When I next awoke, I wasn’t inside the IP capsule, but my own bedroom. The lights were off, so I checked the time on my phone. It was just past 2 a.m., the exact time of our shift. However, when I checked my IP band, I felt my stomach drop.
035.
The experiment was supposed to send me to World 10, but suddenly I was all the way in World 35. That was a huge leap. Had someone made a mistake with the machine?
In Worlds 1 through 9, I had woken up in the same IP capsule, so I was able to exchange information with my father standing right there. But this world’s version of me didn’t seem to be taking part in the mock trials at all. If so, then it was possible no one was even at the lab right now. That being the case, I decided I’d wait until morning to head to work.
I spent those few hours in a haze somewhere between sleep and insomnia. Then, when the sun rose, I left my room and walked down the stairs. So far, it was the same house as back home—my grandparents and Yuno had all passed away, so it was just my mother and me living here now. (Kazune was supposed to join us here soon, but given that this was 35 worlds away from mine, I couldn’t be sure that still applied.)
“…Morning,” I called out timidly to the figure standing in the kitchen.
“Oh, good morning! You’re up early. Breakfast isn’t ready quite yet.”
The familiar sound of my mother’s voice instantly put me at ease.
“Mom, we need to talk… My IP is 035 right now.”
“Thirty-five! You’ve traveled a long way,” she commented.
“Yeah, I gotta go to the lab and ask around about stuff, so I might not come home until late tonight. Don’t stay up waiting, okay?”
“Yes, dear. So, World 35, huh? That’s incredible, sweetheart! Isn’t it supposed to be really rare to shift from that far away?”
“Yeah, it rarely ever happens naturally. But I was taking part in an experiment, so I think that’s what caused it.”
“Oh dear. Well, promise Mommy you won’t do anything too dangerous, okay?”
“It’s fine, Mom. I’m fine.”
Though I was 35 worlds away from home, I could still have a normal conversation with my mother, and she didn’t seem put off in the slightest. I expected her to ask a lot more questions about my home world, but since she didn’t, I decided not to ask her anything either. Instead, I ate breakfast and headed off to the lab like usual.
The streets were practically identical, as was the location of the ISRI. First thing I did was pay a visit to the research room where my father worked. I wasn’t authorized to set foot inside, so instead I asked him to meet me in a common area. Luckily, he wasn’t busy, so he showed up right away.
“What’s the matter, kiddo?”
“Well, take a look.” Without another word, I showed him my IP band.
“Thirty-five?! What the hell happened?” he asked me.
I explained to him that we were doing shift experiments back in my world.
“I see… So in your world, you signed up for the mock trial. We’re doing one in this world too, but with someone else.”
Sure enough, my suspicions were right. In that case, there really must have been some mistake on our end that sent me here. “Will I be able to go home?”
“Yes, of course you can. I’ll speak to the director to get permission for you to use the capsule. But since you’re here, you should really stay a few days! We don’t get many opportunities to exchange information with a world as distant as yours!”
“Oh, okay, sure. I’m fine with that.”
“Excellent! Let’s get started right away! You wait here and I’ll fetch the director!”
He seemed uncharacteristically excited about this, but I understood why. There was nothing quite so alluring as the chance to learn about a distant parallel world. And so after the director came rushing over, we held an emergency meeting—then proceeded to spend the rest of that day exchanging research notes.