Monogatari Series - Volume 2 - Chapter 3.4

004

It was two years for Senjogahara─and two weeks for me.

The start of Golden Week to its finish for Hanekawa.

For Hachikuji, who knows. I can’t say exactly how long.

I’m talking about the periods we were in contact with aberrations─the amounts of time our abnormal experiences lasted. It was over those periods, those spans that our improbable, dreadful experiences, which were anything but normal, lasted.

Take Koyomi Araragi.

My case.

In this day and age, amidst our twenty-first-century civilization, it’s so embarrassing that it makes me want to find a hole and jump in it, but I fell victim to a venerable old vampire─a bloodcurdlingly scary terror, a traditional and legendary vampire, sucked every last drop of blood from my body.

She sucked me dry.

And I became a vampire.

I was afraid of the sun, hated crosses, avoided garlic, and kept my distance from holy water, and in return, gained physical abilities that were tens, hundreds, thousands of times greater than a human’s, but once again in return, I felt an absolute hunger for human blood─like one of those nightwalkers so popular now in manga, anime, and movies. Really, it felt unfair to have become such a true-to-form vampire. These days they were fine walking around in daylight, wore crosses as accessories, ate garlic bread and washed them down with holy water, but still had absurd physical abilities─wasn’t that just mainstream now?

And yet.

A vampire having to suck human blood seems to be the one constant.

They’re bloodsucking demons, after all.

In the end, it was a dude passing by, not a vampire hunter, not a Christian spec ops team, not a vampire who hunted his own kind, but a regular dude passing by, a frivolous Hawaiian-shirted bastard named Mèmè Oshino who saved me from that hell─but that did nothing to erase the fact that I’d lived through those two weeks.

A demon.

A cat.

A crab.

A snail.

Still, I couldn’t allow myself to forget that there was a decisive difference between me and the other three. An especially large one, in particular, between Hitagi Senjogahara’s case and Koyomi Araragi’s.

I don’t mean the length of time, but the depth of our loss.

She didn’t intend to go back to that─she said.

But despite her talk about there being no need or necessity, didn’t she mean that she couldn’t go back to that time in her life even if she wanted to?

I say that because…for two years, she’d refused anything and everything you could call social contact. Hitagi Senjogahara had spent two years associating with no one in her class─and now that those two years were over, nothing had changed.

Aside from me, nothing had changed.

Koyomi Araragi was merely a unique exception for Senjogahara, and she hadn’t changed at all aside from that.

There was no difference between her before and her after.

She just stopped going to the nurse’s office.

She just started participating in P.E. class.

She sat in the corner of the classroom─and read silently. As if reading a book, in our classroom, was a way to build sturdy walls against her classmates─

She talked to me now, but that really was it.

She ate lunch with me now, and that was it.

A quiet model student prone to illness─that was still the position she occupied in our class. All that our classmates thought was that her condition must have improved somewhat, to whatever degree.

Hanekawa, our class president, innocently welcomed it, however, as a major change─but I couldn’t share her simple optimism at the new picture.

Maybe Senjogahara hadn’t lost anything.

Maybe she’d thrown it away.

But you ended up with the same result.

I absolutely don’t want to sound like I know it all, and I probably won’t learn the truth no matter how I relate to her going forward─and I bet I shouldn’t be second-guessing her.

Interfering, meddling, all that doesn’t seem right.

But I can’t help but wonder.

What if.

If Senjogahara not carrying a stapler around anymore is progress…if that is a change, then might not there be a furthermore?

Not just in relation to me.

About the other stuff, too, if─

“Hello?”

“Yes, thank you for waiting. This is Hanekawa speaking.”

“……”

Sure, that was a very proper way to answer a call, but wasn’t it a bit odd on a cell phone?

Tsubasa Hanekawa.

The class president─a high-end model student.

A woman who seemed like a born class president.

A class president among class presidents elected by the gods themselves─I’d meant it as a joke at first, but after spending two months working alongside her as class vice president, I came to see how seriously fitting the description was. All knowledge ought to be cherished by human beings, but I wish I’d been spared this particular tidbit.

