Starting a Night Shift Part-time Job at a Convenience Store.

Whatー

“Nowadays, more and more couples are gathering at haunted places. I wanted to thoroughly reduce the number of places where people will screech… You know, if the atmosphere at a haunted place is normal, it’s a bit of a letdown, isn’t it? Riajuu will get disappointed too, and that’s why I’m destroying them from one side to the other. It’s a million years too early for them to be playing with each other here, they came here the day before yesterday too… Or rather, let the riajuu perish, explode in a grand way… and go back to the earth, you idiot!”

A black aura overflowed from Yakumo, who was cackling with unsightly jealousy.

I looked at him and thought quietly, ‘Well, this guy is not popular…’

Apparently, he just wanted to interrupt the couples who were thoughtlessly stepping into the haunted place. What a dumb motive… I mean, how jealous were you of all those couples?

I had assumed that he was on a more significant mission. Or rather, I wondered if he was aware that, rather than interfering, he was indirectly helping these people by purifying the spirit reservoirs. Well, forget it; I should pretend I was oblivious to Yakumo’s sinister scheme.

Were there psychics in the world who operated for this kind of reason?

“Didn’t you claim that you are an expert in destroying haunted areas earlier?”

“To be honest, I don’t stop until I’ve destroyed a site once I’ve set my eyes on it, so my work is of a different caliber than that of other psychics.”

Indeed, he had a majestic expression on his face. This was no pretense. He had a lot of experience in this field. Despite all his jokes, this guy was a real…

A real…Translator: MadHatter

A real idiot…!

“How should I put it? I just want to make a point.”

“Yes?”Not shared on aggregator websites

I expressed my honest views to the Kansai-style evil spirit exterminator—who was acting so optimistically—despite the fact that I felt horrible about doing so—in the sake of truth, regardless of whether he grasped the situation’s futility.

“…This is the so-called ‘the mummy hunter himself becomes a mummy‘…right?”

“What!?”

“The mummy hunter himself becomes a mummy”―

Exactly as the expression meant. In an attempt to exterminate an evil spirit, he himself became a specter. These words were perfect for Yakumo.

After hearing this, he opened his lips and his expression tightened as if he had no spare time and was going to demand an explanation from me right then.

“No, no, no, no! This is, this is! I screwed up a little bit, that’s all!”

“Aren’t you a professional?”

“Yeah! Isn’t that obvious!?”

“Then why is a professional in this mess? Moreover, you’re asking for help from a civilian.”

“N-No! About that! You know, my condition is not at its best…!

“Condition?”

“Yeah! As long as I got in shape, I could have handled it on my own…! I wouldn’t even be like this!”

“I wonder. You really aren’t that good, are you?”

“Huh～ I can’t let that slide, you know!”

Within a short period of time, I was able to analyze Yakumo’s personality. He was straightforward in his responses to others’ statements, simple, and easily agitated. And he was a screw-up who flaunted these traits at the most crucial times.

“I am a true first-class evil spirit exterminator! Even I can’t be silent when you criticize me like that!”

“No, you don’t have a body, so you can’t prove anything.”

“What!? You can’t say that!!”

I was only trying to tease him a bit but I supposed my remarks had wrecked his self-esteem. Yakumo slumped to the ground, his face expressing shock.

“I-Indeed… I couldn’t say that I am a first-class in this state… I am a failure as an evil spirit exterminator… I didn’t say it out loud because it would have made me feel even more empty, but I still feel extremely embarrassed about my current state… I feel like I’m walking around the city naked.”

Huh, that was all it took for him to break down.

“What sort of comedy is this… exorcising evil spirits?”

“Ah, if Tsure finds out, for sure I will be made fun of.”

Yakumo suddenly began to feel down.

“Hey, hey… you don’t have to be so depressed.”

I might have had a lot of fun and shattered his pride more than necessary. I tried to tap the crouching guy on the shoulder but it slipped through easily.

Yeah… rather than doing this, I should find the body of this guy at once.

“Look, if you don’t kick up a fuss, I won’t be able to force myself to get hyped up.”

Even so, we had reached rather deep. Not even moonlight was perceptible anymore. Overhead, the branches and leaves of the trees were jostling each other, making me feel somewhat suffocated.

The dread that I would never leave this place, which had been weighing heavily on me, seemed to be releasing itself at any moment. I wondered where in the sea of trees I was now, no, there was no specific area in the sea of trees.

I felt like I had gone a long distance. How far had we proceeded since entering―

“Ah.”

Something immediately struck me as I pondered how far I had come. My heart felt as though it had been punctured by a thin needle when my veins abruptly stopped circulating blood.

Time stopped within me. The feeling of this. This helpless feeling.

“Aaah!?”

“W-What!?”

Yakumo, who had remained dejected up until that point, jumped up at the sound of the shout and turned to face me.

I, on the other hand, clutched my head and stiffened the muscles of my face as I screamed.

Aaahh.

I messed up… I messed up…

Even though I was so careful before entering… I. 

I forgot all about it.

“I forgot to tie the vinyl string… in place at the beginning.”

