What do people dream about when they sleep?
Do human dreams represent a brand new journey?
Natsume Sonoko, who'd slept dreamlessly, found such questions difficult to answer.
The drowsy look on her face, however, made it clear she hadn't gotten nearly enough sleep last night.
Of course, the idea that you could figure out something in a sleep-addled state that you couldn't while fully alert was obviously just a story to fool children. The reality was, she'd woken up completely forgetting about the whole matter.
Exploring Phases—that kind of challenging hobby—held little interest for an esper girl who couldn't even make sense of the real world. At most, she considered it a minor diversion in her daily life.
Still, Phases did offer some tangible conveniences. The Lightless Phase and the AIM Diffusion Field Phase, in particular, had solved quite a few of her problems.
That alone was enough to motivate the lazy girl to pay some occasional attention to this perceptual ability itself.
That said, Natsume-san was quite bothered by the distinct sense of revulsion that occasionally emanated from the Lightless Phase. This had led her to focus on this specific Phase far more than any of the others.
To get to the bottom of it, she'd spent many nights attempting to observe the Lightless Phase itself, even straining to deduce the original form of the power it corresponded to.
Lacking sufficient information, Natsume Sonoko's understanding of Phases remained pure guesswork. She had no real idea how they were created or what they represented for this world.
Yet, based solely on that deep-seated revulsion felt in her very soul, Natsume-san knew one thing clearly.
One of her past incarnations—that still unnamed shrine maiden—was most likely the source of this aversion.
Ever since accepting the bizarre premise of having multiple past lives, Natsume-san had learned to take many things in stride. She now grumbled without reservation about that unseen predecessor of hers.
'Just what was she so disgusted by?'
'Aside from having physical rules quite similar to our world, that Phase is just pitch black everywhere.'
Natsume Sonoko, still slightly groggy with sleep, pondered this with some bewilderment. Every time she used the Lightless Phase to activate her microscopic view, that unavoidable wave of disgust came along for the ride.
Sometimes, she really wanted to properly question that gothic lolita—the one even shorter than her—formerly the chairman of the Orbit Portal Company, Ladylee Tangleroad. She wanted to learn more about her own past self.
Besides, she'd even removed a large… gallstone… from her, which was still stuffed somewhere in a box under her dorm bed.
She hadn't even charged her for the procedure.
But after the space elevator incident, that gothic lolita had been hidden away who-knows-where by the Board of Directors. Even the Orbit Portal Company had gone bankrupt and been restructured. A certain Natsume-san, left with no leads, simply couldn't find her.
Just an ordinary Level 5 esper girl, so pitiful she couldn't even track someone down.
'But now that I think about it, I did notice traces of structures inside it. They looked like ancient Japan's architecture. So Phases and the real universe really are connected somehow.'
'Following that thought, the Shrine Maiden-san, wrapped in that thick revulsion within the Lightless Phase, might very well be from ancient times. Maybe from a hundred years ago, or even earlier.'
'And if she knew that gothic girl Ladylee, who knows how old she is, then that possibility becomes even higher.'
Staring at her somewhat scrawny reflection in the mirror as she carefully applied sunscreen, Natsume Sonoko thought this over. She was piecing together clues from the information she already had.
Today wasn't just bright and sunny; it also included P.E. class. If she wasn't careful, the teacher might pull her aside for ability testing or physical assessments, so applying sunscreen was essential.
But back to the topic. The role of a shrine maiden was just so antiquated, to the point that in modern society, it was practically considered a costume.
Outside of cosplay enthusiasts, there was basically no place for such a profession.
When she'd first seen Himegami Aisa-senpai in her miko attire, Natsume-san had felt like she was discovering a new world.
She'd heard that a miko's original duties involved worshipping/sacrificing to so-called gods. But with the advancement of science and technology, all that had been thoroughly debunked.
'God-sama'? 'Takamagahara, the dwelling of the gods'?
All just nonsense concocted by charlatans and fortune-tellers, or perhaps things warped by rumors and hearsay. Anyone who'd received a proper elementary school education wouldn't believe it.
According to current secular thinking, if Shrine Maiden-san's main job back then was worshipping those baffling things, then Natsume-san wanted no part in exploring the dregs of such a superstitious era.
Thinking this far, Natsume-san felt a headache coming on. She suddenly felt there might be a massive generational gap between her and that Miko-san from her past.
'Could it be that what she hated was technology? Wouldn't that make the two of us a fated pair of rivals?'
Natsume-san, the ardent science enthusiast, felt she definitely needed to have a good talk with her other self. She needed to see the essence through the fog and not let her brain be shackled by bizarre urban legends.
In Natsume-san's mind, gods and urban legends were probably about the same thing.
On second thought, she immediately felt her previous line of reasoning was unnecessary. She hadn't found any technological products within the Lightless Phase at all.
There were only some typical ancient Japanese structures there. While there was no light, the scenery was rather quaint, though upon closer inspection, it lacked depth.
Furthermore, Natsume-san had another hypothesis. If the soul is unique, then her own birth into the world could only happen after the Miko-san's death, once she had inherited the soul.
Viewed this way, her own birth and the Miko-san's death were likely directly connected—unless there was some kind of queue for reincarnation in this world.
So, even if the Miko-san was an ancient person, it was entirely possible she had lived into the modern era. Naturally, she wouldn't be unfamiliar with technology.
Pausing briefly, an image flashed in Natsume-san's mind: an elderly, frail Miko-san, peacefully rocking in a recliner, holding a phone and wearing earphones.
The sense of identification surged instantly. This was exactly the daily life Natsume-san yearned for most. Of course, this was just a one-sided daydream from a certain bunned-hair girl.
Shaking her head vigorously, Natsume-san cast aside all these fanciful thoughts. They were getting more and more unrealistic.
Thankfully, she had finished all her pre-departure preparations. Now transformed into a sprightly Tokiwadai young lady, it was time to greet the new day.
"Onee-sama, did you have another nightmare last night?"
"Really? There's such an interesting place in Academy City?"
"Hehe, don't be late for club activities today."
The sound of girls whispering reached her ears. After waiting for Juufuku Miho-san at the next room, a somewhat smug Natsume Sonoko—proud of having woken up early—merged into the grand procession of young ladies.
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T/N: If you want advance chapters, you can find it at [email protected]/AspenTL