The Dream Code: Yume no Kodo [Light Novel] Vol. 1 – Page 7

The Dream Code – Volume 1 – Chapter 2: Ava

Page 7

The dreamscape was fluid, a tapestry woven from subconscious intention. Ava, having recently opened the gateway to the Zingkon Dimension with her leaf-key, was exploring its profound depths. It was here, within this realm of future knowledge, that a subtle shift in the ethereal currents caught her attention. A ripple, a delicate disturbance in the fabric of the dream, drew her focus. In the shimmering distance, an anomaly appeared: a figure that mirrored her own form, a perfect, yet subtly alien, replica of herself. It was cloaked in a faint, otherworldly luminescence, an unmistakable sign that it was not a spontaneous creation of her own mind. Curiosity, gentle yet persistent, replaced her previous focus. Who was this duplicate? Why did it manifest? Driven by an instinct that sought understanding, Ava altered her course, drifting towards this intriguing echo of herself.

^{Nuuko [The Dream Code]}

Unbeknownst to Ava, this was Nuuko’s subtle orchestration. Tasked with delivering a crucial message to Mitsu – a message from Ava, concerning her very survival, facilitated by the Book of Future – Nuuko had manifested as a perfect likeness of Ava within the dreamscape. He had been doing it all along. It was Nuuko who sent Mitsu the dreams in 2047 as Ava. This occurred after Nuuko had granted Ava her wish of survival during the events of 2044. At this point, Nuuko’s intention was to reach Mitsu, to offer a whisper of guidance and comfort through the dream, easing his path and preparing him for their destined connection. It was an act of careful facilitation, a gentle nudge towards destiny. Nuuko had chosen this moment, sensing an opportunity within the dream’s flow, to prepare the groundwork for their eventual, authentic meeting. But Mitsu was not in his own dream. He was drowning, lost within the pervasive, deeply ingrained fantasies of Kanzaki Tahiru. Kanzaki’s psyche, a landscape haunted by unfulfilled desires and crippling shyness, often manifested as vivid, almost visceral, visual reveries. In this particular instance, Kanzaki’s mind was consumed by a recurring scene: the solitary observation of a young woman’s form from behind, a quiet, intensely shy form of perversion born from a lifetime of isolation and longing.

Nuuko, attempting to breach this powerful, Kanzaki-driven dream, found its efforts consistently deflected. The dream wasn’t Mitsu’s; it was Kanzaki’s. To deliver a message from Ava, to Mitsu, Nuuko needed access to Mitsu’s authentic consciousness, not a corrupted echo filtered through Kanzaki’s immaturity. Nuuko had prepared a dream projection, a space within the Zingkon Dimension itself – a dimension Ava, with her leaf-key, had already unlocked. It was here that Nuuko waited, intending to intercept Mitsu once he was free of Kanzaki’s grip. But then, Ava, drawn by the sight of her own distorted reflection, had entered Nuuko’s projected space.

The dream laws were immutable. The intrusion of the real Ava into Nuuko’s carefully crafted illusion meant the projected duplicate, a mere construct, flickered and dissolved. The delicate scaffolding of Nuuko’s plan crumbled. Ava, now finding herself in a space that felt suddenly dislocated from her own dream-travel, saw not the familiar landscape of the Zingkon Dimension, but a different scene unfolding before her: the stark, undeniable image from Kanzaki’s fantasy. Without a second’s conscious thought, Ava stepped into the visual void, becoming the very form Kanzaki’s mind craved to observe.

In that precise instant, Mitsu, still submerged in Kanzaki’s deeply ingrained fantasy, felt a shift. The ephemeral image he had been fixated upon solidified, gained substance. The curve of a hip, the line of a calf – the fantasy he was so intently absorbing was suddenly there, before him, within the dreamscape. He was still Kanzaki, lost in that shy, illicit observation. Then, with a subtle, almost imperceptible shift, the image turned.