"My father always reminds his students to seek new knowledge and enjoy life, you know".
These words, echoed through the hall entrance of beloved Yamaku High School. Currently there's a opening speech about inauguration of memorial statue.
The one who speaks for Yamaku, is the new principal of the school. He replaced the previous principal who retired that year, Mr. Yuki Sakamoto.
"Father said that he did not believe in the social gap between students with disabilities and normal students. Father understands that this view is what creates all the problems in the field of literacy. And father always fight hard and reminds me this everyday, until his passings two years ago".
All the audience remained focused on listening to the new principal in delivering his speech. No one looked at their phones. Yamaku's publication team continued to document and many camera flashes were directed at the man.
"Dad knows because he is an alumni of this school. And he was also transferred to this school because of his heart problem, arrhythmia. He also had difficulty mingling with all the students who had disabilities when he first entered. Because he felt he was invading an area that should not be entered carelessly. Dad also had difficulty finding a conversation that did not touch on physical conditions.
He was silent for a moment, but he managed to find something to say again.
"Dad also felt a deep loneliness because he had to leave everything, the things he experienced before the Arrhythmia incident. But Dad kept reminding us that in every moment, we can find hope and love. That's when Father found his love of life on this very same school".
"My mother, Hanako Ikezawa, is also a student at this school. But she has a rather difficult psychological condition. She was a victim of a fire incident in her childhood, which caused her to lose her father and mother. My father met my mother in the Library, can you believe that? It started with a rather awkward meeting. But, after that, my father and my mother getting closer, opened up about each other scars of the pasts, and my father always be there for her, support her, and they are become couple and also be an example to their family."
The old woman with dark purple hair with a burn on one side of her body, blushed and laughed. She sat with the wife and son of the new principal. And it was seen, the wife of the new principal was holding a portrait of a man who looked old and was smiling.
"My father, Hisao Nakai, is also the one member of Yamaku that teach science educations to students, always give his time to them and become wonderful father and grandfather. When the board of Yamaku approach me about this statue project, i am simply humble to agree with this project, because his contribution to Yamaku and society are tremendous and beautiful".
"So i, Shinji Nakai, promise to live up my father's legacy as a successor who will not forget the aspects of educational and life values that are inherited. Thank you, and now i want to inaugurating the statue !!"
He lowered the curtain from the statue and revealed a statue of a man standing proudly and holding a book in one hand.
And the statue had the inscription:
"Hisao Nakai. He believed that we could all transcend our limitations"