Monogatari Series - Volume 24 - Chapter 3.5

Mayoi Snake - Chapter 5

From Yoimonogatari by Nisioisin

Just for your reference, white snakes are a national protected species, so it’s quite possible that catching eighty-nine of them without permission (with my bare hands) will incur some kind of punishment, regardless of whether it’s for a ritual or any other purpose—quite unlike viper extermination.

However, I don’t think I needed to worry about that just yet. Several hours passed, and my snake-catching intuition completely came back to me, but the protected species in question was nowhere to be found.

I can claim innocence… in a way.

Nevertheless, I shouldn’t feel relieved—at this rate, I won’t just fail to abdicate, I might even become enshrined as a god against my will.

Well, realistically speaking, I don’t think that would happen… but when you start talking about gods, you’ve already deviated pretty far from what is “realistic”.

The second advent of God-Nadeko.

That would not be good.

It’s not just that I don’t want to do it again; it would also be bad for the town. No matter what Ononoki-chan might say, I know I’m not cut out to be a goddess.

Judging from what I’ve heard, Hachikuji-chan seems much more suited for the position. At the very least, I don’t want to steal her divinity back for myself.

Because this is a short, bonus story, I’d gotten careless, but my sense of danger quickly went up. I never thought the fate of this town would depend on my skills as a middle school snake-catcher.

Or that I’d end up having to do something in my capacity as a god after quitting godhood. My goodness, life never goes the way you expect.

Now, then… in any case, it seems I ought to change tactics. My strategy of “poking the brush to scare out the snake”(1) has reached its limit; it was highly ineffective.

I should probably search for a nest or a colony and catch them all at once. Even that seems a bit desperate, though…

I haven’t exactly studied snake-catching from a textbook (occult-related information was all I studied from books), so this is a somewhat half-baked idea, but doesn’t it seem likely that snakes would make their homes near water?

I was tired from walking for two hours straight, so I might as well rest for a little near a river, I thought… I followed the sound of water.

However, I didn’t end up at a river—I ended up at a waterfall.

“Oh? If it isn’t Ononoki-san! Which means you would be Sengoku-san, no? This is the first time we’ve met in person.”

There she was, bathing in the waterfall—no.

She wasn’t bathing in it; her white undershirt was dripping wet, but she seemed to be taking a break, or maybe she had bathed already and quit—sitting on the bank, splashing her feet in the water, was a girl who looked to be ten years old.

Which means… this little girl is Mayoi Hachikuji-chan, then?

Apparently, while I was wandering aimlessly around the mountain trying to find white snakes, I’d made a full rotation about the shrine, and had returned to the summit.

It sounds like a joke, but it was nearly a disaster. Despite thinking I was proceeding in a straight line, I could have made a spiral and started going in circles.

“Talking about swirls and spirals reminds me of snail shells, but if you think about it, snakes are the same way. Snakes coil themselves in a spiral orbit. You don’t even have to bring up the Ouroboros—it’s like snakes revolve around themselves.”

Seeming to imply something deep, Ononoki-chan finally dropped down from the treetops… and landed on my head.

I have to endure this from both the onmyouji and her shikigami?

“Hup!”

She sat down on my shoulders.

I was about to tell her to give me some personal space, but I held back my gut reflex.

Why? Because I was happy she’d become so attached to me… Hrm. The human mind is bizarre.

I’d become attached to people before, but never in my life had someone become attached to me.

“Hi there. Yep, I’m Nadeko Sengoku.”

It would be hard to keep my balance if I tried to bow with someone riding on my shoulders (Ononoki-chan had not gotten rid of her body weight for me), so I simply introduced myself to Hachikuji-chan.

Although I’d heard her name so many times that she almost seemed like an old friend, it was most definitely our first time meeting.

Should we be meeting, though?

I still hadn’t found a single white snake.

“That’s fine, isn’t it? The whole ritual thing is just for appearance’s sake—as you can see, I got tired of it a while ago.”

Got tired of it a while ago, huh.

It would seem she had bathed already and quit.

Her personality is as flexible as I’d heard… Makes me feel like a fool for earnestly trying to find snakes.

