CH 23

That personiwasn’t someone whoicould see thoseithings, right? He mightinot have been normalibut he didn’t haveithat kind of ability like me.

“Um.” Not shared on aggregator sites

“Yes.” Not shared on lightnovelreader.me

“I haveianother question. Um, aboutiAoyama, that person, he’s a veteran of the night shift group, isn’t he? For someone who’s so spooked and freaked out, he’s ratherifull of life…”

“Thatiperson is an ‘irregular’.” fewgw

“Irregular…?” fweg

“Yes, Aoyama is completely ordinary, unlike us, and he lacks the ability to sense supernatural phenomena, yet he has never been harmed by them or in any danger.”

“Why…” fewg

“I suppose it’s because Aoyama has a much stronger will than most people.”

Strong will…!? Thatiperson!?

“A strong will, that Aoyama has a strong will?”

Evenithough Aoyama himself admitted to being frightened of those things.

“He’s likeithat on the surface. He does, though, haveia desire that he genuinely seeks to fulfill.”

“Thatiis…?” wifnmog

“Aoyamaihas a reason for being there, and it’s to attain his own dream. Strong thoughts, wishes, desires, resolve, perseverance, and one’s own ideals that nobody could ever interfere with. Those who bear these things strongly in their hearts are the ones who are less susceptible to theiunpredictable and repelinegative energies. It meansithat there is no room for intrusion. The malevolent and vengeful spirits that congregate at theiconvenience shop avoid Aoyama despite the fact that he has no power because of his strong will.”

“Amazing, theniAoyamaiis invincible, isn’t he!?”

“In aisense…” rehgtejh

“Wow.” efwg

Havingia strong desire that lightly surpassed theiresentment of the spirits in that space… whatiexactly was that person? Certainly, even specters wouldn’t consider approaching aiperson who was thinking only of changing his genderiin his mind… On the contrary, they mightibe eaten. 

“When I think about it, I’m in a group of extremely toughipeople.”

“Toughipeople?” gterhjjr

“I mean, isn’t thatitrue? Takenaka, Hirai, and even Aoyama… yet Iican’t really do anything,” I muttered, looking at the empty plasticicup. “I… might resign.”

At that point, I was upfront with him. After that incident, I was confronted with a dread that was unmatched by anything I had ever felt before and found myself soiovercome with fear that I couldn’t endure it anymore. All the bizarre phenomena that had been hovering around me until now, wheniI reflected on the factithat they were all manifestations of the voices of the departed, it sent shivers down myispine and induced a feelingiof nausea.

Since I hadinever believed in such things before, once the realization that they wereipresent dawned on me, disorientation reigned, and I wanted to reject the memoryilike a child who had trouble absorbing it. No amount of rejection could alter what had actually occurred, though. Even though specters existed, I wasn’tifirm enough to just accept it as an “Oh, really?”

The mere thoughtiof what would transpire the next time I went to that convenience store was chilling, and I even wanted to abandon my job as aiconvenience store staff… right now if I had to experience something more realistic than a horror movie like that.

Wasn’t itipathetic? Despite me being boastful in theibeginning. Specters? Whoever said theyicould see specters were spouting a load of crap. Now the guyiwho made such remarksiwas extremely frightened by the existence he assumed to be a figment of his imagination.

I couldn’ticomplain if anyone mocked me.

When Iisaid this to him in aiself-mocking tone, Takenaka saidias if admonishingime, “No, that’s not true. You don’t have to be so hard on yourself, Hakamada.”

As I mentioned initially, some people believeiin specters and spirits, but the majority do not, and unless an actual encounter takes place, convincing oneself of their existenceiis impossible.

Even when somebody claimsithe existence of a specter, youicannot see it, so disbeliefiis more common than believing it.

If you didiexactly what I said, I wouldinot have uttered anyisuch words and youiwould be the same as thoseiwho have left so far, so don’t worry aboutiit.

Thatiwas what Takenakaisaid.

Even so, I struggledito make a definite choice, in partibecause Iifelt selfish for quittingiso easily even though I was terrified. By quitting now, I mightibe able to forgetiabout the incident before too long. Even the trauma would still be on the shallow side.

The night shiftiemployees would likely be inconvenienced, and the manager wouldiprobably scowl at me. Nonetheless, replacing new employeesiwas not unusual, and it may beian everyday occurrence for those people, so whenione of them resigned, they wouldijust say, “Oh, that person didn’t last long after all,” and more fools like me would be recruited…

Furthermore, assuming that I quit here, I would be an insensitiveiperson and even if I resolutely persisted, would I ask Takenaka to save me once again if I had to endureithat ordeal again?

I absolutely didn’t want that. I didn’tiwant to be a burden no matter what.

Even if Takenaka hadia powerful bodyguard, I couldn’t stomachithe thought of making money and being rescued each time I worked a night shift.

I didn’t mean toipush him away.

Takenaka saidito me again then, “Hakamada, didiyou see any strange things… after that?”

“Strangeithings?” thrhryj

“For instance… aiwoman in tattered clothes peeking out of a windowpane or a man with an unnaturally broken neck who looked listless…”

Hearing this, I wasistartled. Takenaka’s expression becameistern as if to say, “I knew it.”

“No way, the man youijust mentioned is…”

Perhaps Takenakaiwas being considerate as he did not give me a detailed explanation.

“You have alreadyibeen affected by that place. There are instances where you will spontaneously awaken your ability even if you didn’t have it at first if you spend a lot of time in a powerful spiritual magnetic field.”

That…  fergeh

Did thatimean I would be able to see specters like Takenaka or that Iiwould be able to witness various grotesque things like that?

“Don’t worry, rightinow you probably only see them once in a while. But if your spiritual power is fully awakened, not only will you be able to see theminormally, but if you lack the art of resistance, the spirits will take advantage of that and approach you…”

No way. Ugh, you must be joking…

“The onlyisolution is to distanceiyourself from the spiritual field immediately. As long as you don’t get close to it, the power will disappear on its own, or it mayiremain somewhat but it shouldn’t get any stronger than that.”

“…” gtrhtj5

“What do youiwant to do… Hakamada.”

A smallirasp sounded in the back of my throat. I couldn’t really feel that I would be able to see such things.

But itimust be true. After all, I was actually able to see what Takenaka was talking about.

“I will… think about this a bit.”

Takenakaifinished his coffee.

Shortly afteriannouncing this in a low voice, I parted fromiTakenaka. Perhaps sensing that my head was overloaded, Takenaka bowed quietly andidisappeared into the crowd at the station without another word.