After the quake blind willow, sleeping woman dance dance dance

yakiniku
?” 

---

573
“
Yakiniku
?” Tengo didn’t eat much meat. He didn’t usually crave it. But now that 
she had brought it up, he thought it might be good to have some meat for a change. 
His body might indeed be crying out for more nourishment. 
“All of us were talking about going out now to eat some 
yakiniku
. You should join 
us.” 
“All of us?” 
“The others finish work at six thirty and we’ll meet afterward. There will be three 
of us. Interested?” 
The other two were Nurse Omura and Nurse Adachi. The three of them seemed to 
enjoy spending time together, even after work. Tengo considered the idea of going out 
to eat 
yakiniku
with them. He didn’t want to disrupt his simple lifestyle, but he 
couldn’t think of a plausible excuse in order to refuse. It was obvious to them that in a 
town like this Tengo would have plenty of free time on his hands. 
“If you don’t think I’ll be a bother.” 
“Of course you won’t,” the nurse said. “I don’t invite people out if I think they’ll 
be a bother. So don’t hesitate to come with us. It will be nice to have a healthy young 
man along for a change.” 
“Well, healthy I definitely am,” Tengo said in an uncertain voice. 
“That is the most important thing,” the nurse declared, giving it her professional 
opinion. 
It wasn’t easy for all three nurses to be off duty at the same time, but once a month 
they managed it. The three of them would go into town, eat something nutritious, 
have a few drinks, sing karaoke, let loose, and blow off some steam. They definitely 
needed a change of scenery. Life in this rural town was monotonous, and with the 
exception of the doctors and other nurses at work, the only people they saw were the 
elderly, those devoid of memory and signs of life. 
The three nurses ate and drank a lot, and Tengo couldn’t keep up. As they got 
livelier, he sat beside them, quietly eating a moderate amount of grilled meat and 
sipping his draft beer so he didn’t get drunk. After they left the 
yakiniku
place, they 
went to a bar, bought a bottle of whiskey, and belted out karaoke. The three nurses 
took turns singing their favorite songs, then teamed up to do a Candies number, 
complete with choreographed steps. Tengo was sure they had practiced, they were 
that good. Tengo wasn’t into karaoke, but he did manage one Yosui Inoue song he 
vaguely remembered. 
Nurse Adachi was normally reserved, but after a few drinks, she turned animated 
and bold. Once she got a bit tipsy, her red cheeks turned a healthy tanned color. She 
giggled at silly jokes and leaned back, in an entirely natural way, on Tengo’s 
shoulder. Nurse Omura had changed into a light blue dress and had let down her hair. 
She looked three or four years younger and her voice dropped an octave. Her usually 
brisk, businesslike manner was subdued, and she moved languidly, as if she had taken 
on a different personality. Only Nurse Tamura, with her metal-framed glasses, looked 
and acted the same as always. 
“My kids are staying with a neighbor tonight,” Nurse Omura explained. “And my 
husband has to work the night shift. You have to take advantage of times like this to 

