"So basically, he accidentally committed suicide?"
"Not really, he is still alive, for all eternity, suffering... forever."
"Wow, that sounds like a horror movie story," Shiho said, although she did not really seem excited to hear it.
"What happened?" Kaito asked, noticing her slightly pale complexion and bad mood.
"It is nothing, I just had a hallucination related to my previous nightmare. I think seeing you kill affected me more than I thought."
"A hallucination? What was it like?"
"I am not sure how to describe it. It was a mass of flesh from different people fused into a giant that chased me while laughing and making dark jokes," Shiho explained.
"That sounds... kind of funny?" Kaito said, confused.
"I know, it feels like my nightmares are mocking me."
Kaito laughed at first when he heard this, but then he realized something and became serious.
"Come here," he said, pulling Shiho by the hand.
"W what is it?" she asked, confused.
"I need you to sleep," Kaito said, leading her to the bed.
"Isn't this too fas..."
"I am serious," Kaito said, interrupting her joke.
"Does this have something to do with my nightmares?"
"It does," Kaito said.
Shiho finally took it seriously as well and lay down.
Kaito lay beside her and, with a thought, activated the ruler's aura to calm her.
Shiho began to feel calmer and calmer, and the stress from the recent situation faded away.
She moved closer to Kaito and curled up against his chest again.
"Shut up," she told Kaito before he could say anything, then fell asleep.
Kaito looked at her face, completely at peace, with steady breathing.
At that moment, Kaito deactivated the ruler's aura, and less than ten seconds later, Shiho began to frown and move restlessly.
"No... let me go. Stop following me."
After confirming his theory, Kaito reactivated the ruler's aura and then deactivated part of his impenetrable mind.
He closed his eyes and let himself drift into the realm of dreams.
Now Kaito was in his own dreams, in a lucid dream. It was an immense forest, with huge, rotten trees, a withered version of Hell.
Out of nowhere, every tree around him formed a smile on its trunk, with a disgusting appearance, since the bark resembled human skin, making it look like a mouth covered with skin.
"I finally found you, bastard. It took me a while to get in for some reason. Though it is a shame, I was having a lot of fun with your girlfriend."
"So it was you, Freddy Krueger," Kaito said, now fully confirming the person responsible for Shiho's nightmares.
"You know me? You must be my fan. It is a shame I cannot give you an autograph right now, you know, I do not have hands, hehehe," half of the voices said at the same time while the other half laughed.
"Aren't you supposed to be on Elm Street? What are you doing here?"
"I have no idea. Years trapped on Elm Street without being able to leave, and one day, out of nowhere, I appear in a completely different place with the mission to kill you. Isn't your bad luck amazing?"
At the same time he said that, all the trees pulled themselves out of the ground and began to walk toward Kaito.
"It seems you really do not know anything," Kaito said, and reactivated his impenetrable mind ability.
If something tried to penetrate Kaito's mind, this ability prevented it from entering, but if something was already inside, its function was completely different, it eliminated the threat entirely.
This was because its purpose was not only to eliminate enemy debuffs aimed at the mind, but also mental weaknesses originating from Kaito himself, things like trauma or depression caused by fear or similar issues. These originated within Kaito, so the ability could not block them, so it simply destroyed them.
Thus, as soon as Kaito activated the ability again, the entire world began to crack rapidly.
"What is happening? Did you do this?"
"Incredible, are you someone with dream powers? You are not the first."
"This is dangerous."
"Hey, hey, do you really want to shrink my stage like this?"
"Come on, think about all the people who still have not seen me act."
"Fine, this is about the autograph, right? I will sign one for you."
"Listen, bastard, either you free me or... arghhhh!"
"Damn it!"
The reaction of those trees was strange. First they did not react, then they were surprised, then scared, then they joked about the situation, and finally they got angry and cursed Kaito while dying.
Kaito did not know Freddy Krueger for long, it was probably only two or three minutes, but that brief moment left him with a strange impression.
Somehow, he could not sense his origin. This was also why he decided to question him at first instead of killing him immediately, because Kaito could not sense the location of all the objects. Some were still hidden even with his ability, so not knowing Freddy's origin, he associated him with one of them and wanted information.
"It is a shame it was useless" Kaito sighed.
"What was useless?" Shiho asked beside him as she woke up.
Hearing her, Kaito realized he was already awake and back in bed.
"It is nothing, I took care of your nightmares. It was a ghost that could enter dreams and kill you."
"That sounds very serious. How did you defeat it?"
"I let it enter my mind and it saw things so horrible that it died."
"Okay, do not tell me," Shiho interrupted. "To think that a few months ago I was a person of science, and now I do not even doubt you when you talk about a ghost that kills people in their dreams," she sighed.
"Are you afraid?" Kaito asked.
"Not really, and anyway, the safest place is next to you."
"Thanks... I guess."
"Still... entering other people's dreams, huh? As someone who always trusted her mind, that scares me a little," Shiho said after some hesitation.
At this, Kaito frowned and apologized.
"I am sorry, I do not have anything I can give you to help with that. The best I can do is stay close to you, but at the same time that will put you in danger."
Shiho looked at his worried face and laughed.
"Pffft, why are you apologizing so seriously? I chose to come in the first place, so do not worry," Shiho said, and patted his head.
"What are you doing? It feels strange," Kaito tried to resist.
"It is fine, you do not have to take responsibility for everyone all the time," Shiho said, not stopping.
Kaito became serious at her words.
"Take responsibility for others? No, I am not like that... or I was not."
Kaito grew serious as he remembered. When had his mindset changed?
'Koneko is my girlfriend, so of course I'll save her world to make her happy; Mashiro literally needs someone to take care of her; Ai looks after everyone else, and that's exactly why I want to take care of her and make her happy; Hope still has trauma from loneliness, so she needs support, she can't even sleep alone; Kaguya does a lot for the territory, probably more than I do, so she deserves to be repaid with all the support I can give her; Lala builds things for the territory, so of course I'll support her; Kirito has great potential, if I want a strong subordinate, then I have to make sure he grows...
...Nino is my partner and clearly likes me, so I help her, that's mostly selfishness on my part; Arima and Kaori just arrived and are supports, so I need to develop them'
As he thought back, he realized that he truly felt he had to support everyone around him.
However, he did not feel any rejection toward that thought. It was a mindset that had already been firmly engraved in his mind for a long time, not a sudden idea, and realizing the reason did not change anything.
He held Shiho's hand on his head and gently moved it away.
"No, I am a Lord, and I am in charge of my subordinates.
My job is to make them happy, give them what they need to live, and make them strong, so that they can and want to use that strength for me" Kaito replied.
Shiho withdrew her hand, but looked at him for a second, hesitating, before speaking.
"But if your job is to support others, who will support you? I mean emotionally, not lending you their strength."
Kaito saw the concern on Shiho's face, but to her surprise, he was not sad at all. Instead, he smiled with nostalgia.
"Do not worry, I have people who take care of that side too," Kaito replied confidently.
Shiho saw his clearly happy, yet slightly sad smile, the clear image of nostalgia, and tried to imagine the people from his world that Kaito missed at that moment.
In the end, she could not imagine it and just shook her head.
"But none of them are in this world, right?"
As soon as she said it, Shiho realized her words and immediately regretted them.
As expected, Kaito's expression changed at her words, but quickly returned to normal with a somewhat forced smile.
"All the more reason to hurry up and return to my world" he finally said.
Shiho remained silent, wanting to say something, but not knowing what.
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+15 chapters in advance on Patreon.
p-atreon.com/IAMME26
(just delete the hyphen)
80 power stones = 1 extra chapter (cumulative)