Monogatari Series - Volume 31 - Chapter 4

Nadeko Pool

Sengoku said that she wanted me to teach her how to swim, so we went to the public pool that Sunday. I can't even remember the last time I went to a public pool. The pool was a little too far to go by bicycle, so we ended up taking the bus.
 
"But Sengoku, if you want to learn how to swim, couldn't you just ask Karen or Kanbaru to teach you?" I asked as we rode side by side on the bus.

"I - I guess so."  Sengoku faltered slightly. "I would feel bad wasting their time on something so silly."

What’s with the lowly attitude? And more importantly, is she saying she doesn't mind wasting my time? I may not look like it, but I am aiming to get into college. I have to study for entrance exams, you know. Time is studies.

"Also, aren't you a good swimmer, Koyomi onii-chan? You said so before, right?"

"Well, I don't want to brag about it, but I'm not too bad."

That was not me trying to show off to a girl in junior high school. I am actually pretty good.

"When we were kids my sisters and I would go swimming in the river. They were so impressed by the way I was swimming up and down the river they called me a kappa."

"That’s so cool!" Sengoku nodded with an uncharacteristic vigor. "I hope someone takes my glass ball!" [1]

This girl's sense of humor is really peculiar sometimes... Case in point being that she thinks it's cool to be nicknamed "Kappa." (Actually, I was hoping she would riff on that.) Maybe she is getting it from Kanbaru. If so, I'm going to have to have a little talk with that junior of mine.

"Can you not swim, Sengoku?"

“If you’re going to show me how to do it, Koyomi onii-chan… No, Nadeko can’t swim.”

"What sort of reason is that?" Her reasoning seemed backwards to me.

"I use a kickboard at school for swimming class."

"That imagery barely gets by the censors."

Imagery of Nadeko in general is always risky.

In any case, at some point during our inane conversation, we had arrived at our destination.

While the pool was fairly out of the way, it's not like the bus was taking dirt roads to get there.  I don't remember the ride being particularly bumpy, but Sengoku kept bumping into me and leaning on me, and now my shoulder was bothering me. (An unexpected shoulder tackle!) Well, I don't think it will be enough to affect my swimming.

After we bought our tickets, we went to our separate changing rooms.

The scent of chlorine that lingered outside of the locker room became even stronger upon entering the changing area. I suppose it was a fondly nostalgic smell. Swimming in the river aside, it had been a really long time since I had been in a pool, let alone a public pool.
Naoetsu High School is really only focused on getting students into college, so I don’t even have a school pool to go to. Now that I think about it, I haven't gone swimming since I entered high school.

Remembering this, I was now blanking on how to swim.  While I wasn’t 100% confident, I figure swimming is just like riding a bike; I'm sure it will come back to me when I get in the water.
I'll have to show Sengoku my stellar flip turns.

While I don't want to be a show-off, I don't see the harm in flaunting one's skills every now and then. Sengoku is one of the few people who look up to me (by the way, Kanbaru is not one of those people), so I need to take full advantage of chances like this.

I changed into the new boardshorts that Tsukihi helped me to pick out at the mall yesterday. I then put my stuff in a coin locker, (the kind that will return your hundred yen coin when put the key back in), strapped the key to my wrist, and headed towards the pool.

There was a shower you walk through to get to the pool area.

When I went through showers like this in elementary school I would pretend to be a monk meditating under a waterfall. Remembering such an embarrassing thing was slightly traumatizing. In front of me was an eight-lane, 50 meters swimming pool.

Talk about overkill. What a waste of tax-payer money.

There were surprisingly few people for the weekend. However, despite the patrons being spread out all over the pool, their collective attention was focused on one spot. Naturally, my attention was pulled in that direction. To be precise, my attention was drawn to the girl standing there, drawn to Nadeko Sengoku.

It was really impressive that she was able to change quicker than me, being a girl and all. From looking at her, I would have guessed she would be a bit on the slow side, but maybe she is a bit quicker than she looks. Ah, maybe she was wearing her suit under her clothes the whole time. Before I had time to give the matter any more thought, all of my attention was now fixated on what was in front of me.
"......"

If I had to say what I would picture for a scene titled, “Together with Nadeko at the pool,” I would have definitely imagined Sengoku wearing her school swimsuit. The fact that this was the first thing I thought of probably means that Kanbaru is rubbing off on me.  Well, then again, it wouldn't be that strange to expect a junior high schooler to wear her school swimsuit to the pool.

But Sengoku's outfit blew my expectations out of the water. She was not wearing her school swimsuit.

Let me be a little more precise: The suit she was wearing was not a school swimsuit, but rather an extremely revealing string bikini that left very, very little to the imagination. I had never seen a bikini this extreme, even on gravure swimsuit models.

