007
My first encounter with Yotsugi Ononoki came over summer break─thinking back on that “incident,” I have to be honest, she didn’t make a very good impression on me.
To put it plainly, we were enemies.
What I mean when I say “encounter” is that we fought.
It made sense that Shinobu seemed unhappy about her own suggestion─because she and Ononoki had an honest-to-god duel to the death that time. Or no, maybe it wasn’t a duel to the death for Shinobu─but let’s leave that aside for now.
Yotsugi Ononoki.
Was an expert─and an expert specializing in immortal aberrations, including vampires, in fact.
“Ononoki, huh… But strictly speaking, Ononoki isn’t an expert, is she? It’s Yozuru Kagenui, who employs her as a shikigami, who deploys her as a familiar, who’s the expert, right?”
It’s unclear whether I understood that part correctly, but I’m pretty sure that was the deal. I somehow kept running into Ononoki since that incident over summer break, and our relationship had moved away from straightforward hostility─though her master Ms. Kagenui remained very much my enemy.
I’d heard rumors, but we hadn’t come face to face.
It was Shinobu who faced off against Ononoki.
And it was me who faced off against Ms. Kagenui─in a one-sided massacre. She ran roughshod all over me, but let’s leave that aside as well.
Yotsugi Ononoki and─Yozuru Kagenui, huh?
“Okay… Well, it’s definitely a good idea. Though it’s a real shame I can’t say so with a smile on my face.”
“Indeed.”
Shinobu’s feelings seemed similarly complicated.
Something seemed to be rankling her.
An expert who specialized in immortal aberrations was, when you get right down to it, fundamentally her enemy─so was it any wonder?
Then again, during that summer break both Shinobu and I were nothing more than “former” vampires, having already lost our immortality, so they let us off the hook─what was it they said, something about us being certified harmless?
I said, “Ononoki is one thing… But Ms. Kagenui, well, you know what kind of person she is, what kind of expert she is. If she found out I was manifesting symptoms of vampirism, you know she’d be eager to take me out.”
“To that too, I say indeed─indeed, what else could I? And yet, it cannot be that those two solve anything and everything by violent means. In fact, is not their central task, their bread and butter, ye might say, to keep the peasantry from transforming into immortal aberrations and the like?”
“Uh huh… But either way, their services won’t come for free. It’s their job, after all.”
Not gonna be cheap.
Gonna be pricey as hell.
Oshino had asked for five million yen─thinking back on it now, what the hell was he doing demanding that much money of a high school student?
“At least, Ms. Kagenui and Ononoki aren’t like Dramaturgy and those other guys… I’m pretty sure they aren’t.”
If they were, we’d be in trouble.
Because once I’d become a vampire over spring break, “those three” did their level best to take me out─me, and I was just Shinobu’s victim. Shoot first and ask questions later. Though I guess that makes sense, since once you narrow down the field even further from immortal aberrations to “vampire specialist,” you had to start viewing all vampires as uniformly evil.
“Ms. Kagenui…” I muttered. “You’re right. You’re absolutely right. She’s without a doubt the ‘strongest’ person I’ve ever met, and I’m sure if we could sidestep our past hostilities and get her to step over to our side, she’d make for a reliable ally.”
Karen once said that Yozuru Kagenui “might just about be a match for my sensei”─at that point I could only guess at how strong Karen’s sensei was from the many anecdotes she’d told me, but it struck me that her statement really said something about Yozuru Kagenui, that expert who avoids treading on the ground at all costs.
“When you get right down to it, Ononoki herself is something of an immortal aberration─”
“A zombie, more like. A corpse tsukumogami. Or to put it plainly, more a doll than aught else.”
“A doll…”
Yup.
That was about the size of things.
“Being a shikigami as she is. Though she be most free for a shikigami… ’Tis surely thanks to the nature of her master.”
As onmyoji are somewhat out of fashion of late, Shinobu added─though I doubted it had anything to do with what was trendy at the moment.
A shikigami’s level of freedom, I mean.
