The silence sted only a moment.

  — What is he looking at? — someone asked.

  Tsukishiro still had his eyes fixed on the sky.

  The letters were still there.

  Chapter 1 — The Witch of the Burning Vilge

  They floated above the night like ink scattered through the air. They didn't seem made of light or smoke. It was something stranger than that — as if the sky itself had turned into a page.

  He blinked.

  The words remained.

  Still.

  Existing.

  — Hey!

  The voice came too close.

  Tsukishiro looked down.

  The man with the torch had stepped forward. The fme trembled in the wind and lit half his face. The other half stayed hidden in shadow.

  — I asked you a question — he said, impatient. — Who are you?

  The crowd murmured around him.

  Faces smeared with ash.

  Tired eyes.

  Fear.

  Anger.

  Resentment.

  Hope, maybe.

  Tsukishiro was still kneeling in the mud.

  Trying to understand how he had ended up there.

  The st thing he remembered was the library.

  Shelves that seemed to have no end.

  The smell of old paper.

  The woman dressed in bck.

  And the words she said.

  "Now you are the owner."

  A loud crack echoed through the air.

  Part of a burning house colpsed, scattering sparks across the street.

  The heat was suffocating.

  The smoke stung his eyes.

  The smell of burning wood mixed with something worse — maybe food, maybe fabric... maybe things that shouldn't have been burning.

  Tsukishiro stood up slowly.

  His legs were still shaking.

  — Who is he?

  — He's not from the vilge.

  — I've never seen that face.

  — An outsider?

  The torches moved.

  Now several were pointed at him.

  The circle was closing.

  That was when Tsukishiro heard the sound of chains.

  Metal scraping against the earth.

  He turned his head.

  The girl was still being dragged.

  Her wrists bound by heavy chains.

  Her feet stumbling across the uneven ground.

  — Move! — one of the men shouted.

  She fell to her knees.

  The crowd erupted again.

  — Witch!

  — Monster!

  — Burn her!

  Tsukishiro felt his chest tighten.

  He looked at the sky again.

  The letters were changing.

  New sentences appeared below the title.

  Slowly.

  As if being written at that very moment.

  "The crowd, seized by fear and rage, would drag the witch to the square."

  More words appeared.

  "The trial would be swift."

  "And the fire would cleanse the evil."

  Tsukishiro's heart pounded.

  — This… is the story…

  He wasn't just reading words.

  He was reading the script of what was happening.

  The narrative.

  The book.

  The wooden bookmark was still in his hand.

  The carved symbol — 栞 — pulsed with a faint glow.

  Shiori.

  A bookmark.

  He gripped it tightly.

  The wood was warm.

  Almost alive.

  — Take her! — someone shouted.

  The crowd began to move again.

  The chains pulled the girl forward.

  She was dragged several feet down the street.

  Tsukishiro looked at the sky.

  A new sentence was forming.

  "No stranger would dare interfere."

  He stood still for a moment.

  No stranger.

  He was the only stranger there.

  If this really was a book...

  If those sentences were the script...

  Then what would happen if he broke the script?

  One of the men raised his torch.

  — Let's end this now!

  The fme lit the girl's face.

  She was trembling.

  But her eyes were open.

  Watching.

  Not the crowd.

  Not the fire.

  She was looking…

  At him.

  No. Not at him.

  At the bookmark in his hand.

  Her expression shifted.

  Confusion.

  Surprise.

  Something close to recognition.

  Tsukishiro looked at the sky again.

  "No stranger would dare interfere."

  The words stood firm.

  Like a verdict.

  He took a deep breath.

  Stories could be changed.

  Maybe.

  Or maybe he would die right there.

  He stepped forward.

  — Wait!

  The crowd stopped.

  The man with the torch turned his head slowly.

  — You again.

  Tsukishiro pointed at one of the destroyed houses.

  — The fire started there!

  Some people looked.

  — That house?

  — I saw it fall!

  — But no one saw who started it!

  The murmur spread.

  Small.

  But enough to pull attention away from the crowd's focus.

  Tsukishiro looked at the sky again.

  The sentence began to tremble.

  Like ink being erased.

  The word no disappeared.

  New letters formed.

  "A stranger dared to interfere."

  The bookmark glowed in his hand.

  It worked.

  The story had changed.

  But something unexpected happened.

  The letters in the sky began to multiply.

  "The crowd would seize the stranger."

  "The crowd would hesitate."

  "The witch would die."

  "The witch would escape."

  The sentences began to overp.

  Like pages being written all at once.

  Tsukishiro's eyes went wide.

  — What…?

  The girl was also staring at the sky.

  — The story… is breaking.

  Then—

  Another explosion shook the street.

  A nearby house burst into fmes.

  The roof colpsed.

  Sparks flew through the air.

  The crowd panicked.

  — The fire is spreading!

  — Run!

  — The water is gone!

  In the chaos, one of the men dropped the chains without noticing.

  The girl hit the ground.

  Tsukishiro reacted without thinking.

  He grabbed her arm.

  — Get up!

  She looked at him, startled.

  — Are you insane?!

  — Probably.

  He pulled her by the chain.

  — But if you stay here, you die.

  The crowd was already running.

  Screaming.

  Shoving each other.

  The fire tore through the wooden houses.

  The sky kept being written.

  "Chaos would consume the vilge."

  "The story had spiraled out of control."

  The girl finally stood.

  The chains still hung from her wrists.

  — Where are we going?!

  Tsukishiro looked around.

  The vilge burned.

  The crowd fled.

  And above them, the sky kept writing new sentences.

  He gripped the bookmark.

  — Away from the end of this story.

  He pulled her forward.

  And the two of them ran into the smoke.

  Behind them, the vilge bzed.

  Above them, new words began to appear in the sky.

  But this time…

  None of them seemed to agree on how the story should end.