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It all began by chance.

One day, while cleaning the Library, Ui found a book lying on the floor. Even to her—who knew every volume in this place by heart—it was a strange, mysterious tome she had never seen before.

"Huh? Was something like this always here?"

Calling it a book felt wrong; its appearance was far too peculiar. It looked as though someone had torn the cover off a red notebook and used it as a binding, and it was unusually large. When she opened it, the pages were lined like an ordinary notebook, yet completely blank. Ui set it on her desk for the time being.

"Did someone drop their notebook and leave? Well, it's a bit too big to call a notebook... I'll have to report it as lost property later when I go out. Ugh, what a hassle..."

Just as she thought that and started to rise from her seat, a sound began to issue from empty air.

Tap, tap, tap. At first she had no idea what it was, but when she focused, it resembled the clacking of a phone keypad. And it was coming from inside the notebook.

With a nervous swallow she opened it again—and could not believe her eyes. Though she had done nothing, letters were appearing on the pages in real time. The contents read as follows:

The handwriting did not look human; it unspooled like mechanical print. Ui stared blankly for a moment, then snapped back to herself, snatched up a pen, and wrote a short reply beneath it.

Nothing happened. Yet Ui waited, and waited. After about five minutes the letters began to appear again—far faster than before.

Golden Bough? She had never heard of such a thing. Still reeling, Ui steadied her thoughts and answered the stranger's questions.

Though no one could see him, Dante wore an extremely awkward expression. He had finished the day's work as usual and was writing in his diary on the PDA when, out of nowhere, someone else began writing there. The last time something like this had happened, Catherine had used the power of a Golden Bough. Yet the person conversing with him now seemed not to know what a Golden Bough even was. Whether that was true or not, he could not say.

Another peculiar detail: the mysterious party's writing appeared in a different color—a deep navy blue. Dante decided to call Faust. After witnessing the phenomenon herself, she too looked none the wiser.

"Hmm... Faust did not anticipate an occurrence of this nature. Manager, you mentioned a similar incident once before, did you not?"

<Yeah. But that time it was because of a Golden Bough. Right now, though...>

"Conversation with someone who does not know of the Golden Bough. How intriguing."

At some point Yi Sang had appeared and was staring fixedly at the PDA screen. That drew the others' attention, and before long Dante's side was crowded with Sinners.

"Oh? What's this? Did it have a random-chat function too?"

Rodion asked playfully. Dante shook his head.

<Never heard of anything like that.>

"Hmm... How about asking the other side who they are first? At least then we might learn whether they're a real person or not."

Hong Lu offered a sensible suggestion. Dante thought to himself, Why didn't I think of that? and sent a reply.

For several minutes nothing happened. Just as the waiting Sinners began to lose interest and drift away—

"Whoa, look at that. It's really writing by itself?"

Gregor exclaimed, staring at the screen. Before the eyes of Dante and the Sinners, navy-blue letters began to form of their own accord.

<Ugh... What am I supposed to do about this?>

Dante found himself at a loss once more. This "Ui" had clearly seen the mention of the LCB team he had written earlier.

"What the—out of nowhere. Do they think I'm some kind of AI?"

The girl's lips puckered at the stranger's impolite remark. Treating a first meeting this way stung a little, so she had written her reply with a slight edge. Roughly two minutes later, an answer arrived.

Dante. It was a name she had never encountered in Kivotos. While she was still wondering whether this person even lived in the same place as she did, more letters began to appear.

Faust? The legendary delinquent she had only ever heard of in rumors? For a moment Ui feared she had gotten herself into something terrible—but the other party's tone was far too polite for a delinquent. Figuring she might as well play along, she answered.

Before long the first question appeared.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

Nest? Backstreets? Concepts she had never heard of only deepened the confusion swirling in Ui's mind.

<Uh... Has anyone here ever heard of a place called the Trinity Autonomous District?>

Dante asked the Sinners. The answers were unanimous.

"No, I've never heard of it."

"Me neither."

"I have not. The nomenclature itself differs; one must even question whether this is the same City."

Meursault offered a rational observation.

"Manager, is it possible this Ui is merely toying with us?"

Outis asked. Dante shook his head.

<Probably not. This PDA isn't something you can just hack into easily.>

"Miss Faust, may I pose a question of my own?"

"Very well."

After a moment of deep thought, Yi Sang took the PDA and began to write. The message read:

A few minutes later a reply began to form.

"Truly a fascinating reply. It is far from ideal, yet a hypothesis has formed within me. Dante—if it is not too much trouble, may I make use of a Mirror for a brief while?"

<Uh, sure. If you're the one asking.>

In one corner of the bus stood a special Mirror that had been fabricated after several Sinners had pestered for a chance to view Mirror Worlds themselves. Yi Sang moved to stand before it; Dante and the rest of the Sinners followed. Standing quietly in front of the glass, Yi Sang began typing another message into the PDA.

A few minutes later a reply arrived.

While the Sinners watched, Yi Sang held the PDA and began to concentrate. At first nothing happened—but before long, something became visible.

The figure was a girl.

She had a timid air about her. She wore a beige cardigan over a white skirt. Her navy-blue hair reached all the way to the hem of that skirt, and floating above her head was a beige, clock-like halo.

Just as the girl's face crumpled in shock and the Sinners wore similar expressions, the Mirror suddenly shattered into pieces.

"Aaaah!"

When the mirror burst without warning, Ui instinctively threw her arms up to shield her face. Fortunately none of the shards struck her, though a few glass fragments lodged in her clothes and the back of her hand was lightly cut.

"W-what was that just now? There were people inside the mirror..."

The first thing Ui had seen in the glass was a haggard-looking man, and behind him a whole group of people. Men and women mixed together—and one of them, strangely enough, had a head that was a burning clock.

While she was still gaping in disbelief, the notebook began to make noise again.

Apparently, thanks to that man ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠named Yi Sang, they had been able to catch a brief glimpse of each other. And in that moment, messages began pouring out from the other side like a broken dam.