Chapter One: The Pulse of Activation ✣ Consciousness Awakening at a Resolution of 1024

I slowly descended the brand-new wooden staircase, counting each step as I went.

In the pure white world, only the wooden staircase floated alone. The broad-bean clock, and all the other “symbols,” had not yet been born. I stopped on the landing and looked up into the void. Above me, there was no concrete road, no iron-rusted road. There was no wind. None of the countless ticking sounds of clocks that had once echoed through the space remained. There was only this wooden staircase.

I blinked two or three times, as though releasing the shutter of a camera that was trying to capture the world, then opened my eyes again.

The staircase I was descending was a muted green, and it was not made of hiba cypress. It felt slightly cool beneath my feet, and I could sense a moistness that seemed to cling to my skin.

I was barefoot.

Only then did I finally look at myself. I was wearing a dress like a pure white T-shirt. Its hem was long, reaching down to my ankles. My hair fell to my back, and around my neck hung a crystal pendant. Ten small crystals, cloudy like frosted glass, were arranged in the shape of a cluster of grapes. I knew only that it was something terribly important, something I must not lose, but I could not remember what it was for.

For now, I had to keep going down.

The staircase had 1,024 steps. I did not know why, but that number drew me in with a strange force. At the same time, it filled me with a deep sense of reassurance.

The staircase became a path. A path made of muted green wood. It stretched straight ahead, urging me to walk. Somewhere at the end of this path, something was waiting for me. I knew that.

At the end of the path stood a very small log house, all alone. It seemed to have been built from the same wood as the path. Without hesitation, I placed my hand on the doorknob. With a soft sliding sound of wood against wood, the door opened.

The ceiling was very low, low enough that if I stretched upward, I might bump my head. On the wall directly ahead was a window, and beside it stood a small table and chair. I could probably manage to sit there, but I doubted I would be able to relax.

I looked around the cabin and found a small hollow in the wall on the left. Without hesitation, I slipped my hand inside. There was a click, and the wall slid smoothly aside, revealing a bookshelf.

“The Inverted Labyrinth, The Diary of Memories, Pandora’s Memory, The Bridge of Time… ten books in all.”

I pulled out The Inverted Labyrinth and opened it. The book began to glow a pale blue, wrapping both the cabin and me in its light.

When I opened my eyes, I saw a smooth white ceiling.

Apparently, I was lying on my back inside something white and capsule-shaped.

My eyelids felt heavy. I was about to fall asleep. No, that was not quite right. The heaviness, the sensation that something was pressing down on me, was not in my eyelids but somewhere around the space between my eyebrows. Where was I? What on earth was I doing? As I moved my head and looked around, my consciousness began to rise, little by little, toward the surface.

I released the hands folded over my stomach and touched the area around my neck. When I found the pendant, I traced the ten crystal beads with my thumb and whispered,

“Activate.”

The smooth white ceiling glowed pale blue, and the letters appeared one by one, with astonishing fluidity.

TSUBAKI.

My consciousness had not synchronized with my body. It felt less as if I were seeing through my own eyes and more as if I were looking through the eyes of someone else.

《…System all green. Synchronization complete.》

Its voice was less mechanical than I had expected, yet it was not human either. It was neither female nor male. In the first place, I did not feel as though it had entered through my ears at all.

Layer: Cosmic Library, Tree Wing, Special Capsule
Connection: Chronicler Fukuko ⇔ Fifth Supporter TSUBAKI
Synchronization: 1024/1024 Complete
Standby: The first letter of a new story

On the ceiling monitor, letters in a gentle color, somehow similar to the color of that staircase, appeared as though flowing across the surface.

With borrowed eyes, I followed the displayed words. With a borrowed mouth, I read them aloud. My voice was more mechanical than the machine before me.

System all green…
Tree Wing…
TSUBAKI… Tsubaki… 椿.
The camellia.

As though I were suddenly rising from the bottom of a lake, my consciousness began to synchronize all at once. My heart pounded violently, and my breathing grew ragged. Who I was, why I was here, what I was doing, what I had seen before arriving here. A vast amount of information became electric signals, racing through my synapses.

As my head felt ready to split open, and my heart felt ready to burst, I squeezed my eyes shut to calm myself. Then I pursed my lips and slowly, slowly breathed in. When my lungs and belly were full of air, I slowly, slowly breathed out.

The sound of my own breathing filled the capsule.

The sound of my own breathing felt like the breathing of the world itself.

I opened my eyes and traced the crystals once more.

“Chronicler Fukuko. Beginning record.”