“Agreed.”

“And Bobblehead is probably holed up somewhere in that building, planning something. If he’s getting close to locating me, we have to do something about it.”

“He already knows a certain amount about the connection between you and the dowager. He has painstakingly hauled in these various leads and is trying to tie them all together. We can’t ignore him.”

“I have one other request of you,” Aomame said.

“Go ahead.”

“If it is really Tengo Kawana living there, I don’t want any harm to come to him. If it’s unavoidable that he is going to get hurt, then I want to take his place.”

Tamaru was silent again for a time. No more ballpoint pen tapping this time. There were no sounds at all, in fact. He was considering things in a world devoid of sound.

“I think I can take care of the first two requests,” Tamaru said. “That’s part of my job. But I can’t say anything about the third. It involves very personal things, and there’s too much about it I don’t understand. Speaking from experience, taking care of three items at once isn’t easy. Like it or not, you end up prioritizing.”

“I don’t mind. You can prioritize them however you like. I just want you to keep this in mind: while I’m still alive, I have to meet Tengo. There’s something I have to tell him.”

“I’ll keep it in mind,” Tamaru said. “While there’s still spare room in my mind, that is.”

“Thank you.”

“I have to report what you have told me to the dowager. This is a rather delicate issue, and I can’t decide things on my own. So I’ll hang up for now. Listen—do not go outside anymore. Lock the door and stay put. If you go outside, it could cause problems. Maybe it already has.”

“But it helped me find out a few things about him.”

“All right,” Tamaru said, sounding resigned. “From what you have told me, it sounds like you did an excellent job. I’ll admit that. But don’t let your guard down. We don’t know yet what he’s got up his sleeve. And considering the situation, most likely he has an organization behind him. Do you still have the thing I gave you?”

“Of course.”

“Best to keep it nearby.”

“Will do.”

A short pause, then the phone connection went dead.

Aomame sank back into the bathtub, which she had filled to the brim, and while she warmed up, she thought about Tengo—the Tengo who might or might not be living in an apartment in that old building. She pictured the uninviting steel door, the slot for the name card, the name Kawana printed on the card. What kind of place was beyond that door? And what kind of life was he living?

In the hot water she touched her breasts, rubbing them. Her nipples had grown larger and harder than before, and more sensitive. I wish these were Tengo’s hands instead of mine, she thought. She imagined his hands, large and warm. Strong, but surely gentle. If her breasts were enveloped in his hands—how much joy, and peace, she would feel. Aomame also noticed that her breasts were now slightly larger. It was no illusion. They definitely were swollen, the curves softer. It’s probably due to my pregnancy. Or maybe they just got bigger, unrelated to being pregnant. One aspect of my transformation.

She put her hands on her abdomen. It was still barely swollen, and she didn’t have any morning sickness, for some reason. But there was a little one hidden within. She knew it. Wait a moment, she thought. Maybe they’re not after my life, but after this little one? As revenge for me killing Leader, are they trying to get to it, along with me? The thought made her shudder. Aomame was doubly determined now to see Tengo. Together, the two of them had to protect the little one. I have had so many precious things stolen from me in my life. But this is one I am going to hold on to.

She went to bed and read for a while, but sleep didn’t come. She shut her book, and gently rolled into a ball to protect her abdomen. With her cheek against the pillow, she thought of the winter moon in the sky above the park, and the little green moon beside it. Maza and dohta. The mixed light of the two moons bathing the bare branches of the zelkova tree. At this very moment Tamaru must be figuring out a plan, his mind racing at top speed. She could see him, brows knit, tip of his ballpoint pen tapping furiously on the desktop. Eventually, as if led by that monotonous, ceaseless rhythm, the soft blanket of sleep wrapped itself around her.

CHAPTER 21

Tengo

SOMEWHERE INSIDE HIS HEAD

The phone was ringing. The hands on his alarm clock showed 2:04. Monday, 2:04 a.m. It was still dark out and Tengo had been sound asleep. A peaceful, dreamless sleep.

First he thought it was Fuka-Eri. She would be the only person who would possibly call at this ungodly hour. Or it could be Komatsu. Komatsu didn’t have much common sense when it came to time. But somehow the ring didn’t sound like Komatsu. It was more insistent, and businesslike. And besides, he had just seen Komatsu a few hours earlier.

One option was to ignore the call and go back to sleep—Tengo’s first choice. But the phone kept on ringing. It might go on ringing all night, for that matter. He got out of bed, bumping his shin as he did, and picked up the receiver.

“Hello,” Tengo said, his voice still slurry from sleep. It was like his head was filled with frozen lettuce. There must be some people who don’t know you’re not supposed to freeze lettuce. Once lettuce has been frozen, it loses all its crispness—which for lettuce is surely its best characteristic.

When he held the receiver to his ear, he heard the sound of wind blowing. A capricious wind rushing through a narrow valley, ruffling the fur of beautiful deer bent over to drink from a clear stream. But it wasn’t the sound of wind. It was someone’s breathing, amplified by the phone.

“Hello,” Tengo repeated. Was it a prank call? Or perhaps the connection was bad.

“Hello,” the person on the other end said. A woman’s voice he had heard before. It wasn’t Fuka-Eri. Nor was it his older girlfriend.

“Hello,” Tengo said. “Kawana here.”

“Tengo,” the person said. They were finally on the same page, though he still didn’t know who it was.

“Who’s calling?”

“Kumi Adachi,” the woman said.

“Oh, hi,” Tengo said. Kumi Adachi, the young nurse who lived in the apartment with the hooting owl. “What’s going on?”

“Were you asleep?”

“Yes,” Tengo said. “How about you?”

This was a pointless question. People who are sleeping can’t make phone calls. Why did I say such a stupid thing? he wondered. It must be the frozen lettuce in my head.

“I’m on duty now,” she said. She cleared her throat. “Mr. Kawana just passed away.”

“Mr. Kawana just passed away,” Tengo repeated, not comprehending. Was someone telling him he himself had just died?

“Your father just breathed his last breath,” Kumi said, rephrasing.

Tengo pointlessly switched the receiver from his right hand to his left. “Breathed his last breath,” he repeated.

“I was dozing in the nurses’ lounge when the bell rang, just after one. It was the bell for your father’s room. He has been in a coma for so long, and he couldn’t ring the bell by himself, so I thought it was odd, and went to check it out. When I got there his breathing had stopped, as had his heart. I woke up the on-call doctor and we tried to revive him, but couldn’t.”

“Are you saying my father pressed the call button?”

“Probably. There was no one else who could have.”

“What was the cause of death?” Tengo asked.

“I really can’t say, though he didn’t seem to have suffered. His face looked very peaceful. It was like—a windless day at the end of autumn, when a single leaf falls from a tree. But maybe that’s not a good way to put it.”