Chapter Text
Daydream, Inc. A swiftly growing corporation out of Seoul, South Korea with a branch in Tokyo. Though the branch opened ten years ago after devouring a smaller pharmaceutical company based in Japan, it's quickly becoming a powerhouse in the imaginations of Japanese citizens.
After all, they have a cure for male pattern baldness.
Daydream advertises itself as a place where the impossible is made possible. That, they say, is the goal of their corporation, and should be the goal of medicine.
Takumi Sumino always thought that was a bit of a stretch, but his best friend, Karua Kashimiya, was entranced by it.
Takumi and Karua had been inseparable since they were kids. They grew up as next door neighbors, playing together and sticking with each other through middle school, high school, and even college. It was during that last year of college that Karua started talking about Daydream and her desire to work there. If anyone could make it work, Takumi thought at the time, it would be Karua. She was smart, personable, and easy to get along with. She was kind, too, and driven in a way that would make her a great worker for any company. So she applied, right out of college, and got the job. Takumi remembered celebrating with her, cheering her on.
He also remembered the two of them becoming more and more distant the longer she worked there. When he talked to her over the phone or in person, she always looked and sounded tired. She insisted everything was going great every time he asked, but Takumi had to wonder.
Eventually, getting her to agree to a meeting once a month was like pulling teeth.
Then, two years into her employment, she disappeared.
Takumi found out when she stopped replying to his texts around the time of the month they usually meet for dinner or lunch together. He went to her apartment, the one he hadn’t been to in ages, only to find out she moved six months ago and never told him. He even called her mother, as little as he knew the woman, and she told him he was making an issue out of nothing. She blew him off entirely and eventually hung up on him.
For a month, he waited for a response, but got nothing.
He couldn’t go to the police with so little evidence. He knew it looked like he was simply ghosted, like the woman he knew was no longer interested in spending time with him and he had to just accept it.
But Takumi knew Karua, knows Karua. He knows her better than every other person in the world. And every time they got together again, even right before she disappeared, she’d smile in a way that almost looked like her old self and tell him she was really glad she came.
He can’t believe that was fake, that their years together meant nothing. He has to find her and find out the truth.
That’s why Takumi Sumino applies at Daydream, Inc.
Everything changed after she got this job. Somehow, it has to be the catalyst for all this. And if she’s still working here, if she really did ghost him—well, at least he’ll know the truth. If she tells him to leave, he will. But he can’t shake the feeling that something is wrong.
He’ll figure things out. Daydream has to be a clue.
In all honesty, though, he didn’t expect to get past the first interview. Karua excelled in school, while Takumi was painfully average, usually only skating by with her help.
But he passed the first interview. He passed the second. He kept progressing until he got what he was looking for: the letter that he had gotten the job.
He’s starting at the bottom, but that suits him fine. He just needs to lay low for a while, do busy work until he can find out something about Karua. This isn’t his first office job at this point, but it is his nicest.
They even have a special orientation for new hires, held in a hall capable of holding the hundred some odd new employees Takumi has found himself a part of.
Those numbers boggle Takumi’s mind. How fast is this company expanding? Or… is the turnover rate that bad?
His thoughts are cut off by the stage (yes, stage!) set up before the assembly of new employees. A short man in a finely tailored suit walks out to speak in front of the microphone.
“Welcome, one and all, of our new employees! Allow me to be the first to congratulate all of you!” His voice is bombastic, almost like it could echo through the hall without the use of the microphone. He pauses to clap, a gesture quickly taken up by the other new employees until the hall rings with the sound. Once it ends, the man continues.
“I am afraid I have to be quite honest in this situation, however.” He doesn’t sound at all like he’s actually remorseful, but everyone goes near silent, waiting for him to continue. “You see, Daydream, Inc. has one last qualifying test that they require all new employees to take. Don’t worry, though! It’s not the kind of test you can study for. You all just need to do your best!”
Everyone, Takumi included, stares in utter shock. A test? Then… they aren’t actually hired? What about the employment papers Takumi already signed? Before an uproar can begin, the lights all go out. The hall, which Takumi realizes for the first time has no windows, turns completely pitch black.
