February 10, 1914
James had officially assembled a team to tackle the mission tasked to him by Yoichi. The team would consist of himself, Susamaru, Reiko, Senjuro, Tsuyoshi, and Tokuhei. As all six met together at the Rengoku Estate, James briefed all of them on the dangers of the mission and what it would entail. "Now, I did explain some parts of dream infiltration to y'all, but there are some things that I didn't get into too much detail with, so this here meetin's gon' get that all settled, okay?"
"Speaking of things you didn't get into detail about," Tokuhei then asked. "You mentioned a thing called limbo. What the Hell is that?"
"Limbo is a state of infinite dreamspace that's impossible to escape from," James replied to him. "It happens usually if someone were to be woken up from a dream within a dream improperly, hence why you should aim for synchronized Kick Events, or just Kicks for short."
"And anything that's violent or rough can be a kick," Tsuyoshi then added. "Right?"
"Yep. I've used explosives in dreams for Kick Events, as well as jumpin' into bodies of water or havin' someone else throw me into water. Anythin' that would jolt you awake will work."
Tsuyoshi asked Tokuhei on the side, "What the fuck are you getting me into?"
"It was your idea originally," he pointed out.
"Yeah, but I didn't know about all this confusing shit with kicking and explosions and shit, okay?"
James then asked the two younger slayers, "Everythin' okay?"
"Oh, yeah," both of them said at the same time before bowing. "It's nothing, Colby-sama."
"Alright." James then showed off an American nickel coin he had in his pocket. "Another thing that is good to have is what I call a totem. A totem can be any object, and its purpose is to test one's self to see if they're in someone else's dream or not based on a distinct quality it's got in the real world. I can't let anyone else touch this totem, or else it'll defeat the whole purpose."
Tokuhei asked James, "So how does that help you?"
"Well, in someone else's dream, they won't know the exact details of the totem, so somethin' will be off about it, like the weight or the shape or the texture or, in this coin's case, what's stamped on said coin. This here nickel is misstamped due to a defect at the U.S. Mint and also has a scratch on the obverse side, or heads. This also affects the exact weight and texture of the coin aside from just its appearance. I know it's a lot to take in, but you guys are workin' with an expert here."
After blinking several times, Tsuyoshi sighed and said to the group, "I feel like I know less about what we're doing after having that all explained to me."
Reiko placed a hand on his shoulder and told him, "You'll be fine. Colby-sama knows what he's doing."
…
February 11, 1914
"Okay," James said as the whole group met up together once more. "Today, we're gonna go into a dream together for the first time. This experience will get you used to dream infiltration and extraction. The goal of this exercise will be to find a hidden document containin' the instructions on how to load and fire a Winchester repeatin' rifle in Japanese. This dream will be architected by Susamaru, and none of you, or even me, will know what's inside until we get there. Be warned that my projections will seek out intruders, as I've managed to weaponize my subconscious. If ya get shot, you will wake up, and you will not be able to re-enter the dream. Finally, remember that in a first-level dream induced by this spell, twenty minutes in the dream is one minute in reality. You guys will have two hours of dream time and six minutes of real time to complete your task."
Susamaru then asked the group as James began to prepare a scroll for the exercise, "Are we all set? Does anyone have any questions?" After a bout of silence, she said, "Alright. Good. Let's go."
Upon James casting the spell with the scroll by setting it on fire, everyone laid down on the floor and quickly fell into a deep sleep. James was the first to open his eyes as he found himself inside a bustling train station presumably located in Tokyo. As he looked around and found that no one else was around him, he said to himself, "So she architected Karasumori Station… Alright." He then looked to his left and found a wall of personal lockers with key locks, and on a bunch, opened one of them with a key he found in one of his pockets to find it empty aside from another locker door in the wall itself with a more complicated combination lock. On memory alone, he put in the right combination and opened the door to find a folder. He pulled it out and found that inside was indeed a document containing instructions on how to use a Winchester rifle. "Here we go." As he put the folder away and closed both doors inside the locker, he said to himself, "This will be difficult for them, but this would be too damn easy for me."
Meanwhile, out on one of the platforms, the rest of the group minus Susamaru stepped off of a passenger train and looked around. Tokuhei remarked to Reiko, "Wow… This looks so real…"
"I know," Reiko replied as she saw various projections from James walk past them. She then looked down at her waist belt and noticed she was carrying a gun, but not her sword. "Hey, looks like I got a gun."
"I do, too," Tsuyoshi commented. "But not my sword."
