Monogatari Series - Volume 24 - Chapter 2.24

024

I never thought I’d end up on the Kitashirahebi Shrine for the second night in a row, with the same cast.

A stupid uni student, Araragi Koyomi; a young girl freshly awoken from her slumber, Oshino Shinobu; a tween girl who shows zero expression, Ononoki Yotsugi; a little girl who’s also a god, Hachikuji Mayoi – the avoidant quartet is back in action for the second night in a row.

‘Sorry about bothering you all again, even though I’ve already done that just yesterday. But there’s something I have to get off my chest.’

‘Yeah, yeah. So, Mister Vampy, out of the three of us: shag, marry, kill?’

‘I haven’t gathered you here just so we could play something you see in like a girls’ meetup.’

That’d be a three-choice life or death question, not a two-choice question.

And whatever the answer was, the end result would’ve been ‘kill’. Araragi Koyomi being killed, that is.

Anyway, jokes aside, although it’s difficult to tell beneath that expressionless face of hers, Ononoki-chan doesn’t seem too happy about being here – unlike last night, I had to practically beg just so she could come with me.

Since she’s watching me, I could’ve just gone out and chances are she would’ve followed, but I wanted to draw a line.

Draw a clear distinction.

‘I’m under the impression that yesterday’s saga has ended badly, Araragi-san? I heard it from Ononoki-san.’

It appears Hachikuji has already treated ‘what stays in the room’ as ‘what’s done and dusted’ – then it seems she also knows about what I saw on the staircase landing; then again, pure and innocent as she may look, this little girl has been through hell and back.

She’s had a hard life.

Which may mean she has a surprisingly high tolerance for tragedies…besides, she’s a god now; one small girl wouldn’t be the only thing living rent free in her head.

And as for Shinobu, well, what else can I say.

It’s not as late as last night was, so she’s half-asleep.

Which means everybody gathered here wasn’t in a good mood – yes, I’m not in high spirits either.

Which is seriously embarrassing.

‘If it was a kidnapping, I’d make a clean exit’. It sounded great, that declaration. Yet here I am, that sentence haunting me as I remained on the front lines.

Seriously uncool.

But, just as I couldn’t pretend to not know after knowing, I couldn’t pretend to be unaware after being made aware – I’m going it alone if push comes to shove.

‘First, I’d like you three to look at this.’

I displayed my smartphone, on which that photo of a postcard sent to me from Higasa-chan can be seen – it’s now the only source of light in the Kitashirahebi Shrine.

The shrine doesn’t have any electric lamps running through it, so once it gets dark, it gets dark – hence an exceptionally bright image beaming from the smartphone.

And the person on the phone screen was of course:

‘This is –’

Benihibari – Beniguchi Hibari.

A ‘moving out’ notice sent to her junior from middle school, Shounou Mitono – the person in the postcard looks like an eighteen-year-old girl, freshly graduated from high school; there’s nothing unusual about the postcard itself.

I bet a hundred out of a hundred people would look at the postcard and say ‘what about it?’ That was about the reaction I got from the little girl, the young girl, and the tween girl.

As for me?

There’s two things I can say.

Firstly, this person is definitely not the lady in the recruit suit I had tea with back at lunchtime – the differences are such that anybody can see that.

Shinobu, being an oddity, fares less well when it comes to telling humans apart, but even she can tell it was someone else – which is good, in the sense that it’s something within expectations; I asked Higasa-chan to get me this item of digital data precisely to confirm what I had in mind.

Mitonon may have made a great sacrifice in all this, but sadly there’s nothing I can do for her – the reason being the second thing I can say, something I didn’t account for.

The postcard Mitonon sent was a picture of Manase University’s entrance ceremony, a photo of all the new students outside the main entrance, with flowers decorating the standing vertical signboard.

She did say this was from a while back.

And the university entrance ceremony was indeed ‘a while back’.

A photo that truly represents ‘turning a new leaf’. As far as choosing a photograph for announcing one’s moving out, it was most apropos – yet what grabbed my attention wasn’t the scenery of Manase University or the signboard in the entrance ceremony.

It was her – Beniguchi Hibari.

More specifically, her dress.

‘It’s clear that the Beniguchi Hibari in this photo isn’t the same person as the one I saw today, but – this suit she’s wearing in the entrance ceremony was the exact same suit as the one I saw earlier today.’

Different people, but in an identical fashion – the same suit, and even the same shoes: a pair of pumps. I remember this vividly because her gait was visibly unsteady.

‘…So ’tis not a recruit suit?’

Shinobu asked with painful forthrightness.

No, I only thought it was because I saw her on-campus, but it doesn’t seem to be the case – more to the point, I’ve no idea what the difference is between the suit one wears when job-hunting, and the suit one wears for an entrance ceremony.

Allow me to explain: I originally thought she was a few years above me, and it’s a reasonable thought when you see anybody wearing a suit in uni.

Then again, it is true that new students don suits when they first go into uni…probably.

‘“Probably”, why are you being so vague, Araragi-san? Wasn’t it only a few months ago when you entered uni yourself?’

‘Uh, yeah, about that. For reasons I’m not delving into, I didn’t attend it myself.’

‘It’s a bit of a running theme at this point, but why are you trying to cast yourself as a rebel?’

Even the god was flabbergasted.

It’s not like I didn’t attend because I’m trying to cast myself as a rebel, but then again, that’s also why I hadn’t realised until now – why I hadn’t thought of that situation.

Thinking back, I was the one who brought up recruitment to Impostor Benihibari, something she probably ad libbed a conversation with – hm, as strict as a job fair’s dress code can go, and even if there was a seminar or a tutorial session, no fresher would go around uni in a recruit suit.

