Monogatari Series - Volume 22 - Chapter 4.05

005

On the final day of my training period, I made a special request to Chief Kouga to make some time for just the two of us to speak. When I gave her the bundle of documents I’d spent all night putting together, Chief Kouga skimmed through it before asking, “This doesn’t seem like a letter of resignation, so what is it? What’s going on?” with a puzzled expression.

“This is a housing map for this town. That is, for oddities—or rather, for the ‘bad things’ that come before oddities. I’ve written up a list detailing where they all are.”

To be honest, what I really wanted to submit was a report detailing the resolution of all of them, having them be dispersed in the wind, but because it was me, I could unfortunately only accomplish about half of my intended schedule—it still made for a good parting gift for the Rumors Squad, but I couldn’t say I was satisfied with it.

I was pretty lacking in originality.

What I did after descending from the Kitashirahebi Shrine was fieldwork that was basically the same as the actions of the specialist, Oshino Meme, who had gone around gathering oddity stores during his stay in this town.

If there was any difference, it would be that I did a fair amount of cheating by utilizing the appetite of the ruler of oddities, so to speak.

Even so, I hadn’t been able to finish in time.

And because I hadn’t finished, I couldn’t even determine which ones were harmful and which were harmless, only having Shinobu eat the ones that were definitively dangerous, so I had no choice but to rely on my fellow Rumors Squad senpai to handle the rest.

Nevertheless, this list should be useful in demonstrating my spirit—if anything, I’d be okay if just my feelings reached Chief Kouga.

“Your feelings are great and all, but I can’t take this without knowing what it’s for. You didn’t do it for work, right? Is this supposed to be a farewell gift, saying you’ll never be returning to the Rumors Squad?”

“Well, it is partly as thanks for taking care of me over these past four months, but it’s not a parting gift—if anything, it’s a bribe.”

“A bribe? Oi, oi, do you really think your chief is that underhanded?”

“I apologize for my choice of words. Let me change that to ‘gratuity’. The thing is, I’d like for you to write me a letter of recommendation.”

“I already said I would, didn’t I? You didn’t have to go out of your way to do your own research project. Your aspirations lie beyond the Naoetsu Police Department and the Rumors Squad, right? Okay, okay. It’s fine, as long as you’re not quitting being a member of the police, I can help you out. I’ll make sure you’re rated highly, whether you’re going for the capital or any other region.”

“However, I’m not going for either of those.”

That was why I was showing every courtesy in making my request.

Though I was aware of how it sounded, I wanted a letter of recommendation that rated me as highly as possible.

“I’d like to continue my training like now—just, overseas.”

“…Overseas police training for National Police Agency initiates?”

As expected, her mind was quick. Chief Kouga blinked in amazement.

That’s right. Overseas training.

For some reason, I’d been convinced that, if I wanted to rush over to where Hitagi was, I’d have to quit my job to do so—I’d assumed that, as long as I was a government employee, I’d be unable to leave the country.

But I realized in the middle of my conversation with Oikura.

This wasn’t about “TSUBASA HANEKAWA”, and it wasn’t like the National Police Agency was operating in countries with isolation policies, but in this era of globalism, there were systems in place if you looked closely—there were tons of police officers that cooperated with the International Criminal Police Organization and were dispatched overseas. But of course, this wasn’t an easy matter. It involved taking on difficult work like guarding embassies and such. In a sense, it was operating overseas as a representative of your country, which meant you needed to be qualified to do so.

For example… Well, for a younger person, about the level of an Assistant Inspector.

Like this, it almost makes me feel stupid. I’d been grumbling about how easy it would be to chase after Hitagi if I’d had a different job, but the truth was that from college, or perhaps even from high school, I’d steadily proceeded down the shortest path to following in her footsteps, as if I’d known in advance.

Why did I become a police officer?

When Suou-san had asked this, I’d responded, “because my parents were police officers”, but now I can respond like this—“because I wanted to stay together with my girlfriend that I was with since high school”.

It was mixing work and leisure, but that was fine.

Because, before I was a public servant, I was me.12

It was my humble servant that had told me that.

…I was probably repeating myself by now, but there were a lot of obstacles in my way. As a career, I couldn’t go around completely unrestricted. Like being a single tree in a forest, there were probably a flood of applicants that were interested. Not to mention, the best of the best. The elite even among the elite. That’s why Chief Kouga’s support was essential, but even that probably wasn’t enough—that’s why I continued further.

“Someday, I’ll return. And when that happens, I can be the chief of the Rumors Squad, or the chief of the Naoetsu Police Department, or whatever you want. And, of course, I’d like to make use of what I learned here even overseas.”

“…In other words, you want me to bring this up to Gaen-senpai, too?”

