Merry Nightmare

"I'm not a little sheep. I'm Merry. Merry Nightmare."

- Merry Nightmare

Merry Nightmare is the titular heroine of Yumekui Merry. She is a dream demon who is the gate keeper of the door that connects the Dream World from the Real World. Unlike the other dream demons, she doesn't need to possess a human to enter the real world, as she has her own body. Searching for a door to come back to the Dreamworld, she falls on Yumeji one day, who wants to help her to find her way back home. At first reluctant, when a daydream occurs and when she saves Yumeji's life, she accepts his help.

Appearance
She takes the appearance of a young teenage girl with purple hair, and green eyes. She always has her trademark white hat, with a pink insignia in the middle, and ribbons on sides (right and left) coming out of it. Her upper body attire is a white overshirt, which goes down to under her chest, and a purple undershirt around the same size. Her lower body consists of a white skirt with, black and white stockings, and black shoes with the insignia mark.

She has once worn a maids outfit, when Isana's father makes her work at Tachibana restaurant. The author of the manga said that Merry's clothes are based on a sheep.

Personality
Merry is very energetic. She has a deep trust in Yumeji, who promised to take her back to the Dreamworld. She would often look for support in him. At the time when Engi told Merry that she has been killing dream demons instead of sending them back. Merry fell in despair and tried to convince herself that it wasn't true.

She also tried to leave Yumeji when they went on a trip to the beach, but Yumeji chased after her immediately and convinced her not to run away - this costed him a broken ankle. Merry can't eat spicy food or drink soda, but she loves doughnuts above everything and likes video games a lot. She currently works at the Tachibana restaurant.

History
Merry was a gatekeeper between the human world and the dream world. Her job was to guard the boundary between the two worlds, but due to unknown reasons she has ended up in the real world where she was looking for a way to return back to the dream world. She came to the real world about 10 years ago, the same time as Pharos Heracles.

Plot
Merry was wondering around the city and fell asleep on a tree, but her sleep was disturbed by crows and she ended up falling on Yumeji who was on his way home from school. There she picked up everything she dropped except for the hat that she lost. Realizing this, she went looking for it. While looking for her hat, Merry finds it in a daydream where John Doe wanted to make Yumeji his vessel. She arrived just in time to save him and to take this opportunity to return to the Dreamworld, but she learns that John Doe may know something about her. When Merry was asking him to take her back, he just laughed and went away. When the daydream finished, Merry met Yumeji in the real world begging him to bring John Doe back. But with Yumeji unable to bring him back, Merry starts crying and tries to go away, but Yumeji took her hand and then she suddenly collapsed in his hands. This only happened in anime, but in the manga - it was a little different. Isana had asked Yumeji to buy some things for her because he promiced to meake her every will come true. On the way to the store, Merry collapsed on him from a tree because some crows disturbed her sleep. At first, she starts talking to Yumeji as soon as she gets off him. But then, she realizes that she has lost her hat, and runs of. When Yumeji picks some books for Isana, he finds himself being in a daydream. John starts attacking him because he wants his body, and Yumeji tries to hide. This....is not succsecfull. Then, Merry appears and saves Yumeji, finding her hat in his hand. When John loses, Merry understands that he knows something about her, but before she can say anything - he dissappears and Yumeji is back to human world. Merry asks Yumeji to bring John, or "Cat Mask", back but Yumeji can't do anything, so she starts to cry. Yumeji brinks her to the park and starts talking with her. After a while, they both need to go. When Merry starts going, she collapses on the ground. Yumeji takes pitty of her, so he takes her home.

In the night when Merry woke up, she found herself in Isana's room. There she was questioning her how she got here. Isana then replied that Yumeji carried her all the way to his house. The surprised Merry then went, to take a shower and to have a dinner. After the dinner, Merry explains to Yumeji that she is a dream demon, who is unable to go back to the dream world. This is also the first time Merry tried donuts, which she loves very much now. After everyone went to sleep, Merry decides to leave the house. But just before she was about to leave, Isana's father asked her if that was what she really wanted. She replied that this might be her only choice and then left.

