(Author's note: horizontal rule defines the beginning and end of dream sequences.)

Chiyo found herself in shadow. It was a cavernous room, filled with a dim, diffuse light and a cool wind blowing from... somewhere. She wore a light tan jacket and trousers with a variety of objects hanging from her belt. A canteen, a flash light, some kind of a pocket knife and what appeared to be the hilt of a katana.

She took this last out and looked at it curiously. There were a few small buttons along the bottom of the crossguard, including one with the universal "on" symbol on it... you know, that little circle with the line going into it. Showing an unusual lack of restraint, she flicked it with her thumb.

"Yipe!"

A blade of crackling yellow-green energy streaked out, curving slightly as it took form. A beam katana! Of all the ridiculous-- But why would she be carrying something like that?

"So you have come!" a deep, mysterious voice said. She turned to face it, then turned again. Where had it come from? The light from her weapon didn't do anything to help matters. The only effect it had was to make her shadow leap and jitter nauseatingly across the floor.

"Who's there?" she cried.

There was no answer. But as she stood there, slowly getting more and more scared, she noticed a red light washing over her from behind. At the very last possible instant, she whirled where she stood and raised her katana on high, intercepting a similar weapon streaking down towards her head.

The impact buzzed through her limbs as the beams crashed together and the strength of that blow knocked her sprawling. Chiyo collected herself almost instantly, landing on her feet and hand a few yards away, the crackling green blade before her.

An indistinct, black cloaked form advanced on her, raising its luridly glowing blade to strike again. She only caught a brief glimpse of what might have been horns or ears jutting out above its head before the flash of blades colliding blinded her. This time, her foe didn't let up, swinging again and again, driving her across the floor of this huge, dark chamber.

Finally, her heels brushed over the edge of some kind of chasm and she halted, defending with all of her might. Which, as it turned out, was not nearly enough. The red blade scythed in horizontally and knocked her weapon spinning away, and a gloved... fist? It almost seemed like a flipper or tentacle... pounded her to her knees.

"Chiyo-chan" the stranger said, lowering his blade, "Come with me. You must come to the Dark Side."

Now, she had no idea what he was talking about, but it sure didn't sound good. A quick glance showed that her beam katana had fallen about six feet away. Maybe, if she could surprise him...

"NEVER!" she shrieked, diving for the weapon. As searing pain shot through her shoulder, she realized that she had made a terrible mistake. Chiyo instantly stopped dead, clutching at her side where her arm should have been.

"Foolish girl," her opponent admonished. "You don't have any idea what this is about. What would your father think?"

"M-my father?" she asked. "What does he have to do with this?"

"Everything, Chiyo-chan! For you see, you have been lied to!" the monstrous thing boomed. "I AM YOUR FATHER!!"

He stepped into the light of her beam sword and she almost screamed. It was an enormous, orange plush cat like the one Osaka had gotten her for her 11th birthday! Its sinister eyes filled with glee at her reaction, reflecting the light of his sanguine blade.

Chiyo stood slowly, not knowing what to do but knowing that she had to do something. This was the end.

"Chiyo, you must come to the Dark Side. You will join us or die."

She regarded him, suddenly calm. There really was only one thing she could do. She raised one foot as if to step towards him... then moved it back into the chasm behind her. A frigid wind blasted up around her as she fell into blackness.

"...and then I woke up," Chiyo said the next night.

Her friends, Tomo, Osaka and Sakaki-san sat around the massive kotatsu she had set up for this get together. Tomo and Osaka were enraptured, but Sakaki-san seemed to be drifting in and out. The big girl leaned back on the wall with her hands behind her head, eyes half-lidded.

"Wow!" Tomo grinned. "That's really freaky, Chiyo-suke. You got your arm chopped off and everything!"

Osaka poked at her arm experimentally, seeming almost disappointed when it proved solid. "I always knew you had it in ya to be a fighter... too bad he kicked your butt, though."

"But I wonder what it means?"

Tomo glanced at the door. "Maybe your dad's waiting out there right now with a knife to slice your arm off when you fall asleep?"

Osaka smiled slightly. "That would be interesting."

"He wouldn't do that!" the 11-year-old sat up straighter and shot Tomo a poisonous look. "Don't even say that!"

"Hey!" Tomo protested, "If Osaka had said it, you wouldn't have minded!"

"But that's different. She's..." Chiyo trailed off. "She's... ah..."

"Osaka?" Osaka offered.

"Yeah! That's it. She's her. She doesn't pick on me like you do."

Tomo leaned back and blew a quick breath through her teeth. "Whatever... say, Sakaki-san?" She slowly rose, an eerie gleam in her eye, a can of shaving cream in one hand and a sharpie in the other. "You aren't... sleeping... are you?"

A hand slapped down on her shoulder heavily.

"Don't even," Yomi said severely, "Sakaki-san's had a rough day, so let her sleep if she wants to."

"Jeez..." Tomo sank into her seat. "You guys are no fun."

