Yomi walked to school alongside her best friend/ bane of existence Tomo, all but humming with tension. She hadn't seen the other girl since they had parted ways at Chiyo's. What on Earth must Tomo be thinking, she wondered, after I admitted to having that dream? Does she think I'm some kind of psycho pervert or what?

She almost hoped that Tomo would become freaked out and maybe give her a little space... but then, much as she blustered to the contrary, she didn't want to lose her as a friend, either. And their silence was becoming intolerable.

"So..." she started. When Tomo looked up at her, she faltered.

"Yeah?"

"Um..." Yomi floundered for a moment. "Never mind."

They continued. As the school came into view ahead, Tomo finally turned and held out a hand to stop her. "Look, Yomi, you don't have to be so nervous."

"Huh?"

"You're my best friend. Nothing's going to change that... no matter what crazy stuff you have going around in there." Tomo rapped Yomi's temple none-to-gently with a single knuckle. "Just don't go making my boyfriend jealous."

"You have another boyfriend?"

"Just yesterday."

This gave Yomi the bizarre experience of having her hopes crushed under a huge wave of relief. Which hopes? Well, that's for you to decide. The two entered the High School and mounted the stairs to the second floor, picking up Kagura somewhere along the way.

"Hey, guys!" Kagura slapped Tomo on the back a little too hard. "How was the sleepover? Have fun without me?"

"Oh, it was great!" Tomo replied, slapping her friend on the back a bit harder.

"That's wonderful!" Kagura thumped Tomo even harder, "I'm glad it went well!"

"We'll be sure to-"THUD! "-invite you next time!" They were now sounding almost maniacally cheerful.

"I'll look for-"THUMP!! "-ward to it!"

"Now hold on," Yomi said, pushing between them. She was immediately knocked face-first into a row of lockers by blows meant for Tomo and Kagura, who hadn't noticed her entrance until it was too late.

She turned slowly, her head tilted so that the fluorescent lights blazed off of her glasses. Grinning nervously, Tomo reached out and patted her arm gently.

Osaka was just coming up around the corner from them when she heard a huge, meaty WH-THOCK! and a backpack's worth of paper and books flurried out in front of her. She paused to consider, then decided to take a small detour.

On her way around the bank of lockers, she passed Chiyo, who was leaning against the wall and blinking blearily. She laid a hand on the smaller girl's shoulder. "Hey, Chiyo-chan, you alright?"

"Yeah..." she said, having to fight down a massive yawn. "I shouldn't have stayed up so late. It messed up my sleeping last night, too!"

Osaka gave the problem a little thought, then went into her pack. She came up with a bottle of juice, unscrewed the top, and splashed it into Chiyo's face.

"What was that for!?" she yelped.

"You're awake, aren't you?"

Chiyo scrubbed at her face with a handkerchief. "For now. I tried splashing myself before, but it only works for a little..." she sagged visibly. "While..."

"And I guess juice wasn't the best thing to use."

"Hm... pineapple. At least you have good taste."

"But what're you gonna do? Yukari will be pissed if she catches you sleeping in class. Maybe you should drink a whole bunch of coffee."

"I don't think that's a good idea..."

"Yeah, you'd have to pee every five seconds." Chiyo cringed as her friend said that; she had been hoping to skirt the subject. "Oh, I've got the perfect idea, Chiyo-chan! I've hit a home run with this one!"

"...really." Chiyo braced herself. Osaka had claimed to hit a home run before. It was rarely a good thing. The last time it had involved a café full of dead animals.

"Yeah, it'll work like a charm. If I see you fall asleep..." Osaka started rubbing her hands together diabolically, "I'll fall asleep myself to distract her!"

"Would that—would that work?"

"If my head hits the desk hard enough."

Chiyo didn't quite know what to say to that. Finally she just settled on, "Um... thanks." On further reflection, it was just stupid enough to work.

"What are friends for?"

Yomi, Tomo and Kagura had finally finished picking up the scattered remains of Tomo's pack. As they mounted the steps, Yomi's friends continued beating on each other. "Bonkuras," she sighed.

All in all, it was the normal start to a normal day.

Chiyo sat in her usual place and set herself to her studies. However, as the hours rolled on and Yukari's voice didn't change, her grip on reality started to waver. Finally, her eyes drifted shut, and for the first time in her young life, Chiyo Mihama fell asleep in class.

And she was home again. Only, it wasn't really her home. It was a completely unfamiliar house that she somehow knew to be her home. Because of that, she realized that she was dreaming almost immediately.

A strange, mournful harmonica tune trickled down to her from above, sounding piercingly lonely and yet inviting at the same time. She swiftly ran up the stairs and wormed through a skylight to get onto the roof.

Osaka sat on the edge of the roof, kicking her feet over the side idly as she worked the harmonica with a vengeance. There seemed to be an unbearable sadness about her. It was a cool, foggy, rainy kind of day. She couldn't even see the ground from where she stood on the roof.

