After the quake blind willow, sleeping woman dance dance dance

Air Chrysalis
has done more than a little damage to Sakigake. However, 
they
are not 
thinking to punish you for this. There is nothing to be gained from punishing you at 
this point. They have a mission they must accomplish, and in order to do so, quiet 
isolation is required.” 
“So you want everyone to take a step back and forget it all happened.” 
“In a word, yes.” 
“Was it absolutely necessary to kidnap me in order to get this message across?” 
Something akin to an expression crossed Buzzcut’s face for the first time, a 
superficial emotion, located somewhere in the interstice between humor and 
sympathy. “They went to the trouble of bringing you here because 
they
wanted you to 
understand the seriousness of the situation. They didn’t want to do anything drastic, 
but if something is necessary, they don’t hesitate. They wanted you to really feel this, 
viscerally. If all of you do not keep your promise, then something quite unpleasant 
will occur. Do you follow me?” 
“I do,” Komatsu replied. 
“To tell you the truth, Mr. Komatsu, you were very fortunate. Because of all the 
heavy fog you may not have noticed this, but you were just a few inches from the 
edge of a cliff. It would be best if you remember this. At the moment 
they
do not have 
the freedom to deal with you. There are many more pressing matters at hand. And in 
that sense, too, you are quite fortunate. So while this good fortune still continues …” 
As he said this he turned his palms faceup, like someone checking to see if it was 
raining. Komatsu waited for his next words, but there weren’t any. Now that he had 
finished speaking, Buzzcut looked exhausted. He slowly rose from his chair, folded it, 
and exited the cube-shaped room without so much as a glance back. The heavy door 
closed, the lock clicking shut. Komatsu was left all alone. 

---

690
“They kept me locked away in that square little room for four more days. We had 
already discussed what was important. They had told me what they wanted to say and 
we had come to an agreement. So I couldn’t see the point of keeping me there any 
longer. That duo never appeared again, and the young man in charge of me never 
uttered a word. I ate the same monotonous food, shaved with the electric razor, and 
spent my time staring at the ceiling and the walls. I slept when they turned off the 
lights, woke up when they switched them on. And I pondered what Buzzcut had told 
me. What really struck me most was the fact that he said 
we were fortunate
. Buzzcut 
was right. If these guys wanted to, they could do anything they wanted. They could be 
as cold-blooded as they liked. While I was locked up in there, I really came to believe 
this. I think they must have kept me locked up for four more days knowing that would 
be the result. They don’t miss a beat—they’re very meticulous.” 
Komatsu picked up his glass and took a sip of the highball. 
“They drugged me again with chloroform or whatever, and when I woke up it was 
daybreak and I was lying on a bench in Jingu Gaien. It was the end of September, and 
the mornings were cold. Thanks to this I actually did wind up with a cold and a fever 
and I really was in bed for the next three days. But I guess I should consider myself 
fortunate if that’s the worst that happened to me.” 
Komatsu seemed to be finished with his story. “Did you tell this to Professor 
Ebisuno?” Tengo asked. 
“Yes, after I was released, and a few days after my fever broke, I went to his house 
on the mountain. I told him pretty much what I told you.” 
“What was his reaction?” 
Komatsu drained the last drop of his highball and ordered a refill. He urged Tengo 
to do the same, but Tengo shook his head. 
“Professor Ebisuno had me repeat the story over and over and asked a lot of 
detailed questions. I answered whatever I could. I could repeat the same story as 
many times as he wished. I mean, after I last spoke with Buzzcut, I was locked up 
alone for four days in that room. I had nobody to talk to, and plenty of time on my 
hands. So I went over what he had told me and was able to accurately remember all 
the details. Like I was a human tape recorder.” 
“But the part about Fuka-Eri’s parents dying was just something they claimed 
happened. Right?” Tengo asked. 
“That’s right. They insisted it happened, but there’s no way to verify it. They 
didn’t file a death notice. Still, considering the way Buzzcut sounded, it didn’t seem 
like he was making it up. As he said, Sakigake considers people’s lives and deaths a 
sacred thing. After I finished my story, Professor Ebisuno was silent for a time, 
thinking it over. He really thinks about things deeply, for a long time. Without a word, 
he stood up, left the room, and didn’t come back for quite a while. I think he was 
trying to accept his friends’ deaths, trying to understand them as inevitable. He may 
have already half expected that they were no longer of the world and had resigned 
himself to that fact. Still, actually being told that two close friends have died has got 
to hurt.” 
Tengo remembered the bare, spartan living room, the chilly, deep silence, the 
occasional sharp call of a bird outside the window. “So,” he asked, “have we actually 
backed our way out of the minefield?” 

---

691
A fresh highball was brought over. Komatsu took a sip. 
“No conclusion was reached right then. Professor Ebisuno said he needed time to 
think. But what other choice do we have than to do what they told us? I got things 
rolling right away. At work I did everything I could and stopped them from printing 
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