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

Jianzi couldn't immediately determine whether the object was a human head. After all, it was positioned too high, making it impossible to see clearly; he could only make out a rough outline.

[Seeing Zi]

But she heard the thing's voice.

It seemed to belong to a young woman; the voice wasn't unpleasant, but it was noticeably dull and lifeless, like someone reciting a textbook.

The sound came clearly from the location of the head behind the cubicle.

At that moment, the pair of feet in the next cubicle moved slightly.

The head then rose slightly higher, as if someone were standing on tiptoe, trying to stick their head over from the next cubicle.

A sharp chill swept through my entire body at that moment.

The girl was now able to clearly identify where the calling she had heard earlier came from.

Lower your head.

Before the thing's head could actually reach across the partition and look at him, Jianzi decisively lowered his head.

Then she saw a pair of black women's leather shoes, which had appeared in the corridor at some point, standing right outside the door of her toilet stall.

This is……

In that moment of stunned silence, the shoes had already moved away, leaving the restroom step by step without making a sound.

The stark white light illuminated nothing; it was as if only two pairs of shoes were walking on the ground, or as if a completely transparent person was wearing shoes.

However, that's no longer the focus.

[Seeing Zi]

The sound rang out for the third time.

The girl slowly stood up from the ground, her fingers already touching the lock on the cubicle door.

At that moment, Jianzi felt as if the voice was coming from the back of her head, so close that she could even feel the sound of breathing on her hair.

Whatever it is, it's right behind me now.

That thing, which seemed to have a near-human outline but was definitely not human, was now monotonously reciting her name in a voice devoid of any emotion, and was now so close to her that they were almost touching.

He saw that the boy did not turn around.

Even though she could sense the thing getting closer, she had no intention of turning around to see what it looked like.

She already had a strong premonition of danger in her heart, and she had an intuition that she absolutely could not turn around and look that thing in the eye at this moment, and could not make eye contact with it.

But why do I have this feeling?

Is the rule table fake?

They only said we couldn't communicate, but my current feeling is... I can't even look at them? Is there something I'm misunderstanding?

The girl couldn't immediately pinpoint the problem, but the current attempt was already a gain, and there was no need to continue courting disaster. Therefore, she tried her best to calm herself, maintaining a composed expression, and simply unlocked the door to the toilet stall.

crunch--

The cubicle door, which had clearly been in use for many years, made a grating sound.

Seeing Zi step into the aisle, she slowly moved her feet and walked out of the toilet stall.

I didn't notice anything unusual happening.

And so the girl walked step by step toward the washbasin area outside the cubicle.

tread--

In the lifeless toilet, Miko could only hear the sound of her own footsteps.

The overhead light cast two blurry shadows on the tiles.

One was the small shadow of a girl, cowering and moving slowly forward, trying her best to maintain a steady posture.

One of them occupied a large portion of the wall area. It looked extremely thin and long, and extremely twisted and deformed. It was unlikely to be the shadow of a person.

It was right behind her.

Silently, it slowly unfolds its form, seemingly catching up gradually.

But Jianzi simply continued to move forward.

tick-

Another dripping sound came from the sink, from a faucet that wasn't turned off completely, accompanied by a drop of water rolling down.

Jianzi walked to the sink, turned on the water, washed her hands amidst the rushing water, then turned off the tap, walked out of the restroom, and returned to the corridor.

From beginning to end, Jianzi never turned around or looked up once.

She walked out of the restroom with a blank expression, as if she couldn't see or feel anything.

Even though she could always clearly see the outline of the twisted, deformed thing following behind her from the swaying shadow on the wall.

Then, she heard the students making a ruckus.

The silent world was brought back to life in an instant.

Takami, who was leaning against the wall, turned around and looked at Yotsuya Miko, who was walking out of the restroom, with a hint of doubt in his expression.

The three people in the restroom should have come out together, but Miko came out first, without waiting for Chika and Hayasaka at all, which immediately made Takami wary.

"Hmm, safe return, no abnormalities found."

The next moment, behind Miko, came Fujiwara Chika's voice, as always, full of energy.

After wiping the water off her hands with a tissue, the pink-haired girl skipped and hopped over to Gao Hai's side.

