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

But now, completely unaware of what was happening, Hayasaka, whose thinking had almost completely degenerated into that of a golden retriever, only vaguely remembered that there seemed to be something very important inside the ventilation duct. So he plunged straight in and began crawling around inside at lightning speed.

"Ouch?!"

Kaguya, who had never understood Hayasaka's excitement, followed without hesitation when she saw him act decisively. She was increasingly certain that Hayasaka had retained his memories and, like Maki and Chika, had gained the ability to travel back in time with Takami. Therefore, no matter how strange or inexplicable Hayasaka's behavior might seem, she would still choose to obediently follow. After all, for Kaguya, Hayasaka was her most trusted friend, the only one she could trust without any doubt.

Bangdang—— Bangdang——

Amidst the thuds and crashes, the golden retriever broke through the ventilation duct partition and landed in a cold, dark dissection room.

The things that should have been in this room have undergone obvious abnormal changes. The freezer has turned black and white as if it has lost its color. The lights are bright, but the floor is pitch black. The dissection table has been knocked over on the cabinet. The dissection tools are flying and drifting everywhere. The textures on the wall are also flying in mid-air. The wall itself has become an absolutely smooth surface.

What happened? How did this place become like this?

Kaguya, who followed them in, couldn't understand the bizarre sight of the world seemingly collapsing, but seeing Hayasaka continue forward without hesitation, she followed without hesitation as well.

Stepping out of the room, the corridor outside appeared even more distorted.

The ground was almost completely shattered, and beneath the cracks lay a chaotic mix of colors—a bizarre spectacle of countless colors broken, blended, and intertwined.

The ceiling and walls were almost unrecognizable from their original state. The doors that should have been sealed were now open, and behind them were either empty spaces, covered in bright red blood, or containing deformed corpses. What they had in common was that the areas behind the doors were even more distorted and chaotic, making it impossible to recognize their original state.

No supernatural power was manifested.

Or rather, the strange power that should have manifested had begun to contradict itself under that terrible feedback, and had begun to lose its foundation for normal operation, thus becoming unable to affect the two small dogs running in the arena and leaping forward on the broken floor.

The golden retriever kept running and accelerating forward.

Hayasaka, who had lost all sense of where she was, was actually running around aimlessly, simply trying to find Takami and return to her "master's" side.

But Kaguya had already stopped.

She bit the golden retriever's tail, forcibly stopping the somewhat excited little dog's movements.

Her reason for doing so was simple: she saw a very special room, one that was neither distorted nor messy.

The room was lit with warm-colored lights.

Several figures sat in the room, adults and children, smiling gently. For some reason, they left an empty chair, as if waiting for someone's return. They sat quietly in their seats, waiting for who knows how many years.

Chapter Sixty-Four: Those Who Could Not Be Reunited With and the Lullaby for Sleep

I sensed something left behind here, something that had never truly disappeared.

I sensed those things that had been lingering there, as if waiting for someone to return.

Those were people who couldn't bear to see abandoned children displaced, people who hoped to use their wealth to help the unfortunate as much as they could, and people who met, got to know each other, and discovered that they shared common ideals and aspirations.

They hit it off immediately and decided to open an orphanage on the outskirts of town. Together, they worked hard to adopt and raise the abandoned children.

At first, things didn't go smoothly. Although the group was kind-hearted, they lacked experience and often encountered various difficulties. The townspeople didn't like them much, seeing them as fools with too much money, and some even tried to take advantage of them, causing various disturbances. As for the small troubles and problems of daily life—food, clothing, shelter, and transportation—they kept piling up, never giving them a moment's rest.

Some people couldn't hold on and chose to leave, but others stubbornly stayed, unwilling to let the children who had finally found a place to go end up on the streets again.

As everyone stumbled and helped each other along the way, a little girl came to this place and became a member of this big family.

She was a bright girl. She could read faster than other children and memorize various articles more quickly and fluently. She could also see the hardships hidden beneath the smiles of the adults who maintained the orphanage, so she always tried her best to share the burden with them. To this end, she also worked hard to become the leader of the children, taking charge of managing the other children when the adults were too busy. As a result, even though she wasn't the oldest among the children, she looked like an older sister.

The adults genuinely loved and cared for this precocious girl. They knew that this bright child's future shouldn't be limited to a dilapidated orphanage; she deserved to go to higher and farther places. So when the school openings came up, everyone unanimously decided to give the opportunity to the girl.

This is what happened before the story began.

It refers to the ordinary days of people who knew nothing before the tragedy began.

But then, everything changed.

These……

These memories and emotions...

Kaguya, still in her dog form and not yet recovered, slowly stepped into the room.

Her senses weren't particularly outstanding, not as strong as Jianzi's or Gao Hai's, but as a player who had already completed two instances and encountered strange forces multiple times, she could sense some things left behind in this room and feel those happy yet regretful emotions.

What she didn't know was that this room was where Chiyo Hachiya's family had been taken away, and it was the final resting place for everyone in the orphanage.

After Sato and the other researchers conducted their studies on the orphans, they threw the remaining scraps and other miscellaneous items left behind into the room as garbage, then sealed it off completely like the other rooms, and then left it there for good.

The girl who ultimately destroyed everything is searching back and forth in these desolate ruins.

But she couldn't find even a trace, couldn't find any possible clues. All the clues were deliberately destroyed after Takamagahara was opened, and no matter how smart a young girl is, she can't really break the schemes of these evil adults.

"Wang?"

Hayasaka, sitting outside the room, called out in confusion. She didn't quite understand what Kaguya was doing. Anxious, she wanted to go find Takami, but hesitated because of the lingering memories of intimacy with Kaguya. However, if Kaguya continued to dawdle, given Hayasaka's severely degenerated mental state, she might just abandon her and go find Takami alone.

bang-

With a loud bang, Kaguya, now transformed into a little husky, leaped onto the table, which then tilted and crashed to the ground due to its unstable center of gravity.

