From the girl who sat before me now...surged a fresh and physical life force. She was like a small animal that has popped into the world with the coming of spring. Her eyes moved like an independent organism with joy, laughter, anger, amazement, and despair. I hadn't seen a face so vivid and expressive in ages, and I enjoyed watching it live and move.

Whoa!" he says with a smile. The wrinkles at the corners of his eyes deepen. "Chicken salad a la George Orwell!

In my younger days, I was trying to write sophisticated prose and fantastic stories.

Don't let appearances fool you. There's always only one reality!

What I was chasing in circles must have been the tail of the darkness inside me.

But still," Ayumi said, "it seems to me that this world has a serious shortage of both logic and kindness." "You may be right," Aomame said, "But it's too late to trade it in for another one.

She gave me this look – she might have been watching from a lifeboat as the ship went down. Or maybe it was the other way around.