After the quake blind willow, sleeping woman dance dance dance

Just like a whore
, Aomame thought. 
“I understand what you are saying,” the man said in a deep voice. “But in my case, 
you might need some explanation.” 
“I would be glad to listen to anything you might wish to share.” 
“People call me ‘Leader.’ But I almost never show my face to anyone. Most of our 
believers, although they belong to the religion and live in the same compound, have 
no idea what I look like.” 
Aomame nodded. 
“But here I am, letting you see my face. For one thing, I can hardly ask you to treat 
me in the dark or blindfolded. And there is also the question of courtesy” 
“What I do is not a ‘treatment,’ ” Aomame calmly corrected him. “It is simply the 
stretching of the muscles. I am not licensed to perform medical procedures. All I do is 
force people to stretch the muscles they don’t normally use or the ones that are 
difficult to use, and that way we prevent the deterioration of their physical strength.” 
The man appeared to smile faintly, though it might have been a mere illusion 
caused by a slight twitching of his facial muscles. 
“I am quite aware of that. I simply used the word ‘treat’ for convenience’s sake. 
Don’t worry. All I was trying to say was that you are now seeing something that most 
people are not able to see, and I wanted you to be aware of that.” 
“I was warned in there not to say anything about this to anyone,” Aomame said, 
pointing toward the door to the adjoining room. “But none of you need to worry. 
Nothing that I observe here will find its way outside. I touch many people’s bodies in 
my work. You may be someone in a special position, but to me you are merely one of 
many people with muscle problems. The only part of you that concerns me is your 
muscles.” 
“I hear you were a Society of Witnesses believer as a child.” 
“It’s not as if I chose to become a believer. I was simply raised that way. There is a 
big difference between the two.” 
“Indeed, a very big difference,” the man said. “But people can never fully divorce 
themselves from the images implanted during early childhood.” 
“For better or worse,” Aomame said. 
“The Witnesses’ doctrines are very different from those of the religion that I 
belong to. If you ask me, any religion that takes the end of the world as one of its 
central tenets is more or less bogus. In my view, the only thing that ever ‘ends’ is the 
individual. That said, the Society of Witnesses is an amazingly tough religion. Its 
history is not very long, but it has withstood many tests and has steadily continued to 
increase the number of its believers. There is a lot that can be learned from that.” 
“It probably just shows how close-minded they’ve been. The smaller and narrower 
such a group is, the more firmly they can resist outside pressure.” 
“You are probably right about that,” the man said, pausing for a few moments. “In 
any case, we’re not here to discuss religion.” 
Aomame said nothing. 

---

368
“What I want you to understand is the fact that my body has many special things 
about it.” 
Aomame, still seated, waited for him to go on. 
“As I said before, my eyes can’t stand strong light. This symptom appeared some 
years ago. I had no particular problem until that time, but all at once, at some point, it 
started. This was the main reason I stopped coming into people’s presence. I spend 
practically all my time in dark rooms.” 
“I’m afraid I can’t do anything for vision problems,” Aomame said. “As I said 
before, the muscles are my area of expertise.” 
“Yes, I am quite aware of that. And of course I consulted medical specialists. I 
have been to any number of famous eye doctors and had many tests. But they tell me 
there is nothing they can do at this point. My retinas have been damaged, but they 
don’t know the cause. The symptoms are slowly progressing. If things go on like this, 
I will lose my sight before long. As you say, of course, this is a problem that has 
nothing to do with the muscles. But let me list my physical problems in order, and 
when I am through, we can think about what you can and cannot do.” 
Aomame nodded. 
“The next problem is that my muscles often go stiff,” the man said. “I quite 
literally ‘can’t move a muscle.’ They become rock hard and stay that way for hours. 
All I can do at such times is lie down. I don’t feel any pain. All the muscles of my 
body simply become immobile. I can’t even move a finger. The only thing I can 
manage to move, through sheer willpower, is my eyeballs. This happens once or twice 
a month.” 
“Do you have any sign beforehand that it is about to happen?” 
“First I have spasms. My muscles start twitching all over. That goes on for ten to 
twenty minutes. After that, my muscles go dead, as if someone has turned off a 
switch. During those ten or twenty minutes after the warning comes, I go to a place 
where I can stretch out, and I lie down. Like a boat seeking shelter from a storm in a 
cove, I wait there in hiding for the paralysis to pass over me. And though the paralysis 
is complete when it comes, my mind remains fully awake. No, if anything, it is awake 
with a special clarity.” 
“You say you have no pain?” 
“I lose all sensation. If you jabbed me with a needle, I wouldn’t feel it.” 
“Have you consulted a doctor about that?” 
“I have been to all the best hospitals and any number of doctors, but all they can 
tell me is that this is an unprecedented affliction for which current medical knowledge 
can do nothing. I have tried traditional Chinese remedies, osteopathic physicians, 
acupuncture, moxibustion, massage, hot spring cures—everything I could think of—
but have had no results worth talking about.” 
Aomame frowned slightly. “All my approach does is to stimulate the normal 
bodily functions. I doubt that it will have much effect on such severe problems.” 
“Yes, I am quite aware of that as well. But I am trying to exhaust every possibility. 
Even if your method has no effect, that is not your responsibility. Just do to me what 
you always do. I would like to see how my body responds to it.” 
Aomame pictured the man’s huge body lying motionless in some dark place like a 
hibernating animal. 

