Summary

Chapter 7, "Exile," begins in Akiko's POV as Akira comes home and demands to know where Nori is. Yuko brushes aside his concerns and states that Nori is safe, just elsewhere. Akira gives up fighting with his grandmother and instead asks Akiko where Nori has gone. Akiko says she does not know, but inside, she does "know that she is not safe. And I said nothing and let her go" (134). Akira leaves Akiko to contemplate her guilt.

The POV then switches to Kiyomi's. She relates her history of growing up in poverty, being sold into prostitution, and gaining some power as a madam. Regarding Nori, Kiyomi believes that "even if she is coming apart at the seams, she will not show me. She has been raised in a hard school" (135). Kiyomo goes on to explain that Nori now belongs to her and that she...