The previous evening, Ushikawa watches Tengo leave his apartment for his meeting with Komatsu. Rather than follow him, Ushikawa is drawn to the playground, where he again ascends the slide to stare at the two moons. He thinks to himself, “Reality came first, and the principles and logic followed. So, he decided, he would have to begin by accepting this reality: that there were two moons in the sky” (845).

Shortly after returning to the apartment, a woman he doesn’t immediately recognize leaves the building. Ushikawa snaps photos of the woman, but she exits the area too quickly for him to follow her.

Ushikawa oversleeps and misses Tengo’s early morning exit to Chikura. After calling Tengo’s school and learning that his father died, Ushikawa reflects on what he knows about Tengo’s mother: A man strangled her to death at a resort when Tengo was a baby. With Tengo, she has fled her husband with another man. That man was likely responsible for her murder, though Ushikawa cannot be sure because he was never caught. To this day, Tengo still does not know what happened to his mother.

Ushikawa develops the photos of the mystery woman, and although her features are difficult to distinguish, the woman matches Aomame’s description.