I don't bother waiting for Kaito to finish processing the theory of "endurance" or to mentally prepare himself.

  Whoosh.

  My spirit body plunges straight into the boy's chest. The familiar cramped sensation hits me like trying to stuff a fat cat into an oversized cardboard box. Kaito's soul, with the reflex of a professional "innkeeper," automatically retreats into a corner and cedes control of his limbs to me.

  Reo opens his mouth to add a few more words, preparing to stand up, but I don't give him the chance.

  Snap.

  A crisp finger snap echoes right in the middle of the teacher's forehead.

  Reo's eyes roll back, his pupils dilating. He collapses onto the table with a thud, fast and decisive, as if someone pulled the plug. Soft snoring follows immediately after. Poor guy. Working himself half to death, yet a gentle nudge is all it takes to shut him down.

  "One down."

  I maneuver Kaito's heavy body, dragging it to the long sofa in the corner of the room.

  "Listen, kid," I whisper in his mind. "Don't resist. Just let it carry you away. If you struggle, your brain will explode."

  Mortals often romanticize sleep, calling it a "gateway to another world" or something similar. But in reality, it is just a sudden tripping of the circuit breaker.

  Click.

  The salty smell of the sea hits my nose.

  I open my eyes, squinting against the glare. The harsh sunlight feels like it wants to scorch my skin, reflecting brilliantly off the deep blue sea surface. The sea breeze blows strongly, carrying the humid heat of the tropics.

  Still this damn beach. My familiar hideout in my subconscious.

  "Finally decided to drag yourself down here."

  A few steps away, a man is standing with his arms crossed, tapping his foot on the sand in frustration.

  It is Reo. But not the teacher in the white shirt and sleek black suit from up above.

  He is wearing a gaudy floral shirt, rainbow-colored shorts, and a pair of oversized sunglasses perched on his nose. He looks no different from those tourists on a budget tour.

  "What the hell were you doing up there for so long?" Reo grumbles, pushing down his glasses. "I've been standing here sunbathing until I'm about to turn into dried squid. Must have been ten minutes at least."

  "Stop exaggerating," I brush the sand off my pants. "Up there, I had barely laid down for less than a minute. Did you forget? Time down here runs like a bat out of hell."

  Reo is stunned for a second, then slaps his forehead.

  "Ah... right. That damn time dilation mechanic." He clicks his tongue, looking at the watch on his wrist. "No wonder you love coming down here to sleep in. One minute up there equals ten minutes down here."

  Just then, an innocent voice rings out beside me.

  "Wow... Look at the sea..."

  Kaito stands there, mouth agape, eyes wide behind his thick glasses. The boy is still wearing his high school uniform, carrying his heavy school bag, looking terribly out of place on the sunny and windy beach.

  Kaito doesn't question why he is here. He inhales the scent of the sea, grinning like a child taken to a water park by his parents for the first time.

  "Kujo-sensei! Itsuki-sama!" Kaito cheers, pointing into the distance. "Look! The water is crystal clear! Let's go swimming! I want to drink coconut water!"

  Reo and I look at each other.

  "He's high as a kite," I comment coldly. "The 'Dream Logic' effect is working at full capacity. Right now, if you told him we were on Mars, he'd believe it."

  Reo sighs deeply, adjusting his colorful floral shirt. He steps forward, placing a hand on the shoulder of the student who is about to dash into the water.

  "Hey, Kaito."

  "Yes?" Kaito turns back, his face beaming. "Did you bring swim trunks, Sensei? I forgot mine. What a shame."

  "Forget the swim trunks," Reo says, his voice dropping, serious and sharp, completely different from his flashy appearance. "Answer me one question."

  He brings his face close to Kaito's.

  "How did you get here?"

  The smile on the boy's lips suddenly stiffens.

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  "Huh? Well..." The kid blinks, his finger scratching his head. "Well... we took... uh..."

  "Took the train?" Reo presses.

  "I think... no..." Kaito frowns. "I remember... we were in the training room... then... huh?"

  "Or maybe a plane?" I add another jab, standing with my arms crossed.

  "Plane...?"

  Kaito's face starts to change color. The smile vanishes, replaced by utter confusion. His eyes dart around frantically, trying to rummage through his memory for a non-existent image of the journey.

  There is nothing.

  An endless white void lies between the Zen training room and this beach. No journey took place. The boy simply... appeared here.

  "I... I don't remember..." Kaito steps back, his voice trembling, hands clutching his head. "Why... why don't I remember anything? I was definitely in Tokyo..."

  "Welcome to the world of sleepwalkers," I step forward, tapping the pale cheek of the kid lightly. "Wake up. This isn't a vacation."

  "Dream... A dream?"

  Kaito stammers, his face looking so dumbfounded it's pitiful. The boy looks down at his hands, then out at the endless ocean as if searching for a graphical glitch to prove this world is "fake."

  "If it's a dream... then surely it won't hurt..."

  The kid mutters the classic incantation, then without hesitation, grits his teeth and pinches his inner thigh with all his might.

  "OUCH! HOLY CRAP!"

  Kaito jumps as if stepping on hot coals, rubbing the bruised flesh, tears welling up from the shock. He whips his head around to look at me, his eyes full of accusation as if I just sold him across the border.

  "That hurt like hell! Why am I not awake yet? You tricked me, didn't you?"

  "Tricked you, my ass," I shrug, leisurely kicking a broken seashell in the sand with my bare foot. "What do you think a Deity's dream is? Some fragile soap bubble that pops with a gentle poke like you mortals have?"

