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Merry awoke to the sound of a loud thump and a feeling of dull pain along the right side of her body. Putting those together with the hard feeling of the surface she was lying on, quite unlike the soft bed she went to sleep in the night before, she figured out that she must have fallen out of bed.
With that mystery solved, she opened her eyes, only to find herself presented with a much larger mystery, that being her looking directly into the eyes of another Merry, laid out on the ground in front of her.
"Renko. Renko, wake up."
Renko, sprawled out on the bed in a t-shirt and boxers, opened her eyes to a double image of her dear girlfriend and club partner. One was dressed in a white nightgown, the other in one of Merry's usual outfits of a purple skirt and blouse, along with a white mob cap adorned with a thin red ribbon she had recently found. Dazed, she smiled. "Oh boy, the two Merry dream," she mumbled. "I'm so glad I practiced my lucid dreaming. C'mere, you two..."
The two Merrys rolled their eyes. "Wake your gay ass up, Renko. This is real Hifuu activity," the nightgown-clad Merry said, crossing her arms.
"H-huh?" Renko looked back and forth between the two copies of her partner, blinking a few times. Eventually, after some silence, she came to a solid conclusion.
"I need some coffee."
An old-fashioned coffee pot was running in the corner of the small kitchenette in Renko's apartment. Renko stood impatiently, tapping her foot as she waited for the drip brew to finish. When she finally felt she had enough, she snatched the pot and filled up a mug that had "#1 Uncle" written on the side. (Thrift stores were a cheap way to outfit a kitchen.) She took a sip, recoiled from the heat a bit, and brought her drink to a small table, at which the two Merrys were already seated next to each other. Renko pulled out her chair and sat across from them. They sat in silence, fully aware that Renko's conversational skills this early were going to need the caffeine boost.
It was up to Renko, then, to kick things off. "Okay. Alright. Here we go." She turned towards the Merry in outdoor clothes. "So, what. Time traveler? Parallel universe? Some sort of shapeshifting youkai? If it's the latter, please don't eat me until I've finished my thesis. Getting vored by a monster might actually make my theory hold together better after it's presented. If you need human flesh before then, chew on Merry. She's got more meat on her bones."
The fully-dressed Merry smiled in a sly fashion. "Meat? That's not what you called it three nights ago when you touched-"
"Gonna have to cut you off there, other me," the pajama-clad Merry interrupted. "It's really weird hearing someone else hear what she did with my girlfriend. Even if that someone else is, apparently, me."
Renko's eyebrows raised. "So you DO share her memories! That's an interesting development!"
"Share her memories? I mean, they're just my- Oh, right, I guess you two are working off the assumption that I'm not Merry. I guess I am the most suspicious one here, all dressed like this." Dressed Merry grinned. "Watch out, I'm the eeeeeevil youkai Merry~"
Renko laughed at this, causing the other Merry to laugh too. After they finished, Renko spoke up. "All right! If we're going to solve this mystery, we're gonna have to start with the most logical place. Merry, did you visit your other world last night? Did something happen there?"
"Yes and yes, actually, I-" the two Merrys said in unison, before suddenly stopping as they realized they were talking over each other.
"Okay, this isn't going to work," Renko declared. "Alright, then, how's this: Purple Merry, what happened in your dream? When that's done I'll ask White Merry to recount what she remembers."
Understanding the logic, Purple Merry nodded. "Okay, so, last night I did visit that world, but it was much more chaotic than usual. There were weird animals everywhere... bright red glowing dogs – no, maybe wolves – and green otters fighting and chasing each other around, and a bunch of purple birds circling above. I'd seen animals in my dreams before, but never this many. Suddenly, I heard a yell! I turned and looked and there was... well, she looked like a woman, but she also had these massive black wings. And also what looked like a cowboy hat? Y'know, like from those old movies about America? That was probably the most ridiculous thing, really." Purple Merry took a breath. "Anyway, after that yell, a bunch of the red wolves turned towards me. I started running, for reasons that I hope are obvious. They gave chase, so I was really running for my life. Then, I tripped on a twisted tree root. I fell, but I didn't hit the ground when I thought I would. It felt like I kept falling for several seconds, somehow... And then I hit the ground, and when I opened my eyes, I was in the bedroom here."
Renko nodded. "Wow, wild story. I'm glad you're not hurt. Okay, then..." She pointed at the Merry in a nightgown with exaggerated finger guns. "White Merry, you're up! You experience anything like that recently?"
"Down to the letter, actually. That's exactly what I remember. I must've fallen out of bed at the same time she fell in here. On that note, Renko, you have got to make sure you're leaving room for me in the bed..."
