Ding-ling—
With a crisp chime of the doorbell, the bakery door swung open.
"Welcome."
Sharina didn't even look up, still focused on checking the accounts in her hand as she delivered the perfunctory greeting.
Yet, several seconds passed and she heard neither footsteps nor the clatter of tongs against trays.
Only silence filled the shop.
She snapped her head up; the instant her gaze met the man at the door, her pupils shrank.
She had seen him before—in Jaden's memory fragments.
That man in the purple suit, stern face, eyes burning with obsessive fire—Hawk Moth.
In a heartbeat, the air around Sharina turned icy.
"We're closed." Her voice was sub-zero, edged with frost. "Nothing's for sale. Please leave."
Hawk Moth acted as though he hadn't heard her stone-cold refusal or sensed the hostility radiating from her.
He strolled in uninvited, pacing before the display cases, eyeing the golden croissants, strawberry-topped tarts, and sugar-dusted chocolate puffs like any casual customer choosing dessert.
"Oh? Already closed?"
He spoke with feigned regret while selecting pastries. "So sorry, but I'm simply starving."
Leisurely, he lifted the tongs and placed a few of the most exquisite treats onto a tray at the counter.
Then he looked at Sharina, a ghost of a smile on his lips: "May I take these… to go?"
Sharina's expression grew even colder.
She tapped the pastries on the tray and enunciated, "I'm sorry.
Kindly return these to their rightful place. If you wish to buy, come early tomorrow. We're closed now."
"Very well."
Hawk Moth shrugged, seemingly disappointed, and turned toward the exit—at an excruciatingly slow pace.
Only when his back was fully to her did he unhurriedly say,
"My name is Hawk Moth."
"If ever you face a problem you can't solve alone, or desire something—say, making a dream come true—I can help you."
He was silently counting.
He believed this girl—the "Dream Guardian" born from that man's deepest desire and fear—must harbor longings of her own.
To any being with yearning, the phrase "make your dream come true" was an irresistible poison.
Five steps, four, three… he neared the door.
Just as his hand was about to touch the handle—
"Stop!"
Sharina's voice finally rang out behind him.
The corner of Hawk Moth's mouth curved in a victorious smile.
He turned. "Yes, miss?"
Her ice-blue eyes bored into him, as if to see straight through his soul.
After a moment of silence she asked, "This… dream-come-true of yours—is it real?"
"Of course."
His answer was absolute, beyond question.
He raised his cane; the purple gem on its head flared, and an Akuma Butterfly fluttered out, circling above his palm.
"As long as hope and desire still live in your heart,"
his voice brimmed with seduction, "my butterfly can grant everything you crave."
Sharina's gaze was riveted to the black butterfly.
On its fragile, beautiful wings she seemed to glimpse a light of hope that could shatter all chains and lead to eternity.
Seeing her waver, Hawk Moth judged it time to reveal his cards.
"You and I need hide nothing further."
He cut to the chase: "This world is a Nightmare Realm I constructed inside His heart using an Akumatized Person's power.
You are this realm's Dream Guardian. I don't know why a dream meant to be agony and torment turned into such… a sweet, cozy dream, but judging from you and him, it's clearly a beautiful dream shared by you two."
He stepped closer, voice coaxing: "Don't you wish to turn this sweet dream into reality?
Cooperate with me, and together we'll accelerate the collapse of this false dream world…"
"I refuse!"
Sharina cut him off without a second thought.
The confusion in her eyes was instantly replaced by vigilance and hostility.
Accelerate the collapse? What about Jaden? This world belongs to them; she'll never allow anyone to destroy it!
Hawk Moth had clearly anticipated her refusal.
He smiled dismissively and then spoke words that sliced open the deepest fear Sharina herself refused to acknowledge.
"Here, as the Dream Guardian, you spend every moment with him and own all his love. But…"
His tone turned cruel and direct,
"have you ever considered how long this world can last?
This dream is sustained by an Akumatized Person's power.
Once that force vanishes, everything—this world, everything between you and him—will shatter like a mirage."
"When that moment comes,"
he stared into her eyes, enunciating each word,
"you will vanish along with this world. Because you are merely… a false shadow conjured by this dream and his love."
"I'm no shadow! I exist for real!"
Sharina retorted vehemently, yet her voice quavered uncontrollably.
"Really?"
Hawk Moth's grin widened. "Then tell me—doesn't this so-called real world feel… even slightly off?
For instance, why does this shop never have genuine customers?
Why does the street outside loop the same scene forever?
And why… have you never thought of walking out that door together with him?"
Each question struck like a hammer blow to her heart.
Of course she sensed the omnipresent wrongness and falsity.
But she kept ignoring it, preferring to drown in this fake happiness rather than face the cruel truth.
Watching her crouch down and hug herself in pain, Hawk Moth knew the moment had come.
He sent the Akuma Butterfly to hover before her.
"I need… you to fetch something for me."
He pointed upstairs—Jaden's room. "There's something on him I need. You bring it to me, and in return…"
He paused, delivering the ultimate temptation she could not refuse.
"Success or failure, afterward I can create for you a once-in-a-lifetime chance—
a chance for you to enter the real world.
