The Dream Echo shrieked, its stitched lips tearing open.
Ink bled from its mouth like smoke.
"YOU WROTE ME—
AND LEFT ME—
TO ROT IN HER MIND!!"
Hiragi stepped forward, activating his Void Arm.
"Then let me erase you properly."
With a sharp flick, he pulled a void circle from his shadow—four sigils rotating counterclockwise.
"CODE: Nihil Break."
The room vibrated violently. The ink on the walls began to scream—literal screams, voices of forgotten characters, twisted daydreams, and discarded memories.
Battle Begins: Hiragi vs Dream Echo
The Echo surged forward, claws extended, distorting reality as it moved. Time pulsed in reverse.
Airi flanked to the side, setting up a psychic barrier. "I can't let it trap us again!"
Ishigami muttered behind her.
"Null Script: Section Ω..."
A forbidden technique only he could use—designed to pause logic inside dream layers.
But before Ishigami could activate it—
"WAHOOO!"
A goat exploded through the ceiling.
Riding on it backward, of course, was:
Suguru Kentotaro.
Wearing heart-shaped glasses and a bathrobe, he pointed his staff—a toothbrush—at the Echo.
"You! Forgotten Draft! I summon thee to a tea party with destiny!!"
The Dream Echo paused.
Everyone paused.
Even the dream paused.
Hiragi: "...Why are you here."
Suguru: "I'm sleepwalking. I tripped on a banana in my dream toilet and fell through the layers of unreality. Now I'm here. Fate."
Tactical Breakdown Hiragi: Engaged in direct Void combat Airi: Barrier defense / observation Ishigami: Preparing logic-nullifying spell Suguru: Absolute chaos, but unknowingly breaks dream rules (and physics)
The Dream Echo began glitching—too many inconsistencies. Suguru's presence alone caused instability in the domain.
"He's breaking the dream's coherence," Hiragi realized.
"This is our chance."
FINAL SEQUENCE
"Airi, collapse the layer!"
"Ishigami, nullify her code!"
"Suguru… keep doing whatever you're doing."
Airi closed her eyes, chanting a Dream Reversal Ritual.
Ishigami whispered a final line:
"Unwrite what was never meant."
The Dream Echo screamed one last time—
"YOU LEFT ME… UNFINISHED!!"
—before shattering into black glass.
☁️ Scene Collapse
They fell.
Out of the dream.
Back into Sera's bedroom.
The black wall was gone.
So was the blood seal.
Sera Natsume… sat in the corner, awake.
Eyes wide open.
"...Who am I?" she whispered.
Airi moved to comfort her.
But Hiragi's eyes were elsewhere—on the mirror.
There, in faint letters only he could see:
"You can't save them all, Void Slayer."
"The next dream will devour more than memories."
📓 Case Update: The Crimson Letter
Sera recovered
Dream Echo erased
Blood-seal origin: still unknown
3 similar letters have been reported in other districts...
"This wasn't an isolated case," Ishigami said.
"Someone is writing these letters on purpose."