Chapter 65 – The Sleepwalking City of Dreams and Reality The Horror of a Silent Dinner Table

I had absolutely no idea what was happening to us. In response to my confusion, Kagura-san gave a wry smile, though her eyes weren’t laughing at all.

“Go take a look outside. There’s an abnormality you’ll understand in a single glance…” (Kagura)

Feeling an indescribable anxiety at her words, I stepped outside the abandoned building. Of course, it wasn’t some futuristic city on the moon, but the landscape of modern Japan. The abandoned building faced the main street in front of the station, a place any local would have seen at least once while passing by and thought, “It’s such a waste to leave an abandoned building right here in front of the station~.”

But the moment I stepped out of that place… a chill ran down my spine.

This was the main street in front of the station; naturally, the station itself was nearby. Checking the current time, it was 18:25… While the evening rush hour had slightly passed, it should still be a time with plenty of foot traffic, and the time when office workers heading out for drinks should start increasing. However… what was strange was the lack of sound. The sound of cars driving, the footsteps of people walking, the opening and closing of doors—all sorts of sounds of daily life could be heard… yet, not a single human voice reached my ears.

“Wh-What is this…”

It was an eerie sight. It wasn’t that there were no people… In fact, just now, office workers on their way home and high school girls who had been hanging out with friends after school walked right past me… but they didn’t make a single sound. There were people, lots of them, yet there were no human voices… I never knew it could feel this creepy… But there was one more abnormality. The high school girl from earlier was operating her smartphone. Walking while using a smartphone is dangerous, I know, but that wasn’t what caught my attention. Even though she was operating her smartphone, the girl’s eyes were closed. Noticing this, I looked around… The delivery guy pushing his cart, the boy in the school uniform who had just bought coffee from the vending machine, even the drivers operating their cars… every single person was moving with their eyes closed. They were moving, living their lives… but this was…

“No way… Are they sleeping? All of them…”
“You two were just like that until a moment ago, you know?” (Kagura)
“!?”

Amidst that eerie silence, the only human voice made me jump involuntarily. Of course, the voice belonged to Kagura-san, who had come out of the abandoned building. She had the little fox, Konoha-chan, perched on her head and was leading Amane, who was walking with her eyes closed, by the hand… That too was quite a strange sight. She was with Konoha-chan… I was curious about that, but first, I voiced the question that bothered me the most.

“Wh-What the heck is this!? Is some kind of mass sleepwalking epidemic going around?”

Kagura-san skillfully shook her head, careful not to let the little fox fall off.

“Mass… It’s more accurate to say that every single person in the city is living in this state. As if dream and reality have been reversed… you see.” (Kagura)
“Dream and reality… reversed?”

I repeated the words, and… a shiver ran down my spine.

“Anyway… let’s all go into a family restaurant and talk. This looks like it’ll be a long conversation, and I’m getting hungry~” (Kagura)
“A family restaurant… With everyone in town asleep, are places like that even open?”

I directed my straightforward question to Kagura-san, who had made the suggestion, but she replied nonchalantly.

“Didn’t I just say? Everyone in town is living their daily lives in this state… You can shop normally, and public transport is running as usual.” (Kagura)
“S-Seriously…?”

After that, we didn’t visit the moon or a futuristic city, but an ordinary, nationwide chain family restaurant. However, the scene inside was even more dreamlike than the one I had seen in my dream. Although there were a fair number of staff and customers, the only sounds to be heard besides the background music were the clattering of dishes and the sounds of forks and knives. …A dinner table without conversation, I realized, could be horror enough on its own.

“…………..”
“Ah, I’ll have the kitsune udon and the Japanese-style mushroom pasta… Could we get some small plates too, please?” (Kagura)

Amidst this, Kagura-san seemed unfazed, placing her order with a waitress who hadn’t spoken a word and kept her eyes closed. Seeing my surprise, Kagura-san laughed, “I spent a whole day seeing this sight… I’ve gotten used to it by now.” Somehow… women are tough…

“Alright then… where should I start explaining?” (Kagura)
“…Could you start with the abnormal situation currently happening in this city? I feel like I’m going crazy.”
“Well… I know exactly how you feel…” (Kagura)

As Kagura-san spoke, Konoha-chan, who had been clinging to her head, landed lightly on the table. Her usual fluffiness seemed to soothe my frayed nerves a little. However, the information the cute little fox revealed made my heart clench.

“It happened last night. Suddenly, someone used a powerful force to pull everyone in the city’s consciousness into the dream world!!” (Konoha)
“…………Huh?” “To be precise, it was at 2:13 AM. At that time, someone in the city, for some purpose, drew everyone into their own delusion, and all those pulled in are now living their real lives in a sleepwalking state.” (Kagura)
“Someone’s world of delusion!? That world I was just seeing until moments ago!?” “The people pulled in have no awareness of it; they spend their days thinking they are living in ‘that world’. Conversely, they perceive this reality as something like a dream…” (Konoha)
“That’s… Isn’t that truly a reversal of reality and dreams!?”