But in some ways, she’s unlike what I’d heard. For instance, I’d heard that Mayoi Hachikuji-chan had a simple, iconic set of twintails, ones that brought to mind the antennae of a snail?

And at the moment, her hair was down.

Her wet hair gave off a sense of luster unbecoming of a little girl… I suppose she let it down to bathe in the waterfall, then?

“No, actually. I was ignorant of this until today, but apparently, snails actually have four antennae. Four, not two. I am currently struggling with an identity crisis, as it seems there was no point in my twintails.”

That would be the upper and lower antennae.

That said, she couldn’t exactly turn her twintails into quadruple tails, and honestly, from an outsider’s perspective I didn’t care either way… but that might be typical of identity-related distress.

My hairstyle caused me no end of distress, you know?

But everyone else just thought my bangs were annoying.

“Maybe I should cut it super short like you, Sengoku-san. It looks easy to handle. And even after getting soaked like this, it seems like it would dry right away.”

“I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it…”

I had already forced the fruits of my misconduct onto Hachikuji-chan, so I didn’t want to force my hairstyle on her too.

It’s true that it’s easy to handle, though.

I walked over and sat down next to her—with Ononoki-chan still on my shoulders.

“But, Sengoku-san, you didn’t get a buzz cut to show regret, did you?”

“Yeah… It wasn’t regret, I guess.”

And it’s not a buzz cut.

It’s embarrassing to say, but… “If I had to say, it was resolve. And of course, I do feel regret too. About when I was a goddess… no, about everything before that.”

“I think that’s perfectly fine. To be honest, I think Araragi-san is more at fault than you.”

Oh?

So she’s heard about that.

But hers was a fresh take on the matter.

I never expected Hachikuji-chan to take my side… Even Ononoki-chan, who was still on my shoulders, had some pretty harsh opinions on “Meek Nadeko”.

“I’m Araragi-san’s friend, so I’m harsh on him.”

They seem like good friends.

I suppose their relationship is like me and Tsukihi’s.

“I think that the way he pretended to be ignorant of your feelings was entirely unbecoming of a gentleman. Araragi-san bears a lot of responsibility for not paying attention to you. Don’t you think that was unfair of him?”

Compared to his dishonest behavior, Sengoku-san, it was admirable how you turned down that boy from your class—said Hachikuji-chan.

I don’t know about that.

Well, recently, my feelings for him had finally sublimed…  However, it did make me feel a sense of futility knowing that my uncontrollable feelings hadn’t reached him at all.

To think that my comical advances hadn’t fazed him in the least…

“Faze, huh. Like a love dart.”

“Love dart? Like Cupid’s arrows?”

No, not that.

It’s a snail organ, like the upper and lower antennae.

The name may sound romantic, but I’ve heard that if a snail pierces another snail with one, it shortens the pierced partner’s lifespan—it’s a pretty frightening organ.

“I died a fifth grader, never having experienced my first love. So while I can’t give you much pertinent advice, from the perspective of a neutral party, you two reunited at a very bad time. You saw him for the first time in years on this mountain, right?”

Bad time, huh.

At the time, I was desperately trying to undo the curse I was afflicted with—now that I think about it, you could say that meeting him again when I was searching for and slaughtering snakes was the worst possible timing.

It’s also true that we never would have gotten the chance to reunite under any other circumstances, though.

“But even if I’d met him again before Hanekawa-san and Senjougahara-san, or even Shinobu-chan, I doubt things would have turned out any different. Even in the unlikely event that my feelings for him had been requited…”

“You’re right. There’s a hundred percent chance that crazy girl would have stolen him from you.”

Crazy girl, eh.

Ononoki-chan is harsh on that couple too.

I hear she’s mellowed out now, but… If I may say, the fact that something like that didn’t happen probably saved my life.

Come to think of it, Senjougahara-san didn’t meet Koyomi-san until after he met Shinobu-chan and Hanekawa-san.

If that assertiveness is what defines love—love dart—then I guess you could argue I hadn’t really experienced my first love yet, same as Hachikuji-chan.

But it’s hard to see what love is when you’ve fallen in love.

…Wait.

Am I chatting about love with Hachikuji-chan right now?

