‘Each of us is attending a different Yukishina No. 5 Junior High. None of you are in my world, and I’m not in any of yours. The world’s divided into seven different branches, one for each of us.’

THE WORLD’S DIVIDED.

Kokoro couldn’t grasp what this meant. They all looked at each other in puzzlement, and Masamune, in a slightly irritated tone, said, ‘You people hardly ever watch anime, or read science fiction, do you?

‘You need to read more,’ he went on. ‘In the world of science fiction, it’s a totally obvious concept, the idea of parallel worlds.’

‘I don’t exactly follow, but are you saying that something unreal’s happening, like in science fiction?’ asked Kokoro.

‘If you want to talk about what’s unreal, this whole castle is completely unreal. You lot really need to get used to the idea – that we’re already in a situation that’s supernatural, or if not fantasy then something we can’t explain.

‘Listen up,’ he said, facing them all. ‘The world we live in – the world beyond the seven mirrors in the foyer – seems the same for all of us, but it isn’t. Even if there’s a Yukishina No. 5 Junior High in Minami, in Tokyo City, Japan, in all our worlds, the people there and the details all deviate slightly from each other. All seven of us are living in our own individual worlds.’

‘So,’ Aki said, arms folded, head tilted, ‘what does that mean?’

‘It’s easier to understand if you think of it like a video game.’ Masamune looked over at the game controller he’d tossed aside.

‘Each of us is the hero in a game called Yukishina No. 5 Junior High in South Tokyo. And there are seven versions of the game. The data depends on the software of whoever’s playing, get it? Each character has their own saved data, and there can’t be two heroes simultaneously. My data is mine, Subaru’s data is his, Aki’s is hers.’

Masamune looked around at each of them in turn.

‘In the world where I’m playing, naturally I’m the hero, and nobody else is there, and in Aki and Subaru’s software I don’t appear. The same is true for everyone. There’s only one hero for each set of data. On the game screen it’s set up so you have to choose one from the seven of us.’

Masamune crossed his arms.

‘It’s the same software so it looks like the same world, but since the hero is different, it subtly adjusts events and small details. Even if the software we’re given is the same, it makes sense to think that there are separate routes designed to take us down different storylines.’