One rainy Tuesday night, the Otouto slipped through the sliding paper door of a small house in the suburbs. He found a young boy named Hiro tossed and turned under his blankets. Hiro was whimpering, trapped in a dream about a math test where the numbers turned into angry bees.
Akira didn’t hesitate. “Me. I’ll take them.”
It was like drinking a bonfire. Akira’s small body arched off the mattress. He saw Haru’s nightmare—no, felt it: the heat peeling his skin, the taste of ash, the sound of a mother calling a name that was not his own. He wanted to scream, but the dream had stolen his voice. baku otouto
He sat on Hiro’s pillow and took a deep breath. He unfurled his trunk and began to pull. But unlike his brother, who could swallow a nightmare in one clean gulp, the Otouto was a messy eater. He inhaled a swarm of "Bees," but a few "Calculus Equations" got stuck in his throat. He coughed, accidentally sneezing a cloud of dream-mist back into the room.
Akira did not scream. He was too tired for screaming. “I didn’t call anyone.” One rainy Tuesday night, the Otouto slipped through
A character from the Onegai My Melody series who serves as Kuromi's sidekick.
The buzzing 7 softened. Its sharp edges rounded out until it turned into a giant, floating piece of golden castella cake. Hiro’s eyes widened. "Cake?" Akira didn’t hesitate
“Can you eat Haru’s dreams?” Akira asked.
The baku’s slit of a mouth curled into something like a smile. It shuffled across the floor to Haru’s sleeping form, pressed its snout to Haru’s forehead, and inhaled .
“You slept well, otouto,” Haru said. “No nightmares?”
Suddenly, the room wasn't just a bedroom anymore. Because of the Otouto's clumsy magic, the dream began to leak into reality. A giant, shimmering "Number 7" began to float near the ceiling, buzzing like a hornet. "Oh no," the Otouto squeaked.