Monogatari Series - Volume 26 - Chapter 2.08

008

The epilogue; or perhaps, the punch line.

The culprit was me.

However, it wasn’t the usual, like it was with Black Hanekawa-san or Kako-san or Oshino Ougi-san—and it wasn’t the Kuchinawa-san version either, hmmm!? And we’ve already gone through having a showdown with the four Nadekos, right?

But even so, the culprit was me.

More precisely, the culprit was me, you, him, her, them, and all of humanity—er, I certainly wasn’t trying to delay making my point with exaggerated rhetoric… Even though tons of lives were being lost in wars across the world at this very moment, what point was there to solve the case of a single room?—was not something I was going to say.

What I did want to say was—food, clothing, and shelter were needs that were shared by all humans… Oddly enough, during the case that caused her to be kicked out of the Araragi household, Ononoki-chan had gotten the chance to reflect on the need for “clothing”… But it seemed that this case revolved around “shelter”.

Though I wasn’t a freeloader in my case, I was, like Ononoki-chan, being kicked out of my own home and thus taking on a specialist job out of self-interest—that is, to find a new place of residence—but that didn’t mean I would settle for anywhere as long as it shielded me from the elements.

Of course I had the bare minimum requirements that I would not concede, and I even had ideals that might be dismissed as extravagant. Even if someone were to tell me to stoically settle for an eighty-year-old, 4.5-tatami room with no lock and no bath for the sake of my dream—and, as Ononoki-chan had harshly pointed out, communal life in a share house would be impossible for me.

Realistically.

I wasn’t going to say that I was going to become a popular mangaka and live in a castle in the future, but I did have the desire to live in a cozy home—as for right now, it was unfortunate that the Sengoku household was not such a place, but that’s not the point.

It would be ideal if I could reconcile such desires with my budget, but the truth I ended up only thinking, “If only the rent were lower.” And even if I did find a place that miraculously met my requirements, they had already found a new tenant by the time I contacted them—stuff like that.

And like how I had hoped to find a place at a reasonable price, let’s say there was someone, somewhere in this world, that thought, “If only the rent were lower”… But after finding the perfect place, that person ended up disappointed just as I had.

But.

What if, unlike me, they didn’t give up there?

What if that person thought of a way to make the rent lower, and even carried out a plan to ensure that that property was vacated?

…Even if there were a notice of an unnatural death on that property—essentially, even if it were stigmatized—there would still be a certain number of people that wanted to live there. The reason being, with enough people choosing to avoid the stigmatized property, the owner would have no choice but to lower the rent.

In other words, if you had a way to turn property into stigmatized property, then even your ideal room that would normally be out of reach could have its cost lowered.

“The jagirinawa may have been unleashed, but this wasn’t a snake’s den—the victim had been cursed, but they weren’t actually resented. It was simply that someone wanted this room to become a power spot. Someone wanted an unnatural death to occur in this room.”

Someone, with the exact opposite intentions of the client, had used, of all things, the curse of the jagirinawa—for a reason like that.

The exterior of the building looking like a contemporary art museum wasn’t exactly to my liking, but I had to admit the interior design was very high-level, and I would be convinced if I were told that this was quite the coveted property—it would not be a surprise if there were prospective tenants that wanted to live here at any cost.

It would just be unpleasant.

And that explained the point of uncertainty about why only one person per household ended up hanged—because only one death was enough.

To give rise to a new oddity story, a witness was necessary.

Fortunately, all the attempts up until now had ended up failing… However, the curse had improved after the repeated attempts, and after three consecutive failures over the span of a few months, there was a possibility that the culprit would resort to hanging an entire family in order to increase their chances of producing a death.

If they weren’t stopped, they’d continue until someone died.

They would dispatch snakes to this room, one after another, because it wasn’t a power spot—until it became a power spot.

“Mhm. I’ve heard your reasoning, Nadekko. But regardless of whether that deduction is correct, and regardless of what this onee-san thinks about it—how do you plan on stopping this terrifying culprit who would curse people that they don’t even hate? You’ll only be a professional if you can think that far ahead.”

