The third parallel shift experiment took place in May, right after I started my third year of junior high. Convinced there was no point in visiting nearby worlds, I decided to shoot for the stars and prayed to shift 50 worlds away. The next thing I knew, I was in a room I didn’t recognize.
The worlds near mine were all doing the same experiments, so my parallel selves were all shifting at the same time. As a result, I would always find myself inside the Cradle when I arrived. But this time, for the first time, I was somewhere else. This parallel me wasn’t doing any experiments. Could that mean…the experiments weren’t necessary? Because Shiori wasn’t a ghost here…?
First things first, I needed to figure out where I was. Our experiments were conducted late at night to prevent any more tragic accidents. When I pulled out my phone, sure enough, I saw that it was 1 a.m. Then I checked my contacts, just in case, but Shiori’s name wasn’t listed.
Quietly, I slipped out of the room. The house was dark—no surprise there, given the time of night. Using my cell phone light to illuminate my path, I searched the unfamiliar house.
Arriving in the living room, I began digging around for clues wherever I could. But suddenly, the lights clicked on. Startled, I whirled around to find my dad…standing there with my mom.
“Koyomi? What are you doing this late at night?”
In his right hand was the wooden sword I’d bought as a souvenir during one of my school trips. He must have heard something and thought it was a burglar. (Now that I thought about it, it was pretty shady of me to go snooping through the house with all the lights off.) As for his left arm, my mom was clinging to it in fear. They looked so natural together that I could tell they weren’t divorced in this world.
“Koyomi…? What’s the matter, sweetie?”
Mom must have got worried when I didn’t answer, because she let go of Dad’s arm and walked over. I didn’t have time for this, however.
In a world this distant from mine, Shiori might still be alive. I wanted to see her. That was all I could think about. But her name wasn’t in my phone, so that meant this parallel self hadn’t even met her.
“Dad! Could you introduce me to the director’s daughter?!”
The sudden request left him utterly perplexed. “Where is this coming from…?”
“C’mon, the lab director has a daughter who’s the same age as me, right? I want to meet her!” I insisted.
“Well, yes, she does… Now explain why.”
I wasn’t that opposed to explaining it to him in theory, but right now, I didn’t have the composure to go through all the finer details with him. I just tossed out the first excuse I could think of. “I saw her in passing at the lab the other day and fell in love with her at first sight!”
Dad’s expression went hard; conversely, Mom broke out into a smile. “Well, well, well! I suppose you’re getting to that age, aren’t you, Koyomi? Were you searching the house to find her address or something?” she asked.
“Huh? Oh… Uh…y-yeah. Sorry I scared you.”
“Oh, that’s fine, honey! But you can’t just show up at her door unannounced. Daddy, do him a favor and play matchmaker, won’t you?”
“Huh? Oh…er… Y-yes, dear. Sure, I don’t mind.”
And so, with my (parallel) mom’s help, I met Shiori in that same world the next weekend. But the Shiori I met…
“Um… Nice to meet you. I’m…Satou Shiori.” She was guarded, like I was some kind of threat.
This isn’t her, I thought to myself. She was the same person, sure, but she was totally different. This Shiori wasn’t the girl I fell in love with. Worlds with a living Shiori that had never met me wouldn’t help me with my mission.
No, to save my Shiori, I needed a world with a living Shiori that already knew me. Otherwise, it was all pointless.