SHE HAD MADE UP HER mind, and placed her hand inside the mirror.
Slowly, as if stirring up muddy water.
The bottom, unshattered half of the mirror was just big enough for her to squeeze through. Taking care that the shards didn’t cut her or rip her clothes, she slipped through. This might be the very last time, she thought.
With the mirror so badly broken, she expected her mother to get rid of it the next day. She clutched the picture book tightly, like a good-luck charm, desperately hoping that while she was in the castle the mirror wouldn’t crack any more, and that she’d be able to get home safely.
She came out on the other side of the mirror, and was shocked at the scene in front of her.
The castle was almost pitch dark inside, not lit with its usual dim glow. The walls and the flooring looked unfamiliar, as if she were somewhere else completely. The silhouette of the castle outside had faded, making it seem amorphous and twisted.
The mirror she emerged from was also broken, cracked in exactly the same pattern as the one in her bedroom.
She was sure she’d come through into the grand foyer, but if so, it appeared utterly transformed. The other mirrors were lying on the floor, shattered in the same way. Shards of ornaments and urns were scattered across the floor, as if after a terrible storm.
It took a while for her to understand that she’d emerged into the dining room. So had her mirror been moved?
Nothing about the dark and ruined room reminded her of the noble old space she remembered. Kokoro took slow quiet breaths, and gripped the book tightly to her chest, trying to avoid attracting attention from the wolf, who might still be nearby.
A far-off howl rang deep in her ears – or was she merely imagining it? She crouched on all fours and slowly crawled her way around, using the overturned dining table as a shield. Gradually, she moved through to the kitchen where she took a close look at the shelves.
Masamune had said he’d discovered an X nearby. She looked around. It was still there.
The fourth young goat hid inside the kitchen shelves.
She gently placed a fingertip on the X, and felt a terrible shock strike the middle of her forehead.
✦ ✦ ✦
‘LYING MASA!’
The force of the voice smashed into her head as if she’d been hit with a heavy, blunt instrument. Her consciousness faded.
Kokoro was sitting at a desk in a classroom reading aloud some words scratched into the wood.
Masa is a liar.
Always bragging about my friend this and my friend that.
Die, why don’t you.
The words became distorted. The scene faded. She saw the face – of a boy she didn’t know.
‘I – hate that.’
The boy looked as if he was about to cry, and Kokoro felt her heart being squeezed. Then she realized. This is Masamune’s memory. The memory of a time that traumatized him.
‘Maybe you thought that lie was no big deal, but to me it felt like you’d totally betrayed me. Especially because I always admired you, and envied you.’
That’s not true! Masamune’s thoughts ran right through her.
But it was true. He knew better than anyone that he had lied. So he had no way of defending himself.
What he wanted to say was, ‘No, I never meant to hurt anyone,’ but he wasn’t even sure of that.
‘He doesn’t need to go. I never thought public schools were any good anyway.’
Masamune’s father was in his bedroom, tying his necktie. Masamune was listening outside the door at the top of the stairs.
‘I mean, I heard from colleagues at my office who work in TV that the conditions for the teachers are often appalling.’
The voice made Masamune’s chest ache.
‘But – they are doing their best, and there are some very good teachers doing really good work,’ said his mother.
Perhaps I’m the one who invented excuses for not fitting in. Masamune swallowed back these words.
Instead, he murmured to himself, ‘That’s right, Dad. The teachers are to blame. Every one.’
He got up and went back to his room. It was spacious, overflowing with toys and books. And tons of video games.
There was a mirror in the room and it was glowing.
Entranced, Masamune stood in front of the rainbow light. He placed his palm flat and splayed his fingers on to the surface of the mirror. And his body was sucked into the light.
‘Hey there.’
The Wolf Queen was standing on the other side of the mirror.
‘Whoa!’
‘Congratulations! Aasu Masamune-kun, you have, happily enough, been invited to the castle!’
The next thing she saw was the nurse’s office, in winter.
Kokoro recognized the room. She felt the warmth of the space heater on her bare legs.
‘They’re not gonna bail on me. I know it.’
Masamune was sitting on a hard chair in the nurse’s office.
Someone was rubbing his back. His shoulders were heaving, as if he’d just been crying his eyes out; he had bawled so much that he was having trouble breathing.
‘They’re gonna come. I know it.’
He was talking to himself.
The hand kept rubbing his back.
‘Something must have prevented your friends from coming.’
She could see now the face of the person standing beside Masamune.
It was Ms Kitajima.
✦ ✦ ✦
SHE FELT ANOTHER SHOCKING PAIN travel through her forehead, a bolt of pain, like eating cold ice cream.
Disorientated, she focused her vision. She was in front of the kitchen pantry. Her finger still resting on the X.
Down at her feet she noticed a pair of glasses. Hands trembling, she picked them up and fingered them carefully. The bottom of the right lens was cracked, the frame twisted. These were Masamune’s. She shivered in horror.
When they said ‘eaten’, did that mean literally eaten?
You’ll be swallowed up whole.
A huge wolf will appear. A powerful force will punish you. And once it’s triggered, there’s nothing anyone can do to stop it. Not even me.
The first day they’d all gathered together, the Wolf Queen had explained the rules. But they hadn’t paid much attention.
Kokoro’s breathing grew ragged. She shook her head vigorously to drive away the growing terror, and put the glasses down as carefully as she could. She gripped her arms to keep herself from fainting.
She peered up close at the X inside the pantry.
She must have just experienced Masamune’s own memories.
He must have run away from the wolf, and hidden right here in this pantry and dropped his glasses. She was curious about the spot he had chosen to hide in. Why here?
She opened the book she’d borrowed from Tojo-san.
She had to confirm each location. She had to make absolutely sure.
Bang, bang, bang! Open up. It’s me, your mother.
The young goats hid from the wolf. As Rion had said, when the Wolf Queen called them Little Red Riding Hoods, she was hoodwinking them all.
The first goat hid under the table.
(I’m pretty sure there’s one under the desk in my room.)
The second hid under the bed.
(Under the bed in my room I found an X, so what does that mean?)
The third goat hid inside the unlit stove.
(What’s this? Kokoro thought when she found the mark inside the fireplace.)
The fourth hid in the kitchen pantry.
(I found one too. In the summer. There’s one in the kitchen, isn’t there? Behind the pantry shelves.)
The fifth one hid inside the wardrobe.
(I found one in my room too. In the wardrobe.)
The sixth one hid inside a laundry basket.
(There’s one in the bathroom, too. There was a laundry basket in the bathtub, and when I moved it I found an X.)
All these Xs marked where the young goats were hiding before the wolf gobbled them up.
She felt like they’d all been cleverly blindsided.
The feeling that they’d been hypnotized into believing they’d never, ever find it.
The Wolf Queen’s voice came back to her.
I call you all Little Red Riding Hoods, but sometimes you all seem to me to be more like the wolf. Is it really that hard to find?
In the fairy tale The Wolf and the Seven Young Goats, there was one spot which the wolf never checked. Where the seventh little goat hid, and was saved.
There was just one place where you’d never be found.
The Wishing Key was inside the large clock in the grand foyer.
The first thing you saw when you emerged from the mirror.
It was the one place no one had ever looked.