Once again, we are back to the Silver Star Teahouse in 1920's Japan. Hiruko is a Baku, a dream-eater who feasts on Nightmares. People who have nightmares come to him, hoping to be free of their nightmares.
In this volume, the first story concerns an overweight woman named Kameko Yasojima. She is the daughter of a rice merchant and loves to eat, which has led to her present large size. In her dreams, she dreams of a man she loves, Osami, but the way to reach him is through a gap that is too small to fit her. She wants Hiruko to bring Osami to visit her, but he sees another woman soon after he starts his trip. She is Chizuru, and she is already Osami's lover. Kameko wants to lose weight so Osami will notice her. But will his notice be good for her?
The next story is about a girl named Mumeo, who dreams of being in the darkness all alone, where it is hard to breathe or move. She needs Hiruko to find out where she is so she can forget the nightmare... but will the answer bring her hope, or despair?
The third espisode is a man named Sueichi who dreams of flying carp kites hung over a river. Dozens of them. The sight makes him feel sick for some reason. When Hiruko enters the dream, he can see why: one of the kites has a pair of human feet and legs hanging out of it. When he remembers a girl who he made a promise to, who died chasing a carp kite, he releases her spirit to the sky so she can be free to go to heaven. But does she really want to?
The next story concerns a woman who is marrying a man above her station. She feels she isn't good enough for him, and dreams of a thread wrapping her into a cocoon in her dream, and she is scared of being boiled to death or becoming an ugly moth, but when she sees a girl who looks just like her, what will the dream reveal about her life?
The fifth story concerns not so much Hiruko as Hifumi, who only lives at the Silver Star Teahouse so he can investigate Hiruko. But when the club he is doing it for gives him the mission to infiltrate Delirium and find out its secrets, can he do it without becoming trapped? And will Hiruko rescue him before he lives out his life in an endless fantasy?
The sixth involves a return visit by a man who gave up everything to follow a newspaper story far away. Happily married, he divorced his wife so that if he died overseas, she wouldn't be heartbroken over him. But when he finally returned, she had married again, happily, and his daughter called a new man Daddy. Now that his family is dead, he has nothing to live for... or does he. Can Haruko finally help him this time?
The last story involves a little girl who loves to tell stories about her friends, even in her dreams. But now her dreams have become troubling: one friend is without hands or feet and won't stay with her. Another just stares, her mouth sewn shut, while the third digs for and eats bugs and worms. Can Hiruko unravel the mystery and make her happy again?
Some of the stories in this volume are downright scary and even caused me to shudder and be afraid. They are almost like ghost stories in tone, and as I have noted in the Ghost Hunt manga reviews, Japanese ghosts are downright malevolent- not something you want appearing in your dreams.
The presence of Hiruko does help a bit to mitigate these scary factors, but they can still be quite startling and result in nightmares for the reader. Even though the stories are rated "T" for teen, don't assume you'll be immune to the horror effect.
These stories are moody, atmospheric and at times, quite frightening. But even so, you'll want to come back and read more. I can't wait to read the next volume.
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