“So, what wilt thou, my lord?”
“Good question…”
If you removed my personal feelings─if you removed the resentment, of course, and the fear, the chattering teeth, going to them for help was an excellent idea. It almost seemed like a made-to-order model solution.
But at the same time, like I said, those two─or really just Ms. Kagenui, to be honest, had an extremely dangerous disposition, and she had what it took to back it up.
To the point that even that most ominous of ominous villains, the swindler Deishu Kaiki, openly hated dealing with her─probably because that silver-tongued devil knows better than anyone the privileges enjoyed by those who can solve things with violence.
One wrong word and instead of helping me she might just take me out─though if that’s as far as it went, I guess that would be my just deserts. If things really went south and we rehashed the events of the summer─
“But, or, hang on a sec, Shinobu.”
“Aye?”
“I don’t even know how to get ahold of those two.”
“Whaaat?”
Shinobu turned an accusing glare at me.
Seriously, those eyes really are something.
“Kagenui aside, ye joined forces with that Ononoki time and time again─and yet, thou art ignorant? Why did ye not ask for her digits?”
“Vampires don’t say ‘digits.’”
It lacked dignity.
Way too contemporary.
It was like Oshino using email.
“No, I mean, Ononoki just isn’t the kind of character who’d be walking around with a cell phone… I feel like she said something about not having one even for emergencies. Aberrations seem fundamentally unsuited to a technological civilization in the first place, don’t you think?”
“Is she really such a delicate flower? Hmmm. Then our situation is a difficult one indeed. If we cannot reach her by telephone, is there some other means we might employ?”
“I wonder…”
I wondered.
Modern society’s headlong rush towards increased connectivity, in the form of cell phones and email and whatever else, made it increasingly difficult to get in touch with people who chose not to rely on such tools.
Or maybe we just surrendered to convenience and let those skills atrophy.
It would’ve made things a lot easier if something like Monster Mail actually existed, but it didn’t, so─yup, it seemed like getting in touch with Ms. Kagenui and Ononoki would be just as tough as finding Oshino, now that he’d skipped town.
“What of Kaiki? Could we not contact him? Mayhap he could put us in touch with Kagenui.”
“You can’t be serious.”
I knew how sour my expression was even without a mirror, a reflection. Sure, that swindler was more cell phone-savvy than your average youth─but he’d used that savvy to pull a massive, outrageous con on the people of this town.
“Well…yeah. Though I obviously don’t have Kaiki’s digits, there’s a good possibility that Senjogahara would know how to get in touch with him, even if she didn’t have them either… But that’s a last resort, or a resort I wouldn’t even use as my last, Miss Shinobu.”
“Refrain from calling me ‘Miss.’ And wipe that pathetic look from thy countenance, ’twas clearly said in jest.”
However, noted Shinobu, “that leaves but one candidate.”
“It does? Who else is left? Oh, you mean Hanekawa?”
“That lass is indeed sagacious, but she is no expert─’tis rather Gaen to whom I refer.”
“Gaen.”
“Izukogaen. Is she not the ringleader of these experts?”
“Izuko Gaen…”
Right.
Now that Shinobu brought her up, I realized she was the first person we should’ve thought of─Oshino and Kaiki, and even Ms. Kagenui, referred fondly (?) to her as “Gaen-senpai.” An expert among experts.
And very much their ringleader.
She’d saved my skin before, and we’d also joined forces─and she carried plenty of telecom devices. It seemed like she carried five or six of the things in her pockets, from feature phones to smart phones.
And I felt like I had maybe gotten the number for one of them─
“I wonder, though. I find myself feeling more and more reluctant to ask her for help… Ms. Gaen’s a good person in her own way, but…”
I.
I know everything─she’s the type who can make a declaration like that with a straight face and no hint of shame, and rashly relying on her for help could lead me to a horrible end.
If Ms. Kagenui was scary for being so violent, and Kaiki for being so ominous, then Ms. Gaen─
Scared me by being too clever.
