Monogatari Series - Volume 29 - Chapter 1.19

019

“...Eh? Hold on, Ononoki-chan.”

I put a stop to Ononoki-chan’s monotone storytelling—I had the impression that she’d been about to get into the main topic, but before that, I needed to get one thing out of the way first.

“Does that mean Kaiki-san… Is dead? From the way you’re saying it.”

“He’s dead. Nadekou, normally, people die when they fall from planes. That’s what an airplane crash is. Even airplane lovers, who’ll make fun of those with a fear of flying, are at a disadvantage when it comes to this one point. People die. From illness or from accidents, from old age or from an infectious disease, from starvation or dehydration or drowning, from being bitten by a habu snake or from being eaten by an Iriomote cat, normally, people will die.”

“—Eh?”

Well.

Of course that was the case—but, it’s Kaiki Deishuu, you know?

The specialist that was even able to put an end to my era of godhood, you know?

“Don’t worry about it. He was already like someone that was already dead—like a doll pretending to be alive.”

He just wasn’t a corpse doll.

So said Ononoki-chan in a monotone.

A monotone that carried no emotion.

“You’re already fifteen years old. It’s about time you got to experience the death of someone you were close with.”

“Um, well, er, I dunno, it might be a little too early for that—”

“There are children even younger than you that have started working for the sake of their family, you know.”

“I’ve heard that we shouldn’t treat the stories of young carers as tragic, and that we shouldn’t treat them as heartwarming, either.”

“But isn’t it the worst if we can’t tell their stories at all?”

“Ah, I know, you’re lying, aren’t you? Kaiki-san’s just pretending to have died from the enemy’s trap to deceive Araundo-san, right? To fool your enemies, you must first fool your allies—”

“It’s perfectly fine if you want to think of it like that. It’s fine if you fool yourself into thinking that way. By making the boundary between life and death vague. Perhaps, as a con man and as a specialist, that was Kaiki Deishuu’s final lie.”

To the end, Ononoki-chan remained aloof, her stance unchanging—I still couldn’t discern any sort of emotion from that blank expression of hers.

“............”

Truthfully.

Over the past two weeks, I’d been in a situation where it wouldn’t have been strange for me to die at any time, so regardless of whether or not I was fifteen years old, I had constantly been thinking of death as something that was close to me. So, it wasn’t as though I didn’t understand what Ononoki-chan was saying—if I acted like I didn’t understand here, it would just be feigning ignorance.

Averting my eyes from the hard truth.

Lowering my bangs before my eyes, and having my hair be pulled from behind.132

Just like in the past.

Like when I was subservient to Tsukihi-chan or Nakuna-chan by acting like I didn’t understand—like when it was easier to pretend to be fooled, even when I did understand.

But—Kaiki-san.

“I’m the one who doesn’t understand,”

said Ononoki-chan. In a monotone.

But it seemed like she really didn’t understand.

“It’s true that he was able to pull you off your godly throne, but it’s not like Kaiki onii-chan could be considered your savior. After all, you probably would’ve been happier if you continued your reign of terror, just like that.”

“That, that might be true, but—”

“And you could just think of it as him receiving the punishment he deserved for saying all those things making light of school dropouts on the plane.”

“If, if it’s about that, then Ononoki-chan, you said some pretty harsh things, too…”

Even so, if we trace the curse that Nakuna-chan cast on me back to its origin, it had been sold to her by Kaiki-san, so in that sense, rather than my savior, he was practically my bitter enemy.

And when he dethroned me from being a god, it wasn’t as though he did it for my sake, or because he was worried about me. Kaiki-san simply had his own circumstances.

Nevertheless, perhaps it was too soft-hearted of me to feel grateful to him, to forgive him for those matters, to put my trust in him, or to have a favorable impression of him—even so, it wasn’t something I could let go of so easily. Like how, whether I brushed off or repented for my sin of snake-killing, it wasn’t something I could cut away from me.

I couldn’t come to terms with it.

I couldn’t stop thinking about it.

