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Two minutes later, inside the familiar café, the three sat at a window booth.
"Oh~ so she's a little nightmare sister?"
Sitting beside Bokue, Serafall stirred the coffee on the table before her while staring wide-eyed with curiosity at the nightmare girl across from them.
"You know Bokue-kun, right? So what's wrong—are you in some kind of trouble? Speak up boldly—this big sister will help you solve it!"
Whether she hadn't quite snapped out of her earlier Levi-tan world tour state or was still invested in her magical girl role, Serafall's face radiated enthusiasm and concern.
Though anyone could see that the nightmare girl named Eguchi Yume currently wasn't in great shape.
Not only did her small face look somewhat pale, but the area around her eyes had darkened noticeably. She looked exactly like someone who'd been up all night.
A child still in elementary school shouldn't have any reason to stay up all night.
If there was a reason, it could only be because she'd encountered something terrible...
"I... I..."
Yume tried to speak, but each time, her voice broke before the words came out.
Drip...
A tear the size of a bean slid down the girl's cheek, falling into the cup of hot cocoa before her.
Yume's tears fell one after another, her voice becoming choppy and broken from crying.
"Last night... I went to the hospital to visit... Mom and Dad, and my teacher and classmates, but... they still haven't woken up..."
"Haven't woken up?"
Serafall exchanged a puzzled glance with the young man beside her.
Though she'd been on Itogami Island these past few days, she hadn't paid much attention to local news. Plus, only Bokue, Sayaka, and Yukina had gone to the office yesterday, so she had no idea about Yume's situation.
"Simply put, the nightmare power inside Yume affected her parents, teacher, and classmates, putting them all into a deep sleep."
Bokue provided a concise recap.
Serafall immediately understood.
"Oh~ so it's a case of losing control of her powers?"
"Not exactly."
Bokue shook his head.
He didn't think Yume's power could really be called "out of control." Though yesterday on that street near the Lion King Organization office, Yukina and Sayaka had nearly fallen victim... no, actually they had fallen victim.
Fortunately, Bokue had been present and directly helped dispel it instantly with a metaphorical Crucible cleanse.
But that had only happened because Sayaka ignored Yume's protests and forcibly tried to verify her suspicions.
So from a rigorous standpoint, Yume's power wasn't out of control.
Rather, it was "passively triggered by external stimuli."
"At least yesterday when she had drinks with me here and afterward when we shopped at the mall, everything was fine."
Bokue said.
"Oh~"
Serafall drew out the syllable, though her expression grew increasingly strange.
"Having drinks, then shopping—could it be that yesterday, Bokue-kun, you were on a date with little Yume here?"
"Of course not..."
Bokue's face filled with exasperation.
Yesterday Yume herself had said the same thing. Now today, Serafall was at it again.
Why did everyone insist on interpreting things as a date? Besides, why would he need to date an elementary school girl?
"But Bokue-kun, what you just described—those are exactly the kinds of things boys and girls do on dates, you know?"
Serafall tilted her head.
"..."
After a brief silence, Bokue shook his head and decided to ignore this silly magical girl for now.
He turned his gaze directly to Yume, still crying across the table.
"There's something I need to clarify first. From what I know, Yume, your nightmare powers don't just lose control randomly. So I want to know—what exactly caused your nightmare powers to affect your parents, classmates, and teacher?"
"It's... because..."
The nightmare girl's tears continued falling one after another, her normally cute voice trembling with sobs.
"They found out I'm a nightmare, so... everyone bullied me. Even Mom and Dad... hate me..."
I see.
"Ah..."
Feeling like he'd grasped the full picture, Bokue leaned back slightly against the booth's backrest, lifting his hot cocoa for a sip.
Clearly this was a tragedy caused by bullying at both school and home.
"If that's the case, then I think what you did was completely right, Yume."
"...Eh?"
The nightmare girl wiping her tears froze, looking up at the young man across from her with disbelief.
"B-but Ririu is a bad child... Ririu did bad things. Ririu... shouldn't exist in this world..."
"So what? Feeling like you want to die?"
Bokue said through his straw with a sidelong glance.
"Here's a suggestion: whenever you feel like dying, first consider whether someone else deserves to die instead. Like, for instance, how I literally flattened Kusuki Happiness Enterprises' entire headquarters last night."
"You can't just focus on my act of destroying their headquarters without considering why I destroyed it. Seriously, if that Kusuki Kazuomi hadn't inexplicably tried to steal my Itogami Island, would I have needed to take him out?"
"By that same logic, Yume—if your classmates and teacher hadn't bullied you, and if your parents hadn't neglected you, would you have needed to passively trigger your nightmare powers for self-protection?"
"But..."
"What's there to 'but' about? What else could you have done?"
Bokue shrugged.
"Were you planning to challenge concrete by yourself?"
"I..."
Having heard this much, Yume seemed to have an epiphany. She froze completely, even her tears stopping.
Serafall beside them looked utterly astonished.
"Th-that's all it took to console her? Miraculous healing, doctor..."
"You're too kind."
Bokue removed his straw and tilted his head back to drain the cocoa in one go.
"Though more accurately, it's from long experience with illness."
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Meanwhile, at the penthouse apartment suite atop the Keystone Gate, the blonde girl deep in sleep was jolted awake by a sudden phone call.
Having fully switched into vacation mode, Asagi didn't even open her eyes before grabbing her phone and bringing it to her ear.
"Hello? Who is it?"
"It's me."
A steady middle-aged male voice mixed with faint wind sounds came through the line.
"Your teacher called me earlier. Said you didn't come to class today, Asagi."
"Huh? Oh, it's Dad!"
Suddenly recognizing the voice on the other end as her father, Asagi's drowsiness vanished instantly as she shot upright from the blankets.
"Ah... how should I put this? Um, right... I accidentally overslept today, so then I just... ahaha..."
"Never mind, I already requested time off for you. I was just worried you might be feeling unwell, so I called to check. After all, you haven't been living at home recently, so I can't ask your mother about your specific situation."
Aiba Sensai said flatly over the phone.
"Ahaha, thanks for your concern, Dad. I'm fine—just pulled an all-nighter last night..."
Asagi laughed it off, changing the subject.
"By the way, why's there so much wind noise on your end? Did you buy into American stocks or something?"
"...Something came up. This morning I received notice that Kusuki Happiness Enterprises' headquarters was attacked and completely destroyed last night. I'm at the site now, discussing how to handle things moving forward."
Aiba Sensai's voice paused, his tone rising slightly with a light hum, then suddenly becoming serious.
"Wait! What's that on the ocean surface... an island?!"
"An island? Where would there be islands around Itogami Island?"
Asagi didn't understand.
Just then, her computer—which she'd turned off last night—suddenly lit up with all screens blazing. An alarm sounded accompanied by Mogwai's voice.
"Young Miss! We've got a huge problem! Something over four thousand meters long is rapidly approaching Itogami Island!"
"Huh?!"
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