The Touched Dream
—

“…Why are there doors here?”

Leah, ever cautious, summoned her staff from her ring, gripping the Staff of Ancient Flame tightly. She instinctively adopted an offensive stance, scouting her surroundings. But… there was nothing. In the early spring forest, most trees had yet to sprout leaves, and even at night, looking up, she could see the “moon” through the sparse branches.

She was acutely aware of her location: deep within the suburban mountain forest, off the main path, sparsely populated. If someone intended to harm a witch using some method—though that sounded rather laughable, who would be bold enough to try to harm a witch through a mere trick?

“But… someone who knows that ghost story, and has experienced the ghost story I personally used…”
Only he… it must be.

“And, now, in the outside world, someone who knows what a Witch Coin looks like, besides witches themselves…”
Only he… it must be.

“And, someone who can make my magic circuits move again and burn again…”
Still only he… it must be.

Leah clutched the coin in her hand. Just as the two of them had met because of a simple witch coin. As she held this coin again, and as numerous clues pointed to that one answer, she had already prepared herself internally. Leah continuously chanted the “perhaps there’s a slim possibility” outcome in her mind.

She walked step by step towards the door. She felt her heartbeat quicken with each step she took on the moss-covered forest ground. From two beats per step, to three, then to four.

“You’re actually waiting for me behind this door… aren’t you?”

Leah stood at the doorway. She could already hear the ceaseless pounding of her heart in her chest, as if a drum had been placed there, beating, beating, beating relentlessly. Even without thinking, without needing her brain to analyze, Leah would still… reach out… choose one of the Two Doors, and then, without hesitation, regardless of what lay inside, walk straight in.

—

She felt herself step into an expanse of nothingness. Like falling asleep, she slowly lay down on soft clouds, entering a bright “Dream.”

A dream. Leah realized she hadn’t dreamed in a long time. Even the chance to revisit her past with him in a dream, or to meet him again in a dream, had never occurred.

“So, in the end, it was just a dream…?”

“I guess so. After all, getting bumped on the arm, then receiving a witch coin, and walking into a mountain forest to find two doors like something out of a ghost story…”
“What was I even expecting?”

“This sounds more like… a messy, disjointed dream with no beginning, doesn’t it?”
“Perhaps… perhaps I’m lying on the luxurious bed in the inn right now, smiling to myself, thinking I’ll see him again.”

Leah stood in a pure white “space.” After realizing it was a dream, she stopped searching and became much calmer.

“But… if it’s a dream, at least… even just a glimpse, let me…”

“Teacher Leah?”

“…Huh?!”

Her monologue was cut short. She took a deep breath and slowly turned. In a pure white space, she saw the person she had “longed for in her dreams.”

Will stood there, wearing the Entark First Academy uniform, the one he only wore for major events. His dark blue glasses made him look like a perfect, well-behaved student from every angle. He spoke those four words in his usual slightly sweet tone.

Indeed, it was what she had longed for in her dreams. Because she must be in a “dream” right now. Even knowing he was an unreachable person, someone who wouldn’t come back, someone only in a dream, Leah still spoke to him—

“I-It’s you. A-Alright, I knew you… you would still appear here.”

“Teacher Leah, are you crying?”

“N-No. Am I… am I the kind of person who would cry tears of joy just because I saw… someone I missed terribly but could never come back… in a dream?”

“Mm-hmm, I think Teacher Leah is—and if that person were me, wouldn’t it be even better?”

“Alright, since, since you put it that way… I admit it—”

Leah took two steps forward, leaning her head gently against his chest. The once frail student who was often bullied in class now had such a sturdy, dependable chest. She twitched her nose, wondering if she could smell the faint fragrance of his clothes again in this dream.

“I… I actually…”
Since he had already seen her crying, there was nothing left to hide. Moreover, she was no longer the witch who always avoided her feelings, always refused to face emotions related to interacting with people. What needed to be said had to be said—

“I actually missed you so much, so, so much. Every day since you left, I’ve thought of you, wishing I could see you again one day.”
“If possible… even if there’s just a tiny possibility…”
“Can you come back to me?”
“I don’t want to… I don’t want to endure magic circuits that won’t boil, I don’t want to endure this deathly quiet feeling anymore!”

Leah cried louder, shouting out her belated “confession.”

