...I had a restless night's sleep.

I did nothing but turn over repeatedly during a night that seemed like it lasted for eternity.

Even then, I eventually fell asleep at some point... not realizing how high in the sky the sun had risen.

I shook off the urge to go back to sleep.

It was then I noticed that the phone was ringing.

The time was almost half past ten in the morning.

It was clearly too late for a wake-up call.

"Akasaka-san?

Good morning, it's Ooishi.

Nfu fu fu!"

Waking up to the sound of Ooishi's voice was little too much of a shock.

My delicate ears were ringing.

...But thanks to that shock, I was suddenly wide awake.

"...Ah... uhhh, hello.

Good morning."

"Hmmm?

Could it be you just woke up?

Even though you're on assignment, it's still not good to be asleep during regular business hours.

Na ha ha ha."

"You're absolutely right.

...I'll be more careful in the future."

"I have another tidbit that might wake you up even more.

...There was something interesting mixed in with the lost and found at the Hinamizawa Police Box."

"Lost and found?"

"Let's leave the details for when you get here.

You think you'll be able to make it before noon?"

"No, no, I'll be there right away!"

Ooishi already knew what my mission was.

Since Ooishi said it was something that would wake me up...

It was hard to believe that it would be irrelevant to me.

Honestly speaking, judging by the information from Sato-san yesterday,

knowing that my cover was already blown, I couldn't wander to and from Hinamizawa carelessly.

...In other words, my investigation was at an impasse.

If there was some information there that could put me back on the trail, that would be nothing less than a stroke of good fortune.

After vigorously washing my face, I pulled on my jacket and hailed a taxi, heading towards the Okinomiya Police Station.

"Oh, you're here.

The Genius Mahjong Player has arrived."

"My apologies for being late.

...So, exactly what popped up?"

With absolutely no intention of reminiscing about last night's mahjong game, I pressed him to get to the point.

Ooishi, anticipating that I would act that way, cut to the chase without any resistance.

"...Like I said earlier, something arrived from the Hinamizawa Police Box's lost and found this morning."

Lost items that were turned over to the police box were sent to Okinomiya Station after the paperwork was filled out.

Ooishi pulled out a plastic bag from a drawer, and laid its labelled contents on the desk.

"...Is that a wallet?"

"Indeed.

...There was small change inside, but no bills.

We thought that a pickpocket threw it away after pulling out the contents.

At first."

I didn't understand how this wallet, so far removed from Tokyo, could possibly be related to the kidnapping.

...If it had drawn Ooishi's attention,

it would have to be something dramatic, like if the wallet belonged to the missing grandchild.

...That would be absurd.

...Like something that convenient would happen.

If that was it, then there were probably initials written on the wallet.

Like the initials of Toshiki Inukai, the Minister's grandson. "T.I."

Thinking like that, at this point I didn't suppose that this wallet was something that could get Ooishi so excited.

Ooishi, after putting on a pair of disposable plastic gloves, handed me a pair of the same.

I didn't feel that this wallet was such an important thing, so I had my doubts about whether there was any point in putting on gloves. However, I didn't want Ooishi's intentions to go to waste, so I put them on.

Ooishi opened up the plastic bag and pulled it out, showing me the back.

...As I had imagined, there were initials engraved there.

But, it was slightly more detailed than what I had thought, with "Toshiki I." marked on it.

Ooishi grinned at me with a look on his face that said "see?"

...We can't confirm from that that this belongs to the Minister's grandson, I informed him calmly.

...This wallet was irrelevant. It was nothing more than Ooishi's overeagerness.

First of all, there was absolutely no way, in this distant locale, that the missing grandson's wallet would be found with such convenient timing.

...After all, the Onigafuchi Guardians wasn't related to the case in the first place.

...So there was no way this wallet belonged to the grandson...

Why I wanted to decide that was the case, even I didn't really know.

Even though what should have been a top secret case was leaked before I had even been dispatched.

...In this situation, how could I say this was definitely unrelated?

Would it be more prudent to pay more attention to this wallet?

...It had only been a couple of days since I arrived in Hinamizawa.

...But in those couple of days, due to the number of remarkable events, my nerves might have become a little-- just a little frayed.

Shaking my head slightly, I cleared it of unnecessary thoughts.

Ooishi opened the wallet's zipper, revealing the contents.

