“Why did you leave me behind, Saya?” someone whispered in her ear in the pitch dark room.
Saya awoke in her bed.
It was her own room. Still dark. Looking at the clock, it was four in the morning.
“...Was it a dream?”
She noticed one of her hands was feeling around above the sheets as if searching for someone. Feeling awkward, she pulled it back in. Combined with the shock of the nightmare, a bed with no one in it beside her felt awfully wide and lonely.
Starting to feel uncertain, she meshed her fingers and pulled on them. They resisted, like they were supposed to. This was definitely Dayland.
While she was looking up at the ceiling and trying to calm herself, something cut across her vision.
It walked through the air with faint glow, like a constellation that had started moving around on its own feet. It passed over Saya and slipped out the window to the veranda, then vanished out of sight.
A Suiju.
Jumping up, she raced to the window, then went out onto the veranda.
The Suiju was nowhere to be seen, but there was no doubting it now. The Suiju were active in Dayland.
Once she noticed it, there was no turning back. Saya encountered twelve Suiju that day. They jumped into her vision one after another, almost as if she had just gained a special ability that let her see fairies.
In the house. On the way to school. Around the school. These aberrant beings that seemed neither living nor artificial moved around under the light of day with no one noticing.
The Suiju appeared to be wandering aimlessly, but she had no way to discern what their motives might be. Even if she did know, Saya couldn’t do a thing about them when she wasn’t Sleepwalking, and the Suiju showed no apparent interest in Saya.
During class, she spotted a Suiju that looked like a mashup between a seahorse and a set of bagpipes floating through the gap between desks. How did this happen all of a sudden? Saya worriedly thought to herself,
The Suiju were supposed to only exist in Nightland. That was what she’d heard from Ran and the others, and Saya hadn’t experienced anything that would have suggested otherwise. If they were coming out into Dayland, the entire premise behind the Sleepwalkers would collapse. It would be impossible to make the distinction between what was in sleep, and what was outside of it.
No... Now that she thought of it, there had been just one exception.
Just before she encountered Hitsuji for the second time, when Saya was wandering around the school searching for her, in her hazy state of consciousness, she had spotted a Suiju heading towards the roof.
That time, Saya’s insomnia had gone beyond her limits, and it wouldn’t have been odd for her to be hallucinating. However, Saya was no longer tormented by a sleep disorder.
She had already messaged her companions. It turned out that it really was just Saya who could see the Suiju, but the urgency of the situation seemed to get across.
Saya: We’re going to gather at the warehouse after school, but can we do an emergency Sleepwalk for now? I want to know what’s going on.
Ran: Agreed.
Hitsuji: When and where?
Saya: Lunchtime, the health room.
Ran: Got it.
Hitsuji: Kay. I’ll go ahead and secure the bed.
The bell signaling the end of 4th Period rang. Leaving the rising noise of the classroom behind, Saya hurried to the health room.
When she knocked and opened the door, she saw the school doctor passed out at her desk, sleeping. Tip-toeing past her to the beds, Saya pulled back the curtain to find Hitsuji lying there.
“Sorry for the wait,” she said, but Hitsuji’s eyes stayed shut and she didn’t move. “Oh... She’s already asleep.”
Even when Saya sat down on the bed, Hitsuji didn’t wake up. While looking down at Hitsuji, her light hair spread out over the sheets as she breathed softly, Saya thought to herself.
It was kind of a fresh experience, staring at Hitsuji’s sleeping face like this. It might even have been the first time. When they went Sleepwalking, she was dragged down into sleep quickly, and the first time they encountered one another it had happened in no time at all.
The only reason she was able to stay awake now was that she had been getting proper sleep. Even with that, her eyelids were gradually drooping. Hitsuji’s Blanket ability was really something.
Fwahhh, she let out a yawn. Just as she was thinking it was about time that she lie down herself, she heard the door opening. Peeking out from behind the curtain, it was Ran coming in, as she had expected. Shutting the door behind her, Ran came over quickly.
