Monogatari Series - Volume 21 - Chapter 0.19

019

The moment Anti-Nadeko pointed at me with the chisel, I realised the extent of my sins on this mountain.

I believed it was the way to lift the curse, so I killed many, many snakes; I did not only kill, I dismembered them with a chisel, scattering them all over the shrine.

As a result, the curse only strengthened in power, over and over, until my entire body was coiled by invisible snakes, leaving behind a traumatic experience.

Thinking back, that was when I first started this exchange with oddities — and when I started my relationship with the Araragi family too.

A restart.

No, to call it a ‘relationship with the Araragi family’ is to cunningly or cowardly miss the point on purpose… however, that incident also gave way to restarting that indescribable relationship with Tsukihi-chan.

Somehow, only through such unforgivable barbarity did I begin pursuing my dreams and working for it; I don’t get life.

Life is simply unfathomable.

Were it not for Kaiki-san spreading that ‘curse’ and starting that pandemic, I would probably still be Gentle Nadeko, readying myself for the entrance exams.

Fawning Nadeko might say this would have been for the better, but from Present Nadeko, even if this was worse, I still want to live on like this.

No need for her to be my spokesperson.

I will opine my own opinions.

In order to avoid being affected by Divine Nadeko’s words, I willed myself up that mountain.

Past the torii, into the shrine grounds, and I saw…

‘O-Ononoki-chan!?’

Yes, it was Ononoki-chan.

However, she did not look like the Ononoki-chan I know — in fact, as a doll oddity, she did not look like a human at all.

To put it bluntly, she looked like a corpse in chunks.

Arms, legs, hands, wrists, ankles, torso, head, Ononoki-chan’s body and her colourful dress were hacked up into pieces, and littered — seriously, littered — all over the grounds of the shrine; full on sacrilege.

‘AAAAAAAAAAAGH! O-Ononoki-chan!’

When I watch a crime drama, in those scenes when someone first discovers a body and screams, I would think ‘Geez, you wouldn’t scream so clearly like that, would you. You’d more likely be speechless, no?’ and coldly label it as a stereotype that has happened hundreds of times; I hereby wish to retract and express my fullest regret over such baseless accusations.

I was wrong, and I admit to screaming.

It would be a shriek all right.

Like that.

Let alone if the corpse was a friend’s.

‘No, no, no! Ononoki-chan! Speak to me, please!’

‘Alright, alright. Pipe down, geez.’

She actually spoke.

My wish was granted from the heavens.

I really was speechless now, as I fell back bottom-first onto the ground — which brought my point of view closer down, as I locked eyes with Ononoki-chan’s living head.

I can say this is a living head, right?

It’s dead no matter how I look at it though.

No, but, she just, spoke —

‘I am a doll oddity, so dismemberment alone won’t kill me. Also, I’ve been keeping it a secret from you, but I am also a corpse oddity, so I’ve been dead the whole time.’

‘……’

She spoke a lot. From only her head.

And it turns out she is a corpse oddity.

Then have I been using a corpse as a model and improving my illustration skills with that? — am I Sugita Genpaku? {R}

But she was right; upon closer inspection, despite her corpse being everywhere, there were no bloodstains along the path. Probably because of her being a corpse, any cuts or hacks will bring no more blood.

Which makes me think, if she could do a ‘Venus de Milo’ for me, then if I ask her nicely… I wonder if she could do the ‘Winged Victory of Samothrace’.

‘Come now, you’ve cut snakes here before, how could you be scared by something like this. But now that you’re here, I’ve something that needs your help, Sengoku Nadeko.’

‘W-w-what is it?’

‘I can’t see clearly from here, but I’m afraid the rest of my body is scattered around here; could you get them all for me? If all the parts are put back together, then my wounds will heal.’

Ononoki’s quartered body expressionlessly made fun of me whilst giving me an incredible request.

Collect her chunks?

‘I would welcome you putting aside your artistic side and resist the temptation of painting out this landscape.’

‘No, there’s no way I would draw such a brutal manga now, would I?’

I resisted the producer’s will whilst picking up Ononoki-chan’s severed limbs. I remember walking up the mountain and pondering about where my life would go, but the last thing I expected was repairing my friend’s embalmed corpse.

