Monogatari Series - Volume 26 - Chapter 1.24

024

With the ceiling having been renovated to include a skylight, I could more or less guess at the state of Associate Professor Iesumi’s private quarters, but I still hoped that the battle damage was confined to that room—if so, then the living room and the nursery on either side would still be undamaged by the god of destruction, and despite our predicament, we might still be able to continue our investigation.

But I was too naive.

From the first room, Ononoki-chan had pierced through the walls on both sides—was she a user of the Special Beam Cannon, this girl?

It wasn’t just the ceiling but also the walls that were demolished, remodeling the 3LDK into a 1LDK. To make matters worse, the distinction between the living room, dining room, and kitchen was a bit of a mess.

As though a typhoon had passed.

The pieces of the father doll must have been moving slightly, not because of the oddity-turned jacket behind me, but perhaps because of Ononoki-chan’s surging attacks… The scope of our illegal actions had become drastically more illegal.

Even a burglar wouldn’t make the place look this miserable… The once neat and tidy Room 333 had become so desolate that even if a burglar were to break in, they would leave without stealing anything.

It was like I’d consulted my dependable homeroom teacher in an attempt to privately settle a dispute with a classmate, only for that teacher to hold a large-scale class meeting.

Well, there were some matters that couldn’t be resolved without making a big deal out of them… But I’d been made an accomplice to an awful crime.

No. Shockingly enough, I was the main offender.

Was I really going to be a police officer in the future?

Regardless, at this point there was no right or wrong. The investigation had to be suspended—partly out of fear of being reported by the neighbors, but even if there were any traces of Associate Professor Iesumi or her husband, or any clues that would help in the search for the Iie-chan doll, we had scrambled them all up. Instead of searching through the trash cans—the whole room became a trash can.      

And if we weren’t careful, we could be attacked by more cloth, and I was afraid we might fall into a completely different trap… Taking various factors into consideration, the conclusion was obvious.

Let’s get out of here.

“‘Unlimited Rulebook’—Disengagement Edition.”

Strangely enough, since there was a hole in the ceiling, our escape could be completed without having to go out to the balcony—I wore my wet jacket and wet hat, thinking that it was still better than not wearing them in the extremely cold air, but I’d forgotten that moisture froze in the air.

Even though I’d worried so much about hypothermia and hypoxia, and even though I’d even experienced anoxia in Room 333—to think that my own efforts would make me get hypothermia on the way back home… What the hell was I doing?

Was I suicidal?

Erm, was this a babysitting job to get some credits for my language course?

Nevertheless, this adventure did produce some results.

#1. No sign of the husband in the third room.

#2. Aside from the Iie-chan doll, there was also the father doll.

#3. In Room 333, other things made of cloth start to move.

#4. Cloth was weak to water.

And—the new hint that Ononoki-chan managed to find on the rooftop, just as planned.

Yes, the long-awaited new hint.

“So, Ononoki-chan. What is that?”

After we landed and I was able to catch my breath (I said this rather lightly, but it took me over five minutes to recover), I asked the same question again, exactly the same as when I’d been shown “that” in Room 333.

“A doll. A stuffed doll.”

“……”

Incidentally, our landing zone was the all-too-familiar Shirohebi Park—it didn’t matter where we went as long as we could get away from Room 333, but I wanted to avoid landing at my house. I had a strong feeling that there was a possibility my house would not be safe.

In that respect, this park was a place where we used to have meetings in the past… Another candidate for our heliport was the grounds of Kitashirahebi Shrine, but on the off chance that we accidentally destroyed the shrine, Hachikuji would probably get pretty angry.

It had been a while since I was last here, but this park was as empty as ever… Had declining birth rates gotten this bad in my town?

“You wanna see it again?”

Saying that, Ononoki-chan tossed “that” at me—though it was an important piece of evidence that we’d managed to obtain, she wasn’t treating it carefully at all. I wasn’t saying she should go as far as putting it in an evidence bag, but…

A doll. A stuffed doll.

