Several minutes later, Tetahashi sensei fills the basin with warm water, and Kusa-kabe asks if she can read aloud the notes she has written about the foot bath. The narrator tells her that it is painful for Kusa to be in the water, but that she will be able to get through it if she just gets through it. He says that the stories of the demis are full of grief, and that snow women are especially prone to grief. He tells Kusa that she was right when she said that the water would not affect anyone else, that she is not the type of woman who ever hurt anyone. Kusa says that she feels sorry for putting her through this, because she needed her to be anxious. She tells him that the snow woman is "shaped by negative emotions," and that tears of sadness are the only ones that freeze.