After dropping out of school, I chose to join a girls' band.

Side Story: Prequel to Saint Soaring: Chapter 5 Peach: Why do I keep dreaming about giraffes?

Inside the ramen shop, steam rose and the air was filled with the rich aroma of broth.

Touching her slightly bulging belly, Yue felt a little full. She nodded in satisfaction, "I'm a little stuffed..."

Yurisaki Aoi nodded in agreement: "Indeed... setting aside the method of attracting customers with animal elements, the ramen here is quite delicious." There was a hint of satisfaction in her tone, clearly indicating that she was pleased with the dining experience.

Yue frowned, as if something was missing. She looked around and realized that Taozi hadn't said anything for a long time. Looking towards her seat, she found that Taozi was nowhere to be seen.

"Speaking of which... where are the peaches?" Yue asked, looking around as she did so.

Sitting next to Momo, Yuri Saki looked at the empty seat and explained, "Momo finished eating first and said she went out to buy drinks. She'll probably be back soon."

After hearing this, Yue nodded, feeling slightly relieved. She turned to look outside the ramen shop and noticed that there were still many people queuing up, the line stretching all the way to the street corner.

She suggested, "Why don't we go outside and wait for her? There are a lot of customers queuing up here."

Aoi nodded in agreement. The two stood up, cleared away their tableware, politely nodded to the staff, and then left the ramen shop.

The air outside was much fresher than inside the building, carrying a hint of early summer coolness.

The two stood on the street, relaxing and breathing in the fresh air, waiting for Peach's return. The neon lights outside the ramen shop flashed with colorful lights, and pedestrians came and went, the street filled with noise and bustle.

Yue rubbed her arms, looked up at the night sky, and felt much more relaxed.

Aoi, meanwhile, was looking around, occasionally glancing down at her phone, guessing that Peach would be back soon.

They waited on the street, with a crowd of people queuing outside the ramen shop behind them, each with an expectant expression on their face.

As expected, Momoko Kurosawa returned soon with three bottles of water, but judging from her expression, it seemed that she had discovered something even more interesting.

"Peach...why did it take so long?" Aoi asked curiously.

"I saw some people performing on the roadside near the station, so I watched for a bit," Peach said somewhat shyly.

However, it was clear that the people present were not actually very interested in street performances, so they simply nodded to indicate that they knew about it.

"It's getting late, let's head back soon," Yue suggested, glancing at the bustling crowd around them.

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Night fell again, and as Momoko Kurosawa drifted off to sleep in bed, she returned to that mysterious underground stage once more.

This time, however, it truly felt like a dream. Her vision was shrouded in a thick fog, and the surrounding scenery was blurry, as if she were in a mist. She tried to open her eyes wide, but still couldn't see anything clearly in front of her.

On the underground stage, the familiar giraffe still stood there. Peach could vaguely see the giraffe's mouth opening and closing, as if it were saying something, but she couldn't hear any sound. It was like a silent movie, with images flashing before her eyes, but no sound came out.

Peach tried to get closer, hoping to hear what the giraffe was saying, but her feet seemed to be stuck in place, unable to move an inch.

She tried desperately to call out, but the sounds she made seemed to be swallowed up by the air, and she couldn't even hear them herself.

The giraffe's mouth continued to open and close. Peach tried to guess the content of its words by looking at the shape of its mouth, but the words seemed to be blocked by an invisible barrier. She could only see the movement of its lips, but could not hear any sound.

Just when she was about to give up, the giraffe's mouth suddenly became clearer. She vaguely recognized a few words, but these words flashed through her mind quickly and could not be put into a complete sentence.

“Shining…stage…audience…”

Before Peach could even understand what those words meant, a piercing alarm clock suddenly rang in her ears.

The voice seemed to come from afar, gradually becoming clearer, pulling her back to reality from her dream.

Peach suddenly opened her eyes and sat up in bed, finding herself lying in a familiar bed. The room was still bathed in the warm morning light. She reached out and turned off her phone alarm.

She rubbed her eyes, her thoughts still lingering in the dream. "Why do I keep having these kinds of dreams lately? According to the theory of dream formation, I should at least have thought about giraffes to dream about them, but I've never seen a real giraffe except in books. How could it be so realistic?"