Yomi settled in next to her and stretched out on the floor. "What happened anyway, Sakaki-san?"

Sakaki, obviously not all there, said, "Four of them came at once."

The others shared a slightly awed "ooh..." They had no idea that she was referring to a quartet of particularly vicious cats. Sakaki largely kept her exploits concerning cute animals a secret.

Yomi turned back to Chiyo. "But as for your dream, I think that it means you've been watching too many American movies."

Chiyo cocked her head to one side. "But I don't think I've ever..."

"You have," Yomi assured her, "Either that or that was the freakiest thing I've ever heard in my life."

"I had a dream, too," Tomo said.

"Really? Let's hear it," Osaka said before anybody could stop her. She never seemed to realize that there was a common thread through all of Tomo's dreams which made them very irritating.

"So," Conan O'Brien asked, "Now that you've been elected empress of the world, what's your next move?"

"Well..." Tomo slid back in the comfortable guest chair and pondered her answer. The ceremonial sword of World Empress lay across her side as she slouched easily and her robes and cloaks of office billowed out, covering the chair. "I guess... I'm going to start appointing officers."

"You've been Empress for a month, though! I mean, has the world been running itself?"

Tomo shrugged. "I figured that things would just sorta work out, you know?"

"So the chaos in the Balkans? The rebellion in the Middle East?" The host was forgetting his repertoire of witty questions. In point of fact, he was becoming genuinely concerned at this point. Just who had they elected?

The Empress waved dismissively. "Don't worry about it!"

Conan looked relieved. "All right. I have a few more questions for you, but just now, it's time for Frankenstein to waste a minute of our time!"

"Huh?"

A tall man in gray makeup came bursting out of the back of the studio making guttural sounds in his throat. Of course Tomo recognized him as Frankenstein's monster, but she didn't exactly know what he was doing here. Conan started to introduce the segment, but Frankenstein (ironically) wasn't wasting any time. He immediately took Tomo, sword and all, over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes and ran off.

"Eek! Somebody help!" she cried as Frankenstein took her out of the studio. As they actually exited the building, she heard the audience's laughter distantly. Frankenstein hailed a cab with his free hand and tossed her into the back.

She sat up as the door slammed and saw Frankenstein conversing with the cabbie with grunts, growls and gestures. When the monster ran off, the cabbie turned back to her, said something in Arabic, and they roared off into the night.

"Where are we going?" she screamed. The driver said something, but she couldn't hear him over the engine. She was going to demand that he stop with her authority as World Empress, but then they hit a corkscrew and rocketed out over the Grand Canyon.

"...and then I woke up."

"That's really... um, interesting." Chiyo didn't quite know what to say. She had thought that her dream was weird! "By the way, who's Conan O'Brian?"

Tomo shrugged. "Dunno."

"I once had a dream about taking over the world," Osaka said. "I built a giant robot out of tin foil and cardboard, defeated Mazinger Z and conquered Tokyo."

There was a general pause. "Er, really?" Yomi asked.

"Oh, yes. It was very pleasant."

"That's pretty darn weird."

Tomo poked her side. "Oh, and I suppose your dreams are so normal?"

"I... I didn't say that..." she sat up again.

"C'mon, Yomi. What did you dream about last night?"

"I... uh... didn't have one."

"Oh, that's lame. I can tell when your lying. C'mon, out with it!"

"Yeah, c'mon. Chiyo and Tomo told theirs," Osaka prodded.

"It can't be any weirder than hers," Chiyo reassured.

"Um... well, if you insist..."

Yomi found herself wandering down a winding cobblestone path through a mighty garden. Everywhere she looked there were tall, beautiful trees, huge plots of flowers and bushes. The sky was full of billowing pink clouds, and a cool breeze scented with hundreds of flowers stirred her hair and the light blue summer dress she wore.

She wandered through this wonderland, full of peace and contentment. Eventually, though, her feet grew tired and she sat on a marble bench between two trees heavy with cherry blossoms. Yomi turned her face to the sky and closed her eyes, luxuriating in the cool, sweet air.

"Hi!" a singsong voice said beside her. She opened her eyes to find Tomo sitting next to her on the bench. "Nice place, isn't it?"

"Beautiful..." Yomi agreed.

Tomo looked at her penetratingly. "I think so, too."

Something in her voice... "Huh?" Yomi turned towards her, suddenly uncomfortable. "What are you...?"

Tomo's arm fell softly across her shoulder. "Oh, come on. We're alone here..."

"But... but..." Yomi's view was suddenly filled with Tomo's huge, shimmering eyes. She leaned back a little, her breath catching. "I'm dreaming. This would never happen in real life."

"Come on, Yomi..." Tomo leaned over and put her chin on Yomi's shoulder. "Can't you let yourself have what you want? Just once? Even in your dreams?"

She raised herself a little and turned Yomi's head towards her. Blood rushed to Yomi's face, her heart thundered as they leaned closer... closer...

