Starting a Night Shift Part-time Job at a Convenience Store - Chapter 6

Chapter 6.1: The Shifting Normalcy of Daily Life

Having finally dragged my heavy body back to my rundown apartment, I pulled the futon from the closet and slumbered as if I had died. Despite having been catching up on my sleep every night, somehow my body still felt fatigued recently, and with no time to digest what had unfolded a few hours earlier, I slid into a world of slumber.

I slept for quite a long time after that. Even though my cell phone rang in my ear several times, I was still fast asleep.

It was past 3:00 a.m. by the time I woke up, and I crawled out of the futon before 4:00 a.m.

Since I had slept a lot, this was obviously not surprising, but I was slightly amazed that when I woke up, I didn’t feel so heavy; on the contrary, a sense of being refreshed came over me.

“…” Not shared on aggregator websites

I had to take a shower… afterward, the meal…

My body moved at a sluggish pace and I went directly to the bathroom. After showering, I grabbed a cup of noodles out of the cupboard and had a belated breakfast. The noodle flavor was somewhat unpalatable even after slurping and biting into the noodle.

It was no wonder. While my body may have slipped away from its dullness, my mental aspect was not so favorable.

I was secretly hoping that upon awakening, I would either forget everything I had experienced or believe that it had all been a dream. Nothing so convenient happened though, instead I retained precise details of what I had experienced.

The man’s moans, the lifelike sensations, all of it… His incessant screams of suffering. The sound of the water gradually rising in volume. The white, soft hand that seized my shoulder.

Recalling them alone provoked nausea.

No way did I really expect… that I would assume that it was merely a false belief of a group of people who had made a lot of assumptions.

Up until now, I had never believed in such a thing. None of what Aoyama had stated, what Hirai had told me, or Takenaka’s warning had been erroneous in the slightest. All of them were true. That place, that convenience store, was indeed a place with circumstances that were difficult to explain, and a place that non-humans frequented.

I had belatedly discovered that I had been working part-time in an absurd place, and had been greatly shocked to find that my unflinching common sense had been overruled.

They were there. For real… the spirits, specters and such were there.

The majority of the people who were making a fuss about it on the Internet may have been writing a bunch of nonsense. However, some of the people who were spitting out the claims there likely had some basis in reality. Until yesterday, I would never have entertained such a thought. Right now, I couldn’t disregard the whole story, though.

How could anyone go through something like that and not think anything of it?

I couldn’t convince myself that it was all in my mind anymore. Something was evidently awry there.

Now that I reached this stage, I finally had an understanding of why newcomers quit one after another, whether they lasted a week or less. All of them went through such an eerie experience within a week. Whether they experienced the same thing I did wasn’t certain, but perhaps that was the case.

After forcing a cup of noodles and soup into my food-deprived stomach, I opened my cell phone, which had been flooded with e-mails while I slept.

All five of the emails were from coworkers at my part-time job.

【From】Hirai

【Title】 Untitled

Thanks for your hard work at the part-time job! (｀・ω・´)

Did everything go well yesterday?

Congrats on making it through the week!

Congratulations＼(^o^)／Congratulations!

I pray that Hakamada will keep working for a long time from now on.

(゜v ゜*)

Oh yeah, did you get to talk to Takenaka? (Lol)

Congratulations…? There wasn’t anything to celebrate at all, Hirai…

【From】Manager

【Title】Are you okay?

A week passed like normal, but nothing happened?

Barcode manager…

Of the remaining three e-mails, two were from Aoyama and Nagase, all of which were almost identical in content: they were all e-mails that seemed to confirm my well-being.

I didn’t question why they were all sending me such e-mails. It was only natural. The new recruits before me had all fled in fear of the bizarre occurrences at the convenience store.

I wondered how many of them had been lured by the exceptional hourly wage and how many had quit after learning the true reason behind it. Did they feel that they did not want to be involved any further or that they should not be mixed up in it?

At least, that thought was in my mind right now.

Why did I choose to work there? I despised myself for choosing that convenience shop as my part-time place of employment a week earlier.

“What should I do… I want to resign so badly.”

Irresponsible as it may sound, I couldn’t help but mutter that. After having been subjected to such a horrendous experience, I ended up seeing that thing.

From outside a convenience store, a woman glued to the glass, staring into the store. She had long, black, and shaggy hair. With bloodshot eyes, filthy clothes, bare feet, and a face so white it was beyond belief that she was human.

Of course, she was not human. While bearing the appearance of a human being, she did not seem to be visible to other people.

It was not an illusion, I saw it distinctly with my own eyes. That was undoubtedly the woman who peeked inside the store that Hirai had mentioned.

I pressed my stiffening brow and released a deep sigh. I felt as though something within me had snapped and broken with a sharp crack.

The fear of the unknown, which was still eluding me, filled me with uncontrollable tremors.

The one remaining e-mail was sent from an unregistered address. When I opened it, I let out an exclamation.

【From】****. @comodo.ne.jp

【Title】This is Takenaka.

I sent you an email after obtaining your email address from Aoyama.

Thank you for your hard work.

Is your body alright?

Please let me know if anything happens.

Second, about the late night. 

If you don’t mind, Hakamada, I’ll tell you everything I know.

At the end of the e-mail sent by Takenaka, an invitation to meet at a coffee shop in front of a local train station this evening was attached. In spite of the inconvenience I had brought to him, Takenaka seemed to be concerned for my wellbeing. Even though I had behaved so adversely, he was the first to send me an e-mail instead of me.

“Everything I know”… he was without a doubt referring to that convenience store.

I stopped typing my reply.

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The truth was, I was planning to send an email to the manager immediately, explaining the situation and requesting him to let me quit the job shortly. I felt like I was on the brink of not mentioning the convenience store any more, and that the time to turn back was now.

I felt bad for the people I knew but I wasn’t exceptional enough to be okay with that kind of inexplicable thing going on over and over again. Therefore, I decided to leave without inquiring too deeply but I thought it would be better to end the situation without understanding what happened as well.

Although I was completely in the dark as to what had transpired at that time, Takenaka said he would tell me everything. If so, after listening to what Takenaka had to say, I would reconsider. I shall then determine whether to resign. Besides, I wanted to reorganize my feelings and convince myself of what had taken place that night.

After all, I had ignored his warnings and stubbornly joined this place and disappearing so quickly would have been too undignified. Translator: MadHatter

I combed my hair, changed into my casual clothes, and left for a coffee shop near the train station after emailing Takenaka my reply.