She lay in bed, pondering whether there was something wrong with Shengxiang. Why did she keep dreaming about a giraffe? If she were to dream about someone, she should dream about the moon, not herself. The more she thought about it, the more unbelievable it seemed. Her brows furrowed, and she fell into deep thought.

"Did Peach have a nightmare today?" Aoi looked at Peach, who had just suddenly jumped out of bed. No matter how you looked at it, such a big movement didn't seem like she had been woken up by an alarm clock.

Peach sighed, sat up, and tried to make her expression look more relaxed. "It wasn't exactly a nightmare, just a very strange dream."

"Really? A dream that even Peach finds strange... I'd love to know what it was about too. Could you tell me about it?"

In Aoi's memory, given Momo's usual personality, there shouldn't be anything that could scare her like this.

Peach gathered her thoughts. "Actually, it's nothing much, just dreaming about some strange things. You know what? Lately, I keep dreaming about a giraffe talking to me on an underground stage, but I can never quite understand what it's saying."

"Giraffe?" Aoi tilted her head, indicating that she didn't quite understand.

Peach nodded, her expression serious. "Um... a very big giraffe that can talk..."

Aoi slightly opened her mouth, "A giraffe that can talk...that's actually quite scary..."

Aoi picked up a glass of water from the bedside table, handed it to Peach, and said gently, "Don't think too much about it, it might just be a dream."

Peach took the water glass, took a small sip, and felt the cool water flow down her throat. The words from her dream still echoed in her mind: "shining...stage...audience...including the elevator mentioned in the previous dream..."

"Alright, no matter what, we still need to go to class today, or we'll be late."

"Hmm..." Peach nodded in response, got up and changed into her school uniform.

Side Story: Prequel to Saint Soaring: Chapter Six - The Underground Theater (Part 1)

Although Momoko kept thinking about her dream, she was still determined to attend class properly.

She quickly put on her school uniform, tidied her hair, and did a quick check of her appearance in the mirror to make sure she looked energetic.

After today's classes, Momoko declined Aoi's invitation to go out for dinner again, and even ignored Tsuki greeting her as she walked towards her.

She now has only one thought in mind: to find the elevator mentioned by the giraffe in her dream and confirm whether it is indeed the elevator.

Peach was intently searching for the mysterious elevator throughout the school. She started her search from the first floor of the teaching building, carefully checking every corner.

Meanwhile, Aoi and Tsuki, noticing Momoko's unusual behavior today, quietly peeked out from behind the wall, watching Momoko, who seemed to be searching the ground with a magnifying glass.

A hint of worry flashed in Aoi's eyes, while Yue looked even more puzzled.

"What's wrong with Peach? She was fine yesterday," Yue asked in a low voice, her voice filled with concern and confusion.

Kui frowned, recalling their conversation that morning, and replied softly, "She said she had a very strange dream this morning, a dream about a talking giraffe."

"Giraffe?" Several question marks popped up above Yue's head. "It's not like Peach is looking for a giraffe at school right now, is it? This floor isn't even high enough for a giraffe to stretch its neck."

"Besides... if there were giraffes on campus, wouldn't they have been discovered long ago? How come there wasn't a single word about them?"

"Could it be that Momoko has recently noticed that she's struggling to keep up with her studies at school and is under a lot of pressure?" Yuri Saki Aoi suggested, her brows furrowing slightly and her eyes showing a hint of worry.

Yue shook her head and rejected Kui's guess, "It's only the third day of school... how could she not keep up? Besides, judging from Momo's performance in class, her learning talent is even stronger than mine."

"Anyway... let's follow Peach and see what happens, so we can stop it in time if anything happens."

The two followed Taozi quietly, observing her every move, afraid that something might go wrong.

Finally, after searching the entire first floor, Momoko actually found an elevator in a corner. She stared at the elevator panel in surprise, a complex mix of emotions welling up inside her.

"There really is an elevator?" Peach exclaimed softly, her fingers lightly touching the smooth metal panel. "A building with only three floors needs an elevator... and why didn't we notice it before?"