“Well, you don’t have to force yourself, Nadekou. You don’t have to force yourself to understand—after all, this is the domain of professionals. No need for you to be so hard-boiled yourself. The moment you summoned me to Iriomote Island after I broke apart into pieces, you attained a perfect score for the mission that Gaen-san and Kaiki onii-chan wanted you to fulfill—your consciousness has returned, and I think the venom has faded, so I won’t mind if you decide to just stay here and rest. If you decide to stay here and grieve for that lonely con man.”

“...What about you, Ononoki-chan?”

I asked, feeling flustered and unstable, feeling like I couldn’t calm down and not knowing whether I should be sad or not.

“What are you going to do now?”

“Well, my work isn’t done yet. Not one bit. After making it this far, there’s no way I can just go back home without even meeting Araundo Uroko once—personally, I’d like to go and confirm if Kaiki-san’s statement is actually true, and that Araundo really is Gaen-san’s real daughter .”

“...As revenge for Kaiki-san?”

“This isn’t the manga you like, or the manga you like to draw. Ononoki Yotsugi doesn’t behave in such emotional ways—as a professional, I’m simply going to do my job.”

As a professional…

That was exactly what I’d thought just a little while ago, in this very hollow. With those words, I’d encouraged myself. If I really had been led into the hollow of this giant tree, been caught in this trap, and been bitten by a habu snake, then there was no way I could simply die without getting to recount my tale of those experiences—a ghost story to send chills down one’s spine.

However, as Ononoki-chan said, I had already fulfilled that task.

In that case, perhaps quietly resting here was in fact what a proper professional should be doing now—“resting is also work,” as people liked to say. The idea of active rest.

Ononoki-chan was implying the same thing.

Even if she was expressionless and spoke in a monotone, even if she behaved as though she had no emotions, she was still created with corpses as ingredients into the form of a human being, so she wasn’t completely divorced from having thoughts and beliefs. I knew very well that it wasn’t the case that she thought nothing of what had happened to Kaiki-san.

Because I was her friend.

“...As a professional, I’ve accomplished my task, huh.”

“That’s right. With this, I’m sure Gaen-san will guarantee your rent and living expenses for the next six months. You can draw manga to your heart’s content. If you want, you can even prepare for the new age and put together a digital environment to work in. You can buy yourself a large tablet and pay for Clip Studio Paint.”

It sounded like a good idea, didn’t it.

With a wry smile… I used brute force to lift my upper body, which was still creaking like sheet metal that had rusted over. I even thought I heard the sound of something snapping.

“If my work as a specialist is done—then from now on, it’s time for me to work as a mangaka.”

“............”

Ononoki-chan remained silent with a dubious look.

“If I’m here right now on Iriomote Island without planning on collecting any material for a story… Someone with that little curiosity could never become a mangaka,”

I said.

Kaiki-san.

Surely, the fact that I would make this decision was also included in your calculations for this scam—but no matter, I understand.

Once more, I’ll allow myself to be deceived, and believe in you.

Once more, for the last time.

“After all, ignorance is not a sin if I’m trying to learn, right?”

“Well, that’s one hell of a battle cry.”

Like the cry of an Iriomote cat.

Ononoki-chan shrugged her shoulders—towards my declaration, she offered no resistance nor did she attempt to stop me, simply turning her back to me with a twirl.

“C’mon. As a special service, I’ll give you a piggyback ride.”

“...Oh, that’s it! I thought you were turning your back on me because you were so exasperated.”

“Well, I’m always exasperated with you. But at the same time, I have the same amount of admiration towards you—regardless of what Gaen-san thinks, I feel like I can see why onee-chan values you so highly.”

So I was valued highly, was I?

By that violent onmyouji—how unexpected.

“You should start getting used to being praised. In the future, you’re going to sell a hundred million copies of your manga, right?”

“A hundred million copies might be a bit too audacious to aim for… I’ll be happy if I can sell even a million copies.”

“You’re saying something pretty crazy while pretending to sound humble, aren’t you. At that level, I suppose I don’t need to be worried about you being smothered with praise. …As a professional, I have to confirm with you one more time, inelegant as it is to do so, but are you really going to go? You really might die if you do.”

You may have gone through a survival lifestyle for two weeks, even if it wasn’t on an uninhabited island, and you may have endured the venom of a habu snake without antivenom, but that could be just because of a series of coincidences, not because you’re some chosen protagonist—said Ononoki-chan.

