by Nisioisin
020
Senjogahara had received her “death sentence” from Nadeko Sengoku two months ago, back in November. Every day since had been a battle against the fear of death.
That’s not to say that Araragi, who had died time and again─who had experienced death time and again thanks to the blood of an immortal vampire coursing through his veins─wasn’t also afraid, but surely his fear couldn’t compare to the mortal terror that Senjogahara was feeling.
Which is why, at last.
At long last, Hitagi Senjogahara could relax a little─though it wasn’t cute of her, but quite funny, that she’d fled to the powder room because she didn’t want to cry in front of me.
To be sure, she might still have kept a stiff upper lip if it were only her life that was on the line─but at the prospect of her sweetheart’s survival, I guess she just couldn’t hold back the tears.
That’s the kind of woman she is.
That’s the kind of fool she is.
At any rate, the conversation stalled out at that point (any time I tried to say something, Senjogahara would just incoherently express her gratitude to me, making it more or less impossible to proceed), so I led her out of Mister Donut, shoved a 10,000-yen note into her fist, and bundled her into a taxi like a piece of luggage.
I’d been foiled in my attempt to bring up my lingering anxiety, “what I really needed to be worried about,” but that was something I didn’t need to discuss with Senjogahara and could just keep to myself for now.
Since it seemed like it was going to be such a piece of cake to hoodwink Nadeko Sengoku, I was definitely trying to maintain my equilibrium and forcing myself to identify something, anything, to be anxious about.
I watched the taxi carrying Senjogahara pass through the intersection, then returned to my hotel where I proceeded to update my notes.
I was not keeping a record of the job─given the line of work I’m in, leaving a written record would be the height of folly.
Nor was I keeping a diary─I was working on my plan. Making notes for the future. I had to add more information to my map. You can’t go on using an outdated GPS forever.
Next I made a few calls.
There were some people I had to talk to who weren’t awake during the day─I was laying some groundwork, or making the preliminary preparations for some preliminary preparations, something along those lines. Duping Nadeko Sengoku would be easy in and of itself, but that didn’t mean I could cut corners.
I had to double- and triple-check everything before I tackled this job.
The real problem…will be expenses, I thought as I drew in a likeness of Nadeko Sengoku. I drew a picture of the offertory box as well, adding a “↓”and a sketch of Yukichi Fukuzawa whose portrait graces the 10,000-yen note.
Yup. That was “what I really needed to be worried about,” the issue I had failed to bring up.
“Ten thousand, every time I see her… With my remaining funds, not even five more visits.”
Nadeko Sengoku.
An expensive woman.
Unfortunately, though, in order to win her trust, in order to deepen our relationship to the point that I could feed her the lie about Senjogahara and Araragi’s deaths (as long as we got to that point, she would buy it; the problem was getting to that stage in our relationship), five visits probably wouldn’t cut it.
Every three days or so, I’d told Senjogahara, but every day would be even better if I could make it work─maybe call it the traditional “hundred-day pilgrimage” for granting a wish.
I’d also warned Senjogahara that I’d bill her if my expenses exceeded 100,000 yen, but it’d be impossible to collect in practice.
She might be a good student, but that was a bad debt.
A woman that capable wouldn’t need to resort to selling herself, she could make plenty of money from a regular part-time job─or from helping out with her father’s work, but it was dangerous for me to get involved in any long-term dealings with her.
The best course of action was to collect what I could collect when the job was done before high-tailing it out of there.
Probably for the first time in my life, I was facing the almost unthinkable prospect of paying out of pocket for a job, of voluntarily taking a loss.
Oh boy.
That said, the thought of cutting ties with Hitagi Senjogahara once and for all brought me a feeling of relief; my mind was like a majestic, cloudless blue sky.
Around three o’clock in the morning I finished my notes and went to bed.
021
The next morning, I waited for opening time, then headed first to a bookstore in the shopping district. Not because it was the day a magazine I read regularly comes out. I don’t do that in the first place. Magazines? Do they hold bullets?
Consulting the store map just inside the automatic door and seeing that the “Children’s Corner” was on the seventh floor, I got into the elevator.
I found what I was looking for right away.
A Cat’s Cradle Compendium─it was a relatively large bookstore, so there was very likely a more serious, adult-oriented guide on a shelf somewhere, but it’d be too complicated.
Not for me. For Nadeko Sengoku. Mm-hmm, this one seemed to be at the right level for her intellect.
I hate when they put a generic dust jacket on the book at the register, but the clerk put one on without asking me. I was slightly irritated, but only slightly. It wasn’t something a grownup should get upset about.
