Yumewa Dormitory

Ken stared at his reflection on the full body mirror that that stood before him in his room. He had combed the mess his hair became when he squirmed during the nightmare and now looked the same hairstyle he always had; short stylish brown hair.

His uniform seemed rather fancy but it wasn't a suit to be exact; it consisted of a white collared shirt with a navy blue jacket with adorned with gold stripes, long white pants and shoes, and a white jabot with a green oval-shaped brooch embedded into it.

He wondered why the uniforms had different colored brooches, but had assumed it was to distinguish the difference between the grades. He grabbed the brochure from his desk and unfolded it as he began reading it.

Gold for Elementary, green for Junior High, and purple for High School.

He placed the brochure back down and took another look at himself in the mirror. Last he checked, it was pretty chilly outside so he decided to wear his orange jacket underneath his uniform. He couldn't really get in trouble for wanting to warm himself up a bit could he? While fixing himself up a little more, he began to think about the recent nightmare he had.

That was certainly a horrible dream, but I can't let it distract me now. I just hope it won't come back again...

Shaking his head, he immediately grabbed his bag off his bed and was about to leave until he remembered the strange dream catcher sitting on his bed post.

It wasn't there before...was it?

He suddenly heard a bell ringing in the distance, immediately alerting him.

The first day and I'm already late?!

He stormed out his door, running as fast as he could to only to crash into somebody. Right as they had collided, they had unfortunately been pushed back by the impact and were in a daze on the soft carpet.

"Geez, how many people am I going to run into?" Ken muttered under his breath as he looked up to see the boy already getting himself up and dusted off his jacket before lending his hand to him.

"Looks like someone's in a big hurry," the boy chuckled softly and gave a hearty smile. He had short slightly messy blonde hair and his emerald eyes glowed with energy. He wore the same exact uniform as Ken except his jacket completely unbuttoned, revealing a white collared shirt underneath.

"I apologize for running into you, but aren't we supposed to be getting to school right now?" Ken asked, perplexed as he took the boy's hand.

"Yeah, but that the first bell, which means we still have some time and we don't really need to run," he said with a smirk. "I'm guessing this is your first year here in Yumewa?"

Ken nodded, feeling somewhat embarrassed for being one of the only ones to panic.

"Well don't worry," he reassured. "I was like you back in fourth grade." Right after he finished his sentence, they heard a crashing sound on the floor below followed by moaning of pain.

"Looks like you're not the only one now," he laughed. "The name's Ryo Takahashi and I'll be starting my second year in junior high. I can show you around the school if you want."

"That would be really helpful, Takahashi-san," Ken said, delighted to finally have a tour around the school and possibly a new friend. "I'm Ken Amada, and I'll be starting my second year in junior high as well."

"Well, Amada-san," he began and briefly placed his hand on his shoulder. "Let's get going."

Yumegamine Academy

When they both exited out of their dormitory, Ken noticed students of different ages and sizes ranging from first grade to twelfth pouring out of the dorms and all walking on the same path to school. He glanced at the girls' uniform and noticed how it was completely different from the normal sailor uniform or the Gekkoukan uniform.

The uniform was light gray with a cropped thin coat that had the same gold stripes down their jacket, a white collared shirt with a bow that was a few shades darker than their grade brooch embedded in the knot, a hoop skirt with a gold stripe across the hem of the skirt and short white socks with black dress shoes.

Interesting...I've never seen a uniform like that before. This school must be unique.

"Oy, Amada-san, we're almost there. Look at your new school!" Ryo elbowed him lightly. Immediately after Ken took his attention off the uniforms and towards the school, his eyes widened and his jaw had dropped slightly at the sight of it.

It was much larger than Gekkoukan High in size and certainly looked as prestigious as the brochure made it to be. Before them was a long, wide stone bridge that many students had already began crossing.

"Welcome to Yumegamine Academy~" Ryo sang in a joking tone, performing a short silly dance and a dramatic shake of his hands towards the entrance. A few girls had seen his silly introduction and giggled, to which Ryo responded with a flirtatious smile and a wink.

Ken had the impression that he must be the class clown kind of guy and smiled at his comedic attitude.

He is certainly a lot like Junpei-san.

