The figure that had greeted Kousei was his guardian, Hiroko Seto, who happened to be a close friend of Saki's. With her was her young daughter, Koharu. She was a very well reputed pianist in Japan. She was looking happy at her old friend, but somewhat concerned as well over the prosthetic left foot. "Kousei... long time, no see. You've changed quite a bit. I heard about what happened to you, getting run over by that car. I feel bad for you.... But good at the same time that you were able to give a great performance like this today. Is everything alright?" Kousei nodded, "Yeah..... the fact I lost my left foot in that accident has changed me. I thought I wasn't going to pull through, but I'm walking normally again..... See the prosthetic foot?"
Kousei pointed to the foot. Hiroko said "I see. How are you doing, getting used to it, exactly?" Kousei said "At first, I walked kind of stilted, but over time, in the weeks that have gone by, I feel like it's the next best thing to having my left foot again. My real one sadly got severely crushed by a car..." Hiroko said "Yeah, I did hear about that on the news. That was terrible. I was genuinely worried about you, Kousei. I was just.... Stunned that something like would happen to someone like you. At the same time, I'm also happy for you that you've bounced back from this setback."
As the two talked, Kaori was preparing for her performance, with her violin case and bag in hand, still wearing her Saskatchewan Roughrider jersey. She stopped for a moment to greet the two. "Hi, Kousei.... Oh, hello, who are you?" she asked Hiroko. "My name's Hiroko Seto, what's your name?" "Kaori Miyazono. Pleased to meet you, Hiroko." The two shook hands and Hiroko said "Pleased to meet you, Kaori. I'm Kousei's guardian, by the way." "Likewise. Hey, I gotta get ready for my performance.... I'll talk to you later, Kousei, Hiroko." Both waved goodbye to Kaori, as she got prepped and dressed.
Kousei and Hiroko picked up where they left off in their conversation. "The accident.... Tell me how you feel. What happened to you? How have you been since?" Kousei sighed, and then started to talk "Well, I had spent all day at school, and the weatherman said it was going to be sunny that day. Turns out he was wrong, and it started raining like all hell on that day. Suddenly, I had to run back home as fast I could, and I didn't have an umbrella with me, so I just used my school uniform coat. Then, as I came to a crosswalk..... I slipped on a puddle and the next thing I knew I got run over by a car. I also hit my head on a lamppost as I came down, I was told. It turned out my left foot was so severely crushed by the wheel of the car, so they had to amputate it. In the days following that, I had headaches, slight cases of memory loss, and when I first touched a piano after that, I had a case of the yips. Well.... I see doctors every week to check on that, and they said that much of the, uh.... damage to my brain was pretty bad, but not bad enough that it would affect my memory. They're also not sure whether I can be as sharp as I was again, but they also said it can be manageable. Which was why I quivered at times when I was on the piano today." Although the audience couldn't see Kousei's hands quiver at times, only he knew about it.
Hiroko said "Wow.... That is terrible. I'm glad that you are here right now, but I can only wish you my best going forward. Recovering from such a gruesome injury can be very tough, and I'm glad you're doing your best in that endeavor." Kousei nodded. "Yes..... also, I couldn't quite walk all that well with my prosthetic foot.... Now I'm used to it and I'm managing it well. I still have to see doctors every week to check on my neurological state and how I'm doing with the foot; however, they are saying I am pretty neurologically sound by now." Hiroko smiled at him. "You know.... you've been through a lot. But as of today, I'm not just your guardian now... I am your mentor." The two hugged each other. "Stay strong, Kousei.... I know you so well. If you can weather this storm well, you can survive anything."
A few hours later, after Kousei and Hiroko met, the results of the competition were posted. Kousei had won again, but he was now a changed man. He felt happy about things. He sat on a bench outside the concert hall, smiling with his eyes closed. Emi and Takeshi smiled at him, noticing how good he was feeling. The two were actually happy for him. They could no longer glare at him or look at him with such disdain. Emi said "He's a changed man, that Kousei." Takeshi said "I hear ya, Emi. He suddenly feels hopeful and happy for once..... and that makes me, happy too."