Yume Tsukai

The story begins with the mysterious disappearance of Kei Mizuno into a rainy classroom having become community discourse to such a degree that the Yume Tsukai are compelled to investigate; the Kayousei Yume Tsukai Rinko Mishima interceding against a nightmare that nearly seduces Yuuka Mori into cooperating with her own abduction becomes a brief practical tutorial about dreams that manifest themselves in ghastly physical form to wreak havoc along with the role of the Yume Tsukai in counteracting them. After a labyrinthine journey to the Warabe Yuusai Toy Store, the Nichiyousei Yume Tsukai Touko Mishima explains Yuuka the situation in more detail with a brief demonstration before Rinko returns with a dream fragment; even after several in-flight paper airplanes, it is still not exactly clear what the deviant diagnostic is. A visit from the girls' aunt Misako ultimately becomes the skeleton key for Touko to learn Yuuka's prologue with Kei along with the insight of what now needs to take place; a fierce battle laden with Shinto ritualistic mechanics later, Yuuka is left with a dangerous opportunity with how she handles her feelings for Kei.

There are very few young children that actually like being in the hospital with all its endemic mechanics such as the painful medical procedures and being away from their parents for protracted periods of time even if there is a good reason for it; still, that is exactly what Setsuko Yasumara is explaining the feverish Touko about her daughter Haru when the annoyed Rinko finally catches up to her. It is not long before the two Yume Tsukai encounter the proactive proximity precautions of Haru's nightmare which proves beyond the available combat capabilities; while Rinko divides her frustration between not getting to Haru and being forced to fight the nightmare alone, Touko has devised a counter-strategy to avail at the next engagement that utilizes an iconoclastic but crucial resource -- the Kinyousei Yume Tsukai Hajime Tachibana who proves himself the skeleton key for successfully approaching Haru for insight as to the situation. While poor Rinko is stuck as a diversion, Hajime quickly makes friends with Haru as he gets right to the heart . . . or in this case, graphite of the matter. Touko now recovered from her cold and galvanized with the data of Haru's collaborative prologue with her parents, it now becomes clear what ultimately has to be done; the nightmare now conquered, Haru realizes the true meaning behind her father's injunction against troubling Setsuko who realizes that it is not her choice whether Haru sees her father.

Being a Yume Tsukai is never a boring job as Rinko has demonstrated unto her when she has barely finished her home commute from school to find a client request as a »Welcome home!!!« present that forces her to mobilize her sleepyhead recluse elder sister Touko for action the next morning. While the chagrined Rinko rails and wails at Touko in frustration, Yuuko Aomori is prosecuting a typical workday when a nightmare spawned by her infatuation with her supervisor Kouji Nagasaki begins to visibly follow her around; galvanized by the circumstances thereof while eating lunch, Touko explains Yuuko her perspective on the deviant diagnostic prior to Rinko easily subduing the nightmare. What the two Yume Tsukai do not realize is that the situation is far more complex than initially meets the eye when the nightmare's fusion with Yuuko ultimately drives home the lesson of why »indecision« is spelled as it is when the nightmare begins wreaking havoc in the office; an emphatic and effulgent demonstration of the Dream Cyclone later, Yuuko goes from lusting after Kouji to herself being lusted after by Kageki Shimane who ironically finds himself the vassal of that same nightmare.

Setting aside her powers as the Kayousei Yume Tsukai, there are many examples bolstering the perspective of Rinko Mishima as no ordinary little girl -- one of which is demonstrated unto a classmate during her home commute from school right into an impromptu afternoon business flight to Kyushu. While Rinko desperately tries to stave off air sickness and wrap her mind around the circumstances, the Doyousei Yume Tsukai Satoka Sagawa is bootstrapping herself for a rendezvous with Touko at the Nagasaki Airport. Grimacing at being forced to show Satoka the ropes of being a Yume Tsukai while Touko takes a catnap, Rinko is frustrated at how clumsily and unprofessionally Satoka does her job when Masashi Nakaoka angrily repulses their incursion; later that evening after extinguishing the subsequent adversarial divergent concourse, Touko explains Rinko her perspective on how things are far more circuitous than meets the eye considering that Satoka is still mourning her fallen boyfriend Satoru Jissouji. Masashi's decision to pre-emptively lash out unto the town the next morning ultimately brings things to a head; in spite of Satoka being of much greater utility in the ensuing melee, neither Rinko nor Touko has a healthy perspective of what responsible dreaming is.

