Yamada Ryō—who normally slept extremely well (meaning she could fall asleep anytime, anywhere, as long as she felt sleepy)—found herself suffering from insomnia for once.
That was something that almost never happened across her entire sleeping career, so she spent a long time tossing and turning in bed, trying to figure out why. She didn't reach any conclusion until the sky was nearly light, and in the end only managed to sleep for about three hours in a half-dazed state.
On top of that, she had a very strange dream.
In the dream, her friend Narumi Tōru somehow got dragged into a love triangle with a pair of sisters. In the end, all three relationships collapsed, and the poor Narumi boy was split cleanly in half by the two sisters—of course, literally, one half each.
When he cried out to her for help, she calmly waved her hand and said,
"Sorry, Koumi's busy right now. I need to study properly. Maybe next time."
After waking up, Yamada Ryō was especially confused—though, naturally, the part that confused her wasn't quite the same as what most people would focus on.
"'Study properly'… how did something like that come out of my mouth?"
After getting up and doing a quick wash, she dragged her slightly listless body toward the instrument shop where she'd agreed to meet up. Of course, from an outside perspective, Yamada Ryō looked low-energy even on days when she hadn't lost sleep.
"It's Koumi's fault for telling me about that ex-girlfriend and ex-girlfriend's little sister showdown. I already had that nightmare where he died before—now it's turned into stacked nightmares."
Yes—Yamada Ryō had decided to temporarily label that firsthand journey into a "parallel world" as a nightmare.
Even though everything inside it had felt vividly real, the events of that nightmare hadn't been under her control. And aside from a specific stretch of time that stood out sharply in her memory, the rest was frustratingly vague. That kind of experience could really only be explained as a dream.
"Unless some supernatural phenomenon has started messing with me, and all these dreams are actually connected to real people… If I really had superpowers, what would I call myself? Dream Hero?"
Letting her thoughts spiral freely as usual, Yamada Ryō boarded the train toward their meeting place.
For someone like her—whose emotions and logic both leaned inward—alone time and sleep were the main ways to recharge.
Lack of sleep felt like a battery that hadn't been fully charged. Having stood the whole way on the train, Yamada felt drowsy enough that she nearly unlocked the achievement "sleeping while standing."
She wandered through the bustling streets with half-lidded eyes, looking like she might keel over at any moment. Pedestrians instinctively gave her some space.
"Uh… which way was the instrument shop again?"
After circling the same familiar streets several times like a headless fly without finding her destination, Yamada finally remembered an important fact.
She had absolutely no sense of direction—and she hadn't checked the location on her phone beforehand.
Fortunately, on the fifth lap around the area, a man and a woman stepped out of a nearby shop and happened to meet her gaze.
"Ah."
It was clearly Narumi Tōru—who had just finished chatting and was about to part ways—along with an older woman Yamada didn't recognize.
Yamada Ryō's sleepy expression finally perked up a little.
"Yo, Yamada."
The curly-haired boy casually waved at her. Meanwhile, the black, medium-length–haired woman beside him—who looked a few years older based on her clothes and makeup—noticed that they knew each other and seemed fairly close, and began carefully sizing Yamada up.
"Oh my, could this be the friend you mentioned, Tōru-kun? The one you're meeting to go shopping with?"
"Mm."
Yamada Ryō didn't feel confused or puzzled by this woman who'd appeared out of nowhere. After nodding to acknowledge the question, she turned her gaze to Narumi, who clearly had no intention of explaining further.
"Koumi, did you get a girlfriend in just one day?"
That one sudden line made the other two choke simultaneously.
"…She's not my girlfriend. She's the older sister of my school club's president."
"Haha, nice to meet you~ I'm the older sister of this kid's club president, Yukinoshita Yukino—Yukinoshita Haruno. I'm a university student in Tokyo, and three years older than you all. And you are?"
Yamada readily accepted the explanation, but she keenly picked up on something off about the repeated mentions of 'older sister' and 'younger sister'.
"…I'm Yamada Ryō."
She gave a small, perfunctory nod as she introduced herself, though even she didn't know why—but the way this woman addressed the curly-haired boy so intimately made her feel inexplicably annoyed.
"Just call me Ryō. No need to be so formal like Koumi is."
"Got it, Ryō-chan~ Then you can call me Haruno-senpai. No need to be as distant as Tōru-kun either."
Hey, hey…
What exactly were these two doing?
Narumi Tōru silently watched the two of them, sensing a hint of hostility between them but having absolutely no idea where this sudden rivalry came from.
"I heard from Tōru-kun that he's accompanying you to buy instruments today. Ryō-chan, are you in a band?"
"Yeah. I play bass."
"Oh~ that's amazing! Being able to keep up a hobby while studying at your age is really impressive. Back when I was in high school, balancing grades and club activities was honestly pretty rough. Have you thought about what you'll do in the future, Ryō-chan? Will you keep playing in a band after graduation?"
There it was again—that uncomfortable way of talking.
Before Narumi could show any displeasure, Yamada calmly replied instead.
"I'll think about graduation after I graduate. With my current academic status, I'm not authorized to answer that question yet."
Yamada Ryō had somehow mastered how to deal with Yukinoshita Haruno on the fly—was she secretly a genius?
Haruno clearly hadn't expected such a blunt response and froze for a moment, but quickly recovered.
"Oh my, all of Tōru-kun's friends are such straightforward kids."
She turned her face toward the curly-haired boy, the smile at the corner of her lips carrying an unmistakably mischievous edge.
Now the pressure was on Narumi.
His counterattack was simple—
"Since you two are having such a great time chatting, why don't you keep going? I'll go browse on my own."
He immediately quit the game, yawned boredly, waved his hand, and turned to leave.
"I'm browsing too."
Right behind him, Yamada suddenly sprang into action—dashing forward in one step, with no trace left of her earlier lethargy.
Yukinoshita Haruno was left standing there alone, stunned, only coming back to herself after a long moment.
"Oh dear… those two really don't play by the rules at all."
In the distance, as Narumi and Yamada walked away, they bumped fists.
Whether running away was shameful or not—it was definitely effective.