Extract: Sisters in Yellow by Mieko Kawakami, trans. by Laurel Taylor and Hitomi Yoshio

Read an extract from Mieko Kawakami's latest book Sisters in Yellow – translated from Japanese by Laurel Taylor and Hitomi Yoshio – a noir novel set in 1990s Tokyo. The story follows a young teenager, Hana, as she leaves a rough home, opens a bar with three other women, and falls into the city's criminal underbelly. 

Part One 

Chapter 2 

Ran carried herself differently now than she had twenty years ago.

She was still as small as I remembered, but she’d put on some weight, which made her body look somehow unbalanced. If she hadn’t seen me first and raised her hand to catch my attention, I would have had a hard time recognising her, even though there was almost no one in the café. 

Ran wore a puffy cotton ecru tunic and a mask so large it hid almost half her face. Her low ponytail was dyed light brown, but white hairs at her hairline caught the light and glowed, revealing a haphazard root touch-up. There was still a hint of her old self around her eyes though, swept with a confident brown eyeshadow and a thick layer of mascara.

Her forehead was as narrow as ever, and I was reminded of one late night where the three of us – Ran, Momoko, and I – had measured and compared our foreheads, our eyes, all the parts of our faces. Ran had liked makeup even back then. I knew next to nothing about that sort of thing, and she’d laughingly wondered how her techniques would change the way I looked. She tried a slew of products on me, and when she was done, the three of us looked at my face and exploded with laughter. Seeing Ran before me now, remembering how we’d been back then, I was overwhelmed by how much time had passed, and I felt a twinge deep in my heart. 

We didn’t exchange the kinds of cheerful pleasantries used to greet an old friend. No 'Long time no see' or 'How have you been?' We just ordered our drinks. With her mouth hidden behind her mask, I couldn’t make out Ran’s expression, but she had the air of someone working to move not even a muscle, and in that stillness, we were silent. 

After our two iced coffees arrived, I tried to start the conversation by saying I was glad Ran had recognised me, but she replied curtly that she knew it was me because I was dithering at the entrance. She’d been fidgeting with her phone, but now she stopped and removed her mask. Her brick-red lipstick had smeared on the inside. 

'So, about Kimiko,' Ran began, 'what did she do? I tried to search for information, but I couldn’t find anything.' 

Ran asked as though she was carrying on our conversation from the phone; she didn’t seem particularly nervous. 

'Was it on the news? Did it seem really bad?' 

'Not exactly.' I’d bookmarked the article on the website, so I pulled it up now and handed it over to Ran. She studied the phone intently, scrolled down, and then again gazed at the screen.

'How did you find this?' she asked when she was done, sliding the phone back across the table to me.

'I was reading an article about some other incident on Yahoo, and you know at the bottom it’ll suggest all these articles about similar things, right? Same kind of content, stuff from years ago, links to local newspapers from places you’ve never heard of, and there were these links. And I was just clicking through the links over and over, and I came across this one.' 

'Shinjuku, huh ... not Sancha.' Ran furrowed her brows. 'It said Kimiko was sixty. I guess that means she was forty back then, right. About the same age as us now.'

'Yeah.' 

'Now that I look back on it, she was completely nuts,' Ran spat. 'I can’t believe her. I mean, imagine if we started picking up twenty-year-old girls and living with them like that now. Absolutely crazy.' She shook her head. 'Back when we were living together — I mean, I guess we did do some pretty sketchy things. But we were what, twenty? It was a long time ago. I don’t think there’s any way it would come back to haunt us now.' 

'But what if her apartment, if there are things ... like a stack of cards from back then, I was thinking if the police found those and asked her what they were. And if she talked, they might still question us about what happened, even if they don’t plan on charging us with anything. We’re probably past the statute of limitations, but what we did, it’s ... we don’t know what might blow up into a problem.' 

'So you thought you’d go to the police and tell them you knew her way back when and that you have information?' Ran’s eyes widened with shock. 'You’re overthinking things.'

'You think so?'

'Absolutely. You’re getting carried away. And it’s not like what we did was that big of a deal, you know? That’s what I think. Definitely not something you should be worrying yourself sick over two decades down the line. Kids now do way worse things than we ever did then.'

'Are you sure?'

'Positive.' She thought a moment and said, 'And besides, she made us do it.'

'But Kotomi died, and I still don’t know what actually happened, but I feel like we got her involved, and with the way things ended —' 

'Which one was Kotomi? Oh' – Ran nodded – 'the hostess from that club in Ginza where you were side hustling.'

'Right.' 

'No, no, that’s got nothing to do with us. That was on her ... Don’t you remember what happened? I mean, her death was a shock, but ... Wait, don’t tell me you still think it was your fault.' 

'Well, no, but ...' I shook my head. 

'Of course it’s not. Those people were crazy.' Ran shrugged. 'That’s why you should just relax. Turn that frown upside down. Don’t look at me like that. There’s no point in worrying about something that happened so long ago it’s already basically forgotten, dead and buried. Of course you were upset when you came across Kimiko’s name. You weren’t expecting to be reminded of her. And her keeping a girl like that, kind of a similar situation, I know. I get it. But I’m telling you, it’s okay. If you’re worried about a worst-case scenario, just remember the police already have her. I mean, that stuff from before, you’re better off forgetting it. We were young and stupid, let’s keep our skeletons in the closet.'