“What’s the matter? It’s not every day that you call me, Araragi.”

“Nothing, really─it’s just, I had a question I wanted to ask you.”

“A question? Sure, that’s fine with me. Oh, is this about what our class will be doing for the culture festival? I think it’d be better if you didn’t give it much thought until after the skills test─you’re in a pretty tight spot, right? I can take care of all the busywork, of course. Or did you want to rethink what we’re doing? That’d be tough since we took a survey. Oh, or is there some problem and do we have no choice? We need to deal with it right away in that case.”

“…You didn’t even give me a chance to nod along.”

Hanekawa really advanced the conversation all on her own.

Not only was she quick to make assumptions, she was an even quicker talker.

It was hard work to find your opening with her.

Eight at night.

I was on my way back from the Tamikura Apartments, Senjogahara’s home, and was pushing my bike down the asphalt road instead of striding the saddle. It wasn’t because Hachikuji was by my side, nor because Kanbaru had spotted me and dashed up to me, that I was pushing my bike rather than pedaling. I just needed to think a little.

I ended up cramming until eight at night.

Despite naive hopes that maybe I’d get the chance to eat Senjogahara’s cooking for dinner, she didn’t even hint at it. When I casually brought up feeling hungry, unable to bear it any longer, she sent me on my way with nothing more than, “I see. Then let’s call it a day. I’m sure you remember, but there aren’t many streetlights in this area so do be careful on your way home. See you later, alligator.” Hitagi Senjogahara essentially lived alone because her father often worked late into the night, so she had to know how to cook, but…

She had such a high difficulty rating.

Of course, I didn’t get very hungry anymore, so my complaint was mostly a lie.

In any case.

I needed to think, but this was me we were talking about, someone whose tutor, Senjogahara, didn’t trust to earn an average score, so it wasn’t going to be particularly productive. It was mostly for my own satisfaction. Now, self-satisfaction did for some matters in the world, but not others, and this was the latter.

So.

Pushing my bike with my right hand and walking, I’d called Hanekawa on her cell. It was eight-thirty at night─whether that’s an appropriate hour to call a girl you aren’t that close to is a question I couldn’t answer, but Hanekawa’s reaction suggested that it fell within the boundaries of acceptable behavior. The incarnation of seriousness, a moral paragon, she’d tell me if I were acting out of line.

“Um, Hanekawa. This might go a little long, do you have a minute?”

“Hm? That’s fine. I was only doing some light studying.”

“……”

Saying that without a hint of sarcasm was what made her a class president among class president elected by the gods themselves.

Light…what sort of studying could she mean?

“Well, okay,” I said, “I’ll try to keep it as brief as possible… You went to the same middle school as Senjogahara, right? What was it called again─oh, Kiyokaze Public Middle School?”

“Yup, that’s it.”

“So you must know a girl a year younger than you called Suruga Kanbaru.”

“Well yeah, of course? I mean, is there anyone who doesn’t? Even you know who she is, don’t you? She’s the captain of the basketball team, a school-wide star. I’ve gone with my friends to cheer from the stands at some of her matches.”

“No, listen. I’m not talking about now─I wanted to ask about the middle-school Kanbaru.”

“Hmm? You do? Why?”

“Why not?”

“Huh… Well, it was more or less the same in middle school. She was the star of the basketball team and everyone knew her. It sounds like she was team captain there, too, starting around the second half of her second year. Why do you ask?”

“Oh, um─”

I couldn’t tell her.

I couldn’t say the words.

I couldn’t possibly convince her.

That of all things, that star was, to put it unkindly, stalking me, of all people.

As it was, how much of this I should be babbling about was an issue, but then again we were talking about Hanekawa, so maybe it was okay to share a bit of my predicament. I’d of course fudge certain aspects as needed.

“I heard that she and Senjogahara were friends in middle school─were they?”

