Naga didn't expect to activate her ability at this moment.
As dawn approaches, the human brain's activity reaches its peak, making dreams extremely unstable. According to the information Yuka sent him, this time frame is unsuitable for hunting, and dreams used for digestion rarely occur at this time.
But he did open his eyes after a strong feeling of weightlessness, and instead of waking up, he found himself in a completely unfamiliar place.
This is spying. Naga, who has gradually become more skilled, quickly confirmed his surroundings. However, the dream was very stable, indicating that the dream's owner must have gone to bed very late, and there was still no sign of waking up at this time.
Could it be Aya? Naga wondered as she moved toward the only point of light in the endless darkness.
The surrounding darkness was very thick, like melted asphalt, making it very difficult for him to move. The closer he got to the light, the greater the resistance became.
But that's all. Based on his current understanding, he could easily guess that the dream's owner was a simple and withdrawn person. Because of his withdrawal, his thoughts were carefully buried deep even in his dreams. And because of his simplicity, there wouldn't be many strange obstacles on his path.
As the light drew closer, Naga smelled a strange, fishy odor, and the surrounding darkness turned a deep, dark red, as if she were swimming into a pool of blood that was gradually congealing.
Naga frowned. Having gradually mastered the Dream Eater's abilities, he could now discern the meanings contained within the dreams. Unlike the previous dream of a sky filled with blood, which was filled with sorrow and resentment, he could deduce that the dream belonged to Ai, faithfully reflecting her deep pain over the loss of her parents. This time, however, the surrounding blood emanated a strong sense of hatred, as if even causing the target to bleed so much was insufficient to quell the resentment suppressed within her heart.
As he approached the bright exit, the surrounding dark red space became even more impenetrable, as if blood had congealed around him. He forced himself to move, and the sound of dreams shattering and peeling away kept coming from in front of him.
If this continues, the dream's owner will likely be awakened by his destructive intrusion before he even sees what's actually happening there.
Should he stop here? This relentless advance was draining his energy, and he even felt that if he forced himself to continue to the place where the light was emanating, the food he had devoured this time would likely be completely digested, and he would have to enter another period of frustrating hunger before he could eat again.
Reason kept reminding him that it wasn't worth it.
But he had a strong premonition that the moment he saw it would bring him incredibly important information.
He hesitated for a moment, and after hearing a faint sound of his dream shattering in his ears, he finally made up his mind and rushed over with all his might.
A series of crackling sounds began to ring out, and deep cracks appeared in the chaotic space as he moved. Through the cracks, one could almost see a simply furnished woman's bedroom.
His strength was rapidly draining away. Since graduating from high school, he had never experienced this feeling of his muscles aching so much that he didn't want to exert any force.
Just a little bit more...
"Ahhh..." He mustered his last bit of strength and slammed into the light.
The world illuminated by the light was merely a small, circular open space, no larger than a stack of paper. In the center of the open space lay a naked woman—or rather, a blurry outline. And on that woman's outline rode a half-meter-tall doll. The doll looked utterly disheveled; its kimono was torn in patches, its body was bound with rough hemp rope, and its hair stood on end in a jumbled mess. But only its eyes, like a pair of jet-black gems, gleamed with an eerie light.
Those eyes were fixed on the silhouette of the woman beneath him. Only then did Naga notice that the doll was tightly gripping a knife in its hand, a sharp and razor-sharp Western-style dinner knife. On the stainless steel blade, a large patch of blood could be seen, slowly flowing towards the tip, congealing into an uncontrollable weight, and falling into a large pool of blood on the ground, seemingly making a clinking sound.
What... what is this? Unable to comprehend the bizarre scene before him, Naga stood there dumbfounded. But then, his body, exhausted to its limit, could no longer maintain his consciousness in the dream. With a huge cracking sound all around him, he returned to his sleep once again and entered into true rest.
A whooshing sound reached his ears, followed by dazzling sunlight streaming through his eyelids, awakening Naga's dormant will. He stretched comfortably and opened his eyes.
Miku pulled back the curtains and looked at him, grinning, "Honey, were you too excited to sleep again last night? You're waking up even later today. At this rate, are you even going to be able to go back to work after your leave?"
He yawned, went over and hugged his wife, kissed her, and said lazily, "It's no big deal to take a break. The previous president didn't go to the company for several years and was fine, didn't he?"
