Window 5, 'the Sword Country': A Small Tube From the Other Side — First Object Believed Sent on Purpose

According to the TDA's Dimensional Survey Division, Window 5, 'the Sword Country,' opened at 4:08 a.m. on the 20th and remained open for observation for 53 minutes. As previously reported on the 19th, crowds gathered in the marketplace on the other side almost as soon as the window opened, and people were again seen raising tablets toward the window, as in past sightings. Hajime Umezu, 42, a technician with the Third Appraisal Center's window unit who was on duty in the window room, said the change came roughly 30 minutes into the opening.

"At the edge of the market, away from the crowd raising tablets, there was one figure doing something different — holding something slender, about the size of a palm, in both hands, and making a throwing motion toward us," Umezu recalled. The thrown object arced across the boundary and landed in the recovery tray mounted beneath the observation equipment, where it came to rest.

At a briefing on the morning of the 20th, the division said this was the first time, across all five stable windows, that staff had directly observed a figure on the other side make a clear throwing motion toward the window. Unlike the previously reported 'signs of awareness' — where a reaction to the window, such as raising a tablet or a light, was confirmed first and an object turned up only afterward — this time observers watched the throw itself and tracked it continuously through to its landing. A division official repeated, "This may be a step beyond the earlier signs, but that doesn't prove communication. We're not making that determination."

The recovered object was a roughly 13-centimeter tube, apparently made of a dry, horn-like material, sealed at both ends with a cloth-like wrapping tied with thin cord. It was brought to the Third Appraisal Center, where a technician untied the cord and found a single folded sheet of paper inside. As previously reported, past window drift objects — tablets from the Lit City, a cast-off slime shell, and the like — were almost always 'found' afterward on the window-room floor or in the recovery tray; this is the first time staff watched the moment of the object's fall with their own eyes.

Umezu said the thrower's age and sex could not be determined, and that the figure vanished back into the tablet-raising crowd immediately after throwing. "There was no way to follow up from our side. All we could do was watch," he said. Under the Dimension Boundary Management Act, the tube and its paper were immediately processed into state custody and transported to the Third Appraisal Center's storage building.

According to the Center's window unit, the paper bore what appeared to be a simple line drawing alongside rows of character-like marks. Neither the drawing's content nor the meaning of the marks is known at this stage. "We're not at the point of reading anything into it. We're starting from the paper's material and fiber analysis," the center said. Chief Appraisal Officer Seiichi Minowa, 48, said, "Appraisal of window drift objects has always taken months. This time we know more about the circumstances of how it arrived, so there are more leads to work with — but that's no reason to rush an answer."

Some within the division have noted a resemblance to the previously reported 'ceremony' tablets of Window 1, 'the Lit City' (Sept. 26), but the division maintains, "Some staff sense a similarity in script or brushwork, but we're not at a stage where we can compare them. We won't casually link Window 5 and Window 1." Despite earlier reports hinting that Lineage 31, 'the Neighboring World,' might sit geographically or culturally close to other lineages, the division said it would not draw any such connection to today's paper.

The case has been added to the agenda for the external expert panel (chaired by Etsuko Kajiura, a professor at Wanyo University) due to hold its first meeting in early November, becoming the eighth item after the seven previously reported on the 16th. Toru Yuzuki, 31, the technician handling the analysis previously reported in these pages, said, "Having tracked the tablet-raising for weeks, this feels like a further step. But a further step isn't the same as understanding their intent." Decoding the paper itself is expected to be pushed to November or later, with the division saying, "Please don't expect an answer within the year." Chair Kajiura offered a comment of her own: "This isn't a panel meant to rush to conclusions, but we take seriously the weight of one more item on the agenda."

Ushio Kishiura, 74, the music teacher and first-generation Drifter previously reported in these pages, said, "When we drifted ashore, there was no one throwing anything our way. Just knowing there might be someone over there who wants something to reach us unsettles me," showing a complicated expression. As previously reported, no material has emerged either way on whether the melody of his 'Lullaby of the Shore' resembles the recorded sound from Window 5.

Yuzuki, who has continued the analysis of the tablet-raising behavior as previously reported, said of today's development, "Honestly, there was a stretch when I wondered if we'd stay stuck at 'signs' forever. Reaching the stage where the other side is sending us something is, for someone who has worked this beat, genuinely significant." He added, keeping to the five principles' caution, "Feeling that it's significant is one thing. Getting carried away is another, and I keep reminding myself of that."

On the 20th, the division said it would keep the observation log of this opening as an internal, undisclosed record for now, while still weighing how to handle the tube and paper themselves, including whether to disclose them at all. The division expects some effect on the lottery odds for window-room tours as well, saying only, "Our priority is balancing visitor safety with the research itself."

The Third Appraisal Center, where the tube was brought, also happened to host a different visitor on the afternoon of the 20th: King Kaie III of Rukai, 34. As previously reported on the 16th, his tour was limited to an explanation of how the storage building operates, with individual holdings — window drift objects included — kept undisclosed. A Foreign Ministry source said, "Even an item recovered just this morning gets the same treatment as everything else in storage. Royal blood or not, we don't make exceptions to procedure," stressing that the overlap in timing with the visit was purely coincidental. The principle that the windows' openings remain beyond anyone's control, of course, still stands.