novelhk Chapter 218 The Solution - The Prison of Dream Erosion
Chapter 218 The Solution - The Prison of Dream Erosion
Chapter 219 The Solution - Dream-Eroded Prison
"By setting aside the mysteries nested together by misunderstandings and eliminating various fantastical theories without any real basis, the truth behind the scenes becomes clear. By simply listing the following key points of doubt, we can roughly outline the overall shape of the event."
After revealing the most important mystery, Azure began to explain her reasoning in an orderly manner: "First, it is known that some kind of anomaly is changing Sachiko's cognitive abilities in a long-term manner, and causing this little girl to disappear from the class from time to time. So how exactly is this done? Since there is such a long-term effect, does this mean that the source of the effect is located in Sachiko's daily life?"
"Secondly, if we make a reasonable inference about the first point of doubt, we will find that Sachiko's daily activities are limited to only two areas: home and preschool. However, the disappearances only occur frequently within the school, while the inability to see her parents is a constant occurrence. Does this mean that the real abnormality lies in the disappearances, not in the 'ignoring'? Does the real distortion of the incident lie in Sachiko's intermittent disappearances at school, with the inability to see her parents merely an indirect side effect? Is the problem occurring within the school rather than at home?"
"Third, if the source is within the school, then another obvious question arises: how did the guy who influenced Sachiko get close to the girl without her noticing? And how did he change her perception?"
"Fourth, if we make a reasonable assumption about the third point of doubt, we can easily guess that it might be caused by some Pokémon with psychic abilities, since altering cognition and teleportation are skills that psychic Pokémon excel at. So, if the culprit is a Pokémon with the ability to alter cognition, what is its purpose in doing so?"
"Fifth, and the final mystery: why, out of hundreds of children in such a large school, was only Sachiko the one who encountered this unusual phenomenon? What unusual qualities did she possess that attracted this Pokémon? Is there some connection between these qualities and the habits of that mysterious Pokémon?"
Now that the Kuribayashi couple knows the truth, they can easily understand the reasoning that Azure explained about Sachiko's "dream," which attracted the Dream Eater, who feeds on dreams.
This dream-like creature had long resided inside the classroom, its colorless smoke concealing its presence. When Sachiko disappeared, she was still inside the classroom, only dragged into the mist by the Dream Eater, thus remaining undetected. The Dream Eater did this to devour the "dreams" accumulated on the girl's body.
Because Sachiko constantly fantasizes about living in two separate worlds, she unconsciously divides her perceived world in two.
Each of them carries her perception of her father and mother. Therefore, when she is "devoured by dreams," she will develop a cognitive impairment that prevents her from recognizing her parents.
This cognitive impairment was initially intermittent, but the effects of "dream eating" only confirmed the girl's fantasies, creating a vicious cycle that escalated. As Sachiko became more convinced of her fantasies, her dreams and reality merged more thoroughly, and her cognitive world was increasingly eroded.
So why does the Dream Eater only target Sachiko? Another Dream Eater can float to the window of a student dormitory to absorb dreams, and can also fly to the clock tower to sunbathe and take a nap. Why does this Dream Eater only target Sachiko?
This is because it was locked up, locked in a classroom that only students would enter for classes.
Therefore, apart from the dreams on Sachiko's body, the smaller Dream Eater had no other food to satisfy its hunger.
In many contexts, "safety" and "freedom" are antonyms—safety means restraint, while freedom means danger.
In this incident, the various architectural designs originally intended to protect children's safety became prisons blocking Mengmengshi's path to freedom.
Ironically, in the Warriors Eagles incident, the sloppy safety design of the residential building became the root cause of the tragic fall, while in this incident, the overly comprehensive safety design of the preschool became an indirect factor that prevented Sachiko from seeing her parents.
"The whole thing started when Momo entered this class. At a time when Sachiko was in turmoil because of the cold war between you and her husband, the little girl was emitting a dreamlike aura that attracted Dream Eater Pokémon. Momo was lured into the preschool."
Azure released the two Eevee Pokémon, allowing the pink Pokémon to float on either side of the ground, and explained the cause and effect she had deduced to everyone.