"Hey..." Miku pinched his butt and said with a smile, "Do you have any complaints about my aunt?"
"No, no, I wouldn't dare." He laughed and raised his hands in a gesture of surrender.
"You got up too late. Breakfast and lunch are combined. When are you planning to go down for lunch, darling?" Since confirming her pregnancy, Miku's mood has remained above average. The subtle, imperceptible rift between her and Naga caused by Ai's arrival seems to have been well mended.
This made Naga feel much more at ease. He suddenly grabbed Miku's breast and then ran quickly towards the door, saying, "I'm going to wash up now. I'll eat right away!"
Miku laughed and puffed out her chest, saying to him outside the door, "Touch me all you want, you'll be the one who has to hold back when you get excited anyway."
"Hey, hey." Naga poked her head back and pointed to her mouth in protest, "Won't this upset the baby?"
"Who knows? Aren't pregnant women prone to nausea and vomiting in early pregnancy?" Miku playfully made a biting motion at him. "I tend to shut up as soon as I feel nauseous."
"Wow..." He made an exaggerated, pained expression. "You really have a huge appetite. You ate up all the happiness of your life in one bite."
"Alright! Go wash up, you're so annoying." Miku put her hands on her hips. "If you're not ready to have dinner with me by the time I've tidied up the room, I'll change the bed in the bedroom to a single one."
He blew her a kiss on her pouting lips, whistling as he headed for the bathroom. After taking a couple of steps, something seemed to twitch inside him. He turned back to the bedroom door and asked seriously, "Miku, isn't Ami home?"
If she were there, no matter how much she was treated as a third wheel, she would still cling to Miku without letting up for a moment.
We haven't seen her yet, so she's obviously gone out.
Miku tapped the spread-out blanket with the back of the broom handle and answered casually, "Yeah, she just went out. It seems... oh right, Mizuhara was looking for her. She's been gone for almost an hour."
Yoshimi Mizuhara? An ominous shadow fell over his heart, and the scene he had spied on last night flashed through his mind with the appearance of this name.
"Honey, what's wrong?" Miku put down what she was doing, came over and kissed him, looking at him with a puzzled expression. "Are you feeling unwell? You look terrible."
Naga gripped Miku's wrist, her hand trembling, and stared into her eyes, trying to remain calm as she said, "Aya is in great danger right now. I hope... I'm wrong."
A clear look of worry flashed in Miku's eyes, but she tried her best to sound less concerned. "H-How could this be? Ami is very capable. Mizuhara is such a delicate girl, she should..."
He interrupted her abruptly, "I haven't said it's Mizuhara yet."
Miku paused for a moment, then murmured as if realizing something, "So... I do feel that Mizuhara is not quite right. I answered the phone first, and she sounded like she was sick, with no... no energy at all."
Miku looked a little flustered. It seemed that this younger sister, whom she had always insisted she disliked, had ultimately occupied a soft spot in her heart. "I... I'll wait for you to come back for dinner. Go find her. If anything happens, be sure to call me."
Naga nodded, quickly wiped her face, changed her clothes, and rushed out of the house.
Not only because Asami is Miku's sister, but also because living under the same roof with such a mixed-race beauty who constantly challenges his desire to conquer, it would be a huge lie to say that he wasn't attracted to her.
Adding to Yoshimi's current twisted state, the one who pushed him first from behind was Naga, and this sense of guilt is urging him to find those two as soon as possible.
Unsurprisingly, Ami's phone was switched off. If Yoshimi's plan was to sneak up on a date outside, then there are two possibilities: either Ami intends to focus on playing with the woman at hand and has deliberately turned off her phone, or Yoshimi has already succeeded and doesn't want anyone to notice anything amiss when they call.
Regardless of the reason, Aya is now in grave danger. Yoshimi knows very well how formidable Aya is in combat. With her almost autistic personality, she would never plan to act on impulse. The dream she glimpsed last night was 99% a projection of her subconscious onto things she constantly plans and conceives.
That broken doll must represent beauty. Then the naked body lying in the sea of blood, stabbed and hacked, must be Ashi.
If someone is using a date or negotiation as a pretext to carry out a revenge plan, they would definitely need to choose a quiet, secluded, and enclosed space. Yoshimi doesn't have access to such a place, and Ami won't listen to her, so it's highly likely that the location is one of Ami's usual haunts.