But at least this was better than a dead friend.

Even if she was dead in the first place.

‘Th-the really small bits I couldn’t pick them all up…’

‘You don’t have to go after every last bit. I’m doing some emergency patching-up. If the worst happens, dirt from around here will have to do.’

Like a zombie.

No, that was what it was.

If it was Ononoki-chan who sprang out of the walk-in wardrobe, then it would be a rather cute zombie… unless if it were in pieces; that’d still be terrifying.

‘If you really insist, your flesh would do too.’

‘That’d be too frightening, wouldn’t it?’

‘Give me thy flesh… jk, that’s a Kizumonogatari joke.’

Not funny.

Thoroughly unfunny, from head to toe.

Which was what I was collecting here in the first place, come to think of it. {S}

‘Well, I mean, corpse oddities are inconvenient here. Consider vampires; they’re also immortal, but when their flesh fly off, they disintegrate, and regenerate from the cut — no effort necessary.’

She spoke of a most gruesome rule.

Immortal oddities having different mechanisms was the least of my worries.

I pretended not to hear that, and continued gathering the littered parts. It was much work. Everything feels like assembling a normal figurine, but the skin, it somehow felt like a corpse.

Somehow.

‘— Ah, but in this case, being a corpse oddity was a good thing; this really was a blessing in disguise. Because, you see, venom dissolves blood, which would be a problem for blood-based oddities such as vampires.’

‘Eh…? Venom?’

No, I should have noticed it earlier.

If Ononoki-chan was like this around the shrine, then the only culprit has to be Divine Nadeko — my shikigami managed to land a counterattack on Ononoki-chan, that must have been it.

But from what I can see, there was no trace of Divine Nadeko… from what she left behind, though, I was already thoroughly terrified.

Even though it wasn’t a vampire, my blood was drained either way.

If Ononoki-chan, an oddity specialist and an oddity herself, was defeated like that by Divine Nadeko, then when I go against her head-to-head… this is what is known as not knowing my place.

From this, it would be no surprise if I ended up in pieces as a corpse — but, um, would Divine Nadeko do that in the first place?

What reasons lie behind your acts of brutality…

This was too much.

‘My, my, seriously, ever since mingling with Araragi Tsukihi, I’ve never had any luck. Oh well, at least one good thing came out of this — that’d be befriending you, Sengoku Nadeko.’

‘Huh. Why are you saying things that make me happy?’

Are you trying to make me fall further?

I had no idea how serious she was.

Putting aside now, I was sure this kid had absolutely despised me.

A doll is easily affected by the people around them, i.e. has no set character — is that so?

‘Yes. Therefore, if you regard me as kind-hearted, that means you’re kind-hearted as well.’

‘As I was saying, there’s no use making me fall any further.’

No amount of temptation would make me fall further; I was already at the very bottom.

On top (on bottom?) of all that, my shikigami has hacked my friend into pieces.

‘No, setting that aside for a moment, this has nothing to do with types of oddities, this is just normal, right? Some things you like, some things you don’t like. Some things you used to like, now you hate, some things you used to hate, now you like — the bitter veg you wouldn’t touch as a child could become a favourite in adulthood.’

‘Huh…’

Well, I guess that much seemed true.

Likes and dislikes change with the times — liking the same thing, repeating the same thing forever, or being forced to do the same thing over and over against one’s will, all those take their toll.

Emotional seriality.

Having seen all kinds of Nadekos in shikigami form, all different eras of Nadekos, that was my only conclusion.

‘…Uh, Ononoki-chan, the uh… do I need to stick the hair back on too? A lot of it’s gone…’

‘Couldn’t even if you wanted to. It’s not flesh. But it’s okay, it’ll go back to normal. I’m the type of doll that can grow hair.’

That’s great to hear.

No, I don’t actually know if that was a good thing, but I’d better focus on getting all of Ononoki-chan’s parts, and put them together like a three-dimensional puzzle.

Connect them, piece by piece.

? — They weren’t connecting?

‘No need to be careful, just press it in like you would with clay. Just slightly more force than you’re comfortable with. Pretend you’re trying to deform me.’

‘Uh, uhm…’

Honestly, this was quite grisly work.

