The electronic chime faded.
Jin stood behind the counter. The fluorescent lights buzzed. Sterile. White.
The girl shook her yellow umbrella. Water pooled on the gray linoleum floor. She closed it and walked down the first aisle.
Jin watched the security mirror in the corner of the ceiling. The convex glass distorted the rows of snacks and magazines. He didn't look at her reflection. He looked at the space around her.
Golden light. Soft. Pulsing with the steady rhythm of a heartbeat.
Behind it, on the other side of the storefront windows, a heavy smear of black. A shadow that didn't belong to the neon signs or the streetlamps. It was attached to her trail. Waiting in the rain.
The pressure at the base of his skull changed.
It wasn't a warning. It wasn't the jagged spike of a lethal threat.
It was a hollow, scraping ache. Like a starved animal clawing at an empty stomach.
The parasite woke up.
Entity class: High-yield.Status: Vulnerable.Action: Consume.
Jin gripped the edge of the laminate counter.
His mouth went completely dry. A thick, suffocating wave of heat washed over his brain. It wasn't pain. It was craving. Absolute, blind craving.
The parasite didn't want to fight the golden light. It wanted to eat it.
Cold, fragmented images forced their way into his mind. A simple transaction. Open the Sharingan. Paralyze the nervous system. Drain the energy.
Reward: Neural restoration.Permanent degradation: 1.2% -> 0.0%
The tremor in his left hand returned. Violent. Uncontrollable.
He shoved his hand into the pocket of his blue store vest. He pressed his fist hard against his thigh.
The girl walked to the refrigerated section. She opened the glass door. The hum of the compressor was loud in the empty store. She reached for a carton of milk.
Her sleeve pulled back. Pale skin. A thin wrist.
Jin's left eye throbbed. The phantom comma wanted to spin. He could feel the blood rushing to his optic nerve. Saliva pooled under his tongue.
He swallowed. His throat felt like sandpaper.
He was looking at a human being, and his body was reacting to food.
The horror of it turned his stomach to ice. He locked his jaw. He forced the iron door shut in his mind. He pushed the parasite down.
The backlash was immediate. A sharp needle of pain drove through his temple.
The girl walked to the counter.
She placed the small carton on the rubber mat.
Jin looked down at it. Condensation dripped from the cardboard.
He didn't look at her face.
"One hundred and twenty yen." Jin said.
His voice was flat. Hollow.
She reached into her uniform pocket. She pulled out a worn coin purse. Her fingers trembled slightly.
She was terrified. Not of him. Of the shadow she couldn't see, but could feel waiting outside in the dark.
Jin picked up the barcode scanner with his right hand. Scanned the milk. A sharp beep.
The golden aura radiating from her was suffocatingly close. It smelled like clean linen and old paper. It was pure.
The parasite in his head thrashed against the iron door. The scraping ache grew frantic. It was starving. The white static in his memory burned.
Repair available.Take it.
Jin's left hand uncurled inside his pocket. The four crescent cuts on his palm stung.
If he took it, the static would clear. The pain in his arm would stop. He would remember why he bought the apple. He would be whole again.
She placed a hundred-yen coin and two ten-yen coins on the mat.
She pushed them toward him.
Her fingertips brushed the edge of his right hand.
Jin froze.
The contact was electric. A rush of pure, raw energy spiked up his arm. The parasite lunged. The iron door in his mind buckled. His left eye burned.
He ripped his hand back.
His elbow hit the cigarette display behind him. Plastic cracked loudly.
The girl flinched. She took a quick step back. Her green eyes widened in alarm.
Jin stood pinned against the display rack. He dug his fingernails into his own thigh. The physical pain grounded him. He forced his lungs to expand.
In.
Out.
He looked at the coins on the rubber mat.
He looked at the girl.
"Exact change." Jin said.
He did not apologize. He did not explain the noise.
He reached out. Slow. Calculated. He avoided her skin. He picked up the coins. Dropped them into the register drawer. Closed it with a solid click.
He pushed the carton of milk across the mat.
The girl hesitated. She looked at his face. She looked at his left eye.
The brown iris was dull. Ordinary.
She offered a small, nervous bow. "Thank you."
She turned. Walked to the glass doors. The electronic chime rang. The cold night air rushed in. She opened her yellow umbrella and stepped into the rain.
Jin watched her walk down the street. The golden light faded into the gray mist.
The craving in his head slowly receded. It was replaced by a dull, exhausting ache. He had starved the parasite. It punished him with a migraine that blurred the edges of his vision.
He leaned over the counter. He let his head hang down. He breathed in the smell of cheap floor wax and old coffee.
He was human.
He repeated it in his head.
He was human.
A heavy thud hit the reinforced glass of the storefront.
Jin snapped his head up.
The street outside was empty. The rain fell in slanting sheets under the streetlights.
The girl was gone.
But the shadow wasn't.
A man stood on the pavement. Directly on the other side of the glass. He wore a dark grey raincoat. The hood was pulled up.
He wasn't looking down the street where the girl had gone.
He was looking inside the store.
He was looking directly at Jin.
The man raised a hand. He pressed his palm flat against the wet glass.
The glass frosted over. Instantly. A spiderweb of thick, white ice spread outward from his fingers. It froze the condensation on the window.
The temperature inside the convenience store plummeted.
The fluorescent lights flickered. Once. Twice.
They died.
The emergency backup light kicked on. A weak, blood-red bulb above the register. It bathed the aisles in deep crimson shadows.
The man in the raincoat lowered his hand. The ice on the window cracked.
He walked to the sliding doors.
He stepped on the pressure mat.
The electronic chime did not ring. The doors did not open. The motor had frozen solid.
The man stood on the mat.
He raised his heavy boot.
He kicked the glass.