Monogatari Series - Volume 28 - Chapter 1.15

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With that, I found myself staying in this abandoned castle for one month, which was a length of time not as short as I’d hoped, but not as long as I’d expected—considering that this form of isolation included all-you-can-eat food delivery from every part of Europe, it didn’t seem too uncomfortable. Then again, in this “Corpse Castle” Hotel, where you couldn’t even expect phone lines, let alone Wi-Fi, there was no way for me to get in contact with my friends and family.

Therefore, in order to send a message to the former Fire Sisters with my excuse for leaving the house for so long, I ended up once again grabbing onto the tween girl’s back—I really was the poster child of the modern era, to go to such lengths to get a signal for my phone.

I couldn’t detach myself from worldly affairs.

And I couldn’t detach myself from the tween girl’s back, either.

It was a short flight to a location somewhere near the border of Romania, the same place Kagenui-san had received my video call (which had led to me flying headfirst into the flames)—incidentally, Shinobu had returned to my shadow after the meal. Apparently, maintaining her thirteen-year-old physical form depleted that much more of her stamina. Doping really wasn’t as convenient as it sounded. But even so, it would be ridiculous to have our immunity lowered at this point, so I decided to let her get some rest.

Since I’d come all this way, I figured it would be nice to enjoy a video call with my sisters, too, but there was a good chance someone as dumb as me would get found out by the background scenery (I dunno about the older one, but the younger one couldn’t be fooled), so it ended with a text message—I was simply transmitting the contents of the message that I’d prepared in advance.

“But still, the likelihood is just too low for it to be a coincidence that Kagenui-san just happened to be here at the same time I just happened to give her a call. Was it really not one of Gaen-san’s schemes, Ononoki-chan?”

“Even the onee-san that knows everything can’t go as far as controlling the timing of when you make calls, oni onii-chan—and the actions of my onee-chan are just as uncontrollable.”

Well, that was for sure.

It was because Kagenui-san was too much even for Gaen-san that I had decided to rely on her—though it had pushed me down an unexpected path as a result.

That said, it was mathematically impossible for a low probability multiplied by a low probability to produce a high probability. It was nothing like multiplying two negative numbers to make a positive number.

“I’m only saying this now because Shinobu-nee-san’s asleep, but it could be a form of telepathy. Between vampires—Suicidemaster could have sensed that onee-chan left the castle to receive communications, so she sent a message for help to her sworn friend via telepathy. And the former Heartunderblade received that message in the form of inspiration. That would make it believable.”

“...She asked for help? I mean, I more or less get the possibility of telepathy between vampires, but… When we met with her, she very clearly stated that she didn’t need help.”

“With her clouded mind in a comatose state, she could have inadvertently let out her true feelings as though she was sleep-talking. Well, it’s not like I have any evidence for this. I’m just talking to fill the silence, so don’t worry about it. Don’t take it too seriously.”

So our relationship had grown so distant that she felt the need to fill the silence with conversation… It hadn’t even been a year since Ononoki-chan left the Araragi household, but it felt like she was trying to distance herself too much from me.

But, well, even taking it with a grain of salt, her idea held some merit—as a hypothesis suggesting that this event could serve as an indicator of something more. Even so, it would probably be difficult for Shinobu to decide what should take precedence, between Suicidemaster’s unconscious thoughts and her forced display of pride.

After all, Shinobu herself was a vampire that lived for so long while being a show-off—if you took that out of the equation, then being alive may as well be the same as being dead.

The tough and cool me, she’d said.

“Then, shall we go, oni onii-chan? Your little sisters have already sent their reply, right?”

“Yep. Though it’s just a one-letter response that reads ‘K’...”106

Ever since the both of them became high school students, it felt like their independence had grown too strong… It was a bit of a relief given the current situation, but as their brother, I couldn’t deny that I felt a hint of loneliness.

Maybe I should let them know that I was under quarantine in a ruined country to get them all worried about me.

“Oh yeah, that’s right. Ononoki-chan, before we head back to the ‘Corpse Castle’, do you mind if we drop by somewhere else?”

“Fine with me. Making detours is too much of a hobby of mine. Being Yotsugi and all.”107

“Thanks. That makes me happy.”108

“Where are we headed? The Louvre Museum? The British Museum? Mount Vesuvius? Neuschwanstein Castle?”

You must have really wanted to go sightseeing.

But you should already know that this wasn’t for that purpose.

“I wanted to drop by the ruins of the Acerola Kingdom (temp.). There’s something that’s been on my mind.”

“On your mind? Like Mayoi-nee-san’s panties?”

