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"Dad, we're going to win."
That familiar voice echoed in his mind again.
The difference was that along with the voice came a coolness, like a clear spring in summer, quickly dispelling the grogginess in his mind.
Kitahara Makoto paused in his steps and blurted out, "…Hana?!"
He remembered.
He remembered everything.
Anon's friend was unconscious, he went to Kamakura to help, and then entered the Otherworld in a cave behind Enoshima…
"It seems I successfully entered the Otherworld." Kitahara Makoto frowned, but he had no memory of it. "But what's going on now?"
"It's a dream."
Hana's voice echoed in his mind again: "Bad flower, wants to eat Dad and the Good person."
Kitahara Makoto: "…"
After asking several questions, Kitahara Makoto finally pieced together the truth.
This was indeed the Otherworld.
But the moment they entered the Otherworld, he and Sakurajima Mai were already attacked.
The attacker was the 'bad flower' Hana spoke of. He wasn't sure what this thing was, but it had the ability to drag people into dreams.
This attack was silent and impossible to guard against; Kitahara Makoto and Sakurajima Mai didn't notice it at all and were pulled into the dream by the bad flower.
The dream was not a nightmare, but a beautiful dream.
Humans would sink into beautiful dreams, unwilling to wake up, while the bad flower would parasitize them from the outside, quietly devouring them.
"No wonder it's called phantom sky flower… So it was a dream from beginning to end."
Kitahara Makoto covered his forehead and let out a light breath.
The tide comes to Qiantang River, only today do I know who I am.
Hana, as a native monster of the Otherworld, was not attacked. Instead, because of her master-servant relationship with Kitahara Makoto, she was attacking the bad flower, preparing to rescue them.
"Dad, the bad flower wants to run, don't let the Good person wake up."
The Hana spoke with omissions, and Kitahara Makoto had to question her in detail before finally understanding what the Beast Eared Girl meant.
The bad flower had pulled him and Sakurajima Mai into a beautiful dream, making them fall into it, but under the Beast Eared Girl's attack, it was constantly retreating and was now preparing to escape.
Then the problem arose.
Parasitism was easy, but escaping was not so simple.
A beautiful dream could make people fall into it, but it was also a way to bind each other.
As long as the people immersed in the dream were unwilling to wake up, the bad flower would not be able to escape from them.
"I'm awake now, so the next thing to do is to stabilize Mai-senpai, prevent her from waking up from the dream, and thus control the phantom sky flower in reality, preventing it from escaping…"
Kitahara Makoto finally knew what to do.
"Leave the matters in the dream to me."
Kitahara Makoto's expression was serious as he made a solemn promise: "Hana-chan, you must eliminate that bad flower outside. When we go back, I'll buy you a hundred small cakes!"
"A hundred?"
The voice in his mind was clearly filled with anticipation.
"That's right, a hundred small cakes." Kitahara Makoto continued, "And there will be no limit to how many you can eat each day. Eat as many as you want."
"Small cakes! A hundred!"
The Hana's voice in his mind did not sound again; she was clearly busy.
Kitahara Makoto then lowered his head to check his own situation.
He was currently wearing a suit and carrying a briefcase, clearly dressed as an office worker, standing in front of the door of a high-end apartment.
"Just got home?"
Kitahara Makoto opened his briefcase, found a set of keys, and successfully opened the door.
Click.
Opening the door, Kitahara Makoto stepped into the entryway.
The lights inside were bright, and slippers were placed at the entrance of the entryway. Kitahara Makoto put down his briefcase and pondered:
"It seems Mai is home… I just don't know what methods the bad flower will use to wake Mai-senpai up…"
Thump, thump, thump.
Just as he took off his shoes, Kitahara Makoto was surprised to see a small head peeking out from the corner of the wall. It had a cute bun, a round, delicate, and adorable face, only two or three years old, and a pair of wide, round eyes looking at him timidly.
Their eyes met.
Kitahara Makoto's mind quickly conjured the little one's name, and he blurted out:
"Nana?"
A hazy and blurry memory surfaced in his mind, clearly a false memory automatically generated by the dream, but it made Kitahara Makoto's expression complex.
"It's actually his and Mai-senpai's daughter…"
"Dad, you're back."
The little one's voice was timid.
Immediately afterward, Mai's cool voice came from the living room:
"Nana, come here quickly."
"…"
The little one turned and ran, disappearing in a flash.
Kitahara Makoto changed into his slippers and walked into the living room. He looked up and saw Mai sitting on the sofa, holding the little one in her arms, looking at him with sharp eyes.
"What are you doing back?"
Sakurajima Mai's voice was cold.
Several years had clearly passed since the last wedding. Mai had become even more mature and beautiful, and she even had a rather dangerous wife's hairstyle.
Indifferent.
Mai's attitude was quite indifferent.
However, recalling the false memory that had just surfaced in his mind, Kitahara Makoto suddenly felt that Mai's attitude was already quite good.
In the false memory, he had been relatively family-oriented in the first year of his marriage, but after his daughter was born, he gradually started drinking and playing pachinko gambling games. Mai initially tried to persuade him, but he completely ignored her advice and even resorted to violence yesterday, pushing Mai directly to the ground, scaring his daughter Nana into tears…
What a sin!
He had turned into a complete scumbag in the dream. It was already quite good that Mai hadn't kicked him out of the house!
"Alright, alright, so this is how we're playing, huh?"
Kitahara Makoto took a deep breath, already understanding the bad flower's malicious intentions.
A beautiful dream would make people indulge in it and be unwilling to wake up, so a disappointing dream would naturally be the opposite. As long as enough disappointment accumulated, Mai's subconscious would inevitably want to escape the dream and wake up.
The bad flower had clearly already started acting, distorting Kitahara Makoto into a terrible image in the dream.
Alcoholism, domestic violence, gambling… Any woman would be disappointed with such a husband!
"What I need to do now is to eliminate the disappointment accumulated in Mai's heart and prevent her from leaving the dream…"
Kitahara Makoto's mind raced, and he quickly thought of a countermeasure.
"My head hurts so much…"
Kitahara Makoto clutched his forehead, a pained expression suddenly appearing on his face.
"Dad…"
The little one's face showed worry, and she instinctively wanted to go to Kitahara Makoto's side.
"Don't go over there."
Sakurajima Mai hugged her daughter tightly and looked at Kitahara Makoto warily: "What are you trying to do again?"
"On the way back just now, I accidentally rolled down the stairs, and my head hurts so much." Kitahara Makoto clutched his forehead, silently calling out to the Beast Eared Girl in his mind, asking the Hana to add a bump to his head, and then asked in confusion, "Mai, who is that child?"
During their previous communication, Kitahara Makoto already knew that the Hana had gained new power and could subtly influence the dream.
Sakurajima Mai's breathing hitched, and her eyes showed an indescribable disappointment:
"You won't even acknowledge your own daughter?"
"No…" Kitahara Makoto's expression was bewildered as he continued his acting, "We only got married yesterday… How do we already have a daughter?"
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