Monogatari Series - Volume 25 - Chapter 11.05

005 

The epilogue, or maybe, the punch line of this story. 

In a way, my plan to get Rizumu-chan to leave by solving the mystery was a great success, but what I had not counted on was the appearance of her hitman brother personality as soon as I solved the case. I couldn’t simply ask him to leave so that I could confirm if my hypothesis was correct, but looking at it another way, Izumu-kun wouldn’t have come out unless I was correct, which meant that I had indeed solved the mystery. 

Now for the explanation. 

I was a third-year high school student, which meant that I didn’t possess a credit card. Without a credit card, it was more difficult to order things online, so for someone who did order a lot of packages, they may have reached the correct conclusion much more quickly than myself or Rizumu-chan. I had proposed the hypothesis of a false bottom in the attaché case, but then I discounted my own idea because it wasn’t realistic to transport a human safely inside a metal case in that fashion. 

Well, it turned out that I had been wrong to reject that idea. 

If the contents of the case were too tightly packed in, then any shock or bump would be transmitted directly into the contents. Alternatively, if the case was too empty, the contents would bounce and jolt around inside, hitting the walls. The sweet spot was a happy medium between the two, with enough room for shifting inside but not too much. 

It’s often said that “the box’s purpose is to protect the product, so damage to the cardboard box does not qualify you for an exchange”, and much in the same way, the durability of the attaché case wasn’t to protect itself but to protect what was inside of it. 

Now there should have been some wiggle room, but in the transport of a living human being, they couldn’t allow for any possible damage... 

So what did they do? 

Now was the time for common sense. 

All they had to do was fill the gaps with packing material. 

That would reduce the shock and potential for damage. 

That’s what companies did when they shipped out packages, or if you purchased a single slice of cake from a store, they would place it in a box and fill the gaps with paper to reduce how much it could move within the box. That was the solution to the false bottom problem. 

It also solved the problem of the vanished money. 

If Houko-chan was inside the case from the start, then that solved half of the mystery, but what about the money? How was the money taken out of the case while twenty or so people watched? It was simple. The money wasn’t taken. 

From start to finish, the money was always there—it had simply changed form. 

And I meant that literally. Every single 10000-yen bill that made up the 50 million yen had been crumpled up into a ball to become packing material; it had remained inside of the case. 

The money hadn’t been bounced around inside the case and damaged; no... It had been turned into packing material to prevent damage. 

It hadn’t been a question, but a cushion. 

When nobody showed up for the exchange and the one “cool guy” in the group got fed up and ran over to check the case, he found Houkochan inside, but if he had really been a cool guy, he would have noticed that she was tucked into the case like a body into a coffin surrounded by flowers, only in her case she was surrounded by crumpled-up paper currency. But he had overlooked the fact that the bed she was sleeping on was made of 5000 crumpled-up 10000-yen notes. 

He was definitely too hot-headed. Unlike me. 

But there was a blind spot. 

It wasn’t the same as Schrödinger’s cat, but when anyone opened the box, they wouldn’t pay any mind to the material used to fill the space around her—when you went to eat cake, you didn’t look at the paper placed in the box. 

The same applied to abducted thirteen-year-old girls. 

Any doubts about the old bits of paper used to pad the case would be forgotten—they could have even been soiled with ink or something, but that probably wasn’t necessary. Just by crumpling them up, most people wouldn’t recognize the paper as currency. 

According to Rizumu-chan, the residents of the apartment took Houko-chan and soon after left the mountain, leaving the case behind. So, of course, the paper packing material inside the case was also left. 

Which meant that the abductors could simply wait for them all to depart and then leisurely go collect their money—they could even flatten and organize the bills with the time that they had. 

Even if they couldn’t achieve their goal of making the Emperor of Crystal taste defeat, they were still able to collect the ransom, so even if they failed as pro players, they had still succeeded as child abductors. But then... This abduction could only have succeeded if it was performed by pro players like the Tokinomiya Hospital, so maybe that still counts as a failure? 

After all, the one who had crumpled up the money and created the packing material inside of the case was none other than Houko-chan, the victim, and the only one who was inside of the “closed room” of the case. 

That’s what I had realized about them only needing one person to be hypnotized. 

They had used hypnotism not only to capture her but also to return her. 

From what I had learned, hypnotism could not be used to go against the sense of morality that was embedded deep inside a person’s unconscious mind, which meant that hypnotism could not be used to make a person commit a crime or do something entirely out of character, but if the command was “create padding to protect yourself”, then the command aligned with the wishes of the person and it would easily take effect. Adding on a command to go to sleep once done would just be a small bonus. 

The trick ended up being something like if Schrödinger’s cat had committed suicide inside the box. But what they had done proved to be disgustingly sufficient for fulfilling the necessity of the appearance of a magic trick, a switch trick, and the necessity of getting the girl back alive and unharmed. 

If the abduction victim, Houko-chan, had not been returned “alive” and “unharmed”, then the perpetrators would not have been able to collect their 50 million yen. That was the one bit of good fortune on the side of the Antique Apartment residents. 

The safe return of the thirteen-year-old girl was ultimately the most important thing—even if it meant losing 50 million yen. 

“No, it’s not lost. This cute boy has been tasked with getting it back. The ace of the Niounomiya Troupe, member number 18, byproduct of the 13th round of experimentation, Niounomiya Izumu. Gyahahaha!” 

And with that laugh, Izumu-kun leapt away from the North Shirahebi Shrine. Even with both of his arms sealed within the straitjacket, he was able to jump as if he were using Ononoki Yotsugichan’s “Unlimited Rulebook”, to fly away with incredible power. 

When Rizumu-chan suddenly disappeared and was replaced with Izumu-kun, coupled with the location, it felt as if a viper had suddenly slithered out of the grass at my feet, but fortunately for me, the “brother” also departed as soon as he heard the report from his “sister”. 

What had been fortunate for me would no doubt be the greatest misfortune for the abductors. 

Feeling deeply grateful that I had not been caught up in a battle between the first of the “Killing Names”, the Niounomiya Troupe, and the first of the “Cursing Names”, the Tokinomiya Hospital, I remained alone at the shrine and stood before the offering box. 

I acted out of routine and took out my wallet to retrieve not a 5000yen bill, but instead a 5-yen coin, and I went to throw it into the offering box—but then I paused. Standing in a shrine that had no god, I was about to bow, clap twice, bow again, and then pray for something that was in direct contrast to the meaning of the 5-yen coin. 

In other words, I was asking to not have any ties to it. 

Although the party was in full swing, the time to end the cycle of fun and enjoyable inter-world interaction was drawing near.