Chapter One hundred eight opens with a flashback to Hirohito's study, where he finds a note that hints at the permanent exchange. The note, he says, was written by his father and contains the results of a powder analysis of human blood. It turns out that the powder contains human blood, which means that it's been mixed with some other human blood to create a new race. The only problem is that no one knows what this new race is made up of. Hiroshio says that he'd be grateful if he could learn something from the note book, but he's not sure that he can trust what his father has to say. He says that if he were more knowledgeable, he might be able to learn something about the new race, but that's just because he hasn't learned anything from the book yet.