Summary
In III, a teenage girl is the only customer seated in the café. She has traveled from the future, but it is unclear who she is there to meet. Nagare asks who she is expecting, but she says no one in particular. He serves her a tray with toast and his famous homemade butter. He says it is on the house. Nagare is crestfallen when she eats without commenting on the delicious butter. Kazu arrives back from a gynecology appointment and is struck by the girl’s beauty; she doesn’t know who she is either.
Kei comes in with a bag from the convenience store. Nagare asks how the appointment went and she pats her still-flat stomach and shows him a peace sign. He feels joy. The girl is watching the two with a warm expression. The girl asks to take a photo with Kei. Kei obliges, and is surprised when the girl’s camera is little more than a transparent business card. Kazu snaps the photo and the girl quickly finishes her coffee, vaporizing into steam to be replaced by the ghost woman.
It is the first time a customer has come back to meet one of the café workers. The narrator reiterates the rule that nothing in the present changes because of a visit from the future. Even if a murderer turns up and shoots someone in the café, they will be whisked to the hospital and saved so that they remain living. Because of this, Kazu doesn’t fear visitors from the future. Anything they try will be futile. Kohtake arrives; Nagare corrects himself when greeting her, remembering that she now likes to be called Mrs. Fusagi. It has been three days since she received her husband’s letter. She is disappointed to see her husband isn’t there; she would have walked him home otherwise. She orders a coffee, which Nagare prepares using the pour-over cone drip method, as she likes it.
Kohtake asks if anyone knows why Hirai’s snack bar hasn’t been open the past two nights; it is usually open seven nights a week. Nagare says Hirai’s sister Kumi died in a road accident, so Hirai went home, to the inn on the outskirts of Sendai. Nagare learned this in a matter-of-fact email Hirai had sent him.
Just then Hirai arrives, asking for salt—used for spiritual purification. Hirai drags her feet as she enters in black mourning attire. She asks for glasses of water that she drinks one after another. Hirai says her sister was unlucky—she got hit in an unlucky spot. She has just come from the funeral. Kohtake asks why she came back so early. Hirai says she has a bar to think about. Nagare asks if she shouldn’t have stayed longer with her parents. Hirai says they blame her, because Kumi got into the accident after visiting her in Tokyo. Hirai said they refused to talk to her.
The narrator comments that Hirai had learned of the death from the head waitress at the inn. Hirai immediately got into a taxi and arrived five hours later at the family home still with curlers in her hair and slippers on her feet. She found her father with Kumi’s body in the altar room. He didn’t respond when she spoke to him for the first time in thirteen years. Hirai then left for the town to buy clothes for the funeral and find a hotel. At the funeral, she made eye contact with her mother but never spoke.
Hirai tells the people in the café that she is really upset, despite not seeming it. Kei gives Hirai the letter Kumi left with her three days earlier. A single tear falls from Hirai’s eye as she reads it. Hirai says she never gave up on her, coming to Tokyo again and again. Hirai asks to go back to that day. Nagare goes to the back room and calls for Kazu. Hirai goes to the women in the dress and asks for the seat, putting her hands together in prayer. Hirai grabs the woman’s arm. Kei yells at her to stop. But it is too late, and the ghost curses Hirai, bringing Hirai to the floor. Hirai knows the rules but was unaware of the curse.
Kazu offers the woman more coffee, and when she accepts, Hirai is freed from the paralysis. Hirai asks for Kazu’s help. Kazu gets an idea: she offers the woman cup after cup of coffee, and the ghost drinks each one, despite the look of discomfort on her face. Kazu realizes it’s another rule: she can’t turn down a refill. At the ninth cup, the ghost gets up to use the toilet. Hirai takes her seat. Kazu adds a small stick to Hirai’s cup, explaining that it will act as an alarm and alert her when she needs to finish off the coffee. Hirai wanted to apologize for selfishly leaving the family at eighteen, leaving the more obedient Kumi to run the family business. Hirai assumed her sister was so persistent because Hirai had cut off Kumi’s chance of pursuing her own dreams; if she returned, Kumi would be free to leave herself.