Naturally, I didn’t intend to take the book to Kita-Shirahebi Shrine as is, that would ruin everything. If I made an offering of it, Nadeko Sengoku might thank me, but her admiration would be for the book and not for me.
Instead I would memorize the book, adding it to my store of knowledge, and display my mastery to Nadeko Sengoku. Then my stock was sure to appreciate.
Trying to impress a naïve middle school girl seemed petty and vain, and I hated myself a little bit for it, but a job’s a job. Nah, I didn’t hate myself at all.
It’s only natural to go all out to achieve success.
I left the bookstore and went into a nearby Starbucks. I ordered a grande and drank it black.
Reading around at random in A Cat’s Cradle Compendium, I began memorizing techniques along with their respective names─until I realized that it was kind of pointless to learn the moves when I didn’t actually have a cat’s cradle on me.
It would have been nice if I’d had some string to hand, but no, no such luck. I considered for a moment, stood up, and came back with a bunch of paper napkins.
On them I drew diagrams of the techniques in pen─I was just copying out the contents of the book, but as with the visualization maps I draw before beginning a job, the image gets burned into my brain once I’ve drawn it with my own hand. As for whether I could actually perform the techniques, we’d find out when the time came…
“Okay. Got it,” I said experimentally. Trying the words on for size. Naturally there was no need to memorize the entire book in one day; for the moment I just needed to pick up a few techniques that a kid might find interesting.
Feeling like I had reached a good stopping point, I closed A Cat’s Cradle Compendium─and when I did, naturally my field of vision expanded. As a result, I discovered that someone was sitting across the table from me.
It wasn’t so crowded that people needed to share tables, and even if it had been, I didn’t think anyone would be so bold as to sit with me. I wasn’t wearing what Senjogahara refers to as my “funeral suit,” so maybe this occasion was different, plus the interloper was an acquaintance of mine: the shikigami Yotsugi Ononoki.
Puzzle solved.
“Yaaay. Peace peace, Big Brother.” Holding the sugary concoction she had apparently ordered for herself in one hand, with the other Ononoki made a sideways peace sign and held it up to her eye.
“…”
Her character traits had changed again.
Seemed like she’d fallen in with the wrong crowd.<
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022
“Long time no see, Big Brother Kaiki. How long has it been, anyway?”
“Don’t call me ‘Big Brother.’” Silently thanking the clerk who had placed the dust jacket on A Cat’s Cradle Compendium, I casually put the book down next to me and said, “I’ve told you before, just call me Kaiki.” It put me in mind of Nadeko Sengoku calling me “gramps” the day before.
Being called “gramps” made me feel depressed, but being called “Big Brother” grossed me out.
“Really? Still, I can’t address you so informally. Yaaay.”
Just as I was wondering if her laudable attitude was sincere, she inexplicably threw in another sideways peace sign.
“Have you been getting cozy with Araragi?” I asked, hazarding that he was the “wrong crowd” in question. I was the one who’d told Ononoki, or rather Kagenui, about him in the first place.
As such, perhaps some responsibility for Ononoki going astray lay with me─perhaps it was just my imagination.
“Which reminds me, that must have been the last time we saw each other. When I told you guys about Araragi─so where’s Kagenui? Is she here too?”
“Uh-uh. Sis─uh oh, hang on, I think this was supposed to be a secret.”
“A secret?”
“As in confidential,” Ononoki said before taking a few big gulps of her sugary drink. How nice of her to explain the word “secret” for my benefit. Not that “secret” or “confidential” meant anything to me.
That violent onmyoji had seemingly abandoned her girl familiar and was off somewhere doing whatever─she’s even more dangerous than me, in her own way, so I always try to keep tabs on her movements, but there’s plenty that gets by me.
And she was smack dab in the middle of getting by me.
“Well, as long as Kagenui doesn’t get in the way of my business, ultimately I really don’t care what she’s doing, or where… You’re her watchdog, though, aren’t you? What the hell are you doing here, Ononoki?”
“I came to you.”
“?”
Just as I was wondering what that could possibly mean, she amended, “I came to see you.”
I’d thought there was some deep meaning behind her words, but apparently she’d misspoken… Another result of hanging out with the wrong crowd?
“As a messenger from Ms. Gaen.”
“Gaen…”
I was on high alert the instant that name cropped up. “Gaen” alone was more than enough to make me tense up, but coming from Ononoki, it could only refer to one person: Gaen-senpai.
Izuko Gaen.
“I bring a warning from Ms. Gaen.”
“Wait, hang on, I don’t want to hear it. Don’t say it.”
“She says withdraw,” Ononoki continued, heedless of my protestations. She still hadn’t learned a thing about human emotions─if Araragi was going to teach her anything, I wish he’d forget about sideways peace signs and teach her some consideration.
