Kokoro had no clue if they should ask him what had happened.

Just then, someone spoke up.

‘Ureshino.’

It was Masamune.

He walked over to Ureshino and gave him a light push on the shoulder. The gesture looked awkward. But it was clear he was doing his best to seem casual.

‘Do you want to play?’ he asked.

Ureshino bit his lip, as if holding back something. There was a momentary hush in the room as they all watched.

‘Yeah,’ Ureshino said. ‘I’d like to.’

And with this, their short exchange was over.

There was one thing everyone here understood, without asking.

Kokoro didn’t know the details of any of their situations. But she knew full well that whatever they’d experienced, it must have felt like jumping into a storm or tornado, one that would mangle and maim you.

Exactly like the feeling Kokoro had – that if she went back to school, Miori Sanada would murder her.

It must have taken a lot of courage for Ureshino to come back. And it upset her to think how much he wanted to be back, even after having jumped into the storm.

She knew exactly how he felt.

It was clear that even Masamune, forgoing his usual barrage of insults, quietly understood all this as well.

When Ureshino replied, ‘Yeah, I’d like to,’ his eyes had shone with a faint luminescence. A single tear, as if unable to bear its own weight, ran down his cheek, and he didn’t wipe it away.

He settled down with them in front of the screen.

No one asked him about his wounds that day.

TWENTY-FOUR HOURS PASSED BEFORE Ureshino touched on the subject of how he’d been hurt.

He usually came over in the afternoon, but today he arrived in the morning, bento lunch in hand.

Rion, too, was there, though he was also rarely at the castle in the morning, and when asked about it he answered that he had a ‘temporary holiday’. He didn’t elaborate, but maybe, thought Kokoro, he’d come early as he was worried about Ureshino.

Around eleven o’clock, Ureshino already had his lunch spread out before him and was chomping away. The inside of his mouth seemed to hurt, and he muttered an ‘Ouch!’ and grimaced, though his appetite seemed as healthy as ever.

‘How come you’ve got the bento?’ Masamune asked.

‘I told Mum I was going to School and she made it for me. But I didn’t want to go today so I skipped it.’ Ureshino kept on chewing.

Kokoro was taken aback a bit by the mention of School, and Subaru, looking doubtful, asked ‘School? Why use the English word?’

‘He means the Free School,’ Masamune said.