Chapter 36

The quest itself was relatively simple: There was apparently a yokai wandering around a calmer part of town, visiting people when they are asleep and slowly but surely sucking their very soul out while they dream. Because of this, most people either evacuated or have stopped dreaming altogether.

“It’s probably a Baku… They can get pretty annoying to defeat.” On our way there Aki was already planning and thinking about it. I personally thought that this was quite the step up in difficulty compared to finding an old lady’s cat… But to be fair, that whole cat-search has proven to be way more difficult than I expected as well, so I can’t even really estimate the difficulty of those tasks at all.

“How do we beat them?” I do know of Baku: A Baku is a B-Rank yokai, however they are kind of hard to even meet as they mostly attack you when you are asleep. Thus, I have no real plan here.

“One of us - it will be you, actually - will sleep. Once the Baku attacks them, the person will try to beat it inside of their own dream. We do know of its existence so that should make it easier to actually fully register it and battle it. The rest of us try to somehow stop it from the outside… That’s probably a possible option as well.”

The young man who gave up the task in the first place already awaited us. He has deep eye-bags as well. Seems like he didn’t sleep for quite some time. He stood in front of his small cabin and looks at us.

“We… are here to defeat the yokai.” Hibiki calmly proclaimed. She did not seem to be stressed or excited in the slightest.

“Thank you! Yes, yes, that is good!”
Aki looks around: “Is anyone currently asleep here?”

“No, no one. They either left or constantly force themself to stay awake… I do too, of course.”

Aki nods, then she pats the poor guy on the back. “We’ll handle this… Can we use your cabin? Thank you very much…” Without awaiting an answer she goes inside of his cabin. Hibiki follows without saying another word. I look at the poor dude and bow. “Don’t worry! You will soon enough be able to sleep again!”

Thus, I too leave him behind and walk inside of the cabin. The inside looks pretty cozy yet sterile, similar to most of our more traditional homes. I lay my blade down onto the ground and look around.

“Okay then… then I’ll just try to fall asleep, huh?” I slowly lay down on the bed and stare at the ceiling. Damnit, I’m not tired at all…

Hibiki suddenly towers over me. Aki also does.

“Come ooooon, go to sleep already!” Aki grins a bit.

“I can’t just sleep instantly!”

“Should I sing you a lullaby?” Aki pokes my cheek and grins even more. I sigh.

Hibiki does not want to wait any longer. “Oh! I’ve got an idea!” And in the next moment I see her fist crashing down onto me.

I sit on a small bench, together with Hira. She is swinging her legs back and forth, summing the tunes of ‘Hamabe no Uta’. None of us says anything. We simply watch into the sunset. The sun slowly sinks into the sea with the two of us sitting on a cliff right in front of said sea.

Hira begins singing the song. I silently sit next to her and listen to her.

My mother used to sing me this song whenever I couldn’t sleep. Something about it relaxed me.

I get tired as well and slowly lay my head down on Hira’s lap. I could just fall asleep here for all I care… Just lying here, on the lap of the one I adore, listening to her tunes for all eternity… Is there a better thing? Would that not be the most optimal life there is?

Seagulls fly across the sky. The sea itself loudly throws around its waves. But the two of us sit atop this cliff, neither fully in the sky, nor in the sea, nor really on the ground either… We are sitting on the very thin line between it all. We are sitting on top of the boundaries that cannot be properly explained.

Hira stops singing. I slowly open my eyes again. And while I do still see the red sun setting, I do not see Hira anymore. I do not see the cliff anymore. I do not see the bench anymore.

The cliff we were on has disappeared. As I look down, I see the bench and its remains slowly sink down into the sea. I continue floating at the very same spot. Alone.

As I watch the sunset alone something happens. The very fabric of space itself slowly gets sucked and thrown away right in front of me. And in this moment I realize.

I remember.

Hira is dead. I could not possibly listen to her humming or the like. I must be dreaming.

As I turn around I see the one responsible for sucking away the very fabric of my dream itself: Some kind of small lion, though instead of a lion’s head his head is that of an elephant. His trunk is sniffing and sucking away the dream that I own. The Baku is here.

I remain calm for a second. Then I cannot remain calm any more.

I jump at the Baku, grab it and repeatedly try to punch it. However, as soon as I punch it for a few times it loudly screeches.

The world around me turns fully dark. The two of us sit in a black space. The Baku itself, however, is not black. Thus, my vision has not activated.

In the next moment, I slowly see something in front of us. Something flickering. And as soon as I can make out the figure standing there, I get goosebumps.

In front of me and the yokai stood a person with a top-hat, white hair and a western dress.