Kaito gulps.

  The sound is dry and distinct against the backdrop of murmuring waves, as if he just forced down a jagged rock. Sweat beads on the boy's forehead, glistening under the artificial starlight of the night sky.

  But strangely, the trembling demeanor he usually wears has evaporated. The eyes behind those thick glasses no longer shy away. They bore straight into me, burning with a reckless light that is almost alarming.

  "I'm not scared."

  Kaito speaks, his voice steady despite his ragged breathing. He clenches his fists until his nails dig into his flesh. "Itsuki-sama... you will protect me, right?"

  I shoot the kid a glance and smirk. Not bad. At least in the decisive moment, he didn't choose to wet his pants.

  "Good spirit. Hope you can keep that tough talk when we get down there."

  I nod and hold out my hand in front of them.

  "Give me your hands."

  Waiting for them to extend their hands, I reach behind my fluffy tail to find a spot out of sight so I can save face, grit my teeth, and...

  Yank!

  "Ouch..."

  I grimace while rubbing the spot I just plucked bald, then drop two tufts of pure white fox fur into Kaito and Reo's hands.

  As soon as they leave my body, the tufts immediately glow softly, emitting a faint scent of cherry blossoms and expensive hair oil. They automatically curl and wrap gently around their index fingers like living rings.

  "Keep them safe," I instruct, my voice hardening. "This is your return ticket. Lose it and you become a permanent resident."

  I tap my claw lightly on Kaito's chest. "Earlier, when I possessed you, I planted an invisible anchor right at this surface layer of consciousness. I have a safety line to climb back up at any time."

  Then I turn to Reo, narrowing my eyes. "As for you two, you are stowaways. Down there, my subconscious will crush your consciousness instantly. Without this tuft of fur as a locator, prepare yourselves to become citizens of dreamland forever."

  Reo lifts his hand to examine the glowing fur ring with a skeptical look.

  "Sounds reliable," he pouts. "So what if I go down there and forget who you are or forget what this fur is for?"

  "Then you can just pray my face is impressive enough to be etched into your mind," I reply nonchalantly while dusting off my hands. "Or hope that I have free time to look for lost children."

  "Stop being so narcissistic," Reo clicks his tongue.

  Kaito interjects, looking bewilderedly between Reo and me. "Huh? Aren't we going together? Holding hands and jumping into the hole or something?"

  "Kid, stop watching romance movies," I lightly knock on his head. "We are going to sleep, not going on a picnic. Don't expect to open your eyes and see each other right away. I might be on a mountaintop, you might be in a valley, and Reo here might be hanging from some tree."

  Seeing Kaito's face start turning green, I add another sentence to offer some technical comfort.

  "But relax. The coordinate difference won't be too large. You are holding a part of my body, so according to the principle of Spiritual Gravity, we will be drawn toward each other. As long as you don't let go."

  Explanation done. I don't bother waiting for their reaction before leaning back and flopping onto the smooth sand.

  The sand here is still warm, soft, and perfect for a sleep... within another sleep.

  "What are you standing there for?" I close my eyes, clasping my hands behind my head as a pillow while my tail taps the sand rhythmically. Thump thump. "Lie down. If you want to go to the lower layer, you have to sleep."

  "Sleep... in a dream..." Kaito mutters, looking like he just bit into a raw lime, but then gingerly lies down next to me.

  Reo sighs deeply. His long shadow falls over my face and blocks the starlight.

  "Truly the most bizarre administrative procedure I've ever seen," he grumbles, then reluctantly lies down too.

  The sound of crunching sand fills our ears as three bodies sink into the soft surface. The murmuring of waves gradually becomes distant and distorted, like the sound of an old, scratched vinyl record repeating meaningless noises.

  Darkness slowly descends. Thick and cold. It swallows the fake starry sky above.

  My heavy eyelids flutter open to greet a blinding whiteness.

  There is no bone-chilling cold as I imagined. On the contrary, the layer of snow beneath my back is unreasonably soft, like lying on a luxury goose down mattress. I sit up, shake off the snowflakes clinging to my expensive suit, then gaze into the distance.

