Chapter 62

Mr. Manning had always insisted on his daughters practicing the rules of Ikigai throughout their lives. He would inspect the food they consumed, tally in the liters of water each of them drank, and even forcibly get them out of their beds at the crack of dawn to join him in his early morning exercise routine despite their loud lamenting.

The fear of losing his daughters was evident in his eyes, but unlike their distant mother, he never looked at them through the lens of all the miscarriages they had experienced, but rather saw them as two brightly-faced girls who were a gift for all those who had died. His only hope was to live long to enjoy their company, and all that was going well until the doors of death began knocking at his door.  

The first time that Mr. Manning experienced fatal chest pain was three years ago at his house. He had witnessed the