HSHK Chapter 16

**Nightmare** (悪 (あく) 夢 (む) , *Akumu*?) is the sixteenth chapter of the spin-off Houkago Shounen Hanako-kun.

## Summary

The story starts in summer season where the three are hanging around the school rooftop. Hanako plays with a Mokke, as Nene and Kou are eating their meals. Nene reveals that she recently started having bad dreams. She explains that it was the same nightmare every day. The nightmare begins with her getting ready to feed Black Canyon, her pet hamster, then it starts multiplying every time she blinks. She worries about her abilities as a pet owner due to her unsuccessful attempt to identify the real one. Hanako scrolls through a dream interpretation book and tells Nene that only those with super perverted desires have nightmares during the summer. In irritation, Nene throws the book off of the rooftop, turns around, and says that anyone could be having nightmares in the summer. She asks Kou for his affirmation to this, to which Kou reveals that he has also been having nightmares similar to hers, but this time it was two versions of Mitsuba coming to ask him to determine who is the real one. After this, they began to survey their friends and schoolmates and asking them what they dreamt about.

* **Yokoo** says that he dreamt of having a yandere girlfriend.
* **Satou** says that he dreamt of having been eaten by sweets.
* **Lemon** says that he dreamt of his smartphone becoming a parasite.
* **Akane** says that he dreamt that Teru had multiplied.
* **Aoi** says that she hasn't been dreaming much lately.
* **Nagisa** says that he dreamt of seeing Tsuchigomori's arms grow longer.
* **Yako** says that she dreamt of becoming a Tanuki.

Nene, relieved, describes that the warm summer makes it harder for everyone to sleep well. Kou adds that they may also have had been getting more nightmares because of it. Hanako having retrieved the book from earlier, determines that the reason this is the case is because the school is full of perverts. Hanako claims that the only way to stop her from having those hamster nightmares is to renounce all her worldly desires. He then recommends that she focuses all her thoughts on him. Kou questions the validity of his statement, suggesting that Hanako only could've said this so he can appear in Nene's dreams. Hanako comes to admit that as leader of the school mysteries, he figured that nightmares and other similar things should be a territory of his. He says that he wants Yashiro to think of him, whether she's awake or asleep. He then starts to get closer to Nene and proceeds to ask if Nene also wants to to see him in her dreams. Teru suddenly interrupts, prompting Hanako to flock to a farther distance. Kou tells Teru that Hanako wanted to use their topic about nightmares as an excuse to have Nene dream about him. Teru confronts Hanako. A nervous Hanako insists that his actions were justified as he only wanted to shift Nene's focus to something else due to the nightmares she has been having. Teru ends up using this idea to shift Nene's focus on him, by laughing at her fear of nightmares, and telling her she's cute. She became ecstatic that day and seemingly have had a very amazing dream later that night. In the end, he was asked by Kou on why he said that. Teru answers that not only is their job to expel supernaturals, but to also expel nightmares.

## Characters in Order of Appearance

* Yashiro Nene
* Minamoto Kou
* Hanako
* Mokke
* Mitsuba Sousuke
* Yokoo and Satou
* Yamabuki Lemon
* Aoi Akane
* Akane Aoi
* Nagisa
* Tsuchigomori
* Yako
* Minamoto Teru

## Events

* Nene dreamt that her hamster, named Black Canyon, multiplied.
* Kou dreamt of two Mitsuba's asking him to determine who the real one is.
* The three (Hanako, Nene, and Kou) went to survey Yokoo, Satou, Lemon, Akane, Aoi, Nagisa, Tsuchigomori, and Yako about what dreams they've been having.

## Trivia

* It is revealed that the Minamoto Clan is also tasked in exorcising nightmares.
* When the two Mitsuba's confronted Kou in a dream, the outfits seem to indicate that the one with the black scarf (on the left) is actually the School Mystery Mitsuba, while the one with a camera (on the right) seem to be the original Mitsuba.
* Hanako seemed to have been able to retrieve the dream interpretation book, despite the fact that Nene threw it away.
* When Lemon informs that his dream is about his phone becoming a parasite, Akane claims that’s just reality.