Inside was small change and a number of crumpled receipts.

Ooishi, from that jumble, pulled out a folded card.

...Seeing that, my heart stopped for a moment.

It was a card from a dental examination.

The name "Toshiki Inukai," and the age.

...A perfect match.

The dentist's location... was in Tokyo.

...There was no need to explain any further.

...How far was it from Tokyo to Hinamizawa?

It was far enough that taking the bullet trains and cars would still take several hours.

Why would a wallet with a dental examination card from Tokyo inside show up in Hinamizawa?

Could it belong to a tourist who came from Tokyo?

Or maybe a villager on vacation to Tokyo just happened to pay a visit to the dentist?

No, it had to have fallen into somebody's bag by accident...

In my mind, I desperately struggled to find a possible excuse as to why this wallet didn't belong to Toshiki Inukai.

It was as if it just wouldn't do for this wallet to belong to him...

However... weeding out any possibility for error one by one...

...the haze surrounding the wallet in front of me faded, gradually letting it come into clear focus.

"...See?"

"..."

I felt a shiver of electricity run up my spine.

My pulse quickened, and a thin film of sweat began to coat my entire body...

...From Ooishi's point of view, I was probably slack-jawed and spaced out, with a slovenly look on my face.

"...Did you get information from the dental office?"

"That's your job, Akasaka-san.

I didn't go that far."

"...When did this wallet show up?"

"The person who picked it up was a villager.

They did so yesterday, it seems."

"Not that, I mean, when was this wallet dropped?"

"It rained here last week, exactly seven days ago.

It doesn't look like the contents are water-damaged, so the longest it could be would probably be six days."

"Does anybody else at this station have knowledge of the existence of this wallet?"

"The officer who first encountered it at the Hinamizawa Police Box.

And also the two or three people in charge of the lost and found.

Other than that, it's just me and you.

If it's involved in a classified case, it'd be bad to talk about, wouldn't it?

I don't intend to wag my tongue."

"...May I borrow a phone?"

"Go ahead.

Dial 0 to get an outside line."

I dialed the phone number inscribed on the examination card.

I could hear my pulse pounding inside my head.

...Ahh, could there possibly be something so absurd!?

The addresses on the receipts and cards inside the wallet were all from around the area where the grandson lived.

The name on the examination card was also a match,

the time we deduced that the wallet had been left behind also matched up with the timeline of the kidnapping.

Of course, it was possible I could just laugh it off as all a big pile of coincidences.

...There wasn't any strong evidence.

...Rather than all this circumstantial proof, the contents of the phone call I was about to make would have a much greater meaning...

"...Hello, sorry to keep you waiting.

This is Nakagawa Dental Office."

"Hello. This is the Okinomiya Police department.

I have a misplaced wallet here, and am trying to get in contact with the owner.

Would you be able to help me?

Inside the wallet, there was an examination card from your office.

...Yes.

The name is Toshiki Inukai.

If I give you the number on the card, would you be able to look up the phone number?

...Yes, thank you.

If you could."

Still holding the receiver, I pulled out a notebook from my breast pocket with my free hand.

...I opened it up to the page with the grandson's address and phone number recorded on it.

"Yes, hello.

....Yes, go ahead."

I compared the phone number written in my notebook to the one that was being read out on the other end of the line.

...During that process, I spun around to look behind me uneasily.

I locked eyes with Ooishi.

...Ooishi looked puzzled, wondering what the matter was.

Why would I feel uneasy and look behind me?

...That was because the person on the end of the line...

was reading out the numbers as though doing so straight from my notebook...

It seemed that HQ was in quite an uproar thanks to my report.

No matter how many times the authenticity of the evidence I had linked to the grandson was called into question, I could only respond that it was the truth...

When the lead investigator first picked up the phone,

I was grilled about the evidence I'd found that was almost too good to be true (if I do say so myself)...

...But after having doubt after doubt dispelled, he fell into silence.

...The receiver was finally handed over to the section chief.

When he picked it up, the background thrum on the other end of the line disappeared, and I knew that it had gone completely silent.

After asking the same questions about the wallet that the lead investigator did, the chief quietly spoke his next words.

"Got it.

We'll dispatch several people as reinforcements.

They should be able to make it there by evening.

Akasaka-kun, please continue with your investigation of the area.

