Volume Six: Hollow Written by Kashiwae Masato Illustrated by Chayamachi Suguro Summary by Amparo Bertram Early June, 1997

About a month after Sidney's 29th birthday, Nobuyuki is taking a large group of tourists to a newly opened Disney store. Their departure is delayed as one of the tourists, a young woman named Misaki, doesn't show up at the appointed time. One of the ladies on the tour bus remembers seeing her meet up with a young Japanese man, and another lady recalls seeing her leave the store with someone who appeared to be a New York resident, their arms around each other rather intimately.

Coincidentally, Sidney and Henry drive up and ask Nobuyuki for assistance. On a tip, they were staking out the Disney store for a Japanese man, and Sidney would like to ask the tour group if they saw him. The photograph he passes around is identified as the man who left with Misaki. Nobuyuki is surprised to hear that the man, Takashi, is wanted for burglary and murder. He was a university student staying with an elderly couple, the Hamiltons. One night the Hamiltons were going out to the opera, but they forgot their tickets, so the wife went back in to get them. She was attacked in the apartment and died at the hospital. She managed to say Takashi's name before she died.

Takashi had come to New York to study computer graphics, but he rarely attended classes and had dropped out of school the previous October. He neglected to tell the Hamiltons he had dropped out. New immigration laws forced him to return home to have his visa renewed, so he left his homestay promising to come back once that was done, but the Hamiltons never saw him again after that. When the police contacted Takashi's parents, they found out that the parents hadn't known he had dropped out of school, nor that he had stopped living at his homestay. They were still sending him money for tuition and living expenses every month. Immigration authorities have no record of him ever leaving the country, so Sidney believes he is still in New York as an illegal alien. The police just received a tip from someone who sounded like a foreign woman that Takashi is hanging around the Disney store getting money from female tourists.

Nobuyuki begins to synchro with Takashi. He understands what it's like not to have any goals or driving ambitions. Even though he's 25, he feels immature compared to everyone around him, and he can't help thinking of his reliance upon Sidney--not to mention his obsession for wanting to monopolize Sidney's private life--as one more example of his childishness. It makes him depressed that he could very well have been in Takashi's position, if it weren't for the fortunate happenstance of being born an American citizen and therefore not having to worry about a visa to stay in New York. He is particularly stricken by Kiyomi's appraisal of people like Takashi as "their identities are hollow; they define themselves only as New Yorkers."

Sidney notices that Nobuyuki is feeling down. He tugs on Nobuyuki's ponytail to jolt him out of it. This leads to Nobuyuki pouting, "What would you do if I went bald?"

When they go to the Hamiltons' condominium to show Nobuyuki the crime scene, they meet a woman coming out to walk her collie. It reminds Sidney of when Nobuyuki, barely one year old, toddled over to his yard for the first time. Beth took a liking to him right away. Although the collie was much bigger than Nobuyuki, the little tyke was thrilled to play with her. Sidney comments that such fearlessness must be ingrained in Nobuyuki's personality, because he's still like that today. Nobuyuki doesn't remember the incident at all, of course, but he does remember the day he was driven to the airport to leave for Japan. Sidney closed himself up in his room and refused to come out, but Beth chased after the taxi taking Nobuyuki away, howling mournfully.

Mr. Hamilton believes that Takashi is a sweet boy who wouldn't have killed his wife, but Nobuyuki gets the feeling that Takashi was hiding his true nature from the Hamiltons. One clue to this is that the young man spotted at the Disney store had been smoking, while Takashi had pretended in front of the Hamiltons that he had quit his smoking habit. Nobuyuki identifies with Takashi even more, since when he first moved to Japan he similarly acted as those around him expected, just so he could fit in, though he didn't see the sense in some of the rules. He begins to sink deeper and deeper into depression and wishes he could go back to the carefree days of playing with Sidney.

Sidney enjoys watching Nobuyuki's reaction when he says that, rather than using it for his computer graphics schoolwork, Takashi had used his computer for surfing porn sites.

They run into Serizawa, who lives in the area and had seen Takashi around before. He remembers once overhearing a conversation in Japanese the previous fall between Takashi and a young woman. About the only thing he recalls is that the girl seemed to wish she could study abroad too, but she complained that she couldn't because her parents wouldn't pay for it, which made Serizawa form a bad opinion of her. Later, Kiyomi calls Nobuyuki to inform him that Misaki has returned to her hotel. Thinking that perhaps Misaki might not know her boyfriend is wanted by the police, and therefore might be willing to reveal his whereabouts, Kiyomi agrees to meet Nobuyuki and the detectives at the hotel to question Misaki.

