Monogatari Series - Volume 13 - Chapter 1.16

016

People like to throw around the term “power spot,” but naturally I don’t lend it much credence. In that vein, however, Kita-Shirahebi Shrine would be a “negative power spot.”

Negative power. Damn, that sounds fishy.

Oshino called it a “hangout for aberrations”─as well as an “air pocket.” Those descriptions, apt and to the point, are very him, but if you ask me it’s just a plain old hilltop.

Such a place being damp, dark, and uncomfortable was par for the course. I’d intended to visit the shrine on a number of occasions last time I was in town, but for various reasons never got around to it.

I had heard about it beforehand, and according to those stories it was nothing more than a crumbling ruin─but when I got there (after trudging up the mountain in the snow and almost giving up more than once), a splendid main hall that looked brand-new greeted me.

Not just looked, I was pretty sure it was brand-new. It had the feel of fresh construction─could it possibly have appeared in the ruins thanks to the wondrous divine power of a newly manifested serpent god?

No, that was a ridiculous thought, it was probably just the fruit of some bureaucratic process─construction plans that had been made a long time ago had only now been put into action. Nothing to do with Nadeko Sengoku.

Oddly, though, the imposing presence of a small but tidy main hall in the dead center of the grounds seemed to lend the mountain itself a brisk air.

Like the dampness had been swept away.

I walked down the path to the hall.

They say you’re supposed to stay to the side because the center is where the gods tread, but what do I care.

There ain’t no path I can’t walk, ain’t no mountain I can’t climb.

In fact, if my sacrilegious attitude sent the god here into such a rage that she appeared before me, that would be to my benefit, but sadly, no such luck. People wouldn’t appreciate deities who popped up so readily.

I arrived at the offertory box.

I didn’t sense anyone inside the hall─maybe this should go without saying, but it seemed unmanned. The shrine may have been rebuilt, but it hadn’t openly revived as an object of worship, and a quick survey of the scene showed no sign that anyone had come for a New Year’s visit.

Being in snow country comes in handy in these instances: you can determine the recent turnout from how the snow is piled and any footprints, or lack thereof.

There seemed to be no question that I was the first person to visit the shrine since the beginning of the new year.

In other words, the main hall at Kita-Shirahebi was new, but that was it─nothing else had been restored. Some head priest probably looked after the shrine, of course, but was hardly putting it to active use. Then again, who knew what the future held?

To put it another way, if this shrine ended up bustling with people on New Year’s Day, Nadeko Sengoku’s divine powers would be further enhanced, until no one could stop her─if anything was to be done, it had to be done before then. Well, maybe it was already too late, and no one could stop her. And if things continued the way they were, Araragi and Senjogahara, at least, wouldn’t live to see next year.

Anyway, I’d do what was mine to do.

Whatever’s mine to do, to make life easier for myself.

I took some change from the pocket of my suit, thought better of it, pulled a 10,000-yen bill from the other pocket, and placed it in the offertory box.

Bow twice clap twice bow once.

I wasn’t sure if that was right, but I went through the worshipping motions as I recalled them─how many years had it been since I last made them? As a minimal act of recalcitrance, I had slipped the 10,000-yen note into the box as deliberately as possible instead of tossing it, and to judge from my awkwardness, this may have been Deishu Kaiki’s first-ever New Year’s shrine visit.

As my worship came to an end─

“Here’s Nadeko!”

Racing out from inside the main hall, the deity manifested just like that.

Appreciate, no.

But I had a favorable impression because a 10,000-yen bill had drawn her out─even if her jubilant look evoked not so much a god pleased by almsgiving as a child exulting over a New Year’s cash gift.