Get some information on the spot where the wallet was found.

Kanou-san will select some people and head directly there..."

The fact that he was sending Kanou, the lead investigator, here meant that the chief had decided there was a possibility that the Onigafuchi Guardians were somehow implicit in the kidnapping.

However, it felt as though until the lead investigator, whom he trusted, had verified the evidence with his own eyes, he was still going to be skeptical about it.

"How'd it go?"

"It seems that HQ is sending reinforcements.

I was ordered to investigate the area.

...Where was the wallet dropped?"

"Around Takatsudo apparently.

...This is Okinomiya.

All the way over here, this is Hinamizawa.

Then, even further upstream, way up around here, is Takatsudo."

Ooishi explained where the wallet was found by pointing to locations on the map on the wall.

This place called Takatsudo was even more remote than Hinamizawa was.

"There's hardly anybody living in the area around Takatsudo.

It was deserted a long time ago.

It's littered with abandoned houses, so it's really quite desolate around there."

"...Ooishi-san.

Could I ask you to guide me to Takatsudo?"

"Yeah, I don't mind.

You can't really get in and out of Hinamizawa as you please by yourself, after all.

Of course, I'll have to make you wear the cap and mask again."

That Ooishi had agreed to accompany me was very reassuring.

...If Sato-san's info was to believed, my cover had been blown.

I wasn't sure if the villagers had realized that the fresh meat dispatched from Public Safety was the tourist that had visited the village yesterday (in other words: me).

But deciding that they hadn't noticed would have been overly optimistic.

Given a cursory thought, Takatsudo, where the wallet was found, couldn't be ruled out as a hiding spot for the kidnappers.

The Takatsudo area didn't have any residential buildings, nor was it alongside a highway. There wasn't a reason for even the locals to go out of their way to visit it.

...It was exactly what you would call a long-forgotten ghost town at the end of the road.

You couldn't ask for a better place to hold a kidnapped grandson.

Also, you couldn't get to Takatsudo without passing through Hinamizawa first.

Those several conditions made the area all the more important.

I couldn't brush it off any longer.

...There was no longer any doubt that Onigafuchi Guardians, or somebody hired by them, were involved in the kidnapping.

If that was the case...

Then the fact that this wallet was found might have already been leaked to them.

...They even knew so much as how the Public Safety Division was operating.

The case of the wallet couldn't be something they didn't know.

In that case... there was a possibility that the enemy was lying in wait.

To dive alone into enemy territory surrounded by enemy territory, to say the least, required an amount of courage--nay, recklessness-- that I just did not have.

"Without your company, Ooishi-san, I wouldn't be able to step into the village so easily.

Thank you very much for your cooperation.

...Honestly, I thought you would ask for more money."

"Na ha ha ha.

Well, if we're being honest, Hinamizawa isn't exactly a place I like to go to.

I'd at least appreciate it if you paid for the cab fare.

Still, it's not a request I can refuse from a friend that's played at the same table as me.

Nfu fu fu...!"

Ooishi grinned as he pounded me on the back.

It struck me that he just didn't want to jump ship rather than having any sort of sense of duty towards his job.

Even so, that didn't really matter.

Right now I really appreciated the gesture.

"Well then, shall we hurry up and get going?"

...If the enemy knew that the police had obtained the wallet...

Then they would probably have moved the hostage to a different place.

There wasn't a moment to lose.

But Ooishi, without regard to the fact that we were about to head out, began to remove his jacket.

"...What are you doing?"

"Well, just a precaution.

If you want me to poke the beehive to get your honey, I have to be rather well prepared, you see.

Do you want to put one on too?"

What Ooishi pulled from the drawer below the desk was a stab-proof vest...

His name was Toshiki Inukai.

The grandson of the Minister of Construction, Inukai.

There was only one reason for him being here.

If you didn't include gym or art class, his grades were above average.

That was the result of having private tutoring sessions twice a week.

If you omitted the fact that he still couldn't do pull-ups, there wasn't much else that would make him hate school.

Of course, he understood full well that his grandfather was a cabinet minister.

But he also knew that not too many people were that interested in their relationship.

He didn't like to go out of his way to bring up his grandfather, or to call him the Minister of Construction.

And finally, he at least tried to know a little more about what kind of work the Minister of Construction did than your average Joe.