“If you’re going to hear the words ‘on my mind’ and take it in that completely ridiculous direction, then there’s nothing I’ll be able to say, you know?”

“What could you possibly want from a place where there’s literally nothing there? If you want a taste of solitude, you can just as easily do so by my side.”

“Ononoki-chan, whatever you say, I’ll still think of you as my friend.”

“How delightful. I’m getting all teary-eyed.”

Ononoki-chan said so in more of a monotone than usual, before spreading her arms in a banzai pose—it seemed ONK Airlines was running smoothly in spite of her doubts.

The passenger satisfaction of this aircraft was quite high.

“Unlimited Rulebook—”

It was a short-distance trip, thus minimizing the physical toll on my clinging body as well. Like one of those old travel shows, where the video would transition with a “Jump!” and a “Landing!”, the scenery around me transformed into overwhelming bleakness in an instant—with the surface being so desolate that it was impossible for me to tell whether or not we’d landed at the same coordinates as before.

“Now that it’s night, it feels even more like hell…”

“That’s only because you’re looking at the ground. Cast your eyes to the sky. The only other place you’d be able to see such a clear starry sky would be in New Zealand.”

Now that she’d mentioned it.

Indeed, despite it being night, I hadn’t gotten the feeling of it being very dark… But there was nothing to obstruct my view of the stars or the ground. To the extent that I was surprised that so many stars existed in the cosmos, the night sky of the Acerola Kingdom (temp.) sparkled brilliantly with stars.

That meant that not even the curse of “Princess Beauty” could reach as far as outer space—the stars more than made up for the hell on Earth’s surface.

“I wish I could show Hitagi this, too…”

“Oh my. Bringing up your girlfriend, when I’m by your side?”

I was made the target of Ononoki-chan’s jealousy.

Had she been trying to act affectionate with her previous words?

Such a starry sky couldn’t be captured in photographs very well… But I couldn’t bring Hitagi over to a ruined country like this, either.

It seemed I had no choice but to take my memories home with me.

Of course, that was assuming I could get back home alive.

And I’d need to come up with a good excuse for why I’d left the country in the midst of the pandemic.

“So, what now? If we return too late, you’ll get beaten up by onee-chan.”

“Beaten up… Well, if that’s the case, then feel free to go on ahead of me. As long as you’ll come back to pick me up.”

“I can’t do that. My job is to keep watch and make sure you don’t kill yourself, oni onii-chan.”

What a heavy responsibility this tween girl had been laden with… But, in a situation like this, it wasn’t something I could just laugh off. As long as there were enough people to do so, a close watch needed to be kept on Suicidemaster and Shinobu, as well.

“Suicide genes… The cause of death for ninety percent. But really, those two vampires have lived insanely long lives, haven’t they? Even though other vampires have opted for suicide at much earlier stages.”

Was it around two hundred years?

There were even cases like Shishirui Seishirou, who’d killed himself only a few years after becoming a vampire—if it wasn’t for Hanekawa, I wouldn’t have even lasted two weeks.

“I guess they’re the type to make a big deal about how they’re gonna die, and then end up living longer than everyone else.”

“The way you’re phrasing that sounds a bit spiteful…”

Well, it was true that that was how it had turned out.

The fatality rate was one hundred percent… The death-prepared, death-inevitable, death-certain vampire, Deathtopia Virtuoso Suicidemaster. And the iron-blooded, hot-blooded, cold-blooded vampire, Kissshot Acerolaorion Heartunderblade.

As show-offs, they wanted to choose how they died… Rather than dying at their own hands, they hoped to be killed…

“Then, sorry about this, but can you keep me company for a bit? I’d like to do some thinking here, in this ruined kingdom—in the kingdom Shinobu brought to ruin. We only dropped by last time as our final layover, but it’s been weighing on my mind ever since—”

“I see. So when I was resting my legs, oni onii-chan, you came to some sort of realization?”

“I can’t really say anything definite… But I began thinking about if there was a chance ‘Princess Beauty’ destroying her own country had any connection to the current infection going around.”

“So you’re saying that once again, the former Heartunderblade is the mastermind? She’s constantly destroying worlds, isn’t she.”

“No, no.”

Don’t jump to conclusions, Ononoki-chan.

You’re turning Shinobu into a yokai of destruction.

“Well, taking it seriously, aside from the anti-vampire virus, you could say that even Suicidemaster’s weakening and decline is connected to the former Heartunderblade. Though she was already suffering from malnutrition, the possibility isn’t zero that the former Heartunderblade being enslaved by a high school student in Japan had an effect on her distant sworn friend.”

