Noboru+Kuroda

Chris&Wendy Riowena and Jerry Jerry: "He was choked, wet, ecstatic. Certain he had watched a tangle of thread unravel to trace a hallowed figure. And it would have to be protected: for all he knew, he was its thirteen-year-old creator.   If this is ever destroyed, it'll mean the end of the world," Noburu murmured, barely conscious. //I guess I'd do anything to stop that, no matter how awful!// " p13

"wandered through private dreams" p31 "Noburu began an exccited account of what he had witnessed the night before. The boys kept their faces blank, but he could feel every eye on him and the straining to catch every word, and he was satisfied." 49   "Noburu's hard, cold heart!" 57   "he had taken a cold bath, but he was sweating heavily again. He fet it blow up through his breast like the morning sea breeze: intent to kill" 57 "he checked himself for pity; like a lighted window seen from an express train, it flickered for an instant in the distance and disappeared. He was relieved." p57 "finding wholeness and perfection in the rapture of the dead kitten's large languid soul." p61 Riowena

“Noboru had a pleasant vision of the lightning in the adults’ gaze illuminating the life on the shore that Ryuji dreamed about and Fusako’s wholesome household as they crashed noisily into rubble - but his excitement had led him to overestimate the power of his imagination” - page 155

“Noboru’s head began to swim. Hard heart...hard heart: he tried repeating the words to himself, but that only made him want to hold the genuine article in his hand. Hard as an iron anchor....” - page 146

“Noboru knew that he was being feared as well as pitied, and the gentle threat had made him drunk: when he leveled the full iciness of his heart at the adults, a smile was playing at the corners of his mouth.”- page 145

“In the darkness at the top, Noboru froze like a small animal at bay, silent, his eyes gleaming.” - page 142

__-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-oxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxo-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o__

“Noboru, as he affected childishness, was standing guard over the perfection of the adults, the moment. HIs was the sentinel’s role. The less time they had, the better...” - page 87

“He never cried, not even in his dreams, for hard-heartedness was a piont of pride. A large iron anchor...that was how he liked to imagine his heart. Someday he would have an anchor tattooed on his chest” - page 9

Wendy

"He was recalling the design of the perfect painting he had seen the night before. It had been almost a manifestation of the absolutely blue sky of night. The chief maintained that there was nothing new to be found anywhere in the world, but Noboru still believed in the adventure lurking in some tropical backland." p54

"Noboru knew he was being ridiculed, but he quickly regained his pride and was able to report on Ryuji's activities as though he were describing the habits of an insect." p134

"Noboru was vexed at his immunity from the germs that infected the others, but at the same time he trembled at the fragility of his chance good fortune." p139

"His purity was as brittle as a new moon. His innocence had sent an intricate net of feelers snaking toward the world, but when would they be snapped?" p140

"He was interested in only the ultimate destination of the great engine now in motion. In that dark hole inside the chest he had stood at the outermost limit of his world, at the edge of the seas and the deserts." p154

"On the oath he had sworn to that beautiful pinnacle of humanity swathed in the roar of that horn, sworn to the gleaming representatives of order he had seen through the peephole that summer night, he could never turn back again." p154

"He tried to shake free and couldn't. He was thinking that the chief had been right: there were worse things than being beaten." p158

Chris Hwa "Noboru had never recieved such cordial treatment from the adults, nor had he ever seen them so ridiculously hesitant in his presence. It seemed to be some special adult ritual" (144)

"Noboru listened feeling as though he were about to suffocate. //Can this man be saying things like that? This splendid hero who once shone so brightly?" (158)//

//"//But he did enjoy watching them handle him from across the table as though he were a vulnerable, easily frightened, and all unknowing little bird - that was a real spectacle. They had laid the tender, down-ruffled little bird on a platter and appeared now to be pondering a way to eat out its heart without causing its distress." p144

"Noboru didn't really object to the darling image of himself he knew Ryuji and his mother entertained in their imaginations. He would just have to be careful to look victimized." p144