A seemingly innocuous family dinner at the Kisaragi household becomes the forum for little Mayumi's affirmation of a perfect test score to give way to a Sunday trip to the zoo that comes from out of nowhere as if Mayumi's mother had predicted what her husband is going to say obfuscates Hajime's exhibition of his culinary prowess in preparing dinner that night; just as Misako is repulsing Hajime's insult, Mayumi's father arrives at the Warabe Yuusai Toy Store to commission an investigation of what he feels is an ongoing deviant diagnostic. The scant background data of the incident quickly becomes irrelevant when Rinko finds Mayumi home alone in spite of being even younger than Rinko herself and again when Mayumi changes the subject when Rinko inquires about the Daruma doll; unnerved at the prospect of Rinko learning the truth and eventually neutralizing it, the nightmare inquires Rinko her motivations before sending her on her way. Things ultimately come to a head when Touko and Hajime confirm what Rinko is already seeing for herself -- the grandmother Yoriko and her granddaughter's nuclear family frustrated that they cannot understand each other; the nightmare being neutralized with a effulgent discharge of the Dream Cyclone becomes the preamble of both Rinko and Yoriko walking away with a novel and healthy perspective of their respective families

Satoka Sagawa has had demonstrated that she cannot allow her mourning for her boyfriend Satoru Jissouji to impair her performance as a Yume Tsukai against a nightmare but also knows that she has to put her boyfriend's demise into some kind of healthy perspective; to this effect, she writes a letter to Touko signaling her intention to visit Tokyo in search of assistance with something. While Touko takes the exhibitionist color scheme on Satoka's jet and Satoka's excitement in stride, a none-too-amused Rinko takes it upon herself to explain Satoka the historical origins of the Yume Tsukai along with their armaments whose dormant forms are as children's toys and asks that her seniority be acknowledged instead of being behaved toward as a child. Hajime arrives in time to introduce himself as Rinko is leading Satoka to the main house oblivious to Satoka's true reason for being in Tokyo -- a clue of which Touko picks up when Satoka races off after Hajime unwisely demonstrates the mechanics of the Dream Cyclone. Meanwhile, Satoka is about to collapse into despair when Rinko's arrival galvanized by Hajime's insight as to the depicted location becomes the preamble for an exciting adventure through the city demonstrating that Rinko can be just as mischievous as any normal-powered little kid her age when she leads Satoka through a construction site under the nose of its burly foreman that ironically becomes the deus ex machina for the girls to reach their destination. Rinko is quite incensed to ultimately find that Satoka's motive for the mad dash through town is to buy snacks from a store whose dusk consumption is to commemorate a promise made before Satoru's death but acknowledges that a strong bond was formed between the two.

Waking up to find Mizuho Takatsuki in his apartment preparing breakfast for him becomes the forum in which Mizuki Fuyumura proposes cohabitation before making a clumsy culinary mistake as hinted by a previous dream sequence depicting an old injury. Even during the school day, it becomes apparent that Mizuki realizes that he is sailing into very choppy ethical waters that become tempestuous when Mizuho is accosted by a plant monster as she is completing her home commute; in spite of Rinko successfully incinerating the monster, it is but a symptom of a much greater problem in the background as Touko collects Mizuki's band-aid and inquires Mizuho her prologue with Mizuki. Galvanized with the full background data, Touko declares zero hour for rescuing Mizuki only to find that he is punishing himself for his perspective of Mizuho as his paramour in spite of her being his biological sister. Mizuho's fervent pleas against being left behind ultimately become the ironic deus ex machina that causes the nightmare to become frightened for its survival; a fierce battle culminating to a last-minute collaborative fatal assault later, Mizuki arrives at a pragmatic homeostasis with Mizuho to restore the brother-sister relationship.

