Monogatari Series - Volume 2 - Chapter 4.5

005

And then─

An hour later.

I was visiting a derelict building inhabited by Oshino and Shinobu that once housed a cram school with only a day separating me from my last visit on Saturday.

“You’re late. I’ve been waiting,” Oshino greeted me in his arrogant, all-knowing tone.

Mèmè Oshino.

An expert on the subject of aberrations.

A specialist, an authority.

The man who lifted me from the veil of darkness I found myself under during spring break after being attacked by a vampire and getting turned into one myself in this day and age─my savior.

A Hawaiian-shirted dude, age unknown.

An awful role model with no fixed address who went from journey to journey.

Tsubasa Hanekawa, when she was charmed by a cat.

Hitagi Senjogahara, when she encountered a crab.

Mayoi Hachikuji, when she got lost with a snail.

Suruga Kanbaru, when she wished to a monkey.

All of them─received help from Oshino.

I don’t know if I’ll ever fully repay the favor─but to be frank, if he weren’t my savior, I wouldn’t want to get to know his type very well. By no means.

He had an awful personality. He was no font of good will. He was like an avatar of caprice. While I’d known him for some time since spring break, I still couldn’t understand large swaths of his personality.

He sat cross-legged on top of a makeshift bed he had fashioned by tying together, with plastic rope, a number of desks that kids must have once used to study away. After I’d explained all of the above, Oshino said in a tormented voice almost as if he detested the name─

“A Jagirinawa.”

“A Jagirinawa, huh… Never heard of that one.”

“It’s pretty famous. I think it’s a form of serpent shamanism.”

“Serpent shaman? Not serpent-bearer?”

“Serpent-bearers are from Greek mythology. Serpent shamanism is domestic. You know, like serpent-god mediums… I guess there isn’t much point in talking to you about that. Still, a Jagirinawa… Hmm. So would that make this girl…your junior?”

“It doesn’t really feel like it because of how much younger she is. So─she’s my little sister’s friend.”

“A-ha. So she’s like a little sister to you.”

“Don’t go around assigning my acquaintances to whatever position.”

“She does call you her big brother.”

“………”

I’d told him too much.

What an honest chump.

It was like I couldn’t tell a lie…

No, I was just bad at hiding things.

“And that ‘big brother’ of days gone by,” Oshino added, “is now ‘li’l Ragiko’… Time really does fly like an arrow.”

“I don’t get called that! That was just a joke Kanbaru made!”

“I think it suits you well, though.”

“Forget about it!”

“You know, I’ve been calling those girls ‘li’l missy’ tsundere and ‘li’l missy’ class president all this time, while you are simply Araragi, and I was beginning to feel prejudiced. From now on, I’ll be more impartial and call you li’l Ragiko.”

“Please, don’t! I’m begging you!”

“It does feel like it could stick.”

After we went back and forth like that for a bit, Oshino got back on track.

“At any rate. You managed to finish your job on time regardless. Good work, Araragi.”

“Oh… Yeah, I guess.” I’d never expected to be thanked by Oshino. I was so taken aback that my reaction must have seemed a little odd.

“I have to say, I couldn’t ever have done it myself. Give my thanks to that missy, too. Er, uh─”

Oshino started to think.

He must have meant Kanbaru, but… Ah, he wasn’t sure what to call her. That made me realize he hadn’t settled on a tag for her yet. Hanekawa was li’l missy class president, Senjogahara was li’l missy tsundere, and Hachikuji was li’l lost girl… So Kanbaru would be, say, li’l miss sporty?

“That li’l miss pervy.”

“……”

It seemed that Oshino saw Kanbaru more as a pervy character than as an athlete.

Not that I didn’t see where he was coming from.

I thought he’d hit the mark, myself.

“Couldn’t you at least draw the line at something like ‘li’l miss sapphy’? She is, despite it all, a girl…”

“Huh? You think so? Okay, I’d be fine with that. Anyway─both you and her are now even with me. Let her know that.”

“Even? So─we don’t owe you anything?”

“Right.”

“There’s something I wanted to ask you just to be sure, Oshino─may I?”

“What is it?”

“It seemed like the moment we entered those shrine grounds, Kanbaru suddenly started feeling sick… Is that relevant?”

I’d had Kanbaru wait at home because I wanted to ask Oshino the question when she wasn’t around.

Hmm, Oshino said with a sidelong glance.

“Araragi─what about you?”

“Huh?”

“How did you feel? Did you get sick or anything?”

“No─I was fine.”

