After the quake blind willow, sleeping woman dance dance dance

This is no time to cry
, she thought. “So then comes your 
proposition, is that it? I give you a painless death, in return for which you can give me 
something—a different choice.” 
“You’re very quick on the uptake,” the man said, still lying facedown. “That is 
correct. My proposition is a choice having to do with you and Tengo. It may not be 
the most pleasant choice. But at least it does give you room to choose.” 

---

411
. . . 
“The Little People are afraid of losing me,” the man said. “They still need me. I am 
useful to them as their human agent. Finding my replacement will not be easy for 
them. And at this point in time, they have not prepared my successor. Many difficult 
conditions have to be met in order to become their agent, and I happen to meet all of 
them, which makes me a rare find. They are afraid of losing me. If that were to 
happen, it would give rise to a temporary vacuum. This is why they are trying to 
prevent you from taking my life. They want to keep me alive a little while longer. The 
thunder you hear outside is a sign of their anger. But they can’t raise a hand against 
you directly. All they can do is warn you of their anger. For the same reason, they 
drove your friend to her death using possibly devious methods. And if things go on 
like this they will almost surely inflict some kind of harm upon Tengo.” 
“Inflict harm on Tengo?” 
“Tengo wrote a story about the Little People and their deeds. Eriko furnished the 
basic story, and Tengo converted it into an effective piece of writing. It was their 
collaborative effort, and it acted as an antibody, countering the momentum of the 
Little People. It was published as a book and became a bestseller, as a result of which, 
if only temporarily, the Little People found that many potential avenues had been 
closed for them, and limits were placed on several of their actions. You have probably 
heard of the book: it is called 
Air Chrysalis
.” 
Aomame nodded. “I’ve seen articles about the book in the newspaper. And the 
publisher’s advertisements. I haven’t read the book, though.” 
“The one who did the actual writing of 
Air Chrysalis
was Tengo. And now he is 
writing a new story of his own. In 
Air Chrysalis
—which is to say, in its world with 
two moons—he discovered his own story. A superior Perceiver, Eriko inspired the 
story as an antibody inside him. Tengo seems to have possessed superior ability as a 
Receiver. That ability may be what brought you here—in other words, what put you 
onto that train.” 
Aomame severely distorted her face in the gloom. She had to try her best to follow 
what this man was saying. “Are you telling me that I was transported into this other 
world of 1Q84 by Tengo’s storytelling ability—or, as you put it, by his power as a 
Receiver?” 
“That is, at least, what I surmise,” the man said. 
Aomame stared at her hands. Her fingers were wet with tears. 
“If things go on as they are now, Tengo will in all likelihood be liquidated. At the 
moment, he is the number one threat to the so-called Little People. And, after all, this 
is the real world, where real blood is shed and real deaths occur. Death, of course, 
lasts forever.” 
Aomame bit her lip. 
“I would like you to think about it this way,” the man said. “If you kill me here and 
eliminate me from this world, the Little People will no longer have any reason to 
harm Tengo. If I cease to exist as a channel, Tengo and my daughter can obstruct that 
channel all they want without presenting any threat to them. The Little People will 
just forget about the two of them and look for a channel somewhere else—a channel 
with another origin. That will become their first priority. Do you see what I mean?” 

---

412
“In theory, at least,” Aomame said. 
“On the other hand, if I am killed, the organization that I have created will never 
leave you alone. True, it might take them some time to find you because you will 
surely change your name, change where you live, and maybe even change your face. 
Still, they will track you down and punish you severely. That is the kind of 
system
that we have created: close-knit, violent, and irreversible. That is one choice you 
have.” 
Aomame took time to organize her thoughts about what he had told her. The man 
waited for his logic to permeate her mind. 
Then he went on. “Conversely, if you do not kill me here and now, what will 
happen? You will simply withdraw from this place and I will go on living. So then the 
Little People will use all their powers to eliminate Tengo in order to protect me, their 
agent. The protective cloak he wears is not yet strong enough. They will find his weak 
point and do everything they can to destroy him because they cannot tolerate any 
further dissemination of the antibody. Meanwhile, you cease to be a threat, and they 
no longer have any reason to punish you. That is your other choice.” 
“In that case,” Aomame said, summarizing what the man had told her, “Tengo dies 
and I go on living—here, in this world of 1Q84.” 
“Probably,” he said. 
“But there is no point in my living in a world where Tengo no longer exists. All 
possibility of our meeting would be lost forever.” 
“That may be the case from your point of view.” 
Aomame bit down hard on her lip, imagining such a state of affairs. 
“But all I have to go on is what you are saying,” she pointed out. “Why do I have 
to take you at your word? Is there some basis or backing for that?” 
The man shook his head. “You are right. There is no basis or backing. It’s just 
what I tell you. But you saw my special powers a little while ago. There are no strings 
attached to that clock, and it’s very heavy. Go look at it yourself. Do you accept what 
I am saying or don’t you? Decide one way or the other. We don’t have much time 
left.” 
Aomame looked over at the clock on the chest of drawers. Its hands were showing 
just before nine. The clock was slightly out of place, facing at an odd angle, having 
been lifted into the air and dropped back again. 
The man said, “At this point in this year of 1Q84, there seems to be no way to 
rescue you both at the same time. You have two possibilities to choose from. In one, 
you probably die and Tengo lives. In the other, he probably dies and you live. As I 
said before, it is not a pleasant choice.” 
“But no other possibilities exist to choose between.” 
The man shook his head. “At this point in time, you can only choose between those 
two.” 
Aomame filled her lungs with air and slowly exhaled. 
“It’s too bad for you,” the man said. “If you had stayed in the year 1984, you 
would not have been faced with this choice. But at the same time, if you had stayed in 
1984, you would almost surely never have learned that Tengo has continued to long 
for you all this time. It is precisely because you were transported to 1Q84 that you 
were able to learn this fact—the fact that your hearts are, in a sense, intertwined.” 

---

413
Aomame closed her eyes.