“Hmm? No, I think I told you, but it wasn’t like Senjogahara and I had any physical contact to speak of just because we went to the same middle school. She was a celebrity, so frumpy old yours truly just knew about her unilaterally─”

“I’m as moved as ever by your modesty, but if we could put our usual exchanges aside for today─”

“The Valhalla Duo.”

“Wha?”

“You just reminded me. That’s what they were called, the Valhalla Duo. Senjogahara from the track team and Kanbaru from the basketball team.”

“The Valhalla Duo? What does that word mean again, I feel like I’ve heard it somewhere. And why’d they be called that…”

“Kanbaru’s ‘baru’ and Senjogahara’s ‘hara’ gives you ‘Baruhara.’ And Valhalla, from Norse mythology, is the heavenly hall where Odin, the supreme deity, resides and welcomes the spirits of heroes who died in battle. It’s like holy ground for the war god, so─”

“…Ah, Kanbaru’s name starts with the character for ‘god’ and Senjogahara’s with the ones for ‘battlefield.’”

“Thus the Valhalla Duo.”

“Phew…”

You couldn’t hope for a more snug fit.

How some people exercised their wits to come up with a mere nickname… If I were to nitpick, it sounded too pretty, so you could only sigh and actually found yourself in a hard spot, but that’s just the career straight man in me griping.

“Since they were called a duo,” Hanekawa noted, “I assume their relationship at least hadn’t been bad or hostile. Senjogahara was on the track team until right before graduation, so they must have hung out as fellow athletes at the minimum.”

“You really do know everything.”

“I don’t know everything. I just know what I know.”

The same exchange as always.

In any case…I had confirmed their background.

And now that I had─what next?

How would I approach the foreground?

“I know I’ve already asked you this before,” I said, “but when Senjogahara was in middle school…she was nothing like she is now, right?”

“True, she wasn’t. Senjogahara seems to be changing a little bit lately, but she’s still not who she used to be.”

“Oh…”

She was changing.

But only when it came to me.

So─she wasn’t who she used to be.

“I guess she must have been popular with her juniors?”

“Yes, both the boys and the girls. And not just her juniors, you know. Her seniors loved her when she still had seniors, and she was well-regarded by students in her year─”

“Loved by everyone─young or old, male or female.”

“Middle school only lasts for three years, so ‘young or old’ would be an overstatement. But if I had to choose one specific group, then she might have been most popular with girls who were her junior. That’s what you were trying to ask, yes?”

“…I’m glad you’re so observant.”

She was a little too observant, though.

She wasn’t Oshino, but it felt like she saw through me.

“But, Araragi, you like Senjogahara as she is now, regardless of who she was in the past, right?”

“………”

I hoped she knew she was acting just like a fifth grader.

By the way, while we hadn’t particularly stated the fact to anyone at all, everyone knew that Senjogahara and I were going out. We weren’t openly mocked or excessively teased about it. Senjogahara was considered a mild-mannered model student by our class, so of course she wasn’t, and for my part I was simply not the type of classmate who attracted that kind of behavior. But even so, the entire situation was common knowledge, a tacit understanding.

Rumors were scary things.

It must have taken the rumor a little bit of time, at least, to hop the wall between third-year and second-year students and reach Kanbaru… Well, when you considered that Senjogahara was a celebrity together with the fact that she weighed on Kanbaru’s mind, it had taken quite a while, but that’s how it is between different years.

“Araragi, I know I’ve told you this over and over, but keep your relationship proper and platonic. Watch out so there won’t be any indecent rumors. Senjogahara seems like a serious girl, though, and I doubt your relationship will turn crass.”

“Serious, huh…”

Come to think of it, Hanekawa still didn’t know the real Senjogahara… Our other classmates were one thing, but deceiving the Amazing Class President Hanekawa, who knew we’d be going out before we actually did─Senjogahara, too, was a formidable player. In that respect, you could say she was showing me a side of herself she showed no one else… Hmm, but that didn’t make me particularly happy. That’s not what being a unique exception is supposed to mean.

But really, that was more or less the state of our relationship. She wouldn’t even cook for me, so how could our relationship ever become sleazy?