She was practically naked.

Ultra-low friction bodysuits that cover as much of the body as possible to reduce drag are all the rage in the competitive swimming world right now. Whether these bodysuits should be considered legal swimwear was for a big topic for discussion. Whether or not Sengoku’s outfit could be considered legal swimwear was also debatable, but for the opposite reason. You might say the design was making big waves in the swimming world. It might be a little mean, but maybe I’ll coin the phrase, “A single pebble makes a pond ripple; A Sengoku makes a big splash."[2]

"Um... Koyomi onii-chan."

Sengoku’s trademark bangs were tied up and out of the way, probably to make it easier to swim. She was averting eye contact and looking at the ground, as usual. She stood there idly, looking rather suspicious. As soon as she saw me standing there frozen midstride I could see relief wash over her face as she shuffled up to me.

The words “Stay away from me!” were dangerously close to slipping out of my mouth, but I managed to hold them back.

"Whoa, Koyomi onii-chan. You’re so muscular! How wonderful."

"Ah, oh, yeah." I didn’t know how to respond to Sengoku commenting on my body.

Slightly off topic, but this svelte body of mine is a side-effect of being a vampire, so I can’t really take any pride in it. It's like I’m doping.

"…And your swim trunks are really cool."

"Ah... I feel bad they’re so normal, er, well, they’re just something I picked up yesterday."

"Really? Me too. I bought mine yesterday too. What do you think? How is it? I thought I’d try to be a little more adventurous.”

"Hmm... Well, it is pretty adventurous."

At a loss for words, I ended up sounding like the captain from Go Go Sentai Boukenger. Actually, her swimsuit was way more adventurous than any of their adventures. Where on earth did she get her hands on such a suit anyways? I don’t think you could find something like that at a department store. Moreover, who the hell sold this to a kid in junior high, anyways?

Unable to look her in the eye, I had to look away from her entirely.

A minute ago I said something that made it sound like everyone at the pool was looking at Sengoku, but in fact nobody was actually looking. Rather, everyone was purposely avoiding looking at her. It was like their eyes were swimming around in their sockets to find something else to look at. How appropriate for a pool.

The public pool is the kind of place where parents bring their kids, so maybe this was like watching TV at the dinner table with your family when a sex scene comes on. No, it was more than just the awkward eroticism, it was the like you were committing a crime by looking, and no one wanted anything to do with it.  There was an air of discomfort floating around the pool.

Sengoku was still in the middle of puberty, so her body hadn’t quite filled out. You could tell by her visible ribcage and hipbones that the faint outline of her abs was probably not the result of hard work, but rather a lack of meat on her bones. It was hard to look at.

If asked for my honest opinion, I would have to say, 'pitiable'.

 "So what do you think?" Sengoku asked again, this time with a slightly uneasy look in her eyes.

No. There is no way I could say 'kind of pitiful'.

By the look in her eyes, I could clearly see that she was starting to worry that her huge adventure was turning out to be huge failure. She looked like she was on the verge of tears.

This isn’t good. At this rate, this episode is going to end up a dark chapter in Sengoku’s junior high school diary. Telling a girl her outfit is a fashion disaster is a definitely going to leave some damage. I’m such an idiot. Why couldn't I understand a timid girl’s desire to transform herself into a daring extrovert? Think properly.

I remembered the incident where she was bound by invisible snakes. Maybe it was a good thing that she is able to show off so much skin. In that case, I should praise her. I should compliment her. This isn’t the time to be worried about what society thinks of me. I don’t care anymore. At this point I wish I would have worn a banana hammock in anticipation of Sengoku’s actions.

"Uhhh, it looks really good, Sengoku. You really hit it out of the park. You’ll be on the leading edge of summer fashion this year. You could even wear it to your school’s pool."

"Hmm. Ok, If Koyomi onii-chan says so." Sengoku said beaming.

Her smiling face made me happy too. Today looked like it was going to be a great day.

 Incidentally, after that – at  the pool that seemed to be getting less and less crowded – I made a huge fool of myself in front of the junior high school girl that admired me so much.

You see... vampires can't swim.

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[1] TLNote: Shirikodama it a small glass ball that, according to Japanese folklore, everyone has in their butt. Kappa try to steal the ball. Children are often told that if they swim in dangerous waters, a Kappa will come and rip the ball out of their butt. Nadeko is basically asking Araragi to take her virginity.
[2] [TL Note: He actually is making a pun using the phrase, “a stone (一石) dropped in a pond causes ripples”, Saying, “A Sengoku (千石=a thousand stones) drop make a big splash.”]