CH 10

Fear of Sharing Dreams with Others

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It’s strange… There have been periods of time when I haven’t been able to talk to Amane and we’ve been estranged, it’s just that Amane doesn’t seem to be interested in me at all, her reaction was calm, to say the least, and cold-hearted, to say the worst.

To be honest, this is the first time I’ve ever had someone run away from me just by looking at my face like she did this morning.

“Did I do something?”

The only thing I can think of is that I saved Amane based on a “Premonition Dream”… There was no way she could have avoided me after all that.

I mean, it’s pathetic, but my approach to her hasn’t progressed beyond greeting her in the morning.

No, of course I don’t think I should ask her, “Let’s go to school together,” hoping that we can be friends like we used to be.

This is completely self-inflicted, but I can’t help but have flashbacks of the intense dreams I’ve been having every night, and I just can’t get any more words out!

Then I shouldn’t have had that dream… I’m well aware of that but…

Well, that’s why the possibility of me doing something to Amane is practically zero.

When I glanced at Amane, I saw her laughing with her good friends as usual.

However, as soon as her eyes met mine, Amane would blatantly look away in panic.

“Ugh…”

That gesture could easily be fatal to my heart… I thought I was able to move forward a little.

However, there are a few things I’ve learned from watching Amane like this.

To be clear, there is a lot of wishful thinking on my part, but I think the group looks like they are close, but the boys don’t seem to be that close…

It seems to me that people who are really close to Amane are the two girls who are always next to her, Kagura-san with her gal brown hair and Kamui-san with her round glasses, and there seems to be a certain distance between them and the other girls, especially the boys.

In particular, the guy who was rumored to be dating Amane has been strangely trying to make contact with her in a familiar way, but she casually avoids him… It looked like that.

I really wonder if… those two are dating?

I can’t hear what they’re saying, and Amane and the others are smiling, so it’s really just wishful thinking on my part.

“Hah ~”

“What are you sighing about, Yumeji? Did you bring the book I lent you yesterday? I brought you the next volume.”

As I was thinking about something I don’t usually think about, my otaku friend Kudou came over to me in a good mood, as he always does.

How to say it… I’m relieved to see that he’s in his usual mood, at least for today.

Kudou seems to be happy that I’m liking the manga he’s been recommending lately, and he brings me a copy of that manga every day.

…… This guy must be part of the reason why I have “that dream” every day! That’s right! It’s not my fault!! It’s because he lends me those mangas every day!! !!

“Next is the long-awaited mixed bathing scene …”

“As expected from the maestro, let’s borrow it.”

I know… That the only one most guilty of this is me…

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………… Five days have passed.

I wake up as fresh as ever, but I feel a bit sad that there is no one next to me.

“I’ve done it… again…”

The sweet, sweet life of just the two of us before the final battle, waking up in the morning, going to work, eating and sleeping, nothing out of the ordinary… It’s such a normal life, but how wonderful that it’s just the two of us.

“N-No… I have to see through to the end… of this dream!”

Finally, I had the same dream until I came up with a strange reasoning “At least I have to see the last seven days!”.

I’m aware of it… I’m completely drowning in that dream.

“Ne~e, Amachi, can I have a word with you…”

“Hmm?”

As I was walking down the hallway with my insolent fantasies, I was approached by two girls.

One is Kagura-san, who has brown hair and a gal-like impression with soft and fluffy hair. The other is Kamui-san, who looks like an adult with bob glasses.

At first glance, the two seem to have no connection with me, but both are friends who are always with Amane… No, can’t they be called best friends?

They have been friends since middle school, which coincided with the time when I was estranged from Amane…  I can’t deny that I’m a little bewildered when I think about Amane I knew when I didn’t know her.

These two girls spoke to me with a look of caution, as if they were worried about something.

“Ne~e, what did you do to Ama-chi*?” (TL: Amane + chi. Not the protagonist Amachi Yumeji)

“……Eh?”

As if to condemn me, Kagura-san asked me a question so abruptly that I couldn’t help but let out a silly voice.

“Recently… For the past few days, Ama-chi often has been acting strange and absent-minded.”

“When I asked her about it, she just said, “It’s nothing”…”

“No… even if you say that… I haven’t spoken properly to Kanzaki in years…”

Even though the words came from my own mouth, they pierce deeply into my heart. The same goes for calling Amane “Kanzaki” in a stranger’s manner myself…

But they looked at each other and frowned, as if they didn’t agree with my story.

“Is that so? Because when Ama-chi is spa~cing out, she’s usually looking at you.”

“…Ha?”

“That’s right. When I pointed it out, she turned red and denied it, but that was like declaring, “I saw him”…”

……It’s the first time that I heard such a story.

A calm analysis by two friends, I feel that is more credible than the gossip I hear.

But despite my slightly racing heart, I was calm… The negative part denies that this is possible.