……

Oh.

If she was rebuffed─then regardless of how it had been in middle school, Kanbaru knew Senjogahara’s true nature quite well. If she was coming up to talk to me anyway, then she─

“Senjogahara is a tough one, okay?” Hanekawa said suddenly.

When she did─I recalled that she’d said something similar to me in the past, too. This was Hanekawa talking, of course, so it couldn’t be about Hitagi Senjogahara’s challenge rating.

“Not that I’m some kind of expert,” Hanekawa continued, “but she’s created an impregnable force field around herself like in a game.”

“………”

“And you’re someone else with one, Araragi. Everyone has one around them, putting aside how strong it is─call it a sense of privacy─but you and Senjogahara have built fortresses where you’ve holed up. People like that find human interaction annoying in general. Rings a bell, doesn’t it?”

“Are you talking about me? Or about Senjogahara?”

“Both of you.”

“Well, yeah.”

Of course.

But in that case.

“Still, Araragi, not liking to deal with people and not liking people are two different things.”

“What? Aren’t they the same?”

“‘Annoyances come / In forms none greater than that / Of the visitor’…” recited Hanekawa in a calm and quiet voice, “‘But then of course I speak not / Of yourself, my esteem’d friend’… I don’t care how bad you are at literature, Araragi, you must get what that poem is saying, right? And what I’m trying to say?”

“…I get it.”

I couldn’t reply any other way.

I did resent being treated like a child, though.

Even so─all I could do was thank her.

“Thanks. Sorry for wasting your time with this nonsense.”

“It isn’t nonsense. It’s normal for you to want to learn more about your special someone.”

Hanekawa actually said that.

She didn’t think twice about saying something so embarrassing.

A class president among class presidents, indeed.

“But,” she added, “I think it’s better not to go digging around your lover’s past too much. Don’t let it turn into fun and games. Stay within limits.”

Having put one last fat point on it, she appended a “Bye, then,” and fell silent.

I was puzzled as to why she said bye but didn’t hang up, until I remembered how she’d taught me over spring break that the etiquette was for the caller to do so.

Oh, what a frighteningly correct girl…

Thinking such thoughts, I told her, “Bye, see you tomorrow at school,” and pressed the button to end the call. I folded my cell phone and put it in my back pocket.

So, now what.

As someone who once stood in the same position and underwent the same kind of experience as Senjogahara, I of course understood her words and deeds to some degree─but I found my sympathies lying with Kanbaru.

If possible─I thought.

If only.

It would be a needless intervention, an overstepping of bounds, an unsolicited favor─Senjogahara had revealed her eccentric philosophy to me whereby generosity was an act of aggression, and this didn’t even smack of generosity.

After all, part of it was my own underhanded calculation. A motive so conceited that I balked at the thought, let alone expressing it.

But I couldn’t help but think─

I wanted Senjogahara to get back what she’d lost.

I wanted Senjogahara to pick up what she’d thrown away.

Why?

Because those were things I could never do─

“Asking Oshino about this wouldn’t do any good… That jolly idiot probably doesn’t give a damn about aftercare and following up. Not that I’m one to talk… Wait, hold on.”

Important but forgotten details often come back in a flash for no reason whatsoever, and that was exactly what had happened. I opened the zipper of the Boston bag hanging off my shoulder and checked inside. I didn’t need to in order to find out, but I was hoping against hope. Sure enough─the envelope I received from Senjogahara wasn’t inside.

The envelope containing Oshino’s fee for services rendered.

“I left it on that cushion next to me… Ugh, what now?”

This was about money, so it was best taken care of at the earliest convenience, but there was no need to feel that rushed, and I could get it from Senjogahara when I saw her at school the next day, but…what to do? Though I doubted it, I couldn’t rule out the possibility that I’d put it in one of my pockets and that it had fallen out without me noticing as I walked talking on the phone with Hanekawa, so maybe I should call Senjogahara and make sure, just in case… No.

