After a quick nod to start with the point up north, we pushed through the dwindling crowd. With Kei at the front and me guarding the rear, we raced across the town. Here and there, we took shortcuts, jumping off of rooftops or bannisters. Daisuke shouted directions to us amidst puffing breaths. My senses heightened, just waiting for an opposing team to attack us. But it seemed they had had the same idea as us, and so we reached our location without any trouble.

The building was an offshoot of the hospital, perhaps an abandoned storeroom or warehouse. Cobwebs crisscrossed under the eaves, with spindle-legged spiders crawling across them. A rolled-up poster of some kind hung over the door. The windows were all boarded up. I sure hope there’s a lighting source in there. On one side of the door, a man with a cigar on his lips stood at attention. Perhaps he was an invigilator of some sort.

‘Hey, do you know if any other team was here already?’ Kei asked the man.

He looked pointedly away and didn’t say a word. Oh well, worth a try,

With a huff, Kei strode toward the door, and we followed. Unlike the rest of the place, the door appeared new, made of polished wood and opened with nary a creak. I breathed a sigh of relief at the sight of the long tube lights across the ceiling. Their harsh white light bounced off of every nook and cranny in the room, including a patchwork of wood panels that ran across the floor. A little stool with a box on top of it stood at its very centre, on the only square spot of the floor without patterns.

We gave each other a look. Surely, it can’t be that easy,

Our footsteps echoed loudly as we walked in. We were on the lookout for booby traps, but if there were any, they didn’t get triggered.

The little box was the size of my hand and had a glass lid, but was otherwise made of white wood. And inside it sat a golden key.

‘I bet it’s a trap,’ Kei’s voice boomed across the room. ‘Don’t touch it.’

He and Daisuke argued about what to do next, while I scrutinized the box. Nothing seemed suspicious. It wasn’t connected to any wires, nor was there any room to hide projectiles in the edges. Kei was probably right, but the seconds ticked on, and we had to do something before another team got here. Perhaps the trap depended on pressure sensitivity or motion on top of the stool. I took a deep breath. Hope this doesn’t go wrong. Before anyone could protest, I flipped the glass lid open without moving the rest of the box.

The squabbling behind me paused. Kei’s face froze in the middle of a yell, while Daisuke and Tsubasa stared at the box with wide eyes. My heart thudded against my ribs.

Nothing happened.

‘Much ado about nothing.’ I gave a nervous chuckle. Of course, the reference went over everyone’s heads.

Kei shot me a glare, then picked up the key. It crumpled within his hands. ‘What the--’ he said. ‘It’s--It’s made of paper.’

My stomach dropped in disappointment. I hadn’t really been expecting it to be so simple, but some part of me hoped we’d got the key. I stepped closer as he unfolded the origami. Lilted cursive writing ran across one side of the golden page.

Trust not your ears nor what you see.

For what you seek, the mission’s key,

Is where it always needs to be.

A great rumbling echoed throughout the room. We jumped into formation, Kei and I at the sides and the others between us. Walls of some kind shot out of the floor, exactly where the patterns used to be. They locked into place with a clink. I swallowed at the thought of what would have happened if one of us had stood outside the clear patch.

‘Is this… a maze?’ breathed Tsubasa.

And not just any maze, as the reflections which stared back at us with dismay confirmed. A house of mirrors. Each was delicately curved, confusing the pathways even more, and right at their feet, showed the golden key lying on the floor somewhere.

‘The echo, the mirrors, that must be what the first line was about,’ Daisuke said as he scribbled in his notebook. ‘The last two stanzas are confusing though. I would have thought the key of the mission is in the middle of one, as you have a journey to and journey from. But that doesn’t make sense since we’re already in the middle.’

‘Or maybe the key is the journey itself. So we’d need to walk through the whole maze before it shows up somehow.’ I said, knitting my eyebrows.

Daisuke nodded. ‘Either way, I think it’d be smart to stick together and map out the maze.’

Kei growled and clenched his fists. ‘That’d take too long. What if someone else comes in and finds the key before us?’ He fixed his sight on Tsubasa. ‘Tahro told me you’re a nature whisperer. Can’t you keep track of everyone’s locations if we split up?’

‘I-I can t-try, but I’m n-not that good y-yet.’ Tsubasa glanced at the ground, fumbling with his collar. ‘It’s a l-lot more complic-cated than anything I’d d-done before.’

My eyes widened as I realised what he’d meant. I’d read about it a few weeks ago when I was researching witches. Inner spirit was actually divided into three; core, supplementary and life spirit. While most of us can only control our own supplementary spirit, a nature whisperer can manipulate something else’s life spirit. Even a plant’s! But to know something’s location, the inner spirit of what you’re looking for must resonate with your own. Unfortunately, if a nature whisperer tried to push out someone’s life spirit, the person could die. Though there was one way to bypass this.

‘You’d need to make our life spirit push out our supplementary spirit, right?’ I asked.

Tsubasa stared, eyebrows raised. ‘Y-Yes, it’s very f-finicky.’

‘Well, just give it a try,’ said Kei.

Tsubasa gulped, and I gave him an encouraging smile. He took a few deep breaths and closed his eyes shut. A few moments later, something tingled within me. Somewhere deep inside, a place I couldn’t pinpoint. Like trickling raindrops, the sensation spread.

Tsubasa scrunched his face, eyebrows raised in puzzlement. Poor boy must be trying to figure it out. More and more sweat drops dotted his features every second, as though he was doing some intense cardio. Just when he clenched his fists, and I thought he was going to give up, a surge of inner spirit burst out of me. It was the most odd sensation, like effervescent bubbles bursting out. While we can control our own supplementary spirit, most of us can’t exert it outside our physical bodies. Only witches could do that. My heart beat fast, and my breaths came out in pants, as Tsubasa pushed out a fraction of my terrible stamina.

‘I-I’m sorry, I c-can’t do it.’ Tsubasa sighed, unfurling his fists. ‘N-not for long, at l-least.’

Kei scowled. ‘Guess it’s plan B, then.’

With Daisuke at the helm, we clung to each other’s backpacks and moved in. Our reflections moved with us in a thousand directions. Daisuke’s map was visible from several angles, slowly growing with every step. We took only left turns till we met a dead end, then double backed. Our footfalls echoed loudly, further disorienting us in space.

I wondered if we couldn’t just break the mirrors. But that might be considered destruction of property and get us disqualified. No, I felt as though we were missing something, and there was a quicker way to find the key. Perhaps the riddle itself held a clue we were overlooking. Where does a mission’s key always need to be? Or perhaps it wasn’t figurative at all. Where does a key always need to be?

I clashed against a mirror and pain shot across my forehead. What on earth? A hand clutching my head, I looked around, only to stare back at my own confused expression. Where was everyone? My hand was still up, clutching air instead of Tsubasa’s bag. Here and there, I saw everyone else, but whenever I reached out, my fingers only met glass. Panic built up within me, pulsating with my heart.

I’m lost.