Book 1 Chapter 6: On the Births of Kumiko Okada and Noboru Wataya (Pgs. 68-80) Summary

Toru expresses his bewilderment at how Kumiko and Noboru Wataya could possibly relate as brother and sister and adults. The unfortunate argument he has with Kumiko's father effectively ends her other family relationships, and they very rarely see her parents. Kumiko is the youngest of three children. Noboru Wataya is the eldest and nine years older than Kumiko. An older sister, the second-born, dies at the age of eleven. Kumiko is sent to live with her father's mother when she is just three years old. For weeks before Kumiko's return to her father's home, her grandmother behaves bizarrely. She begins to feel inferior to her dead sister until she develops hatred toward her family, especially her brother Noboru Wataya...