I was pushing my bike alongside me as I walked, so I couldn’t have covered that much distance. If I biked my way back to the Tamikura Apartments, I would be there in no time. In that case, the right course of action was to go back immediately to get it. There was the risk that I’d end up having to meet Senjogahara’s father considering how late it was, but the probability seemed negligible given what I’d heard about how hard he worked.

Sure, a phone call would get the job done just the same, but I wanted to see Senjogahara as often as I could.

Not that I knew how to take the initiative.

I could be forgiven for acting at least a little like her boyfriend.

“Okay, then.”

I straddled my bike seat, turned around─

And wondered if it had started to rain.

Not because a drop of water hit my cheek or anything, but because of what I saw right in front of me after turning my bike around─a human figure, right in front of me as if it had been tailing me the whole time, entered my vision.

A human figure.

Dressed in a raincoat from head to toe.

It wore its hood deep.

Black rubber boots…and a pair of rubber gloves.

If it were raining, the outfit would provide perfect protection from the weather…but though I opened my palm, I didn’t feel a single drop after all.

The stars were in the sky.

We were in a rural town some ways from a provincial city─so other than a few shreds of clouds, nothing in the night sky was so boorish as to challenge the starlight.

“…Um.”

Oh…

I knew… I knew what was going on here… I knew it well, very well. It was what had played out during spring break, what I had experienced more than enough of…

Yet I couldn’t wipe the smirk, a completely inappropriate expression for the occasion, off of my face. The sensation was so familiar that I nearly felt a pang of nostalgia, oddly enough. I recalled my experience with Hanekawa during Golden Week as well.

If there was an issue here…it was that unlike during spring break, my body was no longer immortal and that I wasn’t a vampire.

It was no time for me to be keeping my cool…but cool was exactly what I needed to be to discern it and its nature. You could say that over the past few months, I had become a little accustomed, inured─

To dealing with aberrations.

…I hoped it was a physically harmless aberration like the one on Mother’s Day, Hachikuji’s snail…but my instincts told me that I had to flee. No, not my instincts, but the vestigial instincts of a legendary vampire that surely nested somewhere inside my body─

I tried to turn my bicycle back around─but in the heat of the moment, decided to dive off it and tumble to the ground.

It was the correct decision─in exchange, however, I lost my oh-so-precious mountain bike for good. Raincoat leaped in my direction too fast for my eyes to follow and punched, with its left fist, the center of my mountain bike’s handlebars just as I jumped out of the way─crushing and denting my bike and sending it flying like a weightless scrap of paper caught in a raging tornado. By the time it slammed into a telephone pole and fell to the ground, the object formerly known as a mountain bike had lost any traces of its original form.

If I hadn’t dodged─it would have been me.

I bet?

The wind pressure generated by the fist was enough to tear my clothes. My Boston bag’s straps snapped, too, and it fell from my shoulder to thud at my feet.

“…I-It’s on a different level.”

Even my smirk─vanished from my face.

I’d only been on the periphery of its attack, and I couldn’t believe its intimidating presence… It may not have rivaled a legendary vampire but was impressive enough to bear comparison…an aberration that brought bodily terror in its wake.

Forget about Mother’s Day.

This was, without question, spring break.

I’d lost my bike.

Could I still run away, on foot?

At least from what I’d seen of Raincoat’s moves… Well, I didn’t actually see them, but judging by its invisibly quick moves, getting away on foot was impossible.

Plus.

Even if it was to run away, I didn’t want to turn my back on this aberration─nothing felt scarier than turning my back on Raincoat, taking my eyes off of it. My fear was irrevocable, primordial.

So I take back what I just said.

You never become accustomed to such a sensation.

You don’t get inured no matter how many times you undergo such an experience.

You don’t even want to remember.

Raincoat twirled around towards me. Its hooded face made it difficult to read its expression─in fact, rather than an expression, what was there was akin to a deep pit. It was dark─so dark that I couldn’t see a thing.

Like it had been chipped out from this world.

Like it had been left out of this world.

Then, Raincoat stepped towards me.

Its left fist.

