Chapter 49 – Rediscovering Objects

Two days had passed.

We remained trapped in the train station. Uncertain of our next move, our destination—

lost, without answers.

We’d spent the two days exhausting every possibility.

Searching for clues, combing the station, even seeking an escape route.

But the station was hermetically sealed.

As it had been before our arrival.

It felt less like a transit point and more like a testing ground.

Which led to—

“What if there’s something in those submerged buildings?”

Luna’s question sparked a new line of inquiry.

If the station held no answers, perhaps the ruins of the sunken city across the water did?

Perhaps survivors? Or records left behind?

We’d considered the sea beyond the upper levels, but quickly dismissed it. The reason was simple:

No boat.

“Noah! Can’t we swim?”

“Want to drown?”

“Umm… not really…”

“And who knows what lurks beneath the waves?”

“Aww, but there might be something there!”

“Something that might devour us?”

“……That wouldn’t be good.”

Luna drooped.

I chuckled, stroking her hair. “Let’s be realistic.”

If the sea was impassable, the answer lay within the station.

But was there anything left to discover?

Yuri sighed, arms crossed. “It’s infuriating. We’ve searched everywhere, but found nothing.”

I nodded.

I surveyed the station again.

Two choices.

Find a ticket and board the train.

Or find another way, like the religious group.

We had to choose.

But the answer remained elusive.

“Let’s revisit the underground chamber.”

Yuri frowned. “Again? We went there twice. Nothing there.”

“I know. I want to look with fresh eyes.”

“…Fresh eyes?”

Yuri remained skeptical. Her expression questioned the point.

“I want to conduct an experiment.”

Yuri studied me, arms crossed, then shrugged. “Fine. If you insist, Noah.”

She flicked her Milky X can into a nearby trash can.

Thunk.

A perfect two-pointer. Maybe a three, considering the distance.

“Let’s go.”

Yuri led the way, Luna trailing behind, her hand raised enthusiastically.

“What kind of experiment, Noah?”

“I’ll explain when we get there.”

Our footsteps echoed as we descended once more into the underground chamber.

The chamber’s air was heavy, the silence broken only by the drip of water. A hushed stillness permeated the space.

We reached the center, where the giant clock face was etched into the floor. Its faintly glowing lines shifted subtly, as though time itself were flowing.

But nothing else had changed.

“It’s always so damp here,” Luna grumbled, hunching her shoulders.

“So, Noah? What now? There’s nowhere to go from here.”

Yuri scanned the chamber walls, arms crossed. “And the compass was useless.”

“I’m using something different.” I pulled the Gravity Flow Analyzer from my pocket.

“…Huh?” Yuri frowned. “This isn’t a place with distorted gravity like the 5th floor.”

Luna tilted her head. “Right. The gravity here was normal.”

I flipped the analyzer’s switch.

Click.

A small blue light materialized, hovering and scanning the chamber. Faint ripples distorted the air.

Then—

“……!”

The blue light pulsed, as though drawn toward something.

Yuri’s eyes narrowed. “What’s that…?”

The light drifted across the chamber, its trajectory a slow spiral. Then—

Thud.

It stopped.

“…It stopped.”

Yuri and Luna followed the light’s path with their gazes.

“Is… something there?”

“Noah, did you know it could do that?” Yuri asked.

I hesitated. “Honestly… I was experimenting.”

Yuri raised an eyebrow. “What?”

I nodded, gesturing with the analyzer. “Anemone was interested in our objects. I figured… I hadn’t used this properly since the 5th floor.”

Luna stared at the pulsing blue light. “It doesn’t seem to just analyze gravity…”

“It analyzes flow itself.”

The device wasn’t merely a gravity analyzer. It detected flow—the current of something unseen.

It had pinpointed a point of stagnation.

Something motionless, waiting.

Luna bit her lip. “Flow… does that include time, Noah?”

“Perhaps… Let’s see where it leads.”

“What’s buried here?”

I reached down, my fingers sinking into the damp earth. As I dug, something hard obstructed my hand.

I carefully unearthed it.

A pendant.

Small, intricately designed, a circular ornament with an etched pattern.

It didn’t seem like an object.

More importantly, the design was familiar.

“Noah, isn’t that the pendant the old man’s afterimage was holding?” Luna’s voice trembled.

I held the pendant, turning it over in my hand.

“Huh? There’s something else.”

Yuri pointed. Two more objects lay buried in the earth.

I retrieved them.

A minute hand and a second hand.

“…Clock hands?” Yuri’s voice was laced with disbelief. “Why… why are these buried here?”

I placed the pendant in my palm, the minute and second hands beside it.

Were they connected to the clock face on the floor?

“It seems…” I looked at the clock hands, “we’re meant to place these on the clock face.”

Yuri examined the floor. “There are indentations in the center. But are we supposed to just… stick them in?”

Luna whispered, tugging at my sleeve. “Noah, this… it’s about time, isn’t it?”

“Yes. The clock face itself is moving. If we place the hands correctly…”

“But why was it buried with the pendant?”

Yuri’s question made me examine the pendant more closely.

It wasn’t merely an ornament.

It had seemed significant to the old man’s afterimage.

The object he’d clutched until the end.

Could it be—

“Did the religious group use this to descend?”

Yuri crossed her arms, her gaze sharp. “Is this floor some kind of… elevator?”

Her words drew our attention back to the giant clock face.

A moving clock. And the hands we held.

If this were merely decorative, why was it hidden so deliberately?

“Let’s find out.”

I took the hands and stepped forward.

I carefully inserted the hour and minute hands into the indentations on the clock face.

Click.

We held our breath. Yuri clasped her hands, watching me intently. Luna peered at the floor.

Nothing happened.

“…Huh?”

I stared at the clock, perplexed.

“Did you do it right, Noah?”

“Yes, Yuri. They fit perfectly.”

“But… why isn’t anything happening?”

“…Is it broken?” Luna murmured, still studying the floor.

I examined the clock again. The hands were correctly placed. A perfect fit.

“Are they not meant to go here?”

Then Luna spoke, her voice soft. “…Or maybe we have to set it to the right time?”

Yuri and I looked at her simultaneously.

“Time…?”

I looked at the clock hands again.

Could it be that it wasn’t enough to simply insert the hands? Did we need to set them to a specific time?

I reactivated the analyzer.

The blue light pulsed, scanning the chamber. I focused it on the clock hands.

—Hummm.

The analyzer vibrated faintly.

“…I knew it.”

“Knew what, Noah?”

I pointed at the hands. “The flow is blocked at the hands.”

“…Blocked?”

Luna stared at the floor. “So, they are meant to go here…?”

“Yes. They’re definitely part of the clock mechanism.”

But still, nothing happened.

“Which means, as Luna suggested, it needs to be set to a specific time.”

“…But what time?”

Luna tapped her chin, lost in thought.

“Can’t we just try every possibility?”

“…What?”

I stared at Yuri, taken aback by her unexpectedly serious suggestion.

“If we turn it notch by notch, we’ll eventually hit the right time, won’t we?”

“While I appreciate the try-anything approach, if there’s a limited number of attempts, we’re screwed.”

Rejected.

Yuri pouted. “Tch… seemed like a good idea.”

“We have to get it right the first time.”

But what was the correct time? What was the answer this clock demanded?