Now that things seemed to have calmed down, Taki served the table their meals, before leaving them in peace. The group all begin eating, finding the food to be quite enjoyable, so Taki returns to check on them after a few minutes.

But when he gets to Rohan, the manga artist takes the opportunity to have a conversation with him, wanting to potentially get Mitsuha's attention and get them to chat amongst themselves...

Rohan begins by saying "I take it you're from around here, Taki Tachibana?"

Taki nods and says "Yes, Mr. Rohan, sir!" Then he mumbles to himself and adds, quietly saying "I can't believe I'm talking to the creator of Pink Dark Boy…"

Rohan chuckles softly and says "You needn't feel shy around me. Today, I am simply a person eating lunch with friends..."

Taki sighs in relief when he hears that, as he says "Thank you Mr. Rohan! I'll keep that in mind."

Rohan smiles after hearing that, while saying "That's good to hear. I wouldn't mind chatting with you for a few minutes, if you don't mind. Since I'm a paying customer, you can treat it as part of your work, so I'm sure your manager won't mind…"

Taki nod while quietly laughing, before saying "Sure!" Then he pauses for a moment, before asking "Do you live in Tokyo, Mr. Rohan? I hope you're fine with me asking you this…"

Rohan merely laughs and says "It's quite alright, Taki. But no; I live in a small town called Morioh. As do the rest of the people at this table…"

When Taki hears that, he nods while saying "Oh, that must be a lot different from here! I live in Tokyo myself. What's Morioh like?"

Rohan answers, saying "I'd say it's fairly quiet, but highly unique too. I've traveled all over for my work and I haven't found another town like Morioh yet…" He pauses for a moment before adding "For me, the most valuable part of the town is its vicinity to the countryside. I find it useful to sketch while surrounded by nature."

Following that, Rohan asks a question of his own, saying "Have you ever taken a trip to the countryside, Taki? There must be plenty of interesting towns and villages outside of Tokyo…"

Of course, Rohan knew the answer, thanks to his knowledge of the future, but he needed Taki to say something that would pique Mitsuha's interest. And it would sound suspicious if he simply brought that up directly, but he was an expert at leading conversations, since he wrote so many manga characters.

Taki replies, saying "Umm, I actually went to a nice place a few weeks ago. It was kind of out of the blue though, and I'm not even sure what made me go in the first place."

In response to that, Rohan says "That does sound strange, Taki. Where did you go?"

Taki scratches his chin, before saying "I went with Miki, the waitress who was bothered by that thug, along with another friend of mine, to this town called Itomori I think."

At this point, Mitsuha perks up and says "You went to Itomori? Awesome!"

But then they remain silent as they look into each others' eyes in confusion, which Rohan quickly notices, causing him to immediately pull out his notebook to begin sketching.

After a few moments of silence, they both ask, at the same time, "Hey, what's your name again?"

Taki replies, saying "Oh! Umm, my name is Taki! Taki Tachibana."

And Mitsuha responds, saying "Well, I'm Mitsuha! Mitsuha Miyamizu."

Then their conversation returns to Taki's Itomori trip, and he explains, saying "Yeah, it was really nice. But it felt really sad for some reason, which was weird since that was my first time there. It was almost as if I lost something dear to me."

Mitsuha replies, saying "Wow! That's interesting. Did you know that I grew up in Itomori?"

She grins, and Taki says "That's a huge coincidence!"

Then Taki notices the owner glaring at him, so he tries to shift the conversation to the dining experience. With that, he asks "So, how's you like the meal, Mitsuha? Was it what you expected?"

Mitsuha frowns a bit, and says "I don't want to disappoint you Taki, but it was okay."

Taki replies, saying "Just okay, Mitsuha? But I thought you didn't get Italian food back in Itomori?"

Mitsuha nods, but then feels puzzled, before saying "Yeah, but how'd you know that, Taki?"

Taki pauses, and then says "Wait, why did I know that...?"

Then Mitsuha giggles, and says "Well, anyway! I liked this food, but I really liked Tonio's a lot better."

Taki lowers his head, and says "Oh, okay. Hopefully you'll be more satisfied for your next visit, Mitsuha."

But Mitsuha frantically waves at Taki, and says "I'm not saying that this was bad or anything, Taki! But Tonio's is really good. You should come there with me some time!"

Taki immediately starts to blush, and Mitsuha slowly does as well once she realized what she just suggested. Rohan looks on amused, enjoying all the valuable material he's been able to gather for his manga.

They both remain silent for a few moments, before Okuyasu roughly pats Taki on the back and says "Yeah! You'll love Tonio's! We'll take you there if you ever visit Morioh!"

Josuke quickly elbows Okuyasu and says "Dude... Mitsuha wasn't inviting us. You need to work on being less dense, man..."

Yuyu also laughs and says "We shouldn't intrude.."

Okuyasu slowly understands the situation, but just laughs and says "Oh well! Have fun Mitsuha!"

They all start laughing, and things eventually quiet down, until the owner yells "Taki! Go help table 5 with the dishes!"

Taki quickly stands up, but before he leaves, he gets red in the face and starts to mumble towards Mitsuha, "Umm… I'd like seeing… that place with you, Mitsuha! Would you mind if… we exchanged numbers?"

He keeps his head down as his face is filled with embarrassment, and Mitsuha's slowly starts to match Taki's. She is eventually able to sputter out "Sure, Taki! I'd like that too."

They both exchange numbers, with everyone else watching happily. Taki gets yelled at one more time by the owner, and he runs off before thanking Mitsuha and hoping that everyone enjoyed their meals.

While everyone shuffled away from the table, Tonio started chatting with the restaurant owner, wanting to discuss Italian cuisine in Japan. It was an enjoyable conversation for both chefs, as they both learned a bit more from the experience. But once they seemed ready, Joseph goes to pay for the meal while Taki collects his payment, before moving to clear their table.

But once the group was ready to leave, Taki approaches them again and says "Thank you all for your patronage!"

As they left the building, Mitsuha goes up to Taki, and says "It was nice meeting you Taki! I hope we get to hang out soon!"

She runs back to the group before Taki could see her growing embarrassment, and Taki yells back "It was nice talking with you too, Mitsuha! Take care!"

Following all of that, the group boards the next train to Morioh, as Rohan ponders on what to do next for his new manga masterpiece…

When they returned, they went their separate ways and Rohan returned home, before sitting down at his desk. As he sketched some more of what he viewed today, he spoke out his thoughts, saying to himself "Even though Taki and Mitsuha have now met, I should wait until they at least have one date. That should improve my manga's authenticity, but where should that event take place…?" While saying that, he scratches his chin and continues, mumbling "A lunch or dinner date seems a tad too generic for my tastes, but is there a better option available…?"

Right after that, Rohan glances over at a nearby magazine, seeing an advertisement for a traveling circus. He proceeds to read over the ad, while saying "This… This could work…"

With his mind made up, Rohan goes to contact Mitsuha to suggest for her to bring Taki to that circus located on the outskirts of Morioh. It seems like the ending was finally in sight for Rohan, and he was quite excited to start on his new manga…

Notes

Hope you guys liked the chapter! Feel free to let me know what you thought. Take care! (I also made a few minor tweaks near the middle of the chapter, just so things flow better. Thank you Kerrowe for pointing that out in your review! I completely missed it.)