“I use this power to make money from public gambling, stocks, and investments.”

“Uh, uh, uh…”

My emotions were running high and i couldn’t articulate my thoughts well.

“That’s awesome! With that kind of ability, you can easily earn as much as you want without any effort!”

“Yeah, that’s true.”

“That’s right.”

“He easily agreed, this guy!”

“Well, that’s why I can easily spend a lot of money on remodeling his house… suuuu, haaaah.” Jin said

Let’s calm down. Take in some fresh air and cool and ventilate our brain.

“Uguguu, I’m not just jealous, I’m envious! If envy could curse people, aahhh!”

“Your way of thinking is messed up…”

“It seems like my inner thoughts leaked out of my mouth.”

Jin recoiled in horror and looked at me with frightened eyes.

“Well, well, if you have something like that, you can earn money without limits! Ah, that’s why you’re so rich!”

“I just said that, didn’t I?”
Although I thought I understood it in my head, my emotions couldn’t keep up.

My feelings were a jumble of surprise, jealousy, and various other emotions.

“First, calm down… And return the betting ticket you put in your pocket.”

“Tch, you noticed, huh?”

Even though I casually put it away, he was sharp-eyed.

“O-Okay, I-I believe in the precognitive dream… Yes, I believe!”

I proclaimed loudly, trying to convince myself.

There were so many things I wanted to ask, but if I got stuck here, I wouldn’t be able to move forward. I had to force myself to accept it, even if it was a bit of a stretch.

“You can only use precognitive dreams once a month, twelve times a year. The content of the dream can only be seen at the beginning of each month. So it’s like the first day of January, February, March, and so on, right?”

“Yeah, that’s right. I’ve never seen a precognitive dream from the second to the thirty-first before.”

He even knew who would win the annual Red and White Song Battle a month before it happened.

This power was quite useful, wasn’t it?

“So, on March 1st, you saw the news that a zombie was rampaging a month later on April 1st!”

Feeling my emotions rise, I leaned forward on the table and pressed closer to Jin.

“That’s why, I’m telling you, it’s true!”
“Okay, okay, calm down and back away a bit.”

As I got closer to Jin, the woman sitting next to him tried to pull me away when I was almost nose-to-nose with him.
She pushed me with all her might, but lacked the power to move me away. She need to work on more muscles.

She was a beautiful woman with a delicate appearance. If she were a video streamer, there would be a demand for her. If she were to increase her exposure a bit around her chest or thighs and use a sweet voice to beg, she could easily attract viewers.

“Uh?” I was taken aback.

Suddenly, I realized I had spoken aloud again. The woman quickly moved away and looked at me with frightened eyes.

“Oh, no, it’s not what you think. I was talking about my career as a video streamer,” I said in a panic, but I ended up hiding behind Jin.

Jin looked at me with half-opened eyes, as if he were astonished by my behavior.

“Cough. Anyway, let’s get back to the topic. Even though I reluctantly accepted the concept of premonition dreams, are they always accurate? Can we differentiate between premonition dreams and regular dreams?”

I said to express my newly formed questions out loud.

“If I don’t do anything unnecessary, I’ll never miss. However, sometimes I consciously behave differently from what I saw in my dream, which can bring about change. I try to act according to my premonitions when it comes to investments and gambling, as I don’t want to change their outcomes.”

“I see. So if you follow the actions in your premonition dreams, you can’t go wrong. By the way, have you ever intentionally tried to change the outcome?”

“Yes, I have. The reality sometimes takes a slightly different turn from what I saw in my premonition.”

The future can be changed. It’s important to remember this.

“When it comes to distinguishing between premonition dreams and ordinary dreams, premonition dreams are just like real experiences. The colors, sounds, smells, and tactile sensations (sense of touch) are all perfectly reproduced. They are indistinguishable from reality.”

“The quality of premonition dreams is incomparable to that of strangely realistic dreams.”

“Sometimes, when I wake up, I’m confused and wonder if what just happened was a dream. But after a while, I understand that it was just a dream.”

“Then, the zombie panic in April is really dangerous, isn’t it?”

By speaking it out loud, the gravity, danger, and meaning of the situation gradually sank in.

The two of them didn’t doubt their premonition dreams at all. That’s why they were taking seemingly reckless actions like fortifying their home through DIY projects.

As a preparation for the future.

Their seriousness was beyond doubt.

“Shouldn’t we spread this information to the media or on the internet to let others know?”

I didn’t completely believe it, but if it were to really happen, I felt that we should take some kind of action.

They should make an effort to spread the word beyond just fortifying their own home.

“If someone on the internet were to spread the rumor that zombies will overrun Japan in April, what would Diya think?”

“That’s a load of nonsense.”

“Exactly.”

If people don’t know the situation, it’s natural for them not to believe it. But if that’s the case, we can use the same approach.

“Well, then, why don’t you try predicting the horse race results like how you showed me? Maybe people will start to believe in premonition dreams.”

“I’ve thought about it, but I don’t want to do it.”

“Why not? Even if not everyone believes it, some people who do might be saved, and if it causes a commotion, the media might catch wind of it.”

“If that happens, it won’t take long afterwards. If everything goes well, it should spread throughout Japan via the internet within a few days.