‘Mm? Then what was going on, Mister Vampy? You were having tea with someone who wasn’t Beniguchi Hibari, but she was wearing Beniguchi Hibari’s clothes, and assuming Beniguchi Hibari’s name; if you think of the clothes as part of her disguise, then that wouldn’t be strange at all, would it?’

‘If she’s changing into her clothes, why wear the suit she entered uni with? It’d be a different story if she disguised as a high school girl. Like, say you’re dressing as Kanbaru or Higasa-chan: you’d have a greater chance of success if you got hold of a Naoetsu High School uniform. But Beniguchi Hibari’s a uni student. Surely it’d be more believable if she wore something more fashionable, like a bodycon dress.’

‘Trendy as bodycons may be, no sane uni student’s going to wear that on campus.’

Ononoki-chan may have responded with a retort, but it seems she got what I meant – no ordinary student in uni would wear the suit they wore for the entrance ceremony daily.

If Impostor Benihibari was the kidnapper trying to dress as a year one uni student, then it’d be more convincing if she wore casual clothes – look at Senjougahara Hitagi, for instance.

She dyed her hair brown and even manicured her nails, looking exactly ‘university student like’ – I say ‘like’, she is a university student herself, but the point is, if you’re disguising as that, shouldn’t your disguise be headed in that direction?

And yet, Impostor Benihibari chose a suit.

So what’s going on?

‘Benihibari herself only wore that once, in the entrance ceremony, right? I don’t think wearing the suit automatically makes you look like Benihibari…the suit itself isn’t iconic of Benihibari…’

‘It probably isn’t like Mister Oshino, whose mere mention evokes a Hawaiian shirt.’

Of course, it’s always a non-zero chance.

It could be that Beniguchi Hibari loves that suit, and therefore wears it every day – but then it’d still be meaningless to meet me dressed like that.

Because I wouldn’t know if she wears it daily.

If Beniguchi Hibari was well-known for wearing suits, then that’s a different story…or, on the flip side, it could be because of the suit that nobody would think it was Beniguchi Hibari donning it (and mistake her for a senior).

Which is all to say that Impostor Benihibari may not be wearing that suit for the sake of disguising as Benihibari – there could be a different reason at play.

‘By the way, the suit that Beniguchi Hibari-san’s wearing in the postcard, how did the lady get hold of it? Could it be that the kidnapper not only got the younger sister, but also the older sister – no, that couldn’t be. We did confirm that the older sister is at Ayers Rock.’

Whilst there is no confirmation that she’s still at Ayers Rock, that would also mean she’s not in Japan; since she’s living alone, that means there’s nobody in her abode.

‘– So you’re saying the kidnapper broke into an empty place and stole that suit, right, Araragi-san? Instead of buying this mass-produced product, she went and got the exact suit Benihibari-san once wore?’

‘Funny, isn’t it? It actually sounds more plausible than coincidentally having the same fashion sense.’

I’m reminded of her unease in that suit.

It looks like she wasn’t used to wearing it, but wouldn’t that be because that suit wasn’t hers to start with, hence the apparent unease? Presumably, wouldn’t that mean the pumps don’t fit her shoe size either?

‘This blue sky thinking’s real fun.’

Ononoki-chan interjected without emotion.

With even less emotion than usual.

‘But I think it’d be more fun if we began with the conclusions. Why would this mysterious lady appear in front of Mister Vampy in Beniguchi Hibari’s entrance ceremony suit; why would she be in a suit to begin with? What’s your theory, Mister Vampy? Please, enlighten me, along with why it was you that she decided to appear in front of.’

‘I’ve never worn a suit myself, but when you think about why people wear suits, it’s mostly down to pretending to be adult-like. That’d be the main reason. I guess that’d also be the reason why one wears a suit in the entrance ceremony…so that’s what I initially thought of. That she’s a high school girl, pretending to be in university.’

She’s not pretending to be a university student – she’s pretending to be more mature.

This theory came from me talking with Higasa-chan and Kanbaru – whilst I don’t know how serious they were, they did say that they sometimes wanted to take off their uniforms and be adults sooner.

Even though in Japan, suits are their own kind of uniform…but, whilst I did say ‘high school girl’, that was pure instinct.

She could be a middle school girl.

Or even – a primary school girl.

‘…? Nay, wait a moment, thee. This is one leap too far. Understand? I can see what thou art implying, yet even then –’

‘Exactly, Araragi-san. That’s just ridiculous, a primary school girl pretending to be a uni student. Even if they look mature – even if’

‘Even if they’re sisters – Mister Vampy.’

‘That’s why I want to ask you three something.’

I could’ve went it alone.

Getting the little girl, the young girl, and the tween girl involved last night not only resulted in nothing, I also wound up in the exact opposite place I wanted to be; having committed such a colossal failure, it is low of me to once again ask the little girl, the young girl, and the tween girl for help – but being the sagacious person I am not, all I can do is ask.

One looks like twelve, but is actually a tsukumogami corpse over a hundred years old – Ononoki Yotsugi. One looks like ten, but has actually been lost for eleven more years after she died – Hachikuji Mayoi. One looks like eight, but has actually lived through almost seventy-five times that – Oshino Shinobu.

There’s something I wanted to confirm with the oddity trio, whose appearances belie their actual age.

‘Suppose there’s a year five schoolgirl who grew into a uni student overnight – that she had a wish, which was to grow into an adult and therefore “leave home” as quickly as possible; is it possible for that wish to manifest, as an oddity?’