Chapters 6-10 Summary

In Chapter 6, Nakata - the young boy who didn't wake up after the 1944 incident in the woods, now fully grown - is looking for a lost cat named Goma. Since the incident, Nakata has no memory and cannot read, but he can communicate with cats. As such, he has become adept at finding runaways, though the government considers him mentally deficient and keeps him on a subsidy. Nakata talks to a nameless cat that he calls Otsuka. Otsuka has not seen Goma, but he is more interested in Nakata. He feels that Nakata has lost half his spirit, and he suggests that he seeks out his other half.

In Chapter 7, Kafka negotiates with the girl at the hotel desk to give him his reduced rate through the week. He claims to be a student researching at the library, and she says...