Tokyo Soft Rice King.

After arriving home, Kuroba Akira put down his luggage and looked up to call out.

"Kuro-tail! Kuro-tail, are you home?"

no respond.

"You're not still sulking, are you... It's been so many days, don't be so petty."

Still no response.

Kuroba Akira unleashed his ultimate move, pulling out a vacuum-packed package of charcoal-grilled dried fish from his travel backpack.

"I'm so sorry, I apologize. I even brought you some local specialties, it's dried Sichuan fish grilled over charcoal!"

Almost a minute passed, but there was still no meowing from the room.

Even grilled fish couldn't lure it out, so it must really be absent.

Kuroba Akira felt she should tell Kuroo everything that had happened in the past three days. After all, she had been a little worried that the giant snake inside Kuroba Akira might be up to something, and now she could tell her the whole story.

Moreover, it seems that the worship of Inari has been transferred to Kuroo's side, which may make her very busy... Could this be the reason why Kuroo is not at home?

Kuroba Akira immediately felt a little guilty. He could already imagine Kuroo yelling, "What have you done, meow!" while frantically scratching at him.

But let me explain. To be precise, I didn't do anything at all; in fact, I was the one who did twice the work...

"...Well, he was probably just not home at the time."

Since there's no one at the shrine, it's no fun for Kuroo to be alone. He probably went to Kobayashi's house.

Kuroba Akira also bought some local specialties for the Kobayashi couple, including some hot spring buns, thinking he should deliver them now. So he went out as soon as he put down his luggage.

Arriving at the familiar Kobayashi's house, I took out my key. Sure enough, compared to the shrine, this place felt more like home.

"I'm back, old lady. I brought you some local specialties. Is Uncle Lin home?"

However, no one responded.

"Huh? There's no one from Kobayashi's family either..."

Ziyin and Hongjie went to audition. They returned earlier than the others, and if they haven't returned yet, it's likely that they were successfully selected as the female lead, which is why they stayed to discuss the remaining matters.

Then, Mr. Kobayashi is probably still busy with matters related to the otherworldly live streaming at NW Company.

But why isn't Grandma Kobayashi here at this time? Did she go out with Grandpa Kobayashi?

Kuroba Akira was puzzled. He closed the door behind him and headed towards his room on the second floor... even though it had now become Haruka and Shion's room.

Then, as he went upstairs, Kuroba Akira sensed that something was wrong.

The stairs creaked and groaned, as if they had been neglected for years.

"Strange... Is this staircase really that old?"

The Lin family's house was built a long time ago, but it has already been renovated, since they couldn't let their mother-in-law live alone in a dangerous house.

However, the staircase now looks like it has gone back fifty years, and it appears as if it could collapse at any moment.

Kuroba Akira looked back and found that the area downstairs had become extremely dark.

But it should be a little after 2 p.m. now, when the sun is at its brightest, so it's impossible for the living room to be this dark.

Then Kuroba Akira took out his phone to check the time, only to find that the phone had turned off, even though the battery should still be over 50%.

Kuroba Akira had already realized that something was wrong.

"This……"

This is not good.

This must be another world, right?

Why did I suddenly enter another world?

Were we dragged into this by some unknown deity again?

Could this be Kuroo's prank or revenge?

Then, when he looked up again... the second floor had become completely different from the second floor of Kobayashi's house in Kuroba Akira's memory.

The room layout is very old, and you can see the bookshelves in the study... This must have been changed back to how it used to be.

Kuroba Akira tried to touch the wall with his hand, just like last time, to see if he could pass through it directly, but he found that he couldn't pass through the wall again this time.

"Why are the rules changing...?"

Kuroba Akira scratched his head. He didn't know how to leave the other world, and he also knew that the other world was still very dangerous for humans. Last time, he was protected by a god, but this time he was all alone.

As the saying goes, curiosity killed the cat. Although he really wanted to explore, Kuroba Akira suppressed his curiosity and decided to go downstairs and stay there quietly.

Although it was very dark, it wasn't pitch black; you could still see your surroundings clearly, as if it were 'deliberately designed so that people could see clearly'.

