Anonymous requested: Hello there, can I request something (again)? Can you make some Yume Nikki AU with Tagami as Madotsuki?
Admin Notes: Tagami the Dreamer sounds great! Sorry this took a while to write. It's also rather long, so I'm putting some of it in the undercut! (Unlike the last crossover, which wrote out some of the game play, this one will simply have elements of the Yume Nikki game, since there is no distinct plot. I hope that's alright.) -Admin Hirahara
Tagami awoke in a room he had never been to before. It certainly wasn't any from headquarters, with a television and a desk, as well as a simple bed. When he tried to exit the room, the door was locked. Although Tagami wanted to just break the door down with his pickax, he couldn't remember where he put it, or how he even ended up in this room. There was another way out, it seemed, but that only lead to a balcony.
"What a bother," Tagami complained, heading back into the room. He tried to remember what he had been doing before hand that would have cause this situation to unfold. Unfortunately, there was nothing in his memories that could help him explain what was going on. In fact, everything after breakfast that morning was a bit of a blur. Not wanting to think about the whole situation too much, Tagami decided that, since there was a well made bed there, he could just sleep this whole thing off and start fresh afterwards.
Tagami, however, was not asleep. Although he swore he had just closed his eyes and let laziness take over, he was laid awake in the bed. It would seem, at least for now, that he wasn't going to be taking a nap any time soon. Rolling his eyes, he got out of bed and tried the door again, not expecting anything to happen. Instead, it opened to a strange new place that was completely black except for 12 other doors. There also seemed to be markings on the ground. Blinking, Tagami stepped back out of the door he just entered and closed it. Repeating the action of opening the door lead him to the same strange room. Seeing that this was leading him nowhere, Tagami went a head and stood at the center of the room.
"Weird." He said to himself, before vaguely understanding what was happening. "Oh, it's a dream." He said, willing himself to wake up. When that didn't work, he tried something more drastic. He had heard that some humans pinched themselves to wake up from lucid dreams. Feeling a sharp pain of skin being pulled, Tagami sat up quickly from the bed he had just fallen asleep on. He was back in the room with the locked door. "…The hell…" He muttered, before concluding that he'd have to go back into his dream.
—
The doors were rather tricky to figure out, but after a while, Tagami got the hang of them. The 12 doors lead to 12 different locations, so Tagami would just pick and choose which ones he would explore. He decided to start with the forest door and work his way around in a circle counterclockwise. If he got lost, he decided, he'd just pinch himself to wake up and start again. Worried that he might forget some of the places that he had gone to, he decided to write everything down once he awoke in the journal that was found on the table in the Real World. With everything planned out, locating the exit should be easier.
The forest was not an enjoyable place to be. It was hot and muddy and a frog kept following Tagami wherever he went. Shooing it away seemed to have no effect, and if the escort had been equip with his pickax, he would have squished the thing. When it's ribbiting became too frustrating, Tagami was ready to pick it up and throw it at a tree. Strangely enough, in doing so, the frog became what looked like a badge in his hands. "Hm?" Tagami wondered, the badge having little use to him. He didn't wear these sort of things anyways. Still, Tagami kept it in his pocket, in case it would be significant later.
Having walked most of this forest and avoiding the strange creatures that hung about, Tagami decided to wake up. He found that the badge was still in his pocket, and decided to write down that it had a picture of a frog on it. "Collectables?" He wondered, before setting it on the desk. There was no use carrying it around if he wasn't going to need it. After heading back to the Nexus, a strange new thing appeared: an egg. Tagami didn't see how he missed it earlier, which meant that he must have done something to trigger it's appearence. It seemed pretty pointless, just sitting in the middle of the room.
Still, Tagami couldn't help but notice that the egg lined itself perfectly to the strange swirls in the dark room floor. Upon close examination, the details on the floor seemed to be making a pattern of 24 spaces, the egg in one of them. Not sure how exactly he had triggered this egg, Tagami decided to explore the proceeding doors. This time, nothing really followed him, but in the strange block world, he found a stray hat and scarf. Seeing as how this, like the frog, was a bit out of place, he decided to collect it.
Much like the frog had earlier, the hat and scarf turned itself into a badge, which instantly made Tagami want to see if that caused any changes at the Nexus. Locating the door to the black room, the escort found another egg, matching that of the first one. "I see, so I have to collect these things in order to make eggs appear." What that would do, Tagami wasn't sure. However, since this was the only thing that he seemed to be able to trigger, he decided that this would be a good thing to do. He'd collect the badges until all 24 spots were filled.
The walking was all very tedious. Finding things that seemed out of place in every one of the 12 rooms began to become a hard task, and Tagami found that in some rooms, it was hard to get through without having certain items. For example, he couldn't get through a dark room without a flashlight. "If only the lamp stayed a lamp when I touched it…" he complained, referring to the weird walking lantern he found in a room full of lamps. Without a lot more options, Tagami woke himself up and returned to the table, where all his collected badges were found.
