Nagai Yume

Dr. Kuroda, a celebrated neurosurgeon, expresses severe doubt when a patient named Tetsuro Mukoda is admitted, complaining of increasingly long dreams, although his assistant, Dr. Yamauchi, believes there may be some truth to Mukoda's complaints. Another patient at the hospital, Mami Takeshima, who was admitted for treatment for a benign tumour, begins experiencing a heightened fear of death, and has a harrowing encounter with Mukoda, who wanders the halls at night, too afraid to sleep.

At first believing Mukoda's symptoms to be nothing more than hallucinations, Kuroda decides to admit him anyway, and studies his symptoms in detail. Using an EEG machine, Kuroda discovers that Mukoda briefly goes into rapid eye movement sleep, his brainwaves become erratic and his eyes thrash about wildly, only to suddenly stop. In that brief moment of REM, he is in the depths of his condition.

With each passing night, the perceived length of Mukoda's dreams seem to be increasing, from months, to years, to decades and then to centuries, and often the experiences he suffers while dreaming are extremely unpleasant. Every time he wakes up, Mukoda begins suffering increasingly strong amnesia, often having to be reminded by Kuroda why he was admitted to hospital. Kuroda becomes pale and gaunt over time as his illness worsens.

Mukoda continues to suffer from his long dreams, and eventually undergoes extreme mental and physical mutations; it is as if Mukoda is really living the length of time he perceives his dreams are. Eventually believing that Takeshima is his wife from within the dream world, a severely-mutated Mukoda accuses Kuroda of trying to interfere in their 'relationship' upon waking, and accosts Takeshima. Terrified, Mami accuses Mukoda of being death, before Kuroda manages to intervene. Mukoda comes to his senses, and asks "What happens to the man who awakens from an eternal dream?"

Mukoda's mutations continue to worsen, and he eventually experiences an eternal dream. With his spirit fleeing his body, Mukoda crumbles away into dust, leaving behind strange red crystals. Shortly afterwards, Takeshima confides to Yamauchi that her fear of death is lessening, but that she too is starting to experience long dreams.

Fearing that there may be a viral component to the illness Mukoda suffered from, Yamauchi consults Kuroda on the matter, who admits that he had been using the crystals on Takeshima in secret, having realised they were the secret to Mukoda's condition. Yamauchi is horrified by this, stating that it desecrates the souls of the dying, but Kuroda reasons that humanity will have no reason to fear death if they have the option of having eternal dreams instead.

• Doctor Kuroda: A celebrated neurosurgeon and the story's protagonist. He initially believes Mukoda's symptoms to be hallucinations, but is soon confounded by the increasingly-bizarre dreams Mukoda presents.
• Doctor Yamauchi: Kuroda's assistant and close friend, Yamauchi expresses concern towards Mukoda's condition.
• Tetsuro Mukoda: A young man complaining of increasingly long dreams, Mukoda wanders the hallways of his hospital at night, afraid to sleep. Over the ensuing days, he begins to physically mutate, as if he had really lived the amount of time he spent in his dreams, and loses an entire lifetime of memories every time he dreams as well, resulting in bizarre psychological manifestations of his condition. Mukoda eventually experiences an endless dream and shatters into pieces, leaving behind red crystals which Kuroda attempts to treat Mami Takeyama with.
• Mami Takeyama: A patient admitted to the hospital with a benign tumour, Takeyama has an intense and irrational fear of death, and is repeatedly terrified by Mukoda during his nightly wanderings around the hospital. She is later treated for her irrational fears by Kuroda using the crystals left after Mukoda died, and begins experiencing lengthening dreams as a result.
• Kana Sakurai: Appearing exclusively in the TV Drama, Kana was in a relationship with Kuroda. Much like Mami, Kana was admitted to hospital with a benign tumour, but accidentally died after an overdose of phenobarbital during treatment, leaving Kuroda grief-stricken.