The day had been a quiet farce. To anyone watching, he was just another student. The normal looking young man with a low voice, a shy look and measured movements. No one noticed him. No one noticed how every step he took was calculated, how every word he spoke was thought out with military-level strategy. No one suspected that beneath that invisible façade lay a past as dark as the abyss.
Yoshi had managed to survive another week without arousing suspicion. But with every blink of an eye, he felt the breath of the past on the back of his neck. Kyria... his sister. Or what was left of her.
In class, he pretended to pay attention. Her notebook was filled with formulas, scribbles, and hidden phrases written in almost invisible ink. He heard Haruto's voice echo through the classroom with his typical energy. She noticed Haruka chatting with two other students with her faint, serene smile. In the background, Liz, as she was, an icy, perfect beauty, was reading alone. Each played his or her role. But none carried the weight he did.
When he returned to the inn that night, the fog had begun to creep into the corridors of the city. The cold was bone-chilling, but Yoshi barely felt it. His body was numb, as if it no longer belonged to him. He opened the door to his room, dropped his backpack on the floor, and sat on the edge of the bed. The wood creaked under his weight. He didn't turn on any lights. He just... closed his eyes.
-
And fell.
Not as one who dreams. But like someone sinking.
The room was identical to the previous one. One of the rooms restricted to high-level instructors. But this time... something was different. The air was thick. The smell of dark incense, of rotting flowers, of disturbed earth. The ceiling seemed lower. The walls... closer. As if sleep was closing in on him.
He was bound. Arms, legs, neck. His body immobilised with straps of dark light, invisible to the human eye, but leaving an abrasive pressure on the skin. The wood underneath creaked as if taunting.
And then the laughter.
-Hehehehe... caught again. You make me so happy, nii-san.
Kyria emerged like the shadow of a memory that should never have existed. She wore a garment that was neither uniform nor dress: it was an assemblage of dark, twisted fabrics, something that should not exist in the real world. Her black hair descended like an inky curtain over her shoulders. Her crimson eyes glowed with an almost unbearable intensity.
-I've been waiting for you. All night. Every second. And at last... I finally have you here again.
He approached slowly. His every step echoed like danger. Like a muffled cry in the back of his mind warning him of death.
-You know, I used to dream about you like when we were little. But that's changed. You're not my brother anymore. You're... something else. Something of mine.
-An object? A toy? -Or something like that, hehe?
Yoshi tried to speak, but he could not. His throat was sealed by some unknown magic.
Kyria leaned down, her fingers brushing his cheek, down to his neck, down to his chest and ending at his genitals. Her touch wasn't violent, but each caress was worse than a burn. Because she knew every part of him. Because she loved him. And because she was already broken.
-All this started because of you. And for that... now you must pay me back. You must stay with me. You must stay with me. Until this dream becomes eternal.
The environment changed. The room fragmented. The walls were broken and reconfigured. Now they were in their childhood room. Then in a library. Then in a cage. Each place loaded with symbolism. Each a piece of his mind.
Kyria tortured him. Not with knives. Not with whips. With words. With twisted tenderness. She spoke to him like a husband, like a child, like a possession. He whispered fantasies, mingled memories, delusions of a future together. Reminded him of things that never happened. She forced him to watch.
And it all felt real.
She forced him to repeat phrases. To swear promises. To cry for her. To ask her forgiveness. To accept her. To receive him inside her.
Time did not exist. Hours, days, centuries. Everything seemed absent.
-You're mine. You understand, don't you?
Yoshi no longer answered. His eyes were empty. His mind collapsed in a spiral of guilt and denial. Every time he woke up in the dream, he fell back down. And Kyria welcomed him with open arms.
-Don't be afraid. When you sleep in the real world, you will come to me. Always. Because this is more than a dream. It's our little home.
She kissed the lips with a love so sick it hurt.
-Rest. Tomorrow... I want you to walk me down the aisle.
And she hugged him. And then everything went dark.
-
When Yoshi woke up, he was on the verge of collapse.
He wasn't crying. He wasn't screaming. He was just gasping, as if he had been running out of air for hours.
His room was dark. Outside, it was barely dawn.
He ran to the bathroom. He looked in the mirror. Bruises. Scratches. New marks. His neck, collarbone, torso, genitals. Everything hurt.
He opened his skill panel, hands shaking.
Immersive Dreams - Status: Active (prolonged anomalous synchronisation)
Mastery - Status: Unstable (latent link with interfering mind)
Her lips murmured voicelessly:
-I can't stop her any longer....
He dropped to the ground, covering his face.
-I no longer own even my dreams.
For Kyria's love did not seek redemption.
It sought to bend.
And in dreams, she had already claimed him completely.