Monogatari Series - Volume 18 - Chapter 1.15

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Kita-Shirahebi Shrine─a ruined Shinto shrine at the top of a small mountain in our town that has already come up many times before. Its crumbling structures and decaying front torii gate must have paradoxically meant that it was still being managed by someone somewhere, as it was allowed to sit abandoned instead of being cleared out. As far as I could tell, though, it was a forgotten place, with not so much as a single worshipper.

I doubt I’d have ever known about it, either, if I hadn’t gone there on a job for Oshino─so Miss Gaen choosing it made her seem all the more like the lady who knows everything.

In fact, Shinobu and I had visited it quite recently─on the last day of summer break, meaning we’d be returning after not much time at all.

A mountain at night, a shrine at night.

The kinds of places you’d dare your friends to go, or at least places you wouldn’t be too excited about visiting, but our ship had already sailed─and it seemed like day would break as we headed there, anyway.

Such were my thoughts as I, Koyomi Araragi, a little girl, Shinobu Oshino, and a pervert, Suruga Kanbaru, moved from a park whose name I couldn’t read to our next stage.

I wondered what I’d do if Kanbaru demanded I carry her on my back again, but whether out of consideration for Shinobu, the fact that she’d made a full recovery, or unexpected but simple forgetfulness, she didn’t. As for Shinobu, she neither asked to ride on my shoulders nor sank into my shadow as usual.

She didn’t do the latter because our link had yet to be restored, but her not asking to ride on my shoulders wasn’t because she felt particularly reserved around Kanbaru. Shinobu barely acknowledged her despite us traveling as a group and wouldn’t have minded her seeing.

It was because of what I said as we left the park─well, she’d deny it, but at least that’s what I think.

What I said─in other words, the message I delivered.

Honestly, I wasn’t sure if I should tell her, right until the moment I did─but I had to, given that something about all this seemed to go beyond just my relationship with Shinobu.

I felt a twinge of annoyance over possibly playing into that armored warrior’s hands, but after seeing the abandoned cram school burn down, getting lost, and being attacked by a monkey and a crab and a snake─I couldn’t continue hiding his existence and his message from Shinobu.

“‘I will be coming to retrieve my precious enchanted blade Kokorowatari after a little more recovery’─‘It has been four hundred years since I lent it to her, so tell her to be prepared for a late fee.’”

Shinobu heard the words, then looked pensive as she repeated them.

“That is what this samurai said?”

“Yeah… Then he left, howling with laughter.”

“In what manner?”

“Hm?”

“I asked ye the manner in which he laughed. Reenact it.”

“…”

Reenact it?

That was a lot to ask…

“Ha!”Ha!”Haha!”Hahaha!”Hahahaha!”Hahahahaha!”Hahahaha!”Hahahahahaha!”Hahahahahaahhahahahahahahahahahahahaha─like that.”

“Hm.”

It felt like an excellent reenactment, if I do say so myself, but Shinobu didn’t so much as smile. If anything, she scowled. And then said nothing. I started to feel responsible, having brought it up.

Unable to take any more of the silence, I spoke.

“Shinobu. I’m just throwing this out there,” I attempted to refer to the leading, if improbable possibility, but Shinobu stopped me.

“’Tis of no concern. That is an impossibility. Nothing more than a falsehood.”

“A…falsehood? But─”

“That man died four hundred years ago─I witnessed it myself, with these very eyes. Earth and heaven could be turned on their head, night and day could trade places, and this alone would be set in stone. ’Tis an absurdity, unworthy of discussion.”

“Wait, but Shinobu─”

“Balderdash. Malarkey, even.”

“Okay, I get that you’re willing to use every word you can think of, but…I still don’t understand why you’re ready to go that far.”

“If this samurai were feigning to be him, it must be part of some plot.”

“…”

“Perhaps it means to agitate us─so we shall pay it no mind. It merits no comment. Whatever its intention, that enchanted blade…”

The Aberration Slayer, Shinobu said─then smiled.

She smiled at last.

“I cede it to no one. Were this figure the force behind the monkey and such, I shall slice it in two myself upon our meeting─’tis all there is to be said.”

And with this, our conversation was over.

