“Eh……?”

I look around while sleepy.

It’s a forest.

In the midst of the forest.

No, in the first place “A forest i recognized” doesn’t exist ,for me who was born and raised in the middle of downtown.

Before that, Japan isn’t supposed to have a dense rain forest with aspects like amazon.

A big tree that twisted in a strange shape.

Huge fern leaves.

Poisonous looking flowers.

Cries of birds i didn’t know.

Thick branches and leaves piled overhead, so much that the sky color isn’t visible.

(Where the hell is this?)

While buried in the middle of lush overgrowth grass, i reflect on myself.

White cooking clothes, white apron, white shoes, white attire.

In the chest there is black logo name of “Tsurumi-ya”.

White towel wounded up in the head, the usual clothes. (TL note : imagine a hachimaki like japanese chef)

(TL note: 明日太ると: Fattening tomorrow? and 津軽海峡 : Tsugaru block/channel or maybe a city)

A 17-year-old attending his 2nd year in a public high school. Height 170 cm, Weight 58 kg, not overweight.

Born at Chiba, Kanto not Tsugaru. (TL: ah here it is. Tsugaru IS a name of a city in Aomori)

My house is a public dining called Tsurumi-ya. It was prosperous to some degree. No, it was prosperous. 1 month ago, before those guys came.

For some reason, every shop next to ours was being remodeled as an amusement park, and the owner of the new building says “I want you to sell me your land”.

Supposedly, “Because i want to make a parking lot”.

Though the reason is “I want to set up a food court in the park, and if a popular dining is next to it then of course customers will decrease”.

Because it's a one-sided request, of course we politely refused. But the opponent is bad.

Apparently the owner of the new building is an infamous man. He rob the other buildings from the previous owner through wicked means.

That is why, after the remodeling of the building begins, their harassment began.

From writing a “contaminated place” graffiti at the store’s shutter, telephoning the store’s phone like crazy, Throwing cats corpse….like that, a classic harassment.

The only different one is they put a scandal to our shop review at a popular social networking site with “That shop seems to put out food poisoning several times”.

Of course our loyal customers didn’t believed it and always came like usual.

But, The number of college student customers that just come back from college is remarkably reduced, and that showed clearly in the number of sales.

The internet has great influence, I regretted bitterly

But father laughed.

“If they believed lies that my cooking cannot be eaten, then they really lived a disappointing life” he says.

And just now, the laugh stopped.

From my experience, a few hours before.

Father was going out to purchase food ingredients. Before a pickup truck crashed at him and send him to emergency hospital room.

After i got the urgent message, i rushed to the hospital wearing cooking clothes.

On the bed, father still laughs.

Although he laughs, both of his legs are fractured.

There are bandages on his arms and head, there is red blood everywhere on the bandages

Anyway, the truck seems to have sped up to 80 km per hour, he was hit frontally.

The doctor says “It’s a miracle that he lived” with an amazed face.

The truck escaped just like that.

There was many witnesses, but the truck doesn’t have a license plate, the driver is wearing knit hat and sunglasses.

It’s clear that it's a premeditated crime.

But my father is still smiling.

Well, If they want to stop father, they gonna need a dump truck.

Then, father ask the doctor.

“So, when will I be discharged?”

“No, well, rather than discharge, after this will be brain wave examination and after that the surgery of both legs…”

“Yeah, so when will I be discharged?”

“At present, we still don’t know…..Due to complicated feet fractures, we don’t know how long the rehabilitation will take…..”

“Haa, I will leave that matter to doctor, i have to take care of my shop. I don’t care if i use a wheelchair, so please hurry up with the discharge. If i leave the shop to that blockhead, my shop will be lost”.

Of course that blockhead is me.

Well, if it’s father, then whether it be wheelchair or crutches, he will still use that knife until he die.

But then…..there is a call from Rena, my childhood friend.

“The shop, Tsurumi-ya is burning!”.

When i say that, father stop laughing for the first time.

“Asuta! The knife! That is the only thing that must not burn!”

I immediately run out of the hospital room, i desperately going back.

Father values that santoku knife more than his life.

No matter where the place, food, or tool is, a real cook is supposed to be able to satisfy the customer. But father exaggeratedly says “But only this guy i will not let go”, the masterpiece that the predecessor “Sakaki-ya” forged .

Only that….is forbidden.

No matter what kind of harassment, run over by a truck, even if both feet are lost, even if the store burned, father’s mind never wavers….but if “Sakaki-ya” santoku knife burned then his mind would shatter.

So i ran back desperately.

In front of the shop, there is a dozen of onlookers, the firefighters has already begun their firefighting.

However, “Tsurumi-ya” is still in flames, black smoke was rising in the sky of June.

No matter how much water is splashed out, the flame didn’t died.

That way of burning.

Is like a burning of nightmare.

“Asuta-chan…..”

Rena who stood still noticed me, and come with a crying face.

I grabbed her slender shoulder, returns one nod…..and then dive, into the flame.