The faint aroma of coffee beginning to drift through the room sparked his memory of that day.

It was right in front of this café that Gohtaro met Shuichi Kamiya for the first time in seven years. The two had been teammates who played rugby together at university.

At the time Gohtaro was homeless and penniless, having been forced to surrender all his assets—he had been the co-signer on a loan obligation for a friend’s company that had gone bankrupt. His clothes were dirty, and he reeked.

Nevertheless, instead of being disgusted by his appearance, Shuichi looked genuinely pleased to have met him again. He invited Gohtaro into the café, and after hearing what happened, proposed, “Come and work at my diner.”

After graduation Shuichi had been scouted for his rugby talent by a company in a corporate league in Osaka, but he hadn’t played even one year before an injury cut short his career. He then joined a company that ran a restaurant chain. Shuichi, the eternal optimist that he was, saw this setback as a chance, and by working two or three times as hard as everyone else he rose to become an area manager in charge of seven outlets. When he got married, he decided to strike out on his own. He started a small Japanese restaurant and worked there with his wife. Now he told Gohtaro that the restaurant was busy and that some extra help would be welcome.

“If you accepted my offer, it would be helping me out too.”

Run down by poverty and having lost all hope, Gohtaro broke down in tears of gratitude. He nodded. “Okay! I’ll do it.” The chair screeched as Shuichi stood up abruptly. Grinning cheerfully, he added, “Oh, and wait till you see my daughter!”

Gohtaro still wasn’t married and he was a little surprised to hear that Shuichi had a child.

“Daughter?” he responded with his eyes widening.

“Yeah! She’s just been born. She is so—cute!”

Shuichi seemed pleased with Gohtaro’s response. He took the bill and strolled over to the cash register. “Excuse me, I’d like to pay.”

Standing at the register was a fellow about high-school age. He was very tall, close to six feet in height, and had distant, thin almond eyes.

“Comes to seven hundred and sixty yen.”

“Here, from this please.”

Gohtaro and Shuichi were rugby players and bigger than most, but they both looked up at the young fellow, then looked at each other, and laughed, probably because they were thinking the same thing, This guy is built for rugby.

“And here’s your change.”

Shuichi took the change and headed for the exit.