Starting a Night Shift Part-time Job at a Convenience Store-Chapter 7.3: Cat Phantom III

Starting a Night Shift Part-time Job at a Convenience Store-Chapter 7.3: Cat Phantom III

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

.
!
Chapter 7.3: Cat Phantom III