  Endless snowy mountains. Deep green pine forests. Crystal clear sky.

  "Truly Premium quality," I mutter, tapping my claw against the freezing air. Clack clack. "This Eternal Snow interface package cost me a fortune in FP on GodShop, but at least it hides the schizophrenic mess underneath well. Better to waste money looking at fake snow than to see the true hideous nature of this subconscious."

  If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

  I push off with my feet and stomp hard on the snow. My body becomes light as I soar into the air, gliding over the old pine tops.

  Time to find those two burdens. They should be lurking around here somewhere, unless they were unlucky enough to fall into some crevice.

  "Kaito?"

  What the hell is that?

  Creatures below are scurrying about, consisting only of truncated upper bodies. Just like the Teke Teke at the station, but instead of dragging themselves miserably, this bunch is doing handstands. They use their long, spindly arms to sprint across the snow like inverted spiders. Their truncated lower bodies sway in the air like flags in the wind.

  "Damn it," I grimace, my tail fur bristling. "What kind of plague has my subconscious caught to produce these monstrosities? I don't remember watching that many B-grade horror movies."

  Fortunately, these monsters seem stupid. They just run back and forth, ramming their heads into tree trunks, tumbling over, then getting up and running again like glitched puppets.

  Just as I am about to fly elsewhere...

  "AAAAAAHH!!! HELP MEEEEE!!!"

  This high-pitched tenor scream full of despair... definitely Kaito. Unmistakable.

  I dash toward the scream. And the scene that unfolds before my eyes makes me want to both laugh and bury my face in my hands out of secondhand embarrassment.

  Kaito is running for his life on the snow, his arms flailing wildly, his face smeared with tears and snot. Hot on his heels is a whole platoon of "inverted hand-walkers" charging with fervent momentum.

  "Tsk," I click my tongue. "Foreign contaminant."

  In this world, Kaito is no different from a glowing foreign bacteria. Those monsters, despite being brainless, have an "immune system" instinct that makes them crave the distinct scent radiating from the boy.

  Thud.

  A spindly hand grabs Kaito's calf tightly.

  "Yikes!"

  Kaito falls face-first into the snow. The boy turns over and kicks wildly, but the monster quickly crawls on top of him. It plants two hands on Kaito's chest, bringing its bald, pale head close to the boy's face. No eyes. No nose. Just blank skin. It tilts its head. Sniff sniff.

  I grimace, feeling my stomach turn.

  "Shit, why is my subconscious so perverted? It looks disgusting."

  Unable to stand watching my disciple being manhandled by my own imagination any longer, I swing my arm.

  "BEGONE!"

  An invisible shockwave crashes down like a sledgehammer. The monsters swarming around Kaito are blown away, slamming into tree trunks and exploding into puffs of black smoke.

  I land softly next to the panting boy.

  "Kaito!" I call out loudly, shaking his shoulder hard.

  The kid lies still. His eyes are wide open and staring at the sky. His mouth is slightly agape, a stream of drool running down his cheek. His face looks dazed, strangely high, as if he just downed a bottle of strong liquor.

  "Hey kid!" I slap his cheek hard enough to sting. "Wake up! Do you remember who I am?"

  Kaito blinks slowly, turning to look at me.

  "Umm..." He drawls, sounding strangely innocent. "I... tsu... ki... sama?"

  "Good. Still remembers the name," I sigh in relief, grabbing his collar and hauling him up to a sitting position. "But why are you answering so slowly? Hesitating about something?"

  Kaito shakes his head vigorously, then nods, looking confused as his finger taps his temple.

  "It's just..." He frowns. "I have to load my brain for about two seconds to remember that name attached to your face. It feels like... it keeps slipping away somewhere."

  Saying that, the boy looks around the white snowy forest, then looks up at me with eyes innocent of all crimes.

  "But say, Itsuki-sama... Why are we here? Skiing?"

