After the quake blind willow, sleeping woman dance dance dance

Just as I suspected
, Ushikawa thought. 
There
was 
some connection between the 
two of them
. 
“A Miss Ota was in charge of their class then. Toshie Ota. Now she’s teaching at a 
municipal elementary school in Narashino.” 
“If I contact that school, perhaps I will be able to get in touch with her?” 
“We have already made the call,” the vice principal said, smiling faintly. “When 
we explained the situation, she said she would be very pleased to meet with you.” 
“I really appreciate that,” Ushikawa said. 
She wasn’t just a pretty face
, he thought, 
but an efficient administrator, too
. 

---

609
On the back of her business card, the vice principal wrote down the teacher’s name 
and the phone number of the school, the Tsudanuma elementary school, and handed it 
to Ushikawa. Ushikawa carefully stashed the card in his billfold. 
“I heard that Miss Aomame was raised with some sort of religious background,” 
Ushikawa said. “We are a bit concerned about this.” 
The vice principal frowned, tiny lines forming at the corners of her eyes. The kind 
of subtle, charming, intelligent lines acquired only by middle-aged women who have 
taken great care to train themselves. 
“I’m sorry, but that is not a subject we can discuss here,” she said. 
“It touches on areas of personal privacy, doesn’t it,” Ushikawa asked. 
“That’s correct. Especially issues dealing with religion.” 
“But if I meet with this Miss Ota, I might be able to ask her about this.” 
The vice principal inclined her slender jaw slightly to the left and smiled 
meaningfully. “If Miss Ota wishes to speak as a private individual, that is no concern 
of ours.” 
Ushikawa stood up and politely thanked her. She handed him the brown business 
envelope. “The materials we could copy are inside. Documents pertaining to Mr. 
Kawana. There’s a little bit, too, concerning Miss Aomame. I hope it’s helpful to 
you.” 
“I’m sure it will be. Thank you very much for all you have done. You’ve been very 
kind.” 
“When the results of that grant are decided, you’ll be sure to let us know, won’t 
you? This will be a great honor for our school.” 
“I’m positive there will be a good outcome,” Ushikawa said. “I have met him a 
number of times and he is a talented young man with a promising future.” Ushikawa 
stopped at a diner in front of Ichikawa Station, ate a simple lunch, and looked through 
the material in the envelope. There was a basic record of attendance at the school for 
both Tengo and Aomame, as well as records of awards given to Tengo for his 
achievements in academics and sports. He did indeed seem to be an extraordinary 
student. He probably never once thought of school as a nightmare. There was also a 
copy of a newspaper article about the math contest he had won. It was an old article 
and the photo wasn’t very clear, but it was obviously Tengo as a boy. 
After lunch Ushikawa phoned the Tsudanuma elementary school. He spoke with 
Miss Ota, the teacher, and made an appointment to meet her at four at her school. 
After four I’m free to talk, she had said. 
I know it’s my job
, Ushikawa sighed, 
but two elementary schools in one day is a bit 
much
. Just thinking about it made him depressed. But so far it had been worth the 
effort. He now had proof that Tengo and Aomame were classmates for two years—a 
huge step forward. 
Tengo had helped Eriko Fukada to revise 
Air Chrysalis
into a decent novel, and 
make it a bestseller. Aomame had secretly murdered Eriko’s father, Tamotsu Fukada, 
in a suite at the Hotel Okura. It would appear that they shared the goal of attacking, in 
their own ways, the religious organization Sakigake. Perhaps they were working 
together. That’s what most people would conclude. 
But it wouldn’t do to tell that duo from Sakigake about this—not yet. Ushikawa 
didn’t like to reveal information in fits and starts. He much preferred gathering as 

---

610
much information as he could, making absolutely sure of all the facts, and then, when 
he had solid proof, revealing the results with a flourish. It was a theatrical gesture he 
still retained from his days as a lawyer. He would act self-deprecating so that other 
people would let down their guard. Then, just when things were drawing to a 
conclusion, he would bring forth his irrefutable evidence and turn the tables. 
As he rode the train to Tsudanuma, Ushikawa mentally assembled a number of 
hypotheses. 
Tengo and Aomame might be lovers. They wouldn’t have been lovers when they 
were ten, of course, but it was possible to see them, after they graduated from 
elementary school, running into each other and growing intimate. And for some 
reason—the reason was still unclear—they decided to work together to destroy 
Sakigake. This was one hypothesis. 
As far as Ushikawa could tell, however, there was no evidence of Tengo and 
Aomame having a relationship. Tengo had maintained an ongoing affair with a 
married woman ten years older than himself. If Tengo had been deeply involved with 
Aomame, he would not then regularly cheat on her with another woman—he wasn’t 
adroit enough to pull that off. Ushikawa had previously investigated Tengo’s habits 
over a two-week period. He taught math at a cram school three days a week, and on 
the other days he was mostly alone in his apartment. Writing novels, most likely. 
Other than occasionally shopping or going for a walk, he seldom left his place. It was 
a very monotonous, simple lifestyle, easy to fathom. There was nothing mysterious 
about it. Somehow Ushikawa just couldn’t picture him involved in a plot that 
involved murdering someone. 
Personally, Ushikawa liked Tengo. Tengo was an unaffected, straightforward 
young man, independent and self-reliant. As is often the case with physically large 
people, he tended to be a bit slow on the uptake at times, but he wasn’t sly or cunning 
in the least. He was the kind of guy who, once he decided on a course of action, never 
deviated from it. The kind who would never make it as a lawyer or a stockbroker. 
Rather, he was more likely to get tripped up and stumble at the most critical juncture. 
He would make a good math teacher and novelist, though. He wasn’t particularly 
sociable or eloquent, but he did appeal to a certain type of woman. In a nutshell, he 
was the polar opposite of Ushikawa. 
In contrast to what he knew about Tengo, Ushikawa knew next to nothing about 
Aomame—other than her background with the Witnesses and that she had later been a 
star softball player. When it came to her personality—her way of thinking, her strong 
points and weaknesses, what sort of private life she led—he was clueless. The facts 
that he had assembled were nothing more than what you would find on a résumé. 
But while comparing the backgrounds of Tengo and Aomame, some similarities 
came to light. First of all, both of them must have had unhappy childhoods. Aomame 
was dragged all over town by her mother to proselytize, slogging from house to 
house, ringing doorbells. All the Witness children were made to do that. In Tengo’s 
case, his father was an NHK fee collector. This was another job that involved making 
the rounds from one house to the next. Had Tengo been dragged along with him? 
Maybe he had. If Ushikawa had been Tengo’s father, he probably would have taken 
Tengo with him on his rounds. Having a child with you helped you collect more fees, 
and you saved on babysitting money—two birds with one stone. For Tengo this 

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611
couldn’t have been much fun. Perhaps these two children even passed each other on 
the streets of Ichikawa. 
Second, as they grew older, Tengo and Aomame worked hard to win athletic 
scholarships so they could get far away from home as quickly as possible. And both 
of them turned out to be superb athletes. They both must have been pretty talented to 
begin with. But there was also a reason they