★Rights sold: Traditional Chinese!
★Brand-new work from the winner of the 35th Mystery Novel Newcomer Award! A fresh take on clue-finding through a unique "cat-breathing ritual", delivering a tender Kamakura tale of people and cats.
★Celebrated author Sho Ishida (My Therapist Is a Cat) offers enthusiastic praise!
★Aimless young runaway Rin, guided by felines, searches for where he belongs. Kamakura's smoky bonito shop plus the fantasy device of "experiencing a cat's memory" blend cozy mystery with healing warmth, local color, and off-beat charm.

The key to every riddle is hidden inside a cat's memory—accessed by burying your face in its belly and breathing in. This is a soft-spoken Kamakura story about humans and cats. The savory drift of dried bonito and the faint scent of warm fur are both flavors of happiness; close your eyes and you long to inhale them deeply.

In a quiet corner of Kamakura sits Katsuo-dō, a tiny bonito shop. Rin, a young man whose dreams have collapsed, is lodging with the elderly owner. When a neighbor comes to pour out her worries, Rin vows to help, yet every clue slips through his fingers. The old woman teaches him the shop’s secret: the "cat-breathing ritual". Press your face into a cat's stomach, breathe in its breath, and you will relive what the cat once saw.

Piece by piece, Rin assembles the truth from these feline fragments. It is a gentle story of a youth who, led by cats, finally finds the place he is meant to be.