I heard a cat meowing, and then I lost consciousness—or at least, that was supposed to happen, but somehow, I found myself waking up.
The unnatural sensation of falling asleep and waking up. Although it was my room, something felt off. I had experienced this before—back when I was still ‘Beck.’
“(An illusion manipulating dreams… I let my guard down.)”
A dream altered by an illusion, in other words, a false dream. Once I realized what was going on, there was no time to remain asleep.
To wake from the dream, I had to find the illusionist—or the source of the illusion.
“(It’s usually demon-type monsters that use this kind of magic… although, humans who use illusions exist too.)”
Thinking wouldn’t help, and I could feel my magic being gradually drained—though at this rate, it wouldn’t be depleted anytime soon, but being stuck for hours wasn’t good.
—At that moment, there was a knock on the door.
“…Fujiwara-kun, can I talk to you for a bit?”
This was an illusion—meaning, even if it sounded like Shichimiya-san’s voice, I needed to be cautious.
But attacking right away just because they were a character in a dream wouldn’t do any good, so I needed to first gauge how they would act.
I opened the door, and there stood Shichimiya-san—except, something about her seemed different than usual.
Perhaps she had been too hot in her sleep, as a few buttons on her pajamas were undone. She looked up at me with moist, feverish eyes—confirming my suspicion about the direction this was heading. I steeled myself.
“I couldn’t sleep very well tonight… Were you awake too, Fujiwara-kun?”
“Awake? Well, I thought I had fallen asleep, but somehow I woke up… This is probably some sort of illusion, I think.”
“Illusion…?”
Shichimiya-san looked puzzled. It had to be a trick of the illusion, but even within the dream, she was still just as much a beauty as I remembered from my memories.
I couldn’t treat this version of Shichimiya-san (?) coldly. Even if I told her it was an illusion, she wouldn’t just disappear, so I decided to handle things carefully.
“Well, I guess… sometimes you just can’t fall asleep easily. You’ll probably drift off eventually.”
“…Have you seen Rin? I haven’t seen her since last night.”
“I thought I heard a meow earlier… Want to go look for her?”
“No, she’s an outdoor cat anyway. She’ll probably come back after playing for a while.”
It seemed like a relatively normal conversation, but the characters in an illusion dream are usually almost indistinguishable from reality. If they weren’t, the target of the magic wouldn’t be deceived.
Still, this version of Shichimiya-san—while different from her usual self due to the illusion—was captivating enough that it was difficult to look at her directly.
In reality, Shichimiya-san wouldn’t make such sultry expressions, nor would she unbutton her pajamas to tempt me (though I might be imagining that part). I needed to end this shallow dream as soon as possible.
“I-I’m sorry. I, uh, have somewhere I need to go. Maybe you should head back to your room…”
“…Somewhere to go? Like to someone else’s room?”
“Uh, no, not exactly…”
If I didn’t shake this off with an iron will soon, the amount of magic I was losing in this illusion would grow—yet.
With a soft tug, she grasped the hem of my sleep shirt.
“…I just wanted to talk for a little bit… is that okay?”
“I-I mean, sure, but… Shichimiya-san, I’m sure you’ll fall asleep soon. You should head back to your room.”
“Do you not want to be with me?”
(Damn, I knew it—I have to break through this kind of illusion after all!)
I didn’t want to consider this possibility, but it seemed I would have to “defeat” her, in a sense, even if it meant attacking someone who looked exactly like the real Shichimiya-san in this dream world.
“Okay, fine, let’s talk here…”
“…Can’t I come into your room, Fujiwara-kun?”
“Uh, well, I mean… I guess that’s fine, but…”
“Then, I’ll come in.”
With a slight bounce in her voice, Shichimiya-san slipped past me into the room. Even though she wasn’t the real Shichimiya-san, the contrast made her appear even cuter—not that there was time to be thinking such peaceful thoughts.
“Mm…”
It felt like my intelligence was about to be stripped away—such was the force of the attack. As she passed by me, her chest pressed firmly against me—evidently, she was the type to wear a night bra even while sleeping.
“…It wasn’t on purpose.”
The enemy casting this illusion was the one at fault, not me—yet, the fact that I was already thinking this way was proof that my mental strength was being heavily taxed.
(I’m doomed… Am I really going to die here…? After defeating the Joker, to go like this…)
“I heard this place used to be a storage room, but it’s really clean now… Amazing.”
“It was pretty tough, but I used some skills and cleaned it up…”
Without warning, Shichimiya-san slid open the closet door—I couldn’t even guess what she was thinking, and I completely failed to react.
“Senpai said there might be something in here I could use for my crafting.”
“There might be, but wouldn’t it be better to check during the day?”
“There’s something in the back… just a little further…”
Shichimiya-san knelt down on all fours, reaching into the lower part of the closet to retrieve something—her pajamas were pulled tight, revealing a small portion of her underwear.
(Pastel blue… and a ribbon at the waist…)
I wondered if ribbon-tied panties were common, or if that ribbon was just a decoration. Either way, I was clearly being toyed with by this illusion.
“…This might be useful.”
What she pulled out was a handheld massager. The batteries had died when I first found it, though…
“Analyzing magic circuit… Magic craft. Energy conversion, charge bolt.”
“W-wait, Shichimiya-san, what are you…?”
“…The battery was dead, so I added some energy as a replacement.”
In a flash, it seemed like she had used three different skills—a series of smooth, flowing motions.
Though it wasn’t clear if all those skills were from her main job class, it was still impressive. She must have acquired lightning magic as a subclass and converted that energy to be used with the device—most likely.
