Monogatari Series - Volume 17 - Chapter 2.16

016

The epilogue, or maybe, the punch line of this story.

The next day, I was roused from bed as usual by my little sisters Karen and Tsukihi before trudging my way to school with heavy footsteps. The truth was clear now. The reality of the situation had been exposed. My forgotten memories had been dredged up and I’d learned what they meant, but what I needed to do stayed the same─improve my relationship with Sodachi Oikura.

Our feud two years earlier.

Our missed connection five years ago.

Both misdeeds and mistakes far too late to take back, I couldn’t redo any of it─which was exactly why I couldn’t fail now. At the very least, I had to be careful to make sure we never had another commotion like yesterday’s.

As I passed through the gates of Naoetsu High while thinking this, I saw Tsubasa Hanekawa trudging along with even heavier footsteps as if she alone shouldered all the troubles of this world.

She normally walked with excellent posture, so seeing her hunched over… Well, she was second only to me as far as being concerned about the hostility between Senjogahara and Oikura. We needed to work together as class president and vice president to tackle the situation, I thought, and called out to her from behind.

I then spoke openly to her about what I’d learned over the last couple of days about my relationship with Oikura─confessing all my thickheaded foolishness, which didn’t feel great, but I couldn’t keep it a secret from Hanekawa now. Not when we found ourselves in this spot.

It did seem wise to wait and see a little longer before telling Senjogahara about this one…

Either way, I braced myself for the unsparing reaction I deserved, but to my surprise Hanekawa said:

“Ogi Oshino?”

She’d reacted to Ogi’s name.

“Mister Oshino’s─niece?”

“Um…yeah. I figured a lot out thanks to her. I guess you could say it runs in the Oshino family, she was quite the detective. I doubt I could have solved yesterday’s mystery or the day before’s without her.”

“…”

Hanekawa seemed to ponder this─silently.

More sternly than you’d expect.

“Are you sure that’s who she is?”

“Huh? Yeah. I’m certain, Kanbaru introduced us,” I said, realizing that Kanbaru’s introduction was no guarantee at all of her identity being authentic. Something about her felt unfathomable─but now I realized I hadn’t fathomed a thing about her.

I don’t know anything.

You’re the one who knows.

But it seemed like I didn’t know anything, either.

What else─did I know?

“Araragi. It pains me to have to say something that would only keep picking at this wound…”

Hanekawa faced me. It was very much like her not to comfort me in a half-hearted manner─but even she seemed to balk at the thought of piling on me.

Don’t worry about me, I urged her, say it.

If anything, I didn’t want more causes for regret after coming this far. If Hanekawa noticed something from her point of view, I wanted her to come out and say it.

We entered the school building and began climbing the stairs to our class as we continued our conversation side by side.

“It wouldn’t be strange for her to learn, somehow, that you’d hit a wall with math during your first-year, first-term finals in middle school. And I could see her putting the Monty Hall problem in your shoe locker and playing upon that. But─how did Miss Oikura learn the most vital fact in her plan, that your parents are police officers?”

“Huh…”

“Weren’t you doing your best to hide it?”

Right.

Even Hanekawa didn’t know what my parents did until my little sisters told her just the other day. I had a habit of not telling anyone, even when asked, to avoid any extraneous or unnecessary trouble─so why?

Why did Oikura know?

How?

“Well, maybe she just happened to find out some way or another,” Hanekawa said, qualifying her query, “but couldn’t there still be something? I don’t know what, but something. Some kind of memory─involving you and Miss Oikura that you have to go further back to remember. A door you have to open.”

As far as memories─and families were concerned, Tsubasa Hanekawa had more to say than the average person. The words carried a lot of weight when they came from this girl with mismatched wings.

A memory I needed to go further back to remember.

A door I needed to open.

If they existed, they’d be from a time before I was even a middle schooler─around the time Oikura and I were in grade school… What could have possibly happened then?

Could there really be something I was still forgetting─on top of all that?

If there was.

Just how big of a fool was Koyomi Araragi?

Was there no end to my foolishness?

─How could I ever forget you.

Oikura said that to me. Which meant she must remember. About this fool, two years ago, five years ago, and even before that.

I arrived in front of the classroom─whether or not Sodachi Oikura was there on the other side was an impossible proof.