Chapter 341: Nightmare
Among them was Souichiro.
Even Kazuhiro. Gone too.
And then, the faces that made Kouhei’s stomach twist and his heart clench so painfully he thought it might rip apart.
The members of his own faction.
Hina...
Aria...
Nagisa...
Mizusu...
All of them. Every single one. Dead.
"Wh... What...?" Kouhei’s voice cracked again, but this time it was empty. His mind couldn’t piece it together. He couldn’t accept it. The horror was so absolute that even the meaning of words slipped through his fingers.
He couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t think. All he could do was stare, his chest tight like his world collapsing around him as he held Yuuna’s body tighter and tighter, as though that could anchor him in this nightmare.
And then, through the suffocating silence, came a sound. A faint shifting. It was a groan of rubble being pushed aside.
Kouhei’s head snapped toward it instantly. His heart skipped, hope and dread colliding violently in his chest.
From beneath a heap of broken concrete and twisted steel, a figure stirred.
It was Kozue.
Her body was barely holding on. Her skin pale, blood pouring from wounds that no human should have survived. She looked broken in every sense of the word, her life hanging by the thinnest of threads.
"Touyama-san!" Kouhei shouted, his voice breaking as he rushed toward her.
She lifted her head slowly, painfully, her face streaked with blood and dirt. Her eyes, once so full of life, now glared at him with something that pierced him deeper than any blade ever could.
"T-This... is your fault..." Her voice trembled, but the words carried weight.
"Huh...?" Kouhei froze, his body rigid, his breath caught in his throat.
"This is your fault!" she screamed, her voice raw, the hatred spilling out with every syllable. "If it wasn’t for you... we’d all still be alive!"
***
Kouhei woke up from that nightmare with the unsettling, almost violent sensation of someone shaking him awake. His mind was still half-stuck in that horrifying place, the nightmare clinging to him like chains that refused to break.
"Kouhei-kun! Kouhei-kun!"
The voice was frantic, trembling with worry, and when his vision finally focused, he saw Yuuna’s face right in front of him. Her hands were gripping his shoulders tightly, shaking him as if to pull him out of whatever darkness he had been trapped in.
The moment Kouhei’s eyes landed on her—alive, warm, and right there in front of him—a tidal wave of relief crashed into him so hard it almost broke him. His chest heaved, his throat tightened, and before he even realized it, tears spilled uncontrollably down his face. It wasn’t just relief—it was a desperate, almost painful kind of reassurance, like seeing a light in the middle of endless darkness.
He sucked in ragged breaths, his lungs burning like he had just sprinted across the entire world.
Even though he had been "sleeping," it looked nothing like rest. His body was drenched, soaked in cold sweat, clinging to his skin as if he had run a grueling marathon in the dead of night. The sheets beneath him were damp, and his hair stuck to his forehead. His whole body trembled, his muscles tense as if he had been fighting for his life even in slumber.
"K-Kouhei-kun, what happened? I heard you calling my name, but..." Yuuna’s voice cracked slightly as she looked at him, concern etched deep in her eyes. "Did something happen in your dream?"
But Kouhei didn’t answer. He couldn’t. The memory of Yuuna’s lifeless body in that nightmare was carved too deeply into him, so sharp and vivid that it refused to fade, even now that he was awake. The sight of her lying dead haunted his mind like a scar that wouldn’t close.
He broke.
Without saying a word, he lunged forward and wrapped his arms around her, clinging to her tightly as if letting go even for a second would make her vanish all over again.
"K-Kouhei-kun?!" Yuuna’s eyes widened at the sudden embrace. His grip on her was so strong, so desperate, it took her a moment to process it.
But then... she felt it.
His body was shaking.
Not lightly—but violently. Every part of him trembled against her, his arms clutching her like he was drowning and she was the only thing keeping him afloat. The realization hit her hard. Kouhei wasn’t just holding her. He was afraid. Terrified.
Yuuna knew that feeling all too well.
She remembered when Kouhei had died. That endless, suffocating dread that had swallowed her whole. She had clung to him then, clutching his body as if hugging him tight enough would keep him from slipping away forever. That hollow ache, that desperate refusal to let go—this was the same thing Kouhei was feeling now.
But what exactly had dragged him into this fear? Yuuna couldn’t know. All she could do was feel the pain in his trembling body.
