Bakemonogatari Part 3

by Nisioisin

  “Oh, really?”

  So this wasn’t a chance meeting. Now that she mentioned it, she did seem to be looking around when I first saw her.

  Another day where someone was waiting on me.

  “You should have told me that first, then,” I scolded.

  “I’m sorry. I’d forgotten from the shock of being grabbed from behind by some pedophile who then rubbed his cheek against mine.”

  “A pedophile? Do we really have any of those in this town? As an upstanding local, I can’t abide that.”

  “It’s okay. Let’s have a big heart for these small people. The slogan of the month in my class is ‘Be kind to pedophiles.’”

  “What kind of school are you attending?! Are you sure you’re okay there?!”

  In short, it was my own fault.

  I was reaping what I’d sown.

  “Huh, okay then,” I said. “Sorry to get you so worked up over this. Thanks, I think I’ll go straight to Oshino’s place and see what’s going on, maybe even today.”

  “Oh no, I’m just glad I could be of service to you, Mister Araragi.”

  If anything, shouldn’t you be worried about the time, asked Hachikuji. I looked at the watch around my right wrist. Hmm, we’d been talking for a while. Time really does fly when you’re having fun…

  When would I get to meet Hachikuji next?

  Oh well.

  “Do you have a cell phone?” I absurdly tried asking a grade schooler. This was the kind of town where even middle schoolers didn’t have them.

  “Hmm. I’m sad to say that I’m exceedingly bad with mechanical devices.”

  “Is that so.”

  “Yes. I might not be able to watch television after 2010.”

  “Even digital broadcasting is too much for you…”

  It went beyond being good or bad with tech.

  Even Kanbaru and Oshino weren’t that incapable.

  “What could they mean by ‘1seg’?” she wondered out loud.

  “You sound so stupid…”

  Hmm.

  Well, there was nothing I could do.

  I’d have to leave this one to fate.

  Maybe running into her now and then while I wandered around town was the right relationship to have with Hachikuji. I shouldn’t be too greedy, and coincidences were precious in their own way. If she needed to see me, like today, she seemed to have no problem doing so.

  I got back on my bike.

  “Okay, Hachikuji. See you later.”

  “All right. I know we’ll meet again.”

  My fifth-grade friend saw me off as I headed to school. With barely any time left to spare, I was pedaling hard.

  Mayoi Hachikuji. In any case, I was glad she was doing fine─but her situation was too precarious for me to be putting it that way. You could say she was in the worst position out of everyone I knew that had met an aberration.

  That said─it wasn’t as though I could do anything.

  I shouldn’t be thinking that I could.

  People─just went and got saved on their own.

  I shouldn’t get that mixed up.

  I knew I couldn’t, and yet.

  “………”

  Three months had passed since I first met an aberration─since I first learned of aberrations.

  Three years it was not. But.

  I had still gone through a lot of changes in that time.

  Did I then─

  Just go and change on my own?

  I managed to walk through the school gates before the warning bell rang. Actually, the volleyball shorts and school swimsuit I’d received from Sengoku to give back to Kanbaru were in my bag. My plan had been to get to school early and visit her second-year classroom, but now… Hmm, I didn’t have enough time. It was fine, though. I couldn’t give it to her in plain sight anyway, and considering the hassle of summoning her from her classroom, during lunch break or after school made more sense. As I figured this out, I parked my bicycle in my spot on the school’s lot.

  I walked into the building and began climbing the stairs.

  Then my cell phone began to vibrate.

  Oops, I needed to turn it off before heading into class… That was careless. The vibration ended immediately, so could it be a text instead of a phone call? This early, though? Maybe it was my little sisters… Senjogahara and Kanbaru weren’t people who went out of their way to use text messages. I took my phone out of my pocket and checked the screen. I doubted my own eyes when I saw the sender, but those doubts were wiped away when I read the body of the message. In all of Japan and its long history, only one person would begin a mere text message with “Salutations” and end with “Sincerely yours in haste.”

  Reading what was between that “Salutations” and “Sincerely yours in haste”─and rereading it, I stopped in my tracks on the stairs to class and immediately headed straight back the way I came.

  Against the flow of students.

  Straight back to the bike parking lot.

  “Oh.”

  There I ran into Hitagi Senjogahara. The warning bell was moments away─but unlike me, she hadn’t been moments away from being late. As if she calculated everything so as not to waste a single moment, Senjogahara always came to school just in time.

