Iwashedmyface harshly, splashing it with cold water. While Ididn’t have a particularly awful complexion when Ipeered in the bathroom mirror, my countenance was appalling.

“…” fewbheh

Howmany times did I seesomething like that? The white arm onNishimura. Then therewas the woman in the corner of the store who had nothing from thestomach down. The manwho was being dragged by the shin of the store staff girl… Recalling itevoked an urgein me tothrow up.

Recently… itwas really a recent development that I beganto see strange things frequently.

It all kicked offwith a part-time job at a convenience store that Istarted for the hourly wage.

Even though I had been warned that the jobwas notorious, I continued togo through it unflinchingly, and consequently, whether it be a dormantaptitude or a sixth sense, I unwillingly developed the ability tosee “non-human, invisible entities.”magic

Initially, distinguishing between them was difficult, and it was only mildly noticeablewhen I passed by them or caught flickers of their presencein my vision, yet lately thenumber of times I perceived such beings hadbeen on the rise, and eventhe beings I had detected variedin their levels of perception: some could bemistaken for living people, whileothers appeared to be in the same state as when theydied. Some of themappeared with only parts of their body, such aslegs, arms,and necks, rather than the full body, which was extremely disconcerting tome given that I wasnot accustomed to the sight of these things.

In the past, someonesaid that they wanted to see spectersor get supernatural powers, but franklyspeaking, it was not a good thing, it was truly not a positivething.

Twodaysago, I found out that something had been living in the back of theceiling of the run-down apartment I resided in. The first time it happened, I originallysuspected it was a rodent or something similar, but right when Ibecame able to visually see such things, the entitywas manifested. Nothing had happened until thenbut after coming to see the strangething, noises began to emanate from the ceiling in the middle of thenight.

Itsoundedlike something was rolling around. ew

Theprospectof what in the world was rolling around in the middleof the night threw me into acreepy phase, so Ichose not to pry too deeply into thematter. Nothing hadever occurred in the houseI had been living in until this day so Iwould rather believe… that it wassomething more harmless than that thing in thatconvenience store.

Fromthenon, every once in a while, I wouldsee an old man looking at methrough the window.

Myapartment was two storieshigh. For theold man to lookout the window andsee my room would be outof the question. The only way hecould do that would be if he was as tallas a telephone pole or climbing thewall and hanging from the window ledge. But that would never beconceivable.

Theoldman would makeeye contact with mefor a few seconds before disappearing. He wasprobably one of those kinds too.

Forsomereason, while Iwas having a cupof noodles, watchingTV, getting up in the morning, or coming back from the bathroom, I felthis gaze on me. When Ipeered out the window, astrange old man was watching me with onlya quarter of his face protruding from the windowsill. Our eyes lockedwith each other briefly, and then he swiftly hid his face andvanished.

Atfirst, I wasso spooked that it made me jumpup and down, though I was still fairly freakedout by it. Even so, I triednot to dwell on it toomuch, since hedidn’t seem to do anything to me. If thingsturned too dismal, I could simplyclose the curtains and all would be well.

Andso… my dailylife had gone through a drasticchange after working part-time at that conveniencestore.

“―Masa.” Not shared on aggregator websites

“Whoa!?” Not shared on lightnovelreader.me

Kinoshitawas standing right behind mein the mirror when I looked up inresponse to his call.

Howlong had hebeen here? I hadn’t even heard asound.

“Well, you were spacingout, you know.”

“I-Is that so?” Translator: MadHatter

“You spendall your time in the bathroom. Even if youare pooping, it’s taking a long time. I was justwondering what was going on.”

“N-Nothing, I wasjust washing my face. Let’s go back.” few

“I see… I mean, are you okay?” sedf

“Yeah?” fwes

Ireturned a blunt reply and lookedup at Kinoshita, who stared at me and made aserious face. Amongthe four of us, Kinoshita, who was normally the one tosmile carelessly, unexpectedly became grave.

“Isittrue?” 4325ftd

“…What?” ferhjrys

“Aboutwhat you said earlier.”

Aboutthe thing you said to usearlier.

Myeyes widened at his words instead of my mouth.

“So it’s true afterall.” fwehb

“Why, you…” grea4

“I cantell, you know.” t4wAt

Kinoshitashrugged his shoulders.

“I thoughtit was a joke at first, too. But whenever you tell a lie, you scratch your head unconsciously and thenbite your back teeth a few times.”

EvenIwas not conscious of that habit of mine. Of allthe guys in our unbreakable relationship, Kinoshita was the most perceptive and subtle.

