Monogatari Series - Volume 21 - Chapter 0.23

023

If Gentle Nadeko half-naked in gym shorts was called Bloomer Nadeko, then I should call Gentle Nadeko in a school swimsuit Speedo Nadeko — she wore only beach sandals on her feet, probably to match the swimsuit. {U} Because there was some distance between us, and because she was facing the bookshelf, I cannot tell for sure if that was Gentle Nadeko, but in an emptied bookstore — actually, no, even in a normal bookstore — the only person I can think of who would stand and read books wearing a school swimsuit would be Sengoku Nadeko.

Wait, even I have never read books whilst stood in a school swimsuit, have I?

To that end, the reason I dressed like that in Kitashirahebi Shrine was to lift the snake curse — though in a sense it was an equally blasphemous act, there was at least some rational thought behind it.

Because of that, Gentle Nadeko looking like that (plus because I was smartly dressed based on Tsukihi-chan’s fashion sense) was a sight I cannot bear looking at.

Anyway, I had finally located Gentle Nadeko, who I’ve been looking for this entire morning — have they not noticed us?

I always thought that Divine Nadeko and Gentle Nadeko were moving together, so I never expected them to appear in separate floors.

Count me flabbergasted.

Ever since becoming a hikikomori, I have never been to the bookstore… is Speedo Nadeko looking at books in the occult section?

The bookshelf where I obtained the wrong information on lifting the curse… no, I remember Oshino Meme-san saying that the ceremony itself was done right.

There were so many mistakes back then that it was difficult to be sure which part of it went wrong.

‘Ono…’

I stopped halfway before the -noki-chan could escape from my mouth.

This was an empty bookstore, devoid of any background music too. Any noise I made would reverberate across the entire place, making Gentle Nadeko notice — this was too good of a chance to waste that.

If I could pull Gentle Nadeko over to our side and face Divine Nadeko with a four-on-one, then a fight might not even be necessary — it could end with a demand for surrender.

Surrender.

A new state of being for a deity.

However, I cannot just call (draw) her out, or stop her in her tracks; as I stopped, Ononoki-chan continued her advance — should I grab her shoulder? No, my footsteps would definitely be heard. I was wearing sandals, so they will go patan-patan. Curses, I should have changed into sneakers whilst I was home…!

‘……!’

I went ahead hastily, turned, and stepped away from Ononoki-chan — strolling towards the back of Speedo Nadeko, her racerback clear for all to see; I kept my lips tight, my feet travelling silently on the ground, even if it meant I moved slower.

This was a mistake.

This was so obviously a mistake.

This can only be described as a thoroughly incorrect action.

But, at that time, it felt like the only thing I can do — I thought if I got Gentle Nadeko on my side, this entire circus could be brought down in one fell swoop.

I was certain.

The image of Ononoki-chan battered, bruised and decimated had been completely burnt into my brain. I will not allow it happening a second time.

Current me cannot justify any logic that says ‘it’s just a corpse, it doesn’t matter if it’s hacked to bits’. It was an identical logic to ‘it’s just a snake, it doesn’t matter if it’s hacked to bits’.

Therefore, if I could catch Gentle Nadeko before confronting Divine Nadeko, I reckoned this was a chance I could absolutely not let slip.

But I was wrong.

In the end, Ononoki-chan’s dismemberment came as a result of Divine Nadeko using Gentle Nadeko as bait — then that Gentle Nadeko standing there and reading could also be the same thing; why did I not think of that then?

This really was just repeating the exact same failure — an easy solution that ended up with me as the catch.

But right then, I did not even realise I was messing things up, or that I went alone in a team operation.

I do not have any concept of teamwork.

Once this became a team battle, all I have managed to do was to undermine it.

I really am useless.

Alternatively, it could be an overreaction, a panic from an emergency situation — I haven’t made myself a manga character again, have I?

To flatly ignore reality.

To dump all the dry detective work to Ononoki-chan.

But I still had my own thoughts — I slowly approached Speedo Nadeko’s back, and concentrated on my right hand.

On the paper is the sealed Fawning Nadeko — yes, even if I was facing Gentle Nadeko, I would not want to talk it through one-on-one, or surprise her with a sheet of white paper; things do not go that perfectly in my head.

Now was the moment when Fawning Nadeko, someone with terrifying social skills, sprang into action.

Make it a ‘two-against-one’.

To win against Divine Nadeko in a battle of words would probably require someone of Kaiki-san’s calibre, but if it was Gentle Nadeko, then Fawning Nadeko should do the trick… it’s difficult to find somebody more willing to go with the flow than her.

Going with the flow because she’s wearing a school swimsuit — no, she wears a school swimsuit because she goes with the flow, or goes enticingly half-naked with only gym shorts.

Well, this was not Gentle Nadeko, this was my own past, but having been deprived of her clothes, and stolen of her chisels, she almost bows down to every other shikigami.

Therefore — mm?

Wait…

I just felt this dissonance that came from nowhere… erm, have I missed something?

In terms of missing something, the moment I acted on my own and left Ononoki-chan was as careless an act can be, but that was not what I am talking about; I have missed something even more fundamental…

The problem is, my brain runs slower than my ambling, quiet legs ridden with lactic acid; before I realised the source of this dissonance, I was already behind Speedo Nadeko.

Speedo Nadeko was indeed in the occult books section — presumably reading something about snakes.

Quite right.

Around this time last year, albeit not in a school swimsuit, I was found whilst also standing and reading books here.

Found here.

‘……’

If I was not found then — if it was the wrong time, if I came another day, another hour to this bookstore, what would have happened to me?

Would I have died from the curse…?

No, in the end, the time when the specialist Oshino Meme-san took care of the air pocket that is the Kitashirahebi Shrine, or the time when the Tsuganoki Second Middle School’s Fire Sisters took action on the ‘curse’ spreading around Public Middle School #701, that encounter and that reunion, they were both something unavoidable, weren’t they.

…Something unavoidable?

Did I want to avoid it?

I was so jolly back then…

The moment my heart sank, as if grabbing onto this long-awaited opportunity, when I was only a few steps away from Speedo Nadeko’s exposed back, exposed because she was Speedo Nadeko — it started.

Rather than say it has started, it collapsed.

It collapsed — the bookshelf.

Packed tightly with deluxe thick hardcovers, the shelf — as if trying to crush me, to kill me, fell without any sign.

‘Uh…’

That’s another something.

Something unavoidable.