Fukagawa North Elementary Briefing: No New Matches, but TDA Makes First-Ever Request for Ongoing Observation of Pupils

Fukagawa North Elementary School held a briefing on the evening of the 16th for parents of its fourth-grade class of 41 households, with about forty in attendance. Homeroom teacher Mizuki Kondo, 34, reviewed the case so far, after which the TDA Dimensional Survey Division's technician Toru Yuzuki, 31, a second-generation Drifter of rabbit-like lineage, gave an update on the comparison with Window 1, "the Lit City," first reported on the 13th. It was Kondo's first time addressing the parents as a group since a home-visit session in September.

Yuzuki said that since the 13th's announcement, all fourteen pupils had been asked, on a voluntary basis, for additional brief interviews and drawings. Of the original nine drawings, only one had matched the window's observation records down to its details, and none of the newly submitted drawings matched either. "The fact that a larger sample didn't produce more matches arguably supports the idea that the one match was a coincidental overlap," Yuzuki said. Parents pressed him with questions — "So what was it, in the end?" and "Will it happen again?" — but he repeated only that "answering 'we don't know' when we don't know is, I think, the honest thing to do right now."

Near the end of the briefing, Yuzuki, speaking for the division, asked for cooperation — contingent on consent from the school and parents — in a "simple observation" over roughly the next six months, in which pupils in the same class would voluntarily log whether or not they had a dream. The method would be as simple as jotting a single line in a notebook whenever a pupil noticed something, with care taken not to affect schoolwork. It is the first time the division has formally requested this kind of cooperation from members of the public, let alone children, he said, explaining the aim: "There may be things visible from this side that we can't see just by watching the other side of the window." Records would be anonymized and treated as internal material, with the timing and method of any disclosure to be worked out through the school.

The request split the room. One mother, 38, said supportively, "He says himself it wasn't a scary dream, and just writing one line in a notebook shouldn't be a burden." Another parent, 41, voiced concern: "I don't want my child treated as a research subject any further than this. I want her to go back to being an ordinary fourth-grader" — a remark that drew applause from part of the room. Kondo said, "There will be no compulsion. I promise not to treat children differently in the classroom based on whether their families cooperate," stressing that the decision would rest entirely with each household. The school plans to distribute a form within the month to confirm families' wishes.

After the briefing, Yuzuki told this paper, "The parents' unease is understandable. If cooperation doesn't come together, then that's simply the conclusion for this round." Kondo repeated that "keeping the children's everyday life undisturbed has been my top priority since September, and that hasn't changed." The division maintains its existing position that this case is being handled separately from the revised assessment at Window 5 and the signal-response observed at Window 3.

The parents lined up on folding chairs in the gymnasium wore expressions split evenly between unease and curiosity. What's visible through the window room's glass might now be showing up on a classroom desk — and in the margin of a notebook. How far is this city prepared to accept that possibility? There was no hesitation in Yuzuki's voice when he said it would be fine if nobody signed up. Not rushing, I think, is also part of the work of finding out.