This chapter opens with a flashback to the events of the previous chapter, in which Hirokazu learns that his mother has committed suicide. He realizes that he has been playing the role of the good guy throughout the entire story, and he is ashamed of himself for having done so. He also realizes that the whole story is just a lie, and that he will regret it in the future. The flashback is interrupted by the arrival of a female voice, who introduces herself as Ritsuko . She is a writer who has just returned from a trip to the "land of despair" in Japan. She tells the boy that she has heard from Mizuki that he is doing well, but that his voice is not that of his mother. She asks him if he is eating well, and when he says no, she exclaims that it is not Mizuki's voice that she is talking to, but of someone else. She then launches into a series of questions about her life in Japan, asking him about his mother, his health, and his plans for suicide. When he does not answer her questions, she tells him that she will be heading to Japan soon. She also tells him about the weather in Tokyo, Japan, which has been unsettled by intermittent cloudiness. One of them has decided to call the number back, but the voice on the other end of the line is not answered by the virtual assistant, but by the voice of a man who answers the call himself. The narrator concludes that the flashback to his mother's death is the cause of his anger.