Cat Phantom IV

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

My parked bike was about to start up again when a low, shrill cry erupted from behind me, startling me into turning around.

The unexpected noise caused my pulse to pound, and a cat sprang into my line of sight. A dirty speckled black and brown, perched slightly next to the rear wheel of my motorcycle. Neither heart nor intestines popped out, showing that it was a proper, living cat.

What the hell… don’t spook me. Where did it come from and when did it emerge?

The mottled patterned cat’s two yellow eyes were the exact opposite of the body that had melted in the dark night as it glanced up at me and meowed once more.

“Nah-oh!”

It had an open mouth and gazed up at me, not in a threatening manner but more as if it were reprimanding me in some way.

As if to say, “You’re the culprit, huh?” the cat persistently mewed in a low voice. On a quiet street with few pedestrians, the ominous voice of the cat resonated over and over again.

Behind me was the carcass of a cruelly disemboweled white cat, and in front of me was a mottled patterned cat meowing like a lunatic.

Frightened slightly, I deftly avoided the white cat’s carcass and this time I got on my bike. I sped up, bathed in the warm, humid wind.

When I turned around a few meters after leaving, the mottled patterned cat was still sitting before the cat that had been hit, still staring at me. I hastily jerked my head back to the front, appalled by this. Wanting to get away from it at once, I drove rapidly to the convenience store.

Relief washed over me when I finally spotted a bright light at the end of the dark road. I had arrived.

Here was my workplace.

It was the only convenience store on a deserted prefectural road surrounded by a sea of trees. Because of the location of this convenience store, humans and non-humans alike were attracted to it. It was a convenience store with circumstances that were difficult to explain.

Late at night was the peak time for non-humans to enter and leave the convenience store, which freaked me out, yet I continued to work there. Even in such an unorthodox convenience store, the brightness of the lights, which were open 24 hours a day, offered me a sense of security.

From inside, the manager and Nagase waved to me, to which I responded with a small nod.

I parked my bike at the usual spot and let out a small sigh.

My partner today was Takenaka, as I recalled. Oh, I knew it, this navy blue sedan belonged to Takenaka.

Each time I thought about it, Takenaka was always early. I arrived earlier than usual today, too, though he always arrived roughly half an hour before his shift time. Apparently, his daily routine entailed neither relaxing in the back room nor having a smoke, but rather cleaning every nook and cranny of the store so as not to disrupt the workers and customers who were still on duty.

I was perplexed as to why was this, but the manager said there was no specific reason and that he valued cleanliness highly.

Should there be even a speck of dust on the display shelves, the expression of his eyes would change and he would bring out a duster, and as long as there was even a speck of dirt near the doorway, he would mop it up wordlessly.

In fact, beyond liking cleanliness, he may be a fastidious person.

…Did Takenaka see the cat carcass, too, I wondered.

That grotesque scene. The long, thin intestines sticking out from the abdomen. The reddish-black guts protruding from the mouth.

“Ugh…”

The recollection of it filled me with nausea.

Even Takenaka must have been stunned. But I wondered how he really felt about it. He had that poker face, so he probably didn’t pay much attention to it.

More importantly, I bet Hirai might raise a stir since she was a girl, and I wondered if she had screamed when she saw it. If she shouted in a cute voice, “Kyaaa!”, that would be kind of nice.

Aoyama would be… well, forget it… I would meet him the next day.