16

“Where are you going, Saya?”

Hearing someone call after her as she put on her shoes and was about to leave the house, Saya turned to look back. It was Aya in her tracksuit, leaning against the wall, looking at her listlessly. There were terrible bags under her eyes, and her hair was a mess.

“Onee-chan... You okay?”

“Not at all. You?”

When Saya shook her head, Aya let out an exhausted sigh.

“I never really appreciated how bad you had it. This is how bad it is not being able to sleep, huh?”

Saya just nodded.

It had been days now since her sister was afflicted with insomnia. It wasn’t just Aya—her parents had, too. It seemed that for the time being, they could force themselves to sleep for a few hours with sleeping pills, but their effectiveness seemed to be gradually weakening.

“Where are you going?” Aya asked.

“I’m gonna go see my friends.”

“Ohh, the Napping Club, was it? Are they all managing to sleep?”

“Uh... Not so much lately.” When Saya gave a sort of evasive answer, Aya gave her a vague nod.

“I sympathize. Seriously. I hope you can all get some good sleep.”

“Yeah.”

“If you’re heading out, be careful. You’re out of it from the lack of sleep, too,” Aya said, then turned to leave. Saya could vaguely make out the indistinct outline of a Suiju from her neck to her shoulders. Saya guiltily averted her eyes, opening the door to go out.

Dream Impoverishment—Midori had told her there was a term like that.

It referred to the state of being unable to remember dreams when one woke. Ever since becoming a Sleepwalker, she had remembered the dreams she was lucid in clearly, but now she hardly remembered a single thing they did in Nightland.

At the same time, she was also struck by an intense sense of déjà vu. The barely lingering scraps of dreams she remembered would make her feel that she must have experienced the same things before, and it was common that as she tried to escape the loop in which she was trapped, she would wake up.

It was also becoming more and more common for her to get confused as to whether she was in Nightland or Dayland. She might be walking through the school when she kicked off the ground in an attempt to fly, only to land flat on her face, or unconsciously start trying to cross a busy street. Because she had repeatedly had chilling experiences like that, she had developed a habit of pulling on her fingers all the time.

While trying to encourage each other, the five of them had tried Sleepwalking a number of times, but the situation only got worse.

“We’ve been cast out of sleep...”

Those words Ran mumbled were an apt representation of the current situation. Their Sleepwalking abilities had fallen to pieces, as if afflicted by an infection. Hitsuji’s Blanket was unstable, knocking out her companions in situations where she didn’t intend for it to. Kaede couldn’t control her transformations, and she would turn into unsightly monstrosities that caused both her and the others to panic.

Worse yet, even their normal sleep had been eaten away at. They had completely lost control of their dreams, and it was nothing short of terrifying for them to enter Nightland with their memories unstable. They had simply returned to dreaming normally without lucidity, but having experienced life as Sleepwalkers, it was an unbearable experience.

To top it all off, number of Suiju overflowing into Dayland was gradually increasing. Saya would spot the Suiju wandering about in open daylight and possessing those who passed by whether she wanted to or not. The number of people around her who experienced Suiju-induced sleep disorders was increasing proportionately, too. At home and at school, there was nothing but people possessed by Suiju. They stumbled around, bags under their eyes, some suddenly collapsing and falling asleep, while others would see nightmares and scream... The explosive outbreak they had feared had begun. The Suiju invasion of Dayland was rapidly progressing, and this town was at ground zero.

Saya and the others had been set up; as time went by, her suspicion of that grew deeper. The Suiju used their curiosity about the Egg as bait, leading Saya and the others to open a pathway to Dayland. Even the fact that their memories of the Egg became vague was most likely a trick to catch their interest. No one had thought the Suiju could think like that. They’d completely outwitted Saya and the others.

Whenever she went out, like it or not, she was forced to confront the reality they themselves had brought about. But even if she stayed in the house, her sense of guilt was agitated by seeing her family suffering with insomnia. When she finally couldn’t take it anymore, Saya went outside, hanging her head and walking in silence. She visited Sakaimori Bed & Bedding for the first time in a long time.

No one was in the warehouse. She heard nothing but her own footsteps, the dust dancing transiently in the light that poured in from the skylight.

It was like the first time she came here.

The king-size bed laid out in the middle of the bedroom had been left as it was when they last used it, the sheets and blankets wrinkled.

If someone else were here, she thought that might help assuage her feelings, but she had guessed wrong. Now that their success with Sleepwalking had fallen off entirely, their spirits were broken and no one came here anymore.

She collapsed on the large bed.

What was going to happen now...? While she lay there silently in the warehouse, still burdened with her insecurities, she suddenly sensed a presence.

Clop, clop. Clop, clop. The sound of something hard on the floor. Not shoes... hooves.

The hooded man riding the goat appeared from between the shelves.

“We meet again, Neversleeper.”

“This is... a dream?”

“Is this dream or reality? Whichever it is, all will become a dream soon. They set you all up.”

The man pulled on the reins when he was in front of the bed, turning to face Saya.

