Monogatari Series - Volume 24 - Chapter 2.18

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‘And? What’s going on, Koyomi? If you’re okay with it, go ahead. I’m all ears.’

‘Bloody hell! You’re early this time!’

The following day, inside the cafeteria of Manase National University.

I’m having lunch with Senjougahara Hitagi, my lover since high school – I originally wanted to meet up with Meniko, but I couldn’t find her; right as I was about to have lunch alone, I received a call from Hitagi-san.

‘I’ve said this before, you are not allowed to place Meniko-san higher on your list of people to meet than me. How damn desperate are you in hunting for new friends, man? The fact that you’ve been going to Sodachi-san’s lodgings all the time doesn’t make me happy, not one bit. Haven’t you even been playing with Kanbaru’s former teammate lately?’

Hitagi-san said, her expression nonplussed.

Erm.

So it looks like Kanbaru told her.

Chances are she probably also told her about the meeting I had with Higasa-chan alone, in my house, about tidying up the Girls’ Basketball Club.

I see, so that’s why she asked me to meet up with her.

She looks genuinely angered, so I have nothing to say back to her…it’d probably for the best if I didn’t tell her I played with Hachikuji and Ononoki-chan after that too.

Not only because it’d only lead to a misunderstanding, but because my lips are sealed…by the missing persons bureau.

I thought it’d kick up a monumental fuss like kicking a hornet’s nest, but as I called the police with Ononoki-chan pestering me to, the world around me remained silently indifferent.

‘Monumental fuss’, not even the newspapers or the TV news channels picked up on it either…I guess they really can’t report on it yet, just like the first thing I thought of when I heard what Higasa-chan had to say.

In any case, with only a few personal belongings and a few body parts – in the end, without a body, the person would still count as missing, so for the media, to make a monumental fuss out of it would probably not be a good idea.

This is something I agree on.

In the case where Benikujaku-chan was actually alive…if she hasn’t been harmed yet, giving the heinous criminal coverage, and in turn, excitement, is something I do not stand for.

With that much evidence, it’d likely take little time for the kidnapper to be caught…and then there’s also the issue that we’re racing against the clock, racing to save a small girl from her death.

The reason why information about this has been relatively locked down was, dare I say, all thanks to the first witness being me – more correctly, thanks to me being the son of two officers, who also happen to be part of the force’s senior leadership.

This I have to admit, much as I don’t want to…otherwise it wouldn’t be strange if I was treated as the perpetrator, given the situation.

Things wouldn’t be locked down, I’d be locked up.

I did, after all, disturb the scene, left my fingerprints, and fundamentally, found a girl’s traces in an emergency stairwell in a multi-storey car park in the next town over from where I live – I originally wanted to give an anonymous tip, but I’m quite sure I’d be in a stuck in a quagmire if I did.

In a worst-case scenario, I’d even get Hachikuji, Ononoki-chan, and Shinobu into trouble – how am I ever going to explain all this to them?

The little girl, the tween girl, the young girl, none of them human either.

‘I’ll explain this to Gaen-san, so it’d be better if Mister Vampy doesn’t report to the police anonymously.’

So Ononoki-chan said, and maybe it was thanks to Gaen-san that I managed to come out of this unscathed…that four-year-long promise has already gone with the wind, it seems.

It’s all terribly shameful for me.

To use my parents’ clout, to have Gaen-san’s help, isn’t that no different from me in high school?

No, that wasn’t even my rebellious high school streak, I’ve regressed all the way to my frivolous, ‘defender of justice’ middle school self. At a time when even the Fire Sisters of the Tsuganoki Second Middle School have been dissolved.

I really want to feel like I’ve grown up.

Anyway, the local police didn’t put particular blame on me disturbing the evidence or being outside at night; all they did was ask me how the scene was when I found it, and for my contact details, and then they let me go – pretending to be a uni student who has an early morning class the next day is still permissible, right?

…Though I’ve been thinking about this since the ‘mummy incident’, does Gaen-san have connections even in the police force? Although this kidnapping has little to do with oddities, she seemed to wield a large influence still…she couldn’t be this well-prepared just to help me out, could she?

I only hope she doesn’t have any other wacky ideas up her sleeve…

‘Sorry, Hitagi. I don’t think now’s the time just yet. People’s lives are at stake here.’

‘Oh? Hm. Is it the usual? Something to do with that blonde loli slave of yours?’

‘Not even your loli slave jokes could get a laugh out of me this time.’

‘Must be dead serious if you couldn’t muster laughing at “loli slave”. Seems I really showed up too early. This isn’t like me at all. Have I been too eager?’

The moment Hitagi finished that, she stood up without a change in expression – to recognise the danger of the situation, and to not pursue this further, I’m really impressed.

I guess that’s what happens when you’re tightly wound against everybody for two full years in high school…although these days she’s more your vivacious university student, singing in delight the joys of youth.

‘If you’ll excuse me then, I’ve got a lecture to go to. It’s quite a long walk to the Classical Finances lecture hall. I’ll leave you to your meal. You can tell me everything after it’s done. Just remember to be careful.’

With that, Hitagi gave a V sign with her right hand, pointing at her eyes, then at mine — ‘I’m watching you’, she’s saying.

Been watching foreign TV dramas much?

First off, I’m already being watched.

‘Mm…you’re saying “be careful”, but it’s not like I’ll be putting myself in danger.’

‘But’, Hitagi said, ‘you wouldn’t do nothing at this stage, right? Since you’re Araragi Koyomi.’