"Of course, even this smaller Misty, in its current state, couldn't possibly squeeze through the classroom window bars. The security bars here are specifically designed to prevent children from climbing over them; even small children can't squeeze through, so these chubby Pokémon certainly can't get in. And this school is so focused on security that teachers lock the classroom doors after school or during outdoor activities. Misty can't use 'Teleport,' so trying to walk through the classroom door and swagger in during school hours is simply wishful thinking. But one..."
The detective raised her right index finger.
"What if Mengmengshi wasn't Mengmengshi when she entered the classroom?"
Beyond the old clock tower, the city is changing rapidly, with brand-new school buildings rising from the ground, where groups of different children spend their precious childhood. But the clock tower remains as steadfast as an anchor for the world.
Similarly, within the prison-like confines of a classroom, nothing can remain unchanged forever. A tiny sprite that accidentally slips through the barriers may, through a series of intertwined coincidences, undergo a transformation as vast as the changing of the world.
A flash of inspiration struck me atop the clock tower, and that was exactly what came to mind.
Evolution 1 is a strange phenomenon that occurs in most Pokémon during their growth process, except for a few Pokémon whose evolution method has not yet been discovered.
Whether by chance, naturally, or through the accumulation of experience under certain conditions, evolved Pokémon can gain a new form, enhance their abilities in various aspects, and learn new skills.
However, while there are exceptions like Mega Evolution, Pokémon evolution is generally irreversible.
Once a Pokémon has evolved, it cannot revert to its pre-evolution state.
"Before entering the classroom, this Dream Eater hadn't evolved yet; it was just a Dream Eater. Judging from its current size, which is much smaller than its kind, its size during its degenerate stage must have been much smaller than other Pokémon of the same kind. It might have just hatched from its egg not long ago. In any case, at that time, as a Dream Eater, it could easily squeeze through the window railing and silently float into Sachiko's classroom."
Azure squeezed the small Dream Eater beside her and continued, "Following the scent of dreams into the classroom, after discovering that Sachiko could dream even while awake, Dream Eater, out of gluttony, curiosity, or simply a desire to help Sachiko trapped in her fantasies, used its 'Dream Eater' skill on the girl, which could clear her nightmares. Just then, an accident occurred."
The detective pointed to the amulet that Sachiko was wearing.
"In order to help your daughter wake up from her fantasy as soon as possible, you gave Sachiko a moonstone amulet that could calm her mind and ward off evil spirits. It was this item that trapped Dream Eater in Sachiko's class."
"Moonstone, is this the condition for the evolution of Dream Eclipse?"
Mr. Kuribayashi's voice trembled as he looked at Sachiko beside him with a face full of regret.
He was the one who gave the amulet to his daughter in the first place. At that time, she hadn't shown any unusual behavior; she simply naively believed her parents' words and mistook her fantasies for reality. He hoped to use the power of this special item to restore everything to normal, but instead, the situation only worsened.
"Yes." As a seasoned Picoshi zookeeper, the detective nodded.
"In the Kanto region, there is a Mt. Tsukimi, where moonstones are abundant. Clefairy, who live in Mt. Tsukimi, will try to avoid the stones scattered in the caves before they grow up. Only when they grow to a certain size will they evolve together with their companions in a special ceremony on the night of the full moon, becoming Clefairy with pink wings. Most other Pokémon that evolve by special items are like this. Although evolution makes Pokémon stronger in a short time, evolving too early can easily cause malnutrition and slow growth. Therefore, they will suppress their urge to grow until they reach adulthood before going out to find evolution items."
Azure sighed and concluded her speech.
"However, during its contact with Sachiko, this Dream Eater accidentally touched the Moonstone Amulet, causing itself to evolve. Growing to nearly a meter in size, it could no longer escape from this classroom."
Just as a clenched fist can no longer pass through the narrow opening of a bottle when reaching into it to grab something, the evolved Dream Eater's size increases instantly, making it unable to freely pass through the gaps between security fences like Dream Eater.
