I Won't Let Him

Stranger Danger, but not really

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WELCOME TO THE FIELD OF ORCHIDS

MY THOUGHTS WILL FOLLOW YOU INTO YOUR DREAMS

OMORI slowly blinked his eyes open before waking up on a sidewalk over a grassy field.

Sitting up from where he was laying, he looked around to see the field surrounding him filled with White Egret Orchids.

Huh... This place again... Just like before.

In the middle of the field at the end of the sidewalk, a white door appeared. The same white door that allowed him to go inside HIKIKO's HEADSPACE just like last time.

Ah... OMORI was starting to get it now.

The White Egret Orchids... They were what was giving him access to MARI's dreams, weren't they?

Was all of this possible because of the single White Egret Orchid placed on the counter in their room?

Guess BASIL wasn't lying about these things when he said that they could let your thoughts follow into other people's dreams. OMORI never figured that it would be this literal though.

He didn't quite understand how it fully worked. It almost seemed like magic, to be honest.

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No point in questioning it. He should be thankful that it works the way it does at all. Not like there were any other methods of traveling through people's dreams that he was aware of.

Standing up from his spot, he took the time to stretch out his twelve-year-old body before curiously examining himself.

OMORI stretched his fingers out, looking over his pastel-colored frame. Seems like the paint job from before still hasn't worn off yet.

It was almost like she knew everything was going to play out like this... He should make a mental note to thank the MARI from his HEADSPACE for preparing him for this journey beforehand.

Assuming he'll ever see her again, of course. As unlikely as that was.

OMORI stepped up to the white door and placed a hand on it, feeling the grainy texture as his fingers rubbed along the surface.

His sense of touch was back again. Seems like all five of his senses would only be reliable when he was dreaming.

At least he'd be in his top condition while he was venturing forth into the unknown territory of his sister's dreams. That much by itself was a blessing.

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Taking a deep breath, OMORI cleared out his thoughts as he refocused on his mission.

The last time he was in HIKIKO's HEADSPACE, it ended up with them falling overboard in a pink strawberry ocean after encountering a very rude toy robot. He ended up encountering her SOMETHING in the depths of that ocean, and he almost nearly drowned if it wasn't for HIKIKO coming in to save him at the last moment.

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OMORI checked his back pocket, feeling nothing there. He gave a frustrated sigh at that.

He lost his knife during the struggle against SOMETHING, didn't he? Damn it...

Without that knife, he felt naked. How was he going to get his hands on another one?

...

After that, the dream ended prematurely as he was forced to wake up after witnessing what he could only assume was HIKIKO's version of BLACK SPACE. How she ended up there, he didn't know. Why he couldn't interact with anything and was only able to watch, he didn't know.