He immediately called his favorite upscale club. His relationship with Ashe was no secret in that small circle, but the result of his inquiry disappointed him.
After asking around in every available place on my phone, I still hadn't received any news from Ya Shi.
He pulled over to the side of the road and tried to calm himself down. After thinking for a while, he called Matsushima Kae.
"Hey, I need your help with something. It's about Yoshimi Mizuhara. If I remember correctly, you and she were pretty close at work, right? Yeah, I know she took the day off. What I need right now is to find out where she is. Could you please call her? If her phone is on, tell her you have something very important to give her. Please find out where she is. Once you do, call me immediately, and I'll come pick you up so we can go find her together. Please, this is very important. You absolutely can't let her know I'm looking for her; just say it's in your own name."
After hanging up the phone, he leaned back in his chair, praying that Yoshimi wouldn't deliberately turn off her phone and that Kae would be able to find out where she was.
Five or six minutes passed slowly before his phone rang. Under the microphone icon on the screen, Kae's name appeared. He took a nervous breath, wiped the sweat from his palms, and answered.
The tension on his face finally vanished upon hearing the good news from the other end. He let out a long sigh, turned his car key, and said gratefully, "Thank you, I'll come pick you up right away."
No wonder he couldn't find Asami. Yoshimi was in a budget hotel very close to the local police station, neither a love hotel nor a high-end club. This was most likely Yoshimi's idea. As for how she persuaded Asami, it was probably nothing more than some made-up excuses.
Yoshimi's timidity and cowardice made Asami almost completely unguarded towards her.
"I told Mizuhara that there was an urgent package from her hometown that she needed to sign for. She didn't suspect anything and just told me to bring the courier over here." Kae looked puzzled in the passenger seat and whispered, "Mizuhara… did something happen to her? Her voice sounded strange on the phone, like… like she was very tired and nervous, like she had just been crying."
"Don't ask anymore..." Naga carefully maintained the fastest speed possible so as not to be stopped by the traffic police, and sped forward according to the navigation instructions.
Ashi was indeed a despicable and hateful person, but deep down he still hoped that nothing bad would happen to her.
If something really happened, it wouldn't just be Ami who would be destroyed, but also Yoshimi who would bear the stigma of being a criminal.
"3B09, 3B09..." Naga unconsciously muttered the room number she was looking for because of nervousness. After seeing her target, she whispered, "Kae, trick her into opening the door." Then she hid by the door where she couldn't be seen through the peephole or the gap behind the door.
"It's me, Mizuhara, I've arrived." Kae is always quite meticulous, and she was carrying a plastic bag, probably left over from her online shopping, containing an empty box.
After waiting for about ten seconds, the door slowly opened a crack.
"What...is that?" Liangmei's voice was ethereal, with a subtle sense of disorientation, as if her soul had left her body.
Kae looked at Naga with a troubled expression. Naga knew the time had come, so he rushed to the door and pushed it open.
But to his surprise, Ryomei had locked the door chain! Not only did he not push it open, but the impact also made his hands ache.
"Ashi! Ashi! Are you in there?!" Naga shouted anxiously.
Inside the door, Yoshimi looked panicked. She shook her head slightly, her lips almost bloodless. She retreated to the darkest part of the door crack. Only then did Naga see that Yoshimi was only wearing a hotel towel, and on one side of the towel near her thigh, it was stained with bright red blood!
Seeing Yoshimi turn and run into the house, her waving hand seemingly holding a gleaming knife, Naga decisively took two steps back, yelled, and slammed into the hotel room door.
The door frame, caught on the door chain, snapped in half with a crack, and Naga fell directly onto the cold, hard tiles inside the door.
He shook his head, struggled to stand up, and then saw Yoshimi climb onto the bed, straddle Ami whose hands and feet were tied, and hold a knife high above her head.
"No!" Naga roared and rushed forward, grabbing the blade that was falling from the sky.
The sharp weapon slashed his palm deeply. The excruciating pain couldn't completely stop the falling knife, and the blade still landed on Ashi's bare abdomen, pinning his hand to the spot as well!
Despite the intense pain in her fingers and palms, Naga elbowed Yoshimi in the side of her chin, knocking her frail body off the bed. The knife flew to the side, and she passed out.
He spread his arms, grimaced, and moved his arm to the side, shouting towards the door, "Kae! Call an ambulance!"
Only then did he have a moment to look at Ashi lying on the bed.
