Manabe decides to follow Yamamoto suggestion. Besides, it's already past afternoon and his stomach is yelling for food.
When he arrives in front of TakeSushi, two teenagers come out from the restaurant. A boy with sleepy eyes who wears a cow patterned shirt and a pretty Chinese girl. Strangely, they speak in a foreign language which Manabe assumes as Italian.
Kids these days are surely something aren't they?
Inside, there are only a few customers left since it's slightly past lunch time. He takes an empty seat a little bit on the right and made his order. Soon after, his order came, brought to him by the chef himself, Yamamoto's father.
"Hello. Here's your order. Anything else?" said Yamamoto Tsuyoshi in a similar cheerful voice, just like his son.
"Oh no, thank you, Sir."
"Your face is not familiar, kiddo. Are you new here?" Tsuyoshi opens the talk.
Great! I might get useful information from his old man.
"Umm… Well, actually I come here because I'm a fan of your son. See this? I've just gotten his signs today." Manabe shows the photo to Tsuyoshi.
Tsuyoshi examines the photo for a while and then lets out a heavy sigh."I should've told him to study more. What kind of quote is this?" he seems to get a little frustrated by what he saw.
Manabe doesn't know that unlike his son, Yamamoto Tsuyoshi loves to chat. It's just a habit coming from his job as a restaurant owner. So, he spent almost half an hour listening to the old man's rant. Fortunately, the sushi is indeed tasted delicious and fresh. Unfortunately, nothing article worthy can be excerpted from Tsuyoshi's talk.
But, as he observes the room, a picture on the wall caught his attention. It is a picture of a much younger Yamamoto Takeshi in front of a building, which looks like a dojo –apparently named Asarigumi-, holding a bamboo sword.
"Excuse me, Yamamoto-san. Does your son happen to practice kendo?" says Manabe while pointing to the picture.
The older Yamamoto turns his back to the direction where Manabe pointed.
"Aaa… You mean that? It was taken a long time ago. I guess Takeshi was still in junior high back then. He never wielded a sword before, not even the bamboo one. But one day, he begged me to teach him sword art. Can you imagine how surprised am I?"
"You can do kendo as well, Yamamoto-san?" asks Manabe.
"Oho… I might not look like it kiddo, but I can do some tricks with sword."
"So, did you teach him?"
"Well, I did. Never thought that he'd be so natural with sword though."
Aah… That explains why sometimes Yamamoto Takeshi grips his bat like he's holding a kendo sword.
"Come to think of it, it's been a while since the last time my son wields a bamboo sword."
"Err? What do you mean? Did he stop practicing?" Manabe is now full of curiosity.
"Oh, no. He still practices if that's what you mean. It's just... Nowadays he uses a real sword." Yamamoto Tsuyoshi says with a big grin full of pride reflected on his face.
A… Real… Sword? Now, that's interesting.
Manabe's note:
Yamamoto Takeshi is not a mere baseball player. He's also a swordsman.