If so, then rather than being Shinobu’s fault, that made it more my fault—but, really, it didn’t sound impossible.

Similar to how Shinobu and I were linked by a pairing, it wouldn’t be odd if there was a connection between Suicidemaster and Shinobu as a relationship where blood had been exchanged, even if it wasn’t a master-thrall relationship.

Telepathy, and sympathy.

Even if Suicidemaster had been gradually weakening by starving herself over the years, perhaps the spring break of two years ago had been the finishing blow—or, at the very least, an underlying cause. And if that was the reason Suicidemaster came to see Shinobu in Japan, everything linked together.

Like the bonds of fate.

“Then, this is just a hypothesis, but if Shinobu were to return to being the King of Oddities, would that allow Suicidemaster to regain her health in turn?”

“I doubt that. A year ago, maybe, but now that she’s already been inflicted with the anti-vampire virus, that life-support measure likely won’t even serve as consolation. But it would have been a good plan if it were risk-free.”

But far from it being risk-free… It was a bad move that could even amplify the risk of infection. It didn’t even make for a good gamble. On top of that, if it meant the revival of Kissshot Acerolaorion Heartunderblade, then we’d be adding the new risk of her actually bringing about the downfall of the world.

“But, yeah… I think the idea of there being a linkage is important. Even if there isn’t a pairing—”

Not an infection or a contagion, but a linkage.

Lost in thought, I spoke out loud.

In not a deserted island but a deserted kingdom, meaninglessly and aimlessly.

“—For an even bolder hypothesis, is there any chance that the curse of ‘Princess Beauty’ has a direct connection to this contagion?”

“Is that what you wanted to check on this side trip?”

Ononoki-chan folded her arms.

Did that mean she was considering it?

“Even if you ask that, I’m not actually all that familiar with the curse of ‘Princess Beauty’...”

“Really?”

I thought she’d be well-informed.

But, true, the one who had told me about it was the Ononoki-chan of the “Mirror World” that had been cobbled together, and the origins of Shinobu before she was a vampire were not actually that famous.

After all, it was a fairy tale from six hundred years ago.

There was no reason that a tween girl should know a fairy tale.109

Or perhaps, since she was a specialist in immortal oddities, perhaps she didn’t place any importance on the story of the King of Oddities from before she was an immortal oddity—it was fine to only know the basic information.

To begin with, it was such an old story that not even Shinobu herself remembered it very well—far from being an urban legend, it was a folktale with varied interpretations.

And it could simply have been misremembered, too…

A source that would be inconsistent when given importance.

“It was a curse where, if you laid eyes on ‘Princess Beauty’, you would feel sorry for being alive and choose to commit suicide, no matter who you were… Or so I’ve heard.”

“And that brought an entire country to ruin? That’s worse than a vampire.”

“It was a curse that had been cast upon her by an old witch… I think that’s what I was told.”

Since I myself wasn’t exactly well-informed, either, I could only end up with uncertain wording. But at the very least, before being a noble, she was still a human, so it was not some special skill that Shinobu herself possessed.

“A princess, and an old witch, huh? I see, it really is a fairy tale—though there’s no way it could end with a happy ending.”

They wouldn’t be able to lead happy lives.

Unhappily ever after.

The princess would continue to lead an unhappy life. As a vampire.

“Rather than an unhappy ending, it’s more like an anti-happy ending. I don’t hate it. However, oni onii-chan. From what I understand, the only point in common between that curse and the current epidemic seems to just be ‘destruction’.”

“Right. But, isn’t that enough? Have you specialists already considered the possibility that the witch’s curse was revived in this region after six hundred years?”

“...I dunno about that.”

Ononoki-chan unfolded her arms.

Did that mean it was no longer worthy of consideration?

“I was about to instinctively say, ‘The possibility of that is zero,’ but since that just comes from my personal feelings of wanting to immediately deny your ideas without listening to them, I figured I’d think about it for a bit.”

“If you’re going to think about it, can you keep quiet about those feelings, too?”

“Why would the witch’s curse be revived after six hundred years? Fundamentally, curses should remain in effect, right? I don’t know if you’ve heard of her, but I have this friend named Sengoku Nadeko…”

“Yes, I know her.”

She’d even cursed me.

In that winter break, where I’d died more than in spring break.

But the irony was quite pertinent—it was possible to think that the smoldering embers had been reignited for some reason. However, something still didn’t feel right.

According to the story, even the witch herself had taken her own life due to the curse she’d cast upon “Princess Beauty”—it was hard to understand that with my modern sensibilities, but could she have regretted her sin of cursing “Princess Beauty”?

