Monogatari Series - Volume 5 - Chapter 6.05

005

Nadeko Sengoku, second-year middle schooler. While some might point to her unusually quiet personality, if I were to pick her most distinctive feature, I would say that it was her bangs. Instead of parting her long bangs to the side, she let them hang down in front, half shielding her eyes like Kaede Rukawa. Sengoku seemed to be able to peek out from the slits, but for those looking at her it was almost impossible to see her eyes. Her distinctive hairstyle might have made her seem a little peculiar, but then again she actually wore her hair that way out of shyness, so I suppose it couldn’t be helped.

Speaking of which, Sengoku usually wore a hat when she went outside. Apparently a hat is a metaphor for defenses you build around yourself. Oshino, too, thought of her as a bashful little birdie, but she took avoidance to a level that went beyond being bashful or reserved. It was more like she distrusted people.

As her honorary big brother, I worried about her future.

How was she going to get through life?

At least, that’s what I was wondering as I rang the bell to Sengoku’s home (She lives in a normal, two-story house. Not a rundown apartment, like Senjogahara, or an overgrown samurai manor, like Kanbaru. Just normal).

When the door opened I was in for a surprise.

No, surprise didn’t even begin to describe it.

I was flabbergasted.

Fllabberrgasted.

Sengoku’s bangs were pushed back.

They were held in place, along with the hair on the side of her head, by a cute pink headband (an understated pink, not shocking). And her eyes were in plain view. In fact, her whole face was on display.

So that’s what she looked like.

I knew she was cute─but she was even cuter than I imagined. Even though she was younger and a little-sister figure to me, I felt my pulse quicken just a bit.

Sengoku had a habit of staring at the ground, but today she came to the door with her head held high. Her cheeks even seemed a little flushed.

Was she looking forward to hanging out that much?

“Sengoku… Is this how you usually dress at home?”

“Uh…um…”

She was flustered.

That was the Sengoku I remembered.

I was starting to worry if I had the wrong house. No one but Sengoku, though, could get so agitated over a simple question.

“Wh-What do you mean?”

“It’s just, your bangs.”

“M-My bangs? Wh-What’s wrong with them?” Amazingly, Sengoku played innocent. But there was no way she didn’t know what I meant. “I-I-It’s not like I worked up the courage just because you were coming over for the first time.”

“Hmm…”

Well.

I guess, if she said so.

She probably always used a headband at home─just as her skirt, which was short enough to expose her pale thighs, her pretty camisole, and the whisper-thin cardigan she wore on top were her usual attire. After all it was August, the middle of summer.

Phew. For a second there, I almost started to think that she’d gone out of her way to get all dolled up for me. Can you imagine? That would almost make it seem like she was thinking of me as a boy.

No way, no chance. It wasn’t even possible.

“Please, Big Brother Koyomi. Come in, come in.”

“Y-Yeah… Hm?” As I stepped inside, I noticed something. There were no shoes by the entrance. There was a pair of school shoes, yes, which I figured had to be Sengoku’s. But where were her parents’ shoes?

“Sengoku, your mom and dad…”

“They both work on Saturdays.”

“Oh, mine do, too… So that’s why you answered the phone when I called.”

Wait…

Should I be barging into a girl’s house while her parents were out and she was alone? I’d assumed they’d be here… Crap, I knew I should’ve forced Tsukihi to come with me. In fact, it wasn’t too late, and we could still reschedule for another day.

While I was deciding what to do…

Click.

Clock.

Sengoku locked the front door.

It was a double lock. She even put on the chain.

Hmph, Sengoku took security very seriously… I suppose it was fine, then. It meant she trusted me.

It was up to me to meet that trust. My duty as someone who was older.

“My room is on the second floor, up the stairs.”

“Kids’ rooms usually are.”

“I’ve already gotten it ready.”

“Oh.”

I climbed the stairs, as directed.

Sengoku’s room, about a hundred square feet in size, was a typical middle school girl’s. Every inch (right down to the wallpaper and the curtains and the doorknob covers) exuded a girly aura of strawberry hues. It was so unlike my sisters’ den.

