A sigh of relief escaped his lips as he opened his eyes. The ceiling of her room, familiar and silent, welcomed her. Morning light streamed through the slits in the curtains, casting long, soft shadows. For a few seconds, Yoshi remained motionless, observing his surroundings as if he couldn't quite believe he had woken up in his own room.
"Again...", he muttered in his mind, "unharmed for the second time...".
He sat on the edge of the bed, ran a hand over his face and let out his breath. He did not feel rested, but neither did he feel exhausted. It was a fatigue that only settled in the soul, not the body. He had learned to recognise it.
After a few minutes of silence, he stood up and changed his clothes slowly, as if dragging an invisible weight. He left his room and began the walk to school, with quiet, controlled steps. The atmosphere around him was strangely serene. Silent.
Too quiet.
The corridors, the windows, the gardens... were empty.
"Sure..." he thought as he walked, "it's still the dream world."
This detail is always forgotten before waking up, but now it was obvious. Only he was there. Him... and maybe them.
As they reached the academy grounds, a thought struck him: they hadn't agreed on an exact place to meet. For some reason, the most logical thing to do was back to where it had all started: the infirmary. Yesterday they had crossed paths near there. Maybe, with any luck, it would happen again.
And it did.
As he turned down the corridor leading to the infirmary, his footsteps stopped instantly. In front of him, standing silently, were Charlotte and Haruka. Both seemed to be waiting for him.
A long moment of tension stretched between the three of them. None of them said anything. They simply looked at each other.
The first thing that struck him was the attitude of both of them. Charlotte didn't look as upset as she had yesterday. Her posture was erect, her face serene. She was the cool, stately noblewoman everyone knew. As for Haruka... her expression was more relaxed, almost neutral, as if the previous night had been part of a simple dream.
That surprised him.
He prepared to say something, to suggest going somewhere more private so that he could speak calmly, but before his voice could emerge, he was interrupted.
-Before I hear all the explanations you plan to justify yourself with," said Charlotte in her polite, leisurely tone, "I need to ask you two questions that concern me.
Yoshi froze. Not just at the words, but at the tone. There was no trace of anger. There was no sarcasm or contempt. It was the exact tone he used with everyone else. Formal. Cold. Impersonal.
The night before, she had lost all composure with him. But now... now it was as if she were talking to a random acquaintance.
-Tell me," Yoshi replied, trying to sound firm, though his stomach churned. I'll answer anything if it will allow me to explain myself.
Charlotte tilted her face slightly, as if assessing his reaction, and then asked:
-First, I want to know why Haruka woke up with the same injury she had in that dream. And second, I want to know what that thing from yesterday was... and why it was chasing you.
The questions hit harder than I expected. Direct. Sharp. Like scalpels seeking to unearth something.
Yoshi took a deep breath.
-What happens is that... my ability is not just any passive. It's a mixture of several things. Originally, what activates this dimension of shared dreams is my "Immersive Dreams" ability. It makes me recreate scenes accurately... but when other people sleep at the same time as me, if there's a link between them and what I'm dreaming... they get pulled in too.
-Does that explain the wound? -Charlotte asked emotionlessly.
-Yes. For some reason, minor injuries... if they occur within the shared dream, they can be transmitted to the real body, depending on the degree of immersion," he answered bluntly. And as for that thing... it was created by someone who also entered the dream. That person has a direct relationship with me... I can't go into details, but... let's just say she's obsessed with finding me.
-A woman? -asked Charlotte, without so much as a twitch of the eyebrow.
-Yes," he replied, looking down for a second. My sister. She's... broken. She blames me for something. And... she's been entering the dreams when we sleep together. She doesn't have full control... but the monster was her creation. She uses it to look for me inside the dream before she gets there herself.
For a few seconds, there was absolute silence. Charlotte did not respond immediately. She simply put a hand to her chin, as if considering what she had heard.
Yoshi swallowed. He felt a twinge of discomfort. Something in that expression... something in that gesture...
Charlotte looked him straight in the eye. And then, she smiled.
It was not a kind smile. It was light, but there was something... twisted in it. A tinge of malice that made his whole body tense.
-Well," he finally said, his calm tone intact. That's all I wanted to know.
Yoshi blinked. He felt that something didn't fit. He took a step back, but it was too late.
-Do it! -commanded Charlotte without raising her voice.
And before he could react, a shadow hit him from behind.
He felt a sharp blow to the back of his head and his vision was instantly blurred.
In the seconds before he lost consciousness, he heard voices.
-Good work," said Charlotte in her usual tone.
-It was nothing... I just wanted to make sure she couldn't escape," Haruka replied. Her voice... there was no warmth in it. It wasn't the Haruka he knew. It was cold. Empty. But... she was trembling. Not from guilt. But of pent-up fury.
And then... darkness.
The last thing that crossed his mind before he disappeared was an idea that stuck in him like a knife:
"In the end... she never believed me. It was all an illusion of mine."