Meanwhile, Hayasaka Ai walked out of the restroom with a calm gait and quickly noticed that Takami and Miko's expressions were not quite right. She then became alert and cautiously observed her surroundings for a while, but found nothing unusual.

Both girls reacted normally.

There was nothing wrong with their faces, even though the two of them appeared next to Miko, who came out first, almost in the blink of an eye, and even though, judging from their behavior, Miko had clearly come out with the two of them.

At the same time that the group encountered this situation, in another restroom on the other side, Shijo Maki was also frowning as she looked at the stall door in front of her.

However, she didn't encounter any voices calling her name from behind.

She only heard what sounded like two girls talking in the cubicle next to hers.

Hey, I'm so bored. Have you ever heard the ghost story of Hanako in the Toilet?

[Hasn't this kind of ghost story existed for a long time? What's wrong? Why are you suddenly interested in it?]

Amidst the girl's bored and curious voice, Maki heard the two of them start chatting right next to her in the cubicle.

Chapter Thirteen: The Second Recruitment Announcement and the Anomaly Detected by Goto Ichiri

Obviously, it's impossible for Shijou Maki to go to the toilet alone in the dungeon.

In fact, she went into the restroom with Kaguya Shinomiya, Nanami Aoyama, and Ren Nanakawa, with Kaguya sitting right next to her in the stall.

But now Maki heard the voices of two unfamiliar girls coming from the next cubicle, from the cubicle where Kaguya should have been and from a direction further away.

Has some kind of change occurred in space? Or is it an illusion?

Recalling the information Gao Hai had shared with her through their mental link, and her inability to understand Miko's words when they met, Maki suspected she was currently triggering some kind of rule. It was quite possible that once she left, she would be able to see the rules she had previously been unable to access.

But should I leave here now?

While I was thinking, the conversation in the next cubicle had already continued.

[Hanako-san of the Toilet, there seem to be many different versions of this. Which one are you referring to?]

【Of course it's the one from Yoruyama Middle School, haven't you heard of it? If you enter the school grounds at midnight and pass by the restrooms, Hanako might invite you in to play!】

Amidst the soft chuckles, Maki could hear the gentle scraping of shoes on the ground.

These two seemed to have come here specifically to chat, and they just kept talking on and on.

"Oh, is this the kind of ghost story? Then I guess this 'playing' isn't exactly normal playing, is it? After all, it's a creepy invitation; it might turn into one where you die if you accept."

[Hmph, it's normal to have such thoughts, but it's not like that. In the legend of Yoruyama Middle School, it's only those who refuse to play with Hanako that get dragged into the toilet and shoved into it to die.]

【What? That's a disgusting way to die】

【It's precisely because it's disgusting that it's scary. But I've also heard that even if you play with Hanako, if she gets too happy, you still won't be able to leave.】

[That's way too domineering! Are all ghost stories this unreasonable? Where did you hear about this?]

【Of course it's the Ghost Stories Club! Don't you know this club? Why don't you join and give it a try? Besides, ghost stories are actually quite reasonable. You think they're unreasonable just because you haven't seen them before.】

[You talk like you've actually seen it! Besides, what kind of club is the Ghost Stories Club? I've never seen any promotional posters for that club.]

You want it? Here it is.

A hand reached in from under the toilet stall and placed a slightly crumpled poster down.

How about trying to join the Ghost Stories Club?

Amidst the low laughter, the door to the next cubicle creaked open, followed by the sound of footsteps gradually fading away.

Maki's expression was slightly dazed, then she suddenly snapped back to reality. She had been hesitant about whether to stay in the toilet, but she ended up just sitting there and listening to the conversation between the two people in the next stall.

Was my mind affected? But the three fragments of will that Haijun set up in my mind were not triggered. Did some force bypass this mechanism?

and……

When I looked again, the hand had disappeared.

Only a black poster remained on the ground, a crudely made poster that looked quite inconspicuous.

After a brief hesitation, Princess Zhenfei picked up the poster and opened it to read the text on it.

Whether it's a good change or a bad change, it's always better than no change at all.

Therefore, even though doing so carries enormous risks, we must now examine what is written on this document.

His purplish-brown eyes were incredibly focused as he scanned the text line by line.

[Club Recruitment Notice:]