“Indeed, ’twould be no surprise for one who seemeth to know everything as she does to know a way to tackle the problem which now besets thee, and yet I cannot council thee to rely directly upon her. Even if ’twas not said in jest, ’twas nonetheless said merely to try the idea on for size. Therefore the most amenable option available to us at present is to send word to Gaen and ask to be put in touch with Kagenui after all.”
“…”
After giving it some thought, I said, “Okay, I’ve got no objections,” and reached out for my cell phone where it was plugged into the charger. “Domo arigato, Shinobu.”
“’Tis not a question of thanks. ’Tis a question of donuts.”
I guess she bore a grudge.
Her love of donuts was just too deep.
Not just deep, almost dark.
I picked up my cell phone.
“Mm─”
Mm?
When the display came up, I turned pale. That may sound like an exaggeration for literary effect, but psychologically it was entirely accurate. And it might sound contradictory, but I felt like I’d been headed off at the pass by someone I’d been chasing after furiously.
There was a message in my inbox.
The phone number itself I didn’t recognize, but the body of the message went like this:
Go to the arcade in the department store by the station
Fourth floor
7 p.m. tonight
I’ve arranged for you to meet Yotsugi there.
Please repay this favor with your friendship at some point in the future.
Your friend
Izuko Gaen
“…”
Speaking with the forced composure of hindsight, maybe it shouldn’t have been much of a surprise. Knowing Izuko Gaen’s sui generis character and generally peculiar characterization, maybe I shouldn’t have been surprised.
Since “heading people off at the pass” was her credo.
If─Oshino was the kind of guy who saw right through you.
Then─Ms. Gaen saw inside you.
She was penetrating.
She perceived exactly what my situation was─and knew exactly what to do about it. She must have.
“Nay, my lord. My lord my lord. Attempt not to force a rational explanation upon this. ’Tis merely creepy, this message which smacks of such omniscience. Seemeth it not almost as if she hath heard the very words of our conversation?”
“I’m doing my best to come to a realistic understanding of this bizarre occurrence, but don’t you go getting all realistic on me…”
I was terrified by the nonchalant request that I pay her back with my friendship, but at the same time, a path had opened before me─apparently, if I went to the department store by the station at seven o’clock that evening, Ononoki would be there waiting for me.
I hadn’t seen Ononoki…for about a month, maybe?
So it was not like I hadn’t seen her in a long time, but back then, things had been in crisis mode with Sengoku, and it was all lost in the maelstrom.
Then again, I was in one now─though I was “merely” dealing with my lack of a reflection this time.
“Oh yeah, I have to tell Senjogahara… We promised each other not to keep secrets when it came to aberrations.”
“That promise hath been broken not a few times.”
“Shut up… There are some things you can’t say no matter what, even if you don’t mean to keep them secret. But this is something I can’t not tell her─”
I didn’t want to worry her unnecessarily.
Was honestly how I felt─but then, this “I didn’t want to worry her unnecessarily” business often ended up becoming a source of worry for her.
“As for Hanekawa…I guess I won’t tell her yet. And even though Ms. Gaen’s involved, or precisely because she’s involved, it’s probably best not to tell Kanbaru either.”
“Indeed. On the occasion of thy previous alliance with her, Madam Ringleader desired to keep her true identity from her own niece─which might even turn out to be her weak point.”
“Quit looking for people’s weak points.”
“The wench might become a foe at any moment. Discerning her weak point could save us from hardship later on.”
“That’s my point! It’s precisely because she might become an enemy at any time that I don’t want you to do anything inflammatory, like, oh, search for her weak point. We definitely want to keep her on our side.”
“Aha, I see thy point.”
I checked the screen of my phone one more time.
Reread the message.
I was apprehensive that another penetrating message from Ms. Gaen might’ve appeared right then, but it hadn’t─maybe I didn’t need to be so scared?
Either way, the arrival of this lifesaver of a message was a positive development for me.
However frightening.
It was a positive development.