Tsuki and Aoi stood behind the wall not far away, equally surprised. Tsuki frowned slightly, pondering, "That's really strange. How come we didn't notice there was an elevator here before?"

Kui nodded, a hint of curiosity flashing in her eyes: "Maybe it's because we usually take the stairs and haven't paid special attention."

However, Taozi didn't think much of it. After all, they had only been in Shengxiang for three days at most, so it was perfectly normal that there were still things they didn't know.

"Then let me see... whether my dream is real or not..."

She took a deep breath, felt her heart race, her palms sweat slightly, swallowed, and nervously pressed the elevator button.

However, as expected, the elevator doors did not open. Instead, the ground beneath her feet, along with the nearby walls, began to sink rapidly.

"Ughh ...

The rapid descent made Peach scream in terror. Her heart felt like it was going to jump out of her chest, her whole body tensed, and she felt a strong sense of weightlessness. She clung tightly to the wall beside her, trying to maintain her balance, but the speed of the fall made it almost impossible for her to stand.

At the same time, Aoi and Yue, who had just come up to check on Momo's condition, also vaguely heard her scream.

"Momoko...is she alright?" Aoi looked anxiously at the wall that had just reappeared in front of her, her heart filled with worry and unease.

Yue's expression also became tense. They had tried pressing the elevator button like Taozi, but there was no response at all.

"This elevator can't possibly recognize people, can it?" Yue looked around but didn't find any surveillance cameras.

She reached out and tried to pry open the elevator door to see what was behind it, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't budge it an inch. After thinking for a moment, she said to Aoi, "I remember there's a playground nearby, and there's an equipment room over there. I think there are crowbars in there."

"Okay! I'll go get it right away." Aoi quickly ran towards the playground and soon returned from the equipment room with a crowbar that showed obvious signs of use, which she handed to Yue.

"Hopefully it will work..." Yue looked at the crowbar in her hand and prayed silently. She tossed it in her hand to feel its weight, then forcefully inserted the crowbar into the gap of the elevator door, gritted her teeth, and used all her strength to pry the elevator door open.

The elevator doors slowly opened, emitting a piercing metallic scraping sound. Yue and Aoi held their breath, nervously watching the gap that appeared. Finally, the elevator doors opened completely, revealing a pitch-black staircase behind them.

Yue and Kui exchanged a glance, their eyes filled with determination and worry. They nodded simultaneously, then turned on their phone flashlights, illuminating the staircase in front of them.

“Let’s go, Peach might be downstairs,” Yue said firmly, taking the lead on the stairs.

Kui followed closely behind, her heart filled with nervousness and anticipation. They carefully descended the stairs, step by step, the beam of their cell phone flashlights flickering in the darkness, guiding their way.

The stairs weren't walls on either side; only waist-high handrails protected their safety, making each step a nerve-wracking experience.

The surroundings were eerily quiet, with only their footsteps echoing in the empty underground space. A damp smell permeated the air, as if no one had been here for a long time.

The beam of Yue's flashlight swept across both sides of the staircase and revealed rows of tall shelves in the distance, displaying various stage props and exhibition boards. On these boards were tiny figures dressed in Shengxiang school uniforms, seemingly telling the stories of this place.

Looking at the props on both sides, Yue said, "It feels like there are many stories here... Are these all props that were used and then placed here?"

However, neither the size of this underground space nor the way the peaches descended suggests that this is an ordinary prop storage area.

"Peach, you have to be alright..." Aoi whispered to herself, her voice filled with anxiety.

Side Story: The Prequel to Saint Sho - Side Story: The First Encounter on Stage Seven

Compared to Hinasaki and Yurisaki, who still had to climb the stairs step by step to descend, Momoko Kurosawa, who rode the elevator down with sparks and lightning, had already arrived at her destination. More accurately, she was "delivered" to her destination, because she was suddenly thrown out of the "elevator" halfway down and finally landed steadily in the audience seats.

"Where...where am I?" Momo stood up from her seat and looked around.

This is a typical theater, and overall it looks no different from the theaters she has been to before.

The surrounding environment was unusually quiet, shrouded in a mysterious atmosphere.

The audience seats were covered with a thick layer of red velvet, which looked a bit old but still retained its former splendor.