Why is my journey to the world of anime a strange tale of rules?

Be a good child, Hachiya-kun!

Your teacher will help you study hard and grow well.

[As long as you listen attentively and study hard, you will definitely become an outstanding person!]

The teacher also came forward and spoke to the girl.

Is this something that happened before, something this girl experienced?

No, that's not the case.

Gao Hai walked into the classroom and stood behind the smiling children and teachers.

The bright sunlight was tinged with shadow at this moment, and the stench of decay was slowly spreading.

[Chiyo Hachiya? What are orphanage kids doing here? Are you kidding me? The admissions staff must have made a mistake.]

The "Supreme Ruler" plan requires shared understanding between the child and parents. Given that the child lacks cognitive feedback from their family, won't this negatively impact the plan?

"Yes, it was Commander Sato's decision... In that case, this class can be used as the core of the experiment. We can try out some untested directions with her; maybe there will be some unexpected surprises?"

Behind the smiling teacher's back was another face, exactly the same as the smiling face in front, but with a cold and cruel expression.

The surrounding light grew dimmer and dimmer.

Gao Hai could smell an increasingly strong stench of decay, a nauseating odor that filled the entire classroom.

He began to see more.

He began to learn more about the girl's past and what had happened at the school.

After expressing his desire to understand Chiyo Hachiya and choosing to chase after the girl, he began to see the increasingly dark place behind him, instead of the initially bright and sunny scenery.

[That Chiyo Hachiya doesn't look like a good kid at all; she's just annoying.]

The teacher deliberately chatted with other teachers when the students came to the office, so that his students would hear what he was saying.

Have you heard? She was an abandoned orphan, which means she was a bad child that her parents didn't want.

The teacher and the other teachers laughed loudly, seemingly completely ignoring the student representative who overheard them.

If you play with a child like that, you might become like her and get abandoned by your parents too.

The teacher reached out and patted one of the children who was walking very close to Chiyo Hachiya, and said to him in a joking tone.

Children are very innocent.

In their world, there are no concepts of morality or law, and the boundary between good and evil is equally blurred. Only intuitive emotional reactions like liking and disliking are closer to children's true inner selves. Furthermore, children are actually very good at following the crowd, adept at conforming to mainstream ideas, and skilled at imitating others.

Therefore, after the teacher expressed those words, implying or explicitly stating various views of rejection towards Chiyo Hachiya, fewer and fewer children were willing to play with her.

They began to repeat what their teacher had said, calling Chiyo Hachiya "a bastard child unwanted by her parents," and started to isolate and ostracize her, giving her all sorts of nasty nicknames.

Born in an orphanage, Chiyo Hachiya's black hair was always mixed with yellow strands due to malnutrition. As a result, the children said that she was an abandoned baby whose mother had given birth to her after working as a prostitute for a foreigner, and that she was a dirty bastard.

Because Chiyo Hachiya was very thin and had a sallow complexion, the children called her a skeleton or a floating corpse in the river. They would also deliberately suck in their cheeks to imitate her thin face and make fun of her in this way.

The little girl didn't understand why everyone was gradually distancing themselves from her, but the children themselves weren't sure why they were doing it either. Initially, it was just a small group of children imitating their teacher, but as the number grew, and as most people started doing it, even the few who didn't began to distance themselves from Chiyo, their behavior became a habit. There was no specific reason, no purpose; it became as natural as eating and sleeping.

In the dimly lit classroom, the little girl was no longer smiling; she just sat silently in place.

Standing in the gradually dimming classroom, Gao Hai merely glanced at the expressionless students and the teacher on the podium who still smiled broadly, but whose face was twisted and vicious behind his head.

He knew this was just the beginning.

The bullying she is currently experiencing, while painful for an ordinary person, is far from cruel.

Something even more terrible must have happened, something even worse must have happened to Chiyo Hachiya, which caused her to completely transform and ultimately become the core obsession of Hayate Elementary School, becoming the root of this twisted and chaotic world.

He could already vaguely see what those scenes were like.

As the school bell rang, signaling the end of get out of class, Takahashi saw the teacher leave, the children leave one by one, and Chiyo Hachiya, who wanted to leave, being stopped by several laughing children.

[Hey, you bastard, where do you think you're going?]

A child shouted loudly.

I...I want to go home...

The girl, whose voice had completely lost its initial sunny and cheerful quality, simply lowered her head and spoke softly.

"You don't have parents, so where do you have a home? Are you talking about an orphanage? Does that even count as a home?"

Then several children burst into laughter.

I...please move aside...let me through...

The girl kept her head down, unable to say anything. She tried to rush forward, but the children reached out and held her down, pushing her to the ground.

