Toshikazu Kawaguchi - Tales from the Café

In order to meet Asami in the future, Kurata decided to recruit Fumiko as his co-conspirator. Fumiko frequently visited the cafe, and she was good friends with Asami. He was also impressed with her excellent work as a systems engineer, and was convinced that there was no one better suited to the task.

Kurata called Fumiko, telling her he wanted to meet to discuss something. Then he got straight to the point.

‘I probably only have about six months to live,’ he said. Showing a shocked Fumiko his test results, he explained what his doctor had told him and that he would be going into hospital in a week’s time. Naturally, Fumiko was lost for words, but the seriousness of his face left her no choice but to accept the news.

‘What do you want me to do?’ she asked.

First he told her, ‘It is something that I can trust only you to do.’ Then he announced, ‘I am going to go to that cafe and travel to two and a half years in the future. If I’m dead, could you bring Asami to the cafe?’

Fumiko gave Kurata a complicated look upon hearing him say, If I’m dead .

‘However, under either of the following two conditions, you don’t need to ask her to come.’

‘What do you mean by I don’t need to ask her to come?’

Fumiko’s expression showed she was clearly struggling with what he was saying. He asked her to bring Asami to the cafe in two and a half years, then he gave her conditions for when she didn’t have to bring her. She couldn’t understand what he had in mind at all.

But, unperturbed, he proceeded to outline the conditions.

‘First, if I don’t die, then you don’t need to bring her.’

This made sense. After all, that was the most desirable situation. But when she heard the second condition, Fumiko was lost for words.

‘If, after I die, Asami is married and is living a happy life, then please don’t bring her.’

‘What? That makes no sense to me at all…’

‘If I don’t meet Asami when I travel to the future, then I will take that to mean she is happily married, and I will return. But if that is not the case, then there is something that I want to say to her… that’s why…’

Kurata may have been told he had only six months to live, but the one thing he wanted was for Asami to be happy.

On hearing his plan, Fumiko said, ‘People like you…’ and began to cry.

Everything depended on her deciding whether to ask Asami or not.

‘Ideally, you will never need to do anything, but please, do what you can,’ he said, bowing his head deeply.

But Asami hadn’t turned up. He let out a short breath and brought the cup he held to his lips. Just then…

The doorbell rang and soon after, rushing into the cafe, was Asami Mori, wearing a navy-blue duffel coat.

It must have started snowing outside, as there was a scattering of snowflakes on her head and shoulders. Kurata was in short sleeves, having come from summer in the past. When Asami suddenly showed up in a coat bearing the signs of a white Christmas, it wasn’t clear what season their meeting was taking place in. The two regarded each other for a moment in silence.

‘Hi there!’ Kurata said awkwardly.

Asami was still catching her breath, but she was staring at him rather crossly.

‘Fumiko told me everything. What were you thinking? Making me come and meet a dead person, did you put yourself in my shoes for even a second?’ she said brusquely. Staring into Asami’s face, Kurata began awkwardly needling his forehead with his index finger.

‘Sorry,’ he muttered. He continued to stare, as if observing her closely.

‘What?’ Asami asked suspiciously.

‘…Oh sorry, nothing. I have to go back,’ he said softly, as if he had messed up. As he was bringing the cup to his lips, Asami approached him. She held out her left hand for him to see. On her third finger was a sparkling ring.

‘Look, I am married, OK?’ she declared, staring straight into his eyes, pronouncing her words clearly and tersely.

‘Uh-huh.’ Kurata’s eyes were getting red. Asami looked away from him, and sighed.

‘It’s been two years since you died. What were you thinking, getting Fumiko entangled like that? Did you ever consider that you were worrying too much?’ she said accusingly.

‘It certainly seems I didn’t need to be so worried…’ Kurata said happily with a bitter-sweet smile. It was unclear what Asami was thinking, showing up like that, but hearing that she was married was all the satisfaction he needed.

‘I have to go.’

After returning to the past, he would have six months left to live. By coming to the future, he hadn’t changed the fact that he would die. But that knowledge had not darkened his expression one little bit. His smiling face was bright, full of cheer and happiness.

Asami, unable to read his thoughts, simply faced him with her arms crossed.

‘Right then…’

He drank all the coffee in one go. Immediately, he began to feel dizzy. His surroundings began to shimmer. As he returned the cup to the saucer, his hands began gradually to turn into vapour. As his body floated in space, Asami spoke.

‘Kurata!’ she yelled.

His consciousness was beginning to cloud and his surroundings were beginning to flow past him.

‘Thanks for co—’

His hearing was cut off abruptly, and he disappeared as if he had been sucked up into the ceiling.

Suddenly the woman in the dress appeared in the chair that he had been sitting in, like a mirage. Asami just stood there, staring at the space where he had vanished.

The sharp sound of the doorbell rang out.

Fumiko came in, dressed for winter in a down jacket and wool-lined boots. She had been standing there with the door half open, listening to the conversation between the two former lovers, waiting for it to end.

She walked slowly up to Asami.

‘Asami…’ she said.

There were two conditions under which Kurata had asked Fumiko not to bring Asami.

One, if he had not died; and –

Two, if he had died, but Asami was married and happy.

But after he had died, Fumiko had worried about when best to tell Asami, right up until the day before the meeting would take place.

When it came to the condition that she didn’t have to bring Asami if she was married and happy , she interpreted that to mean, if Asami can’t get over Kurata and is unable to marry anyone else, then he wants her to come.

If Asami was doing her best to forget Kurata and put him behind her, however, Fumiko didn’t want to make her meet him just because she wasn’t married.

It would be a meeting with someone who was dead: not something to be taken lightly. Badly handled, it could really mess up Asami’s life. Fumiko mulled over the different possibilities incessantly, but two years went by with no solution to her worries nor any insight into Asami’s feelings.

Asami mourned Kurata after his death, but after about six months, she went on with her life. From what Fumiko could see, Asami had not let his death hold her back.

But based on this alone, Fumiko was unable to decide whether to bring Asami along on the day set for the meeting. Asami hadn’t married, but whether someone was married or not was no measure of their happiness. But Fumiko had not heard anything close to a romantic rumour about Asami since Kurata died. Then, before she knew it, the chosen day was only a week away.

After much agonizing, Fumiko decided to consult her husband, Goro. Although she recognized his prowess as a fellow systems engineer, her faith in him normally didn’t extend to affairs of the heart. However, they had agreed that if either of them had any troubles, they would talk it over as a couple. So, clutching at straws, she sought his advice.