Monogatari Series - Volume 17 - Chapter 3.05

005

“You mustn’t ask her, Araragi,” Hanekawa panted. She must have run to the gates from our school building. Had she left like usual, ready to head toward Senjogahara’s home, only to find me and Ogi speaking by the gates and dashed over to us in a panic?

Ogi smiled.

She smiled as she looked at Hanekawa.

“Hanekawa…”

I didn’t understand what was happening, so I tried saying her name for now. Sort of like the way you invoke God’s name when you’re in a bad spot, but true to form, Hanekawa calmed her breathing, looked up, and answered me.

“You know you shouldn’t─you can’t get an underclassman involved with an in-class dispute.”

“Mm?”

Oh.

That’s what she meant? That’s what it was?

I’d wondered what it could be, the way she yelled my name in the kind of desperate tone you’d use to stop a friend from starting down a path of sin, but it turned out that she only wanted to give me some very common sense.

She was absolutely right, too.

Yes, you shouldn’t get an outsider involved with internal affairs─even if Ogi offered to do so.

Upon reconsideration, it wasn’t even worth considering.

“Ogi─”

“No, no, no, no. There’s no need to be so strangely considerate─it’d only hurt more,” Ogi interrupted me. While her tone sounded humble, her stance was firm, unwilling to cede a single step. “Please, you have to let me come along with you─I won’t get in your way or anything. I just want to help you in any small way I can. Think of how mean you’d be to agree only to turn me down later.”

“Urk.”

She’d put me in a tight spot.

Even I could tell that she wasn’t saying this because she wanted to help me out─I assumed it was a manifestation of her leering curiosity, but true, it’d be mean to turn her down after saying yes.

“If it’s me you’re worried about, don’t be─I don’t mind one bit,” she said. “If anything, I’m shocked that you’d be so standoffish after all we’ve gone through together. Floored, I tell you. I thought we had a relationship.”

“What kind of relationship do you and Araragi have, exactly?”

Just as Ogi nearly bowled me over with her pushiness (an Oshino trademark?), or rather, her momentum, Hanekawa jumped in.

I was surprised to see her, of all people, do this. I never saw Hanekawa as the type to insert herself in a situation between two people─but then again, she’d sprinted over here.

When I thought about it that way, of course she was going to butt in.

“You and Araragi met for the first time just three days ago, right?” she asked─still smiling, of course. Going by her smile alone, she was gently scolding a selfish underclassman.

“That’s right,” Ogi agreed for the moment. “But relationships aren’t always about time─in fact, he and I became kindred spirits in no time at all. We’ve been locked in a strange classroom together, gone on an adventure in an abandoned home together. The two of us have shared experiences that would normally seem impossible─isn’t that right, Araragi-senpai?”

“Hm? Oh, well, yeah.”

I mean, I’d been willing to take her out to a sushi-doesn’t-go-round when I’m just a high school student. I wouldn’t do that unless we were real kindred spirits, huh?

“Oh, I heard,” Hanekawa said. “It seems like you’ve done quite a lot for Araragi─for a very important friend of mine, and so I’d been wanting to thank you.” She was now physically getting between me and Ogi in addition to doing so conversationally. And then, for all to hear─

“But of course, I’d have done a better job.”

“…”

Ogi went quiet. She froze, with a smile─with something resembling a smile still on her face.

Hold on, what was going on here?

This may have been my first time seeing Hanekawa act this aggressive. Even if it wasn’t, it’d been a really long time. Like─spring break, maybe? Spring break─when Tsubasa Hanekawa got between me and a legendary vampire?

“Hmm…”

After a long and heavy silence.

Ogi finally opened her mouth.

“Is that so─yes, I suppose. I’m sure you’d have done a better job, Miss Hanekawa─you’re a genius, after all. Yes, I’ve heard all about that from my uncle.”

“When you say your uncle, do you mean Mister Oshino?”

“Yes. I’m his niece, you know.”

This elicited a slight reaction from Hanekawa, who paid a lot of respect to Oshino. You could even say she’d been infatuated with the way he lived. It made sense for her to react to his name─but in that case, you’d think she’d pay his niece some respect too… Her attitude toward Ogi was the opposite of what you’d call respectful.

“Then again─all that genius is meaningless unless you can make use of it. In the end, I was the one to be by his side at those times.”

