Gotanda Sinks Deeper and Deeper

The narrator rushes back to Tokyo to ask Gotanda if he killed Yuki. The two go out for a beer and pizza and he breaks the news.

Surprisingly Gotanda admits to killing her, but then he says he is not sure if he did it or didn't do it. Gotanda says he thinks he did, but then says that Kiki asked him too, and that he feels as if he dreamed the entire thing.

"I strangled her. But I wasn't strangling her, I was strangling my own shadow. I remember thinking, if only I could choke my shadow off, I'd get some health. Except it wasn't my shadow it was Kiki. It all took place in that dark world. You know what I'm talking about? Not here in this one. And it was Kiki who led me there. Choke me, Kiki told me."

The more Gotanda thinks about it the more he says that it didn't feel real, but that he can still sense the killing on his hands. He is confused about what happened, and doesn't understand. Neither does the narrator. He tells Gotanda that they should just forget everything and go to Hawaii. Gotanda agrees and then asks for another beer. As the narrator gets up to get it Gotanda sneaks out the back and drives his Maserati into the ocean.

I'm still left not knowing whether Gotanda actually killed Kiki. He swears that he didn't strangle Mei, but thinks that she died on account of him. So now we are left with 3 prostitutes that have either died or somehow disappeared, and only one person admitting to the killing of one, but he can't really be sure if he did it in reality. He is not sure why he did it, and swears that Kiki asked him to.

I tend to believe that the act these prostitutes play, the act of an illusion for men goes deeper then the narrator thinks. That the illusion is just that an illusion. The women don't truly exist in this plane. They show up when called, but then can just as easily disappear into walls and other realities. They help the men find what they need by leading the way, but the women are not what the men really need they are just an illusion to pass the time, and point them in the right direction.