Lonely Castle in the Mirror

by Mizuki Tsujimura

What a pathetically small thing I’ve been wishing for, she thought.

That girl robbed me of time.

Seeing people who were moving on was enough to make her feel an excruciating pain in her chest.

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.

‘Rion … I’m sorry I scared you. But I had a good time.’

I’m sorry, Ureshino. Everyone, I’m sorry. I can’t do this on my own any more. I’m sorry you got mixed up in this. I don’t want to go home. I don’t want to go on living. I just can’t bear it any more.

Subaru was in 1985. Aki, 1992. Kokoro and Rion, 2006. Masamune, 2013. Fuka, 2020. Ureshino,?

‘I understand,’ she said. ‘If I see you somewhere, and fate tugs at me somehow, I’ll call out to you. Though by then you might be head over heels for someone your own age.’

I was rescued. There are children somewhere who, trembling, and at the risk of their own lives, pulled me by the arm and brought me back into this world. It’s OK, Aki. Grow up to be an adult. I’m in the future, where you are too. Children who said these words to me, kept me tethered to the world, gave me the chance to grow up.

I’ve been waiting for you, a voice says inside Aki. It’s OK, grow up to be an adult.