Chapter 28

I

i

washed

i

my

i

face harshly, splashing it with cold water. While I

i

didn’t have a particularly awful complexion when I

i

peered in the bathroom mirror, my countenance was appalling.

“…” fewbheh

How

i

many times did I see

i

something like that? The white arm on

i

Nishimura. Then there

i

was the woman in the corner of the store who had nothing from the

i

stomach down. The man

i

who was being dragged by the shin of the store staff girl… Recalling it

i

evoked an urge

i

in me to

i

throw up.

Recently… it

i

was really a recent development that I began

i

to see strange things frequently.

It all kicked off

i

with a part-time job at a convenience store that I

i

started for the hourly wage.

Even though I had been warned that the job

i

was notorious, I continued to

i

go through it unflinchingly, and consequently, whether it be a dormant

i

aptitude or a sixth sense, I unwillingly developed the ability to

i

see “non-human, invisible entities.”

Initially, distinguishing between them was difficult, and it was only mildly noticeable

i

when I passed by them or caught flickers of their presence

i

in my vision, yet lately the

i

number of times I perceived such beings had

i

been on the rise, and even

i

the beings I had detected varied

i

in their levels of perception: some could be

i

mistaken for living people, while

i

others appeared to be in the same state as when they

i

died. Some of them

i

appeared with only parts of their body, such as

i

legs, arms,

i

and necks, rather than the full body, which was extremely disconcerting to

i

me given that I was

i

not accustomed to the sight of these things.

In the past, someone

i

said that they wanted to see specters

i

or get supernatural powers, but frankly

i

speaking, it was not a good thing, it was truly not a positive

i

thing.

Two

i

days

i

ago, I found out that something had been living in the back of the

i

ceiling of the run-down apartment I resided in. The first time it happened, I originally

i

suspected it was a rodent or something similar, but right when I

i

became able to visually see such things, the entity

i

was manifested. Nothing had happened until then

i

but after coming to see the strange

i

thing, noises began to emanate from the ceiling in the middle of the

i

night.

It

i

sounded

i

like something was rolling around. ew

The

i

prospect

i

of what in the world was rolling around in the middle

i

of the night threw me into a

i

creepy phase, so I

i

chose not to pry too deeply into the

i

matter. Nothing had

i

ever occurred in the house

i

I had been living in until this day so I

i

would rather believe… that it was

i

something more harmless than that thing in that

i

convenience store.

From

i

then

i

on, every once in a while, I would

i

see an old man looking at me

i

through the window.

My

i

apartment was two stories

i

high. For the

i

old man to look

i

out the window and

i

see my room would be out

i

of the question. The only way he

i

could do that would be if he was as tall

i

as a telephone pole or climbing the

i

wall and hanging from the window ledge. But that would never be

i

conceivable.

The

i

old

i

man would make

i

eye contact with me

i

for a few seconds before disappearing. He was

i

probably one of those kinds too.

For

i

some

i

reason, while I

i

was having a cup

i

of noodles, watching

i

TV, getting up in the morning, or coming back from the bathroom, I felt

i

his gaze on me. When I

i

peered out the window, a

i

strange old man was watching me with only

i

a quarter of his face protruding from the window

i

sill. Our eyes locked

i

with each other briefly, and then he swiftly hid his face and

i

vanished.

At

i

first, I was

i

so spooked that it made me jump

i

up and down, though I was still fairly freaked

i

out by it. Even so, I tried

i

not to dwell on it too

i

much, since he

i

didn’t seem to do anything to me. If things

i

turned too dismal, I could simply

i

close the curtains and all would be well.

And

i

so… my daily

i

life had gone through a drastic

i

change after working part-time at that convenience

i

store.

“―Masa.” Not shared on aggregator websites

“Whoa!?” Not shared on lightnovelreader.me

Kinoshita

i

was standing right behind me

i

in the mirror when I looked up in

i

response to his call.

How

i

long had he

i

been here? I hadn’t even heard a

i

sound.

“Well, you were spacing

i

out, you know.”

“I-Is that so?” Translator: MadHatter

“You spend

i

all your time in the bathroom. Even if you

i

are pooping, it’s taking a long time. I was just

i

wondering what was going on.”

“N-Nothing, I was

i

just washing my face. Let’s go back.” few

“I see… I mean, are you okay?” sedf

“Yeah?” fwes

I

i

returned a blunt reply and looked

i

up at Kinoshita, who stared at me and made a

i

serious face. Among

i

the four of us, Kinoshita, who was normally the one to

i

smile carelessly, unexpectedly became grave.

“Is

i

it

i

true?” 4325ftd

“…What?” ferhjrys

“About

i

what you said earlier.”

About

i

the thing you said to us

i

earlier.

My

i

eyes widened at his words instead of my mouth.

“So it’s true after

i

all.” fwehb

“Why, you…” grea4

“I can

i

tell, you know.” t4wAt

Kinoshita

i

shrugged his shoulders.

“I thought

i

it was a joke at first, too. But whenever you tell a lie, you scratch your head unconsciously and then

i

bite your back teeth a few times.”

Even

i

I

i

was not conscious of that habit of mine. Of all

i

the guys in our unbreakable relationship, Kinoshita was the most perceptive and subtle.

“But you didn’t do that today, and you

i

were acting really weird, staring at nothing all the time, sometimes making a really weird face.”

“Did I make

i

such a face?” rgya

“Well, yeah.” Not shared on aggregator websites

“You

i

believe

i

me… don’t you?” t4ea

“I already

i

know you’re not lying, Masa.” fr

I was

i

tapped lightly on the shoulder and I kind of lost

i

my strength. That

i

was a

i

small sense of relief.

