Lonely Castle in the Mirror

by Mizuki Tsujimura

“What’s wrong with you? Don’t you want to know where you are? You could be on the brink of an adventure, and you’re telling me you really don’t care?

If somebody manipulated your thoughts and feelings, would you still be the same person as before?

If I’m in the castle, she started to think, then I’ll be safe. Only the castle beyond the mirror could offer her complete protection.

She hadn’t thought of it that way before, but now that she did, she realized that yes, she had been trying to battle through each day.

she’d always felt she couldn’t ask the others where they were from, and so she hadn’t. Certainly she was dying to know, but she resisted the notion of anyone knowing anything about her. I wonder why, she thought. Because I want to forget it all myself. While she was here, she wanted to be free from it all—from

She understood the fear. Not knowing what the future would be for her, not knowing how long she’d be like this. Seeing people who were moving on was enough to make her feel an excruciating pain in her chest.

Memories were not the only thing she’d take away from here. The not-quite one year she’d spent here would remain. And making friends like these would be what sustained her.