Side-By-Side Dreamers

by Iori Miyazawa

  “But, listen. Saya, we weren’t trying to trick you. I mean, you were the one who crawled into bed with me in the first place.”

  “Huh? Uh, no, Konparu-san. When I was trying to sleep, you came to me on your—”

  “You kissed me while I was sleeping, didn’t you, Saya?”

  “That has nothing to do with this, right?!”

  With an exasperated sigh, Hitsuji extended her hand towards Saya.

  “...What?”

  “Enough talk. The truth is, you wanted to rest in peace, right? And you still want to, right?”

  “That’s...”

  “It’s fine. Come here.” With that said, Hitsuji closed her eyes, and went limp.

  With a pounding in her head, Saya’s vision shook.

  “Ah, ah.”

  The sound grew distant. Her vision darkened. Before she knew it, she’d taken Hitsuji’s hand. By the time she fell to the sofa, as if being sucked into it, Saya had already lost consciousness.

  Riding on the swaying back of an elephant, it felt hard to remember how long we’d been doing this for. The elephant walked through a vast rice paddy, stepping on the coins and flowers that women threw in front of us as it strode along.

  “It was horrible of you to trick me like that.”

  I criticized her, but Hitsuji, who was cradling my head in her lap, giggled without the slightest sign of remorse.

  “I never tricked you, my darling.”

  “But you never told me, either.”

  “You never asked.”

  Hitsuji took a grape from the fruit bowl, putting it in my mouth as I kept trying to protest. The smooth, wet sensation passed between my lips, vanishing down my throat.

  “There’s no taste.”

  “Oh, my. What a shame.”

  Having left the porcelain palace, our procession headed into the jungle. Tonight, we hunted a tiger. Vassals carrying tiger-shooting guns led the way, riding buffalo with ebony neck armor. In the distance, the sun dyed the snowy mountains red as it set, and in its place, torches lit up the shining gold coins on the road.

  The lackadaisical trip brought on a wave of drowsiness. When I started drifting off, Crack, I was struck on the cheek.

  When I looked, it seemed Ran and Midori had brought another elephant they were riding up alongside ours. Ran had hit me with the tip of a riding crop she was carrying.

  “Ow. What was that for?”

  “You can’t sleep, Hokage-san.”

  “Why not?”

  “If you go to sleep while Sleepwalking, you’ll be swallowed up by Nightland.”

  “Swallowed up?”

  “They say that Sleepwalkers who go to sleep in Nightland can never return to Dayland. So, please, be careful not to,” Midori said nonchalantly, despite it being a frightening prospect.

  “Pull yourself together, would you? Today’s tiger is a tough one.”

  I could already tell that when Ran said tiger, she meant was a Suiju. Ran was carrying a long gun with three barrels, and I had the same kind of weapon in my hands, too. Ran and I wore loose and comfortable men’s clothing, while Midori and Hitsuji were dressed in thin clothes and a veil—the outfit of a dancing girl.

  “Where’s Kaede?” I asked.

  “Right heeeere.”

  Turning in the direction of the voice, I saw a blue-skinned goddess statue with crescent blades in each of her six hands. She walked up from the rear of the procession with earth-shaking steps.

  “You look tough,” I pointed out.

  “I know, right?”

  When we stepped into the jungle, from the darkness beyond where our torchlight could reach, a Suiju that was much like the stars of the night sky tied together with silver thread to form a spiderweb appeared. It looked nothing like a tiger, but there was something bewitching and animal-like about the way it moved.

  Kaede charged forward, having become a bloodthirsty goddess, and collided with the Suiju. Next, the guns all fired in unison, illuminating the forest with a flash of red.

  “...You can’t just dodge the issue!”

  No sooner than she had woken on the sofa, Saya started shouting. Hitsuji pushed her away with a look of exasperation.

  “This, after I was kind enough to give you some restful sleep.”

  “Thanks! Not that I asked!”

  Any warm feelings she might have had for Hitsuji vanished from her heart like a fever dream, becoming hard to remember as the fever subsided. She had no love, or anything else, for this woman in her waking moments.

