Monogatari Series - Volume 24 - Chapter 2.25

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Dropping one milk tooth? Entirely reasonable.

Dropping twenty milk teeth at once? It’s impossible – or so one would imagine, but if the kid grew at once, then wouldn’t that make it quite possible?

There’s also Impostor Benihibari’s excessively mannerly speech.

And her being uncomfortable with the suit she was wearing; come to think of it, both can be grouped as trying to pretend as an adult, but failing – she ordered something adult-sounding – a black coffee – only to add three sugars; one can see it as a reflection of that contradiction between a young inner self, and a fully-fledged adult outer self.

Besides, I may not be a coffee enthusiast so I can’t be certain, but if you order a coffee in that kind of shop, isn’t black coffee what you’d get by default?

Both cream and sugar would already be on the table for patrons to flavour the drink to their tastes…it seems she has less of an idea how cafés work than even I.

Even though she’s looking for a job, her long hair was unkempt, which isn’t something desirable, but if that hair wasn’t grown out, but grown all at once – then it can’t be helped at all.

Maybe her mental age was lower than normal?

If you say that, then the same can be said for me.

But if it wasn’t the case, then it wasn’t her mental age that’s the problem, it’s her physical age that’s abnormally high –

‘…That’s not the only reason why you think a small girl grew about ten years older in one night, is it, Mister Vampy?’

Having thought such a deduction would be laughed off, I was met with Ononoki-chan’s serious engagement – then again, being the expressionless girl she is, she wouldn’t laugh at whatever foolishness I throw at her, but still, I’m grateful that she’s willing to listen.

It’s not like I’d be happier if I’m met with a shouty, ‘make some noise!’ kind of hype.

‘Impostor Beniguchi mentioned her “embarrassment” when we talked about the staircase landing – I originally thought I had missed something and carefully re-examined things. But I can’t think of anything I missed – I did catch everything. The abnormal amount of milk teeth, the stuff from the school backpack that’s scattered…and the torn clothes.’

My original thought was that they were forcibly stripped…but was it really that easy to tear children’s clothes? You’d need some significant arm strength, but that doesn’t describe the Impostor Benihibari I saw; ‘svelte’ would be a better word.

And yet, those children’s clothes weren’t only taken off, they were torn – they weren’t cut with scissors either.

Much as I hate thinking about it, it could be the result of a bloody fight, but not a single drop of blood could be found there – if there were, I should know, being the phoney vampire that I am.

Could it be that those children’s clothes were torn from the inside? When they no longer fit the child they were designed for because the child grew up – that’s when they burst, right? When the buttons on the blouse fly off, when the hooks on the dress sever – isn’t that a result of the seams rupturing?

Consider the sad sight forcing children’s clothes on a uni student would bring – this is something more than not being used to the clothes one’s wearing.

Then the backpack on the back would be pressing into the shoulders; the only way to get out of it would be to violently shake it off, hence the tragic mess at the end – ‘please excuse me for the embarrassing embarrassment’.

Those words may not have come from her as a kidnapper, but as a victim child – a thought that would bring me relief and satisfaction.

‘Then she’s not a victim child either. In this case – torn clothes, a large amount of teeth – there’s no criminality to it.’

No criminality.

In return, an oddity.

‘So you’re saying that because her clothes were torn, Benikujaku-chan had to borrow her older sister’s clothes?’

‘Considering what the Beniguchis are like, it wouldn’t be odd for her to carry a spare key; it’d be natural, even.’

Because she said she thought about taking her younger sister with her – that was a line from Impostor Benihibari, right?

But if Impostor Benihibari was actually the result of Benikujaku-chan’s ‘metamorphosis’, then that line could be what her older stepsister once said.

‘To grow so suddenly, to then seek her older sister for help, to find her to be somewhere else – then, an impromptu solution, with her assumed image of “this is what adults look like”, taking the suit that’s been on a hanger ever since term started and wearing it…all so people wouldn’t see she’s a child inside.’

That stuttering, that insecurity.

This doesn’t sound right, coming from someone she’s completely deceived, but she doesn’t seem the type to derive joy from lying.

‘Well, even if it wasn’t Araragi-san, nobody would see a woman in a suit in university and think “Mm? Is this a small girl?”…hmm. Getting lost or leaving home aside, a girl like this isn’t my speciality.’

Why would a god not specialise in the supernatural, I thought, but then again, it could be that different gods specialise in different things.

Speaking of specialisation –

‘In case you’ve forgotten, I’m the shikigami of the onmyōji who specialises in dealing with immortal oddities, Kagenui Yozuru. An oddity that grows from child to adult overnight isn’t something I’m familiar with. If anything, shouldn’t this be in the wheelhouse of that queen seductress?’

‘To whom thou dare assignest the epithet “queen seductress”?’

Shinobu responded, unimpressed.

But it’s right.

Oshino Shinobu was once the iron-blooded, hot-blooded, cold-blooded vampire, Kissshot Acerolaorion Heartunderblade, a legendary vampire, and at the same time, the King of Oddities.

Also known as the Oddity Slayer, she’s far up in the oddity hierarchy.

And ever since she became a young girl, she had also been under the tutelage of an all-rounded specialist, an authority of ghosts ’n’ goblins, Oshino Meme.

Knowledge from oddities, knowledge from humans.

She possesses both, a certain hybrid, if you will.

When my younger sister, Araragi Karen, fell victim to that bee oddity, a huge part of resolving it was down to the knowledge residing in that tiny body of hers.

Before long, Shinobu folded her arms, saying,

‘’Tis, however, would fall within range of the lost god’s duties.’

The lost god – Hachikuji?

Hachikuji passed it to Ononoki-chan, Ononoki-chan passed it to Shinobu, Shinobu passed it back to Hachikuji, what kind of hot potato is this – so I thought, but this isn’t a ball game; this is a vortex. This vortical shape forms the path toward the crux of solving this case, a spiralling path.

One that eventually arrives at the centre.

‘Utsuroi-nejiri – a Revolver.’18

Shinobu continued.

‘Turning the clock, rolling, bending. Such is at play. At its end, at its heart, its true form is – a snail.’

A snail.

Euhadra – a terrestrial pulmonate gastropod.