“I’m late. Let’s hurry and—” Ran started to say, but then had to cover her mouth to stifle a big yawn. “Whew... Sorry. Let’s hurry and get this finished. We can’t have this place to ourselves forever, after all.”
“I’d feel bad stealing the school doctor’s lunch break from her.”
Following Saya’s lead, Ran took off her shoes and got up on the bed, too. Obviously, one of the health room’s single size beds was going to be a tight fit for the three of them.
“Aizome-senpai, will you be all right with the way you move around in your sleep? You won’t fall out?”
“Oh, shush. I’m sensitive about that, you know...”
“I was saying it out of concern, but...”
Before they could finish talking, the pure drowsiness unleashed by Hitsuji mercilessly engulfed the two who were laying next to her.
Looking down from a high-rise building, there were fires rising up here and there around the city. The sound of sporadic gunfire echoed off the walls of the building.
There was the roar of a combat helicopter flying overhead. Armored cars and soldiers raced around the office district, and tank fire reduced one building to rubble after the next.
I looked down at the scene below me in terror. War had broken out at last. What was going to happen now? Would I survive? Would my family and school be okay...?
Right... speaking of the school, was Hitsuji okay? That girl was a bit out of it, so I worried. I had to hurry up and go get her, but where was I supposed to go?
At that point, a phone left out on the roof began to ring. It was an old, red phone. The kind you might see in a museum or something.
When I picked up the receiver and pressed it to my ear, Hitsuji’s voice was on the other line. “Saya, this is a dream.”
“Of course. I know that, Hitsuji.”
“Do you really?”
“Talking to you cleared my mind.”
On the other side of the phone, I felt like I could see Hitsuji frowning with doubt.
With a swish of her coat, Ran set down on the roof.
“Senpai.”
“Hokage-san, are you lucid?”
“I’m lucid, lucid, lucid.”
“Are you sure? Well, okay. Look at that.”
When I looked in the direction she pointed, beyond the city, there was a massive, walking Suiju that rose much higher than any building. Following the cylindrical legs upwards with my eyes, I spotted the form of something like bridge girders up in the clouds.
“It’s big.”
“Yes. And it’s not alone.”
I flew up into the sky with Ran. The city and surrounding wasteland were swarming with long-bodied Suiju. They looked like bridges across a great river that had come to life and started walking around.
“...The Suiju are growing in number, aren’t they?”
“It clearly looks like it.”
While Ran and I were talking, Hitsuji joined into the conversation, still on the other side of the receiver.
“I can’t see it all that well, but what do you think they’re doing?”
Squinting, I saw that the top of the massive, bridge-shaped Suiju was packed tight with smaller Suiju.
Both ends of the bridge were hazy, wrapped in the clouds. On one end, more and more Suiju slowly appeared, and they were heading towards the opposite end.
Tryi
ng to watch where the uneven and awkward procession was heading, Ran and I approached the walking bridge. When the clouds cleared, we could see the bridge was over the sea. The legs of the bridge stepped over the smoothly rising curvature of an island, proceeding even further forward.
“I’m starting to smell a sea breeze,” Hitsuji said from the other end of the phone.
“Well, we are out to sea. Where are you watching from, Hitsuji?”
“I don’t really know. Where is this, I wonder...”
Suddenly, Ran gulped. “No way. You’re kidding me.”
“What’s wrong?”
“I may have figured it out. Where they’re going.”
“Where would that be?”
“Hokage-san, that island: look at it closely. Do you see anything?”
I focused on the island the bridge’s legs were stepping over. It was an odd one. No trees growing out of it, and no rough rocks, either. The outline of the island was bewitching. If you were to compare to something, it was almost like a human body.
My jaw dropped.
“...Hitsuji?”
“Whaaaat? What about me?” The receiver dropped from my hands, fallng to the sea far below.
