Chapter 1: Rebirth
Something's wrong, this world is wrong!
In 2009, at the Sunflower Children's Welfare Institute, eight-year-old Kamihara Hajime's tender face looked at the orphanage enveloped in darkness. The once familiar place now felt eerily strange.
All the children and adults in the orphanage had vanished. Under the eerie gloom, the buildings of the orphanage in his eyes seemed… a bit strange?
Kamihara Hajime recalled his simple yet not-so-simple experiences in this life. In his previous life, he was just an ordinary person on Earth, but he contracted a terminal illness at a young age and eventually died.
When he regained consciousness, he had already become a young child in this island nation. There were almost no traces of his parents in his memory; he had been in this orphanage since he could remember.
Perhaps due to his rebirth, everything from his previous life felt like an incredibly clear dream, very real yet separated by a boundary between reality and illusion. Moreover, he had learned some information about this world through accessible channels and discovered that it was completely different from his previous world! Although there were many similarities, they were thoroughly two different worlds. Could this be what they call a parallel world?
The most crucial evidence was that Kamihara Hajime discovered he possessed a "superpower"! He called this 'Psychic Power', though any other name would suffice. Its primary function at present was to enhance himself, which allowed him, a young child, to accomplish many incredible things.
Although usually, to prevent accidental harm to his undeveloped body from overuse of his "superpower," Kamihara Hajime did not use it excessively. After all, he was still just a child, and his body hadn't fully developed yet.
What if this superpower, still undeveloped, were overused and harmed his body? Of course, most of this was his wild imagination; there was no one to teach him about such things.
Life in the orphanage was very peaceful and serene, with no situations requiring the use of his superpower. So he generally only used it slightly on occasion, yet even this made him the king of the children in the orphanage.
This power usually appeared light blue. Besides this, Kamihara Hajime could occasionally move at a speed almost like Time Null, but unfortunately, each time he used this ability, there was a slight abnormality, so he didn't dare to use it haphazardly anymore.
At such moments, when he moved, everything around him seemed to stand still, which reminded him of the various super-speed abilities he had seen before, and it had excited him for a long time at first.
And the second piece of evidence was that there were "ghosts" in this world!
Honestly, Kamihara Hajime had considered that his superpower might not be unique, and that there might be other super-powered individuals in this world, unknown to ordinary people, just like in those movies and novels. But he truly hadn't expected that this world would have such things as ghosts and monsters.
In these past few years, Kamihara Hajime had encountered at least five or six ghosts, but unlike the ghosts he knew from his previous life, the ones he saw were strangely shaped and not like Miss Sadako or Aunt Kayako.
Moreover, they all seemed very weak, and others seemed unable to see them. For example, he once saw a couple who came to the orphanage to adopt a child; there was a strange, enlarged mosquito-like thing hidden by their side. Of course, Kamihara Hajime merely gave that thing the name "mosquito" based on its palm-like wings, needle-sharp proboscis, and general shape.
At that time, Kamihara Hajime saw this thing from a distance and, shocked, realized that none of the surrounding children or adults could see it. Could it be that only super-powered individuals could see it?
And now, Kamihara Hajime realized he might have finally encountered a more powerful ghost, as even the environment had been altered by it. Annoyance, fear, anger, and other emotions surged into his heart all at once.
"Why did this have to happen when I'm still weak? I haven't grown up yet! No, I can't give up! It's hard enough to be reborn once and even have a superpower, I absolutely cannot die like this!"
Kamihara Hajime strenuously activated the "Power" within his body, allowing his body to break through common sense and exert astonishing abilities. Whether it was speed, strength, or durability, the current Kamihara Hajime could even easily defeat multiple adult men. In this unknown environment, he could only maintain twelve parts vigilance and use his full strength to find a way out.
...
"Mm-hmm, got it. Don't forget the agreed-upon reward. This is a confirmed Grade 1, possibly Special Grade Cursed Womb. I'll notify you if anything happens, Gojo. That's all."
A beautiful white-haired woman with a good figure stood not far from the Sunflower Welfare Institute. The dense Cursed Energy and ominous aura intertwined and swirled there in her eyes. However, the white-haired beauty showed no fear or other emotion; instead, she had the look of someone seeing something beloved.
"Born from darkness, the darkest of darkness. Filth and defilement, all be purged."
As the woman chanted the spell, a layer of grey-black, wave-like or curtain-like substance rapidly expanded from a point in the sky, enveloping the entire orphanage. Afterward, the white-haired beauty gracefully walked into it and disappeared.