"And then you woke up, right?" Tomo said frantically, "That's when you woke up, isn't it? Yomi! Talk to me!"

Yomi, absolutely maroon, kept her silence. Tomo edged away for her under the kotatsu. There was an incredible, awkward pause. "It..." Yomi finally got out, "It was... a long... night."

"We-e-e-ell, I'm going to get us some coffee, okay?" Chiyo vaulted to her feet and left swiftly. She didn't quite understand all of the implications of Yomi's dream, but she wanted to remove herself from the sudden tension. Sakaki's eyelids fluttered slightly at the sound of her exit.

"Er..." Yomi cast about for a change of subject. "Osaka... you told us about the robot, but did you have an interesting dream last night?"

Osaka closed her eyes and thought back.

And was standing on a broad wooden floor stained with blood. Her breath came in great, ragged gasps, a bloody katana hovering before her in trembling hands. Tomo, Kagura, Yomi and Sakaki lay tangled on the floor around her, staring sightlessly into the air.

Osaka gazed about her in shock at what she had done. These four... and Chiyo. Yes, her dream-self reflected, that one had been the most entertaining. "Who'd have thought..." Osaka said softly to herself, starting to smile, "That there'd be so much blood in her?"

"Ah..." Osaka opened her eyes without sharing. "Same old same old."

This time, they took her at her word. Another interminable pause followed.

Chiyo returned with the coffee, which they accepted quietly. Sakaki took a desultory sip, but quickly fell back to sleep.

"So... anyway..." Chiyo tried to pull the get-together back on track. All this silence was bothering her, especially with Tomo around. "Um... has... anyone read any good books lately?"

Their conversation took a more normal tack after that, though Sakaki didn't get to participate. She was locked in dreamland.

Sakaki gazed up into the sky. Snow whirled down from the blackness while a huge, eerie blue moon partially shrouded by clouds painting the towering pines around her. She wore a dark brown cloak and an extremely long sword across her back.

After a moment to get her bearings, she started walking through the woods, the snow crunching under her light boots, her breath misting in the cold air. There was something to be done here, of that she was grimly certain.

"And what do you want?"

She turned to see Chiyo-dad drifting down from the level of the tree-tops. It was just like her other dreams featuring the strange cat, but something seemed a little... off about this time. Her fingers wrapped around the sword's hilt over her shoulder.

"Did you hurt Chiyo-chan?" she demanded.

"What is it to you?" Chiyo-dad countered. "I may have, I may have not. And what would you do if I had cut her arm off-"Sakaki's eyes sharpened, "-um, or something?"

"You did! But why?" Sakaki's fists clenched. "Why would you do that to her!? You were always looking out for her... you, you thanked me for being good to her... I don't understand!"

"Maybe I wasn't doing it to hurt her... maybe it's something that you need."

"What the hell are you talking about!?"

"En garde!" the cat roared, streaking down towards her like Superman. She dove out of its path, hearing wicked claws or blades tearing through the ground. Sakaki stood and looked the way it had gone in time to see a deep furrow suddenly appear and a mighty pine split down the middle.

"Where did he-?"

Sakaki threw herself to the ground again and Chiyo-dad came down behind her with a crash that raised mighty clouds of snow and dirt. Her sword sang out of its scabbard as she sighted his ominous silhouette advancing through the fog. She jumped backwards, avoiding a massive sweep of those mysterious blades.

"You're not trying hard enough!" Chiyo-dad leered. "You were always up for a good contest, but how is it now that you're fighting to the death?" His body glowed with a hideous red light and a beam roared out from between his eyes, missing Sakaki by inches and blowing a four-foot wide hole through the row of trees beyond.

"Why are you--?"

"You've got to apply yourself!" Chiyo-dad roared. "If you don't stop me now, I'll haunt her dreams again and again! She'll be afraid to sleep! You've got to fight to protect Chiyo!"

"You..." Sakaki gripped the sword and faced her still-glowing enemy. "I can't believe you... you monster!"

She charged forward, the clouds of snow and dust parting before her as the invisible claws flashed down and the snow whirled around and the wind screamed in her ears and—

Suddenly, it was over. Her mighty sword was buried a half-foot into the ground before her, right between Chiyo-dad's tapered legs.

"Well?" Chiyo-dad said. "Are you going to strike?"

"I already have," Sakaki replied softly. "You missed it."

The hallucination stared at her with what appeared to be satisfaction before he burst in two, showering her with pink lemonade. Sakaki stared in awe as the two halves of Chiyo-dad flew into the air separately, still gushing lemonade.

"Very good," the cat said. "I had my doubts, but in the end, I find you worthy of my daughter."

"What? Worthy? What are you talking about!?"

"You've got to figure that part out yourself. Ta-ta!" And the cat vanished into the whirling snow above. She stared after him, wondering if he would ever again visit her dreams.

Sakaki awoke to feel something soft and wet sliding across her arm. Ah, that would be a sharpie. Now if only she still had that sword.