Curious to see if the badge actually did anything, Tagami brought the lamp badge into the dark room with him. After putting it on, he found that his head had turned into a lamp itself. "What-" He exclaimed, ripping the badge off. His head returned to normal at that. For a brief second, he had been able to see in the dark. "So, these badges have the abilities to affect the wearer and become more useful…" With this new information, Tagami found exploring some of the places a lot easier than before. Using the effects, he proceeded with alacrity.
—
After some time of swimming through a pink sea as a frog, Tagami found himself at the foot of a house in the middle of nowhere. It was the only sign of another being's presence (that wasn't strange creatures who didn't like interacting), so Tagami took this as the right direction. Upon entering the house, he was rather surprised to find a familiar face. A certain azure eyed escort was standing in the middle of the house, doing nothing in particular.
"Kirishima?" Tagami asked, removing the frog effect and approaching the other man. "I wasn't expecting to see you here." Kirishima was a stoic as ever, not even flinching when Tagami approached. "How did you even get here, anyways? I thought I was dreaming."
"You are," was the only thing Kirishima said. With that, the lights flickered ominously three or four times. Tagami could have sworn he saw something rising from behind the swordsman; an dark shape with a cracked face. Kirishima uncharacteristically cracked a terrifying smile. "Don't turn off the lights, Tagami," a voice that was like a warped version of Kirishima's warned, before the whole room went dark. Tagami managed to wake himself up before anything worse could happen; the last thing he remembered was Kirishima's creepy smile.
"That was definitely not Kirishima," Tagami groaned, writing it down in his journal. Don't go back to the pink sea room…
—
From the weird underground room Tagami had been exploring, a brilliant white spaceship was connected. It was strange finding such a thing in a place like the underground, but Tagami thought that perhaps the place was important. Upon entering, the escort could hear the sound of a piano being played. Following the sound, Tagami was led to a large room with a magnificent piano in the middle, someone playing behind it.
"Hm, a guest?" A familiar voice asked, stopping the melody. Tagami stopped in his tracks when Saeki popped his head out from behind the piano, smiling. "Oh, Tagami, hey." He nodded, before continuing to play. "The spaceship is taking off soon, so find a place to sit down. Mars isn't as far as you'd think it is."
"Mars?" Tagami asked, walking closer to the piano. "What do you mean by that?"
"Too late for questions, we have liftoff!" Saeki announced. At the push of a chord, the whole room shook, as if lifting from the ground and moving forward at great speeds. It seemed that at each of Saeki's notes, the ship would dash forward.
"Don't you think we're going too quickly?" Tagami tried to ask before BASH! the ship crashed, causing the escort to lose balance and fall over.
"Oh dear… looks like we've crashed onto Mars!" Saeki noted with little worry. "Well then, Tagami, off you go." The icy eyed escort hurried the other out the door and onto a barren wasteland before shutting the door to the ship with a loud slam. With that, the amber eyed escort was left alone. There was absolutely nothing to do on Mars, causing Tagami to have to pinch himself awake and start over.
"Annoying…" He muttered, adding this description to the journal as well.
—
Tagami found that he was still missing two of the effects by the time he entered the dense woods. He was sure there was one somewhere deeper in the rather dark and foreboding place. There were, after all, only a few places left to actually look. "Can't this just be over with already…?" He asked, wanting to get some real sleep. It wasn't long before he found himself at a crossroad, which was out of place in the woods. Following it lead him to a place where orange cones erected, as if marking off some construction. On closer inspection, it looked like there was some person there as well.
"Oh great, someone else," Tagami muttered, walking closer to the aberrant scene. When the body came into view, Tagami was surprised to recognize the man lying face flat on the ground. "Hirahara?" He asked, before spotting the blood. "Eh? Playing dead?" he asked, poking the other escort.
"Waaaaah? How did you know?!" The high energy escort suddenly lifted himself from the ground. "Tagami, that's no fun!"
"Idiot, we can't die." Tagami pointed out. Hirahara huffed, crossing his arms.
"I really did get hit by a train here, though," he huffed, before pointing up at a stoplight above their heads. "You're missing that, right?" He asked. Tagami touched the object, just to be sure. As expected, it turned itself into an effect. "See~? Isn't it great? With this, you could probably reveal a little bit of truth!" Hirahara beamed. "Want to try it out?"
Tagami didn't see why not. He placed the effect on, turning his head into a stoplight. When he flickered from red to green, Hirahara seemed to static out until there was no one in the crossroad anymore. A bright light was coming from one end of the road, a loud horn sounding. By the time Tagami took the effect off to see what was happening, he was hit by a train at full force. The pain jolted him awake in an instant, panting.