What that entailed was that when you tried your best to make life better for the masses... sometimes you made a few enemies.

He knew that all too well from the time he'd spent as class representative.

His grandfather had many enemies.

...He knew that he might personally catch some of that fallout, so he had to be twice as cautious.

He was taught that by his parents.

That's why... the moment he was kidnapped, he instantly knew that this was one of those occasions.

He understood that he wasn't being treated as Toshiki Inukai, the person, but rather as Toshiki Inukai, the grandson of the Minister of Construction.

That he wasn't personally at fault, but that this was the result of some unavoidable trouble with his grandfather's work.

...It made little difference, but when he realized it wasn't because of anything he did, he was able to relax, if only a little.

Of course, at first he was struck with a terror befitting his age, wondering what was going to happen to him.

But, after a while of being tied up and only able to stay lying down, he began to ponder a great many things.

First, he thought about the reason he was being abducted like this.

He understood the answer to that easily.

He was taken hostage to coerce his grandfather, the Minister.

There was no doubt about that.

He didn't know exactly what the Minister of Construction did, but it was easy to imagine that there was much to be gained from threatening him.

He respected his grandfather more than most.

He earnestly believed that his own grandfather was within the top 20 of the most important people in Japan.

That was exactly why he wouldn't forgive anybody who tried to threaten his beloved grandfather. More importantly, he wouldn't forgive anybody who would use him as a tool to threaten his grandfather.

His grandfather was really busy, and rarely had time to meet with relatives.

That's why, with what little time he did manage to scrape together, he just dropped by unannounced.

And, as an apology for not being able to meet during new year's or summer vacation, he doted on his grandson, very, very much.

The number of times that Toshiki was looked upon with disregard just because his grandfather was a politician and a minister certainly weren't few.

But he never thought even once that he wanted his grandfather to quit being a politician.

Because it was his beloved grandfather, he wanted him to continue his career as long as possible from the bottom of his heart.

However, Toshiki was now being held hostage, and his grandfather was being threatened.

His grandfather, who called him the apple of his eye, was surely suffering.

He might do anything to save his grandson.

Maybe even putting aside his ideology if it was required to save his grandson.

He might cave into the culprits' demands if it meant saving his grandson.

When Toshiki thought about that...

...an inexplicable anger welled up within him.

In his current situation, he was unable to forgive the cowards who would make his beloved grandfather suffer by using such dastardly means.

That feeling swelled up inside of him, displacing the fear.

What he thought of first, was something any boy would imagine.

Get out of these bonds, beat up the bad guys, then hand them over to the police.

Images of all the brave heroes from all the manga he had read passed through the back of his mind.

In his imaginary scenario, he slipped his bonds easily, floating like a butterfly to evade his captors, then stinging like a bee to bring them all down.

In the end, it was nothing more than his silly little fantasy. But with his vision obstructed and unable to see anything, it was something that he could get into more than any anime at the moment.

In actuality, he was enjoying these little scenarios in his head for the long period of time he was tied up. His captors hadn't really done anything to him that they would feel sorry for.

However, eventually he began to grow tired of his fantasies, and more realistic scenarios began to run through his head. It was then he realized that none of them were a solution.

...Yes, he wanted to do something for his grandfather who was being threatened.

That he was being held here to inflict pain on his grandfather was the thing that he could least forgive, and also the most vexing.

...And then, he noticed.

There was a much simpler way he could save his grandfather without having to beat up his despicable captors.

That was, to remove himself as a hostage from the hands of these villains.

If he was to disappear from here, his captors would have nothing to threaten his grandfather with.

The captors had restrained him, but they didn't treat him roughly, and they made sure he was fed well enough.

...Meaning, at most, he was nothing more than the means for their threat.

They weren't looking to bully or kill him out of spite.

If he behaved, no ill would befall him.

Realizing that gave him a strong sense of courage.

And carrying his train of thought this far, he let it run its course to its natural conclusion.

Right now, at this moment, Toshiki Inukai had decided to escape.

His ears had been stuffed with a spongelike material, acting as makeshift earplugs.

...However, they didn't actually do much to block out any sound, and he could overhear everything his captors were saying.

Realizing that this was to his advantage, even when his captors spoke to him, he acted like he couldn't hear them due to the earplugs.

His captors, thinking that he couldn't hear their conversation, talked about all sorts of things without any reservations.

