People are spurred to act less by eager dreams of a happy future than by anxiety over the danger, remote or otherwise, of remaining stuck in the status quo. Regret still lay far off, but already the waters of that chill lake were lapping at her feet. She could not simply close her eyes and do nothing. Time and again she repeated to herself what Makino had said, adjusting the words to make them her own. The Yoko Komine that didn’t love him no longer exists. She isn’t real.
