Monogatari Series - Volume 20 - Chapter 1.20

020

“It seems that Shinobu is different in your world, kind monster sir…but it’s dangerous to talk for too long to the noble you just met. To put it simply, being exposed to her grandeur makes you want to die. She told you at the beginning that you don’t have much time, right? That there was no time to sit around and chat.”

She did.

I assumed she was urging me to return to my world soon, but that’s what she meant when she cautioned me.

Putting that aside, Ononoki’s Unlimited Rulebook was just as potent in this world─well, honestly, she seemed far more effective with it here.

Exiting Shinobu’s castle by smashing through multiple roofs, she landed on a nearby road, all while holding onto the scruff of my neck. Despite the decisive launch and landing, my brain wasn’t as badly shaken as you might think.

Accompanying her Unlimited Rulebook as a “regular human” had been awful in the past. I’d gotten altitude sickness, and blacked out, and more─but it seemed she could control its speed in this world. She hadn’t used it for our trip here just to milk me for info as we traveled.

Don’t get me wrong, maybe she could in the other world too, but I doubt she had that kind of precision─though the real issue here might have been personality.

The Ononoki in this world had modified it to attain peak performance, but that was ultimately a quick fix. She couldn’t be a carbon copy… In fact, maybe this Ononoki couldn’t wield her strength with the same kind of reckless abandon.

Everything has its advantages and disadvantages.

And that’s what saved me here.

“Being exposed to her grandeur makes you want to die? Well, okay, I admit I knelt automatically, but if it’s that bad then it’s no laughing matter. Is that why she also stayed behind a curtain?”

“Yup. If your eyes beheld her full beauty, you’d claw out your entrails on the spot.”

“Why choose that gruesome a suicide method? Let me die easy.”

I feel bad saying this, but getting away from that bedchamber brought me a profound sense of relief, which was why I could riff off of Ononoki. Given what I’d heard, though, I shouldn’t even be engaging in banter.

I was destroying the balance of the world. Ononoki would cease to be Ononoki, and a chain reaction would ripple out, flipping everything around like a Reversi piece placed in just the right square.

“For a better understanding of the details,” advised Ononoki, “you might want to read the fairy tale called ‘Beautiful Princess’ in the anime adaptation’s fan book.”

“I might, but don’t say that when I’m trying to be serious. I don’t want to play the straight man with you anymore, so could you not bait me?”

“I told you, don’t mind. When you act self-conscious, it makes things harder for me. Stop reacting like a boy who just realized that a girl he’s known since elementary school has started wearing a bra.”

“What kind of example is that?”

“I’m just doing my job. In my case, if I try hard enough, I can even fix my changed personality─since it lacked a set form in the first place, once I send you back to the other side, I can take my sweet time.”

“Fine, then.”

“Getting back on track. If you can’t find the fan book, go to your nearest bookstore and have them order it for you.”

“Enough with the promo, what kind of track are you getting us back on? I couldn’t read it anyway because all the characters would be flipped around… So that’s what Shinobu was like when she was a human. A real princess.” Sure, she’d told me, but frankly I’d had my doubts.

“Not necessarily. According to your hypothesis, that’s just her inner self, not a reflection of the truth. The moon reflected on water, as she put it.”

“…”

“But yeah, in this world, she has too strong an effect on people, so she’s chosen to live the solitary life of seclusion you just saw. Nobility so great it kills anyone who’s granted an audience might spark a revolution─though she’s human, she doesn’t fit into that category.”

So just as the noble vampire Kissshot Acerolaorion Heartunderblade exceeded vampiredom, as a human she exceeded humanity. I realized once again just how preposterous she was.

Someone I genuinely was no match for─I’d nearly killed myself in another world. Well, maybe my fate was to die for Shinobu no matter where I was.

Putting that aside.

I’d gotten out of a tight spot thanks to Ononoki (I might have made better use of our limited time together if she’d given me a proper explanation in advance, but what can we say, she wanted to see me react to our meeting by kneeling─I needed to be glad it wasn’t watching me kill myself), but the counsel bestowed upon me by milady (I was still feeling the effect) had been truncated as a result. Um, what had she told me again?

“My path isn’t mistaken…so I’m not wrong to think that the Kanbarus’ wood bath offers an opening?”

“That must be what she meant. But she also said to seek support, remember? You wouldn’t be able to do anything on your own.”

Hm, the opposite of what Oshino used to say.

To be sure, it did line up with Black Hanekawa’s advice about finding a partner…but hearing it from Shinobu, my foremost partner, actually made it harder for me to take action.

“Like if the girl you’re after told you, ‘Hurry up and find a girlfriend, I’m sure there’s someone you like’?”

“Um, why do you keep on going back to grade school romances for your examples?”

“Given the way Miss Mayoi and Shinobu are this time, we’re kind of low on the child factor.”

“Stop being weirdly considerate, and just carry that weight as you are.”

If Black Hanekawa meant Shinobu, there was no way I could work alongside that noblewoman─those suicidal impulses posed a greater danger than your average aberration.

She’d called me a calamity and negative influence, but maybe it owed to the way she thought about herself. She did have the power to destroy the world all by herself.

She knew how fragile it all was.

“Still,” I said, “it’s not like we can go back to the castle and ask her what she meant.”

“Right. You’re already at your limit of suicide points. You shouldn’t see her until things have settled down─not that you can wait until they have.”

“Excuse me, suicide points? The everyday phrasing isn’t making me feel any better… But yeah, this isn’t a situation where I can wait for things to cool off.”

Support, huh?

True, it’d be great if someone could distract Kanbaru as I tried to sneak into her home. If she─the Rainy Devil─got drawn away for even five minutes, I could use the time to check out that wood bath and see if it served as a route to the outside world.

This, it goes without saying, was a challenge.

Finding such a collaborator in this foreign land… Even if I succeeded, the Rainy Devil’s brutality was nearly unmatched among the aberrations I knew. Forget five minutes, no ordinary human could keep that aberration engaged for one─I’d only escaped to safety thanks to Black Hanekawa’s help.

I couldn’t tell how much of milady’s advice to take at face value…but were I to look for support, who would it even be?

Asking Miss Hachikuji and Miss Serpent was out of the question. I couldn’t call upon gods to fight for me.

“What do you think, Ononoki? Any ideas as far as what kind of character could distract the Rainy Devil?”

“Well, hmm,” she folded her arms. “Let’s see. As destructive and capable in battle as the Rainy Devil, also knows the details about your situation, understands and supports your position, recognizes the danger at hand and hence is motivated to work toward a solution, naturally possesses at least some expert knowledge, must have a method of fleeing if it comes down to it… I don’t know if anyone like that exists.”

“It’s you!”

It was Ononoki.