Ureshino’s eyes had popped wide open, like those of a startled cat. Aki looked down, pouting grouchily.

‘So why were we all brought here anyway?’ Fuka asked, breaking the silence. The others looked at her mutely. Fuka was staring into space. She seemed to be thinking aloud, trying to gather her thoughts.

‘So each of us is in a different parallel world at Yukishina No. 5 Junior High, none of us are actually going to school, and we can only meet in this castle through the mirrors. That’s the scenario, right?’

‘That’s about the size of it,’ Masamune said.

‘That does make sense,’ Kokoro said. She looked at the others. ‘When I realized we were all students at Yukishina No. 5 Junior High, I had my doubts about whether there could be so many kids from one school who had dropped out. Yukishina’s huge, but still, I was thinking, that’s a lot. But if our worlds are different, then I can understand it. If there’s one of us per year.’

‘But we don’t know if it’s one per year,’ Masamune said, letting out a big breath, still a little disgusted. He glared at Kokoro. ‘Wouldn’t surprise me if there’re other kids besides me who aren’t going.

‘It’s like, if there’s a lot of absenteeism, teachers will leap in, and try to assess what’s going wrong in a certain year or class. But really, a couple of kids might have their own issues and decide they want to take time off. I hate that trend – when teachers study school refusal and bullying, and put things into categories like generation and social background.’

‘I agree. If you and I were in the same class, Masamune, we’d have had our own personal reasons for not going to school,’ said Subaru.

He spoke lightly, and shot a pleasant smile at Kokoro. She felt she’d irritated Masamune, who was standing silently now, shoulders hunched.

‘But doesn’t that make sense? Each of us is from the same school, we’ve representative school dropouts from different years.’

‘And the only place we can all come together is in this castle. It’s like there are seven people’s worlds – with this castle at its centre. Something like that.’ Aki’s words spurred on an image in Kokoro’s head.

‘But then why is it we can only meet here? What’s the point?’ Aki asked.

Masamune’s expression changed. ‘It’s just that,’ he began, looking serious, ‘in most sci-fi and anime about parallel worlds, some of these worlds branch off, then vanish.’

‘Vanish?’

‘It’s easier if you think of it as a thick tree,’ Masamune said. ‘Actually, in lots of manga that’s how it’s illustrated. Anybody got a pencil?’

Fuka took out a notebook and pencil from her bag. Masamune started drawing on a blank sheet of paper.