1Q84

Unable to sleep, Aomame makes tea and rereads Air Chrysalis. When she reads the passage about the protagonist weaving an air chrysalis with the Little People, she feels a warmth emanate from her pregnant womb, along with a faint light. Until recently, she believed that she was pulled into 1Q84 against her will. Yet given that what happens in 1Q84 seems to be linked to Tengo’s storytelling, she now wonders if she somehow made a choice to be there. She thinks to herself, “[T]here’s a clear reason I’m here. One reason alone: so I can meet Tengo again” (855).

At Tengo’s father’s funeral, Nurse Adachi tells Tengo to let go of the past: “Leave that up to cats. [...] Better to think about the future” (861).

As Ushikawa regains consciousness, his assailant—whom the reader knows to be Tamaru—tells him, “You won’t die that easily” (864). Tamaru interrogates Ushikawa, punching him in the kidney when he does not give satisfactory answers. Ushikawa freely admits that Sakigake hired him to locate Aomame, whom they suspect of killing Leader. However, when asked if Sakigake knows about a connection between Aomame and Tengo, Ushikawa lies and says no. He wisely presumes that Tamaru will be more likely to kill him if he knows the truth, to ensure that Sakigake does not discover this connection for itself.

Unfortunately, Tamaru knows Ushikawa is lying. As punishment for his “incorrect answer,” Tamaru ties a bag over Ushikawa’s head. Just as Ushikawa is about to die of suffocation, Tamaru removes the bag and asks again if Sakigake knows about the connection between Aomame and Tengo. Ushikawa says no.

Tamaru asks a few more questions about Ushikawa’s contacts at Sakigake and what else he knows about Aomame. Throughout the interrogation, Tamaru points out that they both have similar lone wolf temperaments. Tamaru also goes on a long diversion about psychoanalyst Carl Jung, who carved the words “Cold or Not, God is Present” (872) at the entrance of his home in Zurich. After asking Ushikawa to repeat the phrase, Tamaru ties the bag back over his head and leaves it on until the man is dead.

Outside the apartment, Tamaru uses a payphone and dials a number Ushikawa gave them during the interrogation. He gives the man who answers the address of the apartment and says Ushikawa’s dead body is inside. The man assumes that Tamaru is connected to Aomame, which Tamaru neither confirms nor denies. The man says they do not want to harm Aomame; although his entire organization grieves for Leader, they understand that he was very sick and viewed Aomame as a way out of his suffering. That said, they would still very much like to talk to Aomame. The man explains: “We have to keep hearing the voice. For us it’s like a never-ending well. And we can’t ever lose it. That’s all I can tell you at this time” (875). The man also says they no longer have any interest in Fuka-Eri because “[H]er mission is finished” (875).

The next day, Tamaru calls Aomame. He explains that Ushikawa is dead, and the “Kawana” who lives in that apartment is Tengo. Nevertheless, Tamaru advises her to stay away from Tengo’s apartment; he explains that he had no choice but to call Sakigake to dispose of the body. When discussing Sakigake’s proposal to speak with Aomame, Tamaru posits that perhaps Leader somehow impregnated Aomame through mysterious means; however, Aomame insists the child is Tengo’s.

Before making any move with regard to Sakigake, Aomame says she must see Tengo. Pending the dowager’s permission, Tamaru agrees to deliver a message to Tengo, telling him to go to the slide after sunset. He should bring anything that is very important to him, but he should also keep his hands free.

The following morning, Tamaru calls Tengo and tells him that a woman named Aomame would like to see him at the playground this evening. Confused yet excited, Tengo agrees.

Tengo is a few minutes early to the playground so he ascends the slide and stares at the moon by himself for a bit. He closes his eyes, and the next thing he knows, Aomame is next to him with her hand on his: “Once again they were a ten-year-old boy and girl. A lonely boy, and a lonely girl” (895). After losing himself in the moment, Aomame interrupts his reverie by saying, “Open your eyes. There’s the moon” (896).

With Ushikawa’s corpse lying on a table between them, members of Sakigake gather in a refrigerated room to discuss their next steps. Buzzcut tries to answer his superior’s questions—questions he does not know the answer to. Nevertheless, he assumes that Ushikawa was doing surveillance on someone in the building, given the existence of small indentations where a hidden camera was placed and aimed at the entrance, before Tamaru disposed of it. His superior finds it noteworthy that Leader handpicked Ushikawa, who proceeded to uncover an important clue and then die before telling anyone.

After everyone leaves the refrigerated room, Ushikawa’s mouth opens and six Little People escape from it. Using threads from the air and strands of Ushikawa’s hair, the Little People begin work on an air chrysalis.

Atop the slide, Tengo wants to say something, but Aomame’s eyes tell him that he does not need to say anything at all. What’s important, she says, is that they are in the same world seeing the same phenomena, like the two moons.

Although she would love to stay there longer, Aomame says they must leave now. In his first words to her, Tengo says, “We’re going to leave the cat town” (908). Aomame realizes that “the cat town” is Tengo’s term for what she calls “1Q84.”

Aomame, wearing the same suit she wore the day she crossed over into 1Q84, hails a cab to Sangenjaya. Rather than try to descend the staircase on the Expressway, she plans to ascend that same staircase from street level, along with Tengo. In the cab, she tells Tengo they are “on the same side” and that she became pregnant with his child the night of the terrible thunderstorm. Thinking back, Tengo knows that Fuka-Era was a conduit through which he impregnated Aomame. Tengo says he believes her and that he will explain why at a later date. Aomame adds that their baby is a dohta, which causes Tengo to think that maybe what he saw emerge from an air chrysalis in his father’s room was a symbol for their unborn child.

Aomame and Tengo arrive at the fenced storage area from which Aomame first emerged into 1Q84. As Tengo follows her up a ladder to the stairwell, Aomame worries that the stairs may be blocked somehow, but they are free for them to ascend, and the two emerge on the Metropolitan Expressway, right underneath the Esso billboard that reads “Put a Tiger in Your Tank.”

Aomame and Tengo wait for the moon to emerge from the clouds so they can confirm this isn’t 1Q84. As they do so, Aomame notices that the tiger on the billboard is facing in a different direction than it had in both 1984 and 1Q84. Eventually, the moon appears, familiar and solitary as it had been in 1984.

That evening, Aomame and Tengo spend the night in a hotel. As they have sex, Aomame says she wishes they had reconnected years earlier. Tengo, however, says, “We needed that much time, to understand how lonely we really were” (923).

As she watches the sunrise with Tengo, Aomame thinks, “I still don’t know what sort of world this is. [...] This world must have its own dangers, must be filled with its own type of riddles and contradictions. [...] But that’s okay. It’s not a problem” (925).