Monogatari Series - Volume 12 - Chapter 1.20

Hint: To Play after pausing the player, use this button

Add to favorites

020

“I am unsure.

“Did the strength of my jump tear his wrist from his body, or had the Darkness already engulfed him up to that point, leaving me no need to tear it at all─I feel it was the latter, given the clean cross-section.

“He’d grabbed on so tight that his nails dug into my skin, so I may have taken all of him with me to the South Pole instead were it the former…

“No, he’d have been dead on arrival in that case, given the ultra-high speeds, the drop in oxygen content, and the changes in gravity and air pressure… However much expert knowledge he may have had, his body was but a human’s.

“That’s all the backstory there is here.

“In the end, I remained alone at the South Pole with his hand─‘remained alone’ may be a poor choice of words after having traveled at such an incredible velocity, but none better describe my sentiment at the time.

“That Darkness was not pursuing me in the least.

“And every one of those people I’d come to know in those days, though I may not have known their names─Aberration Slayer I included─had gone away.

“In all likelihood.

“Because that Darkness─had swallowed them all.

“There I remained, alone.

“I’d been left to myself.

“For the first time in a hundred years─I thought. Nay, I had likely erased that memory─yet it had been revived.

“A woeful sense of isolation gripped me.

“Aye, isolation. That thing ye always feel. As I’ve transcended that dimension, I’ve never once felt lonesome, but everyone ought to, everyone can afford to have that kind of an experience a couple of times in one’s life.

“Having just encountered the unknown phenomenon known as the Darkness no doubt affected me. While feelings of fear or anxiety may be a stretch─I did sense its menace.

“While you said I’d lost my feral nature by being too strong─that precise nature revived within me for the first time in ages.

“And so─I revived him.

“I created my first thrall─just like that, as with thee. When I create thralls, ’tis only for quite selfish and egotistical reasons.

“There’s something known as the suspension-bridge effect─aye, the one in manga and the like. One confuses the heart-pounding fear from standing atop said bridge with the heart-pounding of romantic excitation. Explained in that manner, ’tis an easily understood phenomenon, but I believe the effect may be interpreted differently.

“That is, when a living creature feels ’tis in a situation where its life is threatened, it thinks of creating progeny and more easily falls in love.

“In my situation, my life had never before been in any sort of danger, and so I never felt like creating any thralls─and in fact, I cannot deny that I was on the verge of death during that time with thee, too.

“Perhaps I was far closer to death then than when I met thee─and so I felt that way.

“Romance, love, family, thralls─’twas not that emotional of a thing, but an impulsive, contemptible reason. My heart was simply weak. Aye, I permit thee to feel disappointed here.

“Though ’twould be nothing short of misguided to expect human emotions out of me─as a man who abandoned his humanity out of such misguided feelings, thou dost have the right to feel disappointed.

“I think. ’Twould allow me to rest easier as well─hm?

“What was that?

“How did I revive him when there was not so much as a corpse? Aberration Slayer I’s body had been engulfed by the Darkness?

“Come, now, how many times have I told thee to listen─stop making me repeat myself so often.

“Not all of Aberration Slayer I’s body was swallowed up by the Darkness─I said his right hand came with me to the South Pole.

“Aye, from the wrist onward.

“’Twasn’t even his head─but a hand is more than enough.

“Who dost thou think I am? So long as I have any part of a body with me, a fist or whatever else, I can use it as a sample from which the whole is revived.

“True, if the cells of the part in question, the right hand in this case, were to die off completely, then ’twould be beyond me.

“Strictly speaking, I am not reviving any corpse. I take that which is alive, make it immortal, and ensure that it does not die.

“So while I need only a part of a body, using a broken nail, a strand of hair, or a flake of skin would indeed be impossible─and of course, there must be blood within that part.

“As I am a vampire.

“While I understood the theory behind this as my character profile, ’twas my first time putting it into practice. I had no idea what would happen until I tried.