From ANOTHER STORY, by yasu
"No matter where we go, it's pitch dark. So, I guess the map probably can't see anything either." The Left-Sided Servant was shaking, but in the dark that couldn't be seen. The darkness was so deep that they couldn't even see their own hands, even bringing them close to their bodies, let alone each other's faces.
"This is horrible...how are we supposed to move?"
"Why is it so dark...?"
This was a darkness of the likes of which neither of them had ever encountered before. This was not the darkness of the realms of the real world—it was a darkness so deep that a piece of white paper was the brightest thing in the world.
"Eh, when morning comes it'll get brighter somehow, right? If for nothing else than if that happens, I can go back to the ship."
"Wait, and look at that!"
The Left-Sided Servant looked at where the girl was pointing, and became so scared that his body shrunk into almost nothing.
"Wha...what is that?"
On the top of the cliff the girl was pointing at, the only place with any light at all, ominous figures were moving about. Octopus-like demons with four eyes; demons that looked like fish; and lastly, they could see one gigantic creature with only one eye.
The Left-Sided Servant spinelessly sunk down to the ground.
It was time.
"You there, what are you doing! Move quickly!"
From behind him, the one-eyed creature snapped a whip. From the eye in the center of his face, deep red blood vessels spread out, lit with an eerie glow. Extending down his back, there were strong-looking humans, who looked as if they were going to fall forward. These humans were moving stones and bricks, stacking them up. It was as if they all were slaves, working to the threats of the demons.
"So, all of you, get to work!" The demon's voice boomed, and one half of the cluster of humans broke into a straight line, as if to move the next bricks. From behind, the Left-Sided Servant, like a wrestler, steeled his expression and took up the whip.
"Ah, no...no matter what I do, I have to look at things with my own eyes...everyone, this is all your own fault." While mumbling this to himself, the Left-Sided Servant took up one of the heavy bricks. At that moment, the people in front of them were whispering amongst themselves, but they emotionlessly moved the bricks on to the next person in the line.
"Hey, how long until morning?" The girl asked the man ahead of her.
The man raised his dark face, looking at the girl as if perplexed. "Morning? Morning doesn't come here."
"What are you saying?"
"I guess it's probably disappeared, in all this darkness. So, the demons can do all they want to us."
"But, when do you all sleep?"
"Sleep? If we do that, the demons will eat us!" another man answered.
"How terrible! So that means no one here can dream, can they?"
"Dreams...we haven't had those in a horribly long time," said so many male voices from deep within the darkness.
The great success of the demons is that they have stolen all the dreams from the people here. If I look inside of myself, I may have everything...except the ability to dream...
It was time.
The man in front of them, dressed in ragged clothes, moved with tottering steps, finally falling onto the dark ground. But, no one moved to help him.
"What happened? Are you all right?" The girl cried out, rushing over to help. In the next instant, everyone was watching her. From the left, right, and back, the demons came forward, consuming the man in darkness. They approached with something of a growl, as if to devour something. As soon as they had thought of the ominous sound, someone grabbed the fallen girl up off the ground by her chest.
"If you're going to do things like that, they'll devour you as well!" The man whispered this softly in the girl's ear, but very gravely.
"Devour us??" The Left-Sided Servant's terrified voice piped up, after having been silent this whole time.
"That's right. For the demons, we only exist for them to use. Once they can't use us anymore, they throw us aside like nothing, and devour us."
"No..." the girl's voice trailed off. While the demons were berating the other man, the others who had been quietly working all were able to rest...
"Those who continued to toil could no longer dream? If I died, wouldn't I be giving that up, too?" Doesn't the world I've been in now look like the Land of Darkness? Nozomi thought.
After she had graduated from junior college, she had found a job at a small company. The time when she started working at the company had been a very busy one for her. Since it was such a small company, there were a lot of things that had to be done by yourself, so it was impossible to avoid being very busy. Nozomi, of course, worked without thinking about taking time off, or even taking breaks to sleep. Certainly, she didn't have any way to dream in sleep, let alone have dreams in the real world...
However, before she knew it, she wasn't able to escape from many aspects of working for the company, and it began to consume her completely. But, it wasn't due to Nozomi's position in the company moving to a large-scale position. Rather, the company had been expanded due to cutting back the operating costs of certain sections. The older workers in the company gradually retired. With the new hiring cycle, more young girls were hired in. So, a lot of people began to think that Nozomi, too, should leave. Even so, for the last eight years, she had been working as hard as she could, and she intended to contribute to the company as much as she was able.
