Monogatari Series - Volume 26 - Chapter 2.05

005

“The jagirinawa—I guess it’d be a memory that’s as distressing as it is nostalgic for you, Nadekou.”

After having said what she needed to say, Gaen-san had departed from the room at hand, so Ononoki-chan had popped out from wherever she’d been hiding.

Her footwork was as fast as the racing wind… Though she was misusing that speed in order to avoid her boss that she had a hard time with.

Anyway, what she’d said was exactly right.

The jagirinawa.

Nostalgic, but distressing.

An oddity that had once wrapped itself around my body—in my case, it hadn’t been just around my neck, but round and round every part of my body.

Bound by an invisible snake.

My body had become covered with scale marks.

“That’s right. I remember how you looked, with bloomers and a hand-bra.”

“Ononoki-chan, you weren’t even there at the time!”

As I said that, I sat myself down in a corner and brought out a sketchbook and a pencil—I was planning on sketching this entire room, chandelier included.

A low-angle composition.

“But times really have changed, huh. Bloomers are hardly in fashion anymore. You don’t even see them in manga these days.”

“Kanbaru-san was certainly right to begin her conservation efforts early.”

I was able to look back on those dumb memories fondly, but the jagirinawa was a whole other matter.

After all, it was a situation where it wouldn’t have been strange if I’d died.

And thinking about that, that was where my life had been turned completely upside-down… There were various circumstances, and after all this time, I had no plans to blame my “friend” at the time for cursing me… But it wasn’t exactly something I could laugh off.

I couldn’t talk about it so easily.

“Wow, so you can even draw backgrounds and not just people, and freehanded at that. Nice, nice.”

Ononoki-chan was taking a peek at my sketchbook—I had once hated having someone watch me draw, but I’d soon gotten used to it after Tsukihi-chan, having zero tact, had helped me out.

In this case, the room itself was the focus of the drawing, so it wasn’t exactly correct to call it a background. Well, I guess it would be a background from a manga perspective.

“I thought I’d start by sketching out the cursed room… If there were any snakes here, I was thinking maybe I’d be able to see something by drawing it out.”

Even if I’d been told to resolve the problem at hand, it was too vague for me to even know where to start, so I tried to make use of my special ability… Considering I’d already dropped out of school, I only had my artistic skills to rely on.

“A cursed room, huh. I did experience one recently. With oni onii-chan. I got through it easily, but that lolicon nearly died.”

“Um, Ononoki-chan? You don’t have to force yourself to badmouth that person, you know? You should cherish your friendship better.”

“If you’re calling him ‘that person’, I guess you still aren’t over him yet?”

“It was a figara of speech.”

“That’s something I’m gonna have to find fault in.”

I’d meant to say figure of speech.42

But anyway.

“Just for reference, Ononoki-chan. What was that cursed room like, and how did you get through it?”

“It was a room where a bunch of cloth came from everywhere and attacked me. As for what I did… I can’t say I did anything except destroy everything. I even used ‘Unlimited Rulebook’ once to destroy the ceiling.”

“I can’t really use that for reference…”

I couldn’t even copy her.

I couldn’t exactly enlarge parts of my body.

“That’s not true. You’re still growing. From what I can see with my one eye, your bust is getting larger day by day.”

“Where are you looking with that one eye of yours? I’m growing taller, too!”

“Good thing you’re rapidly growing out of oni onii-chan’s strike zone. But really, I can understand the feelings of the friend that cursed you. Even though you eat tons of sweets and don’t exercise much, your belly isn’t getting any larger at all.”

Well, thanks.

That was just the constitution I had.

Although I’d heard that it was even more extreme for Kanbaru-san, having the type of body that would constantly lose weight if she didn’t make a conscious effort to eat.

“The amount of exercise that Kanbaru Suruga does is really something else. Meanwhile, it’s not like you’re going to become skin and bones, either… How cruel. You don’t even consider how valuable that privilege is. It’s like seeing a rich person that truly believes that life isn’t all about money.”

Though if you asked that rich person for money, they wouldn’t even give it to you. Since they believed that money wasn’t important, they’d say that you wouldn’t really need it either.

“I wonder about that. I know that there are certain body types and constitutions suited for athletes, but I can’t help but think that some medalists can no longer become mangaka because of those privileges.”

By the way, I was terrible at exercising.

Though I could draw for hours on end.

“In any case, I have as little ability to defend myself now as I did then… If a jagirinawa were to attack me now, will you protect me, Ononoki-chan?”

“That’s why I’m here.”

What a manly response.

You nearly stole my heart.

“I won’t let you get hanged from the chandelier. Even if this were a snake’s den.”

That was reassuring.

Back when I was a snake god, an oddity like the jagirinawa would be more like an underling… But even if it were part of a job, I didn’t want to experience that agony ever again.

I had not developed a professional mindset yet.

