Chapter Summaries

Encore and Dania picked purple coral and promised to remember each other, while Encore warned that names stored as data could be deleted. Zhou Yu added an entry to his schedule for Dania, but his electronic watch later pointed to Encore’s pouch and reported two unknown memory carriers.

• Encore invited Dania to gather purple coral, and Chisa followed them along the shore.
• Encore asked Dania whether she would stay with Zhou Yu and warned that people could erase names stored as data.
• Dania gave Encore the prettiest piece of purple coral, and they hooked pinkies and promised to remember each other.
• Zhou Yu and Aalto emerged from the underground area, and Zhou Yu added a new entry beside Dania’s name on his schedule.
• At dinner, Dania shared a piece of meat with Zhou Yu, and the electronic watch pointed to Encore’s pouch and updated the unknown memory carrier count to two.

Camellya arrived at the Black Shores and approached Zhou Yu and Dania, claiming curiosity about the person Changli had given a travel permit. After she left, Zhou Yu learned that the watch had identified Camellya as its new target and added her to the visitor schedule for observation.

• Zhou Yu noticed a message in Encore's bag about two objects, then an unmarked white boat arrived at the dock.
• Camellya introduced herself to Zhou Yu and said she wanted to see the person Changli had written a travel permit for.
• Camellya reached toward Dania's hair, but Zhou Yu drew Dania close and told Camellya to leave his child alone.
• Camellya exchanged pointed remarks with Aalto and Zhou Yu, then headed to the observation room.
• Zhou Yu reassured Dania and told Chisaki to register Camellya and give her a queue ticket marked for priority observation.
• The watch named Camellya as its target while Zhou Yu looked toward the misty sea.

Zhou Yu met Camellya in the greenhouse, where she asked him to help create a future in which no one had to be sacrificed, but he refused to commit. An unknown visitor who had entrusted the Tethys System to him appeared and vanished, and Zhou Yu later learned the visitor was Aimis's father, the administrator of the Black Shores.

• Zhou Yu went with Aalto to meet Camellya, who asked how he had changed Dania’s fate and whether he would take on the task of ending the Tethys System’s sacrifices; he said he would consider it for a price.
• An old-coated visitor entered the greenhouse, told Zhou Yu that someone who had entrusted him with the Tethys System had followed a similar path, and left without answering Zhou Yu’s question about her identity.
• Zhou Yu reunited with Dania and Encore after the meeting and told Dania he had turned down Camellya’s job offer because it had no pension.
• Aimis recognized the silent visitor as her father, and Aalto explained that he had carried Aimis out of the sea fog years earlier and was the figure to whom the Black Shores belonged.
• Aimis’s father requested a visitor-register number and asked Dania to save him a bowl of purple coral porridge before disappearing into the fog; Zhou Yu doubled Aimis’s meal allowance and joked that her father’s lunch was a public expense.
• Zhou Yu’s electronic watch identified the departed visitor as the Black Shores administrator and listed Aimis as an associated person, while Zhou Yu took Dania toward the dining room and said the fog could wait its turn.

Zhou Yu and his companions left the Black Shores after he stopped Aleph One from taking H’s gravitational data by claiming he had bought it. On the voyage, they decided to visit Chisaki and Chisa’s hometowns in Ashihara, with Honami City as their next destination.

• Aimis and Linnai stayed on the Black Shores, while Zhou Yu and the others said farewell to Encore, White Dress, and Old Coat before departing.
• Aleph One tried to reach Tethys’ Deep and steal H’s gravitational data, but Zhou Yu told it he had bought the data, and the intrusion withdrew.
• A voice in the system thanked someone for returning, and a blue butterfly appeared briefly on Dania’s shoulder before scattering into light.
• Zhou Yu wrote that the Black Shores would be permanently valid for unlimited round trips, and Dania leaned against him as they prepared to leave.
• Chisaki invited the group to visit her family’s café in Honami City, and Chisa agreed to join them on vacation despite the travel distance.
• Zhou Yu wrote Honami City on the schedule, and the ship headed toward Ashihara.

Zhou Yu and the group registered in New Honami City, where Dania’s unusually high test reading led to a two-week observation period. As they headed to Chisaki’s family café, Dania noticed a wrong note in the city’s morning music, and Zhou Yu added finding its source to their schedule.

• Sigelica complained about the harbor exchange rate while Dania named a cherry blossom petal Little Flower and Zhou Yu added it to her watch list.
• At the registration office, Seto processed Sigelica’s and Chisa’s paperwork and dismissed a locked record in Chisaki’s scan as expired data.
• Dania’s test exceeded the machine’s range, so Seto assigned her a two-week observation period restricted to New Honami City, with weekly registration check-ins.
• Zhou Yu listed Dania as his official couple on the study group roster, and she hooked her little finger between his as they left.
• Dania heard a wrong note in the city’s morning music, and Zhou Yu added finding out what it was to the schedule as they headed for Chisaki’s family’s Train Conductor Café.

