[3.1] The Dream in a Dream

Water.

Everywhere Teru could see was just clear blue water.

It wasn't a classroom for once, but Teru wasn't sure if he was fond of the idea of waking up already drowning.

Well, he wasn't drowning, but he was sinking. His limbs kept getting caught in the water's resistance as he flailed about uselessly.

That could have also been just him sucking at swimming, but he won't dwell on that.

He kept sinking for what felt like forever, until his feet met a granite-colored seafloor and the sensation of pool tiles.

His school's swimming pool?

Teru ran his toe down the groove of the tiles, feeling the coarse grit in between. A wall of pool tiles remembered to be behind him as he suddenly found his back up against it, shooting straight up to presumably the surface, but just continued up into darkness.

It would be his school's swimming pool if his school had the deepest swimming pool in the world. 

Either that or this was the ocean.

His musings were cut short by a sudden presence, drawing his attention to the uneven scape ahead of him.

There was something in the distance. Or someone, standing tall on an elevated ramp of pool tiles.

It was a vague feminine outline of a person, but it was otherwise a complete shadow.

The only discernible shapes were the faint silhouette of a knee-length dress—that somehow defied the water's physics instead of floating like a jellyfish—and waist-length tendrils resembling hair that curled towards the end.

The shadowy figure just stared silently, straight at him.

But the sight of it didn't instill any dread, nor did any chills flow through him—that wasn't already from being submerged in water.

It felt familiar, almost like...

...Keina?

The figure didn't really resemble her; the hair was wrong, the body type was wrong, and it looked taller than him.

By all accounts, it should be some kind of eldritch dream horror. Like the Nightmares from Magia Lyra.

But instead of horror, he just felt a strange sense of comfort. Like he was safe.

Somehow... it felt like her.

He opened his mouth to speak, but water just entered his mouth instead, without causing him to choke. Just bizarre fish noises.

The shadowy figure silently waved with what looked like its gloved left hand before turning and walking away. The vague shape of a ribbon on the back of its head was the last thing Teru could make out before it disappeared entirely.

Wait!

Teru clumsily hopped forward in pursuit, the floor starting to catch some light as he made his way over with the same technique he used from his dream on the moon.

He almost got to where the shadowy figure was standing, ascending the ramp as it now became underwater rock climbing.

But then he bonked headfirst on something, hard.

As he floated back down from the impact, a voice rang out that sounded like it was being broadcast.

"Attention to all visitors, we would like to remind you to please refrain from using flash photography when taking pictures of the animals here at the aquarium."

Flash photography? Animals? Aquarium? 

What?

Another, less digitized voice came from above. "Somebody get the sea lion out of the exhibit for medical attention!"

Sea lion? What sea lion?

He wasn't sure what was going on until something hooked underneath him and started lifting him like a personal elevator.

He couldn't get away. For some reason, he no longer could feel his legs, and his arms felt really stubby.

And he got the sense of feeling like one fat noodle.

...

Oh, it was HIM?!

He would've ranted as he finally surfaced out of the water, but all that came out of his mouth were barks and arfs.

"Teru! There you are!" He heard one familiar voice.

"Sup, comrade-ppo." And another.

Who are you calling 'comrade poh'?! The sea lion barked at the tapir.

They were above a metal grate floor that was occasionally flooded with the water he came out of. The room itself seemed like an off-exhibit area for caretakers to interact directly with the animals, with Keina and Yumeppo both wearing navy dry suits, as if they were staff members. 

Keina had some kind of fishing rod in her hand, the line running to the piece of cloth underneath him that pulled him out.

She crouched as she ran her hands through sea lion Teru's head, which placated his barking. 

"Your head seems fine, but where did you end up today? You weren't at your school."

Huh, so that place just now wasn't his school swimming pool? Where did he end up?

But more importantly, how does he change back into a human?! He actually had something important to report here!

Yumeppo pointed behind him with his snout. "Walk to the dressing room and back, you'll probably revert back-ppo."

---

"A shadowy figure that felt like me?" Keina's eyes widened, her hand on her chin. "And it was trying to get you to follow it?"