Thanks to that, he was able to obtain various pieces of information.

First off... this wasn't Tokyo.

It seemed that this was quite a distance away, and on top of that in the countryside, nestled deep in the mountains.

It also seemed that his captors were inconvenienced living out here, so he could deduce that this place was far removed from any sort of town.

Finally, whenever they went out to buy food or other supplies, they would always take a car.

That fact caused him some dismay,

because he knew that the method he learned at school of running around blindly while shouting for help wouldn't work here.

He paused his little mental escape scenario there.

His ultimate goal was to find somebody who would help him.

If somebody who fit that description wasn't close by, his chances of escaping successfully grew slim.

A desolate far-off land deep in the mountains.

A place where you couldn't even go shopping without using a car.

...In this situation... escaping would be very difficult.

...He grew depressed, and after a little while, he returned to his original scenario.

Imagining becoming a hero like in the manga he read and beating down his captors became his respite.

However, as he played those delusions out in his head...

His heart, hating to surrender, continued to search for a way to escape.

...And then... he thought of a way.

If the goal was far away, then all he had to do was get closer.

His goal, in a nutshell, was to find somebody who would help him.

In other words, somebody other than his captors.

If he faked being sick, then his captors would have to take him to the hospital, or bring a doctor to him.

They would probably be reluctant to do that.

But, he already knew, that the hostage was more important than anything.

In the off chance that something happened--like him dying--occurred, they wouldn't be able to threaten anybody anymore.

Luckily, he had an experience that would help him fake a serious illness.

At the end of last year.

He was inadvertently involved in a car accident and had to undergo surgery.

The scar from that surgery was still clearly visible on his lower torso.

He recalled the pain and suffering from that time.

The existence of that experience would make a huge impact on the realism of his performance.

...He was quite confident in his ability to fake an illness.

"....Ugggggghh...

...unggggggggggg....."

His captors at first took that as a sign he needed to use the washroom.

Untying only his arms, they tried to bring him there while he was still blindfolded.

But, he didn't try to get up.

His hands, now free, only clutched at his abdomen as he writhed in agony.

"...Hey, what's wrong?

Does your stomach hurt?"

He still had his earplugs in so he had to pretend he didn't hear his captors asking the question.

He was about to nod so he hurriedly had to stop himself.

"Whass tha matter?"

"...Yeah, the kid's clutching at his stomach.

Must be a stomachache or something."

His captors looked down on his suffering form for a bit.

One of them proposed a course of action, while another laid his doubts that Toshiki might be faking it.

"Whass wrong, boy?

Yer tummy hurt?"

"His ears are plugged, so he can't hear you."

"Well, thass a problem.

...Do we got any medicine tha' works on stomach pain?

Migh' wanna go to the pharmacy an' buy some?"

"When it comes to stomach pain, there's a bunch of different meds, isn't there?

As long we don't know the cause, we shouldn't just buy him any old medicine."

"'E's 'olding 'is stomach, maybe 'e's just constipated.

If ya buy 'im some medicine for tha', mebbe tha'll calm 'im down.

It won' kill 'im if we're wrong, either."

"Don't decide something like that on your own.

It might be appendicitis or something.

My uncle suddenly got it a while ago.

That was pretty scary."

One of the captors leaned over beside the boy, who was bent over in agony.

"...I feel sorry for the kid.

...Whoa, his whole body's covered in sweat...

Is it your stomach?

Does it hurt?

Hey hey, if it hurts you shouldn't clutch at so tightly, it'll only make it worse..."

Realizing that his captors were concerned about his stomach, he 'inadvertently' let his shirt ride up...letting the scar from his surgery come into plain view.

His vision was still obscured with packing tape so he couldn't see their reaction to his scar.

But his captors were taken aback, and judging from their momentary silence, he had obtained the reaction he was looking for.

"....Hey, this is bad.

This scar, it's not that old."

"...Does tha boy have a fever?

There a thermometer around?"

"No way we have one.

But, that's a lot of sweat...

Yeah, his forehead feels pretty hot, I think."

"..."

"...I've heard that under prolonged stress, old wounds can be aggravated."

"Then whadda we do!?

Are ya sayin' tha' medicine won' work!?"

"...We don't know what surgery this scar was from.

...But in any case... this is bad.

In the worst case, it could be fatal..."

