Monogatari Series - Volume 21 - Chapter 0.02

002

‘Look o————or not!’

Stepping into unfamiliar, outside realms, I thoughtlessly darted out of a corner, and right as I was about to get hit by a bike, its brakes screeched, consequently sending its rear tyre soaring. No, ‘soaring’ is probably an exaggeration — ‘lifting up’, that looks better. Like a thrilling circus show, the metal bike almost grazed my head — if my hair was like back then, it would get pulled off, probably.

A moment of life or death…?

An escape by a hair’s breadth.

Except I was the only one who escaped by a hair’s breadth. For the bike that dodged me with the move of a stuntman, it did not end well.

It was a crash.

The landing failed, and like an air hockey puck, it swished across the tarmac, ending with a dramatic thud on the guardrail.

Dramatic indeed. A ferocious crash.

As this unexpected horrific accident unfolded, I got a feeling of déjà vu.

I have seen this somewhere before.

A near-identical accident, at the same place; I think it was somewhere around the end of last October…

My recollections aside, the cyclist who smashed onto the guardrail without protective gear — well, well, look who’s here.

Yes.

It’s Oshino Ougi-san.

‘A-are you hurt?’

I asked, throwing everything aside and rushing towards there — although the exact same thing has happened before, there is no guarantee that Ougi-san would not be hurt. Or should I say, it should have hurt last time, too.

It looks like I will have to call an ambulance. I don’t have a mobile phone, so it looks like I have to borrow Ougi-san’s phone — it’s stuffed somewhere in the pocket of the gakuran, right?

Mm? Hold on? Wait, what?

A gakuran? A male school uniform?

‘All good!’

As I squatted next to Ougi-san, he sprang (as expected?) and sat up like a wind-up toy.

Wearing a flat grin.

It is important to worry and check, but the result was within my expectations, so I was not all surprised.

‘Aah, pleasure to meet you, Sengoku-chan! My name is Oshino Ougi!’

‘…We’ve met before.’

Rapid-fire dialogue seems off right after an accident; my unease showed (by the way, I have not had a chance to talk with any living person for a long time — except Ononoki-chan or Tsukihi-chan. Although calling those two ‘living persons’ would be a bit of a stretch), but I remained assertive.

Assertiveness is important.

That said, to be forgotten by a previous acquaintance, to get the first greeting treatment, seems lonesome… hm? Huh, thinking about it, was it not the other way around? I was unfamiliar with Ougi-san, but Ougi-san was familiar with me…

‘I don’t know anything — you’re the one who knows, Sengoku-chan.’

‘……’

‘Nono, I’m not some forgetful detective — I’ve changed my colours, after all. Ha-ha, for current me, I am meeting Sengoku-chan for the first time.’

Ougi-san stood up, patting away the dirt on his gakuran — and it was a gakuran.

He cannot be anything other than a boy.

Mm hmm, indeed. Oshino Ougi-san, second year male student at Naoetsu High School — that’s definitely it.

I know this.

Oshino Ougi.

The nephew of the oddities specialist, Oshino Meme-san — that was what he looked like from last year’s near miss.

That is how I remember it. …It must be so.

With that said, I still don’t know why Ougi-san is pretending to meet me for the first time; well, I’ll let things slide for now.

It’s not like I have the time for it. 

I don’t have time. Not nearly enough.

There was just cause as to why I thoughtlessly darted out of the corner, why I darted out of my room.

‘I should be the one asking if you’re hurt, Sengoku-chan.’

‘Ah, no… I’m fine, Ougi-san.’

‘Ha-ha. Calling me “Ougi-san” like I’m a stranger — it’s alright if you get closer, you can even call me “Ougi-onii-chan” and I wouldn’t mind.’

Ha-ha.

If there is a middle school girl who calls a high school boy ‘onii-chan’ on their ‘first meeting’, I would like to meet her.

‘Eh? But I thought that’s what you called blah-di-blah-di-senpai?’ {A}

‘……’

‘Sorry, a slip of the tongue — just joshing. So, Sengoku-chan. Off to school?’

I appreciate him changing the subject, but to ask something with a smile whilst looking like he knows everything makes me a tad uncomfortable.

To put it more directly, it makes me unhappy.

The new topic was not sunshine and rainbows either.

Because I have been absent from school for over half a year.

Besides, I was not in uniform, but in a sweatshirt from home, running around in a pair of sandals; anybody can see that I was not ‘off to school’ — as one can see, it was an urgent matter.

It was an emergency.

If I had a light on my head, it would probably have been flashing red.

That is why I dragged myself out into the sun; me, who’s more afraid of the sun than vampires — I then nearly died from a bicycle accident, which does seem like I have fumbled my priorities.

Even if Ougi-san was the one who actually fumbled.

‘So, is the bike… doing, okay?’

I spoke in a deliberative manner.

This can also have stemmed from this being a ‘first meeting’ with Ougi-san, or from the unease of not having spoken to someone living for a long time, though my communicative abilities were low in the first place.

As low as the earth; like a snake.

I used to have long fringes, covering up my face like a shy kid — which made Oshino Meme-san call me ‘Little Miss Bashful’.

Little Miss Bashful.

Now when I think back, that was some nickname.

Well, ‘Little Miss Shy’ or ‘Little Miss Bashful’ both make me sound cute, but I am more of a ‘Gloomy Miss Dilly-dally’.

It shows a thoughtfulness from Oshino Meme-san — something nowhere to be found in his nephew.

‘Hm? Oh, everything’s fine, everything’s fine. BMXs are durable, after all. And I’m durable too. If you’re off to school, I can offer you a ride.’

He did not allow me to change topic, but I cannot stay and entertain him and his seemingly-prankish questions. Seeing as Ougi-san wasn’t hurt, and his bike was doing fine, then there was no reason for me to stay.

For some reason, even without this emergency, I get the feeling that chatting with this person would do me no good.

The events last year also seem to have been the result of talking too much with Ougi-san… no, last year’s events were, in the end, my responsibility.

My life changed dramatically, and it was my fault.

But this and that were two separate things.

‘That’ being my personal guilt, ‘this’ being Ougi-san’s personal eeriness.

Eeriness — oddness.

‘I’m not, going, to school. So, you would like to, hereby, tender my absentation. Goodbye.’

My attempt to speak loudly and clearly has led to more commas than necessary (that mess of a sentence would also probably mean a fail for my Japanese class, though compared to when I met Ougi-san last year, I would say my vocabulary has improved). {B} Having said that to him, I started to leave the scene (of the accident).

‘I see — I thought you were heading to school. ’Cos I saw you in uniform just now.’

Ougi-san said, almost teasingly — what was that?

‘O-Ougi-san!’

‘Woah, something happened? What’s with the shouting?’

‘Take this me to where that me is — I, I’m searching for me!’