Chapter 164 – Discomfort (7)

The clerk’s head tilted to the side just as questions started to swirl in his head.
I turned my head to see Grape approaching at a quick pace.
She is wearing a comfortable outfit, a thin T-shirt and shorts, so the sight of her chest shaking slightly draws the attention of the people around her.

“Sorry, were you waiting?”
“Yes? Oh no? No.”
“I didn’t wait too long, just count that.”

Ignoring the clerk answering Grape talking to me, I looked at the clerk’s face with a strange feeling.
The mouth is slightly open, and the saliva is swallowed in gulps.
His neck continued to twitch and his dazed eyes blink rapidly to return to normal vision.
The reaction itself is not normal.

“I need an envelope… Do?”
“No… ? I think you should put it in the envelope you already received.”
“Ah yes…”

Grape answered, putting the shampoo in the envelope I had already received from the clerk.
It’s a reaction as if he didn’t remember anything since he handed me an envelope a moment ago.
I hurriedly tugged on Grape’s wrist as I felt a slight tingle in my left hand.

“Grape, let’s go quickly.”
“Hot! To? Yes!”

Strange sensations engulf the surroundings.
From the moment he started grabbing Grape’s hand, the gaze around him became much more intense.
The gaze of the people around her, especially the men, is stinging.

As if to avoid a chill running down my spine, I quickened my pace to get out of the mart.
A sticky and unpleasant sensation scratches your skin sharply, just like when you are being chased by infectious agents or negative monsters in the subway.
The air is warm.
The cold air that reminds me of an old air conditioner that hasn’t cleaned the filter makes my lungs tight.

Eyes… Something other than my gaze gathers towards me.
To be precise, they are gathering towards Grape, not me.
Grape doesn’t seem to notice at all.
She’s a magical girl, and her senses are sensitive. Why don’t you know this?

“Ah~ what is it?”
“Oh, sorry…”

As I was about to leave the mart, I bumped into a man standing near the door.
Immediately apologizing, I raised my head and met the man’s eyes. I was startled and slightly frowned.
The area around the eyes is strangely puffy.

It seems a little difficult to say that it is in a normal state.
The man’s pupils move sideways and his nose twitches.
Looking at grapes, smelling grapes.
Displeasure stings my left hand.

“I’m not sorry, what? Uh?”

It inflates its size and raises its head, trying to scare me.
It is an instinctive behavior that is no different from that of a beast.
It presses the opponent to show how little he is, and displays courtship behavior that shows off his masculine superiority to the female.

“If you look stupid, is it okay if you apologize? Uh? Bump into someone.”

Even as I get angry for some absurd reason, my gaze continues to glare at Grape standing next to me.
It’s not that I’m angry about bumping into me, it’s just a fault.
This kind of sudden nitpicking or slightly odd approach from a man I didn’t know was something I’d experienced every time I’d been with Grape.

Grape is always attracted to strange men.
I’m so used to it now that I don’t even think it’s weird.
Considering the appearance, it was taken for granted.

Even today, strangely, the feeling of incongruity does not stop.
Things that I couldn’t feel before are felt finely and stimulate my nerves.
Something is wrong with this person.

Pupil dilation, dilation, rapid breathing, muscle tension in the left upper arm.
It is a reaction similar to the symptoms of overuse of awakening substances using the monster’s body fluids, but it is subtly different.
You might think that it’s just that you’re simply excited by seeing grapes, but it takes muscle tension in your upper left arm to do so.

Just below the shoulder, a little closer to the heart, the flexible muscle organ, which can be said to have the most exercise, continues to repeat tension and relaxation at a small rate of four times a second.
It is similar to the symptoms of arousal drug poisoning using the monster’s bodily fluids, but the saliva does not foam and the reflex movements of the pupils do not stop.
None of the drug side effects and addiction symptoms I know of show this kind of appearance.
But it looks like you’re addicted to something.

“Hey, won’t you answer me?”

As I stared at it, a man with some symptoms suddenly stretched his arm toward my shoulder.
Quite hard, like hitting… No, he’s trying to hit me on the shoulder with his palm.
I reflexively flinched at the act of attack, which was sure to cause me to fall the moment I got hit.

At that time, my left hand tingled slightly, and at the same time, a deafening sensation spread from the inside like a wave.
I feel a small wind blowing from behind me as I close my eyes tightly.
Shortly thereafter, the man standing in front of me collapsed onto the floor and began to vomit, losing consciousness.

“Oops, oops… !”
“Uh?”

As soon as I opened my eyes again, the sight I saw somehow made me think that I had seen a sight like this before.
Rubbing his cheeks on the floor and twisting his body like an insect, a man in agony spits out viscous liquid incessantly.
I involuntarily backed away at the filthy, disgusting sight and was embraced by Grape, who was standing behind me.

“You look like someone who has been drinking since daytime. Ignore it and go home quickly.”
“Uh, yes… Didn’t you see that?”
“I’m drunk, that’s a magical girl.”

It seemed to me that he was not drunk at all, but Grape’s senses seemed to have a hint of alcohol.
Grape wrapped his arms around my shoulders, said in a cold voice, and then moved away from the man.

“Go quickly and grill some meat.”

As I left the mart, I nodded in agreement with Grape’s words.
You don’t have to have strange and dirty memories for a long time.

“Try a taxi.”

As soon as I left the mart, I walked to the taxi rank with the thought of wanting to go home quickly and fill my empty stomach.
There were already many taxis waiting at the bus stop, so I was able to get on without waiting.

“How much do you like to grill Anger? Medium? Medium rare?”
“Well…”

After boarding the taxi, Grape continued to talk to me about how he would like to eat meat, even though I said I wanted to eat it, as if he was more excited than me.
I was worried about the man who kept bumping into me, so I was thinking about the man’s face while answering Grape’s questions roughly.

I thought about it carefully… It wasn’t just the man who was out of focus.
He may just be an illicit drug addict, but strangely, I have a feeling that’s not the case.
Why do you care?
Even though I don’t know… I care.

“Im here.”

Lost in thought, I heard the taxi driver’s voice and looked out the window.
Before I knew it, a taxi had arrived near my house.
After confirming that I had returned home properly, I looked at Grape as a matter of course, and Grape immediately opened his eyes wide in surprise and took out a card from his wallet to pay for his taxi.

“Thank you… Huh?”

After paying the bill, I got out of the taxi thinking of the people I saw at the mart again, and I bumped into Grape’s big ass and sat down in the seat.
But as soon as I was about to stand up again, I felt something strange in my field of vision.

Through the rearview mirror, I see the face of the driver who is staring blankly at Grape’s ass.
Out of focus eyes, rough breathing… And spasmodic movements of the left arm.
… Weird.

“Anger?”
“Ah, yes.”

When I heard Grape’s voice, I got out of the car and looked blankly at the back of the cab.
… It was a reaction I had seen before.

“What’s wrong… ? What did you leave behind?”
“No… No.”

Answering blankly, I grabbed Grape’s outstretched hand and walked toward my room.
The body walks to another place, but the mind remains in the mart and taxi, recalling the people who are out of focus.
Even as I put the key in the front door of my room, a strange question did not leave my head.

“Grape, maybe people weren’t weird earlier… ?”
“… People from earlier?”

Turning the key in the front door, I lightly questioned Grape.
Then Grape seemed to think for a moment, then shook his head and answered.

“… What? Who… ?”
“… Never mind.”

Seeing Grape show no reaction, he already thought that this might be the case.
Grape doesn’t know that the people I find strange are strange.
However, no matter how you think about it, it was strange.

As I entered my room, I was gradually drawn into an unknown question.
Weird.
It’s really strange.