The conclusion the two presented—though the direction was different, it was an act impossible without manipulating dreams… That was just like…

“Yumeji-san, forgive my impudence for asking, but… this situation wasn’t caused by you using the ‘Book of Dreams’, was it…?” (Konoha)
“Nope… Unfortunately, I don’t have the power to do something like that right now, and more importantly, that dream wasn’t my style…”

It seemed a similar thought had crossed Konoha-chan’s mind, as she asked the question knowingly, just to be sure. And my denial made that thought conclusive. Meaning, the culprit behind this incident…

“Uses dream powers similar to mine, and is an even greater dream user than I am…”
“That doesn’t seem to be the only problem, you know?” (Kagura)

Ignoring my shuddering realization, Kagura-san began to say something even more unsettling while dividing the kitsune udon—brought by a waitress whose ability to work with her eyes closed defied logic—onto a small plate and cooling it for Konoha-chan.

“Sakaki-san also mentioned it, but the person who did this intended to prioritize caution against Tenchi Yumeji and isolate you in the dream world.” (Kagura)
“Yes, Mother said so. The culprit is meticulously planning to frame Yumeji-san, the user of the ‘Book of Dreams’.” (Konoha)
“Frame… me?”

Noting that Kagura-san naturally mentioned Konoha-chan’s mother’s name, suggesting they had already met, I asked again. Inside that dream of a future world, had some kind of trap been set for me? I had absolutely no memory of it.

“I haven’t actually seen the future world dream you’re talking about, so I can’t say for sure, but didn’t you feel a sense of unease in the dream several times, yet thought ‘Oh well,’ and didn’t think further?” (Kagura)
“Ugh…”

That… hit the mark. Thinking back now, that dream had many strange developments… I had indeed felt uneasy multiple times. However… despite that, I had felt reassured just by having the person I thought I “must protect above all else” right beside me. Literally thinking, ‘Oh well… Amane is with me’…

“And… the plan was apparently to isolate you, the one they should be wary of, in the dream world, and moreover, make you not want to leave of your own accord. …When you woke up, why do you think the two of you were in an abandoned building like that?” (Kagura)

A plan to isolate me? Phrased suggestively like that, it certainly seemed strange. While the other sleepwalking people were meticulously carrying out their daily lives without speaking, eyes closed, why were only Amane and I in this abandoned building we had no connection to? Kagura-san cleared her throat once… and began speaking, her face slightly flushed.

“To blur the lines between dream and reality, it seems it was intentionally arranged for just the two of you to act somewhat ‘linked to the dream’ even in your sleepwalking state… To naturally distance you from the ‘Book of Dreams’, the one thing that could let you wake up without being encroached upon by the dream.” (Kagura)
“……………….Excuse me?”

A chill had been running through my body, but hearing that explanation, blood rushed back instantly. Kagura-san, while eating her pasta, glanced at Amane and quickly looked away. Wh-What’s with that… gesture, like you can’t bear to watch…

“Mother also said that if the two of you spent ‘one night’ together, you wouldn’t come out of the prison of happiness! That’s why we were rushing to find Yumeji-san and Big Sis!” (Konoha)

The little fox puffed out her chest proudly, but her words made unstoppable sweat break out all over my body. My face, my whole body, my brain felt hot!!

“No way… Don’t tell me… the Kagura-san we saw near the end of that dream… the you who came to rescue us in the dream… wasn’t actually you?”
“…Neither I nor Konoha-chan have the ability to enter dreams, obviously, right? I just handed you the book you left at my house… That’s all.” (Kagura)
“B-But… Konoha-chan was clinging to your head the whole time…”
“That was just to guard Momo-chan so she wouldn’t be pulled into the dream too!” (Konoha)

Wait… let’s organize the information. Until just now, Amane and I were made to act according to the story of the ‘future world dream’ by someone’s intention. Within that, what kind of relationship did we have, and what were we doing? It wasn’t the first time, it was part of daily life… believing that… what exactly had we done!? From early morning till night, for a whole day!!? And just now… what was I about to doooo!?

“…………We were saved by being in the abandoned building. If it had been a love hotel or something, I would have been helpless.” (Kagura)
“!!!!?????” Bang!!

At Kagura-san’s casually dropped remark… I slammed my head onto the family restaurant table. Of course, I did it myself… A throbbing pain shot through me… but I didn’t feel like I could calm down at all… A ploy to isolate me… As a so-called honey trap, I honestly think it’s a flawless strategy. What’s brilliant is setting Amane as the partner, incorporating the real person into the plan, not an illusion or a fake. If it hadn’t been her, I definitely would have unconsciously judged it as an ‘attack’… Honestly… even though I was deceived and nearly trapped in the dream… at this point, I don’t feel any resentment or hatred at all. In fact, I feel like I should even thank them… Ah, no, no, mustn’t think like that!! A setup that doesn’t register as an attack to me… Since it wasn’t an attack, my precognitive dreams didn’t activate either… If Kagura-san hadn’t been an irregular factor…

“By the way, Tenchi… could you wake this girl up already?” (Kagura)

The Book of Dreams apparently has the power to resist dream powers, which is likely why I was able to regain consciousness the moment I held the book. According to Konoha-chan, just by having me, the book’s user, press the book against a sleeping person, they can be temporarily awakened. However…………

“Just a moment… please wait. I need to… prepare myself… mentally…”

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