"I swear, if the sun wipes away the last remnants of night one more...Woah!"
Leon's words were interrupted when clothes hit him squarely in the face.
What the?
He pulled the fabric off his face and held it in his hand. Lifting it up to figure out what it was.
...A leotard...it's a bunny girl leotard!
"What do I wear!? What do I wear!?"
Another set of clothes were sent flying towards Leon.
He ducked out of the way.
"Hey!"
Leon was inside Tsukihi's Globe House.
The same single room interior is lined with books and strange knick knacks. Thick fur rugs covered with oversized cushions, floor pillows and more piles of books.
A roaring fire crackled with a rhythmic popping and cheerful smother. The morning sunlight...
"Oi!"
The morning sun...
"OI!!!"
THE MORNING..
"Tsukihi! What are you doing!?"
Tsukihi popped her head up from the chest overflowing with outfits in the center of the room.
She was wearing nothing but a total of eleven towels; one wrapped around each of her tails, one around her torso, and the last around her head, carefully leaving gaps for her ears to poke through.
She was running late choosing an outfit to wear for her own dream.
"Leon! How did you get to my dream so fast?"
"Tsukihi, you're the last one and you're still late."
That's not my fault! Wife number 3 put this dream in my normal outfit. I already have these clothes in the real world. I want to try something from your world!"
She pulled out a sleek, form fitting bodysuit made of flexible metal material, Reinforced panels covered the chest, shoulders, thighs, and forearms, while flat ribbon cables ran along the body like pulsating veins.
It was undoubtedly a macha pilot suit. A second skin was built to connect its wearer directly to the machine. Yet Tsukihi's only interest was finding something special to wear.
"Leon, You think you can rip a hole in this material?"
She better be talking about a hole for her tails!
"Look Tsukihi, you clearly know this is a dream. Why are you playing along?"
"Because I want to have a blissful dream with you too! One where I seduce you to stay forever!"
"You know we can't stay here forever. And this is just going to end with me walking you up. Anything we can do here, we can do once we're awake, but for real."
"No. That's why I was going to pick one of these outfits..."
Tuskihi reached down to pick up another outfit.
But Leon stopped her hand.
Pulling it back up before he intertwined their fingers and sat down beside her.
"Tsukihi as.. nice..."
"Just 'nice'?"
"Stop it you. The point is, they're not really. We'll find some tailor in real life if you really want."
She scooch closer and rested her head against his chest.
"This sucks. I'm going to have the shortest dream of all the girls."
"No one is going to know. Think of it as 'dreams weren't good enough for you' or something like that."
"Mmmmmm. I should have just gone with the pool party outfit..."
Leon squeezed the pouting kitsune.
"We'll go to the beach eventually."
"Beach episode!?"
"Tsukihi, I'm the only one in this world that gets that reference."
"Are there not their other heroes in this world from your world too. Some of them must be girls."
"...huh, yeah almost forgot about that... Wait! Why does some of them being girls matter?"
"Doesn't matter! Now you need to focus on wife number 3!"
Quick to change the topic.
"Also don't call her my wife yet, she is more interested in me as a pillow than as a lover."
"For now, but mare or not, she is still a woman. And you're still you!"
Leon began to feel himself dissolve.
"Looks like time is up."
"Are you going to be able to wake her up? You need to fall asleep here."
"Don't worry. I have an ace up my sleeve."
"Oh tell me? Tell me! Tell me!"
"Remember how I was having a hard time grasping Mana. Well being physically in a dream has given me a better idea."
"The typical Hero unlocking a new skill before the big fight!?"
"Hey don't put it like that, it makes it sound like I didn't work for it. Though, it is always a cool moment."
"The coolest!!"
The dream ended with Tsukihi's final praise.
And a new one began.
The final dream of the Demon of Sloth stretched into a massive bed room.
The twisted forest was gone. In its place, one enormous bed made up the floor. Rolling hills of blankets and mattresses. Pillows piled into towering mountains against the walls. There were no doors or clocks. Nothing to show the passage of time. No windows for the morning sunlight to...
"Oi! What do you think you're doing!?"
"...are you yelling at me?... I'm over here."
Leon turned around to face Maria after looking like an idiot.
"Huh? Sorry this dream is messing with me."
"Because you keep fighting it! You could've lived every girl's dream. Gone anywhere you could've dreamed of going!"
"There are places in this world that I could never even hope to dream of. Everything in here is built from mixing and matching memories. Places I've seen, things I've experienced, things I could already do outside. So why stay when there are so many things out there that we can't do here?"
"Because that's so much more work! So much more effort just to risk it in the chance it's better than a dream!'
"I'll show you Maria. Now, it's time for you to wake up."