[3.2] The Dream Familiar

What was up with Yumeppo?

Even with that conversation over and him leaving the two alone for their aquarium date to disappear somewhere, Teru couldn't help but feel a little miffed.

He knew what he saw: that shadowy figure that weirdly resembled Keina. Could that really just have been his imagination?

There was a very slight difference in feeling now that the actual Keina was next to him as they walked through an underwater walkway filled with a colorful array of jellyfish. But the nuance was something that he couldn't really put into words.

She was wearing a white cashmere coat over a black zipper dress and tights. A white beret that covered half of her pink head completed a warm, comfy fit for the air-conditioned exhibits, and her black sneakers looked prepared to walk for hours around the place.

Meanwhile, Teru was stuck in his school uniform. Again.

Really?

Red jacket, black pants, brown shoes, and bare head. Every single time. If it wasn't for the mint green hair, he'd be completely unremarkable.

He felt like he just threw on clothes and left home in five minutes, while Keina took hours to doll up as meticulously as possible.

"Don't feel bad, Teru! I think that outfit still looks good." Keina reassured, "It's not like I actually took the time to wear this, so you could call me low effort too." She winked.

"I could use your brand of low effort." He elicited a giggle from her.

It would be nice to actually match her style for once. A dream world with limitless possibilities, and it couldn't give him some fashion of his own?

"Maybe next time we can do shopping, like a mall date!" She suggested.

"That's one way to handle having no clothes." He chuckled at the idea, the image of Yumeppo chilling at the food court while drinking a cup of coffee floating through his head.

...

"Hey, about Yumeppo." Teru started.

"You don't think he's hiding anything, do you?"

Keina turned her head from the jellyfish up above that she was watching.

"No?" She casually stated, without hesitation.

"Well, I guess he was a little dismissive of what you saw, but Yumeppo isn't bad, Teru." She further affirmed. 

"He's always been by my side these two years. Definitely risk-averse though."

Teru let a frown out. "Still, he seems really knowledgeable about dreams." 

Not even about Keina's Dream specifically, the magical girl mascot frequently dropped the science. 

"Doesn't he come from your mind?" Were these things that Keina knew?

"No, I didn't make him." She corrected.

Teru blinked, "Wait, what? But he's a fictional anime character. He had to have come from you, or at least somewhere in the Dream."

Keina crossed her arms and tilted her head in thought. "Nope, he just showed up one day."

Before looking back at the jellyfish floating aimlessly around them.

"...When I first came into this Dream, Everything was just darkness, and nothing resembled home. Or anything from real life."

"I didn't know why I was here. I just woke up in that castle." Teru simply nodded.

That pastel pink castle, which he saw for the first time on the day he met Keina. 

The castle that served as the foundation for these dreams.

And where she spent most of her time by herself. 

More accurately, it was like a pink chalk illuminated outline of a castle, and the space surrounding it was the blackboard.

"I was all alone. I was never hungry or thirsty, and I never felt the need to sleep. No matter how far I walked or how much I explored, it just kept going on with no end. I couldn't tell if time was even passing. I didn't even know if I was actually even still a person. I didn't feel like I was."

She looked down. "I thought that was going to be my forever. That was a really scary time for me."

Teru just placed his hand on her shoulder, unsure what to say. But she quickly bounced back to her usual self before he could find the words.

"But before long, that's when Yumeppo came!"

"Konpponwa! Keina! It's me-ppo!"

"It's Yumeppo!"

"Yumeppo taught me all about this Dream, and we figured out even more from there! Like me being the 'Host of the Dream', renovating that castle to feel more like home, and even a bit about the processes and how we just... exist in here!"

Keina's eyes flashed a tenderness as she recalled her adventures with the Magia Lyra mascot.

"He wasn't always there; sometimes he disappeared for a little bit. But he always came back for me. And honestly, these two years haven't been bad at all because of Yumeppo."

She suddenly took both of Teru's hands in hers.

"And now I'm even less lonely than ever, now that I have you too, Teru!" She beamed, her face slightly rosy.

Teru turned his gaze for a split second as he felt himself turning red again from her up-front spoken appreciation.

"Alright, I'm sorry for casting doubt on Yumeppo. Sounds like he's done way more than I gave him credit for."

"Yeah!" She wholeheartedly agreed.

She gave one great big grin, the biggest that Teru has ever seen, filled with a deep love and pride. As she exclaimed out loud.

"He's the best!"

Teru's lips naturally curled upwards in response. Keina always had an infectious warmth, but that was probably the happiest he's ever seen her.

Teru gave her one gentle squeeze of her hands with his, as he freed only one of them. 

A part of him didn't want to exactly let go, and she wasn't pulling away either. He kept his grip loose enough in case she did want to, but she had a content look on her face as she started to hum.

Their hands remained linked as they continued to walk, nearing the end of the jellyfish tunnel walkway.

"That said," Keina started, her eyes glittering, "I am curious about where Nightmare-me went."

Apparently, that was the shadow figure's new name.

"You don't think it was some kind of dream in a dream type cognition?" He asked.

"I'm not sure, but it'd be more interesting if it wasn't." The curiosity wheel in Keina's engine was starting to rev up again.

"What if it was actually dangerous though?"

"You said it didn't feel like it was, right?" She winked. "It's based on me, after all!"

"I did, but what if that's like some kind of aberrant Nightmare tactic to let your guard down, like what Yumeppo was thinking?"

"...In that case..." She made a dramatic pause. 

"...We'll just run away. Really fast." 

She gave a thumbs-up.

...

Maybe it was better if they didn't run into it again somewhere in this aquarium.