Huh.

The closet door, however, seemed to lack the same feminine, strawberry aura. In fact…

“Sengoku, that closet─”

“Don’t open it,” she commanded, almost sharply. She’d interrupted while I was still on the “l” and finished speaking before the “t” had left my mouth. “I won’t forgive you for it.”

“……”

Who knew “won’t forgive you” was part of Sengoku’s vocabulary? It was always worth visiting someone at home.

Clack.

As soon as Sengoku saw I was fully in the room, she locked the door behind us. I guess it only made sense that a girl her age, just hitting adolescence, would have a lock on her door… Hold on.

I understood locking the front door, but hers too?

Was I trapped?

No, I was being silly. Sengoku would never. Why would she, anyway?

It was probably just out of habit… She was bashful and reserved. There was nothing strange about her making a custom of it.

There was a tray set down on the carpet with soda and snacks on it. That must have been what she meant by getting ready.

How cute.

“Okay─please sit there,” Sengoku said.

“You mean on the bed? Are you sure?”

“Yes. You’re not allowed to sit anywhere else.”

“……”

I guess Sengoku wasn’t one for options. Everything else was out, only this.

Was she an “eliminationist” as in the process of elimination? Not that I’ve ever heard of such an ism.

I sat down on the bed, and Sengoku sat on the swiveling chair in front of her homework desk (adjustable height Kuru-Kuru Meka brand).

“Ph-Phew. It’s hot in this room, isn’t it?”

With those words, Sengoku removed her cardigan, quite suddenly.

This room? But wasn’t this her room?

“If you’re hot,” I said, “why not turn on the air conditioner on that wall─”

“N-No! Don’t you care about our planet?!”

We seemed to have a hostage situation.

With Earth as one big hostage.

“Global warming is out of control,” she cautioned, “thanks to carbon dioxide… It’s bad enough when carbon oxidizes, but this is dioxide!”

“O-Of course…”

Her explanation betrayed a serious lack of understanding of chemistry. Not that I can tell you why global warming is happening. If there are ice ages then the opposite must be true, and apparently they don’t know for certain that carbon dioxide is the true cause.

“A-And,” Sengoku went on, “we didn’t always have air conditioners… ‘Clear thy mind of mundane thoughts, and even fire will be a cool cucumber.’”

“Creating organic matter from fire, that’s some heavy alchemy…”

It would be downright divine.

“Wh-Why not take off your hoodie, if you’re feeling hot, too?” invited Sengoku.

“Huh? Me?”

“Even if you aren’t, you’re not allowed not to take off your hoodie.”

“So it’s my only option…”

What a scary planet.

Kanbaru would love this scene.

I guess it wasn’t that unusual, though, for a kid in junior high to be sensitive about the environment. As her “big brother” I needed to humor her. And it was hot in here… In fact, it almost felt like a heater had been running until just a few moments ago instead of the AC.

I was wearing a sleeveless tank top under my hoodie. Since Sengoku was in a camisole, both of us were baring our upper arms.

I was one thing, but she really was just a kid not to have the slightest qualm about doing so in front of a boy.

“Now, Big Brother Koyomi, let’s have some soda… There’s only one cup, though.”

“Why just one?!” If she’d gotten things ready, why the oversight?

“Y-You don’t mind sharing, do you? We’re like brother and sister, after all.”

“Well, I guess not…”

Wasn’t going down to the kitchen and getting another cup an option? Oh, right. She wasn’t one for options.

I bet I wasn’t allowed not to share.

For some reason, I was starting to feel like a captured little animal… Ordinarily, that was Sengoku.

I went ahead and took a sip of the soda.

I thought I detected a faint trace of alcohol.

“Sengoku. Is this booze?”

“Uh-uh.” She shook her head. “It’s just cola.”

“Well, taste-wise, sure…”

“But it’s extra-carbonated.”

“They still make that?!”

Extra-carbonated cola, a terrifying concoction whose carbonation level was intoxicating.

