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Monogatari Series - Volume 12 - Chapter 1.18




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018

“There it was.

“Or there it existed?

“Were it an aberration, the former would be fine─but embarrassingly enough, I had nary a guess as to it’s existence.

“I thought ’twas a weather phenomenon at first, to be honest─while I may be able to go out into the sun, ’tis my natural-born enemy all the same, and I was not intimately familiar with it. Perhaps ’twas a phenomenon that occurred when sunlight was reflected, I thought─when.

“When I witnessed that Darkness.

“That black mass─feels like the best way to express it, but it did not seem solid enough to call a mass. In fact, it seemed to spread vaguely about─its size about the same, human height as thou saw.

“But even that was uncertain.

“I could not gauge our distance, so how could I know its size?

“Its identity was entirely unknown to me. I lacked any idea─in fact, ’twas as if I was missing a part of my vision. As if I simply could not see a portion of the sight before me…

“Like ’twas empty.

“Thou said thou intuited something dangerous about it the moment thou saw it and darted away… But unfortunately, I had no such intuition.

“What in the world is this, I thought as I looked at it like a fool.

“Ye could say I was as curious as one could be seeing this new sight─’tis rare for me to experience something novel. In fact, I nearly felt joy.

“I’d lost my feral nature? That may indeed be appropriate─lacking any sense of danger sounds like mockery, but perhaps thou art right.

“And Aberration Slayer I was the same─and no, not because of his dampened spirits. Emaciated, enfeebled, down, or depressed, an expert hunter from a fine pedigree he was all the same─his body would have reacted on its own had an aberrational phenomenon occurred.

“Yet he did not react.

“As though he were dumbfounded─while in my case ’twas an excess of experience, ’twas the excess of knowledge in Aberration Slayer I’s mind that left him unable to move, dazed and vacant.

“He knew not what it was─and.

“He erred in trying to understand this thing he knew not.

“Thou art an amateur who does not even attempt to flaunt his smatterings of knowledge, and it must be this amateurism that allows thee to up and leave without a second thought when faced with the unknown.

“That may sound as though I am calling thee a fool, but nay, this is praise─in fact, thy decision was the correct one.

“I was the mistaken one─we were.

“And before we could even recognize our error─it engulfed.

“Thy bicycle was too, was it not? Likewise, it engulfed. Not sucked up into blackness or absorbed into shadows─I can only describe it as being engulfed by the darkness.

“Who was? Well, the both of us.

“Both of us were engulfed.

“The legendary vampire Kissshot Acerolaorion Heartunderblade and Aberration Slayer I, wielder of the two enchanted blades─together.

“Ah, now I see.


“So this was the truth behind the spiriting away─I realized, however late. Aye, however late. For half of my body had already been engulfed by the Darkness. Nay, not merely half. About three quarters─come to think of it, I’d met a worse fate than having all four of my limbs taken from me.

“But of course, I still had a quarter remaining, and that was more than enough─to flee, that is.

“Wait, no, not flee, I did no such thing. I’ve never once fled in my life─um, so as I was saying, a quarter of my body was more than enough to disengage from the scene.

“Ye spoke of the Unlimited Rulebook’s Disengagement Edition─but I disengaged, allow me to repeat, with a disengagement far exceeding that poor excuse for one. I would never pale in comparison to that tsukumogami girl, no matter the activity. I surpass her in everything.

“In that sense, I was not entirely joking when I spoke to thee about circling the earth seven and a half times in a single leap.

“In any case, I left the scene behind. Or not the scene so much as─that Darkness.

“Hm? The tsukumogami girl’s withdrawals could only reach a few dozen miles at best, no? ’Tis cute to call it disengagement─for I flew to the South Pole.

“Yes, to the same South Pole I’d saved as a vacation home.

“Those three quarters engulfed included a leg of mine─so I flew a hundred thousand miles with what thou may call a one-legged jump. On a different level, am I not?

“…’Tis not a hundred thousand miles to the South Pole? ’Tis only ten thousand at most? Hmph. How boorish of thee to make such minute corrections for the sake of comedy when I clearly speak of my perceptions.

“In any case, I disengaged. With all my might.

“Even after I reached the South Pole, I was convinced ’twould come after me. I was not able to feel as though I’d truly gotten away─I simply wanted some time, even a moment, to renew the parts of my body that had been swallowed up.

“And that is why I escaped─my plan was to jump elsewhere next, perhaps even Mars. I’d know I was in a safe place if I could withdraw to space…though going beyond the stratosphere offered no guarantee.

“Even I had never experienced having my body shaved away thus, so my first instinct was to get some distance from the thing.

“But moving on, there was no need to go so far─once I’d arrived in the Antarctic, once I’d reached the South Pole and instantaneously regenerated my body, and lay in wait─the Darkness never came after me.

“No matter how long I waited.

“Aye, I did wait for it. For I craved a powerful enemy─I was starved for an opportunity to display my full powers, or rather, I barely had any chances to do so in the first place.

“So in a sense, I did enjoy this game of tag─yet never received another visit.

“It seems to have followed thee quite a bit, but I had no clues as to its logic then─I determined that perhaps it may not be the kind of thing that follows, moves, or the like, and so I allowed my guard to fall for the time being.

“It does seem to move, according to thy story, and apparently it can even teleport. Our stories do not match up there…but perhaps ’tis able to follow someone moving at the velocity of a mere bicycle.

“I only mean to say ’twas no match for my all-out speed─and it seems the tsukumogami girl’s Unlimited Rulebook was able to elude it, after all.

“Perhaps there are individual differences─if we’re to permit any individuality to it.

“I feel as though ’twas not even a solid body.

“It seemed to be liquid, or perhaps gaseous.

“But whether it gave chase or not, its identity was unknown to me all the same─that said, ’tis difficult to constantly be prepared for war.

“I would have to stop concentrating sooner or later.

“And so I stopped sooner.

“Again, stop castigating me as being too nonchalant, ’twas my personality at the time. I could not help it─I thought that if I were going to have to stop sooner or later, ’twould make no difference if I did so sooner.

“And whether or not I was focused, I’d not act differently─in any case, this is how I left Japan.

“From there, I did not return.

“The next time I visited─was half a year ago. Which would be when I met thee.”





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