Monogatari Series - Volume 25 - Chapter 2.03

003 

Aikawa Jun, humankind’s strongest contractor. After accepting a request, she gallantly came to our city and drove too far into the outskirts. Apparently the navigation system installed in the super-car wasn’t acting normally. To begin with, a destination is a destination, and just as she was thinking how there was no other way but to ask a local for directions, she saw the silhouette of a high school student pedaling on his bike over the front glass of the car. 

So she ran him over. 

She accelerated and, aiming carefully, ran him over. 

No, how could this be a valid motive! 

If you wanted to ask for directions, bringing the car alongside the bike or at least honking would be other ways of doing it! It didn’t even come to her mind to step on the brakes or even not to step on the accelerator! 

Moreover, it really was done with careful aiming! 

Look, a great friend of mine died a long time ago in a traffic accident! 

You know there are things you should do and things you shouldn’t do! 

“It’s because I do things I shouldn’t be doing that it’s fine. If you further opinionate about me I’ll fucking kill you.” 

“..............” 

This person nonchalantly said she’ll fucking kill me. 

To a child. 

Our cultural world views are too different. 

At this rate, I’ll have her finish her business in this town, as fast as possible, and then leave in a good mood. I could say that, as a resident, that would be the best plan, but in this case, I have reasons for not executing it. 

The building where a vampire lives. 

That is currently the destination of mankind’s strongest contractor. Normally, I would coldly answer how I didn’t know of such superstitious building and end the conversation there (however, a cold response may result in ending the life of the one who answers), but something was coming to my mind. 

So many things were coming to my mind that it bothered me. 

To be precise, the vampire no longer lives in that building. The fact that, in the building where the barrier has reached its purpose, lived the iron-blooded, hot-blooded, cold-blooded vampire, is already an old tale. 

However, if I end up, nevertheless, guiding this contractor to the ruined cram school, it is not unlikely that I would end up exposing where and what the vampire is currently doing. 

I messed up. 

Here I thought it was DIO-sama, and in turn, it was someone from the side of the vampire exterminators. 

I couldn’t find any justification for why it looked like she didn’t have the same research capabilities as the three vampire hunters, who visited this town during the spring break. I absolutely can’t tell her about the location of the ruined building so I have to put everything into a lie! 

I’m gonna have her leave this city by eloquently giving her wrong directions! 

“Hahaa. I’ve heard rumors of that building. You were lucky to have asked me, Jun-san. However, if I remember correctly, that building is located in the Kyuushuu region. If you go straight from this road, facing east, you will find a big station. Taking the train from there, please aim for the Nagasaki prefecture.” 

“I see. Facing west, if you go through the third alley you can find a shortcut, right? There will be a vending machine, so I can replenish water, and if I head about 600 meters south, on the right-hand side, there will be the ruins I’m looking for. I see.” 

It’s not just that the lie was exposed, she even grasped the truth’s details. 

Are you kidding me? 

“Ha ha ha. You’re ten years behind if you wanted to deceive me, lad. It might not look like it, but mind reading is one of my most developed techniques.” 

It really does “not look like it”. 

Having all of that destructive strength, why would she bother to learn such a modest skill... I wonder if it’s because everyone around her is afraid and spouts lies all the time. 

“That’s about right. You said ‘eloquent’ and it just so happens I have a friend that is a professional in that sort of thing.” 

After reading my inner voice, she grabbed my shirt’s collar. You know that’s not a handle, right? Or rather, you know that my stature isn’t so small that you can lift me up with both your hands. 

However, pointing that out to someone who lifted a wall with both their hands is clearly futile. 

“Well, now that I know the location, let’s get going, lad. I’ll exceptionally let you ride on the assistant’s seat.” 

“Eh? Why? Now that you know the place I should just...” 

“You don’t have to hold back. There aren’t many people like you, you know? People that get to ride on the assistant’s seat of my beloved car. Well, but to be precise, there weren’t many people that survived after riding on the assistant’s seat.” 

I absolutely don’t need that precise piece of information! 

I would have been happy if I didn’t know that! 

However, as I was getting surprised, I was crammed like luggage in the bright red car (apparently specially made. Even though it was in a flashy accident there weren’t any scratches) and while at it also crammed my bicycle in the back seat (the frame was simply twisted and Jun-san repaired it, with her hands. The method of repairing ended up being flashy as well), and thus humankind’s strongest contractor boarded on the driver’s seat, and at the same time, stepped on the accelerator. 

