Monogatari Series - Volume 25 - Chapter 13.02

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I still had some lingering effects from when I turned into a vampire, and of those effects, the most notable was a boost to my visual perception. I’d never bothered to have my eyes checked, but I would guess I had something like a 3.0 or maybe even a 5.0?  

My vision wasn’t as good as Doujima Mayumi’s, but I had good night vision and dynamic visual acuity. It was strictly an aftereffect of what I had been through—a side effect that I couldn’t be rid of and a constant reminder of what I had to regret—so I had never been proud of my improved visual acuity, but I had surely come to rely on it to some degree or another. A year had passed since that spring break, and at some point in that time it had become “natural” to me, so if I were to walk into a situation in which it did not assist me at all, I would surely find myself on unsteady footing. 

For instance, when facing an invisible enemy—an invisible hero. 

That definitely made me unsteady. 

“I’m honestly surprised, Araragi Koyomi-san. How are you avoiding me? Or rather, how are you avoiding my invisible blade, Gyakutai 

Tarou?” 

I could hear him speaking to me, but I could not see him. I was in— or rather, I had been chased into—one of the large lecture halls of Manase University. It was a lecture hall meant to hold around 300 students at a time, but given the late hour, it currently held only myself and one other, who could not be seen. 

So this “Gyakutai Tarou” was an invisible blade, but… I couldn’t even see the form of the assassin who was wielding it. 

I think it was called “Grotesque” or something. 

I was racing about in confusion, but I confirmed it once more: he, Sorakara Kuu, was wearing a suit that made him invisible. 

He was wearing a suit that made him impossible to see, even with my improved vampire vision. He wielded a sword that was similarly invisible, so naturally I was backed into a corner. 

“No, I really am impressed. If it wasn’t my mission to do so, I would choose not to kill you.” 

That was just a roundabout way of saying it was his mission to kill me. Damn it, why’d this have to happen to me? At least this looked like it would end without any other students getting caught up in it. And why’d he keep saying “impressed” while relentlessly pressing me into a corner? Someone this heartless isn’t capable of feeling impressed by anything. His words were empty. 

“—Kuh!!” 

In the same breath as he stated how impressed he was, the hero swung his sword. Gyakutai Tarou swept through the air in what I assumed was a lateral movement aiming to separate my head from my shoulders. 

I dodged by a literal hair’s breadth—but it wasn’t a complete dodge, as I purposefully let his blade nick me so that I would expel an appropriate volume of blood. Praying that his blade wasn’t poisoned, I sprayed blood across the hero and then rolled away to get some distance. It wasn’t even remotely a smooth roll, I flung myself raggedly across the ground. 

I got up and looked around… No good. 

I had hoped that by spraying him with blood I would be able to spot the transparent hero by using the blood like fluorescent paint, but… the invisible hero remained invisible. Even if I had somehow managed to miss Sorakara-kun with my spray of blood—a fourteen-year-old might be shorter than I imagined—his blade had certainly been coated with it. 

“Sorry, but that plan won’t work.” 

Maybe he told me that out of some kind of kindness, but he needn’t have bothered. It was already obvious. 

“Even I don’t fully understand what is done to make myself invisible… I do at least know that it’s not a matter of changing my appearance to match my surroundings like a chameleon. This suit is made with the most overly advanced science not to alter my body, but to instead alter your eyes, sight, eyeballs, optic nerve, and even your consciousness… It’s not that you cannot see me, but rather that you do not try to see me, Araragi Koyomi-san.” Sorakara-kun continued. 

“… ‘Earth Army’-san. The Earth Eradication Army's prized Dr. Hidari Usagi, who is more of a mad scientist than a genius, didn't create anything more than a reproduction of the same theory used in the Earth Army's camouflage technique.” 

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1  Japan uses a “decimal” visual acuity scale, where 1.0 is normal vision, and exceptional vision can approach a value of 2.0 (meaning someone able to see details from twice as far away as someone with normal vision).