Sure enough, the lights were still on at the lab, just as Shiori suspected. She opened the rear exit with a practiced hand, then walked straight through the cluttered maze of a building while I scrambled after her. After all these years, she still knew the layout way better than I did.
The interior was mostly deserted because at this hour, the majority of employees were already gone. That worked in our favor, so we sped down the hall like ninjas until we arrived at a familiar door. Shiori grasped the knob and slowly turned it—but there was a small rattling sound, and it refused to twist all the way.
“It’s locked, huh?”
Of course it was. Granted, it wasn’t originally locked four years ago, but they must have decided to start locking it after that incident. This posed a problem. How were we supposed to get in?
“No worries.” Shiori pulled a key out of her wallet.
“Is that…?”
“A spare key. I had it made in secret, just in case,” she explained casually, like she’d done nothing wrong, as she unlocked the door. She was normally a well-behaved girl, but when it came to sating her own curiosity, she was willing to bend any rule that stood in her way. Well, in this case, it paid off.
We entered the room and shut the door behind us. To avoid being detected, we left the lights off and used the flashlight function on our phones to illuminate the floor as we approached our destination: the pod.
“Long time no see.” I hadn’t been in here since the day I parallel shifted four years prior. Frankly, I never dreamed I’d climb back into this thing. “Looks like it’s still not powered on. Think it matters?”
“It didn’t matter four years ago, right? Let’s just get in.”
“Okay.” I opened the glass door. The cramped space within looked to be designed for a single occupant. “Who’s going first?”
“What? We have to go together! The whole point is that we have to go to the same world, remember?”
I was indeed aware of that, but had chosen to play dumb. Were we really going to wedge ourselves in there? Both of us? “I mean, if it’s meant for one person…”
“Well, we can just… Um… See, we’ll both fit if we go in like this.”
She climbed in ahead of me and rolled onto her side, nestling into the left half of the pod. A-ha. Now, if I could position myself into the right half, we’d both fit. She’s dead set on this, huh? Well, okay…
“All right, I’m getting in.”
With a fair amount of ulterior motive on the back burner, I twisted myself into the right side of the pod, trying my best not to brush against her. But in a space that cramped, it was inevitably a tight fit, and we were packed in like sardines, face-to-face.
“…Huh?” Just then, bathed in the light from my cell phone, I realized Shiori was blushing. “Wh-what’s the matter? You’re the one who told me to get in here with you!” I stammered, quick to shove the blame on her. My face was probably turning red too. And with her next words, it would only get redder.
“Yeah, but I…I thought you’d face the other way…”
Oh. Yeah, that was probably what a normal person would do. “Um… S-sorry! I’ll get out!”
“Wait!” Before I could clamber out, she grabbed my arm. “It’s fine. Let’s just do it.”
“But—”
“It’s fine!”
“…Okay.”
At her insistence, I settled back into the pod and faced her at point-blank range. I could feel her body heat, smell her scent, even feel her breath against my skin… It was a miracle that she couldn’t hear my heart jackhammering nonstop against my ribcage.
“Wh…what now?” My voice cracked as I spoke. Ugh, pathetic.
“Well, um… What did you do when you shifted four years ago?”
“You told me to pray, so I did. I prayed to go to a world where Yuno was alive.”
At first, I only did it as a joke, but partway through it turned completely serious. Of course, I couldn’t say for sure if it actually helped me shift.
“Okay then, let’s do that. Let’s both pray to go to a world where our parents aren’t divorced.”
“Think that’ll be enough, though? Last time you stayed outside the pod and messed around with the machine. Maybe you happened to flip the right switch.”
“But my mom literally said the machine wasn’t powered on. Pretty sure it doesn’t matter.”
“Oh, right… Yeah, maybe it doesn’t.” Trusting in our biased conjecture, we chased our single ray of hope. “All right, I’m gonna close the door.”
“Okay.”
With the door shut, her presence seemed to magnify beside me. Then we closed our eyes and began to pray.
Take us to a parallel world. A world where neither of our parents got divorced. A world where we’ll never be brother and sister. A world where we can be together!
Out of nowhere, Shiori wrapped her arms around my waist and snuggled in closer. It startled me, but I quickly did the same in kind, embracing her petite frame.
“Koyomi-kun…” She sounded scared.
“Don’t worry. We’ll make it there,” I reassured her as firmly as I could manage.
“I know. When you get to the other side, come find me, okay? Find me and make me your wife.”
“I will, I promise. We’ll get married.”
Our arms tightened around each other—