I for one wanted to dig a little deeper, but Shinobu implicitly refused.

To be specific, she did so by drawing my attention to another subject─her ribs… By the time I realized it, we were engrossed in debate on the topic, and I couldn’t blatantly go back to the armored warrior.

Still, Shinobu wasn’t really so unconcerned that she was on the level when she told me not to be concerned. Or so I thought, not just because she didn’t demand a shoulder ride, but in general. It wasn’t as if she spoke less than usual or was acting strange, but I felt it in the air thanks to all the time, the half-year or so since spring break, that I’d spent as her soulmate.

But if I was going to say that…

Didn’t the armored warrior have the right to feel the same way? The right to feel that way for no particular reason─a much stronger right than me, at that…

Fortunately, no more aberrational phenomena attacked us as we traveled from the park and climbed the mountain to Kita-Shirahebi Shrine.

A snail. A monkey. A crab. A snake.

Given what we’d seen, I was prepared to find a bee or a phoenix getting in our way next, and was a little let down when they didn’t─but in any case, nothing of the sort obstructed our path.

This made the rules that much more confusing, about whatever was going on, and what Miss Gaen was trying to make us do.

Going back even further.

I didn’t have a full picture of the job Ononoki was handling on her own─as time passed, the story expanded, and the cast grew, the number of mysteries only multiplied, making everything less and less clear.

But─I didn’t have to think about that now.

All we had to do was climb this mountain and finally, this time, we should be able to meet with Miss Gaen and get an explanation─and I’d have my link to Shinobu restored after the few days we’d been apart.

The morning, the time when these mysteries would be solved, would come at last.

Or so I optimistically thought, but maybe my lot this night was to run into yet another inconvenience, Miss Gaen missing once more…

Thankfully, however, she was at least present within Kita-Shirahebi Shrine’s derelict premises.

Izuko Gaen.

Luminary in her field.

The big boss of her experts, senior to Mèmè Oshino, Deishu Kaiki, and Yozuru Kagenui, aunt to Suruga Kanbaru, and a lady who knew everything.

Izuko Gaen─was there.

Although she’d changed clothes since I met her in a village the other day, her unique fashion choices, like her baggy, XXL clothes and her low-worn cap, told me at first sight that it was her.

She sat by the steps in front of the ruined shrine’s offering box, fiddling with her smartphone as she met the three of us─I suppose it was a tablet and not a smartphone, given its size. She noticed us and raised a hand with a bright smile.

“Hey there, Koyomin. I was waiting for you,” she said. “Good evening─or maybe it’s dawning enough to say good morning? Welcome, I’m glad we could finally meet. Hold on just a second so I can come to a good stopping place.”

I approached Miss Gaen to find that she wasn’t doing any kind of work.

She was playing a mobile game.

…Don’t play games when we’re facing a crisis.

Still, her skillful playstyle and finger speed captivated me before I knew what was happening, keeping me from speaking a word of boilerplate complaint.

“Phew. Okay, all done.”

Miss Gaen closed the app before I could figure out what was going on or how things ended─and just as she placed the tablet to her side, she pulled another device from her pants.

This time she started texting.

“Just a work-related message to Yotsugi─to let her know I managed to meet up with you. This is why I gave her a kids’ phone. Heh, that doll seems to be uncharacteristically interested in you─your face is all the proof anyone needs.”

“My face?”

What’re you talking about, I almost asked, then remembered. I’d carelessly forgotten, but Ononoki’s foot was still stamped across my face.

Did Miss Gaen see it and mistakenly think that Ononoki and I were off having fun or something? In reality, the shikigami had just mocked me and given me a lecture.

“‘Koyomin’s doing well’… Okay. Send. Alrighty, thanks for waiting. Hello, Miss Shinobu Oshino, Miss Suruga Kanbaru.”

Done with her text message, she put away her cell phone and faced us at last─placing her hands on her hips, and bowing deeply.

It seemed a little late for her to be greeting us in such a proper and polite way… I found myself at a loss for words, but the preposterous words that she spoke next truly silenced me.

“I’m Izuko Oshino. Little sister to Mèmè Oshino, whom you know well.”