Dream Eater Merry

For the last ten years Yumeji Fujiwara’s life has been getting progressively stranger, as his ability to predict what kind of dreams other people will has gotten stronger and more reliable. Now his own dreams take a bizarre turn in which he is pursued by armies of cats! Not does Yumeji learn that the leader of the dream cats, a Dream Demon called John Doe, needs Yumeji’s body to access the Real World, but a beautiful girl suddenly drops on top of him. She tells Yumeji that her name is Merry and that she’s a Dream Demon who needs to return to HER world!

Having at least temporarily escaped from John Doe, Yumeji returns to the Real World. He takes the unconscious Merry to the Tachibana’s for shelter and safety. After she awakens, Merry explains that a Dream Demon must have a human host to access the Real World, most of the time, the Dream Demon totally posses the human without giving them a choice. But sometimes, the Dream Demon coexists with the host, leaving the host aware and able to dictate their own actions. Meanwhile, at school there is a mysterious new transfer student. Her name is Chizuru Kawanami, but not much else is known about her and she’s not telling. There are, however, sinister happenings afoot in the Dream World where friendly Dream Demons and their human hosts are being attacked and possessed by someone or someTHING decidedly UNfriendly. Merry decides that she cannot stay with the Tachibana’s but must strike out on her own and solve her problems independently.

Yumeji continues his search for Merry. Just as he’s given up hope of being able to find her, he encounters a young girl named Minato. As fate would have it, Merry has also run into and befriended young Minato. It quickly becomes apparent that Minato has a “friend” that she only sees at night: a Dream Demon named Ichima. Yumeji and Merry have met Minato just in the nick of time as Ichima has decided to finally make her move on Minato’s body. The two team up to defeat the Dream Demon, but Merry remains stuck in the Real World. Yumeji offers to use his ability to see people’s dream auras to help Merry identify impending Dream Demon appearances. While Merry admits his ability would be useful to her, she turns him down flat. Meanwhile, in another place, a new Dream Demon is preparing an all out assault on reality.

While Isana attempts to make friends with Chizuru by inviting her for coffee, the Literary Club decides to go out to karaoke. Merry tags along and discovers two important things: 1) Yumeji can’t sing; and 2) Mei Hoshino, captain of the Literary Club is getting a lot of mysterious emails. It turns out that Mei’s unknown admirer is, in fact, a Dream Demon going by the name of Chris. Determined to stop him from harming her, Yumeji thrusts Chris into a daydream in an attempt to force him out of Mei’s body. Yumeji may have struck the first blow, but the Dream Demon quickly gets the upper hand - at least, until Merry arrives. He is quickly vanquished, but leaves Merry with some troubling words that make her wonder what is really going on. Merry finally decides to stay with the Tachibanas and work at their coffee shop to help earn her keep.

When Isana sends Yumeji and Merry to the local mall to do some grocery shopping, the trip instead turns into an encounter with the most powerful Dream Demon they’ve met yet. But Engi ThreePiece isn’t your typical Dream Demon. She’s a Dream Demon with a mission - a mission that sounds suspiciously like what Merry is attempting to do. Is she really a human-enslaving monster? Or an, as yet, unrecognized ally? Only time will tell, but it may be running out.

Merry and Yumeji manage to drive off Engi ThreePiece, but their victory comes at a price when Yumeji is severely wounded. Still, once they return to the Real World, Yumeji appears to fine physically, but he doesn’t seem to do anything but sleep. And while he’s sleeping he has another encounter with John Doe. However, this encounter is much more peaceful than the last. John Doe not only has his cat nurses heal Yumeji’s psychic wounds, he tells Yumeji what he knows of Pharos Heracles. He also mentions another powerful Dream Demon by the name of Mistltein, the Ocean of Trees, and tells Yumeji to be careful, that his wounds at the hands of Engi ThreePiece are nothing compared to what lies ahead.