After the quake blind willow, sleeping woman dance dance dance

Let’s see just how relative this can be
. “I’ll do the left side now. It 
should hurt about as much as the right side did.” 
“Do what you need to. Don’t worry about me.” 
“Meaning, I shouldn’t hold back at all?” 
“No need for that.” 
Following the same procedure, Aomame corrected the joints and the muscles 
around the left shoulder blade. As instructed, she did not hold back. Once she had 
decided she would not hold anything back, Aomame took the shortest possible route 
without hesitation. The man reacted even more calmly than he had with the right side. 
He accepted the pain with complete equanimity, making only one brief swallowing 
sound in his throat. 
All right, let’s see how much he can stand
, Aomame thought. 
She started working on his muscles one after another in order, loosening them up, 
following her mental checklist. All she had to do was mechanically follow the usual 
route, like a capable and fearless night watchman making the rounds of his building 
with a flashlight. 
All of his muscles were more or less “blocked,” like a region that has suffered a 
horrible disaster, its waterways obstructed, their embankments collapsed. Any 
ordinary human being in such a condition would probably not be able to stand up—or 
even breathe normally. This man was supported by his sturdy flesh and strong will. 
However despicable his behavior might have been, Aomame could not deny him her 
professional admiration for his ability to bear such intense pain in silence. 
She worked on one muscle after another, forcing it to move, bending and 
stretching it to the limit, and each time the joint would release a dull pop. She was 
fully aware that this was something close to torture. She had performed this muscle 
stretching on many athletes, tough men used to living with physical pain, but even the 
toughest of them at some point couldn’t stop themselves from letting out a cry—or 

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something close to a cry. Some even wet themselves. But this man never even 
groaned. He was very impressive. Still, it was possible to guess the pain he was 
feeling from the sweat oozing on the back of his neck. Aomame herself was starting 
to develop a film of sweat on her body. 
It took close to thirty minutes for her to loosen up the muscles on the back of his 
body. When this was finished, she took a moment’s break to wipe the sweat from her 
forehead. 
This is very odd
, Aomame thought. 
I came here to kill this man. In my bag is the 
superfine ice pick I made. If I hold its point at the right spot on the back of his neck 
and punch the handle, it will be all over. He would never know what happened to him 
as his life came to an instantaneous end and he moved on to another world. That way, 
in effect, his body would be released from all pain. Instead, I’m spending all my 
energy to ease the pain that he is feeling in the real world
. 
I am probably doing it because this is the work that I have been given to do
, 
Aomame thought. 
Whenever I have work before me, I have to pour all my strength 
into getting it done. That is just the way I am. If I am given the job of curing problem 
muscles, then I will pour all my strength into that. If I have to kill a person and have a 
proper reason for doing so, I will do that with all my strength
. 
Obviously, though, I can’t do both at the same time. The two jobs have conflicting 
purposes and call for incompatible methods. I can only do one at a time. At the 
moment I am trying to bring this man’s muscles back to as normal a