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Book XII: Odysseus and crew return to Circe from the trip to Hades. After a brief stay overnight, they leave again past a new host of dangers. They make it past the island of the Sirens, the whirlpool formed by Charybdis, and the fearsome Scylla. After making it to the island hosting Helios’ herds and eating a cow from it, the ship is destroyed and Odysseus floats back towards Charybdis and Scylla.

Odysseus performs the sacrifice ritual as described by Circe and talks to a great number of spirits who have died. He speaks to many heroes, wives of heroes, his mother, and eventually talks with Theban Tiresias.He learns some of what has happened at home since he left Ithaca.

Odysseus continues describing how he and his crew arrived at Phaecea. After a couple quick tales, they land on Circe’s island where half of the crew is turned into hogs by the witchcraft and potions of Circe. Hermes tells Odysseus how to resist Circe’s potions and save his men. While carrying out the plan, Circe tells the crew they must talk to Teiresias the Theban in the House of Hades.

Komatsu and Tengo meet again at the cafe near Shinjuku Station and Komatsu tells Tengo he has submitted the book to the young writer’s prize, but it needs one last thing fixed after. Tengo reflects more about his time at school and how a teacher who he can’t remember the name of helped him begin to gain his independence from his father.

Aomame spends the morning recovering from a hangover before going to the Willow House the treat the dowager. As she’s giving her a massage, they talk about their love lives and the dowager reflects on hers. Afterwards, Aomame reflects on a childhood friend she played softball and went to college with and how her life has been changed by the relationship.

Book IX: Odysseus reveals his true identity to the party-goers and tells them of the misfortunes that have lead him to Phaecea. He tells them of stopping by the Cicones and the bad weather that lead them to the land of the Lotos-eaters. The longest story consists of him and his men being trapped in the cavern lair of a giant cyclops, named Polyphemus, and the daring trickery they needed to escape.

Book VIII: Alcinous hosts a great feast and day of games and sports in honour of their unknown guest. Laodamas, son of Alcinous, is the victor of the boxing event and decides to challenge Odysseus to prove his own strength, to which he responds by throwing a stone much further than anyone else had that day. Later, during the feast and the bard’s song Odysseus begins crying when hearing the tale of the Trojan Horse.

Odysseus is guided by Athene to the house of Alcinous, who welcomes him with open arms. After listening to Odysseus’ tale of woe, he announces the Phaecians will do everything within their power to return Odysseus across the sea to his home in Ithaca.

Tengo continues his chat with the professor and learns more about Fuka-Eri’s history including how at a time she was nearly completely mute. The Professor ends up agreeing to Tengo rewriting the book and discusses whether it might be less fictional than they thought. On his train ride home, Tengo sees a young girl who reminds him of an ostracized classmate of his who he had treated kindly.

Aomame is back at another bar looking for another guy to go home with and is reminiscing about when she first met the dowager of Willow House. Aomame met her when she was teaching a self-defence class largely centred around practicing kicking men in the balls at an exclusive health club. Her daydream is interrupted by Ayumi, a cop, who proposes they act as wingwomen at the bar that night.

Tengo arrives on the train with Fuka-Eri in Futamatao. After a short taxi ride from the station, Fuka-Eri lets them into a rural cottage in the mountains and introduces Tengo to her caretaker, Ebisuno or The Professor. He explains he was family friends/colleagues with Fuka-Eri’s dad who raised her on a commune named Sakigake but was eventually arrested in affiliation with the Lake Motosu shootout.

Aomame is incredulous at the fact that she didn’t remember the police equipment change so she goes to the library. She finds 3 events in the newspapers from the past few months she has no recollection of: a shootout at a lake, a TV and radio licence fee collector stabbing somebody, and a US-Soviet pact to build a moon base. She determines she can’t be wrong, but no longer in 1984 but 1Q84 (Q for question mark).

We learn more about Tengo’s dad and how he would take Tengo to work on Sunday’s collecting TV and radio licence fees door-to-door, to Tengo’s dread. Tengo eventually meets Fuka-Eri at the train station and boards the train with her. On the ride, Tengo learns Fuka-Eri has severe dyslexia meaning she rarely reads or writes and she dictated the manuscript for Air Chysalis to another friend of hers, Azami.

Aomame is greeted by Tamaru and introduced to a dowager who owns a hot house with many plants and rare butterflies. The dowager explains the man she just killed had beaten his wife consistently for months with photographic proof. As she leaves, Aomame confirms with Tamaru that the police did change their uniforms and weapons about two years ago, to which Aomame is absolutely shocked.

Tengo buys a word processor and begins rewriting the story. He is gripped by the new story and is happy about how it’s going. He gets called by Fuka-Eri and makes plans to take the train to go see whoever it is Fuka-Eri wants on Sunday, in two days.

Aomame goes to a hotel bar to blow off some steam before going home. She gets a few drinks and then hooks up with a stranger also at the bar and then leaves once he’s fallen asleep.

Tengo is awoken in the middle of the night by Komatsu telling him to meet Fuka-Eri at a restaurant the next night. After a sleepless night a day of classes, Tengo gets to the restaurant and learns that Fuka-Eri is perhaps a bit strange. The conversation ends with both of them agreeing to the suggested rewrites as long as Tengo meets somebody mediated by Fuka-Eri.

Aomame continues her journey through the service way to get to her important meeting. After finding her way through she quickly prepares with buying new stockings and brushing her teeth. She makes her way on the subway to a hotel room where she pretends to be there to fix the AC, but instead kills the man inside, Mr. Miyami by piercing the bottom of his skull with a special needle.

We meet Tengo, a writer and math teacher, while he is having a flashback “attack” about his earliest memory. As he regains his wits he remembers he is talking to Komatsu, an editor, about a standout entry to the young writers prize named Air Chrysalis by Fula-Eri. Komatsu reveals his plan to Tengo to have him rewrite and co-author the story to which Tengo is resistant.

Aomame is late to her business meeting with a client and gets a taxi. Partway through the trip, she notices the music playing on the radio and how nice the car interior is and gets a weird feeling she eventually shakes. The taxi gets stuck in traffic and the driver tells her “Don’t let appearances fool you” before she leaves the taxi on foot to make it to her meeting on time.

Nausicaa, daughter of Alcinous, king of the Phaeacians, is visited by Athene while she is dreaming. Athene convinces her she must take the clothes of the house to be washed in a nearby river with her handmaidens. After washing the clothes, Odysseus hears the women’s’ voices and begs them to help him. Nausicaa agrees and leads him back to the city, where she leaves him in a grove dedicated to Athene.