Monogatari Series - Volume 13 - Chapter 1.20

020

Senjogahara had received her “death sentence” from Nadeko Sengoku two months ago, back in November. Every day since had been a battle against the fear of death.

That’s not to say that Araragi, who had died time and again─who had experienced death time and again thanks to the blood of an immortal vampire coursing through his veins─wasn’t also afraid, but surely his fear couldn’t compare to the mortal terror that Senjogahara was feeling.

Which is why, at last.

At long last, Hitagi Senjogahara could relax a little─though it wasn’t cute of her, but quite funny, that she’d fled to the powder room because she didn’t want to cry in front of me.

To be sure, she might still have kept a stiff upper lip if it were only her life that was on the line─but at the prospect of her sweetheart’s survival, I guess she just couldn’t hold back the tears.

That’s the kind of woman she is.

That’s the kind of fool she is.

At any rate, the conversation stalled out at that point (any time I tried to say something, Senjogahara would just incoherently express her gratitude to me, making it more or less impossible to proceed), so I led her out of Mister Donut, shoved a 10,000-yen note into her fist, and bundled her into a taxi like a piece of luggage.

I’d been foiled in my attempt to bring up my lingering anxiety, “what I really needed to be worried about,” but that was something I didn’t need to discuss with Senjogahara and could just keep to myself for now.

Since it seemed like it was going to be such a piece of cake to hoodwink Nadeko Sengoku, I was definitely trying to maintain my equilibrium and forcing myself to identify something, anything, to be anxious about.

I watched the taxi carrying Senjogahara pass through the intersection, then returned to my hotel where I proceeded to update my notes.

I was not keeping a record of the job─given the line of work I’m in, leaving a written record would be the height of folly.

Nor was I keeping a diary─I was working on my plan. Making notes for the future. I had to add more information to my map. You can’t go on using an outdated GPS forever.

Next I made a few calls.

There were some people I had to talk to who weren’t awake during the day─I was laying some groundwork, or making the preliminary preparations for some preliminary preparations, something along those lines. Duping Nadeko Sengoku would be easy in and of itself, but that didn’t mean I could cut corners.

I had to double- and triple-check everything before I tackled this job.

The real problem…will be expenses, I thought as I drew in a likeness of Nadeko Sengoku. I drew a picture of the offertory box as well, adding a “↓”and a sketch of Yukichi Fukuzawa whose portrait graces the 10,000-yen note.

Yup. That was “what I really needed to be worried about,” the issue I had failed to bring up.

“Ten thousand, every time I see her… With my remaining funds, not even five more visits.”

Nadeko Sengoku.

An expensive woman.

Unfortunately, though, in order to win her trust, in order to deepen our relationship to the point that I could feed her the lie about Senjogahara and Araragi’s deaths (as long as we got to that point, she would buy it; the problem was getting to that stage in our relationship), five visits probably wouldn’t cut it.

Every three days or so, I’d told Senjogahara, but every day would be even better if I could make it work─maybe call it the traditional “hundred-day pilgrimage” for granting a wish.

I’d also warned Senjogahara that I’d bill her if my expenses exceeded 100,000 yen, but it’d be impossible to collect in practice.

She might be a good student, but that was a bad debt.

A woman that capable wouldn’t need to resort to selling herself, she could make plenty of money from a regular part-time job─or from helping out with her father’s work, but it was dangerous for me to get involved in any long-term dealings with her.

The best course of action was to collect what I could collect when the job was done before high-tailing it out of there.

Probably for the first time in my life, I was facing the almost unthinkable prospect of paying out of pocket for a job, of voluntarily taking a loss.

Oh boy.

That said, the thought of cutting ties with Hitagi Senjogahara once and for all brought me a feeling of relief; my mind was like a majestic, cloudless blue sky.

Around three o’clock in the morning I finished my notes and went to bed.