After the quake blind willow, sleeping woman dance dance dance

Air Chrysalis
. So they 
weren’t about to fire him. 
As Tengo had predicted, one day Komatsu simply returned, without explaining 
why he was away or apologizing for his absence, and came back to work. Tengo 
heard the news from another editor he worked with who happened to mention it. 
“So how is Mr. Komatsu feeling?” Tengo asked the editor. 
“He seems fine,” the man replied. “Though he seems less talkative than before.” 
“Less talkative?” Tengo asked, a bit surprised. 
“How should I put it—he’s 
less sociable
than before.” 
“Was he really quite sick?” 
“How should I know?” the editor said, apathetically. “He says he’s fine, so I have 
to go with that. Now that he’s back we’ve been able to take care of the work that has 
been piling up. While he was away there were all sorts of things to do with 
Air 
Chrysalis
that were a real pain, things I had to take care of in his absence.” 
“Speaking of 
Air Chrysalis
, are there any developments in the case of the missing 
author, Fuka-Eri?” 
“No, no updates. No progress at all, and not any idea where the author is. 
Everybody is at their wits’ end.” 
“I’ve been reading the newspapers but haven’t seen a single mention of it 
recently.” 
“The media has mostly backed off the story, or maybe they’re deliberately 
distancing themselves from it. And the police don’t appear to be actively pursuing the 
case. Mr. Komatsu will know the details, so he would be the one to ask. But as I said, 
he has gotten a bit less talkative. Actually he’s not himself at all. He used to be 
brimming with confidence, but he has toned that down, and has gotten more 
introspective, I guess you would say, just sitting there half the time. He’s more 
difficult to get along with, too. Sometimes it seems like he has totally forgotten that 
there are other people around, like he is all by himself inside a hole.” 
“Introspective,” Tengo said. 
“You’ll know what I mean when you talk with him.” 
Tengo had thanked him and hung up. 
A few days later, in the evening, Tengo called Komatsu. He was in the office. Just 
like the editor had told him, the way Komatsu spoke had changed. Usually the words 
slipped out smoothly without a pause, but now there was awkwardness about him, as 
if he were preoccupied. 
Something must be bothering him
, Tengo thought. At any 
rate, this was no longer the cool Komatsu he knew. 
“Are you completely well now?” Tengo asked. 
“What do you mean?” 
“Well, you took a long break from work because you weren’t feeling well, right?” 
“That’s right,” Komatsu said, as if he had just recalled the fact. A short silence 
followed. “I’m fine now. I’ll tell you all about it sometime, before long. I can’t really 
explain it at this point.” 

---

571
Sometime, before long
. Tengo mulled over the words. There was something odd 
about the sound of Komatsu’s voice. The sense of distance that you would normally 
expect was missing, and his words were flat, without any depth. 
Tengo found an appropriate point in the conversation to say good-bye, and hung 
up. He decided not to bring up 
Air Chrysalis
or Fuka-Eri. Something in Komatsu’s 
tone indicated he was trying to avoid these topics. Had Komatsu ever had trouble 
discussing anything before? 
This phone call, at the end of September, was the last time he had spoken to Komatsu. 
More than two months had passed since then. Komatsu usually loved to have long 
talks on the phone. Tengo was, as it were, the wall against which Komatsu hit a tennis 
ball. Maybe he was going through a period when he just didn’t want to talk to anyone, 
Tengo surmised. Everybody has times like that, even somebody like Komatsu. And 
Tengo, for his part, didn’t have anything pressing he had to discuss with him.