“I doubt that she doesn’t want to set up a base overseas, when she’s trying to spread roots across all the public institutions in Japan, right? Though the FBI or MI5 might be too much, she probably doesn’t want to keep relying on unaffiliated cooperators like Dramaturgy or Episode.”

“Well, that’s true… Hmm.”

Chief Kouga once again flipped through the maps I handed her. Though she’d skimmed them quickly before, she was carefully perusing them now—as a founding member of the Rumors Squad, it was possible she was measuring my capabilities.

In that case, I’d done most of it pretty roughly… I couldn’t say I was proud of my paperwork skills.

“What about your foreign language skills? And not your grades on an exam—do you have the confidence to actually communicate with locals in the area? You have to be able to speak the language of the land you’re in.”

Her tone of voice changed from that of a superior to that of an interviewer.

At the very least, it meant that she was taking it into consideration—although it made me more desperate.

Though I’d boasted to Shinobu about how I had no intention of returning to being a high schooler, it seemed I would have to return to the times when I’d bluffed my way through everything, just for this moment.

“I can’t say I excel at foreign languages, when I struggle with even Japanese. My communication abilities are poor. My social disposition is also poor. I have a bit of an ungrateful personality. But I will be accompanied by an interpreter, so I’ll be able to exchange words with overseas oddities.”

“An interpreter—I see. Shinobu-chan, huh?” said Chief Kouga without taking her eyes off the paper. “An interpreter for the language of oddities. That’s what we valued most highly from you, after all—a delicate job that would be difficult for someone like Officer Saisaki.”

“Then?”

“Hold on, hold on. Don’t rush me. This is still under consideration—Assistant Inspector Araragi, your proposal is convenient for me and Gaen-san. Or rather, it’s ideal. But that’s only if everything goes well, and there’s also the case of if everything doesn’t go well to consider. This isn’t a problem with your abilities, but a problem of organizational structure—from an adult’s point of view, there’s a high probability that you’ll be crushed by the strict work environment overseas, be discouraged, and quit being a police officer. I don’t have the slightest idea why you’re aiming to work overseas, but you might even end up breaking up with your girlfriend.”

It sounded like she had a pretty good idea, though?

Also, I felt like her statement was going a bit too far.

“It’s fine if you regret not doing something, over regretting doing something, you know?”

“I’m doing this so I won’t regret it. The reason I don’t feel fulfilled, the reason I feel so unsatisfied, even though I’m so blessed… The reason I feel guilty towards my past self is not because I’ve succeeded or that I’ve become a part of the winners. It’s because I’m not living my life to the fullest. Even though I’m doing my best, I’m not actually doing my best. Even though I’ve grown, I’m not trying to grow further.”

“Did you forget what I said? It’s fine even if you don’t pursue your ideals. You aren’t obligated to make full use of your abilities—anybody would prefer living comfortably in a place that was prepared for them.”

“But, it’s fine even if I don’t live comfortably, isn’t it? It’s fine to live desperately. To go beyond my abilities and work myself to the limit.”

“Of course.”

As long as it’s within the range of the Labor Standards Act—said Chief Kouga, finishing her reread of the list.

“Okay, okay. Then, let’s go with that.”

“Eh? Go with what?”

“I’ll write you your letter of recommendation. I’ll put a gold star for your rating, and let Gaen-san know as well—but I don’t know what will happen after that. But whatever happens, I’ll have you return to the Rumors Squad in the end. And I won’t let you quit, even if you ask me to. That’s what we’re going with.”

There was suddenly quite a lot that we were “going with” that it was hard to process all at once. Sorry? “Okay, okay” actually meant “okay, okay”? A definite answer? Even though I had so many more logical arguments I prepared… Although they were more illogical arguments… But all my demands were met in full?

“This is some good work. I have some minor complaints, but I can really do something about them on my own. Seko-chan might even be moved to tears by this… The fact that you got Shinobu-chan to cooperate with you on this needs no further explanation. I can feel your guts. It’s easy to see that you’ve helped out with Oshino-kun’s work in the past.”

It did make me happy to be directly praised like this, but I couldn’t help but feel restless from it… As someone who’d even faced off against a con man, I couldn’t help but be suspicious of tricks or feints. Was she going to impose certain conditions for this—wasn’t there going to be some difficult test or intense crash course?

“If you want to bargain like that, do it with Gaen-senpai. I’m just middle management that follows her instructions, in the end. I know nothing about specialist stuff and oddities. I can’t do anything about tests or crash courses. I can only evaluate you based on the four months I’ve spent with you, as well as this presentation just now. I’ve told you plenty of times, haven’t I? I can’t see oddities,”

said Chief Kouga.

“But I do have an eye for people.”