Asami's eyes were slightly open, her face was deathly pale, and her gaze, which seemed somewhat blank, was fixed on Naga's bleeding palm.
Compared to her, Naga's hands were nothing. Her hands were tied to either side of the bed, her wrists covered in cuts from a dinner knife. The raw, mangled flesh was so bad that even a lack of medical knowledge wouldn't reveal the extent of the damage. Every time the bleeding from the cuts subsided and clotted, a new cut would be made. Just looking at the sheets, stained mostly red, one couldn't imagine how much blood had been shed to achieve that effect.
It's obvious that Yoshimi either lacked experience and didn't know how to cut her wrists to keep the blood flowing, or she didn't want Ami to die too quickly.
Feeling your blood slowly draining from your body while fully conscious is a terrifying experience that makes you afraid to even try to understand it...
"Ashi, are you... are you alright?" Naga anxiously patted Ashi's cheek with her palm. In the scene shown on TV, someone who had lost too much blood absolutely could not fall asleep, because if they did, they would never wake up again. "Don't close your eyes, wake up, stay awake!"
Ashi's lips moved weakly, her voice so faint it was almost inaudible, "Brother-in-law, your hand..."
"It's alright, you idiot, cheer up! Miku hasn't completely fallen for you yet, are you really willing to just fall asleep and never wake up again!" Naga yelled, frantically tearing off the bed sheet and tying it to the wound on her wrist. Then, looking at the dinner knife stuck in her lower abdomen, he dared not pull it out, nor did he dare leave it there, hard and unyielding.
Damn it… This beautiful body, only I can penetrate it! A strange anger rose within him, and Naga lowered his head to kiss Ashi's trembling lips, panting as he said, "The ambulance will be here soon, it'll be alright, everything will be alright."
"You...would you worry about...me too?" Ashi forced a smile. "I may be pretty...but...I really hate men."
Naga knew that it was better for her to keep talking than to just close her eyes, so she kept trying to find something to say, "It's okay, I'm a shameless person, whether you like me or not doesn't stop me from liking you. I like your sexy figure and beautiful face, so when Miku said that you were planning to participate in the wedding of three people, I was actually secretly happy. Don't tell your sister, otherwise, she will be angry with me."
Asami blinked, her voice growing weaker. "Actually, I'm not in too much pain. And not really... scared. When Yoshimi used the medicine... and made me like this... I suddenly realized... that it was all my own fault... I... was supposed to die here. And in the end... I even caused you, brother-in-law, to get hurt... Does your hand... hurt?"
Naga clenched her bleeding fist, put it behind her back, and forced a smile, saying, "It doesn't hurt, do you believe me?"
"Brother-in-law…" Ashi's smile widened, as if losing too much blood was something to celebrate. "You know, you just reminded me of my sister… when we were little… she was like this… protecting me… because of me… she was also bullied terribly by those bad kids…"
"Really? If I get the chance, I'll definitely teach those guys a lesson for you two. You...you write me a list later. You're so vengeful, you definitely won't forget their names, right?"
"I remember… I remember everything." Her body trembled slightly, as if she felt the temperature gradually dropping, but she didn't complain of the cold. Instead, she said slowly, "Those annoying boys, I remember every single one of them… Now, they must have grown into hateful men too… Brother-in-law… If all the men in this world were like you, and all the women in this world were like my sister… I… I might not know which gender I should like…"
Naga hastily pulled out a hotel blanket and covered her with it, carefully avoiding the knife in her abdomen. "Didn't I tell you before? Gender doesn't matter at all. You... if you love even more madly, species doesn't matter either. Love is such an elusive emotion. Kae! Hasn't the doctor arrived yet?"
Matsushima Kae slumped down in the doorway. After making the emergency call, she was too frightened to speak. She could only tremble as she replied, "They should... be here soon."
As if to fulfill her words, hurried and disorderly footsteps echoed in the hotel corridor...
"Brother-in-law... thank you... I... I'm really glad that someone would come to save me at a time like this..." As if she could no longer hear the footsteps outside the door, Asami finished speaking with a sigh, her long, curved eyelashes drooping weakly, covering her icy blue eyes...
"Hey! Akane! Akane! Don't fall asleep! Wake up... wake up!"
"Waaah... Brother-in-law... Stop shaking me... I... I'm so sleepy because I was drugged... And... you... are pressing on the knife in my stomach... It hurts so much..."