In need of a reprieve, I remove myself from Aku and return to the void. Fighting an onslaught of the memories belonging to the Director, as well as another urge to enter the deep dream world, I use the vines to search once again.

It doesn’t take long to find her within the forest of a city. Sitting atop a tree, Mary hides from a large group. Just as they spot her, they raise their guns and yell something.

Before they notice, my vines pounce on the men from the ground beneath them, ripping them limb from limb and creating a pool of blood amid the lush grass. Mary seems to be in shock by the sudden attack, and maintains her position, glaring in fear at my vines.

Thinking quickly, I withdraw all but one of the vines. My view of her now limited to the one vine, I lose sight of her expression. Focusing on the men dispatched by my vines, I find several that are still breathing. Like I’d done to the Director, I plunge my single vine into the sides of their heads, one by one. Extracting their memories via nerve impulses becomes even easier this time, like I’d done it many times before.

A collage of memories run through my head, and again I refine my search for something specific. Once I find it, I disconnect my vine from the last man’s head, leaving him to lie in a puddle of his own blood. Using the puddle like ink, the vine scrolls something into the grass, before waving at Mary like a piece of string blowing in the wind.

She looks down at the message, still cautious as ever. Upon reading the words, her eyes grow wide. “Do you… want to see this man’s memories… of your father?” Her eyes shudder as she reads, her breaths labored.

“This man… saw my father?” she asks desperately, leaning forward in her perched position in the tree. “The father I can’t even remember?”

My vine wags emphatically to usher her down, at which she hesitates before slowly climbing down. She staggers toward my vine, refusing to lower her guard despite her obvious interest. “If you try anything, I’ll cut you in half,” she says with a deep glare.

In a slow, caution motion, I sink the vine into Mary’s head, just above the temple. We both float in the void until a memory is projected over the darkness.

The man whose memories I stole is sitting on a bleacher in the middle of a snowfall, with another man who dons a ball cap and large coat. The two men seem to be fighting off the biting cold by smoking cigarettes and rubbing their hands together as they focus their eyes on something- rather, someone. Their gazes shift from a young girl skating gleefully on the outdoor ice-skating rink in front of them, to a man several bleacher sections down from them.

The man, large-armed and bearded, looks every part the working-class single father I remember him as. The man who asked me to find his daughter, Kaspar Reid, puffs on a pipe while watching his daughter with a warm smile. He shows no averseness to the biting cold that makes his breath visible, even cheering his daughter on heartily.

“Go, Mary!” he boasts, patting his chest while coughing after taking a puff from his pipe. “That’s my future Olympian and supermodel!”

The girl responds shyly, prompting a hearty laugh from her father. The man with a ball cap turns to the owner of the memory, and nods before getting up and walking away. The owner turns to follow, cutting the memory short.

We reenter the void, before another memory plays. This one is similar to my own, a memory of the night at the pub where I was hired by Kaspar Reed. The memory’s owner sits across the pub watching Kaspar drink in silence next to the younger me. The empty look in his eyes as he gulps down his mug of beer serves a stark contrast from the last memory.

Forcing this memory to an end, I insert a memory I just experienced- that of Aku and Mirei discussing their plan to bring me to the deep dream world through a string of theaters set up by Worldbeaters. Once the memory ends, I withdraw my vine from Mary’s head.

After a moment of holding her head in pain, she regains herself. Once her hands move from her temples, I can see her reddened eyes and cheeks which she’d been hiding. She looks down, sniffling as she moves her hand to her suit pocket.

“It really is you, then…” she says in a shaky voice. “Thanks for telling me where I need to go, even if you only did it for your own sake.”

Suddenly, she lunges at my vine, baring the knife she showed earlier. Mesmerized by the anguished look in her eyes, I fail to move the vine before she slashes it into pieces.

My consciousness is ripped away from the amputated vine, forcing me back to the forest where I’m restrained by my vines. The Director sits on his knees in front of me, grinning weakly despite the vine plugged into his head. “You’ve returned,” he says, struggling to rise to his feet.

With some effort, he pulls the vine out of his head, and sets it neatly on the grassy earth. Ignoring the blood seeping from his temple, he paces to the nearest tree and rests his shoulder against it. “I suppose your next step is to find the first theater, and ensure the girls both make it there?”

“Interfering by sending my memories from the outside was out of line,” I say, glaring at him.