It came too fast for my reflexes alone to dodge─but it described a perfectly straight line like the blow that had destroyed my mountain bike, so I was prepared to react at the first sign of motion and was able to evade it again, by an inch─and the left fist that I’d evaded penetrated the concrete-block wall behind me like it was nothing. It was almost like a catapult launch.

While stunned by its hilarious destructive potential, I thought I’d be able to use the time lag to regain my stance as Raincoat pulled its left hand out of the wall, since it was like a monkey with its closed hand stuck inside a jar, but no, of course not, things weren’t going to be that convenient, and Raincoat wasn’t giving me a few seconds. As if a dam were collapsing around a leak, a dozen feet of the concrete-block wall crumbled and fell with a tremendous clatter.

That took me back.

So, no time lag.

Raincoat seemed to twist its entire body around as its left fist came right at me─this time there was no sign, no initial motion, only a determined attempt to punch me from its current position.

A catapult.

Forget about evading it, I couldn’t even defend against it.

I didn’t even know where it hit me.

A moment later, my world began to spin, then again, three times, four, and as if my thought processes were being scrambled, intense G’s assaulted me every which way, up and down, left and right, and the world began to warp and bend before I was slammed prone against the asphalt.

I learned what it might feel like for my entire body to be grated.

I felt like a block of cheese getting turned to curly shreds.

Yet─it hurt.

And if it hurt, I was still alive.

My body hurt from head to toe, but my abdomen most of all─I must have been punched in the gut. I tried to stand up in a panic, but my legs trembled and shook so much it was all I could do to go from prone to supine.

Raincoat was awfully far away. It looked that way. I thought it was some optical illusion─but no, it really was far away. That one blow seemed to have sent me flying an incredible distance. It truly was a catapult.

My innards─felt yucky.

The pain I was feeling…I’d felt before.

It wasn’t my bones.

A number of my organs had ruptured.

While they may have been destroyed, the shape of my body was, you could say, fine. Right, bicycles and humans were made different, so even if they took the same punch, one of them didn’t turn into a crumpled piece of paper. Nice one, joints. Viva muscles.

Having said that…

I couldn’t move thanks to the damage I’d taken.

And Raincoat was approaching me─this time at a relaxed pace, slow enough for me to see it clearly and for its figure to be burned into my brain. Perhaps one more shot, and if not, two or three more and it would all be over─in other words, there was no need for it to feel hurried or impatient now.

That did make sense. It was a reasonable decision.

But…what was going on?

This aberration was practically a thrill killer… It was clear by now that, no matter how humanoid in shape, it wasn’t “human” given its power to crush a bicycle and smash through a concrete-block wall─but why was this aberration attacking me?

For every aberration, there was a reason.

They weren’t just cryptic.

They were rational─grounded in reason.

That was the most valuable thing I’d learned from Oshino, and from my time with the gorgeous vampiress─thus, the logical conclusion was that there was a reason for this aberration, too, yet I couldn’t think of anything─

What was the cause?

I thought back to the day’s events.

I thought back to whom I’d seen.

Mayoi Hachikuji.

Hitagi Senjogahara.

Tsubasa Hanekawa─

My two little sisters, my homeroom teacher, my classmates whose faces were fuzzy, and…

As I was coming up with names in no particular order─

I remembered Suruga Kanbaru’s at the tail end.

“………!”

Just then─Raincoat turned around.

Its humanoid body turned a perfect 180 degrees.

No sooner than it did, it took off in a dash─

And vanished.

It was so sudden that I found myself at a loss for words.

“Wh…Whaa?”

Why would it do that all of a sudden?

I looked up at the sky as the pain that reigned over my body turned from dull to sharp─and the starlight was still beautiful. It was such a discordant sight given the faint smell of blood wafting in the air from all over my body.

My mouth was filled with the thick taste of blood.

