery, “Chuubairo” [T/N: “Noon plum”], would go unnoticed. If one were to open the lattice door adorned with a greenish brown curtain, the counter of plain wood and a small seating area with raised tatami flooring would come into view.

The eatery offered menu that was mostly Kyoto cuisine based, learned by her grandfather at home, then sublimated into a more local-flavored brand during her father’s time, with only select seasonal ingredients and j.a.panese sake bought directly from the brewers.

They had a worker in the eatery, and her father, well known to those in the know to be a harsh teacher, praised him for his skills, which was impressive.

The young man was a live-in worker, so for the duration of his training, she ended up living in the same s.p.a.ce as him. At the time, she was a girl who just started going through p.u.b.erty, so it was awkward and embarra.s.sing at first.

But the worker had a rational yet gentle disposition, and before long she threw off her reserve and came to idolize the “onii-chan”. When she thought back to that time now, she found that the feeling for him she was filled with at the time was close to the yearning of first love.

However, ever since the man left the joint, their relationship grew distant, to the level of no more than New Year’s postcard exchange. According to the rumors, the man married and, despite his youth, managed the joint his father left to him and made it quite prosperous.

Having received her message, the man came immediately.

The fact that the “onii-chan”, an artless young man with close-cropped hair she once knew, was now a smart-looking fully functional member of society with slicked back hair had come as a surprise to her.

Not wasting time, she explained her situation.

“I see. Thanks for telling me. I’ll do something about it, so leave it to me,” the man rea.s.sured her as he took over.

Upon reunion, she learned that he had divorced his wife and relinquished his rights on his joint, and was now a government worker. She couldn’t hide her surprise at that turnover change of profession, especially considering how wholeheartedly devoted to the path of cooking she knew him to be in the past.

“Stuff happened.”

When the “onii-chan” said it with a gloomy smile, it really hit her that he had changed. He was now a fully grown, emotionally mature man who had been through a lot in life.

The very next day, he promptly put those adult skills of his to use, settling the predicaments she found herself in one after another. First, he thoroughly investigated the accurate state of her debts and, confirming that the interest rate was more than the max interest rates specified by law, referred her to a lawyer.

When the hoodlum, having learned that she had started to take countermeasures against them, came to her eatery to threaten her again, he drove them away, all on his own. The punks’ threats didn’t even make him blink an eye, and when the leader of those racketeers got enraged and tried to punch him, the man had them beaten at their own game in no time at all. To be exact, he effortlessly evaded the punch, tripped the attacker up and, as the punk started to fall forward, immobilized his arms.

With the ability difference having been made that clear, it was plain for everyone to see that even if the hoodlum, relying on the advantage of their numbers, still tried to resort to violence, they would only end up easily fought off. The racketeers scrambled to escape.

Having witnessed the transformation the “onii-chan” from her past had apparently undergone in the time she hadn’t seen him, her eyes went wide as saucers.

“In my current line of work, I have to fight a lot, as unexpected as it might seem,” was all the man revealed with a wry smile.

Before long, the lawyer determined that the joint surety contract had no legal force, which meant that no reimburs.e.m.e.nt was required.

She was saved from h.e.l.l. But there still was a grave problem on her hands that needed to be settled.

Now that her father had pa.s.sed away, the eatery had no proper chef. She could hold out somehow if was just providing simple meals, but it was impossible for her to make dishes that could satisfy the refined and selective palate of the regular customers. If her joint had no chef of a level comparable to her father’s, the customers wouldn’t return, and closing the eatery would be the only way left to her.

That’s why she tried to implore the man again, “Please”. She knew she was being selfish. “Please come back, at least temporary, only for the time needed to find another good chef!”

Naturally, the man appeared to be troubled at the request, but still replied to her desperate entreaty, “Okay, I’ll consult with my superior and see how it flies.”

