5:44 a.m.

The check-in operator called at 4:30.

"The load hasn't stopped," his voice trembled. "It's been running non-stop since midnight. The access control light just turned on by itself."

Twenty minutes later, everyone in the store was standing under the Rainbow Sound Tower.

The area around the tower was already cordoned off. The registrar arrived with his team, and the clerk carried a registration board with the emergency list on the top page. Zhou Yu and Chisaki were on the list. Dania's entry had been crossed out in red pen, with the words "Unknown" written next to it.

"What does this mean?" Sigelica asked.

"Emergency regulations state that unknown individuals are not permitted to enter the controlled area," the registrar said. "It's not specifically targeting her. It's that her reading isn't in the system; if something happens, I won't be able to explain it."

"The instrument can't read it; it's the instrument's fault," Chisaki said.

"I know," the registrar said, "But on paper, this is the only way for now."

Dania stared at the cross next to her name for two seconds, then reached out and straightened the list.

"Draw it," she said. "Write neatly. It will look nice when it's erased."

The clerk looked up at her, and his pen paused on the registration board.

"What about the summons for review?" Zhou Yu asked.

"The expedited application was just sent out tonight, scheduled for 9 a. m. tomorrow," the registrar said. "Now it seems highly unlikely we'll need it."

The window in the duty room was lit. The check-in clerk kept his word and took the night shift himself. He was peering out the window, holding up the key in his hand.

Chisa took half a step forward, raised her hand to hold the bell on her wrist, and hooked it with her thumb.

Zhou Yu was half an inch faster than her, pressing down on her wrist.

"You'll be an employee in the future too, so why should you work overtime for me today?"

"One Prefetch is enough," Chisa said.

"The 'you' you Prefetch, do you still want red bean pudding tomorrow?" Zhou Yu said. "The thread, I've been here. No cutting involved."

At 5:44, the tower sounded.

It wasn't an alarm, it was a broadcast.

The loudspeakers throughout the city awoke simultaneously, silencing the morning programs in the new town, and an even older tune emerged from the mist. The opening bell tolled, one chime after another, backwards. Early risers stood still on the street, and an old man carrying a birdcage hummed along to the tune from decades ago, without missing a single word.

Amidst the blaring of the loudspeaker, the registrar pulled out his walkie-talkie. "Emergency team, wake up residents along the street and tell them to move to higher ground. Stall owners, pack up your stalls; help the elderly to their feet. Move quietly, don't shout."

His program ran so smoothly for the first time that night.

The check-in clerk rushed out of the duty room, his face even paler than his dark circles.

"It wasn't me. Nobody touched the play button."

The registrar stared at the top of the tower and said, word by word, "This isn't a malfunction. It's connected to the transmitter by itself."

As the bells tolled, the fog surged towards the street corner.

First to emerge from the fog were the Chirpuff, their bodies puffed out as they drifted in groups towards the main street. They crawled sideways along the ground Snip Snap Whiff Whaff, then floated in a line with a whoosh, as the whirling darts of the Cruisewing drew arcs in the air. At the very front of the wave, an Arrowhead Bear trod across the broken bricks, its head, neck, and shoulders covered with black, arrow-shaped stones. With each swipe of its paw, a piece of the road was torn up.

"Citywide scale." Chisaki's tablet unfolded, and a table showing the correlation between Tacet Discord and frequencies took shape row by row. "They all came following the sound of the bell."

The formation was in place. Sigelica slammed her riot shield against the main street entrance, blocking the front. For the first time, Chisa didn't touch the bell at all, relying solely on her swordsmanship to meet the Arrowhead Bear head-on. Blade light clashed with the black stone, sparks flying onto the stall's awning. She fought and retreated, each step positioned in front of the old man behind her and the stall. Zhou Yu's emergency repair notice issued by the municipality overnight came in handy. A ditch had been dug in the middle of the pedestrian street, creating a slight elevation difference, allowing him to divert the tide towards the riverbank using gravity.

