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The mission was supposed to be so simple. Him, a half-demon whose blood wouldn’t be detected by the very Heavens, would disguise himself as a priest in order to lure their envoys and take them out when they would arrive at the church.
Angels were known to be docile creatures, clad in white and descended to spread the word of the lord. This should have been so simple.
Yet here was Todomatsu, a fledgeling who was given the worst hand, fighting against five angels in the church he was at.
(They told us these guys were docile!) Todomatsu screamed in his mind as he scrambled to aim at a single angel with the bazooka, missiles being fired and missing as each winged being dodged his attacks with ease.
(They never told us they also knew how to fucking murder demons! I thought we had the upper hand with this kind of shit!)
Still, he ran and did his best to fight back, feet staggering with each recoil from his weapon as he avoided getting hit by these damned monsters. They had no expressions on their faces as they made their way towards the Angel Killer, slowly cornering him with each arrow shot, with each spear thrown.
“Shit–!”
One of their projectiles hit Todomatsu’s right arm, forcing him to drop his already heavy weapon on the floor. Before he could force himself to even pick it back up, he felt a searing pain on his left leg, his body dropping against the floor to cope with the injury.
(Oh no oh no oh no…)
Todomatsu could only scramble backwards on the floor until his back hit the altar behind him. His bazooka long forgotten, he could only stare in horror as the angels approached even closer. He could hear his heart beating faster and faster at his impending doom, already wondering as to how he was going to be killed by these (un)holy beings.
In his panic, he could only scream for help from the first person that came to mind.
"SAVE ME, JYUSHIMATSU-NIISAN!!!"
Light suddenly filtered in from the stained glass window behind Todomatsu that shattered, shards raining above him but fortunately missing him, as a creature of sorts flew in and tackled the five angels – ( Angels, my ass! They're demons! ) – with ease. Todomatsu could only stare as blood spilled out of ethereal white, head turning each time as the creature would ruthlessly stab and slice each angel head on that had given him a hard time earlier, unable to get a clear appearance of his savior.
That was the real angel there, even if said angel seemed to have a protrusion of sorts on their head, that much he could point out amidst the chaos. There was a part of him that wondered if this new creature was going to turn on him once they had their fill with the angels, but another part of him felt absolutely at ease simply seeing them.
As each angel fell from the sky and splattered like lifeless dolls on the holy grounds they were meant to protect, the creature landed, and Todomatsu could finally see his savior's... back. They were wearing priest-like garbs much like Todomatsu, but it seemed looser, as if it were fit for hiding something. He could definitely see the semblance of something swishing just beneath it.
"Are you alright, Todomatsu?" the creature turned to ask, a grin on their face that seemed both natural and eerie at the same time. Although the protrusion – a horn, almost like a unicorn's, a shade of red – was caked with blood, it seemed to glow just as bright, as if the night sky was hiding in there. Todomatsu's eyes widened, body frozen to the floor as he realized just what, or who was in front of him.
"Jyushimatsu... niisan?"
The creature, Jyushimatsu, grinned.
"You recognize me, Totty! I'm so happy!!"
It was comforting for Todomatsu to see his favorite brother again, despite their weird situation. For one, why did Jyushimatsu have a horn on his head? He knew the fifth son was an oddball, but he never just grew non-human traits. The swishing that Todomatsu had noticed earlier in passing poked out from under Jyushimatsu’s robes, revealing itself to be a tail. Just like the horn, it seemed to be glowing as well, except it was a vibrant yellow in contrast to the horn’s deep red.
“I mean, yeah. Why wouldn’t I recognize you? We have the same face,” Todomatsu tried to reply with his usual snark, but wavering at the last part. He did think it was comforting to see Jyushimatsu, that much was true, but there was some part of him that was disturbed to see his older brother like this.
Like the fact that Jyushimatsu’s middle had sharp teeth, and seemed to open and close much like a normal mouth.
Okay, something was wrong. Terribly wrong, and Todomatsu was afraid to know or understand why.
“Those nightmares didn’t hurt you too bad, did they?” The youngest’s thoughts were interrupted as his older brother inspected him. “They must have been real scary, huh. I saw them, but I couldn’t do anything until I was sure you needed help.”
“Wait– Huh, what–?” The more Jyushimatsu spoke, the more confused Todomatsu got. “Hold on, so this is a dream or something…?”
“Uh-huh!” Jyushimatsu nodded.
“And you just managed to get in my dreams.” Todomatsu continued.
“That’s right!” Jyushimatsu nodded once more.
“So you’ve been spying on me?!” Todomatsu suddenly yelled.
Jyushimatsu blinked, taken aback by the train of thought.
“Eh? Uh… Well, how do I explain this…” The definitely-not-human scratched the back of his head, trying to figure out how to explain all this to his little brother. This wasn’t the first time he interrupted Todomatsu’s dreams whenever he had nightmares, but this was the first time they actually talked to one another.
He bumped his fist against the palm, having had a lightbulb moment.
“Think of me like your guardian angel!” He settled for answering. “Actually, I’m more of everyone’s guardian angel whenever someone has a nightmare in Akatsuka Ward, but I keep focus on all of yours and our niisan’s and mom and dad’s, and even Totoko-chan’s dreams!”
Todomatsu stared, Jyushimatsu taking this as his cue to explain further.
“I’m officially what they call a Dream Eater. I eat bad dreams, nightmares that take random forms like those angels just now. Karamatsu-niisan doesn’t like the fact that the dreams he makes gets invaded by nightmares, but that’s why I’m here to stop them each time! Though I can’t do it all the time, it gets suuuper tiring to eat all nightmares all the time. But I gotta muscle hustle!”
