Monogatari Series - Volume 15 - Chapter 5.01

Chapter Five- Koyomi Wind

001

What does Nadeko Sengoku, a girl in her second year of middle school, think about roads? Does she even think about them at all? I’m forced to conclude that she probably doesn’t. I’m just making an assumption, of course, and depending on how you look at it, that might be a very rude thing to say. But a girl who always keeps her head down, who goes through life with eyes downcast, doesn’t see the road; the only thing she sees is her own two feet.

She’s a shoegazer.

I’m not saying that’s a bad thing.

Please don’t misunderstand, I’m not trying to be critical─having walked, sometimes even run through life with my eyes completely shut, how could someone like me, with quite literally no foresight, take issue with Sengoku, who has lived with her eyes fixed on her feet by hook or by crook, or rather, head-on without a wayward glance?

As someone who avoids looking at any part of himself, feet included, and who as a result lost sight of himself completely, I should be praising rather than criticizing Sengoku and her perpetually downturned gaze.

Step.

By step.

Always staring down at her feet─at her shoes, regardless of where she’s coming from or where she’s going. In a sense, in every sense, that’s a grueling life.

Life can be like that.

Life is like that.

It’s not for you or me to dismiss─at least, to dismiss out of hand.

Still, while hers may be a life, is she walking the path of humanity? Sengoku, who doesn’t know what path she’s following, who doesn’t even know the name of the road she’s on, has nothing to say about humanity.

The more important, the most important thing I want to point out about the way Nadeko Sengoku goes through life, however, is that if you live your life with your head down─

If you’re always focused on your feet, then you might manage to avoid falling, or tripping, or straying from the path─but you can’t avoid running into things unless you watch where you’re going.

And there’s this, which may not be all that important, but talk of humanity aside─when you take the low road.

The path of the snake, as in a real snake.

There are no feet in sight.