Chương 32: The Dream, Pt 2
That night, Kai lay down for a good night's rest to wipe away the exhaustion from using his Quirk earlier. Pulling out Arachne was not something he did often, and she took extra energy to sustain due to her size. In some ways it was easier to bring her because she was capable of more complex thought on her own, but that wasn't so good in a case where they disagreed.
After a long period of struggle, he managed to find rest.
In his dream, he was in the deathly quiet of a battlefield that the battle had moved on from. Looking around, he could see hundreds, maybe even thousands of corpses. There were zerglings riddled with bullet holes, puddles of steaming green goo that had once been banelings, men in armor, shattered tanks, and more forms that had crashed, been crushed, or torn asunder. The gentle breeze brought no comfort with its caress, merely stirring up the scents of gunpowder and blood.
"Here I am again. Why? Why here?"
Kai had talked with Ayako about the last dream. Neither of them was sure if it even had any meaning at all, but they worried. After all, the nature of his Quirk came with some… instability. But at the same time, as she read his energy, she couldn't feel anything wrong.
In the end, they could only wait for the next dream.
Kai closed his eyes and listened carefully for a moment. Though the battle had moved on, its sounds echoed around the dead city. It took a little while to be sure of where the sound came from, but he was soon running.
Though it was strange, it was just a dream. Not only that, but he could command these creatures, if it came to it.
So it was perfectly safe to run towards the battle, right?
It didn't take long for him to at least find the reserves. Relatively speaking, there wasn't enough space for all of the zerg to fight together against their enemy. The streets restricted them even though they were eight lanes across, because they were here by the millions. Maybe even billions.
There were some zerglings and banelings about a hundred meters ahead of him. But there were creatures bigger than cars looming behind them. Creatures that walked on six crab-like legs, peeking their heads out of a shell that was covered with spikes. Above their head were two thick claws that could barely even reach the mouth.
Roaches was the word that came to his mind. Their presence felt familiar, like he had tried to summon one before but only just failed at it. This close to them, he could isolate one's mind, and just sense the one roach and not the whole Swarm.
It was… waiting. Waiting for orders. Kai tried to push a thought to it, but it didn't listen. Maybe it was because this was just a dream. Maybe the woman in his last dream was just so powerful that this roach couldn't hear Kai over her.
As he watched, the roach he was watching followed an order that Kai couldn't hear. It cleared a space for itself and pulled its legs close to its body. Then, its body secreted a strange slime that swelled around and engulfed the roach until it became some kind of chrysalis. Kai recognized it as similar to when he made a zergling morph into a baneling. Then more started the same process.
"I wonder what you will be, roachie."
It seemed that he would take a little while to finish, so Kai looked around. Despite the battle, this area was relatively untouched. At the very least, it seemed like the zerg weren't thoroughly destroying everything- just whatever was in their way, or what shot at them. Some buildings had pristine windows that reflected a distant ship crashing to the ground, trailing a thick black smoke through the gray clouds.
As he watched the reflection, he realized that there was a hand on the other side of the window. There was a survivor!
Kai looked back at the zerg. It seemed like they weren't going to clear out any time soon. And since he hadn't felt a response for the roach, he decided to not try his luck with them. He could try that the next dream. It was time to talk to a human. Maybe they could tell him what was going on.
Even if it was a dream, things were strange. He felt like things were still real, even though Ayako had assured him that he had been in his futon right up to waking the last time. Maybe he could learn something here.
Coming to the foot of the building, Kai was surprised to find that there were claw marks and broken windows at ground level. Some even lead into the building. However, as he found the stairs that led up to the floor that he had seen the survivor's hand, he found almost no signs of intrusion. The woman in charge must have kept the stragglers of her army from going too far off the path of conquest.
Ruthless to combatants, but merciful to those who didn't get in her way. Kai's kind of person.
I'd like to meet her, he thought. We could be friends.
Then again, he didn't know who or why her wrath had come down on these people. Statue guy had been a pretentious a-hole, but there was still a chance he had done well enough by his people. Besides, a planet was being razed by the Swarm. This wasn't his, but he still felt he had to know, as someone who might lead such destruction.
Of course, he wasn't nearly that strong, and it seemed like the zerg lived on this world rather than being summoned like he did. But still, he had to know more. Information could save his life. Ignorance was death.
As he rounded the last corner in the staircase and found the floor he thought the survivor was on, Kai slowed down so that he could get his bearings and catch his breath. Suddenly, he heard a loud scream reverberate through the whole building.
It must be that roach, he thought. Whatever it had turned into, it was big. I wonder what it can do….
In any case, he was lucky it had popped out of its chrysalis at this time, because its scream had triggered a set from up ahead that was quickly shushed. But now he knew he was close to the survivors.
"Hello?" Kai called out cautiously.
"Sh! You can't make noise like that!" There was a small group of people in a restaurant ahead, all trying to yell at each other while keeping it to whispers at the same time. They kept close to the windows, keeping an eye on the zerg below on the street.
"Can you tell me what's happening?" Kai asked a bit more quietly. Of course they would be terrified in this situation. He'd forgotten for a moment that while this was a dream to him, it was their reality.
"Why is she here? Why today?"
The whole group kept murmuring to each other. They didn't even look in Kai's direction. Kai frowned. How could they not have heard him? They heard him just now, didn't they? They were busy with each other, but not so much that they wouldn't notice an extra voice from behind. And there was a door that he had opened before, how did they not hear-
Kai turned around and saw that the door was closed. He hadn't closed it behind him. Crap. He ran up to the group of survivors. He didn't care about spooking them anymore. They needed help!
"Guys, something is here! It closed the door and might be here with-"
And they didn't react to him at all. But why wouldn't they? Couldn't they see him? After all…
"Isn't this just-"
He sat up in bed to see a dark room.
Wasn't it just a dream? No, this was something a little different.
SUY NGHĨ CỦA NGƯỜI SÁNG TẠO 
Tvrkm
Tvrkm Well, he didn't catch Kerrigan this time. Maybe next time.