Beyond the gaps in the window bars were locked doors and the watchful eyes of the teacher during class. For Mengmengshi, this place had become a classroom chamber from which she could neither escape, climb over, nor get out.
"But—" Sachiko's father still couldn't understand and pressed on, "Besides the window, doesn't it have any other way to leave this classroom? Isn't Evoque a Psychic Pokémon? Even if it can't teleport, can't it use psychic powers to turn the door latch or use hypnosis to make the people inside open the door for it?"
"I'm sorry." Azure shrugged.
"As you saw when you entered, the classroom door isn't a simple deadbolt; it's a sturdy and complex padlock. Little Dream Eater has only recently evolved and is completely incapable of manipulating the mechanisms inside the door—contrary to your expectations, unlocking is not a skill that can be easily learned without instruction; it's truly difficult. As for 'hypnosis,' with its current power, it might be effective on young children who are prone to drowsiness, but it might not work on determined adults. Getting the entire class to fall asleep is absolutely impossible."
"Moreover, this Dream Eater evolved too early. Not only is its experience in using moves not fully mature, but its personality is also not fully developed. Its mind is still in the infancy stage, no different from Dream Eater. Faced with the predicament of being imprisoned, the only solution it can think of is to escape and hide in a corner on the edge of the ceiling, using the fragments of dreams it has digested to cover its body."
This should have been a clumsy attempt to deceive oneself, since Mengmengshi's dreams were mostly either black and gray or pink, and colorless, transparent everyday dreams were even rarer in the dull classroom.
However, both fortunate and unfortunate, the dream it ate from Sachiko was a projection of reality, allowing it to hide perfectly in the classroom until Archaeopteryx's "Clear Fog" completely dispersed it, leaving it nowhere to hide without the cover of the dream.
"Of course, the meager amount of dream fragments it consumes from Sachiko's body each day is far from enough to meet the growth needs of this Dream Eater. It even goes hungry on weekends and holidays. It seems to be completely malnourished now, otherwise it wouldn't have fainted from being startled by my sudden stomp when we first met."
At this point, the incident has been fully explained.
Before the silent Kuribayashi couple and their curious children watching the two dream-eating creatures, Azure stood up again.
"The dream that has been devoured by the Dream Eater cannot be returned. Even if images are exhaled from the smoke, Sachiko will probably only think that they are fragments recording images from a parallel universe, no different from normal video recordings. Therefore, although it is extremely frustrating, my part of the performance in this incident has to end here."
"Miss Azure, what does this mean?"
Lady Kuribayashi asked anxiously, her tone somewhat agitated, which drew the little boy's attention in that direction.
Sachiko quietly watched Mengmengshi, seemingly more interested in the smaller one. Perhaps she was aware of the ill-fated connection between this Mengmengshi and herself—as always, she did not turn to look at her mother.
"The Dream Eater is the culprit behind this abnormal event. Now, as long as I release it from the classroom, it will no longer devour Sachiko's real dreams. Sachiko's perception of her parents should be restored someday. But this is all I can do. The recovery from cognitive impairment cannot be achieved overnight. Just like I said near the school gate, if we want your daughter to rediscover the fact that her parents live in the same world, we need the joint efforts of your whole family in the future."
Lady Kuribayashi opened her mouth as if she wanted to say something more, but her husband stopped her.
"Thank you, Detective Azure. The Kuribayashi family is extremely grateful for your help. The Hugo Detective Agency truly lives up to its reputation for uncovering the truth in just one day. As for the commission fee, we will definitely pay it in full in person afterward."
"I just did my best. It was all thanks to everyone's cooperation that we were able to resolve this so quickly. We can pay the service fee after Sachiko's condition improves."
Azure picked up the two Dreamy Eels again and prepared to leave the classroom with the little boy.
"Miss Azure, will Sachiko really get better?"
Even though she already knew that the detective was not a doctor and could not predict her daughter's recovery, Mrs. Kuribayashi still couldn't help but ask Azure again.
However, this time, the detective turned around and said with a strange smile, "I guess it might recover soon. The world is full of incredible things—hmm, I have a feeling about that."