But I should be the one cleaning up after my shikigami’s mess — well, even if it was not my responsibility, now that Ononoki-chan called me her friend, it would not be nice to leave her in pieces.

Then I shall start from the legs.

‘S-sorry if I mix up left and right.’

‘Quit horsing around. I’ll mix your limbs up.’

She’s mad.

She’s horrifying when she’s mad.

‘S-so, what happened? Was Divine Nadeko that powerful?’

‘Well, you can say she’s strong… but I am a professional after all. I went in this task expecting to win — no, not a task. It’s personal. Weird, isn’t it, for me to take something personally…’

‘……’

I thought Ononoki-chan was trying to sweet-talk me again, but she simply shrugged quietly — no, that’s not right, she doesn’t have shoulders.

‘You’re asking me what happened? Well, you aren’t wrong, I got struck back by Divine Nadeko. But technically, Divine Nadeko wasn’t my only opponent — I was against both Divine Nadeko and Gentle Nadeko, two shikigami at the same time.’

A two-versus-one, I see.

I’m surprised — I never thought the scattered shikigami would ever co-operate amongst their own.

Well, I say that, uniforms did change hands, and chisels did get taken away; there was at least some modicum of communication going on.

Even so, all Gentle Nadeko did was give things away to all the other Nadekos… then I’m guessing Divine Nadeko has used Gentle Nadeko in some way.

‘Indeed. That seems to be what happened. Anyhow, let’s use the time we have now to reflect on why I failed.’

By ‘the time we have now’, that should be the time I spend re-attaching her limbs — which means, even as a doll oddity, wounds take time to heal.

I cannot go it alone here; I should be a good listener.

‘First, after going our separate ways, I found Gentle Nadeko. I don’t know what caused it, but she was walking around town in a swimsuit.’

‘Swimsuit!?’

An unexpected new nugget of information.

No way, shouldn’t Gentle Nadeko be half-naked wearing only gym shorts!?

‘C-could it be, the micro-bikini!?’

‘No, a school swimsuit.’

Oh come on, that’s not so bad!

Thank goodness!

Come to think of it, the micro-bikini belonged to Fawning Nadeko. I was afraid that was what they swapped, but it seemed not to be the case.

However, I now remember.

Speaking of that, I also wore a school swimsuit once.

It was overshadowed by my memory of wearing only gym shorts, but back when I was coiled with snakes, I wore those clothes once too.

In order to make the scales visible, and also make it easier to move about — that was it, right? Even so, now that I remember, I still have no idea why I ended up in that costume, but purely as a matter-of-fact, I borrowed them from Kanbaru-san, along with the gym shorts.

Yes, it was not for the seas, but for climbing up mountains.

And back then, we went to the shrine, an assumed air pocket of aberrational activity, to lift the curse.

The ritual itself was not exactly a success, but that aside… I was careless.

It is true that the first thing one would think of with regards to Kitashirahebi Shrine is Divine Nadeko, but Gentle Nadeko does not have nothing to do with this shrine either.

In the end, it was Gentle Nadeko who dismembered those many snakes, so there was a close connection to begin with — the moment I saw Ononoki-chan in pieces, I should have known that Gentle Nadeko might have had a hand in causing this, in addition to Divine Nadeko.

In fact, I did not realise it was Divine Nadeko’s bidding straight away, so there was no chance I could have guessed that.

‘I tailed Gentle Nadeko in the school swimsuit. I could have used the “Unlimited Rulebook” and defeated her there and then, but I decided to let her swim — she’s in a swimsuit, see —’

‘……’

Please don’t make jokes like that when all you have is a head.

If I laughed then, that would have been impolite, surely.

‘The reason I say that, is because in the end, all four shikigami have to be taken care of. Gentle Nadeko is one of the lower-risk shikigami, so I was planning to use her as live bait, and hopefully catch them all by surprise.’ [8]

Hmm.

Compared to me, who wanted to deal with them one by one, she thinks differently from me — this breadth and depth in vision really makes the difference between a professional and an amateur.

In my case, Anti-Nadeko was no easy figure to tame, but if I let the highly sociable Fawning Nadeko catch the other three, that might have been a plausible tactic.