---

574
just go out and have fun. It’s important to get away from it all sometimes. Don’t you 
agree, Tengo?” 
The three nurses had started calling him by his first name. Most people around him 
seemed to do that naturally. Even his students called him “Tengo” behind his back. 
“Yes, that’s for sure,” Tengo agreed. 
“We just have to get out sometimes,” Nurse Tamura said, sipping a glass of 
Suntory Old whiskey and water. “We’re just flesh and blood, after all.” 
“Take off our uniforms, and we’re just ordinary women,” Miss Adachi said, and 
giggled at her comment. 
“Tell me, Tengo,” Nurse Omura said. “Is it okay to ask this?” 
“Ask what?” 
“Are you seeing anybody?” 
“Yes, tell us,” Nurse Adachi said, crunching down on some corn nuts with her 
large, white teeth. 
“It’s not an easy thing to talk about,” Tengo said. 
“We don’t mind if it’s not easy to talk about,” the experienced Nurse Tamura said. 
“We have lots of time, and we would love to hear about it. I’m dying to hear this 
hard-to-talk-about story.” 
“Tell us, tell us!” Nurse Adachi said, clapping her hands lightly and giggling. 
“It’s not all that interesting,” Tengo said. “It’s kind of trite and pointless.” 
“Well, then just cut to the chase,” Nurse Omura said. “Do you have a girlfriend, or 
not?” 
Tengo gave in. “At this point, I’m not seeing anyone.” 
“Hmm,” Nurse Tamura said. She stirred the ice in her glass with a finger and 
licked it. “That won’t do. That won’t do at all. A young, vigorous man like yourself 
without a girlfriend, it’s such a waste.” 
“It’s not good for your body, either,” the large Nurse Omura said. “If you keep it 
stored inside you for a long time, you’ll go soft in the head.” 
Young Nurse Adachi was still giggling. “You’ll go soft in the head,” she said, and 
poked her forehead. 
“I did have someone until recently,” Tengo said, somewhat apologetically. 
“But she left?” Nurse Tamura said, pushing up the bridge of her glasses. 
Tengo nodded. 
“You mean she dumped you?” 
“I don’t know,” Tengo said, inclining his head. “Maybe she did. I think I probably 
was dumped.” 
“By any chance is that person—a lot older than you?” Nurse Tamura asked, her 
eyes narrowed. 
“Yes, she is,” Tengo said. How did she know that? 
“Didn’t I tell you?” Nurse Tamura said, looking proudly at the other two nurses. 
They nodded. 
“I told the others that,” Nurse Tamura said, “that you were going out with an older 
woman. Women can sniff out these things.” 
“Sniff, sniff,” went Nurse Adachi. 
“On top of that, maybe she was already married,” Nurse Omura said in a lazy tone. 
“Am I right?” 

---

575
Tengo hesitated for a moment and then nodded. Lying was pointless. 
“You bad boy,” Nurse Adachi said, and poked him in the thigh. 
“Ten years older,” Tengo said. 
“Goodness!” Nurse Omura exclaimed. 
“Ah, so you had an experienced, older married woman loving you,” Nurse Tamura, 
herself a mother, said. “I’m envious. Maybe I should do that myself. And comfort 
lonely, gentle young Tengo here. I might not look it, but I still have a pretty decent 
body.” 
She grabbed Tengo’s hand and was about to press it against her breasts. The other 
two women managed to stop her. Even if you were letting your hair down, there was a 
line that shouldn’t be crossed between nurses and a patient’s relative. That’s what 
they seemed to think—or else they were afraid that someone might spot them. It was 
a small town, and rumors spread quickly. Maybe Nurse Tamura’s husband was the 
jealous type. Tengo had enough problems and didn’t want to get caught up in any 
more. 
“You’re really something,” Nurse Tamura said, wanting to change the subject. 
“You come all this way here, sit by your father’s bedside for hours a day reading 
aloud to him … Not many people would do that.” 
Young Nurse Adachi tilted her head a bit. “I agree, he really is something. I really 
respect you for that.” 
“You know, we’re always praising you,” Nurse Tamura said. 
Tengo’s face reddened. He wasn’t in this town to nurse his father. He was staying 
here hoping to again see the air chrysalis, and the faint light it gave off, and inside it, 
the sleeping figure of Aomame. That was the only reason he remained here. Taking 
care of his unconscious father was only a pretext. But he couldn’t reveal the truth. If 
he did, he would have to start by explaining an air chrysalis. 
“It’s because I never did anything for him up till now.” Awkwardly, he scrunched 
up his large frame in the narrow wooden chair, sounding uncomfortable. But the 
nurses found his attitude appealingly humble. 
Tengo wanted to tell them he was sleepy so he could get up and go back to his inn, 
but he couldn’t find the right opportunity. He wasn’t the type, after all, to assert 
himself. 
“Yes, but—” Nurse Omura said, and cleared her throat. “To get back to what we 
were talking about, I wonder why you and that married woman ten years older than 
you broke up. I imagine you were getting along all right? Did her husband find out or 
something?” 
“I don’t know the reason,” Tengo said. “At one point she just stopped calling, and I 
haven’t heard from her since.” 
“Hmm,” Nurse Adachi said. “I wonder if she was tired of you.” 
Nurse Omura shook her head. She held one index finger pointing straight up and 
turned to her younger colleague. “You still don’t know anything about the world. You 
don’t get it at all. A forty-year-old married woman who snags a young, vigorous, 
delicious young man like this one and enjoys him to the fullest doesn’t then just up 
and say