Yumi and the Nightmare Painter

Hoid comments on the common tendency of confusing accommodating people with weak people; in fact, it is their patience that makes them strong. Yumi is one such person. She vents her frustration and confusion on Painter, still believing that he is a spirit. She tells him that it was unfair to steal her body and embarrass her. Painter admits that he is not a spirit; he tells her he is a person from another planet. Yumi remembers that the spirit said it was going to send someone to help her, so she decides that Painter must be a great hero. Painter does not discourage this assumption. Yumi reaches out to take Painter’s hand and asks him to explain all this to her attendants; when they make contact, they both feel an incredibly warm sensation and an electric tingling.

Yumi then finds that she cannot move far away from Painter without being pulled back toward him. Liyun enters, and when Painter tries to explain their situation, she assumes Yumi is trying to avoid her duties. So, Yumi decides it would be best for Painter to play along. She has him apologize to Liyun. Next, Yumi realizes, comes the ritual bath.

Painter worries that he is not up to whatever task Yumi needs him to do, but her hopefulness and his wish to help her motivates him. He feels this is his chance to start anew, so he agrees to do whatever Yumi requests of him.

As Painter leaves the wagon, he steps on the hot stones of the ground and burns his foot. He puts on clogs and tries again, and then his attendants take him through the town. He thinks to himself that it is odd that these people, who seem to be from another planet, look so much like his own people. He even notices similarities between their clothing and his people’s formal wear.

When they arrive at the springs, Painter realizes that he will have to undress for the bath while Yumi is near—this is something that embarrasses him. This is compounded when Yumi insists on bathing to maintain the rituals of the yoki-hijo. Painter is then undressed and led into the water by two attendants, Chaeyung and Hwanji. To his surprise, they have also disrobed. He closes his eyes to avoid seeing Yumi but slips and catches Yumi staring at him. While bathing, they accidentally touch and gain a glimpse into each other’s emotions; they learn that they are both embarrassed and feel comforted by this shared experience.

Hoid comments on how Painter’s eagerness to help is unusual—classically, the heroes in stories are initially reluctant. Despite his eagerness, Painter is still worried about the stable nightmare. Once they bathe and get dressed, Painter feels extremely worn from the heat and passes out.

He wakes up in his own apartment in Kilahito and hears someone pounding on his door. He wonders if he has been dreaming but sees Yumi next to him in bed, dressed in his pajamas. Painter realizes that he is incorporeal.

Yumi is shocked by the darkness and cold of Painter’s world. She slowly absorbs her surroundings, noticing the messy way that Painter lives, the height of the apartments in the city, and the dark sky. Painter urges her to answer the door, and when she objects that her clothing is immodest, he says other people will probably see her as Painter. However, when she opens the door, the foreman remarks that he was not expecting to see a girl. The foreman asks about Painter, and at Painter’s prompting, Yumi tells the foreman that Painter is sick but adds that he saw a stable nightmare.

Akane then steps out of the door across the hall. Painter tells Yumi to say that she is his sister. Yumi asks if Akane is one of Painter’s concubines, which disgusts Akane. Seeing this, Yumi questions Painter’s status as a hero. When pressed, Painter admits he is not.

Soon, Yumi realizes how hungry she is and asks for food, of which Painter has little to offer. Painter also figures out that he can turn on his “hion viewer,” which is a television-like device. Yumi is entranced by it for a time but turns it off before she can get too invested. She then asks Painter if anything strange happened to him before they switched worlds, and he explains his encounter with the stable nightmare. Yumi begrudgingly admits that his actions sound heroic. Painter thinks that perhaps the elite “Dreamwatch” painters might help them, but Yumi falls asleep before they can make more plans. She wakes up back in her wagon, ghostly again.

This chapter opens with Hoid questioning the purpose of nightmares (the dreams) and suggesting that they might be a way for people to experience trauma in a safe environment. He says that if this is the case, nightmares are like storytellers.

In the wagon, Painter accepts being fed but is criticized by Liyun almost immediately for fainting. When he tries to respond to this, Yumi insists that he do everything Liyun says. Yumi has Painter ask for forgiveness for overexerting himself, and Liyun eventually accepts this. They then move to the ritual bathing, and Painter sees the local geyser erupt. This shocks him, but Yumi sharply criticizes him for staring at it. Painter grows more irritated by her criticism and wishes that Yumi could realize how difficult this change is for him, too.

As they bathe, Painter keeps his eyes closed for a time but peeks halfway through, only to find Yumi staring at him. They keep each other’s gaze as Yumi explains they need to contact a spirit. Painter agrees, but their staring contest only ends when their noses accidentally touch; they are immediately able to sense their shared frustration and passion toward each other.

While walking back toward the shrine, Yumi thinks about how her entire experience of all the towns she has visited is based on their ritual centers. This shrine, she notices, is in the village orchard, while most are further outside the town. She approves of this adaptation of tradition to meet needs.