“I see. Well, you’d given little Shinobu your blood the day before─so I guess it makes sense. It means you were lucky.”

“Lucky?”

“Remember what I just told you? It isn’t something I could have ever done. That shrine used to be the center of this town.”

“The center? Really? If anything, I’d say it’s placed─”

“Not in terms of location. Well, it stopped being used long ago. There shouldn’t be anything to the place nowadays, seeing how everyone has forgotten about it, but─Shinobu.”

“Shinobu? What about her?”

“You know how she wandered into this town─she’s a legendary vampire from a noble bloodline. A vampire, the king of aberrations. I guess you could say her influence activated the spot. Bad things─were starting to gather there.”

“There? You mean─at that shrine?”

That shrine─even the gods seemed not to visit.

Bad things.

“Yep. You could say it had become like an air pocket, or maybe a kind of hangout─places like that exist, centers. Part of why I stayed here even after Shinobu’s case ended was to find that hangout─though my main goal, of course, was to collect aberrations. Ha hah. I got to meet missy class president and missy tsundere thanks to it, so I will say I had my fun.”

“When you say bad things─what exactly do you mean?”

“Various things. It’s not something I can put concisely…or rather, these things don’t have names yet. You couldn’t even call them aberrations at this point.”

A haunt frequented by the bizarre.

That─is what it had become.

What gathered there─weren’t humans.

The literally bizarre had.

“And Kanbaru started feeling sick─because of that?” I asked.

“That’s right. Li’l miss sapphy’s left arm is still a monkey’s─so it’s easier for her to be affected by bad things. It’s the same for you, but as aberrations, there’s an overwhelming difference in rank between her monkey and Shinobu. It means that while she’s lost her resistance against those kinds of phenomena, you’ve actually built up a decent resistance to bad things.”

“…Did you know all along, Oshino? That Kanbaru would feel that way?”

“Don’t glare at me. You’re always so spirited, Araragi, something good happen to you? It’s not like li’l miss sapphy suffered anything in particular. And─she owed me. She wouldn’t be paying me back unless she went through a few struggles. Her, especially. Don’t you agree?”

“……”

He─may have been right.

It was just that I couldn’t see it in such a strict light. Maybe that suffering was something Kanbaru needed to experience. At least, I couldn’t see her complaining to Oshino even if she found out. That was the kind of person she was.

“Well, the rest is up to her now,” Oshino said. “The fate of that left arm is her problem. If she can make it to twenty without incident─she’ll be freed from her aberration.”

“That’d be nice.”

“Hm. You’re a good person, Araragi. As usual…”

“What’s that supposed to mean? It sounds like you’re trying to imply something.”

“Not really. I was just wondering if you weren’t a little jealous. Of her going back from fellow non-human to human again.”

“…Not really. I’ve already made peace with myself when it comes to my body. It’s all sorted and settled, so─stop trying to stir up trouble by saying those kinds of things. Don’t say anything unnecessary to Kanbaru, either. I don’t want her to feel like she owes me anything.”

“You’re right, I’m sorry. You stuck the talisman on the door of the main hall, right? That’s a little bit of a lazy job, but it’s fine. It should scatter those bad things to some degree.”

“To some degree?”

“A talisman placed by an amateur isn’t going to change things that dramatically. In fact, it’d be an issue if they did. We only need to nudge the natural flow of things─or else who knows what could happen elsewhere. In that sense, the choice to do a half-assed job by placing it on the door might not have been a bad choice at all.”

“…Why couldn’t you do it? Whether it’s aberrations or whatever bad things that precede them─that’s your field of expertise, isn’t it? Or is this a case of you forcing yourself to come up with a job so that Kanbaru could pay off her debt to you?”

“I won’t say that wasn’t a factor, but it really would’ve been hard for me. Just look at me, I’m as thin and wimpy as I seem. I don’t have the stamina to climb up a mountain.”

“That’s not the line of a wanderer going from journey to journey.”

“Ha hah. Was I being transparent? Well, yes, that was a joke. Physical stamina isn’t the issue─it’s more of a mental thing. Just like what happened to you and li’l miss sapphy because you’re aberrations─I stimulate those bad things needlessly because I’m an expert. I’d have no choice but to do something if they decided to attack me, and in that case, I’d end up turning that hangout into a perfect vacuum. There’s no telling what might stream into it next─worst case, we’d have another Shinobu.”

