HER FINGERS WERE SHAKING SO much she couldn’t feel them. She let go of the mirror and sank down on the floor. She felt a stab of pain, and when she looked at her right palm, she saw it was cut, blood oozing out. She cringed at the brightness of it.
But her mind was clear and sharp.
She had to get back up – there was not a second to lose.
She reached her hand into the largest area of uncracked glass. The dark patch wavered, avoided her hand – and her arm was sucked into the world beyond.
She pulled it back and looked at the clock in her room. It was five-twenty.
Kokoro’s mother always came home between six-thirty and seven. She had to do something before then. When her mother came back, she would no doubt try to get rid of the broken mirror straight away. Today was the only time she could get to the castle.
She had to get the others back home.
Think! Think! she told herself. And along with this inner voice, a second thought intruded.
Aki was eaten.
She’s got issues. A lot of issues.
What Subaru had said came back to her.
But why? The shock and confusion of it all still overwhelmed her. How could Aki have stayed on in the castle? It was just like committing suicide. Why would she—?
There was suddenly no need to think any more. It was obvious, wasn’t it? she thought, on the verge of crying.
Aki didn’t want to go back home.
She had preferred to stay on in the castle than return to the reality of her life.
Even if it was suicidal, even if it meant dragging down the rest.
It’s utterly selfish. But I know just how she feels, Kokoro thought. Because I felt exactly the same.
Wow, that’s really something – parents considering your future and stuff. Not like our parents, right, Kokoro?
Aki had been pretending to be tough, and when she was in that mood, what sort of decision had she arrived at in her heart? What sort of reality did this girl face that made her feel it was preferable to be eaten, for it all to be over?
Kokoro couldn’t bear to think about it, and a fierce anger welled up inside her.
She should have told us. Aki was an idiot to come to this all by herself, bringing everything to an end. If it made her depressed to hear what the others were planning to do in the future, she should have said so. If she hated saying goodbye to everyone that much, she should have told us!
Kokoro, please!
The Wishing Key!
Find it and make the wish.
And help Aki.
Kokoro knew what they were asking her to do.
She felt crushed by the pressure all of a sudden. Would she be able to do it?
She would go into the castle and look for the key.
The key they’d all been searching for unsuccessfully for almost a year, she would have to find by herself in just one hour.
Please save Aki, save all of them.
‘Please forget that Aki broke the rules. Bring her back.’
✦ ✦ ✦
DING-DONG! THE FRONT DOORBELL RANG suddenly, the banality of its tone out of place. Kokoro looked down from the upstairs window to the front gate. For a second she felt desperate, thinking her parents were back – but it wasn’t them.
It was Tojo-san, to whom she’d only just said goodbye, standing at the front gate. She was gazing up at the window of Kokoro’s room, a worried look on her face. Kokoro was afraid they’d lock eyes through the gap in the curtain and she hurriedly dropped back.
She was in a rush to get to the castle, but she went downstairs anyway, opened the front door and walked over to the gate, where Tojo-san was standing.
‘Oh, I’m glad you’re in, Kokoro-chan.’
‘What’s up? Do you need something?’
‘I heard this loud noise, and it sounded like it might be coming from your house.’
‘Oh, it was nothing …’ Kokoro said, and then she noticed that Tojo-san was holding something. A cell phone.
Tojo-san followed Kokoro’s eyes.
‘It’s my mum’s,’ she explained. ‘She usually leaves it at home, but I brought it since I thought if Miori and the others were over again or something, I could call the school and get our teacher to come.’
Kokoro was touched.
She felt a lump in her throat. ‘Thank you,’ she managed to say. ‘Thank you … so very much. It wasn’t that. It’s just that the mirror in our house … fell off the wall and broke.’
‘Seriously? Are you OK?’
Tojo-san’s gaze fell on Kokoro’s injured right hand. ‘You’re – you’re hurt.’
‘Yeah, it’s OK.’
‘All right then, if you’re sure.’ Tojo-san started walking back to her house. After a few steps, she looked back and waved.
