‘So did I,’ Aki said. She sighed and looked round. ‘But we couldn’t find it. Honestly, I can’t think of a single spot I didn’t look. I was getting pretty exasperated, and Masamune, who was desperately looking too, happened to bump into me in the dining room.’

‘What’re you talking about – desperately?’ Masamune interrupted, sounding a bit frustrated. ‘How can you say that about me – you who pretends not to give a toss about it when we’re all here, and yet who, more desperately than me, I can tell you, is out there licking every single plate, one by one, in search of it.’

‘How about you? Don’t you sit there all the time, pretending to spend every minute in the Game Room, but as soon as no one’s around you leap into action? I think you’re the desperate one.’

Masamune and Aki glared at each other until Subaru intervened. ‘Hey, you guys – come on! So, what are you proposing?’

‘That we all work together,’ Aki said.

‘It’s already October,’ Masamune added. ‘It’s been a while since we were first summoned here last May, and we still haven’t found it. I think the Wishing Room, too, must have some kind of hidden entrance to it. We’ve only got half a year left, remember.’

‘It might turn out that the final day will arrive and no one’s wish has come true,’ Aki said. ‘I’m thinking we shouldn’t see each other as rivals, but search for it together, then discuss whose wish gets to be granted. Or else cast lots, or decide by rock-paper-scissors.’ She paused for a reaction.

‘Because we just couldn’t find it,’ Aki lamented. ‘We really bust a gut. It’d be a total waste if we finish here without finding it. We just need to get it done, and not worry about how desperate we might look.’

‘Makes sense.’ Fuka, who’d been silent till now, nodded. ‘I had no idea, Aki,’ she said, ‘that you had a wish that you wanted so badly to come true. It’s hard to believe Masamune was so keen, too.’

Aki seemed upset, perhaps taken aback to be confronted so directly by Fuka. She looked away.

‘If you’re told it’ll definitely come true,’ Masamune said, ‘then everyone will have a wish or two.’

But Fuka’s next words startled them all even more.

‘Have a wish or two? I don’t.’

Kokoro couldn’t tell if she was being serious. Then Fuka said, ‘It’s OK. I’ll help out. I’m on board with the idea of us all looking together for the key. By the way, I haven’t found it. Not that I searched much.’

It was true that when Fuka was over in the castle she spent more time shut up in her room than anyone else. She really might not be that interested in looking for the key.