NEW WORLD
Twenty years ago, the world ended.
Or at least… that was how people described it afterward.
No one knew how it began.
No god descending from the heavens.
No ancient curse crawled out.
No experiment spiraling out of control.
It simply happened.
The first case occurred in a small rural village on Tokyo's outskirts. Quiet, untouched, the kind of place where summer cicadas were the loudest thing for miles. There, a child dreamed a nightmare so vivid and violent… it forced itself into reality.
The first Nightmareisation.
Back then, humanity had nothing.
No Night Alarm System.
No IDHA.
No AM Weapons.
Not even a theory.
People were utterly defenseless.
And that night burned itself into history as THE CRIMSON NIGHT.
THE CRIMSON NIGHT (THE FIRST NIGHTMAREISATION)
The evening began peacefully.
Wind swayed through ripening rice fields.
Old men smoked on their wooden porches.
Children slept beneath mosquito nets while mothers whispered goodnight stories.
Then the sky bled red.
A roar deep, primal, impossibly wrong shook the valley. The ground trembled like something beneath it was waking for the first time.
It emerged.
A colossal crimson kaiju rose behind the mountains, its skin glowing like molten steel. Nightmare shapes rippled under its surface eyes blinking in unnatural rhythms, jaws forming where no jaws should exist, its limbs shifting with dreamlike inconsistency.
Houses vanished in its shadow.
Fields burned to ash in seconds.
The very air seemed to boil.
Panic tore through the village.
People ran, stumbled, screamed.
Mothers clutched their children.
Fathers dragged the elderly to safety.
Some froze for a mere heartbeat just long enough to be crushed beneath a massive crimson limb.
Sirens screamed.
Flames painted the hillside.
The night became war.
And the kaiju moved the way nightmares did glitching, flickering, appearing in places it shouldn't be. Every movement broke the laws of physics as if reality itself were merely a suggestion.
Because it wasn't real.
Not truly.
It was a dream, given cruel shape.
Officer Mizuno Kaede kicked her car door open and charged toward the chaos armed with nothing but a flashlight, a uniform, and raw determination.
"Evacuate Sector B! Move!" she shouted as she guided villagers from collapsing homes.
A crimson roar shattered windows fifty meters away. Mizuno shielded her face, heart pounding.
Monsters…? How can this be real!?
No time to think.
A young man staggered out of the smoke, clothes burned, carrying a limp child.
"O-Officer—there are more inside—kids—" he gasped before collapsing.
Mizuno ran.
Logic told her to retreat.
She ignored it.
Inside the burning building once a daycare smoke smothered the hallways, flames eating through the ceiling. Debris blocked room after room.
"Anyone inside!?" she shouted, coughing. "Call out!"
A faint cry answered.
She vaulted over a fallen beam and kicked open a warped door. A little girl sat beneath a collapsed shelf, covering her ears and sobbing.
Mizuno scooped her up.
"It's okay! You're safe now!"
But the girl shook her head desperately.
"H-help him! He won't wake up!"
…Him?
Mizuno turned.
A boy maybe five lay in the rubble.
Fast asleep.
Dreaming.
Outside, the nightmare roared again.
Her blood went cold.
The monster… is coming from him?
The ground trembled as the building groaned. No time.
She placed the girl by the doorway.
"Stay right here and close your eyes!"
Then she sprinted to the sleeping boy.
"Wake up!" She shook him hard. "Open your eyes!"
No response.
The crimson light outside intensified blinding.
"Wake—up!"
His eyelids fluttered.
And the world… stopped.
The kaiju froze mid-roar.
Its body flickered—glitched.
Then
Poof.
It dissolved into red sparks scattering into the wind.
Silence swept the burning village.
The nightmare ended the moment the boy woke.
The world would later name this the First Nightmareisation Incident.
But that night, as flames died and sirens whimpered in the distance, Mizuno stared at the weeping child she had just saved and whispered
"…What in the world are you?"
The boy didn't answer.
He only cried.
