Keita paused for a moment as something seemed to fly by the corner of his eye. His initial though was that it was an insect that had just flown by, and thus swiveled his head to get a better look. After all, places like these didn't generally [i]have[/i] any bugs, and letting one slip in through the entrance, while relatively harmless within the grander scheme of things, was still pretty [i]damn[/i] annoying.

His surprise at the sudden change of scenery, of course, caused the young man to stop for a moment and blink a few times before looking around in haste. The groceries yet-unpaid were still in hand (or, rather, in his basket), and that was certainly a troublesome issue. What was more notable (other than the spontaneous teleportation and/or hallucination) was that there were a bunch of other people wearing their school uniforms also in the elevator with him. He recognized a few others other than Manami (who had also apparently been dragged along for the ride), but rather than freak out in any meaningful way, Keita held his tongue and waited. The entire matter was incredibly disconcerting, but the scenery seemed oddly... Familiar.

Once the elevator came to a stop and disappeared into nothingness, Keita's eyes widened in realization at their current location. Everything seemed so [i]surreal[/i], but that dreamlike quality that this place had made things click.
...
The fact that he could still feel the basket dragging down his arm also meant that he hadn't just spontaneously fallen asleep or was having a lucid dream or something.

Which... Actually made for a lot more questions than he'd have liked. It answered a few, yes, but...

"Okay. Hold on a moment, here. What's with this game-like scenario here? Why's this place the same one my dreams keep gravitating towards? Why are we here [i]physically[/i] now? And most importantly, [i]what the heck am I supposed to do with this load of unpaid groceries[/i]?!" he asked, waving off the matters of what sort of problem they had been dragged into. That would probably be explained in due time, but that last question was a necessity. How would he explain becoming an accidental shoplifter to his family?!