  Seeing her so suddenly after what had happened yesterday, I felt a little embarrassed and was at a brief loss for words. But Hitagi Senjogahara had the same flat-as-can-be attitude and expression as ever.

  “What, Araragi,” she said, “are you going somewhere?”

  “Just around the corner.”

  “What for?”

  “Call it humanitarian aid.”

  “Is that so.”

  She was indifferent.

  Yes, that was Hitagi Senjogahara.

  She had me figured out.

  Another case of wordless communication─or so I hoped.

  “Fine. Then be on your way, Araragi. I’d normally never even consider it, but taking pity on you this one time, I’ll answer for you during roll call.”

  “We only have forty kids in our class, I don’t think that would work… In fact, I’m afraid you’ll only get the teacher mad at you.”

  “Don’t worry, I can do this. I’ll be sure to imitate your voice. I have an excellent VA playing my role.”

  “Voice actress?! Is this world an anime?!”

  “‘I’m not going to let Kanbaru meet an unfortunate fate at anyone’s hands! Even if those hands are yours!’ What do you think, did that sound like you?”

  “Not even close! You got my hopes up, but it sounded even less like me than I thought possible! And don’t pick out such an embarrassing line to repeat! I sense malice in your choice!”

  “Kanbaru cried tears of joy when I told her about that one.”

  “Don’t go around making our juniors cry over something so inane! You’re not her only trusted senior now, you realize!”

  “‘Miss Hitagi…you’re so beautiful. I couldn’t ask for anyone better than you. I love you.’ What do you think, did that sound like you?”

  “Not even close, and I haven’t spoken that line yet!”

  “Yet? You mean you plan to?”

  “…, ……kk, yes!”

  That’s how it went.

  I had nothing resembling the time to be having such a stupid conversation, but I still thanked Senjogahara for calming my rattled nerves before running on to the bike lot even faster than before.

  005

  That park─I still didn’t know if its name was read “Rohaku” or “Namishiro” or something else entirely. And if I still didn’t know, I doubted I ever would─but speaking of memorable, perhaps the park was a place to remember.

  Because of that one Mother’s Day─when I arrived at this park that lacked any playground equipment other than a swing, after wandering around on my beloved mountain bike (back when it still took that shape), and ran into Senjogahara who was out on a walk and encountered a lost Mayoi Hachikuji.

  And I still remembered.


  That day─not only did I happen to meet those two, but I also saw Tsubasa Hanekawa. Yes, she’d told me something then─that she lived in the area.

  The fact that her text asked me to meet at the very same park was neither a coincidence nor, I thought, some allusion. In her wisdom, Hanekawa simply chose the one landmark near her home that I knew, this park with the indecipherable name. Her deft hand when it came to these matters always had my vote.

  Yes─

  Tsubasa Hanekawa had sent me that message.

  Forget about the warning bell, the late bell had gone off long ago. Not only that, it took a bit of time to arrive at the park. It was in an unfamiliar area, and I’d only been to it once after going wherever the streets took me. Despite it all, around the end of the first period I managed to appear in front of Hanekawa, who was sitting on a bench with her back rounded, shrinking.

  Her appearance gave off a very different impression than usual.

  It was extreme even for a makeover.

  Her light long-sleeved sweater almost seemed to conceal her upper body and had noticeably long arms. The pants that protruded from below it were also baggy. They were pink, a gaudy color to wear for just stepping outside─and instead of the school-specified plain white socks and shoes that she customarily stuck to, she now opted for the more carefree bare feet and sandals.

  Her glasses were the same as ever, but her braids had come undone. No, that wasn’t entirely correct. Not even a class president among class presidents, elected not by her classmates but the gods themselves, was born with her hair braided. Especially this early in the morning─the right way to put it was that she had yet to tie her hair in braids. It was the first time I’d seen Hanekawa with her hair untied… Naturally enough, it seemed fairly long now that it wasn’t. Longer than Senjogahara’s, from the looks of it.

  Hanekawa was wearing a hunting cap on top of that hair.

  A hat was another first.

  “…Oh, Araragi.”

  Hanekawa finally noticed me. Cradling herself and looking down at the ground, she must not have even though I was standing right in front of her.

  Her expression was a touch uneasy.

  Or so it seemed to me.

  “Tut-tut,” she cautioned me first thing. “You shouldn’t ride your bike all the way into the park. They have bike parking, so you need to use it.”

  That’s Hanekawa for you.

  “Now’s not the time,” I reminded her. “Are you going to scold me about my bicycle of all things after making me skip school?”

