Xiao Daidzhao

Growing up with eccentric materialistic parents who left him in the care of his grandfather for a job overseas, Zhang Heng had learned to adapt and be unfettered by the oddities and challenges in life. But he would soon learn the baffling truth about the world he thought he knew when one day at midnight time froze and he found himself in a world so quiet and still it was deafening. That night, he discovered that he had 24 hours more than everybody else and thus, marked the beginning of his adventures. The mysteries surrounding his newfound ability only deepened when a strange old man claimed to have given Zhang Heng that ‘gift of time’ and recruited the young man to participate in a cryptic ‘life-changing’ game on his behalf. Little did Zhang Heng know that accepting those terms meant embroiling himself in many versions of reality and exposing himself to the hidden secrets of the world—a decision he could never undo.

48 Hours a Day

When Zhang Heng returned, he found Akane squatting by a wooden basin preparing nigiri sushi.

Nigiri sushi, hand-pressed sushi rice topped with sliced fresh fish, was considered a more luxurious dish. Legend had it that Tokugawa Ienari, the Tokugawa shogunate's eleventh shogun, was a greedy and lustful man. His favorite concubine's adopted father was a man named Sekio Nakano. Thanks to too many people wanting to become high-ranking officials through Sekio, many luxury shops were set up nearby his residence. A sushi restaurant owner had the idea of setting up a business selling nigiri sushi next door to Sekio. (Frankly, it was not really that high-end, but the trend soon caught on, and stalls were being set up on the streets).

"Is that tonight's dinner?" Zhang Heng asked, placing the soba noodles and roasted glutinous rice balls on the table. He had already finished the oden on the way back.

Kiyomizu-dera