Monogatari Series - Volume 8 - Chapter 1.03

003

I finished eating breakfast, changed from my pajamas into my school uniform, and immediately left the house. I understand it takes Araragi about eighty pages to leave his home, but that’s all I need. It seems clear this is the difference between having a family that won’t let you leave your room and not having one.

Anyway, today was the start of a new term at school.

It was a relief to know that.

It felt, from the bottom of my heart, like I’d been saved.

I felt like I owed my life to each new trimester that came along.

Days off are days for walking─but even then, there’s only so much wandering one can do. I could even put a delinquent to shame. While acting as Araragi’s private college-exam tutor was, in some sense, something I did to improve his grades, it must have also been a handy excuse for not returning to my house.

Which is why having school─was a relief.

I let out a sigh of relief.

Then again, it didn’t matter. Walking around, being a home tutor.

Going to school.

In any case, I would always have to return to that house in the end, and nothing could depress me more─and yes.

The act I’m describing is strictly “returning” to that house and not “going home.”

Tytyl and Mytyl realize in the end that the bluebird of happiness was at home all along, but where should someone with no home go to seek it out?

Perhaps she’s seeking the wrong thing?

Should she be seeking not a bluebird but─say, a white cat?

Anyway, if you’ll allow me to say something a little negative─even if the bluebird of happiness is at your own home, that doesn’t mean a beast of unhappiness isn’t lurking there, too.

As I walked pondering such thoughts─why, if it wasn’t a little girl with pigtails appearing in my way.

“My goodness. If it isn’t Miss Hanekawa.”

The little girl─Mayoi Hachikuji─turned around and approached me with a charming trot. Every move she made was just too adorable. I wondered how aware she was that her cuteness drove Araragi mad.

“It seems that classes are resuming today, Miss Hanekawa.”

“Yup. That’s right.”

“Applying yourself to your studies really is extraordinarily taxing. I may only be an elementary schooler, but I, too, spend my days overcoming one trial after tribulation. You could even call the crushing amount of coursework I faced during summer break its own kind of military history.”

“Huh…” Noting that the girl’s tongue never seemed to suffer any slips except when she was speaking to Araragi, I engaged her. “So what are you doing now, Mayoi?”

“Searching for Mister Araragi,” she said.

My goodness.

Now it was my turn to use the line.

I could understand Araragi wandering around in search of Mayoi, but the opposite was truly rare.

No, had something similar happened before? I wanted to say that Shinobu had gone missing then─could something like it have happened again?

“Oh, no,” Mayoi denied, picking up on my groundless concern from my expression. “It isn’t as if anything serious has happened. It’s only that I forgot a little something at Mister Araragi’s home, and I was hoping to have him return it to me.”

“You forgot something?”

“Just look.”

Mayoi presented me with her back.

I couldn’t find anything to look at there other than a cute little back, but when I gave it some more thought, the fact that there was nothing there was the strange part. What was charming about Mayoi was the big backpack she wore no matter where or when.

That backpack was absent.

What was up?

“Um, hold on. Mayoi, did you just say that you forgot something at Araragi’s house?”

“That’s right. He hauled me there yesterday,” Mayoi complained, her back still facing me. “And I carelessly forgot my backpack then.”

“Hauled?”

“Forcibly hauled.”

“You’re making it sound even more criminal…”

I decided not to pursue the matter any further. If I asked again, she might say she was assaulted. Whatever the case, Mayoi seemed to have forgotten her backpack at Araragi’s home.

What a bold thing to forget.

“In that case, why don’t you just go to Araragi’s?”

Her coordinates were all wrong.

Why was she here?

“I of course began by visiting the gentleman’s home. But he seemed to have already left, and his bike was nowhere to be found.”

“Hm? Does Araragi leave for school this early, though?” While I do, wanting to get out of the house as soon as possible, even if Araragi wanted to, his sisters wouldn’t let him go so easily. You could say he’s in a constant mild state of house arrest, so if he left home early, he must have had something very important to do before heading to school… “Or he must have finished having something very important to do and hasn’t come home since last night.”

It wasn’t that he left early.

Maybe he hadn’t come home yet.

“Ah, the thought never occurred to me. I should have known I could count on you for an impressive feat of inference. Yes, that is a possibility. Perhaps an intractable case came up after I somehow managed to flee from Mister Araragi’s home.”

“Yeah.” I decided to ignore the fraught, already plenty intractable somehow managed to flee. Pursuing it any further felt like it might shine a light on a lot of regrettable facts.

“But whatever the case, it seems unlikely that Mister Araragi would have gone straight to school at this hour, which is why I’m here, bravely searching for him at random.”

“Looking for people isn’t your strong suit, Mayoi, is it?” What sort of haphazard approach was she taking? Did she really expect to find him that way? It wasn’t just a shot in the dark, she didn’t know which way she was aiming.

“Well, well, but it’s exactly what led me to you, Miss Hanekawa. My tracking abilities are nothing to sneeze at.”

“How forward-looking…”

“Be that as it may, I don’t know whether or not you could count yourself fortunate for having met me today.”

“Hm? Why? People in my circle say that anyone who meets you is guaranteed to have something good happen that day. You’re spoken of as a lucky item.”

“Please stop making up strange legends about me…”

My source, of course, was Araragi.

No one can outdo him when it comes to spreading false rumors.

He has what it takes to be a pretty good teller of ghost stories.

“Okay, if I see Araragi at school, I’ll tell him you were looking for him.”

“Thank you very much,” Mayoi said, politely bowing down her little head, before going back the way she came in her still-charming trot.

Obviously, Mayoi doesn’t have long conversations with me the way she does with Araragi. I envy him for being able to talk on the same eye level with cute little girls like Mayoi, and yes, I suppose I envy Mayoi for being able to chat on and on with Araragi.

Araragi seems to find it completely natural.

To me, it’s far more of a miracle than anything I do.

I’m jealous.

“Well, then! Let us meet again soon, Miss Hanekawa!”

Mayoi was kind enough to turn around once more and wave her hand from a distance.

I waved back.

“Yep! See you later!”

“What’s about to happen with me and Mister Araragi is an episode for the next volume!”

“Don’t be so crass with your foreshadowing.”

That wasn’t even foreshadowing, it was just an ad for a program.

Following in Araragi’s footsteps, I at least managed to get one quip in at the end.