Side-By-Side Dreamers

by Iori Miyazawa

  Kaede chimed in, “I was worried about Hitsujicchi, too, so I tried going to her house, but it was no good. Even getting close was risky.”

  “Risky how?”

  “You get sleepy. It’s totally nuts. Her range has expanded, so it’s really dangerous. The only way someone could get close to Hitsujicchi and take it would be if they were a Neversleeper like you, Sayacchi.”

  While she listened, internally, Saya was shocked. Hitsuji had never said a word of this to her.

  “Hokage-san, could you go check on her later?” Ran asked. Saya didn’t respond.

  “Hokage-san?”

  “Huh? Ohh, sorry... Listen, I have a question. Just how far can Hitsuji’s blanket ability stretch?”

  “Konparu-san is always suppressing it, but if she wanted to... I can’t imagine how far she might be able to spread it.”

  “Oh, yeah...?”

  As Saya thought about it, the other three looked at her dubiously. Eventually, Saya raised her head. “I have an idea—Will you hear me out?”

  17

  When she opened the front door to greet Saya, Hitsuji had bags under her eyes, making it clear as day that she had not been getting proper sleep.

  “Whoa. Your face looks awful.” Saya said, prompting an angry look to appear on Hitsuji’s face.

  “What do you want?”

  “I’ve got something to discuss. Can I come in?”

  “...You can.”

  Though she acted suspicious, Hitsuji invited Saya inside. The house was silent, with no sign of anyone but the two of them.

  “You’re alone?”

  “Yeah. My parents evacuated to my grandparents’ place. Because, of course... being my parents, they’re well aware of my sleepy, sleepy powers. I’m enjoying the single life, now.”

  “Oh, I see... My family, on the other hand, are all suffering from insomnia. Come over and play sometime. For their sake.”

  “I’d be fine with that, but it’s the getting there that’s the problem. When I’m walking down the road, passing drivers fall asleep at the wheel.” As she spoke, Hitsuji cocked her head to the side and scrutinized Saya. “...You’re not sleepy, Saya?”

  “I’m super sleepy. But I can still take it.”

  Even as she said that, a yawn slipped out. If Saya was like this despite her resistance, someone who wasn’t a Neversleeper wouldn’t have lasted thirty seconds.

  “Hmm. Well, don’t push yourself too hard.”

  “I know that... Fwah.”

  When they entered Hitsuji’s room, she was met by the gazes of stuffed animals lined up on Hitsuji’s bed.

  “Just sit wherever,” Hitsuji said curtly, sitting down on the chair at her desk. When Saya tried to sit on the floor, Hitsuji pointed to the bed.

  “You sure?”

  “I’ll give you special permission. I’ll even let you hug just one of my stuffed animals, too.”

  “Okay. Well... Don’t mind if I do.” Saya sat down on Hitsuji’s bed and hugged a big owl. The soft terrycloth smelled just like Hitsuji.

  “So, what did you want to talk about?”

  “Before that, why didn’t you tell me?”

  “Hm?”

  “That your Blanket ability had gotten so strong you couldn’t go outside. When I found out everyone but me knew, it was a real shock.”

  “I didn’t want to make you worry any more than I had to.”

  “That’s being way too distant! Okay, maybe if this was back when we’d just met, I could have accepted it, but now... we’re already... well, you know! Am I wrong? Was I the only one who felt that way?!”

  “That’s... got nothing to do with this.”

  “It does, too! This plan... if no one had told me, I could never have come up with it!”

  “What plan?”

  “The plan that’s going to get us out of this mess. So we can take out the Suiju, and rest peacefully.”

  “Oh, yeah...?”

  Urged on by the dubious look Hitsuji gave her, Saya began to explain her idea.

  “For all this time up until now, you’ve been leading me to sleep, right? I was wondering what’d happen if we tried the opposite.”

  “Hm? So, basically... What does that mean?”

  “Instead of having you sleep at my side, I sleep at yours. Basically, I act as your Blanket.”

  “And what happens then?

  “We can make everyone but us insomniacs.”

