Monogatari Series - Volume 23 - Chapter 1.44

044

Hachikuji had highly rated my increase in mobility now that I was driving a car, but at this point, I really regretted not asking my parents for a Formula 1 car when I graduated from high school—or rather, I really regretted not saving up money earned from a part-time job to buy a Formula 1 car.

But even so, I calmly calculated that the fastest way to get to Higasa-chan’s house from the Kanbaru family’s Japanese mansion was for me to drive my car.

Gaen-san had spread out the manpower she was in charge of for the sake of safeguarding/monitoring the currently active club members, and she couldn’t just take away those security measures even if her own relative was involved—or perhaps, precisely because her own relative was involved.

Even so, it seemed Gaen-san seemed to be regretting leaving Kanbaru unguarded, as she spoke from the back seat of the New Beetle.

“Ah, geez. My sister is gonna curse me to death,” she said.

Well, it was true that that sister wasn’t the most admirable sister, and in fact, you could even say that Kanbaru herself had nearly been cursed to death at one point…

In the first place, it should be considered that because of the case with Kanbaru Tooe-san (and also because of Kaiki), it was hard for Gaen-san to get close to Kanbaru.

So it wasn’t like Gaen-san left Kanbaru unguarded because she wanted to… If anyone were to be regretful, it would be me.

I’d made Kanbaru keep her distance from the Kanbaru residence for the sake of her safety, and while I wouldn’t say it had the opposite effect, it certainly made it easier for her to be targeted.

I’d foolishly assumed that the vampire wouldn’t go after the OGs—it could be said that my narrow-mindedness was the same as it was in high school, but one of the reasons for my foolishness was that I could not connect the girls’ basketball team at present with the girls’ basketball team of last year.

If only I had noticed that that discrepancy could easily connect to the vampire’s motive…

“Well, this is also an assumption, you know. There’s no guarantee that Kiseki-chan knows about the Kanbaru Suruga/Higasa Seiu regime, and even if she did, she may just be limiting her scope to the currently active club members.”

That was true. That’s why she couldn’t mobilize her manpower.

Only Gaen-san and I could act at this point—we’d left the barrier that had been set up around the Kanbaru residence, so Shinobu was also with me, but I effectively couldn’t expect any cooperation from Shinobu from now on.

Without even sitting in the child seat, she quickly slipped back into my shadow… Well, the promise was that she’d only cooperate with Suicidemaster’s interrogation.

“I’m a little worried about leaving Hachikuji and Suicidemaster on their own… Will they be all right?”

“Her case of anorexia seems to be the real deal, so I don’t think Hachikuji-chan is going to get eaten up. There’s no way she can escape, either—unlike Hachikuji-chan’s barrier, the barrier I set up is like a cage. Let’s just allow that god and devil to have a fun talk with each other.”

That’s what Gaen-san was saying, but she’d probably contrived something to get Hachikuji to keep watch over Suicidemaster—even while panicking about Kanbaru, she still hadn’t forgotten to set that up.

She hadn’t forgotten that Suicidemaster wasn’t innocent.

“However… Putting aside the fact that bloodsucking isn’t considered evil to vampires—creating thralls also isn’t considered evil to vampires, right? Not to mention, in this case, Kiseki-chan very clearly utilized her vampire powers for her own personal, arbitrary reasons. It became a positive for the victim herself, from a human standpoint… So from a specialist standpoint, would you say that it’s not evil?”

“We decided to follow Shinobu’s plan and think about those difficult issues later, didn’t we? Well, if I were to add something to that, Suicidemaster had failed in both bloodsucking and thrall-making for Kiseki-chan. It was a failed attempt.”

“A failed attempt…? I dunno about that. Didn’t Kiseki-chan succeed in becoming a vampire?”

“What failed was the creation of a thrall. Would a devoted servant really bury her master’s mummy in the mountains?”

She wouldn’t.

It was one of the few fortuitous things in this case that the mountain happened to be the one where Hachikuji lived on—otherwise, Suicidemaster’s mummy may not have been found for a much longer period of time.

“It’s as if she raised a child the wrong way. Well, Suicidemaster probably didn’t bite into Kiseki-chan with the intention of making her into a thrall—she said herself that her intention was just to procure nutrients for the sake of dressing up for her reunion. In a sense, the fact that Kiseki-chan became a vampire unintentionally could be considered a failure in vampirification, too.”

Failures all over the place.

On the other hand, what was thought to be a failure might actually be a success.

“…It’s possible for me to imagine that the high school girls who ‘failed to become vampires and turned into mummies’ still have some room to return to their normal human form. I’ve seen the potential for that in a parallel universe, you see.”

It’s because they were failures that they could return to being human.

The reasoning was a bit strange, but it was fine as long as things could get back to normal.

“But even if it wasn’t Suicidemaster’s intention, she did succeed in one vampirification. So what about Kiseki-chan? Will she be able to return to being human?”

“It first depends on whether she herself wants to return to being human. Well, the world of specialists is also constantly evolving, and we’ve made more advances in technology since the spring break that you experienced, Koyomin. Although I can’t say anything for certain until I see the girl herself—the high school girl with golden hair and golden eyes. The one that has strayed from the wrong path.”

It’ll probably be something like this—said Gaen-san. And, with me being forced to stop frustratingly at the traffic light, she held out the tablet that she’d been using.

“I tried manipulating a photo of Kiseki-chan and giving her golden hair and golden eyes. I’ve already sent it to everyone else, so you should use it for reference, too, Koyomin.”

So you could even do something like that these days.

Advances in technology.

I decided not to ask about the method in which she obtained the photo, which hadn’t been on the text-only list—we were still in the middle of an emergency, after all.

“I can’t get close to Suruga, so I can only accompany you to the front of that Higasa-chan’s house. So I’ll count on you, Koyomin, to directly protect Suruga and her friends. In the meantime, I’ll borrow your beloved car and try taking a different approach.”

“And what would that different approach be?”

“Obviously that’s something to think about now. Anyway, as a sensible college freshman, Koyomin, why don’t you go and infiltrate those high school girls’ pajama party?”

“That sounds like it will be a tough and cool mission. I always end up playing the tough roles, huh? This is the one thing that won’t change, no matter how old I get.”

Well, whatever.

After nineteen years, I’ve gotten used to it. This is my life.

“Perhaps I shouldn’t be saying this after having left Suruga unguarded, but there’s one thing I’d like for you not to forget, Koyomin.”

Said Gaen-san, as she closed her tablet.

“Setting aside Suicidemaster’s judgment for now—the question of why she had come to see Shinobu-chan has still been left unanswered. Was she really just worried about her, to the point that she wanted to put on airs to see her, to the point that she scrambled to break her fast that she’d kept for almost six hundred years?”

How much.

How much could we trust her own words?