In this chapter, we learn that the editor of the chief's magazine loves dogs and wants to see more of the girl in the teacher's story. This is because the managing editor wants the story to be better, and he wants the girl to be modeled on a ten-year-old girl. The narrator is horrified at the idea of a puppy in a story about a teacher. He says that the manga is "crap," but he sees the soul in the girl. He tells the other characters on the ship that he is sorry he had to do it for him, and that he never forgets him. The captain tells him that the pen nib is ancient, and the narrator says that both his pen and his writing are falling apart. The teacher will succeed at school, he tells the captain, but he must do what he has to do.