“Well, then we are even,” he responds, brandishing a cigarette and lighting it while resting it on his lips. “Since you broke protocol and looked at my memories- a bit of an unfair cheat if you ask me.”

“You knew the risk when you sent your memories here,” I respond, unphased by his attitude. “You might have opened up the world to chaos, but you helped me gain nearly limitless power in the process.”

“True, we did think about that,” he responds, his face growing pale from the blood loss. “But, as I’m sure you witnessed Aku declare, you put yourself a step closer to the deep dream world every time you utilize the machinations of this world.”

“What is with your insistence on forcing me in the deep dream world?” I ask with a stern expression. “What is it about my dreams that interests you both? I thought that’s what the girls were here for, not me. I don’t have such compelling dreams. I’m just normal- I’m supposed to win against them because of that normality, because of my convictions in the face of the harsh reality ahead of us. So, why?”

“That’s a better question for Aku,” he responds, exhaling smoke. “That’s the thing… bringing the planes together, normalizing everything, and eliminating the distortion along with Aku- perhaps that can only be achieved by obtaining the root of your dreams.”

“The root of my dreams…” I mutter, looking at the ground in front of me. “The same thing Aku said.”

“That’s the answer you should be seeking, rather than winning by brute force and cunning,” the Director says with a smirk as he turns his back and begins walking away. “Oh, also… don’t bother searching my memories for the answer- I don’t have it. Only Aku does, so perhaps you should try to get inside his head.”

A short breath leaves my mouth as my lips turn into a slight grin at his words. “Are you leaving? You’re not done meddling yet?”

“Oh, I’m quite done,” he answers, waving a hand shortly without turning back. “I don’t want to do anything that will get me killed here, so I think I’ll just watch from a distance as things play out.”

Not bothering to watch him leave, I close my eyes and focus. There are two people I want to find. Putting my feelers out through the dark, I search for them. Avoiding the doors that continue to invite me into deep dream world, I scour the earth.

I only find one of my targets, and waste no time in sinking my teeth into them before immediately returning to the void. Searching through the Director’s fading memories one last time, I ascertain the locations of all three theaters they expect us to visit.

The next step is to figure out which of the three Aku is starting with. The three of us share the same requirements for bringing the planes together, so we should all agree that the three of us must be present at the theaters. Therefore, it shouldn’t be a race to get-

The instant I project into Aku, I’m met with darkness. I wrack my brain, but fail to understand why my projection failed. After several seconds, I realized that I did not fail. Rather, it’s that Aku’s sight has simply been blocked by something.

“Yes, since we aren’t aware of when he’s been watching, doing it earlier on was the best idea,” Aku says in a low voice. “All he has to do is search the Director’s memories to discover the locations of the theaters, but if he doesn’t realize which one we’re going to first, we have the upper hand. Of course, you all have to witness the dreams, but the key is to be the quickest to gather information.”

“Sorry, Mary…” Mirei mutters. “I’m going ahead of you. JC won’t be able to guide you there in time without knowing where we’re going.”

“Though, he could always take her to a different theater,” Aku says.

“That’s not in his nature, though,” Mirei responds with confidence. “He wants to control the pace, not allow the balance to shift in one of our directions. He’s certain to come, and he’ll bring Mary to prevent me from getting too far ahead.”

“That does sound like him,” Aku responds, chuckling. “What remains to be seen is how long it takes him to figure out which one we’re heading to.”

“Right…” Mirei mutters, walking ahead of the blindfolded Aku.

Hoping only that I could have seen her expression, I uproot myself from Aku’s vision once again, and return to the void. I use my vines to perform a frantic search. Firstly, I try to locate Aku by directing my vines to the place I projected myself in, but something blocks me.

Even my vines cannot be in the same physical space as him, it seems. They have to be somewhere in this forested version of Shibuya, where all three theaters lie hidden in the trees. I scour the city, attempting to establish a perimeter around the place I’m being blocked. My sense of space underground is not as sound as it is above, so it’s impossible to decipher how far away my vines are from where they were blocked.

Trying another method, I search the forested city for the groups that should be pursuing the girls. Sure enough, I find Mary running on foot from more of the bandits, while it seems the environmentalist group is searching around the former hub of the city, the entertainment district. They don’t seem to have picked up Mirei and Aku’s scent, and are checking empty buildings as they gain numbers.

