Chapter 32 - Nightmare

Drowning under the sea, a place where she couldn't breathe properly, that was what she was feeling as soon as she felt her surroundings with her eyes closed.

She felt like she was floating mid-air yet something was pulling her downwards.

Ayami immediately regained her consciousness and found herself in a dark area, so dark that she couldn't see anything. Strangely, she was able to see her own body.

She couldn't breathe properly, it was like she was deep under the ocean. Ayami hurriedly swam up.

"Gasp! Cough, cough!"

As soon as she reached the surface, Ayami gasped for breath and coughed. 

She then looked around, only to freeze on the sight she saw. She felt cold chills running down her spine.

Her eyes shook, filled with trepidation as she looked at the woman who looked exactly like her. It was just not one, but tens of them, were floating on a big black gooey liquid, motionless and still, with eyes blank and lifeless.

A thick slithery thing, the size of her arm, was wrapped around their bodies.

'I-Is that me?' Ayami trembled as she stared at the body who looked like her with wide eyes, she had no time to think as…

"Eek!" She let out a yelp as she felt a slimy thing slowly slithering on her feet under the black liquid.

Slowly, it coiled from her feet, to her thighs, then to her waist up to her neck. A black slimy tentacle thing then emerged from the black gooey liquid and made its way to her.

It slithered through her whole body, covering her mouth and one of her eyes. Then, it dragged Ayami down to the bottom, slowly submerging.

'No!'

"Mmm…" Ayami struggled from its grasp. She tried to grab the black tentacles but it was all for naught. Her hand passed through it. She felt like she was grabbing a liquid substance. 

The tentacles tightened around her for a little bit as if telling her to stop struggling.

Seconds passed, Ayami was completely submerged under the black liquid. She stopped struggling as she deemed it useless and let it drag her down.

Ayami closed her eyes and had a thought.

'This must be a nightmare.'

「⍰⍰⍰.」

Just as she was about to accept that this was just a nightmare, Ayami then heard a small garbled words on the surface. 

A handle of an umbrella appeared, like a hook, it grabbed her towards the surface.

"Gasp!" Ayami gasped once again and quickly opened her eyes.

There, standing atop the black liquid, was a woman wearing strange clothes, holding the end of the umbrella. A hat with a veil was covering half of her face.

But this was not the time to know who the woman was!

The black tentacles were tightening around her body to the point that she could not breath.

'Help me.'

She screamed inside as she felt an unbearable pain. 

As the handle of the umbrella was still attached onto her, the woman dragged her away from the black slimy tentacles with brute force, making her feel more pain, at the same time, the black tentacles released her.

The black tentacles slithered violently and moved towards them.

「⍰⍰⍰⍰!」

Like magic, a portal appeared in front of them. The strange woman threw her inside it. The woman also entered it and closed it immediately.

When Ayami opened her eyes, she was already in a different place. The black gooey liquid sticking to her immediately separated and disappeared from her.

"What just happened?" Ayami voiced out her thoughts.

Ayami was bewildered as she watched what happened. It felt like everything was unreal.

The woman silently sat down on a sofa and picked up a book while also sipping tea.

Now that everything was calm, Ayami had time to look around the room.

The familiar scent of books and ink mixed with an aroma of chrysanthemum tea wafted her nose.

Looking around, Ayami knew that she was in a strange place. Yet, she didn't feel scared, strangely she felt calm. Ayami felt that this place was familiar, like she had been here before but she couldn't remember where.

The room had bookshelves with books lined up on it with incomprehensible titles. The texts were garbled so she couldn't really read it.

Outside the window was a deep pitch black darkness, it felt like it would engulf her the longer she stared at it. Far away, stars were shining faintly.

Ayami looked away from the window and fell into deep thought.

'What happened?' She thought back about what happened. She felt a buzzing pain in her head as she recalled what had happened.

Ayami remembered that before she collapsed, Allina and Yanna were arguing. Ayami wondered what happened afterwards, but seeing that she was in a strange place, she wouldn't be able to know what happened right now.

But that wasn't what she wanted to know right now, what she wanted to know was…

'Where is this place? What was that thing earlier? Who is this woman?'

Clack.

The sound of the teacup clacking as it was placed down on the table entered her ears making her snap back to reality.

Ayami looked at the woman, before she sat down on a sofa that was across her with slight hesitation.

She looked at the woman in front of her with curiosity. The woman dressed in strange clothing had a peculiar smile on her face while she sat on a red vintage sofa. She couldn't clearly see her face as it was covered with a huge black veil. All Ayami could see was her black colored lips.

Ayami had a gut feeling that the woman was familiar, it was like she had met her before. 

Ayami let out a sigh as she felt like this situation was complicated, like she shouldn't really be here.

Although she couldn't understand what was happening right now, she knew that the woman in front of her saved her.