After the quake blind willow, sleeping woman dance dance dance

something
. Something that would accept them unconditionally and 
hold them close. Ushikawa could imagine their feelings. In a sense, these were 
feelings that he shared. 

---

616
Okay
, Ushikawa said to himself. He was seated in an express train from Tsudanuma 
back to Tokyo, arms folded. 
Okay, now what? I was able to find some connections 
between Tengo and Aomame. Very interesting connections. Unfortunately, however, 
this doesn’t prove anything
. 
There’s a tall stone wall towering in front of me. It has three doors, and I have to 
choose one. Each door is labeled. One says
Tengo
,
one says
Aomame
,
and the third 
says
the Dowager from Azabu. 
Aomame vanished, as they say, like smoke. Without a 
trace. And the Azabu Willow House is locked up tight as a bank vault. Nothing I can 
do to get in. Which leaves only one door
. 
It looks like I’ll be sticking with Tengo for the time being
, Ushikawa decided. 
There’s no other choice—a perfect example of the process of elimination. So perfect 
an example, it makes me want to print it up in a pamphlet and hand it out to people on 
the street. Hi, how are you? Check out the process of elimination
. 
Tengo, always the nice young man. Mathematician and novelist. Judo champion 
and teacher’s pet. Right now he’s the only way to unravel this knotty tangle. The more 
I think about it, the less I seem to understand, like my brain is a tub of tofu past its 
expiration date
. 
So what about Tengo? Did he see the whole picture here? Probably not
. As far as 
Ushikawa could make out, Tengo was doing things through trial and error, taking 
detours where he found the need. 
He must be confused himself, trying out various 
hypotheses. Still, he was a born mathematician. A master at fitting together the pieces 
of a puzzle. And he probably has a lot more pieces of the puzzle than I do
. 
For the time being I’ll keep watch over Tengo Kawana. I’m sure he’ll lead me
somewhere—
if I get lucky, right to Aomame’s hideout
. Ushikawa was a master at 
sticking to somebody, like a remora to a shark. Once he made up his mind to latch 
onto someone, there was no way they could shake free of him. 
Once he had decided, Ushikawa closed his eyes and switched off his thinking 
process. 
Time to get a little shut-eye
, he thought. It had been a rough day, given that 
he had had to visit two elementary schools out in crummy old Chiba Prefecture and 
listen to two female schoolteachers, a beautiful vice principal and a teacher who 
walked like a crab. After that you need to relax. Soon his huge misshapen head began 
to bob up and down in time to the movement of the train, like a life-sized sideshow 
doll that spat out unlucky fortunes. 
The train was crowded, but no one dared sit down beside him. 

---

617