Otorimonogatari

by Nisioisin

  “No, I just guessed from your expression─I mean, anyone could figure it out if you gave them that disgusted look. But sure, of course it is a little easier to make a guess since you and I are mentally connected now.”

  “…”

  i was bothered by the thought that he could read Nadeko’s mind, just like anyone would be, but i feel a little let down to know that he can’t.

  Just because Mister Serpent being a mindreader would make things easier for Nadeko since i wouldn’t need to talk…

  “I-In that case─Mister Serpent.”

  “Mister Serpent? Well─I would normally want to be called Master Serpent, but I guess it’s too much to expect a young, helpless little girl’s worship. Yes, my dear? What is it, Nadeko?”

  “Wh-What does Nadeko need to do?”

  Atonement.

  Or the request.

  Nadeko hasn’t heard─the details of either.

  At the shrine, as soon as Nadeko accepted, Mister Serpent quickly shrank his colossal body─and enwrapped her right wrist.

  I’ll give you the details tonight. I’m spent, he said immediately and went to sleep.

  It seems like he used up a lot of his energy making Nadeko see and hear things─and not knowing what to do, Nadeko did nothing and just came back home.

  Mister Serpent woke up a little bit after i got home, but before he could tell Nadeko anything, Big Brother Koyomi called her.

  “Wh-Wh-Wh-Wh…” i have trouble saying the words─but Nadeko gathers her courage. This is something i need to do. “Wh-What kind of dirty things…does Nadeko need to do?”

  “Where’d that come from?!”

  The aberration plays the straight man for me, his fangs bared. Nadeko lurches backwards on her cushion.

  It’s way too scary to be a comedy routine.

  “Why would you even think that, Nadeko? You’ve got quite a future ahead of you.”

  “N-No? B-But psychologically speaking, snakes are considered sexual motifs, so─”

  “Don’t you lump me in with dime-store clichés─ugh, maybe you’ve been a little too influenced by Koyomi or Kanbaru or whomever, hmmmm?”

  “…”

  i’m left speechless.

  i couldn’t be any more embarrassed. i feel like blushing.

  “Th-Then…Nadeko doesn’t need to take off her clothes? She doesn’t have to wear a school swimsuit or volleyball shorts?”

  “Right. That’s not what I’m talking about.”

  “Oh…”

  i let out a sigh of relief that Nadeko won’t become Nudeko.

  Though i also think i can hear Miss Kanbaru’s dejected wail.

  “…? B-But why do you know about Miss Kanbaru?”

  “Like I told you, I know. About her, about Koyomi─hmmmm?”

  “S-So you really are reading Nadeko’s m─”

  “Like I also said, I’m not.”

  “M-Maybe you’re reading Nadeko’s manga?”

  “Why is a middle schooler collecting a comics zine for grade school boys, anyway?”

  Why not?

  CoroCoro is pretty funny.

  “Either way, no. It’s just that I was watching─the ritual that all of you performed at the shrine that day.”

  “…So you─live at that shrine, Mister Serpent?”

  Is that it?

  Is that how he knows about Big Brother and Miss Kanbaru─and Nadeko’s massacur there?

  But in that case…

  Hm? That means…

  “Y-You’re…‘something’ to that shrine?”

  “Don’t be saying that now like it’s some great discovery, my dear. The shrine’s name alone should have tipped you off.”

  “The shrine’s name…” Kita-Shirahebi, so North Whitesnake Shrine… “What about it?”

  “‘What about it’… Having seen me, a literal white snake, you still don’t have a clue? You really are dense, hmmmm?”

  “…”

  i can’t respond because he’s not wrong about Nadeko being dense.

  What? But then, that…

  So, is Mister Serpent a lot more important than Nadeko thinks?

  “Mister Serpent, are you the person…the snake that shrine is dedicated to?”

  “I’d like to say you’re right─but it’s been a long time since that shrine was dedicated to anything. All it is now is a hangout where bad things gather─no, it might be better to call it a dust heap than a hangout.”

  “Now that you mention it, i think i heard someone say that before…”

  It still functions as a place but is done for as an abode for the divine, or something─i’ve forgotten because it was too complicated. Or i guess it’s more accurate to say that i wasn’t listening from the start because it was too complicated.

  “Th-Then─still, you’re important. E-Er, you’re still important, sir. Your Highness is most important.”

  “It’s only going to be awkward if you start acting polite now─and I’m not important anymore. You can be casual around me. Let’s you and I be equal partners, Nadeko.”

  “Partners…”

  He used the same word when we first met.

  A word to describe our relationship.