AFTERMATH
Humanity adapted.
They always did.
Nightmareisation spread across the globe dozens of cases, then hundreds, then thousands. Every night somewhere nightmare manifested:
Dragons.
Demons.
Shadow wolves.
Storm gods.
Horrors beyond imagination.
Chaos reigned.
But not forever.
Nations united.
Scientists researched.
New systems formed.
From the ashes rose the organization that would stand between dreams and destruction.
IDHA.
International Dream Hazard Agency.
Their mission:
Combat manifested nightmares.
Rescue civilians.
Wake the dreamer.
Nightmares could only be stopped by one thing:
the dreamer opening their eyes.
To accomplish that, agents wielded AM (Anti-Manifestation) Weapons tools built to fight creatures born from fear.
Twenty years later, Nightmareisation wasn't chaos.
It was simply reality.
People went to school.
Worked.
Laughed.
Lived.
Nightmares were dangerous yes but no more than earthquakes or storms. Humanity learned to exist alongside them.
And now
A boy from the countryside was on his way to become one of the people who fought those nightmares.
KUROGANE AKIRA
A rickety bus rattled toward Tokyo under the warm morning sun.
In the back seat sat a lean twentyfive-year-old
Boy Kurogane Akira.
His dark eyes watched the scenery blur past signboards, concrete, distant glimmers of Tokyo's skyline.
He exhaled deeply.
Ten hours on a bus would exhaust anyone.
But he was used to leaving places behind.
On his lap rested an unopened letter the official invitation to the IDHA entrance exam.
"…It's really happening," he murmured.
His reflection in the window looked like someone else entirely.
If I pass… I get to protect people from nightmares.
If I fail… I go back.
Back there…
No.
He refused that future.
He gripped the letter until it crinkled.
"I'm not going back," he whispered. "Never again."
The bus slowed.
"Final stop Tokyo Metropolitan Transport Hub!" the driver called.
Akira stepped out into the morning light.
Tokyo smelled of metal, asphalt, street food, and possibility.
No stares.
No whispers.
No fear.
Unlike his village… here, he could breathe.
The IDHA exam site was a massive repurposed stadium now a high-tech training facility. Candidates crowded the plaza, buzzing with nervous energy.
Akira swallowed hard.
S-So many people…
A breeze drifted past him.
A faint lemon scent.
Akira blinked and turned—
—and time stopped.
A girl stepped through the crowd like a cold splash of morning water.
Silver hair tied in a sharp ponytail.
Eyes icy blue and razor-focused.
Posture graceful yet confident.
Presence unmistakable.
People unknowingly moved aside as she passed.
Akira's heart simply… stopped.
W-What is this feeling!?
She was beautiful.
Too beautiful.
The kind of beautiful that attacks your soul without warning.
His breath hitched.
His thoughts scrambled.
His legs locked.
Did… did angels start taking IDHA exams!?
She walked past without noticing him.
Akira stared like a stunned idiot.
I think… I just fell in love.
No sparkles.
No destiny beam from the sky.
Just a very real, very painful thud in his chest.
Several nearby boys whispered.
"Who is she…!?"
Akira couldn't speak.
He hadn't recovered oxygen yet.
Focus! Idiot! You have an exam!
You can't fail because of a pretty girl!
A loudspeaker crackled.
"All candidates, proceed to your assigned zones! Written exam, then practical!"
The plaza grew louder.
Akira forced himself to move, though his eyes kept drifting back to the silver-haired girl. Every time she walked, his heart did a small somersault.
This is bad… really bad.
Love at first sight exists!? WHY!?
He slapped his cheek lightly.
"Focus, Akira," he whispered.
He looked up at the massive stadium his future looming before him.
Everything depended on this exam.
His dream.
His redemption.
His chance to protect others from nightmares.
He clenched his fists.
"I'm going to pass," he declared quietly.
"No matter what."
The rising sun bathed the entrance gate in gold.
Akira stepped forward.
The story of the boy once…..
was finally beginning.