I’d only gotten out of a victim mindset.

If I’d known in advance, I would have brought with me the amulet I used in the ritual back then… I’d missed my chance to give it back to Oshino-san, so it was probably still in my house. Somewhere. Probably in my closet. Although, amulets apparently had expiration dates, so I didn’t know if it would still work…

“If you’re planning on reenacting that ritual, then wouldn’t it be better to get out of that lame jersey already and change into a school swimsuit?”

“I’ve grown up enough to learn that that was a prank by Kanbaru-san, okay? And what’s wrong with a lame jersey? They’re both worn in gym class.”

“Nice try, coming from someone who’s sitting still.”

My hands were moving, you know.

Besides, it was just a quick drawing to get a full picture of the room, so I’d be done soon… A huge, empty room with a loft. The lack of furniture made it easy to draw… Though it wasn’t very satisfying to sketch.

If there were any curtains, I could show off some technique, but there weren’t even those… At least I could show off a little bit to create that feeling of transparency in the window panes.

There were other rooms, but the three victims had been hanged in this chandelier room, so investigating this room came first.

“The fact that all the hangings were concentrated in this room could mean that the other rooms’ ceilings weren’t high enough to hang from.”

“…I’ll ask just in case, but did any of the three have any reasons to commit suicide? Like, if they left a note…”

“Nope. All three were celebrating the primes of their lives, like, ‘Being alive is the best!’”

“Primes of their lives” was surely just an Ononoki turn of phrase and probably an exaggeration… But it seemed none of them had left any sort of suicide note.

“Or rather, all three of them were tilting their necks in confusion about why they’d been hanged in the first place. Their necks with the scale bruises.”

“…Did they have any idea that they’d been cursed?”

“Nope. None at all. Apparently, they all acted like they were upstanding people that no one could possibly hold a grudge against.”

Was Ononoki-chan only ever nice to me?

She was being unnecessarily harsh to the people that may have gotten hanged by the curse of the jagirinawa—but if they had no idea about it, then it was somewhat different from my case.

“Considering that all of the residents immediately moved out after being hanged, it’s possible that they did sense something. Ah, but, in my case, I guess my friend that had gotten angry with me just told me directly. Like, ‘I put a curse on you!’ Teehee, she really got me there.”

“So you can laugh it off after all. How shameless. If you had reacted like that at the time—it probably would’ve made things worse.”

“All right, done.”

My drawing was complete.

It was a rough sketch, but I probably didn’t need to go over it in pen… Not that I’d brought the tools for that anyway.

If I did say so myself, it wasn’t a bad result, but only as a flat drawing… But it hadn’t been able to meet my primary objective of having my hand move on its own in order to capture any snakes in the drawing.

I’d been able to capture the feeling of transparency in the window panes, but no transparent snakes could be found in the drawing… Hmm.

Well, I was still studying… Still training.43

I wasn’t expecting everything to go smoothly from the beginning… Whether it was due to my lack of drawing ability or the snake being skillful at hiding, the first approach ended in failure.

There, there.

“You’ve sure got guts to console yourself after failing, Nadekou. I’m impressed. Now, what should we do for our second approach?”

“Why don’t we try imitating the victims and hanging ourselves from the chandelier?”

“‘Unlimited—’”

“That’s not something you should use as a retort!”

It was a joke, a joke!

I’m not going to perform a copycat suicide, especially after people I don’t even know!

“It might not end up being a joke. Because of how many lives are lost there, suicide sites can turn into power spots that induce death. Even here, with the first, second, and third victims, the damage from the curse has grown larger with each victim, just like your bust.”

“That metaphor’s a little soft.”

“Just like your bust.”

I appreciated that she was trying to keep me from being scared, but I couldn’t exactly laugh… I was at the age where I didn’t exactly hate boob jokes, but to sum things up, if there were to be a fourth victim from this room’s residents, that person’s life might actually be in danger.

Life… Losing a life, instead of hanging on for dear life.44

“Even if they don’t die, if their brain goes long enough without oxygen, they’ll end up suffering from the aftereffects. What can I say… Just as you get better at drawing with practice, this jagirinawa will get better at hanging the residents as the curses pile up.”

“So we absolutely need to prevent there being a fourth victim. Well, even without actually hanging myself, I think there’s still a way to use myself as snake bait.”

“Leaving groundbait for that winding snake? How?”45

“You see, I’ve been cursed once by a jagirinawa before, so I figure I’ve built up some resistance to it. Like an immunization.”

“Haven’t you heard of anaphylactic shock?”

I’ve heard about it for bees, but does that happen for snake venom, too? The venom of the jagirinawa was effective even against vampires, though…

“Anyway, the client’s request is that this gets resolved before a death occurs, so you have to follow that. Endangering your own life is completely unreasonable.”

“Riiight.”

Then, shall I think about a third approach?

I flipped over to the next page of my sketchbook.