Chapter 20: Dream master
People used to gossip that the higher someone's position, the more superstitious they became, and this statement was both true and false. Superstition was placing trust in false beliefs and incorrect methods. The higher someone's position, the stronger their belief became, especially in themselves. They believed in luck, even though luck only accounted for 1% of the entire process of success. However, without this 1%, everything would have been futile. Once a person believed in luck, they would seek out things that could bring them luck and ways to avoid misfortune, even wanting to know the future at any cost.
Dream interpretation was an incredibly useful ability for these individuals, especially those involved in politics. They needed to know where the world and society were heading in order to operate it in the most clever way. The same went for large clans who went to great lengths to obtain this ability or find people who possessed it. It was a blurry and challenging path, but it was indispensable for protecting the prosperity of the clan.
In the study of Yudaiji Akihiro, the head of the Yudaiji conglomerate, the second-largest financial group in Japan, after Imonoyama, the old butler in a black suit stood upright, reporting the situation to his master:
"Sir, as per your commands, we have managed to invite Miss Amano Mana, the dream gazer of the Amano family, one of the most renowned sorcerer lineages."
Yudaiji Akihiro furrowed his brow upon hearing the name of the dream gazer. He looked up from his desk and asked,
"Is it not possible to invite 'hime'?"
"Sir, it is truly impossible to invite 'hime'. As you know, she belongs to the government, and even approaching her is extremely difficult."
Yudaiji Akihiro sighed. "Very well, arrange for Miss Amano to meet with Idomu."
The butler nodded in acknowledgment, then bowed in his rigid posture and left the study. As the door closed, Yudaiji Akihiro stood up from his desk and walked closer to the large window that spanned the entire wall. He looked down below and noticed his only son, the sole heir of the Yudaiji zaibatsu, sitting in the garden reading a book, causing his brows to furrow even deeper. He couldn't remember when he had last known what his son was thinking. Idomu always smiled and answered every question perfectly in front of him. Idomu was a prodigy, that was undeniable. Everything Yudaiji Akihiro conveyed and taught was absorbed and understood by Idomu to an astonishing degree, even from a young age. But what worried him was that he couldn't grasp his son's true thoughts. In order to train Idomu to become the heir from a young age, Yudaiji Akihiro had to separate Idomu from his mother. He knew Idomu resented him for that, but it had been so long since he felt that resentment. For the sake of his status and position, even a single wrong move could jeopardize the entire clan. Yudaiji Akihiro didn't dare to take that risk, even if it meant sacrificing his own son. The price was too high.
Two months ago, Mr. Akihiro assigned Idomu to handle a failing small company that was on the verge of bankruptcy. While this may not have been a concern for the entire conglomerate, if left unaddressed, even a small problem could spread like a disease and corrupt the entire organization. Somehow, within a week, the branch completely vanished as if it had never existed, and even the people who had worked there disappeared into thin air. Idomu stood before Mr. Akihiro, wearing a faint smile, and simply said,
"It's done, father."
With no further explanation.
Yudaiji Akihiro couldn't understand his son anymore, but he was still a father. Despite the burden of responsibility towards the family lineage, he couldn't abandon his own son. After numerous physical and psychological health checks yielded no results, Mr. Akihiro resorted to seeking a dream gazer to understand what was going on inside Idomu's mind. This didn't necessarily mean he wanted to control his son, he just wanted to understand what was happening because he was certain that Idomu had some problems.
That evening, after a brief introduction and greeting with Yudaiji Akihiro, Amano Mana was assigned to a room right next to Idomu's. The Amano family was a long-standing lineage of renowned fortune tellers, and even though Amano Mana's ability to interpret dreams wasn't exceptionally strong, it was still a rare and valuable skill. As a result, she often received invitations to interpret dreams for many prestigious families. Amano Mana was a 16-year-old girl with a cute face and long, brown, tousled hair. Since childhood, she had received education from her family to become a fortune teller, so she studied diligently. However, deep down, she also longed for some personal time like any other teenagers. Today, she had to decline a date to attend an outdoor concert with a classmate whom she secretly admired, all because she agreed to Yudaiji's family matter.
Amano Mana entered the large and luxurious room, only turning on a dim desk lamp to avoid disturbing her dream subject. She felt a slight sense of disappointment as she had been looking forward to the date tonight. Taking off her coat and hanging it on a nearby chair, Amano Mana remained in her full kimono and hakama attire, then lay down on the bed, stretching her body straight. She clasped her hands together and placed them on her abdomen, trying to calm her mind. Closing her eyes, she prepared herself to enter the dream of her client.
Yudaiji Idomu had a habit of reading books before going to sleep, and exactly at 10 PM, he would turn off the lights and go to bed. But today, he felt something different in his house, so at 10 PM, he turned off the lights and lay in bed, but he didn't fall asleep right away. He lay there, listening attentively. Thirty minutes later, he heard footsteps in the hallway leading to his room. There were two people, one was his family butler Hatori, whose stiff and familiar footsteps he had known since childhood. But the other person, he didn't know.
