Monogatari Series - Volume 26 - Chapter 1.06

006

Speaking of which, even when I’d been constantly going here and there in order to rescue Benikujaku-chan, there’d been a moment where I’d trespassed upon someone’s apartment with Ononoki-chan—at the time, Shinobu had been there with us, but now, the sun was still high, so the vampire weak to the sun was still resting.

And last time, I’d come in from the front entrance while Ononoki-chan came in from the veranda, splitting up and using a pincer-attack strategy, but now, I’d been properly given the key from Associate Professor Iesumi, so there was no need to come up with any plans like that.

There was no need, and there was no time.

Let us enter brazenly.

We simply broke through using the method of least resistance—we passed through the auto lock, took the elevator, and made it to Room 333 on the third floor, where Associate Professor Iesumi lived.

“…Thinking about it, introducing your own child to a dangerous individual such as oni onii-chan pretty much meets the conditions for abuse, doesn’t it?”

“I’m not that dangerous. Just look at my tender smile!”

But even so, even if it wasn’t me, she probably wasn’t in a normal state of mind to send any student to her house while she was away…

The psychological stress of the possibility that she might abuse her, or the possibility that she was already abusing her, must have been swirling like a storm inside the seemingly intellectual professor—aside from room for sympathy, there was definitely room for consideration.

Without pressing the button for the intercom, I put the key I’d been given into the keyholes (one door, two locks) and opened the door—there was no door chain that kept the door from opening more than ten centimeters, either.

It seemed unlikely that a three-year-old girl in a cage would be able to use the door chain, but sometimes these developments could happen… My whole life was made up of developments like these.

I’d lived and died thanks to developments like these.

Even in the worst-case scenario, there was no door that could not be opened via Ononoki-chan’s “Unlimited Rulebook”, but if possible I wanted to avoid being destructive—so I was relieved just from the fact that I was able to open the door without any problems, and I was even more relieved when I took a step into the house of a stranger.

My hunch actually turned out to be right, was what I thought.

I don’t think a hunch of mine had ever turned out to be right (if anything did, it was always a bad premonition), but had Ononoki-chan’s estimation been on the mark…? Although, even if the “replacement child” phenomenon was occurring, that would be “on the mark” for what could only be described as a bad premonition.

At any rate, I’d gotten ahead of myself with the conviction that that was the case… In other words, there was no strange odor.

Of course, it was a stranger’s home. Naturally, there was a peculiar smell, especially since the home hadn’t been ventilated for three days—but it couldn’t be called an odor, and I didn’t get the impression that the entire apartment gave off any unbearable stench.

This was extremely important.

Some time ago, Ougi-chan had pointed this out to me rather harshly… Because human beings were living beings, they stunk when they died. If a three-year old child, naturally fragile and deserving of protection, was left alone for three days… There was no way they would be able to get away with simply a “stranger’s house” scent.

Whether they were alive or dead.

“Like a corpse doll that has been left in a car in the middle of summer. Well, since my body is preserved from decay, I’m completely odorless, though. My own kind of deodorant.”

“Deodorant, you say… That reminds me, Ononoki-chan, you changed your boots, too. I loved how stuffy those boots were, though.”

Even though I had the professor’s permission, I couldn’t help but feel like I was trespassing when I came in, and I didn’t want to be seen by the other residents, so I quickly closed the door—since I wasn’t a thief, we made to take off our shoes, and I found that Ononoki-chan was wearing sandals to match her maxi dress.

They seemed rather breathable, so they probably wouldn’t get stuffy. Unfortunately.

“Don’t become a shoe fetishist. You’re not the prince from Cinderella, onii-chan.”

“Don’t call the prince from Cinderella a shoe fetishist.”

Ononoki-chan left her sandals on the porch.

“These were also supplied by Araragi Tsukihi. With her also cutting Nadekou‘s bangs… She sure loves destroying the identities of others, huh,” she said.

“But despite that, she surprisingly loves to devote herself to others, too.”

“A very understanding big brother, aren’t you. How nice.”

We entered the hallway, me in front.

I was wearing socks while Ononoki-chan was barefoot, and there were… No slippers prepared by the entrance. Apparently the place didn’t have many visitors.

Well, a family that abuses its children wouldn’t be so sociable as to invite others to their home… That could be how relations broke down and escape routes from domestic violence were blocked off.

“Putting aside your abusiveness, when it comes to domestic violence, I have to say you rank pretty high up there, oni onii-chan. Weren’t you and your sisters always beating each other up? Even if you’re the one who mostly got beaten up, I’m sure that’s also a violation of what’s called ‘consent’ these days.”

