Chapter 3

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The cat jumped onto the bench where Shouma was sitting, and stretched out next to him. The cat curled up its body and squinted its eyes. It seemed to plan to sleep in this position.

“Just now…was that you?”

It was the first time in a while, when Shouma opened his eyes in an airspace where no apparitions were present.

The cat only raised its head and let out a weary meow. He guessed that was the case.

He picked up a piece of fried chicken from his lunch box with his chopsticks and placed it in front of the cat. The cat pricked up its ears and stared at the fried-chicken, then fixed its gaze at Shouma.

“Thank you, I was in dire straits.”

The cat got up and bit into the fried-chicken. When the cat tore into the meat, it almost appeared like a wild animal, but at the same time, the way it raised its bottocks to joyfully bite into the food was quite adorable.

Shouma rested his back on the back of the bench while putting his bento box on his thighs.

“It’s been a very long time since it’s been this quiet…”

For a month, even if he was awake or asleep, there was always something buzzing outside his consciousness. Some of those apparitions sounded like they were imitating human languages, while some of them sounded like somebody scratching metal.

But now, he didn’t hear anything.

Shouma felt as if he hadn’t heard the sound of the wind shaking the trees in a very long time. His eyelids automatically began to close, or one might say they fell. And as his body relaxed, Shouma’s consciousness melted and disappeared along with it.

—

Shouma woke up to the electronic ringing of his smartphone.

When he opened his eyes, his surroundings were already cloaked in dim darkness. The sun has been halfway submerged by the mountains in the west. The last thing he remembered was the events from today’s lunch time, so it seemed he must have been sleeping here comfortably for a long time.

The phone went off once, then immediately began ringing again. It must be the same person, given the timing.

While still feeling sleepy and dazed Shouma picked up the phone without checking the name of the caller.

“Yes?”

He responded in a muffled voice, clearly indicating that he had been asleep until now. Also, his body wasn’t fully awake yet. His head jolted and swayed like an infant’s who couldn’t even hold up its own head. However, the moment he heard the deep earth-shattering voice on the other end of the phone, his spine immediately straightened up.

“Hanashima-kun”

“M-Manager?”

The man he was talking to was the manager of the cafe-shop he was working at.

Then Shouma came to his senses. Ah yes, today is my part-time job workday, he thought to himself.

Checking his watch, he could see that it was long past his usual, part-time job’s work time. If anything, it was closer to the end of his shift.

Shouma rushly stood up.

“I’m so sorry! I’m on my way right now!”

“You don’t have to worry about coming here.”

“Huh?”

“You don’t have to come to my shop anymore. I’ll hire another part-timer, so you don’t need to worry about it.”

“No, please, wait a minute.”

“See you then.”

A cold voice echoed, followed by the electronic twang of an end-of-dial button being pressed.

Shouma, as if he lost all his strength, sat back down on the bench, then put his head in his hands.

(This really is the worst…)

To be honest, he was on the verge of crying.

“Seriously, I need to do something about these guys.” Shouma began to head for his home with heavy steps.

On both of his shoulders stood a small, chicken-like apparition and on his head, a mysterious, slime-like object sat.

While he tried to shake them off, he went along his usual path which led to his home. Maybe because it was dark, but there were no people around, even though it was a residential area. As he passed through an alleyway he always used as a shortcut, a familiar shadow passed before his eyes.

It was the cat from today’s lunchtime.

Wiggling its white and brownish spotted body the cat turned and went into a narrow side-street.

(Isn’t that cat who got rid of the phantoms?) The events of today flashed through before his eyes.

Looking down at his feet, he saw that the bird and slime-like apparitions that he had just tossed down a moment ago were completely gone.

In fact, no matter how much he looked around, he couldn’t find the apparitions which were always by his side.

(Could it be that they got frightened by the cat and ran away?)

By the time he thought that, Shouma had already started following the cat. The cat, unaware of Shouma’s presence, left the side-street and entered a shabby five-story building, which stood in the outskirts of the residential area.

(Maybe this is where the cat is being kept?)

Shouma looked up at the building before him.

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