“I don’t really get it…but is it like how humans shouldn’t affect the balance of the natural world just to make things more convenient for us? Sending someone like me or Kanbaru instead of the too-powerful Oshino going there helped to keep them calm?”

“Yeah, something like that,” he brushed me off.

The truth must have been a bit more complicated─or maybe it was something else entirely─but there didn’t seem to be any point in delving into the matter.

Kanbaru and Oshino were even now.

Just as long as that much was clear.

“Not just her, you know,” Oshino said breezily. “Your debts with me are all settled now, too.”

“…Huh?” I couldn’t hide my surprise. Those didn’t seem like words he would ever speak. “I owed you…five million yen.”

“In cash terms, yes. That was how much your job this time was worth, though. You essentially managed to prevent the Great Yokai War from taking place.”

“I-It was that big of a deal?”

I wished he would’ve told me earlier.

But when I thought about it, the job was big enough to instantly cancel out Kanbaru’s bill despite her headache of a case─so I should have expected him to deduct a suitably sizable chunk of my debts, too. Not taking yourself into account sounded beautiful, but in reality it just made you feel like an idiot…

“We’re all settled,” Oshino assured, “but I almost feel like I owe you a little bit of change. Whatever. Let’s talk about that girl─the missy who’s like your little sister. You’re making this sound like a pretty urgent matter, after all.”

“Am I?”

“It’s only her arms and neck and head that’s unaffected, right? Ouch. Once the Jagirinawa comes up to her face, that’s it. Araragi. The Jagirinawa is an aberration that kills people. I need you to understand that. This case─is a rather serious one.”

“………”

I’d thought─that might be so. Those scale marks had a sinister air. But it felt so much more grave coming from an expert’s mouth.

It wasn’t a deathly aberration.

It was a─killing aberration.

“Snake venom can kill humans─they say. Neurotoxins, hemotoxins, cardiotoxins, the whole gamut. If you don’t go at it with a serum, you can get pulled into it. Snakes─are tricky, you see.”

Though, surprisingly enough, the poisonous ones tend to taste better─Oshino added.

“Oshino… Exactly what kind of aberration is the Jagirinawa?”

“Before I let you know, tell me the title of the book missy was reading in the bookstore aisle. You said to miss sapphy that you’d tell her later, but you never did, did you? What book was it? Looking at it made you feel certain that there was something about that girl.”

“Oh… Well, it’s exactly what you’d expect. A twelve-thousand-yen hardcover called A Complete Collection of Snake Curses.”

“…The title makes it sound like a recent book. Not from before the war or the Edo period.”

“Yeah. The cover looked brand-new, too.”

But that title─was more than enough to make me think of the dead snakes, chopped into five, that I’d seen the day before. Of course, as soon as I witnessed the carcasses on Sunday, I vaguely suspected Sengoku, whom we’d just passed on the stairs…but it was when I saw the book’s title that my suspicion turned into certainty.

Long sleeves, long pants.

But her long pants─may not have been for entering the mountains, and more a way to hide the scale marks imprinted on her legs.

In fact, that had to be it.

This body.

I hate having this body─she’d said.

Kanbaru must have understood the way Sengoku felt. The bandage wrapped around her left arm was there to hide her monkey’s arm. When I thought about it, that was on a different level from me growing out my hair in the back to hide my bite marks. And come to think of it, when Kanbaru wanted to show me what lay under the bandages, she’d invited me to her house─not wanting anyone else to see.

In that sense, those two faced similar circumstances.

Those two.

What could they be─talking about right now?

……

Miss sapphy, you better not be seducing her.

I’m trusting you… I’m trusting you, all right?

“My limited knowledge doesn’t cover what kind of book that is,” Oshino admitted, “but it must include information on the Jagirinawa. Serpent shamanism is basically synonymous with snake curses, after all…”

“So are serpent shamans like witch doctors or something?”

“Well, yes. These aren’t naturally occurring aberrations─they’re commanded by someone’s clear, or explicit, malice… Well, it doesn’t necessarily have to be malice, but siccing the Jagirinawa on someone sounds like nothing else.”

“Oh…I heard that, too.”

“Hm? You did?”

“Well, yeah.”

Sengoku didn’t give me a name.

It was partly my fault because I didn’t feel like grilling an introvert like her─but Sengoku stubbornly refused to give up a name.

The culprit’s name.

But─she did tell me it was someone in her class.

A friend─from her class.

What with a curse placed on her, I thought “former friend” was more like it.

I told Oshino, “It’s a middle schooler’s idea of a charm─some sort of fad, apparently. These charms go a little deep into the occult… Most are complete whiffs, of course, but I guess you could say Sengoku is the unlucky exception.”

