The chapter opens with the narrator bemoaning the lack of sex life in his town. He's worried that his town's population has gone up because of the recent "Black Out" . He also worries that his fiancee, Mina, and her lover, Haruki, have decided to stay away from each other. He worries that Haruki and Mina are talking about nothing but "work" , and he worries that they're about to "step into a quagmire" if they don't separate. He wants to undress Mina and "take it all off" with his hands, but his "instincts took over" and he's "mad" about it.