She was a terrifyingly pragmatic person─a nightmarish realist, so if there was nothing to be done about my current situation, she wouldn’t have sent me the message. The fact that Ms. Gaen was putting me in touch with Ononoki meant that there had to be some means of solving my problem.
That was what I thought.
Though maybe I just wanted to think it.
And as I was thinking that despite the early hour, I should call Senjogahara, whose path to higher education was already set in stone, and who was consequently spending her days loafing since she didn’t have to go to school anymore─
“Biiig brotherrrr!” the door to my room flew open and Tsukihi barged in.
It’s not that she didn’t knock, but her knock was so violent that it was part and parcel with the “flew open” bit.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing, running away and leaving me behind like that?! Do you have any idea how badly Karen thrashed me after you left?!”
Maybe because she was so incensed, Tsukihi busted into my room in nothing but a bath towel. It was only wrapped around her waist, leaving her upper body completely exposed.
A hell of a fashion statement. A little too cutting edge.
Shinobu was used to my sisters barging into my room like that, so she dove instantly back into my shadow.
“What the? Why are the curtains drawn, big brother? You becoming a shut-in? Or were you planning to go back to sleep? As if I’d let that happen!”
“No no no. The sunlight was just too bright.”
There was no way I could properly explain, so I just told her a little white lie─not that she bought it or anything, but nor did I think she was in a place to really get into it with me about my curtains being closed.
As I expected, Tsukihi let it drop, with a satisfied hunfnyaan…
Hunfnyaan? What even is that?
What a way to express your satisfaction.
“Anyway, big brother, you owe me an apology. Come on, apologize. Apologize with words. Apologize out loud. Say you’re sorry. Admit your mistake and apologize to me.”
“Look at the attitude on you… Fine, come a little closer.”
“Oh? You’re going to apologize to me? O ho ho, fine by me.”
The topless girl with the towel around her waist trotted towards me. What was it about my little sister that made her so surprisingly unseemly even though all that was going on was that she was fresh out of the bath?
I embraced that unseemly little sister.
Tightly.
“Hunfnyaan?!” Tsukihi shrieked in surprise─no, was it surprise, satisfaction, or something else? I wish she’d hurry up and standardize that one already.
Her character was too peaky and too vague.
“What kind of an apology is this?! What culture says sorry like this? In what country do they express their regret by embracing a naked woman?”
“The naked part isn’t my fault,” I whispered.
Into her ear.
I guess we really were the same height now, given that I could whisper directly into her ear as we embraced without having to lower my head at all.
“Just let your big brother make one request.”
“What? You’re going to ask for something instead of apologizing? You really are perverted… Look down your shirt and spell attic!”
That wasn’t how it was supposed to go.
My melons gaffe notwithstanding.
“Just consider yourself lucky that what I want entails a request, and not a demand.”
“Did you say ‘Wanton Tale’?”
“Tsukihi, listen, okay? I want you and Karen to stay at Kanbaru’s place tonight.”
“Huh?”
Tsukihi looked taken aback like I’d just said something totally nonsensical─no, from her perspective I had said something totally nonsensical, so her reaction was right on the money.
“What’s going on?”
“Don’t ask me why. Please don’t ask. I’ll talk to Kanbaru and Karen about it too, so just do it… Please.”
The home of Suruga Kanbaru, daughter of Izuko Gaen’s older sister Toé Gaen─the safest place I could think of on the spur of the moment.
Ononoki was one thing, but if I was going to make contact with Ms. Kagenui─I had to get Tsukihi far away, at least from our house.
If I didn’t.
It would be summer break all over again.
“Hmph,” grumbled Tsukihi.
Judging from how she didn’t say hunfnyaan, she was going along grudgingly. “Fine. And if I do, it’ll be okay?”
“Yeah. If you’ll do it, I’ll apologize.”
Still embracing her, I said in the present tense, not the past tense:
“Sorry I’m doing this to you.”
But I really blew it.
I was a fool.
Because given what was to come─I should’ve apologized for something else entirely.
No Comments Yet
Post a new comment
Register or Login