Jin and his sister frowned when they heard my proposal.

“I don’t want to attract attention. What if this zombie phenomenon was caused by a powerful organization or a state-sponsored virus or terrorist act? Those guys are definitely monitoring the internet. If they find any topics that could potentially reveal the truth, they will respond immediately. They won’t allow for the plan to be leaked.”

“A powerful organization? That only happens in games and manga, right…”

I almost denied how ridiculous it was, but there was no sense of reality in this situation.

A prophetic dream about zombies.

It seemed nothing more than a fictional story.

“If the mastermind sets their sights on us, ordinary citizens like us could be eliminated without hesitation. Thousands, tens of thousands, or even billions of people could die once April comes. Do you think they would hesitate to kill one or two ordinary citizens now?”

“Well…”

I couldn’t deny it.

I couldn’t find a reason why those who were attempting a mass slaughter wouldn’t take action.

“I’m going to say something terrible now. I…thought that as long as my sister and I survived, that would be enough. That’s why I was trying to create an environment where we could barricade ourselves here.”

There were large stockpiles of supplies.

Life support systems such as electricity and water were secured.

There were iron bars on the windows and security shutters.

The exterior walls were reinforced.

All of these points connected together.

“All my doubts have disappeared now.”

“To be honest, I was planning to keep it hidden until the end. But I want to help Diya too.”

“Ah…”

Hearing those words made my chest tighten.

I didn’t know if I was happy, sad, wanting to cry, or wanting to be angry. My emotions were complicated and indescribable.

If they had just used me silently, Jin and his sister would have been able to welcome April 1st with full preparation.

Yet, they revealed their secret to me. I had to be grateful for that.

“Thank you for telling me. Then, I can’t keep mine a secret either, can I?”

I told them that I had asked my uncle for an investigation into Jin’s background, and the results of that investigation.

I went back to the car and brought the report, layed it out on the table and bowed my head.

Jin didn’t get angry and just smiled, saying “It’s okay, were even now.” We went through the report together, but his gaze stopped midway through the third page.

“Did you go to the Nanakagami village?”

“To go there, of all places…”

The two of them stare at the document with bitter expressions.

Following their gaze, it reads:

“The village of the Nanakagami clan, the birthplace of Sakurazaka Jin. We plan to gather information on it soon. As a precaution, one additional person will be added to the team due to the potential danger.”

“Hey, this is the place where Jin used to live, right?”

“Yeah, until he was in elementary school. It was the worst place dominated by discrimination, prejudice, and crazy teachings…”

“But the village should have been destroyed by a forest fire, right?”

Jin bites his lip and clenches his fist, while his sister gently hugs his shoulder.

It seems that there is a past that I shouldn’t easily step into.

The report also states that the village was completely burned down by the forest fire, and all the people who lived there died.

“Additional personnel must refer to Iwaro. The timing is perfect. So, that means the two of them went to investigate the Nanakagami village and… went missing, right?”

What does that mean?

I understand that my uncle conducted an investigation into the village where Jin grew up. Frankly, there shouldn’t have been a need to go that far, but I can imagine that he was driven by vague motives such as “the blood of a detective is stirring” or “a detective’s intuition” and increased his unnecessary investigation.

“Still, there shouldn’t be any danger, right? Maybe they got involved in some kind of accident,” she said.

As it seemed to be a village deep in the mountains, they might have slipped on an unpaved mountain road and gotten lost. That was the only possibility she could think of.
“Hinoyama-san said that he filed a missing person report with the police.”

Due to hearing about the April zombie outbreak, I’m starting to imagine the worst. It’s an unrelated story, but I have a bad feeling…

I’m overthinking it. There’s nothing to worry about even if I go to Jin’s hometown.

To clear my mind of these unpleasant thoughts, I turn to face Jin and his sister, who both have emotionless expressions.

Why are they looking like that…?

“Have you received any phone calls or emails from Uncle or Iwaro-san?”

I’m inwardly surprised by Jin’s unusual cold tone. I’ve never heard him speak like this before.

“I’ve checked multiple times, but there’s been no word from them at all.”

I’ve been checking every few minutes, but there’s been no response.

“He’s always been lazy and hardly ever contacts me unless it’s something important. Yet, he never fails to send me summer greetings or New Year’s cards.”
I wonder why people don’t trust mechanical things, yet have so much faith in analog.

“Oh, speaking of which…,” Jin’s sister suddenly rushes towards the entrance in a hurry and comes back holding an envelope.

“Look, I found this letter…”

“I didn’t recognize the name on it, so it was kind of creepy. I was thinking of throwing it away,” she explains.

The envelope on the desk reads ” Kamiya Ichi Genjiro”

Jin’s sister opens the envelope and reads its contents, letting out a deep sigh when she finishes.

“What should we do…? Uncle might be in trouble.”

The letter reads, “To Sakurazaka-san. I apologize for being so abrupt, but please give this to Diya. This village is suspicious. The inn where I stayed had bugs planted and I feel like I’m being watched by the villagers. I have an appointment to meet someone tomorrow, but if I go missing or lose contact, please tell Hinoyama.”

“We should contact Hinoyama-san!” Jin’s sister exclaims.

I hope Uncle and Iwaro are safe!