  Looking at Kaito's dopey face and glazed eyes like a soulless doll, I know for a fact that his brain is already fried. Lecturing him on spatial theory or dream principles now would be less effective than teaching a fish to ski.

  "Forget it. No explanation needed."

  I wave my hand, my tail slapping the snow in frustration.

  Without another word, I grab the collar of Kaito's coat and drag him along like a sack of potatoes.

  "Let's find your teacher first. Stand here any longer and you'll grow roots."

  "But Itsuki-sama," Kaito stumbles along, feet tangling, mouth still mumbling like a jammed cassette tape. "Why are we skiing? I remember... I remember forgetting my skis at the station..."

  "Do you have an obsession with skis?" I snap, stopping abruptly.

  I grab his wrist and shove the white fur ring right in front of his thick glasses.

  "Look at this! Look closely! Does your goldfish brain spark any data?"

  Kaito squints. He tilts his head to the left, then to the right, sticking his nose into his finger to sniff. Sniff sniff.

  "Hmm? What is this... hairy thing?" He rotates the ring, looking dumbfounded. "Looks familiar... Like dog hair... or the neighbor's cat hair?"

  I slap my forehead. Fantastic. The memory anchor seems to be thoroughly battered by brainwave interference.

  "So do you remember why Kujo Reo, your dark math teacher, isn't with us?"

  "Sensei?" Kaito looks up at the white sky, mouth gaping to catch snow. "Umm... He... went to buy soda at the vending machine... right?"

  I let go of his hand. Hopeless.

  "Alright. Silence. And stick close to me," I order curtly. "If you get lost, I'll leave you for those hand-people to drag away as a toy."

  The two of us trudge through the ancient pine forest.

  The silence is eerie. Only the crunch... crunch... of shoes crushing the soft snow.

  Busy scanning the chaotic aura around to find Reo, I completely forget the little tail behind me.

  After walking for a while, the crunching sound behind my back suddenly stops.

  My neck goes cold.

  "This kid..."

  I whip around.

  Empty. Only patchy footprints remain on the white snow.

  "Itsuki-sama!"

  A frantic call rings out from afar, beneath the canopy of an ancient pine tree weighed down by snow.

  Kaito is standing there. Motionless. His trembling finger points at a black object half-buried under the tree root.

  "What is it now?" I grumble, gliding over to land right next to the boy. "My subconscious isn't a gallery for you to stand around admiring the exhibits, you know?"

  "This statue..." Kaito whispers, eyes glued to the strange object, not blinking once.

  I look in the direction of his finger. A grey stone fox statue, only about knee-high.

  It is dressed properly, not naked like the stone foxes guarding Inari shrines. It wears an ancient Kariginu with soft folds, exquisite down to every stitch, identical to the outfit I wore a few hundred years ago.

  But when looking up at the face...

  No face.

  Where the sly squinting eyes or the proud long muzzle should be, there is only a pitch-black hole. Shattered.

  Jagged cracks spread out around that black hole like a spiderweb. It feels like that face was smashed from the inside by a hammer.

  "Don't look," I say quickly, turning my face away, trying to suppress the uncomfortable feeling pressing in my chest. "Just data junk. The deeper you go, the more distorted the images become. The brain is making up nonsense."

  "But..." Kaito reaches out as if hypnotized, his trembling fingers about to touch that deep black hole.

  "Don't touch it!"

  I shout, making the boy jump and retract his hand as if burned.

  Just as the tension is taut as a string, heavy and rapid footsteps thunder out to break the bizarre silence.

  "Huff... huff... Hey... Itsuki-sama...!"

  From behind the line of pine trees, a figure bursts out.

  The teacher looms into view, panting like a buffalo, hands resting on his knees. He is still wearing that gaudy tropical beach floral shirt, completely out of place amidst the white snow.

  On his forehead, sweat runs down and steams in the cold air.

  "Where... where the hell did you run off to?" He looks up, wheezing and grumbling, his face beet red. "I just turned around... and you vanished... Made me run out of breath looking for you!"