The next day, we see Merry wondering around the city again. She ends up in a park where she meets Minato. There, Merry sees that she has no friends so she decided to play with Minato. Of course Minato would give her half of her donuts. Then while Merry and Minato were playing, we see Yumeji looking for Merry. To his luck Merry falls on top of him again. There all three of them decide to play the game called kick the can. After the game was over, Yumeji asked Minato if she wanted a little fortune telling. To Yumeji's and Merry's surprise, they see that Minato was about to become a dream demons vessel. They get cought up in a daydream of the dream demon Ichima who was about to make Minato her vessel. When Merry was about to stop Ichima she notices that Yumeji entered the daydream as well, which surprised her. Despite this, she defeated Ichima and saved Minato's dream. When they came back from the daydream, Merry questioned Yumeji of how he was able to use this ability and how he was able to predict that Minato was going to be attacked. Yumeji then suggested that they should work together in a team to bring Merry back to the Dreamworld. Merry answered no. The next day, Merry went to Yumeji's school but she was found out by one of his teachers. Then we see Merry in the karaoke room along with Yumeji and his writing club. He introduces Merry to the rest of his club. Then when Yumeji was in his room playing video games, Merry climbed up the window to his room. There she tried playing his game because Yumeji had a guest waiting downstairs. While playing the game Merry saw Yumeji running outside. She decided to go after him only to find herself in a daydream of the dream demon called Chris. There she defeats Chris and sends him back to the Dreamworld. After the daydream Yumeji thanks Merry for her help.Then Merry decides to stay at Yumeji's house but she would have to work at Isana's father's cafe.

As Merry loses for the 383rd try against Yumeji in a game, Isana asks Yumeji to go grocery shopping and to take Merry with him so she she can see where everything is. At the store Yumeji asks her how long she's been in the real world? She answers by pointing to a sign that says 'Summer Sale' stating that she's seen that at least 10 times making her living there for 10 years. She says the only thing she's done was chase nightmares and try to find a way home but, she wasn't lonley. She still constantly questioned wether or not she'd be able to return to the Dream World until he gave her hope and she thanks him. But then screams at him that he has to keep their contract and search fro nightmares. When hurrying back she walks backwards and bumps into Yui Konagi.

After apoligizing they leave but get caught in a Daydream by Engi Threepiece. Engi accuses them of working with Hercules but they have no idea what she is talking about but continues to attack them anyways. Merry tells Yumeji to stay back while she fights her. Merry tells her that she'll send her back but she simply laughs and told her that there is no way to return to the Dream World; or her sister wouldn't have been killed. Engi attacks her with her Sannasubi Fifteen Nights but Merry is too confused on what she said that she doesn't notice her attacks and gets pinned down against a rock. As Engi is about to deliver the final blow, Yumeji steps infront of her attack and gets deeply wounded.

Infuriated, Merry's eyes become red and 2 braclets of keys appear around her wrist breaking Engi's swords and the Dream World making Engi retreats. Back in the Real world Merry comes to but is confused on what happened and believes that she passed out. Relizing what happened to Yumeji she asks him if he's okay and he continues to state that he's fine and there's no need for her to carry him; even though she insits. As soon as they arrive home he goes straight to his room and closes the door. Merry comes in to play a video game but instead finds him passed out on the bed holding the area he got cut at in pain, making Merry question why he lied to her causing her to drop to her knees. Merry doesn't know that Yumeji is talking to John Doe in a daydream, so she stays by his side and crys. When he wakes up she jumps on him with a big hug calling him an idiot for breaching their 'contract'.

A few days have passed since the battle with Engi and Merry is depressed about what she said about nightmares not being able to return. Listening to the radio while Yumeji is trying to cheer Merry up Isana's dad decides that they should go to the beach along with Saki Kirishima, Mei Hoshino, and Takateru Akiyanagi. Merry has to wear Isana's school swim suit but still wears her coat. Saki makes her take off her overshirt by force much to Merrys dismay and her white cloths she wears around her wrist revealing a scar on her right hand. Saki appoligizes but Merry says its no big deal especially since she doesn't know where the scar came from and the reason she isn't going in the water is because she can't swim. Since Yumeji can't swim either, they decided to eat fish on a stick near the dock. Because there are lots of people at the dock Yumeji decideds to look to see if there is anyone with a nightmare but is stopped by Merry.