An hour passes before I locate the theaters themselves. Conceding that I might have to go with the worst-case scenario that Aku mentioned, I calculate which of the theaters are closest to Mary. I then strain myself, inhabiting vines in the area of all three theaters, which lie miles apart.

My head pulses as the blood trickling from my nose threatens to bring my consciousness back to my physical location, but I persist, focusing on the vines. Performing a thorough search of the areas, I confirm there isn’t anybody lying in wait on the outside.

The only choice is to wait. I’ll have to act swiftly once they arrive. Just as I settle my vines into spots where I can see anybody approaching the small theaters, I sense something.

Suddenly, gunfire erupts upon my vines in all three locations. My consciousness is blurred and nearly cut off from each of them, but I fight to keep my vines in-tact. A brief glimpse reveals scores of black suits amongst the surrounding trees, firing automatic guns that carry enough force to split my vines.

Mirei and Aku are formidable together, indeed. I hadn’t underestimated them, but since I was unable to locate her father, there wasn’t much I could do to prevent this. Whether it was Aku or Mirei that orchestrated this move using the Shibutani men, I do not know. It’s all I can do to keep my vines alive in every spot, since I can’t miss the moment they arrive.

My physical body growing more fatigued by the moment, I push to retain my waning consciousness in all three spots, doing my best to defend against the relentless gunfire. Finally, I manage to reach some of the men, and tear into them. Expecting them to dissipate into shadow as they had previously, I’m thrown off when my vines flay their bodies just like they had done to the bandits.

Mirei must no longer see them as dark shadows of her father, compelling her to play. Or is it because her father himself is no longer…

Suddenly, my consciousness disappears from the southern-most theater. I know instantly this is the one, as my vines had begun to overwhelm the suits and shouldn’t have been so easily cut down.

This means Aku is there with her. She could have snuck in on her own while I was under fire, and left me behind in confusion. As I thought, she plans on bringing me along so that I can view the dreams alongside her. She’s leaving Mary out, hoping that my presence is enough to work toward bringing our wavelengths together.

Her methods are much more aggressive than I ever could have imagined. I’m both impressed and terrified. However, I can’t linger on that. I have to act fast.

To my dismay, the theater they’ve picked happens to be the farthest from Mary. Even so, I locate her immediately, surrounding her with vines. She quickly takes up a defensive stance, readying her knife and baring her teeth like a wild animal.

With no blood at my disposal, my vines dig into the ground in front of her, frantically spelling out the words: “you have to come with me. Mirei is already at the theater.”

Upon reading the words written in the dirt, her eyes grow wide. “S-so what? Don’t we all need to be there? Will it start with only her?”

Frantically, I write in response: “she is cheating and leaving you out. I can take you there fast, so come.”

“Why…” she mutters. “Why should I trust you?”

“I need you both there,” I write into the earth. “She doesn’t.”

“But there’s no way for me to know-”

“I will bring you to your father. I promise.”

The last words I hurriedly write cut her short, and she simply stands still with a shocked, childlike expression.

“O-okay,” she stammers, as vulnerable as I’ve ever seen her. Not waiting any longer, I coil my vines around her wrists and ankles and launch her like a slingshot. My vines retreat into the earth, and more spring up several meters further, catching her and throwing her again.

Repeating the process over and over, my vines carry her through the forested city faster than a vehicle would. The strain on my physical body increases, my head pounding and bleeding more than before. Pushing on, I bring her within a mile of the theater.

Fear brewing within me, I decide I must check on them. If they’ve already started watching, I have to be there. I decide to execute something I have yet to try. Firstly, I focus on maintaining my rapidly moving vines. At the same time, I switch my consciousness, projecting myself back into the eyes of Aku.

He is still blindfolded, but I can distinctly hear the sound of blaring speakers.

“The first showing will now begin,” a robotic female voice plays over the speakers.

“It’s time,” Mirei mutters next to Aku.

“Yes,” Aku responds. “I suppose he knows where we are by now, so removing this will be the best bait to bring him here.”

“Exactly,” Mire says as the blindfold comes off, revealing a small mid-size theater room with a dozen rows of seats. Mirei’s figure, still adorned in the same pink skirt and white blouse, is as striking as ever. “He has to witness this with me. You won’t miss it, will you, JC?”

