THE NEXT AFTERNOON, WITH RION the last to arrive, all seven of them were together.
It transpired that Aki had already warned them all she had something to tell them. Kokoro was surprised to see it wasn’t only Aki who had something to say, but Masamune as well.
Kokoro wondered about this unlikely pairing. Masamune was the first to speak.
‘Hey, so I wanted to know – how seriously are you people looking for the Wishing Key?’
The group looked startled. Since only one person’s wish would come true, they all saw each other, as far as this was concerned, as rivals.
Which might explain why they’d hardly ever talked about it. The Wolf Queen had made it clear that if someone located the key, found the Wishing Room, and had their wish granted, then the castle would close down permanently, even before the 30 March deadline.
As the castle was still open, it meant no one had yet had their wish granted, but Kokoro could sense that everyone was still conscious the key was yet to be found.
‘I have looked for it, but not recently. I haven’t had time, plus it’s fun here.’
This was from Ureshino, whose bandages were off now. The gauze on his cheek had been replaced by a plaster, and he seemed to be in much less pain.
Masamune glanced over at him and continued.
‘Same for me. But we’ve all searched for it a bit, am I right? No matter what your own wish might be.’
‘I suppose,’ Subaru said. When the subject had come up before, he’d said he didn’t have any particular wish and would help Masamune look. But it seemed even he had done some looking on his own. ‘After the Wolf Queen explained it all, of course I wondered about it. Like – who knows, maybe it’ll just turn up. But it hasn’t.’
Aki nodded. ‘Masamune and I have a proposal. We think it’s entirely possible that someone has already found the key and perhaps has a plan to hide it until the last possible moment in March, or else is struggling to locate the Wishing Room. So we thought we’d ask you all.’
‘A proposal?’
Masamune and Aki exchanged a look.
‘The other day, the two of us just happened to be alone in the castle and we started talking about it. I’ll fess up – Masamune and I searched very hard for the key. We looked everywhere.’
‘We were told it would be in some public area, not in any of our individual rooms, and though it’s a big space there are only so many places to look. And believe me, I scoured the place.’
‘So did I,’ Aki said. She sighed and looked round. ‘But we couldn’t find it. Honestly, I can’t think of a single spot I didn’t look. I was getting pretty exasperated, and Masamune, who was desperately looking too, happened to bump into me in the dining room.’
‘What’re you talking about – desperately?’ Masamune interrupted, sounding a bit frustrated. ‘How can you say that about me – you who pretends not to give a toss about it when we’re all here, and yet who, more desperately than me, I can tell you, is out there licking every single plate, one by one, in search of it.’
‘How about you? Don’t you sit there all the time, pretending to spend every minute in the Game Room, but as soon as no one’s around you leap into action? I think you’re the desperate one.’
Masamune and Aki glared at each other until Subaru intervened. ‘Hey, you guys – come on! So, what are you proposing?’
‘That we all work together,’ Aki said.
‘It’s already October,’ Masamune added. ‘It’s been a while since we were first summoned here last May, and we still haven’t found it. I think the Wishing Room, too, must have some kind of hidden entrance to it. We’ve only got half a year left, remember.’
‘It might turn out that the final day will arrive and no one’s wish has come true,’ Aki said. ‘I’m thinking we shouldn’t see each other as rivals, but search for it together, then discuss whose wish gets to be granted. Or else cast lots, or decide by rock-paper-scissors.’ She paused for a reaction.
‘Because we just couldn’t find it,’ Aki lamented. ‘We really bust a gut. It’d be a total waste if we finish here without finding it. We just need to get it done, and not worry about how desperate we might look.’
‘Makes sense.’ Fuka, who’d been silent till now, nodded. ‘I had no idea, Aki,’ she said, ‘that you had a wish that you wanted so badly to come true. It’s hard to believe Masamune was so keen, too.’
Aki seemed upset, perhaps taken aback to be confronted so directly by Fuka. She looked away.
‘If you’re told it’ll definitely come true,’ Masamune said, ‘then everyone will have a wish or two.’
But Fuka’s next words startled them all even more.
‘Have a wish or two? I don’t.’
Kokoro couldn’t tell if she was being serious. Then Fuka said, ‘It’s OK. I’ll help out. I’m on board with the idea of us all looking together for the key. By the way, I haven’t found it. Not that I searched much.’
It was true that when Fuka was over in the castle she spent more time shut up in her room than anyone else. She really might not be that interested in looking for the key.