Powers & Abilities
As a dream demon, Merry has the ability to infiltrate daydreams and nightmares. Physically wise, Merry is an extremely skilled fighter, and the only character seen so far to utilize close combat as a means in fighting. Merry is surprisingly powerful in spite of her looks (as mentioned by Chaser John Doe), capable of defeating foes and crushing stone with only one punch, as well as possessing incredible agility as seen in numerous battles so far.

Strangely enough, Merry is lacking in normal physical endurance such as Yumeji. Also, unlike every other dream demon encountered (including Hercules himself) she doesn't seem to have a Garden of her own. This is proven untrue; as the Gatekeeper, her Garden is actually the boundary door itself. As the only dream demon who exists outside her Garden, it may explain her amnesia (as all dream demons inhabit theirs).

While she possesses no special moves/attacks in particular, Merry herself appears to be able to dispell dream demon's abilities with a touch, as seen in her fight against Engi Threepiece when Merry destroys her sword.

Merry can also shift into an entirely different person when emotionally distressed, becoming darker and more violent as well as summoning webs of shackles using key rings in each hand - influencing the popular nickname of the mode Gate Keeper Merry. This allows her to destroy anything within a Garden, including the Garden itself. She has used this power twice so far, both times it happened when she got distressed from Yumeji being heavily injured (fighting Engi) and potentially killed (fighting Hercules).

Later it is revealed that Merry is the guardian of the boundary between the real world and dream world making her a special kind of dream demon that possess ability to send dream demons back to the Dreamworld. As of chapter 49, it is also revealed that her well-being is dependent on the door she guards. The more dream demons pass through it, the more it gets damaged, and the more frequent her fainting becomes. Isana assumes that if the door is destroyed completely, it will result in Merry's disappearance/death.

Yumeji Fujiwara
The first person Merry meets in the beginning. Yumeji offers his hand in helping her back into the Dreamworld, which Merry refuses at first, but slowly begins to warm up to him. While too embarrassed to admit it, Merry is grateful towards Yumeji given her circumstances, and quickly begins to care deeply for him especially after he took a sword to the chest for her.

In Chapter 34, it is implied by Isana that Merry holds strong feelings for Yumeji, though she herself is oblivious to this fact due to being a Dream Demon who had never experienced love. Yumeji has also yet to realize this. John Doe says that he is her weakness when she tries to rescue him after he gets caught by Hercules. She recently states in Chapter 56, after Yumeji is stabbed and possibly killed by Hercules that she doesn't "need a world without Yumeji anymore" while crying and entering her 'Gate Keeper Mode' in the process. She also reacted the worst out of everyone who saw it, showing how much he means to her.

Isana Tachibana
Isana and Merry became close friends as the time passed. Merry sometimes likes to watch Isana paint. She is also taking showers with her and advising her how to do things. When Isana's dream was in danger Merry was very concerned about her, as well as Yumeji. Merry would try her hardest to protect Isana.

Engi Threepiece
When Merry and Engi met for the first time, they were enemies. Engi thought that Merry and Yumeji were with Heracles, so she fought them. But when Engi wounded Yumeji, Merry got angry and showed some unknown power. The next time they meet, Engi apologized and then without knowing they became comrades in battles. In the anime for example, when Mistleteinn attacked Isana, Yumeji and Merry, right after the battle they went to Engi for advise.

John Doe
Although Merry usually discuss much with John, she admits him have some appreciation for help has to remember who she is. Meanwhile John says he does only to hunt the truth but often accepts her whims.

Clione
Although they known each other recently, Merry trust her, when John suggested Clione was lying and Merry defended her. Merry give her a whole day of fun to make her feel better throughout the time who was captive. Merry also say that Clione's singing is magnificent.

Trivia

 * The voice of Merry sings the 1st ending song of the Anime.
 * According to the manga series, her concept is based off of a sheep. Some similarities include her pointy ears and rectangular pupils.
 * During times of uneasiness Merry would say, "I have no Hopes or Dreams."
 * Crows and Seagulls seem to always sqwuak and attack Merry for no reason
 * It is worth noting that the scar on Merry's right wrist, which she does not remember getting, is in the same place as the wound Yumeji recieved when catching Isana at the playground as children - hinting at some kind of connection between the two of them.