Kazu pours the coffee, and Hirai is dissolved in the swirling steam. In the past, she arrives at the café on a day when Fusagi and Kei are there. She tells Kei she is there to speak with her sister, which surprises Kei given that she always avoids her. The bell rings and a moment later Kumi has come down the stairs. She doesn’t know what to make of Hirai smiling at her. Kumi says Hirai has never been so easy to find. Kumi orders several items and they sit together. Hirai apologizes for avoiding her previously. Kumi asks what’s wrong, as she suspects Hirai for suddenly being so kind and open. Hirai knows she can’t tell the truth. Hirai tells Kumi that she doesn’t mind returning to the inn. Kumi weeps, saying her dream has come true. But Hirai learns it isn’t a dream of leaving herself, it’s a dream of running the inn alongside Hirai. She was wrong: Kumi doesn’t resent her.
Hirai wants to cry out “Don’t die!” but she keeps the words to herself. She settles for, “Thank you,” investing every part of herself in the two words. Kumi smiles and says Hirai is certainly acting strange, then gets up to use the toilet. The alarm in Hirai’s coffee goes off, alerting Kei to the fact Hirai has come back to visit someone who has died. Hirai trembles as she lifts the cup, unable to drink the liquid. Kei insists Hirai must fulfill her promise to return to the inn; Hirai must drink the coffee, even though it means she won’t see her sister’s face again. As she disappears, Hirai hears Kumi return from the toilet and Kei explain she had to leave. Hirai hears Kei tell Kumi that Hirai had said she would keep her promise. Kumi happily leaves the café, delighted by the news. Hirai weeps. Then the ghost woman tells her to move. Hirai leaves the seat. Hirai pays for the coffee and leaves, planning to return to the inn. Kei walks her out and rubs her stomach. Nagare watches Kei and thinks, “I wonder if she can give it up?”
Analysis
While the first two parts of the novel show customers traveling back in time, the opening section of III: The Sisters depicts a rare event: a person coming back from the future to visit the workers at the cafe. Kawaguchi builds on the theme of uncertainty with Nagare’s and Kazu’s confusion over why a shy teenage girl would want to come back only to snap a photo with Kei. With this unexplained interaction, Kawaguchi foreshadows the revelations to come in the fourth section of the book.
The theme of grief arises when Nagare informs Kohtake of Hirai’s sister’s tragic death. Because of this, Hirai has gone to Sendai for the funeral and will presumably be away in mourning for some time. But in an instance of situational irony, Hirai arrives at the cafe having come straight from the funeral. It turns out that Hirai has been denied a regular period of mourning because her parents refused to acknowledge her at the funeral, wordlessly blaming her for Kumi’s death.
Kawaguchi builds on the theme of regret with Hirai’s desire to travel back three days earlier to have a conversation with her sister. Earlier in the book, Kumi is shown writing a letter and paying for an absurdly long list of items, suggesting that she waited several hours for Hirai at the cafe. In an instance of dramatic irony, Kawaguchi revealed that all the while, Hirai had been hiding behind the counter. Now, Hirai is desperate to go back, regretting her selfish, avoidant behavior.
Although Hirai is familiar with the cafe’s strict time-travel rules, she rashly grabs the ghost woman’s arm, desperate to go back and right her past wrongs. Her desperation is punished with the same curse that momentarily paralyzed Fumiko. To help her friend, Kazu realizes that she can serve the ghost refill after refill, filling her up with coffee until she must use the toilet. In this instance of situational irony, the ghost’s supernatural properties do not make her immune to diuretics.
Hirai travels back in time under the impression that her sister was always so insistent on her returning to the inn because Kumi resented Hirai for cutting off her opportunity to pursue her own dreams. However, the theme of revelation arises when Hirai discovers, upon agreeing to move home, that Kumi’s actual dream was for them to run the inn together, as a team.
After returning to the present, Hirai realizes that she must uphold the promise to her sister. In this way, Hirai sacrifices her stubborn pride in the hopes that she can repair her relationship with her parents and remain faithful to her sister’s dying wish. The section ends with a bleak moment of foreshadowing as Kei rubs her pregnant stomach and Nagare wonders whether she will be able to give up the child.