  “I doubt calling ourselves ‘friends’ suits either of us,” he adds.

  “…”

  i agree with him there.

  But even if he’s telling Nadeko not to act polite, it’s hard not to─i mean, if Mister Serpent lives at a shrine, that makes him (despite looking nothing like it now) a god.

  Really, an actual god.

  …Hm?

  But i feel like Mister Oshino said at some point that all aberrations, conceptually, are like gods.

  No, he argued that ultimately, whether it’s a being or a concept, anything that isn’t human is a god─that’s Japanese polytheism in a nutshell.

  They’re everywhere.

  That’s what he taught Nadeko.

  Still─just because they’re everywhere doesn’t mean that i don’t need to be respectful to an obvious god… But then, Nadeko isn’t able to converse in a way that doesn’t seem rude no matter who she’s talking to, so her trying to act polite or not is somewhat beside the point.

  If i’m hearing it straight from the horse’s (snake’s) mouth, i guess i can be “casual” with him.

  So Nadeko begins with an Umm.

  “In that case, Mister Serpent…if it isn’t anything dirty, what does Nadeko have to do? There’s nothing else that i can do.”

  “I see you’re a very curious teen, Nadeko…”

  And don’t be so hard on yourself, the Serpent chides.

  As if to raise an eyebrow, he lifts his head from Nadeko’s wrist (probably the limit of his reaction whether he’s happy or sad) to stick out his tongue.

  It does feel like he’s stuck his tongue out at me.

  “But I’m going to have you do something else─honestly, dear, you’re the only one I can rely on. I’m going to be up-front and honest with you. I’m trying to prey on your weakness, to use my dirt on you, to exploit your guilt, in order to make a request─because that’s how much I want you to do this.”

  “…”

  “That’s not much of a reaction─hmph, so you understood all of this from the outset? All right─you aren’t as dense as you seem, are you?”

  “N-Nadeko is…” i mumble, “dense. As a…brick.”

  “I wonder about that. Whatever─in that case, here’s my request. Hsshh, hsshh, hsshh, a god begging a human for something, how times have changed.”

  “…”

  “Listen, what I want you to do─is to find something.”

  For once, the Serpent doesn’t sound rough or violent. His words seem oddly direct.

  Direct? No.

  Maybe i should say─solemn.

  “Nadeko, dear. I want you to find my corpse.”

  010

  The next morning, Nadeko goes to school like always.

  Yes, i might be hallucinating, i may be possesse
d by a god, but i still have to go to school─that’s what being a middle school student means.

  i wake up in the morning, change into Nadeko’s school uniform, and start heading to school.

  A true middle school life.

  If there’s anything at all out of the ordinary, it’s the white scrunchy around Nadeko’s right wrist─and i hate that i’ll need to insist that it’s there because of Nadeko’s sense of fashion.

  “H-Hey, Mister Serpent, i don’t mind that you’re sticking to Nadeko’s wrist… i’ve already given up on it, but can you really not become invisible to other people?”

  “It’s not that I can’t, I just don’t want to be using any more of my power than this─right now, by borrowing your body, I’m getting to take it easy.”

  “You’re getting to…”

  “Don’t worry, it’s not like they can hear me─and I’ll pretend like I’m just a plain old accessory while you’re at school. I don’t mean to infringe on your everyday life, you see.”

  “…”

  i was trying to warn him that Nadeko’s teachers might confiscate him, but along the way, i start to feel Nadeko isn’t up to explaining it well, and that’s where that exchange ends.

  Nadeko getting scolded would be the end of it.

  If they confiscate him, then i guess that’s that.

  Whatever happens, it can just happen.

  And so, i arrive at school. Nadeko switches out her shoes at the cupboard─and of course no white snake comes crawling out of it today.

  The hallucinations were a message sent to Nadeko by Mister Serpent─they were messengers, and there’s no need for them now that we’re communicating directly.

  Apparently he “summoned up his last remaining strength” to send his message to Nadeko…

  “Hey, hey, Nadeko─why are you changing into a different pair of shoes? Why do you need to do that?”

  “…i dunno. i never thought about it, but, well, to keep the school clean. Um, please don’t talk, okay?”

  “Yeah, I get it─you don’t need to keep on insisting. I’ve always been on the taciturn side. Just like you, Nadeko.”

  “…”

  Nadeko can’t bring herself to believe him. Will Mister Serpent really pretend to be a plain old accessory?

  Nadeko’s classmates don’t greet her any differently when i walk into the classroom─and in the end Nadeko makes it to her seat like always.