If you have to hear that advice from me, though, it might be too late for you.
But─
“Withdraw?”
“Withdraw from the town… Lessee, what was it again… Ms. Gaen told me to deliver her message word for word, so I want to tell you exactly what she said, but I’m afraid I don’t remember…”
“You’re a terrible messenger, you know that?”
“Yaaay.”
Another sideways peace sign.
Painful.
“No one like you,” began Ononoki, seemingly having recalled the message. She was imitating Gaen-senpai’s voice just barely well enough that I was able to recognize what she was doing. So not very well at all.
It was like nails on a chalkboard.
“Ought to be stirring up that town─there have been some irregularities, but the place has reached a certain equilibrium. Kaiki, if you make one wrong move, everything will be ruined, it’ll be even worse than before. So withdraw. Peace peace.”
“Was that last part in the original message? Or is that your new personality?”
“It’s my new personality.”
“I see. Because the next time you say it, I’m going to knock you on your ass,” I menaced a young girl, which was too much like something Araragi would do, so I followed up with a fawning question. “Would you like another drink?”
“You’re just like that kind monster sir.” Sadly, even my last bit ended up making me like Araragi. How shameful… “I’ve still got some of this left, but okay, I’d love a nice warm chocolate chunk scone.”
“You think I’d treat you when you’ve insulted me with comparisons to Araragi?”
Not that I ever had any intention of treating her, I’d only asked to make conversation.
At which point Ononoki stood up and drew a folded 1,000-yen bill out of her skirt. “Keep the change,” she said. Apparently she’d folded it up and stuck it in there somewhere. I guess she’s not the type to carry around a purse.
I accepted it wordlessly and headed to the register. I ordered a chocolate chunk scone, not forgetting to ask them to heat it up, and then returned to the table with it.
“Much obliged.”
“Hmph,” I shrugged and faced Ononoki again, folding my arms and leaning back. “Gaen-senpai seems to understand me, but actually, she doesn’t always─what can I say. Obviously, being commanded to withdraw makes me even more eager to carry out my task.”
“She said she’d pay you if need be.”
Ononoki looked at me, munching on the chocolate chunk scone. The sight of the mushed-up food in her mouth was revolting. I couldn’t help but realize, not for the first time, that the girl sucked at eating.
“Ms. Gaen actually provided that thousand also.”
“Despicable. You can’t buy a person’s heart,” I said. I thought it wouldn’t hurt to try the line just once in my life. Incidentally, my usual line is that a person’s heart is unprofitable. “Just out of curiosity, how much is she offering?”
After falling silent for a moment, Ononoki indicated the sum: “Three million yen.”
It wasn’t the kind of money that gets discussed at a table in a coffee shop, however classy an establishment Starbucks might be.
Three million yen. Definitely a hefty sum, but what exactly can you buy with it? Well, a Premium Pass, for one. I could fly 600 times this year. Wonderful. I already can’t make full use of the one I have, and the other one would be left entirely untouched.
Putting that aside, I considered the offer.
Which is to say, it was at least a sum worth considering. But after considering it for a full thirty minutes, I said brazenly, “I’m going to have to refuse. Talk may be cheap, but I’m not.” This was another line I’d always wanted to try out. Or was it a line I’d never thought I’d have a chance to use? Well, same difference. “Tell her she seems to have put the decimal in the wrong place.”
“Unfortunately, I can’t reach Ms. Gaen anymore. Incommunicado, you might say, service discontinued. If you want to tell her, you’re going to have to yourself, Big Brother Kaiki─I mean Kaiki.”
“…”
What a useless girl. What a useless familiar.
But I couldn’t reach Gaen-senpai either. Or rather, no one in the world could. She was the kind of person who just showed up as she pleased whenever she had some business or took an interest in something. And yet she might butt into a conversation when she was far away─again, as she pleased.
“Basically,” Ononoki began anew. Seemingly what came next would be her own take on things rather than a message from our mutual acquaintance─“I think she’s worried about what will happen if you fail.”
“Worried? Did you say Gaen-senpai is worried? Now that’s a laugh.”
“I mean, I’m sure she believes you’ll succeed. I think she has the utmost faith in her exceptional junior.”
“…”
The girl was just innately unpleasant to be around.
Belief, faith… Look at that innocent face, what
kind of education was she getting?
“You’re planning to pull one over on Nadeko Sengoku, right?”
“Dunno,” I played dumb. To be precise, I was making a show of playing dumb. But just because it was a blatant lie didn’t mean it was pointless. I was expressing my unwillingness to have a forthright discussion with her without actually having to say so.
Oshino does that a lot, and so do I.