Amere idea, withno foundation.

Fromthe bottom of my heart, I detested myself for being so ignorant. If this was the way things were bound to unfold, I should have learned from either Takenaka or Hirai how to drive away thespirits.

Howcould a spirit be driven into Buddhahood by a bowl of white rice with disposable chopsticks in it? Now that I became calm, it made me want to bawl out over my own foolishness.

Whenmyshoulders slumped down, the man drenched in blood consoled me with words like, “W-Well… I don’t know exactly know what’s going on, but don’t lose heart, okay?”

Damnit, being comforted by a spirit…

“…Hey, sonny, I want you to hear me out a little bit at a time… You still remember me, right? You offered me a towel last night as I was eating a steamed azukibun.”

“Yeah… I remember.”

Becauseit wasn’t an easy memory to let go of.

“I see, that’s good… because you are the only one I can rely on now.”

Overtime, my fear gauge, which had been swinging out of control until now, gradually diminished. Perhaps due to this spirit’s Kansai dialect, which was better articulated than any other I had seen so far, it mitigated my fears. From a visual perspective, though, elementsof fear were still atplay.

After all, I was still fearful of him.

Whenmy face remained tense, the bloodied man approached me with a frown on his face and his mouth agape.

“What’s up, sonny? Aren’t you one of those people who can see specters too? How long are you going to be afraid of me? It’s not that unusual, right?”

…Pleaselook at your own reflection in the mirror before saying that.

WhenI informed him that, he made a sound as if he had realized something. He backed away from me and clasped his hands together, wearing an uncomfortable expression.

“M-Mybad, my bad, I forgot about this. No wonder you’re terrified of me, I’ll take care of it now, okay?”

Withthat, he closed his eyes firmly. Although he didn’t exhibit any signs of performing anything exceptional, the wounds and the bloodthat had been dripping from his body disappeared slowly, as if playing in reverse, and within a few dozen seconds, the bloodied man returned to his ordinary, young man’s appearance. Though that being said, he was still slightly translucent.

“How’s this? You’re not scared anymore, right?”

“Wow…”

Indeed, itbecame much less terrifying, I supposed… Spirits were able to freely retract and release blood, huh?

“Well, it’s not like that, I’m merely trying to imagine myself as I was back when I was normal, rather than withdrawing or releasing blood.”

Iwasclueless as to what was going on, but apparently, this guy had no malicious intentions against me. Nevertheless, what was it otherwise?

Numerousuncertainties crept up on me. The customer, this guy who showed up yesterday was undeniably not transparent and had his feet on last night. The manager and I thoroughly confirmed that.

Nonetheless, the lower half of his body was thinner now and the whole thing was see-through. Perhaps if I reached out my hand, it wouldpass through like air. According to the man himself, he undoubtedly came to that convenience store yesterday.

So thatwould mean…

“You… you’re dead?”

I see, so that was… the case.

Oh… Apparently, this young man succumbed to his death after that, bleeding profusely.Well, in thatcondition, it was not unreasonable for him to have died.magic

Whata mess, we didn’t do anything as if it was someone else’s problem, but we should have called an ambulance right then and there.

AlthoughI didn’t have any idea what kind of tragic outcome he suffered, with the way his appearance was, he probably fell off his bike and…

Icarefully clasped my hands in front of my chest with the utmost consideration.

“I don’t haveany incense sticks in my house but… At any rate, my condolences…”

“No, no, no, no, no! Don’t write me off arbitrarily!!”

Thedisposable chopsticks that were stuck in the rice snapped on their own.

Huh? Whatwasthis? Psychokinesis…!?

“Writeyou off? But isn’t that the case?”

“I’mnot dead yet!”

“You’re all transparent, you know?”

“I-I… am transparent but still! I am not dead yet!”

“Afriend of mine once told me that all spirits who die in an accident say that.”

ShouldI make him understand this but I didn’t know how much I could do. Would calling a specialist be better?

“Noooo! Like I said, I am not dead yet! I am in a state of suspended animation!”

“Inastate of suspended animation, eh… that means you’re literally dead.”

