Tengo—Ebisuno

Tengo and Professor Ebisuno’s relationship takes shape when Tengo travels to meet the man Eri calls the Master. Their first substantial exchange is not an easy endorsement of the plan to revise Eri’s novel: Ebisuno recognizes its moral and practical dangers, and worries above all about the harm exposure could cause Eri. His eventual willingness to accept Tengo’s participation rests on a more personal basis: Eri trusts Tengo, and Ebisuno trusts her judgment.

First Meeting and Unequal Knowledge

Ebisuno receives Tengo in a remote place he says he cannot leave under the circumstances. He thanks Tengo for making the journey and speaks with the practiced logic of someone long accustomed to addressing a large audience. The meeting begins with a difference in what the two men know: Ebisuno has already learned about Tengo’s life through Eri, while Tengo is arriving to explain a project whose implications Ebisuno has been considering from a distance.

Ebisuno recites Tengo’s background: he studied mathematics at university, teaches the subject at a preparatory school in Yoyogi, and also writes novels. The detail establishes that Eri has told the Master about Tengo before their meeting, and that Ebisuno is not treating him as an unknown technician. His questions soon move from biography to the proposed work: Tengo is to rework the novel Eri wrote, making it more finished for a newcomer’s literary prize, while Eri is presented as its author.

An Uneasy Literary Collaboration

Tengo distinguishes his own role from Komatsu’s. He says Komatsu devised the project and that his own contribution is limited to revising the style of Air Chrysalis; he cannot say whether the plan will succeed or whether it is morally right. Ebisuno, who describes himself as essentially a scientist without a strong interest in novels or familiarity with literary custom, nevertheless detects what he calls a kind of fraud. Tengo does not argue away the concern: he admits that he feels it too.

That admission makes their exchange more candid than a simple negotiation over permission. Ebisuno identifies the project’s ethical ambiguity, while Tengo accepts the description without pretending that technical work makes him innocent of the larger scheme. He says that for eight days he has been asking himself whether he should leave. Every prudent instinct, he explains, counsels withdrawal; he is not naturally a gambler or adventurer. What holds him to the project is the manuscript itself. Air Chrysalis has captivated him, and he says he would have refused immediately if Komatsu had brought him any other manuscript.

Ebisuno understands this distinction: Tengo is not denying the risk or the possible fraud, but is drawn to the work’s substance. Their shared discussion thus preserves a tension rather than resolving it. Tengo’s artistic fascination explains his choice, but does not erase the ethical question Ebisuno has raised.

Eri at the Center of Their Trust

Ebisuno’s strongest objection concerns the consequences if the truth comes out. Public blame would fall not only on Tengo and Komatsu; Eri, who is seventeen, could be gravely hurt. Tengo agrees that Ebisuno is right to worry. The Master’s concern is therefore not only about literary honesty or professional scandal. It is directed toward the young person whose name and welfare are at stake in the plan.

When Ebisuno asks Eri what she thinks, she gives a brief assent. Her answer is spare, and Tengo notices her small fists clenched beside him. Ebisuno accepts her response, then raises another vulnerability: Eri is dyslexic. The difficulty is probably congenital; at school she was long regarded as intellectually delayed, although Ebisuno says she is in fact very intelligent and full of ideas. He asks whether the reading disorder could harm the publication plan. Tengo has partly inferred it already, but answers that the difficulty could be concealed. The exchange shows the difference between the men’s responsibilities: Tengo considers how the plan might proceed, while Ebisuno insists that its practical arrangements must be weighed against Eri’s particular circumstances.

Consent and the Beginning of Confidence

Ebisuno tells Tengo that Eri appears to trust him, though he does not know why. The decisive statement follows: he trusts Eri. If she thinks it right to entrust her work to Tengo, he says, he can only accept her decision. This is not an uncomplicated declaration that the scheme is safe or morally clean. Ebisuno has already described its risks, questioned its honesty, and emphasized the possibility that Eri may be hurt. His acceptance is instead a qualified act of confidence, built on Eri’s choice rather than on certainty about the project.

That confidence opens the way to a deeper relationship. Ebisuno tells Tengo that, if they truly intend to carry the project through, there are facts about Eri he must know: what kind of childhood she had, where and under what circumstances she grew up, and how Ebisuno came to take charge of her education. He signals that the account will be long. Tengo says he is listening, while Eri shifts beside him and keeps her hands clasped around the back of her neck, holding the collar of her cardigan. The scene leaves their relationship poised between caution and cooperation: Ebisuno has not concealed the danger, but he has chosen to bring Tengo into the history that makes Eri’s trust consequential.