"Miss Osaka?"

"Eh?" the girl stopped playing and looked back at her. "Oh, you're here."

"I didn't know you could play harmonica."

"I can't," she replied matter-of-factly.

"Ah."

"It's part of the image."

"The... image? What am I looking at?"

Osaka had to think for a moment. "Something you've known subconsciously for a long time, I suppose. But I'm not the reason for this dream. Honestly, I don't know why your subconscious chose me to represent it. Do you?"

"I'm sorry, I don't."

"Yeah, if you did, I guess it wouldn't be subconscious, would it?"

"So... wait." Chiyo stared at the dream-Osaka. "You're... you're sad? And I've known it all along?"

"Sort of. That's what dreams like this are good for. You can check up on what you've been figuring out without knowing it."

"Does this mean Osaka is really secretly a sad and lonely person?"

"Well, you sure seem to think so."

Chiyo blinked. "But I never realized... so I'm talking to myself right now?"

"Isn't it weird?"

"You're not Osaka."

"No, I'm a subconscious representation of her... or rather of how you see her..."

"But I don't remember ever thinking--"
"...subconsciously."

"Ahh... I think I see now."

"Consciously!"

"Stop that! My head's starting to hurt."

"Sorry."

"This is just like something the real Osaka would do. Is there any reason for any of this?"

"Well, as a matter of fact-"

And Chiyo was jarred awake by a terrible cracking sound. She glanced over to see Osaka face-planted on her desk, snoring loudly enough to be heard outside the room. She had gone into her diversion with a passion!

Yukari-sensei hauled her up by the back of her shirt and slapped her awake.

"I've had just about enough of your falling asleep in class! You're so inconsiderate, Osaka! Here I am, working through a hangover, and..."

As the teacher led her away, Osaka gave Chiyo a thumbs-up. She couldn't help but laugh a little.

Yukari returned, having posted Osaka in the hall with buckets of water. Eyebrow twitching ominously, she proceeded to give out the most terrifyingly difficult English assignment that she had ever concocted. Perhaps the diversion idea hadn't exactly been a home run after all.

The class all went feverishly to work, even Tomo. Not that her grade was particularly important to her, but she couldn't afford to fail another class. It was really too bad that the one day that she came to school determined to do a little work for a change, Yukari had decided to be so evil.

And asking Yomi for help was out of the question. That girl was still nervous and tentative around her, and Tomo wasn't comfortable with her when she wasn't being bossy, temperamental and severe.

She tried to focus, but the words were starting to swirl together giddily. With one last Herculean effort, she forced her mind to grasp the page before her and recognize one word in English (happiness) before her head hit the desk, much more gently than Osaka's had, and she was gone.

Tomo found herself in a corridor lined with what appeared to be statues or suits of armor. She couldn't really tell; it was pretty dark. She wore baggy, dark blue pants and a nondescript white halter. The pants made her feel rather like Blue Three- er, uh, Bruce Lee. She threw a few kicks for the heck of it, finding herself surprisingly agile and flexible.

She didn't pause to wonder about any of this however. Just like many dreams, it seemed perfectly natural. Tomo was just going to set out and explore from the corridor when she heard Yomi's piercing voice.

"What are you doing here!?"

"Huh?"

Tomo turned and saw her friend rushing towards her in a positively ridiculous getup. A yellow gi and... and an afro? Tomo's brain almost melted just looking at her, but it still hadn't occurred to her that she could be dreaming.

"What did you... what did you do to your hair?"

"Forget the hair! You've got to get out of here, Tomo!"

"Why? What's going to happen?"

There was a huge crunch/thump in the corridor behind her. She turned back to see that one of the black statues had torn itself out of the wall and faced her with a menacing spear in its grip. "Wh- what the hell?"

"That's the Sombra!" Yomi explained, her voice quavering, "He's the embodiment of all of the problems and challenges that'll come up against you in your life. You're not ready for him yet!"

"All of my problems, eh?" Tomo sized the statue up. "There's not a problem I can't solve with enough energy and gumption! I can handle this!"

"What?" Yomi grabbed her arm. "You idiot! Don't think that just because..."

Tomo waved dismissively and pretty much gave her philosophy in life. "Don't worry about it! Everything will work out." And with that, she rushed headlong into the Sombra, just as she did all of the difficulties she faced in her life, leaping gracefully into the air and throwing a picture-perfect flying dragon kick.

Her foot just about shattered on his forehead. With a cry of surprise and pain, she slammed into the monster's chest and sprawled to the floor. The Sombra raised his spear ponderously into the air and brought it streaking down towards her chest. She rolled away and regained her feet, limping slightly.

"It's not over yet, ugly!" she jeered, switching stance back and forth.

The statue brought his spear down towards her head and she easily dodged, stomping on it as it passed and sending the weapon rolling away across the floor. She then stepped in close and delivered a cross-chop to the Sombra's throat. Wonder of wonders, it actually staggered back a step.

