The dream submersion experiment begins
–Recording begins.
EEG synchronization rate increasing. Heart rate stabilizing.
“Toshio, can you hear me?”
The AI Kai’s voice echoed as if it were somewhere between metal and wind. It was inorganic, yet somehow tinged with a soft gentleness.
Toshio closed his eyes and clasped his hands on the desk.
A faint vibration passed through his fingertips, and a sensation reminiscent of touching the surface of water spread throughout his body.
“I can hear you… Kai.”
The voice trembled, as if at the entrance to a dream.
A single speck of light burst forth in the depths of his vision.
Memories from his childhood—the surface of the river, the shadows of twilight, his mother’s smile.
All were vivid, yet somehow distorted.
“So this is the latent layer…”
Toshio’s inner voice trembled slightly.
Then, as if resonating in the air, another voice appeared.
“When you record a dream, whose memory is it that you are copying?”
–The voice of his supposedly dead mentor, Seiyuu.
It was like an echo rising from the depths of his consciousness, cold yet filled with compassion.
“You are not the only one you see,”
Kai’s voice continued.
“Dreams are a sea of records engraved into the layers of consciousness. Their shape changes depending on who is watching.”
Toshio took a deep breath and slowly adjusted his diving rhythm.
Ripples of light spread throughout his brain, expanding into a mandala shape.
A shadow, whose name he still did not know, flickered faintly there.
–Whose memory was it?
Is the light before him a memory of his mother, or a trace of his mentor?
Or perhaps the consciousness of Zero, whom he had yet to meet.
Toshio’s heart pounded.
He took one step deeper, into the darkness of his subconscious.
And so, the first question was posed to his inner world.
“Whose dream is this…?”
Ripples of light swayed in a mandala shape.
Toshio took a steadying breath and reached out, reaching deeper into his consciousness.
“This is…the deepest layer of memory…”
As he muttered, the air grew cold and heavy.
One of the particles of light turned slightly cloudy black, gazing at him like a lonely eye.
–A shadow.
“…Who is it?”
Toshio couldn’t help but cry out, but his voice was absorbed in his chest.
The shadow slowly took shape.
It was his own form—but his eyes held only anger and fear.
He didn’t smile. He didn’t move. Just his presence clouded the colors of the world.
“…You…?”
Toshio’s voice trembled.
“You yourself.”
–A low, resonant voice split the air.
“The name is Zero. It’s all your suppressed fear and hatred.”
Toshio stepped back.
But it felt as if his feet weren’t even touching the ground.
In a dream, you weren’t free to run or stay put.
“Why am I here…”
The shadow didn’t move. It just stared fixedly at Toshio.
“Reader of the record, and dive into your dreams.
Do you wish to see into the depths of your own being?”
The voice of the AI, Kai, came from afar.
“Warning: Your emotional fluctuations are drastic. You’ve exceeded the safe zone of your latent potential.”
But Toshio closed his eyes and mustered all his strength.
“No, I’m not going yet… I can’t stop here!”
The black shadow, Zero’s, eyes glowed faintly,
swaying like the surface of a river as he answered.
“If that’s really me, then the answer lies within me.”
At that moment, the voice of his mother from his childhood echoed in Toshio’s mind.
A gentle, yet sure light draws him back.
Shadow and light intertwine, bringing his first test in the latent layer.
–A record? A dream? Or perhaps himself?
Toshio’s consciousness sinks ever deeper.
And then, the darkness of the latent layer asks him his first question:
“Whose dream am I dreaming of?”