Ogi slipped away from her position in front of Hanekawa─as if her gaze meant nothing. I doubt I’d be able to move if Hanekawa decided to stare me down head-on─I’d be petrified in more ways than one, but Ogi didn’t seem the least bit daunted.

What mental toughness.

That’s Oshino’s niece for you.

Unbelievably enough, Ogi then tried striking back.

“Your genius is such that even my uncle was frightened of it, I hear─yes, but when I consider that, you’re not quite as impressive as I was led to believe. The Tsubasa Hanekawa I’d heard about─would never be absent when Koyomi Araragi was in danger.”

“…”

“So I’ll graciously accept your thanks. What an honor it is. You may have been able to do a better job, but in the end, you didn’t do anything. And when you say a better job,” provoked Ogi, “don’t you mean back when you were in your prime?”

I could describe her attitude and tone as the same as what she used with me. Ogi treated everyone in the same, consistent way─but while she could say that stuff to me, I wasn’t going to turn a blind eye to her treating Hanekawa this way.

I scolded her. Sternly.

“Hold on, Ogi─what a thing to say. Some lines shouldn’t be crossed. What do you know about Hanekawa, anyway?”

“I don’t know anything,” Ogi replied. Gently. “You’re the one who knows. About Miss Hanekawa’s past and present, and about her future─yes, that, at least, isn’t the kind of thing I should be talking about.”

That, at least.

She spoke as if the existence of other things she should comment on was a given─her tone so certain that it seemed to preclude any further questioning.

“Well, Miss Hanekawa. I’m not foolish enough to try and compete with you. I wouldn’t want to do anything rude and earn the hatred of my beloved senior Araragi─so why don’t we agree to coexist. Now if you’ll excuse me.”

Ogi suddenly orbited around to behind where I stood, as if to circumvent Hanekawa─the girl was always at my back before I knew it. And look, now I found myself in between Hanekawa and Ogi. Please, it was the last place I wanted to be.

“Now go ahead, you’re going to visit Miss Senjogahara’s home, aren’t you? Her home seems to be the farther one, so shouldn’t you hurry along?”

“The farther one?” Hanekawa seemed to twitch.

She must have thought that even if Ogi had learned Oikura’s address from me, it was odd for her to know Senjogahara’s─and in that sense, I should have reacted even more myself. After all, I hadn’t given her Oikura’s current address, let alone Senjogahara’s.

But this feeling I got from Ogi.

The feeling that she knew what wasn’t known─I’d gotten pretty accustomed to it.

However menacing and outlandish it may have seemed to Hanekawa.

“No need to worry. If you don’t want your precious friend asking something of an underclassman, that doesn’t have to happen. I was the one to propose it, after all─this can be me deciding on my own to accompany him. Like a guardian spirit.”

A guardian spirit.

It sounded oddly realistic when it came from behind me─though it’s odd to call any statement having to do with spirits realistic.

“You wouldn’t mind that, would you? You know, like the kind of uninvited assistant you see all the time in mystery novels.”

More talk of mystery novels, and at a time like this. I was starting to feel a bit fed up with just how obsessed with them she was. Not that uninvited assistants could be called much of an officially recognized element of mystery fiction─and really, her role was more a detective’s two and three days ago, not an assistant’s.

An uninvited assistant?

This was really starting to sound like fan stuff now.

“I’m sure I’d be of help to him, and knowing that, I couldn’t possibly not be by his side. I can’t just leave him alone when something is troubling him─I’d like to be able to save him.”

“I thought people just go and get saved on their own?” countered Hanekawa.

“That’s my uncle’s stance. Mine is closer to the folktale about the crane who returns a favor.”

“A crane?” Hanekawa sounded confused. She must not have understood what Ogi meant─neither had I. There didn’t seem to be anything crane-like at all about Ogi’s actions.

“Or the story of the old man who offered his umbrellas to Buddhist statues. What I’m trying to say is that my rule is to pay back any favors with interest. I want people to say, ‘Hey, your gratitude tab wasn’t this big!’ Araragi-senpai has been so kind to me, a fresh transfer to this school─I’d like to repay that favor even if it means putting myself on the line.”

I’d been that kind to her after she transferred? Really? Oh, maybe she meant helping her with her map of the school? True, while I might have been the one to learn the truth behind the class council meeting, I was originally there to help her with her fieldwork. She did tag along with me for my own fieldwork the next day, though… But that was probably what she meant by paying me back with interest.