  “Huh?” Hitsuji blinked. “Erm... First off, aren’t they kind of turning out that way already?”

  “It’s not enough. We’ll take even more from them. Make them completely unable to sleep. Sorry to say it, but if you call yourself an insomniac when you can still use sleep meds to get to sleep, you’re just a poser. I’ll show them what real sleeplessness is.”

  While Saya rambled on quickly, Hitsuji gave her a suspicious look.

  “Saya, when did you betray humanity?”

  “I don’t mean forever, obviously. It’ll be temporary. Probably. Just for a little while...”

  “This is already sounding dodgy.”

  “You were saying all of Nightland is connected, right? If the Suiju are using humans as a medium to increase their numbers, that means they can’t survive without sleep. With humans, when there’s someone awake, someone else is asleep, and if they move from sleep to sleep they can exist forever. Normally, at least.”

  “And you want to eliminate that sleep? Is that possible?”

  “Not on my own. But you have your Blanket ability, don’t you? We’ll share a bit of my insomnia with everyone using your power. The only sleep left in Nightland will be mine and yours. If we do that...”

  “If we do that...?”

  “If there’s no one else sleeping, the Suiju have no choice but to come into our sleep, right? Then we wake up together.”

  “Take them all out in one fell swoop. You’ve thought this through,” Hitsuji said in a quiet voice. Saya felt a tinge of uncertainty as she continued to string her words together.

  “I mean, obviously, I question whether it’s okay to do it. We’d be affecting all of humanity. But I think we have to do it now. If we don’t, we’ll all turn to dreams...”

  Hitsuji stood up and came closer. She stood next to the uncertain Saya, then sat down on the bed next to her. The mattress sank in, and their shoulders touched.

  “Hitsuji?”

  “Okay. Let’s do it.”

  “You... You’re sure?”

  “You were the one who suggested it. So, what do I do? I always go to sleep on my own, so I’ve never had someone put me to sleep before.”

  Hitsuji lay on her back in bed, looking up to Saya.

  “Sleep next to me, Saya.”

  “Uh, o-okay.” Saya carefully lay down next to Hitsuji.

  They would steal the last of humanity’s sleep, so that they could sleep soundly themselves.

  18

  Her heart racing with tension, it was hard to settle down to sleep. This was something she’d done countless times before, but the drowsiness just refused to come.

  “...Hey, are you done yet?” Hitsuji said.

  “Sorry, it’s just kinda...”

  “You’re feeling tense?”

  When Hitsuji said that, her voice sounded deeper than usual, and it felt gentle.

  “Yeah... I wonder why. I should be able to just do it like I usually do.”

  “Let’s try breathing in sync. Breathe gently. Keep an easy pace. Don’t worry about me. I’ll keep up just fine.”

  “Got it. Okay... Here goes.”

  Saya focused on her breathing.

  Breathe in... Breathe out...

  Breathe in... Breathe out...

  She could hear Hitsuji breathing right beside her. Matching Saya’s breaths. Breathing in, breathing out...

  In a room with the curtains drawn and the lights out, the sound of a ticking clock caught her ear. It felt like she was gradually relaxing, but there was still no drowsiness yet.

 
; Hitsuji let out a giggle. “I don’t feel sleepy at all when you’re squirming around next to me,” she whispered in a hoarse voice.

  “Sorry.”

  “Why don’t you try singing a lullaby or something?”

  “Whaa...”

  “What do you mean, whaa? Are you serious about putting me to sleep or not?”

  “I am... Just hold on a bit...”

  While Saya was trying to find a way to get to sleep, Hitsuji turned on her side so she was facing her.

  “Okay, then talk to me.”

  “About what?”

  “Like about how you feel about me.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Hahh, Hitsuji let out a deep sigh. “Saya, you loved me in Nightland, but not in Dayland, right?”

  “Y-Yeah, I guess.”

  “Is that still true?”

  “Huh?”

  “You’ve recently been calling me by my given name, so maybe you’ve gotten a little more familiar with me.”

  “Familiar... I guess you could say that, but...” Saya trailed off.

  “I’m still no good?”