...
"This is bad."
Kamihara Hajime looked at the strangely shaped, small body gradually dissipating on the ground, and these two words involuntarily jumped into his mind. Five minutes ago, he had encountered the first "ghost" he'd seen. It was a hybrid of a dog and a young human, crying and rushing towards him.
After the initial panic, he tried attacking this ghost with his body enhanced by "Power." The effect was unexpectedly good; a few punches killed the little thing. So the scene turned into a child beating a deformed little monster...
The path to the outside had vanished. Kamihara Hajime tried to find an exit, but no matter how he walked, he couldn't leave the greatly altered orphanage. It was like a ghost wall, always leading him back, so he could only try to go further in, to see if he could eliminate the ghost or find another way out.
Then came the encounter with that little thing, and after eliminating the first one, Kamihara Hajime encountered many more along the way, all different in appearance, but all sharing one commonality: they had parts of young children's forms.
Kamihara Hajime guessed whether it might be resentment related to children that spawned these ghosts. Isn't that how it's written in movies and novels? Although these little ghosts were still grotesque, they were finally somewhat closer to the ghosts in his memory. And while he was initially scared, after easily resolving them, Kamihara Hajime gradually lost his fear of them. After all, when you have a superpower to eliminate ghosts, these things don't seem so terrifying anymore.
"Wuwu…"
Walking down the corridor of the orphanage staff dormitory, Kamihara Hajime suddenly heard a faint child's sobbing. Always alert, his first reaction was that he had encountered another ghost. However, after a moment, he realized he was mistaken.
In front of a cabinet, Kamihara Hajime confirmed that the intermittent sobbing was coming from inside. This sound seemed somewhat different from those ghosts. Could there be survivors?
Thinking this, Kamihara Hajime prepared for battle and cautiously pulled open the cabinet door. A scream then erupted. Inside, two small figures were huddled together, trembling. This meant that it wasn't ghosts hiding in the cabinet, but two unlucky individuals trapped here just like him.
"Hey! Stop screaming, do you want to attract the ghosts?"
Hearing Kamihara Hajime's words, the two little ones also realized that it wasn't those terrifying things that had found them, and he sounded familiar, so they stopped crying.
"Hajime… Hajime?"
Kamihara Hajime looked at the two little ones, a boy and a girl. He didn't have much impression of the boy, but he did remember the little girl a bit; her name should be Kumiko. She was the one the couple had originally intended to adopt last time, but unfortunately, she had a birthmark on her left cheek, and in the end, the adoption didn't go through.
And it was only natural that they both knew Kamihara Hajime. Although this orphanage was decent, at least from his perspective, the staff here were quite loving, but there were many children here, and many things couldn't be managed.
Because of his superpower, after fiercely beating up a group of small cliques that dominated, Kamihara Hajime became the most unapproachable presence among the children in the orphanage. He naturally became famous among the children.
As for why he hadn't been adopted yet, it was due to Kamihara Hajime's own wishes. After all, how could a cute, intelligent child, whose outstanding looks were evident even at a young age, not be adopted? It was just that he himself felt unable to integrate into a new, unfamiliar family.
Originally, the director, that kind and gentle woman, had planned to adopt Kamihara Hajime herself or have her family adopt him, and then send him to school. The orphanage could only teach up to elementary school graduation. In fact, there were such children; some, with the support of the orphanage and the director, went out into society, and many would return to give back to the orphanage, some even returning to work there.
Of course, that's another story. After comforting the two children, Kamihara Hajime tried to ask them for any information, but the two children were also very confused; fear and terror made their words incoherent.
After sorting things out, Kamihara Hajime found no valuable information. They were both clueless about how they ended up there. After seeing those wandering monsters from afar, they had hidden in this cabinet.
Soon after their conversation, an urgent noise suddenly echoed from nearby. Kamihara Hajime's expression changed, and he quickly told the uneasy pair to hide back in the cabinet.
Since they had remained undiscovered while hiding in the cabinet, at least hiding there was safer than following Kamihara Hajime.
After all, although he could eliminate those small ghosts, protecting two weak children at the same time would still be somewhat difficult for Kamihara Hajime.
After they were hidden, Kamihara Hajime listened as the noise grew closer and quickly got up and ran in the other direction. His footsteps were very prominent in the empty corridor.
Soon, eerie cries accompanied by the sound of limbs moving on the ground chased after him. It was quite narrow here, and judging by the sounds, quite a few were coming.
Kamihara Hajime needed to find an open space to fight.