'Keep our skeletons in the closet.'

'Exactly. And shouldn’t you be more worried about corona anyway? How’s it been for you? My kids’ school got cancelled, and it’s absolute hell. This whole virus is awful. You doing okay?'

'Well, I ...' I took a deep breath through my nose. 'I guess it’s been fine for me. I live alone.'

Ran stirred her iced coffee with her straw and nodded along. We were in a café in front of Jiyugaoka Station. Ran was apparently living somewhere along the Toyoko Line, and she’d told me this place was convenient because she could get here without any line changes, and the trains came often. The café was part of a chain, and its facade was floor-to-ceiling glass. Ran hadn’t bothered to ask me where I was living, what I was doing, or what I’d done after everything happened.

'There’s almost nobody out. Normally it’s so crowded. I guess everyone’s keeping themselves at home.'

It was true that there were only a handful of people on the street outside the café, though that might also have been because the sky had been heavy and overcast all day, throwing the whole neighbourhood into sunken darkness.

'But time comes for us all. I mean, we’re already forty. I didn’t think I’d ever see you again. We said our goodbyes and kind of scattered.'

'You never changed your number, so I was wondering, did Kimiko ever try and get in touch with you after that?'

'No,' Ran said. 'I can’t say I remember everything from back then, and I don’t want to either ... Remember we were all so confused and flustered when we left? And that was the last time. But I feel like it must have been worse for you, Hana. You were the one she liked the most. I mean, can you imagine being trapped like that, terrifying. She was totally nuts. We were so young, just kids, really, and we had no idea what we were doing, it really is awful.'

'Um, I know I mentioned it on the phone, but about Momoko ... You said I shouldn’t bother trying to get in touch. Did something happen?' I asked. 

'Oh, Momoko.' Ran shook her head. 'Do you remember how she had that terrifying little sister. The one that was dropdead gorgeous, but her teeth were so disgusting you wanted to die. She came by sometimes? Well, Momoko had a huge fight with her and her boyfriend over money, and after that, Momoko went missing, though I don’t know all the details. I just heard the rumours. After we left, I kept in touch with Momoko for a while, but then she disappeared.'

I sighed.

Ran’s voice grew louder, as though she were practising lines for a play or something. 'We were mixed up with a bunch of crazy people, huh. We had no idea what we were doing.' Her exaggerated voice rang through the café. Almost no one was inside, and the few customers they did have were alone, everyone wearing a mask. From a speaker somewhere in the ceiling came the faint sounds of bossa nova. From the sink behind the counter, I could hear the clinking of plates being washed and the voices of the staff talking to each other. None of the other customers were speaking. An older man sitting in a chair a few tables down opened his newspaper with a loud rustle, and my eyes met his when he glanced our way. I took a sip of water and checked the mask dangling from my jaw with the tips of my fingers.

'Anyway, what’s done is done. I’ll say it again, that was a long time ago. It’s in the past. You don’t need to be worrying about it, okay, Hana? And Hana?' She met my eyes, unblinking. 'Do not, under any circumstances, go to the police, okay? There’s no point in it. I am a hundred percent sure it would be nothing but trouble for you. So I’m counting on you to not do it, okay? We’re good, right, now that we’ve talked it over here today? So just forget about it, seriously.'

I nodded.

'We’re good, right?'

'Yeah.'

And then we fell into a lengthy silence. Ran hunched over her drink, staring at a single spot on the table. I could see the fatigue in her expression. I felt like I must have something else I needed to tell her now that we were together again, something important. And maybe she was feeling that same need. But I didn’t know what it was I needed to say or how to find the right words to say it.

'Well, I think I’d better head out. Oh, and Hana.' Ran straightened as though to shake it off. As she readjusted her mask, she continued, 'Could you erase my number? I’ll be sure to erase my history of your calls and texts.'

I couldn’t speak, and in the face of my silence, Ran checked the receipt, left money for her coffee on the table, put her bag over her shoulder, and stood up.

'Well then, I’m off. Try not to get corona.'

With those parting words, Ran left the café, but even once she was gone, I couldn’t quite bring myself to leave. There were things I should have been thinking about, but my mind wasn’t working. I didn’t feel like eating, but I hadn’t had anything since that morning, so I should’ve been hungry — I wondered if I should order something.

As I glanced over the little pictures on the menu, I heard something unexpected. A distant rumbling, as though something huge were trundling along, though what it was, I couldn’t say. After a few moments, I realised it was a peal of thunder. Just as I glanced through the glass storefront, rain came pounding down, all at once. The raindrops were so large I felt like I could see each of them individually as they passed through my field of vision, and I watched as the people walking along the street covered their heads with bags or their hands and made a run for it. The rain grew even heavier, beating down on the asphalt and on the awning of the store diagonal to the café, bouncing back into the air again, sending up a faint white vapour. 

Sisters in Yellow by Mieko Kawakami (translated by Laurel Taylor & Hitomi Yoshio) is published by Picador on 19th March 2026.