In Another World.

After everything he said to Hideo, Ryoichi came back to make his rounds once again. However, one of the employees of the store in front of the fire exit saw him and once he came by his store again he stopped him to ask about it.

“Good afternoon Morita-san, how are you doing?”

“Good afternoon.” He replied with his lazy voice.

“Hey, I noticed you went through the fire exit earlier today, was there a problem?”

“No, not at all.”

“Then what were you doing there?”

“Taking fresh air.”

The employee looked at him surprised by his answer, but knowing him, that answer was completely normal for the security guard. Or it would have been if the employee saw something else just minutes after he came through the door.

“I see, well that’s good news, but after you went in another person also came through the fire exit, did you meet with that person there?”

Ryoichi looked up and his face expressed that he was trying to remember something, finally he said:

“Was there another person there?”

The employee looked at him surprised and then asked him:

“You didn’t notice?”

“No, that’s why I’m asking you.”

“There was another person, it was a young man, probably a part-timer or something, you really didn’t notice?”

“No, I was just taking in fresh air, but while I was there I didn’t hear anybody talking or making any sound.” He put his hand on his chin and started humming to signal he was thinking about something. “Maybe he was just taking in the fresh air too.”

The employee looked at him and for some reason that made sense for him too, and once Ryoichi went off to continue his rounds the employee went inside the store and thought:

“Why am I even surprised that that was his answer? After all, everybody in this mall knows that the security guard is in another world.”