The figures of those adults and children had vanished, dissipating as the remaining fragments of memory were read.

But something else remained in the room.

It was an old black-and-white photograph that sat on the table.

The photo shows adults smiling to hide their fatigue, adults making funny faces with the children, children striking various innocent and lively poses, and children pretending to be reserved while imitating adults. This scene, like a fragment of time frozen in time, is clearly presented in that photo. However, upon closer inspection, one can see that the figure of a child in the photo is very blurry, as if erased by some force, making it impossible to discern a clear image; it can only be roughly determined that it is a little girl.

Is there something wrong with the photo itself that prevents the person from being captured clearly?

Or perhaps it's because... this is the person who should have been here too, but for some reason disappeared and couldn't be reunited with their family? That's why she doesn't have a clear image, that's why she couldn't be filmed?

After a brief hesitation, Kaguya stretched out her front paws to try and pick up the photo, only to realize that she was in dog form and couldn't lift things. So, with no other option, Kaguya opened her mouth and, with some effort, managed to pick up the photo that had fallen to the ground.

Although Kaguya herself didn't understand the meaning of the photograph or the reason for the existence of this hidden room because she had no memories, she sensed that this place was extraordinary and couldn't be measured by common sense. Furthermore, given that the photograph was highly likely an object of her obsession, she chose to take it without hesitation. She believed that if she could find Takami, he would know how to use the photograph.

"Ouch!"

The golden retriever, which had been quietly guarding outside the room, suddenly let out a warning growl.

Kaguya, who was inside the house, also felt a chill run down her spine at that moment.

It hurts...it hurts so much...

Amidst the indistinct sounds, dark red blood dripped from the ceiling, drop by drop.

A colossal monster is slowly emerging from above.

After the photo was taken away, the thing seemed to be stimulated and thus revealed its form.

The creature was incredibly obese, its massive body resembling a mass of chopped and pieced-back flesh. A viscous liquid spread across its entire surface with every movement, covering it in bubbling yellow fat. Broken, dark red chunks of flesh mingled with bluish-purple entrails. Its limbs were pieced together from severed remains, and heads—some with their skulls removed, others with their faces peeled off—protruded from its body, emitting muffled, hoarse cries.

"Woo——"

Without the slightest hesitation, Kaguya let out a low growl and immediately accelerated, escaping from the house in a flash.

No...don't...cut me...it hurts...

But the monster followed closely behind, crawling out of the house with its spliced ​​arms, slowly but actually at an astonishing speed, howling as it chased after them.

Uncle...it hurts...it hurts so much...no...

Amidst the painful cries, there were sounds like some kind of instrument being activated, sounding like a drill or perhaps a saw, as if something was being processed, as if someone was using these things on the dissection table on people who were tightly bound and unable to break free.

[It hurts...no...no...]

The writhing flesh had already covered the distance that Kaguya and Hayasaka had run.

In just a few breaths, that thing blocked their path, completely shutting them out and forcing them to face it.

Damn it, have we reached a dead end so quickly?

Kaguya, clutching the photo, was filled with despair, but couldn't think of a way to resolve the terrible situation before her.

Ah... Ahh...

The monster was still panting in pain.

The monster's attack did not immediately strike the two girls.

This thing clearly exhibited a lag in its movements, much like the strange soldiers encountered in the inner area earlier. Because the two girls maintained their dog-like identities, the rules of the ghost stories, which normally apply to humans, malfunctioned, causing the monster to hesitate and falter when facing Kaguya and Hayasaka. Even though it had completely blocked their escape route, it couldn't immediately launch an attack to eliminate them.

“Woo…Awoo…”

The golden retriever Hayasaka bared its teeth, and despite its fear, it instinctively stood in front of the husky, trying to protect Kaguya.

Kaguya, with the photo in her mouth, turned to look behind her, only to find that some of the things from the rooms she had passed earlier had also run out, and now it was a scene of chaos, with no way to turn back.

Moving forward is not an option, and going back is not an option either, so where can we go next?

After hesitating for a moment, the monster reached out its hand and extended it toward the two puppies in front of it.

In her desperate situation, Kaguya turned her gaze to the bottom of the broken floor, to the completely distorted and chaotic colors.

Oh, red dragonfly in the sunset, please tell me...

A simple, slightly off-key song suddenly rang out at that moment.

The two puppies looked up at the same time and saw a woman's head with her eyes removed growing out of the monster's body, which was opening its mouth and singing softly.

Her singing was hardly beautiful; even though her voice wasn't bad, it sounded ordinary and mediocre because she lacked any real skill.

However, for some reason, after hearing this song, both Kaguya and Hayasaka felt a faint sense of relief, as if they could completely relax and no longer need to worry about anything.

[When did I meet you in my childhood?]

The enormous monster's outstretched hand also slowed down at this moment.

As the head began to hum softly, it seemed to grow drowsy. One by one, the bloodied heads stopped wailing, soon began to yawn, and the surging yellow fat stopped dripping and began to slowly congeal.

Kaguya felt somewhat disoriented. She could recall similar scenes, remembering her mother when she was still alive, reaching out to hug her, gently rocking her while singing to her—those blurry images hidden deep in her memory.

...A lullaby?

Where are you, red dragonfly in the sunset?

On the monster, more heads that clearly resembled adults began to sing softly.

[Perched on the tip of that bamboo pole—]

Even the children's heads began to hum the melody softly, as if they were immersing themselves in it and singing along.

It's that red dragonfly!