Please come, Masamune. This was everyone’s silent wish.

They stayed around in the castle, waiting.

After a while, they heard someone come in and glanced up. But it was Rion, looking in on them from the hallway.

‘Where’s Masamune?’ It hurt to hear how casually he asked.

‘He hasn’t come,’ Subaru said.

They all attempted to explain the events of the previous day.

‘What do we do if he doesn’t come back?’ Kokoro asked. It was approaching the end of the day.

‘It’ll be OK,’ Subaru said. ‘Video games are his life. At least he’ll come back to pick up his game console.’ He looked over at Masamune’s device, lying untouched on the floor.

BUT MASAMUNE DIDN’T APPEAR.

Not that day, or the next, or the next, or the next.

February

MASAMUNE DID NOT TURN up at all in January, but finally, early in February, he walked in.

His hair was neatly cut, and at first Kokoro thought it was some new kid.

He’d got in before anyone else, and sat in the Game Room, blithely playing video games.

‘Masamune.’

Kokoro stood frozen to the spot.

‘Hey,’ he said. His gaze was fixed on the TV screen as he played a racing car game. ‘Oh, no way … whoa!’ he said to himself.

Kokoro hovered in the doorway, unsure what to say. One by one, the rest of the group appeared.

‘Masamune, we’ve been dying to talk to you.’

‘Masamune, we didn’t break our promise!’

‘That’s right. Why didn’t you come over earlier? We all kept our word.’ Aki said this in an unsteady voice, and Masamune put down the game controller for the first time. His car crashed spectacularly on the screen. The ‘game over’ music played.

‘I know,’ Masamune said, and looked over at them. His short hair made his eyes seem more piercing than before. ‘I know that all of you came into school that day. The day I asked you to, the tenth of January.’

Everyone gasped.

‘I never thought you didn’t come. I knew there was no way you wouldn’t.’

Kokoro was so relieved she felt about to cry.

Masamune believed them all.

‘Then why didn’t you come to the castle?’ Fuka asked.

Masamune switched off the TV.

‘I needed some time to think. I knew you wouldn’t let me down, yet we still couldn’t meet up. I wanted to think why. I thought about it, over and over. And …’

Masamune took a short breath.

‘I came to a conclusion. I think we’re all living in parallel worlds.’

‘Parallel worlds?’

‘Yep.’

Kokoro’s eyes widened.

The term was unfamiliar, and she couldn’t quite grasp it. She looked around and saw them all gazing at Masamune with equally vacant expressions.