At the first therapy session, Karouji, the son suspected of hikikomori, does not show up. The parents, Ootani Taro and Ootani Aimi, seem to get along well as a couple, and are not much interested in deepening the topic of their relationship.
Saverio, who is hosted by an elderly Japanese lady on half-board, is increasingly tempted to write to Yurina, and after agonizing for a few days, makes the fatal decision, posting an overt invitation. In the subway he takes to school, he sees an advertisement with a middle-aged woman dressed in green, admonishing with a raised index finger.
At the second therapy session Karouji comes, in rumpled clothes and with a peculiar blue forelock. Dr Bertini initially ignores him, refusing to consider him as the problem, while to get the parents out of their comfort zone he sets up a role-playing in which Mr Ootani has to 'pick up' Mrs Ootani. The son intervenes to help them get out of the awkwardness, then returns to his muteness, At the end of the session Dr. Bertini gives the boy a secret task: he is teaming up with Karouji by reversing the given situation, and pretends that the parents, not him, are the 'problem'.
Saverio spends a whole day waiting for an answer from Yurina, and when he is now resigned to another social failure, to another defeat, the answer arrives, a date for the following wednesday.
Mario Bertini begins his tedious work of translating the information contained in the old paper files into the online database.
Saverio prepares to go out to meet Yurina, for the first time he will go out dressed as a girl, will try to 'make a pass' as a girl; Tokyo is the city to do it in. He changes in the toilets of a department store, where the mature lady dressed in green appears, smiling at him. Mulan considers it a good omen; but after some moments of enthusiasm Mulan gets completely lost: he can't find no exit from the enormous store, then, once outside, is confused by the big city, with its elevated streets, various levels and the kanji writings. Mulan can't find the café of his appointment, time is running out, and almost panics.
YOU ARE READING
Tokyo Blues
RomanceTokyo, 2016. In the world's most glittering and organized metropolis, Saverio, a young misfit in search of an impossible love, and Dr. Bertini, a playful and vain family therapist at the peak of his career - called to save a family on the brink - la...
