"Who... is Noah?"

"The ship -ARK- that was flying earlier. You saw the three figures, right? The one in the middle, the one leading the ARK, is Noah."

"Huh? No way. It's impossible. There's got to be something like the police, right? Even in AO!"

There was a police force where I was, too. It seemed to vanish into the air, but even so, to move so conspicuously and not get caught...

"Apparently, Noah's ARK has something that influences only AO citizens."

"Impossible. No matter how much Rio asks, Noah—"

Noah. As soon as I said that name, the ground-shaking sound from earlier resurfaced, and I instinctively hugged my body with both arms. Now that peace had returned, the fear from that memory felt even clearer. At the center of it, what I feared was not the roar or the giant ship. Amid the storm of sounds, there were people, pushing others aside, clinging to the ARK. Leading the chaos from the bow was Noah. I squeezed out the words with a trembling voice.

"Why did everyone chase after the ARK that day? That... noisy ship. I don’t understand. Not understanding it feels so scary."

I slowly lowered my arms. My fingertips had become white and cold.

"I’m not asking you to capture them. As you can see, Noah is elusive. No one in AO, even an operator from Nexus, could chase after them."

"Not even chase after them..."

The people who followed the ARK. They were clearly acting strangely. I’d never seen anyone push others aside and run in AO. But it wasn’t exactly like they were being manipulated. It might seem contradictory, but they were following the ARK of their own will. As if they had been waiting for Noah. There was a fable like that. In Germany, the story of Hamelin... but how did he lead the children away? No, that doesn’t matter now.

"Why is Noah doing this?"

"Doing what?"

"Making such a spectacle with that ARK. Rio’s looking for them, which means they might get caught. What are they trying to do?"

"We call them 'Fomenters'... the ones who stir up trouble."

"Stirring up... trouble?"

What are they stirring up? Like the cult leader? The ARK flies through the sky, making unpleasant sounds. Far from harmony.

"I understand Rio's request. And I also understand why you called me. But anyone from the outside world could have done it, right? I’m sure there were others more suitable than me."

"We don’t know much about UMD either."

"UMD is just a machine, right?"

"No. UMD, like Beings and Cherubim, is a system that could be fundamental to AO’s future. In other words, the city chose you."

The city chose me. That’s what it meant. It wasn’t Rio who chose me. I understood that with an unusually calm mind.

"That’s why I want you to find Noah."

What do you mean "that’s why"? An emotion I hadn’t felt in a while stirred inside me, creating a sharp sound deep in my mind.

"If Rio chose me, I might have considered it."

The words came out cold without thinking. After all, I had been called here without my consent. I should be free to leave whenever I want.

"I don’t listen to what the city says. Rio really trusts AO, huh."

I said it with as much sarcasm as I could, then started walking down the path I had come. Of course, I’d never walked it alone, but for some reason, I didn’t feel lost.

"I want you to find Noah."

As I walked alone through AO, I repeated Rio’s words from that day. In the end, I was still lingering in AO. It was a simple thing, just saying I wanted to go back to my world. Yet, I had never said it to Rio. Since the incident, Rio hadn’t come to my room for four days in a row.

If he didn’t come tomorrow, I would ask an operator to summon him—I had thought that when I woke up this morning, but Rio wasn’t scheduled to visit today either.  Instead, the Cherubim displayed "Single Outing Authorization" for AO.

Since coming to AO, someone like Rio or an operator was always nearby. If I wandered alone today, I could ask Rio to send me back in the evening. I felt a little lighter when I thought about the plan.

I walked about 15 minutes from Nexus and found myself at the fountain I had visited before. I sat at the edge and thought for a while. Noah, Fomenters, UMD... why had the city chosen me? I thought, no, maybe they would send me back today. There was no point in thinking about it. Besides, what Noah did had nothing to do with me from the start. But what would happen once I left? Maybe someone else would be called instead. It might not matter who it was, as long as they weren’t an AO citizen...

Wait a minute, a disturbing thought came to me. The news about the UMD being stolen. There might be multiple units, but it was still in the testing phase, so that hope seemed slim. Without the UMD, I couldn’t go back to my original world...?

That’s when my vision darkened. I looked up into the sky, feeling as if I were surrounded by a giant shadow. But all I saw was the blue sky. Still, I could feel a tremor, like a sign of something. The vibrations spread through the grass, my feet, my ears. The vibrations grew stronger, and suddenly there was a noise, like a distorted line being drawn across the sky.

Noah’s ARK. But unlike the first time I saw it, it was now close enough to reach out and touch. It was descending directly above me. I hurriedly ran.