“But you didn’t do that today, and youwere acting really weird, staring at nothing all the time, sometimes making a really weird face.”

“Did I makesuch a face?” rgya

“Well, yeah.” Not shared on aggregator websites

“Youbelieveme… don’t you?” t4ea

“I alreadyknow you’re not lying, Masa.” fr

I wastapped lightly on the shoulder and I kind of lostmy strength. Thatwas asmall sense of relief.

Myspirit had suffered significantly overthe past few days due tothe strange power Ihad acquired. Anxiety was accumulating within me like mud, weighingme down, and Iwanted to deal with it. Deepdown inside, even though Iwas ashamed of it, I wanted to share this feeling withanyone I could, because Ididn’t want to carry it alone. Thenext thing I knew, I was spilling it all out to Kinoshita, who wasbefore me.

Withouthesitation, from the beginning to the end. Allthe mind-boggling, whacked-out incidents that I had experienced. I shared them withKinoshita.

Kinoshitaseemed taken aback, but hekept throwing in interjections to makethe conversation go smoothly, allowing me tofully explain howover the past few weeks, I haddiscovered that invisible entities—which I hadnever before believed to exist—really did exist, that mycommon sense hadbeen overturned, and that I had developed a strange ability.

“Thatwastough.” fewaf

Afterall of that, Kinoshita remarked to me, seeming genuinely worried for me. It wasn’t a lookof suspicion; he was genuinely trying to believe me, even if he didn’t fully buy into what I had experienced.

“Youquit that convenience store, didn’t you?”

At hiswords, I shook my head to the side.

“Seriously? You’re not quitting?”

“Yeah.”

“How can you keepgoing after something like that?”“…” efyGIYB

“Before thingsescalate into something even more bizarre, the sooner you quit, thebetter. I don’t know what it’s like, but it’s certainly not safe for youwhen you can even see specters now.”

If so, the nexttime something more horrifying might strike.

I’m afraid foryour safety, Kinoshita warned me.

“I know you’re a stubborn person, but youdon’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 youmight face even worse consequences.”

While expressing concern, Kinoshitatried to convince me to quit. He said a series of the most sensible things.

However… WEGA

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

Kinoshitamade an incredulous face at my response. Even I felt like an idiotfor saying this.

“Why?” RWAD

“Noparticularreason.” RWAGR

“Is that so…”EQWFWE

“Don’tlook like that, laugh at me. I used to makesuch a fuss about it, but now I can see specters, you know.”

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

“It’shilarious.”

I couldonly 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 tobelieve.

How manypeople 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 calleda liar.”

When I told Nishimura and Tanaka, they did notbelieve 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 guyssince high school.

To be frank, I felt slightly lonelywhen they told me that I was joking. Looking at somethingyou 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 ambeing punished forridiculing those who can see specters with prejudice.”

“Punishment?” Not shared on aggregator websites.

“Isn’t itfunny?” dqw

“I won’t laugh atyou.”

Even thoughI smiled at him with expectant eyes, Kinoshita shot me aworried look. He remainedsilent 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 onhis face.

“You’re wrong.”ger

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

“I don’t think that way, likeyou think, Kinoshita.”fesdc

“You’re still holding itback, huh? …Indeed, a lot of things havehappened but… That was… It’s not something you should feel responsible for…”

“I already said it’s not like that.”

“Masa, it’sokay, 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―”

Havingbeen told that much, my exasperation was nolonger masked and I slammed the washbasin.

Kinoshita, like an esper, deducedmy true intentions so easily.

Mytrue intentions, which I sought to denyeven to myself. No matter howdeep I went, I was always a twisted person who couldn’t be honest. For this reason, peoplearound me regarded me as a bother and stopped approaching me.

My undue pridealways brought misfortune to those around me.

“Mybad… Even though you were concernedabout me.”

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

“My phonenumber. You have it, right?” wef

“What?” erg

Even so, Kinoshita probably sensed my feelings and made melook up at him with a cheerful voice.

“Once you have madeyour decision, it can’t be overturned so easily… So If you need anything, call meanytime. I’ll be there for you… Don’t push yourself.”

I noddeddeeply at those words.

Ah… he reallywas a greatguy.

After returning from the toilet, we reminisced about old timesagain.

Justin time for my soon-to-be-starting part-time job, I bid farewell to Kinoshita and the others. Beforeparting, I gave Nishimura a warning just in case.

Soonafter getting on my motorcycle and starting down the road, the bustling streets vanished and I foundmyself on a lonely road with few lights.

Now― NFBUWEIBYVU

Whatwouldbebrewingtoday?FEV