“You can come out now.” Ai glared into the shadows as it formed together around a pair of glowing, yellow eyes. Rothbart stood before them radiating a terrible, yet powerful energy.

“Well done,” the evil wizard smiled. “You make me proud.”

“You disgust me,” Ai spat in the mud. “I can’t believe all you do is hurt people, but the public thinks you’re a doctor!”

“Is that what that boy told you?” wondered the wizard, although it seemed as if he was speaking to himself. “He’s lying as well.”

“We’re all liars,” said Ai. “The difference is that you lie by nature and I lie because I have to.”

“Sounds to me like those two are awfully similar,” said the wizard. He swiftly waved his gloved hand and a window from the red-brick house flew open. From that window, a familiar trunk flew into the air and landed before the girls.

Rothbart raised an eyebrow.

“We’re already wearing dry clothes,” Ai protested, fingering the sleeves of her gray kimono.

“You know the conditions,” said the wizard.

Because freedom came in various forms, Ai and the girls were practically subject to following the wills of this man. Ai hated it. She hated the terrible deal she’d made. So far, nothing particularly terrible has happened, yet the demands and restrictions were like a choke-hold.

Grudgingly, the girls trudged up to the trunk and collected their prospective garments of a specific color. Sakura in pink, Ri in yellow, Mako in blue, Momo in lilac, Nana in green, and Kaori in orange. Ai fingered her own red robe and disappeared behind the makeshift dressing room which hovered in midair by the wizard.

“Leave the gray kimonos here,” said the wizard, so the girls all left a pile next to the trunk before returning to their locations around the lake. Then the wizard took the empty trunk and the pile of the gray clothes Kenta had given them, and left.

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“I hate him,” said Kaori after they were sure that he was gone to his duties indoors.

The others murmured in agreement except for Ai whose eyes remained strained on the red-bricked house. Mako seemed to notice her friend’s silence and grew silent as well, watching as Ai’s pale fingers slowly curled into fists.

“What’s wrong, Ai?” Nana demanded, hands crossing over her chest.

Mako walked over and gave Ai a shoulder to lean on. “Tell us, Ai. What’s wrong?”

Ai shook her head sadly and lowered her chin so that it touched her chest. Her shoulders heaved like she was lifting a huge burden. Then those shoulders shook and Ai threw back her head as she began to chuckle. The laughter soon shook her whole body so that Ai had to clutch her stomach and gulp deep breaths.

“Oh,” Ai chuckled. “Oh, I-” she doubled over before throwing back her head and wiping at her tears. “I’m such an idiot. I’m sorry.”

Mako hugged her shoulder. “I get it, but what’s wrong? What’s so funny?”

Ai was still crying tears mid-laughter. “My idiocracy,” she said. “Because I’m such a big fool.” Ai shook her head, willing herself to remain calm as she blinked back the remaining wet drops from her lashes. “We’re all liars, aren’t we?” she asked. Her words got stuck in her throat as she said this and her eyes watered anew. “We’re all liars…” she repeated. “So why… Why did we believe that wizard?”

Ai’s knuckles tensed and her palms hurt from the nails digging into flesh. “Why…?” she wondered once more.

It was then, as if a great spell had broken from all the girls and one by one they began to gasp as they realized that had occurred.

They’d given up freedom to a wizard on superstition that their curse should leave them in four years. Superstition, because the wizard could have lied.

Momo fell to her knees and wept. The others soon followed.

Ai remained standing with Mako bent over, weeping at her feet. Yes, their fates now seemed grimmer than before. However, as the sun crept up behind the trees and reached to the skies, Ai did not fall. Her tears dried as she stared off into the distance in the space between two trees where a broken path remained.

It was the path forcefully made by the man who claimed to be Kenta. He’d come twice already despite Ai’s hostility. That man was stubborn.

That gave her hope.