"I figure a gun will be more useful here," Tokuhei observed. "There's no demons we have to worry about. Just people. Now, where the Hell are we, anyway?"
"If I recall correctly," Senjuro then said to the group as he looked at the surrounding trains. "We're in the middle of Karasumori Station in Tokyo."
"Correct," Susamaru then said from the crowd as she emerged in front of them. "I chose this as the setting for our little test."
Tsuyoshi then asked her, "Do you have any hints for us?"
"The only hint I can give is that when people have something they don't want to get extracted from their mind," Susamaru explained. "They will usually hide it in something that is used to store objects under lock and key. Think of things like lockers, safes, storage rooms, and more."
"And how are we gonna get in if we don't have a key?"
"Here," Susamaru said as she set down a bag and gave each of them a lock-picking tool. "Use these to pick the locks if you find any. If you run into James, try to get him to talk about secrets. He may end up looking at where the Winchester rifle instructions are being kept if you do. He's gonna pretend to be the average person, so he'll play along with you guys, but he won't make it too easy."
Reiko then asked her, "And what about you?"
"I'll stand on the sidelines," Susamaru replied with a smile. "I already know how to do this. I want you guys to learn without my help. Just remember, don't cause too much of a scene, or James' projections will try to kill you. If they detect that you're not supposed to be here, you're fucked, especially when dealing with a weaponized subconscious." She then bowed and told them all, "With all that said, good luck."
Senjuro then turned to the group and said to them, "Let's split up into two teams. I'll take one person, and Reiko-san will take the other."
"I'll go with Reiko," Tokuhei offered.
"I guess I'm going with you, then," Tsuyoshi said to Senjuro.
Reiko then said to the others, "Where do you guys wanna meet up after a while, like, say, thirty minutes?"
"We'll meet at the main ticket booth," Senjuro replied. "Alright, let's split up and begin looking."
…
It was now twenty minutes in, and Tokuhei and Reiko had no luck at all trying to find the instructions. "Damn, this station is too big," Tokuhei said to his partner. "I've looked all over for a thing that you could store stuff with, but we've had no luck."
"Hey, wait a minute," Reiko then said as she looked down a hallway and noticed a large set of personal lockers, the same that James had in fact put the instructions in. "How about those?"
"Oh shit, you're right," Tokuhei replied as he and Reiko walked down the hallway and to the lockers. "You know, I'm surprised none of these people know we're in a dream yet."
As soon as he said that, every single projection within a fifteen foot radius of him stopped what they were doing and stared at him for several seconds. Reiko looked at Tokuhei and sighed, telling him, "Please shut the fuck up before we get killed."
"Shit, sorry…" Tokuhei then pulled out his lock-picking tool. "Okay, let's start picking locks."
The two then began to work at opposite ends of the set of lockers, working their way towards the middle as they slowly picked their way through each lock. They had a total of thirty lockers to try to open, and after a few minutes, they had only managed to open three of them. Reiko expressed in frustration, "Damn it, this is taking too long."
James then walked up from behind them and asked them, "Hey, what are y'all doin'?"
Reiko and Tokuhei immediately turned around and found James staring at them from nearby. "Oh, hey," Reiko replied. "We, uh… We're…"
"We work here," Tokuhei said to give a cover story. "We were told to empty out these lockers and clean them."
"Oh, alright," James replied, seeming to believe him. Of course, he knew who they were and what they were trying to do, but was playing dumb for the sake of practice.
"Do you have a locker here?"
"No," James replied. However, when he did, Tokuhei noticed that his eyes shifted towards one locker in particular as he spoke. "Sorry to interrupt y'all. Carry on."
As James walked away, Reiko asked Tokuhei, "What the Hell was that all about?"
"We gotta pretend we're just like the projections here," Tokuhei replied to her. "Pretend that we're supposed to be here. Also, did you notice anything Colby-sama did when I asked him if he had a locker here?"
"His eyes shifted a bit. So what?"
"He looked at a specific locker." Tokuhei then pointed out a locker in the middle. "This one."
Reiko realized immediately what he was getting at. "Ah, I see." She then went to work, picking the lock as quickly as she could.
…
Meanwhile, in a different area of the train station, Senjuro and Tsuyoshi had no luck finding anything that could even remotely be used to store objects. "This whole thing is a damn bust," Tsuyoshi said in frustration. "We haven't gotten anywhere."
"We'll have to go to the main ticket booth soon," Senjuro realized as he looked at a clock. "Let's start heading there now so we can beat the crowds."
