Monogatari Series - Volume 16 - Chapter 9.01

Chapter Nine- Koyomi Torus

001

For Shinobu Oshino, to speak of a road was once to speak of the road at night. And, as supreme ruler of the darkest hours, the night road was the royal road─of the immortal king of aberrations.

That’s all in the past now, of course─way in the past, and her current domain consists solely of my shadow, an area not even ten feet square. I’m pretty sure that’s a source of a bit, or, a great deal of disgruntlement for Shinobu, but at present I’ve yet to receive any formal complaints regarding the matter.

For those possessed of an absolute confidence in themselves, maybe the amount of property they own isn’t actually much of a problem─well, it might be a problem, but whatever problems might arise, whatever they might lack, as long as they have themselves they’re able to deal with it.

Even if they should lose their power.

Even if they should lose that which defines them.

Even then─as long as they have themselves.

“Verily, the road at night be no cause for alarm to one such as I─’tis rather the noonday road with its blazing orb hanging overhead that presents a danger.”

She said this to me on the roof of that abandoned building─back when she was not a pseudo-vampire, not the dregs of a vampire nor the shadow of her former self, but a full-fledged vampire.

In other words, back when she was still the iron-blooded, hot-blooded, yet cold-blooded vampire known as Kissshot Acerolaorion Heartunderblade.

A vampire speaking of the risks of the noonday sun─well, yeah, almost too typical. While people like Mèmè Oshino and that triumvirate of vampire experts were certainly her enemies, never has she had a greater natural enemy than the sun.

So the fact that losing her power paradoxically meant she could now walk around in broad daylight must’ve been something of an unexpected windfall.

No.

To collect that windfall she’d had to give up something much greater, so it’s probably a little weird to talk about it in such positive terms.

“And yet, on the night road, the next step is ever shrouded in darkness─an unseen path. Canst truly call a path unseen a path at all?”

She’s said some such thing.

True, for a road to function as a road, it has to be clearly delineated─simply defining it isn’t enough.

You know one when you see one seems like an appropriate requirement for a path─if someone told you afterwards that the ground you’d been traversing was in fact this or that road, it’d leave you cold, right?

To put it another way.

So long as you walk with your eyes closed, whatever path you may be on isn’t functioning as one─it’s just the ground.

It’s not a road, no matter how unwavering it might be.

That’s precisely why.

The streetlights come on at night.

So you don’t lose sight of the road─

Or so you don’t encounter aberrations.

“Hmph. Streetlights, thou sayest.”

The night hath long since lost its darkness─came the vampire’s irritated reply. Well, it’s understandable that she’d be irritated, given that a reduction in darkness diminished her territory─it might not be a problem, but her domain was still being invaded.

The dark.

Darkness.

These things are never extinguished. In fact, extinguishment creates the dark and darkness. And yet.

“Of old, ’twas naught but the moon─that illumined the roads at night.”

The perfect disc of the moon.

Unfortunately the moon wasn’t full that night─nevertheless, she gazed with longing at the sky.

At the night sky, illuminating the night road.