As Aki had tried to type in a message to the pager, in her haste she’d knocked over a calendar on the table. The calendar read 1991.

If Kokoro matched up all the others’ realities, an even clearer timeline would emerge, she was sure.

For Aki, Kokoro was from the future.

For Fuka, Kokoro was living in the past.

I never said you can’t meet up, or can’t help each other. It’s time you people worked things out. Think about it.

The Wolf Queen’s words were on the nail.

We can meet.

We won’t look as we do now, we’ll be a different age, but it’s not true at all that we won’t be able to see each other.

‘Aki-chan!’

Kokoro opened up the door to the body of the grandfather clock and called out.

A key was hidden behind the pendulum.

She took hold of the key and spied a small keyhole in the back of the clock.

So this is where it is, Kokoro thought.

The Wishing Room.

They’d looked all over, and all this time it was hidden in an obvious place.

Kokoro inserted the key into the hole. There was a creaking sound as the back of the clock cracked open.

Kokoro closed her eyes, and made her wish.

Save Aki.

‘Please!’ she shouted. ‘Please, save Aki! Please forget that she broke the rules.’

Light spilled out.

Not the muddy light from earlier, or the brutal overpowering light.

But a milky, soft light that enveloped Kokoro.

‘Aki!’ Kokoro shouted desperately into the light.

Hang in there.

‘We can all meet each other!’

Kokoro recalled the scene in The Wolf and the Seven Young Goats when the mother goat opens up the grandfather clock where the youngest goat is hiding.

Aki, come out, Kokoro wished, and reached her hand through the open door.

‘Don’t run away! Come over here! Give me your hand! Aki, please!’

She was shouting at the top of her voice.

‘It’s OK, Aki! Aki-chan! We can help each other! We can meet! We can see each other again! So you have to live! You’ve got to keep going, and grow up to be an adult.

‘Please, Aki. I’m … in the future. In the future, where you are too. Where you’re all grown up!’

Kokoro felt something soft and warm.

Someone was grasping her hand.

Kokoro shut her eyes tight, and grabbed the hand back as firmly as she could. No way am I going to let you go.

‘Kokoro?’

‘Yes. It’s me, Kokoro!’ Her face was wet with tears. Aki’s hand. She would never, ever let it go. ‘I came to get you.’

‘Kokoro – I’m so sorry. I—’

‘It doesn’t matter!’ Kokoro was shouting, her voice welling up from deep inside her. ‘It just doesn’t matter! You’ve got to come baaaack!’

Her voice cracked.

With every ounce of strength, she pulled the hand towards her.

At that moment—