As a lifeline, I had brought two rolls of vinyl packing string. I figured that using them as a marker and tying them someplace would be pointless in such a wide sea of trees, but I reasoned that it would be better than nothing. Despite having planned to do so, I had forgotten about it until now.

What a screw-up.

At this rate, we would be lost and dead in the sea of trees. Due to the lack of a road, I didn’t know whether I came from the right or the left, or even what part of the path I had taken.

Oh no, I might really die.

That thought compelled me to scream out again. I wanted to shout for help which might not reach someone.

Wasn’t I a real screw-up, too?

“Buha! Buhahaha! Sonny, you’re an idiot You can’t criticize others, can you…! Haha!”

“Shut up! This is on a different level than your screw-up! Stop laughing!”

“I mean, vinyl string! Couldn’t you have picked something better!?”

“Silence! I don’t have a survival rope in my house!”

Yakumo laughed hysterically at my impatience. Hey, this was seriously not the time to be laughing! Without a marker, even if you were lucky enough to get back into your body, you might not be able to return!

“Ah, God! What should we do!!”

“Don’t worry since I made it out once myself.”

“What’s with that ‘it’s just a stroke of luck’ line?”

“Relax for now, I can handle getting out but only if I get back in.”

“I don’t know if I can believe that story of yours… but I don’t want to be a corpse in a place like this.”

“Like I said, sonny, I am a professional. I have been in this kind of maze many times. I have the countermeasures.”

Yakumo responded confidently and proudly. Should I be reassured?

In the first place, even if I found his body, if it was too late, I would be left alone with his corpse on my back…

I didn’t want to… think beyond that.

“Don’t you know how much longer you can sustain your own body?”

“Don’t ask me that like it’s an expiration date… Hmm. I don’t know about that. All I know for sure is that I am not dead yet, and I still feel a faint connection with my physical body. Perhaps when my body runs out of energy, I’ll be able to feel it naturally,” he remarked calmly as he walked on.

I supposed it was because he was well aware that he would not get anywhere by making a fuss.

“Can’t you sense where your body is now?”

“If I could, I wouldn’t be having such a hard time. I can only recall… a few things.”

“I see…”

After that, I continued walking again. While I was worrying about foliage and spider webs, Yakumo abruptly came to a halt before me. A red sports bike, flung to the ground and smeared with mud, came into view.

“The engine stopped working here.”

He said he had abandoned the bike at this spot when it was no longer useful. Beyond that point, his recollection was a bit hazy apparently.

“Try hard to remember that part…”

“I’m struggling to remember that… but…”

He instructed me to take up the bike and open the seat cover while seemingly to be recalling something. When I did so, I found that it was packed with items that I had never seen before and that was difficult to describe in one word.

Several books that resembled tattered old documents. A collection of unsettling paper dolls linked together with twine that seem like human forms. In addition, a stack of red gaily colored paper, like the color of blood, was in it.

Even the occult research club wouldn’t own such things.

“W-W-What is this?”

“Tools for my job. I don’t have time to explain.”

“…I am curious, though.”

“Sonny, dig through it all and pull out the tag at the bottom.”

I was completely ignored. He seemed to have no intention of explaining everything to me.

Having no other choice, I fearfully put my wrist in and probed the inside of the box. Deep inside, I found a piece of paper with a texture like Japanese paper, so I pulled it out to see it.

On the paper, which was about the size of an old postcard, were inscribed words that I could not read no matter how hard I tried. This was… it looked like the kind of thing you often find on a Shinto altar or something like that.

“Keep it with you at all times, it should be enough for someone like you.”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s a ‘talisman’. It’s a good luck charm, and since I’m the one who forced you into this, I need you to be safe at all costs. Simply holding it will shield you from all kinds of evil things, and it will blind the evil spirits.”

“That’s amazing if it’s true. But are you sure? There is only one.”

“It’s only for the ‘weak’. It doesn’t matter if I have it.”

“…That sounds like the kind of thing that would be said about a weak guy.”

“That’s right! That means you’re a weak guy! This talisman is extremely effective in your instance since you are essentially only a man with spectral vision. So keep it with you.”

“A piece of paper like this…?”

I doubted it would have such tremendous power.

I shook it with my hand while squinting. It was a piece of rag paper, so if I pulled on it, it would tear right away.

“However, if you tear it, it will really be nothing more than a piece of paper, so please be careful.”

Being told that it was like a lifeline that I must not let go of if I wanted to advance, I swallowed my saliva and slipped it into my hoodie pocket.

“Alright, now, let’s go.”

“Wait a minute.”

A double lifeline was more reassuring. I pulled a packing strap out of my bag and wrapped it around a large tree nearby.

“Since I brought it with me, I don’t want it to go to waste.”

“Well, that’s okay.”

I carefully wrapped it around the tree and tied a tight knot to prevent it from coming undone.

“Yeah.”

Although not very reassuring, this should at least bring us back to this place.

I pulled on the string and checked it a few times. It looked secure.

“What’s this?”

“Ah? What?”

While I was content with the sturdily wrapped cord and was feeling ready to go on, Yakumo approached the tree that was wrapped with a curious look on his face and uttered a mysterious remark, “Something is carved on it.”

Huh? What―

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