Monogatari Series - Volume 25 - Chapter 7.04

004 

Because she’d said we’d be competing with swords, I’d been sure that I’d be put in the awkward situation of having a duel with slashing and striking (and the awkward situation of having a duel against a blond beauty in a school swimsuit at the side of a pool), but it seemed I’d been able to avoid such an unfair development—that is, as she wiped her body down with a bath towel (or rather, she had me wipe her. Whether she was in a kimono or a school swimsuit, she was still very princess-like), she had this to say about the glass case left at the side of the pool. 

“Koyomi-kun. Please get the sword out from this ‘scabbard’—but without damaging the vidro  in the slightest. If you can do that, I’ll acknowledge it as your victory,” she said. 

As with all the statements she’d uttered up until now, I was unable to fully grasp the meaning of those words, but it seemed that was the special quality of this particular Japanese sword, Toutou “Tetsu”. 

In other words, it could go through things. 

It was a sword that could pass through the objects it cut—it was a sword that could slip through the people it cut. 

And you may find yourself thinking that it loses all meaning of it being a sword, but the actuality wasn’t that simple. 

Because that special quality meant that it could pass and slip through armor and walls and cut into whatever was on the other side—for example, when cutting through humans, it could pass through the clothes and cut through only the body. Going further, without leaving a single wound on the skin, it could cut through only a person’s internal organs. 

It could vertically cleave through a person’s body with a single slice while cutting only a single blood vessel in that person’s brain, making it quite a deadly weapon that could be used to create unsolvable murder cases. 

It sounded quite unrealistic—but it wasn’t something I could laugh off as a joke. After all, Youtou “Kokorowatari” could perform a similar feat. 

That is, it could cut through oddities without cutting through humans. 

That’s why, in that sense, the princess describing it as “a good match”, or even something that could “rival” it, was right—the bet each of us was making was fairly equal. 

I understood that much. 

What I still didn’t understand was how that was related to the contents of the battle—in the first place, why was such a strange sword sealed in a glass case like that? 

As for why she’d hidden it at the bottom of the swimming pool at a middle school, let’s just go with the idea that Princess Hitei had planned it like that to set the pace of this encounter... 

“Like I said, this vidro is the ‘scabbard’ for Toutou ‘Tetsu’. Because it’s a sword that can slip through any object—of course, even vidro. If you put it in a normal scabbard and carry it at your waist, it’s highly likely that you’ll just hurt yourself. That’s why it was encased in a solid object in all directions, even the hilt—for safety reasons.” 

“I see... However, even if you were able to store it safely, doesn’t that make it impossible to take back out?” 

Although storing it was easy, because you could just manifest the sword’s special quality when doing so—ah. 

So that was what this battle was for? 

“That’s right. Even in this state, a way to draw this sword exists—and if you can figure out how, then it’s your win, Koyomi-kun. And if you win, then I’ll leave Toutou ‘Tetsu’ here in this generation with you. However, if you don’t manage to draw the sword, or if you happen to damage the ‘scabbard’, then I’ll have you present Youtou ‘Kokorowatari’ to me.” 

“......” 

Huh? 

Since when had I actually agreed to this battle? 

I hadn’t actually said I’d make this wager, right? 

She had completely taken the initiative and decided not just the field but also the objects being wagered and the contents of the wager, without room for compromise... Was it really OK to just follow along with what this princess was telling me? 

Even the school swimsuit was something she had just gone and worn on her own... By now, I really was completely twisted around her finger. 

I couldn’t say that I hated being manipulated by an older woman, through her bossiness or her allure, but if my life was at stake, then the circumstances were different. 

And honestly, I didn’t even need anything like Toutou “Tetsu”... What would you use something like this for, other than committing the perfect crime? Well, I’m sure it wasn’t totally useless in the modern era, but considering my present state, I could even say that Youtou “Kokorowatari” was more useful—for the sake of staying alive in the future. 

She’d really taken me for a ride here, but maybe there was some way to roll it back and make the battle itself invalid—no, but hold on. Toutou “Tetsu”? 

Because it kept being described as being able to slip through objects or pass through human bodies, I’d only considered using it for some sort of locked room trick, but wasn’t the reverse also possible? 

The reverse—in other words, it wasn’t cutting the inside without cutting the outside, but cutting the outside without cutting the inside. 

Earlier, Princess Hitei had described something unsettling like how it could pass through the clothes to cut through the body of the person wearing them—but, turning that around, what if you could cut through the clothes without leaving a single wound on the person, like some sort of superhuman feat performed by Ishikawa Goemon from the anime “Lupin III”? 

More specifically, what if such a feat could be pulled off, in particular, against my friend known as Hanekawa Tsubasa? “... Pfft. Good grief.” Oh, Hanekawa. 

In the end, my motivation always ends up being you. 

“Understood, princess. I’ll accept your battle.” 

“For a character that appears in such a foolish generation, that’s a good show of courage. It’s worthy of praise—I won’t not say that.” 

With a smirk on her face, at that critical moment, Princess Hitei brought out another double denial. 

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10  As someone who’s from the past, Princess Hitei uses an older word for “glass”, ビードロ (biidoro), borrowed from Portuguese. Modern Japanese uses the word ガラス (garasu).