Chisaki and her companions reopened the Train Conductor Café, cleaned it, and signed employment contracts. That night, Chisaki examined a locked message bearing her name as the Rainbow Sound Tower stood dark outside her window.

• Chisaki returned to the café with Zhou Yu, Sigelica, Dania, and Bozai, who pushed open the shutter himself.
• The group explored and cleaned the shop, and Chisaki found a hurried note saying the shop was being left to her and Bozai.
• Zhou Yu prepared employment contracts, naming Sigelica for front-of-house duties and bookkeeping, Chisa for cashier duties and security, and Dania as a permanent taste tester.
• Dania fell asleep beside Zhou Yu with Bozai on her legs, while Sigelica traded a photo for bean daifuku and Chisaki secretly kept a backup copy.
• Late that night, Chisaki studied a screenshot of a locked message bearing her name while the Rainbow Sound Tower remained unlit.

Zhou Yu and the café staff opened the Train Conductor Café, welcoming familiar customers and receiving a video call from Aimis, Encore, and Aalto. After the first day ended with a strategic loss, Chisaki set an early alarm, hoping to hear a faint note the next morning.

• Zhou Yu inspected the staff schedule and contracts before opening the café at eight.
• An elderly neighbor brought bean daifuku, and Dania offered the café its first taste-test feedback.
• Chisaki served customers with her train latte art and made Dania a secret fish design that Dania asked to have again.
• Dania spoke with Aimis, Encore, and Aalto on a video call, and they discussed visiting the café.
• Chisaki cleaned the café after closing while Zhou Yu recorded the day's loss and scheduled the next morning's opening.
• Chisaki set her terminal alarm for five thirty, hoping to hear a faint note at five forty-four.

Zhou Yu and the others investigated an eleven-second anomaly hidden in the daily 5:44 broadcast, which matched the old Honami chime despite the current broadcast being newer. They decided to keep observing the mysterious signal, while Chisaki discovered the recording file was far larger than its length warranted.

• Dania heard a faint wrong note at the end of the 5:44 broadcast, and Chisaki recorded it while Zhou Yu found the digital watch warm but silent.
• An elderly customer told Zhou Yu the broadcast had played at 5:44 since her grandmother’s childhood, and Chisaki found the schedule predated the city archives.
• Chisaki analyzed the recording and found an eleven-second noise whose waveform closely matched the lingering resonance of Old Honami’s chime.
• Zhou Yu chose to keep observing the broadcast rather than report it, and he wrote a possible morning announcer position on the shop schedule.
• Dania wondered whether she would hear the signal again the next morning, and Zhou Yu reassured her before she fell asleep.
• Chisaki archived the recording and noticed its file size suggested something had been recorded on a loop for many years.

Zhou Yu, Dania, Sigelica, and Chisaki searched for Bozai, finding him at a daifuku stall in Sakuramachi and learning about the old Red Oni festival. On the way back, Dania heard the eleven-second sound again and hummed a matching phrase, which Chisaki recognized.

• Zhou Yu organized a search after discovering Bozai had left the shop, and Chisaki led the group through Central Park along Bozai's old routes.
• The group followed Bozai's trail through Flower Shadow Underground Street, where a shopkeeper said he had headed toward Sakuramachi.
• A Tacet Field appeared near the exit, and Chisa and Sigelica defeated the Tacet Discords while Dania sensed a frightened Chirp Chirp Pufferfish hiding nearby.
• The group found Bozai asleep beside a daifuku stall, where the owner told them he visited nightly and shared the story of the Red Oni festival and its missing mask.
• On the way back, Dania heard the eleven-second sound and hummed part of its tune, which Chisaki recognized.

Chisaki attended a registry office review alone and learned more about her survival after the Sonora catastrophe, including the schedule she made to manage her fear. Back at the shop, she resolved to investigate the mysterious recording, while Dania asked Zhou Yu whether she would disappear and he promised to keep her name on his schedule; the chapter ended with a notice changing the review time.

• Zhou Yu and Sigelica failed to get permission to observe Chisaki's registry interview, but Zhou Yu was allowed to deliver lunch.
• The archivist read Chisaki's record of being stranded for seven days and counting nineteen steel bars through forty-seven written steps to keep from panicking.
• Chisaki told Zhou Yu that someone had taken her away from the ruins with a note forbidding her return to the old city, and Zhou Yu recorded her determination to protect the shop.
• Chisaki spent time alone in the kitchen before telling Zhou Yu she would investigate the eleven-second recording, which sounded like a teacher trying to finish a lesson.
• Dania asked Zhou Yu if she would disappear, and he promised to leave her name on his schedule.
• Chisaki received an email from the registry office announcing a change to the review time.

