Monogatari Series - Volume 24 - Chapter 2.27

027

Just like last night, Shinobu sat on the child seat, holding my smartphone and acting as my navigator, as we arrived outside the block of flats (I parked the car in the visitors’ car park; we are visitors, in a broad sense), and just like last night, Ononoki-chan was there waiting for us by the entrance for humans, having left first by way of ‘Unlimited Rulebook’. An entrance for humans it may be, it feels funny for us to walk through it…

And just like last night, Hachikuji remained in the shrine.

A god can’t leave their town.

Right, and now for the differences: this is no quiet residential district, so whatever noise we make can be chalked up by the neighbours as ‘uni kids messing about’.

The only thing is, this flat that Benihibari got her hands on doesn’t look like it’s built for students…if anything, it looks like it’s for families…hmmm, I don’t think her parents would fund her, so wouldn’t she be barely making ends meet?

Perhaps she chose this flat out of her obsession with family – no, or maybe it’s a reaction from Benihibari to choose a flat like this.

A flat fit for a family, huh.

Well, given that most of the tenants here are families, that spells good news for us – this is a good place to be.

If they live with their children, then a uni student with a blonde, gold-eyed young girl on his shoulder wouldn’t look unnatural at all.

‘I am definitely standing out…’

‘Ononoki-chan, finished checking the place?’

‘No, I didn’t even go near it. I thought we were breaking and entering this time not to investigate, but to capture.’

‘Capture…’

‘Worst comes to worst, we could be neutralising our target. I want to minimise chances of failure – so instead of rehearsing, it’d be better if we do it in one fell swoop.’

Ononoki-chan revealed her specialist’s eyes – those dead eyes of hers remained expressionless, so they look the same, but her words gained a ferocious intensity.

She doesn’t look like she’s here for fun.

In this respect, she’s a completely different pro from me – fair enough, I’ve spent a long time with her as a plush in my home, so I may have become numb to that fact, but this corpse doll was basically created in order to vanquish oddities.

Created for the sake of vanquishing oddities.

It’s her entire concept.

Using Ononoki-chan as a convenient transportational tool can be considered a bad joke from Kagenui-san – once she enters her serious work mode, I’d be powerless to stop her.

Up until last night, she acted as support only as part of keeping watch on me, but now that an oddity is involved…

According to Shinobu, the ‘Revolver’ may not be an immortal oddity, but in the sense that it can twist forms of existence, it’s not that different from being immortal – to say it’s beyond Ononoki-chan’s expertise would be incorrect.

Well, since this wasn’t an order from Gaen-san, she probably wouldn’t act recklessly this time, but given she’s easily affected by her surroundings, I’m not sure how well this’ll go…

‘Breaking in would be an advantage for us, since Benikujaku would probably not have our raid in mind – like most people, in the face of something inexplicable, they’d think it can only happen to them. They’d think they’re special, and lapse into a bout of self-indulgence.’

Why do I feel like those words weren’t directed against just one person…I felt stung for some reason.

The emotionless intonation did not help either.

‘So if she happens to bump into you again, Mister Vampy, she’d never suspect you were vampiric – and she’d have no idea specialists like me even exist. Once we take advantage of that weakness, we can restrain her in no time.’

It might be too late for this, but maybe it’s better if Ononoki-chan stayed with Hachikuji and guarded the shrine…I would personally do anything to avoid any violence.

I think this is something that can be solved via a long, candid chat.

One click on the intercom explaining that we’re here to save her, and she’ll open the door for us.

‘It’s never gone smoothly, has it? Didn’t you get stapled in the mouth when you’re trying to save a girl?’

Guess I did.

When I stretched a helping hand to Hachikuji, she also bit my hand in return – it’s no strange occurrence at all.

Wanting to refuse help is a feeling everybody has to some extent, let alone when they’re panicking.

When I met her in the day, panicked as she looked, I can tell she tried to keep a cool head…was she trying to get wind of how the search was going from me?

Was she trying to suss out how the Beniguchis are doing right now…? When she said her father was framing Benihibari, was it fact or was it merely something convenient to say?

‘Welp, since you really want to, Mister Vampy, you can approach the flat from the front gate. Go ahead and ring the intercom as you like. I’ll go in from the veranda – a pincer movement, basically.’

Right when Benikujaku-chan becomes alert to me through the fish-eye lens, she’ll catch her fleeing on the veranda is probably what’s running through Ononoki-chan’s head.

Benihibari’s address is Room 307, meaning it’d be on the second floor, though I guess if a man stood outside the door with a young girl on his shoulder, anybody would want to escape via the veranda no matter how high up they’re living…

‘Carry me not on thy shoulder when thou ringest the intercom, my master. Place me down.’

‘Eureka! So there is a way!’

‘There is no other way.’

‘Then, Shinobu, wait for me in the passenger seat…’

‘Art thy shoulder and the child seat the only two places I can choose to sit?’

As for Ononoki-chan’s ‘Unlimited Rulebook’…I don’t think she needs it for the second floor; she can climb up just fine with an average grip, so this pincer manoeuvre should be nice and simple.

But I can also envision Benikujaku-chan trying to escape through the veranda, only to get hit by Ononoki-chan’s ‘Unlimited Rulebook’.

You may think she won’t do that, but she really would.

A similar strategy was executed earlier, and she really went ahead and did that.

And even if I let Shinobu down from my shoulder, given that we already met in the cafeteria earlier, she could become instantly suspicious if she sees ‘Araragi-san’ knocking on her door.

Would it be better if it wasn’t me, but Shinobu who pressed the intercom? Assume she’s a nearby child making the rounds, delivering the circular notice.19

‘To have a blonde, gold-eyed young girl deliver, in the darkest of nights, circular notices, ’tis a horror tale in the making.’

My thoughts exactly.

We can anticipate Benikujaku-chan quietly waiting after responding to the intercom. That’d then rule out using the ‘Unlimited Rulebook’.

As for the excuse, that can be saying I ‘forgot something vital to the scene’, that I’m here to tell her – something like that.

I think it’s best to pretend I’m still under her little con…it’s moments like these that hit hard the fact that I’m not a detective, that I can’t coolly lay out the facts in front of her.

Just pretend I’m an imbecile.

I’ll say this for the record, I’m great at it.

I may be in uni, but that doesn’t mean I’m wise – just as people may be adults, but that doesn’t mean they’re free.