“No… but it can’t be because of me, can it? It’s not like I and Kanzaki are on good terms.”

I have said that but I am getting the feeling that a huge blade has pierced my chest plate even more than before.

But the two of them open their eyes and tell me the facts I didn’t know.

“Eh~~ it’s a lie, right? It’s true that I don’t see you guys talking at school ~. There’s no way you and Ama-chi don’t get along.”

“That’s right. The biggest offense to Amane-san is ‘badmouthing Amachi-kun’.”

“…………Eh?”

What?

The two of them said it, like it was some kind of harmonious arrangement, common sense, right? The fact that Amane said it in such a normal way almost stopped me from thinking.

“That’s right ~. Once a boy who was in a good mood said something bad about Amachi, and then she stopped talking to him at all, even though she was still the same on the surface~~. But the person in question didn’t realize it ~”

“Rather, he still thinks he’s special to Amane… It’s annoying.”

“Eh? Eh ??”

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I was coming home with a feeling of confusion.

Anyway… Kagura-san was just as she seemed, but Kamui-san was also pretty sharp tongue despite her appearance… She’s been Amane’s best friend since middle school, so I knew she wouldn’t just be a quiet girl.

From the way Kagura-san and Kamui-san were talking, it was obvious that something was wrong with Amane, and they were sure that I was the cause of it.

“But I haven’t taken any real action…”

I can’t help but sigh when I see the “Dream Book” left on my bed in my room.

I fought alongside her, I helped her, I spoke my mind and proposed to her… I was really a man in my dreams.

That’s what dreams are for, they fascinate me with my own desires… I wish I could move like that in real life.

I picked up the dream book on my bedside, feeling like I was cheating myself out of such misery.

It’s a strange story, but I just realized about this “Dream Book” because I was so focused on practical use that I didn’t pay much attention to the purpose of the book, which should be to read.

“If I remember it again… I read it properly only at the beginning.”

There are some mysteries in this book.

The fact that you can have any dream you want is a given, but who wrote the book? Whose book was it in the first place? If I think about it, why it was placed in a coffee shop, there is no end to it.

One of such mysteries is that this book, the first half of the book, “Beginner” and the third and subsequent ones are blank.

So either it was a work in progress, or there is a follow-up book in the works, but either way, this book is still incomplete.

“Does beginner mean there’s also intermediate and advanced?”

As I flipped through the “Dream Book”, I found that there were many different types of dreams.

Some of them I had heard of before, others I was not familiar with.

“Lucid Dreaming”, “Premonition Dream”, “Nightmare”, “Past Dream”, “Previous Life Dream” ………… For each dream, there’s a description of what it means, how to operate it, and how to apply it.

Some of them were even a little fraudulent, like “How to Make Nightmares Happen to People”… As expected that was… despite thinking that, “Lucid Dreaming” and “Premonition Dream” were true. I can’t deny that I have a little bit of expectation.

As I read on like that, I stopped at certain dreams.

“Shared Dream?”

It was a dream that was not very familiar to me.

I’m not sure why… That word, that kind of dream, sounds so unpleasant.

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“Shared Dream”

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“…………………………Eh?”

I hold my breath … Sweat poured out of my hands and down my spine… W-Why!? The chills don’t stop!

“No… No No No!! Th-Th-Th-Th-There is no way! There’s no way that’s physically possible! Although it’s a “Dream Book”, there is no such thing as a shared dream…”

I suppressed my trembling hands and continued reading the section on “Shared Dreams” to find something to deny.

However… the book brought affirmation, not denial…

・ How to activate a shared dream.

The radius is about 10 to 15 meters. The upper part of the Book of Dreams, the phoenix symbol, must be pointed at the person with whom you share your dreams when you sleep.

* The dreamer is in control of the dream, so the person who shares it is aware that it is just a dream.

It is also possible to give the shared party a “Lucid Dream” by the will of the user.

………… Let’s check it out.

My bed is placed next to the window on the second floor.

Naturally, the dream book that I kept next to my pillow every night to dream my favorite dreams was… The upper part of the “phoenix symbol” is pointed firmly in “the direction of the window”.

And in the direction of the window, on the second floor, I can see beyond the window… When she was a kid, she used to come and play through the roof… The second-floor window next door, Amane’s room.

That place… seems to be within 10 meters of the margin.

Humans really make an SHAA~~~~ sound when their blood is boiling, don’t they.

My blood drops too much and I feel like I’m going to get anemia all at once…

Recently… Amane has been avoiding me just by looking at my face…

……What kind of dream have I been dreaming about for the past few days?

What if, what if. What if Amane was also seeing the dream that I was dreaming without permission according to my own desires.

“UA… AAAAA!?”

I was lucky that I didn’t have a box cutter in my room.

If there had been, I would have thrust it into my neck without hesitation.