When Liyun leaves Yumi and Painter at the shrine, Painter complains about Liyun. Yumi harshly insists that he is wrong and forces him to repeat prayers, saying he must act like a yoki-hijo. After their prayers, Painter nearly falls asleep, so Yumi pokes a finger through his forehead to wake him.

As they move to other rituals, Painter complains about the number of rituals. Yumi insists that this is necessary for the yoki-hijo. When she says that her role keeps her people from starving, Painter realizes how important the role is and tries to meditate.

As Liyun approaches again, Yumi tells Painter that they must now stack rocks in the place of ritual. While she was bathing, she formed a theory that Painter would be a natural at this. When he tries, however, he immediately fails, to the horror of all watching.

Painter is back in his room, thinking about the challenges of the previous day, when Yumi wakes up and immediately begins criticizing him for not having the skill or artistry to stack rocks. Painter says that stacking rocks does not require skill, but Yumi decides to teach him.

Yumi wants to begin immediately, but Painter insists they follow up on the stable nightmare. He says that the spirits might have sent her to help him, too. She agrees but wants to wash first, so Painter shows her how a shower works. As she washes, they talk. Yumi tells Painter that she has been a yoki-hijo her entire life, and Painter explains how his society is powered by hion. After this, Yumi thanks Painter for giving her privacy as she showered, and Painter replies that it was unfair to judge him based on how he acted in such an unprecedented situation. When Yumi emerges, Painter sees she had donned a bizarre outfit consisting of many layers and a sweater used as a skirt.

En route to the foreman’s office, Painter explains that his people’s observations of the other planet in the system (which he believes is Yumi’s) had revealed a civilization less advanced than his own. At the office, Yumi explains that Painter is sick and learns that the foreman has not done anything about the stable nightmare. He reluctantly agrees to check on the address of the house where Painter saw it.

As they leave, Painter complains about the foreman not believing him. He says the family has probably already left. They then bump into Akane. After she questions Yumi about Painter’s whereabouts, she asks Yumi if she is okay and offers to help her buy new clothes. To Painter’s surprise, Yumi begins to cry in gratitude.

This chapter is narrated in Yumi’s point of view. She thinks about how overwhelming the last few days have been and how it is a relief for someone to ask about her needs. On their way to the store, Yumi apologizes for her earlier assumption that Akane was a concubine, saying that she had gotten something Painter said about a hion-viewer drama confused with real life.

At the store, Yumi worries about paying for the clothes, but Akane says that she would pay and Painter could reimburse her. She also urges Yumi to try new things, and Yumi accepts, seeing a blue dress she likes. Akane picks out a large selection of other clothes and arranges for Yumi’s measurements to be taken. While Akane is looking for clothes, Yumi asks Painter about Akane, and he tells her that Akane has always been nice. Yumi is also surprised to learn that he chose to be a nightmare painter—it was not forced on him like her own title of yoki-hijo.

Yumi wears the new clothes and finds she loves them. She decides she is comfortable owning possessions in this world. Once they leave the store, Akane invites Yumi to join her for lunch after she drops off her clothes. Against Painter’s urging, she agrees.

In Painter’s apartment, he tries to dissuade Yumi from going; but she insists, so they leave.

They arrive at the Noddle Pupil, and Painter feels slightly jealous that Yumi is invited into Akane’s friend group while he has wanted to rejoin them for a long time. Akane introduces Yumi to her friends, with Painter adding commentary over her shoulder. Yumi meets Tojin (a bodybuilder who Painter insists shows off for women), Masaka (a strange woman who shows very little skin), and Izumankamo or Izzy (an eccentric woman obsessed with fortune telling).

As the group banters over Izzy’s supposed talent, Painter feels nostalgic about his old friendship with these people. He goes to the bar and is soon joined by Yumi, who is now worried that she shouldn’t have come here. She explains that the yoki-hijo is an object for society to use, not a person. Hearing this, Painter says that she is a person and being in Kilahito might be a reward. She wishes this is true but says the spirit that sent her was in pain.

They are interrupted by Design dropping a bowl of noodles. Looking directly at Painter, she asks if he is dead.

Yumi realizes, after a moment, that Design can see Painter. Yumi and Painter go around the bar, crouching to talk to Design as she cleans the dropped food.

They explain the body switching to Design, and she remarks that Yumi is in Painter’s body. However, the body looks like hers because she is a highly Invested being—this means that she possesses Investiture, a magical force in the Cosmere.

Painter asks Design to explain why she can see him, and Design explains that she is a being of pure Investiture that is inserted into an imitation body. Yumi thinks this sounds like she is a spirit. Design agrees, but she rejects the reverence that Yumi begins to feel for her. Painter then asks Design for help. She says she will help them but notes that she does not know how useful she can be.

By this time, Yumi feels tired again and quickly excuses herself. Back in Painter’s flat, she insists that they sleep so she can start teaching him stacking. Painter agrees with her plan, saying that he wants his life back, but Yumi thinks to herself that she does not.