—
One place Tagami had yet to visit was a strange white desert room, entirely in monochrome, except for the occasional red. There wasn't a lot to do, it seemed, except keep walking. Tagami debated pinching himself and starting over multiple times, but forced himself to keep going. With any luck, he could just walk back to the Nexus, having left most of his effects back on the table.
The one he carried around was the lamp and the newly earned stoplight, since both were quite helpful. The stoplight ended up helping Tagami see a lot of things that he had missed before. Now, in the monochrome place, it was rather useless. All the white was straining his eyes, and he hoped he'd be able to get out of the place soon. Since there wasn't any distinct colors, Tagami spotted a green shape off in the distance easily. Whatever it was, it was waiting at a tunnel, seeming to block the only way in. The escort approached with some caution.
Kinoshita was standing completely motionless at the entrance to a cave tunnel, wearing a stupid smile. Tagami went to jab the other in the side to no effect; the man seemed frozen in place. The amber eyed escort decided that he should try the stoplight effect here, switching the light from red to green. "Eh? Tagami?" Kinoshita sprung to life. "I didn't expect you to be here."
"…right…" Tagami said, removing the effect. "Look, this place is boring and I'd like to be sleeping for real soon, so can you move out of the way?"
"Oh, sure!" Kinoshita stepped to the side, giving a wave with his hand as if welcoming Tagami to some grand room. "I won't stop you, but be very careful with that stoplight! You don't want to see more than you can handle." When Kinoshita closed his eyes and opened them again, his eyeballs were missing, and blood was dripping down his face. "You'll regret it!"
Tagami ignored the comment and continued onward. It was strange to think that the emerald eyed escort was really trying to scare people like that, so there was no reason to pay the man and heed. It didn't take long for the tunnel to open into a larger area, almost like a cozy home. There, at it's center, stood Tanizaki. Like Kinoshita at the entrance, he wasn't moving at all. Tagami decided to try the stoplight effect here as well to animate the violet eyed man.
When Tagami switched from red to green, something entirely different happened. Tanizaki's body seemed to grow five arms, and became horribly mangled. The simple sight of the transformation was enough to get Tagami to rip off the effect and pinch himself awake.
—
The last effect Tagami found completely useless and impractical. A knife wasn't exactly his favorite weapon, and he found it to be a bother to carry around. Still, he had to take it with him. At the nexus, all 24 eggs circled spread out around Tagami. Thinking this was the end, he left through the door to the real world room, only to wake up and find that the door was still locked. Attempts to cut out the lock with the knife effect proved useless as well, since he wasn't dreaming and effects did nothing in the real world.
Frustrated, Tagami went over to the journal he'd kept to see if there was anything he'd missed. There wasn't. Infuriated by his failed efforts, Tagami threw the book across the room. It hit the balcony door with a thud. After that, it was quiet in the room. The chilling silence was interrupted when Tagami heard a female voice saying something to him. "The dream isn't over," it whispered. The balcony door suddenly opened with a squeak. "Come to the balcony…" Tagami saw no other choice than to follow as he was instructed. There, a ladder that was not previously in tact was found leading over the side of the rail.
"So, if I put my dream self in enough pain, I'll wake up…?" He wondered out loud. The voice didn't say anything back. Tagami didn't see another way out. Climbing the ladder, the wind in his face, the escort closed his eyes and leaned forward, feeling gravity take over.
There was a brilliant crunch when his body hit the ground, the sound of bones breaking as they made contact with the hard surface. Blood filled his vision and taste, and the smell of rust was strong. There was a sharp pain skyrocketing in every part of his body. This, he realized, what dying must be like.
—
"Ta-ga-mi!" He heard his name being screamed. He nearly headbutted the person lifting himself from the ground. "Y-ah?! You're okay?" The person asked. Hirahara, who had been leaning over Tagami just a second ago, looked at the amber eyed escort with interest.
"What happened?" He asked, rubbing his head. He felt like something had cracked his skull.
"Eh? You don't remember?" Hirahara asked, equally confused. "We were sent to capture a deceased one who had committed suicide by jumping from a balcony, but when you followed after her, you ended up falling from the balcony yourself!" That would explain why Tagami's head hurt so much.
"What happened to the deceased one?" He asked, standing up with some help from the gold eyed escort.
"She didn't seem so tough after you fell from the balcony after her. I took care of it~!" Hirahara announced proudly. The happy comment was followed with an equally loud whoosh! as Tagami punched him in the face.
"That's for letting me jump off a balcony, idiot," he grumbled. "I can't die, but that sure as well hurt…" Secretly, though, Tagami wondered about the strange dream he had with the doors and the eggs, and whether it had anything to do with the dead girl he and Hirahara were sent to chase.