  “This and that are separate issues. Now hurry up and park it.”

  “……”

  Hmph. She really wasn’t having any of it.

  Was she not going to start with some words of gratitude for me? I had run over to her like a faithful little dog.

  But nothing was going to come of complaining here.

  Hanekawa was right, too.

  Saying “Fine,” I got off my bike and pushed it to the distant parking area. The same rusted and broken-down bicycles from May fourteenth were still parked there, unchanged. I put my bike next to them and locked it. Since there were still no signs of any man, woman, or child in the park (this seemed to be a constant, whether it was a weekday or a holiday), I didn’t see much point in locking up my bike…

  I returned to the park.

  Hanekawa was sitting on the bench.

  The light sweater was hiding some of her baggy pants, but I was certain they were pajamas, given their color and material… So that meant she was wearing pajamas on the top, too? And her sandals looked like slip-ons. Had she woken up, gotten straight out of bed, put on nothing more than a sweater, and left home?

  “I’m sorry, Araragi,” she apologized to me when I returned.

  Though they weren’t words of gratitude.

  “I made you skip school.”

  “Oh, never mind,” I said. “Did it come across that way to you? I wasn’t trying to be sarcastic.”

  “Don’t worry, though─I calculated it all out. You won’t have any problems at all given today’s schedule, even if you skip the whole day.”

  “……”

  Those were nasty calculations.

  To be doing that even when she asked for help…

  She really did think too hard about everything. Didn’t that mean she wouldn’t have sent me the text if the day’s scheduling caused a problem for my attendance or some other issue?

  She thought too much about consequences.

  I tried asking, “With the class president and vice president missing, what’s going to happen to the culture festival prep? Do you have some kind of plan for that, too?”

  “I called the teacher’s lounge after sending you that text… I told Hoshina about the work that needs to be done today and how to do it.”

  “…”

  God, she had her act together.

  How about the way she called our teacher after texting me so she could make good use of her time waiting at the park?

  “Senjogahara is going to be in charge after school,” Hanekawa informed me.

  “What? Are you sure you’re not making a mistake?”

  My girlfriend hated nothing more than working with, and for, others. I could imagine no greater hybrid of the two than preparing for a culture festival. No “Caution: Do Not Mix” warning could be big enough.

  “Senjogahara skipped yesterday. This is to make up for that.”

  “Hunh…”

  Against Hanekawa, all of Senjogahara’s audacity and defiance amounted to nothing… Well, our class still saw her as the cloistered princess, so if asked, she would at least carry out her duties no doubt…

  “I’m glad you’re a good person,” I said. “There’s no one more calculating than you, so just imagine what would happen if you used that brain of yours for evil.”

  “That’s not true. As far as how calculating I am…it was pretty risky of me to bet on your cell phone being on. I couldn’t try calling you first, either, because you might already be on the premises at that hour…”

  “Huh? Couldn’t you call and hang up after one ring if you wanted to see if my phone was on?”

  “If I did, you’d try to call me back, being the principled person you are. Right?”

  “Oh, so you’d even seen through my personality.”

  So receiving a text was fine, but calling back wasn’t… That was pretty subtle. It seemed like a tough choice for Hanekawa, too. I’d thought I didn’t have the time, but now I was glad I’d texted her back at a stop light on my way to the park.

  My chat with Hachikuji had been meaningful, then─if I’d arrived at school earlier, I’d have turned my phone off in our classroom.

  ……

  Well, putting that aside.

  Knowing that someone was in her pajamas flustered me even if that someone was Hanekawa… It was my first time witnessing something as extraordinary as a girl in her nightwear (cases involving my two little sisters don’t count).

  Her sweater was the one lamentable part. I could make out only the pants, and just from the legs down, which lacked that finishing touch…or should I say, it had the final touch and nothing else? People talk about tantalizing glimpses, but this felt like starving.

  Wasn’t there some way to get that bland thing off of her?

  You know, like in “The North Wind and the Sun.”

  “Hey, Hanekawa.”

  “What?”

  “Er─Miss Hanekawa.”

  “Miss?”

  “Allow me to take your sweater for you.”

  “……”

  Ack.

  She couldn’t have looked any more unamused.

  I had tried my best to imitate a waiter at a fancy restaurant greeting a valued customer, but that charade wasn’t going to be persuasive in an open-air park.

  “Araragi.”

  “Yes?”

  “You’re going to make me mad.”

  “…I’m sorry.”

  It
was a beam of blinding sobriety.