Yumekui Kenbun: Nightmare Inspector vol 4-5

[meganbmoore]

The individual stories about Hiruko’s customers continue along the same vein. I continue to be fondest of the ones directly tied to the time period. More post-war trauma dreams, please!

The main story, though, about Hiruko and Mizuki and Hiruko’s past, seems to be picking up steam. And acquiring Clamp-like angst.

So, Hiruko and Azusa aren’t the same person, but different hosts for Hiruko the Batu. The Hiruko we know is a young boy Azusa met after the earthquake. The Hiruko we know is named Chitose and was kept imprisoned by his family by having his arms and legs broken, and a board was put in his mouth to make sure he couldn’t commit suicide. This gave him a nightmare powerful enough for Azusa to track him down.

I thought only Clamp and Kaori Yuki could come up with this stuff. (Not to mention the one story where the man with a cataract gouged out his own eye because he was in love with the woman who loved his twin brother, an thought she’d love him if he got rid of the eye that looked different.)

The Baku, it seems, can only possess people who don’t want to exist anymore, but Azusa eventually got tired of this and managed to send him to Chitose. And then disappeared. I hope he has a good reason for that. He’s also either in the dreamworld or Hiruko’s suitcase, I can’t tell which, and has a connection to Kairi. Who I can’t help but think looks a bit like him.

And Mizuki’s nightmare is a repeat of when Chitose came to her shop instead of Azusa, and she realized they weren’t the same person. Just for added fun. Because nothing says “angst” like learning your existence is the worst nightmare of the only person you have in the world. Just like nothing says “angst” like the only person you have in the world being a replacement for the person you love most.

My kind of angst.

I think Mifumi and Shima bonding over how difficult it is to live with Hiruko and Kairi was meant to lighten the mood. It would work were it humanly possibly to lighten that mood.