Nobuyuki manages to talk her into giving them Takashi's phone number and email address. She also reveals that he's working part-time at a travel agency called Japan Journey Club. She says that she wanted to study abroad the way he's doing, but he advised her against it because the immigration laws have become more strict. Sidney and Henry are both impressed by Nobuyuki's sweet-talking abilities. Nobuyuki, however, doesn't believe that he did anything special.

Because of his depression, Nobuyuki has lost his appetite. Concerned for his health, Sidney takes him out to eat at a diner near their apartment. While waiting for their food, they go outside for a smoke. Sidney pulls Nobuyuki into his arms and strokes his hair, repeating that he'll stop if requested, although Nobuyuki doesn't have any problem with the intimacy. Sidney comments that Henry told him from his own experience that it's hard to cross the line from being friends to something more, kissing Nobuyuki on the cheek to demonstrate his meaning. He tells Nobuyuki that it's okay to lean on him more, the way he always leans on Nobuyuki in certain aspects of his life. He finishes by resigning himself to taking things slowly for Nobuyuki's sake.

They check the phone number Misaki gave them and verify that her boyfriend is the same Takashi who stayed with the Hamiltons. They pay a visit to JJC and discover that Takashi has been working there since the previous September. They wait for him to show up for work, but Misaki is with him as he steps out of the elevator, and she cries out upon seeing Nobuyuki there. Takashi, startled, makes a run for it and gets away.

The police question Misaki, who tells them that Takashi has his own condominium. He has been renting it since September, the same time he started working--at least a month before he dropped out of school, signifying that he had been renting the condominium and staying with the Hamiltons at the same time. In effect, he has been living a double life. They wonder if perhaps he just used his computer graphics major as a way to get to New York, and then once he arrived, he discovered that he actually liked working as a tour guide. Unfortunately, the immigration laws changed, which made it impossible for him to stay in the United States legally. Nobuyuki wonders why he would bother burglarizing the Hamiltons; he certainly had enough money for his few needs, and the single item stolen, a small jewelry box, didn't contain anything of significant value.

Sidney has been curiously happy all day. He suddenly declares that he's in the mood to taste some Japanese home-cooking, so Nobuyuki makes curry rice for their supper. Sidney is quite pleased, and that makes Nobuyuki feel a bit better. Sidney mentions that he's glad the immigration laws hadn't changed 25 years earlier, or else their childhood memories would have been vastly different. Now, if someone outstays a visa by over 180 days, the person is not allowed back into the United States for three years. When Nobuyuki ponders that 180 day allowance, intended to take into account unavoidable delays such as illness or accidents, it strikes him what Takashi was doing. He realizes that Takashi will try to contact Misaki again.

They tail Misaki to a condominium near Takashi's. They confront her, Nobuyuki explaining that he has guessed her plan to stay illegally in America and try to find a job willing to give her a work visa before the time limit of 180 days runs out. She caves in and takes them into the condominium, where she had been hiding Takashi. He had thought he would be able to get a work visa before his 180 days expired, but when it didn't happen, he lived under a great deal of stress, always fearing discovery. Just as Nobuyuki earlier longed to return to the fun days of playing as a child, Takashi wanted to go back to the fun time he had during his homestay. He entered the Hamiltons' apartment while they were out in an attempt to relive those memories. Tragically, Mrs. Hamilton surprised him by coming back for their forgotten tickets, and he knew he was in trouble if anyone found him so he threatened her with a knife. After he stabbed her accidentally, he grabbed the jewelry box to make it look like a random burglary.

On his way home that night, Nobuyuki toys with the idea of going back to Japan. Coincidentally, Sidney starts asking him about his time in Japan, commenting that he hopes to visit there someday to see what it's like. Nobuyuki gazes into his sparkling blue eyes, wondering how he can possibly say that he's thinking of leaving.

In the end, after consulting with Serizawa about what he should do, Nobuyuki decides to go stay with his grandparents for a month. Unable to bear even the idea of what Sidney's expression will be when he finds out, Nobuyuki leaves him a letter, just as he had done for his grandparents when he came to New York. At the last minute, before he boards the plane, he calls Sidney's cell phone and assures him simply, "I will definitely come home."

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