‘The days of the week are a little out, for all of us,’ said Masamune.

They blinked in surprise.

‘In my world the opening ceremony was the tenth of January, but for some of you it wasn’t, right?’

‘The opening ceremony’s one thing, but I thought Coming-of-Age Day would be the same for everyone,’ Aki said, and looked to the others for confirmation.

Subaru nodded. ‘In my world, the opening ceremony was the tenth of January. The same as Masamune.’

Masamune and Subaru’s eyes met.

‘Everyone was really surprised since I hadn’t been to school for so long. Though no one actually spoke to me.’

‘You turn up all of a sudden with that hair colour – maybe you scared ’em?’

‘I went over to your class, Masamune. Eighth grade, Classroom 6. But the kids there said there wasn’t any student with your name in their class.’

Masamune was taken aback. After a moment he said, ‘Thank you. So you came over to my class …’

‘Yeah.’

‘Thanks.’

‘You’re welcome.’

‘About that …’ Fuka ventured, raising her hand hesitantly. She was addressing Masamune. ‘You said you were in Class 6 of eighth grade, no? I’m in Class 3, and once when I said there were only four classes in eighth grade you got a bit cross, remember? But this time when I checked it was true – there are only four classes in eighth grade. There’s no such thing as the sixth class you said you’re in.’

We’re in different worlds – Masamune’s words now seemed all the more believable. There was no other way to explain it.

‘Listen.’ Above the chat, someone raised their voice.

It was Rion, who’d kept quiet till now. Rion’s world was in Hawaii, in Honolulu.

Kokoro suddenly remembered that Rion and Ureshino were in the same grade, in the same elementary school, but didn’t recall each other.

That in itself was pretty strange. Back when the subject came up, she should have thought how odd it was. She’d explained it away by telling herself that Rion and Ureshino moved in totally different circles.

Thinking about it now, she felt disappointed in herself. If that’s how stupid I can be, I might very well not be able to get on properly like ordinary kids.

‘I can be a bit slow, and don’t exactly understand all that stuff about parallel worlds,’ Rion said, ‘but what you’re saying is we can never meet up in the outside world?’

The others were silent, their faces solemn.

‘Yep,’ Masamune nodded after a while.

We could all help each other.

Kokoro remembered Masamune’s words, his eyes tearful and pleading.

‘You mean we can’t help each other?’ Rion asked.

Masamune was silent for a time. Everyone turned their gaze on him. ‘That’s right,’ he said. ‘We can’t help each other.’

FOR A WHILE, NO ONE said a word.