This was the boy with the game console. He stumbled on, not meeting anyone’s eye. ‘I’m tired of everybody always saying Masamune sounds like a samurai warlord’s name, or the name of a famous sword, or a brand of sake or something. It’s actually my real name.’

He was the only one who didn’t add a nice to meet you. The others lost their chance to respond, and the tall boy seated beside him took a breath, ready to speak. He was the one who looked like Ron in Harry Potter, and who’d earlier stood up and asked if he could go home.

‘My name’s Subaru, OK? Nice to meet you. I’m in ninth grade.’

Kind of an oddball, was Kokoro’s take on him. Otherworldly, you might say. She’d never heard any boy she knew end a sentence like that, with a challenging OK? But Subaru seemed the type who could say that and get away with it. He wasn’t like any boy she’d met before.

‘Ureshino,’ a small voice said.

This from the chubby boy who’d worried whether there was anything to eat.

‘Eh?’ the others responded.

He repeated himself. ‘Ureshino. It’s my surname. It’s a bit unusual. Nice to meet you.’

His bashfulness struck a chord with Kokoro. She immediately found herself wanting to ask him which characters his name was written with, but she stopped herself.

‘Really? So how’s that written?’ a casual voice asked, and Kokoro gulped. It was Rion.

Ureshino took a deep breath. He didn’t seem to mind the question at all.

‘The ureshi part is written with the character for ureshii – happy. And the no is the character in nohara – field.’

‘Whoa – lots of strokes in writing those characters. I don’t even know how to write the first one. What year in school are you supposed to learn to write ureshii? Must be a pain during tests when you have to write your name at the top.’

‘Yeah, it takes so long to write it out that sometimes I’ve got less time to actually do the test.’

Ureshino grinned, the very image of happiness. The mood lightened. ‘I’m in seventh grade,’ he added. ‘Nice to meet you.’

‘So we’re all in middle school,’ Aki said, looking around and nodding. She seemed to be in charge. ‘I know the Wolf Queen might be listening in, but do you have any idea why we were brought here?’

Aki’s voice was starting to sound a bit tense, and quivered slightly.

‘Nope,’ Masamune said, not skipping a beat. ‘Not a clue.’

‘That’s what I thought.’ Aki nodded. Kokoro felt a wave of relief herself.

Introductions over, they fell silent and looked awkwardly away.

They’d all spoken in different ways, but Kokoro was sure they had all come to the same realization. None of them was going to school.