You'd be freed from this false dream, possess a real body, and live under the sun with Jaden—truly, tangibly."
"So, how about this deal?"
Sharina fell silent, her body trembling violently.
Go to the real world? Be with him forever?
To her, it was an overwhelming temptation.
In the end, she stood up.
She didn't accept the butterfly; instead, she used all her strength to shove Hawk Moth out of the shop.
"Get lost!" she roared.
Hawk Moth, now standing outside, showed no trace of anger.
He merely straightened his tie and, through the glass door, softly said to the girl watching him with complicated eyes, "Sorry."
Then he turned and left—because he knew the seed had already been planted.
From that day on, time in this dream world began to accelerate.
Hawk Moth became a spectator who dropped by the shop punctually every day.
To Jaden, he was just an eccentric regular.
But every visit was "agonizing torment" for Sharina.
Today, he came again.
This time he ignored Sharina and walked straight to Jaden, who was wiping the counter, a gentle smile on his face.
"Child," he asked, "would you like to see the outside world?"
The words struck like thunder in Sharina's mind.
"No—!"
She instantly dropped the bread and, like an enraged leopardess, rushed between them, arms spread, shielding Jaden.
"He doesn't need the outside world!"
She growled at Hawk Moth, "Having me is enough!"
Then she turned; the eyes once cold and possessive now pleaded, fragile.
Her fierce mask finally crumbled into a heart-rending, pitiful look.
Jaden wanted to face it with her, but she shoved him toward the stairs.
"Upstairs! Back to your room!"
He yielded and went up.
With a click, she locked the downstairs door from the outside.
Jaden couldn't get down.
He pressed his ear to the door, straining to hear.
The voices were faint, indistinct—almost nothing.
After an unknown time, the lock turned and Sharina came in.
Before he could ask, she flung herself into his arms, hugging him so tightly it seemed she'd merge him into her bones.
Jaden held her gently, patting her back.
He thought he heard her, face buried in his chest, whisper something tear-choked and barely audible.
"Sorry… Jaden… I don't want to stay with you 'for now'… I want… to stay with you… forever…"
But he couldn't be sure.
The following days passed the same—peaceful yet false.
Until one morning Jaden came downstairs and Sharina was suddenly gone.
The odd guest who always appeared on schedule never showed up again.
On the table lay a note: "Wait for me. I'll be back in a few days."
Jaden chose to believe her.
He waited alone, running the empty bakery as usual.
Until the last bag of flour was gone.
He stood before the closed shop door.
The door Sharina had warned him "never to open" now lay right in front of him.
One gentle push would suffice.
He reached out.
The instant his fingers touched the cold handle and the door cracked open—
the world began shattering like broken glass, inch by inch.
Streets, sky, buildings—everything dissolved into swirling motes of light.
At the collapsing horizon stood the missing Sharina and Hawk Moth.
Sharina didn't look at Hawk Moth; her gaze pierced the crumbling world, aching for Jaden.
"You'd better remember your promise," she said coldly to Hawk Moth.
"No problem," he replied.
Watching the grand yet sorrowful destruction, he felt a pang—something like envy and regret.
In these false "lovers" he saw a shadow of the simple, happy life he'd once shared with Emilie.
But he could only apologize; for Emilie's sake, he had to sacrifice this innocent girl woven from dreams.
"Perhaps it's been ages here,"
his figure turning translucent, "but in reality it's only an instant."
Then he vanished entirely, returning to his real body.
At the moment he disappeared, Sharina—her own body already fragmenting—shrieked a name with all her might—
"Jade—!"
A translucent red sprite fluttered out of her dissolving earring.
"Can you locate… the world he's in?"
"Sorry, Sharina… I can't…"
No disappointment crossed her face.
She called the phantom sprite back into the earring and, still madly resolute, stared through the collapsing void at the figure being swallowed by the end of the world.
"It's fine… I'll find you…"
"I believe that with that stupid butterfly as a beacon, one day I'll truly… reach the world where you are."
"Wait for me, Jaden."
"You're mine. Only I can make you happy. Those people… they don't deserve you."
With that final, tyrannical vow, her form shattered into countless motes and vanished.
The instant the world fully collapsed, repressed true memories flooded Jaden's mind like a burst dam.
Seized by the Horrificator… cocooned and waiting… drowned by endless negative energy that filled His heart and plunged him into fear-induced slumber… then boundless pain. Somehow, from the abyss, longing for "happiness," he had carved out this two-person world with Sharina.
But now Sharina was gone.
And he had pushed open that door, shattering the last barrier protecting his mind.
Icy memories surged over him once more.
The runaway truck, the screech of brakes, his body hurled through the air, bones shattering… lying alone on cold asphalt, feeling life ebb away—death's brink and the rawest trauma buried since his transmigration—all detonated and magnified in this instant!
"Aaaaah—!"
His mind felt torn by the twin agonies.
Just as his consciousness teetered on collapse, a familiar voice rose in the depths of his mind like a dawn ray.
"Wake up, my perfect creation."
"I am—"
The voice paused, as if for a solemn proclamation.
"Hawk Moth."