Yes, my organs were definitely wounded. My guts had been vigorously churned. But it shouldn’t be enough to kill me… And I wouldn’t even need to go to the hospital. Though my body may no longer be immortal, I still retain a modicum of regen capabilities. A night’s rest would have me back up and running. So I’d managed to escape with my life barely intact…

But…

Suddenly, and for no particular reason, I recalled the moment before I was hit. Raincoat’s left fist was aimed in my direction─I had a flashback focused on that fist, and that fist alone. Maybe it was when it punched my bike, or maybe when its fist went through the wall, but the friction of the blow must have destroyed the rubber glove, opening up a line of four holes at the base of its fingers─and just like the inside of Raincoat’s hood, they seemed somehow chipped out, left out, hollow, but.

The contents of that gloved fist.

It belonged to some kind of beast─

“Araragi,” I heard a voice call from above me.

A flat voice, so cold it was below freezing.

When I looked toward it, I met an equally cold, emotionless gaze─it was Hitagi Senjogahara.

“…Hey, long time no see,” I said.

“Yes, it’s been a while.”

It had been less than an hour.

“I’m here to give you something you forgot.” With those words, she shoved the envelope in her right hand in front of my eyes. She didn’t have to bring it so close, I could see that it was the envelope containing the hundred thousand yen fee she was paying Oshino. “Brazenly forgetting something I handed to you is a capital crime, Araragi,” she scolded me.

“Yeah…sorry.”

“Apologize all you want, I’m not forgiving you. I came here so that I could bully you to my heart’s content, but it looks like you’ve already punished yourself. Quite an admirable show of loyalty, Araragi.”

“Listen, I’m not one of those guys into punishing myself…”

“You don’t have to hide it. In light of your loyalty, I’ll half-forgive you.”

“……”

She was lessening my sentence but not absolving me.

The Senjogahara Court seemed to be tough on crime.

“Joking aside,” she said, “what happened, did you get hit by a car? I see that precious thing you called your bicycle over there, and it looks like it’s been heavily damaged. Or rather, it’s sticking out from a telephone pole. A convoy would have had to run over you for it to end up like that.”

“Umm…”

“You remember its license-plate number, I hope? I’ll go and avenge you. I’ll start by turning the car into scrap metal, and then I’ll put the driver through so much pain he’ll be begging for me to finish him by running him over and over with a bicycle.”

Hitagi Senjogahara never hesitated to say the most alarming things.

I was relieved that she was the same as always. I had to admit, though, it felt both weird and amusing that Senjogahara’s acid tongue was making me feel alive…

“…No, I just tripped and fell. I need to watch where I’m going… I was pedaling my bike while I was on the phone…and slammed into a telephone pole…”

“Did you, now. Okay then, would you like me to destroy that pole at the very least?”

She just wanted to vent her anger.

It wasn’t even a misbegotten grudge.

“Please don’t. I’m sure the neighbors around here would be annoyed if you did…”

“Okay, then… But you know, Araragi, you have a very flexible body if you were able to slam into that concrete-block wall hard enough to break it and only come away with a few cuts and scrapes. I’m impressed. Maybe someday you’ll actually be able to make good use of that flexibility. Oh, I could call an ambulance, but…I guess you don’t need one?”

“Nah…”

Had Senjogahara gone through the trouble of bringing that envelope because, like me, she wanted us to meet as often as possible? Maybe she’d meant to take the bus to bring the letter to my house. If so, it still wasn’t enough to make her a real tsundere, but I could almost feel elated…

Also, she’d saved me.

However unexpectedly.

Because Raincoat must have noticed Senjogahara─and vanished as a result.

“If I just rest a little longer,” I said, “I’ll be able to move.”

“Oh. Okay, I’ll reward you with a very special something.”

Stride─

Senjogahara stepped one foot over and across my face-up head. I’d like to reiterate, her outfit that day featured a long skirt. She had stockingless, smooth, slender, bare legs─and now, from where I was lying, the length of her skirt didn’t matter so much.

“Enjoy it until you can move again.”

“……”

To be honest, I could have gotten up already─but I decided to take the opportunity to think some things through. Not that thinking was a productive activity for me…but for the time being.

For the time being, I thought about Senjogahara.

And about tomorrow.