Monogatari Series - Volume 25 - Chapter 7.02

002 

Although it wasn’t something I was especially proud of, I had a sister in her second year of middle school named Araragi Tsukihi. She was a stylish girl who changed her hairstyle at least once a month, and, as another part of that stylishness, she was also a member of the Tea Ceremony Club. And that wasn’t in the sense that the elegance of tea ceremonies was particularly fashionable, but the more direct reason of, “It’s because I like wearing kimonos”—I thought she’d be quite a bother to the club for joining for such a reason, but surprisingly enough, it seemed they got along rather well. 

Personally, I honestly believed that there had to be something wrong with the club to be able to get along with my sister, and normally I wouldn’t want to go anywhere near them, but unfortunately, modern society was such that it rejected my personal intentions, and today, I found myself visiting the middle school that my sister attended, Tsuganoki Second Middle School. 

Because I was a relative of an attending student, it wouldn’t be hard to simply visit normally, but because my reason was what it was, I ended up taking on the attitude of someone trying to sneak in. 

To put it simply, in the Tea Ceremony Club’s club room—or should I call it the tea room? In the tea room, a minor oddity phenomenon had supposedly occurred. 

It was a story about how, even though there were supposed to be only seven members registered in the club, the presence of an “eighth person” could be felt. 

Tsukihi had consulted me about that. 

To be precise, it wasn’t my sister that had felt the vague existence of that “eighth person”, but the other six club members. Tsukihi herself had taken upon the task of denying the vague existence of that “eighth person”. 

Denying. 

And, as a result of her evidence and her deductions, that denial should have succeeded—well, that was the kind of episode it was, and it should have already been recorded in a published work somewhere. 

Because an incident that should have been resolved didn’t end, all that remained was a bitter lesson of the emptiness of detective work, turning it into an experience with a bad aftertaste (although, I couldn’t say that anything involving Tsukihi had left a good aftertaste). However, it wouldn’t do to not make use of the lesson she’d finally managed to learn. 

It was the brother’s job to follow up on his sister’s actions. 

I wanted to confirm with my own eyes whether or not the case of the “eighth person” was actually resolved—I wanted to make sure, using the eyes of someone who’d experienced having their lifeblood sucked by a vampire, to free myself from further anxiety. 

I did think that I was being a bit oversensitive, but recently, there was no way of knowing what would end up becoming foreshadowing later on. 

After moving stealthily so as to not be discovered by any students and teachers, taking meandering detours left and right, I finally reached the tea room. And, using the key I’d borrowed from Tsukihi (of course, I meant that I’d borrowed it of my own accord), I opened the door. 

Inside the tea room, a gold-haired, blue-eyed beauty, enrobed in a gorgeous kimono, was gracefully making tea. 

That demeanor, that appearance. 

Even if I’d been mistaken, there was no way she could be a club member—though the Tea Ceremony Club had now become a Japanese Clothing Club as a result of my sister’s evil influences, there was no way she could be a member of this club. 

Or rather, she probably wasn’t even a middle schooler. 

And it wasn’t exactly something that should be cleverly pointed out by a high schooler that had unlawfully entered the premises, but no matter how I saw it, she was an adult—in that case, was she a teacher? Perhaps she was the club’s advisor. 

Considering this middle school was a private school, it wouldn’t be unusual for them to invite a staff member from overseas to teach English—but would someone like that become the advisor of the Tea Ceremony Club? 

No, well, it seemed that aspects of Japanese culture like tea ceremony and kendo were valued pretty highly overseas, so this person, who had quite a foreign air about her—it was possible that her wearing Japanese clothes and making tea could be considered completely natural. 

Unless—could it be? 

Could this person possibly be the “eighth person”? 

An oddity? 

Wait, wait, it was way too early to judge that. It was just that I couldn’t help but feel that she gave off the atmosphere of not being just a normal person— “So, Koyomi-kun.” She spoke. 

Sure enough, without any interruptions to her motions in making the tea, she spoke—her blue eyes hadn’t yet turned to look at me, but she’d called my name, so she had to be speaking to me. 

Even if it wasn’t clear how exactly she knew my name. 

“Do you believe in precognition?” 

“Pre—precognition?” 

I tried to answer as such, closing the door behind me without thinking—I had thought that the first thing I needed to do was to keep this girl with her glittering gold hair out of sight, but that also meant that I’d shut myself in with her. 

“The power to see the future in advance—no, perhaps I should call it the power to experience the future in advance. Although, some people may call that déjà vu—basically, precognition could be considered a skill similar to time travel.” 

“......” 

“That is the reason that I, Princess Hitei, am here right now. From my perspective, it’s already become a lost artisan skill, but fundamentally, artisan skills are something that are inherited from the roots—does that make sense?” And, nimbly. 

She finished her actions and presented me with a tea cup—this gold-haired, blue-eyed girl, Princess Hitei. 

Eh? What? 

Would it be better to accept her artistry? 

Was it even the time to be swallowing tea? 

Wasn’t I the one getting swallowed up by this pace? 

I had no idea what she’d even explained to me... Although, it was a little too sudden to be confronted with the concept of precognition, the term “time travel” was something I had just the tiniest bit of room to concede. 

Just the other day, I’d undertaken an experiment along those lines—but it had been a complete failure, and it had turned into a breeding ground for future problems, so it was nothing but a bitter memory for me. 