"Yeah! You can't stop me!"

Then its fist collided with her head and the world shattered. Tomo was suddenly outside in a grassy knoll, lying on the ground as Yomi crouched over her. "Oh, Tomo! Why did you have to...?"

"I'm fine, don't worry!" she hauled herself into a sitting position. The sudden transition to the out-of-doors hadn't really registered with her, and so she still didn't realize that she was dreaming.

"You moron!" Yomi slapped her in the forehead, which, oddly, wasn't even remotely sore from the giant's fist. "I told you, the way you are now, you can't stand up to the Sombra!"

"What did you do to your hair?"

"What does my hair have to do with anything?"

"I mean, who do you think you are, Jim Kelly? Wait... Jim Kelly... and I look like Bruce Lee... that means... do you got any nunchucks?"

"Nunchako? Yeah, why?"

"Hand 'em over!"

Yomi gave her two beautiful pairs of nunchako. "But why? Do you know how to use these? And even with the weapons..."

"Haven't you ever seen 'Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story?' It's the secret to defeating him! It's the nunchucks!"

"I don't know about that..."

And the Sombra crested a hill in front of her. Tomo walked out confidently to meet him, striking a stance and loosing the most awesome Bruce Lee yowl she had ever done in her life.

Her adversary was unimpressed. It charged down the hill with a sound like an avalanche, raising its obsidian fists like a boxer. She whirled the nunchako expertly about her body and brought one of them down squarely on the monster's head. It shattered. The weapon, not the head.

A mighty backhand sent her soaring, and somehow she managed to land easily on her feet. By the time she had her bearings, the Sombra had reached Yomi.

"Tomo!" she cried.

"Oh, hell, no." Tomo said grimly to herself, then vaulted onto the statue's back and wrenched at its neck with all of her strength. "I can do it! I have the strength! I have the energy! I--!"

And the thing grabbed her by her throat and hurled her. She sailed through the air for a ridiculously long time, and just as it was about to occur to her that she might be dreaming, she slammed into a slab of granite and fell onto a plot of freshly turned dirt.

"What's going on, now?" she asked the air miserably. Tomo could hear the dull thud of the creature's approaching footsteps. No time to lie around. Scuttling to her knees, she turned to see what she had slammed into.

It was a grave stone. "TOMO TAKINO" it read, and then where the inscription should have been was, "WORTHLESS." She felt an absurd moment of indignation before she realized what she was actually looking at.

"What-?" her question was lost to the ages as a massive armored boot crashed down on her back, driving her into the dirt. She clawed weakly to get up as the monster's foot rose again—

"Tomo! Tomo wake up! Tomo!"

At first, Yomi's shaking didn't have any effect on her, but suddenly Tomo burst into action, going straight from dead asleep to total spaz-out mode. She flailed and yelled and clawed until Yomi actually restrained her.

Tomo finally subsided, gasping for breath, pale as a sheet with eyes the size of dinner plates. Yomi had her arms firmly wrapped about her, whispering comfortingly in her ear. Most of her friends were gathered around her, looking concerned.

Osaka took her hand. "Tomo..."

"I'm... I'm..." she looked around, dimly comprehending that she wasn't choking on the dirt of her own grave anymore. "I'm fine," she said weakly. "Please... just... leave me."

Now, this demonstrated to all of them that she wasn't fine. Normally, she'd be whining and carrying on for attention. Still, she had asked them to leave, so what else could they do? The girls all filtered away except for Yomi, who remained holding Tomo.

"Why are you still...?"

"Class is over. Now tell me about it."

"I'd rather not."

"What, are you going to let it fester? C'mon. Tell me."

Tomo paused for a long moment, then looked up at her with tears gathering in her eyes. "Yomi... am I... a failure?"

This put the older girl in the unenviable position of having to go back on what she had been saying every day for years in order to avoid her friend having a meltdown. "Of course not!"

"Yomi..."

And elsewhere, two mysterious figures conversed.

"You made quite an impression on her," Chiyo-dad commended. "You might even have been more gentle, I think."

"What's with the band-aids?" the Sombra asked.

"Oh, these?" Chiyo-dad plucked at the row of band-aids that held his two halves together. "Ah, that Sakaki girl cut me in two. No big deal. I'll be fine in a little while."

"Oh, okay. So, do you think her nightmare'll do the job?"

"I don't know. Tomo-chan's pretty thick, bless her soul. Still, your visitation should change her behavior for quite some time. Especially when you consider that bit with the gravestone."

"I wasn't sure about the gravestone."

"No, the gravestone was a nice touch. There's only a little more for us to do."

COMING NEXT! MORE TRAUMA! MORE MAYHEM!

Kagura emerges! Sakaki realizes her destiny! More random, weird crap happens!

It will be the final chapter of this thingy that you might call a saga if only it had some semblance of a coherent plot!