Jyushimatsu grinned once more, his expression now more cheerful, one that Todomatsu recognized and sorely missed. He wasn't really listening to the explanation his older brother just gave him, he was heavily fixated on the fact that his brother was here. His usual upbeat voice, his common go-to phrase for anything… It really was him here, in this dream.
“Jyushimatsu-niisan, I really miss you…” he found himself saying, finding the strength to finally stand up and approach the ‘Dream Eater’ that was his brother.
The other beamed as he spread his arms to wrap around his little brother, laughing as he often did before. Another thing that Todomatsu missed.
“I miss you too, Totty. I miss you and Ichimatsu-niisan, and Osomatsu-niisan too. I miss mom too, of course,” he said with a smile.
“T-Then why not just visit us? I know you, Karamatsu-niisan and Choromatsu-niisan had to move out with dad after the divorce, but nobody said you can never see us again!”
Jyushimatsu went silent at that, hands reluctantly removing his embrace.
“... Jyushimatsu-niisan?” Todomatsu asked, unnerved by the sudden silence.
The Dream Eater looked up, eyes glowing yellow.
“Hey, Totty. The sun’s almost rising, you know?” he said as a matter of fact, their surroundings slowly fading into white. “Might as well wake up before the alarm does, right?”
Todomatsu’s eyes widened once more in a panic, finding himself struggling to stay awake as his vision too began fading to white.
“Jyushimatsu-niisan…!” he called out. “Will I remember all this? Will I remember seeing you?”
At that, Jyushimatsu chuckled. It was a rule, an unspoken one at that, that whenever a dreamer woke up, they would struggle remembering anything that happened in said dream. It was all the creation of the mind, after all.
“That depends on you, Totty. Do you want to remember?”
Jyushimatsu didn’t even hear Todomatsu’s response, his voice being swallowed up as he too was brought back to the world of the living. The dream was over. His stomach growled, licking the excess nightmare blood from its teeth.
“Hehe, still hungry, buddy?” He asked his own tummy. “There’s probably some other people still asleep having nightmares. And Ichimatsu-niisan and Osomatsu-niisan are probably getting up now, so we can’t see them. It’s too bad, I know.”
The stomach seemed to gurgle.
“That’s how it is though. So let’s hustle hustle to the next one!”
He removed the priest garb that he wore for Todomatsu’s dream, revealing a simple but casual streetwear outfit that had his signature yellow color on a jacket, with the long ends of the coattail forming to be his tail. The horn on his head still stood tall before he turned around and dove into the white abyss with a splash.
He still had a job to do.
“JYUSHIMATSU-NIISAN!!”
Todomatsu woke up with a jolt, hand reaching out to nothing but air. His breath finally caught up with him, the youngest realized that he was back home. He wasn’t wearing those black robes anymore, just his pajamas. He wasn’t in the church anymore either, fighting off those creepy angels. He was in the bedroom he shared with his two older brothers, on top of the futon that they always slept on, seeming just a bit bigger now that three others weren’t with them.
Namely being Karamatsu, Choromatsu, and–
“Jyushimatsu-niisan…”
The details of his dreams were slowly fading away the more he acclimated himself to the real world, but there was one thing he couldn’t forget.
He saw his big brother, Jyushimatsu there. He said things Todomatsu couldn’t understand, but he knew what he saw.
Jyushimatsu was there. And he missed them, just like they missed him and the others.
He curled in on himself as tried to hold on to that tiny part of his dream that gave him comfort in that brief moment.
Ever since the divorce, no one has heard from their father or even their three other brothers. Of course Todomatsu enjoyed being able to continue his NEET lifestyle, much like Osomatsu and Ichimatsu, but it seemed lonelier without their other halves. After all, they were born six of a kind. They were supposed to be inseparable, despite being nuisances in each other’s lives.
“... Totty, are you alright?”
Todomatsu looked up to see Ichimatsu looking at him with concern. Beside him was Osomatsu who was fighting the sleep away with a yawn, but equally concerned in his own way.
“Ichimatsu-niisan… when did you and Osomatsu-niisan get up?” the youngest asked.
“Right as the alarm woke us up,” Ichimatsu informed. “I was about to get out to feed the cats, but then we saw you like that. Thought you had a nightmare or something.”
“Aw come on, Ichimacchan!” Osomatsu suddenly spoke up, grinning as he rubbed his nose. “Totty wouldn’t start crying because of a nightmare now! He’s too heartless to even know fear like that!”
Normally, Todomatsu would take offense to that (or wouldn’t, depending on if he wanted to save face), but he was too overwhelmed at the moment.
“I saw Jyushimatsu-niisan in my dreams last night.”
At that, Osomatsu and Ichimatsu turned silent. None of them ever spoke about the other three that had left the house months ago, or even attempted to reach out to them. They were just shitty people that way.
“... Were you able to talk to him?” Ichimatsu asked, Osomatsu too stunned to even talk.
“I-I think so? I can’t remember much of it anymore, but he did say like he missed us all.” Todomatsu replied, giggling to himself a bit before sighing. “But maybe that’s just me projecting in my dreams. It’s not as if Jyushimatsu-niisan can just jump around in dreams and visit us.”
It was Ichimatsu’s turn to smile, raising a hand to pat Todomatsu’s head.
“Considering Jyushimatsu, he might as well be able to.”
Osomatsu continued to remain quiet as the two shared a moment. He was oddly deep in thought.
( So that’s where Jyushimatsu went, huh. That just leaves Choromatsu, then. When’s he showing up? )