And yet, yesterday, suddenly, she had been told the bad news about the restructuring. She couldn't understand it.
"Working just to work...if I died, I could leave all that behind."
"I can't forgive them! Casting someone aside as if they don't exist like that! What gives them the right to decide who exists and who doesn't?"
"There's nothing else that we can do. All we do is work. So, we don't do things like dream," said the dark voice of the man farther ahead of her.
"We'll devour you, devour you..." The Left-Sided Servant repeated over and over again, as if in a delirious state.
"As it is, this is no good...we can't do anything."
"That's right. We can't change anything as things are." The Left-Sided Servant said.
"But, we're in trouble. Since it's so dark, we can't see the map, either...hey, have you heard anything about a music box being hidden in this "Land of Darkness"? The "Melody of Dreams" is probably hidden inside that box..." the girl asked the men next to her.
"A music box? "The Melody of Dreams"? I haven't heard about anything like that...do you know something?" said the man directly in front.
"I don't know anything," said the next man ahead, looking annoyed.
"Ah...if we got it back..." said the third man in the line.
"Do you know something about it?" said the girl.
"I don't know for sure, but I've heard of a very tall mountain somewhere in this land of darkness. On the top of that mountain live many angry demons, and at the very top, I've heard that the "Great Demon of Darkness" is guarding something."
"If there is a music box here, it would surely be there. Let's go and get the music box back!"
"Shh, if you say it too loudly, the demons will hear you." The Left-Sided Servant turned his head. As he did so, the man behind them suddenly appeared in front of the girl.
"There's no human who has been able to come back from there alive. The Great Demon of Darkness is so much more vengeful than the demons found here.
"..." The girl was silent.
Then, suddenly,
"Surely...there has to be some way to get there safely..."
Then, ahead of them, they could hear voices. Voices continuing the sound of dissent.
"We can overthrow them again."
"We can overthrow them again."
The voices spread from the front of the line like waves.
"The demons are all still grouped together. What beasts! They'll surely be angry. Especially the eight-eyed octopus," the man who had spoken before said with a groan.
"The eight-eyed octopus?" The girl asked with a mystified face, looking back at the gathering demons.
"That's right. That eight-eyed octopus is the most terrible of them all."
Listening to the man talk, the girl was lost in thought.
"So...somewhere there's something with eight eyes!" The Left-Sided Servant, craning his neck like a turtle, looked around nervously. Yes, perhaps.
She couldn't see very well in the pitch dark, or count how many eyes there actually were—the girl couldn't find all eight of them.
The man pointed to the cliff nearby. "Can't you see it? Look, standing on that cliff over there. That man who just fell, they must have just thrown him over."
"Where, where? On the top of the cliff, where's the one you want us to watch out for?" The Left-Sided Servant said, while pointing at the top of the cliff with one finger, looking around nervously.
"Is it that one with seven horns?"
"He has eight eyes, doesn't he! That cliff over there!" The man said angrily. The girl quickly turned to look at the cliff. The Left-Sided Servant was looking that way, as was the girl...that was probably the place.
However, in the girl's eyes, she did not see a monster with seven horns and eight eyes; to her, he was a mollusk-like demon, with ten arms and legs. The girl turned to face the Left-Sided Servant.
"Hey, Left-Sided Servant, how many eyes does the seven-armed demon have?"
"He has at least two, right? Though I only have one eye, I can see that well enough. It's really obvious, isn't it...? But, that's probably not what you're asking for, is it?"
However, the girl could still only see one of the mollusk-like demon's eyes. "What?" she thought.
While she was thinking, she closed both of her eyes. Then, the girl imagined the appearance of the seven-horned demon. When she opened them again, she was able to see the demon she was looking for. The demon that had, until recently, been the demon with only one eye, had changed into the seven-horned demon. Once again, the girl closed her eyes. Opening them after a little while, she looked at the demon once again, and burst out in a sudden fit of laughter.
"What's this, all of the sudden?"
"I know what to do now!" As she said this, she dropped the brick she had been holding and took off running.
"Hey! Hey! Where are you taking me?"
"Oh, it would be a better idea for you just to watch closely to figure out where I'm going, now wouldn't it?" The girl called, looking back.
"So cruel. Haven't I been watching things closely before you?"
"Will you just listen to what I'm saying?"
"Y...yeah." The Left-Sided Servant consented, having no choice.
"All right. Take my hand, and don't let go, no matter what. We're going to the mountain that holds the music box, now." Saying this, the girl unfolded the miraculous map, turning it toward the meager light.
