The Relative Worlds

Shin Hazama has kept his emotions locked away since his mother’s sudden, unexplained death in childhood. With his scientist father consumed by his work, the one steady presence in Shin’s life is Kotori Izumi—his longtime friend and the kind, well-liked daughter of his father’s employer. As their final year of high school draws to a close, the two finally start to take steps forward together, both personally and romantically.

That fragile progress shatters when Shin’s father dies just as abruptly, and the truth behind both deaths begins to surface. Shin and Kotori are pulled into contact with operatives from a parallel-world Japan—an advanced, dystopian counterpart—where Shin’s “relative self,” Jin, is locked in conflict with the humanoid weapons Miko and Niko. Because the lives of relative selves are intertwined, Jin must keep Shin alive to protect them both, even as he pursues a second mission: killing Kotori to topple the ruthless rule of her own counterpart, Princess Kotoko—Jin’s sworn enemy and the one responsible for Shin’s parents’ deaths. With their world upended, Shin and Kotori are forced to face what they truly mean to each other, even with tomorrow uncertain.