And now that I looked closer, the snacks laid out were all chocolate bonbons. It was as if the idea was to get her guest drunk and unconscious.

What a devious assortment.

But I’m sure it was just a coincidence, and you could hardly expect a middle schooler to properly entertain a guest. It would be ungracious to complain. I should think of it as a chance to try something unusual.

“There’s no TV in here, huh?”

“No, I don’t watch much TV. It’s bad for your eyes.”

“……”

Said the girl with her prominent bangs─there was such a big hole in her logic that I didn’t know where to begin.

Maybe she worried about her eyesight more than other people precisely because she liked to keep her bangs long.

“Then I guess you don’t play video games very much, either?” I asked her. “Though nowadays, even without a TV set, there are handhelds.”

“Not much… Maybe some of the popular games.”

“Oh? Like what?”

“Metal Gear.”

“Ah…”

“On the MSX 2.”

“Wh-What?!”

The MSX 2?! What kind of middle-school kid these days had one?!

Sengoku was full of surprises, as always.

“It’s downstairs in the living room,” she said. “I wasn’t really planning on it, but if you insist…”

“No, I wouldn’t come over to someone’s house to play a single-player game…”

“I also have a Popira 2.”

“Seriously?!”

Why not a PlayStation 2...

“Anyway, Sengoku, you mentioned preparing. Did you get something ready?”

“I did!” She pulled out two disposable chopsticks, and the tip of one was painted red. “Let’s play the Game of Kings.”

“……”

Uhh… This was tough. How to explain.

“Sengoku… Are you sure you know what that is? It’s not like the king in a deck of cards.”

“I do. It’s like Simon Says.”

“Well…” That wasn’t completely off the mark, but it was a drinking game.

“The king’s word is dissolute.”

“Tyrannical in its own way!” I quipped, though I was unsure if she was joking. I glanced at the chopsticks. “Well, I’ve never played it myself, so I don’t know the details. But it’s not meant for just two people.”

“Why not?” Sengoku cocked her head. “I’d be fine either way. I don’t mind giving orders or taking them.”

“S-Sure, but how about we try something else?”

She was probably too young to understand. While her innocence was refreshing, sometimes I had trouble coping with it. I bet moms feel this way when they’re asked where babies come from.

Sengoku seemed a little lost, perhaps because her plan had been dashed. Instead of giving up, however, she placed the chopsticks to the side and said, “Then why don’t we play the Game of Life?”

“The Game of Life? Ah, okay.”

“Life’s word is absolute.”

“So deep!”

Sengoku left saying she was pretty sure the board was in another room. Also: “You can’t open the closet, but please be my guest otherwise. Maybe flip through that photo album.”

Why did she want me to?

It was a mystery.

After a long wait, Sengoku finally returned─she seemed a little disappointed that the album was still sitting on the bookshelf, but yeah, I was probably just imagining things.

Speaking of which, the tomes lined up on those shelves were quite unique. There wasn’t a single manga in sight, just rows of Iwanami paperback classics─not the average junior-high student’s library. Did she want me to think she was grownup and always read such books? Some people might even wonder if she’d taken them from her father’s study and put them there to impress her guest.

Besides, I could’ve sworn Sengoku was seriously into manga… I think I even remember her talking about the final episode of Dodge Danpei.

Anyway, I hadn’t played the Game of Life in I forget how long. I recalled having a hard time understanding how to use promissory notes when I was a kid.

“Ah, right,” I said. “Didn’t we play this together at my house once?”

“Yes, I remember.”

“You do?”

“In fact, I never forgot it.”

“……”

I guess Sengoku had a pretty good memory. My recollections of her from back then were a bit hazy… Mostly, I just had an impression of her as a girl who liked to stare at her feet a lot.

I spun the dial.

The Game of Life was also better suited to more players, but in the end it was a game of chance─spin the dial, move your little car piece along the board, and see what kind of luck or misfortune you find. We ended up having fun.

I almost felt like a kid again.