As I fight to keep my consciousness in-tact while maintaining my vines elsewhere, the theater screen lights up, projecting a bright white over the room. The refracting light bends across the room, creating shapes and colors much like the monitor at the Worldbeaters lab. The glare shines over us, taking us into its light.

Suddenly able to move Aku’s body myself, I gaze upon Mirei while the distorted screen begins to form the same dream that I saw when I first arrived in my world. Her charming face bares an expression I’ve never known her to possess. A combination of anger, hunger, and focus lies on her pale cheeks illuminated by the scene playing out before us.

That same dream begins as it always has, in which I stand across from a faceless figure wearing a bulky diving suit. As it pushes the great fiery ball toward the me on the screen, Mirei watches intently.

“This is… your dream?” she asks, blinking at the screen. “What exactly does it mean?”

“If I knew that already, I’m sure this would be much easier for all of us,” I respond. She shifts her gaze to me, raising her brow in surprise. “When did you change from Aku to JC?”

“I suppose we’re getting closer to the deep dream world this time,” I say with a sigh. “You and Aku are a bother, you know? Making me do this, and even leaving Mary to fend for herself…”

“I didn’t ask for any of this, remember?” she responds with a fiery glare. “And I’m only going along with this for Mary’s sake… so that she can be the one to live. You’re only helping her because it will benefit you.”

“I must say, I prefer the Mirei from the last round,” I remark with a short chuckle. “The one that trusted my plan without hesitance. In the end, we all have to be on the same wavelength to stop what’s coming. That’s how we win Aku’s power, I’m sure. Jumping ahead of Mary may help you gain the upper hand, but hurting her isn’t going to help either of us bring all our wavelengths together.”

“Ironic of you to talk about that,” Mirei hisses, watching as the fiery ball reaches the me on the screen. Unable to hold the ball, the me on the screen pushes it back toward the person in the diving suit. “After you spent the last two rounds building our bonds, preaching about severing the distance between us… only for the sake of having us ready for this last round.”

“I guess I’ve pushed you too far, so, believe what you will,” I answer in a defeated voice, watching as the me on screen turns away from the ball he’s just thrown. “Mary was one thing, but I never expected to lose your trust so easily. I’ve failed yet another person in my life, haven’t I?”

“You’ve just shown your fickle nature, is all,” Mirei responds with a stern side-glance at me.

“Right…” I mumble, nodding as the me on screen begins to run in the opposite direction of the incoming sphere.

“I’m just disappointed,” she tacks on with un unforgiving tone. “Don’t think Mary hasn’t been thinking the same thing. It’s like she said before, we were only brought here for your benefit. You just needed us to satisfy the mechanics of Aku’s dream world. You needed us, the people you once wished to save, to be pawns who you could manipulate into becoming stronger. All for the sake of bringing all the planes of this world together in order to eliminate Aku.”

Hanging my head, I finally lose my grip on the vines I was simultaneously holding onto. As if waiting for me to answer, Mirei glances at me, only to see blood seeping from my nose, ears, and mouth.

“What…?” she mutters, mouth agape.

At that moment, the door to the theater room is thrown open with a bang. We both turn away from the screen to see Mary staggering in, pulling shriveled vines off herself and tossing them aside. Without a word, she limps over to us, taking her place next to me and gazing with a conflicted look at the distorted screen.

“Help each other out if it gets scary,” she mutters in a shaky voice. “That’s what you said, wasn’t it?”

“Ah…” Mirei responds with a dumbfounded look as she glances at Mary, who stays her gaze forward, her expression twisted in pain.

Without another word crossing between us, I’m left right in the middle to bear the brunt of the tension which I’m solely responsible for.

Feeling crushed by the tension, my mind seeks an escape. In that split second of weakness, I realize I’ve let my guard down at the worst time. A doorway to the easiest escape lays itself before me, and my mind reaches it before my better senses can turn it away.

I was well-prepared for the theater room within the Worldbeaters lab and therefore able to prevent myself from falling inside, but this one is far stronger. My consciousness merges with the me inside the screen as my mind itself refracts with the light, contorting at every angle. I become the light reflecting onto the girls’ faces, before landing in the deep dream world.

The fiery sphere grows hotter than ever as is chases after me. I continue running, just as I had been when I was watching from the outside. It’s all I’ve ever done. Therefore, I run- from one dream, to the next.