Chapter 10

The train pulls into Tachikawa Station where they are to transfer. As they walk, Fuka-Eri holds Tengo's hand, seemingly devoid of feeling. Even after they board the next train, Eri asks if she can continue holding his hand. He agrees, since his Sunday panic attack had waned since holding her hand. They finally arrive at Futamatao, a remote area, free from the city clutter. A lone taxi waits and they get in. They find themselves on a narrow farm road with scary twists and turns, much like a roller coaster ride. They safely arrive at a house, with two cars parked outside. The air is amazingly fresh, almost completely silent, and the sky clear. The grounds were meticulously kept. They enter, remove their shoes. Inside, it's chilly and free of decoration. They sit in complete silence. For Tengo, time passes slowly, as it always does on Sundays. After ten minutes, a man enters. Tengo stands, but is silently commanded to sit down. The man silently gazes at Tengo, taking him all in like a camera's diaphragm. The man is plainly dressed in worn clothing. His plump lips seemed the only part that stood out. The man finally speaks and apologizes for them having to travel so far. His name is Ebisuno, translated  as "field of savages", and everyone calls him Professor, even Eri. Tengo seems to recall a famous scholar with the same name.  The professor seems to know much about Tengo, and comments that Tengo does not look like a math teacher, or a writer. Professor wants to discuss the rewrite. He and Tengo agree it amounts to fraud. Everything tells Tengo to withdraw, but he says he is drawn to Air Chrysalis and doesn't want anyone else to do it. He defends Komatsu's interest as someone obsessed with literature and wanting to find the once in a lifetime "real thing".  Professor surmises neither Tengo nor Komatsu are in it for money or fame.  He is worried that if the truth comes out, it is Eri that suffers. And, if she is presented as a novelist, her dyslexia will come out. Since Eri wants Tengo to do the rewrite, Professor agrees to go along with the plan, but feels the need to tell Tengo the story if Eri's childhood and how he became responsible for raising her.  He goes back to the sixties and tells the story of his relationship with Eri's father, Tamotsu Fukada.  Not really wanting to  write the whole story, I'll say he ends up in a communal lifestyle, called Sakigake. It broke into two factions, the original and a militant one. Fukada stayed in the original. The two factions supported each other to survive. Fukada became leader of one and adviser to the other. No longer believing in the revolution, he continued to preach its theory.  Sakigake split in two and Eri escaped to live with him. The new commune bcame known as Akebono, which Tengo has recollection of this name, too. Turns out they are the ones that staged the shoot out at Lake Motosu. Now here is where I am interested. Tengo now recalls the gun battle that Aomame seems to have no recollection of! This recollection almost brings Tengo to one of his attacks, but he quickly composes himself.

Nothing remarkable until mention of the gun battle!