Monogatari Series - Volume 26 - Chapter 1.23

023

When I asked for details, it turned out that Ononoki-chan wasn’t just attacked by clothing, but by the carpet, as well—if it had been me, I would have surely been trounced by that combination, but that was the god of destruction for you. Apparently she’d torn apart even that by sheer power. If only I had even a tenth of that power, I wouldn’t have had to struggle so much, but I suppose I was asking for too much.

It was presumptuous to even ask for a hundredth of that power.

I was lucky that my ski cap aimed for the inside of my mouth when I tried to call for help… No, it wasn’t just luck. It was that same high learning ability from before—or in this case, I suppose, for that point in time, a low learning ability. It was an oddity that had just been born, so it was as if it had destroyed itself on its own.

“No, no, it’s a pretty big deal. Even if the ski cap destroyed itself, the fact that you used that as a stepping stone to defeat the jacket instead of relying on vampire power shows how much you’ve grown, oni onii-chan. My evaluation of you has definitely gone up. I’ll be sure to report this to Gaen-san properly.”

“I’d prefer if you didn’t report me. That’s no longer reporting, you’re just snitching on me. …Ononoki-chan, are you okay with all those bruises?”

“They aren’t bruises, it’s livor mortis. In my case. Since I’m a corpse. But I’m fine—something like this is nothing but a scratch.”

Being told it was a scratch after being told it was livor mortis didn’t make me think she was any more okay.

“However, it’s one thing for me to have been attacked by sensei‘s clothes, but you ended up being attacked by your own clothes, didn’t you, onii-chan. The rules seem to be kind of hard to understand…”

“Even the clothes we’re wearing now could be big trouble. Okay, Ononoki-chan, let’s strip.”

“Do you want me to reevaluate my evaluation of you?”

“Just in case, wouldn’t it be better to dampen that dress and make it see-through?”

“Your ulterior motive is to make it see-through, isn’t it. Mm… I think it’s the other way around, oni onii-chan. Your ski cap and jacket triggered the conditions because you lost to the heat and took them off. So, we’re better off not stripping.”

“Don’t say it like I took them off because I was lacking in willpower. It’s the middle of summer! I didn’t lose to the heat, I simply dealt with it.”

“Shall I make it so that you can’t feel temperature at all?”

“Scary scary scary scary! I’m getting the chills!”’

But, now that she’d said so, it sounded right.

If even my jeans, shirt, and even my underwear and socks attacked me unconditionally, they would have wrung out my entire body in no time, before I had the chance to even take them off… They wouldn’t have even allowed me to move in that wiggly, snakelike way.

The point in common between the jacket and the ski cap would be that I’d taken it off and tossed them—I’d taken them off and “thrown them away”.

…Was that the key word?

The fact that I’d thrown them away?

Er, it would be a problem to conflate that with the idea of “throwing away one’s own child”… But come to think of it, when I was locked in the cage on my second visit and I used my jeans to fetch the carpenter’s tools, while I did take them off, I hadn’t let them go. I had to hold the cuffs tight to use it like a rope…

If I wanted to force a commonality with Associate Professor Iesumi’s clothes and carpet that attacked Ononoki-chan…

“Well, I dunno. This is totally out of my area of expertise… It’s one thing to be attacked by a suit or shirt or parka, but being attacked by panties and pantyhose was pretty fresh. I fought that fierce battle while thinking that those things were your specialty, oni onii-chan.”

“It sounds like the both of us were enjoying some not-so-picture-perfect battles.”

“A question for you, onii-chan. Are you sure that the blanket that locked you in the animal cage during the day was actually that abused doll? Not just a generic blanket that was in the crib?”

“Well… I think so.”

“Could it be that they just have the same color? You know, when it comes to the human eye, it can easily confuse the kanji for shakoku [社告] and kakitsubata [杜若].”

“Hey, hey, there’s no way I’d confuse shakoku and kakitsubata… Wait, they’re exactly the same!”

No, that wasn’t it.

“The ‘henohenomoheji‘ design was there, and there was a hole from when it was stabbed in the back.”

Of course, that had been another assault, and like this one, I didn’t really understand the whole story. But if it was just a matter of whether or not the magical flying blanket that I let escape was a component of the Iie-chan doll, then I could say so definitively.

Please let me do at least that much.

Ononoki-chan was probably thinking that if other garments, cloth, and fabric could start to move, then even a normal blanket that hadn’t been abused could start to move… And there was probably something to that assumption… But that might be a point that should be considered separately.

“If so, maybe the clothes that attacked us didn’t so much turn into oddities as turn into thralls.”

“Turn into thralls…? What do you mean by that?”

“The same as what happened to you in the past, you bastard.”

Don’t be so coarse with your language at every turn.

Although, this case was something I’d completely gotten Ononoki-chan wrapped up in, so I guess I couldn’t complain no matter how she treated me… It’s miserable to get wrapped up in trouble! That was something I’d said a lot last year, but I suppose this was what it was like to be the one to get someone involved.