One that fit in the palm of my hand… It was much smaller than the Iie-chan doll, and naturally couldn’t even begin to compare to the father doll. It was the perfect size for a key chain.

“…Hm.”

Strictly speaking, the word “doll” wasn’t accurate when it came to this piece of evidence—because it didn’t take on a “human form”.27

It was a bear.

I’d already displayed my terrible eye for appraisal when it came to that fruit knife, but I could say this with confidence—it was a mass-produced product, like those sold in gift shops.

Of course, that didn’t mean mass production was inferior to handmade. And after having seen those two handmade dolls earlier, I especially thought as such.

Was it what they called a teddy bear?

In that case, was it more apt to call it a stuffed doll? After all, it wasn’t like a corpse doll born from sorcery or a balloon-art-like futon doll could be considered “stuffed”…

In any case, it was a small stuffed bear.

In terms of design, it looked quite old… Not that it was old-fashioned or dated—it just simply looked old. As if it had deteriorated over time. Plus, it was dirty… It must have been exposed to the elements for quite a while… Ononoki-chan had said she’d gotten it from the rooftop, but without being picky with my words, it almost made me wonder if Ononoki-chan just pulled it out of a trash can.

“…So, is there a USB flash drive containing important international secrets concealed within this teeny bear?”

“Of course there isn’t. I just thought that this could’ve once belonged to that sensei.”

“? Didn’t you find it on the roof? Maybe someone else dropped it there—well, it’s off-limits, though.”

There was still the possibility that it was dropped by a worker installing the parabolic antenna or someone like that… But the fact that it was right above Room 333 was something to think about.

If you stood on the balcony of Room 333 and tossed it onto the roof, would it be able to reach around that area? But even if that were true, what would be the point of all that… Ononoki-chan had called it a “clever hiding place”, but the crudeness of it felt more like it had been “thrown away” than “hidden”.

Thrown away.

“If she threw it away, then the question would be, why did she throw it away? Oni onii-chan, or for short, onii-chan. Don’t you think that figuring that out will help us find the next hint?”

I didn’t think so… But I wasn’t going to say that. Honestly, instead of such a roundabout hint, I would rather have something more direct.

I guess it was the professional way of doing things to patiently explore even the most unreliable and possibly irrelevant items… But it left the amateurs trapped in frustration.

Frankly, I wanted a more aggressive strategy.

“Don’t you get the feeling that this stuffed bear was the only memorable gift that sensei received from her parents, who were on bad terms?”

“When you say that here and now, it feels more to me like that’s not it at all…”

“Maybe she’d been unable to throw it away for a long time, but finally threw it away with some mixed feelings, and that caused the abused dolls to start moving…”

She didn’t exactly sound serious… Well, even with that specific story in mind, it was still hard to understand the causal relationship.

It was true that stuffed bears were a common gift for parents to give their children… But not something like a key chain you’d find at gift stores…

“Couldn’t it be because it’s so small? What do you even know about parent-child relationships, oni onii-chan?”

“Don’t attack me so suddenly. You don’t need to get mad at me just because I didn’t react well to your new discovery. Let’s try to get along. Of course, if I knew any better about parent-child relationships, I wouldn’t be here right now.”

If I truly had been a specialist of child abuse, I would’ve responded more cleverly when I was first called out.

Even if she was a professor that was ten years older than me, I should have reported it immediately… I must have lost my mind after hearing that her three-year-old daughter was on the verge of death.

“Oni onii-chan, I bet you can’t even begin to imagine the complex feelings of the parents’ daughter, lamenting the fact that she only got such a bargain-level key chain and yet couldn’t let go of it.”

“By calling it bargain-level, it doesn’t sound like you can imagine it, either…”

“It’s something you couldn’t possibly comprehend, oni onii-chan, considering you threw away the car your parents bought for you just because the tires went flat.”

“I didn’t throw it away. I’m definitely going to retrieve it.”

“Weren’t you the type of person who wouldn’t forgive even a scratch on his collection?”

