The chapter opens with a flashback to the time of the song of flowers, when Onmyodo was still a young man. He tells the story of how he tried to reject the idea of his sister returning to him, but his fear turned into something he could never leave behind. One day, he says, he saw a ghost weaving its way through the room, and he was so scared that he left the room. The ghost ran away, and the two men went out to find it. Onkyo says that they should go to his research room, where he can stand alone and not be disturbed by the light. He says that he is a member of the "hollow genera tion" , and that he chose to shut himself up in the world so that he could do what he needed to do.