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A flashback details how Aomame became involved with the dowager. While teaching a women’s self-defense class at her fitness club, she met the dowager. Impressed by Aomame’s intensity in attacking a male dummy, the dowager invited her to come to her home for twice-weekly private stretching and massage exercises. During these sessions, the dowager asked pointed questions about whether or not she had ever intentionally wounded a man. Aomame said she had, but she was not yet ready to share any further details.

In the present, Aomame meets a young off-duty policewoman named Ayumi at a singles bar. On Ayumi’s suggestion, the two pretend to be out-of-town insurance adjusters and flirt with a pair of middle-aged professionals.

Before continuing his story of Fuka-Eri’s childhood, Ebisuno asks Fuka-Eri to leave the room to make tea. He explains that when ten-year-old Fuka-Eri arrived on his doorstep with cash and a slip of paper with his address, she was transformed from the girl he knew, and both he and his daughter Azami sensed that she experienced a terrible trauma. Ebisuno tried to call Sakigake to speak with Tamotsu, but the person on the other end of the phone refused to put him on. Ebisuno has seen no trace of Fuka-Eri’s parents in the past seven years. Over that period, Sakigake only became more and more isolated from the outside world. In 1981, Sakigake used the Akebono fiasco to its advantage, casting itself as the more moderate, nonviolent commune of the two. Meanwhile, Fuka-Eri, clearly shaken by something that happened at the compound, did not speak for years. Ebisuno is hopeful that by rewriting Air Chrysalis, Tengo will somehow unlock the truth of what happened to Fuka-Eri in the compound and what happened to her parents thereafter.

Back in Tokyo later that day, Tengo is reminded of a girl he knew in elementary school named Aomame. Her parents were religious zealots who belonged to an apocalyptic Christian sect called the Society of Witnesses. Tengo felt a kinship with Aomame because her mother forced her to walk around the neighborhood proselytizing to nonbelievers, just as Tengo’s father forced him to accompany him when he collected NHK fees. Whenever they passed each other, Tengo “thought he could see some kind of secret gleam in her eye” (151).

One day in the fourth grade, after a classmate mocked Aomame for handing out pamphlets on weekends, Tengo came to her defense by inviting her to join his group for a science experiment. She did not immediately respond to this kindness, and Tengo thought she might have resented his attempts to help her. Yet a few days later, after class had been dismissed, Aomame approached Tengo and held his hand. They held hands for a long time, staring wordlessly into each other’s eyes. Then as suddenly as she grabbed her hand, she let go and left the classroom.

The morning after meeting Ayumi, Aomame wakes up alone in her own bed with a massive hangover, her first in years. Although she remembers nothing, the sensations of her body tell her that she had sex the night before. Ayumi calls and reveals that the two of them did “everything,” with the two men and with each other.

Later that day, Aomame goes to the dowager for a scheduled stretching session. After it ends, the dowager asks Aomame if she is love with someone. Aomame says she is, but the man is not in love with her and does not even know she exists.

Perhaps because of her budding friendship with Ayumi, Aomame is reminded of her first and until now only friend, Tamaki Otsuki. They were on the softball team together in high school. In her first year in college, a fellow student raped Tamaki. Although Tamaki wanted to move on, Aomame exacted revenge, breaking into the man’s apartment and smashing all of his possessions with a softball bat.

At 24, Tamaki married a man who compelled her to drop out of a top law school. He beat her savagely and barely let her out of the apartment. Two years later, Tamaki hanged herself. Using her knowledge of the human body, Aomame killed the man using the tiny ice pick she made herself, committing her first murder. Once she finished, Aomame said to herself the prayer that her religious parents forced her to chant as a child: “O Lord in Heaven, may Thy name be praised in utmost purity for ever and ever, and may Thy kingdom come to us. Please forgive our many sins, and bestow Thy blessings upon our humble pathways. Amen” (169).

Ten days after agreeing to revise Air Chrysalis, Tengo delivers a first draft to Komatsu, who loves it. His only note is that Tengo needs to describe the two moons that hang in the sky of the novel’s universe in greater detail, as it is something readers have never seen.

Later, Tengo ponders his youth, including the moment in fifth grade when he refused to accompany his father on any more Sunday fee collection shifts. His father kicked the young boy out of the home until a teacher intervened. From then on, Tengo was free to spend Sundays however he liked. His thoughts then turn to high school, when Tengo was a last minute replacement for the orchestra’s tympani section for a performance of Janáček’s Sinfonietta.

Although Aomame long ago abandoned the strict religious beliefs of her parents, she continues to prioritize the values of cleanliness, healthfulness, and self-denial forced upon her as a child. She was a virgin until the age of 26—she felt her first strong sexual urges after killing Tamaki’s husband—and even now she views sex as little more than a release valve, to be engaged in no more than necessary.

One evening, Aomame agrees to eat dinner with Ayumi at a high-end restaurant. As they drink wine before their food arrives, Ayumi asks Aomame if she was the victim of childhood sexual abuse. Aomame says no, adding that she had no interest in men until the age of 26, excepting a boy named Tengo whom she fell in love with at age ten when she held his hand. Rather than attempt to track him down, Aomame wants to meet him by chance and tell him she loves him. When Ayumi expresses confusion at this approach, Aomame says, “If you can love someone with your whole heart, even one person, then there’s salvation in life. Even if you can’t get together with that person” (192).

That night, Ayumi asks if she can sleep in Aomame’s bed with her. Aomame agrees but insists that they do nothing sexual with one another. After Ayumi falls asleep, Aomame gets up and sits on her balcony. She looks to the sky and is shocked to see two moons hanging in the sky—a smaller orb next to the familiar one. Aomame thinks to herself, “Something’s wrong with the world, or something’s wrong with me” (196).

The process of reworking Air Chrysalis revives Tengo’s energy to write his own work. He begins to feel “something very like desire” (198) stirring in him for the first time in his life, whether concerning his writing, his collegiate career as a star Judo athlete, or his relationships.

In May, Air Chrysalis wins the new writers’ prize in a unanimous vote.