Normally a bad dream just had Tsutomu murmuring to himself or whimpering or screaming in his sleep. Perhaps with an outside party intervening, Tsutomu appears to be speaking more coherently.

But alas, a night terror was hard to wake up from, and Tsutomu still sleeps, his body curled up, his stress-graying hair seemingly about to be ripped off of his scalp with his hard Tsutomu was clinging to his head.

I'm not trying to take you anywhere. You're having a bad dream.

But it seems the stranger's words seem to have reached him regardless. His body relaxes. He hears those gentle words, but in his ears, they come from a gentle woman.

"Bad dream?

...

Mother...?"