The chapter opens with Hiroshi playing the piano. He tells his mother that he's not as good as he'd like to be, but he keeps playing. He's worried that his mother is sick and won't be well soon, so he wants to make sure she's okay. He wants her to get better, he says, so she can come see him play. He says he'll go to get a score from a famous piano player so he can practice. He doesn't want his mother to hear him play, he tells her, because the music "spikes the music" and "itus gone."