Monogatari Series - Volume 12 - Chapter 1.12

012

“So as I said, he came not to exterminate me but to check things for himself. An entire lake had disappeared and a god had manifested from it… ’Twas not a situation that one with his pedigree could ignore.

“Though I do feel it took him some time to arrive… True, information did not travel as swiftly then as it does in this age. His transportation methods were limited as well.

“Now that I mention it, he arrived transported in a palanquin.

“With a long retinue tailing behind─’twas a regular daimyo procession. Not that I’ve ever seen a genuine one.

“Still, all of those followers.

“He must have been as important as any feudal lord.

“I suppose thou could call them his thralls─he may have been connected in some way to those with effective control over the villages in the area.

“Perhaps he was even one of them himself.

“The villagers did kowtow terribly to him─but hierarchies within human communities are not something I am familiar with.

“What I am sure of, or rather, what was important was that he had come to my temporary abode─he posed no threat to me no matter how many humans came along with him, but something was different this one time.

“I did not feel threatened by him.

“Ye may think that odd, as he was an expert…or a hunter, but I had been dealing with those types year-round.

“I could not even distinguish them from regular humans.

“Call me too casual, but what am I to do when that is who I am? There’s no need for me to distinguish between hunters and regular humans, anyway─the two are alike.

“Of course, the Hawaiian-shirted boy I met when I was weakened did leave a strong impression on me, as did Kaiki and Kagenui after I became a little girl.

“’Tis simply how it goes. Don’t ye think poorly of me.

“That said, it woke me up. I was awakened by their arrival─which is not to say I had been sleeping in the shrine until then.

“He aroused my awareness of things for the first time in a while.

“In others words, as I was living my lukewarm existence as a god, I found a fine stimulus. But again, ’tis not to say that he─or that gathering─was what excited me.

“Those blades.

“The ones he had─hanging off of his hips. The ones he wore, would thou say? I’m unsure of the distinction there…

“In any case.

“The two blades the man had as he left his palanquin, one large and one small─those are what drew me in.

“Though it may sound a bit vulgar that my attention was drawn to a man’s hips. Thou and I would then share a love of hips belonging to the opposite sex, so perhaps in that sense our connection is age-old.

“I jest.

“Hm? Aye.

“Two of them, two blades─the longer being the enchanted blade Kokorowatari.

“The one whose replica ye’ve wielded─the true one is rather more dangerous.

“The replica has been de-tuned some.

“’Twas too dangerous.

“Of course, ’twas not that effective of a weapon on me…but it did at least open my eyes.

“’Twas enough of a stimulus.

“Hm? What about the smaller blade? The short sword?

“The second─of the two blades?

“Ah, have I never spoken of it? I thought I already had… Mayhap ’twas my imagination.

“Thou could say it was a backup…like something to keep the first, too dangerous Kokorowatari in check.

“Perhaps we could call it a sheath… Well, both the original Kokorowatari and this short sword had their own, separate sheaths, so the metaphor would only serve to complicate the story.

“A weapon that was too dangerous needed a follow-up, an accompaniment─my replica is but a replica, of course, so I’ve no need for the short sword.

“The second enchanted blade─the short sword was known as t.

“Dost thou find it odd that I recall the name of the short sword, in addition to the one that I still use? Well, ’tis no special exception.

“That is simply how much of a set the short sword was with its leading blade Kokorowatari. The two, the heart and the dream, kokoro and yume, were one, and no sword could cut them apart, so to speak.

“If Kokorowatari is the aberration slayer.

“Then Yumewatari was─the aberration savior.

“A divine blade that has been passed down through the generations becomes something like an aberration itself, so my own radar was pinging like mad.

“I left the shrine the moment I felt its presence─well, to be precise, I blew the shrine to dust. Moving was such a bother that I chose to have the shrine disappear.

“I compared it to a daimyo procession…but I would say he had, oh, fifty men with him? I believe he, its leader, was not the only expert, and that the other forty-nine were not mere underlings.

“Well, doing away with a shrine might not be enough of a miracle─but ’twas a sufficient display of power. Though if I truly made use of my power, it would be the earth I could make disappear, not a simple shrine.

“I suppose the sun is the only thing I cannot disappear. Aye, my one and only goal, which I continue to hold to this day.