Ken attempted to stifle his laugh. However, a snort had escaped from him which earned Ken an eyebrow raise from Ryo who gave a half-grin.

As they entered the school, he couldn't help but feel slightly out-of-place by the architecture of this area that he wasn't familiar with.

But maybe in time I'll eventually become used to it.

Inside, he saw an open large field of grass and a fountain in the middle of the small plains, separate large buildings surrounding the area with three entrances; to his left, in front, and to his right. He noticed elementary students entering the left wing and the high school students to the right so he assumed the middle was for junior high students. Ryo slightly startled him as he patted his back.

"C'mon or we'll be late for real this time," Ryo said before he began to walk fast to the entrance of the junior high building.

Ken nodded and followed him into his new school building, feeling the slight panic from before come back. The lobby didn't look that different compared to Gekkoukan's lobby save for marble floors and being a bit larger.

He saw a bulletin board next to a staircase and ambled over there to check where his name was and his homeroom. However, he had some trouble as he tried slithering in through the junior high students who were crowding around.

Scanning the lists, he finally found himself on the list: Ken Amada – Class 2-B

'Alright then,' Ken thought and was about to turn away from the bulletin board but something had suddenly caught his eye. He looked at it once more and saw that Ryo was in his homeroom as well and turned his head, only to see Ryo nearby, giving him his usual goofy smile.

Well, it looks like we're both classmates. Let's hope this year goes well for us.

Homeroom

After climbing to the third floor, which was the second year's wing, Ken and Ryo managed to find their homeroom and walked in casually, the door having already been open. The room looked quite taken care of and seemed to be in pristine quality. There were wooden desks lined up, a podium, and a wide chalk board behind it. There were posters on the walls which were the usual motivational kind.

He noticed that some students had already occupied a several of seats throughout the room so he and Ryo decided to sit next to each other around the middle.

Settling in, he scanned the classroom and the students in it. There were a couple of girls gossiping and giggling at the far left of the room, boys sitting on their desks and laughing about something they saw on TV the night before and the rest of them just talking casually.

A student that caught his eye though was a small girl who was sitting in the back by the windows alone. She wore the uniform rather differently than the others, wearing only a buttoned vest-like dress and no jacket like the others. Her long dark brown hair fell just past her waist with a long fringe that veiled the entire left half of her face. The girl sat still in her seat and stared outside the window with a neutral expression on her face.

"That girl over there's known as the "Snow Doll" from what I heard."

Ken turned his head immediately to Ryo who was leaning in his chair in boredom. He raised a brow at this comment.

Snow Doll?

"Really? I'm sure she has a name though; "Snow Doll" doesn't sound like a nice nickname," Ken replied.

"Yeah, but it's because she doesn't get involved with with others a lot. Usually people are too intimidated or scared to approach her because of the "icy" look she has or somethin'," Ryo explained, curling two fingers on both hands as he emphasized the "icy" part with exaggeration and an eye roll. "Nobody really knows much about her except that she enrolled her a year ago and she's talented at ballet too. Oh, and she has a hot sister."

That last part wasn't really necessary...

Ken nodded before glancing back at the girl again. She had turned her head slightly towards the duo, her dull brown eye staring at them. The look on her face remained neutral, however he suddenly felt frozen as he made eye contact. He had almost let out a small gasp after having been startled by the sudden action and quickly turned around in his seat.

G-gah...I really wasn't expecting that. I hope she didn't get offended by that sudden action.

Before he could think about it more, the teacher had walked in and the class had soon settled down. Ken didn't notice it at first but he saw that the whole classroom was already full now. He focused his attention now to the teacher that stood behind the podium. She wore glasses, a long red jacket and straight skirt, and her brown chestnut hair was put up into a neat bun, leaving some strands of hair on the sides.

"Hello class, my name is Tomoyo Mizutani and I will be your homeroom teacher for the next year," the teacher announced to the class. Ken could hear his classmates' murmurs spread across the room, most likely about her appearance. The thought reminded him of a story that Junpei told him about his friend who was interested in older women.

As the teacher took attendance, Ken listened to her intently so he would know his classmates' faces and he would probably have the chance to interact with them. For some reason though, the usual flow of the attendance came to an abrupt stop when Miss Mizutani was calling a student's name who seemed to not have been responding.