The traditional nuclear family has demonstrated itself throughout human history that it is the fundamental building block of society; while this dynamic has a record of being constructive, the consequences for the obverse have far-reaching devastation as a girl named Wakaba has demonstrated when her parents constantly lash out at each other with such ferocity that Wakaba wishes to no longer exist as she begins her school commute. Meanwhile Touko and Rinko are using their home commute to exchange perspectives of their previous job when they come across a boy named Kentaro using a rather dubious method to discern Wakaba's status; after a »Whoa, hold your horses!!!« intercession and some teasing from Rinko, what Kentaro and the two Yume Tsukai find is no laughing matter -- Wakaba enveloped inside an egg that is reversing the effects of Wakaba's actions during her lifetime. Desperate for Wakaba's survival, Kentaro races off to find Wakaba's parents with Rinko right on his heels in a bid to intercept the nightmare and prevent its rampage through time all the way to Wakaba's first day of grade school only to be one step behind the whole time. Rinko's observation that Kentaro himself has some memories of Wakaba along with Touko having figured out the mechanics of the whole situation which has come to a head becomes the ultimate skeleton key by which the nightmare is neutralized; as an ancillary bonus, Wakaba successfully attains her first kiss while her family government works things out in a rational and mature fashion.

Because of the reclusive lifestyle she usually leads back at the Warabe Yuusai Toy Store, very few people get acquainted with Touko to truly understand what kind of person she really is aside from when she is out and about in the field; as such, it is a significant event for Touko when Keigo Sakaki approaches her as she admires the view from atop a building while on duty with Rinko investigating a series of mysterious incidents involving Chinese dragons. The investigation gets a big shot in the arm with the insight of Keigo and his girlfriend Yumi; while Touko tries to innovate a deus ex machina to neutralize the nightmare, things continue to deteriorate as the prospect of a flawless citywide fatality ratio becomes evident. Touko is shocked at the ironic epilogue of Keigo ultimately proving himself a cold psychopath that decides upon being eaten by one of his energy dragons as a consolation prize; while the city's survival has been secured, Touko can no longer ignore the traumatic guilt of seeing her father's death at the hands of a nightmare.

Unfortunately for the Yume Tsukai, their leader Touko being out of action as she resolves the events of the previous job in her mind does not lighten their workload as Rinko is commissioned for a job far from home while Misako is left to hold down the fort -- usually a straightforward and uneventful job if not for two men that burst into the store and whisk her away to a warehouse before she has a chance to explain that she is not suited for combat. The section chief explains Misako the three week old situation of Kanno indulging in his fantasy of a buxom-breasted woman at his beck and call along with their being five missing female employees; in spite of comprehending the situation as a Yume Tsukai, it does not prepare Misako for Kanno to callously abandon the nightmare Pai-Pai or for beginning to sympathize with the nightmare that has now taken to pampering her. With Rinko's home commute to take several hours and Pai-Pai thinking of her as lunch, Misako ultimately has no choice but to transcend her contemptuous umbrage of Hajime Tachibana in order to survive.

Upon finding the Warabe Yuusai Toy Store empty, Rinko decides to appraise Touko's status prior to inquiring Misako the applicable deviant diagnostic for Touko's protracted incapacitation; just as the frustrated Rinko decides to shake Touko down for answers, a mysterious girl arrives to commission Touko an investigation at a nearby cavern. Her »go it alone« penance volition now nullified, Touko leads Rinko through their collaborative prologue with their father Michiaki Mishima while en route to the cavern where it is demonstrated that Touko herself is the nightmare's vendetta; the first battle ends with Touko offering herself as a hostage while Hajime hauls the upset and confused Rinko back to the Store along with many questions of how to conquer the nightmare. The frenzy with which Misako, Hajime, Satoka, and Rinko devote their energies to what they each feel should be done next obfuscates the ultimate irony that Touko has developed an intense Electra complex that could become suicidal if left alone on its own.

Unable to accept the prospect of being an only child after Touko sacrifices herself to the despair of her culpability for causing the death of her father Michiaki, Rinko turns her steps toward consulting the dream hall for insight about the nightmare . . . or would have if Hajime had not interjected an injunction about the dangers of such a ritual. Rinko and Hajime resolving their divergent concourse obfuscates Touko reflecting on her prologue with Michiaki as he became absent-minded with his affection for her while he was grieving for the girls' mother; the dysfunctional Electra complex forged by several failed overtures manifested itself into the nightmare whose seduction from which Michiaki fatally protected Touko who became the anemic recluse she is. Wielding the insight of Touko's nightmare, Rinko rushes to the rescue with Hajime and Satoka hot on her heels only to find to her horror that Touko is about to ultimately extinguish her life force along with the nightmare; a refresher course in Michiaki's counsel that dreams are candid but not evil in and of themselves becomes the skeleton key by which Touko leads all the Yume Tsukai in extinguishing her long-standing nightmare along with establishing the practice embracing her dreams for the treasured assets they are.