The tail end of September marked the seasonal uniform changeover in Academy City.
On this day, many schools, including Tokiwadai Middle School, swapped out their cool summer uniforms for the warmer winter versions.
While there were some minor grumbles about Tokiwadai's winter uniform bottoms merely being a slightly thicker, dark blue plaid pleated skirt, the fact that all schools followed similar rules meant even the usually opinionated Natsume-san didn't have much room to complain.
This was probably also largely due to her being accustomed to living in a pleasantly warm environment year-round.
The existence of climate-controlled layers meant someone like her lacked any real personal experience or feeling regarding the cold.
But anyway, setting aside the skirt issue, Natsume-san quite liked the winter uniform.
The blazer had more pockets, for one. It was a beige, three-button women's suit jacket, worn over a long-sleeved white dress shirt.
"Thank you for your care, Supervisor."
Accepting the bag handed over by the Supervisor with utmost deference, Natsume-san—one of the very few students, and an injured one at that, still remaining in the dormitory during school hours—offered a shy, well-behaved smile.
The bag contained three sets of the newly issued winter uniforms. The measurements were still based on the data from her summer uniforms.
She watched as the Supervisor—who, despite wearing flat shoes, somehow managed to make a distinct 'clip-clop' sound with her footsteps—walked away and disappeared around the far end of the corridor.
Only then did the bun-girl let out a sigh of relief and carefully close her dorm room door.
With her eyes injured, Natsume-san had no need to attend school.
After all, by any reasonable standard, she currently lacked the ability to study, and even moving around normally was inconvenient.
So, until the bandages were removed at the hospital, she had a perfectly legitimate reason to skip classes.
Even regarding the investigation into yesterday's incident, the Anti-Skill teachers had permitted her to delay giving her statement for a few days.
"Honestly, it's not like I really want to stay cooped up in the dorm either," she muttered, a slight pout forming on her lips.
"Having this rare free time, only to be kept under the Supervisor's watchful eye… it's really quite frustrating."
Whether she attended school or not made little difference to her. She'd already self-studied all the material, and her homework was done up to a month in advance.
The biggest perk was probably legitimately skipping a few P.E. classes.
She might have escaped Shirai-san's clutches, but she couldn't avoid the Supervisor's proactive concern.
As long as the Supervisor was around, this 'injured and mobility-impaired' student had no hope of leaving the dorm normally these next few days.
Still, it wasn't an unsolvable problem. By mastering the Supervisor's routine and tracking her whereabouts, Natsume-san was confident she could sneak out.
Sneaking out of the dorm had become second nature since the school year started; the faint imprint of shoes on the windowsill was a periodic occurrence. The bun-girl considered herself quite experienced.
Right now, however, was the Supervisor's work hours, a period where she might storm into her room at any moment. She'd have to wait until the Supervisor left the dorm on business before she could consider doing anything else.
After tidying up her summer uniforms and stuffing them into a box under the bed, Natsume-san swiftly changed into the new winter uniform. Then, with an air of idleness, she slumped sideways onto the sofa.
The new uniform, made from data unchanged for half a year, still fit perfectly. She wasn't sure whether to be happy or upset about that. A subtle, indescribable pressure quietly crept into her heart.
"Hmm, I wonder if Tsuchimikado-san will bring me a lunch box? I think the dormitory cafeteria still prepares lunch on school days, though."
"That's different! A patient should eat specially made, nutritious boxed lunches. You need a balanced intake."
"That makes sense. I do feel like I should supplement my nutrition more. I seem to have lost a bit more weight recently, and it's definitely not just in my head."
The bandaged girl's fingers flew across her phone screen as she discussed the side dishes for her lunch box with the maid-san on the other end, a faint smile gracing her lips. Chatting with a friend always made Natsume-san happy.
Over at Tokiwadai's school restaurant, Tsuchimikado-san was also feeling quite cheerful, sneaking in some leisure time during her studies and work.
'Work and rest should be balanced' was her personal motto. As for how the temporarily blind Natsume-san was managing to reply so swiftly… well, neither of them seemed to pay it any mind.
"By the way, what's the situation like at school?"
Remembering certain events, Natsume-san asked.
Yesterday's attack had set the school forums ablaze, and she had been right in the middle of it. Even though she wasn't at school today, she was still concerned.
"School's back to normal. Well… mostly."
"I heard Tokiwadai originally planned to suspend classes, given the serious security incident. But Anti-Skill defined the event as a technology misuse accident. Most students involved weren't really affected much."
"..."
Message after message came from Tsuchimikado-san's side. It seemed slacking off was addictive.
Sunlight streamed through the window, falling directly onto Natsume-san's smooth forehead. Her bangs, due to her slumped posture, hung entirely to one side.
Putting her phone down, Natsume-san rubbed her slightly aching temples and then flopped straight back onto the sofa, resembling a dried-up freshwater fish.
Even though she hadn't been awake for long, Natsume-san still felt tired. It seemed a state of suboptimal health was tormenting the lazy twelve-year-old.
In reality, it was probably because she'd been abruptly startled awake by that bizarre dream last night.
And in that dream, Natsume-san had discovered the coordinates of the Dreamtime Phase and spent considerable time conducting some curious experiments.
"Anyone would be scared if they found themselves consciously dragged into some kaleidoscopic, bizarre place while dreaming, right?" she muttered with a strange expression, unable to hold back the complaint.
Was this what a lucid dream felt like? She'd only ever heard about them before.
Back then, she had immediately realized she was dreaming because she was in a surreal environment, yet her thinking remained perfectly normal.
One had to admit, Natsume-san, with her head full of science, was quite discerning.
However, she hadn't initially been aware of the Dreamtime Phase's existence. But being able to use her sensory abilities in that bizarre, kaleidoscopic place made her realize it instantly.
In the Dreamtime Phase, concepts of space and time grew blurred. It was a vast, infinitely deep, pale white world, dotted with dream bubbles originating from countless people.
These bubbles overlapped, touched, and separated within the pale space, yet seemed to exist on different spatial scales and temporal dimensions—infinitely large and infinitely small simultaneously.
They carried, in a way incomprehensible to ordinary people, every dream that had gathered here since the phase's formation.
Dragons, knights, and princesses—an orange-tinted dream from a chuunibyou boy.
Dissection, aliens, scalpels—a purple-hued dream from a fanatical scientist.
Just like how Indian Poker cards categorized different types of dreams by color, this place seemed to have a similar classification system.
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T/N: If you want advance chapters, you can find it at [email protected]/AspenTL