And the next day, he smiled at her, but with mixed feelings all over his face, “I got his permission. He granted me two weeks of paid leave. He said that if it is a request by a family that took care of me in the past, I must return the favor. And now I don’t really know if I should be happy to work under a superior that’s so understanding, or lament the poor quality of my work that I have been granted a leave so easily.”
“I’m really sorry.” She really was, bowing her head to him. “I will start searching for someone who can cook immediately.”

Except at the same time, she was exhilarated and couldn’t do anything about the feeling. She was relieved that she had the chance to protect the eatery that her grandfather had founded, but at the same time, she was aware that her joy also stemmed from the fact that she would be able to stay with the man for just a little while longer.

“I haven’t been cooking professionally for a while though. I’m worried about the quality of my cooking…” the man expressed.

But he was someone whose skills were real and had been recognized by her father in the past, so the very next day, when the curtain had been hung at the eatery entrance to show that it was open, one of the regular customers that dropped by commented, “What a surprise. This tastes exactly like your late old man’s cooking did.”

The man had managed to faithfully reproduce the characteristic flavor the eatery was known for until now.

“It’s probably because I was worked really hard here. My body still remembers it,” the man said delightedly.

The eatery got busy as a while had pa.s.sed, but even a prosperous joint had to have at least one off-day a week. On such a day when they didn’t hang the sign curtain at the entrance, the man, showing the bentos he was already making, smiled slightly, “If you don’t mind, how about the three of us go have a picnic at a park?”

“The three” of them referred to the man himself, her and her little son.

When she was in high school, she fell in love with her homeroom teacher and dated him for a while. No, she probably was the only one who thought they were dating. The correct descriptor would be that he just played her and used her. She got pregnant, but the teacher, who had a wife and kids, spewing nothing but selfish excuses, ran away for the responsibility. She dropped out of school, determined to give birth to the baby and raise it alone.

Even since, she had been living quietly and inconspicuously, hiding herself from society. And her usually strict and curt father protected her and the child during that time. Until recently, her baby, her father and their eatery were the entirety of her world.

But her father that had been protecting her all this time, had died, and the man that appeared before her in her time of crisis and great confusion, had become the brilliant sun to her and her little son.

Just like the man suggested, the three of them went to a park and played under the sunlight. The child gamboled, shouting joyfully. Watching him made her incredibly happy.

That was probably the first time since dropping out of school when she thought that she was glad to have been born into this world. And maybe the first time when she was able to think that giving birth to her child was for the better.

When she saw her little child laughing happily while sitting in the man’s lap, tears welled up in the corners of her eyes without her intention. She quickly dashed the tears away with a finger so that no one would see her cry.

The man would leave eventually. He would go back to his previous workplace. She ought to not be any sort of burden to him when that time came. She ought to see him off earnestly and with a firm heart. She would employ a new chef and see the man off with a smile on her face. That was her way of drawing the line and taking responsibility for her mistakes.

But still, the feelings she kept hidden acc.u.mulated and blossomed like a flower giving off a gentle scent.

On a certain night, they had to find a compromise about who would bathe first, she or the man who had just finished cleaning and preparing for tomorrow.

She said, “I need to bathe the child, so it will take time. That’s why please go first.”
“Alright, I will go first. But let the boy go with me; you need to take time for yourself for a change, too.”

When he said that with a smile, she ended up grabbing his hand and squeezing it tightly before she could stop herself. That thoughtfulness made her happy, and that smile made her heart ache.

She was taken aback at herself, and the man looked like he was touched, too.

But just at the moment when the distance between the two shortened, his PDA blazoned with an incoming, spoiling the mood boorishly.

Awkwardly, the man stepped away from her and answered the call, “Kamo listening. Ah, it’s you, Hidaka.”

That was the name of the caller, apparently. For a short while, Kamo Ryuuhou listened to the caller’s voice in silence, but then abruptly exclaimed loudly, “What?! Awashima-san has disappeared?!”

Just then, she had understood that the time of parting was near. And that made her feel all the more acutely just how much she didn’t want to part with this man.