RION WAS SURE HE’D CONTINUE to play football in a club team with his friends, and go to the same junior high together.
But when he was in sixth grade, his mother handed him a brochure. ‘Have a look at this,’ she said.
The brochure was for a school in Hawaii.
When he saw it was a boarding school, Rion’s heart froze.
He despised the very thought of it.
‘I thought it would be a huge opportunity for you,’ his mother said.
She stared at him solemnly, and he suddenly realized. His mother wanted him far away.
✦ ✦ ✦
‘WOW, A SCHOOL IN HAWAII?’
‘Some professional players went to that school, right?’
‘Rion, you’re amazing.’
The more his friends commented, the harder it got for him to back down. And he himself started to think maybe this was all for the best.
‘I’m sure it’s a good school, but what did Rion say about it?’
‘He said he’d like to go.’
He overheard his parents talking one evening. His father had just got home from work. ‘Are you sure?’ he asked. ‘Kids still in elementary school don’t know what they want. They just do what their parents tell them. Are you sure that’s what he said?’
‘He did. He said he’d like to go.’
Listening to his father, Rion thought, No, Dad, you’re wrong.
Elementary school kids do know what they want.
Even I can see that if I stay here a moment longer, it’ll only cause you both more pain.
And I feel the same way – I want to get away from you.
I don’t know what to do, Mio. I’m sorry.
I kept well, but I wasn’t any use.
✦ ✦ ✦
HIS MOTHER HAD COME TO visit him at Christmas, and baked him a cake – then she’d gone home.
She hadn’t said a word about taking him back with her for the New Year holiday.
It was late afternoon, and he was lying on his bed in his dorm. He stared at the dead mirror, hoping it would start to shine. He gave it a stroke – ‘Come on, shine, mirror, shine.’
When it finally did begin to glisten with its rainbow colours, he broke into a wide smile. He put on his watch and ever so slowly thrust his hand inside.
✦ ✦ ✦
AOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
‘Aki-chan, where are you? It’ll be time soon and we need to go home. The howling has started.’
‘It’s OK, Ureshino. There’s nothing we can do.’
‘Why don’t we go home now, just us. Time’s running out.’
He tried to go into the mirror, but was pulled back.
This is bad, he told himself, this is really bad.
‘Subaru. Over here! We’ve got to get Kokoro in!’ He turned to face Kokoro’s mirror. ‘Kokoro’s the only one of us who didn’t come today, so she won’t be forced back and eaten. We’ve got to get Kokoro to help—’
Honestly, he’d known all along.
That the Wolf Queen’s insistence on calling them ‘Little Red Riding Hoods’ was completely fake.
There are seven of us.
According to the fairy tale, the key had to be inside the grandfather clock.
The piece of knowledge that Rion had kept to himself, thinking it was he who would be granted a wish.
✦ ✦ ✦
KOKORO’S FOREHEAD ACHED.
She felt a massive blow to her face.
As if she were practising on a horizontal bar and accidentally smacked her face against it.
At that moment, Rion’s shape started to break up.
She heard a voice.
‘Your wish—’
Whose voice, she didn’t know. She wasn’t sure if she’d actually heard it, or imagined it. And then she heard another voice. A child’s. A girl’s.
‘I—’
‘I’m all right. So take her and—’
‘Can you see it?’
A voice had intruded while she was experiencing someone else’s memories.
Kokoro’s eyes widened in astonishment. She pulled her hand out from under the bed and turned around. She screamed.
‘WOLF QUEEN!’
The Wolf Queen had pushed open the door and was standing outside in the hallway.
Looking the same as ever.
A pinafore dress with frills, and the wolf mask.
Yet in the darkness of the castle, now engulfed by some weird force, she seemed different. Kokoro’s immediate instinct was to move away, but from the small room there was no other exit. The Wolf Queen stood, as if blocking the door.
Kokoro got to her feet and was about to push past when the Wolf Queen said, ‘Wait!’ She let out an exaggerated sigh and folded her arms.
‘This is the second time you’ve tried to run away, isn’t it. I remember you on that very first day.’
‘Well, what do you expect …’
What do you expect when there’s a wolf lurking about who is known to have gobbled up six living creatures?
Kokoro had the feeling this little Wolf Queen had created herself in the image of that wolf. And all the while, Kokoro had been trying her best to avoid any attention from her, but now …
I never expected we’d actually be having a conversation, Kokoro thought.
Just moments earlier, she’d been terrified out of her wits, yet now she was feeling so much calmer.
When she looked closely at the Wolf Queen’s dress, she had to reconsider her theory. The hem was ragged and torn. The frills were ripped and frayed. Her entire outfit including the wolf mask was damaged and dirty.
‘Even I can’t do anything about it. Once the rules are broken it can’t be stopped,’ said the Wolf Queen. ‘That was the condition when I created it. There’s always a price to pay.’
The Wolf Queen pointed the muzzle of her wolf mask towards Kokoro.
‘You, however, will not be eaten. You’ve had a narrow escape.’
‘But the others—’
‘They’re buried. You saw them, didn’t you? Underneath those X marks.’
Ah, Kokoro thought, and shut her eyes.
The Xs did remind her of grave markers.
‘You noticed?’ the Wolf Queen asked with a drawl.
Kokoro thought she knew what she was asking. ‘Um,’ she replied. ‘I think I did.’
‘I see.’
‘Could you tell me something, Wolf Queen?’
‘Now what?’
‘We’re able to “meet”, aren’t we?’
The Wolf Queen fell silent for a moment.
As ever, Kokoro couldn’t see her expression behind the mask: maybe she didn’t actually have a face? The lonely keeper of the castle in the mirror. This wolf mask might be the only face this girl’s ever had.
Was she an enemy, or an ally? Kokoro wasn’t at all sure.
Kokoro pushed her line of questioning a little further.
‘I don’t mean immediately, but at some point in the future, we’ll probably be able to meet. Won’t we?’
‘Only if you get home safely now,’ the Wolf Queen said.
Kokoro took this as a yes. So it’s true, she thought, mulling it over.
‘It’s not my intention for you all to be eaten.’ The Wolf Queen aimed her muzzle petulantly at the ceiling. She turned back to Kokoro. ‘The rest depends on you,’ she said. ‘Oh, and by the way, Aki is currently in the Wishing Room.’ Then, she vanished.
You’ve had a narrow escape.
The Wolf Queen’s words rang inside her head.