Chisa used her bell to borrow speed from her future, and Zhou Yu made her agree to report each use and repay its cost. She slept without the bell for the first time, but the registry moved the review up again to three days away, while the Rainbow Sound Tower remained lit through the night.

• Chisa borrowed tomorrow's speed to catch a falling kitten, and Dania noticed the bell rang after her movements.
• Zhou Yu showed Chisa a chart explaining that borrowing strength cost her lifespan, and Chisa revealed that her sister Yulu had vanished after using the bell too much.
• Zhou Yu required Chisa to submit each use of the bell for approval, with Dania checking whether repayment hurt.
• Dania kissed Zhou Yu's cheek as a stamp for his promise to schedule her tomorrows, leaving him to add an inspection reminder to his schedule.
• Chisa put her bell in a drawer and fell asleep without wearing it for the first time.
• The registry sent an urgent notice moving the review up to three days away, and the Rainbow Sound Tower stayed lit until morning.

Dania’s test result exceeded the machine’s range, and conflicting rules left her officially undetermined. That night, the group fought Tacet Discords in the street, while a registrar warned Zhou Yu to stop investigating the noise from Rainbow Sound Tower, which remained silent again.

• Dania’s test overwhelmed the machine, and the clerk found that conflicting observation and review rules left her status undetermined.
• Bozai bit through the testing room’s power cable, invalidating the day’s records, and Chisaki noted that he had also damaged her father’s rare coffee-roaster cable.
• Tacet Discords emerged from rifts in the street, and Zhou Yu, Chisa, Sigelica, Chisaki, and Dania coordinated to defeat the Stonewall Bracer and the other attackers.
• A registrar gave the group a certificate for an act of bravery and privately asked Zhou Yu to stop investigating the noise at the tower.
• Dania noticed that Rainbow Sound Tower had not broadcast that day and wondered whether it was gathering strength to say something long.

Chisaki’s parents returned to the shop, where the family and their friends shared a feast, welcomed Chengxia by holographic call, and discussed a new business partnership. The evening ended with Sigelica messaging Lu Hesi and Chisaki strengthening a note about listening to something through to the end.

• Chisaki’s parents arrived at the shop, reunited with her and Bozai, and spent the afternoon sharing food and conversation with the group.
• Chisaki’s dad discussed a book with Chisa, while Dania savored a rare red bean pudding from the human world.
• Zhou Yu gave Sigelica her first payslip, and Dania told Chisaki’s parents that Zhou Yu had already chosen her.
• Chengxia called from the Black Shores, reassured Chisaki’s parents, and asked Chisaki to save two cups for her return.
• Zhou Yu and Chisaki’s dad agreed on partnership terms, including purchasing arrangements and a dried coral counter, while Chisaki reported that Bozai had chewed through a cable.
• Sigelica drafted a message to Lu Hesi but sent only that Ashihara was pretty good, while Chisaki changed her note to say she must listen to it to the end.

Chisaki and the others discovered that the backward broadcast was an early local source connected to the city, while Zhou Yu and Dania investigated the Rainbow Sound Tower’s mysteriously active archive room. The memory stone’s reading rose to 5% and revealed a new entry: “Gravity.”

• Chisaki reversed the eleven-second recording and recognized it as the backward 5:44 opening and closing of Old Honami Morning Voice.
• Chisaki matched the recording’s source to the black stone memory stone, the Tethys dark spot, and Aleph One residue, then learned the source was local and early.
• Chisaki admitted she had visited Chengxia’s home but left without knocking, and Zhou Yu added a reminder to her schedule to go back.
• Zhou Yu and Dania learned from the Rainbow Sound Tower operator that the archive room drew power despite blank access records, and that its live broadcast system must not be touched.
• Zhou Yu stayed beside sleeping Dania while recopied data, and the memory stone’s reading rose from 2% to 5% and displayed the entry “Gravity.”

At 5:44 a.m., the Rainbow Sound Tower broadcast a reverse-playing tune that drew a citywide tide of Tacet Discords, and the shop crew fought to protect the street. Zhou Yu secured permission for Chisaki to inspect the tower, where its lights came on and an old cassette began turning.

• The registrar barred Dania from the controlled area as an unknown, while Zhou Yu stopped Chisa from using her bell and offered to enter the tower himself.
• The tower broadcast an old tune, drawing Tacet Discords toward the bells as the registrar organized an evacuation and the shop crew defended the street.
• Chisaki identified the bells as the creatures’ target, while Dania called out their locations and the others held the advancing waves back.
• Zhou Yu presented local records and inspection procedures, persuading the registrar to let Chisaki inspect the tower for half an hour.
• Chisaki entered the tower while Dania counted outside with Zhou Yu; at two thousand six hundred, the tower lights came on and an old cassette began turning.