“Oh, don’t say thou would never allow me to. ’Tis my one and only goal… But in any case, I succeeded in surprising them, even if ’twas not the point of making the shrine disappear. ’Twas just too much of a bother to walk outside… To me, it was naught more than a structure I could rebuild.

“Yet that, and no more, managed to suppress them.

“For while they may have been experts in the field of yokai extermination, I was so far removed from any they’d known─the lot of them were gripped with terror.

“They collapsed on the spot. How disgraceful. I found myself losing my own will to fight, in fact.

“Only a few were able to continue standing in the face of my glaring countenance… Ah, I want to say about five of them.

“Aberration Slayer I, if ye want me to use that name as well… Only he, as well as the men directly under him, his four knights as it were, managed to stay on their feet and look in my direction.

“That probably is not to say they were unflustered.

“And ’twas not as though they recognized that I was not a god but a vampire─if anything, they believed me to be a true god.

“At least, one with enough power to be called such and venerated─and, as thou said, the color of my hair and skin were novel to the people of the land, so I must have appeared divine in the sun’s reflection.

“Now. What do ye think I did next?

“What did I do in the face of this continued misunderstanding? To be honest, I wavered for a moment. For as I said earlier, I sensed that they were hunters due to those swords.

“I could see a battle unfolding were I to reveal my true identity.

“Vacations are nice, but so is the occasional stimulus─so perhaps I should ratchet things up a bit.

“I would be lying if I claimed not to have felt that way.

“Hm? Nay, to jump ahead, I did not reveal my identity, nor was there any battle. I am a pacifist, as thou art aware. Aye, a pacifist─one who hates to fight, a humanist who believes in love above all.

“I make myself want to laugh, taking on the title of humanist when I am not even human… ’Tis a white lie so audacious, I turn pale. My apologies, that was overdoing it, even as far as jokes go.

“The reason we did not find ourselves in a battle next was simply that they did not seek one.

“As a bunch of men who made yokai extermination their job, I would be the exact type of creature they needed to kill. But in those days, as I just said, I was not yokai nor vampire, but a god. I was evidently on the level of a god, at least in terms of sheer power, so that was all for them.

“Though they did ask, as a formality.

“‘Are ye truly a god?’

“I still hesitated to call myself a god, though, so I answered, ‘Think of me as ye wish…but do not call me by any name’… I was able to give that much of a response by then, as I understood some bit of Japanese…and apparently my answer was persuasive.

“Of course, they did not attend to me like the vicinity’s inhabitants─their response was a realistic one in that sense. ’Twas not as though their attitude toward me suddenly changed, either.

“If anything, they were quite businesslike.

“A god, is that so, then please sign these documents here and we will call thee later─that sort of thing.

“Figuratively, of course.

“I presume they had already dealt with many gods other than myself─’twas as if they felt at home once they knew me to be one. Even those who collapsed upon first impressions stood right back up.

“Though I was not an actual god…

“Well, familiarity can be a frightening thing.

“I suppose ye could say familiarity was the main reason none of them feared a god, or that they even made light of gods, but I think the fact they were of the ruling class played a role as well. In other words, droughts did not particularly affect them.

“They would not have been saved by me.

“And not just I, they would not have been saved by any ‘god’─they had conceived of, created, and implemented systems that allowed them not to have to rely on gods.

“Such men do not venerate gods. If anything, they see gods as their equals.

“Believe and ye shall be saved, as we said, but it may in fact be closer to the truth to describe it as a manner of hindsight bias, whereby having been saved, one believes.

“But let us return to the subject.

“The rest of our conversation turned awkward, in part due to my unreliable Japanese, but we agreed to some promises I would adhere to as I played out my role as a god.

“Every land has its own rules.

“While we did not put them into writing─paper was quite valuable in those days─to summarize they told me to ‘not go too far.’

“Having no reason to agree to such conditions, I considered routing them after all, but stopped myself.

“That enchanted blade was about the only thing I was interested in, and at the end of the day, even it was merely a blade. If it was being wielded by a human, I had nothing to fear.

“I assumed that if the time came to fight, we would fight─I decided to leave it up to fate.

“I did not have any clue then.

“Of just how wrong that decision was─I never imagined what would come from leaving everything in the hands of fate.

“None of it would have happened had I used their visit as my chance to leave─my goodness.

“My goodness, what a wretched story.”