Andrew Markham’s Reviews > 1Q84 > Status Update

Aomame arrives at the hotel and uncharacteristically begins to get nervous about her last job. She meets the different-haired bodyguards who escort her to the Leaders room. Aomame clocks them as amateurs who don’t do a thorough enough search to find her gun or ice pick before being told she is about to step into a sacred space with an extraordinary being.

Tengo is still trying to come to terms with everything that’s happened when he gets a call from his girlfriend’s husband saying that she won’t be able to visit him anymore because she is “irretrievably lost”. Later that evening Tengo gets a call from Ushikawa now claiming to be an intermediary negotiator for an anonymous client. He urges Tengo to take the grant and help himself out of his situation.

Tengo spends the whole day daydreaming about Aomame, the girl who kissed him when they were young before sitting down to do more writing. Aomame continues to mourn Ayumi but eventually decides to move on with things, later that night she gets the call she’s been waiting for. As she clears out her apartment she daydreams about Tengo, the young boy she shared a kiss with as a child.

Aomame continues to struggle with reality before meeting up with the Dowager to prepare for the impending assassination. On the way out of the meeting Aomame receives the gun from Tamaru and he teaches her how to use it. Aomame practices the basic moves of loading and unloading the gun, at the end of the chapter she reads a newspaper article saying that Ayumi was found naked and strangled to death in a hotel room.

Tengo arrived at the cram school and is told he has an unexpected visitor looking to speak with him about an important matter. The man identifies himself as being the director of an arts and culture institute and wants to award Tengo a grant for his work. Tengo senses something fishy about the grant and spends time investigating the strange man.

Tengo finds a tape from Fuka-Eri in his mailbox saying that she is okay and trying to lie low for a little while. Komatsu calls Tengo later that day to discuss the strange nature of her disappearance. While with his girlfriend, Tengo tells her a little about his new book and declares that he wishes he could rewrite the past and that is perhaps why he is a novelist.

Aomame and Ayumi go out on the town again and exchange information about their childhoods and habits. Ayumi says she’s learned more about the Sakigake cult and that there is likely more to them than they seem. Tamaru calls and sets up a meeting with Aomame for the next day and lets her know the guard dog, Bun, seems to have had a ‘silent explosion’ originating from her stomach and is dead.

Tengo returns to his normal routine of teaching, writing, reading, and meeting up with his older girlfriend in order to lay low while Air Chrysalis is selling like hotcakes. A few weeks into Air Chrysalis being sold, Komatsu calls Tengo to say that Fuka-Eri has been missing for a few days. Tengo says he doesn’t know where she is and worries heavily about her for the next three weeks until she finally calls him.

Aomame continues her research into Sakigake and the related Akbono cult, discovering one member escaped during the gunfight. She decides to call Ayumi to ask her if she can find anything out about them through the police records. Ayumi discovers the cult is buying up lots of land directly surrounding the compound and in cities across the country as well as a pattern of strange behaviour from Sakigake kids at schools.