"We will save that problem for after today's Hifuu activities!" Renko declared. "So... both of your accounts match... you both experienced the same thing in your dream. I wonder what this means..." Renko scratched her chin, a look of determination on her face, until suddenly her eyes widened. "I got it! One of those weird stories in the Hifuu Archive has something like this!"
Renko burst up from her chair and rushed to a drawer in the small study room on one end of the apartment. She pulled out a medium-sized box, brought it back to the table, and opened it up, revealing a pile of papers and a few assorted objects. "Which one, which one..." she mumbled, rifling through the papers... "Here!" She pulled a page out. "Remember when I told you about the Hifuu Club's founder visiting a world in her dreams, just like you, Merry?"
The two Merrys nodded.
"Well, apparently, at some point she ended up meeting herself – that is, the version of herself that existed in that world. She says they even got in a fight or something? I dunno, her writing's always weird. She also claims there was a third version of her from the 'Dream World', but that doesn't make sense to me, because she was already talking about a world in her dreams? But that aside... it's possible that Purple Merry here is the Merry that normally exists there, and she just ended up here somehow instead. Maybe because of your powers?"
The two Merrys nodded, their eyes brightening with realization. "And the reason we didn't notice there were two until now," White Merry began.
"...is because when one of us is awake in the world they belong in, the other is asleep and dreaming of that world!" Purple Merry finished.
"Right, right!" Renko exclaimed. "Like that old story about the guy dreaming about a butterfly or whatever! This is a massive breakthrough for the club!"
"Agreed!" the two Merrys replied in unison.
Purple Merry's smile dropped quickly though. "But…"
"Hm? What's wrong, Purple?"
"Well, if I'm supposed to be in the other world... how do I get back?"
"Oh, that's easy," White Merry smiled.
"It is?" Renko asked, surprised.
White Merry grinned, satisfied. "It's simple: I just need to go back to sleep." When Renko and Purple Merry looked confused, White Merry went on. "See, when I dream my way into that world, I appear in a different place each time. I'm not sleeping in a specific spot like I am when I'm awake. So, the next time I dream..."
"...I'll simply appear in that world at a random spot!" Purple Merry concluded excitedly.
"As intelligent as she is beautiful, that's my Merry!" Renko stood up and pointed dramatically. "In that case, there's only one option: go the hell to sleep!"
"Oh, thank goodness," White Merry said with a yawn. "I'm up way too early. The sun's barely up. You coming, Renko?"
"Nah, that coffee has me amped up. I'll probably nap in the afternoon. I'll document this activity now, instead."
"Sounds good." White Merry turned to her doppelganger. "Um, do you need to sleep? I have no idea if that will be required for this to work."
"Hmm... that is a good question," Purple Merry replied. "Thoughts, Renko?"
"Can't say for sure. How about you go first, and if you fall asleep and Purple Merry doesn't vanish, then we can have her sleep too. Sound good?"
"Yeah, sure." White Merry yawned again. "Love you, Renko. I'll see you later in the morning." She turned and dragged herself back to the bed, its softness calling to her.
This left just Renko and the Merry from the other world together in the kitchenette. "Well, this has been very exciting. I can't believe I'm talking to a bona fide resident of another world... though I suppose if I asked you anything, you wouldn't have answers any different from usual, huh?"
"Hee hee, sorry," Merry said. She looked down. "Hey, Renko..."
"Huh? Something wrong?"
Merry fidgeted. "I don't know, it's just... it's strange, knowing that, at least right now, I'm not the real Merry. I'm something else. Some kind of dream, or fantasy."
Renko got up and walked over to sit next to her. "I wouldn't say that. You're as real as any of us are. That's the kind of thing I've been trying to prove in my thesis. Everything we exist as and experience is the result of waves intersecting. If the wave shift and intersect just slightly differently, we can see things that should be impossible."
Merry looked at Renko for a moment, and then giggled. "Once again, I really should've just trusted your writings, huh?"
"Oh, come on," Renko said. "No matter how much I write, you're the type of person who won't believe something until you experience it yourself. That's part of why you're so important as my partner."
"That's true! In fact... here's something I can experience right now that proves I'm real."
Before Renko could reply, Merry leaned in and kissed her on the lips. The two stayed together for several seconds, before pulling apart.
The couple looked at each other quietly, smiling warmly.
Eventually, Merry spoke again. "You know, now that I think of it, I-"
That sentence would not be finished, as Merry vanished into midair without so much as a "poof".
Renko blinked for a moment, realizing what happened, and then stretched her arms. "Well, alright then. I better write all this down! This was a historic event for the club!"