Monogatari Series - Volume 17 - Chapter 2.05

005

Upon further inspection, a body resembling Hanekawa’s clung to Senjogahara around her hips. And looked exhausted. A fairly rare state to see the class president in, but the sight of her gave me more or less of an idea of what had happened. In other words, what took place somewhere else before Hitagi Senjogahara and Tsubasa Hanekawa’s arrival.

After we parted ways, Hanekawa must’ve conducted whatever procedures were needed to reinstate (?) Oikura in the teachers’ room, and while I have no way of being sure whether it happened before or after she finished her business there, she had a chance encounter with Senjogahara, who arrived at school. More of an ill-fated encounter, considering Hanekawa’s current state─but in any case, she must’ve told Senjoghara about Oikura coming to school. Naturally, Hanekawa at least knew that Oikura and Senjogahara were once classmates─and maybe the conversation even led to her stating that Oikura and I were meeting now.

Hanekawa wouldn’t have said this with any sort of urgency, but from the point of view of Senjogahara, who knew of the “differences” between me and Oikura on a deeper, closer level than her, it’d have sounded like a notice of quite the storm brewing.

And she’d sped to the classroom like the wind─dragging Hanekawa along. It seemed her legs were every bit as powerful as when she was the star of the track team─or maybe she’d built them back up to that level? In any case, Senjogahara (and Hanekawa) appeared in the classroom at the worst possible moment.

“You’re fucking dead,” Senjogahara said.

I’d like you to note that the words came from her after she seemed to have turned a new leaf. It threatened to undo all her work until now, but she was just that full of quiet fury.

“Only I’m allowed to stab Araragi with stationery─no matter how much of that character I’ve abandoned, I won’t stand for any reuse of it.”

That’s what you’re mad about?

Be mad that your boyfriend got stabbed.

“M-Miss Senjogahara, please wai─”

In spite of her ragged state, Hanekawa did a laudable job trying to fulfill her duty as both class president and friend, but regrettably, she lacked the physical strength.

Senjogahara walked straight toward us.

Ready to throw herself straight into a sea of mines.

“Miss Senjogahara.”

And then.

Oikura noticed─her former classmate.

As president and leader of Year 1 Class 3, Oikura had to remember a classmate as distinctive as Hitagi Senjogahara, the weakly honors student.

I had no idea what kind of relationship Senjogahara, once considered untouchable, used to have with Oikura─but whatever friendly relations they may have once had, even if they’d been the closest and best of friends, weren’t about to resume now.

The air was just that tense.

On Senjogahara’s side, of course─and on Oikura’s as well.

“Oh. So that’s how it is. I get it now,” Oikura said. A contemptuous smile crept onto her face. “You’re going out with Araragi─how far you’ve fallen.”

“…”

This actually had the effect of bringing Senjogahara back to her senses. As someone with crisis-management abilities and observational skills far superior to mine, she must have instantly recognized Sodachi Oikura’s mental and emotional state.

She recognized the danger─the fragility there.

An aggression built upon weakness that permitted no counterattack.

The old Senjogahara would have surely gone right ahead and opposed Oikura, but─

“Miss Hanekawa. It’s fine. You can let go of me,” the “fallen” Senjogahara said. “I’m sorry. It was nothing.”

“Are you sure?” asked Hanekawa, having been dragged all this way, as she moved away from her hips. The most right-minded, good-hearted person here, she had drawn the short straw.

“It’s fine. Thank you. I’m always grateful for your self-sacrificing friendship.”

“You’re very welcome…”

“As a show of gratitude, I’ll be your hug pillow one of these days.”

“I don’t know about saying that at school, Miss Senjogahara…”

I promptly hid my stabbed hand behind my back.

Hanekawa gave me a questioning look, but even in her exhausted state she wisely decided that now was not the time and returned her gaze to Senjogahara, Oikura, and the tense situation between them.

It almost seemed like a face-off between the two stationery girls, new and old─but Senjogahara was already somewhat relaxed. This, however, seemed only to goad Oikura.

Of course─she hated everything now. Was there anything that wouldn’t goad her on?

“What do you mean, it’s nothing? Are you saying that I’m nothing? Just look at how great you’re doing now. You used to be a useless sick girl who couldn’t do a thing unless I took care of you.”

“You seem terribly busy holding me up and bringing me down─Miss Oikura. But yes, it’s true that you did a lot for me. You never punched down,” Senjogahara said flatly.

It brought me back─but her affect, or lack thereof, seemed somewhat strained. She was puffing herself up in a way, when she didn’t need to, and it was to maintain some kind of balance with Oikura.

“Not that you have the capacity for kindness towards anyone now, sick or not.”

“So are you better, Miss Senjogahara?”

“Yes. Thank you.”

This thank-you seemed to irritate Oikura once again─I’d given her my own empty thanks, but apparently she hated hearing the words.

“Did Araragi decide to apply for college because you’ve been looking after him? If that’s the case─you ought to stop, it’s pointless. He’s never going to appreciate it no matter what you do for him. He thinks he lives his life all on his own. No matter how much you do, he’s going to keep on thinking that he did it all thanks to himself.”

“Well, you might be right.”

Hey now.

Don’t just accept it, I thought─but like me, Senjogahara must have felt that contradicting Oikura now was a bad idea. Maybe what looked to be a solid discussion had already collapsed, and the issue at hand was how to bring this situation to an end.

A way to lower the curtain.

Ultimately, the only way was to tear the curtain to shreds─notwithstanding Hanekawa’s presence. I shuddered with fear when I thought about all that implied.

“But really, it doesn’t matter─it’s not like I’m seeking a reward. What I want is for Araragi to attend college with me, so I’m not going to hope for anything beyond that.”

The ironclad assumption was that she would get in (she could talk this way because she was all but guaranteed recommendation-based admission)─and something or other, possibly the part about not “seeking a reward,” ticked off Oikura. She flew off the handle yet again─and sent her palm flying toward Senjogahara.

A slap.

Fortunately, there was no stationery nearby─fortunately for Oikura, I mean. Because Senjogahara’s counterattack would have surely involved that piece of stationery.

Devastating, in her hands─even an eraser dealt more damage than the strike she did deliver in return, with her fist.

“Mgh!”

The entire class fell silent.

I, who was too late to stop them, and Hanekawa, who foolishly believed Senjogahara and let go of her, and our classmates, who watched at a distance, and of course the clobbered Oikura.

She crumpled to the floor and didn’t get up.

While you might call this the rare example of rock earning a win over paper, Senjogahara, the winner─despite being as expressionless as she had been in her old days─looked like she knew she’d done something wrong.

Well, yeah. You can’t rock someone with a punch like that…

“Araragi,” Senjogahara said in a quiet voice only I could hear. “I’m going to pass out too, so please take care of the rest.”

What?

Before I could finish reacting, she fainted on the spot like an anemic student passing out during morning assembly as the principal gave one of his long sermons.

With an even more dramatic noise than when Oikura collapsed.

And she’d fallen completely unconscious, not so much as breaking her fall.

It was such an impressive display of playing dead that even I had trouble telling if it was real. Was she a ladybug or something?

And with this, the early-morning commotion came to a shocking end, with two girls pitifully splayed on the floor.

In other words, Hanekawa, the class president, and I, the vice president, had been left to handle the aftermath─but I’ll skip over what happened next. As a true devotee of Tsubasa Hanekawa, I don’t want to have to depict her swamped and exhausted.