Even so, the death of the witch did not lead to the curse being lifted.

The curse was lifted when “Princess Beauty” was no longer “Princess Beauty”—in other words, when the woman known to Suicidemaster as Rola ascended to Kissshot Acerolaorion Heartunderblade.

The beautiful princess.

Chose to become a monster of her own volition—and thus lifted the curse.

“Well, even so, Shinobu had still ended up a beautiful monster. Even when it was early spring, I was still frozen in place when I met her for the first time.”

“Don’t boast about that. I’ll curse you.”110

The corpse doll would? To me?

While making such puns?

“Of course, Ononoki-chan, you’re beautiful, too. Ah, yes, I can remember it now, the day I met you for the first time—”

Eh?

Wasn’t it when she’d brutally murdered my sister?

“Maybe I should just abandon you here. In this barren land.”

“Then I wouldn’t be able to survive, even if there was no curse and no infection. Don’t underestimate how poor my survival skills are. I don’t even know how to start a fire.”

“In spite of you having clung to life so dirtily, though.”

I guess it’s due to your pedigree, said Ononoki-chan.

Well, it was true that Araragi Koyomi had managed to live remarkably long, somehow or other—even when I’d tried to put my life on the line, as if “it was fine if I died”, I was able to remain alive up to now.

And I couldn’t deny that it led to my lack of a sense of danger. It was about as convincing as going outside to call attention to staying at home or removing my mask to express the importance of wearing masks.

Deep down, wasn’t I just taking things too lightly and assuming that I wouldn’t die this time, either? However, something like that was no different from me going into a crowded area and believing that I would be the only person not infected.

A certain sense of privilege.

In fact, it felt somewhat surreal to be here at the center of the pandemic, though I could have already been infected by the virus with a one-hundred-percent fatality rate.

Surreal—like a fairy tale.

“I’d like it if you could learn from Sengoku Nadeko.”

“Hm? What is there for me to learn from Sengoku?”

“Let’s see. I guess, oni onii-chan, you were able to overcome Nadekou’s curse in the end. It’s already outrageous that you made the King of Oddities your slave. Oh, hold on. This isn’t meant as praise, by the way.”

“I get it. It’s scathing criticism. It makes me actually pretty depressed, thinking about how that enslavement actually accelerated Suicidemaster’s weakening—I really had no idea that my decisions could have such far-reaching influences—”

Wait a second?

It had just been a hypothesis, but if the influence of Shinobu’s enslavement could spread and stir things up so extensively—then wasn’t it possible to raise a different hypothesis here?

Basically, it was this.

“Princess Beauty”, the daughter of the nobles who governed this land, was cursed by a witch and thus brought the country to ruin with her beauty—the entirety of her country’s population was driven to suicide.

In sorrow, she chose to become a vampire to diminish her beauty, which was the root cause—all of that was fine. All of that was not a hypothesis but a fairy tale, and at the same time, it was a historical fact.

However, five hundred and seventy years after she had become a vampire.

Five hundred and seventy years after the curse had been nullified.

Hadn’t a high schooler from a Far East island nation canceled that vampire transformation, without much resolve?

“...Eh? Huh?”

What did that mean?

The curse had lost its effect due to her becoming a vampire, but if Kissshot Acerolaorion Heartunderblade were to no longer be a vampire, would the curse reclaim its original atrocity?

The revival of the curse.

Clearly—there was plenty of reason for it to happen.

“Don’t tell me—it’s my fault?”

“Now, now, oni onii-chan, you’ve done nothing wrong. There’s nothing for you to worry about. Don’t worry, don’t worry, it’s fine, it’s fine.”

“What a sloppy way of backing me up… But, really, what does this mean? Can the witch’s curse even technically be cast and lifted like that? Like an on-off switch… Somehow, I thought there would be more of an emotional component, but…”

There was nothing emotional about it?

It was just creepy?111

“Well, for one thing, I am a Japanese apparition. Because I’m a shikigami. My understanding of Western magic is shallow… But for now, the logic holds up. Including the fact that you and Shinobu-nee-san have not shown any symptoms of the anti-vampire virus.”

Ononoki-chan remained in her monotone.

I couldn’t tell how she felt.

At the very least, it didn’t seem like the reaction from the ending of a mystery novel where the truth had been revealed—she hadn’t dropped her stance of it still being at the consideration phase.

“Basically, if the origin is the curse of ‘Princess Beauty’, it makes sense that the person herself—it’s fine to use ‘person’ in this case—is unaffected by it. And it wouldn’t be strange for you, her thrall, to have immunity to it, too.”

