HER MOTHER DIDN’T BRING UP her conversation with Ms Kitajima, and so Kokoro waited patiently for the next day when they could all see each other again.
When she passed through the mirror the next morning, they were indeed there. All except Masamune and Rion.
Rion’s timetable was such that he couldn’t spend all day in the castle like the others. But Masamune’s absence was significant.
‘Kokoro.’ When she arrived at the Game Room, it was Aki who first spoke to her. She looked a little angry.
As did Ureshino, Fuka and Subaru.
They must already have been discussing something, Kokoro thought. She came in, silent, and they stared at her.
‘Why weren’t you there?’ Aki said.
She’d known the question was coming. But now that she actually heard it, the shock was greater than she’d imagined.
‘I was!’ she said. She looked directly at Aki. ‘I was there! I went to school just like we promised.’
And right then, a possibility crossed her mind.
Maybe all the others did meet up?
All of them except Kokoro had met in the nurse’s office, everyone but her. Was that all it was? If so, to them that meant Kokoro had betrayed them.
Aki’s eyes narrowed. She looked over at Fuka.
‘Are you telling me the same thing?’
‘What?’
‘The same thing as Kokoro – and Subaru.’
Kokoro gasped and looked at Fuka and Subaru for confirmation. They nodded. Ureshino’s face turned bright red.
‘I was there too,’ he chimed in.
Kokoro felt her shoulders go limp.
Ureshino had made the trek back to school. That must have taken some courage.
‘Me too.’
‘And me.’
‘But I didn’t see any of you,’ Fuka said.
So that was it. It had happened to every single one of them.
They had definitely been to school yesterday, but for some reason they couldn’t meet up.
‘They told me there’s no seventh-grader called Kokoro,’ Ureshino said. ‘Kokoro’s an unusual name, and I asked a teacher who was passing by. But he said there was no one called Kokoro at the school.’
‘I asked too, but they said there was no one in seventh grade called Haruka Ureshino.’
Ureshino’s face clouded over.
‘I’m real, you know.’
‘Me too. I’m in seventh grade at Yukishina No. 5 Junior High.’
Subaru, standing there with arms folded, said, ‘Me too. I went to my ninth grade classroom. I waited and waited but Masamune never appeared, so I went over to his classroom. But he wasn’t there either.’
A hush came over them.
‘What’s going on?’ Aki asked, to no one in particular. She ran her fingers roughly through her hair in frustration. Kokoro noticed her hair colour had changed again.
Her reddish dyed hair had gone back to black.
So she could go to school. She’d probably dyed it black the night before, after she’d got home from the castle.
Aki wasn’t making it up. Like Kokoro, she’d set her mind on going to school, and indeed she had.
‘Even though I didn’t want to see the girls from the volleyball club.’ Aki seemed to murmur this unintentionally. She spoke so faintly, so weakly, that it was painful to hear.
So Aki was a member of the volleyball club? This was news to Kokoro. These past eight months she’d never mentioned it. Her frail tone sent a sharp pain racing through Kokoro.
The volleyball club. Miori Sanada’s volleyball club.
Had Aki still been going to school when Miori started at the club? Could Aki, so close to her now, be that girl’s senpai?
‘Shall we ask the Wolf Queen?’ Fuka suggested. All eyes turned to her. ‘She might be able to explain what’s going on. Then again, she might not, just to be tricksy.’
‘We could, but shouldn’t we ask Masamune first?’ Subaru said.
Kokoro agreed. They all looked over at Masamune’s game controller, lying idle.
‘Masamune may not be here today … but the same thing must have happened to him – he couldn’t meet us. Right?’
Actually – I’d like your advice on something.
I was wondering … if you all … could you come to school? Just for one day. One day would be enough.
Kokoro recalled how timidly Masamune had broached the topic. Her chest ached as she remembered how he’d prepared Christmas presents for them, and how hard it must have been for him, with all his pride, to ask this favour.
He was so desperate for them to be there, and yet – they weren’t.
How had Masamune taken it?
‘Do you think he misunderstood what happened?’ Fuka said. Her eyes were sad. ‘Thinking none of us turned up?’
‘I think so. And if that’s why he isn’t here today, that totally sucks.’
‘Maybe it’s just coincidence he’s not here. Perhaps he’ll appear this afternoon.’
Ureshino shook his head.
‘Maybe when he went, they beat him up … I’m just thinking of what happened to me.’
They were holding out hope that Masamune would slip through his mirror in the grand foyer and show up any minute now.
But that didn’t seem about to happen.
It felt like his unspoken anger lingered, and it pained Kokoro.
Please come, Masamune. This was everyone’s silent wish.
They stayed around in the castle, waiting.
After a while, they heard someone come in and glanced up. But it was Rion, looking in on them from the hallway.
‘Where’s Masamune?’ It hurt to hear how casually he asked.
‘He hasn’t come,’ Subaru said.
They all attempted to explain the events of the previous day.
‘What do we do if he doesn’t come back?’ Kokoro asked. It was approaching the end of the day.
‘It’ll be OK,’ Subaru said. ‘Video games are his life. At least he’ll come back to pick up his game console.’ He looked over at Masamune’s device, lying untouched on the floor.
✦ ✦ ✦
BUT MASAMUNE DIDN’T APPEAR.
Not that day, or the next, or the next, or the next.