I’d never actually done that.

When I talk to Ononoki-chan and Tsukihi-chan, we don’t really gossip about this stuff (it’s more like counseling for what’s bothering us)… Maybe Hachikuji-chan would make an unexpectedly good goddess of love.

“That’s right. I want everyone who’s alive to experience the first love that I never got to have before I died. That, if nothing else.”

“So, Hachikuji-chan.”

I’d thought it wouldn’t be any use, so I hadn’t planned on asking even if I saw her today, but I ended up asking her anyway.

That’s how I am.

“Do you regret becoming a goddess?”

I forced it on her.

Or maybe it’s not that simple.

I don’t know the details, but I heard that Hachikuji-chan didn’t have the luxury of choice.

Her only three options were to become a goddess, go back to Hell, or be devoured by the Darkness… essentially, just one option.

By the way, when Shinobu-chan was enshrined here as a goddess several hundred years ago, it certainly didn’t seem as though that was what she wanted.

Well, if I had to say, it seems like Shinobu-chan’s attitude back then was similar to mine—reigning just for herself… But Hachikuji-chan wanted to be something more.

I had gone crazy, but unlike me, Hachikuji-chan appeared to be maintaining her sense of self—that’s why I wanted to ask her.

That’s why I did ask her.

“I don’t regret it. Even if I had another option, I probably would have chosen this path anyway.”

“…Really?”

“Part of it is penance. When you pile up stones in Hell for a while, you really get to thinking. I’d be lying if I said that no real harm came to those people I made lose their way for eleven years—it makes me feel good to help people.”

I used to make people lose their way.

Now I show them the way, and that makes me happy.

That’s what Hachikuji-chan said.

“Even if someone told me they’d do it for me, I wouldn’t let them. This is my job.”

Guilt isn’t just a reason to not do something; it can also be a reason to do something.

I wasted quite a lot of time before I realized that—my successor is truly admirable.

“…She didn’t become a goddess just for Mr. Demon’s sake. Well, Mayoi-nee-san, you’ve got to move on from him too, or you’ll end up like the eternal exchange student, Shinobu Oshino.”

‘The eternal exchange student’?

Surely Shinobu-chan is a bit of an exception.

Hm… Hearing that, my motivation—which, to be honest, had started to diminish—came rushing back.

I need to abdicate, no matter what.

I need to abdicate for this girl.

To grant her her godhood, and her path.

It may be a road so rough that you’d hardly believe it was paved, but there’s no doubt in my mind that this little lost girl will walk it proudly.

Even if it’s just for appearance’s sake, I’ve got to complete the abdication.

This will be the first and last duty I perform, active and combative, as the goddess of this shrine.

Resolved, I stood up—and I put that resolution into words.

“All right. I’ll get you those eighty-nine white snakes, Hachikuji-chan!”

“Huh? Wait a second. What are you talking about? I haven’t heard anything about that… Please don’t give me something so creepy. I’d rather quit being a goddess and go back to Hell than accept a gift like that.”

“But, Naduke, how are you going to solve our practical problem? The time limit is getting closer every minute.”

Ononoki-chan asked me from on top of my shoulders.

She had apparently decided to ignore what Hachikuji-chan had just said, since it made the whole scheme seem dubious.

Despite saying that she couldn’t help me, she appeared to be concerned about my plan of action—plus, she had elevated my rank to duke.

“It’s alright. I took this unreasonable task a bit too seriously. I should have been more creative—I should have done it the way I wanted to do it, like Hachikuji-chan did. I’ll reflect on what I need to reflect on, but I wasn’t supposed to take this so seriously. I shouldn’t have forgotten who I am. Instead of just doing what I was told, I ought to have done what I wanted.”

“Hmph. Which is?”

“Excuse me, I screwed up—like that.”(2)

Oops.

I actually did screw up that line.

I’m a third-year in middle school who wants to be a manga artist, and what I meant to say there was: excuse me, I drew up.

Footnotes:

(1) A Japanese proverb.

(2) I had to make a small change to the traditional translation of Hachikuji’s catchphrase because of the pun Nadeko makes on it in the last line. By the way, “drew up” will make sense in the next chapter, trust me.