Interlude
I WAS STANDING in the middle of a crosswalk.
My eyes, having adapted to darkness, were blinded by the sudden light of the city. One second, I was in a place so quiet we could hear each other’s breaths, and the next, my eardrums were painfully overwhelmed by car engines and footsteps.
Reflexively, I hunched into myself and covered my ears for a few seconds. Then, slowly, I looked up. I was standing in the middle of a crosswalk. A big one, and one I recognized all too well. It was the Showa-dori intersection, the largest in town.
What was I doing here? Wasn’t I just somewhere else, doing something else? Someplace dark and cramped…? Confused, I looked around.
Two or three people were running to the end of the crosswalk. Past them, I could see two figures standing side by side, looking over their shoulders at me. One of them was my mom, and the other…
“Dad!” I shouted before I could stop myself.
After that fiery divorce, my parents surely never saw each other again, and yet there they were, looking back at me like two peas in a pod. This was simply not possible…in my world, at least.
But then I remembered. I was trying to shift to a world where it was possible. And I succeeded! I really did shift to a world where my parents never divorced!
We gazed at each other across the crosswalk. Why were we so far apart? Wasn’t I walking with them? Oh, wait, I get it. When I first shifted here, it was a lot to take in, so I must have stood here for a while to process. But my parents didn’t notice, so they kept on walking without me, only to later realize I was missing.
Mom was looking at me with concern—and so was Dad, which made me really happy. In this world, they really were still together…which meant that in this world, Koyomi-kun and I were free to get married!
Gleefully, I started running across the crosswalk to catch up with them. Their expressions shifted, and they started beckoning to me. My ears hadn’t quite adapted, and my brain couldn’t process the sounds. I was solely focused on the sight of my parents together at last.
But by the time I finally perceived the red crosswalk light and the blaring car horns, it was too late. The cars came barreling toward me.
My brain must have processed it all in a fraction of a second. In that tiny moment, I thought about what would happen to me.
I’m gonna get hit by a car! I could die? I gotta run! But I won’t make it! What do I do? WHAT DO I DO?!
Just then, Koyomi-kun’s face rose to mind.
That’s it! Parallel shift! I’ll shift away before I get hit! To a different world! Please shift, please shift, please shift—
✦ ✦ ✦
The next thing I knew, I was once again standing in the middle of the crosswalk.
But just when I thought I was safe, I saw the cars rushing at me all over again.
I’m gonna die!
I crouched down on the spot, shielded my head with my arms, squeezed my eyes shut, and waited. And waited. But no impact ever came…yet I could hear the cars whizzing past me. What was going on?
Timidly, I opened my eyes. The next thing I saw was a car bumper right in front of my face. Reflexively, I dropped back into position and closed my eyes—but like before, there was no impact.
As I crouched there, the car sounds faded out, and I heard the familiar crosswalk melody—the one that played whenever the crosswalk light was green. Now I could hear footsteps passing me by, so I stood up and slowly opened my eyes again.
The crosswalk light was green, and pedestrians were crossing the street. The traffic light was red, and the cars were stopped. I couldn’t feel any pain.
I struggled to process what had happened. Could it be that the cars all went out of their way to drive around me? It couldn’t be…could it?
As I mulled it over, I saw a group of people walking toward me. Instinctively, I tried to move out of their way, but…I couldn’t feel the ground under my feet.
Distracted by the strange (lack of) sensation, I realized in the next instant that the approaching group was about to crash straight into me.
Then I watched as they…passed through my body…and carried on walking like nothing ever happened.
“…Huh?”
I stood there, staring blankly, as the pedestrians bumped into me one after another. Except…none of them “bumped” me at all. They overlapped with me, passed through me, and walked on to the other side of the street.
Like I wasn’t even there.
Horrified, I looked down at my hands.
“What…?!”
My hands—no, not just my hands; my arms, my legs, my whole body was translucent. Light and sound…and people…could pass straight through me.
That was how I became the Showa-dori crosswalk ghost.