Idomu strained his ears to listen. The footsteps were so light, most likely belonging to a girl. But why did Hatori bring this person here? Then Idomu heard the sound of the door to the adjacent room opening and the fading footsteps of the butler. Idomu quickly turned his head and came to a conclusion. They brought the person at 10:30 PM, which was 30 minutes after he usually fell asleep. No one understood his schedule better than Hatori, so they needed to make sure he was asleep. Idomu knew Hatori's loyalty to the Yudaiji family. So there was only one possibility: the girl in the next room, whoever she was and whatever she wanted, required him to be asleep. Thinking this, a slight smirk appeared on Idomu's lips. He didn't need to know what they were up to, he would just go along with their plan.
The next morning, when the sky was still dim and the whole house was quiet, Amano Mana woke up. Her face was pale, drained of blood. She struggled to sit up, gripping the bed frame to stand up straight. Quickly grabbing her coat, she tried her best to leave the room without making any noise. As soon as she disappeared down the stairs, Idomu opened the door to his room, leaning against the doorframe, watching Mana's figure. A sinister smile formed on his lips.
In Yudaiji Akihiro's study, Amano Mana was served a cup of hot milk tea by the butler Hatori, placed in front of her. Her hands trembled as she held the cup, hoping to feel some warmth from it. Seeing her distressed expression, Yudaiji Akihiro patiently waited for her to report everything. He understood that delving into someone else's dreams required a great deal of energy and spiritual power. After a while, Amano Mana finally spoke with a trembling voice:
"Yudaiji-sama, I'm sorry for my incompetence. I couldn't help much."
Yudaiji Akihiro thought the girl was being polite and humble, so he replied with equal courtesy:
"Miss Amano, please don't be so formal. Your assistance is already greatly appreciated. If there are any difficulties, please let me know. I only need to know what happened to my son."
Amano Mana took a deep breath and then recounted the dream she had entered.
In the dream scene, a red-haired boy was running towards an immensely large tree. The trunk of the tree required three people to wrap their arms around it to complete a circle. Under the tree, there was a woman with short, purple hair wearing a cherry blossom-patterned kimono. She held a round red paper umbrella and smiled gently, waiting for the red-haired boy to reach her. Behind the red-haired boy, there was another boy, incredibly adorable with soft, blonde hair and clear blue eyes that seemed to draw people in, making them involuntarily smile at him. As the two boys approached the woman, she took out a handkerchief and wiped the sweat off the red-haired boy's forehead, making him incredibly happy. The blonde-haired boy, however, stopped in disappointment, watching the scene, causing him to trip over his own feet and fall, scraping his knee and causing it to bleed. The woman noticed this and immediately stopped wiping the sweat off the red-haired boy, rushing to the injured boy's side. She searched her pockets but found nothing, so she tore a strip of white fabric from her precious kimono and used it to bandage the blonde-haired boy's knee. The blonde-haired boy then smiled brightly, like the gaze of the sun, causing the woman to be unable to resist and also respond with a joyful smile.
If everything had stopped there, it would have been a beautiful dream, but unfortunately, it didn't. The red-haired boy stood behind, observing the radiant scene but felt himself sinking into an icy lake. He clenched his fists so tightly that his nails dug into his flesh, his expression of being hurt turned into hatred, and his gaze became sharp and cold, sending shivers down anyone's spine. Such a gaze should not belong to a child who appeared to be only six years old. Then the entire scene changed. Amano Mana saw the red-haired boy in a Clamp school uniform standing on a pile of ruins, with dark clouds swirling in the sky. There was no one else around him, only absolute silence. Yet, he was laughing, his gaze still sharp and indifferent.
Amano Mana had never felt such fear before, the feeling of witnessing everything being destroyed but being powerless to stop it. At that moment, she realized that the scene before they met was from the past, while the ruined scene was from the future. If that was the case, she needed to seal away his memories of the past. Thinking quickly, Amano Mana used all her magical power to try to return to the old dream scene and began sealing, starting from the woman's face to her smile. But when she tried to seal the image of the blonde-haired boy, an incredibly powerful force knocked her out of the dream scene. Before she escaped, she only heard a faint but sharp voice saying,
"Get lost!"
Amano Mana didn't know where that power came from, nor did she know if she was successful in sealing the image of the blonde-haired boy. But regardless, she was certain that she had sealed the image of the woman, and that should be enough. Just missing one element would be enough to change everything, Mana thought to herself. And because of that, she didn't tell Yudaiji Akihiro about being knocked out of the dream scene, as she didn't sense any magical power there. It was probably due to the strong will and defense of the host.
