Superhero and Supervillain

Chapter 11

As much as Baku loved the night, he hated being outside in daylight. He preferred to spend the daylight hours somewhere else. Where exactly it was, nobody knew.

No one, that is, except Baku himself.

He let out a sigh as he found himself walking down the familiar black-and-white tiled hallway of the monochrome world, searching for a particular door. At last, he found it, the door to what seemed to be a parlor lined with bookshelves, some of which had books on them that had color, a contrast to the colorlessness of the world around them. Baku scanned the shelves before pulling out a well-loved brown book and pouring himself a cup of tea, settling down to enjoy it.

Rin and Luka...what beautiful, vivid dreams they had! They were different from Miku's, true, but that was what made them unique. Baku was sure their dreams would make a delicious meal for him. This wouldn't be any ordinary meal. It would be a feast.

Yet Baku's mind wasn't only on eating. Oh no, no. There was something else he did with the dreams besides consuming them. Every full moon when he came to collect, he left behind one single part of the dream, the brightest, most beautiful part. No one knew exactly what he did with that dream. Some thought he was saving the best for last. Others theorized he collected them as a hobby. All of those ideas, however, were wrong.

The dreams weren't for him. They were for someone else.

Baku's face grew a bit sad as he thought of her. Nemuri. His precious one, his Sleeping Princess, his only. Sweeter than the sweetest dream, more beautiful than the most brilliant night sky. He collected them, dreams in the form of roses, for her. In the hope that someday, one of them might make her finally awaken.

As Baku was sitting and enjoying tea, a smile spread across his face. Because he thought that maybe, just maybe, one of those girls' dreams might be the one to make her open her eyes.

The one that would finally wake her.