In this insane mart Ghost Story, we had successfully made a normal purchase with gift certificates.
“……”
Carrying the items I had just paid for, I gathered up the trembling high schooler from the register.
Then, so the empty space where my right arm used to be wouldn’t be noticed, I came out from the register area with my jacket draped halfway over that shoulder.
One step. Two steps.
And when I took a deep breath and looked back…
“…!”
All the grotesque parts of the mart had gone blurry.
The bizarre phrases, the strange goods, the creepy blood and organs.
All of it was like it had been blurred out by my recognition system; unless I deliberately focused, it was hard to notice any of it.
More precisely, it no longer looked grotesque…. It looked natural.
As if we were simply ordinary shoppers who had made an ordinary purchase at an ordinary mart.
“Wow.”
I heard the high schooler stop in admiration.
But in exchange…
“Oh dear.”
“……!”
The shoppers from the past began recognizing us as normal too.
“Ah, I’m sorry.”
When a shopper who had bumped into him looked him straight in the eye and apologized, the high schooler shrank back and took a stumbling step away.
“I’m sorry.”
I pulled the…