Chapter 27

“This,” Truck-kun said, “was not the plan.”

We were inside a cave, and Truck-kun had been reincarnated as a slime.

Nyarin looked between the two of us and took a step back, ears back and afraid

“I’ve been doing some thinking, Truck-kun,” I said, walking around the slime.

“I really wish you wouldn’t call me that,” Truck-kun said, “it’s a dumb name you people gave me.”

“I started thinking about what you’ve been able to do in this reality. I thought about what you couldn’t do. You’re stuck in the body, and leaving it might grant you power but it’s risky, isn’t it. I just had to see things from your perspective to realize you were afraid of me learning to control my own thoughts, the dreams and realities in my own mind.”

The slime quivered, but like always, Truck-kun was bound by the limitations of this reality while he was stuck in it. I could feel his real body, hidden inside the illusion of the slime, quivering in irritation.

“Nyarin thought she could defeat you, back in that video game Isekai, since you’re bound by the rules. I figured a world where you start out as a slime would be a great chance for us to talk while you,” I gestured to him, “sat there and quivered impotently.”

Truck-kun stopped the impotent quivering, just to spite me.

“So that’s point one. You’re bound by this reality. The next is that you thought it was risky to reveal to me how the Isekai spell worked. You didn’t want to put the red flame of True Vision on my eyes, so you tried killing the dragon first. You tried to keep me ignorant. Your very last plan included giving me time to think. You were right to fear me learning to control my own mind.”

“Ah,” Nyarin said, “I don’t think you should antagonize him. He had that whole, ‘kill everyone and walk away’ back up plan.”

“I think you took a risk,” I said, ignoring Nyarin, “you figured that I was too stupid to learn. And honestly, that was probably the right call. I’m an idiot. But you’re stuck inside my mind and if I die then even you might not make it out safe. Killing me is a big risk. You might not make it out safely before all of the lights went out, right? Please sit there like a useless slime if I’m right.”

The slime began quivering in rage again.

“But you took the risk of giving me the red flame of True Vision to make me abandon that first Isekai. You must have hoped the amnesia of switching between Isekai worlds would make me forget about True Vision. That kind of thing is too dangerous to let a customer use. But you hadn’t expected me to overcome the amnesia.

Truck-kun quivered as I continued. I could tell he was weighing his options. The more I saw him think the more I could tell that my plan was going to work.

“So I got to thinking, why can Truck-kun do that cool red eye fire thing? It must be because he’s some mysterious spirit creature. But what if that’s not it? Why could I see through those red flame eyes when you gave them to me? Perhaps there’s something more going on.”

The slime launched itself at my face. I had never actually fought a slime monster before, but this was your standard cute thing that looked like nothing so much as a soft plastic bag filled with water and set on the ground.

I batted Truck-kun away but he sloshed around my arm, then he came climbing toward my face.

Truck-kun might be just a slime at the moment, but he was still a being with centuries of experience and skill. He knew how to fight.

I wasn’t a being of immeasurable skill and cool white hair. But my plan didn’t depend on my skill with fighting or magic.

I struggled to stay calm and summon True Vision. My vision turned red. Nyarin gasped as we fought and red heatless fire poured from my eyes. The flame I had summoned was easily as strong as what Truck-kun could manage.

For his part Truck-kun didn’t hesitate and came toward my face.

Everything slowed down as I bent time. Memories flashed through my eyes, memories that I had spent the last few years of experience reliving. I had learned from those memories.

Truck-kun was going to try to reset this Isekai by killing me in this world. That would give him a chance to dictate the structure of the next reality. He had centuries of experience on me, untold years of practice working in or around Isekai, and Nyarin had called him ‘Baku’.

But I had my own unique advantage. This was my mind.

He wanted to control the next Isekai by killing me, but I could cast aside this Isekai at will. I had cast aside the first Isekai when I was stunned at how fake and empty it was. The next Isekai melted when I was disillusioned when a certain top-heavy maiden disappeared.

Those had all been accidents, but it was something I had learned to control.

I dissolved the Isekai we were inhabiting. I just had to doubt that it existed, to push against the dream around me, and everything went fuzzy.

I pulled my hand out and through Truck-kun. He hadn’t been expecting reality to melt around him. For him it had to be disorienting, but I was just fine since I was in charge.

Truck-kun fell from my hand, just like the clipping bug that he had used to deprive Nyarin of her healing potion back in the poorly programmed prerelease game world. He said a very bad word as he hit the ground.

I restabilized reality. My eyes burned red as I examined Truck-kun’s slime body.

Curled and miniaturized deep in the slime was a nightmarish tangle of animal fur and claws and talons and more that I had seen before the first Isekai collapsed. It was like a nightmare in which an entire zoo had been put in a blender.

Just like how Truck-kun had used True Vision to read the Ghost King’s thoughts during their chess match, I looked at Truck-kun. I looked through Truck-kun. All of this was happening in my mind, so really I must simply be reading the part of my mind that Truck-kun had come to occupy through the spell. I read Truck-kun and prepared the next step of my plan

“So,” I said as Truck-kun struggled to reorient himself, “that’s what a Baku looks like.”

The slime momentarily retreated. “How do you know what I am?”

“Oh I can’t give away all of my secrets, TRUCK-KUN.”

He quivered in rage at that name, but stayed silent.

“I couldn’t remember what a Baku was until I got stuck for a long time in that strange place. A dream eater. A spirit that would consume the nightmares of little children, but a fearsome enemy. A child too dependent on a Baku to overcome nightmares might end up eaten.”

Truck-kun stopped moving. Not just the slime body, but the true Baku inside. The Baku’s hide split to form a single eye. A bizarre pupil like that of a goat stared at me through the slime’s body, burning with red flame.

“So, that explains how you helped the goddess Kisshin form these dreams. It was really you and not her that made the Isekai spells. You’re a spirit specialized in manipulating dreams. Of course you’re the one behind all of these Isekai.”

I pointed at the tangle of animal parts that had been stuffed into the imaginary shell of the slime. “A mind reader. A dream devourer. A Baku. My mother told me stories about Baku. Plead to the baku if you have a bad dream at night. Just say, ‘Baku-san, come eat my dream,’ three times.

“The Baku would come and consume the bad dream. I guess that’s not too different from you being Truck-kun in the modern world. But don’t bother the Baku too often, or it might get greedy and consume not only your nightmare but your hopes and desires as well, leaving you to live a life empty of passion or purpose. Is that true, Truck-kun!”

“Stop calling me that,” he yelled. He knew I was trying to enrage and distract him, but it was too much. “And I never did that to a single child. I protected them, back when the world was a living nightmare. I helped them back when they needed me, before I was forgotten.”

The slime struck again, and the fight continued.