Inside the train that had departed Hoshifuri Town, Koyoi stared at the manuscript on his lap. The records Kuon had transcribed from the stone tablet in Hoshifuri Town were written in ink in the margins. The selection criteria for "culling."
"It is resonance power."
Kuon said.
He was holding down a page of the catalog with his finger.
"The Observers fear that names will call out to each other and awaken. When one pillar raises its voice, nearby names react, awakening in a chain reaction. Names that could become the starting point of that chain have been classified as 'High Resonance Bodies' and prioritized for elimination."
Koyoi's finger stopped. The fourth pillar, lost at Yoinami Beach. The name that had returned to the water.
"That one, too..."
His voice grew small.
"Yes. All four pillars of the Outflow classification were High Resonance Bodies. By dissolving them, they sought to sever the ripple effect to other names."
Koyoi looked at the white margin of the manuscript. The page where only the inked name of the fourth pillar remained. He still had it, kept beside his pouch.
A paper without warmth.
Yet he could not throw it away.
Asahi crossed his arms.
"Then those are the names we should protect first. If their power to call out is strong, it means they can wake up their comrades."
Kuon nodded.
"The four pillars of the Erasure classification are also High Resonance Bodies. The four pillars taken to the Observers' stronghold are recorded as the names with the highest resonance power. If we retrieve them, there is a possibility that the remaining names will all awaken at once."
Koyoi gripped his pouch.
The names inside grew just a little warmer. Perhaps the fact that they were speaking of their comrades was reaching them.
Outside the window, the silvery landscape began to bleed into gold. They were approaching the liquid realm.
"It's Yoinami Beach."
Kuon said, without averting his eyes.
Koyoi folded the manuscript and tucked it into the breast of his garment. The traces of that child that might still linger beneath the pier.
The train slowed. The screech of the wheels mingled with the scent of liquid.
Beyond the window, a signpost came into view. A wooden pillar half-buried in the sand. An arrow was carved into its tip.
Asahi pressed his hand against the window.
"Hey, hasn't the direction of that thing changed since last time?"
Kuon turned his artificial eye toward it. A blue light licked the surface of the signpost.
"It hasn't moved. The signpost is fixed."
"No, it's different from what I saw. The angle."
Koyoi looked at the signpost as well. The arrow was pointing south. It had been south when they passed by earlier, too.
However.
The ground was different.
A new crack ran through the sand at the base of the signpost. The pillar was not moving. The ground beneath it was slowly rotating.
The signpost continued to point in the same direction. But the direction of south itself was gradually shifting.
Kuon opened the catalog. He drew a thin line at the edge of the page.
"I will record the coordinates of the signpost. Next time we pass, we can determine the amount of movement by cross-referencing the angle of the ground."
The train accelerated again. The signpost flowed away toward the rear.
Koyoi watched until the very end, his forehead pressed against the window. On the sand, only the shadow of the signpost was slowly tracing an arc.
South was moving.
The place they sought had begun to walk, without waiting for them.