Chapter 22: Anomaly Catching Anomaly

Adaptation to Site 17 (12)

"What is this… there should be something, there has to be something…"

He muttered in a daze, as if unable to believe the reality before his eyes.

Of course, he had considered that what he was looking for might not necessarily be here.

But even so, this scene filled only with empty walls was far too cruel for him, who had been running with hope until now.

"Damn it… something come out, come out like back then…!"

Just in case, he began to throw himself around in all directions.

He was probably talking about the time when the emergency exit first appeared.

But unlike then, nothing resembling a door appeared around him.

*―――Ah, a**

He was forced to stiffen, startled by the sound coming from nearby.

"…"

Cold sweat began to soak his entire body.

Muscle pain, chills, stomachache, headache, dizziness, nausea, tinnitus.

A suffocating pressure, as if thrown into chaos.

Drawn by something, he turned around to see.

Something he had never seen before, and should never have seen,

Was right in front of his face.

"―――"

It was terrible.

No, was it terrible?

He couldn't really tell.

He had never seen it this close before,

And he couldn't tell if what was in front of him was its face, its eyes, its mouth, or ██.

He no longer had the judgment to distinguish it.

Somehow, the headache that had been bothering him constantly since earlier,

Had completely disappeared at some point.

It began to approach him more and more.

Before he knew it, they were close enough to touch with the slightest movement.

Soon, it raised its ██ and aimed it at him,

██ at his head―――

―Click

At that moment.

Suddenly, he felt something in his hand.

"…?"

He didn't know how it happened.

He had simply turned his head without realizing it.

Perhaps it was a reflex.

An action engraved in the inescapable instinct of humans.

It was orange.

To be precise, it was a doorknob on an orange door.

There were no pictures or words written on it.

But he could instinctively recognize that it was the orange color written in countless graffiti.

*―――Ah,**

Of course, he wasn't given any time to think.

He didn't know how he did it,

But without wasting a moment, he immediately threw himself towards the orange door.

Seeing that it could no longer approach him through the closing gap,

He began to fall into a completely new, unknown space.

"――Uwaaaaaaack!"

What was inside began to surge out with fierce force.

Of course, only stomach acid and a small amount of vomit came out.

He hadn't been able to eat anything for a very long time since coming here.

"Hoo… haa… hoo…"

After his condition stabilized somewhat, he began to look around.

The memory of facing that thing and what he had been thinking at the time began to surface in his mind,

But he didn't want to recall it or think about it again.

Right now, it was more important to see where this place was.

"…Home?"

After looking around, he realized that this place was inside a house.

A fluffy-looking sofa, a television, a standing lamp.

The clean and well-organized appearance of the furniture seemed to be evidence that someone lived in this house.

"…!"

With that thought, he quickly began to look for the entrance to the house.

If there were signs of people, he must have returned to his original world.

Escaping from that hellish world, from the terrible and frightening thing,

He had finally succeeded in escaping from it.

"A person… it's a person…!"

When he went outside to the front yard of the house, he saw someone standing on the side of the road.

The figure of a person he had longed to see.

He wasn't usually the kind of person who would strike up a conversation with strangers so easily,

But right now, he was filled with the desire to hug anyone.

"Hey, hey! Over here!"

He started running towards the person.

Perhaps they didn't think he was calling them, the person didn't turn towards him.

In any case, the distance between Henry and the person wasn't that far,

So he was able to reach the person standing on the side of the road before long.

"Nice to meet you! Haha, this might sound strange, but you can't imagine what I've been through today."

He approached the person with a smile on his face.

He knew very well that suddenly starting a conversation like this would only make him look strange, and that it was best not to bring up such stories given his profession,

But seeing a person after so long, he couldn't contain his joy and happiness.

"Oh, by the way, could you tell me what area this is――"

Finally, he was within arm's reach.

The person still hadn't turned around, perhaps not realizing that he was being spoken to,

And the moment he reached out towards their shoulder to let them know he was talking to them――

――Thud

The person he touched,

Began to fall forward limply, like a doll with its strings cut.

"――――――"

His whole body stiffened.

What just happened?

No, he probably knew what was going on.

But he didn't want to admit it.

After overcoming all sorts of terrible and frightening situations, this was the reward he had barely obtained.

If he recognized and acknowledged it,

He would surely be unable to bear this reality and go insane.

With trembling hands, he reached out towards the fallen person.

He didn't really want to check.

But if, just if,

This person had simply fallen for some reason, and it was just bad timing…

Such an absurd possibility couldn't be completely ruled out, could it?

His hand, trembling like an aspen leaf, finally touched the fallen person.

The person's body turned over much more easily than he had expected.

