When he came to himself, he was looking down at his palms. Not long later, he realized that it was a dream. He was standing in the middle of the straight path in that darkness as he often was. He saw light in the distance, and right behind that was the darkness that was large enough to swallow even the light. The dream that came to him whenever he was about to forget about it was leading to the same conclusion again today. Maru sat down and looked at the light. He looked at the light until the darkness covered the entirety of his body. From his toes to his shin, then his thigh, waist, elbow, chest, and neck. One by one, the twinkling of his senses lost their light. Darkness pervaded his vision. He opened his eyes wide until the very end, trying to grasp the light with his eyes. Eventually, the world disappeared, and the thought process that governed his senses was also swept away by the darkness. A world of nihility; a time that could not be sensed. From his experience, this existing yet not existing period of senselessness didn’t last long. He would soon wake up from his dream and take his head off the drenched pillow with a big sigh. That was how the dream always ended after all.

Perhaps he wasn’t even aware of whether his time here was long or short because he wasn’t...