A young female with long white hair and red eyes, wearing a red gothic lolita, sits on top of a throne with a bored expression. Her expression shifts into a smile as she sees a light appearing in the middle of the room.
The light fades away to reveal a teenage male with neck-length black hair that has an ahoge in the middle of his head, wearing a short white t-shirt and black pants.
"Welcome, old friend. How are you? Well? Eating enough? Or are you sick?" The woman says in a friendly tone like she was his best friend.
The teenager doesn't respond as he looks at his surroundings then glares at the woman, who only smiles at him, "Who are you?"
"Ah, allow me to explain, old friend. You see, lately, I've been dealing with a bit of insomnia, nightmares that continue to keep me awake no matter what I do. I could just zap them out of existence, but that would entail its own set of annoyances, so I thought, why not just foist them onto mortals like yourself." The woman spreads her arm and 9 screens depicting various scenes appear floating in the air.
"What you see are the nightmares plaguing poor ol me, and now, I will be giving one of them to you. Don't worry, I will let you choose which nightmare you want. Oh yeah, you like waifus, or whatever those women in the internet, right? I happen to know a thing or two on creating them, so I will craft a waifu to help you survi- I mean, vanquish the nightmare! Aren't I such a kind being?"
The teenager simply blinks a few times before blankly saying, "Lady, you got a sick sense of humor. I don't want to be apart of this shit, though I have a feeling that I got no choice." He then tries to run away but finds himself staying rooted to his spot.
The woman clicks her tongue while waving one of her fingers at him, "Bad mortal. Don't you know it's rude to run away after lying right to my face? Anyway, you can't escape from this place unless I say so while time is at a standstill here. So, come over here and choose." She makes a 'come here' motion with her fingers and the teenager floats over to her, while struggling to move.
"At least call me Hachiman, not mortal." The teenager clicks his tongue and stares at her with annoyance in his eyes.
The woman smirks at him, "Nope, unless you want to take all of the nightmares. Just be quiet while I explain to you each nightmare." She clears her throat before bringing one of the screens over to the man.
Hachiman raises his eyebrow at her, "What would happen if I ignore you?"
The woman brightly smiles at him, "Then you will be going in there with no information to use. Work for me either way."
"...Explanation please."
She smugly smiles at him before clears her throat, "There are only three rules: number one, for as long as you don't conquer the nightmare, it'll be the only dream you will have. No other dreams except for the nightmare. Also, you are as lucid in the nightmare as you are in the waking world and experience time normally. Although, a strong stimulus such as a severe or lethal injury in the nightmare may be enough to wake you up ahead of time." Her words appear to float in mid air right in front of him.
"Second, any injuries you receive during the nightmare will manifest itself in the real world, though with reduced severity. For example, a stab wound in the nightmare would result in a scratch in the real world at the same spot. However, self-inflicted wounds will manifest exactly as you did in the nightmare and are as fatal as you want."
"Third, you only have a year to conquer the nightmare with the time starting when you first fall asleep. As time passes by with you not conquering it, it will begin to manifest itself into reality. Though, the method and rate with which the nightmare manifests depends on the nightmare itself. Hopefully, you die before you get to the point if you're lucky but in the unlucky case, you won't get to die at all."
The woman stops and lets Hachiman digest her words. After waiting for five minutes, she continues on by throwing away the words and replacing it with the first screen depicting a huge humanoid being, sitting in the middle of a giant platform with tendrils all over it.
"Now, let me explain about the nightmares. This one is called the "Living Complex" and boy, this one is a real piece of work if you're squeamish. Imagine it as a maze filled with hallways lined with organic material, such as discolored tendril-like intestines running along the roof pumping liquid as if there were some kinds of heart in there, slick moist cushions of flesh on every surface no matter where you look or step, though it makes no difference even if you walk forward or backward since there is only an endless stream of innards. Mucus and bile coming out from vents in the walls that can reach up to your ankles which will slow you down as you try to go into an ocean of sickly yellow vomit and steaming hot pus. Ok, ok, no need to go pale like that. I'll just skip until the end. The Complex wants you to stay and become a part of the structure, so your objective is to escape from the Complex, from the deepest point of it. Your progress will be saved whenever you wake up, so don't worry about losing it."
"Sounds horri -"
"No interrupting me." She wiggles her finger at him before swatting the screen away to show him a screen depicting an ocean that slowly gets darker at the bottom, "This one is called the "Deep Waters", an ocean that stretches far than you can imagine, with the below dark as the void. Did I mention that there are creatures lurking in here that would love to eat you while you're not paying attention? No? Now you know. Your objective is to kill the beast with a weapon lost in the depths of the ocean."
Third screen shows a gray apartment block, ""Labyrithine Apartment" a lovely place really. This one doesn't have creatures that want to directly hurt you, no supernatural either. Just a good old infinity spanning web of hallways and stairs with the occasional sounds. Objective is to find the Apartment's secret, something hidden amongst the endless rooms and in the minds of the silent walkers. Oh yeah, the catch is if you dream for an hour on the first night, the next night will be two hours, then four, then by the tenth night, it will be five hundred and twelve hours."
Fourth screen shows a forest with ethereal looking children, "Now this one is fun. Called the "The Night Children" you will be dealing with creatures that will try to kill you in the forest that is dark as the abyss. Although, the creatures can serve as a light to guide your way as you try to find the origin of them."
Fifth screen shows various insects crawling all over a person's mouth, "I hate this one, so, so, so much. "An Infested Memory" can be your easiest or hardest challenge as various insects, arachnids, bugs, whatever that have more than two legs, will crawl all over you and try to go into your body through any means possible and I mean that literally. The worst part is that all you need to do is accept the nightmare, meaning no fear, no struggling, literally just sit yourself and accept the vermin until the nightmare naturally reaches the end.
Sixth screen shows a city getting nuked, "Arguably the most boring one called "Waiting For The End" real original. You find yourself in an abandoned city that is about to get nuked, and you must escape before it. Literally, that's it. Boring."
Seventh screen shows a woman with black bumps growing all over her body, "One of the worst ways to go, really. "Bursting Sickness" is a disease that spreads in time with your fear and anxiety of the disease itself, meaning that it uses your emotions as fuel for itself to spread. The only way to end the nightmare is by not thinking about the disease for an entire twenty-four hours, though I don't expect you to be able to do it if you experience your skin popping like balloons."
Eighth screen shows a tunnel with light streaming down, "Don't look back, don't think about turning back, just keep going forward if you want to conquer "Bowels Of The Earth" where you start in a tunnel and must go forward, only."
Ninth screen shows a skeleton-like humanoid of tall proportions standing inside a tunnel, "Finally, the last one. Called the "Subterranean Dweller" where a creature is hunting you deep underground. Basically, cat and mouse with your objective to find something that belongs to him, something that is precious to you, but you will only know it when you see it. Try to find it before him and defend it from him for twenty-four hours to end the nightmare."
The woman claps her hands and all the screens line up behind her, "Now, please pick a nightmare then I will create a waifu that will be helpful for that specific nightmare."
*ANANANANA*
Welp, this one is about Hachiman trying to deal with nightmares from a cyoa I read called "Nightmare Waifu". I got intrigued by the idea of what would happen to him if he had to deal with one of this scenarios? Also, the start of here is just me rephrasing and adding comments to each nightmare, while the waifu explanation will be later.