Chapter 3:

Dream Conjuring

Grace Dances Upon the Clouds


“So… you just imagine what you want and out it comes?”

Grace gave a cheeky smile in response. Her umbrella became a giant fountain of sparkles and rainbows before it returned to normal, like nothing had happened. Pure magic.

Meanwhile, Haru stared holes into his hands, trying to conjure some of that magic for himself. A slight wind blew across his empty palms in disappointment.

Even in dreams, a sense of reality grounded him, unlike the case for Grace. The fantasy was more spontaneous, more out of his control.

Sure, the dreamscape was an extension of his own imagination, but calling upon it was like rubbing his internal genie – limited in wishes. All he could do was stare dumbly while Grace bounced around, the superior being in this domain.

Of course, she wouldn’t follow the same rules, you dummy. She’s not real to begin with!

Haru chided himself for comparing her to some real person.

But then again, a full week had passed, and Grace appeared every single night without fail. At first, he was content with walking on air, frolicking amid paradise with Grace’s wings as his guide. But then, he pondered what was keeping him from doing the same. It was his own imagination, after all!

It had conjured the enigmatic girl before him, the so-called ‘Dream Fairy’.

“Well… maybe I’m just special!”

Her frankness annoyed him, but it was like being angry at a child. He thought of a verbal counter, some way to satisfy his discontent. His hand suddenly wrapped around something. His gaze ran up a giant paper fan that had appeared.

With one swift blow, he smacked Grace with it.

“Ah, fairy abuse, fairy abuse! How can someone dream so beautifully yet be so vile?!” ending with a giggle, a contrast to her feigned seriousness.

“Oh, can it, will you? If you are going to live rent free in my mind, the least that you could be is useful!”

Grace had adapted rather quickly to Haru’s snark. It wasn’t unexpected. He could imagine arguing with himself for days. Thus, he found it quite entertaining.

“I was useful though! Didn’t you just poof something?” Grace pointed to the object in his hand.

“Oh right, I did, didn’t it?” Haru put on a troll face, whacking her again.

Apparently, bending reality in his dreams required a certain amount of willpower and prompting, to displace any preconceived realism. Basically, he had to convince his own subconscious. Actions brought over from reality was a strong stimulus. Lies and self-trickery served as momentary gaps. After some effort, small wishes could be granted, but certainly not to the extent of Grace.

“Ugh, why can’t I just become a ‘Dream Fairy’ myself and bypass all of this nonsense?! It would be so much easier to play without any restrictions. Hey Grace, can’t you just turn me into one? In fact, why don’t you just create a fabulous world of your own prompting?”

Haru looked over when things grew quiet suddenly, but he was surprised to find a stony expression on Grace. He walked over and reached for her shoulder to get her attention.

“I can’t… I can’t do anything without you.”

Haru’s hand froze, inches from her. She slowly turned to him, the first time her face showing anything but a smile. For a moment, she looked lost, her pupils empty, and it was like breathing didn’t matter. But then, she cracked a bitter smile.

“If you become a ‘Dream Fairy’, then you would have to give up being human. Humans have hopes and dreams. They create the magic of this place. Without that, ‘Dream Fairies’ are nothing. They don’t even exist.”

Haru paused, lost in thought. Why had his dream set such boundaries? Why did it have to be practical at a time like this? He would have much rather been all-powerful inside of his own head, but how it all worked was an enigma in itself. But Grace was right, without him, without his imagination, they wouldn’t have met to begin with.

“The very fact that I appear before you like I do is, in part, what you desire of me.”

Haru grimaced. He didn’t want to believe that his depiction of a waifu was some dolled-up airhead that did whatever she felt. A ‘worthless goddess’ like they say in isekai. But then again, he wasn’t entirely opposed to her either. The fact that she appeared night after night was proof of that already.

“So then… what should I do?”

Grace shrugged before dancing around him again. “It’s your dream. Surprise me.”

Ha ha. Very funny.

Haru reached out to chop her on the head, only for his hand to dissolve before him. Grace’s form crumbled and fell away as well, like made from sand. After another blink, Haru found his arm reaching toward the ceiling. The ear-grating beep of his alarm had stolen him from his slumber. But he had not left everything behind.

His eyes scoured the room. And then, he smiled in realization. He had plenty of things around him to influence his subconscious.

And just like how the excitement of a new movie or game would pop up in his dream, his face was full of hope that priming himself with something silly would carry it to the other side.

He went right up to the bookshelves and pulled out a disc case – a typical JRPG with swords and magic. But then, Haru reconsidered. Things could go south very easily when they were far different from the norm. He could gender swap and be accused as a witch. A dragon could make a snack of them. The things that stood out were often the most prominent in one’s mind. That didn’t sound like very much fun.

Hmm… Mafia-type dramas are out. Kart racing? Shell-ing Grace would be funny, but I’d be opening myself up for the same. Isekai? Wait, if my dream was like an isekai, then I would isekai within an isekai… shit, I think I lost some brain cells…

Worrisome, his hobbies all seemed. He could distance himself from them in a ‘look but don’t touch’ manner, but there was a difference up close. Such fantastical playsets were likely held up by paper-thin perceptions. He wasn’t willing to give Grace another chance to laugh at just how flimsy it was put together.

And for some reason, Haru didn’t want her to lose that blissful ignorance. It didn’t matter that she wasn’t real to begin with. His ego could just as easily be bruised from it.

What I need is something grounded, something tame…, Haru looked back and forth between the shelves.

His hand stopped at a dating sim game. He sweated bullets at the thought, but somehow, his reasoning skills had overridden his first impulse to pass over it.

School-type setting. Perfectly normal characters. No hidden dangers aside from the lonely failure that was the main character. Thankfully, he had not found Lookie Lookie Drama Club first.

Why he still had this, Haru shrugged. He had likely joined some bandwagon in some misplaced interest for the other gender. One full of tiresome options that simply bored him to death. In the end, he never finished any route.

He set the disc aside and got ready for school.

Somehow, he didn’t mind shooting for the ‘Grace Route’.

Not like anything would come out of it anyways.