Window 5's Market Crowd Raises Tags Toward the Opening — Survey Division Admits, for the First Time, 'Signs They're Aware of Us'
The TDA's Dimensional Survey Division announced on the 5th that during three openings of Window 5, 'the Sword Country,' on September 27, September 30, and October 3, it had repeatedly observed people in a marketplace visible through the window raising small wooden tag-like objects toward the opening. The division revised, for the first time, its longstanding position that there was no evidence the other side was aware of this side, saying the accumulated observations now warrant calling it a sign of awareness — while still stopping short of calling it communication.
The TDA's Dimensional Survey Division announced on the 5th that across three openings of Window 5, "the Sword Country" (Lineage 52, Kameido), on September 27, September 30, and October 3, it had observed people in a marketplace visible through the window repeatedly raising small pale, hand-sized wooden tags toward the opening within minutes of each one beginning. "If it happened once, you could put it down to coincidence in a crowd," said Toru Yuzuki, 31, the analyst who tallied the occurrences. "But when it happens three times running, at the same point relative to the opening, it gets harder to call it chance." The writing or markings on the tags remain unreadable through the glass of the window.
The division had previously and repeatedly held, as reported, that there was no evidence the other side was aware of this one. In the announcement on the 5th, it revised that position for the first time, saying that "insofar as the raising of tags appears to respond to the event of the window opening, enough observations have now accumulated to call it a sign of awareness." TDA Director Makoto Hiura told reporters, "Being aware and speaking to us are two different things. What we know amounts to this: someone on the other side moved their hands in response to the event of an opening here — nothing more." Even so, his remark that "we will stop using the phrase 'no evidence' from today" drew a stir in the press room.
As previously reported, the same Window 5 produced a voice-like sound on September 30, which first-generation Drifter Ushio Kishiura, 74, said resembled the phrasing of the Shore Lullaby. Hearing of the tags, Kishiura said, "Both the voice and the tags came from over there. I can't believe it means nothing that they fell on the same day." Outside acoustics and linguistics specialists urged caution, noting that "sound and gesture are different axes of observation. It's worth recording that they coincided in the same opening, but it's too early to link them into one story" — a caution the division itself echoed, stressing it would not turn "two events into one narrative."
Within the division, some have pointed out that the tags resemble, in shape and manner of raising, those used in the festival-like "rite" observed at Window 1, "the Lit City," as previously reported on September 26. "It isn't evidence that Windows 1 and 5 are different corners of the same world," an official said. "But it is one more piece worth comparing side by side." The division plans to cross-check the two lineages' observation data through October.
The finding will join the agenda of the external expert panel (chaired by Etsuko Kajiura) set to convene in November, as previously reported — bringing Window 5's share of the agenda to two items, alongside the acoustic finding, for five items overall. The division plans to watch whether the same gesture recurs at future openings. "I want to know, next time they raise it, whether anything has changed," Yuzuki said. "Whether it stays the same or changes, either way is worth recording."
