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VIDEO: Onikakushi-hen | TIP 20: At the Seventh Mart
BGM: Afternoon in Paris
"What's this, Keiichi? So many! There's no reason to get all the different kinds, is there!?"
I flopped all the different colored cup noodle bowls into the cart.
"Cup noodles have gotten so elaborate recently, and there are a bunch of different types. I want to try each of them at least once."
I knew it was pretty selfish of me, but I thought I'd at least give it a try.
"Keiichi. Buy them in the big case. It's cheaper."
Dad faltered.
Well, I had a feeling it'd end up like this.
Dad knew there was no point in him butting in.
"Then I'd only get to eat one kind! I'd get bored with it!"
I was resisting as a formality.
I had already given up inside and wasn't sure which case of noodles to get.
"If you can't pick, then Mommy will pick for you."
You don't have to rush me...!
I quickly search the cases of noodles for what I want.
If I let Mom pick, she'd err on the side of safety and get soy sauce or salt flavored.
So when I plonked a large box of pork-bone flavor in the shopping cart, Mom looked back at me with an expression as if to say “...These ones?”
To show her this was my last compromise, I began explaining the choice.
"Pork-bone is good! I don't want a big bowl of tasteless stuff...!!"
I remembered insisting that the noodles I picked were the right kind.
BGM: Silence
So... I did what I could and reached out with my hearing and vision, sharpening my senses to find the presence I overlooked.
No matter how much I search through my field of vision... I couldn't see Rena.
I rewound the situation, searching.
But of course, I couldn't find her.
Then... was she spying at me from my blind spot...?
I go through the sound and presences again, looking.
BGM: Doukutsu (Cave)
They were all mixed about... moving as they please.
There was nobody looking over this way and no one trying to get behind me.
Not here. Couldn't be here. Probably wasn't here.
I would definitely notice if someone was right behind me... even when I wasn't on my guard.
I smiled wryly at the thought of using a vague word like "probably" right before contradicting it with "definitely."
BGM: Silence
Then, I paused my mental replay as a chill ran down my spine.
...There was definitely a presence like a shadow behind me.
That was... a terror unlike any other.
If a presence really had manifested behind me, I would definitely have turned around to check for it.
But the world had moved on, and there was no way for me to turn around...
While carrying that frightening shadow on my back, I was gleefully running around the store searching for a case of noodles...?
Running through the instant noodle section, bad-mouthing my mom...
But... There was that presence constantly at my back. Sticking to me like a shadow.
No way to see what it was. Realizing it now after the fact was horrifying and repulsive...
In that moment of time, I was running around gleefully...
Carrying that cardboard box.
...But listening to that moment again... I could hear footsteps other than mine going pit-pat with every step.
Tip-tap tip-tap tip-tap. Pit-pat pit-pat pit-pat.
Tip-tap tip-tap. Pit-pat pit-pat.
Tip-tap tip-tap. Pit-pat pit-pat.
While I was running, the sound of those barefoot footsteps going pit-pat were right behind mine.
Me running around gleefully... In that closed-off moment in time.
But I... didn't hear it.
No. I heard it. That's why I remembered it.
...I didn't think I had heard anything.
That's why I didn't turn around.
That is why... I didn't turn around...!!!
In that moment, the pit-pat of those footsteps were following me the entire time.
I couldn't run faster and escape.
I couldn't run any faster than I had ran at that time.
I couldn't turn around.
I hadn't turned around before. Not once.
Then I returned to my parents and started talking. The shadow-like presence was right at my back.
At that time, I hadn't taken a single step while talking with my parents.
I was just standing there. This was undeniable.
And yet... I heard it... A pit-pat…
That shouldn't be.
If I took three steps, it followed three steps. Wasn't that the rule...?
There was no sound other than that.
At that time, the entire world had gone dark... A sudden darkness.
It was the end of my reflective journey.
I was tired.
I wanted to end it.
Someone turn on the light.
Except my body couldn't move.
...As if I was sewn into... that moment in time.
My past self's hair stood on end.
That's impossible...!?
Now that's just breaking the rules!
I haven't moved!
So you shouldn't be moving, either!!
I couldn't move! So you shouldn't be able to move either!! Follow the rules!!!
Pit-pat
Yet that sound echoed in the darkness once again.
The hair on the back of my neck pricked up on end.
It was so close... that it was hard to tell whether it was touching the hair or not.
Why couldn't I move... like how the presence was moving behind me!?!?
...I quickly realized.
I could move.
...It's just that I was scared and didn't want to.
But now was the only time I could turn around.
It was something unforgivable in this moment in time... But... I needed to turn around immediately...!!
I'll turn around!
I'll turn around!
I'm not scared at all!
I'll turn around!
I'll turn around!
I'm not scared at all!!
A scream I was unable to vocalize.
RoOoOoOOOOOOoOoOOh!!!!!
I turned around!
What... is this?
Just as a person’s mouth might bite into an apple, slurp the juices, and finally discover that it was an apple… my mind began to process the scene before my eyes by ‘eating the apple’.
Munch munch, chew chew...
Slurp the juices... and discover the apple.
Meaning... what was in front of me was...