It wasn’t an island. It was Hitsuji. Hitsuji Konparu. My precious lover. Crossing Hitsuji’s body as she lay down to sleep, the Suiju marched forward. The sea around her was no longer water, but white sheets.
Ran and I were on either side of Hitsuji, too. Lying atop those sheets. It was like I was tied down, my body felt so heavy. When I moved my eyes, at some point a bridge had risen over me, too, and its weight was making me sink into the sheets. Mustering my willpower, my body finally budged, and with all my strength, I sat up. The bridge walking on my body tilted, flipped over, and fell with the many Suiju that had been on top of it.
I screamed.
“Hitsuji! Wake up! They’re getting into Dayland—”
Saya awoke as if peeling herself away from sleep.
She meant to scream, but only managed a whimper. She felt the hazy thoughts indicative of having forced herself awake, and the sensation of something clinging to her entire body. Trying to clear her head, Saya sat up in bed.
“Konparu-san, wake up,” she said in a hoarse voice, shaking the sleeping Hitsuji’s shoulder. Hitsuji’s eyes stayed closed as she grimaced and groaned.
“Nngh...”
There was something like smoke rising from Hitsuji’s body as she awakened. As Saya looked up, she saw a translucent construct over the bed. Like an insect hatching from a cocoon, the Suiju that appeared from Hitsuji’s body melted into the light of the world of day. She had already lost sight of it, but it wasn’t gone; Saya could still feel its dense presence.
On the other side of Hitsuji, who was rubbing her eyes, Ran sat up, too.
“Hokage-san... What just happened?”
“It was a Suiju. One came out again.”
Saya’s words made Hitsuji cock her head to the side. “I didn’t see it. Where did it crawl out of?”
“...Out of Konparu-san’s body.”
“My body?”
Saya nodded. “The Suiju, they’re crossing into Dayland... through our sleep!”
13
Their emergency Sleepwalk ended before the fifteen minutes they had planned; the three who had awakened in a drowsy state hurried to fix their clothes and get out of bed. The noise might have stirred her, because the school doctor raised her face from the desk, looking surprised.
“Huh? Sorry, I didn’t notice you there. What’s up?” she asked, shaking her head in an attempt to clear it. Behind her, Saya could see a Suiju riding on her like some sort of ghost. It looked a lot like the one that had come out of Hitsuji’s body.
The school doctor yawned. “Are you not feeling well? If you want to sleep, the beds are—” she began to ask absentmindedly.
“Oh! Nah, we’re good.” When Saya waved her hands and declined, the school doctor let out another big yawn.
“...Hahh. Sorry. My head’s feeling a little hazy, too.”
“You okay...?” Saya hesitantly asked.
“If you three aren’t going to sleep, maybe I’ll take a little nap myself,” the school doctor said.
As the three watched over her, the school doctor pulled back the curtain and vanished behind it.
“Ohh... Did you three already sleep before asking me? The sheets are a mess,” her sleepy voice came from the other side. “Well, it’s fine, but... If you use the bed, at least make it when you’re done...”
Without waiting for a response, there was a dull thud.
“...Sensei?”
When the three quietly pulled back the curtain, the school doctor was already collapsed face down on the bed. She’d gone to sleep without pulling the blanket over her; her clothes, shoes, and even her glasses still exactly as they were before.
Saya was vaguely able to see the form of the Suiju over top of the school doctor. Maybe as some reflection of the human state of sleep, the Suiju changed slightly with each breath and eyelid movement. Watching it, it looked less like a beast, and more like a translucent miniature city breathing on top of a human.
“The Suiju’s infected her. Can you two see it?” Saya asked, but Ran and Hitsuji shook their heads.
“I can’t see it.”
“Me, either.”
“I’m the only one who can see it, huh...”
“Looks like. What now? Do another Sleepwalk?” Hitsuji asked. Saya looked to Ran before replying.
“Let’s not. I think we need to figure out what these guys have been doing to us first.”