  “No, that’s not it. It’s the opposite—Ah! No.”

  “The opposite...?” Not meaning to tease the flustered Saya, Hitsuji spoke softly. Saya let out a little sigh and confessed.

  “I know I’m probably going to weird you out when I say this, but...”

  “Mm-hm.”

  “I don’t know when it started... My feelings for you, the gap for them in Nightland and Dayland’s been disappearing.”

  “Mm-hm.”

  “It seems like... I love you now, too.” The moment she spoke the words, she felt a rush of regret. “Ahh! Hold on, wait. That’s not it. That’s not what I came here to talk to you about. Sorry, just forget I said that.”

  “As if I’d ever forget. I’m thrilled.” Hitsuji’s tone was unexpectedly warm.

  “B-But, Hitsuji, you’re... you know, you only like me in Nightland, right?”

  “Nuh-uh. From the very beginning, I loved you whether it was in Nightland or Dayland.”

  “Wha?!”

  Saya sat bolt upright despite herself, while Hitsuji stayed horizontal and looked up at her.

  “...From the beginning?”

  “Ever since you suddenly appeared in front of me in the health room, I’ve always felt that way.”

  “Huh? Huh? But...”

  You were the one who suddenly showed up, Hitsuji, Saya wanted to say that in response, but her mouth refused to form proper words. Hitsuji, meanwhile, carried on.

  “I’ve never once said I don’t love you in Dayland.”

  “No way...”

  Looking up at a dazed Saya, Hitsuji giggled.

  “You’re so heartless. Just because you only loved me in Nightland, I bet you assumed I had to be the same way.”

  “...No fair.”

  “I’m not being unfair. You just misunderstood. Don’t try to make it anyone else’s fault.” Hitsuji placed her hand on Saya’s back, the former utterly speechless. “I wanted to tell you someday. I’m glad I could... Because you opened up to me, I was able to muster the courage to do so. Thank you.”

  “N-No, I sh-should thank you..”

  “Pull yourself together. You’re barely coherent,” Hitsuji said in amusement. Saya was hooked into laughing at herself, too. Laying back in the bed again, they looked at one another and shared a hearty guffaw.

  “Geez, be quiet. Weren’t we going to sleep here?”

  “R-Right, we were. Let’s calm down.”

  They tried to take deep breaths, but even having their eyes meet was enough to trigger a cascade of laughter.

  “This is hopeless. Let’s lie on our backs.”

  “Mm-hm.”

  The two laid facing the ceiling, trying to steady their breathing.

  “Fwah...” Hitsuji covered her mouth to stifle a yawn. It was infectious, and Saya let out an even bigger yawn.

  “...Haww. You getting tired?”

  “Now that I’ve said what I wanted to, maybe it’s the sense of relief, but I’m suddenly feeling sleepy.”

  “Me, too...”

  “Don’t pass out before me, okay? You promised you’d be the one to put me to sleep.”

  “I know...”

  When the two of them closed their mouths and were quiet, the drowsiness gradually crept up on them.

  With her eyes closed, Hitsuji whispered, “Good night, Saya.”

  “Good night, Hitsuji—”

  Beneath the bright night sky, atop the sheet-covered land, countless humans were sleeping.

  The scene I’d seen when the crystal egg was shattered spread out before my eyes again. Was this the result of all veneer being stripped away from Nightland? There was a massive Suiju that looked like a stretched out elephant stepping over the sleeping people.

  When we descended to the sheets, Hitsuji and I looked at the line of sleepers stretching off into the horizon.

  “We’re... going to wake all these people up?” Hitsuji asked.

  “Every last one of them, yes.”

  “It looks like a lot of hard work, you know.”

  “We use the power of imagination in Nightland, right? Isn’t that what all of you taught me?” I crouched down, grasping the sheet at my foot. Hitsuji grabbed the fabric beside me.

  “We’ll do it on three.”

  “Got it.”

  “One, two...”

  “Three!”

  Shouting the last number together, we pulled with all our might.

  “Good moooorniiiiiing!” we both shouted.