Not that I knew how serious she was being.

“Araragi.”

Dealing with Ogi would get her nowhere─Hanekawa’s attitude probably wasn’t that extreme, but she called my name. I felt nervous, wondering if she was going to attack me now, but no.

She said this instead.

“Change of plans. I’m going to Miss Oikura’s home too. With you, Araragi.”

This one surprised me.

She almost never changed plans once she’d decided on them─she couldn’t stand fickle policies.

“No complaints then. Right, Ogi? Your problem─is that you don’t want Araragi, a lone boy, going to Miss Oikura’s home. If I go with him, it’s no longer an issue. You have no more pretext.”

“…”

Ogi went silent as she stood at my back. I couldn’t see her at all, and wondered what kind of expression she had on… Could she actually be smiling like always?

Was she keeping it up even after Hanekawa had gotten Ogi’s pretext right through sheer conjecture?

A moment passed, and then─

“Whether there’s a problem or not, don’t you have to go visit Miss Senjogahara’s home?” said Ogi. “What kind of person puts their good friend last like that?”

“My conversation with her will be a long one, so I’ll ask her to let me stay the night. It’s been a while, but I think we’ll have a pajama party.”

A pajama party?

What an enticing event… Was I invited too? I didn’t have a ticket, but maybe there were plus-ones?

“Good enough for you? After all─I can do a better job than you.”

“Not everything is about how good of a job you can do─a job done too well lacks balance. There’s no happy medium there. Though I do think you know that quite well. But good and bad aside,” Ogi said, “I don’t get to decide. It’s up to Araragi-senpai.”

“Huh?”

“Will you go with me? Or will you go with Miss Hanekawa? I’d like you to decide. We defer to your decision. Both Miss Hanekawa and I will do as you say. Yes?”

Ogi was issuing another challenge to Hanekawa─who wasn’t necessarily accepting it but must’ve thought that her only choice was to go along with it.

“You’re right,” she nodded. “You choose, Araragi. This isn’t something I can force you to do.”

“…”

I’d been given a pretty big choice.

No, like Ogi said─it wasn’t a choice, but a decision.

While the three of us going together seemed like the most peaceful option, now that Hanekawa and Ogi were fairly at odds with each other, it could be dangerous in its own way. We were talking about Oikura, with whom I was at odds myself, and I didn’t want to take on any further risk. That said, knowing that a dispute awaited me didn’t mean I should choose neither of them─it wasn’t going to be that rough.

So I had to make a decision.

Do I visit Oikura with Ogi, or do I visit her with Hanekawa?

Two choices. Pick one.

You could also see this as me having to reject one of two offers, both of which I was happy to have received─so I needed to give this consideration.

Ogi did seem like the better choice.

Yeah.

It’s not like fieldwork is a first-come, first-served affair, but she was the first to say she’d go with me. Not to mention, I’d already broken my earlier promise to her (the sushi), and she seemed to be the clear pick as far as anything having to do with Oikura. This all started with our investigation of a school building─it’s not as if she bore some sort of responsibility regarding Oikura, but it made sense for her to see this through to the end.

Well, for us to see this through to the end, I guess?

Moreover, as was the case two days ago, I really didn’t want Hanekawa to see the acrimony between me and Oikura─while Hanekawa might be able to mediate between us, I just didn’t feel good about arguing with Oikura in her presence. Ogi apparently looked untrustworthy to Hanekawa─which is why she was worried for me, but that was my fault for misrepresenting her.

I’d take responsibility for the rift between the two by creating an opportunity to mend it at a later date, but for now, it seemed best if I visited Oikura with Ogi while Hanekawa just went to Senjogahara’s place as originally planned.

Just as I was about to reach this conclusion, Ogi spoke as if to help me along.

“Hey, senpai. You don’t want to trouble someone you’re already indebted to over a personal issue. If it’s an internal affair, she’s just as external to it as I am. You’d never put Miss Hanekawa in a bad spot, right?”

Why yes, Ogi was exactly right. The girl always said the rightest things.

“I promise─if you go with me, then no matter what mystery we find there, I’ll present you with yet another solution.”

“…”

Well, if she was willing to go that far─my conclusion was on the verge of making its way out of my throat, but that was when it happened. Hanekawa followed suit with an expression that was more serious than anything I’d ever seen on her face.

“I promise too, Araragi. If you go with me,” she said, “I’ll let you touch my boobs.”