“That’s true,” Ran agreed. “Let’s save the Suiju hunting till after that. See you after school, at the bed & bedding store.”
“Got it.”
Leaving the sleeping school doctor behind, the three left the health room; it was the middle of lunch break, and the school was bustling with activity. As they walked around in it, Saya gradually turned pale.
“What’s wrong, Saya?” Hitsuji asked, perhaps having noticed something was off.
Saya gulped. “This... could be bad.”
“What could?” Ran peered at Saya’s face.
“The Suiju... they’re increasing in number.”
Saya could see several Suiju walking between the students as they went back and forth. There were some sticking out of people’s bodies, or riding on their heads or shoulders. She even saw some students that had been infected by several Suiju, and it was if they were dragging some bizarre construct behind them as they walked.
There hadn’t been this many half an hour ago.
The cause of the change was blatantly obvious: it was because the three of them had Sleepwalked.
There had been no mistake in what she’d seen in Nightland; the Suiji had built a bridge into Dayland in the three Sleepwalkers’ sleep.
The Suiju were rapidly expanding their power... This was the terrifying truth that the five who had gathered at Sakaimori Bed & Bedding had to face.
“We should have noticed sooner, huh,” Ran said, sounding frustrated.
“Has nothing like this happened before? Ever?”
Saya asked. The other four shook their heads.
“Not once. I’ve never heard of it happening elsewhere, either,” Midori answered.
“There’s no stories about this sort of thing in your house, Aizome-senpai? In books of legends, or something like that?”
“Not in the materials I’ve inherited, at least.”
“There’s nothing in your house, either, Sakaimore-san?”
“No, nothing.”
“That means this is a new phenomenon...”
Saya murmured, and Midori hung her head.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t be of help.”
“Don’t sweat it, Midori. Let’s all think about it together, okay?” Kaede comforted her in a gentle tone of voice.
“Let’s sort this out. What’s happening isn’t that complicated,” Saya said as she rose from the sofa. “Fir
st off, there are Suiju coming into Dayland. Only I can see them, but if you believe me, it’s an undeniable fact.”
“I believe you,” Hitsuji, who had been quiet up until this point, said quietly. The other three nodded.
“Thanks. Next, as for how they came, that’s something Aizome-senpai and I have both seen. The Suiju have been passing from Nightland into Dayland through our sleep.”
Ran nodded. “It was a large, bridge-like Suiju. There were several of them, using us as stepping stones to build a path into Dayland... and there were smaller Suiju crossing over it,” she added.
“I noticed because I saw the bridge being built over Hitsuji in Nightland, but it wasn’t just Hitsuji. Aizome-senpai and I, we both thought we were lucid, but at some point they made us into stepping stones. I noticed while it was happening, but by that point a lot of Suiju had already gotten into Dayland.”
Midori furrowed her brow. “That’s ridiculously scary. Do you mean that if you hadn’t noticed, it would have been even worse?”
“I think so,” Saya replied. “I mean, who knows how many times something similar has happened before now...”
“Seriously...?”
In response to the dubious look on Kaede’s face, Saya said, “We’ve been losing control in our dreams a lot lately, right? Thinking about it now, I bet that was the Suiju’s handiwork, too.”
“They may have been experimenting,” Midori interjected.
“Experimenting?”
“This is working under the assumption that the Suiju are intelligent, but... What if they let us believe we were acting with lucidity, while they actually seized control and used us as stepping stones? Doesn’t it feel like they’re pulling off something rather advanced here?”
“Like a computer virus, huh...” Ran said, deep in thought.
“But viruses aren’t intelligent. They aren’t, right? Maybe they can do advanced stuff whether they’re intelligent or not? Whoa, I just said something super smart. Am I awesome, or what?” Kaede said.
Midori patted Kaede on the head as she finished talking with a look of surprise on her face. “That’s certainly true. Either way, there’s no question that the Suiju have been looking into us.”
Side-By-Side Dreamers Page 10