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The jukebox in the cafe has been broken for ages, ever since Futaba took it apart and realized that she didn't know how to put it together. But that was ages ago. So why was Sojiro hearing music coming from the cafe now?
"I think I got it.", a familiar voice rang from the cafe, right before the music died off again. "Oh.", Futaba groaned in frustration. "I wouldn't bother. I've had plans of getting rid of that old thing for ages. Takes up too much space.", the man warned as he opened the door, walking in to find his foster daughter in the middle of a circle of tools and Makoto Nijima sitting patiently at a booth. "Sorry I couldn't help.", his daughter apologized, sounding disappointed in herself. "It's fine, the sentiment was enough.", she tries to reassure as the girl sulked home.
"But, if you're getting rid of it then...", the student trailed off, flicking through the old tapes before finding something that satisfied her. "Can I keep these?", Nijima shyly asked, picking up a couple of vinyl records. "Yeah. Go ahead. Better than leaving them in there and collecting dust.", Sojiro responded, getting the shop prepped for the day.
Makoto reclaimed her seat as she started reading some of the song names off of the cassette tape. The Nijimi's were a very musical family. A lot of them were songs she remembered during her childhood. "Recognize some of those songs?", the man asked with a lighthearted tone, noting the fond look in Makoto's eye. She gave a soft smile. "Yeah. My father raised me on them growing up. We would rather sit on the couch and listen to music while talking than watch TV." "I was raised on Seiko Matsuda, Minako Honda, Yoshie Kashiwabara, Momoe, SMAP, and Shinji Tanimura." "Wow, all the classics, huh?", the man remarked, causing the student to huff a faint chuckle. "My childhood lullaby was Subura. Even now, I can't go through the first minute of listening to it before I start to doze off."
"He seems like a great man.", Sojiro commented, getting an affirmed nod. "He was. He always did so much for us, and never asked for anything in return, except that we study hard to go far in life and be fair to everyone we meet."
A silence drew in the building, with the only constant sound being the ticking of the clock. The girl took a heavy sigh as she let her mind wander. "It's... just hard sometimes, you know? It's been years, and there are still times where I can't do, hear, feel certain things without getting emotional. I've sworn off blue-raspberry shaved ice because it'll make me remember the time we went to the beach on my last summer before middle school and he got it for us because I found a little sand crab by the tide and I wanted to take it home as a pet and I named him Sheldon and my Dad had to tell me that the crab was dead and I wasn't happy about that so he bought us Shaved Ice to cheer me up.
I don't think I'll be able to own a brown leather anything just because touching the material brings back memories of his old jacket or a wallet that my sister and I got him for Christmas one year.", she remembered, mind drifting to one time when she was hanging out with Ann and Haru, absolutely refusing to walk into a certain store that specialized in leather engravings, more willing to sit outside and wait than step in. Thankfully, they were willing to walk right past it.
"And then, there are times where I become an absolute wreck for no reason at all. I could just be going about my day, and then all of a sudden, I have to suppress the urge to have an emotional breakdown in the middle of the school hallway." That...was a rough day to get through. She remembered going to bed early that night.
Sojiro chuckled, though without any humor. "I hear ya. Things were pretty rough when I lost my own folks." Nijima's head lifted up, staring at him with attentiveness. She didn't ask the question out loud, but Sakura had gotten the message. "They had done their job. I was well, off in college, setting myself up for a good job. They took good care of me. It was just time for them to punch out.", he described solemnly, eyes shut as he recalled their faces. Their voices. Their funeral. "Still pretty rough for a kid who was fresh in the world.", the man finished, before shaking away the memories. "But hey, what can you do." he shrugged off, deciding to move on.
"What did you do? When times got really rough?", she slowly asked with curiosity, gaze fixated on the dark brown wood of the counter. "What did it take to stop hurting?" Sojiro stopped for a second, trying to un-blur his college memories. "Honestly? Time. A lot of it is just... going to take time. And even then, there's the occasional ache where you wish you could just call them and ask what to do. That happened a lot when I became a father.
I can't tell you what the best thing to do during grief is, but I certainly can tell you the worst. And that is trying to run away from the grief. Suppressing it, ignoring it, using things that will hurt you later to make these completely normal feelings go away. Because it won't work; take it from an old man who tried.", Sojiro advised, closing his eyes as he recalled his own poor choices. "I understand." The Third-Year Student shyly muttered with a nod. "Still. I believe in the old saying about people not being dead as long as they're in your memory if that helps any."
"It certainly does.", Makoto responded, now far more relaxed than when she first left that morning. She stared at the window as the morning sunrise began to shine through the cafe window.
"You alright?", he asked, placing a fresh cup of coffee in front of her. "...I will be.", she muttered, bringing her thoughts back to reality. "Thank you again, Boss. Sorry for making Futaba wake up so early. I don't know why, but this was the first place I thought about going to as a place to calm down.", she admitted, holding the cup in her hand. "From what?", he asked, slightly tilting his head. "...A...bad dream.", Nijima described in the simplest terms possible. Feeling like you were suffocating in a deafening silence after a heavily realistic dream in your own home is a pretty hard feeling to describe, after all.
She gave a heavy sigh as Sojiro moved to turn on the TV. It was on the news, talking about the Phantom Thieves. Because what else would they talk about.
They listened to the report before Makoto spoke up again. "You know? One of the few lessons that he got to teach me was that justice was a concept. An idea that could take many forms. But the one thing that could determine whether justice was the one in the form was how it treated those that were in need.", she gave a soft smile as she stared off in thought. "Sometimes, I wonder what he would think of me now."
Sojiro crossed his arms as he thought of a response. "Well, if he was anything like what you've described to me, I'd say he'd be...proud. Of how far you've come, of the difference you've been making, of the woman you've grown into. He'd be proud of both of you." The young woman looked away from the TV to him. Her eyes were widened in surprise; she wasn't expecting that answer. "You think?", she asked, voice higher than normal. She sounded younger, hopeful. As if her innocence hadn't completely been thrown in the gutter.
"I know.", he reaffirmed, completely serious in his response.
She paused for a moment, beginning to doubt herself again. "What makes you say that?", she asked, looking up at the man, who simply smiled. "Because I certainly am." His remark took her by surprise again, making her start to beam with a bit of pride. Makoto took a long sip from her cup, using it to hide her shy smile.
"Hey.", the man spoke up to get her attention. She set the cup down, looking indecisive for a moment. "I mean it.", Sojiro reassured, before realizing that wasn't what she was indecisive about.
Makoto got up and hugged the man tightly, much to his surprise. She was always the reserved one when it came to stuff like this. Still, he returned the embrace, rubbing her back as he felt his shirt slightly wet from her tears.
"Come to me if you need anything, alright?", he suggested. Rather than respond, she tightened the hug, burying her face against his chest. He exhaled a deep breath, continuing to hold her until her breaths evened out. "Thank you.", she whispered, slowing her breaths.
Eventually, the two broke apart; Makoto seemed more content than she was before. For that, Sojiro was grateful. Anything he could do to help would be worth it. He helped her wipe the rest of her tears and gave another hug before Nijima decided to leave. Sae was probably awake and panicking at this point.
"Give Sae-san my regards.", he called as a farewell with a small wave. "Certainly.", she called back, pushing open the door to reveal a sunrise illuminating the skyscrapers of their city. Not far away, she heard the familiar notes of Subaru start from a radio. She could hear her father's voice sing along, even now.
Time to start a new day.