“Unlucky, huh?” Oshino echoed suggestively. “Charms and curses. I suppose the two are similar. But Araragi, from what you’re saying, the perpetrator is a rank amateur, a middle schooler… The Jagirinawa isn’t supposed to be the kind of aberration that a beginner can handle.”

“Like a broken clock getting the time right, couldn’t it have been a fluke?”

“Could it? Hmm. Why did this classmate want to curse missy to begin with?”

“According to the bits and pieces I gathered from her, it was actually over love. Someone being head over heels. This friend had a boy she liked, and that boy told Sengoku he loved her, but not knowing any of that, Sengoku turned him down─earning her resentment.”

“Hm. How typical.”

“Well, this is a middle-school romance we’re talking about.” Not that the views of someone who’d never dated a girl until his last year of high school counted for much.

“If she started dating him without knowing, that’s one thing,” commented Oshino, “but you’d think turning him down wouldn’t have mattered.”

“It’s about feelings, I guess. Maybe when Sengoku turned him down, the other girl resented something precious to her getting dissed?” I made it sound like my interpretation, but it was Kanbaru’s take. How could I hope to understand the mentality of a middle school girl? If Kanbaru thought so, I could only suppose that she was right.

“Huh. Well, who cares about the reason. People don’t need reasons to hate each other. So things soured─and ended with a curse. Ah, how fleeting friendship is. That’s why I don’t make friends.”

“…Is that so.” I wanted to retort to that, but if I tried to quip at everything Oshino said, our conversation would last through the night, and then some… I needed to control myself. I couldn’t leave those two waiting forever. “Sengoku said she was reading A Complete Collection of Snake Curses because she wanted to figure out how to get rid of hers. Today wasn’t the first time she read that book, either. She’d been going back to it over and over for a while now, almost every day, reading, then reading some more, and consulting it─to try every curse removal, ritual purification, exorcism, and the like by herself.”

That’s what those were.

The sliced snakes.

It wasn’t like a ritual─a ritual was precisely what it was. Using a chisel struck me as grotesque at first, but it seemed that those were the only bladed objects Sengoku owned. Maybe the most readily accessible edged tools for a middle school girl was in fact her chisel set.

“Removing a snake curse by killing snakes─the idea smells fishy to me,” I continued. “And actually, she said her condition started to get worse when she started killing snakes like that─”

“No, Araragi. Repelling a Jagirinawa by cutting up snakes isn’t wrong. Actually, it’s the right and proper thing to do. The method was probably listed in the Jagirinawa section of the so-called Complete Collection… But she’s quite the brave young lady, isn’t she? Catching snakes on her own and killing them. It’s wonderful. You keep describing her as docile and quiet, but I find that hard to believe.”

“Well, this is the countryside at the end of the day. You can’t let yourself be surprised by a girl who picks up snakes with her bare hands.”

“That’s hard for me to accept, as a city boy.”

“What about you makes you a city boy, exactly?”

Well.

You could say Sengoku had been pushed to that point by the curse─by the Jagirinawa.

She’d cried.

There was nothing brave about her.

If anything, she was delicate. Too delicate.

“It’s not that killing snakes will remove a snake curse, Araragi─what’s important here is the cutting up of snakes. Here, the snakes are a metaphor for rope. Jagirinawa─nawa, rope. No matter how tightly you’re bound, cut the rope and you’ll be free.”

“Bound…”

Rope bondage marks.

She was being bound─by a snake.

A rope, huh?

Oshino went on. “There’s a saying that once you’re bitten by a snake, you’ll jump at the sight of a rope, and in this case, snake equals rope. What makes a rope a rope is that it can be cut.”

“…That doesn’t seem to make sense, though. Sengoku said she’s already killed more than ten snakes at that shrine. But far from going away…”

The curse was─only getting worse.

The more snakes she killed, the faster the scales climbed up rolling from her toes─that’s what she told me. It was proof that the curse was progressing.

“Well, like I always say,” reminded Oshino, “when it comes to these things─the process matters. This missy who’s like your little sister is a complete, rank amateur─right? In general, it’s harder to remove a curse than to place one, so of course her condition is going to get worse if she goes by her half-knowledge. If you kill snakes while a snake is possessing you, of course you’re going to make it mad. You’re right in that regard, Araragi.”

