Monogatari Series - Volume 22 - Chapter 2.07

007

If I had to start from the conclusion, we attained no results from standing guard.

Even though, from halfway up a mountain that was a few hundred meters away, I’d opened my eyes wide and observed the convex mirror (though I’d put in some fighting spirit, I couldn’t tell if I did or didn’t show up in the mirror, but I felt that this wasn’t something you could do with just your all), while Kizashima-senpai had covered herself in dirt and kept watch all the way until evening.

Or, rather than covering herself in dirt.

She’d transformed her entire body to dirt—and kept watch like that.

It was that doton-no-jutsu that ninjas used—or not, because Kizashima-senpai had poured her flask of water over her head and muddied up her mud body.

It was the exact opposite approach to water that the mermaid Suou-san had, but in a sense, you could say it was exactly the same.

Her body, that could dry up and crack without moisture—while that body of “dirt” did, in fact, require a supply of water (and you could even repair broken parts with it—making her immortal), an excess supply would actually make it harder to maintain her shape.

She’d become muddy.

“But it won’t end up releasing my soul. It wouldn’t do that even if my body turned into something like a swamp—so I won’t be hiding in the trees. I’ll be right below them, covered in dirt.”

I’ll just be down in the dumps—said Kizashima-senpai with an innocent look.

An innocent look of course came naturally for a golem, but I couldn’t keep from getting nauseous at the thought of going that far for my work—it wasn’t even turning her body into dust, but into mud.

Far from the trees themselves, she would scatter pieces of “herself” all across the school road.

In short, she would be stepped on by all the high schoolers returning home from school.

She’d be trampled underfoot by the kids she was aiming to protect.

I had felt that I was being naive in being reluctant to do a stakeout because it felt too much like a decoy operation, but, far from none of the students being at risk, the one who was at the most risk was Kizashima-senpai herself.

What a mess.

It may be just a matter of course for her, but it being a matter of course was a mess in itself—whether or not she’d be able to return to her original form would be a matter of luck every time she tried it, and even if she didn’t feel pain, I highly doubted that losing a human form didn’t cause pain to one’s soul.

To be stepped on by the very ones you’re trying to protect.

It had to be painful.

“I don’t understand, Kizashima-senpai, why you have to go that far—I’ll keep a proper lookout, so let’s just leave it at that.”

“There are no absolutes when it comes to rumors. Therefore, if we don’t do the best that we can, we cannot say with confidence that we thoroughly ‘nitpicked’ at everything—I don’t want you to have the wrong idea, Assistant Inspector Araragi, because it’s not that I don’t have faith in your eyes.”

“But—excuse me, but I don’t want you to have the wrong idea, either. It’s not that I don’t have faith in you. In fact, I feel like I should learn from you that consciousness you have for your work. I feel it from the bottom of my heart. But there are limits we just shouldn’t cross!”

Of course, considering this ‘junior’s rebellion’, what came to mind was my classmate from high school, Hanekawa Tsubasa—I realized now, as the years passed since that spring break, how much harder it was to recover from what she did for me back then.

After that, after the nightmare had passed, her way of living had changed.

Hanekawa was no longer the Hanekawa she was back then.

After our paths diverged, I no longer had any way to stop Hanekawa.

And because of that, when I saw anyone that reminded me even a little bit of Hanekawa, I wanted to try and stop them, whoever it was—and Kizashima-senpai didn’t just remind me of her “a little bit”.

In a sense, she was throwing herself at the problem even more than Hanekawa was.

Thinking about it now, even Suou-san had that same inclination…

“It’s important to us that the world remains connected, and I’m sure you feel the same way, Assistant Inspector Araragi. Gaen-san, and even the section chief, are making good use of that—doesn’t it make you feel the greatest when you see that you take that profile you’ve had to cover up and use it for the sake of justice and helping people?”

And please don’t ask me what justice actually means, said Kizashima-senpai, forcibly ending the argument and moving straight into preparations for the stakeout… More specifically, taking off her jacket. And then taking off the rest, even her shoes.

Ah, that was right.

It seemed that I had once again been hit with the fate of seeing a girl half-naked after just barely getting to know them. It almost felt like I needed to settle some dispute or karma would come back to bite me someday—but anyway, it seemed Kizashima-senpai couldn’t stand the thought of getting her brand-name jacket or silk stockings or custom-made loafers dirty, even if she was going to cover herself in dirt.