Coincidences.

Well, maybe.

Perhaps I really did just have good luck.

“They do say that luck is important in becoming a mangaka, though. So, instead of squandering all your luck here, you could try and hold onto it for future use.”

“...I’ve considered myself as a person that’s had extraordinarily good luck as well as extraordinarily bad luck, but I don’t think I’m ever going to grow if I continue to rely on luck for everything.”

Even if I had washed ashore onto Iriomote Island, not because I had been invited by Araundo-san, but because of dumb luck—if I had decided to give up the moment I found myself washed ashore, I wouldn’t have gotten this far to realize it.

“I should look at it as not luck, but as probability. Even if there’s only a one percent chance of me attaining my dream, if I stubbornly keep trying like some cursed snake, then one day, my dream will certainly come true.”

“You’ve landed on a pretty nice way to word things, haven’t you.”

Though it sounds like a gacha game, said Ononoki-chan.

One with no ceiling, I guess?

“Then, for the sake of raising the probability by even the tiniest amount, I suppose I’ll accompany you on your travels to collect material. Because someday, there might come an era where that won’t be possible.”

“Is that also something we should reference Volume 1 for?”

“All right, get on my back already. You’re just making me wait with all this chatter. Or would you prefer it if I carried you?”

I’d prefer it if you didn’t pamper me.

Thinking as much, I nestled my whole body against Ononoki-chan’s small back—because she was a corpse doll, her back felt nice and cool, a very pleasant sensation.

“This is especially for you. I’ve never given onee-chan or oni onii-chan a piggyback ride before, you see.”

Now that she’d said that—even though I’d always needed to cling to her torso, what exactly had changed her mind to put me on her back, instead?

“Surely we’re not going to travel with ‘Unlimited Rulebook’, right? It’s not so that this position makes it harder for me to fall off, right?”

“I wouldn’t do anything to raise your chances of dying—it’s better not to ride on airplanes if you’re in poor condition. Do you think mountain paths are difficult for me? From here, we’re going to go on foot, straight to Araundo Uroko’s stronghold.”

Feeling relieved, I asked,

“Even if she’s not in some tree hollow, could Araundo-san be hiding away in some limestone cavern on some mountainside?

I promptly began to collect information.

If I had my smartphone with me, I would have wanted to record some voice memos—I felt like a member of some exploration party, looking for the evil lair lurking in a region yet to be explored.

“You know, like a cave of treasure hidden behind a waterfall—”

“I do want to see some limestone caverns and other caves, but let’s save the sightseeing for after we’re done.”

“So you do plan on sightseeing in the end.”

“I’ve already bragged about your escapades to oni onii-chan in Volume 1, saying that you’ll be playing around in your school swimsuit or wearing nothing but bloomers.”

Why would you say something so thoughtless…

There was no need to brag that much.

“It was about your garb, after all.133 So if you got that, please figure something out by the epilogue.”

“What an unpleasant request…”

Don’t just say, “if you got that”.

It was too heavy of a quota for something I hadn’t heard about until just now. I should’ve just taken sick leave. I had already performed some activities beyond that while stark naked, so please allow me to respectfully decline—but anyway.

“Then, is Araundo-san not hiding out in a limestone cavern? In that case, where on Iriomote Island could she be hiding—”

Even if it was a remote island, Iriomote Island was the second largest island after the main island of Okinawa. The area of the island was actually two hundred eighty-nine square kilometers. If a single human—I suppose I wasn’t in the position to wonder if she could be called a human or not—was hidden here, I figured it would be quite the ordeal to find her. Especially if ninety percent of Iriomote Island was jungle.

Ninety percent…

“That’s right. If we started searching the mountains without any idea, we’d probably just get double-stranded—however, there’s no need to worry, Nadekou. Because we’re not going mountain hunting, or even mountain climbing.”

“Really?”

“In fact, we’ll be escaping. We’ll descend from the mountains, and we’ll return to civilization.”

Civilization?

In other words—the remaining ten percent of Iriomote Island?

“Because Araundo Uroko is staying at a resort hotel near Ohara Harbor.”

“What the hell!?”