Master of the Machete Style Manga

Chapter 96 Meeting in a Dream (Seeking First Subscription!)
Keio University, Hiyoshi Campus.

The journey took about an hour, and Ai Hoshihara paid a fare of over 13,000 yen.

Deep inside the research building is a brain science laboratory.

Her former high school friend, Aoi Kobayashi, now a professor of neuroscience at Keio University School of Medicine, along with her three graduate students, Yui Takahashi, Haruka Suzuki, and Anna Inoue, have already prepared the equipment.

Ai Hoshino's main purpose was to monitor her brainwaves and other data when she entered a dream state.

We had already discussed this in detail before, so when Ai Hoshihara came in, we got straight to the point.

Ai Hoshihara walked to the center of the laboratory.

There is a single bed here, and on the low cabinet next to the bed is a helmet-shaped device covered with sensors. Next to it are several vital sign monitoring devices such as electrocardiogram and blood oxygen saturation monitors. All the lines eventually converge on the workstation.

Ai Hoshihara lay on the bed, with Aoi Kobayashi guiding her as her three students put a helmet covered with EEG monitoring electrodes on her.

Then came heart rate patches, pulse oximeter clips...

Sensors were carefully placed in various parts of Ai Hoshihara's body.

The next step is simple: take a nap.

As the laboratory door was gently closed, only the soft hum of the instruments could be heard.

In such an environment, with various devices connected to their bodies, it would be difficult for an ordinary person to fall asleep.

But it's okay for Ai Hoshihara.

She closed her eyes, cleared her mind, and felt her consciousness floating in the void. She fell asleep within minutes.

……

Before me lay a void of darkness, then gradually, a faint light appeared.

Ai Hoshino opened her eyes and looked around with delight.

Success! I entered this familiar dream on my first try.

I confirmed that I was in my bed in an apartment.

Beside her, a boy lay on his side facing her, his eyes tightly closed.

Ken Sakamoto.

This wasn't the first time she'd had a similar dream. These dreams all had one thing in common: she was in the scene, watching the whole thing from her own first-person perspective.

It possesses any sense of sight, hearing, touch, and even the body.

It's as if my current consciousness has returned to another version of myself in another timeline, experiencing things together with her.

After getting used to it a little, you'll find that the whole process doesn't feel jarring.

Her consciousness merged with the consciousness of this body; as long as she relaxed and enjoyed herself, it was no different from controlling her own body.

She has now confirmed the current situation.

One month ago, at noon, she felt as if she had experienced a complete life, and this was one of the scenes.

I was at home with him.

Next, I'll probably lift the covers and take a look at this guy, right?

As Hoshino Ai thought this to herself, sure enough, her body started moving on its own.

I gently lifted the blanket.

Both of them were cool and aloof.

Ai Hoshino gently lowered the blanket and slowly reached out her hand.

The back of her fingers stopped less than a centimeter from the boy's cheek, feeling the warmth emanating from his skin.

Ken Sakamoto was in a deep, limp sleep. Suddenly, the boy's tightly closed eyes opened.

Eyes facing each other.

Hoshino Ai didn't flinch; instead, she smiled slightly at him.

Then, without saying a word, Ken Sakamoto reached out and put his arm around her waist, pulling her into his warm embrace.

Ken Sakamoto buried his face in the crook of her neck, his warm breath brushing against her skin, bringing her a slight tingling sensation.

Although he closed his eyes again, he couldn't hide the fact that he was pretending to be asleep, and Ai Hoshihara hugged him tightly.

What was I thinking back then?

Ai Hoshihara carefully recalled the events and found the corresponding memories within that period.

Hmm... I was thinking, since it's so early in the morning, I shouldn't waste it.

So, next, Ai Hoshihara started to entangle Ken Sakamoto.

The air conditioning in the room was set very low, but I was still sweating profusely.

More than half an hour later, Hoshino Ai finally let him go, satisfied.

She sat lazily on Sakamoto Ken's lap, her arms wrapped around the back of his neck, carefully examining his face.

His eyebrows, his nose, the curve of his lips—everything was exactly the same as I remembered.

This experience was magical; the scenes from her memory reappeared, and she enjoyed them from beginning to end.

To use the most apt analogy, it's like watching a movie where her perspective is tied to the female lead, and she can completely share in her feelings.

This kind of experience is completely different from the dream I had during my last afternoon nap.

During her last afternoon nap, she also saw Ah Jian in her dream, but she was able to move freely, and Ah Jian's reaction did not follow the events in her memory.

Ai Hoshihara discovered that when "she" turned to look out the window, she focused her mind, trying to make out the outline of the Tokyo Tower in the distance.

Only the general shape can be seen; there are no details whatsoever.

Then she looked at a book on the bedside table, trying to see the words on the cover, but found that the words were distorted and indistinguishable, as if they had been pixelated.

This is exactly the same as the memory from the "future" in her mind.

You can clearly see Ken Sakamoto's face, but apart from that, most other things are shrouded in a thick fog.

It's as if the world's computing power is limited, and all resources are allocated to him; the less related things are to him, the more blurred they become.

Ai Hoshino immediately realized that the dream she was in now was completely different from the one she had seen during her last afternoon nap, even though both involved Ken Sakamoto.

However, we will have to wait until we wake up and review the monitoring data from the previous night to draw a conclusion about the specific differences.

However, since we're already here...

The moment she had that thought, her body reacted exactly as she had predicted, revealing a mischievous smile to Sakamoto Ken, leaning down and kissing him.

……

"Thump, thump, thump! Thump, thump, thump!"

As the alarm clock rang, Ai Hoshihara felt a slight sense of detachment. Now, as long as she focused her attention on the alarm clock's ringing, she could escape the dream.

Just like the dream I had during my last afternoon nap, the sounds seemed to be coming from all directions.

She originally wanted to wait for the alarm to stop automatically so she could continue enjoying the dream, but then she considered that Yui Takahashi and the others, as well as Aoi Kobayashi, would be coming to the lab later.

If I were to do so many intense things in my dream, and my body were to become restless while lying in bed in reality, wouldn't it be incredibly embarrassing if they saw me?
With a thought, Xingyuan focused her attention on the ringtone, and everything in front of her began to distort, quickly turning into darkness.

After a while, Ai Hoshihara woke up from her deep sleep.

(End of this chapter)