---

369
“When was the last time you experienced the paralysis?” 
“Ten days ago,” the man said. “And—this is a bit difficult to bring up, but—there 
is one more thing I should probably mention.” 
“Feel free to tell me anything.” 
“All the time my muscles are in that state of suspended animation, I have an 
erection.” 
Aomame’s frown deepened. “You mean to say that your sex organ remains hard 
for hours at a time?” 
“That is correct.” 
“But you have no feeling.” 
“None at all,” he said. “No sexual desire, either. I just harden up. Like a rock, the 
way my muscles do.” 
Aomame gave her head a little shake and did her best to resume a normal 
expression. “I don’t believe I can do anything about that, either. It’s quite far from my 
area of expertise.” 
“This is very difficult for me to talk about, and you probably don’t want to hear 
about it either, but may I tell you a bit more?” 
“Please do. Your secrets are safe with me.” 
“During this interval, it happens that I am physically joined with girls.” 
“Girls?!” 
“I have a number of females around me. Whenever I go into my paralytic state, 
they take turns mounting me and having sexual relations with me. I have no feeling at 
all. I feel no sexual pleasure. But I do ejaculate. With each of them.” 
Aomame kept silent. 
He continued, “All together, there are three girls, all in their teens. I am sure you 
must be wondering why I have such young girls around me and why they must have 
sex with me.” 
“Could it be, perhaps, part of a religious practice?” 
Still sitting cross-legged on the bed, the man took a deep breath. “It is thought that 
these paralyses of mine are a form of grace bestowed by heaven, a kind of sacred 
state. Thus, when I am visited by those states, the girls come to me and join their 
bodies with mine. They are trying to become impregnated. With my heir.” 
Aomame looked at him, saying nothing. He also fell silent. 
“So, then, what you are telling me is that the girls’ purpose is to become pregnant? 
To carry your child?” Aomame then asked. 
“That is correct.” 
“And during this several-hour period while you lie there paralyzed, you have three 
ejaculations with these three girls?” 
“That is correct.” 
Aomame could not help but realize that she had gotten herself into a terribly 
complicated situation. She was about to murder this man, to send him to the other 
side. Yet here she was, being given the strange secrets of his flesh. 
“I don’t quite understand the precise nature of your problem. All the muscles of 
your body become paralyzed once or twice a month. When that happens, your three 
girlfriends come and have sex with you. True, that is not exactly 
normal
in 
commonsense terms, but—” 

---

370
“They are not my girlfriends,” the man said, cutting her short. “They serve me as 
shrine maidens. Joining their bodies with mine is one of their duties.” 
“Duties?” 
“It is a role that has been assigned to them—to become pregnant with my heir.” 
“Assigned by whom?” Aomame asked. 
“That would be a long story,” the man said. “The problem is that all of this is 
steadily leading toward the destruction of my flesh.” 
“So, then, have they gotten pregnant?” 
“No, not yet. And there is little possibility that any of them will. They have not 
started their periods. Still, they are hoping for a miracle through heavenly grace.” 
“None of them have gotten pregnant. They are not menstruating,” Aomame said. 
“And your flesh is headed for destruction.” 
“Little by little, the time of each paralytic episode is growing longer. And the 
episodes are increasing in number. They started seven years ago. Back then, I would 
have one episode in two or three months. Now it is once or twice a month, and after 
each paralysis ends, my body is racked by excruciating pain and exhaustion. I have to 
live this way for a week or more each time. I feel as if my whole body is being 
stabbed by thick needles. I have intense headaches and an overwhelming fatigue. I 
find it impossible to sleep, and no medicine has done anything to alleviate the pain.” 
The man sighed. Then he continued, “The second week after the episode is better 
than the first, but still the pain never entirely goes away. Intense pain comes over me 
like a wave several times a day. I can hardly breathe. My organs don’t function 
properly. My joints creak like a machine that needs oiling. My flesh is being devoured 
and my blood sucked out. I can feel it happening. But what is gnawing away at me is 
neither cancer nor a parasite. I have had every test they can think of, but they can 
never find the cause. They tell me I’m the picture of health. Medical science cannot 
explain my torment. The only conclusion is that this is the price I must pay for the 
heavenly grace I experience.”