And then, abruptly, Takumi is somewhere else.
His eyes gradually adjust to the low light until he can see where he is. The hall full of people has transformed into a stone cell, fit with bars in the front. The sole light comes from beyond those bars, but still too far away to see what is outside the cell with any clarity. The walls are carved stone, not bricks, like he’s being held in a cave rather than a true prison cell. It’s unsettling, and something about it feels inhuman, alien. He’s not supposed to be here.
Almost as soon as Takumi can make out his surroundings, he starts to hear voices from outside his cell. Some of the noise is angry yelling, some confused pleading, and others still outright screams of terror. It’s a cacophony that feels far away, somehow, even though it rings in his ears. Part of him wants to join them, to scream that he doesn’t deserve to be in a cell, that he’s done nothing wrong.
But there’s a part of him that tells him to stay silent, too. There’s a horrific recognition deep inside him, one that urges him to be quiet. Don’t draw attention to himself. Wait, and watch.
So Takumi does.
The noises from other people gradually die down, but he still hears sobs and sniffles. Some of them seem to instinctually know that something bad is going to happen. Takumi does, too. It makes him tense, waiting for the worst.
It all makes no sense. Moments ago, he was in orientation for a new job, already well on his way to beginning to figure out where Karua went, and now he feels like he’s in another world, facing complete uncertainty.
Is that what Karua went through? Is this why she’s missing?
That thought lends strength to his limbs, focuses his mind. Right. He has a goal here. This is all for Karua. He can endure this for her.
Especially if it’s something she’s already endured. The thought of that makes him clench his fists.
At that moment, a new, rhythmic noise begins echoing from past the bars of his cell. A heavy chunk, chunk, chunk, with metal clacking against metal. it's coming from multiple directions at once, too, like there’s more than one source. At first, everything goes quiet besides the new sounds, until there’s a loud CLANG.
“Hey, wait, what are you—AUGH, LET ME GO—“
The clanging of chains follows, accompanied by pathetic whimpering. Another voice, on his other side but farther away, screams.
“NO, NO, STOP—“ It’s cut off horrifically by a squelching, snapping sound.
A terrified moan comes from the first voice. “Don’t… don’t struggle! Just don’t struggle!”
Takumi has a good idea of what happened, then.
The two sources of noise get closer and closer to Takumi’s cell, accompanied by the CLANG of what he thinks are cell doors crashing open. He hears whimpers, cries of terror, but, blessedly, no more sounds of people dying.
Finally, the source of the noise comes into view.
The thing can, somewhat generously, be called a suit of armor, though the shape is nothing like a human. It has a squashed, squat body, with tree trunk shaped legs that are the source of the ominous clunking. Long, sinuous arms with three fingers grip his cell door and simply wrench it out, letting it fall to the side. It then reaches in, wraps its long fingers around his chest, and drags him out.
The fingers are surprisingly dexterous and gentle, holding him with care, like he might hold a baby bird. Takumi doesn’t struggle, doesn’t speak, as he’s extracted from the cell. He can tell this creature is not exerting all its strength, and that if it did, well. He might experience what that screaming person did.
The creature lifts him, and, with it's other hand, lifts a metal collar and chain. The collar snaps around his neck with ease, and the creature finally sets him down, still holding the chain. Now that he’s in the hallway outside his cell, Takumi can see it has a third arm, a stubby appendage protruding from the back. These fingers look less deft, but like they have a stronger grip. They’re holding three more chains attached to metal collars on three people.
All three appear to be fellow Daydream employees at the orientation. They’re all wearing suits, at least. One is a tall man with pale hair and glasses. He smiles thinly at Takumi. The second is another man, shorter, with dark hair and haunted eyes. He’s trembling, gripping the chain like a lifeline, and pointedly not looking at anyone. The last is a young woman, probably in her early twenties, with pink hair in elaborate buns and loops. In spite of her age, she’s watching everything with a critical eye and doesn’t seem nearly as afraid as the second man.
Takumi’s chain is transferred to the small hand. He moves to stand beside them just as the creature speaks for the first time.
