Merry Nightmare

"I'm not a little sheep. I'm Merry. Merry Nightmare."

- Merry introduces herself.

Merry is a dream demon from the Dreamworld. Unlike the other dream demons, she doesn't need to possess a human to enter the real world, as she has her own body. Searching for a door to come back to the Dreamworld, she falls on Yumeji one day, who wants to help her to find her way back home. At first reluctant, when a daydream occurs and when she saves Yumeji's life, she accepts his help.

Appearance
She takes the appearance of a young teenage girl with pink or purple hair, and green eyes. She always has her trademark white hat, with a pink insignia in the middle, and ribbons on sides (right and left) coming out of it. Her upper body attire is a white overshirt, which goes down to under her chest, and a purple undershirt around the same size. Her lower body consists of a white skirt with, black and white stockings, and black shoes with the insignia mark.

She has once worn a maids outfit, when Isana's father makes her work at Tachibana restaurant. The author of the manga saids that Merry's clothes are based in a sheep.

Personality
Merry is very energetic. She has a deep trust in Yumeji, who promised to take her back to the Dreamworld. She would often look for support in him. At the time when Engi told Merry that she has been killing dream demons instead of sending them back. Merry fell in despair and tried to convince herself that it wasn't true.

She also tried to leave Yumeji when they went on a trip to the beach, but Yumeji immediately after her and convinced her not to run away. She can't eat spicy food or drink soda, but she loves doughnuts above everything and likes video games a lot. She currently works at the Tachibana restaurant.

History
Merry was a gatekeeper between the human world and the dream world. Her job was to guard the boundary between the two worlds, but due to unknown reasons she has ended up in the real world where she was looking for a way to return back to the dream world. She came to the real world about 10 years ago, the same time as Pharos Heracles.

Plot
Merry was wondering around the city and fell asleep on a tree, but her sleep was disturbed by crows and she ended up falling on Yumeji who was on his way home from school. There she picked up everything she dropped except for the hat that she lost. Realizing this, she went looking for it. While looking for her hat, Merry finds it in a daydream where John Doe wanted to make Yumeji his vessel. She arrived just in time to save him and to take this opportunity to return to the Dreamworld, but she learns that John Doe may know something about her. When Merry was asking him to take her back, he just laughed and went away. When the daydream finished, Merry met Yumeji in the real world begging him to bring John Doe back. But with Yumeji unable to bring him back, Merry starts crying and tries to go away, but Yumeji took her hand and then she suddenly collapsed in his hands.

In the night when Merry woke up, she found herself in Isana's room. There she was questioning her how she got here. Isana then replied that Yumeji carried her all the way to his house. The surprised Merry then went, to take a shower and to have a dinner. After the dinner, Merry explains to Yumeji that she is a dream demon, who is unable to go back to the dream world. This is also the first time Merry tried donuts, which she loves very much now. After everyone went to sleep, Merry decides to leave the house. But just before she was about to leave, Isana's father asked her if that was what she really wanted. She replied that this might be her only choice and then left.

The next day, we see Merry wondering around the city again. She ends up in a park where she meets Minato. There, Merry sees that she has no friends so she decided to play with Minato. Of course Minato would give her half of her donuts. Then while Merry and Minato were playing, we see Yumeji looking for Merry. To his luck Merry falls on top of him again. There all three of them decide to play the game called kick the can. After the game was over, Yumeji asked Minato if she wanted a little fortune telling. To Yumeji's and Merry's surprise, they see that Minato was about to become a dream demons vessel. They get cought up in a daydream of the dream demon Ichima who was about to make Minato her vessel. When Merry was about to stop Ichima she notices that Yumeji entered the daydream as well, which surprised her. Despite this, she defeated Ichima and saved Minato's dream. When they came back from the daydream, Merry questioned Yumeji of how he was able to use this ability and how he was able to predict that Minato was going to be attacked. Yumeji then suggested that they should work together in a team to bring Merry back to the Dreamworld. Merry answered no.

The next day, Merry went to Yumeji's school but she was found out by one of his teachers. Then we see Merry in the karaoke room along with Yumeji and his writing club. He introduces Merry to the rest of his club. Then when Yumeji was in his room playing video games, Merry climbed up the window to his room. There she tried playing his game because Yumeji had a guest waiting downstairs. While playing the game Merry saw Yumeji running outside. She decided to go after him only to find herself in a daydream of the dream demon called Chris. There she defeats Chris and sends him back to the Dreamworld. After the daydream Yumeji thanks Merry for her help. Then Merry decides to stay at Yumeji's house but she would have to work at Isana's father's cafe.

Powers & Abilities
As a dream demon, Merry has the ability to infiltrate daydreams and nightmares. Physically wise, Merry is an extremely skilled fighter, and the only character seen so far to utilize close combat as a means in fighting. Merry is surprising powerful in spite of her looks (as mentioned by Chaser John Doe), capable of defeating foes and crushing stone with only one punch, as well as possessing incredible agility as seen in numerous battles so far.

Strangely enough, Merry is lacking in normal physical endurance such as Yumeji.



While she possesses no special moves/attacks in particular, Merry herself appears to be able to dispell dream demon's abilities with a touch, as seen in her fight against Engi Threepiece when Merry destroys her sword.

Merry can also shift into an entirely different person when in pain, becoming darker and more violent as well as summoning webs of shackles using key rings in each hand - influencing the popular nickname of the mode Gate Keeper Merry. This allows her to destroy anything within a Garden, including the Garden itself. Why Merry possesses such an ability is still unknown, but she is hinted towards being a Gate Keeper between reality and the Dream Worlds so it probably comes with the job.

Merry as the guardian of the boundary between the real world and dream world is revealed to be a special kind of dream demon that possess ability to send dream demons back to the Dreamworld.

Yumeji Fujiwara
The first person Merry meets in the beginning. Yumeji offers his hand in helping her back into the Dreamworld, which Merry refuses at first, but slowly begins to warm up to him. While too embarassed to admit it, Merry is grateful towards Yumeji given her circumstances, and quickly begins to care deeply for him especially after he took a sword to the chest for her.

In Chapter 34, it turns out Merry holds no romantic feelings for Yumeji - rather, he is Merry's raison d'etre, and the one person she looks to for comfort and hope.

Isana Tachibana
Isana and Merry became close friends as the time passed. Merry sometimes likes to watch Isana paint. She is also taking showers with her and advising her how to do things. When Isana's dream was in danger Merry was very concerned about her, as well as Yumeji. Merry would try her hardest to protect Isana.

Engi Threepiece
When Merry and Engi met for the first time, they were enemies. Engi thought that Merry and Yumeji were with Heracles, so she fought them. But when Engi wounded Yumeji, Merry got angry and showed some unknown power. The next time they meet, Engi apologised and then without knowing they became comrades in battles. In the anime for example, when Mistleteinn attacked Isana, Yumeji and Merry, right after the battle they went to Engi for advise.

Trivia

 * The voice of Merry sings the 1st ending song of the Anime.
 * According to the manga series, her concept is based off of a sheep. Some similarities include her pointy ears and rectangular pupils.

Quotes
(To John Doe) "I don't know. When I came to I was abandoned in this world. An unknown sky. Not knowing where or how to get back. Not even dreaming of hope."