Monogatari Series - Volume 12 - Chapter 1.14

014

“Well, if I hold out like that, thou might feel disappointed again, so I shall go ahead and dispense a spoiler here─the issue was not my vampiric impulses or the like, but my very presence as an aberration, as a vampire.

“Thou must remember.

“The shrine we traveled to for that forelocked girl─that we used yesterday to travel through time. The shrine that has been the scene of multiple cases.

“Kita-Shirahebi Shrine.

“Why negative energy gathered in that place─thou must remember the cause quite well, eh?

“After all, ye were the one to accept the Hawaiian-shirted boy’s mission to seal away that negative energy. Thou completed that all-important task.

“Indeed.

“The aberration that I am─I, the king of aberrations, or rather, my past self, the presence known as Kissshot Acerolaorion Heartunderblade─gathers aberrations.

“Like a bug zapper of sorts.

“There could be no more convenient a trait, when ye think of it. It left me free to eat as many gathered aberrations as I wished. My prey came to me to be eaten─though strictly speaking, I simply destroyed the balance, the ecosystem of aberrations. They knew not that they were coming to be devoured.

“And what gathered was not so much the aberrations themselves as the negative energy that precedes them. Aye, those ‘bad things.’

“Indeed, that Hawaiian-shirted boy described them as such. ‘Bad things’─does that ring a bell?

“Well, think of how ye described this Darkness as being incomprehensible─does that not feel similar somehow?

“’Tis ironic, in fact.

“I’d been careless.

“I’d forgotten the very reason I roamed, traveling from one place to the next─no, that was one thing I’d not forgotten. I’d been careless, and I’d been thoughtless, but I was not such a fool that I’d forgotten the reason I traveled.

“I ought not stay for long in one place─I utterly destroy the balance of its aberrational ecosystem.

“’Tis a troubling trait, it makes one question being too strong─but a bit of an upset balance does not allow that negative energy to form into true aberrations. The only harm that would come to a place is a darkening of its general mood.

“But it could certainly lead to a Great Yokai War─what that Hawaiian-shirted boy told thee was no exaggeration.

“Even then─that would not be a problem on its own. In reality, I would have been able to handle the situation had it arisen. Were I at my zenith, I could have dealt with this town’s hangout with ease, no matter how it grew.

“It only became a problem because I lost my powers after attracting it here─and because that Hawaiian-shirted boy had me under observation.

“As a bug zapper, I was at least able to handle whatever I attracted─that said, I’d be no match for them if I allowed so many to gather that they were out of control, and so I moved as appropriate.

“Dost thou understand now?

“Why I could not stay forever as a god─’twould become a crucible of aberrations had I continued to be there. Heaven to me, ’twould be hell to anyone else.

“Hedonist though I may be, I am no decadent.

“’Tis not my desire.

“And so I thought─perhaps I should cease this vacationer’s life at an appropriate time.

“But I had been careless here because I’d previously been at the South Pole, a land where neither humans nor aberrations exist.

“It had caused my senses to go awry─I had not noticed one bit that despite my presence in that village, those ‘bad things’ were not gathering at all.

“’Twas hard to notice, as local yokai appeared from time to time. Even I would have surely felt that something was off had not a one appeared.

“They’re taking awfully long to gather this time.

“So perhaps I could stay here for a little longer.

“I suppose I can let them treat me as a god.

“The food is good, and I can sleep as much as I wish.

“Ah, what joy… That is how I felt.

“Oh, do not call it self-indulgence. ’Twas not as if I traveled because I wanted to, so of course I’d want to sit down and rest from time to time─their treatment of me as a god aside.

“So I made an exception and put off leaving again and again, staying there for one long year.

“’Tis still okay, ’tis still okay, ’tis still okay─I thought.

“But each seemingly peaceful day that passed was another lost opportunity to avert a tragedy.

“It all happened─nay, ’twas noticed to be happening not by me or that group of experts, not by Aberration Slayer I, but by the residents of the area.

“Aye, that bunch living around me.

“You see, aberrations spread by word of mouth─by the time they imbue the common populace and make it to the ‘top,’ ’tis already too late. There is not a thing that can be done then─though this was not an aberration, of course.

“This was their story.

“People are disappearing, they said.

“People are going away, they said.

“People are vanishing, they said.

“They leave and never come back, they said.

“That on its own sounds like a case of humans being ‘spirited away.’ But ’twas hard to explain it all as such, for I was there, a god living in a readily found location, which was an ironclad alibi after a fashion.

“If they thought it a case of me ‘spiriting away’ men and women, they would only have to come to my shrine and search it from corner to corner to find them─though none did so in reality.

“I suppose my daily good behavior was enough to convince them─laugh not, I truly did act in a benevolent way then.

“Though ’tis awfully ironic that ’twas my acting like a god that cleared any suspicions that I had spirited anyone away like some god.

“But it seemed this truly was occurring when I looked into it a bit myself─at the very least, it was no simple case of runaways, kidnappings, or murders─

“’Twas a linked series of aberrational phenomena.

“Nay─as I said, ’twould be hard to call it such.

“I did think, Ah, so ’tis here at last─that staying in a place for so long had caused a chain reaction of negative energy, but something still felt off.

“Namely, there was a lack of eyewitness testimonies.

“’Twas as if I was only learning of the results of a phenomenon, not about the phenomenon itself─not one who either witnessed or experienced this ‘spiriting away’ came forth.

“Humans were simply disappearing.

“That was all.

“These kinds of phenomena, which is to say these kinds of ghost stories, normally involve someone alongside the human who disappeared who sees it all happen─such people should have existed, or if not, someone who had disappeared needed to return, even if their memories were not intact.

“There were none.

“They disappear, they go away, they vanish.

“And they don’t come back.

“If they had someone accompanying them, that person did not return either.

“That was all─’twas self-contained.

“So much so that there was nothing we could do about it─I tried speaking to Aberration Slayer I, and we investigated it together, but ultimately we never found any evidence. Our conclusion was that perhaps these were crimes committed by a human.

“For while there may be no such thing as a perfect crime for aberrations, perfect crimes by humans do exist.

“This was not our job─that was the conclusion we came to, that ’twas not a job for either a god or an expert. ’Twas a job for the police.

“Well, in those days, the job of the temple schools…nay, what was it again? The doshin, or something like their kind?

“In any case, it fell upon another type of expert─while I would make it rain as a god, I was not getting involved in any opaque strife amongst humans.

“Though this was a dreadful shirking of responsibility in hindsight. I ought to have wondered why that aura of negative energy had yet to arrive this one time alone─aye, I ought to have wondered.

“About how just in the way the humans disappeared.

“So had the negative aura.

“I ought to have wondered about that.

“But in reality, I nearly failed to notice the mere fact they had never come. Why would I be bothered by them not arriving? Meanwhile, I would have no choice but to notice, had a mass of them come creeping and crawling, and I surely would have considered their cause. But humans, and vampires for that matter, cannot take seriously those dangers that are not pressing.

“I regret it, but I doubt my lesson will ever be of use.

“In brief, I did nothing.

“I lived as I had.

“And as I did they disappeared─the residents of the lands around me continued to go missing.

“Until no one was left.

“It kept continuing.”