✦ ✦ ✦
BUT IT REALLY WASN’T OK. Her hand throbbed terribly.
And her heart was racing. She was going to set off, on her own, to the castle. How far did the Wolf Queen’s penalty extend? She’d heard that everyone would be eaten soon, but would she be excluded from this collective responsibility since she’d been absent from the castle? She suddenly thought about the burden of finding the Wishing Key, and wanted to throw herself on the bed and weep.
Just then, she heard Rion’s final words through the mirror.
It’s not Little Red Riding Hood. The Wolf Queen is …
Suddenly her vision cleared.
She raised her head and stared at Tojo-san, still walking along the pavement.
‘Moé-chan, could you do something for me?’ she called through the gate.
‘Yes, what?’
‘Could you show me the drawing in your house? The one in the hallway?’
‘The original illustration from Little Red Riding Hood?’
‘No, the other one.’
Kokoro shook her head. Why hadn’t she seen it?
I’ve been giving you clues all along to help you find the key.
I call you all Little Red Riding Hoods, but sometimes you all seem to me more like the wolf. Is it really that hard to find it?
Don’t be tempted to do anything you’ve read in a story, such as calling your mum to come and rip open the wolf’s stomach and stuff it with rocks.
I was thinking, too, the whole thing feels a bit fake.
The way the Wolf Queen calls us all Little Red Riding Hoods.
Rion had noted this.
That’s why he asked the Wolf Queen what her favourite fairy tale was.
There are seven of us.
We’d talked about it – seven different realities, seven parallel worlds.
Little Red Riding Hood wasn’t the only fairy tale to feature a wolf. The Wolf Queen had left them clues all along the way.
‘Could you show me the illustration for The Wolf and the Seven Young Goats?’ Kokoro asked Tojo-san.
Tojo-san seemed caught off guard for a second. Which was only natural. Kokoro knew she’d react the same way if a girl she’d just been talking to had an injured hand and was now making a strange request out of the blue.
Tojo-san opened her mouth to say something, but then shut it. ‘OK.’ They walked side by side in silence to her house.
Standing in front of the illustration on the wall, Kokoro’s whole body let out a deep Ah.
‘I have the picture book too,’ Tojo-san said, and brought it over. ‘It’s my father’s.’
When Kokoro saw the cover, she gasped. On the bookshelf in her room in the castle was the same German book: Der Wolf und die sieben jungen Geißlein.
The Wolf Queen had given this hint as well, and Kokoro regretted that she’d never even opened the book.
‘Thanks.’
‘You can borrow it anytime. The same illustration’s inside too.’
Kokoro respected Tojo-san for not asking why she was suddenly so interested. I wish we’d been good friends much earlier, she thought.
‘Take this, too,’ Tojo-san said. She handed a Band-Aid to Kokoro.
‘When your mother comes home, you should ask her to dress it properly for you. OK?’
‘OK.’
Accepting it with her good hand, Kokoro suddenly choked up. She felt so grateful for the worlds she had – the extraordinary world of the castle, and the ordinary world that contained her mother and Tojo-san. I really want to come back here, she thought.
‘When are you moving?’
‘The first of April.’
‘Very soon then.’
‘Can’t help it. Dad wanted to move in March, but the first of April is a Saturday this year so he has the day off.’
‘Thank you, Moé-chan.’
Kokoro clutched the book tightly and bobbed her head. She wanted to talk more but she’d run out of time.
‘I’m really happy I could be friends with you, Moé-chan.’
‘You don’t need to say that. It’s making me embarrassed.’ Tojo-san smiled.
Kokoro remembered what she’d said about a reset in life. How she was looking forward to making a fresh start with people in her new school.
But Kokoro hesitated to say the other thing she was thinking about.
‘Just don’t push the reset button on me,’ she murmured.
It’s OK to forget me, she added to herself. Because I’ll remember it all. What happened today, and you, Moé-chan. And how we were friends.