After becoming a vampire, I did cut down on the number of fights—but that was barely an excuse. I had thought that it was normal, that it was what all siblings did; closed-door environments that narrow your insight were pretty frightening.

A closed-door environment—could that be this 3LDK?

The room felt tidy and clean, just like the impression I got from her office… Plus, the hallway was already spacious.

As expected, being a professor at a national university must pay well… No, maybe not. This could just simply be an apartment meant for families. If she and her now-estranged husband were both working, they would probably be able to afford the rent—was it that the three of them were living here, and it was the husband that ended up leaving?

It didn’t seem like they’d just moved in, either… Well, it was probably better to put off pretending to deduce things like Sherlock Holmes.

Before putting my imagination to the test, I needed to find the cage… Living room, dining room, kitchen, and three bedrooms. I could go through all of them in order, but thinking about it, it would most likely be in one of the bedrooms, right?

Surely no one in their right mind would want a cage with a three-year-old locked up in a communal space—they’d most likely separate themselves entirely from it, as “something they didn’t want to see”.

As for whether or not Associate Professor Iesumi was in her right mind… I just had to believe that she was maintaining a minimum level of rationality.

“…Tch.”

I came in with a bang, but perhaps because I relaxed a bit when I opened the door, I was starting to get cold feet. If I was going to get scared like this all the time, it was as if going through all those crises was meaningless.

But my shot in the dark that the “replacement child” phenomenon, as Ononoki-chan called it, had occurred could just be normalcy bias—on the other hand, the possibility that it wasn’t just wishful thinking had suddenly become much higher, and while I had loosened up, it was also true that I now had a heightened sense of danger.

Against oddity phenomena, I may as well be considered defenseless. My history of being the slave to an oddity was now far in the past—what was I going to do if the “replacement child” locked in a cage was some unruly evil spirit, a ferocious monster?

Even though it was just a coincidence, it was fortunate and reassuring that Ononoki-chan, a specialist in oddities, had accompanied me… Well, strictly speaking, Ononoki-chan was a specialist that specialized in immortal oddities, so she wasn’t necessarily well-versed in the “replacement child” itself—and was it really a coincidence?

No, it was hard to believe that Ononoki-chan had somehow seen through everything in order to hide out in my car… Most likely, the reason the corpse doll used my New Beetle as a camping car really was to take refuge from Tsukihi.

However—what about Tsukihi?

If this adventure with this pairing was not just an accidental event but the result of Araragi Tsukihi’s schemes… That would be pretty terrifying.

Tsukihi didn’t have any self-awareness.

She didn’t, but—even so, as much as she was my sister, she was also a phoenix.

“…I don’t know anymore.”

I walked straight down the hallway, through the living room, and opened the nearest door. I was afraid I would get confused if I started thinking about which door was the right one—three doors, the Monty Hall Problem—so I wanted to move quickly… I wasn’t exactly very lucky with lotteries, so this was a miss.

This was (most likely) Associate Professor Iesumi’s bedroom… My tastes didn’t include frolicking around in the bedroom of an intellectual lady, so I took a quick glance around the four corners of the room to make sure there were no cages and then quickly moved on to the next room.

The second door.

This was the right one—probably.

I didn’t think that because I opened the door to find a cage with a three-year-old inside… But because the door was locked.

Whether I pushed or pulled, the door didn’t budge.

At that point, it was already really unsettling… Normally, the only spaces in an ordinary house that can be locked are the bathrooms, right? As long as you didn’t have a kid in their rebellious phase, there wasn’t likely to be a bedroom with a lock… And wasn’t this the type of lock that could only be locked from outside?

Even before putting her in a cage, did Associate Professor Iesumi also lock her three-year-old daughter in this room…? To isolate her as “something she didn’t want to see”?

That had already gone beyond abuse—it was almost as if she was afraid of her own child.

Like an oddity.

A twofold locked room… If you count the lock to the front door, was it actually threefold? Of course, that’s assuming there actually was a cage in here…

“Did that intellectual sensei not give you the key to this door? Oni onii-chan.”

“Unfortunately, no. I don’t know if she just forgot, or if she chose not to mention it…”

“Is that so.”

As soon as I was able to register that Ononoki-chan nodded with her usual blank expression, she kicked open the door—it wasn’t even through the use of “Unlimited Rulebook”. It was a regular kick in her normal mode. As long as this wasn’t a bank vault or some military establishment, a regular kick was enough—the second door collapsed inward on its hinges.

“As expected of the ‘Small But Mighty Tank’.”

“It’s been a while since I’ve been called by that nickname. Since Waterloo.”

“You’ve served in a war before?”

And.