“……”

“But this conversation is helping me see why a curse placed by another complete amateur of a middle school girl has been so successful. My initial assumption was that hell has no fury like a woman scorned, but I guess I missed the mark. It’s bad luck.”

“What do you mean?”

“Missy probably learned that a curse had been placed on her before it ever began to work. Judging by the fact that she knows exactly who it was, she must have heard it straight from the girl. ‘Damn you, I placed a curse on you!’ or something. Missy panicked, went to the bookstore to find out how to get rid of it, and climbed up a mountain that’s known for having a lot of snakes─so she could cut ’em up. I guess she found the shrine by accident? Well, maybe she knew about it in advance. Then, she got busy killing those snakes.”

“What about that is ‘bad luck’?”

“The spot. Remember what I said? An air pocket, a hangout─”

“Oh.”

A place where bad things─gathered.

Those bad things that Shinobu’s presence had activated.

“And that─strengthened the curse?” I asked.

“Not strengthened, most likely it wouldn’t have triggered at all if not for that spot. Unlike you and miss sapphy, her body must be a regular human one─so while she probably didn’t feel unwell, the bad things affected her in the form of the Jagirinawa.”

She had no way to fight back─no resistance.

A rank amateur.

“So it’s like she deepened her own wounds,” I said.

“It’s like she wounded herself. Although it’s a cruel way to put it, nothing would have happened if only she’d done nothing. Actually, the description in this Complete Collection of Snake Curses might be half-assed to begin with. I try to refrain from speaking ill of books I haven’t read, but it’s a strong possibility. On top of it all, you have an amateur edition curse-removal ritual in a spot like that. Those bad things must have worked in a bad direction.”

“What a quagmire.”

“A quagmire, indeed.”

Your bad luck─could get that bad?

“I suppose the silver lining for her was being reunited with you right as matters were coming to a head─you do plan on doing something for the girl, right?”

“…Am I wrong to?”

“No, not necessarily. Neither seek nor shun the fight, after all. But it is a little tough for me to understand. I get taking pity on her, but why go so far? Because she’s your little sister’s old friend? Or because her last name reminds you of your girlfriend’s?”

“Huh? Oh, because Sengoku is a ‘thousand koku’ as in how they used to value territories, and Senjogahara means ‘battlefield’? Actually, I’d never considered that one. I only realized for the first time now. Well, no─I mean, she’s in such distress. Isn’t it normal to─want to do something?”

“What a good person,” Oshino said.

He gave it such an unpleasant ring.

“There’s a book called the Compilation of Snake Curses that was put together in mid-Edo─it’s an odd tome containing nothing but snake-related aberrations. That’s where the Jagirinawa first appears in print. With an illustration, to boot.”

“An illustration? What does it look like?”

“It depicts a man who’s being constricted by a giant snake. The tail’s design resembles a straw rope, while the snake’s head is─in the man’s mouth. His jaw is open as far as it can go, almost as if he’s a snake─that’s the picture. Snakes can swallow animals as big as chickens whole, after all.”

“Constricted─”

“Gripped. Possessed.”

“……”

“In other words, Araragi. Missy’s body is─in the grips of such a giant snake as we speak. A snake is gripping and possessing and constricting her. Tightly─and mercilessly.”

“But…she said it doesn’t hurt.”

“That’s a lie, of course it does. She’s trying to endure the pain. Don’t I keep on telling you that trust is key? You’re dealing with a quiet kid, you need to try to read what’s in her heart─looking into her eyes.”

“Looking─into her eyes.”

That reminded me, when Sengoku said it didn’t hurt, Kanbaru seemed to want to say something… So that’s what it was? She said things that needed to be said─but kept her mouth shut if she only wanted to say it. That certainly would have been very Kanbaru.

“Wrapping around a prey’s body and pulverizing its bones to make it easier to eat before swallowing it is typical snake behavior. It’s not easy to get a snake to release you once it has you in its grip.”

“I see… Right, it’s an aberration, so it can ignore her clothes.”

Those marks were only on her skin, and she seemed to be able to take off and put on clothes freely, volleyball shorts aside. That had kept me from thinking that an aberration might have Sengoku’s body in its grip, but what did I know─I just couldn’t see it.

“A rope─right?” I asked Oshino. “And bound? So those scale marks across her body aren’t traces─at this very moment, an invisible snake is manifestly gnawing into her.”

This giant snake, the Jagirinawa, was invisible to my eyes, to Kanbaru’s, and of course to Sengoku’s, so we only saw through to the effect that the aberration was having on Sengoku’s skin.

