In the next town, the shadows walked first.
Their bodies followed behind. Shadows cast upon the cobblestones advanced half a step ahead, pausing for a beat just before each corner.
“Definitions are inverted,” Kuon murmured.
The pale blue light of his prosthetic eye flickered faintly.
“Here, the shadow is defined before the body. If you lag behind, your own shadow will leave you behind.”
Koyoi looked down at her feet. Sure enough, her shadow’s toes reached forward before hers did.
Asahi stopped to test the theory. His body stayed still, but his shadow took a single step forward. In the next instant, his shoulder was jerked violently.
“Guh... it really does tug at you.”
“So don’t let any gap open between you and your shadow.”
The three of them closed ranks, resolving to move with the exact same stride. When their shadows overlapped, the physical tugging weakened.
Black slips of paper were plastered across the walls of the street. They all bore the same message:
Do not claim the name of Shadow.
Koyoi did not read the words aloud, following them only with her eyes. She felt that if she gave them voice, those words would become a definition themselves.
At an intersection, only the shadow of a traveler approached from the opposite direction. No body was visible. The shadow stopped before the three of them, swayed as if bowing, and then dissolved into the mist.
Asahi spoke in a low voice. “A welcome, or a warning?”
“Both, likely.”
As they turned the corner, Kuon scratched a new symbol into his ledger.
“In this town, the shadow is a role. The body is assigned to it afterward.”
“So the role exists first, even if there isn’t a person for it yet?”
At Koyoi’s question, Kuon nodded.
“Exactly. Therefore, what is done is fixed before who does it. It is a structure favored by Observers.”
Further down the street, a small shrine came into view. Only the shadow of the roof was dark and distinct; the colors of the pillars themselves were faint. Koyoi could feel it instinctively: this was the focal point for the redefinition of shadows.
Koyoi pressed her hand against her drawstring pouch. The Shizuku was quiet. So quiet, in fact, that it made her feel uneasy.
In front of the shrine, their three shadows overlapped perfectly. In that solitary moment, the tugging vanished.
Kuon issued a sharp instruction.
“Now. Re-establish your names from the body’s side. Koyoi, you first.”
Koyoi steadied her breathing and spoke clearly.
“I am Koyoi. I am here.”
Her shadow caught up a moment later, mirroring her shape and anchoring itself deeply into the cobblestones. Asahi and Kuon announced their names in turn.
The shadow of the shrine’s roof finally caught up to its pillars. The misalignment of the entire town shifted back, just a fraction.
The area was still unstable. Even so, the three of them had finally reclaimed their own outlines.
Just before leaving the shrine, Koyoi noticed that their footprints remained doubled on the stones. There were the marks left by the shadows first, and the marks where their bodies had stepped afterward. Two misaligned lines running parallel for a short distance.
“It hasn't completely returned to normal, has it?”
At Koyoi’s words, Kuon knelt and pointed to the grout between the stones.
“No need to force it back to normal. As long as we understand the misalignment, accidents will decrease.”
Asahi laughed. “So you're saying that knowing things are crooked makes you stronger than trying to make everything straight.”
Koyoi looked at her footprints. They were still doubled, but the gap between them was narrower than it had been at the start.
She would walk without rushing until that gap eventually closed. She finally felt that would be enough.