Monogatari Series - Volume 25 - Chapter 9.04

004 

This was by no means a retreat—I was turning on my heel with a lighthearted backstep, exhibiting a foolish courage by choosing the route that would have me face off against the tactician: Hagihara Shiogi. Of course, I wasn’t trying to be unexpected at all—going after the team’s boss was the usual play to make in situations like these. Not to mention, if I just used my common sense, then taking the path behind me was the only choice that made sense—obviously, it would be no joke to go up against Tamamo-chan, who had large knives in both hands, and trying to evade Hime-chan and her radar of threads that perpetually probed the surroundings for enemies would surely end up being the most foolish decision made in history. If those choices were no different from me just biting my tongue off and dying right then and there, then it would surely be better for my survival if I went for the sly tactician instead. 

Even if she was a high school girl that could compare to Hanekawa, she was by no means Hanekawa herself. It was true that, if she was a “Hanekawa capable of fighting”, it was basically making the strong even stronger, but the moment she used violence, she would become a completely different person from Hanekawa. It was her pacifism that completely rejected acts of war that was one of Hanekawa’s unique strong points—and that was why I had a chance to win. 

I didn’t know how many battles she’d lived through, but I’d long since passed the border of death over spring break, to the point that my entire body was obliterated—if we were to face off in just a single match, then perhaps I’d be able to outwit this tactician. 

With an air of composure, Hagihara briskly walked down the center of the road and approached me—as if this simple path in this ordinary town was some royal road. 

At a glance, she seemed like a standard high school girl in a uniform with the aura of a proper young lady, but she carried with her an intensity that made it hard to believe that she was my age. By this point, I’d already begun to deeply regret choosing this road… Wouldn’t it actually have been better to face those two knives, or leap into the spider’s nest that had been strung up…? Why did I choose something that was so much like a last resort in the very beginning? 

“So you’ve decided to come to me on your own, Former Vampiresan. This is all going so according to plan that I’m actually a bit taken aback—it appears that there won’t be any need for garlic.” 

With a faint smile, Hagihara reached inside her uniform—garlic? 

Whoa, whoa, a lovely high school girl shouldn’t carry around something like that in her bosom. Isn’t that a bit too crude to use as a weapon in vampire hunting? I flinched back for a moment, but then began to run even faster, as if I’d been encouraged by the enemy. 

Of course, that just meant I’d allowed her to provoke me. 

Even so, at the very least, I was going to remain alert. And if she pulled out from her bosom not garlic but a knife like the ones Tamamo-chan held, then I prepared myself to react accordingly and run past her while staying safely out of range. When I said that Hagihara could even compare to Hanekawa, it wasn’t just her intellect alone. Even the size of her chest could rival Hanekawa’s—and within that cleavage, she could surely even store a large knife. Well, I probably didn’t need to worry about her bringing out any “invisible threads”, since that was the specialty of a string master that was rare in modern times. That was something that only Hime-chan and her master should be able to use. So I would probably be able to circle around her even while keeping a distance of two meters. 

It wasn’t easy to dodge her when she was standing right in the middle of the road, but maybe if I feinted—or if I made a feint by pretending to feint—or a feint of a feint of a feint—however, when I was only five meters away from her, what Hagihara pulled out from her bosom was not garlic. 

“Very well. Stop right there. That’s perfectly within range of my gun.” 

What she pulled out from her bosom was a pistol. 

Of course I’d stop at that. Even if she didn’t tell me to. 

“Eh? Are pistols even allowed? In your world.” 

“Against professional players, a gun like this is nothing but a toy that wouldn’t be effective in the slightest, but against a demon, I’m sure it’ll be fine—the object itself is low-quality, but the bullets are made of expensive silver.” 

So she’d brought silver bullets with her. 

Indeed, if she was carrying those around, then there wouldn’t be a need for garlic… 

“Yes. In our world, ‘mobile devices’ would fundamentally refer to weapons, not cell phones, after all. Would you mind raising your arms above your head? Araragi-kun.” 

So those ostentatious knives and that fantastic thread usage, in the end, were both just misdirection, and the clincher was an extremely simple and straightforward gun… It felt like both the gun’s muzzle and reality itself had just been thrust upon me. 

“OK, it’s my loss. I surrender. Please have mercy.” 

I raised both my arms as I was told. If I’d still been a vampire, then at this point I could have used the breakthrough solution of turning my arms into vegetation, but now, it was a bit ironic—it was more or less because I’d lost almost all my vampirism then that I’d come to be defeated again at this three-way intersection. 

“However, I wonder if you could answer a question of mine. Why are we even like this? Hagihara. Why are you—why are you, Himechan, and Tamamo-chan going after me? Why are you trying to stab me, to tie me up, and to shoot me?” 

“……?” 

This tactician was essentially a bundle of tactics that moved with a solid grasp of the state of the game, but at this question, she displayed a dumbfounded expression for the first time—it was as if she didn’t even understand what I’d just asked. 

This girl… She wasn’t even playing dumb—this was actually beyond her comprehension. 

It was almost like she was a normal high schooler, racking her brains at the last question on her final exam—it seemed that my “wanting to know why I was being aimed at” was much too mysterious for Hagihara. 

“Why am I going after you? Why am I fighting? Hm. What a leisurely perspective to take—but I’ve never once thought about it. I’ve only ever acted as I’ve been ordered to… Even a tactician is just a soldier in the end.” 

“You—you guys fight for no reason?” 

“A war doesn’t need a reason, correct? In the same way love needs no reason.” 

It sounded like a pretty smart thing to say. 

I see—she wasn’t someone who could compare to Hanekawa at all. 

If anything, she was the exact opposite of Hanekawa. 

“… You really don’t know anything, don’t you.” 

“I don’t even want to know. It’s because I don’t know that I’m able to fight.” 

Every oddity has their own reason for existing—those were the words of the oddity specialist, Oshino Meme. And then, the specialist of humans, Hagihara Shiogi, would surely continue like this—humans don’t have any reasons for existing at all. 

Because she was ordered to, for some reason or another, because it came to mind, on the spur of the moment. 

She will fight. 

“… Then, why did you stop me? If you didn’t plan on talking it out, you could have just shot me without wasting your breath.” 

Was it not to tell me the reason for this battle that had suddenly broken out? I’d held onto a sliver of hope that there would be room for 

negotiations, depending on what the reason was, but… “…… Aha.” 

Hagihara laughed. She laughed like a normal high school girl. 

This wasn’t her doubting me or anything—it seemed she’d just found it funny. 

“Expecting to hear the reason for being shot before being shot? Araragi-kun, you’ve watched too many westerns.” 

“I haven’t watched that many westerns, though. Huh? Then, what was the point of this ‘Freeze!’ and ‘Put your hands up!’ thing? Weren’t you giving me a chance to beg for my life?” 

“The reason I stopped you was that, it’s hard to aim at a moving target with this low-quality gun. The reason I had you put your arms up was so that you wouldn’t be able to protect your heart.” 

“… I’m glad you at least told me that much.” 

“Well then, BANG. My name is Hagihara Shiogi. By any means, fair or foul, I’ll ‘shoot’ you from head-on.” 

Hagihara pulled the trigger of that low-quality gun. 

A silver bullet would have an immediate effect even on a human, not to mention a vampire, but even as that bullet pierced through my heart, I still felt like I wanted to know. 

Not the reason for being shot, and not the reason for fighting. 

If I hadn’t doubled back, and instead gone straight ahead into one of the left or right paths, then how would it have turned out? That was all I wanted to know—