“Are you saying that the Iie-chan doll was growing its ‘companions’…? Like, after escaping from this room, it ordered its minions to take care of its pursuers…?”

“Or perhaps, it’s an oddity that possesses that sort of ability. In other words, the ability to control cloth… In that case, rather than turning into oddities, it would be closer to describe it as an automatic trap. Like landmines planted all over the house.”

Putting their clothes on the floor, opening the wardrobe, or even breaking the glass or destroying the bed… Each and every action made by the trespasser could have been a trigger that set off the trap?

Hmm.

The simple attack by the ski cap and jacket certainly did feel like an “automatic trap”… As if they were following orders as straightforwardly as possible… They didn’t react to any other actions I made.

It was a bit strange to be giving advice to my enemies, but for example, if it saw me heading for the bathroom, it could have unwrapped one sleeve of the jacket strangling me and moored it to the doorstop in the hallway, and that alone would have dashed my hopes.

But… Even so, I felt a simple validity to the idea that they had become thralls—though it was a “mistaken” sense of validity… As someone who had once been turned into a thrall himself.

“That’s the first time you and I have agreed on something. Yeah, I think so, too.”

“That’s pretty shameless of you.”

“I may not be a thrall of some oddity, but I have been revived as a tool for the specialists. Well, it’s true that this creepy house itself has become a breeding ground for oddities. It’s a good thing we came in with our shoes on.”

If we had taken off our shoes, would they have attacked us as well? I didn’t know if the balcony counted as part of the “house”, or if the “shoes” counted as cloth, and that might be another thing to verify… But honestly, I didn’t really want to actively verify it.

At this point, Ononoki-chan’s decision to destroy the father doll was most likely absolutely correct… If I had been attacked by that giant doll, I didn’t think I would have made it through.

“Now that there are more oddities, we have even more reasons to look for the ‘flying blanket’. If it’s possible that that abused doll is making more companions somewhere and multiplying endlessly, we can’t leave it alone. Does that discourage you, oni onii-chan?”

“Not in the least. I’m raring to go. Araragi Koyomi’s ready to take anything on.”

“Well, I don’t hate that bold front of yours. It’s almost something I’d like to tell children.”

“Helping an older woman is certainly pretty difficult, but I’ve never been one to back down from a challenge.”

“Really…?”

“No, I was wrong.”

“Well, maybe you’ve got enough guts for the saying, ‘if you clear your mind, even a fire will feel cool’.”

“Whether it’s an automatic trap or thralls… Does the fact that they’re placed here and there mean that there’s something in this Room 333 worth protecting? Like the husband’s personal information, or where Associate Professor Iesumi disappeared to… Something that the Iie-chan doll wants to cover up.”

It may have been a simple self-defense system against trespassers, but after nearly dying and becoming soaking wet, I couldn’t leave empty-handed. Araragi Koyomi’s reputation was at stake.

“In that case, I think I can come up with some good news for you, oni onii-chan.”

“? What do you mean?”

“Well, let’s think about that after we get out of here… Anyway, it means we don’t have to take any more risks to keep searching Room 333.”

“…Did you already find important information? Before opening Associate Professor Iesumi’s wardrobe, you already found something in the living room…”

Wait, then she wouldn’t have bothered with the wardrobe… 

But she shouldn’t be the kind of corpse doll to turn tail and run away without having obtained anything. Absolutely not. It couldn’t be.

At first glance, she looked like an emotionless doll, but on the inside, she was more competitive than me, and more likely to hold a grudge than I did. I’m sure she felt even more strongly than I did that we couldn’t leave empty-handed.

“Well, if I say this, you’ll probably insinuate that I’m a ‘god of destruction’ again, but you see, when I was fighting the intellectual sensei‘s pantyhose, there was a bit of collateral damage.”

It seemed her biggest grudge was being called a god of destruction, but apparently, her most difficult opponent had been the pantyhose… Because I was unlearned, I’d never worn them before, but I heard that they’re surprisingly strong.

It’s nice that she was able to win in the end… But collateral damage?

Really?

“As a result, the ceiling of sensei‘s room was broken.”

“If that’s the result, then you were the cause. Don’t tell me you pierced through it?”

“It’s fine. This is the top floor, so even if I pierce through it, it’s just the roof. And the roof is off-limits, so no one will be there.”

So she did pierce through it. That’s not fine at all.

It was like this place had become the rooftop.

This case was getting bigger and bigger… This wasn’t good news at all. Give me a break.

“As a result.”

Ononoki-chan, who’d dispassionately repeated her acts of violence, repeated.

“Now that a new area, the rooftop, has opened up, I was able to find something like this. It was a clever hiding place, but I got a lucky break—there’s a ray of light for us.”26

“No matter how cleverly you try to word things, all you did was break the ceiling, okay? That punch line isn’t going to work. …So what is that?”