[5.2] The Dream Chase

"Wait!"

Shadowy tendrils that made up the Nightmare Keina's hair flew back as Teru gave chase. The real Keina was right by his side as the eastern plaza exit of Keinaland stretched on forever.

He was covering far more ground than he could in real life, and his lungs weren't dying for it. But it wasn't enough to close the gap, as the shadowy figure slowly gained distance.

Nightmare Keina wasn't even flying or even hovering or doing any other spooky movement. It was just running that fast, enough to leave a trail of afterimages.

It didn't even look optimized for running like they were, with it still retaining the silhouette of a knee-length dress, and what vaguely resembled heels. 

Yet it was leaving them in the dust.

They bumped and weaved through the crowd, who eventually dispersed and got out of the way. They murmured as their eyes were solely trained on the two, as if they were watching runners in a marathon.

Somehow, to the people of the Dream, they were the weird ones and not the shadowy figure that barely looked human, let alone belonging in this dream.

What was it doing here? Why was it here now?

This was a bad time for Yumeppo not to be with them right now. The number one skeptic behind this shadow's existence was presumably near the Replica Keina Castle, performing with the parade.

Teru could only hope that he's able to sense what's going on and rush over ASAP.

Nightmare Keina turned the corner sharply, disappearing behind a cartoonishly shaped lantern post.

By the time Teru and Keina made the same turn, an antique double-sided door up top a flight of stairs had just closed shut.

"Nightmare me must've gone in there!" Keina rushed up the steps.

Teru was about to do the same when the building in front of him caught his eye.

A haunted house.

He shuddered. Of all places, the Nightmare Keina had to pick a horror attraction.

"Come on, Teru!" Keina's urgent voice snapped him out of his stray thought, dragging him up the stairs two steps at a time.

He shook his head. Now wasn't the time for those thoughts.

They each pulled one side of the door together as they rushed inside without looking.

And began falling.

Not through complete darkness, but stormy grey clouds.

---

"Grab on!" Keina caught Teru's hand, his rapid descent suddenly coming to a halt as his body clung to hers.

Her other hand suddenly held a large umbrella that was protecting them from the vicious rain trying to batter them, and acting as a parachute to glide down what felt like a massive height.

Teru looked around below, laying his eyes on a familiar, grungy building that towered above everything else, swallowed by the sea of clouds.

It was that skyscraper, from when they had their Dream Date on what was supposed to be his school rooftop. The one as high as Tokyo Skytree.

"We're back here?" Keina asked, the bewilderment palpable.

"Looks like we're sharing an umbrella after all." Teru offhandedly remarked, a personal distraction from how he was practically hugging her like a body pillow in order not to fall.

He squinted his eyes, scanning the space below them before barely making out some movement that was obscured by the rain.

"It's down there!" He pointed out the vicinity to Keina.

Nightmare Keina was parkouring across the sky scraper rooftop, doing flips across the urban jungle of architecture before it made its way to the ledge, leaping off with a decisive step.

Instead of falling into the clouds below, it spun around midair, facing back towards the skyscraper and shot something long from its hand, pulling itself back into the side of the building.

"I think she went in one of the windows!" Keina leaned forward to steer her umbrella. "I'll try and get us down there!"

But before they could, an extra-strong gust of wind suddenly assaulted them and knocked her umbrella out of their hands.

Sending them tumbling down once more.

---

This time, they landed with a thud. A soft, freezing thud.

Teru got up first, pulling Keina up to her feet as they quickly confirmed their surroundings, shivering.

The two found themselves on top of an elevated platform of snow that was floating up and down an expansive body of water as far as the eye could see. An iceberg.

The only other object in sight was a massive ship right next to them. Half of it was submerged in the water, bearing a massive tear in the hull that lined up with a sharp protruding piece of ice on the platform. The other half remained above water, towering straight up in the sky.

It was the Cruise Dream.

"This is where this dream ended after you left!" Keina exclaimed, her hands over her mouth.

Was the Nightmare Keina bringing back their previous dreams? These shouldn't be tangible locations right now when the current dream was the amusement park.

There was no time for an answer, as he spotted the figure vertically scaling up the sinking ship. The 'something long' it shot out earlier looked like some kind of grapple that flexed and contracted as it launched itself up above the part of the clouds that was pierced by the bow.

Teru's head was pulled all the way back to be even able to see where it went. "There's no way we're going to be able to climb that in time."

Keina's eyes looked elsewhere on the ship before her gaze made its way downward.

Into the water below.

Teru paled. Not the water again.

"Keina, it went up." He hastily reminded her.

"You've been here long enough to know that down doesn't always mean down." She just smiled.

He didn't get a chance to protest before Keina took him by the hand and leaped off the iceberg together.

He crossed his hands in prayer that he wouldn't turn into a sea lion again.

---

Rather than being soaked with subzero chills, Teru harmlessly bounced off the surface like a block of jelly, plopping onto cherry blossom-covered concrete.

The ground was proper land again, but it wasn't the summer evening lanes of Keinaland.

It was the spring daylight of the streets that held Cafe Sil, the place where they went in the Cafe Dream. Empty, much like how that dream ended. Except for three.

Keina landed a little farther than he did, en route to the Nightmare Keina, who was running to their left.

"Got you!" She exclaimed as her shadowy self turned its head.

The Nightmare Keina barely got out of the way with a one-handed backflip.

It casually tilted its head ever so slightly as it remained crouching from its maneuver, before turning to take off down the Y-shaped, Shibuya-like intersection. 

They somehow closed the distance considerably, for how differently they exited the Cruise Dream.

"Damn, you almost got it," Teru was beginning to feel the burn after running across three different dreams, as they kept moving in the figure's direction. "Where is it even trying to go?"

"Maybe she's trying to take us somewhere?" Keina pondered, hesitantly. She was still perfectly fine, perhaps energized from coming so close. "She does feel really familiar, though!"

Nightmare Keina shot its grappling shadowy tendril up high again, this time grabbing onto the car of an impeccably timed train overhead and latching on like a friendly neighborhood superhero.

"Not again!" Teru groaned before the shadowy figure got dragged into the tunnel. The last thing he saw was it pointing down with its free hand.

The only thing nightmarish about Nightmare Keina was trying to keep up with it.

He shook his head around the streets of the Cafe Dream, before noticing a particular set of stairs leading down to a station entrance.

"I guess we've got to head down again."

With the current pattern, down there should be the aquarium. Most likely, that jellyfish tunnel with the rhinos at the end.

"Come on, Keina! We'll cut it off this wa—"

He stopped as he turned back to her.

Her eyes were also on the station entrance. But she definitely wasn't seeing the same thing as him.

"Keina?" He asked, gently.

"I..." She was hesitant, her breathing hitching in a way that didn't sound like exhaustion.

"I don't think the aquarium is down there."

"There's... something else. Something bad. Really bad."