Monogatari Series - Volume 20 - Chapter 1.12

012

I know, a character intro this late in the story is silly, but just in case, Nadeko Sengoku─whom Miss Hachikuji brought over after making use of all her connections─had been friends with Tsukihi Araragi, my little sister, since elementary school.

They did fall out of touch at one point but recently started seeing each other again─a resumption that began with my reunion with her, but thanks to a certain conman’s schemes, I’d fallen out of touch with her myself, ironically.

Because around last New Year’s she, an average middle school girl, became the shrine’s god─a snake god.

Well, to get to the real root of the problem, it was probably karmic retribution for my actions, but let me omit that part if I may─none of that could be undone at this point.

I can think about what I’ve done on my own.

But Sengoku, with whom I’d cut ties, now stood before me─we weren’t supposed to ever be in such close proximity. Do you have any idea what you’ve done, Big Sis?

Making a fool out of me even in another world, Hachikuji─I wanted to say, but I swallowed the words at the last second because this really was a different world.

Whoever this Sengok-who was, with her gaping maw and mocking “Hsshh hsshh hsshh!” (what was so funny?), a snake in more ways than one, it wasn’t the Nadeko Sengoku that I knew. Nope, I didn’t know of a Nadeko Sengoku like this.

There were, at absolute most, two types of Sengokus─an easy set to complete if she were made into trading cards.

First off was what I guess you’d call her basic form? The girl I crossed paths with on the stairs to this shrine─the introverted middle school version with a face covered in bangs and a tendency to look at the ground as she muttered. There were some changes in her hairstyle and clothing, but that was normal for anyone living a normal life.

The other type was the aforementioned snake god version─who took on a dreadful form, each of her hundred-thousand-plus strands of hair a white snake, like some kind of Medusa, her expressions so unleashed you could never imagine them coming from her basic self. The Sengoku that tried to kill me countless times, and in fact did, but let me omit that part as well.

It’d be long, and I don’t want to talk about it.

Meanwhile, the audacious Sengoku standing next to Miss Hachikuji seemed like neither─sure, she was wearing Middle School #701’s trademark dress uniform, but her hair was cropped short and entirely white, yet not made out of snakes. Her fearless, carefree, and savage expression did seem poised, at the same time, to bear down on me from on high and gobble me up.

How do I explain it? It felt like she’d placed herself in some kind of middle, that she was immature, even incomplete─in the middle of trying to change something about herself. Right, like an organism stirring to life from within an egg…

“I think you know who she is, Araragi, but let me introduce her in case you don’t, having come from another world. This is my senior─or rather, my predecessor as a god. This is Miss Serpent.”

“…I see.”

Miss Serpent.

I nodded in understanding at Miss Hachikuji’s words, but they weren’t entering my brain─yes, partly because I was baffled by this sudden encounter with a girl that I thought I’d cut ties with.

But since we were in this land of mirrors, you could also say that it didn’t count, even if it wasn’t a good thing by any means. What baffled me the most was that I seemed to be wrong.

Given my experiences after climbing down the mountain, I’d started to suspect that this world consisted of my delusions.

Delusions might be too harsh.

To put it differently, I thought I might be dreaming─I may not have pinched my own cheek, but I’d considered the line of reasoning as I returned to the mountain.

A dubious dream─if Oikura found out about her utterly different iteration, which was in such bad taste, she’d kill me─but wasn’t I still snoring away under the covers, despite thinking that I was awake, because my little sisters never came to wake me up?

It’d explain the lack of consistency and coherence─and make sense of nothing making sense.

A dream.

In other words, one of those it-was-all-just-a-dream stories.

A bit of a foul as a narrative technique, but using it just once didn’t seem so bad? They do say that rules are made to be broken. In any case, by any reckoning, …and that was my dream was more convincing than …and that was the land of mirrors I visited.

Story quality aside.

Kanbaru being the Rainy Devil… Hanekawa, who should have been overseas, being Black Hanekawa, who should have vanished… I’d observed multiple examples of things that couldn’t be explained as a simple reversal in some kind of mirrored land─yet my hypothesis of this all being a dream was its own convenient delusion.

Almost a piece of wishful thinking.

I mean, I at least knew about the Rainy Devil and Black Hanekawa…and if you insisted that I wanted Oikura to act that way, I’d have trouble arguing with you.