Rather than a bitter memory, it was a painful one.  

However, if what I’d done was a form of time travel from this world, then that just as well meant that this world could potentially receive travelers from some other world. 

If that was the case, then I couldn’t just treat her frivolously—in the same way that that impossible world had done for me, I had to show hospitality for this person. 

If anything, I might as well drink the tea that was offered to me. 

For now, I’ll play it by ear. 

Resolving myself for the worst, I took off my shoes and stepped onto the tatami. 

“Sorry, but I don’t really know the proper etiquette. So I’m going to have to just do whatever I want.” 

I sat down cross-legged and tried speaking like a bad guy, but there was no change in the princess’s prim expression—hmm. 

It seemed she wasn’t the type of person that went with the flow. 

If that was the case, I surely couldn’t expect her to play the straight man for me, so I respectfully changed to sit in a seiza  position and picked up the tea cup—was I supposed to turn it three times, or something? 

“Thank you for the tea—gh!?” 

The contents of the tea cup were mostly powder. 

All the moisture in my mouth had been completely sucked away. 

“Ahahahaha! You fell for it, you fell for it!” 

Princess Hitei pointed at my choking self and laughed wildly—and you’re actually pretty cheerful, aren’t you!? 

“Sorry, sorry, I wasn’t actually making tea at all. I don’t even know how to boil water—I had my close aide handle everything lifestylerelated, after all. At the very least, I could pretend that I had the knowledge for a performance... I’m sure that unpleasant woman could have done a better job, though.”  

I’m bad at sitting in seiza, too. 

Saying as such, Princess Hitei stood up. 

Whoa, she’s tall! 

It could be because I was lying prone on the tatami as a result of gagging on the contents of that tea cup, but it was like I was looking up at a mountain—depending on the viewpoint, it could look like I was lying prostrate at her feet, but being looked down on from such a height with me positioned like this instilled within me a rather strange feeling. 

“Did you think I was some foreigner with a deep understanding of Japanese culture? Then I deny that—because I’m a patriot that was born and raised in this very country.” 

Then, perhaps she was half- or even quarter-Japanese. Although, if I asked her about it, she would probably deny that as well. 

I’d become rather familiar with gold hair ever since spring break, but blue eyes weren’t something I’d come into contact with except in movies or dramas, so her gaze made me a bit flustered. 

“Um... How did you know my name? And, how did you know that I’d be coming here today?” 

Since I couldn’t stay lying prone (lying prostrate) forever, I pulled myself up from the floor (my entire body had been painted with the green of the matcha ) and questioned Princess Hitei. 

To be honest, I wasn’t nearly as curious about those trivial matters as I was about her mixed-Japanese-Western impression, but I figured I could stall for time by asking those questions. 

“Like I said, it’s precognition, okay? It’s precognition—your name, Koyomi-kun, and the fact that you’d visit the tea room in this school today were things that were predicted several centuries ago. Things that were experienced. Although, to put it another way, it was because I learned about those stupid things that I had no choice but to come all the way here. Since you were named in a prediction, I had no way of avoiding it because of my position—I’m bad at doing work by myself.” “... You’re pretty much bad at everything, aren’t you.” 

“I deny that. There are a lot of things I’m bad at, but I have more things that I’m good at—for example, I’m especially good at twisting adorable little boys like you, Koyomi-kun, around my finger.” 

“......” 

She—certainly seemed like she was. 

To put it another way, this person was clearly the type of person that I was bad with. 

Even when I stood up, my eye level only reached up to her shoulders—if I didn’t keep my chin raised, I couldn’t make eye contact with her. 

“Like I said, Koyomi-kun. I can even guess the next question you’re going to ask.” 

“... That’s also that precognition you spoke of, right?” 

“I deny that. Like I said, that’s not a skill that I can use—if anything, all I’ve done is follow along with those predictions. The reason I can guess the questions you want to ask, Koyomi-kun, is because I’m especially good at twisting you around my finger.” 

“... Then, please try to guess, princess. What question am I thinking about in my mind right now?” 

I knew that I probably should’ve ignored what she said, but because she kept repeatedly looking down on me, I couldn’t help but give in to her provocation—at this point, I was most certainly already being twisted around her finger. 

Tightly wrapped around. 

It was like I was being made to dance on the palm of her hand. 

“You’re going to ask, ‘What business do you have with me’, right? What business do you have with me, to go as far as crossing generations and crossing world views to come visit—and to that question, I’ll respond like this. ‘I deny that. I don’t have any business with you personally, Koyomi-kun—because what I have business with is the Japanese sword in your possession. That is, Youtou “Kokorowatari”.’”   

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1  苦い (nigai, “bitter”) and 苦しい (kurushii, “painful”) use the same kanji. 
2 Seiza (正座, “proper sitting”) is the traditional formal style of kneeling with the tops of your feet resting on the floor and sitting on top of your heels. 
3  In this sentence, “close aide” and “unpleasant woman” refer to Souda Emonzaemon and Togame respectively, from Katanagatari. 
4  Matcha (抹茶, matcha) is finely ground powder of specially grown and processed green tea leaves, and is used in traditional Japanese tea ceremonies. 
5  Its full name is 妖刀『心渡』(Youtou “Kokorowatari”), which fits the naming pattern of the Katanagatari swords.