"There! There's something up there!"
The demons, noticing the movement, advanced upon them.
"So...quickly!!" Grabbing the Left-Sided Servant's hand, the girl broke into a full sprint.
"Take it back for us!"
"Don't give up!"
She could hear the voices of the men behind her, but immediately ahead the angry voices of the demons were louder.
"It's really stupid to be running so fast in the pitch dark!!" The Left-Sided Servant shrieked.
From time to time, a small amount of light broke through the darkness, but all they could see was the raging figures of the demons.
"Close your eyes! Don't think about anything!!" In front of the girl's eyes, the miraculous map was guiding them step-by-step along the road. That road, furthermore, was the only place that glowed with any light at all. The girl, even now that the Left-Sided Servant looked as if he might fall, desperately kept running. In a short while, though, her breath was running short. In the moment that she thought everything was hopeless, somehow, the demons that had caught up to her had been transformed into a dog and cat.
The girl and the Halfling finally stopped in their tracks when they arrived in front of a demon guarding the mountain home of the "Great Demon of Darkness".
"For the time being, we can rest easy knowing we got this far, right?"
"Ha...wha...wha...what are you talking about?"
"You know."
"Wha...what?"
"Those demons, they were all born of the fears of all those people."
"Eh? What are you talking about?"
"Simply, this. The appearances of the demons are simply images of the things we think we fear most. Just now, on top of the cliff, you saw a demon with seven horns, did you not?"
"Ah, yes, absolutely." The Left-Sided Servant agreed.
"That was just an image of what you think, deep down, is the scariest thing in the world. Then, the image of something that you don't think is frightening at all."
"So...it was all an optical illusion? No way!"
" I, seeing the demons, was thinking of something that wouldn't scare me, so I thought of a cat. Doing so, all the demons were transformed into cute cats. That's right. Abyssians and American Shorthairs...and the ten-legged demon became a giant Himalayan."
"Could...could it be?" The Left-Sided Servant asked, with eyes showing both doubt and amazement.
They continued on, talking, until they saw a demon in the middle of the road, its face split from its mouth to its ears. Its head was that of an angry monster, but its body took the shape of a human. The girl pointed at it.
"So, shall we? Think of your favorite cute animal, and then look over there."
"Like this?" The Left-Sided Servant closed his eyes, and imagined the image of a Chow Chow. Then, he looked over at the demon.
"No way!" The Left-Sided Servant said, slack-jawed. Could it be that the demon had transformed into a Chow Chow? The deep red slash that was its mouth had closed up, and it lapped happily at his hand.
"So, you get it now, right? But be careful. If your imagination isn't strong enough and they attack you as demons, you'll surely die."
"I...I understand," The Left-Sided Servant openheartedly assented.
"So, it's all right, let's go see the Great Demon!" With that, the girl began to ascend the mountain, as vigorously as ever.
Traveling to the summit, the two transformed one demon after another into adorable animals. As they grew more and more accustomed to doing so, they weren't just changing things into cats anymore. They became able to transform things into rabbits, squirrels, hamsters, and prairie dogs.
Soon, as they arrived at the summit, the scenery around them suddenly changed. The rocks on the leading edge of the cliff jutted out like blades, dead trees winding across the face like ominously blood-red ivy.
"So, this is the Great Demon's lair?" The Left-Sided Servant stopped walking. Stopping to look herself, the girl saw black clouds spewing from the very top of the mountain. The clouds stirred up like a tornado, and then, the "Great Demon of Darkness" appeared, a giant, very angry figure.
"How strange. To be able to see something this frightening...but, I know how to defeat you! What do you see him turning into? A cat? A rabbit?"
After giving a quick glance to the "Great Demon of Darkness", the Left-Sided Servant nodded toward the girl, giving the demon a hard stare.
"He's terribly big, isn't he?"
"Oh, really, so should he be a really big cat, then?" The Left-Sided Servant relaxed a little.
"His mouth goes all the way to his ears."
"So, a terribly big cat with a huge mouth, then?"
"It has eight eyes, and seven horns, and ten arms and legs..."
"Eight eyes and...hey...is that the same "Great Demon of Darkness" I saw before?"
"L...look out!! Kyaaaa!"
The "Great Demon of Darkness" knocked both the girl and the Left-Sided Servant flat with a single attack.
"Ow ow ow ow! H...hey, what happened to our special attack, the power of our imaginations?!" The Left-Sided Servant shrieked at the girl.