So instead of questioning him, instead of prying into wounds she didn’t understand, Yuuna simply held him tighter. She pressed her cheek against his, her arms closing around him as she whispered softly.
"Don’t worry, Kouhei-kun. I’m not going anywhere." Her voice was steady, gentle, like a promise carved into stone. "I promise, I’ll stay by your side. Always. Okay?"
Something about those words seemed to soothe him, if only slightly. But even so... from that night onward, sleep became something that refused to come to Kouhei.
***
Four days passed.
Kouhei and Yuuna had planned to return home the day after the gathering. That was supposed to be the plan. But the night Kouhei woke up drenched in cold sweat, clutching her like he was afraid she’d vanish, everything changed. Their departure was delayed.
And from that night on, Kouhei didn’t sleep again. Not once.
Being part demon meant he could technically survive without sleep. His body didn’t demand it the way a human’s did. But Kouhei wasn’t a full demon—he was still part human. And humans needed sleep. Without it, they withered, their bodies and minds eroding under the weight of exhaustion.
Even demons benefited from sleep. It wasn’t necessary for their survival, but it sharpened them, made their days more efficient and more productive.
But Kouhei... Kouhei was trying to function on nothing.
The toll was written all over his face. His eyes were shadowed, heavy with fatigue. His skin looked paler than usual, his expression dull, the subtle twitch of weariness giving him away. Anyone who looked at him could see it—his body was running on fumes, his mind teetering on the edge of collapse.
Kazuhiro had been the first to check on him.
"I don’t understand how it came on so suddenly," Kazuhiro muttered after examining him. His sharp eyes studied Kouhei with suspicion. "It doesn’t look like a curse. If he were cursed, there would be traces—malice, dark mana surrounding him. But I don’t see any."
Curses were one of the cruelties demons could inflict, twisting others with suffering. Some could steal voices. Some could strip away strength. And some could drag a person into endless wakefulness, robbing them of sleep.
Every demon race had their own curses as well as their own specializations.
Succubi, for example, were masters of dreams. They could plunge victims into illusions so vivid they could never wake, or curse them to never close their eyes again.
But Kouhei? He had full control over the succubus. That alone ruled them out.
"I don’t think it’s a curse," Kazuhiro finally said, narrowing his eyes. "It feels more like... emotional baggage. Trauma. If I’m right, then there’s no curse at all. But..." His gaze darkened slightly. "If I am wrong, then the one who cursed him must be so skilled that even my eyes can’t detect it."
And that thought alone was unsettling.
Because Kazuhiro’s eyes never failed him.
Souichiro, who had been lingering nearby, finally spoke. His tone was hesitant but filled with genuine concern. "Um... what was he saying while he was asleep?"
Though he didn’t show it openly, Souichiro worried more than he wanted to admit. Despite their rocky start, despite their clashes, he admired Kouhei deeply. And seeing someone he admired breaking down like this... it hurt.
"He was calling my name," Yuuna said quietly, her voice soft and fragile. "Again and again... like he was in pain."
The way she said it, the tremble in her words—it was too familiar.
It was just like her. Just like when she had screamed Kouhei’s name when he died.
The same desperation. The same ache.
Though Kouhei never said it outright, Yuuna could piece it together. His nightmares weren’t just bad dreams. They were of everyone dying—her as well as the others—over and over.
If it had only happened once, it could’ve been dismissed. But every single night, the same torment? That couldn’t be ignored.
Yuuna’s heart clenched tighter with every passing day.
"What do you plan to do now, Yuuna?" Kazuhiro asked.
He still sounded like the authoritative father he always was, voice firm and commanding. But beneath it... there was something else. Concern. Whether that concern was for Kouhei as the Child of Anti-Prophecy, or simply Kouhei himself, Yuuna couldn’t tell.
"For now, we’d like to go home," Yuuna replied softly. "Kouhei-kun seems to miss the people there. He even mouths their names when he tries to sleep."
"...Very well. I’ll prepare a carriage for the two of you," Kazuhiro said with a nod.
And just like that, after five long days in Hell, Kouhei and Yuuna would finally return home.
As she looked at him, Yuuna could only cling to one fragile hope—
—that maybe, once they were home, Kouhei would finally find peace again.