Kokoro had no idea what to say.
Of course she, too, had a wish she wanted to come true. But it was kind of a questionable wish she was unsure she wanted to reveal. Especially to the boys, who would probably start to avoid her if she told them. OK – so if they did locate the key, how would they decide whose wish to make come true?
Deciding by rock-paper-scissors would work, but if, one by one, they were to explain their wish in front of everyone, like an election speech, trying to convince the others of the intensity of their desire, then Kokoro, who wasn’t much of a speaker, would be at a disadvantage. Aki or Masamune would certainly run away with it.
But the key was yet to be found. And there was no guarantee it ever would be.
Kokoro herself, when she was in the mood, had secretly looked around, but had come up empty-handed. Like Aki said, it would be a real shame if it all ended with no one’s wish coming true.
‘I’m OK looking with you all,’ Rion said.
Ureshino nodded his assent. ‘Me too. Sure.’
Ever since Ureshino had left the castle to go back to school, and had returned beaten up, the atmosphere in the castle had definitely changed. Everyone was more comfortable about opening up to the rest.
We two still haven’t replied, she thought, and her eyes and Subaru’s met. Kokoro was the first to nod.
If her wish came true, that would make her happiest, certainly, but enjoying her time in the castle until March was equally important. It was only now, when she heard that they had just six months left, that the reality sank in. She’d been so oblivious. What would happen if, after the castle disappeared, she was still not able to go to school?
She’d been thinking the next school year was way off, but it was inexorably coming nearer. When she thought of herself as a sophomore in junior high, she felt the blood drain from her and her stomach started to ache.
For Kokoro, too, there was no other option – they had to find the key.
‘I agree. Let’s look for it together,’ Kokoro nodded, and Subaru, beside her, broke into a smile.
‘OK,’ he said. ‘We’re now going to start searching for it properly. So let’s do things systematically. What if we draw a map of the castle and cross off the areas we’ve already covered?’
‘I think I did a complete search of the dining room,’ Aki said, quickly raising her hand. ‘I looked everywhere – from the empty fridge to right at the back of the curtains. Of course, I’d like all of you to check, too.’
‘I looked five or six times in here,’ Masamune said, casting his eye around the Game Room. He pointed at the mounted stag’s head and the fireplace.
Subaru nodded, too.
‘I checked in the kitchen and bathrooms. I wondered about them, since there’s no running water. So I checked over the taps and drains, but found nothing. I couldn’t find the entrance to the Wishing Room either.’
‘Really?’ Masamune gave Subaru a knowing smile.
‘Got a problem with that?’ Subaru shot back.
‘Nah, I just hadn’t thought that you would look so keenly. But now I see you were actually really into it. You’re bad, y’know that?’
‘And you aren’t?’
This back and forth made Kokoro a little anxious, but the two boys were smiling. They seemed pleased they could finally banter like this, freely open up to each other.
‘I have one request.’ It was Rion’s turn to raise a hand. He waited until he had everyone’s attention. ‘The Wolf Queen said the castle was open until March, but she also said that if we find the key and a wish comes true then it will close down instantly.’
‘She did,’ Aki agreed.
‘Then,’ Rion said, ‘I’ll join in, but since we’re all doing it together, could you promise one thing? Even if we find the key, we don’t use it till March? And keep the castle for us to spend time in until the very end?’
Kokoro caught her breath and looked at him.
She’d been wanting the exact same thing. Next April was the new school year, and even if she was able to move classes at junior high, the thought of going back made her so depressed she wanted to hide.
She’d been absent from school a long while now, and not even the prospect of a new class was enough to persuade her to go back. And Sanada would still be in the same school year.
She didn’t think she could make it till March, holed up alone in her bedroom. She was too frightened. She wanted the castle to stay just the way it was. She and Rion were on the same wavelength.
Rion said, ‘No matter whose wish comes true, could we all stick to our agreement? No one goes off on their own?’
‘Of course,’ Masamune said. He looked at the others, trying to read them. ‘We all want to stay here as long as we can.’
No one opposed that.
Not Subaru, with his bleached hair and civilized manner of speech; not Aki, with her older boyfriend; not Fuka, who had no wish; and not Ureshino, who’d come back beaten up, and still didn’t believe he’d been bullied.
They were silent.
‘Good,’ Rion said. He smiled brightly. ‘I’m relieved to hear it.’