"Do you love her?"

"Yes, yes I do, but it's not like when I met Kerstin . "

"Kerusutina?"

Mitsuo cringed when Natsumi mauled the name of his first wife .

"Please, I was born and raised here in j.a.pan just like you, but I made an effort to get her name right," he said and turned to Tadao . "Could you please ask your girlfriend not to do that again? She's doing it on purpose . "

Tadao just grinned . "Wife, she's my wife now . Wakayama Natsumi . What do you like the sound of that?"

"What? Since when did you get married?"

The grin grew wider . "Since we found out just how special Valentine was . "

Mitsuo watched as Natsumi hid her face in her hands .

"Wakayama Tadao, you're a pig!"

His best friend since ten years ducked the backhand fist that flew in his direction and promptly hid behind Mitsuo's back . "Sorry my love . Just gloating . "

'What the? Oh . Oh!' "Congratulations! When?"

Two things registered in Mitsuo's mind . First how all the conversations around the tables closest to them died abruptly, and then how perfect strangers near them grew knowing smiles in an instant .

"He's a pig and you're an idiot . What did I do to deserve the two most important men in my life to develop this way?"

Just to make sure she wasn't angry for real Mitsuo studied Natsumi's face . Wakayama Natsumi, not Masuda Natsumi any longer . What he saw behind those eyes was gleeful joy hidden behind a show of aggravation .

"When?" he repeated .

Natsumi smirked before she answered . "November . Twins, we'll have twins . "

"You're worth it," was all Mitsuo could say . He knew how much Natsumi had longed for a child . Already during their last year in high school she started talking of getting married and raising children . That Tadao filled the position as father was a given, not that Tadao had been asked or really had any say in the matter .

"And don't you try squiggle out of my question! Do you love her?"

Mitsuo grimaced . "As I said . I do . We'll marry next year or the year after that . I know you treasure your childhood friend, but she's my girlfriend now . Quite frankly it's none of your business . "

For the second time during their dinner Natsumi flew her hands to her face, but this time in mock surprise . "Fine, I can respect that . "

"You understand we'll move, do you? I just can't stand this version of Tokyo any more . I'm too old . "

Natsumi nodded in response . "Where, and what do you plan to do?"

"I've found a run down onsen near Ise . I think I could develop an impressively accurate taste for what retired couples want from an overnight stay . Especially given my youth . "

Beside him Tadao groaned at the joke having grown stale long ago . "Given your youth, yeah . You're what, eighty now?"

"Yeah . That's why we're moving south . I remember whom we sided with during the last great recession . I can see what's happening here now, and I don't like it . "

"What do you mean?" Tadao asked . Suddenly there was no trace of his usual inane jokes in his voice .

Mitsuo gave his reply a thorough thought before he spoke again . Both his friends were much too young to understand, and they only knew j.a.pan as an economic juggernaut . If the current recession didn't break soon the optimistic and open-minded j.a.pan Mitsuo had grown to love could very well revert back to something much uglier, something he had spent most of his life trying to atone for .

"I'm afraid we'll see the section handling arrivals split in two . I'm afraid the arrivals will land in the middle of a power struggle . Basically I'm just afraid . " He looked at his friends, and waited for them to say something, but none did . "I'm not like you two . I taught you how to fight, but I don't have the strength to do so myself again . I'll sit this one out by the side-lines . "