It was a bit weird to say that she had a thrall when she wasn’t even a vampire, but it was certainly true that the connection between Shinobu and me, which was like running a three-legged race, was stronger than the connection between Shinobu and Suicidemaster.

But that was nothing to be happy about.

“These are also my personal feelings, so maybe I should be keeping quiet about them, but I really don’t think it’s your fault at all, oni onii-chan. Looking back on it, the idea of making the former Heartunderblade no longer a vampire was Oshino onii-chan’s idea, not yours. If anything, it’s that Hawaiian-shirt guy’s fault.”

“I also have a lot of things I want to say to that Hawaiian-shirt guy, but we shouldn’t push the blame onto someone who isn’t here…”

“It’s also partly the fault of Hanekawa Tsubasa, who was there and showed no objection to the idea. You know how they say that standing by and watching bullying occur is the same as participating in the bullying? Even if they didn’t elect the bully to represent them or anything.”

“If we’re going to make this Hanekawa’s fault, then I may as well take the blame myself.”

But I knew that it wasn’t good to get all worked up and take on all of the responsibility myself—I was well aware of the paradox where, the more you strove to not infect others or get infected, the more it felt like a crime when you did infect others or get infected.

So—it was a matter of how to deal with it.

“I don’t think the slightest bit that Oshino is at fault, but it does feel unreasonable that I have to go through all this because of an idea I had to pay five million yen for… It’s not like he’s Kaiki, but I feel like I’ve been scammed anyway.”

“It’s not like you actually paid up, though. Well, maybe Oshino onii-chan knew this was going to happen, which was why he didn’t actually take five million yen from you.”

“Doesn’t that make it a conscious crime?”

Conscious of the fact that I was misusing the term conscious crime, I pondered—in the first place, the moment I carried out his plan of leaving alive the iron-blooded, hot-blooded, cold-blooded vampire instead of exterminating her, Oshino’s ways were already heretical as a specialist.

There was no way he’d conducted any clinical trials.

Since he was the first specialist I’d been trained by, I’d assumed that everyone was like that, but perhaps he was actually the most heretical of the specialists, more than Gaen-san or Kagenui-san, and perhaps more than even Kaiki.

“I don’t think Oshino onii-chan would like to be called a heretic by you, though, oni onii-chan. By an old acquaintance with the presence of, ‘Ah, so there you were’.”112

“Who are you saying has the presence of, ‘Ah, so there you were’?”

My tear stains weren’t going away.113

“Well, at this point, it’s still just a hypothesis. I’ll report it to onee-chan just in case… But I still don’t see what the curse of ‘Princess Beauty’ has in common with the current anti-vampire virus. Fundamentally, the allure of ‘Princess Beauty’ should only take effect when laying eyes upon her directly, while the anti-vampire virus appears to be an airborne infection judging from how it spreads—compared to the princess that makes her surroundings kill themselves with her beauty, the epidemic only causes vampires to shrivel up.”

When she put it like that, the differences really did stand out.

If I focused only on the points in common, then I’d lose sight of the whole picture… It was like thinking that the novel coronavirus was the same as hay fever, just because you could wear masks for both.

“Of course, there’s also the possibility that, with the former Heartunderblade having been a vampire for such a long period, the curse lay dormant within her and mutated over time. After continuing to mutate for six hundred years, it may have ended up only being able to affect vampires.”

“Don’t joke around. Are you trying to reassure me or upset me?”

“I wanted to upset you after reassuring you.”

“How awful…”

It wasn’t just my own nature, but human nature, to try to understand matters and crises through the extent of one’s own knowledge.

For example, when I was told that the large number of coffins lined up in the “Corpse Castle” contained corpses of vampires that had not perished, but remained shriveled from dehydration like wrung-out rags, I was reminded of Kanbaru’s “mummified left hand”.

Though there was no connection between those two ideas.

And it would be way too simplistic to think that Kanbaru was in some way connected to this incident—even if that left hand originated from Gaen-san’s sister, it was completely unrelated to this.

I don’t know everything. I only know what I know.

I couldn’t forget that that was the whole point of Hanekawa’s catchphrase. Good grief, in the first place, in terms of shriveled corpses that looked like wrung-out rags, there had to be better mummies that I could be reminded of—

"............”

There were.

Better mummies I could be reminded of.

Mummies of vampires.

“...Ononoki-chan. Let’s go back to the ‘Corpse Castle’. Right now.”

“Hm? Are you done with the Acerola Kingdom (temp.)?”

“Yeah, thanks for taking me sightseeing. And I’d like to trouble you with one more request—regarding that huge load of coffins. Is it okay if I can take a look inside them?”