"Okay, okay," Tsuyoshi replied with a sigh. However, as soon as the two of them began walking towards the ticket hall, they heard two shots ring out behind them and ducked for cover before drawing their guns. "What the fuck was that?!"
"Over there!" Senjuro pointed to two men armed with pistols that were running towards them. "Is that what James was talking about with that weaponized subconscious thing?!"
"It's gotta be!" Tsuyoshi fired several shots back at the two men, killing both of them as the other projections around them screamed and ran away from the scene. "Fuck, we exposed ourselves! We gotta get outta here!"
Senjuro told him as they began to run, "To the ticket hall!"
"Are you hit?!"
"No! Are you?!"
"No!" Tsuyoshi and Senjuro then saw a man armed with a knife charge towards them, forcing both of them to stop as Senjuro fired two shots, striking the man and killing him with a well-placed bullet to the head. Tsuyoshi said, "Rengoku, come on!"
"Holy shit…" Senjuro was in shock at having actually killed someone, even if it was in a dream. "I…"
"Come on!" Tsuyoshi then grabbed one of his hands and dragged him away, almost causing him to drop his gun. As the two ran towards the ticket hall, he asked her, "What the Hell was that all about?!"
"I just…"
Frustrated with him, Tsuyoshi yelled, "You can't fucking hesitate like that! You'll get us killed!"
Once they reached the ticket hall, Senjuro stopped and took a deep breath as Tsuyoshi reloaded his revolver, replacing the three spent cartridges with three new bullets. Senjuro then turned to Tsuyoshi and told him, "Look, I'm sorry. I just… I haven't killed anyone before, so…"
"We'll deal with that later," Tsuyoshi replied. "You gotta understand that none of the people here are real. Just like Colby-sama said, they're just projections. If you kill a few of them, who gives a shit, especially if they're trying to kill you?" He then shut his cylinder. "Next time, don't hesitate. Just shoot."
"Okay."
The two then heard gunshots ring out as a glass window they were standing next to was shattered by several bullets. A man leading two other men, all of them armed with rifles, pointed at the duo and exclaimed, "Get them! They're intruders!"
Senjuro and Tsuyoshi quickly returned fire, killing all three of them in a short exchange of gunfire. However, once they all dropped to the floor, Tsuyoshi looked down and realized he had been shot in the abdomen. "Oh, fuck… I got shot."
Senjuro ran over to him and asked, "Tsuyoshi-san, are you okay?!"
"He got me good," Tsuyoshi said as Senjuro laid him down. "Damn it…"
As Senjuro applied pressure to the wound as best as he could, he looked around the now deserted ticket hall to see if anyone else was approaching. "I don't see anyone else."
"Rengoku," Tsuyoshi then told Senjuro. "I need you to shoot me in the head."
Shocked, he asked him, "Wait, why?!"
"I'll wake up if I do. I'll just drag you down if I stay hurt like this."
"But…" Senjuro felt extremely uncomfortable with the idea of killing Tsuyoshi, even if it was just a dream. "I…"
Tsuyoshi then coughed up blood. "For fuck's sake, are you gonna decide or not?"
"I just… I know it's just a dream, but…"
"Fuck this shit," Tsuyoshi said before he used the last of his strength to pick up his gun and put it under his chin. "Well, I guess that's it." He then pulled the trigger, completely obliterating his own face and exposing part of his skull and brain.
Senjuro, covered in Tsuyoshi's blood, bits of his skull, and brain matter, was horrified. "Holy shit! No! No! Nooooo!" Senjuro got up and immediately vomited on the floor in disgust. Despite being told that it was just a dream, a part of him could not shake the idea that Tsuyoshi had just killed himself in reality, too. "I can't do this! I can't do this anymore! I can't!"
Susamaru, sitting on a balcony above the ticket hall, noticed Senjuro screaming in the empty ticket hall and ran down a flight of stairs to see what was going on. "Hey, Senjuro, what happened?! What the Hell is going on?!"
"I… Tsuyoshi-san… He…"
Susamaru looked at Tsuyoshi's corpse and said to herself, "Damn, he really did some damage…" She then turned to Senjuro and helped him up, asking him, "What's bothering you? It's just a dream, Senjuro! Tsuyoshi's fine!"
"I… I just…"
"Don't do this," Susamaru then warned him. "If you freak out like this in a practice, you won't be ready when the 25th comes."
"But…"
Susamaru ordered him as several more armed projections ran into the ticket hall, "Stop panicking and get ready to fight!" As she drew a revolver of her own, she told him, "I'll help you out, but just this once in practice! Now, draw your gun and fight!"
