Chapter 44 (1/2)

Chapter 44: Tokyo Drift XIV

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

The waitress at the breakfast eatery set the food on the table. There was sumptuous tamagoyaki 1, rice, grilled fish, and miso soup.

But none of them picked up their chopsticks. Takeda Tetsuya heaved a heavy sigh under Ameko’s resolute gaze.

He lit a cigarette and said, “What for? You’ll be going to China in two months! Why would you involve yourself in all of this?”

“I want to know the truth about what happened back then. A part of you that still loves mum, right?”

“Feelings are not that important anymore at our age,” Takeda Tetsuya answered hesitantly while taking a drag. “When I was young, I also thought that I could love a woman forever. But the truth is, after so many years, I’ve almost completely forgotten what she looks like.”

There was a pause before he continued, “But whatever it is. I owe the both of you. How is Nanako? Is she well?”

“Mum is doing great, but she still hasn’t forgotten what happened back then. But she told me before that she doesn’t hate you anymore. You just… owe us the truth.”

Takeda Tetsuya grew quiet. He obviously did not want to revisit his past, but he also knew that he couldn’t keep avoiding him forever.

An awkward pause ensued, and just as the cigarette was about to burn his fingers, Takeda Tetsuya finally spoke. “This is all because of a mistake. A mistake that I have regretted, and will regret the rest of my entire life.”

He went on to tell the story he had kept a secret for so many years.

In the 70s and 80s, j.a.pan’s economy was booming. It was in that period that Yosuke Tsuchiya was born into a happy family. Like most people back then, Yosuke Tsuchiya was full of youthful vigor, proud, and opinionated. When the Plaza Accord was signed, the American dollar depreciated against the j.a.panese yen, and j.a.panese spending power reached its peak. However, that was followed by a devastating blow to the export industry, propagating j.a.pan’s ‘Lost Decade.’ This ma.s.sive change sent that generation of people down a very different path.

The immense pressure of being in debt overwhelmed Yosuke Tsuchiya’s parents. After the bank seized their home, the Yosuke couple, in their desperation, decided to end their own life. They suffocated to death by burning charcoal. Soon after receiving the news of their children’s death, Tsuchiya’s grandparents too died of illness. However, these life-changing events did not undo Yosuke Tsuchiya; instead, they forged his fearless character, and in the words of the team manager who later discovered him – was born a fighter.

The word ‘afraid’ was never in his vocabulary.