Before We Forget Kindness

Toshikazu Kawaguchi's novel comprises four interconnected stories set in Funiculi Funicula, a small café in Tokyo's Jimbo-cho district where customers can travel through time under rigid rules. The café is owned by Nagare Tokita, a towering, stoic man whose wife, Kei Tokita, died of a heart-related illness two years earlier, leaving behind their young daughter, Miki. Nagare's cousin, Kazu Tokita, a taciturn young woman, serves as waitress and is the only person who can pour the coffee that enables time travel, an ability exclusive to the women of the Tokita lineage. The rules are strict: The journey lasts only until the coffee goes cold, roughly ten minutes; nothing done in the past can change the present; the traveler must sit in one specific chair, perpetually occupied by a ghost (a silent woman in a white dress), and must never leave it during the trip; only people who have previously visited the café can be encountered; and if the coffee goes entirely cold before the traveler finishes drinking, the traveler becomes a ghost trapped in that chair forever.

In the first story, seven-year-old Yuki Kiriyama arrives seeking to travel back to the previous Christmas, when his parents, Kenji and Aoi, announced their divorce while the family ate cake at this café. Fumiko Kiyokawa, a café regular, assumes Yuki wants to prevent the divorce. He reveals, however, that he has since lived briefly with each parent's new partner and observed both genuinely happier. His wish is not to undo anything but to return to that Christmas night and smile instead of cry, blessing his parents' happiness rather than burdening them with guilt. Kazu pours the coffee, and Yuki travels back. Nagare helps rearrange the seating so Yuki's parents join him at the time-travel chair. When the moment arrives, Yuki steels himself to smile, but tears stream down his face again, even louder than the first time. He finishes the coffee repeating, "I'm sorry." Back in the present, Fumiko embraces him, telling him it is okay to cry. His maternal grandfather, Kozo Morita, arrives to carry him home, confessing he thought it was for the best that the boy returned crying, as it was truer to his heart. Days later, Morita tells Kazu that Yuki has decided to live with him rather than with either parent.

The second story centers on Megumi Sakura, a new mother whose husband, Riuji Sakura, a firefighter, was fatally slashed by a stranger on a train shortly before their baby's birth. The birth must be registered the following day, and Megumi insists that Riuji name their child. She asks whether she can bring the baby to the past. Nagare says it might be possible since no rule forbids it, though Fumiko warns that appearing with a baby would reveal to Riuji that he is dead. Megumi acknowledges this but insists Riuji would have wanted to hold his child. After two hours, the ghost vacates the chair. Kazu instructs Megumi never to let go of the baby, and mother and child transform into steam and vanish. In the past, Riuji quickly deduces Megumi has come from the future. He sees the baby and is overjoyed to learn she is his daughter, but his expression turns serious as he realizes he must be dead. Megumi asks him to name their child, and he answers almost immediately: "Yu," using the kanji, or Japanese character, for "gentle," a name he had secretly chosen to work for either a boy or a girl. Riuji holds Yu, calling her name over and over, weeping and begging not to be taken from his child. Yu reaches up and touches his tear-soaked cheek. Overwhelmed, Riuji pushes the baby back to Megumi, then grabs her coffee cup and downs it himself, explaining it seemed too cruel to force her to drink under such circumstances. As Megumi dissolves into steam, she realizes his earlier playful question about who could drink the coffee was a deliberate act of protective kindness. Unable to find sufficient words, she shouts, "If Yu ever brings a lousy guy home, I'll punch him in your place!" Riuji laughs through tears: "Make sure you do that." Back in the present, Megumi names her daughter Yu.

The third story follows Fumio Mochizuki, a man in his late fifties whose daughter, Yoko, eloped three years earlier with Tetsuya Kawashima, a fiancé Mochizuki refused to accept. Father and daughter have had no contact since. Mochizuki visits the café with his wife, Kayoko, to learn the rules, then abruptly leaves. Fumiko chases the couple outside, explaining that Yoko came from four years in the future to see her father. Mochizuki rushes back, but Yoko, who materializes in the time-travel seat, arrives at the wrong moment and misses him. When Fumiko runs to fetch Mochizuki, Yoko instinctively rises from the chair, violating the rule that travelers must never leave the seat, and is pulled back to the future. Nagare explains that Mochizuki can instead travel forward to the exact time Yoko was present. Yoko's full backstory then emerges: After eloping, Tetsuya became violent and unfaithful, and they divorced. Yoko raised her son, Mitsuru, alone while hiding her struggles from Kayoko. She resolved to call her parents for help only to learn that Mochizuki had died of a sudden stroke. In the future café, Mochizuki meets Mitsuru, who recognizes "Grandpa" from photos. When Yoko tries to confess her hardships, Mochizuki speaks first, asking simply, "Are you happy?" He tells her he was wrong to oppose her marriage and apologizes. Yoko lifts Mitsuru onto his lap, and both father and daughter weep. Before time runs out, Yoko speaks the traditional words she never got to say because she eloped: "Thank you for looking after me until now. It's been an honor to be your daughter." Mochizuki responds, "Silly girl," and drinks his coffee. Back in his own time, he pulls out the family photo album and smiles at Yoko's pictures. When Kayoko calls him for dinner, he pauses at a photo of a smiling Yoko and murmurs, "All right, coming now."

The fourth story centers on Tsumugi Ito, who seeks to travel back to meet her estranged best friend, Ayame Matsubara. During junior high, the two bonded over Japanese castles and developed a signature habit of speaking in archaic samurai language. In high school, growing jealousy over boys' attraction to the beautiful Ayame led Tsumugi to distance herself, and by university graduation they had lost all contact. At a recent reunion, classmate Hayato Nanase told Tsumugi that when he once confessed his feelings to Ayame, she replied that she already loved someone else. Hayato suspected that person was Tsumugi. He also revealed that Ayame had died of cancer years earlier. Tsumugi recalls that around that time, Ayame sent a message asking to meet at this café, which Tsumugi ignored. Yaeko Hirai, a café regular, bluntly calls Tsumugi shallow but then fiercely supports her journey. In the past, Kei, still alive in this earlier time, fetches Ayame, who has been waiting for hours. Tsumugi is shocked into silence: Ayame's hair has fallen out, her body has withered, and her skin is ghastly pale. Despite the shock, the two quickly fall into their old banter. When an alarm signals time is running out, Ayame pulls a ribbon-tied box from her bag: Valentine's chocolates, a confession of romantic love. She says she waited at this café knowing that even after her death, a future Tsumugi might come. Tsumugi gulps the coffee, calls Ayame's name as she dissolves, and vanishes. Ayame smiles through tears and collapses sobbing in Kei's arms. Back in the present, Tsumugi opens the box and finds a card dated February 14, 2004, reading: "Tsumugi Ito, I like you. Will you go out with me?" Tsumugi sobs that she could not even apologize. Hirai counters that the Ayame who got to express her feelings found more peace than the one who never did. Kazu serves both women fresh cups of regular coffee, and by the time either touches her cup, the coffee has gone entirely cold.