This entry is part 12 of 26 in the series Dreamfic Series

Chapter 2: Books!

Next thing Hikaru knew was Koibito passing out right in the middle of a sen­tence. Hikaru caught her and tried to wake her up again. “Koibito! Koibi! Are you alright? Wake up!”

Her frantic screech­ing was inter­rup­ted by Yuugi, who tugged at her arm once again. “Hika-chan… I think some­thing is wrong…” Hikaru was about to tell Yuugi that she knew that, that she wasn’t stu­pid, when she turned around to face him and saw that every­body around them was lay­ing on the ground.

No move­ment. Nowhere was a single per­son still awake. Koibito mur­mured some­thing Hikaru couldn’t quite under­stand, but Yuugi seemed to get it. “Are they all asleep? Koibito looks like she’s dreaming…”

Dream­ing. This was all way too famil­iar for Hikaru. And it all became even worse when she hearde a voice scream at her.

Hey, kiddo! Over here!”

Both Hikaru and Yuugi looked at the woman on a bicycle, wav­ing at them. “Do you know her?”, Yuugi asked. Hikaru nod­ded. “She’s the lib­rar­ian, Chihon.”

-

Ridicu­lous! I was just out to get some tea!”

Chi­hon was angry instead of wor­ried, it seemed. “I knew I could just have taken advant­age of it and walk out without pay­ing, but that would not end right. I’m sure of it.”

Would not end right? So this is a good end? What even happened?”, Hikaru replied. “The virus spread to the real world.”, Chi­hon replied. “At least, this is my the­ory, see­ing the symp­toms are the same as what you described to me.” She paused, sit­ting down on a chair. “There was a weird noise, but seem­ingly we three are unaf­fected?” Hikaru nod­ded. “I heard the noise too…”, she said.

At that moment, Yuugi said: “What virus? Is every­body ill?”

Both females looked at him. Chi­hon was about to yell at him, when Hikaru motioned her to stay silent. “There is a com­puter virus spread­ing. But it’s also spread­ing to real people right now.”

That’s… Pretty sci-fi.”, Yuugi said. “Good thing I didn’t catch it!”

Silence.

Hikaru cleared her throat. “You did, actually.”

Silence again.

That is why Haruki opened you up. And why you couldn’t remem­ber any­thing about the last weeks.”

Silence, once more.

So I am immune now?”, Yuugi asked. “I have no clue.”, Hikaru replied. “Well, it didn’t spread to me, but then again I never use the inter­net.”, Chi­hon said calmly. “HOW DO YOU SURVIVE?”, Yuugi replied loudly. Chi­hon just shrugged. “Books.”

Okay so you didn’t get it because you have no inter­net, Yuugi already had it once and doesn’t remem­ber it… But why am I not dream­ing?”, Hikaru muttered. “Maybe because-“

She stopped mid-sentence, look­ing at Yuugi, who tilted his head in confusion.

Well, your sys­tems asked me for help when you were infec­ted…”, Hikaru explained to him. “Your brother prob­ably copied infec­ted files to inspect them and did some­thing wrong.”, Chi­hon stated, cross­ing her arms. “He’s been wrong before.” Hikaru glared at her, get­ting ready to counter, but Yuugi stopped her. “So… You were infec­ted too?” Hikaru shook her head. “Only affected, if you under­stand what I mean.”

Yuugi nod­ded and sighed in reply. “For once, I want to be a book…”

And Hikaru hugged him in reply. “I do not.”, she told him.

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