  “School, eh─well, similiar educational activities took place at that shrine once upon a time.”

  “…”

  i guess you could say i was right.

  Mister Serpent isn’t going to stay silent even when there are people around.

  While he does “pretend to be an accessory” as far as staying enwrapped around Nadeko’s right wrist and not fidgeting, i wouldn’t say that he’s keeping his promise.

  “Look at the unnatural orderliness─it’s disgusting,” he says. “Or wait, is this something unique to this one class? It’s like you’re keeping each other in check, like there’s all this tension in the air─or how would I describe it─”

  “…”

  Nadeko gets out of her seat.

  Then i leave the classroom. From there, i walk across the hallway, go up the stairs, and move all the way to the door to the roof we’re not allowed on.

  “Hey, Mister Serpent?”

  “What is it?”

  “Be quiet,” i ask seriously. It’s the first time i’ve ever been this blunt to a person.

  Though he’s a snake, not a person. And also a god.

  i doubt i’ve ever asked for something this seriously though, not on Nadeko’s first shrine visit of the year, not even on New Year’s Day.

  “Hsshh, hsshh─sorry about that. I guess I lied when I said I was taciturn.”

  “You shouldn’t flip-flop so fast…”

  Not that i ever believed him.

  But it’s not like i can ignore how brayzen he’s being just because i didn’t believe him… In fact, i even feel “indignent” at the way he’s admitting it.

  “Listen, Mister Serpent.”

  “What is it?”

  “i think you know this, but Nadeko is a well-behaved girl.”

  “Well-behaved?”

  “A well-behaved, reserved, and calm girl.”

  “Sounds like someone you never notice.”

  “Right. A girl you never notice, that’s Nadeko,” i whisper to Nadeko’s wrist.

  …The problem is how it must look─we’re only okay now because we’re in an empty stairwell.

  The picture is a big problem.

  “When a girl you never notice is seen talking to her wrist by her classmates, guess what they’d think?”

  “What?”

  “That she’s a ‘pitiful girl.’”

  Upgraded from well-behaved to pitiful─no, Nadeko should be honest with herself and just call it a downgrade.

  With the state Nadeko’s class is in, it would be a disaster.

  “Really? I feel like not much would change─what’s your position shifting around a bit going to do?”

  “…”

  How am i supposed to answer that? Nadeko’s position…

  “It’s not like you talk to anyone to begin with, so why does it matter what they think─people can think anything they want about you, it’s all the same if you never speak to them. Am I wrong?”

  “…”

  Hm? Wait, is that true?

  i’m almost convinced, but i also feel like i’m being tricked… i don’t think a god would ever dupe a person, but if anyone can play with human emotions however they want, it’s going to be a god.

  He does lie, after all.

  And─he preys on Nadeko’s weakness.

  “A-Anyway, Mister Serpent.”

  “Hm? C’mon, Nadeko. Have you gotten through your entire life switching topics with words like ‘anyway’ and ‘that aside’? Without ever having a proper conversation? I haven’t even managed to convince you but you don’t bother arguing back. Is that how you get by in this world, Nadeko? By setting things aside without even considering them?”

  “…Anyway.”

  How Nadeko gets by in this world.

  She does it by─looking down and falling silent.

  By waiting─until they go away.

  “You promised Nadeko she could do what she wanted during the day…remember? That she could live her life like normal during the day… That i only had to look for your ‘corpse’ at night…”

  “I wouldn’t call it a promise, but yeah─now that you mention it.”

  “…”

  “No, sure, it was a promise─yeah. Okay, I know, you’re right. If you’re gonna spend your nights on me, dear, I don’t plan on getting in your way apart from that. I may be enwrapping your wrist, Nadeko, but it’s not like I’m a pair of handcuffs.”

  “…”

  Last night.

  Mister Serpent and i made the following promise.

  No, maybe you wouldn’t call it a promise, after all─and it’s not a deal, either, because Nadeko is just doing whatever Mister Serpent tells her to do.

  Nadeko, dear. I want you to find my corpse─i trembled when he said that.

  i cowered at that “gastly” word, corpse.

  A corpse hunt?

  “Wh-What do you mean? Y-Your…corpse…”

  “Come on, Nadeko, don’t make it sound like something filthy─you look like an elementary schooler who’s just been told she has to clean the bathroom as punishment.”

  “Wh-Why such a specific example?”

  It’s not very god-like of him.

  Hsshh, hsshh, hsshh, the Serpent laughed.

  “Well─since I’ve merged with you, even if I can’t read your mind or access your memories, I’m able to pull out a good bit of your knowledge.”