He didn’t want his selfish pursuits to be a burden to his parents, so he decided to train to be a potter while living and working at a studio. Seiichi was against the idea, but in the end, it was Kinuyo who persuaded him, and immediately after graduating from high school, Yukio moved to Kyoto. The studio he chose was, of course, Katsura’s.

The day he left for Kyoto, Kinuyo and Kyoko waved him off from the Shinkansen platform. Kinuyo said, “It’s not much but...” and handed him her own bank-account passbook and ID stamp. Yukio knew that Kinuyo had been diligently saving that money, saying, Someday, I’d like to travel overseas with your father.

“I can’t take that,” he insisted.

But she would not take no for an answer. “Take it. It’s no problem, really.”

The Shinkansen bell rang, and Yukio had no choice but to accept the stamp and passbook with a small nod, and he departed for Kyoto. Left standing on the platform, Kyoko said, “Mum, let’s go now.” But Kinuyo stood on the platform looking at the diminishing train until it disappeared.

“You cannot change the present while in the past, no matter how hard you try, okay?”

Kazu had started to explain the never-changing rules. It was particularly important to emphasize that rule when meeting a person who was now dead. Bereavement is thrust upon people suddenly. Having to process the loss of Kinuyo was especially sudden for Yukio as no one had even told him she had been hospitalized. But Kazu’s words left his expression unaltered.

“Yes, I know,” he replied.

Kinuyo’s cancer was discovered in spring that year. It was already advanced by the time she was diagnosed, and she was told she had just six months to live. The doctor told Kyoko that had they found it three months earlier, there might have been something they could have done. Because of the rule that said you can’t change the present, though, even if Yukio returned to the past to make them discover it earlier, it would not change the fact of Kinuyo dying.

Kazu assumed that Yukio must have heard a bit about the café from Kinuyo, but asked, “Should I briefly explain this café’s rules?”

Yukio thought for a moment. With a soft voice he replied, “Yes, please.”

Kazu stopped cleaning and began to explain.

“First, the only people who you can meet while in the past are those who have visited the café.”

Yukio replied, “Okay.”