The month of June. Then, people walked around, around the city. It was a lot livelier tonight. It was midnight as everyone darted around under the clouds. You heard chatter, chatter, chatter, around the streets, and a lot of people walking out, shopping at the mall. As they kept going, a ding sounded as the door opened.
And then the door opened. Ding! The old man came out. And he walked. "Tink, tink, tink." And he looked around. He was half blind. The one eye can see snow, but the other eye can see regularly. He walked around. He just went past a TV shop that was filled with signs that said, "Welcome. You are welcome to the TV shop."
The old man was walking through the place, filled with neon lights and traffic cars going "vroom" across him. There were sidewalks and overcrowded streets. He walked through the streets, getting closer and closer and closer to a dead end. His bag swung, swish, swish. And the sidewalk started to look rugged and old as he walked.
The old man's thoughts were strange. He was saying, "It's pretty dark out here." Must have been pretty dark. Feels cold." He walks through the—through the place, leading him to an alley where no one goes. It was quite foggy and quiet. Historically quiet. The vibe felt eerie. that anyone could sound, taste, or feel it.
He said to himself, "Has it always been this cold before?" He felt it down his shivers. It felt cold. A very, very silent cold. A cold that you don't ordinarily feel in time, but frozen in time.
Meanwhile, the older brother was driving. He was driving with a slight "whoosh." The car was going slightly slow, around 50 km per hour. He went past skyscrapers that were tall, with glass and signs with anime stuff. Tokyo was different.
The older brother was driving. He was fast. Faster than the old man could follow. And then he said, "Hey. Hey. Be quiet. It's time. People are sleeping now." Meanwhile, he just stopped and waved and just drove back.
He thought to himself, the older brother, "The old man seems kind of half-blind or half-deaf. I can see his eyes, as his head reflects his eyes with a whitish liquid, like water."
The older brother was driving in a dark, narrow alley where the breeze was dark, the cold fogs went like "shhhh" around, and there were just bricks on the sideway. He drove around it.
The older brother was driving. Well, he was tired, and his eyes were droopy. And then there were crosswalks and traffic lights, and then the traffic light was on red. And the person who walked on the traffic lights, when it was his turn to go and walk, seemed very lifeless, his eyes looking like he had never seen sleep in ages.
The older brother said, "It makes sense why he's tired. He's been working too hard. He looks overworked." His voice was filled with empathy.
When the traffic light went ding, the green light, he drove in a slow manner but perfectly enough to keep the speed going.
As he thought about his mother and family and younger brother, he thought about a way to buy him a manga. He said to himself, "I might as well stop by a manga store just to see my brother's reaction."
The older brother looked at the phone on the map. He was 15km away, just close enough to get them close to the alleyway where the manga shop is.
He drove past a corner and turned right, where there were sidewalks with bricked houses with roofs that were white.
People walked by chattering about that new anime. "Have you seen the new anime? It's pretty good, right?" as they walked.
The other person agreed, "Yeah, it was pretty good. It had a pretty good romantic idea and was comedic, too."
The older brother drove past them as they both walked into the alleyway. There was a hand, a ghost hand, that felt anonymous yet slightly distraught. It felt the cold as if quiet, frozen in time, and garbage-filled around the alley at a dead end with bricks and bricks on the thing as the ghost hand came out. Both of them passed it without even seeing it. They could not even smell it. They could not hear it. They could not feel it.
The ghost's face came out. It had black eyes, black hair, and a dress that shone like a sun. It was floating around. The ground was grey. And then it went **dash*. And the glass fell off the garbage can, and it cracked. And people walked around it. And they said, "What happened? Oh, it's just my head playing with things." And the people just walked away. And after that, the brother drove on in the car that was a Subaru. And the ghost followed it. It felt intrigued by the car itself. So it went whoosh and hovered towards it.
The ghost glided as it followed him. It was gliding slower, and as the ghost was beside the glass near the frame of the car, he couldn't see her. All he could see was the other car and the red traffic lights, nothing else. The ghost was invisible, nearly so invisible that he could only see the road and the people crossing by on a dark, specific night.
As the brother drove in the car, while the ghost was following him, the car bumped slightly down because of the yellow straight line that was a yellow circle because it was a cylinder. And it was... pretty... a flashback when they hit it. The car slowly bumped, like BUMP, and then went down to normal and drove past it.
The ghost just saw his brother looking at the wheel and looking at the world while glancing on each side to make sure there was no car coming, and one car passed by, and you wait, and it went whoosh, vroom, and then after that you wait for the traffic lights to go green, and then after that it went green, and you drive straight forward as the ghost followed him, and whoosh, the crosswalks followed them as they drove by.
As the older brother drove, he drove into a lane, and then after that he made a slight turn, steering the wheel slowly into the other way, and then after that they went straight, and then straight, and then slowly steered again to the pathway to the manga shop. As they got in, they steered left, and then he kept steering around until he found a spot, and then when he found a parkway, he kept steering and steering and steering until it perfectly fit, and he went slowly and slowly.
He slowly got off his seat, and then after that he unlocked the lock, and it went "clink," and then after that he opened the thing, and the handle opened the car, and then he slowly got up and then slammed it lightly, "slam," and then he walked on the streets. Leaves fell to the ground from the tree nearby. The manga shop looked like glasses with anime posters and a ceiling that was with lights on top and silver, grey, metal, and glass windows and a glass door with metal on it.
He slowly walked by the railings of where people park their bikes. And then after that, the wind flowed around him, straight: whoosh. And then after that, he walked slowly and got in. And he got in front of the door. And then after that, he opened it, and the bell rang, like, "ding." And then he got in. And the store was filled up with sections of manga. Shonen manga, romance manga, and all types of manga. Generic ones you can think of. Horror ones, too.
Then he checked as the ghost watched upside down through a little glass window that was shaped like a triangle. The female ghost put her hands on there, watching him flipping through the manga selection with a flip, flip, checking for books that interest him. His face was behind sunglasses and black hair, in a suit, carrying a suitcase. He didn't seem interested. His face was raised with an eyebrow.
Then the brother looked tired, and then he walked away. He walked to the shopkeeper, and then the ghost went through the triangle window and followed him. Her light glowed, and then as she was behind him, there were a couple of mangas behind the aisle, and it was at the romance area, and when the shop owner saw it, his eyes grew wider and wider, and he was biting his nails kind of fast. It kept repeating. His eyes were wide and he looked like he had seen something extraordinary.