Monogatari Series - Volume 25 - Chapter 8.05

005 

Taking a knee to the face so soon after being kicked in the head almost made me go unconscious again, but that’s not really important. I’m not a very good writer, so when I said that I sniffed her thigh I was making a mistake in my choice of words.  

Now, let me be clear that I did not have any interest whatsoever in the scent of Mutou’s thighs. How hot and steamy her thighs would be after being trapped inside of spats for an extended period is not something that I want to know anything about.  

 Rather than trying to investigate the scent of the moist bits under her skirt, this exceptionally clever boy detective was aiming for the truth hidden in the shadows—in other words, I was trying to smell the giant scissors that she keeps strapped to her leg, the blades of “Mind Render”.  

I wanted to smell the blade—to detect the scent of blood soaked into the metal.  

“What are you doing? I don’t understand at all.” 

There was an unspoken second part to her question which seemed to be saying that if she continued to not understand, then she would kill me. The way that she was holding “Mind Render” in her mouth seemed to support my interpretation of that unspoken part.  

There’s no need to be so desperate about it. 

Mutou, I’ve as good as proven your innocence with this.  

“Your thighs hold no mysteries, but they did have answers. The wound in the victim’s chest where he was stabbed through the heart matches the shape of your “Mind Render”, which is what marks you as the killer, right? Which means that if the wound shape can be reproduced, it would create doubt that you were actually the one who did it.” 

“Well yes, that is true. But there’s no way to create a copy and we’ve already gone over that fact at length, haven’t we?” 

“Yes. We had anticipated that it would be impossible to create a duplicate of your weapon—as long as it stayed on your body at all times, there could be no copies. However, that might not be the case.” 

“?” 

“When we say ‘on your body at all times’, it doesn’t mean that it’s always strapped to your thigh—as evidenced by you holding it in your mouth right now.” 

In this case, she had the scissors out while she decided whether or not to kill me... But anyway, during combat she would have the scissors out. Mutou had made a promise to Humanity’s Strongest to not kill anyone, but she had also said that it didn’t remove her completely from the conflict. Which means that there would be times at which she would not keep the blade stored on her thigh, but would instead take it out and use it.  

“Oh. Well yes, maybe I could have explained it in more detail, but that doesn’t change that ‘Mind Render’ never left my possession. You were muttering something about bite marks earlier, but ‘Mind Render’ 

is too tough for me to leave bite marks on it?” 

“That’s not important.” 

The whole thing about the vampiric bite mark on my neck wasn’t directly related to the current issue, it was simply the idea that got me thinking on the right track. 

What’s important here is “shape”. 

“Because we keep talking about making copies of blades, it sounds really difficult and we automatically want to reject the idea of someone doing it, but if we think about it instead as making a duplicate of a key— doesn’t the nuance change?” 

“The nuance changed, but even for making a duplicate key, don’t you still need the original?” 

“You do, but depending on the material you might not need it for very long. It’s possible that you can use clay to take the shape of the thing and create a duplicate from that.” 

Taking an impression and making a mold.  

It’s a vital process used to create things like plastic models and figures, and you wouldn’t have to be a swordsmith to make a duplicate that way.  

Of course, it’s not the most accurate way to create a copy, and recent keys are made in a way that prevents this sort of copying method from working—but if you only need to make a blade that is close enough to the real thing to leave a specific wound pattern, then... It works well enough. 

“If they used clay to create a mold of ‘Mind Render’ then they would only need access to it for an instant, right?” 

“Yes, but... They didn’t even have an instant? I can’t say that I’ve never dropped it once since I began using it, but I can say with certainty that I have never once dropped it during a battle with the Kino Division. So I don’t see how they could have pierced through my defenses and made a mold.” 

“They didn’t have to pierce your defenses, because you are the one who did the piercing.” 

“M-Me? What did I pierce?” 

“To create a mold you don’t have to use clay. Gum works, rubber works—and so does meat.” Even a human body. 

I rubbed a hand across my neck again and felt the bite mark left by the vampire’s fangs.