“FULL GROUP. PLEASE TURN TO LEAVE.” The voice, if you can call it that, is somewhere between a frog’s croak and the bubbling of swamp ooze. Its helm, little more than a pointed dome where a human’s head would be, lifts as it speaks, like a mouth. It exposes the inside, with streaks of black slime connecting the helm with the rest of the body. Whatever it is, it’s not any kind or normal living creature.
The terrified man gives a shriek, his grip on his chain tightening. The other two jerk in surprise, along with Takumi.
It’s hard to comprehend any of this, but he has no choice but to go along with it. They’re a group now, apparently. Takumi turns, letting the chain dangle behind him, and starts slowly walking. The others follow, as well as the horrific suit of armor, whatever it is.
The hallway is long, lined with more cells like the one he’d been transported into, but there is a wooden door at the end. The going is still slow, because the armor’s gait is not fast. All four of them have to stay at the same speed, well under Takumi’s casual pace. As a result, it gives them more time to make sense of a senseless situation.
“You seem surprisingly calm.” The voice comes from the tall man at Takumi’s side. His pale blue eyes peer at Takumi with an odd sort of intensity. It’s unsettling and makes Takumi’s skin crawl. “Did you know this was going to happen?”
“No,” Takumi replies, a little too quickly. Why does he feel like he’s lying? “No, but… someone shouted that we shouldn’t struggle, so…”
“Me! I said it!” the terrified man says, and his voice quavers like he’s about to start crying. “That other guy, it just… just crushed him! It was horrible, inhumane!” He twists the chain in both hands, and this time, tears really do fall from his eyes. “This was supposed to be a cushy, well paying job! This was gonna be my ticket out of being broke! What the hell is going on?!”
Takumi glances back at the armor with alarm, but it doesn’t seem bothered by his outburst. It just keeps walking steadily backwards.
“Thanks for that! It’s why I stayed calm, too,” the young woman adds. If anything, she seems the most strangely calm of all of them. “Since it sounds like we’re going to be in a group together, we should get to know each other. I’m Kako Tsukumo.”
“Takumi Sumino,” Takumi replies automatically.
The terrified man looks back and forth between them before quietly adding, “Gaku Maruko.”
“And I'm Eito Aotsuki,” the tall man says. “All of us are new hires for Daydream, right?” They all nod, with varying levels of exuberance. “Interesting. It’s almost like the company sent us here, somehow. For what purpose? That test they were talking about?”
“What kind of test is this!?” Gaku snaps. “I watched someone die!”
“But you didn’t die, and you saved other people!” Kako points out. “That has to count for something!”
“I don’t care!” Gaku says. “As soon as we’re out of here, I’m quitting! No way in hell I’m sticking it out in a scary place like this!”
“Do you think this is all we’ll have to endure?” Eito asks. “Or will there be more past that door?”
The door is close, now. They’re only a few steps away.
“I think we’re about to find out,” Takumi says.
Before they reach the door itself, one of the suit of armor’s long arms reaches past them, stretching obscenely. It pushes the door open ahead of them and herds them through.
The noise beyond the door hits them like a physical wave. A literal deluge of screams, roars, and cheering washes over them, drowning out anything else. Stone floor gives way to black, sandy earth surrounded by black stone raised easily twenty feet tall. Like the stone inside, there’s no carved bricks, but instead just a sheer wall, towering over them like a natural formation. Takumi can’t tell if it is a natural formation or not, but he doubts it.
On the outside of that wall is stadium seating, full to the brim with creatures that defy logic. Some look like masses of tentacles, others like demons, and some eerily similar to humans but not quite right. Still others Takumi can’t look directly at, his eyes sliding over them. If he tries, he can feel something happening in his brain, a deep pain like something burning away.
He understands, though. This is some kind of horrific audience watching what is happening on the inside of the black stone wall.
Takumi can see that spectacle even more clearly. It’s an open space crawling with monsters. These are more animal-like and obviously less intelligent, but it doesn’t stop them from ripping into screaming humans in familiar suits.
More new Daydream employees, dying in front of their eyes.
No, they’re not done suffering, it seems. The worst is yet to come.