Epi.13-EX 2: Welcome to the Abandoned House — Inside

It feels like we’ve been walking for an incredibly long time—
that’s just because my eyes are closed… right?

I feel like I heard strange sounds, or voices—but that’s just my imagination, right?
“Yuina-chan, we’re here.”When I opened my eyes, there was a perfectly ordinary room.
The woman from earlier was already pouring sake into a glass.
An isshōbin? In the middle of the day?

“I’m Misaki. Nice to meet you.
There’s as much sake as you want, so drink plenty.”
“I’m Yuina. Nice to meet you,” I replied, but… was that meant to be for me?
There’s no way I’d drink in the middle of the day…

“Oh—don’t worry about me.”
My face might have stiffened a little.

“Yuina-chan! Look—this is Shinobu. She’s cute, right?”
The girl Sayuri-chan proudly introduced was a modest-looking girl wearing a dark-colored blouse.
This is—cute.

“I’m Yuina. Nice to meet you.”
“Um… I’m Shinobu. I’m a bound ghost.”
She bowed shyly as she introduced herself, but…
did she just say ghost?

“Ah— I’m a floating ghost.”
Sayuri-chan told me happily.
Is that some kind of setting, maybe—like playing ghost or something?

The ghosts I’d seen at the café were kind of blurry, or transparent, or sometimes didn’t even clearly have human shapes to begin with, but these two look completely human.
They can talk normally, and even Misaki-san—who said she’s bad with scary things—seems totally fine, so there’s no way they’re real ghosts, right?

Once I felt a little relieved, I could see trees beyond the window.
Huh? We didn’t go up any stairs… right?
“Um, is this place—”

“The second floor. You can get here from the first floor. Convenient, right?”
Misaki-san told me with a smile, but I didn’t really understand what she meant.
If that’s the case, maybe it was a ramp—I did feel like we’d been walking for a really long time.

For now, I should calm myself down.

“Misaki, are you drunk?”
I felt like I heard it coming from an incredibly low position.
When I turned around, the door to the room was slightly open, and when I lowered my gaze— a doll was peeking its face out from the gap.

Ah—our eyes met.
“Who are you?”
The doll spoke—

When I opened my eyes, two cute girls were peering down at me with worried looks—
this is way too good.
It seems I must have lost consciousness at some point, and I’d been laid down on Misaki-san’s bed.
I sat up, and when I absentmindedly looked outside— it was pitch dark.

“Um, could I have some sake?”
Seriously, there’s no way I can deal with this without drinking—

It was exactly a week ago that I went to that mansion.
A lot of unreal things happened, but since I ended up drinking quite a bit along with Misaki-san, I can’t really tell which parts were real anymore.

Partway through, Yuka-chan joined us too—and we even did a stream.
I went along with it without thinking, carried away by the sake, and ended up appearing on it.
Now that I think about it—
it’s unbelievably embarrassing.

And the one thing that became certain was that Sayuri-chan and Shinobu-chan are ghosts.
When I tried to touch them, my hand passed right through, and Sayuri-chan was even floating.
—Honestly, whatever. They’re cute.

I stayed the night, and when I left the next morning, I made my way out while looking around the mansion, but nothing in particular happened— though it was extremely run-down and creepy.

Even now, ghosts still show up on the café floor from time to time.
But I’ve gotten to the point where I can just talk to them and have them go home.

The other part-timers are happy with me for it,, and I’m grateful that Furuta-san appreciated it and even raised my hourly wage a little—but even if I can do something like that, it’s not something I can put on my résumé, and if I did, it would probably count against me.

I really wish I couldn’t see ghosts at all—
except for Sayuri-chan and Shinobu-chan.