The ARK landed in the center of the square, kicking up dust. The large, crustacean-like machine. The engine’s noise stopped. But the silence was brief, and soon the ARK’s body started to shake, making metallic sounds. The side of the ARK began to transform, a high-pitched whirring noise accompanying it. A flat, horizontal panel extended from the side, and three women stood in the center. "Noah," someone muttered, pointing to the central figure. Noah. Fomenters. The one who stirs. The one who disrupts harmony. I had expected a terrifying figure, but she was a small woman. I was taken aback, both by Noah’s appearance and how easily she had been found.

Noah remained still. The ARK was completely silent now, and once again, silence descended over the area. But this silence was different from the peaceful calm before. I didn’t know what was going to happen next, but this silence was undoubtedly charged with a sense of anticipation. Like a string pulled to its limit. Cherubim flashed red and black across my entire field of vision.

Should I run? But my feet wouldn’t move. Instead, I felt an impulse to get closer. No, I had to contact Rio. Just as I moved my right hand to reach out to the Being, Noah, holding a megaphone, suddenly spoke.

"It’s always my choice."

Her eyes widened, and in response, my left hand trembled faintly. The Being was reacting. But this time, it was different. It wasn’t the usual gentle vibration. It felt as if something was resisting it. Fomenters, Noah. What was she trying to do...

Noah’s voice shook the air, and the ground seemed to tremble with the massive sound. The two women beside her spoke in unison, matching Noah’s words. The sound of the engines was drowned out by the wave of air that struck my body, the city, relentlessly.

"What’s... what is this?!"

I screamed, but I couldn’t even hear my own voice. Stirring up trouble? This was ridiculous. Noah was indeed shouting something. But her words were so abstract, they lost meaning the moment I tried to understand them. And the volume of the sound. Dust swirled around, and the water in the canal rippled. My skin stood on end, and I felt as if the ground were undulating beneath me. I tried to cover my ears in preparation for another loud sound.

—Why was I trying to cover my ears?

I stopped the hand that was about to block the sound. The volume increased even further, shaking my eardrums, my entire body. I had predicted it. Why could I do that? Noah was the one who disrupted harmony, the embodiment of disorder.

"No,"

The sound they were making wasn’t disorder. There was no doubt it was chaos, but within it, there was rhythm, there was melody. The words that seemed meaningless at first took form, layered over one another like constellations. It was something AO didn’t have. A circulatory rhythm, a melody. A heartbeat.

"This is the beauty of this city. Everyone moves naturally, in harmony. Each understands their role and cares for others. It’s like..."

That day, Rio had said the same thing. I knew the rest of it. He, I, wanted to say it like this, didn’t we?

"This is music... a song?"

The sound stopped. I fully lowered the hand I had raised. Looking around, no one was covering their ears or sitting down anymore. Everyone was looking at Noah, standing on stage.

"Did you finally remember?"

She smiled at me, and I nodded, almost on the verge of tears. The question was brief, but it was enough for now. As Noah’s wild canine teeth gleamed, a loud sound once again enveloped the area. The rhythm reverberated through my body, the melody stirring my soul. This time, I understood. My heart synced with the vibrations coming from the ARK, and my blood began to boil. It was a song. This city had never had a song. But why?

"Your souls,"

Noah’s voice echoed. Like magic, her song drew us in. The song that had been lost in AO was now here.

"If it really exists there..."

She raised her left hand high. There was nothing wrapped around her wrist. One by one, people around me raised their left hands too. The translucent armlets glistened in our sight.

"Come with us!"

A man beside me swung his left hand down towards the ground. With a dull sound, the Being shattered. The man ran towards the ARK. One by one, others in the crowd followed him, running towards the ARK. The underside of the massive craft opened slowly. A group of Noah’s companions appeared, beckoning us to come with them.

My feet took one step, then another, towards the ARK. I could have resisted and turned back from the crowd. But my body refused. Noah’s song awakened something inside me. Forgotten emotions, fragments of lost memories.

The flashing of the Cherubim’s red and black grew faster. In the midst of the frenzy, they seemed like stage props. They were probably trying to urge the citizens to turn back, but in my dazed state, I couldn’t quite grasp the intent. Through the Cherubim, I faintly heard Rio’s voice.

You could turn back now, You shouldn’t go—his voice grew distant.

"Come, if you want freedom."

Noah’s voice resonated close by.

I made my decision.

I ran, shaking off AO’s stillness. Just before the transport gate closed, I threw myself in, sliding inside.

I was enveloped in a sense of exhilaration I hadn’t felt since arriving in AO.