"And then I ended up here!" Teru waved his hands around, having managed to turn back into a human. But still not free from his school uniform.

"It could be somewhere in this aquarium! Whatever it was, it might be related to waking you up for real!"

"I guess so!" Keina twinkled at the possibility.

Yumeppo, who remained silent throughout his entire explanation, kept his tiny blue arms crossed and the suggestion of furrowed eyebrows, if he actually had any.

"...No, I don't think so-ppo. That's probably just part of the Dream-ppo."

Teru gave one of his looks to the plush mascot, not hamming anything up this time as he raised his voice.

"There's no way that was 'just' another part of the Dream, Yumeppo! There had to have been some kind of meaning to whatever that was!"

Yumeppo kept unusually calm, his mascot voice sounding as serious as it could.

"Not everything in the Dream has a meaning behind it-ppo." He stated bluntly.

"We think that they do because it's popular to view dreams as a reflection of the subconscious, but dreams are just consolidations of the mind while in REM sleep, not intentionally crafted symbolism about our lives-ppo." 

"Not every dream of drowning means you're overwhelmed and stressed, not every dream of falling means you've lost control of your life, and a shadowy, Nightmare-like figure that vaguely feels like Keina doesn't guarantee a deep connection to her underlying situation."

Teru was more at a loss for words compared to his usual shenanigans. "How can you say that?"

"We're in a place that defies everything we know about reality, let alone dreams! And she's been here for two years! I haven't been here for long, but I can tell, compared to the time I've spent here on the dates? That wasn't normal!"

That shadow was the clearest sign of something bigger going on since he first met Keina. For all he knew, it could have even been the reason Keina was slumbering to begin with.

And yet, instead of jumping at this discovery, Yumeppo was... downplaying it.

Aren't Nightmares supposed to be a big deal according to his lore?

"I'm not downplaying anything, you just need to think it through some more!" Yumeppo snapped.
"You said it didn't even look like Keina-ppo."

"Yeah, it didn't, but it felt like—!" Yumeppo cut him off.

"It felt like her because she's been meeting you first thing whenever you come here-ppo. Your subconscious was conditioned to expect that, and when your entry into the Dream was botched, your cognitive processes got messed up and made that shadow as a result-ppo."

"That's what it most likely was, you had what was pretty much a dream within a dream-ppo."

Teru gritted his teeth. Was that really all it was? A dream within a dream?

What Yumeppo said, it didn't not make sense. But it still felt like the mascot was gaslighting him.

Keina just gave him a gentle pat on the shoulder and a supportive smile.

Yumeppo sighed as he reverted to his usual, more goofy, kid-friendly voice to drop his edge.

"As I said before, there's still far too much we don't know about Keina's Dream-ppo, even after two years. I want Keina to wake up too, but sometimes it's better not to overanalyze every single strange thing that happens in here-ppo."

"Besides, just because that figure didn't feel dangerous doesn't mean it's harmless-ppo. It's better to assume that it's a stray cognition than to outright walk into trouble-ppo."

Teru froze a bit as he said that.

He didn't even consider that, given how little danger he felt during that encounter. Unless the lack of danger was precisely the danger in question.

"I'll keep a lookout for that Nightmare anyway, if that makes you happy-ppo." Yumeppo started to flutter off towards the off-exhibit exit.

"But I expect extra large lemon sours after today's date-ppo."

Teru blinked. "Today's date?"

"Yeah-ppo." Yumeppo turned back before leaving through the door.

"You're at the aquarium, isn't that where the young couples like to go for dating-ppo?"

"Oh, right." 

Teru blankly came to the realization. "I completely forgot what kind of place this even was."

"Honestly, me too." Keina chimed in sheepishly.

"I'll leave you two to have your fun then-ppo." Yumeppo turned to Teru one last time. "Oh, and Kasuga-ppo?"

"Yeah?"

"Those words you heard that day, 'Accompany her until the end of the dream', right-ppo?" It's just a matter of time until she wakes up-ppo. We just have to keep at it."

Teru only gave a nod in response.