From ANOTHER STORY, by yasu
After her many adventures, the last place the girl visited was the Land of Mirrors. This Land of Mirrors was a world presided over by the Devil of Mirrors. The Devil showed people their true selves, reflected in the mirror made from the crystalline tears of the red moon, known as the "Future-Reflecting Luna Mirror". The humans, knowing their true selves and seeing the limits of their bodies and minds, seeing that after all that trying it was futile, no longer had hope.
"It appears you still have hope. If you do, will you look in this mirror and see your future self?" The Devil asked the girl.
"Of course." The girl stepped in front of the mirror. Reflected in the mirror was...a tired woman. An image of a woman whose eyes showed not the flicker of dreams, nor hope...
"Ah!" Nozomi, reading the book, cried out. That was unmistakably the image of her current self. Then, she remembered. This was no fairy tale: this was a story of the future...
"How is it? That is, truly, your future self. Humans are foolish. No, for example, you humans are the ones who, despite your saving of this world, will once again play the Sixth Melody. And then, as for you, you'll fall into darkness. It was all in vain, don't you think? Everything you've done up until now, and everything you'll do from here on, it's all useless. So, stop, here. Isn't it just the truth that it would be better to leave such worthless things like dreams and hope here at my feet?"
"Even so...even so...I want to believe in the humans!" The girl said, her voice shaking.
"Do you really believe? If you truly feel that way, then go ahead and call out your name. If you, who believes in humans, and the shadow of your future is one, then yell it out, confidently. Go ahead, shout out your true name!"
The girl could not give so much as an answer. The girl, who had until now been brimming with confidence, felt her face become clouded by dark shadows for the first time. The girl was staring forward, unmoving, but after a little while she turned her eyes toward heaven, and found the red moon. She stared at it intently, so intently.
Nozomi was startled. No, for a moment, she felt that she had met the girl's gaze.
"Could...could it be? No, that shouldn't be right. It must be an illusion."
The flames around Nozomi erupted and grew. The temperature inside the room was increasing.
"Hey! What should I do? Tell me what to do!" called the girl, turning toward the red moon.
This time, the girl's voice could clearly be heard.
"Is it all right for you to end your life, with this image of yourself? Before, you wanted to visit a future where your life was shining brilliantly, did you not? Your future self...no, my future self, do we really have nothing to truly smile about anymore? Hey! Answer me!"
Nozomi could see, in her own eyes, the image of that helplessly pleading girl. There was no way this was an illusion.
"In the mirror..." Nozomi answered.
"What?" the girl replied.
"That image in the mirror is unmistakably me. But there's something that makes it so I cannot believe that there's enough hope for me to keep living to see the future. You see, there's no one who I'm important to, and I don't have anyone I love. The children in the Land of Sound found the place where they truly belonged. To the Right-Sided Servant, the Left-Sided Servant was important. Then, the Ice Queen even had someone whose love for her had never died, unchanged forever. And yet, all of those things are just a myth. I don't have anyone like that at all. The real world isn't that benevolent!"
The flames around Nozomi blazed more violently, and grew higher and higher.
"I can't shatter this mirror by myself. I need your strength, too! So, to me, you're important!"
"Even if you say that, I can't do what I'm supposed to."
The girl gazed at the red moon, looking sorrowful.
"Hold on, don't look at me like that. There's nothing I can do!"
Nozomi stood up shakily, stepping back as if trying to escape the girl's gaze. When she did so, something at her feet smoldered. Then...a beautiful melody gently, softly, spread through the room. Though she recognized it as a music box, she needed a little more time. In the smoke, she felt around for the source of the sound, and picked it from the floor. It was the box with the mirror in the lid. The lid had been opened from the force of her foot jostling it. Looking again, she was able to see a piece of paper, folded into four sections, inside.
It was a letter.
There were characters, written with different people's handwriting, all over it.
Nozomi-chan,
I guess this is goodbye, isn't it? Even though I tried so hard to be your friend, I'm still lonely. Everyone helped me make this music box for you. I'm glad if I've given you something special.
Shuichi
Nozomi-chan, your stories are really sweet. Please become a great author when you grow up!
Yuuka
Nozomi-chan, you're really tall!
Kazuaki
"Oh, that Kazuaki..."
He was always a little bit off the mark, but with his words, Nozomi remembered herself, twenty years before, as someone who everyone loved.
I wrote the song inside the music box. I call it "The Song of Love". When I grow up, I'm going to be a musician. I'll sing it for you at one of my concerts.
Hayashi
The carving around the outside, is it pretty? I did that. If you show it to everyone, they'll all be able to see it, won't they? I put a new mirror in it, too. Sorry if it surprises you too much!
Kiyoko
"Oh! Did she really?"
While she read the letter, Nozomi felt as if something that had formed a lump in her heart had suddenly been displaced. All around her, the flames were blazing hotly. But, her heart had already flown to that time in elementary school, as if she couldn't see such things at all. She had misunderstood! It wasn't that they had hated her! Then, once more, her eyes fell on the letter. There were all the names of the people who were in her memories...
I like you a lot. A lot, a looooot, Nozomi-chan.
Be happy.
...then, at the end of the letter, everyone had written "Like you a lot!" a bunch of times, all gathered together at the bottom.
"They loved me...they all loved me..." Nozomi held that letter to her, that letter from her friends that she had just become aware of after it had been hidden for so long. The Song of Love, pouring from the music box, entered her heart. Then, tears fell from Nozomi's eyes.
The light from the moon was obscured by the clouds, once again making it look as if the red moon was crying.
"Hey, so what should I do?" The girl asked the moon once more, turning her face toward it.
"I understand now...the future is something that we create with our own strength, isn't it? Hope is always within ourselves...I was just a little late in noticing it..." Nozomi coughed, choking on the smoke filling the room. The tongues of flame were already gathering right next to her. They had become so hot that soon they would be completely unbearable. Reeling, she fanned herself with her hand, as if to keep back the heat. She glanced at the clock's face on the other side of her hand. 11:59.
"It's okay! Don't give up! What do you really want me to do! Say it!"
She couldn't open her eyes anymore. Her consciousness was fading. Even so, using all of her remaining strength, Nozomi answered the girl's question. Clearly, and in her strongest voice.
"I want to live! I want to live again! I want to create a future brimming with hope!!"
The hands on the clock ticked to midnight.
Just like that, what should have been her final day on Earth was over.
The girl, having heard Nozomi's clear voice, turned to the Devil of the Land of Mirrors and looked at him, saying,
"The future is something you create for yourself! There's no such thing as a future someone else decided for you!"
The Devil of the Land of Mirrors flinched a little at the girl's fervor.
The girl spoke again. "Listen well, as if you can't avoid hearing it! My name is..."
"What's your name, then...?" the Devil asked her again.
"My name is Nozomi! A girl with the name that means hope!"
The Luna Mirror shattered.
The glass of the room's window had been broken.
"Hey!! Are you all right in there? I'm coming in to save you now!" a man's voice said.
Nozomi was thinking, deep inside of her own consciousness. Was that sound of glass shattering I just heard the sound of the window's glass breaking, or was it the magic mirror...?