Chapter 13 - A Born Victim

           Aomame wakes up in her own bed, naked and hungover. She struggles to remember the events of the previous night. She remembers having drinks with Ayumi and the two men, having sex with one of the men at a nearby hotel, and being joined by Ayumi and the other man for more drinks. After that, her memory is blank, and she blames it on the whiskey they had ordered. Ayumi calls to make sure Aomame had gotten home okay and starts to fill her in on the night before - Aomame cuts her off at "lesbians." She fights off her hangover and makes it to the dowager's in time for their appointment. The dowager asks Aomame if there is someone she is in love with. Aomame says there is, but he doesn't know that she exists and she doesn't plan to do anything to change that.

           Flash back to the death of Aomame's friend Tamaki Otsuka, the girl mentioned earlier as Aomame's best friend who she played softball with. The girls went separate ways after high school - Aomame continuing softball at a physical education college, Tamaki on her way to becoming a lawyer. Tamaki was raped during her first year at college. When she told Aomame, Aomame broke into the man's apartment and destroyed everything. 

           After a string of terrible boyfriends, Tamaki married a man and Aomame saw less and less of her. Aomame later found out that Tamaki's husband was abusive, leading to Tamaki's suicide. Tamaki's husband was the first man Aomame killed.

Chapter 14 - Things That Most Readers Have Never Seen Before

           Tengo finished the re-write of Air Chrysalis and it has gone to the printers. Komatsu meets with him and asks him to change just one part of the re-write - he thinks the description of the sky with two moons need to be more detailed, since it will be difficult for readers to visualize such a strange event. That night, Tengo is caught up in thoughts about the scene that usually causes him to have an attack - infant Tengo sleeping in his crib while a man who is not Tengo's father sucks on Tengo's mother's breasts in the same room. Tengo had once asked his girlfriend to wear a white slip when she came to see him, basically re-enacting the scene from Tengo's memory (oh god, that's messed up.) Tengo wonders if perhaps the man from this memory was his biological father instead of his NHK-fee-collecting father who Tengo doesn't think he resembles at all.

Chapter 15 - Firmly, Like Attaching An Anchor to a Balloon

           Ayumi calls Aomame again and they make plans to go to dinner together at a fancy restaurant. The girls meet at the bar wearing their fancy clothes (Ayumi wears Comme des Garcons ! ) and chat over an expensive bottle of wine, on the house thanks to Aomame's connections. Ayumi asks Aomame if she has had any serious relationships and Aomame confesses that she fell in love with a person when she was 10 years old and she held his hand, even though she has no idea who the man is (Tengo?!).  She explains that she is hoping to meet him again by chance and confess to him. Ayumi thinks she should be a little more proactive in searching for him, understandably. After dinner, the girls go back to Aomame's apartment. After Ayumi falls asleep, Aomame steps out onto the balcony and sits lost in thought. She notices that something is different, eventually realizing that there are two moons in the sky - the usual moon, and a smaller, greenish moon. She goes inside and closes the curtains, understanding that whether there are really two moons in the sky or whether it is just in her mind is not important, because either way something is wrong.

Chapter 16 - I'm Glad You Liked It

           Tengo finished the re-write of Air Chrysalis in ten days (...didn't the previous Tengo chapter start with this? Have we gotten nowhere?) and went back to life as usual, simple teaching at the cram school and meeting with his girlfriend. He starts writing a new story, annoyed with himself for putting more into re-writing someone else's work than he has ever put into writing his own creation. 

           Komatsu calls in early May to announce that Air Chrysalis won the new writers' award, meaning that it will be announced in the newspaper and Fuka-Eri will need to attend the award ceremony and speak at the press conference which will be covered by the news. Komatsu gives Tengo the task of preparing Fuka-Eri for the press conference to ensure that she gives the right answers without giving away Komatsu and Tengo's involvement. Komatsu is also working on setting up a paper company to handle the financial aspect of Air Chrysalis, and Tengo, realizing how serious (and seriously illegal) the whole thing is, tries to back out. Komatsu is having none of that, so Tengo meets with Fuka-Eri a few days later. He asks her questions he has prepared (in the few minutes he spends doing something besides staring at her chest), acting as an interviewer, and he likes the answers she gives. Tengo asks Fuka-Eri if she liked the re-write of Air Chrysalis, and while she doesn't say that she liked it, she compliments his writing and states that it was like she wrote it. 

Comments

           Aomame's story continues to be infinitely better than Tengo's (who is so boring, and passive, and shitty as a person), so it bums me out a little that they're going to end up together (I think? I read some spoilers when I was doing this week's annotated bibliography entry.). I don't remember Tengo being described as bald, so I don't get why Aomame would settle.

           I love stories where the good guy and the bad guy are friends because it adds that extra element when each person finds out the other person's secret, so I am very interested in the relationship between Aomame and Ayumi. Aomame knows she shouldn't get too close to Ayumi, since the other woman is a police officer and could figure out what Aomame is up to, yet Aomame can't help but become attached. If at some point Ayumi does figure Aomame out, it will be interesting to see her reaction - whether she takes Aomame's side or puts her job first.

           I have nothing else to say about Tengo. But - all of the small pieces of Air Chrysalis that we are given within the novel make me wish that Air Chrysalis were a real novel that I could read right now.