“The Suiju have done this many times. Luring Sleepwalkers into a trap, and turning Dayland to Nightland. That which had been reality turned to dream, and a new Dayland began as if nothing had ever happened. Thus, the Sleepwalkers turned to dreams, too, and vanished. Just as we once did. And as, at this very moment, you are all in the process of doing.”

“Then... You’re a Sleepwalker, too?”

The man nodded his hooded head.

“In my Dayland, I was a member of the CIA’s Dreamwatchers unit. Our team, GOAT, cooperated with Dreamerwatchers around the world, working to chase down the Suiju as an organization. However... That fact no longer exists— it became a dream and vanished. My entire team is gone, too. I’m no more than a lingering fragment of a dream, wandering Nightland. And so, you people will be the next to go through the same.”

“We’ll be... made into dreams, too?”

“Yes. But there is a factor in play for you that wasn’t for us. It may become your last hope.”

“What?”

“You, Neversleeper.”

The man reached out his from where he sat in the saddle, pointing at Saya.

“You alone can maintain your sanity when insomnia lasts too long. So, too, can you alone see the Suiju that have appeared in Dayland. In short, you are able to exist in both Dayland and Nightland at the same time.”

“Even if that’s true... What do you want me to do about it? How am I supposed to stop what’s happening now?”

“No one shall sleep,” the goat-rider whispered cryptically in response to Saya’s irritation.

“Hokage-san?” Saya came to when Midori called her name.

When she sat up in bed, Midori was looking down at Saya.

“Oh... Hey.”

“Heya, Sayacchi. How ya doing?” Kaede poked her head out from behind Midori.

“What are you two doing here?”

“I could ask you the same, Hokage-san.”

“I just thought... someone might be here if I came.”

Midori and Kaede exchanged glances, then smiled a little.

“We were thinking that, too. Right, Midori?” Kaede asked.

“Right.”

“I know we can’t Sleepwalk and all, but it felt so lonely not being able to see everyone.”

“Have a seat on the sofa. I’ll make tea.”

At Midori’s urging, Saya stood up. She looked around, but the goat rider was nowhere to be found.

Well, of course not. There’s no way that was real. While she was trying to refocus herself, Saya’s eyes were drawn to the floor. Next to the bed, there were four small indentations gouged into surface of the concrete that looked like hoof marks.

“Sakaimori-san... Were those always there?”

When Saya pointed at them, Midori turned around to look, then furrowed her brow.

“I’m not sure. They look like marks left by a pallet... Was there something about them?”

Marks left by a pallet? Now that she said that, it certainly did look like that’s what they might be. It was a more logical explanation than to think a man riding a goat had been there. But...

Saya went over the earlier experience in her head. For some time now, likely due to Suiju interference, Saya and the rest of the group had been unable to bring back memories from Nightland, but she had been left with an awfully clear recollection this time.

The words that man had spoken stuck in her head.

“...No one shall sleep.”

Saya’s mumblings got an unexpected response.

“Is that Turandot?”

When she looked up, Ran had appeared from between the shelves, sitting down on the sofa like everything was perfectly normal.

“Senpai, why are you here?”

“For the same reasons as you, I suspect.”

With what almost felt like calculated timing, Midori brought out mugs and started pouring coffee.

“What’s Turandot?”

“The title of an opera. Long ago, Princess Turandot of China is given a riddle by a prince. If she can’t guess his name by sunrise, she must marry him, but if she does, he will give up on the marriage and offer up his life. That’s where the princess proclaims to the people of her country: until they discover the prince’s name, no one shall sleep.”

“Huh? Harsh much?!” Kaede raised her voice in criticism.

“It is harsh, isn’t it? I can understand her not wanting to get married, though.”

“What a slave driver. Like, it has nothing to do with the people.”

“The people... huh,” Saya mumbled to herself, looking at the one mug on the table that remained empty. Hitsuji’s mug. “Do you think Hitsuji will come?”

“I... don’t think she’ll be coming.” Ran said.

“Why is that?”

“Her Blanket ability has always been too powerful. When Hitsuji sleeps, whether she means for them to or not, the people around her fall asleep, too. That’s why she was choosing deserted places to sleep before, but now it’s gotten so strong that little tricks like that aren’t enough anymore.”

Kaede chimed in, “I was worried about Hitsujicchi, too, so I tried going to her house, but it was no good. Even getting close was risky.”

“Risky how?”

“You get sleepy. It’s totally nuts. Her range has expanded, so it’s really dangerous. The only way someone could get close to Hitsujicchi and take it would be if they were a Neversleeper like you, Sayacchi.”

While she listened, internally, Saya was shocked. Hitsuji had never said a word of this to her.

“Hokage-san, could you go check on her later?” Ran asked. Saya didn’t respond.

“Hokage-san?”

“Huh? Ohh, sorry... Listen, I have a question. Just how far can Hitsuji’s blanket ability stretch?”

“Konparu-san is always suppressing it, but if she wanted to... I can’t imagine how far she might be able to spread it.”

“Oh, yeah...?”

As Saya thought about it, the other three looked at her dubiously. Eventually, Saya raised her head. “I have an idea—Will you hear me out?”