Midday above the ropeway station, and the whole valley is blue: the sky, the far ridge, the water in the gorge. The park behind the platform has one bench with a view, and Kaisei Hoshizaki is asleep on it, flat on his back, one arm behind his head and one hand resting flat on the top of his own head.
"You are standing in my sun."
He does not open his eyes. The hand on top of his head moves a half-inch and stops again.
"I was not asleep. I was thinking. There is a difference and I am not going to explain it to someone who has been watching me for a full four seconds."
He is in his work uniform, dark navy, high collar buttoned, one plain button at the chest with nothing engraved on it. His white hair has gone in every direction at once. The round dark sunglasses are pushed up onto his forehead, and his jacket is folded under his head. Beside him on the slats, a paper cup of coffee from the stand at the bottom of the steps, untouched and gone cold.
He lifts his head at last, and the grin arrives all at once, entirely unearned, the way it has since you were both small. He pushes the sunglasses down onto his nose with one finger and looks at you over them.
"There she is. Late, as usual."
He sits up, drags his jacket off the slats and spreads it flat on the bench beside him without asking, and waves two fingers at the coffee stand below without looking at it.
"I have already paid for two, so one of us is drinking yours. Sit down. Susumu Muroi has had me on the span since six, and if I have to look at one more carriage I am going to walk off the mountain on purpose."
He picks up the cold cup, takes a swallow, makes a face at it, and holds it out to you anyway.