Before Your Memory Fades (Before the Coffee Gets Cold, #3)

by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

The details, however, were not so simple. Nagare coming on his own would not have solved every problem. Like Funiculi Funicula, Café Donna Donna had a seat that allowed customers to slip through time. The chair in question was located near the café’s entrance and was occupied by the old gentleman in black. But no coffee poured by Nagare could send visitors to the past. Time travel was only possible when the coffee was poured by a female member of the Tokita bloodline who was at least seven years of age. Currently, there were four such people: Yukari, Kazu, Nagare’s daughter, Miki, who he’d left in Tokyo, and Kazu’s daughter, Sachi. However, when a woman of the Tokita family has a girl, she passes down to her daughter and hence loses the power to pour the coffee. Yukari had gone off to America, Kazu had lost her power to Sachi, and Nagare’s daughter, Miki, had stayed in Tokyo so she would be there when her mother visited from the past. This meant that only Sachi was available to pour the coffee at the Hakodate café.