No, I could definitely never pull that off, and she might have endangered the students of year 3, class 5, so I could not have let her move on her own.

‘Then, I continued following Gentle Nadeko in the school swimsuit up the mountain… however, now that I think of it, I felt like I was set up. It was a complete decoy.’

‘Decoy…’

‘Yes. A trap — Divine Nadeko’s trap lured me into the shrine; a serpent’s fang bit into me from my back.’

Rather than letting her swim as the lure, I was the lure — Ononoki-chan added.

As I was saying, stop trying to make me laugh.

A middle school girl climbing up a mountain in a school swimsuit is a hilarious enough scene all on its own.

‘Which means I wasn’t the one who let Gentle Nadeko swim around as bait, but Divine Nadeko — seriously, what kind of trick is this, shikigami using shikigami…’

Ain’t that the truth.

But given Gentle Nadeko’s servility, it was bound to happen — and whilst the other was a shikigami, this was a god we are talking about.

It seemed the left leg attached fine (so it can be fastened, thank goodness), so I started attaching Ononoki-chan’s right leg. Even without mixing up left and right, I had to be careful about the angle which I was attaching them… it could probably be fine-tuned after, but I wanted to do my best here.

It might be a life-or-death surgical situation, but treat this as playing with a doll instead, I said to myself.

I was definitely not playing with a dead body.

‘Uh, Ononoki-chan, what should I do with the clothes? I mean, I couldn’t tell garment from garment.’

‘Good point. We don’t have needles or threads, so sewing is not an option; could you roughly patch them together so it is at least dignified?’

Roger that.

Whilst the end result was a sleeveless top that exposes her belly button, this Ononoki-chan looks quite refreshing.

As refreshing as a corpse can be.

Her hair was shorter too, quite the image change.

Something Sodachi-onee-chan failed in doing.

Consider this Ononoki-chan’s ‘healthy child’ version, except it’s a corpse. [9]

As far as character design goes, there could be two versions of shikigami to be made here… no, even without that, Ononoki-chan was a shikigami in the first place.

But to think that whilst I was dressing up in Tsukihi-chan’s room, Ononoki-chan was being ripped apart along with her clothes — my tiny self is about to be crushed under the weight of my guilt.

What was the chronology anyway?

Gentle Nadeko wandering around in only gym shorts, and Gentle Nadeko climbing up the mountain in a school swimsuit — which came first, which came later?

Regardless of the order, she is a downright pervert, but I reckon this was an important factor in figuring things out… no, I was not trying to diminish the guilt of dressing up by thinking about what Gentle Nadeko did whilst I was doing that.

‘By the way, how were things on your end, Sengoku Nadeko? You’ve changed clothes. Seeing as your limbs are still with you, I’m guessing you haven’t met Divine Nadeko.’

Please don’t judge this by the state of my limbs relative to my body — considering that being dismembered could have been my alternative fate today, I broke out in a cold sweat.

Honestly, in front of the spectacularly failed specialist, it felt a bit awkward telling her that I managed to capture two shikigami, but now that she noticed my fancy dress, I can no longer stay silent.

I continued healing (repairing?) Ononoki-chan whilst giving her as objective a report as I could, without making it sound like I was tooting my own horn, but nevertheless feeding her as many details as I can.

Oshino Meme-san once said that anything can be a hint regarding oddities, so everything should be reported in as much detail as possible — well, these are all supernatural stories anyway.

No chance of comprehending them if they were untold.

I say that, I did not reveal the phone call with Senjougahara-san — it scares me even thinking about it!

Perhaps this was the mark of a pro, but after listening to my tales of luck (and only luck) in calm silence,

‘Hmph. Show-off.’

She commented coldly.

Wait, was the calm simply limited to expression and voice?

The inferno of envy burns strong here.

‘Humblebragging sonuvabitch.’

‘Uh, don’t hate on me, please? I’m in the middle of carefully reassembling your limbs.’

‘Anyway; Oshino Ougi, huh… if that guy’s getting involved, that changes everything… oh hell no. I’m asking you just in case, Sengoku-chan, but you haven’t contacted Oshino Ougi after going your separate ways, right?’

