REM 1 (Kagefumi Merry chapter)

REM 1 is the first chapter of Kagefumi Merry.

Synopsis
A crescent shaped moon looms over a city as a young bespectacled man runs through its streets. As he catches his breath, he looks behind himself and sees a dark figure. He then continues to run and as he runs through an alley, a person wearing a hooded outfit lands in front of him. The man then turns around and runs away but the figure just looks on and sighs. Later, the man runs up a stairwell but ends up on a roof that has an opening in its fence and he cursed his luck. Suddenly the person in the hood, a girl, appears to his left and gives her condolences that it is a dead end and asked him what is he going to do. The man turned to her in surprise as the girl asked him if he is done running then she grabs him and jumped off the roof.

The man startles awakes in his room and just states that it happened to again. After the man changes and leaves his apartment, he mentally monologues that he has trouble sleeping lately due to the recurring nightmare. He notes that dreams of being chased or falling are pretty common but it seems that his have a feeling of being more real. As he walks down the apartment's outer stairwell, a girl from the house next door calls out his name, Yuuki. Yuuki looks to her direction and calls out the girl's name, Fuyumi.

They greet as they walk beside each other on the street. Fuyumi asked Yuuki why is he making a dark face, berating him that he should be delighted to be walking to school with a high school girl by his side. He tells her that he's just been having bad dreams which piques Fuyumi's interest. Yuuki then tells her about his real scary dreams, being chased by someone who looks like a ghost and getting thrown off the ledge by them. He sighs wanting to forget such things but then realized that he made an opening for Fuyumi to talk about her dreams. Fuyumi then tells Yuuki of her dreams: last night's dream was of her eating sweets in a fancy palace and the dream before that, she was in a magicians school with Yuuki and Aya. Continuing his internal monologue, he notes that when people dream the never dismiss the strange and since it happens to everyone at night there is no end to talk about dreams. Yuuki then praised Fuyumi for remembering her dreams then continues his monologue that he really can't sympathize with other's dream experiences.

Fuyumi then changes the subject and asked Yuuki if he knows what a doppelganger is. Yuuki answers that it is suppose to be a vengeful spirit or monster that is suppose to be identical to someone. He inquired why she asked and she tells him that there was a rumor around her school that apparently some people have been changing acting like they're completely different people, and the reason they say is that it is their doppelganger.

Later at his class, Yuuki's friend Takazuka tells him more or less the same thing he heard that morning. Takazuka is a bit dejected that Yuuki had no interest in the story he heard from his sister. He inquired where Yuuki heard it from and learning it was from Fuyumi, the high school girl who lived next to Yuuki's apartment, Takazuka cried out in jealousy.

Takazuka then changes the subject and tells Yuuki about the dreams he was having. As he listens, Yuuki wonders to himself why today is about rumors and dreams. As Takazuka continues to talk, Yuuki begins to feel sleepy and the world around him turns dark.

In the darkness a girl in a hooded coat walks up to Yuuki and says in disbelief that he is sleeping stating that this is why humans need so much attention. The girl then yelled out "Lights! Camera! Action!" which brought light to the world, revealing it to be the same city world that Yuuki kept dreaming about, and Yuuki's eyes opened. The girl asked him if he's now awake, startling Yuuki that he fell back unto the ground. She tells him to shut-up because getting freaked out won't do him any good. She then crouches down and tells him that first she isn't his enemy and second that they are in a dream.

Yuuki, confused, asked what she was talking about and the girl asked where was he before he hit the ground but Yuuki couldn't remember. The girl explains why he couldn't remember is because he is in a dream right now, on the border between reality and dreams. She states that this is his first lucid dream and welcomes him. She then reminded him that he was being chased as a shadowy being in a cloak arises behind her.

Suddenly in the area where the figure's head would be at warped until it formed to look like Yuuki's face startling the real person. The girl was a bit amused, stating that Yuuki must be really worth chasing since it was the first time she met "one of them" who was that good at imitating. Yuuki then asked her what was that thing and she tells him that it is a Nightmare called a "Wiles". Yuuki begins to ask her to explain about Reality and Dreams but the girl tells him that she will later and tells him to step back. Yuuki yells asking who she is and she tells him that she is "Merry Nightmare," also a Nightmare and that he can call her anything he wants.

Merry then turns her attention to the Wiles calling it a pawn and telling it that it is time for it to bring her to the real Wiles. She and the Wiles fought and at the end she does some breakdancing and kicked it's face killing it leaving only the white shroud behind. After Merry was done b-boying, she berated herself for killing it and muses that it would have been easier if they would've talked.

After confirming with her that it died, Yuuki again asked what was it noting that it had his face. Merry reiterate that it was a Wiles and that it was a good thing she got it before it stole his life away. Yuuki retorts and asked her to explain in a way that he could understand. Merry tells him to calm down and that she wiil

Meanwhile in another Daydream, two Dream Demons were at a long dining table talking to each other. One asked the other about his progress in getting a vessel. The other Dream Demon, an animal-like humanoid reminiscent of a boar, tells the questioner that it ended in failure. He tells that the humans keep on resisting and the other one tells him that his methods just are flawed. The humanoid boar then asked him to go on calling him by name, Overlord Wiles, asking how he does it if he had a better way.

Wiles tells him that just using force won't cut it. That they must please the humans by giving them what they want and they'll give up their bodies without resistance. The boar demon then asked how they should maintain control after gaining a vessel. Wiles informs him that they should try to imitate the vessel as to avoid raising suspicion and it is required for them to take over. The boar demon complains that it is easier said than done and only Wiles is able to do that but Wiles tells him that he could do so as well. This got the boar demon to get excited and asked Wiles to reveal the trick to it.

Wiles agrees and tells him to come over so he could share his power which confused the boar demon. Wiles urges him to come before he changes his mind. When doing so, Wiles admires his body that towers over him and notes that he is a fine robust specimen. After being stared at, the boar demon tells Wiles to hurry up and do it. Wiles agrees and a shadow like aura leaked from his hand and from under his hood before he struck the boar demon. The shadowy aura engulfs the Dream Demon and while it does so, he cursed Wiles and asked what he had done to him. The Dream Demon's body warped and shranked which caused Wiles to be excited. Wiles then declares that from that day forward he too can be a "Wiles" as he drapes him in a white shroud.

Back at Merry's Daydream, Yuuki is still in disbelief at Merry's explanations. Merry then made a bet with him by coin toss: if he wins, he doesn't have to help her hunt down the real Wiles but if she wins, he does. Yuuki agrees to it but loses. Back in reality, Merry takes over his body and ditches class to go search for Wiles. Outside they are suddenly halted by an owl Dream Demon with his vessel by dragging them to his own Daydream to question them.

Trivia

 * The movie that Fuyumi mentions that she saw on TV that might have inspired a dream she had is called Harry Putter is a parody of Harry Potter.