Monogatari Series - Volume 22 - Chapter 2.05

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I then parted ways with Kizashima-senpai, who had said that if that was the case then she had somewhere she wanted to visit, too, so I could do as I liked—to no one’s surprise, she herself had some “secret location” within Naoetsu High as well.

No matter how open this workplace was, I probably wouldn’t get the chance to hear how an immortal golem like her spent her youth in this school—but as for me, my “secret location” was the classroom for Class 1-3.

However, there was no such Class 1-3, so it was a nonexistent Class 1-3.

“Hey—Araragi-senpai. I thought you’d forgotten about me.”

Sitting at the teacher’s desk in this empty classroom was none other than Oshino Ougi—though she was supposed to have been a first year that transferred to Naoetsu High when I was in my third year, she still wore a Naoetsu High uniform and still wore a dubious smile on her face.

Ever since then, Ougi-chan had been a high school student the whole time…

After she had gotten separated from me, I heard she’d gotten close with Kanbaru, but after Kanbaru graduated as well, it seemed she’d ended up becoming fixed in the school itself.

Did she even exist, or did she not exist?

As Oshino Meme’s niece, it seemed she’d taken up the occupation of getting students who’d lost their way in Naoetsu High and making them even further lost—quite literally becoming a school ghost story, as one of the seven wonders.

Because her starting point had been me, not even Kizashima-senpai was aware of Ougi-chan, but even if the Rumors Squad tried to get ahold of this classroom’s existence (or nonexistence), it would probably be impossible for them.

Though she couldn’t be considered harmless, Ougi-chan had become a symbol of the school, and there was probably no specialist that could do anything about that—since even Gaen-san had said so, that was the extent of how untouchable she was.

In the end, even I had simply left her alone once I had graduated from high school, but she experienced some utterly nonsensical growth since then—her appearance was still that of a fifteen-year-old, but in spite of that, she had taken on a dramatic evolution. It had gone to the point that it was almost irreparable.

If I were to confess my crime (even though I was a policeman), then this was one of the reasons why I didn’t visit my hometown, but seeing that I was her manufacturer of sorts, I probably couldn’t go without visiting her anymore.

“…What are you reading, Ougi-chan? A mystery? A locked-room one?”

“No, no. It’s not even prose, you see. Recently, I’ve started reading a lot of manga,” said Ougi-chan, showing me the cover.

Oof. I felt like I’d just been hit.

As if she had been lying in wait for me to come see her, the author was none other than—“Sengoku Nadeko”.

“But apparently you don’t read the kanji as ‘Nadeko’ but ‘Nadeshiko’. It’s her pen name. I’d always thought her name was rather strange, but it looks like she herself was worrying about it, too.”

“…Is it her third work since her debut? That’s pretty amazing,” I started, with a harmless, inoffensive comment.

“Though it doesn’t seem like it’s selling very well,” shot back Ougi with a harmful, offensive comment.

That was the type of girl she was.

“However, it has a bit of a cult following. Since it’s cute but dark. Ah, though I say dark, I haven’t been meddling in her affairs at all—that darkness is the darkness of Sengoku-chan herself.”

Though I do like this work, said Ougi-chan, setting the book aside.

Seeing how she handled it gently, it seemed she wasn’t lying.

“Don’t worry. After Sengoku-chan graduated from middle school, she moved away from this town. So you don’t need to be concerned about her suddenly running into you on the street and reviving her lovey-dovey romantic feelings for you, Araragi-senpai.”

“I hadn’t really been concerned about that in the first place…”

Or had I? I didn’t even know.

I hadn’t even known back then, either.

“Isn’t she tied to Gaen-san, now? I thought I heard something like that… No, not Gaen-san. Was it Ononoki-chan…”

“That’s right. Just like you, Araragi-senpai, or rather, Assistant Inspector Araragi—Gaen-san is making good use of her as a mangaka. Gaen-san’s project aims to steadily set things up even on the entertainment side of things, too.”

“As always, Ougi-chan, you really know everything, don’t you?”

“I don’t know anything. You’re the one who knows—Assistant Inspector Araragi,” said Ougi-chan, looking at me with those pitch-black eyes of hers.

…That was it, wasn’t it?

“But stop calling me ‘Assistant Inspector’, Ougi-chan. You’ve always called me ‘senpai’, after all.”

“That’s Kanbaru-senpai’s duty, but if that’s what you wish, then I shall do as you please. But aren’t you making a triumphant return to this high school after having become a detective in the Rumors Squad, Araragi-senpai? If you just wanted to hear about the present state of Sengoku Nadeshiko-sensei, you could just look in the table of contents of the magazine she’s serialized in. But if you’re here for advice, then I’m all ears.”

“Well, it’s not exactly advice, but…”

I’d come to this illusory Class 1-3 because I couldn’t just leave after coming this far without meeting Ougi-chan, and since I’d said as much to Kizashima-senpai, I had to open up about the secrets of my investigation.

To open up to a mystery maniac about the secrets of my investigation was itself a rather mysterious development.

Although it was hard to keep secrets from Ougi-chan in the first place.

“Ah, yes. I myself have been truly grieving over the ‘phantom slasher’ incidents taking place on the school road to Naoetsu High. It seems that even the students I’m currently meddling with have taken some damage from slashing, as well.”

…It seemed that among the kids that we’d spoken to earlier, some of them had fallen prey to Ougi-chan.

They were taking damage beyond what they’d received from the “phantom slasher” or the “kamaitachi”, but there was nothing I could do about that… In the end, after getting involved with Ougi-chan, they could only do something about it themselves.

Just as I, Kanbaru, and Sengoku had done.

“So it’s not your doing, then. Right, Ougi-chan?”

“Oh my, are you doubting my words? Ha ha. You have no faith in me at all.”

It wasn’t really something to laugh about, since I’d certainly had my concerns—as long as Naoetsu High’s students were victims. Although, suddenly slashing at innocent high schoolers from behind wasn’t exactly something that Ougi-chan would do.

“Innocent high schoolers, huh? But do they really exist?”

“Huh? What? What do you mean by that?”

“No, no, there’s a very deep meaning to that.”

“Is there?”

“It’s regrettable that I would fall under false suspicion by my beloved Araragi-senpai, but I shall offer up a modest hint. Being useful to you, Araragi-senpai, is my purpose in life, after all—or rather, it was my purpose in life.”

When she switched to past tense, it made me keenly aware.

Of the fact that Ougi-chan was no longer bound to me—despite going by the name Oshino Ougi, she didn’t even hold the position of Oshino Meme’s niece anymore.

The darkness grows up, and the darkness leaves the nest.

In that sense, you could say she’d gone far past Oshino Shinobu, who still inhabited my shadow.

She wasn’t stagnating—unlike me, although I’d been the one to bring her into this world.

“A hint? You can’t just give me the answer?”

“Do you really see me as a junior that’s that kind?”

“You’re so unkind it’s almost astonishing.”

“Then that astonishment is your answer. However, I am a mirror to you, Araragi-senpai. You’re not exactly a capable junior yourself, are you?”

“Well, yes.”

“Anyway, the hint.”

Why did the “phantom slasher” only target the backs of students as they were coming back from school, started Ougi-chan.

And I was the one who continued.

“—When they could just as easily do so as they were going to school?”