A Citywide Search for Bozai

"The back door was open, the cushions were empty, and the food bowls were full."

Zhou Yu walked around the shop and reported three conclusions, "Bozai is missing."

The rag in Dania's hand fell to the ground. She rushed to the back door, then rushed back into the store, circling the empty cushion twice.

"It was here yesterday!" she exclaimed, clutching her apron. "I definitely covered it with a small blanket last night!"

"The wind blew the blanket off; it might have gone out for a walk." Zhou Yu slapped the schedule on the bar and flipped to a blank page. "Don't panic, follow the missing persons procedure. The first step is to gather clues—connecting the sightings."

"You're more professional at finding a capybara than you are at finding a broken star," Sigrid said.

"Professions don't discriminate based on the object." Zhou Yu pointed with his pen. "Clue one: the back door wasn't locked, meaning it opened it itself, it knows the way well. Clue two: the smell of beans wafts from the back alley, and the wind is blowing east. Clue three: what day of the week is it today?"

"Thursday."

"Thursday, Sakuramachi morning market, the tofu daifuku stall is open." He wrote on his first note, "It carries our tofu aroma, chasing after the aroma of other people's tofu."

Chisaki suddenly grabbed the coat draped over the back of the chair.

"I know where it went."

"Where to?" Dania's eyes lit up.

Chisaki had already reached the door, her back to the crowd as she tied her scarf, her voice flat and even. "Let's go to Central Park first. It's used to taking the old route, which always passes through the park."

"What do you mean by 'Old Road'?" Sigelica pressed.

"You'll know when we get there." She pushed open the door and went out without looking back.

Zhou Yu and Sigelica exchanged a glance and wrote "turn a blind eye" on their schedule: No questions asked, just follow along.

The wisteria in Central Park was nearing the end of its bloom, leaving a thick layer of fallen petals under the flower trellis, carpeting half the path with purple and white. Overhead, a child ran with a koi carp kite, its tail swishing back and forth.

After asking around among the elderly men taking a stroll, Zhou Yu said he had never seen a capybara. He then took out pre-printed missing capybara posters and pasted them down on the tree trunks.

The notice featured a picture of Bozai in the center, a round, chubby figure.

"You drew this?" Sigelica examined it for a while. "Why does it look like a baguette?"

"Such a resemblance." Zhou Yu posted another picture, "Look at those eyes, how similar they are."

"Capybaras have no eyes."

Dania walked around the wisteria trellis for a whole time, asking the gardener and the cleaning lady for directions. Her ankles ached, and when she returned to Zhou Yu, her steps were unsteady.

Zhou Yu looked at her and squatted down.

"Come on up. The schedule says 'tourist tour,' which includes human-powered transportation; no extra charge."

Dania leaned over him, her arms encircling his neck. He carried her forward, and after a dozen steps, he suddenly remembered something. He turned back to speak, their faces almost touching, their noses nearly touching.

No one moved.

The wisteria petals slowly fell. After three seconds, Zhou Yu reached out, picked a petal from her hair, and lingered his fingertips on the hair for half a second before withdrawing his hand.

"Petals," he explained, "The kind on the observation list, we need to take stock."

"Mmm." Dania buried her face in his shoulder, her ears turning red. "Let's count them."

Chisaki, who was leading the way, stopped and waited for them. While waiting, she kept looking at the old clock tower-like building at the end of the wisteria trellis, lost in thought.

Flower Shadow Underground Street is located below the east exit of the park. The entire street is topped with an indoor flowering tree that is said to have been in bloom for decades. Its branches hang from the ceiling to the entrance of the second-floor shops, and its pollen floats like a golden mist under the lights.

The owner of the corner store nodded upon hearing the description.

"Brown, round, and slow-moving? It passed by here in the evening, heading towards the Sakuramachi." The shopkeeper pointed deeper into the town. "Under this flowering tree, it stood for a while, as if listening to something."

"Listen to what?" Dania asked.

"Who knows?" the shopkeeper laughed. "Maybe it'll be due to the flowers."

The group headed towards the exit. As dusk fell, the lights on the exit ramp began to illuminate one by one.

As the third light came on, the air on the side of the ramp silently cracked open.

A Tacet Field, its edges gleaming with an eerie light, revealed Tacet Discord emerging from within. Two Chirpuff floated in mid-air, their fins flapping as their bodies swelled larger and larger; another crawled sideways along the ground with a crackling sound Snip Snap its pincers snapped open, and the group headed towards the direction of the commuting crowd.

Before the crowd could react, the flash of the knife arrived.

