Dead Hours — The Refund, Page 5
By Suha · Published
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Transcript
A dramatic full-page splash. Kaito (name tag KAITO) holds the ceramic garden gnome up in both hands at eye level, staring into its serene little face with hollow existential despair. Radiating screentone lines and deep shadow frame him; sweat beads on his brow. KAITO: Where did you come from.
Image description
Full-page splash: Kaito holds the ceramic garden gnome up at eye level in both hands, staring into its serene face with hollow existential despair, dramatic radiating screentone lines behind him.
About this chapter
A mild elderly man in a cardigan wants to return an object to the store: no receipt, no packaging, and — Kaito slowly realizes — it is not something the store has ever sold. But the man is completely certain and utterly reasonable, and Kaito cannot prove a negative. He escalates through increasingly elaborate attempts to establish where the object actually came from while Rin films and lobs unhelpful theories. In the end Kaito refunds it out of his own wallet just to make the paradox stop — and the man immediately tries to return the receipt.