Agitated, I tried to fasten the seat belt, for safety purposes, although now it’s as if I’m confining myself. 

“I mentioned mind reading skills, but it’s not like I can read everything. I only know that you are hiding something, lad. That’s why you’re coming along.” 

“I think coming along is an excessive act of brutality, though...” 

I tried to evade from the harsh truth by immediately using “coming along” and “excessive” together, but the mood wasn’t soft enough to use that kind of wordplay.  

Abducting a young man is a complete crime. 

No. Since this person showed up, she has done nearly nothing that wasn’t a crime. 

“What are you talking about? I even fixed the broken wall. In my younger days, I would’ve just left it destroyed there.” What even is that self-compliance. 

Rather than fixing, didn’t you just thrust the extracted wall in the original spot and crammed some of the shards in the part dented with my form? 

Well, even if she was just mending it like building LEGOs, because she used a lot of force it looks like the broken part was fused without any glue. 

“In any case, I’m not hiding anything, Jun-san. If you want, try to go around asking everyone around me. You will understand that 

Araragi Koyomi is a pure and upright man.” 

“Huh. That’s also a lie.” 

“Kuh... How did you know I didn’t have people around me!” “You don’t need to have mind reading skills to know that.” Having said that so plainly straight made me lose face. 

Unwillingly, I decided to change my approach. 

Jun-san came to exterminate a vampire, but as I communicate with her, I feel like she’s very different from the oddity specialists I know. 

From Dramaturgy, from Episode, from Guillotine Cutter and also from Oshino Meme. 

All of them paid respects, to some extent, to vampires. 

That respect perhaps, consequently, led to loath and hatred and was identical to a hostile attitude. At the very least, they took the general idea they had of vampires seriously. 

This person is different. 

She’s clearly having fun. 

You could also say she’s just screwing around. 

Just how someone would enjoy an amusement park, she’s heading to that ruined cram school building. Just like a group of preschoolers doing a test of courage during the night and stealthily entering the school grounds. 

While she might have the deceiving appearance of a fully grown woman, this person is still a child on the inside. That’s what put me off the most. 

At this rate, I’ll end up shamelessly guiding her to the ruined building, and should that lead to the confrontation between the contractor and the vampire, I don’t have a clue what will happen after that, leaving me in a state of ceaseless anxiety. I wonder how much understanding she currently has of vampires. 

“Hum, Jun-san. You have mentioned vampire extermination, but, actually... No. Not actually. Supposing that... And I mean supposing that, OK? Supposing that you were confronted with a fishy fabrication like a vampire, how are you planning to deal with it?” “Punch them, win and make friends with them.” It’s a dangerous thought. 

Yet again, she’s a dangerous person. 

“I will tell you, just in case, even if you run a vampire over that won’t be enough to defeat it. No, it’s not like I know anything in particular though.” 

“I know, I know. It’s immortal, right? Isn’t that great? As a subject of the ‘undying’ experiment, I simply have to meet it.” 

“.......?” 

“On the contrary, I have to ask you, lad. Do you know what 

‘undying’ means?” 

After that unexpected question, I shrunk back. 

What does undying really mean? Obviously, as someone who died over and over again, during spring break, it should be something I can proudly respond, with confidence. However, now that I think of it, that would mean I understand what it means to “die”, but I have the feeling that I can’t understand what “undying” means. 

If I ever wanted to really understand what “undying” means, I would have no choice but to, just like the iron-blooded, hot-blooded, cold-blooded vampire, exist during a long enough period of years and months enough that I lose all motivation. No, if I really think about it, she must have been continuously dying up until this day and age, or something similar. 

She was already at the verge of death when I met her. 

In that case, what does one have to do in order to know, or rather, to understand what “undying” means? Whether it means reviving or continuously dying... 

If coming back to life and dying over and over again isn’t enough, then... 

“I think that ‘not dying’ is determination.” Jun-san said without waiting for my reply. 

Even though she can use mind reading skills, she doesn’t try to listen, at all. 

“‘Not dying’ is also different from ‘can’t die’. It is the expression of one’s will to not die, no matter what the case might be. Therefore, ‘not dying’ is ‘wanting to live’. I want to be the loudest at shouting that.”