But… she felt… a strange scent from his body as her nose approached his clothes… The “heartbeat” sound, which should have been utterly impossible to hear in a dream, echoed through the entire space like background noise in her ears after she twitched her nose.

Thump, thump, thump, thump, thump.

…What… what’s happening?

The white room before her began to collapse uncontrollably, especially from the edges, where something like blood welled up, little by little, unstoppably. This blood was black, slowly rising, slowly surging, slowly submerging the small space where the two stood.

“Teacher Leah, I’ve actually always wanted to ask you a question…”

She looked up, hearing Will’s voice as if through a filter.

“…W-What…?”

“As a witch, if there’s someone you can’t have, how would you go about possessing them?”

“Huh?”

Will’s figure seemed to slowly dissolve into the surging darkness.

“Is it… by making every sensation in their body unable to leave you?”
“Or… by making their heart completely and utterly yours?”
“Or perhaps…”

A blood-stained hand climbed onto Leah’s cheek. The sticky sensation made her instinctively recoil, but she found she couldn’t escape.

“…By making them gaze at you even in death?”

Like a nightmare, his face plunged into the sanguine darkness.

Leah instantly opened her eyes. She had woken from a dream.

Splash—

Something was constantly pouring down on her head. It felt viscous, and the scent was very similar to Bloodmint Essence. Most importantly…

“Ha… ha… ha…”

What was going on? The capillaries beneath her skin began to burn. From her heart, blood was ceaselessly, ceaselessly pumped to her fingertips.

Thump, thump, thump, thump, thump.

The “heartbeat” that had been unclear in her dream was now so distinctly replaying in her ears, even seeming to churn her brain, pounding her eardrums.

“I… I’m tied up…?”

She tried to move, but found herself firmly bound to a chair. Not just her hands; her entire body was tightly bound with at least five turns of rope.

Even stranger was… what was this something binding her? Her skin must be incredibly hot right now. Her palms, without even needing to activate her circuits or chant, could effortlessly conjure high-temperature fireballs… But these things seemed useless against the ropes binding her.

“Mm~ Those two muttered words in your sleep were so sweet and fragrant. Now that you’re awake, why don’t you say them louder? Slowly tell me, tell me you missed me.”

A slightly hoarse, yet excited voice, came from in front of her. This voice… so… so familiar…

As she thought this, she felt her cheek, especially near her nostril, slide, tasting a viscous liquid that had slipped from her nose to the corner of her mouth. The metallic, rusty taste of blood and the cool, refreshing taste of mint exploded on her tongue instantly.

“…I… I… missed… you…”

She had never experienced this before: her blood, along with her magic circuits, surged wildly. She even spoke the lines commanded by that person, without her own control, from her own mouth.

It was utterly… it was utterly making her want to look up, towards the person making her feel all this…

To crave love madly.

Wait… Could it be… could it be that this wasn’t a dream at all, and the previous dream wasn’t false either… The person now binding her to the chair, even pouring some liquid, purer and more stimulating than Bloodmint Essence, onto her head—

“Very good. Your expression now is very cute. As expected, Teacher Leah is the cutest witch in the world~”

Her chin was firmly grasped. Despite the rough action, her body trembled more from “excitement.” She half-opened her eyes.

“Surprised? Unexpected? Happy? Your dear student, the student you kept murmuring about missing in your sleep, is right here, you know?”

He snapped his fingers.

The pounding of her heart, the surging of her blood, the activity of her brain nerves, and the burning sound of her magic circuits… at this moment, filled Leah’s mind.

She opened her red eyes wide. At such a close distance, where she could almost touch his lips by just looking up slightly…

Her good student, her first one-on-one disciple, Will, whom she had thought dead months ago…

Stood here.

Completely unlike the last time she saw him months ago. His face was almost entirely hidden beneath a black hood, and the visible parts were exceptionally pale, even overly thin, like a vampire who hadn’t seen sunlight in years. One of his eyes was purple, the other deep blue. He no longer wore framed glasses, but a blue right-eye monocle—this changed him from a “well-behaved” good student to a “perverse” bad boy.

But no matter what…

“Will, you… you really… you really…”

More than the fear of being tied up.

More than her body’s violent reaction to these “aphrodisiacs.”

Tears streamed from Leah’s eyes. Her first reaction was uncontrollable emotion.

“…You’re alive?”

—