“I’m not that high-strung, and I don’t have a car collection. I’m not a millionaire.”

That said, this teddy bear felt a little too tattered…

“…Is ‘teddy bear’ what they call them in Switzerland?”

“All stuffed bears are called teddy bears. The country of origin doesn’t matter. With that in mind, the most famous bears are not from Switzerland but from Germany. However, the origin of the term ‘teddy bear’ comes from an American president.”

Even though her specialty was supposed to be immortal oddities, she sure knew a lot about stuffed dolls… Then, this little bear wasn’t particularly related to Associate Professor Iesumi’s country of origin.

No wait, her job as a teacher was to teach her native language—and Swiss German was one of them.

German…

“Would it be easier to understand as a watch? They say a Swiss watch can be used for three generations.”

“…What reason can you come up with for the professor throwing away her stuffed doll, which might have been given to her by her parents, on the roof?”

This amateur in parenthood was seeking help from a tween girl.

I turned the stuffed bear over and over, observing every inch of it.

Ah, I see.

I had felt that something was off about the way it looked, but this bear was missing an eye… There was a mark where a bead or something was sewn on. It was a wonder that the limbs were still intact…

“That’s why it was a ‘clever hiding place’. There was so much love and hate, or maybe just plain hatred—that she didn’t want to keep it within sight, and she didn’t want to keep it within her own territory, but she couldn’t bring herself to throw it in the trash. In that case, isn’t the rooftop the perfect place? Even though it’s basically like throwing it away, it was still a distance where she could tell herself that she ‘didn’t throw it away’.”

“Well, if you’re talking about wondering how to dispose of something that’s difficult to keep, throw away, or destroy—then, well, I can sympathize… I used to hide my reference books in my sister’s room, too.”

“Objection. Those ‘reference books’ were just porn mags. And your sisters’ room is the same room that I live in, you bastard. Don’t pretend you understand anything with that shitty example.”

“If they’re ever found, I can just insist that they’re not mine. I’ll say that they’re my sisters’.”

“For the first time, I’ve started to doubt the love you have for your sisters. …Oni onii-chan, why not think of it like the braids you mentioned earlier?”

“I see… So it’s that sort of feeling.”

It was Hanekawa’s hair, so I probably wouldn’t just throw it onto the roof… But I certainly was at a loss as to what I would do with those braids in the future.

If I couldn’t hold onto them forever…

In the future, how would I untie those braids?

“It’s kind of uncomfortable to see you ponder about it so seriously. Well, we all have things we can’t throw away. It’s called hoarding. No matter how much you try to disappear without leaving a trace—no matter how much you try to cut yourself off from your past.”

“Mmm… Well, Ononoki-chan, you’re a specialist, so I’m sure there’s something you can sense that I can’t… But that could also be the sentiment of the person next door, couldn’t it?”

“Even if it was, it’s something we can find out by looking into it. Or did you manage to find another clue, oni onii-chan. If there’s something else to analyze that should take priority, then of course we should look into that as soon as possible.”

Another clue… No.

Well, to be honest, it wasn’t that there were no other clues—in fact, the other clue was something I hadn’t found in Room 333, but something I’d asked Meniko to decipher long before.

But with an oddity involved, especially an unforgiving one with killing intent, I couldn’t exactly go to her for help.

I wanted to make it so that it didn’t happen.

In that case, there was no choice but to rely on Ononoki-chan’s way, whether it was going to hit or miss.

“…Just checking, Ononoki-chan. This stuffed doll isn’t going to become an oddity or anything, right?”

I’d like to think that, since we were no longer in that room, it wouldn’t meet the same requirements as my ski cap or jacket… But we still didn’t know the fundamentals behind why the Iie-chan doll began to move.

I already learned that even a small stuffed doll like this could be fatal if it got stuck in my throat—but…

“It will,”

said Ononoki-chan in response.

“Or rather, I’ll make it turn into an oddity. With my own hands. And I’ll have it lead us straight to that intellectual sensei.”