Naota found himself in a black void rather than the white void he had been visiting several times now. From what he could tell he was standing under a spotlight and he was standing in a circle of light. Naota couldn't see what the source of the light was or even when it came from; was it a light bulb or the sun? He was dressed in an orange jumpsuit. Around one of his legs were shackles attached to a ball and chain. There wasn't anything else in the void.
"Hello?" Naota called out.
A figure walked into the light. It was that woman with The Consortium....the one with the weird eyes. The woman was wearing a suit. The woman looked back at the shadows where she had came from. There was an exchange of words with something that lurked in the void that Naota couldn't see. At one point Naota was sure he had seen a vague outline of a towering figure. The exchange of words were in another language that sounded oddly like bells. Naota had a fleeting notion of Santa's sleigh lurking in the shadows for that's what the bells sounded like: sleigh bells. The exchange of words lasted for some minutes.
"Uh..." said Naota. "Where am I?"
"Sorry" said Tokimi turning back to Naota. "I had to confirm something" here, Tokimi waved to....whatever was out of Naota's sight and, a moment later, giant lumbering footsteps retreated.
"Who were you talking to?" asked Naota.
Tokimi said absolutely nothing for a handful of minutes. She looked as if she was examining Naota. Naota couldn't focus on those weird eyes.
"What has she done with you?" asked Tokimi in a quiet voice.
"You talking about my mother?"
"She isn't your mother" said Tokimi. "You just believe that she is"
"Yes, Haruko is my mother"
Tokimi walked right up to Naota and took another close look at Naota.
"Hmmm...." said Tokimi rubbing her chin thoughtfully. "It's a very good glamour I'd give her that"
"What are you talking about?" asked Naota. "Where am I? Why am I chained up? Did you put me in these chains and get-up?"
"You put yourself in that get-up" said Tokimi. "This is your show after all. I'm just visiting"
Naota narrowed his eyes and tried to untangle what Tokimi had said. "This is inside my head?"
"This" said Tokimi gesturing at the black void that surrounded them both. "Is your.... subconscious"
Before Naota could say anything another figure emerged from the shadows. It was him. To be more precise it was his twelve year old self. The copy of Naota looked wildly around as if surprised at his surroundings. The younger Naota looked at Tokimi and then to his older self.
"What?!" asked the copy. "That isn't me. I'm me.....I'm so confused"
Tokimi looked round-eyed at the younger Naota. She then turned to the shadows sharply and spoke in that odd bell language she had earlier. There was a brief exchange of words that Naota couldn't understand.
"What the fuck is going on?" asked the younger Naota.
"I have no clue" said Naota. "Hey you! Explain all this"
Tokimi turned to face Naota. Before Tokimi could say anything everything went white.


Naota jerked awake. He was in the bed from last night. His head was pillowed on Haruko's enlarged breasts. The dream was still vivid in Naota's head. It had seemed so real. Was that even a dream or a vision?
Naota looked around. Urd was there sleeping a few feet away with that Keiichi guy. Kitsurubami was sleeping next to Naota and Haruko.
"Good morning" said Haruko. Naota looked up at Haruko's grinning face.
"Morning" repiled Naota.
Haruko hugged her son briefly and then sat up in bed. "Let's hunt down some breakfast"
Naota and Haruko climbed off the wide bed and walked out of the room.
It took the pair some five minutes to discover a room filled with plates and plates of breakfast foods of all kinds from simple cereal to mountains of pancakes.
"It's a breakfast buffet" said Naota rushing over to the first table of food. Haruko quickly followed.
While Haruko and Naota were stuffing themselves of food the other members of The Consortium slowly trickled in. When Tokimi entered the breakfast room she sat right next to Naota. Haruko hardly took notice.
"Was that just a dream?" asked Naota in a very quiet voice to Tokimi. Tokimi raised an eyebrow and said that she had no idea what Naota was talking about.
"Come on, Takkun" said Haruko finished with her huge breakfast. She sported a bloated stomach for she had eaten like a pig. "Let's go explore this place"

Haruko and Naota spent the morning getting to know the huge layout of the office of The Consortium. The office consisted of more than ten rooms. Each member of The Consortium had their own private room. The common room was by far the largest room with an Olympic-sized swimming pool. One of the last rooms that Haruko and Naota discovered was Washu's lab which was filled with deadly inventions and weapons of all sizes and types. One machine caught Haruko's attention.
"Dimension Creator" muttered Haruko as she walked right up to a control panel to what looked like a sphere floating in mid-air. Haruko was reading off words from a display floating above a large keyboard. Haruko read the display while Naota noticed that a young man was hanging from the wall via two spherical robots that had the man wrapped up in tentacles.
"Um, hello" said Naota.
"Good morning" said the man causally as if hanging on a wall by robots was nothing new or concerning. "You're new. What's your name?"
"Naota" replied Naota.
"I'm Tenchi" said the young man.
"Why are you hanging there?" asked Naota.
"Washu likes to hang people on the wall sometimes" said Tenchi. "It's all for research or so she claims"



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June 2
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