After the quake blind willow, sleeping woman dance dance dance

Like what, for instance?
Tengo shook his head. 
When he had polished off the beer, he ordered a Four Roses on the rocks and some 
mixed nuts. Just like the last time. 
Most likely his erection on that stormy night was 
too
perfect. It was far harder, and 
bigger, than he had ever experienced. It didn’t look like his own penis. Smooth and 
shiny, it seemed less an actual penis than some conceptual symbol, and when he 
ejaculated it was powerful, heroic even, the semen copious and thick. This must have 
reached her womb, or even beyond. It was the perfect orgasm. 
But when something is so complete, there has to be a reaction. That’s the way 
things go. 
What kind of erections have I had since?
Tengo wondered. He couldn’t 
recall. Maybe he hadn’t even had one. Or if he had, it was obviously not very 
memorable, a subpar hard-on. If his erection had been a movie, it would have been 
low budget, straight to video. Not an erection even worth discussing. Most likely. 
Maybe I’m fated to drift through life with nothing but second-rate erections
, he 
asked himself, 
or not even second-rate ones? That would be a sad sort of life, like a 
prolonged twilight. But depending on how you look at it, it might be unavoidable
. At 
least once in his life he had had the perfect erection, and the perfect orgasm. It was 
like the author of 
Gone With the Wind
. Once you have achieved something so 
magnificent, you have to be content with it. 
He finished his whiskey, paid the bill, and continued wandering the streets. The wind 
had picked up and the air was chillier than before. 
Before the world’s
rules loosen up 
too much
, he thought, 
and all logic is lost, I have to find Aomame
. Nearly the only 
hope he could cling to now was the thought that he might run across her. 
If I don’t 
find her, then what value is there to my life?
he wondered. She had been here, in 
Koenji, in September. If he were lucky, she was still in the same place. Not that he 
could prove it—but all he could do right now was pursue that possibility. 
Aomame is 
somewhere around here. And she is searching for me, too. Like two halves of a coin, 
each seeking the other
. 
He looked up at the sky, but he couldn’t see the moons. 
I have to go someplace 
where I can see the moon
, Tengo decided. 

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