Chisaki and Zhou Yu ended the tower’s decades-long backward broadcast, stopping the tide and bringing the city’s attack to a close. With Dania cleared and welcomed as a collaborator, Zhou Yu’s group settled into the café before planning a detour to the Black Shores.

• Chisaki explained that the broadcast console was working as intended, and Zhou Yu set its tape spinning forward as Chisaki counted.
• At 5:51, the bells and recording finished, the tide stopped, and the Tacet Discords dispersed back into Tethys’ Deep.
• The memory stone showed a note from H, while the registrar suspended Dania’s review, revoked her observation period, and listed her as the first collaborator.
• The city celebrated the group, and the café’s neighbors and friends shared small moments of recognition and gratitude.
• Zhou Yu wrote Dania down as a traveling companion, and Chisaki asked him to plan a detour to the Black Shores with bean daifuku as a gift.

Chisaki postponed her planned visit to Chengxia but sent her bean daifuku and a letter with Zhou Yu's group as they departed for Ragunna. After surviving a storm and a flock of Cloud Sea Fairies, the travelers reached the island and followed the gondola lights toward the city.

• Chisaki postponed her trip because her parents had returned, crossed out her promise to go knock, and gave Dania bean daifuku and a letter for Chengxia.
• Chengxia gave Zhou Yu a beacon with the safe route to Ragunna and warned the group not to attack Echoes; she read Chisaki's letter and asked Dania to keep Zhou Yu from bringing junk cores aboard.
• Zhou Yu's ship entered a storm, and the digital watch issued several misleading alerts before Cloud Sea Fairies swarmed the mast light.
• Zhou Yu lured the Cloud Sea Fairies toward a lantern, and Chisa knocked them into the sea while Dania counted them.
• After the storm passed, the group saw Ragunna's island and followed a line of gondola lights toward the city.

Zhou Yu, Dania, Sigelica, and Chisa arrived in Ragunna, where Phoebe helped them clear entry registration and showed them around the city. Dania noticed a number-only tag on a Chop Chop as it drifted away from her window.

• The gondola brought Zhou Yu, Dania, Sigelica, and Chisa into Ragunna, where they saw Echoes guarding the waterways.
• A registration cleric initially refused to admit the three students without a guarantor, but Phoebe invoked Article Eleven and stamped their documents.
• Phoebe guided the delegation through the city, explained how Ragunna cared for its Echoes, and invited them to the upcoming carnival.
• The group settled into the Margaret Family Restaurant, where Sigelica learned the landlady knew nothing about the Sunspeakers' office.
• Four cloth-doll Echoes gave Chisa a crooked cloth flower, which she tucked away.
• Dania pressed her hands to the window alongside a Chop Chop, then saw its worn copper tag bore only a string of numbers.

Zhou Yu, Dania, and Sigelica explored Ragunna’s market, where a chest Echo bit Dania and was forced to hand over an old religious-order badge. After encountering Frostmane Wolves searching for something beneath a locked door, the group planned to investigate it in daylight and check the badge’s date at the order.

• Dania sampled market food while Sigelica tracked local prices and bought the last half pound of coffee beans for Chisaki’s mother.
• Dania memorized the tag number of an old man’s Chop Chop, then an old chest Echo bit her hand in an alley.
• Zhou Yu invoked market regulations and made the chest surrender its most valuable possession, a worn badge.
• Chisa dispersed three Frostmane Wolves after Dania sensed they were searching for something, and the group found hollow space beneath a locked door at the alley’s dead end.
• Zhou Yu and Dania examined the badge and found the inscription “Laurel Festival, 41st,” then planned to check the festival records and ask about the Chop Chop’s tag number.

Zhou Yu helped the Fools' Troupe prepare a thick application package, and Phoebe approved it so they could put on a show at Ragunna's carnival. The group then learned that all public Echoes would undergo three days of silent maintenance, leaving Dania worried that Lottie Lost might not recognize them afterward.

• Zhou Yu and Chisa checked the padlocked door, then joined Dania at Sallero's Outdoor Gallery, where Roccia recruited Dania into a performance with Pero.
• Brant told Zhou Yu and Roccia that the Order had rejected the Fools' Troupe's three applications for lacking precedent, and Zhou Yu explained that they needed more paperwork.
• Zhou Yu prepared the application package while Sigelica collected eleven stamps and Chisa read a script passage so convincingly that Roccia wanted to recruit her.
• The troupe submitted its paperwork, and Phoebe signed the application on duty, approving it without the usual seven-working-day wait.
• Dania found the forty-first Laurel Festival entry on a commemorative plaque, then read a notice announcing three days of silent maintenance for all public Echoes.
• Dania worried that Lottie Lost might not recognize them after the maintenance, while Zhou Yu added the three days to his schedule and the group rode home in silence.