“Even then,” Oshino explained, “I think it’s only because you and miss sapphy are essentially half-human, half-creature that you can see those marks at all. The same goes for missy, who’s in its grip. I’d imagine that anyone other than you three─missy tsundere or missy class president, for example─wouldn’t even see the marks. They might be able to see the internal bleeding, though.”

There was no need for her to hide the marks with long pants.

No reason to be ashamed of her body.

That’s what Oshino said.

But that didn’t seem like the problem to me. Yes, that might be the case, logically speaking─and maybe it was another instance of Sengoku’s bad luck that Kanbaru and I happened to be the ones to see her body─but didn’t it more than qualify as an issue if she saw herself that way?

“Maybe,” Oshino admitted. “Yes, you might be right.”

“That was an awfully quick admission.”

“Even I can be honest and upfront at times. I don’t have anything better to do right now.”

“You can’t be honest and upfront if you aren’t just chilling?”

“Come to think of it, I get that she dresses in long sleeves and long pants when she goes out, but what’s she been doing at school so far? Do the girls at your old middle school not wear skirts as part of their uniforms?”

“Not really, they’re more like dresses. Kind of an all-in-one? Have you seen them on your research forays?”

“Ah, yes. So that’s your alma mater. Those are cute─but wouldn’t they still leave her legs exposed?”

“That’s why Sengoku’s been taking school off since those marks became visible, though she managed while she could still hide them with socks─well, okay, Oshino, what about this? Is there some way to make the body of this Jagirinawa visible? Would you be able to see it?”

“No way, I’m just a human.”

Mr. Expert didn’t seem to mind at all that he couldn’t.

He was practically shirking his duties with that line.

“And not just me,” he said. “In this kind of case, it’s basically hard for others to see what the possessed can’t see themselves. No matter how much of a former vampire you may be. As a side note, it isn’t the person in the Jagirinawa’s grip but the one who cast the snake who can see it─and this is an accidental case, so I doubt even she could. This friend probably hasn’t even realized that the curse took. Otherwise, it’d be a huge deal in their class… Well, no, maybe that friend is just keeping quiet about it. That really would be full-blown malice…but I don’t think that’s what it is. Missy would be long dead if it were. But there’s no point in going over all these possibilities. Talk about guesswork. Oh, but one thing─while you may not be able to see it, Araragi, you just might be able to touch it.”

“Hm…like you did once?”

“Uhhh, what’re you talking about?” Pretty pointlessly in my view, Oshino was playing dumb. “If you can touch it, you should be able to peel it off…but you might not want to. Snakes are savage animals. Do that and I’m sure the Jagirinawa will attack you. And even if you somehow escape it, it’ll seek out the classmate who cast the curse next.”

“The curse turning on the caster.”

“You know what they say─when one is cursed, two holes are dug. This girl must not have meant to kill missy and probably doesn’t believe in curses to begin with. I think she honestly intended to just go, ‘Damn you, I placed a curse on you!’ out of spite. Hmm. I don’t like that she decided to get the occult involved over something so petty, though… How’s an outsider like me supposed to make a living? This business is bad for me.”

“I can’t tell if you misspoke there or not.”

“Ha hah. Well, I guess it’s fine.”

With those words, Oshino got off his makeshift bed. He then plodded away and tried to exit the room, so I hastily called out to his back.

“Hey, where are you going?”

“Eh. Wait here a second.”

That was all he said before leaving the classroom for real.

He was a fickle person. Actually, he was just being selfish.

Now what… If I had time, I wanted to check up on Shinobu, but if I missed Oshino in the process, that’d be stupid… Which classroom was Shinobu in, anyway? It was rare for her and Oshino to be in different ones. Had she gotten into another fight with Oshino over some Mister Donuts?

Fine, I would just file a status report.

I pulled out my cell phone and tried calling Kanbaru─Sengoku, by the way, still didn’t have one, in typical fashion for a rural middle schooler. Then again, even if my parents found them, this was Kanbaru so she’d do just fine … As long as they didn’t discover that she was a pretty serious pervert and a real-deal sapphist, Kanbaru was an exemplary young woman who excelled at academics as well as athletics.

But the moment I tried to open my contacts list─

“Thanks for waiting.”

Oshino returned.

That was quick.

So quick that I wondered if he knew what I was about to do.

He really acted like he saw through everything.

“Hm? What’s that modern convenience you have there? Were you about to call someone?”

“Well…I was just thinking of contacting Kanbaru and Sengoku in advance. It seems like this will take more time than I thought.”

