In this chapter, we learn that Hirohito has gone missing. He was found with a "shadow" on his lung, and the doctors want to examine him and treat him as quickly as possible. The narrator tells us that they're going to try to find him in the following places: "this is my dream sea room" . He's always lived in the places he's been, and they'll be able to use this to track him down. He doesn't seem to want to do anything about it, though, so the narrator tells him that he has to tell him something. He tells her that they have finally found him, and that he'll tell her everything he knows about her. He says that he can't imagine why he couldn't be a father to her, since he'd never have the right to do so. But, he says, he has been reading all of her books his whole life, and he wants to meet her as a writer. He wants to tell her about his latest book, which he says is his "latest work" , and if she has the time to read it, she should do it. She's not writing on her own stuff, she says, and she'll have plenty of time to work on it.