Monogatari Series - Volume 9 - Chapter 1.15

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“What the hell’s taking her so long?!” I shouted, a little after 11 a.m. I almost slammed my cell phone to the ground in frustration─even though I’d just gotten the model. “She really had my hopes up!”

“Thou art most ill-suited to stakeouts─only a paltry few hours have passed.”

“Sure… And true, I intended to stake this place out for ten hours if it came to that, but I still thought she’d leave during the morning…judging from the way she’d talked about it.”

As we’d hoped, no one addressed the uniformed me/middle-school Shinobu combo─there was no getting around the fact that Shinobu stood out, being a beautiful blond girl and all. Passersby kept glancing at us, but no one actually stopped and stared.

Unexpectedly, Shinobu’s braids seemed to be doing the trick.

Even a glimpse of blond braids is unusual.

Though personally, I’d been ready to be accosted by strangers.

The sun proved harsh since we’d both raised our vampiric levels to allow Shinobu to disguise (transform?) herself, and while it was only May, it felt like we were trapped in a sauna.

Shinobu retained her composure, but it must have been hard on her.

I felt bad and somewhat regretted my overly optimistic prognosis and forcing a disguise on her, but it was too late for that now.

Our forebears tell us: it’s better to regret doing something than to regret not doing it. But when you really think about it, that seems like an incredibly irresponsible thing to say. Shouldn’t it be: don’t do anything you would regret in the first place?

Anyway, at this point it was just a test of will.

A contest, opposite Mayoi Hachikuji.

I will stay planted here right through tomorrow if I have to─

“Excuse me, you two.”

Just as I renewed my determination, someone spoke. To us.

It was a total surprise attack, and having already decided we were in the clear for the day, I couldn’t have been more startled.

“Er, ah, yes?” I responded, barely keeping it together.

Feigning innocence with all my might.

As we’d worked out in advance, Shinobu, acting like an exchange student who didn’t understand Japanese very well, just kept on reading her book.

In retrospect, it was a self-contradictory ploy given that the book was in Japanese (a translation of On the Banks of Plum Creek, to be precise).

“Oh my, what can I do for you? Do you have some business with us not-at-all suspicious people?” I responded nonchalantly.

Enunciating more than was necessary.

What was I, a stage actor?

“You would like me to expound on our lack of suspiciousness? By all means, permit me to explain. Naturally, we are not vampires or anything of the sort. We simply perspire easily.”

“Um…I don’t care.”

Seeming truly discombobulated─like he was actually going to pieces.

The grown man standing in front of me asked:

“Have you seen the girl who lives here?”

Almost as though he hadn’t noticed how suspicious Shinobu and I were.

“A fifth grader…with pigtails, probably carrying a large backpack…”

“…!”

I’d only looked away for a second, but when I returned my gaze to the Hachikuji residence─the front door and the main gate were wide open.

Like someone had rushed out.

No, forget such vague language, this was no time to play the sage and examine every possibility. It was obvious that this guy was the one who’d rushed out.

This guy─was a Hachikuji.

And.

The fifth grader he was searching for had to be Mayoi Hachikuji.

“Uh…no, I haven’t seen her.”

I was just about as agitated as he was, but at least keeping it together enough not to let it show, I dealt with the situation as coolly as I could.

I say keeping it together.

But I wasn’t even lying─I hadn’t seen her.

Though I’d been there watching forever.

“Has something happened to the girl?”

“Sh-She’s my daughter,” the guy answered, looking back at his house. “It seems she’s run away… I thought she was just taking her sweet time to get up, but when I went to her room to check on her, there was a note, and according to it, she left the house around five in the morning.”

“Hachikujiiiii!” I unintentionally blurted out her name.

The guy was startled, probably thinking that I meant him─Mr. Hachikuji. But I couldn’t give a shit about his reaction.

“Where the hell does she think she’s going?!”

Leaving at five in the morning.

She going fishing or something?!

Not considerate in the least!

She felt quite fine overstaying her welcome!

Mayoi Hachikuji.

Even when she was alive, she was an unpredictable girl.