Dania stood at the top of the steps and called out the numbers with her eyes closed.

"Nine in the alley on the left. Five on the riverbank. The biggest one is on the main street."

Beside her, the registrar's clerk wrote down notes at lightning speed.

"Why are you writing this down?" Sigelica shouted from across the street.

"Write it in the record." The clerk said without looking up. "Whoever's it is, it belongs to them."

"The one on the main street has changed direction," Dania added. "It's not chasing people anymore, it's chasing the clock."

On Chisaki's tablet, the last row of the relational table is displayed: The tide moves with the clock.

Bozai crouched low at Grandma's feet, bared its teeth at the fog, and held its tail across Grandma's front.

As the fourth wave surged forward, the edges of the shield wall began to crackle. Chisa's sword speed dropped by half a beat, and her thumb touched the bell belt again.

Just then, Zhou Yu ran back from the ditch, clutching three pieces of paper in his hand.

"Don't call yet." He slammed the papers on the folding table in front of the registrar. "Look at these three papers."

The first sheet is the property registration for the Chisaki family's shop. The second sheet is a family file, belonging to the Honami family for three generations. The third sheet is the oldest, the paper is brittle, it is a local merchant assistance check-up procedure from the Red Oni Festival era, with a row of handprints at the end. The old lady from the next street is standing outside the cordon, she hasn't even had time to take off her nightcap.

"I searched through the cabinets half the night," she said. "The repeal order is there, it's an official document with an official header. But it's not stamped. An order without a stamp is invalid."

The registrar looked at each form one by one, then looked up.

"This regulation was abolished long ago."

"Has the repealed document been stamped?" Zhou Yu asked.

The registrar remained silent.

"The rule about not having a stamp means it's not time to leave work yet," Zhou Yu said. "According to regulations, local businesses have the right and obligation to assist with inspections. We're going to exercise that right now."

"If someone dies within half an hour, who's responsible?" the registrar said.

"It's on me," Zhou Yu said. "The property rights, the personnel files, and the household registration for three generations are all on those three pieces of paper in your hands. I can't run away."

The bells were still tolling backwards when the fourth wave crashed into the shield wall, and Sigelica's roar came from the street corner.

The registrar glanced at the tower, then at Chisaki, and stepped aside.

"Half an hour," he said. "I'll record this half hour as equipment inspection."

Chisa tucked the half-removed bell back onto her wrist, sheathed her sword, and turned to stand behind Chisaki. She hadn't touched the bell once during this entire fight. Defense doesn't require advance payment.

At the tower entrance, Chisaki stopped and turned around.

"Help me count the time," she said. "When you're counting, you won't panic."

"I'll count!" Dania said, interrupting her. "You don't panic when you count; Xiao Yu taught me."

Chisaki glanced at them, said nothing, and went inside. The check-in clerk, holding a light, followed her in a couple of steps and pointed to the spiral staircase. "Go all the way up, to the top of the tower."

Dania stopped on the steps and began to count on her fingers. One, two, three. When she counted to ten, she grabbed Zhou Yu's hand and they intertwined. His palms were sweaty, but he didn't let go; he held on even tighter.

"Do you want to go in?" she asked, counting as she went.

"I'm not going," Zhou Yu said. "Your hand is here; I can't leave."

"Then I'll count slower."

"Count them randomly," he said. "I'll be there until dawn."

Chisa stepped down from the street corner to relieve her guard, and as she passed the steps, she kept her voice down.

It's not your fault if you miscounted.

"I can't be wrong," Dania said. "The Xiao Yu taught me to count, and I haven't missed a single mistake."

The street bells rang backwards, and the shield walls clanged in succession. She counted them all, not missing a single one.

After counting to two thousand six hundred, the lights in the tower lit up, one layer at a time.

She jumped up and grabbed Zhou Yu's arm.

"Xiao Yu! It's lit up!"

On the street, the sounds of fighting subsided slightly, and everyone was looking at the tower.

From deep within the tower, the sound of an old cassette tape beginning to turn could be heard.