[Hehe, getting anxious, getting anxious? An orphan with no parents, no one wanting you, hahaha, wanting to go back to the orphanage and stick together with other orphans for warmth? What was that teacher saying again? Oh right, people like you are just masochistic, a waste of food. Why don't you just die, you piece of trash, all you do is drag others down!]

【Yes, yes, and there's not enough food anywhere right now, so why open an orphanage? I heard from my teacher that the orphanage is full of girls, no boys at all. I heard they're there to do something, something shady!】

【Yes, yes, that's it. The teacher also said that someone must have bribed someone to get into our school; they must have used dirty methods. The adults at her orphanage must be incredibly filthy!】

The children were still laughing and joking.

They don't consider whether their words are malicious or harmful to others, and may even enjoy such behavior.

After all, the teachers who are supposed to teach these children to be good and to help them become normal people are the ones who have guided them step by step into this way.

But the girl had already stood up.

Gao Hai could understand the girl's emotions at that moment.

She could be ignored, rejected, and insulted, but that was nothing. If she were the only one enduring these things, the girl could silently bear it all. Coming from an orphanage, she was more mature than her peers, understood more principles, and had greater resilience.

But she couldn't accept the adults who fed her, cared for her, and raised her, as well as the children who, like her, had been abandoned, being insulted.

[Don't speak ill of your uncles and aunts! Don't talk badly about anyone!]

She began to resist fiercely.

He threw stools at the children, slapped them, and attacked them with his fists, feet, and even his teeth.

Then he was knocked to the ground, and the children hit him back with even more force until he was bleeding from his head.

[Ouch, that hurts! It bit me?!]

[Damn it, how dare she hit me! Hit her! Beat her up!]

[I'll kill you, you bastard! You unwanted trash!]

Gao Hai saw the girl lying on the ground, barely alive.

The children surrounding her continued to hurl insults and punches at her.

The swear words were still words I learned from my teacher.

The way they hit the girl was something they learned from the nearby military camp. There was a military camp near Zaoli Elementary School, and the children often saw sergeants disciplining soldiers and physically punishing them to "instill spirit." As a result, they hit the girl very hard. Several children swung the stool repeatedly and broke the stool leg. They only stopped when the girl almost fainted.

The children are very proud.

Even though the girl had become so miserable, they didn't think they had done anything wrong. They even felt that what they were doing was the right thing, that they were ridding the class of a menace.

Several children took out cheap cigarettes, lit them, and started taking turns smoking them.

Some children burned cigarette butts on the girl's neck, watched the dying girl struggle, and then kicked her with glee.

Some girls took out scissors. They didn't like Chiyo Hachiya's long black hair, so they cut her hair into pieces.

It all happened so naturally, so casually.

Every child takes this for granted and doesn't question whether it's right or wrong.

"..."

Gao Hai, who was observing all of this, remained silent.

He was waiting here not to see these things. Although such a plight was pitiful, what had happened was far from enough to make this girl the core obsession.

So he simply remained silent and continued to wait.

But then, Gao Hai saw the girl lying on the ground turn her head and look at him.

The wound on her face was still bleeding, but her voice showed no weakness, only absolute indifference and a hint of... hostility.

[Teacher, school's over already, what are you still doing here?]

All colors faded at that moment.

The students' smiles froze, and a strong pulling force came from behind, dragging Gao Hai directly out of the classroom.

Bang!

Almost the instant Gao Hai's body was pulled out of the classroom, the door in front of him closed automatically.

The entire corridor had returned to its original dark and dilapidated state, and both the strange creatures and the aura of [Chiyo Hachiya] had vanished at the same time.

"This is……"

Gao Hai could sense that he was still locked in by his core obsession.

However, in this situation, it seems that Chiyo Hachiya, who is the core of his obsession, has stopped hunting him down and instead has developed a tendency to reject and exclude him.

Is it because of something I did before?

While thinking, Gao Hai turned his head and was surprised to see a scruffy little dog standing stiffly in the corridor.

It's one of those mixed-breed dogs that has been completely transformed in the [Butcher] kennel.

The dog remains sealed, so even though it's here, it can't resume normal activity. But at the same time, the appearance of this little dog means… was the person who appeared and rescued Chiyo from the torment of other children the "Butcher"?

Come to think of it, the butcher's spoon and apron were given to him by Chiyo Hachiya.

Gao Hai realized that the fragments of the past had been pieced together again before his eyes.

However, his identity as a "teacher" and his act of sealing the Butcher seem to have shaped his image in a negative way, causing him to be rejected by his core obsession. In that case, continuing to contact Chiyo Hachiya and figuring out what happened back then and this little girl's obsession will likely become extremely difficult.

But that's alright, there's always a way. Compared to that...

Gao Hai turned his head and looked at one side of the corridor.

Kaguya, carrying the severed head, had already appeared in that direction and was speeding towards Takami.

Well, let's make a run for it first.