Except…

The board was set down on the carpet, and the way Sengoku was leaning over, I kept catching suggestive glances inside her camisole. And to make matters worse, since she was sitting in front of me, I was in constant danger of seeing up her short skirt.

Honestly.

She was just a kid, but if it were anyone other than Sengoku, I might have mistaken her precarious posture as an attempt at seduction. This wasn’t the first time the thought occurred to me, but she kept her guard up in entirely the wrong places… Wait, the last time I thought so, wasn’t it concerning her bangs? Yet today her face was already on full display, too.

…?

Weird.

She wasn’t even wearing a bra underneath her camisole.

In fact, wasn’t a camisole like a piece of underwear? I wasn’t entirely sure. Neither the bigger or littler of my little sisters ever wore anything so fancy.

Just jerseys and kimonos.

Not that Sengoku’s honorary big brother would have untoward thoughts at the sight of her body.

You’re lucky I’m such a gentleman, Sengoku.

“Ah…” she said. “You landed on the marriage square. Take a pin.”

“Okay.”

“If I ever get married, I hope it’ll be with you, Big Brother Koyomi…”

“Hm? Does this game allow players to marry each other these days?”

I didn’t recall such a rule.

“W-Well…no, I’m just saying, ideally.”

“Huh.”

Ah.

Come to think of it, when Karen and Tsukihi were little, they used to say that when they got older they were going to marry me.

What a nostalgic memory.

Sengoku wasn’t as young as they were then, and she was probably just paying lip service.

“Lip service?” I asked.

Sengoku looked puzzled. “You mean, like a kiss?”

“That’s not what I meant!”

“It’s a little embarrassing, but if that’s the kind of service you want─”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!”

What kind of brother figure was I? That made me a straight-up pervert!

“By the way,” she said, “I’ve been thinking.”

“Yeah? What?”

“Maybe I should stop referring to you as my brother. It seems a little childish. After all, you’re not really my brother.”

Didn’t I once have a similar conversation with Kanbaru? As far as I could recall, it hadn’t ended to my liking.

I was starting to get a bad feeling, but changing the subject would be almost as awkward.

I had to play it by ear and go with the flow.

For my part, I kind of liked it that she called me “Big Brother Koyomi” like she used to.

“Well, anything’s fine,” I told her. “What do you want to call me?”

Sengoku gave her reply as if she’d chosen it long in advance.

“Dear.”

“………”

...

Oh…

Oh, of course…

A formal term.

Nothing wrong with that.

No reason whatsoever to wonder why talking about marriage had gotten us here. My bad feelings weren’t always borne out these days, eh? For a while, the probability had been a nasty one hundred percent!

“Sure, I don’t mind,” I said.

“Th-Then…”

For some reason, Sengoku’s cheeks flushed and she seemed bashful (with her bangs pulled back, her face was surprisingly expressive) as she spoke the word.

“D-Dear…”

What a funny girl.

“Listen, Sengoku, honey…”

“H-Honey!” Her face was beet red now. She was clearly agitated. “Dear and honey… Oh…oh…oh my…”

“Huh?”

That was just another common term, wasn’t it?

Were Sengoku and I speaking different dialects or something? Maybe I needed to seek out language-master Hachikuji.

“Anyway, Sengoku, listen. Has anything odd happened lately?”

“Wh-What do you mean?”

“Nothing, but there was that last time.”

It was actually how she was dressed today that made me think of it. The Sengoku I’d met for the first time in years would have never exposed so much of her body…

Due to an aberration.

And due to human stuff.

Well, according to Oshino, her case differed from what Hanekawa, Senjogahara, Hachikuji, or I went through and shouldn’t be thought of in the same way─but that didn’t change the fact that she was more likely to be drawn to aberrations.

Being too vigilant was another way to have the rug pulled out from under you, but I needed to check up on her.

“No…not in particular,” she said.

“I see.”

“But…” Her face clouded over. “Those icky charms are still popular.”

“At your school?”

“Yes, but not just mine. Among junior-high kids.”

Sengoku seemed to hesitate for a moment before making her mind and speaking up.

“I think Rara… They might be up to something.”

