The Tanaka family was full of cat fanatics.
Their bumbling father, Kazushi, was sixty-five.
Their mother and cook extraordinaire, Yoriko, was also sixty-five.
Their airheaded eldest son, Wataru, was thirty-eight.
Their miserly daughter, Minato, was thirty-five.
Their frankly disappointing youngest son, Heita, was thirty-three.
Their parents had retired to one of the most rural parts of Japan within the last year, and were living on their pensions.
The three siblings were all independent and living on their own. Though they were all getting up there in age, none of them had managed to marry. The eldest was working in the construction industry, the middle child was a standard office worker, and the youngest worked at a convenience store.
Every few months, their parents would leave the countryside to gather the family so everyone could partake in their mother’s home cooking. This particular gathering was at Minato’s condo, as it was the largest of all the siblings’ homes.
Their menu on that day was a delicious hot pot. The feast began without a hitch, as not a single family member arrived late. Normally, Wataru worked long hours or even on his days off—work-life balance be damned—while Heita often wound up being late simply because he had no real sense of time. However, for once, the two of them made it on schedule today.
The pot boiled enticingly as they all gathered round, but the moment they cracked open their beer cans for a toast—
The earth below them began to quake so hard, they feared it might split in half.
“Whoa, is that an earthquake?!”
“It’s huge!”
“Someone turn off the stove!”
“We’ve gotta get out of here!”
“Look out!”
It was the long-dreaded Nankai megathrust earthquake. On that day, the middle sibling’s first-floor condo was crushed flat and the whole family was wiped out.
...Or so it seemed.