Maybe because of the rain, only the waitress, Kazu, and the woman in the dress were in the café. Kurata quickly introduced himself and began explaining his plan to Kazu.

“I wish to go to the future. Ms. Kiyokawa told me that you could also go to the future when you sit on that chair,” he said, looking at the woman in the dress. He pulled out a notebook on which he had jotted down as much detail on the rules as possible, based on what Fumiko had told him, and then began to check if they were right or not.

“When returning to the past, you cannot meet anyone who has not visited the café. What about the future? Is it impossible to meet the person you want to meet unless they come to the café?”

“That’s right,” replied Kazu matter-of-factly while carrying on with her work. Proceeding methodically with his questions while referring to his notebook, Kurata confirmed that the woman in the dress left her seat to go to the toilet once a day and that even when traveling to the future, it was not possible to stand up from the chair.

“Is the time it takes for the coffee to get cold the same for everyone? Or does the time become longer or shorter depending on the circumstances?” he asked.

This was a shrewd question. If the time it took for the coffee to get cold was consistently the same, he could check with Fumiko, who had gone back in time, and get a good idea of how long he would have. But if the duration was different each time, in the worst-case scenario, he could get less time than her.

When going to the past, you know exactly when the person you want to meet visited the café. That means you can aim for a specific time and go back with pinpoint precision. So even if the time allowed there was short, you’d most likely meet them.

The same doesn’t apply to the future. You can arrange to meet someone, but whether they arrive at that time depends on circumstances you cannot predict. You might end up missing them by only a few seconds.

Any difference in the amount of time you had was therefore quite an important point. Kurata swallowed while waiting for Kazu’s answer.

“I don’t know,” she replied bluntly.

Kurata didn’t seem overly disappointed, though, as if he had expected such an answer.

“Oh, okay,” he replied simply. Then he asked his last question.

“When you go to the past, there is nothing you can do that will change the present. Would it be right to think that this applies to when you visit the future as well?”

Unlike the previous questions, on this question, Kazu stopped what she was doing and thought for a moment.