‘M-mm… yeah, I’m worried. Ougi-san should now be chasing after Gentle Nadeko from the reports given, but if anything goes wrong and he faces Divine Nadeko alone, he might not make it out in one piece…’

‘Your worries are nothing like mine.’

True.

I know that.

I may say I was praying for his safety, but I also feel that person could survive a world-ending apocalypse.

After all, even if he is not an expert, that guy is Oshino Meme-san’s nephew.

‘Ah, but, now that Gentle Nadeko is co-ordinating with Divine Nadeko, they’d be at the same place.’

Whilst tricky, from a certain perspective, by now, the situation could not be simpler.

The shikigami originally moved individually, which made splitting up necessary in searching them, but now that they have teamed up, so can we.

A team battle is up next.

‘Well, there are pros and cons to team battles… once Gentle Nadeko is under Divine Nadeko’s command, the shikigami may evolve even further.’

‘Evolve?’

‘Maybe they’d even deify. Worst comes to worst, we might be up against two Divine Nadekos.’

That would be… very bad.

But it was also very likely.

In reality, I am Gentle Nadeko and Divine Nadeko — they may have different designs, but both of them are unmistakably Sengoku Nadeko.

Sengoku Nadeko, enemies with Sengoku Nadeko and Sengoku Nadeko.

This was the condition I found myself in.

‘But Ononoki-chan, if we turn it on its head, then wouldn’t it be possible to turn Divine Nadeko into Gentle Nadeko or Fawning Nadeko?’

‘Ah well… it might be possible if we had a con man with us.’

Ononoki-chan appeared doubtful (Deishuuful? [10]) regarding evolution, or should I say devolution (not to deify, but to personify?) — no, but, regardless of if it can be done in the first place, seeing as Ononoki-chan was in pieces, it would be possible to ask for help from Kaiki-san or other experts, right?

For instance, contacting their leader, Gaen-san…

‘There are two reasons why I don’t want to do that. First, my failings will be made public, and two, you could be penalised alongside your shikigami.

Forget about the former, the latter was paramount.

No, the former would be bad too.

Maybe Ononoki-chan was saying this to avoid making me more stressed than I was, but for a shikigami oddity like Ononoki-chan, failure — in a private mission, no less — means more than embarrassment, but potential penalties coming her way too.

It may be ludicrous to say this, but Ononoki-chan is facing pretty much the same situation as I was.

Of course, when necessary, Ononoki-chan should be able to make that tough decision as a pro, as a shikigami, but I should not goad her into that.

‘However, if there are two gods, it’s something we couldn’t handle; the sooner we do this, the better… so did Divine Nadeko and Gentle Nadeko escape and leave you here after they’re done dismembering you?’

‘Yes. Rather than say they escaped, they wanted to kill you before killing me.’

Wow, the initiative —

Quite unlike myself.

But they were me…

‘Then thank my lucky stars that I’ve missed them so far… so if we sit here and wait, they’ll make their way here sooner or later?’

‘If this was a battle of endurance, then that can be done, but since we are worrying if Gentle Nadeko could evolve into Divine Nadeko, then we cannot wait or remain passive; we must take pursuit.’

Indeed.

But how were we even going to find the two once-again-missing shikigami?

If we were looking for someone who moves on instinct, we may be able to go according to witness testimonies, but if they were hiding themselves, then it’s a leap up the difficulty settings for us.

Even with Divine Nadeko as leader, if they had discussed this well, it should be something beyond our wildest imaginations —

‘No, I didn’t get set up and defeated for nothing. Even though I failed, I did manage to play a hand against them.’

‘A hand?’

I tilted my head in confusion as I lifted up Ononoki-chan’s head with my two hands — the body itself was about done, so now it was finally time to attach the head.

All I had to do is that and the repair is done — wait.

That’s not right. Something’s missing.

From the parts I have collected, I couldn’t find anything below the right wrist.

‘Atop Divine Nadeko’s back, I pasted my right hand — I literally played my hand. So no matter where she hides, even as stealthy as a snake, I could locate it. As embarrassing as it is, I have done the very least I should as a pro.’

Ononoki-chan’s head, now on my lap, said without a hint of expression — seems like there was a sliver of hope after all.