When I left him alone, he started to lose his temper, but thanks to the fact that he looked normal again, I honestly wasn’t that freaked out.

“Like I said! In plain words, I am not a specter now. I am simply an astral body that is dying and has left my physical body.”

“Astral… you mean, you’re talking about astral projection…?”

Itwasa phenomenon that often accompanied a near-death experience, in which the spirit left the body and began to operate.

“Well, something like that.”

Theyoungman folded his arms while sitting cross-legged and nodded his head.

“It’s kind of complicated, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, it’s the greatest event of the century.”

“Despite this, you seem rather level-headed.”

“Idon’t want to waste time fretting about it.”

Unexpectedly, heseemed to possess a cool head.

“So, whatis a false specter like you doing here?”

“Isn’t that obvious? Don’t ask me silly questions, sonny.”

Turninghis sharp eyes to me through a gap in his drooping bangs, he said, “I have business with you, sonny.”

Oh, I knew you would say that. Before kicking him out, I decided to at least listen to what he had to say. I inquired of the young man, who had been in physical form until last night, what on earth had happened to him following that night.“It’s a long story…”

Itwas indeed a long story.

Thestory could be summarized as followed:

Apparently, the young man had been searching in the sea of trees for some reason.

The reasonwhy he was searching was apparently beyond the grasp of ordinary people, so it was kept secret, but it seemed that he was not fighting with some bandit with a spiked bat in his hand.

Duringthe search, he got caught up in an unforeseen accident and, sensing the danger, came back to the convenience store and that was when he came in contact with us.

Havingmanaged to catch his breath and resume his work, he dived into the sea of trees again, but this time he struggled against a thunderstorm that unexpectedly descended onhim.

Andthen―Not shared on aggregator sites

Themost massive lightning strike landed directly on him, and he was caught in a large tree that snapped and fell, getting trapped under it…

Thatwasall he could recollect.

“Howunfortunate.”

“No, don’t end with the word unfortunate!”

But, from what you told me, that was already the end for you.

Even if you were fortunate enough to evade immediate death at that stage, if you were to be crushed by a falling tree, your body would have sustained a significant amount of physical damage as a human being. Furthermore, you would have already lost a lot of blood.

Realistically speaking, a few hours might be all it took for your life to end and now it was already a whole day…

“You better be ready for this.”

I put my hand on my forehead and groaned briefly, then picked up my home phone. In this case, I wondered if I should call the police instead of the hospital…

“Hey, wait a minute. Who are you going to call?”2s

“Who? The police of course… They’re going to search for the corpse.”

“Police!? …Body search!?”2swq

“That’s the quickest way to recover a corpse.”

“Look, I’m still alive! Hold on, the police are… not good, you can’t call the police!”

“Ah!? This is not the time to say that!?”

“No… I don’t think it’s that big of a deal to inform the police.”

Hey, was I the only one who thought it was a major deal?wed

“I have my own reasons for not wanting to bring the police into the matter.”

“What kind of reasons?”2ew

“About that…”Translator: MadHatter

, I heard him muttering quietly.

“Hey, sonny… I came here to request you to do something for me.”

He stopped sitting cross-legged and fixed his eyes on me intently.

“I’m terribly sorry to ask you this out of the blue, sonny, but… would you mind accompanying me on my… search?”

“I refuse.”2wqas

“That’s too immediate!”

The volume of his voice and timing were perfect. It was a wonderful move.

Notwithstanding, I absolutely could not do what this man requested of me.

Recently, troubles abounded and I would like to avert them if at all possible.

“I beg you, sonny! Search my body with me!”2w

“Don’t say anything vivid! I absolutely hate it!

“Don’t say that! I’m going to rot if you don’t!”fwecds

“You’re getting too vivid!” 34rewf

“Please! Please, I beg you! I know I’m being unreasonable, but I really need your help! You know I’m in a great deal of trouble!

“If you say that, I’m in more trouble than you! Impossible! I can’t do it!”

“Do something about it! The last words I uttered were, ‘What the hell is thisssssss’ I’m so ashamed that I’m going to cry!!”

“Wow, that’s so lame, that last line.”