Then the first floor was completely different from the first floor that Kuroba Akira had just seen.

Based on this, Kuroba Akira concluded that he must have entered the other world when he went up the stairs.

The living room was transformed into a Japanese-style living room, with tatami flooring, a low round table, and sliding shoji windows, giving it the feel of an old Japanese house.

Then, on the TV cabinet was a super classic CRT TV with an antenna on it.

"Holy crap, it's an incredibly old-fashioned TV that doesn't come with a remote and you have to manually turn the knob to change the channel..."

This thing can be considered an antique now, right?

Kuroba Akira tried turning on the TV, and it actually turned on.

"It can still play...?"

However, the programs and advertisements mentioned above are very old and have a strong Showa era feel.

Moreover, the completely lost sound quality can give people a rather uncomfortable feeling.

I went to the toilet and found that the toilet bowl was so deep that it seemed like there was no bottom.

An eerie atmosphere permeated the entire place.

This is way too much like a haunted house.

If Sadako or Sayako suddenly appeared now, Akira Kuroba would actually find it more appealing.

Then, at that moment, there was a knock on the door.

Has someone finally returned?

Just as Kuroba Akira was about to go over and open the door, he thought, what if it really is a ghost knocking on the door?

Anyway... let's go and observe first.

However, just as Kuroba Akira was about to walk to the entrance, someone pressed down on his shoulder and said something.

"Don't go over there, that thing outside isn't human."

"Waaah!"

Kuroba Akira was startled, but thankfully he had just gone to the toilet.

Judging from the voice, the other person should be a mature older sister.

But when I turned around, I saw... uh, a little girl in a kimono?

I think he's probably around ten years old, and about the same height as Mr. Ohno.

This voice really doesn't match the character. It's supposed to be a mature woman's voice, but it sounds like a loli's voice?

Meanwhile, the other party continued to explain the monsters outside to Kuroba Akira.

"That thing outside is called a 'Lanjianjian,' a pervert who enjoys watching people fall into despair. If you look at it through the peephole, it will possess you and then use a curse to kill everyone in the house except you, gloating as it watches you fall into despair."

"That's really pretty insane..."

"But as long as you don't let that thing into the house, it will just wander outside. All the strange things here are pretty much the same. As long as you ignore it, they can't do anything to you."

It was definitely the right thing to suppress my curiosity; if you don't court death, you won't die.

However, there's one thing I'm curious about that I should ask.

"Excuse me, who are you?"

"what?"

The other person raised an eyebrow and said impatiently.

"Tsk, you brat, did you soak your head in the hot spring? Who else could I be? I'm your grandma!"

"Uh...it's actually an old woman..."

This isn't an insult. The only person who would refer to herself as Grandma Kuroba Akira and speak in Chinese would be Grandma Kobayashi.

No, who would have thought of that?

She has the body of a young girl, the voice of a mature woman, but inside she's an old lady.

Are you Huanhai? You're even more outrageous than Huanhai!

"The wrinkles on your face have completely disappeared! This is even more exaggerated than Hongxiang's special effects makeup. I can't call you an old lady anymore, I should call you little sister."

"I didn't become like this all of a sudden. At first, the wrinkles on my face decreased, then my voice became younger and younger, and my height fluctuated... just like this godforsaken place called the Otherworld."

Do you know about other worlds?

"How could I not know? I encountered many unbelievable things when I was investigating gods with the old man in my early years. This time should be similar. I've seen that thing outside before."

As expected of Granny Lin, she has seen it all.

"Alright, you're here to deliver local specialties, right? I'll go make some tea then."

"No, shouldn't we go out first?"

"I don't know how to get out of here, or how to take you out?"

"Huh? Are we trapped here?"

"But don't worry, it will be fine when the old man comes home. The house will only be like this when he's not here. When he's here, it will be normal again, and I will still be an old woman."

Is it related to Grandpa Kobayashi?

"And so far, only I have been teleported to this place. Everyone else living at home is fine. I just didn't expect you, Shirako, to come in too. I guess it's because you are the representative of the gods."

"I've been caught in the crossfire again... Well, let's just wait for Grandpa Kobayashi to come home."