Chisa's sword-drawing movement was faster than the sound of the bell on her wrist. The first Chirpuff, just as it inflated into a ball and was about to crash down, was deflated by the flash of the sword, turning into ashes on the spot. The second one turned to escape, but was caught up by the second sword. The remaining one tried to crawl back into the crevice with Snip Snap, but Sigelica's riot shield slammed down, pinning it to the ground, causing the ground to tremble.

"Whose pufferfish is flying in the sky?!" she shouted, standing on her shield.

In less than twenty seconds, onlookers only managed to make out two clumps of gray and a flattened object.

"Alright, alright, it's all over now." Sigelica straightened her shield, her voice full of energy. "Afternoon tea as usual!"

Zhou Yu squatted down and picked up the remaining core fragments of the Tacet Discord one by one, putting them into a bag. "The spoils will cover our meal allowance; we can't abandon tradition."

Dania stood at the edge of the slope, clutching Zhou Yu's clothes, but suddenly let go and tilted her head to the side.

"There's another one," she tugged at his sleeve, "Hiding behind the flowering tree. Very small, and very scared."

The whole team fell silent for a second.

Chisa looked in the direction she was referring to, and sure enough, in the shadow of the drooping branches of the flowering tree, there was a Chirp Chirp Pufferfish, no bigger than a palm, its fins wrapped tightly around itself, its eerie light flickering, not daring to move.

"You saw it?" Sigelica asked.

"It wasn't seen," Dania said, "It was heard. It kept trembling, a very soft, chirping sound."

Chisaki didn't speak, but lowered her head and typed a line on the terminal, noting the current timestamp. Just three hours had passed since the frequency aftershocks of 5:44. For the first time, there was concrete evidence to support the claim that the Tacet Discord crawled out following the lingering sound of the bells.

The little Chirp Chirp Pufferfish was killed by Chisa with a single slash. It was quiet before turning to ash, without even inflating its air sac, as if it had resigned itself to its fate.

"Your ears are more useful than my sword," Chisa said to Dania as she sheathed her blade.

The night in Sakuramachi is quieter than the pedestrian street. At the foot of the stone steps in front of the old shrine, a daifuku stall has its lamp lit, and the stall owner hasn't packed up yet.

Beside the stone lamp base behind the stall, a round, brown shadow lay slumped, eyes closed, breathing evenly, fast asleep.

Dania jogged over, squatted down, Bozai opened one eye, glanced at her, and then closed it again.

"Pretending to be asleep," Sigelica said. "It's guilty."

Bozai slapped its tail twice on the ground.

"What are you filming?" Sigelica crouched down to examine it. "A confession?"

The old lady at the tofu stall smiled and handed me a plate to sample, "This capybara comes every evening, squats by the stall watching all night, but doesn't eat a single bite. It's a regular customer."

"It won't eat?" Dania asked in surprise.

"I won't eat, I'll just watch." The old woman wiped her hands. "You're talking about capybaras, but you sound like some old resident of the old street, wondering if this stall will close down."

Once the old woman started talking, she began to recount ancient stories.

"This shrine enshrines the Red Oni. The older generation says that the Red Oni is a guardian deity. During festivals in the old town, someone wearing Red Oni Mask would start from this stall in Sakuramachi and dance all the way to the base of the Rainbow Sound Tower. Just as the bell finished its eleventh chime, the whole town would be at peace."

"Where's the Red Oni Mask?" Sigelica asked.

"Once the old city collapsed, it was gone." The old woman waved her hand. "All that's left is a story."

Sigelica took a big bite of the sample daifuku and mumbled, "How does this daifuku taste with spicy food?"

All eyes on the street turned to them. The stall owner's rag froze in mid-air, and a crow from the shrine cawed.

"I was just asking," she said, holding up the remaining half of the piece. "Sweet and salty are always mutually exclusive, it's an old rule, but someone always has to try and change it."

Dania squatted Bozai, turned its head around so they were facing each other.

"You ran out," she said, "And now there's no one left to watch the shop."

Bozai looked at her for a while, then rested his head on her knees and slapped his tail on the ground.

On the way back, the night wind made the streetlights sway. Halfway there, Dania suddenly slowed down.

"What's wrong?" Zhou Yu asked.

"It rang again." She tilted her head. "Those eleven seconds... isn't it 5:44 now?"

This time, after the last note faded, she softly hummed half a line.

The tune actually matches.

Chisaki, who was at the back, stopped.

She never hummed that tune. Not even for a single day.

But she knew what it was.