  Hitsuji likewise pursed her lips, pouting as she distanced herself from Saya.

  Kaede and Midori got up from the Sofa, too. Ran managed to get herself flipped over completely and fell to the floor. The way she’d tossed and turned in her sleep before was apparently not just a one-time thing.

  Over coffee and snacks, her consciousness gradually grew sharper. Today’s treats were Bourbon’s Lumonde Cookies and Chocoliere biscuits.

  “What are we doing here?” Saya asked while she sipped the dark, bitter liquid.

  “What do you mean?” Ran responded.

  “I get that we were taking out the Suiju that had infected me last time. But what about this time? Was that one infecting someone, too?”

  “Well, Nightland is all connected, so I couldn’t tell you who, but when you think that someone’s been set free from insomnia or nightmares as a result, doesn’t it make you feel a little good?”

  “There’s that many Suiju, huh.”

  “Incubi, succubi, Bushyasta, the sandman... All around the world, there have always been tales of monsters that cause dreams. Formless beings that infest the dreams of humanity. Sleepwalkers have been fighting them all this time. My family, and Sakaimori-san’s family, too.”

  Glaring at Ran who was telling her all of this with a composed face, Saya said, “I’m still seriously shocked you guys tricked me and turned me into an addict here,” Saya said, glaring at Ran as she told her all of this with a composed face

  “Every human is a sleep addict. The moment you slept next to Konparu-san, your fate was sealed.”

  Thinking quietly about it for a moment, Saya reluctantly opened her mouth. “Well... Fine, I was going to sleep anyway, and it beats not sleeping at all.” Looking from Ran to Midori, Kaede and finally Hitsuji, Saya sighed. “I get it, I’ll work with you... But you’re dragging me into this, so I’m not responsible for whatever happens. Got it?”

  9

  I woke up inside an airplane. I could hear the roar of the wind as it flew. The lights in the cabin were off. There were many passengers sitting in the seats, sleeping quietly.

  The air pressure was doing funny things to my ears. I swallowed.

  Beyond the rows of seats in the darkness, one seat had a reading lamp on. I recognized the person sitting there from behind.

  It had been so long... So very long. Just the sight of her made it feel like tears might well up.

  The moment I opened my mouth to call out to her, a bird took off from inside my mouth.

  The familiar figure stood, and began walking to the front of the cabin. Having become a bird, I soared above the other passengers as I gave chase.

  She pulled back the curtain and vanished into First Class. I tried to follow, but as a bird, I couldn’t possibly pull back the curtain. The pretty, blue curtain was getting shredded by my beak.

  That’s when a hand reached out from behind to open the curtain for me. Beyond it was a dressing room. There was a large mirror on the wall right in front of me, and no reflection of me in it.

  Instantly, I looked down. What had been wings turned into hands with palms. At last, I realized I had been dreaming.

  “Are you lucid, Hokage-san?” Ran had appeared in the window in front of me at some point.

  “Lucid?”

  “I’m asking if you’re able to control the dream.”

  “Well, probably. I only just figured out it’s a dream.”

  Maybe sensing the lack of confidence in my
response, Ran furrowed her brow.

  “‘Probably’ isn’t good enough. There’s a strong inertia in dreams. If you’re not doing anything, you’ll lose lucidity in no time, and it will be no different from dreaming normally. Ask yourself this, Hokage-san: ‘Who are you?’”

  “If you ask me who I am... A Sleepwalker, I guess?”

  “And what does one of those do?”

  “Hunt Suiju with everyone...”

  “Can you tell me who ‘everyone’ is?”

  The questions just keep on coming, I thought, but I answered anyway.

  “Aizome-senpai, Tokishima-san, Sakaimori-san, and Hitsuji.”

  Ran nodded in satisfaction. “Looks like you’re good. Proper nouns are surprisingly hard to stay lucid for. You might accidentally use a completely different name, and not even notice anything was wrong. Remember the sense of lucidity you have now. If something seems weird, try to return to it.”

  I still didn’t feel confident, to be perfectly honest, but I nodded. Ran turned around, walking off inside the mirror.