"Setsuna Yamazaki? Setsuna Yamazaki, is she here?" Miss Mizutani repeated, searching through the class. Ken could hear a barely audible "here" from the back and turned around.

The girl in the back he saw earlier raised her hand slowly and said "here" once more just a little bit louder than before.

"Ah, Miss Yamazaki. Alright then, check," She said to herself as she scribbled onto the paper. "Please raise your voice next time so I can hear you. Naoka Yano?"

"Here!"

As attendance went on, he saw Setsuna return her gaze towards the outdoors.

Lunch appeared to be normal as well; there were several students whom stayed in their classrooms to eat, others in the cafeteria, and the rest were outside on the field. Ryo dragged Ken after he got his lunch from the cafeteria to the field that was already littered with students of many ages.

He insisted they sit on top of a small hill so they could have a good view of the school's campus. There was nobody else who had really approached him during class so he thought it would be alright.

"Man, now this is a great view," Ryo said as he sat down with his melon bread in hand and a bottle of water. Ken followed him up the small hill and they both sat down, admiring the view from up here; they could see everything going on in the open field of grass. When they both began eating their lunch, there were two students who passed by them that were talking about something that caught their attention.

"Did you hear? Dreamcatchers are being randomly dropped at people's doors, especially at the dorms. From what I heard, those dreamcatchers give you your best dreams or somethin'."

"Really? I don't know man, I think it would be good to have one just in case. The Nightmare is spreading faster than usual all of a sudden, and I don't want to end up like them."

"I know right? I hope I don't get cursed with it; that'd be really awful!"

The Nightmare?

Ken raised a eyebrow and turned towards Ryo who was relaxing in his own world.

"What's this 'Nightmare' thing going on?" Ken asked after the students had been out of earshot. Ryo turned his head to him and prepared to explain after he swallowed a bite of his bread.

"Recently there have been cases of people who've gone missing or fell into comas and everyone calls it "The Nightmare" because they apparently get their worst nightmares before something happens to 'em. I seriously don't believe that's the case though. There's no way something like that could happen to a bunch of people," Ryo explained before biting into his bread again. Ken gave a slight nod and began thinking about it.

You don't know what I've been through, especially with the Apathy Syndrome. Though, this might be something I should look into. I don't know...

"Oh, speaking of that, I had a dreamcatcher delivered to me several days ago. I've been using it near my bed and I think it might be protecting me from The Nightmare. Not that I really believe in it or anything."

Right...

After school had finished, Ryo and Ken made their way out of the school and began touring around town. Even though he wasn't an ideal friend he imagined having, he was okay with his laidback attitude. From what he learned so far, Yumewa didn't have the city-like feel of Iwatodai, but it wasn't a country town like some other place he heard Mitsuru mentioning before. It was like a closed-off area from the rest of the world since it was nestled between the mountains and a tall wall surrounding the perimeter with an entrance in each direction.

While walking through the less crowded areas of Yumewa, Ken noticed there was one building different than the others; it looked old and ancient, as if it hadn't been taken care of in years. However, when he peered through the large glass window, he saw dolls of different sizes placed in front as mannequins and they all wore Victorian and Rococo styled dresses, majority of them in gothic schemes and with negative expressions on their faces.

Beyond them, he could see many different types of items on stock; especially dolls similar to the ones up front which took up most of the space. The interior looked dark and as old as the outside though, if not older. The sign above it read "Mikazuki's Antiques" in decorative English script.

"Oh, this place," Ryo said, noticing how Ken had already stopped walking. "If I remember correctly, this place is supposed to have been abandoned years ago, but with the creepy dolls standing here I guess I'm wrong."

They both examined the store through the large window before carrying on. Still, the store seemed somewhat peculiar to Ken. He'd consider visiting it another time to confirm his suspicion.

When they returned to the dormitory, the sun had begun to go down as it reached night time. The lobby became somewhat crowded with the boys, most of them just hanging out by the TV or in the cafeteria chatting. Suddenly, there was a scream upstairs which had gotten everyone's attention. A young boy ran down the stairs, nearly tripping over his feet. His body trembled as he had sweat bullets, his eyes wide as dinner plates.

"I-it's the Nightmare! He's not waking up!"