But─I didn’t know. Did not know.

This Nadeko Sengoku, I did not know─neither god nor human, something in between, but also looking ahead to what was to be. I didn’t know her, didn’t even have the right to.

In other words.

If dreams are made of the thoughts and memories stored in your mind, I’d never dream of this Sengoku.

Nadeko Sengoku with her hair cropped short? Unthinkable, which meant this being a dream was unthinkable too.

“…”

Then what the hell was this world?

I was already at peak confusion, but now they were trying to set a new record? Miss Serpent? Didn’t that name ring a bell, at least?

“Hsshh hsshh! I see.”

Amused, Nadeko Sengok-who laughed─the timbre of her voice was Sengoku’s, but the tone seemed rough or maybe vulgar, all wrong, making her feel so different I thought she had to be a twin sister.

Though I’ve yet to meet any real-life twins…

“Listen, you’re overthinking things─just like the cat said.”

“Huh?”

The cat? As in…Black Hanekawa? She did say I was overthinking things…but as far as I knew, Sengoku and Black Hanekawa never interacted?

I glanced over at Miss Hachikuji.

Who returned a wink.

That’s not what I wanted from you… Also, you’re awful at winking.

I gave up on her and faced Nadeko Sengok-who again─though communicating with her seemed challenging in its own way.

“Hmmmm? What is it, Big Brother Koyomi? You saying you don’t understand? My point’s not getting across? Well, I’d imagine as much. Hsshh hsshh!”

“…”

“Don’t glare at me like that. It’s not like I’m messing with you, okay? Listen here, I may not look it, but I was once the god of this shrine. I’m going to be more cooperative than the cat, at least.”

Come here, Nadeko Sengok-who─Miss Serpent─beckoned me over.

There was something serpentine about both her gesture and her tongue, so I hesitated, but being scared wouldn’t do me any good. I began approaching Miss Serpent and Miss Hachikuji, cautiously, step by step─

“Hup!”

Once I was within several feet of the young ladies, the more big-sisterly of the two leapt at me─and pushed me to the ground for no reason.

How many times was she planning on shoving me over in a shrine?

Or maybe a poisonous spider was about to attack me─I began to look around in shock, only for Miss Hachikuji to smile and speak.

“C’mon. What’re you being all serious for? Isn’t that exactly why everyone’s saying you’re overthinking things? It’s not every day you get to come to a mirrored land, so you ought to relax and even try to enjoy it, kid.”

“All right.”

What a selfish lady, telling me to be serious when I was being silly, then telling me to lighten up once I turned cautious─but actually, she was right.

Imposing my image of Sengoku, from my original world, onto this one was unnecessary, and while caution usually paid off, I mustn’t overdo it─relax. Even try to enjoy it.

True.

Getting straddled by a twenty-one-year-old Hachikuji would surely be a great story once I returned─and so I turned to Miss Serpent while still in that position.

“I appreciate your help,” I thanked her belatedly.

“Hmmm? Eh, sure, if it’s help you’re seeking, that’s what you’ll get. I’m a god, after all─but that’s not what I meant when I said you’re overthinking this.”

Continuing to pin me to the ground (why wouldn’t she move?), and unfazed by Miss Serpent’s denial, Miss Hachikuji said, “Oh, I see. Still, Araragi, lean on Miss Serpent here. Of all the gods and buddhas out there, she’s the one you ought to count on the most!”

“Of all the gods… How?”

It sounded like hyperbole, but Miss Hachikuji didn’t retract her overblown promotional statement. “Well, snakes are experts when it comes to mirrors,” she said.

“Huh? Snakes are experts when it comes to mirrors?” I echoed, looking at Miss Serpent─and catching a glimpse under her dress from my position on the ground.

“Hm? Yeah, sure. What, you couldn’t figure it out the moment you saw me? Why else would Big Sis Mayoi call me out here, Big Brother Koyomi?”

“Why?”

Wasn’t it because she didn’t know too many gods, having just become one herself? She’d gone to her senior─her predecessor─for help with this quandary…or was it something more?

“Listen, Araragi,” Miss Hachikuji told me.

Proud of what she was about to say.

“The Japanese word for mirror originally comes from ‘snake eyes’─kaga-mi. You didn’t know?”