• Kusanagi purposely seeks out three people whom he wishes to question about the murder case: first Kudo, then Yukawa, and finally Ishigami. The manner in which he approaches his targets and determines their whereabouts also attests to his prowess as a detective.

• His meeting with Kudo takes place in order to satisfy the wishes of Chief Mamiya and is therefore mostly a routine formality. Just as Kusanagi suspected on the basis of his intuition, Kudo proves to be innocent, giving no indication of having been involved in the murder of Togashi. During the meeting, Kusanagi is deliberately pushy, cynical, and overbearing in his manner, which is contrary to his usually slow and gentle approach to eliciting information from suspects. He does this to make Kudo uncomfortable and flustered in such a way as would facilitiate Kudo involuntarily divulging more information. It is his way of acting out the role of a stereotypical detective. By contrast, in his meeting with Ishigami aferwards, Kusanagi is more natural and less performative, as evident by his failure to convincingly pretend that it was his idea to have Yukawa request that Ishigami spy on Yasuko. Even the manner in which Kusanagi approaches his targets differs between the two meetings: for Kudo, the meeting starts with Kusanagi aggressively pushing his way into the entrance to Kudo's building before Kudo enters himself; for Ishigami, he follows from behind quietly and surreptitiously, gently introducing himself to Ishigami. These two sides of Kusanagi demonstrate two approaches to policework: one that is artifical and based on protocol, the other more authentic and based on intuition.

• The chapter also shows the honorable and kind character of Kudo in several ways. Firstly, Kudo politely invites Kusanagi to his apartment and serves him tea. Under the harsh questioning of Kusanagi, Kudo opens up about his romantic intentions in seeking out Yasuko. When Kusanagi requests information about any contacts that Yasuko might have through the nightclub, Kusanagi refuses to comply, indicating his unwillingness to "squeal" on others. He further expresses concern for Yasuko after finding out that she is under survillance. The honorable character displayed by Kudo will contrast with Ishigami's behavior later in the chapter, namely Ishigami's desire to extract information about Kudo despite his better judgment. This will cast doubt on Ishigami's saviour persona and diminish his stature in the eyes of the reader as he comes to be perceived as more of an insecure and controlling stalker than an altruistic benefactor.

• While looking for Yukawa, Kusanagi finds it odd that Yukawa is not at the lab. In fact, as Kusanagi learns from a graduate student, Yukawa is in fact at Shinozaki Station doing his own investigative work in relation to the case. A very telling quote stands out here:

• Kusanagi didn't think Yukawa would just drop in on a suspect in an unsolved case unless he had something specific in mind. After all, Yukawa's policy had always been to avoid direct involvement in Kusanagi's cases - not because they annoyed him, as he claimed, but out of deference to Kusanagi's position. From this quote, we gain insight into the inner conflict that seems to be afflicting Yukawa. It is an inner conflict indicative of the ninji/giro conflict - that is, the conflict between one's sense of duty to society and one's emotional biases and personal preferences. Yukawa feels a duty to stay out of Kusanagi's business, yet he also feels compelled to intervene on behalf of a close friend. Kusanagi will be in similar position later on when Yukawa appeals to their friendship in order to make sure that Kusanagi will not divulge secret information. Because of Yukawa's uncharacteristically sentimental appeal to their bond of friendship, Kusanagi will be forced to choose between upholding his duty as a police officer to bring a criminal to justice and his respecting the wishes of a close friend. Such ninji/giro conflicts are common in Japanse film and media, the current novel being no exception.

• Ishigami's full-proof plans also starts showing signs of fraying at the seams. Specifically, Kudo's appearance in the case has triggered a certain jealousy in Ishigami, which makes him curious to learn about the identity of Kudo when he is presented with a picture of Kudo from Kusanagi. This will start him on a trajectory that involves him behaving in increasingly aberrant and uncharacteristically obtrusive ways as he starts to follow and take photographs of Kudo later on. For now, Ishigami has only an inkling of this, a vague and unquantifiable sense of things having gone awry that defies mathematical categorization, as the last words of the chapter indicate:

A feeling rose inside of him, making him queasy, as though an elaborate formula he'd thought was perfect was now giving false results because of an unpredictable variable. It is human sentimentality and feeling that will ultimately become the "unpredictable variable“ that disrupts what had up until now been the smooth and flawless execution of carefully designed plan.