THEY CHECKED WITH EACH other to see what year they were living in and where.

In the trashed Game Room, they spread out a sheet of paper and wrote it all down.

‘I don’t remember what year it is,’ Ureshino said, and the rest knew exactly where he was coming from.

Sometimes you could be well aware of the day of the week and the month, but scarcely aware of the actual year.

A stir swept through them as they digested each other’s details, particularly the moment they realized that Subaru was still in 1985.

‘That’s back in Emperor Shōwa’s era!’ Masamune said, and Subaru replied, ‘Sure. Sounds about right.’ But he looked confused, and Kokoro realized even the mention of Shōwa didn’t click with him.

Then Subaru said: ‘Didn’t the world end in 1999? You know, after Nostradamus’s great prophecy? Whoa. It’s a relief to know it didn’t.’ He smiled and no one knew if he was joking or not, or whether he had actually believed it.

‘Of course it never ended,’ Masamune said caustically. ‘I mean, when you were playing my state-of-the-art video games, didn’t you ever think anything was weird? Maybe that the screen was so clear and sharp? Back in your time, Subaru, weren’t consoles really simple machines?’

‘I never played them much, so I just thought that’s what they must be like. You said your friend made the game, so I thought it wasn’t on sale yet and you’d got hold of an advance copy or something.’

‘Me too,’ Kokoro said. ‘I did think it was quite odd. The Nintendo DS you had, Masamune, wasn’t like the one I have.’

Kokoro had convinced herself that, if parallel worlds existed, it would be possible that their gaming devices would not be identical.

‘You’re talking about the first-generation Nintendo DS, aren’t you? The one I was using is the third-generation DS.’

Masamune scrutinized Subaru as if studying his features for the first time. ‘I just don’t believe it. Subaru and I are, what … twenty-nine years apart in age?’

The paper recording all their timelines was now filled with myriad scribbled calculations.

‘You’re pretty sharp though, Kokoro, to notice. I never ever thought for a moment that we didn’t come from the same time period.’

‘I can’t believe it,’ Rion said, ‘but it does seem more likely than the parallel world idea Masamune had.’

‘Yeah, yeah,’ Masamune said, frowning a bit. ‘Sorry I scared you.’

‘Look, aren’t there seven years between each of us?’ Fuka laid a finger across each of their years. ‘Seven might be an especially significant number here. There are seven of us, and the seven hiding places were taken from the story The Wolf and the Seven Young Goats.’

‘You’re right.’

Once they’d established this fact, all kinds of other things became clear.

For instance, all the different iterations of the shopping centre, and the location of McDonald’s.

Aki came from Minami Tokyo City of the past.