Was that the sound of a scream somewhere off in the distance…?
It’s time to get up…
Hinata Kurihara wriggled his hand, trying to push off his blanket.
Huh? There’s no blanket?
He felt a hard surface below him. His back and butt hurt.
Where was I sleeping?
He slowly sat up and shook his head to clear away the mental cobwebs.
“Eeeeek! He’s alive!”
This scream sounded much closer. In fact, it seemed to be coming from his immediate vicinity.
He turned toward the voice with alarm and saw a young woman in a navy-blue uniform covering her mouth with both hands and shivering violently.
Umm, who is this…?
Oh, right. The cruise ship’s new crew member in training. She was showing us around.
Her name is Chihori, isn’t it? Yes, Chihori Kase.
H-hang on! Cruise ship? Hinata put a hand to his forehead.
That’s right. It’s all coming back to me. Me and Chris and Mayuka and Mr. Kobayashi were all aboard the Primavera, a luxury cruise ship. Mito—a girl in the same class as Mayuka and me—had a violin recital on the ship, and we were all invited.
But…where am I now, and what was I doing…?
“A-are you all right, Hinata?!” wailed Chihori. “I thought you were dead!” She rushed over and began rubbing his shoulder gently.
“I-I’m all right… I feel like I took a long nap…”
With his vision cleared up, Hinata looked to see what he was lying on. Beneath him was a white-and-gray rug covered with geometric shapes…
I was sleeping on the floor?!
He looked up and saw a bed next to him, with someone’s leg sticking out over the edge. He recognized the shiny black shoe on the end of it—that was Mayuka’s foot.
To his other side, Kobayashi was practically slipping out of his wheelchair, fast asleep.
And sitting atop a desk along the wall was a violin case…
Oh, right! This is a ship cabin. We’re in Mito’s greenroom.
But something wasn’t right.
We boarded the ship in the afternoon. We listened to Mito’s violin concert, ate dinner, and were supposed to leave that night.
And yet there was bright sunlight shining in through the glass door.
“Ch-Chihori, d-did we…?”
Hinata brushed off her hand and leaped to his feet, then rushed to the door.
Outside he found the room’s balcony. And beyond that…nothing but endless blue sea!
The water’s shining surface reflected the sunlight far off into the distance. Nothing interrupted its vast blanket of blue, which stretched all the way to the horizon.
Hinata gazed at it, open-mouthed, then he turned back to see Chihori, pale and awkwardly rooted to the spot. On the twin beds beside her, Mayuka and Mito were snoozing away in silence.
“D-did we…?” Hinata said again, and Chihori’s face twisted.
“We’re in the middle of the Pacific!” she wailed. “The ship took off late last night. We didn’t think any of you were still on board!!”