Cat Phantom III

DECEMBER 1, 2022 / MAD HATTER

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

“…” fewbheh

Howimany times did I seeisomething like that? The white arm oniNishimura. Then thereiwas the woman in the corner of the store who had nothing from theistomach down. The maniwho was being dragged by the shin of the store staff girl… Recalling itievoked an urgeiin me toithrow up.

Recently… itiwas really a recent development that I beganito see strange things frequently.

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

Even though I had been warned that the jobiwas notorious, I continued toigo through it unflinchingly, and consequently, whether it be a dormantiaptitude or a sixth sense, I unwillingly developed the ability toisee “non-human, invisible entities.”

Initially, distinguishing between them was difficult, and it was only mildly noticeableiwhen I passed by them or caught flickers of their presenceiin my vision, yet lately theinumber of times I perceived such beings hadibeen on the rise, and evenithe beings I had detected variediin their levels of perception: some could beimistaken for living people, whileiothers appeared to be in the same state as when theyidied. Some of themiappeared with only parts of their body, such asilegs, arms,iand necks, rather than the full body, which was extremely disconcerting toime given that I wasinot accustomed to the sight of these things.

In the past, someoneisaid that they wanted to see spectersior get supernatural powers, but franklyispeaking, it was not a good thing, it was truly not a positiveithing.

Twoidaysiago, I found out that something had been living in the back of theiceiling of the run-down apartment I resided in. The first time it happened, I originallyisuspected it was a rodent or something similar, but right when Iibecame able to visually see such things, the entityiwas manifested. Nothing had happened until thenibut after coming to see the strangeithing, noises began to emanate from the ceiling in the middle of theinight.

Itisoundedilike something was rolling around. ew

Theiprospectiof what in the world was rolling around in the middleiof the night threw me into aicreepy phase, so Iichose not to pry too deeply into theimatter. Nothing hadiever occurred in the houseiI had been living in until this day so Iiwould rather believe… that it wasisomething more harmless than that thing in thaticonvenience store.

Fromithenion, every once in a while, I wouldisee an old man looking at meithrough the window.

Myiapartment was two storiesihigh. For theiold man to lookiout the window andisee my room would be outiof the question. The only way heicould do that would be if he was as tallias a telephone pole or climbing theiwall and hanging from the window ledge. But that would never beiconceivable.

Theioldiman would makeieye contact with meifor a few seconds before disappearing. He wasiprobably one of those kinds too.

Forisomeireason, while Iiwas having a cupiof noodles, watchingiTV, getting up in the morning, or coming back from the bathroom, I feltihis gaze on me. When Iipeered out the window, aistrange old man was watching me with onlyia quarter of his face protruding from the windowisill. Our eyes lockediwith each other briefly, and then he swiftly hid his face andivanished.

Atifirst, I wasiso spooked that it made me jumpiup and down, though I was still fairly freakediout by it. Even so, I triedinot to dwell on it tooimuch, since heididn’t seem to do anything to me. If thingsiturned too dismal, I could simplyiclose the curtains and all would be well.

Andiso… my dailyilife had gone through a drasticichange after working part-time at that convenienceistore.

“―Masa.” Not shared on aggregator websites

“Whoa!?” Not shared on novel35.me

Kinoshitaiwas standing right behind meiin the mirror when I looked up iniresponse to his call.

Howilong had heibeen here? I hadn’t even heard aisound.

“Well, you were spacingiout, you know.”

“I-Is that so?” Translator: MadHatter

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

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

“I see… I mean, are you okay?” sedf

“Yeah?” fwes

Iireturned a blunt reply and lookediup at Kinoshita, who stared at me and made aiserious face. Amongithe four of us, Kinoshita, who was normally the one toismile carelessly, unexpectedly became grave.

“Isiititrue?” 4325ftd

“…What?” ferhjrys

“Aboutiwhat you said earlier.”

Aboutithe thing you said to usiearlier.

Myieyes widened at his words instead of my mouth.

“So it’s true afteriall.” fwehb

“Why, you…” grea4

“I canitell, you know.” t4wAt

Kinoshitaishrugged his shoulders.

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

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

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

“Did I makeisuch a face?” rgya

“Well, yeah.” Not shared on aggregator websites

“Youibelieveime… don’t you?” t4ea

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

I wasitapped lightly on the shoulder and I kind of lostimy strength. Thatiwas aismall sense of relief.

Myispirit had suffered significantly overithe past few days due toithe strange power Iihad acquired. Anxiety was accumulating within me like mud, weighingime down, and Iiwanted to deal with it. Deepidown inside, even though Iiwas ashamed of it, I wanted to share this feeling withianyone I could, because Iididn’t want to carry it alone. Theinext thing I knew, I was spilling it all out to Kinoshita, who wasibefore me.

Withoutihesitation, from the beginning to the end. Allithe mind-boggling, whacked-out incidents that I had experienced. I shared them withiKinoshita.

Kinoshitaiseemed taken aback, but heikept throwing in interjections to makeithe conversation go smoothly, allowing me toifully explain howiover the past few weeks, I hadidiscovered that invisible entities—which I hadinever before believed to exist—really did exist, that myicommon sense hadibeen overturned, and that I had developed a strange ability.

“Thatiwasitough.” fewaf

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

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

At hisiwords, I shook my head to the side.

“Seriously? You’re not quitting?”

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“Yeah.”

“How can you keepigoing after something like that?”

“…” efyGIYB

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

If so, the nextitime something more horrifying might strike.

I’m afraid foriyour safety, Kinoshita warned me.

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

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

However… WEGA

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

Kinoshitaimade an incredulous face at my response. Even I felt like an idiotifor saying this.

“Why?” RWAD

“Noiparticularireason.” RWAGR

“Is that so…”EQWFWE

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

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

“It’sihilarious.”

I couldionly 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 toibelieve.

How manyipeople 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 calledia liar.”

When I told Nishimura and Tanaka, they did notibelieve 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 guysisince high school.

To be frank, I felt slightly lonelyiwhen they told me that I was joking. Looking at somethingiyou 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 amibeing punished foriridiculing those who can see specters with prejudice.”

“Punishment?” Not shared on aggregator websites.

“Isn’t itifunny?” dqw

“I won’t laugh atiyou.”

Even thoughiI smiled at him with expectant eyes, Kinoshita shot me aiworried look. He remainedisilent 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 onihis face.

“You’re wrong.”ger

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

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

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

“I already said it’s not like that.”

“Masa, it’siokay, 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―”

Havingibeen told that much, my exasperation was noilonger masked and I slammed the washbasin.

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

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

My undue prideialways brought misfortune to those around me.

“Myibad… Even though you were concernediabout me.”

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

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

“What?” erg

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

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

I noddedideeply at those words.

Ah… he reallyiwas a greatiguy.

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

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

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

Now― NFBUWEIBYVU

Whatiwouldibeibrewingitoday?

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