Did he say that? I thought he said there was no mention of number six in the records. Whether she talked with number six or not is unclear, it’s just not recorded. I too knew at once whose notes we were reading and kept track of the numbers, but thought Hisako would be number 4, because she visited 4 without K. I also wonder who 21 might be. Apparently they had a lot to say, and they were introduced by 7 who was in hospital at the time (could it be the mother with the origami crane in the hospital? Or have I mixed up the timelines?).
I still think she intended to send a message with the book, and apparently she managed to do that, judging from that phone call to the publisher. I think she even mentions there’s something more she wanted to ask, something important, and apparently she did expect exactly such a phone call and had instructed the publisher on how to handle it? She had no idea it would be a book when she did the research, but she still wondered how to send out a message. When the opportunity for the book came about, she at first wasn’t interested, then realized it was the perfect way to reach out to that mysterious someone (Hisako, it looks like. Everything points to Hisako.)
So what could have been in those back issues that might be so important? Saiga did visit all the bookstores and supposedly found all the back issues still available, but she never mentions it in the book. Then someone reads the book, and even though they never felt those back issues were a problem before, now senses a threat, and burns down that one second hand book store. Why that particular one? And why so long after the fact? Whoever did that must have thought that Saiga hadn’t yet checked the book stores, but that either she still might (a year after the book was out?) or someone else might connect the dots and do so? Very peculiar.
The interpretation of the poem was cool. Funnily enough I had noticed the strange imagery was more sound-focused when I first read it (that insect line in particular), but never connected the dots. I’ve been wondering though. Hisako was blind, but attended a regular school. It’s never explained how she could read and write. I’m sure a blind person can write, but surely the characters (complicated kanji especially) would look somewhat odd and out of proportion? The handwriting of that letter was like that, but on the other hand, surely people would know Hisako’s handwriting, so if there was a connection to be made, wouldn’t they have made it already? And by the way, how on earth did Saiga have the letter? Wasn’t it police evidence, and not even fully released to the public?
I’m very, very intrigued by the identity of the current interviewer. Apparently they never gave a profession or an actual reason for doing the interviews (the publisher asks if the interviewer is in the same business, and whether they also want to write a book, which seems to indicate that he has no idea). Why do all these people meet privately with a stranger without proper credentials and talk in such detail to them, even on a personal level? That’s so strange. I had a dark, dark thought, and I’m sure it’s not correct, but here it is: The interviewer is somehow involved, and is actually killing everyone they interview after their chats, or at least those who had something important to say. What a twist that would be…(I had a slight fever yesterday, so my imagination ran wilder than usual 
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