This chapter opens with a flashback to a time when the protagonist was a child. He recalls that he was on his way home from school when he came upon a "random puddle" in the street. He was horrified to find that it was a mother's puddle, and that it contained "strong resentment energy" . He realizes that he must have been too small a puddle to contain all of this resentment energy, and he resolves to seek out the source of it.