Five years later, a young man begs Kikuhiko to take him as an apprentice but he refuses. Yakumo performs his speciality, "Kowakare", but at the end of the performance he collapses. As he is dying, he tells Kikuhiko of his life and how his father took an apprentice who was better at rakugo than him, but he forced his father to declare him as his heir. The other student, named Sukeroku disappeared. His style was the similar to Shin's which is why he was so hard on Shin. After Yakumo's funeral, Kikuhiko surprisingly tells a story of a shinagumi, and again comes under pressure from the association president to take the Yakumo name. He goes to the countryside to find Shin and Miyokichi. He finds a soba restaurant with a young girl performing rakugo. Her name is Konatsu.