  I move closer, tapping my claw against the kid's forehead. Clack clack.

  "This is a high-end server, kiddo. Reinforced with tons of pure Faith Points. Even if you stabbed yourself with a knife, you'd just see blood gushing and lie there waiting to die. Don't dream of opening your eyes to see your ceiling."

  Kaito stands frozen. His face drains of all blood.

  An existential crisis crashes down, crushing the boy's fragile reason flat.

  "So... Itsuki-sama... you are fake? Kujo-sensei is also fake? My life all this time... the Anomaly hunts... the 2 million yen salary..." His voice trembles, shattering. "Is it all just the hallucination of a mental patient dreaming in a hospital?"

  Reo stands nearby, clicking his tongue loudly in exasperation. He pushes up his sunglasses, glancing sideways at me with eyes that say: "See? Told you not to scare him, now his brain is broken."

  "Alright, stop being so dramatic, kid," Reo steps forward, slapping Kaito on the shoulder hard enough to sting, dragging the boy back to reality. "Now, put that garbage philosophy aside. Answer me."

  He brings his face close to Kaito, his voice stern.

  "What did you do last night?"

  Kaito, in the midst of panic, gets cornered and bewilderedly puts a hand to his chin, frowning as he rummages through his memories.

  "Last night... um... I studied online. Then got teased by a ghost head. Then Itsuki-sama took care of it... he slept over..."

  "Good. Consciousness is still active," Reo nods. "This morning?"

  "This morning..." Kaito blinks rapidly. "Skipped school. Went to the Sensitives' Hub. Ate free buffet. It was delicious."

  "Here lies the crux," Reo snaps his fingers. Snap. "Why did you go to the Sensitives' Hub?"

  "Well..." Kaito scratches his messy hair. "Itsuki-sama said we needed urgent training."

  "Training for what?"

  "Training... diving. Diving into something... to endure his pressure."

  Reo smirks, the smile of a hunter seeing prey fall into a trap. "Then what? Keep going."

  "Then..."

  Kaito pauses.

  His gaze goes slightly blank. His brain starts rewinding the latest memory tape, but the tape suddenly snaps.

  "Then... Itsuki-sama turned into a beam of light and entered my body. Then... then I lay down on the sofa... and closed my eyes..."

  Silence falls. Only the sound of murmuring waves and the wind whistling through coconut leaves remains.

  The eyes behind Kaito's glasses widen to the max. His pupils contract.

  "Ah!"

  He gapes, pointing into the air as if he just discovered the truth of the universe, or rather, just discovered he was tricked painfully.

  "So that's it! I was asleep!"

  "There, finally enlightened," I clap my hands slowly, my tail wagging. "Saved me the trouble of drawing diagrams to explain."

  But Kaito is still in shock. He furrows his brow, his face full of confusion and frustration.

  "But... that's absurd! Totally absurd! Why did my memory wipe clean the moment I stepped onto this beach? I didn't feel like I 'drifted off' at all. I just... poof, appeared here. Everything was so seamless I thought I had just teleported!"

  "That is exactly the problem," I say, retracting my teasing smile.

  I step closer, my long shadow casting over the boy.

  "You didn't realize you were dreaming because my reality is too 'heavy'. It overwrote your fragile reality instantly. You didn't remember the transition, which means you lost the first round before it even started."

  "To cut the crap," Reo chimes in, his voice nonchalant, "your perception just got 'hijacked'."

  "I am the master of this dream," I continue, spreading my arms toward the ocean. "But honestly, even I struggle to keep this mess from collapsing. A deity's subconscious... is a greedy monster."

  To demonstrate, I raise my hand.

  Snap.

  The finger snap rings out crisply.

  The surrounding space shudders. The harsh, glaring sunlight of the tropical noon vanishes instantly as if someone yanked the main breaker.

  The sky turns pitch black in a split second. Billions of twinkling stars appear, dense and brilliant, reflecting on the sea surface which has now turned into deep black ink. The sea breeze shifts from sweltering hot to icy cold, carrying the chill of night mist.

  Kaito gapes, spinning in a circle to take in the dizzying sudden change.

  "Holy... crap..."

  "At this level, I can still control it," I lower my hand, exhaling a puff of white mist. "This is just the surface of the ocean. Where reason still has some voice."

  I narrow my eyes toward the dark horizon where the stars are beginning to rotate.

  "But... Down to Layer 2, things will start to go off the rails."

  Reo crosses his arms, wearing a rarely seen look of concern. "Just Layer 1, white sand and golden sun, and the kid already lost his orientation and forgot reality completely. Down to Layer 2, I don't know if his mush for brains can handle the heat."

  "If you can't handle Layer 2 in my head," I turn to look at Kaito, my gaze sharp as a razor, "then don't dream of surviving Layer 5 or 6 of that 'Local Noosphere'. That giant spiritual garbage dump of ten thousand people... the chaos is pretty much on par with my head."

  Kaito swallows hard, feeling a shiver run down his spine. He asks timidly, his voice tiny:

  "So... what is down at Layer 2? Another beach?"

  "No," I shake my head, my fox ears twitching slightly. "Each layer is a different world. Layer 2... is the Snow Mountain."

  I move closer, whispering into the boy's ear:

  "Down there, my control is much weaker. The usual laws of physics or logic will start to crumble. Occasionally, you will see a few 'things' you shouldn't see."

  Reo steps forward, placing a heavy hand on Kaito's shoulder, squeezing hard. "Down there, the risk of you dissolving into the dream is extremely high. You might not even keep your humanity."