Dream interpretation could help the gazer enter the dream scene of others, seeing through their desires and deepest fears, and through that, glimpsing their past and reflecting their future. If the dream gazer had high magical power, they could even control or seal the dream scene of the subject, preventing them from remembering it. Amano Mana's magical power was only enough to seal a small part of the host's dream scene, so she chose the most important part.
After receiving gratitude from the Yudaiji family, Amano Mana stumbled onto the specially prepared car for her and returned home. After an exhausting night, Amano Mana went back to her room and slept a long sleep to regain her strength before reporting everything to her father, who was now the head of the Amano household.
"Father, I'm back!"
Mr. Amano, dressed in a white kimono and black hakama, was sitting cross-legged in the tea room, smiling at his daughter.
"Have you rested well, my dear? Is everything going smoothly?"
Mana pondered for a moment, then closed the door to the room, sat down across from her father, and began recounting everything.
"What did you say? You were pushed out of the dream scene?"
"Yes, father. I think it was because the willpower and vigilance of that child were too strong, and at the same time, I ran out of magical power due to sealing its memories."
"No! It is impossible!"
Upon hearing her father's words with a grave expression, Mana felt a sense of unease. She had a feeling that she had done something wrong, and that it would have serious consequences. Mr. Amano stood up and searched through his bookshelf for a long time, then returned to his seat and handed a book to Mana to read. It was an old, worn-out book, with yellowed pages and tattered edges.
"This book contains records of other people's dream journeys from our lineage for a long time. According to the book, the dream host cannot have the ability to suppress the dream gazer. They are completely passive, no matter how strong their willpower is, because dreams are not just ordinary dreams. Dreams are the consciousness of a person. If they have strong willpower, they can at most delay the dream gazer from entering the dream scene, but even that is very difficult. However, the book also records an extremely rare case, which is the dream master."
"Dream master?" Mana asked in confusion.
"That is the ability to control one's own subconscious, and this ability only exists when the person has immense magical power and willpower to suppress countless influences from within and outside, creating the dream. It is very rare for ordinary people to have this ability. The only recorded case of an ordinary person having this ability is someone with multiple personalities, using the dream of one personality to cover up the dream of another, thus preventing the dreamer from entering their own dream scene."
Upon hearing this, Mana gasped in horror and said,
"So that child..."
"It's highly possible. The child also has multiple personalities, and some of these personalities are even contradictory. We don't know the relationship between the three individuals in the dream, but we can speculate that the woman is the child's mother. It is said that the Yudaiji family, from the time the heir was young, separated the mother and child to train the child's willpower. This could be the reason."
"That's so cruel!"
Mana exclaimed in disbelief, unable to bear the fact that they would sacrifice family bonds for the sake of the clan's interests.
"We cannot judge them, we can only comment discreetly on their actions."
Mr. Amano calmly advised his daughter.
"Perhaps because of this pain, the Yudaiji child may have a strong desire to be loved by their mother. They may harbor resentment towards those who separated their mother and them, and even being close to their mother could trigger feelings of animosity. We don't know who the remaining child is, but I'm afraid there will be consequences. Are you sure you can seal away the memories of the remaining child?"
Mana hesitated.
"I'm not entirely sure. When I was about to complete it, I was suddenly pushed out and lost my magical power. I couldn't reenter."
"Did you hear their voice before you left?"
"Yes!"
Mr. Amano fell into deep contemplation.
"I'm afraid things won't just end here. You've done your best, and there's nothing more we can do. We'll have to rely on fate."
Mr. Amano sighed, knowing that he was only trying to comfort his daughter. Fate, huh? Who can define it?
In the bedroom, Yudaiji Idomu woke up, freshened up, dressed neatly in luxurious attire, and cheerfully smiled as he walked from the room to the dining area.
Yudaiji Akihiro was already seated at one end of the large dining table, holding a cup of tea and a newspaper. When he saw his son enter with such enthusiasm, he secretly rejoiced, inviting the dream gazer was indeed accurate. Yudaiji Idomu sat down at the opposite end of the table and spoke up:
"Good morning, father!"
Yudaiji Akihiro nodded to his son:
"You seem very spirited today. Did you sleep well?"
"Yes, I slept... very well, father."
Idomu smiled gently.
"Let's have breakfast quickly, and then we have things to do."
"Yes, but I have something to ask you, father."
Mr. Akihiro furrowed his brows, setting the newspaper aside and looking straight at his son with a serious expression.
"I want to attend Clamp School."
After breakfast, Idomu left the dining area with a persistent smile on his face. His father had agreed due to his convincing arguments. Mr. Akihiro thought a change of environment would be good for his son, and Clamp School is already well-known. It is also a suitable place for children returning from studying abroad to easily adapt. Even though Clamp School was managed by the Imonoyama family, it wasn't a problem. After all, the Yudaiji family also had investments in it.
As soon as the dining room door closed, Idomu's smile faded, and his eyes turned angry and ominous. Walking down the hallway, he muttered through gritted teeth:
"Imonoyama Nokoru!"