“No need to call in that case. I’m already done talking here. Take this.”

From his position at the entryway, Oshino tossed straight at me whatever he was holding in his right hand. The sudden projectile threw me off balance, but I was somehow able to catch the item without dropping it.

It was a traditional amulet.

It was shaped like a standard amulet─but the pouch said nothing.

There were no words indicating if it was for, say, traffic safety or fertility.

A blank design.

“What’s─this?”

“You can purify it with that. The Jagirinawa.”

“……”

“There’s a talisman inside of it. What you might call a protective charm. It’s different from the one I had you place…and the pouch it’s in is nothing, just a sheath. The talisman is a bit of a powerful one, so safety measures are required. Safety measures, or maybe a limiter. Don’t get it wrong, though, it’s not as if all you’re going to have to do is place that talisman on her forehead like she’s a jiangshi or something. In fact, don’t ever take that talisman out of its pouch. Like I said, it’s a safety measure, a limiter. There’s no telling what might happen. I’m going to tell you the correct method for this, so do your best to remember for later. I could go out there myself, but it’s probably better if I don’t─as far as building a relationship of trust with the young lady, you and li’l miss sapphy are already set. That claim of being able to seduce younger girls within ten seconds doesn’t sound like false advertising, either. I’m so impressed. I’m so jealous. Ha hah, and while you seem to have forgotten, it seems missy’s memories of you are rather nice ones, no? She wouldn’t be able to strip on a moment’s notice in a man’s room otherwise, Big Brother Koyomi.”

“……”

I didn’t know about that, to be honest.

When it came to people who never stopped talking like Senjogahara, Kanbaru, Hanekawa, or Hachikuji, I could make some sort of guess about how they felt─whether those words were frank ones or not─but it was hard to deal with someone who spoke so little. Someone with a shy personality. Who buckled under pressure and cast her eyes downward at the smallest provocation─

When I thought about the situation, it was surprising that this very same girl had flatly turned down a boy. Someone with her personality seemed like the type who couldn’t say no and got dragged into being someone’s girlfriend… But, once again, I had no right whatsoever to be talking about these affairs of the heart.

“I think it’s like how you wouldn’t be embarrassed to strip naked in front of a doctor,” Oshino said. “That’s what a relationship of trust is. Oh, wasn’t Asclepius from the constellation Ophiuchus a patron saint of medicine? Another hint, perhaps.”

“But, Oshino…is it really okay?”

“Is what okay?”

“For you to be so…quick and simple with a way to purify her. You normally act more pompous, you know? You go into these tiny little details, or you’re never really cooperative. I feel like you went easy on your usual mountain of trivia too. Don’t tell me you’re not being serious about this now that I don’t owe you anything.”

“Oh, Araragi. You just love nagging me, don’t you? You and I know full well that you’ll complain if I do pile on the trivia. I’m starting to think that the real tsundere here is you, not li’l missy tsundere. How so spirited, something good happen to you? I didn’t use to say all that to be mean or anything. It was the same for missy class president, missy tsundere, li’l lost girl, miss sapphy, and especially you, Araragi. Each of you stuck your own neck into an aberration, didn’t you?”

“Well, that’s…”

That’s.

“If I may,” Oshino continued, “all of you were perpetrators. Whether or not you meant to be, you were complicit with your aberrations. For people who’ve gotten their hands dirty to wash their feet, a certain process becomes necessary. But it’s different in this case, isn’t it? Nadeko Sengoku is clearly nothing more than a poor victim. She’s done nothing wrong. Even the reason the Jagirinawa was set upon her is weak. For every aberration, there is a reason─but none of that reason here is missy’s doing. Ten snakes, was it? She may have killed them, but even that was her trying to defend herself. She was unlucky, it wasn’t her day─that’s it. I’m not so unreasonable to hold accountable the victim of someone’s malice. What people like that need is to be saved.”

“………”

So that’s what it was.

Sorry, Oshino, I thought you were acting that way to be mean…

It made sense now… That was why his tone sounded so grave from the moment he first named the Jagirinawa. It didn’t have anything to do with the Jagirinawa itself. That was purely Oshino thinking about the victim, Nadeko Sengoku.

“Crimes need to be atoned for, but you can’t allow someone to be judged for a crime they never committed. People in trouble need to be saved─right? Yes, I may not be the nicest guy, but even I have that much kindness for others left in my heart. Though that isn’t to say I’m doing this entirely as volunteer work─this is my job.”

“Yeah, I figured as much.”