It seemed she’d firmly drawn the line between work and leisure there.

Well, even if I was used to suddenly being stripped at, if she’d drawn the line there, I had no choice but to restrain myself from trying to stop her.

All I could do was watch over the convex mirror from a far away place with the same seriousness that she had.

And, at the same time, make sure she stayed safe after turning into a thin layer of dirt and spreading all over the school road like a carpet (although in that form, safety meant nothing), whether I liked it or not.

Every time a high schooler walked by, even as I wondered whether or not they’d get slashed at, I couldn’t help but watch their feet instead, and I spent the whole time in that feeling of unease when I heard, “I’ve changed my mind about her, just a little,” from my shadow.

It seemed Shinobu was pleased with the golem’s method of investigation—although it wasn’t to the point that she would give us any suggestions, unfortunately.

She must not have liked the fact that I was obediently doing as I was told.

What an incredibly loyal manservant I was.

And with that, we disappointingly ended up with no results—we couldn’t catch the “phantom slasher” red-handed, and no phenomena that even resembled it occurred. After the returning-home period, it had turned completely dark, and the school road had become completely deserted.

I hurried back to the site and asked the ground, “Are you okay, Kizashima-senpai?”

“I’m fine. There are no problems here. Sorry to have to ask you this, but would you mind filling up the flask I gave you and putting my parts back together, Assistant Inspector Araragi? It’s fine if you just do it roughly. I’m sure you’d never expected to be playing with mud at this age, but this is work, too.”

Was this really work, though?

Even though I thought that, when I did as I was told without any objections, the mud soon began to sloppily come back together on its own into its original form, as if it were some sort of shape-memory alloy.

“I’m confident that my stakeout wasn’t noticed… I can assert that with absolute confidence. But I didn’t catch a glimpse of anything youkai-like. If that’s the case, then that means it may not be an oddity phenomenon after all.”

How was she even speaking? Was the dirt just vibrating to produce sound like speakers did? But even in that condition where she was still just a pile of dirt, Kizashima-senpai made her analysis.

“I had the same impression. However, if that’s the case, the culprit… How did a real ‘phantom slasher’ even slash at the backs of high schoolers without being noticed by anyone?”

Was it really an expert?

In that case, the situation really called for neither me nor Kizashima-senpai but Mitome-san to appear… Hm? No, wait. That wasn’t it. What we should be doubting wasn’t that.

The question wasn’t, how did they do it without being noticed.

That would be a culprit’s point of view. Or the point of view of those standing guard.

If it was really an oddity phenomenon, in the end, anything was possible—putting aside the idea of a demon sword, even Shinobu in her prime could cut off the heads of anyone without being noticed, not just uniforms.

So the question wasn’t how.

It was—why did they notice?

The affected high schoolers didn’t notice when they were being slashed at, but why did they notice afterwards? Since, far from it being midwinter, the weather was quite nice—what caused them to notice?

It’s on your back, after all? Would you even be able to notice?

Would you notice at any point in time except when you were slashed at?

Not even I could look at my own back, even with a vampire’s vision.

Did someone around them tell them about it? No, all the victims were going home alone. Then…

“All right. I’ve more or less taken shape now. Assistant Inspector Araragi, if you would return my clothes.”

“Ah, right. Here you go.”

Even if the form had come together, her outer surface was still mud, so it was almost like a prototype figurine.

It didn’t have the grossness of a vampire’s regeneration, but it did still give off a rather unrefined impression—but of course, because figurines had no bones. After taking the clothes in her awkwardly moving arms, she trudged over to the convex mirror.

Luckily, golems did get reflected in mirrors—and since two convex mirrors were set up to face each other, it was easy to see the back of your head, too…

Mirrors set up to face each other?

—Then that astonishment is your answer.

—I am a mirror to you, Araragi-senpai.

“…And you really are an exemplary junior,5 Ougi-chan,” I whispered.

Because, Ougi-chan had nimbly given me all the answers.

Turning that around, it meant that to her, I was no longer someone she needed to seriously ridicule, making that further evidence of our separation—but that was the way she ought to be.

Mirrors facing each other—opposite mirrors.

If they let you see the back of your head—of course they’d let you see your back, too.

Right.

For that fact, “I was the one who knew”.

“Kizashima-senpai, do you have a moment?”

I called out to Kizashima-senpai who was still in the middle of setting herself. Following Ougi-chan’s example.

“It sounds truly foolish when I put it like this, but—”