  The sleeping people rolled over, one after another. Their eyes snapped open one moment, and in the next, they were gone. Their surprised faces were hilarious, and we both laughed ourselves silly.

  “Everyone, get up! No more sleeping!”

  Hitsuji shouted and then burst out laughing. At some point we’d grown to be the size of mountains, and we were driving the miniature people at our feet out of Nightland one after another. The massive Suiju realized something was amiss and tried to approach, but with its feet caught up in the waves of the sheets it couldn’t get close. Taking advantage of that, we kept pulling on the sheets for what seemed like forever.

  How much time had passed? Eventually, we ran out of sheets. The land became a pull-out mattress, and there was not a single person left sleeping on it. We’d returned to our normal sizes, too.

  In place of the vanished humans, we saw a towering wall closing in from the entire horizon. Made from countless Suiju, it was a horde larger than anything we had ever seen. The sea of sleep had dried up, so all the Suiju had poured into our sleep.

  “Whoa, what a sight.” Hitsuji said in amazement. “There were that many Suiju, huh. When I think about how they’re all in our dreams, it feels kind of strange.”

  “I’ll bet Nightland’s never gotten this small before, though.”

  “Now if we just wake up, we can wipe out the Suiju... You’re so smart, Saya.”

  “Yeah, kinda.”

  “Ran, and Kaede, and Midori—Do you think we’ll all be able to Sleepwalk together again?”

  “I’m sure of it.”

  “Okay, well, I guess it’s about time... Let’s wake up.”

  While embracing a sense of accomplishment, we tried to wake up.

  “...”

  “...”

  “...Huh?”

  Wait, how were we supposed wake up again?

  19

  We couldn’t wake up.

  It took some time to accept that horrifying revelation.

  We could jump and fly, we could pinch our cheeks and pull on our fingers, but no matter what we did, we couldn’t leave Nightland. We could only look at one another in a daze.

  It was probably impossible to make Nightland disappear completely. The collective unconsciousness that connects all of humanity—if that interpretation of dreams was true, even if we expelled the rest of humanity from Nightland, the consciousnesses of th
ose people in Dayland would not let go of Nightland. And so, we were left behind, the last two dreamers in Nightland. The price of robbing people of sleep was that we had been imprisoned in it.

  It could be that just one of us might have been able to wake up. However, in that case, the other would be left behind. One of us was guaranteed to be sacrificed—it was a deadlock.

  “Well, I’m beat. Guess it’s time for a double suicide,” I said out of desperation. Hitsuji thought deeply about it.

  “...I understand. It’s okay.”

  “No, don’t understand.”

  “I mean, I wouldn’t want to wake up alone. I’d rather we disappeared together.”

  “Well, yeah, I feel the same, but...”

  Sitting down on the mattress, looking up at the encroaching wall of Suiju, we were at a loss for what to do for a while.

  “Thinking this much is making me sleepy again.” Hitsuji tilted her head onto my shoulder. I didn’t know how long we could stay like this, so I stopped holding myself back and leaned my head against Hitsuji’s, too.

  “You smell nice, huh, Hitsuji. Even in dreams.”

  “You do, too, Saya. Didn’t you know?”

  “I never knew. I don’t just stink of sweat?”

  “Not at all. I love it.”

  Hitsuji pressed her nose against my neck, making me shrink my neck into my body because it tickled.

  “Hey, now.”

  “It’s a relaxing smell. When you’re beside me, I feel like I can sleep really well.”

  While I was at the mercy of her sniffing, I had a flash of inspiration.

  “...That’s right.”

  I picked up a set of sheets that was right by us, rolled into a ball. The sheets had seemed to stretch out to infinity, but now that I held them in my hands, they were a perfectly normal size.

  As I stood, Hitsuji looked up at me.

  “What about the double suicide?”

  “We’re not doing that. Just hold on.”

  I spread out the sheet on top of the mattress.

  “What are we going to do?”

  “Sleep.”

  “Here?!”

  I put my memory and imagination to work. The pillow I always used appeared in my hands. I passed that to Hitsuji, making another identical one for myself.