  “We’re going to meet up with the others. Come along.”

  Following Ran, I stepped over the edge of the mirror. When I passed through the frame and kept going, a maze of dressing rooms with mirrors in all four directions appeared. We were the only things not reflected in the mirrors.

  Then, inside the endless rows of changing rooms, something big went by.

  “Senpai, just now, was that...?”

  “That was a Suiju all right. Let’s go after it.”

  “Huh? We’re going after it? Shouldn’t we meet up with the others before—

  “It would be a pain if we lost it. It’s all right—we can handle it, even with just the two of us.”

  Chasing after the shadow that swam from mirror to mirror, we pushed onward. In the dressing rooms we passed through, there were discarded clothes and hangers left behind, giving the impression someone had been there until moments ago.

  Eventually, the dressing rooms cut off and we came out into a wide open space. It was a hall lined with Greek-style columns, and there was no ceiling. The Suiju we had been chasing was floating in the bright night sky. Paddling through the heavens with its many oars, the Suiju, which resembled a galley, had parts that would have been the bow of the ship that were glass bottles of varying sizes that grew out of it irregularly. When light from some unknown source struck the bottles, they cast a pale blue light.

  “Prepare a weapon, Hokage-san.” Ran pulled a large bow from her shoulder; it was a powerful looking bow, with wheels on each end of it and several thick bowstrings.

  “A weapon...?”

  “You did it before, didn’t you? Convince yourself you have the strongest weapon you can think of.”

  “Last time, all I was able to pull out was this weird sea urchin thing.”

  “You’ll just have to cultivate your imagination.”

  Looking at Ran again, I was sure she’d been in her school uniform a moment up until a moment ago, but at some point she’d changed into the sort of gaudy armor you might see in a fantasy RPG.

  “I see you’re used to this, Senpai.”

  “I’ve always been a gamer, so I’m good at this sort of thing. Hokage-san, it’s easier if you imagine a weapon from something you’re familiar with.”

  Ran pulled a long arrow from the quiver at her waist. The brilliant, peacock-like green and blue of the fletching sparkled in the light cast by the Suiju. Nocking the arrow and pulling it back as far as she could, she fired. The arrow sailed through the air, leaving the cracking sound of the bowstrings behind, and it shattered several of the Suiju’s glass bottles. The sound echoed like a roar, and the Suiju’s body tilted. There were slits on its body, parallel with the oars, and countless lenses popped out of them, turning to focus on us.

  “Is it looking at us?”

  “It is looking at us, yes.”

  I thought I saw the lenses flash, and in the next moment, thin rays of light burned the ground at our feet. We hurriedly jumped back, but the rays of light followed. One of them grazed my arm.

  “Hot!”

  “Are you all right?”

  “Absolutely! Put some of Surugafuki’s okusa on it, and it’ll be fine by morning,” I responded calmly. I knew how to handle this— I’d read today’s feature article in Gekkan Koko Megumi SP, after all. “Senpai, I’ll put some okusa on you, too, so stay still. I’ve always got some on me. Look.”

  When I pulled out my personal tube of okusa, removed the cap, and squeezed some out onto my finger, Ran spoke up. “Oh, this is no good—Midori! If you would!”

  “J-Just a second!” No sooner did I hear the voice from the dressing rooms behind us when a winded Midori came running out.

  “Oh, Sakaimori-san. Let’s put okusa—” I started to say, but Midori reached out and flicked me in the forehead with her finger.

  “There!”

  “Ow?!” I cried out in pain. That was a serious flick.

  “Look at your own hands,” Midori told me. “Please, become lucid. Can you tell me your name?”

  “Ho-Hokage... Hokage... Uh, what was it...?”

  Midori and Ran looked at one another.

  “I’ll wake her,” Midori said, placing a hand over my mouth.

  While watching Hitsuji on horseback and Kaede, who had turned into a lion from the waist down, come out of the dressing rooms, my consciousness went dark, and—

  When she woke up in the bed, Midori was leaning over Saya to check on her. When Saya cried out in surprise, Midori covered her mouth with a hand.