“………”

Rara was Tsukihi’s nickname back in grade school─excerpted from Araragi. “They” had to mean Karen too, that is to say, both of the Fire Sisters.

Up to something.

Up to something.

Up to something!

Such an ambiguous, worrying phrase that you could interpret any way you wanted… Up to something!

Man, for a change… Be up to nothing!

“The other day,” continued Sengoku, “Rara asked me about─the snake thing… Obviously I couldn’t tell her the truth, and my story came out half-baked… But apparently they’ve been going around asking questions and looking into things.”

“Things…”

I needed to learn more!

But did I really?!

Come to think of it, Karen going out today… Was it related? When it came to middle-school shenanigans, there was no way the Fire Sisters were going to keep their noses out of it…

“In other words, about those charms?” I asked Sengoku. “But they were actually bogus as curses, right? It was just that the way you tried to deal with it was mistaken.”

Mistaken.

The way she tried to deal with it was─too appropriate and therefore mistaken.

Wasn’t that the gist of it?

Or to be more precise, it was also the baneful influence of Shinobu Oshino─an ironblooded, hotblooded, yet coldblooded vampire, a legend among legends─visiting our town.

Which also meant…

With that problem resolved, middle-school kids messing around with mumbo-jumbo shouldn’t have any real effect.

“Yes.” Sengoku nodded. “I’m pretty sure my case was the only genuine aberration that materialized. At least I think so.”

“What’s the problem then?”

“Well, I doubt Rara is up in arms about the charms’ effect─they probably don’t believe in aberrations at all…I think.”

“Yeah…you’re probably right.”

My sisters were fairly realistic. They might be scared of ghosts but didn’t believe in them. That was their stance.

Sengoku went on.

“I think this bogus magic stuff being a fad in the first place is what they don’t like… They want to find out who’s behind it, or something.”

“……”

They were trying to pinpoint the charms’ source?

That seemed like a crazy idea, even for my sisters.

It was a tall order if you thought about it.

“It didn’t become a fad because someone tried to make it a fad,” I reasoned. “Even if they did find someone, it’s not that person’s responsibility at this point.”

Gossip may or may not only last for seventy-five people, but by number seventy-five you’d be talking about a totally different individual. Almost like in a game of telephone.

“It’s so Rara…or Fire Sisters,” Sengoku said. “They’re assuming that ‘someone’ with a ‘motive’ turned ‘charms’ into a fad…”

“It does sound typical of them…”

Oh boy.

Perhaps I needed to have a talk with Karen─it might be fine to just leave it alone, but I knew things could get dicey because the case had a precedent called Nadeko Sengoku.

One wrong turn…and you could end up with one foot in the grave.

Or worse─both feet.

And, if you were like me, maybe your whole head─

“B-Big Brother Koyomi?”

It must have been because I was brooding, but Sengoku called out to me, reverting to my old appellation in doing so. I shook myself out of my reverie and glanced up.

She looked upset─almost ready to cry. She was probably feeling bad that telling me had me so concerned.

She was such a decent kid.

Too bad she wasn’t my real sister, I thought. If she were, we’d never ever get into scuffles.

“It’s nothing, Sengoku, I’m fine,” I assured her. “By the way, you know, I think it suits you.”

“……?”

“Your bangs, I mean. Why don’t you wear them like that outside the house, too?”

“I-I can’t, I’d be embarrassed…” As if to replace the missing bangs, she brought both hands up to cover her face. “B-But if you say so…I’ll try.”

“Trying is a good thing.”

I nodded. It was nice watching over a person’s growth.

I hoped to see her through it.

“By the way, Sengoku, we’re almost done with our Game of Life. What do you want to play next?”

“Twister.”

“Huh, I’ve never heard of that one. You’re gonna have to teach me.”

“Of course I’ll teach…you and your body.”

“Ha ha ha, that sounds fun.”

Still, was it just my imagination?

In her eyes that pulling back her bangs had exposed, I seemed to catch, every now and then, a brazen glint that belonged more to a rattlesnake than Sengoku.