Yamaoka and Kurita encounter Inspector Nakamatsu on the street, but their conversation is disturbed by two men struggling nearby and Nakamatsu demands that they explain themselves. They are Tooru Kiyama, a toji (brew master), and Hōji Kinno who runs a nihonshu brewery with his brother. Their product has a poor reputation, and they wanted to improve it so Kinno went to Niigata and hired Kiyama.