"It's not strong enough to change him into something like a cat or rabbit; he's already read into our minds to see those images, and has defended against them. A typical "Great Demon of Darkness", after all."
"Hey, is this really the time to be so touched?"
"More than that, if we don't change him into something that he can't imagine, it won't do us any good. But, since he can evade attacks quite violently, we have to do this with all of our might."
The "Great Demon of Darkness" kept attacking them relentlessly. The girl was absolutely frightened. The black clouds surrounded them, and all that could be seen of the Great Demon of Darkness was his glowing red eyes. As if moving in a single instant, they were right next to the girl. They sliced down upon her, as if to finish her off.
"Ack..." In that instant, the Great Demon's hand passed in front of the girl's eyes. Only this time, she didn't try to escape. Without thinking, she closed her eyes tight.
"Hey! You're the Messiah, aren't you?! You promised the old man that you would save the world, didn't you?!" The Left-Sided Servant shouted in the girl's general direction.
"Gramps...oh...I've got it!" The girl quickly braced herself for the blow, then imagined something. She closed her eyes for a while, but the blow never came. Then, she slowly opened them once more.
"What happened?" The Left-Sided Servant said, his voice a trickle without knowing why.
"I just thought that he should become a Puni-Puni!" the girl replied.
"What is this...Puni-Puni?"
"This thing here." The girl pointed, and sitting there was something like a big, green puppy. He looked at them, blinking his transparent eyes. He was a fluffy, truly adorable creature.
"Puni-pu..."
"Thanks to you calling out to me, I remembered the story I told Gramps, then imagined it. Of course, the Great Demon of Darkness wasn't able to imagine one of these!"
"Ah, so he's what you turned the Great Demon into! He really is cute...Wah!" When the Left-Sided Servant got close enough to pet the Puni-Puni, it jumped on him, covering his face with its green spit.
"Hey! Hey you! Isn't that a little dirty?!" Angrily, the Left-Sided Servant reached out as if to grab him. The Puni-Puni ran out of the way.
"Puni, Puni-pu..."
Watching this go on out of the corner of her eye, the girl found a music box. It had fallen, landing in the place where the Puni-Puni had just been standing.
"Ah!"
The girl picked it up, bringing it close to her to look at it. "It's the Music Box of Dreams."
She slowly opened the box. It was the Melody of Dreams, carrying the beautiful power of imagination. The melody spread far and wide amongst the Land of Darkness. Hearing the melody, both the people and demons fell into a deep sleep. The Left-Sided Servant and the Puni-Puni stopped running about, and fell asleep. The girl, too, drifted into sleep.
The people dreamt. The first dream they all saw was the return of morning to the Land of Darkness. With that, the sun rose in the eastern sky, soon blanketing all of the Land of Darkness in light. Bathed in this light, the demons melted away. In their place, cats, rabbits, deer, horses, and all sorts of other animals were born. Drinking up the morning light, the people awakened. It was a wonderful awakening. Even those people whom the demons had devoured breathed again. The Land of Darkness had become the Land of Dreams.
"Everything's all right here now..." the girl said to herself.
"Oh, it really is a wonderful land..." The Left-Sided Servant said to himself.
"So, shall we go?"
"Eh? Go...?"
"To the next land."
"No...I, as you can guess, don't think I'm into doing anything that extreme again...so, I think I'll just stay in this wonderful Land of Dreams forever..."
"But you're looking for the Right-Sided Servant, aren't you?"
"I might have said that, but..."
"Oh, who was it that told me that he'd come along, then?"
"Eh? I get it. It can't be so bad if I go along. If I go!! If I'm going to support you, let's just go, quickly. Aaah, you got me with that the last time, too..."
After they had departed again on the ship, they heard a strange voice from behind them.
"Pu, pu, pa-ni-pa-pa, pu-pu, puni!"
"Huh? Hey, you! Why'd you follow us?!" The Puni-Puni wagged its short tail, and began to follow the Left-Sided Servant.
"Psh...you're always right behind me!"
The girl smiled at the Puni-Puni gently, then addressed the Left-Sided Servant.
"It should be okay, right? Let's let him come along with us."
"Eh, are you serious? Aren't you worried he's going to agitate something that turns out to not be a log or something?"
"It'll be fine. So, come here!" The Puni-Puni trotted over to the girl's side, leaving the Left-Sided Servant alone.
"Oh, geez...no matter what you are I still don't understand you!"
Having no choice yet again, the girl, the Left-Sided Servant, and the Puni-Puni set off once more...