A collection of four linked short stories set in a port town on the Wakasa coast, exploring the terrifying mystery of a mermaid legend and the depths of human desire. When a high school girl confesses she might be a mermaid, a chain of supernatural beauty and curse unfolds across four tales. The debut work of Watahara Seri, winner of the 45th Yokomizo Seishi Mystery & Horror Award.

The being before me is a true demon. What is terrifying is that even knowing this, I find myself drawn to it irresistibly.

Psychiatrist Kamimori Chisato faces the successive suspicious deaths of patients who complained of seeing a "dream that leads to death." The nightmare begins to "infect" her as well, as she starts dreaming of attending a mysterious ritual. Meanwhile, occult writer Ito Sota, chasing the urban legend of the "cursed dream," discovers the existence of a strange ceremonial rite on a remote island from a deceased colleague's note reading "the key is Yumemōde." When the two investigation threads converge on the island's cursed folk customs, the "order of death" closes in. Winner of the Readers' Award at the 45th Yokomizo Seishi Mystery & Horror Grand Award. Published under the title Yumemōde, revised and retitled from the original submission title "Yume ni Sumitsuku Mono."

See that nightmare, and you die -- find the key to breaking the curse before your turn comes.

A linked short story collection set against the backdrop of mermaid legends in a fishing town in Wakasa. The work depicts the grotesque entanglement between mermaids and humans surrounding "overwhelming beauty." It follows the tragedy of a girl who gains supernatural beauty by drinking mermaid blood, and the humans undone by her existence, weaving together themes of lookism and obsession with beauty. Judge Yukito Ayatsuji praised it as showing "a fine sense of mystery—and it is frightening," while Honobu Yonezawa declared "this novel has depth and sorrow."

"What stands before me is a true demon. What terrifies me is that, even knowing this, I feel an irresistible fascination."