“But it’s fine. This can be the change left over from the work you and miss sapphy did for me. The missy who’s like your little sister doesn’t need to do a thing in return.”

“…I see.”

Yes, there may have been that issue of perpetrator versus victim.

But even then, it felt like he was playing favorites.

Maybe he liked middle schoolers.

“But, Araragi. Let me give you just one warning─when one is cursed, two holes are dug. I know I’m saying it again, but I want you to keep the words close in mind, and I want you to think closely about them.”

“Oh… Well, that won’t be hard, it’s not unheard-of advice. You don’t need to do anything special to learn that. I’ve had plenty of chances to find out what it means that have nothing to do with aberrations.”

“I’m sure that’s true─but, Araragi. I don’t know how you see this, but it’s not as if I’m going to be living here forever,” Oshino said, his tone staying frivolous. “Eventually I’ll be done collecting and researching. After all, you and miss sapphy have solved one of my main concerns, or rather, achieved one of my main goals. I will leave this town some day. And when I do, you’re not going to be able to come to me for advice, you know?”

Our debts─had been settled, too.

Oshino continued.

“It’s been a while since I first started wandering from place to place, but this is the first time I’ve ever spoken this much with any one person. There is the fact that you’ve gotten yourself involved with one aberration after the next─but the thing that’s a little odd about you is that you try to deal with every single one. Once you’ve experienced an aberration, you’re more likely to attract them in the future─that much is true, but most people who encountered an aberration will then go out of their way to avoid them.”

“……”

“That’s how things balance themselves out. This relates to what I said about you being a tsundere, but you say all kinds of things about girls, don’t you? That they’re meddling, or that they’re good at looking after others. But all of those traits apply to you, Araragi─not that it’s a bad thing. I’m so envious of your personality that I keep saying nasty things to you, but I think you’re good the way you are. But─what are you planning to do once I’m gone?”

“Er─well.”

Well─I hadn’t ever thought about that.

It went without saying that Oshino wouldn’t reside in my town for the rest of his life, it was like a given─but the question of what I’d do once he was gone wasn’t one I could answer on the spot.

Did we have to talk about this right now?

Oshino went on. “Aberrations exist as though it’s natural for them to be there─they aren’t something you should go out seeking. Do that and of course you might end up as the perp. I think you worry too much, Araragi. You’re overprotective. You have a tendency to try to do something─even when you could just leave it alone.”

“But…” But still. “Once I find out─what am I supposed to do? I know about these things whether I want to or not─so I can’t look the other way or pretend not to know.”

“Ha hah, so would it have been better if you’d forgotten it all, like missy class president? That just might be the best outcome for people like you, Araragi. Forgetting it all─little Shinobu too.”

“How could I forget…”

Something like that?

Of course it wasn’t possible.

It wasn’t ever going to turn out like it had for Hanekawa.

“That’s right,” Oshino said, “little Shinobu, too─yes, right. You’re going to have to look after her all by yourself once I’m gone. That was the choice you made─though you’re of course free to abandon her, too.”

“Come on─Oshino.”

“You need to always be aware of the fact. Because Shinobu isn’t human. You shouldn’t allow yourself to get weirdly empathetic. She’s a vampire. She can look like that now, but that doesn’t change the fact─okay?”

“……”

“Sorry, was that a mean thing to say? There’s no need to worry, though, we’ve gotten to know each other so well. I’m not going to disappear all of a sudden one day without even saying goodbye. I’m an adult, I do know my manners. But if you’re thinking about what to do after graduating from high school─I think it wouldn’t hurt to think about this while you’re at it.”

“So what you’re trying to say is that it’s irresponsible for me to attempt to save everyone I come across? That it’s irresponsible to be kind to everyone─Hanekawa told me that one, too. But, Oshino, I can’t become someone like you. Like you say, I’m about a tenth vampire─an actual aberration. I can’t get on the human side and go around banishing aberrations.”

If I did, the very first one I needed to banish was myself.

Then Shinobu.

And that─wasn’t happening.

It wasn’t something I could do.

“I wouldn’t say that’s true,” Oshino told me. “This job is all knowledge and know-how anyway. A half-human, half-creature who hunts spirits? Sounds cool, like a manga character.”

“Well…maybe it is possible, since there’s even a Hawaiian-shirted specialist in the field…”

“And,” Oshino reminded me, “if ever in your life you feel like it, Araragi…you can abandon Shinobu and go back to being a full-fledged human─I hope you don’t forget that, either.”