After I’d clumsily reported my findings, Gaen-san responded as such—but unlike my parents who would come up with yet another clear condition after I found an answer, this was a justified trial for me to undertake.

Now that I’d identified the problem, I had to propose a solution—um.

“The culprit would have to be a prospective tenant, so after Household A and Household B moved out, they would have made an inquiry to the owner, or perhaps to some real estate agency… Asking if the rent had dropped enough to make their wallet happy.”

I didn’t think it would be possible to pinpoint a single suspect just from that, but it should narrow the suspects down by quite a bit.

It would take a lot of time, but if they interviewed the remaining suspects one-by-one… They probably wouldn’t be expecting a crime as audacious as this to be found out, so I figured they could expose themselves when subjected to an interrogation.

“Mhm, mhm. I suppose it’s a start, so consider it a passing grade. I can’t say you’ve eliminated all other reasonable possibilities, but I want you to value your confidence in the fact that not a single snake appeared in your sketchbook, so I’ll give you bonus points. Congratulations. Good job.”

She patted me on the head, given that I was Nadeko.46

I didn’t really like my hair being touched, though… But even though I felt embarrassed, I didn’t feel uncomfortable.

Perhaps the way she so easily gained the trust of others was what made Gaen-san a good administrator and senior.

“I’ll let the client, the building owner, know. I expect it won’t be long before we find the right person… But it’s unlikely that that prospective client is actually the originator of the curses.”

“Huh? Really?”

“The prospective tenant is only a prospective tenant, and a client just as much as the owner is—they would have outsourced this ruthless curse to a professional. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have been capable of doing something so outrageous like cursing someone they didn’t even resent.”

“Th-then… The true mastermind is Kaiki-san… Maybe?”

“No. As you’ve surmised, the jagirinawa planted by that unworthy junior of mine was nothing but a fake—instead of trying to startle someone with a toy snake, this is more like throwing a real, venomous snake into an ordinary household, which is most likely not that con man’s doing. This must be the work of someone who’s the exact opposite of the specialists that relieve people of their worries—the work of Araundo, someone who fulfills people’s desires.”

“Araundo—”

It was a word I’d heard before, but as I tried to remember where I’d heard it before, Gaen-san continued with a renewed tone of voice.

“Everyone has their own desires, and that in itself is not something to punish. But the snake that fulfills their desires is something that must be punished—Nadekko. As promised, I’ll refer you to an apartment after you graduate… I expect I can find something to meet all of your requirements. So go ahead, desire as much as you want. I may keep my words to myself, but I don’t go back on my word.47 However, until this case is completely resolved, I’d like for you to accompany me a little longer,”

she said.

“Will you do it? Snake extermination. I want you to help track down not the snake’s den but the snake’s headquarters, and capture the boss of the snakes.”

“…If that’s something I can do.”

Then please, let me help.

Somehow, I was able to give an instant reply—I was the one that made the request to her. I could hardly believe that assertive voice was my own, but it must have been because of what I myself thought of.

It must have been because of what I thought of myself.

Because I saw myself, of all people, in the motive of the curse, which was so self-centered and lacking regard for the welfare of others—the culprit was me.

Perhaps it was time for me to take up the challenge against Sengoku Nadeko, the one who cursed and the one who was cursed.

The challenge that the others were already facing, the one that went beyond the usual.

So I absolutely could not turn a blind eye to the boss of the snake’s headquarters—“Araundo”—who had shamelessly taken on the request of someone as unsightly as me.

“Please tell me, Gaen-san. What do I need to do?”

“Nice attitude. But don’t worry, this onee-san has no plans to overwork her adorable Nadekko. So that you can always work with a smile, I’ll just have you do some light work. First off, without asking any questions, go meet your old friend that cursed you, and rekindle your old friendship.”

“Oho.”

Wooow, so liiight! As light as performing acrobatics!48

The reason for such a pretense was a complete mystery, but, well… I guess I should visit Kanbaru-san to borrow a costume, in the event that I’m cursed again.

Too heavy or not to hebi.49

To be an alive snake, or to be a dead snake!