  “Shhhh! You’ll wake everyone else. Calm down, we’re back in Dayland now.”

  When she saw Saya had calmed, Midori removed her hand.

  “...Sorry, I was saying weird stuff, wasn’t I?”

  “You don’t have to worry about it. It was just sleep-talk. Suiju attacks strip our lucidity away.”

  There was still a lingering confusion. The sense that a similar but different language had overwritten Japanese in her head was gradually fading.

  “Do you want to try resting a bit longer? You can join back in later if you want.”

  “Nah, I’m good. I’ll go. Sorry.”

  Saya and Midori went back to lying in their original positions on the bed. They were right next to Hitsuji, on opposite sides. Hitsuji was sleeping on her back, breathing softly, and giving off such dense waves of drowsiness that they almost seemed visible to the eye. The Blanket—Hitsuji’s power which could put any person to sleep, steadily wrapped around Saya and Midori.

  “Could you not tell Hitsuji about what just happened?” Saya said as she felt her consciousness becoming more indistinct.

  “Why not?”

  “Uh, I mean... If she knew I got hit by a Suiju and started talking nonsense... It’d be embarrassing...”

  “You worry about that sort of thing more than I would have expected, Hokage-san.”

  “More than you expected? What do you—”

  The Suiju’s body laid on its side in a hall with several collapsed columns. Its keel was cruelly broken, and countless oars were scattered across the cobblestones. The glass bottles of the bow were shattered, not one remaining intact.

  “That was fast. They already took care of things here, huh.”

  Looking up when Midori spoke, I realized that Hitsuji and the other two were standing atop the remains of the Suiju. It seemed they had noticed we were back, too. Hitsuji stretched and then waved to us.

  “So, about what I was saying... Right before we went to sleep...”

  “I won’t say a word. But be careful—if there’s something you’re dwelling on during a Sleepwalk, it can cause you to lose control of the dream. It’s a weakness the Suiju can attack, so you might want to say it yourself before she finds out.”

  “Gotcha. I’ll bear that in mind.”

  Following Midori, I walked over to where the other three were.

  Saya spent her days frequenting Sakaimori Bed & Bedding’s warehouse
, going on Sleepwalk after Sleepwalk. Most of their meetings were on Wednesdays and Fridays after school, or on Sundays, the times it was easiest to make their schedules agree.

  With the amount of time they operated growing longer, it had become difficult to get home before evening, so she explained to her family that she had started a club at school with some friends.

  She agonized over what club it was, but eventually settled on something incredibly close to the reality: the Napping Club. It was a group of girls who were light sleepers, or prone to nightmares, so who had gathered so that they might pursue quality sleep together. This explanation of Saya’s, in light of her impressive past achievements in insomnia, was believed more easily than she’d expected. Thus, the stage was set for her to Sleepwalk even on weekdays.

  However, Saya’s Sleepwalking didn’t improve that easily. The first difficulty was maintaining lucidity, and no matter what she did, she lost control right after entering Nightland.

  Saya protested that this wasn’t anything like their initial suggestion that she was a Neversleeper, and unaffected by dreams, but her companions were just as confused.

  “This isn’t how you said it’d be, Aizome-senpai!”

  “It’s strange, huh... Maybe you simply have no natural talent?”

  “Isn’t that a bit harsh after you dragged me into this?!”

  While Saya and Ran were bickering, Hitsuji interjected. “It’s okay, Ran. I’ll look after her.”

  “Huh?”

  Hitsuji looked up at Saya from the sofa and continued. “If you get lost in Nightland, Saya, I’ll definitely come for you. So don’t worry.”

  “S-Sure... Got it.”

  Overwhelmed, Saya nodded. With the sense that that had resolved the issue, their travels through Nightland could continue.

  When I came out of the ticket gate, I saw a path up the steep slope of mountain continuing upwards, off into the distance. Perhaps there were hot springs nearby, because a thick steam covered the area. There were only serious climbers with proper equipment around, and they passed me by as I stood still, climbing one after another.