The person who had been turned over―

―No, the thing that looked like a person had no face.

There was only a phrase written there that would plunge him into despair.

――There is no escape.

A familiar phrase he remembered seeing somewhere.

That was the true nature of the phrase written on the mannequin's face.

"…Ha."

He began to laugh.

Even though it was a situation where he shouldn't even feel a hollow laugh, let alone despair.

For some reason, he felt like he couldn't bear this situation unless he laughed.

"Ha, haha."

Come to think of it, something was strange.

Even though it was clearly a residential area, he couldn't hear any sounds.

Wasn't it just like the place he had been in before?

Like that desolate place where he couldn't feel any life.

He never had a way out of this place from the beginning.

"Haha, ha! Hahahahaha!"

The laughter wouldn't stop.

The fallen mannequin had disappeared at some point.

It's a crazy place. A place that shouldn't exist.

Maybe he was the one who was really crazy.

After all, there's no way a place like this could actually exist.

Maybe he was just having a bad dream.

The sky flickered, day and night changed, corpses floated up from the floor and disappeared at the same time.

The sound of a child crying, the sound of a rubber duck quacking, the sound of sirens, the scent of citrus, the smell of burning tires, the sensation of being hit by waves, a feast of chaotic colors.

All sorts of sensations that he already knew, was coming to know, and would never know, began to rush towards him like a tidal wave.

A situation where he didn't know if he was crazy or going crazy.

And his mind, which was already at its limit,

Completely snapped at that moment.

――Thud, thud

He felt someone touching his body.

But, it didn't matter.

Whoever the owner of this small palm touching him was, he no longer had the strength to move, not even a little.

--Swish

After touching him several times without any response, suddenly, a strong force began to lift him up.

'…Where are they taking me?'

His body, leaning against something, was helplessly dragged along.

Where was he going from now on?

Was he being dragged to some lonely and isolated place, finally to meet his death?

Or was he going to a place more terrible than death, which he so feared?

But, whichever it was, he decided not to care about his fate anymore.

That was because, from this unknown being taking him somewhere, he was receiving something he hadn't felt for a long time since coming here, and thought he would never feel again.

'Warm….'

It was warmth.

A world infinitely close to reality, yet infinitely detached from it.

In that desolate world where not even a single insect could be found, he was feeling the warmth of a person he had so desired, just before his death.

Ah, that's right.

He had already died a while ago.

Otherwise, he wouldn't be able to feel this comfortable.

When a person dies, doesn't an angel usually come to take their soul?

Although he couldn't hear any trumpet sounds, and seeing his knees dragging on the ground, it didn't seem like a very considerate angel, but this feeling of being carried by something soft, and this good smell coming from somewhere, surely, it was possible because an angel was taking him from the sky.

A click sounds.

It was a familiar sound.

It was a sound commonly heard in everyday life, just by turning a doorknob, no matter which door it was.

He didn't know that there would be a lock on the door to heaven, but he didn't have the mental capacity to think complicated thoughts, as he didn't even have the strength to open his eyes.

--Thump!

The small something that had carried him put him down on the ground.

The hard and rough sensation of the asphalt floor felt from his back.

He had been thinking that the floor of heaven would surely be clouds, but contrary to his thoughts, the afterlife seemed to be much more modernized than he had thought.

'…?'

No.

Something, something is different.

This is not a place like heaven.

The sounds he was hearing now, were not the beautiful voices of a choir, or singing.

The sound of car engines, advertisements, songs, conversations, footsteps.

Noisy sounds that mixed all kinds of information, making a person's mind chaotic.

It was not a sound that would ever be heard in heaven,

and conversely, it was not a sound so terrible that it would only echo in hell.

It was a city.

A sound full of vitality, where people and life walked.

No matter how long he had spent in a place different from reality, for days he didn't know how many, he would never confuse the sound he had been familiar with for decades.

Figures approaching him, and urgent voices starting to be heard from nearby.

In his increasingly hazy consciousness, he realized that they were referring to him, and soon, he let go of the consciousness he had barely been holding onto until now.

With the voice of someone calling an ambulance as the last thing he heard, he lost consciousness.

--Click

With the sound of the locking mechanism meeting, the door was firmly closed.

Holding the doorknob of the closed door was Number 19.

The girl had just carried someone she didn't even know to this place.

And had left him on an unknown roadside outside the door.

'Hmm….'

Number 19 scratched her head.

Then, with her arms crossed, she glanced over the door she had just passed through.

'So, why was that person collapsed in the middle of the playroom?'

Recalling one question that had been lingering in her mind since earlier,

she fell into deep thought to find an answer that she would never be able to find on her own….

Previous|Next