"...This's bad.

This's really, really bad..."

"...Maybe we should have a doctor take a look at it.

At this rate, there's a chance that he might suddenly die on us..."

Toshiki Inukai, with those few words, knew that the situation was progressing exactly as he had envisioned it, and snickering to himself on the inside, pressed his act even further.

He didn't even need to see to know that his captors were panicked and were running around like chickens with their heads cut off at this troublesome turn of events.

"...Should we take him to the clinic?"

"No...thass no good.

...Prob'ly better if tha doctor came here."

"Dr. Irie, you mean?

...Is that okay?

Will that be all right?"

"...It'd be worse if anythin' happened to tha hostage.

Nothin' we can do! It's an emergency!"

One of the captors hurriedly left in the car.

Another of the men, completely shaken up at this point, wiped the sweat from his forehead with a handkerchief.

...It looked like they were bringing a doctor.

As long as the doctor wasn't an accomplice, that doctor was his goal.

He was someone he should seek help from.

His captors were probably wary of that happening.

They would be prepared for it.

...This would all come down to luck.

...Some of the sweat emerging from his brow was from that nervousness...

At that moment, the packing tape that was covering his eyes and ears was torn off.

The burning light that he was seeing for the first time in several days hurt his eyes.

After that, the gag that made it hard for him to breathe was also removed.

"...Are you all right, kid?

We're bringing a doctor to you right now.

Just hold on for a bit."

".....Uhhhhhhnnnnn.....

....Gahhhhhhhh...."

The doctor was coming... the doctor was coming...

Now, how was he going to ask for help, and how was he going to get away from his captors?

A plethora of thoughts began swirling through his mind.

"...I think you know this already...

...but don't say anything unnecessary to the doctor.

...We don't want to hurt you or anything.

You understand that, right?"

Toshiki Inukai nodded while feigning pain and obedience...

His expectations and the enemy's expectations.

...Whether they doubted he was faking his illness or not, they knew what his goal was, and would try to stop it.

His stomach contracted from the stress of this gambit, making it seem like his stomach really was starting to hurt.

No, it really was.

But there was no reason to panic...

If he failed with his approach to the doctor, there was nothing to lose.

If there was something to lose, it was this method of faking illness to get in touch with a doctor.

If he could think of other methods from here on out, it wasn't much.

But, at the present, this was the easiest and most dramatic way he could think of.

...Ahh, the more he thought about it... the more it looked like this was his first and last gambit!

Eventually.... he heard the sound of a car approaching once again.

The sound of the car doors being hurriedly open and shut.

The sounds of several footsteps approaching.

A young man in a white medical coat.

As he acknowledged the boy, a suspicious look showed itself on his face.

"...Who's he?"

"..."

"...He's not one of the kids from the village, is he?"

The captors didn't respond.

...From the looks of it, the young doctor had realized that this was an abnormal situation.

One of the captors talked threateningly.

"Thass got nothin' to do with ya, doc."

"..."

For a while, the doctor and the captors silently glared at one another.

...However, unable to stand the sight of the boy continuing to suffer, the doctor-- as the captors had hoped-- didn't press any further.

"...I'm concerned about this old surgical scar.

What kind of operation was it?"

"...We don't know."

"...Hmmm..."

"I should really bring him back to the clinic."

"Doc, we really can' really do that..."

The doctor said he wanted to bring the boy back to the clinic, but the captors simply silently shook their heads at the notion.

...it was a fleeting hope, but it was only natural that the captors would refuse.

At that moment, his eyes met with the doctor's.

Seeing that the boy's painful state was abnormal, the doctor suspected it was a serious illness.

"...Are you all right?

I'm a doctor.

When was this surgical scar from?"

"....Unn..... guhhhh....

...Last year...

...during the winter...

...from an accident..."

"An accident.

...I see...

...this is a problem..."

He couldn't let the doctor figure out that he was faking it here.

He had to somehow figure out some way to keep this going and tell the doctor that he was being confined and needed help.

"I'm going to touch the affected area, okay?

If it hurts, tell me where."

"...AHHHHHHHHH!!!

...Hmm ....hmmm...."

Seeing that it was extremely painful, the doctor crossed his arms and began to ponder.

He had to somehow get himself to a hospital.

To Toshiki Inukai, faking this illness was the performance of a lifetime.