My

i

spirit had suffered significantly over

i

the past few days due to

i

the strange power I

i

had acquired. Anxiety was accumulating within me like mud, weighing

i

me down, and I

i

wanted to deal with it. Deep

i

down inside, even though I

i

was ashamed of it, I wanted to share this feeling with

i

anyone I could, because I

i

didn’t want to carry it alone. The

i

next thing I knew, I was spilling it all out to Kinoshita, who was

i

before me.

Without

i

hesitation, from the beginning to the end. All

i

the mind-boggling, whacked-out incidents that I had experienced. I shared them with

i

Kinoshita.

Kinoshita

i

seemed taken aback, but he

i

kept throwing in interjections to make

i

the conversation go smoothly, allowing me to

i

fully explain how

i

over the past few weeks, I had

i

discovered that invisible entities—which I had

i

never before believed to exist—really did exist, that my

i

common sense had

i

been overturned, and that I had developed a strange ability.

“That

i

was

i

tough.” fewaf

After

i

all of that, Kinoshita remarked to me, seeming genuinely worried for me. It wasn’t a look

i

of suspicion; he was genuinely trying to believe me, even if he didn’t fully buy into what I had experienced.

“You

i

quit that convenience store, didn’t you?”

At his

i

words, I shook my head to the side.

“Seriously? You’re not quitting?”

“Yeah.”

“How can you keep

i

going after something like that?”

“…” efyGIYB

“Before things

i

escalate into something even more bizarre, the sooner you quit, the

i

better. I don’t know what it’s like, but it’s certainly not safe for you

i

when you can even see specters now.”

If so, the next

i

time something more horrifying might strike.

I’m afraid for

i

your safety

, Kinoshita warned me.

“I know you’re a stubborn person, but you

i

don’t have to be that stubborn. I’m not saying you’re like Nishimura, but you absolutely don’t have to force yourself to get involved, or you

i

might face even worse consequences.”

While expressing concern, Kinoshita

i

tried to convince me to quit. He said a series of the most sensible things.

However… WEGA

“Even

i

so, I… I think I’ll stay there for a little while longer.”

Kinoshita

i

made an incredulous face at my response. Even I felt like an idiot

i

for saying this.

“Why?” RWAD

“No

i

particular

i

reason.” RWAGR

“Is that so…”EQWFWE

“Don’t

i

look like that, laugh at me. I used to make

i

such a fuss about it, but now I can see specters, you know.”

Say

i

it was hilarious or something. I was only unable to see the specters myself but I behaved with such haughtiness.

“It’s

i

hilarious.”

I could

i

only put my trust in what I could see with the naked eye. I had never believed such things. I depended on the world in which I refused to believe and denied everything I didn’t want to

i

believe.

How many

i

people did I hurt with the thoughtless words that I uttered carelessly? I wondered how many of those I dismissed as liars were stating the truth and not falsehoods.

“Now it is my turn to be called

i

a liar.”

When I told Nishimura and Tanaka, they did not

i

believe me at all. Considering how I had behaved up to now, I thought it was a natural reaction. I had been fooling around with these guys

i

since high school.

To be frank, I felt slightly lonely

i

when they told me that I was joking. Looking at something

i

you didn’t want to look at, and then having it so easily dismissed when you complained about it, must have felt like this.

“Perhaps I am

i

being punished for

i

ridiculing those who can see specters with prejudice.”

“Punishment?” Not shared on aggregator websites.

“Isn’t it

i

funny?” dqw

“I won’t laugh at

i

you.”

Even though

i

I smiled at him with expectant eyes, Kinoshita shot me a

i

worried look. He remained

i

silent for a while before opening his mouth with a start.

“Don’t tell me… Hyuga is…”grw

I responded at once to Kinoshita, who said so with an even sterner expression on

i

his face.

“You’re wrong.”ger

“…I’m not wrong, Masa… because it’s you.”gr

“I don’t think that way, like

i

you think, Kinoshita.”fesdc

“You’re still holding it

i

back, huh? …Indeed, a lot of things have

i

happened but… That was… It’s not something you should feel responsible for…”

“I already said it’s not like that.”

“Masa, it’s

i

okay, you don’t have to think like that. You weren’t punished; you simply want to punish yourself, don’t you?”

“Like I said…!”4y5t

“I know you can’t resign from that convenience store because of what happened to Hyuga―”

Having

i

been told that much, my exasperation was no

i

longer masked and I slammed the washbasin.

Kinoshita, like an esper, deduced

i

my true intentions so easily.

My

i

true intentions, which I sought to deny

i

even to myself. No matter how

i

deep I went, I was always a twisted person who couldn’t be honest. For this reason, people

i

around me regarded me as a bother and stopped approaching me.

My undue pride

i

always brought misfortune to those around me.

“My

i

bad… Even though you were concerned

i

about me.”

Even though I

i

tried to alleviate the uncomfortable atmosphere I had created, my voice sounded so strong that it looked to be negatively affecting the situation.

“My phone

i

number. You have it, right?” wef

“What?” erg

Even so, Kinoshita probably sensed my feelings and made me

i

look up at him with a cheerful voice.

“Once you have made

i

your decision, it can’t be overturned so easily… So If you need anything, call me

i

anytime. I’ll be there for you… Don’t push yourself.”

I nodded

i

deeply at those words.

Ah… he really

i

was a great

i

guy.

After returning from the toilet, we reminisced about old times

i

again.

Just

i

in time for my soon-to-be-starting part-time job, I bid farewell to Kinoshita and the others. Before

i

parting, I gave Nishimura a warning just in case.

Soon

i

after getting on my motorcycle and starting down the road, the bustling streets vanished and I found

i

myself on a lonely road with few lights.

Now― NFBUWEIBYVU

What

i

would

i

be

i

brewing

i

today?FEV